Wherefore Art Thou Romeo

I was lucky enough this afternoon to be able to see my third drama production here at Transy, my second since becoming an actual student. They performed, as you can probably guess by the title of this entry, the Shakespearean classic, "Romeo and Juliet." Between the thine's, thy's, and thou's, I was pleasantly surprised at how very alive the actors were able to make the story, especially given that it was all performed on a barren stage. Also very interesting, the production was student directed, and I must say quite well at that. I'm not typically a Shakespeare fan; and although I don't think that changed, I at least enjoyed the show more than I thought I would and found a little tiny piece of new respect for the most celebrated writer of the English language.

"Romeo and Juliet" actually continues the rather theatrical weekend I've had. Saturday night I had a chance to see Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" performed at the Lexington Opera House. It was an excellent professional production of the ballet, and I'm quite glad I was able to attend. Also at the Opera House, I will be going to see Spamalot during the beginning of the next semester, about which I am even more excited. In general, I really love taking advantage of the Opera House, given that it's only maybe a half mile or mile away from Transy.

Outside from the enjoyment of the arts, I should probably be stressing over the week to come, but I'm actually not all that perturbed by finals, at least not yet. Unlike most people, I don't have a final in my philosophy class or in my foundations of the liberal arts class; therefore I only have one for calculus 2 and physics. They are on Thursday and Friday respectively, so come Wednesday I'm sure I won't feel nearly as at ease as I do right now. However, fortunately my semester has gone relatively well in both of these classes, and the score I need to achieve in order to get an A is perfectly reasonable in both.

I'm actually rather enjoying the pre-finals period of time. Most of the true work of the semester is over, and while serious studying is definitely taking place, I find that I have at least a little more free time than I have grown accustomed to over the course of the semester. I've been making use of this time mainly to hang out with friends and enjoy people's company in a way I would have liked to have been able to do all year long. Between movies, rock band 3, and playing in the snow, I'm rather enjoying this right now.

Christmas!?! Oh...Finals

Time has absolutely flown by here during these last few weeks here at Transy. One thing that I've decided from my freshman year is that Thanksgiving break is a total tease. You get two days off and then realize you have 3 papers, 2 tests, and 2 finals all in the next three weeks before Christmas. With that said, I've finally completed (and hopefully done well with) all of these assignments except for my finals, which will take place this next week in Calculus 2 and Physics. So, aside from everything else, I can finally bunker down and study for the big tests.

The weather has changed rather abruptly to one of brutal cold; and I must say that before my day to day routine involved walking outside to go to class and eat meals, I never quite realized how much I absolutely despise winter. The only semi-redeeming quality about it is that the campus has been blanketed in a lustrous cover of snow for some days now. On Sunday I actually participated in a Quidditch match for charity (trying to collect books for the nearby Carnegie Center) where we played on a pitch of snow. I was fortunate enough to be able to serve in the capacity of snitch for the match, which I must say is one of my favorite things ever. Regardless, the best part of the experience was probably the lot of us frostbitten Harry Potter nerds hiking over to Third Street Stuff, a nearby coffee shop, to thaw over some stimulating conversation.

My other recent experience with the cold came while working on my fraternity's pledge class service project. One of the more admirable and philanthropic of pledge class activities, my fraternity requires that we all complete a service project together to build comradery and aid the community. My group chose to work together with the Catholic Action Center to help them prepare for their annual Christmas event. We worked out of a Lexington Warehouse, sorting, boxing, and packing donated Christmas presents to be given out to families not fortunate enough to be able to afford gifts for their children. Despite the numb fingers and runny nose from the unheated warehouse, the experience was definitely rewarding enough to be worth it.

In general, I'm finding that it's nice to know that I really have made friends, I really do have places to go hang out, people really do care about me, and I really can be quite involved. Basically, it's nice to know that more or less all of my social fears from high school are largely unfounded. My pledge brothers, the quidditch team, and all of my other friends have done a better job that I could have ever anticipated making me feel at home here at Transy. Now I just need to focus and get through the rest of this semester; happy and glad to be here doing so.