Went to Chinatown yesterday evening, and ate at a Vietnamese restaurant, "Pho Pasteur". Reasonably priced, generous proportions. Gave a menu to our Vietnamese classmate and await his imprimateur. Pho Pasteur is opposite "Penang". We will go there when the craving strikes. Both restaurants are pretty crowded, with queues forming ever so often.
This morning, we had a tour of the streets and shops around Harvard Yard, and of Harvard Yard itself. The afternoon was spent in an orientation session on KSG. Harvard itself is not quite what I had envisioned. Well, partly because it is in “Cambridge”, I had a certain mental image in my mind to compare it with and of course that mental image of Cambridge, UK is completely different from Cambridge, MA. It is much younger, for a start and like Oxford, is more a "town with a university" than a "university with a town".
As for KSG, I liked the look and feel very much.
KSG is essentially four buildings around a quadrangle. There is a volleyball court in the middle; there is beer and volleyball on Friday evenings. One of the buildings has a large open forum/lobby area with theatre type seating, and discussion areas along the staircases going up all the sides of the forum. We were told that this interesting concept was developed based on one student's feedback that he had learnt the most on the steps outside the building (from his fellow students). So the forum was developed to "bring the steps inside", so to speak. It reminds me of discussions in a previous life about how "corridor conversations" brought about opportunities to reflect on the day's discussions - and hence the merits to structure such discussions into formal programmes. Perhaps this is what the SPP needs to do also for the MPM- identify and put in place structures and fora to better infuse the academic/theoretical more with the experience of practitioners.
Your last few lines are a bit too 'cheem' for me.
ReplyDeleteSadly, most of the Pho Pasteurs in the Boston area are gone now, as they have been replaced by a place called Le's. I think the one in Chinatown is still open for now, but I'm not sure for how much longer.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Le is the name of the owner of Pho Pasteur.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Upon checking with my Vietnamese friend, understand that Pho Pasteur is more Saigon (i.e. Southern Vietnamese food) rather than Hanoi (North Vietnamese).