What are you doing here?? November 25, 2008

Today we were combined Choir of the West/Chorale rehearsal to work on the pieces we will be singing together at the concerts next weekend. I walk in to Lagerquist (the really pretty concert hall where we were rehearsing) and guess who I saw! Adam!! (For those of you who don’t know, I’ve known Adam since 2nd grade and we had class together until 7th grade). He was here visiting PLU as a prospective student and got to sing with us during our rehearsal. It was good to see him, but very unexpected. lol

In Jazz we’re working in groups, choreographing a dance to a Christmas song of our choice. The song that my group is doing is “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” I think it’s kinda cute… We start with partnered dance thing- three of us are being “boys” and the other three are the girls. Guess which one I am… A boy. Yet again (I was Tiny Tim in “A Christmas Carol” and David in “Rags”…). Oh well. I kind of feel like the whole dance has been created by me, though… So I’m trying to encourage the other girls to contribute ideas as well.

Well… back to my essay…

Woot! November 25, 2008

In IHON today we got back our second essays, and I got 20/20 on it! Yay!! She wants to use it as an example of how to write an essay, too.

In French we watched a cute African animated movie called “Kirikou and the Sorceress”. Here’s a synopsis: “A tiny voice is heard from inside the womb of a pregnant woman : ‘Mother, give birth to me!’

‘A child who can speak from his mother’s womb can give birth to himself,’ replies the mother.

And so a little boy is born, cuts his own umbilical cord and declares : ‘My name is Kirikou’

The tiny Kirikou is born into an African village upon which a sorceress called Karaba has cast a terrible spell: the spring has dried up, the villagers are being blackmailed, the men of the village have either been kidnapped or have mysteriously disappeared.

‘She eats them!’, the superstitious villagers declare….

Karaba is a stunning and cruel woman, surrounded by fearless and servile fetishes. But no sooner has Kirikou delivered himself from his mother’s womb than he wants to rid the village of Karaba’s curse and understand the cause of her wickedness.

His adventure-filled voyage leads Kirikou to the Forbidden Mountain, where the Wise Man of the Mountain, who knows of Karaba and her secrets, awaits him.” It’s very exciting. ^_^

In Brit. Lit. we also got our essays back. I got 18/20 on that one because he wanted me to expand a bit more on a point that I only briefly touched on…

Choir went… pretty well, I guess? Hopefully everyone will put in a lot of work during this break because the next time we work on the songs we went through tonight will be next Tuesday, and then at our performances next weekend… Eeep! They could still use a lot of polishing and musicality, and there are some people that still haven’t memorized the pieces yet… :/

Tonight I went to the Swing Club’s monthly swing dance, which was fun. We were severely lacking in guys, though, and my friend Matt, who usually comes, wasn’t there because his back was hurting… I did end up dancing for like 5 or 6 dances straight, though… That was cool.

Well… Back to my French essay then off to sleep… I’ve been really tired all day.

Le Weekend November 22, 2008

This morning I woke up to Eat, Pray, Love on my iPod, which was what I was listening to when I went to sleep. I love that book…. I ended up laying in bed far longer than I had intended because I wanted to finish it, though. After it ended, I went to practice a bit before my voice lesson at 1:30. I also had a lesson yesterday (today’s was to make up for the one I’ll be missing next week), so today we went over the parts that I was having the hardest time with and then ran through each of the pieces. After that I’ve went over to the library to look through the CDs and picked up three: Ella Fitzgerald, Anne Sofie von Otter, and the musical Company. Fun stuff. There were some other ones that I think I’m going to check out next time… There’s also a pretty decent movie collection. Meghann and I watched RENT last night because she had never seen it. Tonight I think me, Elizabeth, Kellie, and Meghann are going to make Mac n’ Cheese and probably watch a movie.

Privilege in Religion November 19, 2008

Tonight I went to a panel/discussion on the topic above. It was really interesting hearing to what each person had to say and was a very thought-provoking event. The main idea was that people who are privileged don’t realize that they are privileged and that it’s really only in recognizing the struggles and difficulties of other peoples that we are able to understand the privileges we experience.

Other than that, I’ve pretty much just been working on my essay for IHON that’s due tomorrow comparing or contrasting Photios’ The Patriarch and the Prince and Machiavelli’s The Prince. Oh what fun…

11-17-08 November 17, 2008

Today at lunch I was eating with Elizabeth, Kellie, Lora, and some of their friends, one of whom was a boy from Denmark! His name is Bernard. He was at the Salsa dancing thing in September….

Classes today were fine… Nothing too exciting. Choir’s going pretty well? There are still a lot of sections that need work, and a lot of memorizing to do, but overall I think it’s going well.

Tonight was swing club. It’s fun learning new types of dance and then put all the steps into new combinations. Well… I suppose that’s really the guy’s job, but I have fun following it (and sometimes leading… lol).

Weekend Fun! November 17, 2008

Friday night I went to an a Capella concert featuring PLUtonic, a group from UW, and a group from OSU. The group from UW went first and, well… I was rather disappointed. They weren’t very good… :/ The group from OSU was much better. It was hard to hear them the soloists during some parts, but over all I enjoyed them. PLU’s groups did well. It was divided into a boys’ group and a girls’ group. I would have preferred for them to sing all together, but oh well… It bothered me that so many of the songs that the girls sang were originally done my men… They did a pretty good job, but I prefer it lower… :/

Saturday, Dad came and picked me up. When I got home, I was talking with Mom and reminded her that she still hadn’t scheduled my hair appointment… She got right on the phone and there happened to be an opening right then! So, in I went and got my hair trimmed and had my hands dipped in paraffin wax. The lady doing my hair also curled it for me after she was done cutting it. It looked really pretty. I wish I could do the same thing myself, but no. Oh well.

