First Year Diary 11

Kimball has been trayless for the past two weeks now. At first, I was adverse to the idea simply because I thought that it would be a huge inconvenience for everyone at Kimball. All of the Kimball Captains thought that everything would just be a mess, and a majority of the students thought that it’d be impossible to balance a plate of food, a cup, and silverware. I can honestly say that these past two weeks have been running extremely smoothly. All of the Kimball workers and captains have seamlessly adapted to breaking differently, and barely any of us can tell that there’s a difference in protocol. Also, I’ve been able to see exactly how much less food is being wasted. The figures are really astounding. And, now that the students wasting less food, Kimball can afford to buy a variety of new foods. So, even though I was skeptical in the beginning, trayless has really been a huge success. Even though I might have to make a couple of trips to get all the food that I want, I realize that I’m now taking only what I know that I can eat. I’m really excited that all of the students here have been so accepting and willing to try something new that will, in the end, benefit us all.

You can tell a class is excellent when you’re upset when it’s canceled. My Ideological Destruction of Art seminar was canceled yesterday, although everyone in the class was somewhat okay with this. We took our midterm on Tuesday, so our brains are still recuperating. My Mathematics and Art class was canceled today, though, and I was quite sad about this. The class’ second paper was due today, and I was really excited to turn it in. The assignment was to go to a museum and compare a work painted before 1420 to one painted after 1420 to see how linear perspective affected the impact of the paintings. Brendan, a ballroom friend who is also taking the class, and I went to the Worcester Art Museum yesterday (huzzah! I was able to explore more of Worcester!). We both could only spend an hour there due to our schedules, but the two of us loved it. I know that I personally want to go back and spend an entire day there. The collections are exquisite. For instance, there’s a room in the medieval display that was part of a chapel that was built in France in 1137. It’s the same floors, the same walls, the same windows, the same arches, the same fireplace…nothing is a replica. It was so cool to stand on the same floor as another person did nearly one thousand years ago! The WAM also has one of the only untouched portraits of Caligula, which we discussed in my Ideological Destruction of Art seminar. Way to kill a lot of birds with one stone! Of course, that’s not to say that I like these two classes better than Early Christian Literature and Tolkien, which Fr. Vodoklys and Prof. Mulrooney, respectively, will never cancel!

In other news, happy Spring! I know that I shouldn’t say that because, knowing my luck, it will start snowing tomorrow.

The reason why I haven’t updated in a while is because in addition to a really busy academic week of midterms and the like, the Ballroom team was preparing for the 10th Annual Holy Cross Ballroom Competition, which was held on Saturday, March 14th. So, no, I didn’t have the change to celebrate pi day. But, anyway, last week was so busy with making sure that everything was prepared. On Saturday, it was great to see how all of our hard work paid off. Even though Harvard held their competition on the same day as ours (that is a wound that just shouldn’t be opened), we still had a great turnout of over 130 couples. Everything went really smoothly throughout the day, and we didn’t have any hiccups.

It was also great to see that our hard work at ballroom practice paid off. I moved up a level this semester and I’ve been practicing with my new partner, Josh, quite a bit. The Silver smooth basics are quite different, so it takes a while to adjust. Yesterday, we did really well and we were really happy with our success. In Smooth, we made it to the Quarterfinals of Waltz and Foxtrot, and we made it to the semifinals for Tango. Our Tango felt really good, so we were kind of surprised that we didn’t make it to the finals, but that’s okay. Rhythm is where we swept. We made it to the finals in all of the Rhythm dances. We placed sixth in Rhumba and Cha-Cha, and 3rd in Swing. For my first Silver competition and our first competition together, we were incredibly happy with those results. My mom flew up from Georgia and brought my grandmother to see the competition, and they were both excited that they “chose a good competition to see.”  The entire team did really well, too. Brendan and Erin placed 6th in Silver Foxtrot (their signature dance); Grant and Courtney did really well in Newcomer Foxtrot (I believe they either won it or placed 2nd), and Carson and Cecilia did really well in Newcomer Rhythm (they placed in all three dances). One of our newcomer couples who had never danced before actually won the Newcomer Cha-Cha! Our coaches, Gary and Pat, were really impressed with how the entire team danced for the entire day.

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention two dances. Carson (a freshman guy on the team) and I placed 2nd in the Polka. The Polka is a fun dance that we ran because we had so much extra time. Well, our Polka started out as a passo doble (the dance of the bullfight), and because we’re both ballet dancers, we were jumping really high. As we were jumping, Carson said, “Get on the floor.” He ended up dragging me halfway across the floor, and then I dragged him across the floor. So, our passo/polka/techno dance won 2nd place. For the rest of the day, people were referring to us as “those polka people.” The other fun dance that we ran was the Texas Two-Step. The point of fun dances is that no one knows them, so you just make it up as you go along. Well, Josh and I started out dancing the Cotton Eyed Joe (you can tell that I’m from Georgia…) and then just made up a bunch of crazy moves that somehow fit into the music. We placed fifth in that one. I think that those two dances are the most dear ribbons to me.

