CM Co-op

Our local area started a CM co-op this year - moms get together with their kids every Friday and do either a field trip, nature day, or full-blown co-op (which includes picture study, a handicraft, folksong, hymn, composer study, art instruction, Spanish lesson, science experiment - each taught by a different mom).

Today was "full-blown co-op day". One of the boys brought an impressive map he'd made of Italy for show and tell, and was able to point out and explain in an animated way which wars were fought where - Punic Wars, battle for Rome, Hannibal crossing the Alps. He knew his history!

For handicrafts, a mom taught basket-weaving. I've wanted to make a basket all my life - and I made one! It's tiny; about the size of my hand.



L made one, too, but didn't take his home.

J won't normally be doing this co-op; his own high school co-op starts next Friday. But he came today to socialize (and to provide support - literally! - for Miss M.)

On Studying Out-of-Doors (or, a panegyric on choir practice)

Today was my first day of studying. I didn't have any classes today, so I was able to work from 9:00-4:00. I took my books outside and sat on a bench in front of the dorm during the morning. Then I took a break for lunch (where I managed not to drop my salad on the floor, like I did yesterday). After lunch I found a quiet stairway in an unfrequented part of the campus and did as much studying as I could there, until I had to go back to my dorm to use the computer. (Lesson: bring the laptop next time.)

It was lovely in the shade, but the studying outside does have its drawbacks. Stairs, however unfrequented by human traffic, are not therefore free of ants, gnats, bees, and other bugs of less certain description. (The sweat bees got me twice today.)

After that was choir practice. We did a few warm-ups, and then went right into sight-reading our music. And the sound! So many voices singing together, four parts dancing in and out with each other, coming together at moments of shimmering harmony to make chords that are almost tangible--sound that envelops you and lifts you up and sustains you until the last breath--that was glorious. It seemed to be over very quickly. Even some of the seasoned choir-members, juniors and seniors, said that they don't often sound that good.

After that I went to the school's annual Fiesta on the commons, where they had quasi-Mexican food (spicy rice-and-bean egg rolls?) and a cliche Mexican band. After dinner was convocation, which today meant a guest speaker in the chapel. The speaker was pretty good, but it took them half an hour to get to him. The president of the college introduced a local judge who introduced the lieutenant governor of the state who gave a short address and then turned it back over to the judge, who introduced the speaker for the evening.

An instrumental trio gave a prelude to the address

When that was over I went back to my dorm and did some more studying, breaking it up with piano practice--I tried sight-reading a Beethoven sonata. It went fairly well, but then I had chosen the easiest one I could find. I attended the mandatory residence hall meeting in the evening, and came back and did some more studying. (I did actually finish my homework.) Luckily I have a 10:00 class tomorrow morning, so I can sleep a little.

First Day of Classes

This post will have to be short, I'm afraid, because it's past my bedtime. My classes started at 9:05 this morning--or rather I thought they did, but it turned out my piano class wasn't supposed to be until next week. So my first real class was Old Testament; right after that was Ancient and Medieval Cultures; after lunch was Photography; and in the evening was concert choir. None of the classes had real work today, it was all introductions and handing out papers and going over syllabi. But I think concert choir is going to be the hardest as far as time commitment. Their rehearsals and performances may cut into a lot of my classes. And I can already tell that my Old Testament professor assigns more homework than his wife, the Humanities professor.

After choir the school had a scavenger hunt. We divided up into teams by our mentor groupings and raced all over campus finding different clues and fulfilling the requirements (like playing leap-frog or dressing up and pretending to be in a music video). We raced to be the first team to make it to the prize (an Applebees gift card, I think) at the drive-in theater about thirty minutes drive away. There was some confusion about who won, but our team was awarded the prize. After that most of the freshmen went to the drive-in and saw The Dark Knight, while I went to Wal-Mart and got some much-needed dinner and three-ring binders for my papers. And I've spent the rest of the evening organizing and scheduling and writing and doing a little homework (now there's a concept for a homeschooler).

Emergency Room

Yes, we made an unexpected trip this evening.

