Reflection 8 - IR and Opera

I have never played Risk before, although I knew the basic rules, so I can’t really comment on whether diplomatic risk is more interesting or less interesting the regular kind. However, our class on Tuesday was really interesting. I particularly enjoyed the division of responsibilities that came with playing the game as a team. I thought it felt as though we (our team) was all really working together to maximize our gains. The rules regarding the diplomatic side of the game made the game feel almost realistic with regards to what we have learned about world politics so far. The changing nature of the relationships between the teams made things very confusing but fun, as over the course of one short period, we became more and less resentful of other teams, such as the black hegemon, and the teams we had been at war with but later made peace with, even though it was supposed to be just a game.The secrecy between the teams also made the game very interesting, although also complicated, because it was hard to remember what all the other teams were doing whenever we transferred information from the head of state to the diplomat and vice versa. I suppose that’s a bit like how it happens in real life, though. One thing that really made the game fun was, I think, the fact that it was a game, and while some teams, at some times, were trying to screw over all the other teams in a very realist way, working together for a more mutual outcome was also imposed on us by the rules to make it different from regular Risk and make our interactions more complex.

The opera was a really great way to restart our wednesday labs. I have wanted to go to the Kennedy Center for a long time, and was very exited to finally get to see it and attend a performance there. I had never seen an opera before, and although I thought it was a good performance, I found it to be pretty boring. I fell asleep briefly during Salome’s love song to the head, because of all the repetition. I enjoyed the music more than the stage part, being a musician myself.