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!

Summer!! May 25, 2009

As of yesterday around 10:30 I am officially done with my first year of college!!  Ah!  That hardly seems possible… It seems like we just moved me into my dorm, and now I’ve already moved out.  It’s crazy! 

My last final was on Tuesday afternoon but the choir performed at the commencement concert on Saturday night and commencement worship Sunday morning, so I had to stay for the weekend.  It was a nice start to the summer to be able to just relax and hang out with my friends, though. 🙂  

Now I get to start cleaning…  My job for this summer is to go through all of the stuff that we have accumulated over the years and decide to keep it or sell it on amazon/ebay/craig’s list or at a garage sale that we will hopefully eventually be having.  It’s a big project… 

Plus, now I’m trying to look after Mom and make sure she takes it easy after the seizure she had yesterday… (See her blog for more info)

Oh dear… May 10, 2009

…it would seem I’ve neglected my blog again. 😦  Zut.

 

So, this will have to be a quick update, since I have an essay that I really need to get back to (or rather I have to go back to finding quotes/ideas for the essay…).  It’s one of the last things I have to do before the end of the year, though, so I’m trying to use that as my motivation…  (Finals week is next week; I have one final and two essays due).

 

I went to my first midnight showing!  Desta, Alex, Jen, and I went to see Wolverine. 🙂

 

Hmm… Oh! On Friday I listened to a radio show, “Spiritual Smackdown,” of two of the religion professors here.  It was really interesting.  They were talking about an article that someone had written on the topic of death and the afterlife.  It was really interesting.  I wish I had been able to pay closer attention to it, but alas I had homework that I had to do at the same time. 😦  Oh well… I liked what I did hear.

A little bit after that, Alex, two people in his religion class, and I went to a coffee place down the street to meet with their religion professor (who was one of the people who did the radio show) about Paul Tillich (a christian theologian and the topic of their class) and other religious topics.  Since coming to PLU I’ve heard a lot of people talk about Tillich, so it was cool hearing what they had to say, since I don’t know much at all about him or his ideas.  We also looked at verses in the King James, NRSV, and NIV bibles and saw how verses have been translated in different ways in order to suit the translator’s purpose or beliefs.  It was really interesting and I’m really glad Alex invited me to join him. 🙂

 

Yesterday I went to see Company.  It was really good.  In it, the cast members were also the orchestra, each playing an instrument.  Most of them had never played their respective instrument(s) before the show and a few of them were clearly… uncomfortable with the idea.  Overall the show was great, though. 🙂

 

Well… I think that’s enough procrastination for now… back to work. 😦

 

Happy mother’s day!!! Love you, Mom! 😀

Choir Tour April 20, 2009

I can’t believe there’s only 5 weeks left of school!  It’s gone by so quickly…

This week my choir, University Chorale, is going on tour to Oregon, so if you’re in the area and want to come, here’s where we will be:

Wednesday, April 22: Vancouver, WA, Trinity Lutheran Church @ 8

Thursday, April 23: Eugene, Emmaus Lutheran Church @7:30

Friday, April 24: Salem, Our Savior’s Lutheran Church @ 7:30

Saturday, April 25: Portland, St. Michael’s Lutheran Church @7:30

Sunday, April 26: Longview,WA, Longview Community Church @ 3

Then on Tuesday, April 28, we will be performing in Lagerquist Concert Hall at PLU at 8.

The performances are free, so you should definitely come if you’re in the area!  For more information, see http://web.me.com/brian.galante/PLU_Chorale/PLU_Chorale.html

Well… I have to get back to homework… I have a 2-3 page research paper due in French on Monday, as well as a rough draft for a 5-7 page paper for my writing class.  (And, as you can see, I won’t be here for half the week or this weekend… ).