Dad dislocated his pinky finger playing basketball with J. He wanted me to look up online whether that's the kind of injury you can just pop back in yourself, and the first site I went to said, "Do NOT attempt to home-treat a dislocated joint." So we all piled into the van, dropped him off at the emergency room, and went to Pizza Hut. After dinner, he was still waiting to be seen, so we shopped - and, finally, four hours later, he was treated and ready to go home. Luckily, the bookstore stays open late, so we had someplace to hang out while we waited.

Registration

The day began a little earlier today with three men converging upon a single bathroom, the result being that one did not make it to the morning meeting in time and had to slip in the back door after it had begun. (Suffice it to say, the bathroom schedule will need to be remedied.)

But after that morning meeting (which was about the internet and phone service on campus) I had several free hours, so I wandered around identifying buildings and looking for the locations of my classes. I found the library, and the main class buildings, and the music offices, and the sports center with the swimming pool. The pool is on the far side of the campus, about ten minutes walk from my dorm, but that is the farthest I'll have to go anywhere on campus. (One benefit of a small school.)

In the afternoon I had a meeting with my mentor to review the class schedule that we put together for me several months ago. I'll be starting with 17 credits, which is a lot: the minimum for a full-time student is 12. But I'm looking forward to my classes. Humanities is the backbone of the curriculum, and I've done so much literature that I have a headstart there. When I got my box of books for my courses I was pulling out the literature selections one by one and saying "Read that"--"Started that one"--"I did this last year". This semester it's mostly epic poetry like the Odyssey and the Aeneid and Beowulf.

After reviewing my schedule I went through registration, where I filled out a student profile, got my ID tagged, got a parking tag for my car, had my picture taken for the yearbook, and had my records checked one last time. Then I went to the music offices and worked out times for my music lessons. In the evening they were taking all the students to a water park which is just five minutes from our house (the college itself is about forty minutes away), so I went early by myself and came home for a while before I went to the water park. I was in the water for a while, watched a very silly synchronized swimming contest, and played some more volleyball. When they started breaking up I and a friend from my dorm went home in my car. (Yes, I said MY car. I didn't blog about that, did I? Bother.)

Before leaving the water park. It's a bit blurry because it was starting to get dark.

And now I'm back, watching people run up and down the hall in our dorm, waiting for my roommate to get in and hoping to get an early start in the morning. For then school begins in earnest. MUSC 130/Applied Study (Music)/Accompanying--9:05 sharp.

Feet-Wetting

Currently: listening to my roommate's piano practice.

Today the whole freshmen class was taken to a nearby summer camp (which is in its off-season at the moment). They had a ton of things to do there--a man-made lake with volleyball and basketball and a trampoline and zip lines, as well as a scenic train ride through the forest and frisbee golf (which I didn't do) and mountain biking (which I don't do) and free ice cream (which I very much did). They even had a plastic chess set, and I managed to find a couple people to play, although I'm still looking for some serious players.


They let us loose for the whole afternoon, then rounded us up for some planned games (which strangely enough weren't nearly as fun). In the evening they served us dinner and held a worship service in a tent erected for that purpose. After that they lit a bonfire and we had smores and played some more volleyball until the buses came to take us back.

It's astounding how many people I'm meeting every day. And then trying to remember which names go with which faces, and which ones are doing what, and which room numbers they have, etc. Someone remarked how many people they've seen that remind them of other people they know. And it's true--I've seen half a dozen people that look so much like someone else I know that I want to call them by the other person's name.

But for the most part I'm enjoying it. I talked with someone today who is in my mentoring group (of about fifteen students) who loves to play Risk, and agrees with me that Lord of the Rings Risk is far better than the standard one; so we might have some gaming in the future...

Day the second

Today was another long day. More interesting than yesterday, because of meeting more people. (When I say "meet" I mean meet and talk for at least two minutes, as opposed to just exchanging names.) In the morning there was a service at the chapel on campus; I expected it to be very traditional, but they actually had a praise and worship band for most of the service. After that I went to lunch, where I met a couple of guys who are rooming down the hall from me. Brennan's a theater major, and Seth is an English major from Massachusets and a big Red Sox fan. We all had some odds and ends to buy so we carpooled into town and did some shopping.

