College- Year 2 September 16, 2009

Sorry I haven’t updated my blog like I said I would… LOTS of homework. 😦

My classes for this fall are Islamic Traditions, French 301, and International Honors (IHON): 20th Century Origins of the Contemporary World (Mom really likes butchering the name of this class… lol).  My favorite class is definitely Islamic Traditions.  My professor is the same one I had for IHON during the fall of last year.  She’s really fun and definitely knows what she’s talking about.  I’m really glad to have her again. 🙂  My French class… has been alright.  I was really scared about the class before the semester began, because I didn’t think I remembered anything and, when I tried to read a novel on our book list for the class, I couldn’t get through the first paragraph, let alone the first page.  Luckily, she decided that that book was too hard and that we won’t actually be reading it this semester.  The class has been at about the right level, not easy, but not overly difficult.  My IHON class is pretty good, I suppose.  My professor is from Britain, so he has a fun accent and pronounces things in a fun way.  We have, though, had a great deal of reading for this class… 😦  200+ pages in one week at college is a lot…  Also, we’ve only discussed what the world was like around the turn of the century and haven’t really gotten into the 20th century history part yet.  It’ll be nice once we start that.  For choir, I’m again in chorale this year.  COW was made smaller this year and several people who had been in COW in the past were moved to chorale.  Apparently there’s a shortage of tenors, so the numbers had to shift a bit in order to make the numbers more even.

So… yes.  There is my life. Lots of homework, some clubs, etc.

Oh, and my address this year is:

Amanda Davis
Ordal 213
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma, WA 98447

(I love getting mail… 😀 )

First Day of Classes September 9, 2009

So today I got to wake up at 7 because the choir (any returning Chorale/Choir of the West (COW) singers from last year) sang at Convocation and we had to warm up beforehand.   After Convocation (which went well (we had only had 1 rehearsal on the song, the night before)) was the involvement fair, where each of the clubs at the school sets up a booth in Red Square and freshman and returning students can go around to the booths and sign up for the clubs (or for information about when they meet, etc.).  Since I didn’t have anything to do after Convocation (I don’ t have any class on Tuesdays or Thursdays until next week, and even then it’s just choir and a lesson on Tuesdays), I helped Alex out with his club, The Quest, which is a club for people to play Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot.  It’s an insane card game, but lots of fun.  Around noon they posted call-backs for the choirs; I made call -backs for COW!  As an alto!  After last Spring, I had wondered if they would try to switch me to the alto part, but at my audition the other day, Dr. Nance (the COW director) only asked to hear my upper range.  And when Dr. Brown (head of music faculty) asked to hear my lower range, I was shocked and perplexed to find that it wasn’t there.  I don’t know what happened.  So I was surprised to be called back as an alto after that.  However, I did notice that there seemed to be very few altos in our choir for Convocation, so I guess in that way in makes sense.  Dr. Nance and Dr. Galante were also two of the faculty who listened to me for juries last semester, so I suppose they remembered my ability to sing low and they quality of my voice in that register. *shrugs*  For call backs we have to go in 3 separate times: once for an individual call-back, once as a section (e.g. all altos), and once in small groups with each of the parts (soprano, alto, tenor, bass).  We’ll see what happens.  I’m happy either way.  More tomorrow when I actually get to go to my classes!

I can walk! September 2, 2009

Hooray!!

Yesterday, I got the stitches out.  The doctor told me I can walk and take showers now! Yay!  I had been instructed not to get my foot wet after I had the surgery, so I had to take baths with my leg draped over the side of the tub, which makes for a rather awkward and lengthy endeavor when trying to clean oneself.  Baths are lovely when used as a method of relaxation, but I far prefer showers for day-to-day cleanliness.

I went out to lunch at the Great Wall Mall with Sarah, Kenna, and Elaine today. 🙂  We had our usual lunch at the phở restaurant there, followed by bubble tea at the Boba place a couple doors down from the restaurant.  Mmm… Delicious! 🙂  *sigh* Food I will miss while off at college…

Speaking of college… I start moving in to my dorm tomorrow.  I will be living in Ordal this year.   My roommate, Sarah, was in choir and IHON with my last year.