One of the great things about this Academy is that no matter how repetitive the days may seem, there is always something new and exciting. Take today, for example. We had a Japanese professor from Randolph-Macon talk to us about the concept of beauty - particularly our notions of beauty today as compared to those of the Heian period of Japan. For example, a thousand years ago in Japan they valued women who were pale, had black-painted teeth, were rather rotund, and had their eyebrows painted on a good inch or two above their eyes. We learned that beauty almost always reflects the conditions in which people live - take the Heian period, for instance. In that time, most commoners were tanned from working in the sun and lean from a tough lifestyle. In contrast were the aristocrats, who never lifted a finger for anything, and in order to distance themselves as much as possible from "filthy commoners," the wealthy strove to appear as opposite as they could. Learning about this really put our notion of what is beautiful into perspective for me, and I found the whole topic fascinating. Besides, it was plenty of fun to look at pictures or old drawings of Heian beauties. Nearly everything that we consider plain or unfavorable in appearance, they considered beautiful.
     Today we also had recreation time, which is always fun. It gives us a break from our studies, and it's a great opportunity to just hang out with our friends. There's an indoor track and swimming pool, air hockey, racquet ball, basketball, lacrosse, and good old exercise machines with televisions attached. Seeing as this is the only opportunity we really get to watch T.V., there's plenty of demand for those. But there was also running and dancing, and a lot of air hockey that became rather fierce. I tell you, with the kids here, air hockey gets dangerous.
     Even as I type this, the auditions for the Variety Show are going on somewhere on the second floor of Andrews Hall. For those who don't know, the Variety Show is where anyone in the Academy can show off a particular talent or hobby. So far I have seen dancing to various songs, singing, ukulele playing, guitar, kendo, cosplay, and imitations of famous celebrities. The actual show will be this Wednesday, and you can be sure that we'll have plenty of pictures for you to look at then. For now, here's a picture of two participants in the show:

     Everyone seems to be having a great time preparing for all the activities of the week, and tomorrow we'll be able to tell you all about our day trip to the Maymont Japanese Garden in Richmond!
 - Kelsey