Soon after we got back my roommate arrived. We moved his stuff in and I got to meet his parents. I'd met him previously; he's a pianist, like me, and a music major, unlike me. (Note for Giselle: I think that that grammar is correct because "like" is being used as a preposition, the way they used to use "like unto". So when Aragorn says "...and become a wraith like them"--he may not be so far off.)

Then we hurried to an introductory lecture (which was mostly to introduce the staff we need to know); afterwards we went to dinner. Tonight was their Welcome Banquet, which was very nice. I sat at a table with my peer mentor, who turns out to be a humanities major who is taking classes in Medieval Literature and C.S. Lewis's Fiction, loves the Silmarillion, plays bagpipes, and has travelled to Europe. We had an interesting discussion about foreign food and the differences between Vegemite and Nutella (the consensus being that Nutella is far superior).

The dining hall after dinner.

After dinner was vespers, which was a worship service with communion and a short message. There must have been more than a hundred people there; it was neat to see so many college students worshipping together in one room (alternately standing and sitting on the floor, since they don't use chairs). After vespers a group of students (including me) went to Sonics in town and chatted for a while. And then when I got back my roommate and I took turns playing our piano pieces for each other and watching piano performances on YouTube. Hence a late night...but a fun one.

Red Moon at Night

That always reminds me of a Peanuts cartoon where Snoopy and Woodstock can't remember the last line and get silly making things up.

L and I both tried to get this full red moon on digital film. L's (the first one) is more successful, I think - the color is truer.




Here's my try; it shows the moon with a few other lights. It was too dark to get any horizon or anything.



And the least blurry image I was able to get:

So here I am...

In the last remaining minutes of my First Day. And yes, that means COLLEGE! I moved into my dorm room today; tomorrow my roommate is arriving, but for today I have the room to myself. The day has been filled with scores of new names and faces, which I've been handily managing to forget, as well as lots of information and sporadic conversation. It's been a very long day. (I'm drowsing over the keyboard as I type.)


I checked in this morning and my dad helped me to move all my stuff into my room, and I spent a lot of the afternoon unpacking and setting things up (that's my dorm in the picture). Then the rest of the family came over to see my quarters (and bring some things I'd forgotten to pack...); they left, and I went to dinner and sat with some acquaintances. After dinner all the students were split up into groups and went off with their peer mentors for introductions and scheduling.

Then came the highlight of the day--matriculation. The word comes from Latin matricula, "register". Sometime before Latin it was related to the root for "mother"--as in Alma Mater. But what it actually means is that all the new students filed ceremonially into the chapel to a thundering accompaniment on the organ; then everyone, parents, students, and professors, sang a hymn; the dean charged the students and professors to abide by the rules and traditions of the college, and the students and professors read their responses; and then all the students came up and signed a sheet of paper to be added to the college's book of names--the Lamb's book of life, as one of the professors jokingly called it. Every student, past and present, has their name on the list.

So I'm officially a student. After that a bagpiper led a long procession of professors in their robes, faculty members, students, parents, etc. from the chapel to the commons where a giant tent had been erected. They served refreshments (yummy cookies and yummier brownies), and they had a jazz band playing and lights all around, and people stayed a chatted for a long time. (I am told that this arrangement, with the tent and band and lights and refreshments, is a lot bigger than what they've done in previous years. I was also told that this college is one of the few small colleges that still has such pomp and ceremony surrounding matriculation. I love that.)


The last event of the day was a Residence Hall Floor Meeting, which was short and sweet--what to do in case of a problem, advice about dorm life, that sort of stuff. And then some of the guys left for an undisclosed location, while the rest of us--myself included--retired to their rooms.

"And there was evening and there was morning: the first day." - Genesis 1:5

Books: Hazardous to Your Health

Miss M got a paper cut on her thumb this morning while flipping through a picture book. This evening, she was looking at a poetry book and got another paper cut, this one on her finger.

She said, "Mommy, I don't think I should read until I'm a big girl." She liked her Hello Kitty band-aid, though.