Even Arnold Schwarzenegger Couldn't Save This

Stars, comets and planets. Thats what I always considered to be the extent of my knowledge of astonomy. Actually, I didn't ever really think that it could beyond that, so I guess I thought I knew EVERYTHING. After attending the Maya Astronomy presentation, by Dr. Ed Barnhart, I was proven very wrong. Apparently, the Maya had about 50,000 different calendars, thus 50,000 kinds of years, which had different sets of numbers, and they counted these numbers with rocks, and sticks and birds, and...well, it all went over my head after a while. Not to mention it felt like a scorching 115 degrees in the lecture hall, and it was jam packed with people. As sophomore Edna Francis frankly stated, "Albright could have turned on the A.C. It was very hot in there, so I didn't pay close attention to the speaker." I would have loved to have gone to another Mayan year instead of sitting there sweating. Preferably, one with air conditioning.

Eventually, however, I began to concentrate on what Dr. Barnhart was actually saying, which was interesting for about the first half of his presentation, but admittedly, went downhill after that. As sophomore Amir Hardy said about the presentation, " [Dr. Barnhart] had wit and passion about the topic. However, I felt it would have engaged the audience more if he wasn't simply reading facts off a powerpoint - more audience participating, artifacts of video clips could have made it a bit more interesting." And talk he did. I, too, felt that Dr. Barnhart relied too heavily on the powerpoint; we can all read, and at most times in his presentation, I knew exactly what he was going to say even before he said it. Occasionally, he tried to spice the presentation up, like showing pictures of movies, like Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator, but even that didn't hold my interest for a while. Especially since I don't like that movie. And whenever he would tell a joke, I would laugh a little; but everytime I laughed, it seemed like I would get hotter, and that wasn't so funny.

During the presentation, it occured to me, JUST how many people were there. I knew that, quite frankly, I attended the event because I was going to write a blog about it. But just how many people actually came for the event, to enjoy it? I concluded that alot of them were there for some time of class; Amir pointed out to me a couple people from his Spanish class, who were all required to come. Edna was also required to come for a class, as well as junior, Annie Rhodes, who said, "I had to come for my astronomy class. I've got a lot of things to do tonight, but it was required that I pop my head in. I thought it was kind of boring overall though, but atleast it was an Experience Event." I saw a couple of teachers, and its unlikely, especially the teachers that I know at Albright, would come to an Experience Event and not make students join in on the fun. And course, the teachers were eating up Dr. Barnhart's presentation like a Thanksgiving Dinner platter, while I sat in the sweltering heat, counting just how many people in the crowd had on red shirts.

After leaving, I realized I came in with just about the same knowledge that I left with. Sure, I learn that a dot meant "one", and a stick was the Maya's way of counting "ten", but it didn't go too far beyond that. I'm ok with just knowing about the moon and stars. Especially since I can look at my air-conditioned room, and look out at them.