"...I've got a gal, in Kalamazoo..."
When I first started looking at Colleges, my mother sang that song to me (off of my brother's Glenn Miller Orchestra CD), and jeered that she'd never send me to a school named "Kalamazoo". A year later, she sent a deposit for the Fall of 2007 to Kalamazoo College, Michigan.
I'd never been to Michigan before Thursday, two weeks ago, but after spending a day with students and faculty, I realized that my college woes were over, and I could safely choose Kzoo. The school is not very well known, apart from those in the Midwest, but the students there are academically focused (the classroom buildings were buzzing with activity), they liked to be outside (they were playing Ultimate Frisbee on the quad), they liked to study abroad (nearly 90% of students studied abroad their junior year-my tour guide just arrived from China), and everyone in the Midwest is just so darn friendly. I felt like I finally found my happy-people; everyone waved and sparked jovial conversations about the weather, our funny rental car, or the best place in town to eat a cheesecake.
Perhaps my college search was not too specific, all I truly needed in the end was a friendly group of people that liked to study, play Ultimate, and go abroad (and know a thing or two about cheesecake).
...was surprisingly not rainy. In fact, for the 10 days that myself, 11 other students, and 2 faculty stayed in the middle of the city, it was quite beautiful and spectacular. However, maybe we were just awe-struck.
I'd never been to London before, but after about a week riding the Tube and seeing fabulous West End shows, eating at overpriced pubs and running into a little too many Fish and Chips joints, I feel like I know the place fairly well.
Upon entering St. Paul's Cathedral (...we sang Mary Poppins' "Feed The Birds"), the group realized that there were stairs leading up to the top of the dome. After about 10-15 minutes of climbing stone or rickety metal spiral stairs, we jetted up on different landings upon the dome. A few of us headed to the tip top, and this was the view of the Thames.
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Here's our group (besides me) walking through Green Park on the
way to the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.
On Sunday, February 11, after our 2 o'clock showing, the cast of Grease said goodbye to Greased Lightning and I said goodbye to my final mainstage Mercersburg Production. I honestly enjoyed all aspects of this musical produciton, whether I was singing, learning choreography, practicing with the cast, or working on my character. I played Rizzo, and although she is as far from my natural personality as possible, I dove into the role with gusto, and i'm a bit sad to let her go. Through a tough and interesting character like Rizzo, I was able to do crazy things that i'd never attempt in my life. For example- I'd never scream obsenities at someone and procede to tackle them on a bench, and I would never drink and smoke at a pajama party, and I'd never be in an unfortunate predicament like Rizzo's towards the end of the play. At the beginning of practices back in November, it was difficult for me to fully commit to Rizzo, but over time Rizzo grew, and I think I did as well.
Hello! I'm Katie, a four-year senior from Maryland, and I hope this blog can help give you an inside look to a typical student's life.
This is me...
I'm normally seen buzzing about campus for my various activites, accompainied by my camera, my AP Comparative Politics textbook, and a can of Coca-Cola.
Tuesdays generally give me a bit of trouble. After classes, I have theatre practice, and directly afterwards I have Yearbook. I have to leave early from Yearbook to meet with Peer Group, only to come back to Yearbook. Sometimes I write articles for the newspaper, and unfortunately, (i'm a terrible procrastinator) I normally have to finish an article that is due that night. Later that evening, I have Magalia practice, and then I get to work on my homework.
Tonight's a deadline for the Yearbook staff, and I spent hours this past week trying to get an adequate amount of photos together (I am the Photography Editor). In a panic, last Sunday, my roomate (the Editor in Chief of the Yearbook) told me that I needed to gather 1000 photos by Friday, if we wanted to be on time with our book. I hussled around campus snapping photos of everything, and nagging everyone I met to send me any pictures they took. By Tuesday night, I gathered 996 photos, and another 200 got to me by Wednesday. Luckily, the panic is over.
I had my last Peer Group meeting last week, and it was almost a tear-jerker. Fourteen seniors last spring, after an application process, were chosen to host a group of ninth graders every Tuesday night for one hour. The fourteen of us were split into pairs, and the ninth grade class was randomly shuffled, and this fall we began to meet. The purpose of the group for ninth graders is to form lasting bonds with classmates who you might not meet elsewhere around campus, but also to get help get adjusted to living in a boarding school and keeping up with the daily grind of high school. For me however, the process was a bit different. After participating in Peer group my ninth grade year, and coming back to lead a group myself, I realized how important daily relationships are here on campus. I learned that my small actions can greatly influence those of another, especially those of the ninth graders, and I had a lot of fun. To end the night, we held hands in a line, then twisted around each other to make one great jumble of hugs. -But Peer Group is never really over, this weekend, as I set up lights for Grease, two of my ninth graders came to find me to go over their essay's and have a chat. I was more than ready to have a talk with them.
I am trying to learn how to conduct for Magalia, our a capella group. We don't have problems with rythym, but I'd like to be able to lead the group through the dynamics of certain songs, and we would look a bit more professional if I could conduct a bit for our Pennsylvania State competition on February 17th. We had a preformance yesterday, and we tried a new song of ours, "Sign, Sealed, Delivered," by Stevie Wonder. It is such a difficult arrangement, and unfortunately, our first time through didn't go so well, in fact, it was a bit chaotic, but now we know what to work on.
Hopefully that introduction was not too dull for you, but from now on I hope to include photos in most of my entries, and keep the typing to a minimum (I know my fellow blogger, and very good friend, Chuck, will eventually tell you plenty on lengthy stories anyway).
Toodles!
Katie
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