Well, after dancing away Saturday, I now have to spend the rest of the day in the library. The next two weeks are extremely busy, so I’m glad that the competition was this weekend. It’s going to be a long two weeks between exams and papers. Well, at least I have Monday and Thursday ballroom practices to look forward to!

The reason why I haven’t updated in a while is because in addition to a really busy academic week of midterms and the like, the Ballroom team was preparing for the 10th Annual Holy Cross Ballroom Competition, which was held on Saturday, March 14th. So, no, I didn’t have the change to celebrate pi day. But, anyway, last week was so busy with making sure that everything was prepared. On Saturday, it was great to see how all of our hard work paid off. Even though Harvard held their competition on the same day as ours (that is a wound that just shouldn’t be opened), we still had a great turnout of over 130 couples. Everything went really smoothly throughout the day, and we didn’t have any hiccups.

It was also great to see that our hard work at ballroom practice paid off. I moved up a level this semester and I’ve been practicing with my new partner, Josh, quite a bit. The Silver smooth basics are quite different, so it takes a while to adjust. Yesterday, we did really well and we were really happy with our success. In Smooth, we made it to the Quarterfinals of Waltz and Foxtrot, and we made it to the semifinals for Tango. Our Tango felt really good, so we were kind of surprised that we didn’t make it to the finals, but that’s okay. Rhythm is where we swept. We made it to the finals in all of the Rhythm dances. We placed sixth in Rhumba and Cha-Cha, and 3rd in Swing. For my first Silver competition and our first competition together, we were incredibly happy with those results. My mom flew up from Georgia and brought my grandmother to see the competition, and they were both excited that they “chose a good competition to see.”  The entire team did really well, too. Brendan and Erin placed 6th in Silver Foxtrot (their signature dance); Grant and Courtney did really well in Newcomer Foxtrot (I believe they either won it or placed 2nd), and Carson and Cecilia did really well in Newcomer Rhythm (they placed in all three dances). One of our newcomer couples who had never danced before actually won the Newcomer Cha-Cha! Our coaches, Gary and Pat, were really impressed with how the entire team danced for the entire day.

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention two dances. Carson (a freshman guy on the team) and I placed 2nd in the Polka. The Polka is a fun dance that we ran because we had so much extra time. Well, our Polka started out as a passo doble (the dance of the bullfight), and because we’re both ballet dancers, we were jumping really high. As we were jumping, Carson said, “Get on the floor.” He ended up dragging me halfway across the floor, and then I dragged him across the floor. So, our passo/polka/techno dance won 2nd place. For the rest of the day, people were referring to us as “those polka people.” The other fun dance that we ran was the Texas Two-Step. The point of fun dances is that no one knows them, so you just make it up as you go along. Well, Josh and I started out dancing the Cotton Eyed Joe (you can tell that I’m from Georgia…) and then just made up a bunch of crazy moves that somehow fit into the music. We placed fifth in that one. I think that those two dances are the most dear ribbons to me.

Well, after dancing away Saturday, I now have to spend the rest of the day in the library. The next two weeks are extremely busy, so I’m glad that the competition was this weekend. It’s going to be a long two weeks between exams and papers. Well, at least I have Monday and Thursday ballroom practices to look forward to!

Last Sunday, I couldn’t tell if I was in Georgia or if I was back in Worcester. Believe it or not, it actually snowed in Georgia. By “snow,” I mean that 2-3 inches blanketed Atlanta. However, people reacted like it was a blizzard. Very few people were on the roads; those who were driving were probably headed to a grocery store to stock up on milk and bread. AirTran and Delta cancelled a number of flights, and school was cancelled on Monday. My parents and I just laughed at the spectacle. Oddly enough, it was 60 degrees and sunny on Saturday, the day that I left. Welcome to Georgia weather!

I spent my spring break relaxing, test driving cars, and filling out forms. The car that my sister and I used to drive was pretty decrepit, so my parents invested in a used (but practically new) car for us. I had some fun driving around in my new Jeep Liberty! My mom also finally traded in her ’98 Ford Expedition that had over 188,000 miles on it. Can you tell that my family likes to run cars into the ground? Also, all of my Study Abroad files were filed out by various doctors and the like. That’s one less thing to worry about! Oh, yes, as for the relaxing…well, let’s say that I established some new records on the Wii.

Frighteningly enough, I have exactly two months left in the semester. I’m quite torn. I want the next two months to go by quickly because of the amount of work that I have to do (even though I do enjoy my class work, eight straight weeks of work is not exactly ideal!). However, I don’t want the next two months to go by quickly because this is my last semester here until Senior year. Can I just have a week at school with all of my friends and no work? Hah! Dare to dream…