Silent hallways
by rebecca ~ January 14th, 2005. Filed under: Respite.Except for the atonal clanging and hissing of the ancient radiator and the hum of the electric fan heater and an inexplicable alarm’s buzzer (twice in three hours it has gone off for less than three seconds each), the day is an unusually quiet one.
The students are absent, like chalk erased from a blackboard, because preparations for the National University Entrance Examinations are underway. The only preparation I noticed so far was a lone woman from the Student Affairs division pulling down posters from the entrance walls, so my guess is that today is one of those secret days professors and administrators create for respite from the seagull noises of the young. The actual exams begin tomorrow.
The sky is out in that gorgeous bright winter blue, the same crisp pale blue O’Keefe captured in her painting of Minnesota birch trees, which I saw at the Minneapolis Metropolitan Museum of Art many moons ago. I assumed they are Minnesotan birches, but that just reveals my prejudice for the beauty of my birthplace. I don’t think this color can occur in a tropical world. It is painted with the serene hand of ice and snow.