First Month of Senior Year

We're almost at the end of September- it's so hard to believe! It feels like we just arrived, but the semester is well underway.

The Drama Club has had a few fun events already: the 24-hour play festival a few weeks ago was a blast! We had four great plays created by teams of writers and produced all in one day. I played 4 roles in one skit: a caveman, a crusader, an American Revolutionary soldier, and a futuristic Billy Mays robot-vending machine set in Russia....clearly a good time! The other big news was that our team led Burlington's Light the Night walk in support of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society this past Friday. It's so great being part of a club that not only does fun and crazy theater things, but also is a part of the community!

 Classes are going well. I spend 4 afternoons a week in the scene shop now, since I'm assistant scenic designing the fall mainstage, Crimes of the Heart, which involves pulling a lot of props and working on dressing the set to make it look more realistic. I find it really enjoyable to alternate working in the shop and then going to pick props from our storage area. It's fun to look for period pieces (Crimes has props that range from the '50s to the '70s) and to see the designer's choices on which pieces to use as well.

Other than that, I have Spanish Literature, which is extremely challenging but amazing. We've been reading short stories from various periods in Spanish and American history, all very dark times and atmospheres, but very informative about the time, not to mention great practice for my Spanish.

 One of my favorites is my Shakespeare class, taught by an expert, Professor Nick Clary. We've read 3 plays already this semester and analyzed them through discussion and worksheets. I'm starting to learn to appreciate reading a play, where you can make many interpretations, while when a play is performed it usually is presented to be seen in a certain way, even if it does make the dialogue easier to understand when performed live.

Early Christianity is a fairly interesting class as well. If I had a choice for my second religion class I would have chosen one I know less about, like Buddhism, but the Liberal Studies Requirements at St. Mike's include 2 Christianity classes. I find the history classes are the best because they still give you a healthy dose of the Bible, but it's also good to see how things started and how they have changed throughout history to get us where we are today.

Otherwise, not much news. I did not get accepted to the Aca Bellas, the a capella group. Since 30 people tried out and only 5 girls were accepted, I am not surprised. I did however join the liturgical choir, which sings at the Sunday evening mass. My house is doing well; we jumped our first hurdle together. We also made a successful vegetable soup with croutons from scratch this evening!

Thank you for reading! More soon!