After I got back, I did my laundry, caught up on some TV, and played with the puppies. That night, Mom and I went out to the Mongolian restaurant in Covington, which I love. Sooo good! Afterwords, she dropped me off at Kentwood, where I saw Li’l Abner. Tammy, one of my friends who I’ve known since 1st grade was there, too, so I sat next to her for the performance. The show was a lot of fun. Quirky and high energy. I was surprised to see so many of last year’s graduates there… I think there were at least ten or so of us…

Today, I’ve mostly just been trying to get all my homework finished… Oh what fun. Oh! I did get to talk to Elaine tonight, though! That made my day.

Choir Dinner November 12, 2008

Tonight, the choir (or at least those people who could make it) all went to dinner at Ferrelli’s, the pizza place down the street. It was a lot of fun getting to talk to some of the people in choir and get to know them a bit better. It’s the first time we’ve ever hung out outside of choir, so it was nice to finally be able to learn some people’s names and spend some time just hanging out. Plus, I think our table was the cool table to be at… I definitely think we laughed the most.

In IHON today we went from the crusades up to the renaissance… We haven’t gotten into the renaissance yet, but that will probably be Monday…

In Brit. Lit. we were discussing our reading for today: the play “The Importance of Being Earnest.” It’s quite amusing… If you have a chance you should go rent the movie. It has Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Judi Dench, Reese Witherspoon, and Francis O’Connor in it. Anyway, it’s a lovely little satirical piece.

Registration November 11, 2008

Sorry I haven’t posted anything in a while!! I’ve been busy and/or haven’t had much to report.

Yesterday I registered for my classes for J-term and Spring semester. For those of you who don’t know, J-term is where we take one (or two) classes during the month of January, focusing specifically on that class (/those classes). J-term I’m going to be taking Old Testament and Ballroom dancing. I’m very excited. Spring semester I’m taking IHON “Liberty and Power”, Writing 101 “Gender and Globalization”, French 202, PE 100 (ewwww….), and my music stuff. On Mondays and Wednesdays I’m going to have about 5 hours straight of class, with just 2 10 minute breaks between classes. Icky. Tuesdays and Thursdays I just have PE, though. And that class is only the first half of semester, so the second half I won’t have anything on those days.

Other than that, I’ve just had the usual… Yesterday I finally was able to go to swing club again, which made me happy. Tonight I had rehearsal for the two student composer pieces I’m doing. I’m kind of nervous about them because we’ve only rehearsed a couple times and we perform in a month… And it seems like there’s a lot of people missing each time we rehearse… :/ Hopefully it will all work out…

Well… must get back to my homework. Oofda! (Oh, and if you haven’t talked to my mom or read her blog, you should do so…. She had a very, very exciting weekend. )

I declared… November 8, 2008

…a religion major yesterday! I had a meeting with Dr. Torvend, the head of the religion department, to see what a religion major entails and decided to fill out the form to declare. So… yay!

Last night I went to see Die Fledermaus. It was pretty good. Some of the performers were really funny, and most of the singers were really good. There were some issues with the drummer and the ballet dancers that I noticed, but overall it was good. I think I’m going to go see it again tonight, since there’s another cast and, well, I need more concert attendance.

Other than that, I didn’t really do too much yesterday. Both my French class and voice lesson were canceled because my teachers are sick. Dr. Ihssen did bring her pug into IHON, though… That was fun.

Raining Pigs and Chickens November 6, 2008

People always say “it’s raining cats and dogs” but… well… my family has always been a little different.    WE prefer to say that it’s raining pigs and chickens.  Which, today, it most certainly was.  But I love the rain.  I love the sound of it, the feel of it, and watching it fall and make thousands of ripples in otherwise stagnant waters.  I’ve never been big on puddles- I never understood the joy some kids felt jumping into puddles and splashing around.  Instead of running and jumping around, I would just stand there.  Let the rain fall on my head and seep through my clothes until I was completely drenched.  I don’t know… I just find something relaxing about it.

I find it interesting how many people here have rain boots… You see them everywhere!  I don’t know… just an observation.

This morning I woke up to my ipod, which I had set to a playlist of three of my favorite alternative groups: Feist, A Fine Frenzy, and Stephen Speaks.  It was very relaxing and definitely put me in a good mood (which was then heightened by the presence of rain).

Tonight I went to the theological club again (it only meets every other week).  Prof. Torvend, the head of the religion department lead tonight’s discussion, which was about death and November, but really about death and the seasons in general.  It was really interesting to hear what he had to say and to reflect on how theological holidays and ideas are reflective of the cycles of nature and the seasons.

After that, Alicia and I went to a discussion about human trafficking.  It’s sad how, in an age of such huge advancements, there can still be such atrocities and crimes toward humankind.  It was interesting to hear some of the different ideas about why people choose to be involved in trafficking and how desperation can lead people to such awful situations.