Besides discovering that Genesis are on tour, and might regroup for a reunion tour with the original band next year (WHAT?!?), this week has been pretty quiet and productive. It's always hard to do work over break, but I've kept myself pretty busy during the long days home alone (parents at work, brothers at school, and friends at school). Of course, there has been time for family reunion, including a nice dinner out yesterday evening with the whole family. It's been a very nice break, but it's getting close to being time to be back. I'm pretty excited about the rest of the year, especially my second seven weeks seminar in CC. I chose the Moby-Dick class; the book of the same name arrived here on Tuesday. I've spent a nice portion of my spare time reading it, and I should be a good quarter of the way through it by the time classes start on Monday. (Yes, I'm a slow reader...)

So, here's a picture of me with my book, hanging out at home:

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Break! Complete release from scholarly responsibilities (at least for this first week), sleep, and restoration. (Okay, that was a little overblown...) The Florida trip was amazing -- both demanding and leaving plenty of time for relaxing and kicking around the state. Every day was an adventure, with different host homes each day and various challenges at each performance location. Each performance was actually a church service, which in most cases was led completely by the Kantorei. We sang a variety of songs, including a few hymns from the new Lutheran hymnals. We ate a lot, slept more than usual, did a little sight-seeing and beach living, and sang more than anything. (Well, we might have slept more than sang, but it's debatable.) I also got to know a few Kantoreans much better.

And that's about all I have to say about that! Here are some pictures from the tour:

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Finally -- the last week before break! And it's insane!!! I leave with the Kantorei on tour to Florida on Friday (iyay!), early in the morning, so that means that I have to write my CC paper before that, comparing Day's The Long Loneliness with O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away. I might be up all night Thursday, but I'll get it done. Meanwhile I need to survive a Theory midterm and pick my second seven weeks seminar for CC from several equally interesting options. The seminar that Mr. Olmsted gives on Moby-Dick stands out to my English major side, but it's really a tough choice.

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Here's a picture from the beginning of the trip, a sign of refreshment after a rather dismal entry:

This week was a crescendo. The week began pleasantly enough; the fog on Monday was nice and gave an ambience of soothing calm to the campus. Here are some pictures:

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The weekend was what was brutal for me. Saturday ended with some fun, in that the power went out and that led to the gathering of some six of us in my room for conversation while the hall went mad in a nocturnal flashlight frenzy. However, this was also an impediment for the colossal amount of work (mostly CC reading -- The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day) which I knew awaited me, and which consequently occupied my day on Sunday. After lunch, the only breaks I allowed for myself from my intensive work time in the library were for supper and the Calmus Ensemble, an a capella vocal quintet from Leipzig, Germany, which was AMAZING. I bought a CD and had the ensemble members sign it. Then it was back to the grind, and I ended up leaving for my room when the library closed at 1:00 and continuing my work in my dorm room. I only slept 3 and a half hours, and so I enter the last week of school before spring break...

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It's been a wild week.

The past several nights I have received only about 4-5 hours of sleep (last night this was my own fault, and I'm kicking myself for it -- I stayed up playing Monopoly with a few friends in Lank). Today was particularly crazy, as I had to wake up at 5:45 in the morning so I could be at Immanuel Lutheran by 7:00-ish to direct the middle school bell choir at 8:00 and then 10:45. I then returned to campus, had some brunch (I hadn't eaten yet, as I hadn't planned on the fact that university cafeterias don't open until later on Sundays), and proceeded to head to the library (around 12:30-ish) to try to get some productive reading done for CC (we're reading O'Connor's The Violent Bear it Away). however, I could achieve little more than a hadful of pages in an hour's time because I kept falling asleep (not at all because the book was boring [it isn't] but because I was so tired), so I returned, frusterated, to my room and took a nap. I got up in time for the 3:00 2-hour Kantorei rehearsal for the Transfiguration Vespers, and then sang in vespers at 5:00. I grabbed some food with Ethan around 6:30, and finally reaturned to my dorm, where some 70 pages of O'Connor, a workbook page for Music Theory, and some Composition homework awaited me. I've been fighting a cold since Thursday, and my throat hurts. The O'Connor and Theory are done, but I don't think I'll be prepared for my voice and composition lessons tomorrow.

Now that I've ranted (which perhaps was not to the greatest benefit of those viewing this web page), I should say that the week has been a productive one overall, and although tired, I'm not so upset as I may sound. I am, however, surprised that this kind of week still comes from a 16-credit schedule (as opposed to last semester's 20 credits).

Here's a picture to lighten the mood. This is one of the kids in my mom's first grade class this year, holding a frog or toad. It reminds me of what my parents say was the first thing I did when, as a 4-year-old, I stepped out of the car and into the driveway of our new house in South Haven, MI. I saw a toad (the first I had ever seen), picked it up, and began squeezing it and showed it to my mom. She took it from me and let the poor, bedraggled thing limp away.

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And here's a picture of time, which hasn't been too kind to me lately:

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This has been a week of highs and lows. There was some stress involved in getting two applications in -- one for an RA position for next year, and one for a summer job working as an RA for a summer program through Northwestern University's Center for Talent Development program. I hope that both applications are successful.