Sunshiny Day! April 6, 2009

It’s glorious outside today!  (And yesterday was wonderful, too! ) 😀  I’m also excited because it’s given me an opportunity to wear a sun dress I just bought the other day. 😀  Yay!  Yesterday EVERYONE (at least it seemed like everyone) was outside on the grass, getting a tan, doing homework, reading, or playing frisbee.  There were also a number of girls who were out there in bikini tops, which I think is a bit much, but whatever floats your boat.  I, luckily, found a table in the shade to sit at.  It was a bit cooler in the shade, but I didn’t end up with the ridiculous burns some other people had and it was the only way I could be outside and still work on my laptop (I was working on an essay).    

 

The other night Lisa and some other friends were discussing religion and their personal beliefs (I wasn’t there… 😦 ), and now Lisa is really interested in learning about religion, what people believe, and why.  So yesterday as I was sitting working on my essay, she came over and sat down with me and we talked about religion for quite a while and I did my best to answer some of the questions she had.  Then, later last night, we were down in Pflueger (a dorm… oh, sorry “residence hall”), and we started talking about it with Jen… and then Chris… and then David.  I loved it. 🙂  Sometimes religion can be really hard to talk about because people get really defensive about their beliefs, but it was a really tension-free environment and we just listened to each other’s views without passing judgement.  🙂

 

Oh, also, last night I went to the 24-hour one acts!  So there were 10 (I think) members of the theater society who, in 24 hours, wrote, rehearsed, and staged a one act play (or two, rather, since there were two groups of 5).  They were given an object, an action, and a word that they had to say 5 times during the play.  It was awesome.  The first one took place in a in the waiting room of a doctor’s office where three people were sitting.  Each of them, it turns out, was waiting to hear about the status of the same person.  The guy happened to be suffering from a severe case of the hiccups.  lol  Anyway, the three people were his best friend, his ex-girlfriend, and his dad.  The play mostly consisted of the three conversing and trying to figure out their relationship with the patient, and the horrible thing they did to him.   His dad had tricked him into eating his pet cow (he was a vegetarian).  His ex-girlfriend had knocked his dead mother off the table at her funeral when he asked her to marry him.  The best friend ran away when the guy came out that he was gay and in love with him.  So, how they did that was they had the main conversation in the waiting room, then did a quick scene change to show exactly what happened in each of the scenarios, a different person playing the hiccuping guy each time (he was characterized by a red cap).  Anyway, it was really cool.  I liked it a lot. 🙂   The second one was a musical.  It was about four people who went to a speed dating restaurant on Valentine’s day.  One guy kept having people think he was gay, one girl was still obsessed with her ex, the other guy was looking to settle down, and the other girl just wanted sex.  It was about their interactions and how they learn that who they are is ok.  It was good, but the fact that it wasn’t memorized detracted from it a bit (yes, I know it was only 24 hours, which is a ridiculous amount of time, but after the first group didn’t use scripts it was a bit disappointing).

 

I think that’s about all the excitement I have to share for now… Hope everyone’s out enjoying the sunshine! 😀

Poisson d’Avril! Pesce d’Aprile! April 1, 2009

(“Fish of April” in French and Italian 🙂  e.g.  April Fool’s)

I can’t believe it’s april already… It doesn’t seem possible.

Ok, so the fish thing… Apparently a long time ago people in Europe used to stick real fishes on people’s backs on the first of April… Now they  just stick paper fish on each other.  It’s less smelly that way. 😛  lol  

 

My body has had an… interesting time adjusting to being back at school.  On Monday I woke up at 7.  Tuesday I woke up at 7:30.  This is very strange… Did I need to be up that early? No.  No I didn’t.  But I was.  So I got some work done.  Contrary to popular belief, I do actually enjoy early mornings, but only if I’m wake up on my own, not with an alarm or because I have to be awake.  It’s nice being awake when no one else is…

 

So… Spring break!  On Wednesday Elaine and I went to Kentwood and visited a bunch of our former teachers and then went over to Auburn Riverside HS where another of our former teachers was teaching.  We checked in at the office and found out where her classroom was.  It was her planning period and the door was locked, so we decided to wait outside her door, hoping that she would come back soon.  After about half an hour, we finally went back to the office and asked if she had checked out already.  Apparently she had an appointment to go to and had a substitute scheduled for 6th period, so I guess she had just left instead of staying during her planning period (5th period).  This made Elaine and I very sad. 😦  So… we wrote her a note and drew a picture. 😛  After that we went back to my house and played with puppies 😀  and then with Ethel, my cello.  Elaine also plays cello, but she doesn’t have a very good one, so she was excited to be able to play around on mine for a bit.  After she left, I quickly ate dinner then had Dad drive me over to Desta’s house, where I spent the night, since we were planning on leaving at 6 in the morning.

