What do you like to do with your international friends in the summer? Perhaps swimming, picnicking at a park or lake? How about a museum?

For starts, a museum is cool, not just because it is a beautifully designed place with architecture and layout that demands your notice. It literally is cool. They have good air conditioning.

Next, a museum is not just about your culture and time. Most museums have objects from the past. Perhaps they have paintings, sculptures, or artifacts like machinery or clothing that transport both you and your friends to a place neither of you may be familiar with. You become equals. There is a lot going in the objects you look at and therefore a lot to learn and enjoy.

Finally, sharing a museum experience will give you and your friends opportunities for new conversations.

Japanese Palace Museum, Kyushu.                           Below are three of the pieces I saw inside this palace. At the top left, I love the simplicity of the landscape, the elegance of the woman, and wonder if I am looking at a horse race (bottom piece). What do you think?

Discussing what you notice or what’s going on in an artwork allows you to get to know one another in ways that are new. Neither of you need to be an expert to look and reflect.

This summer I will go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I’ve wanted to go for a long time. It is not that I will see everything. It will be about appreciating what I do see, growing in my understanding and astonishment of the creative ways people express themselves.

I wish you joy,

Jane