Last day as a Freshman

This morning:  did some studying; moved lots of things from Burgundy (the women's house on Summit) to our house for next year.

This afternoon:  Calc final, which went fine, and means that I am done with school for the year!  Then baking, for the Sisterhood dinner held...

This evening:  so we had the aforementioned Sisterhood dinner, with both present and past members of the Sisterhood; it was a great time with wonderful food (sandwiches by and lots of laughs.

Being done with finals means that Michaela and I both have time on our hands, and it turns out that Lit Music Majors and free time can be a dangerous combination!  Here's a preview of our night's work - for our choir direction, Mr. Aaron Brown:

 (It comes complete with a page of choir warm-ups set to all the syllables in the book - "moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo-moo" (ascending do-so, then descending), "tick-a-tock-a-tick-a-tock-a-tick-tock-tick-tock," etc. :))

The beginning of the end

Almost everything from this room ...

... is going into this room:

... for the time being. :)

First Day of Finals/Music Details from the Weekend

Computer Science and Latin finals finished today!  So 3 down, 1 to go.

The past few days have been very music-y (sometimes more successfuly than others):

• Saturday: MMC and cantor for Mass, but I gave the pianist the book with the old translation... and my music had the new translation... you know how they talk about "going out with a bang"?  Well, this was one way to do that.
• Sunday: last Lit Choir Sunday of the year -- thankfully, this one went much more smoothly than the previous night!
• Monday: in-house scholarship audition, which I think went well overall, then leading music for the Study Monday Mass at night.  From piano, and with a guitarist and cantor (but we nixed the raise-your-arm-to-bring-the-people-in thing ;)): more like St. Paul's than anything I've done all year, and it was great!  (With the exception of the Gospel acclamation where I panicked as to what key we were in and threw the cantor off, but it wouldn't be music if there wasn't something like that, right?)

Enjoying the slower pace, but trying not to totally peter out.  Just a few more days!

Semi-Productive Study Weekend

It's been such a relief to have Music History finished that I haven't been as motivated to study for everything else as I perhaps should have been... well, I shall see as the week progresses!

Family, on the last day of Music History, we looked at some examples of modern notation (pictured below) that I think you would all enjoy playing -- so prepare the boomwackers! :)

Last day of classes, cont.

Well, there it is: Freshman-year classes are finished!  I also had my piano jury this morning and my Music History final this afternoon -- it was a full day.  I'm kind of tired, but also so relieved to have made it through. :)

My week has mostly been full of crazy studying, but here's a few other tidbits:

Lilacs are out!

Digging up the road in front of the next-door women's house this morning.  We're not exactly sure what's going on, but it has something to do with the water line... just in time for finals...

A typical pre-finals women's-house pile: 

And, last but not least, I'm trying my best to stay hydrated and not get sick, for just one more week:

Congratulations to those who have finished, non modo classes, sed quoque finals, today (ea est pulchra soror mea Amanda :D <3 get="" nbsp="" ow="" p="" sleep="" some="" to="">

Last Day of Classes!

Dies Veneris est!

(Don't know why I'm on such a Latin kick, but since I started, I feel obligated to finish, so that you can learn all the days of the week.  And it makes the title so easy. :))

No pictures from today, but here's me getting drenched on the way back from Mass yesterday:

I guess you can't quite tell how wet I am in this picture -- but it was wet enough that we had to sing "Sixteen Going on Seventeen." :D  Grateful for the lack of rain today!

Choir Concert

Not mine -- Concert Choir and Chamber Singers -- and it was fabulous!!!  Loved every minute of it, especially a beautiful, modern and harmonically cool "Salve Regina," which started with ... tone clusters? or whatever the choral equivalent is.  Started with two clashing notes, then added more... and more... higher and higher... the effect was a wave of sound that just - oh - goose-bumps - I guess this is where the expression "words fail me" comes in.  (It's so hard to describe music, because if our words about it were really all that it was, then there would be no point in making music.)  And they closed with a really fun arrangement of "Down to The River to Pray": perfect ending. :D

Guess I kind of like music...

Dies Mercurii: Philosophy Symposium

Salvete, omnes!

Volo scribere totum Latine, sed hodie nimis fessa sum, et lente scribeo, et ille tempum longum ante dormientem facit.

(Or something like that... :))

Tonight was the Philosophy Club's Symposium, which was really quite interesting.  We've been debating about aesthetics this semester, and it was great to get an actual definition of beauty and art!  The ideas are still up for debate, of course, but this helps. :)  Maybe I will include more details later -- on a night when I don't spend time beginning in Latin... ;)

Also, I'm feeling quite satisfied right now because all my array functions are working!  So if you ever need to sort the values in a two-dimensional array from least to greatest, just let me know.

Finally, I discovered the English Lit section of the library:

Well, that's all for tonight.  Valete, et dormite bene!

First Communions/Recitals

This morning, since I was not MMC-ing or singing for UST, I went with some of my neighbors and housemates to Mass at St. Mark's, where they were having first communions.  The first communicants were all darling (and even served as lectors, which I found impressive!), and it served as a good reminder of the importance of Mass and Holy Communion.

This afternoon was one of recitals: first, a senior recital by a Piano Performance major (it was amazing!), and then a level 1 recital by two piano majors, a voice major (tenor, in case you're wondering :)), and violinist: also all amazing!  Not only that, but between recitals I also went to the Binz, a cafeteria at which I have been intending to eat all year, with a couple other students, so that was fun. :)

I hope that you've all had a refreshing weekend!

It's May!

Hard to believe that it's already May!  But it is, as proven by the results of the recent April showers:

So far, the month is off to a good start.  Yesterday night was Cor Jesu, to which Amanda came and afterwards slept over. :) (Not sure if that mix of phrases actually makes a grammatically correct sentence...)  Thanks, Pandy, for all the fun talking; it was great to spend time with you! <3 p="">

Today was mostly a day of quiet productivity, but this evening, Jessica, Stephanie, and I brought a picnic dinner down to the river, which was a good break.  Here's our view of the beautiful St. Mary's Chapel on our way back:

Only two more weeks of classes!