Quest for Immortality

This time Jesse and I went to the exhibition of the ancient Egypt!

We saw 4 mummies in total, including a prince, a probably eight-year-old girl, an anonymous mummy whose bandage is disassembled, and an ordinary people. Other stuffs like, coffins, a simulated mausoleum and mortuary objects. We found that Egyptians are superstitious, they believe in an afterlife, they make mummies because they think that if they pass the test after they died, they could come back to this world and use the same body they used to use in this life.

In the exposition, the most memorable part to me is the video which shows how they examine the mummies and how they make sure the mummy's social position. By using today's technology, these experts could also build up the mummy's face. How amazing! In the video, they told us that if the person is died from any disease, the Egyptians would cut of the infected organs in order to let this person to be born healthily in his afterlife. They use gold in almost everything, this is because they think that gold is the element that is closest to God. When they do so, they think they would look better or have a better life in their afterlife. They are really superstitious. Below are some pictures:

The exposition is held under this building!

-The Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall-

This is one of the mummy shown in the exposition.

-The son of Ramesses II-

This mummy is an 8-year-old girl,

who is only one arm long.

We can tell that she is not from a very poor family

since she is wrapped carefully.

The cause of her death is due to some diseases in her spinal.

This is one of the coffin we saw in the exhibition.

Lastly, the Canopic jars,

they are made for the purpose of storing the organs.

Even though in the later stage,

the Egyptians tend to put the organs back to the mummy's body,

they will still be put in to the coffin.

These four jars are the most favorite exhibits to us.

Thank you for spending your time reading my post!! =)

(All pictures are taken from the Internet,

since pictures are not allowed to be taken in the exposition)

What I Did For Work: Wedding Assistant

Flowers and the wedding cake. :)

The cake looks nice but it's fake. Haha.

Last Sunday I went and work with my cousin, a wedding consultant, as her assistant. I went to two wedding that day, seemed like that day was a really nice day, I saw several wedding cars on the street. So many pretty brides were marrying.

In Taiwan, it's not like in the U.S.. The weddings are often held in hotels and both sides of the family would be invited to the wedding to have lunch or dinner with the new couples. And usually this is what a wedding consultant does: to create a best wedding for the bride and groom.

The weddings were beautiful. Well, more specifically I will say, both weddings made me really want to get married right away. I've always wished I can have a wedding like those, vivid and clean and fun and blah blah, you know, just wonderful and like those in fairy tale.

 One thing I love about weddings: they use lots and lots of flowers for decoration.

Most of the time, I went to a wedding as the bride's family or the groom's family, but this time I went as a wedding assistant, person who helps the wedding preparation and makes sure everything goes as it's planned. Although I didn't help much, since I was new and kind of not in the situation, I learned alot from my cousin.

 Working as a "server," we show the nicest faces of us. We smile as we talk to our customers, we stand straightly, and we don't drink or eat in front of everyone; we hide ourselves.

 "Always I hide from the camara." -- Jesse W.
Haha. It's true. My first job as a wedding assistant wasn't placing the wedding tables but holding the long wedding dress tale for the bride when bride and groom were walking to the table one by one for cheers. My cousin told me: "NEVER ever be taken photos with the bride and groom, the photographer would wanna kill you 'cuz they can't just cut you off especially you're standing right between the couple."
So, I was hiding hard from the camara. It was easy, just kneel a bit behind the bride then no one would even notice you, well, at least no one has noticed me.

 I was late for the first wedding which was held in the early afternoon, so my cousin took me to the second wedding so that I can see more and learn more about this job. One thing about this job I think is important, everything you do as you work is not for you, but for your customer.
Oh, I know now, it works for every job though. You do things not only for yourself but also for people around you.

The second wedding was smaller than the first one, but though it was smaller, the flowers were used more in this wedding. I didn't have any idea about how a wedding consultant prepares for a wedding. My cousin first checked eveything, the music that would be used during the wedding and pictures and slide show, with the hotel workers. Then we ran to the couple's resting room and asked them to come and rehearsal for the wedding, like when the door was opened they had to walk out pair by pair, how the bride and groom needed to do when they got on the stage, and when to walk around the room to cheers, etc.
You think that's alot to do too, right?
I was just tired standing there and watching and sometimes running inbetween the couple's resting room and the main room and maybe showing customers where the restroom was at and...
Anyway I didn't even do a "big" thing but I felt tired. Can you imagine how tired it would be for my cousin who was running all over the place and sometimes I didn't even know where to go to get her.
This job is interesting, at the same time, it's tiring as well.

I love this picture. :)

This is just a short description of my work experience with my wedding consultant cousin who is the best "server" I've ever known. I hope you enjoy this writing of mine.

By the way, this is Jesse. :)

Picasso!!!!!!!!

It's Elly here!

So last week, Jesse and I went to the Picasso gallery, and I think it's worth visiting, yet a bit disappointing. We saw a lot of his pictures, we saw his life being shown in timeline and many of his art works.

The reason why I'm disappointing is that one of his most famous works has not been exhibited, which is, the Guernica!

How I wish I could see this work in the exhibition since I have just learnt about this painting during last semester. It would be great if I can see the real one. Nevertheless, We still managed to see some works which represented his painting style in each stage, for example, cubism.

Le Sculpteur

This is Jesse's favorite.

And here goes my favorite,

Femme assise dans un fauteuil rouge

I like this painting, because it is not only simple but also easy to understand. We can easily tell that it is painting about a woman sitting on a red chair. The painting "Le Sculpteur" is describing about a sculptor, who falls in love with his sculpture and wants the goddess to give his sculpture life, thinks that this sculpture is the most perfect woman in the world where he forgets his model.

There is another painting that makes me really excited, which is "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe d'après Manet". Even though I have not seen the real painting of this painting by Manet, I have seen it on the Internet and in some books that talks about art history, so I know how it looks like. After seeing Picasso's "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe", I was surprised, it is totally a different style. It looks like it is painted by a child, and not painted realistically. Below are both the "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe " painted by Picasso and Manet.

I could still remember when I first learnt about "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe" painting by Manet, my teacher told me that everyone is shocked, as during that century, it is not moral to see a nude woman. So I wonder, what if Picasso's "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe" was shown to the world first? Will the citizens still be shocked or will they accept it? However, I think that if Manet did not shock people by this painting first, Picasso will not put any attention to it and this painting will not be painted in a different style by Picasso.

I have learnt a lot form this exhibition, hope those who visited this exhibition would feel the same as me! :)

(All pictures are taken from the Internet.)