Requiem Concert

The Concert Choir and Orchestra have had a busy couple of weeks.  Two weekends ago the Concert Choir joined up with the Cedar Rapids Concert Choral and the Iowa Symphony Orchestra to sing Verdi Requiem.  I heard from my friends the rehearsals were long but in the end, I think everyone had an amazing experience.  To feel peaceful when you're surrounded by music, music from the orchestra, from the voices around you, from the vibrations and echos that ring through the hall, it's a beautiful and must experience feeling. 

Last Saturday they performed Mozart's Requiem with the Orchestra and some special guests.  It was beautiful.  They sang and played to a large audience filled with friends, family, faculty, and other community members.  It was one long continuous piece and of course there were some people who tried to clap between movements (although sometimes I wanted too because the movement was beautiful and I wanted to cheer them on!).  After a hour of being treated to Mozart, the audience rose to its feet and gave the groups a standing ovation.  My choir and orchestra friends were glad to be done with the two requiems and they did a great job!

Together For Japan @ Coe

Coe hosts students from all over the globe and the students in the spotlight right now are the students from Japan.  It's scary to hear all about the earthquake and the tsunami and see all the damage on the TV screens and in the newspaper.  The Japanese students who are at Coe formed a group called Together For Japan @ Coe to raise money for the relief efforts and had a presentation yesterday to share their stories.

Haley and I went and it was very emotional.  Luckily all the Japanese students' families are all right but they shared moments where they weren't sure if all was okay.  They also shared some movies they created with images from the quake and tsunami.  The presentation took place in Kesler Auditorium, in Hickok.  There were a lot of students and faculty who came to show their support.  After the presentation the group was outside the auditorium collecting donations and giving out rubber bracelets with the words "Together For Japan @ Coe" on them.

I enjoyed the presentation and although I was sad at the destruction there were some inspiring moments.  The students kept talking about the spirit of Japan and how everyone was working together to get through this disaster.  A small boy in a grocery store put his candy bar away and elected to give all his money to a man who owned the store.  Or a lady who was offering her bathroom to strangers walking home since transportation is at a standstill in some places.  It's small acts of kindness such as these that gives me a lot of hope for the people in Japan and for the whole world.  If we could be that way all the time, think about what we could do.  

An Adventure Lending Itself to Comparisons

Over Spring Break I had a chance to go to the UW-Madison campus to visit a high school friend.  She had class when I was there and I was fortunate enough to attend a Zoology lecture with 400 students (which is larger than my incoming class at Coe!).  It was interesting experience and allowed me to reflect on the advantages Coe has being a smaller school.

• Small class sizes: This semester my largest class has 17 (I think) kids and my smallest has seven.  I love that because there is a lot of good time with the professor and I also get to know the other students in my class.  
• Walking distance: My friend said the longest she has to walk to a class is fifteen minutes and she always has to pack her backpack in the morning because there is very little time to go back.  At Coe, that's not the case.  I can walk anywhere on campus in five minutes and only have to take class material for several classes when they are in the same building in back to back hours.  But if I needed, I could run back to Murray and pick up what I forgot.  
• No set meal plan: At Coe it's simple, 20, 16, or 11 meals.  At Madison you have your WiscCard which is basically a student ID with money on it.  That card is your life (just like our ID card is our life at Coe, we can't get into an residence halls without it or get food in the PUB or caf) and you use it to buy food at the various cafeteria locations.  At Coe the caf is all you can eat but at the cafeteria's on Madison's campus everything has a price so unlimited food is kind of out of the picture.  
• TAs and two professors: In a bigger school such as Madison, TAs are commonplace.  I don't have anything against TAs but I would prefer to talk to and have my paper and exams graded by the professor who has spent many years learning and discovering more about their area of expertise.  In my friend's Zoology lecture, she told me the professor standing in front of us today wasn't going to be her professor in two weeks and instead a male professor would lead the class until the end of the semester.  I thought this was intriguing because I can't imagine having only Gina (British Literature), Joyce (French), Terry (Fantasy), or Gordon (Honors) for only half a semester.  In a lecture class that big you don't become close to your professor so I guess I can see that having a new one wouldn't totally throw my friend for a loop.  But for me, I like developing a student-teacher interactions with my professors.  I ask them for help when I need it and look to them for advice. 

I had a great day on Madison's campus but it made me appreciate Coe so much more than I already do.  It affirmed my belief that I needed a small college.  Coe is the perfect size for me so I encourage all prospective students to look at both big and small schools to know which one is going to be better for you!

V-Day and Vagina Monologues

What is V-Day?  That's the first question I asked when I heard about it last February when I was visiting Coe.  Well, V-Day is a "global movement to end violence against women and girls" (from the website).  Coe is actively involved in the cause and this week did a variety of events to support the cause.  At the end of the week the Vagina Monologues were performed in the PUB.  Again I bet you're wondering what the Vagina Monologues are.  The Vagina Monologues are a bunch of monologues promoting and celebrating female sexuality.  There are funny ones and sad ones but the girls at Coe who read them did a fantastic job.  They were excited to be reading them and gave the monologues life.  It was $3 to get in with all proceeds going to Waypoint in Cedar Rapids.  This was their third performance and there were a fair amount of people there.  I wish more people would have showed up, the money is going to a great cause and the issue is something that isn't regularly discussed in everyday conversation.  The performance reminded me of my good old forensics (or speech, depending on what state you're from).  I miss reading prose such as the monologues aloud and hope I get opportunities through the next three years to get a forensics fix in.  

Frank Warren At Coe

In 2007, Frank Warren created a website called Post Secret where anyone can send postcards to Frank with their deepest, darkest secrets.  Or funny secrets, he accepts those too.  Every Sunday he posts them and the website has taken off with thousands of people sending him secrets.  Student Senate was able to book him on Saturday night as part of the Marquis Series they host each year.  As a fellow blogger I felt it was important to attend.  It was a full house in Sinclair Auditorium, some of the people in attendance driving four to five hours to see Warren; he's big stuff.  He was an excellent speaker and shared a lot of interesting things with us.  The biggest part of Post Secret to him is helping people who are thinking about committing suicide; he has been personally affected by it and has received multiple postcards from people.  Warren has published five books filled with secrets and much of the proceeds have gone to help with suicide awareness and prevention.  He shared his story, why he started the website, some secrets that were unable to be published in his books for various reasons and also allowed people to share their own secrets.  It was an interesting experience because I really thought about my secrets.  Warren encouraged us to share our secrets because he believes the secrets are keeping us from being ourselves.  He has a point and I spent the rest of the night thinking of random secrets.  Warren also talked about doing something you believe in; he believed strongly in a place to share secrets and look where he is today.  I think the most interesting thing Warren said was that secret means "come closer" in Hebrew.  I thought that was interesting because I think in today's society we feel the need to keep secrets close to us and never let anyone know.  Warren was telling us it's okay to share our secrets because when we do, we know we are not alone.  Just knowing you don't have to carry a burden of secret all alone is a good feeling.  Overall, I thought Warren was a good choice for Marquis Series and I'm glad so many people came out to support him and hear what he had to say!