This last half of this week has been particularly nice, however. On Thursday I attended the Chinese New Year Dinner/Concert, which was fun and entertaining, on Friday I attended the International Dinner and Talent Show, which was even more impressive, and on Saturday I attended the Valparaiso University Dance Ensemble, which was amazing, especially since the second half of the show was set to a medley of Peter Gabriel music (I love PG music!!!). And today (Sunday), I've managed to get everything on my to-do list done, which is both exciting and unusual.

This is a picture of the remnants from the Chinese New Year Dinner/Concert:

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and this is a picture of the International Dinner program:

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My roommate is sick and has almost no voice... I'm still holding out, for now....

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Sorry this is pposted late -- it's been busy.

I discovered that going home for the weekend is very difficult. Getting everything scheduled, getting my essay written on time, getting sleep, etc. can be tough. It was a success overall, however, and I enjoyed being home in Michigan and seeing all of the pretty snow. Things are pretty intense up there, unlike Valpo, which hasn't received much snow at all this year.

Construction continues, despite the frigid conditions. On days when the heavy machinery sits dormant, workers continue by hand. Here is a picture of a few of them, working on what look like some kind of metal support system, over which the walls will be built:

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Driving back from Michigan was difficult, due to white-out conditions and a slick road, but it sure was pretty. Here are some pictures I took of the snow:

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It has seemed like a long week. The new union construction site has been particularly busy this week, and it seems that the site is always expanding. Composition lessons are proving to provide a lot of work for me to worry about, but it is sort of fun, and I'm just starting to feel my way into them. I'm up very late tonight (2:30 in the morning now) because I procrastinated yesterday by going to Alumni and playing Apples to Apples, Cranium, and 4 Fingers with a bunch of people, and today, after singing at the service with the Kantorei and grabbing some brunch, I travelled to Chicago on a CC trip to hear Stravinski's The Rite of Spring performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which was amazing, and the first half of the concert was a "Beyond the Score" presentation on the influences and development of the composition, which added a whole new depth to our understanding of the music. It was great.

Picture time; here is a picture of a masterful snow rendition of the Abraham and Isaac story, which was found in the Mueller courtyard, made by a couple of masters in their field (whatever it may be):

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and here is a couple of pictures of the construction site, especially focusing on a cool zigzag concrete pourer machine that was out there one day:

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This was a good week for me, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was definitely the highlight. There were no classes, which was nice, but what was really great about the day was the variety of activities related to King and his mission which dominated my day's schedule.

The chapel was full for the morning convocation, which included a truly spirited and charging speech by Dr. Julia Hare, a well-known guest speaker. Then I had a box lunch in the chapel with the Lutheran Leader interns, after which time I walked around the sanctuary and looked at a variety of black-and-white photographs from Dr. King's day, many of which were very powerful and moving images. After that I attended a fascinating two-hour focus session with Dr. Hare and an intimately small group of students, faculty, and community members, in which we spoke about Dr. King's legacy and what still needs change today. After that I went to a one-hour focus session, this one about environmental issues which was held by the chemistry club. All together during the three hours, somewhere around 20 focus sessions on different topics were held on campus. I'm glad to see that Valpo is dedicated to diversity and justice.

I also discovered this week that both of my private music lessons, voice and composition, have been scheduled for Monday. This means that on Mondays, from 9:05 until 8:45 in the evening, I have two breaks: one during morning prayer, and one half hour between work and my composition lesson. Those are the times when I will have to eat.

AHHH!!!!!

Thankfully, Tuesday and Wednesday are really quite laid back for me, so I should be able to recuperate...

Picture time! Here's Immanuel Church, a big blocky beast of a building, where I conduct a middle school bell choir as my internship this year for the Lutheran Leadership Internship:

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and a close-up of the "steeple" structure:

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And here's a picture (kind of blurry) of the Chirstopher Center (library on campus):

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Well, this was sort of my first week back. Classes didn't start until Wednesday, so I only had three days of classes. This semester should be much more workable for me, since I only have 16 credits, so I'm looking forward to it. My classes are: Music Theory II, Musicianship II, Texts and Contexts II (CC), Kantorei, Studio Lesson - Voice (and Voice Colloquium), and Studio Lesson - Composition. I'm pretty excited, especially about the composition lessons, which will be totally new... And of course I'm excited about CC, that being both a large reason for my applying to Valpo in the first place and a program that I've just really enjoyed. There aren't many programs like it out there, that's for sure.

The Bach concert was definitely a highlight of the week. St. John's Passion was performed by the Chorale/Bach Choir and Symphony Orchestra, which was amazing. Being able to follow along in the program (with English translations) made it a very emotional experience. It also made me hope that I get into the Chorale next year.

Alex - I hope my e-mail helped. I do recommend Valpo's music program, but obviously personal fit is a strong factor, so keep looking at colleges, and get as many on-campus visits in as you can. I visited about 16 different colleges from my sophomore through senior year before I decided on Valpo.

I picked up my books at the bookstore when I arrived on campus on Monday, and here is a picture of the stack:

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Here's a picture of my brother Ben, who I realized that I don't think I have on this site yet, tragically:

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