Desta had the first driving shift for the trip and drove until… sometime in Eastern Washington… Then Jen took over.  We got Subway for lunch in Spokane and then were on our way again.  It was a gorgeous day, and we really didn’t have any driving issues at all.  Oh!  When we drove past the Idaho border, Jen kind of squeeled a bit. lol  She’s from California and had never been to Idaho before.  We had to stop at the first exit so that she could touch the ground and say that she’s been in Idaho.  …more driving… When we met up with Alex in Montana, we went to his grandparents house, where we stayed for the weekend.  The house was in a pretty wooded area and right on a really big lake with a gorgeous view of the mountains.  The four of us (Lisa, who was going to come with us, decided not to go at the last minute) went down to the dock and took some pictures down there, and Alex showed us his uncle’s house, which was right next door and he had helped build. It was absolutely gorgeous.  I loved it. 🙂   Around 5:30 or so we left to go see some things around town, including his church, and then went to his house (we weren’t allowed to be there until 7).  We had a delicious dinner (wild rice soup, bread, salad, grapes…) and cake. 🙂    After food, we played telephone pictionary, which was really fun.  Everyone draws a picture, pass it to the person next to then, who then they have to write a description of the picture.  This then gets passed to the next person, who has to draw a picture based on the description given (they can’t see the original picture), and it keeps going in that pattern until it gets back to the original person.  It was quite entertaining. lol  

On Friday, Alex made us eggs, bacon, and toast for breakfast. 🙂  After that, we went to Glacier National Park.  It was really pretty and we had fun playing in the snow. 🙂  Jen even made her very first snow angel ever! lol   We spent most of the afternoon there, then headed back to Alex’s house and just hung out around there.  We ordered pizza for dinner and then invited some of his other friends and played killer bunnies (rather complicated card game that my friends seem to be obsessed with… lol).  

Saturday we slept in a bit, then had pancakes for breakfast.  We couldn’t really decide how we wanted to spend the day, so we drove around a bit by his grandparent’s house, then went through the woods down toward the lake and took a bunch of pictures there.  Because we had breakfast kinda late, we weren’t really hungry for lunch, but we did have huckleberry shakes.  Those were DELICIOUS!!!  After that, we went up to Big Mountain.  We had been considering taking the ski lift up to the top to take pictures and see the view from up there, but it was so cloudy that we wouldn’t really have been able to see much.  So we just went to some little souvenir shops and played in the snow a little.  Then we went back to Alex’s house.  For dinner that night we went to a Mongolian restaurant to celebrate David Steele’s birthday.  David  Steele also lives in Kalispell, Montana, and also goes to PLU with us.  His birthday was actually on Monday, but he wanted to celebrate with his family while he was home and invited us to come along. 🙂  Dinner was delicious, and I tried buffalo meat, which was tasty.   And… oh, we went to his house afterwords.  When we got back to the house, we decided to make nachos.  Yum!  And we didn’t get to sleep until like 1.

We woke up at 4 the next morning to get ready to leave.  Alex took the first driving shift, since he knew where he was, and I had shotgun since I was the most awake, and we had fun trying to count all the deer.  I think there were 7 or 8.  There was more snow on the return trip… And the windshield wipers got kinda icy, so they weren’t very good at wiping the window and Alex had to get a little creative in trying to see the road.  When we got to Ellensburg, we stopped at Desta’s mom’s house and had lunch.  She made chilli soup and corn bread.  🙂  We were there for about an hour before we got back on the road.  We got back to school around 2.  Alex and Jen had homework they needed to get to, so just Desta and I went to her house to get the rest of Jen and her stuff, then to my house to pick up my laptop and cello (Alex is using her for the rest of semester).  

