Wow, this sounds like a whirlwind of a week, and such an insightful reflection, Mark! I love how you are bridging so many issues and experiences in your reflections: "hedonism," cancer, grief, dismantling the idea that bodies are laborers, cake, the outdoors, and the experience of colonialism in Australia. This post truly makes me appreciate what an exceptional experience LiAs can be, allowing us to gain wisdom from both the concrete work we do, but also the people we interact with through the work, and then just the daily observations we make by immersing ourselves in a new ecosystem. And I think you earned Saturday's "hedonism," if you can call it that -- you definitely deserved the break after the busy and impactful week you had! :)

This looks like such an incredible experience, Taylor! Great insight about how your work is allowing you to read past the headlines and understand the conflict from the coalition-building efforts that happen behind the scenes.

The job seems so cool! I love how you are having such a multilingual experience and navigating cultural differences in Chinese, French, and English at the same time. Good luck with the workshops!

So, so cool, Audrea! Love especially the view from your window. Kind of poetic in a way!

Such an insightful research topic, Phoebe! I admire that you are taking a human-centered approach to such a large scale issue as tariffs and U.S.-China relations, which many scholars purely analyze through an economic or political lens. I am curious to hear how you will continue your research in Europe next summer and draw further cultural connections  between America, Europe, and Asia. 

I love that you're using this research as an opportunity to connect with new communities! Your realization about the shift in your research question is also so relatable to me, given the ever-changing path of research during the Laidlaw program. The challenges we have all been appearing to face over the past several week is demonstrating to me that a large part of this program is not so much to get us to produce a polished final product that exactly matches our expectation at the beginning, but to discover the limitations of research in general and to learn more about what is realistic to investigate in our fields of interest.

I really appreciate your focus on the importance of studying ancient literature even in the modern day. Though my research focuses on the rapidly evolving field of AI, I find myself gravitating nonetheless to more abstract fields in history, literature, and culture such as yours because I am drawn to their contemplative, abstract, and introspective nature that requires deep analysis to uncover their pertinence to the modern day -- but when that pertinence is located, its inherent power becomes so obvious. I am so curious to learn more about the root of your interest in this topic and how you see it as still relevant (which it definitely is) to issues we see culturally in the modern day.

The issue of cost is definitely a really important consideration! While I have not had to consider this in my own research, as I have been using either free online resources or paying small fees out of pocket for access to APIs, I definitely understand the feelings of regret you might have now that you have found out how much the crystal costed. In general, I think this realization is also a great part of the learning process and that what gives things value is the knowledge and experience gained when it is lost or wasted.