 

Overall, it was a really fun spring break, and, for the most part, relaxing. 🙂

 

Yesterday, Alex and I went to the Bose store because the battery for his speaker wasn’t working and his warranty ended today.  Unfortunately, they couldn’t get him a new one in the store, but he was able to send in the whole speaker in and they’ll fix it.  After we left to get gas, he remembered that he had wanted to buy a remote for his speaker, too, so we went back to the store, but they didn’t sell them in the store.  So we went back to PLU to get the rest of his speaker and got that sent off.  Later that evening Jen, Lisa, and I went dress shopping for spring formal.  I didn’t end up buying a dress for the dance, but I did get a really cute little sun dress and a pair of earings from Fuego. 🙂  

 

Oh!!! At lunch today, it was Mediterranean themed and free!, but I didn’t really realize that before I had bought a panini from the market.  I did go in and get some flat bread, though, and then I saw it.  BAKLAVA!!!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! I think I scared Desta a bit.  lol.  Oh, how I love baklava. 🙂  It made me very happy.

 

Ok.  I think that’s all the exciting news I have to share.  🙂

Spring Break!! March 22, 2009

Yay! Sorry I didn’t post anything last week… It was the last week of classes before Spring break, and there were mid-terms and lots to be done….  Now I’m home and enjoying my time relaxing, sleeping, reading, and, of course, inflicting love upon the adorable puppies. ^_^

Yesterday, Sarah, Elaine, and I went to get pho (Vietnamese noodle soup thing… DELICIOUS!) and bubble tea at the Great Wall Mall. 🙂  It’s become a bit of a tradition… 😀  I was sad that Kenna couldn’t join us, though… She had to fly back to Wisconsin today and her mom wanted to have lunch with her on her last day…   Last night, Dad and I went to see Duplicity, starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.  It was good, I liked it. 🙂  It’s one of those movies where you don’t know what’s going on for a large portion of the movie, though, so it’d be nice to see it again just to try to catch everything.

Tomorrow I need to get started on my homework… 😦  I have another mid-term on the Monday after break (Really?! Who does that?) as well as the second draft of an essay.  Some friends and I will be leaving for Montana on Thursday (and coming back Sunday… short trip…) to visit a friend for his birthday, so I need to get my work done now so I don’t have to think about it in Montana (or in the car on the way to/from…).  It should be a fun trip, though.  I’m excited. 🙂

Religion and Oppression March 12, 2009

Tonight I went to a lecture/discussion thing on Religion and Oppression which was really interesting.   There were three panelists, one from the religion department, one from the history department, and one from the English department.  It was really interesting getting each of their perspectives on why people oppress others, how institutions, such as religion, can be oppressive or complicit in it, and how to combat the sense of futility and feelings of never doing enough.  I loved hearing the different perspectives and the different aspects that go into addressing the question, such as philosophies, religions, and history, and how they all work to cause oppression or resistance to it.

After the discussion, Dr. Peterson, the panelist from the religion department and also an IHON teacher this semester, came over to talk to some of the people I was sitting next to, and continued the discussion with us for a while after everyone else had left.  I loved hearing what he had to say; I can tell that he’s very, very smart and knowledgeable about so many things.  It made me really sad that I’m not in his IHON class.  He seems like Dr. Ihssen in his knowledge and ability to engage his students or those who he’s talking to.  He made me want to hear more about what he had to say, on this and other topics.  No one should ever underestimate the importance of having a good teacher- one who encourages you and inspires you to learn…

Let’s Go Outback Tonight! March 6, 2009

If you’ve never had a steak from Outback, go.  Eat.  Enjoy.  Experience heaven.  lol  Really… It’s SOOOOO good!  That and the freshly steamed broccoli, which is always cooked PERFECTLY.  Mmmmm… Plus a lovely pomegranate lemonade, mashed potatos, and the delicious bread…. There’s really not much better. 🙂