My Week in Snapshots

Last week, Alessandro (C), Katie (R), and I (L) went to see a conservatory concert in Finney Chapel with a few of our other friends (not pictured). The program was:

Alberto Ginastera: Pampeana No. 3, Op. 24 (1954) I. Adagio contemplativo II. Impetuosamente III. Largo con poetica esaltazione

Ricardo Lorenz: "Olokun's Awakening" from The Tale of Chacumbele (2014/World Premiere)

Derek Bermel: Slides (2003)

George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (1924/1942)
Sanford Margolis, piano

While I am not in the conservatory, nor particularly musically gifted, I absolutely love music and listening to talented musicians. The show was incredible, and made me realize how special a place Oberlin is. It is very rare that you will be able to go out on a Saturday night and listen to world-class musicians that also happen to be attending the same school as you. Sitting with several musicians also proved to be a very interesting experience, as I learned much more about the pieces that were chosen, and the specific difficulties that came with playing them.

The view of the stage from our seats!

This is me and my roommate, Alessandro. He is from Brazil, and is super awesome. Our room just recently got some decoration, and so is no longer the desolate space that it was before. We live in Harkness, which is one of the co-ops on campus. Living in a co-op is awesome, since you always have access to a beautiful kitchen and there is generally always fresh food (especially bread and granola) around to snack on. And nothing beats Harkness pizza night.

If you are living in a co-op, a few glorious nights a week you will be blessed with the magic that is Tasty Things. On these fantastic nights individuals from your co-op will craft delicious treats, and there will always be something that you can eat, regardless of your dietary restrictions. There is nothing that brightens up my day more than getting back to Harkness after studying in the library and finding warm, delicious, and usually vegan food. As an added bonus, there are usually other co-opers around the food, so you get to hang out with people as well!

This beautiful building is where I work three days a week. I work as an electrician in the theater department, which means that I help hang, focus, strike, and maintain lights that are used in all of the department shows. I did lighting in high school, and am very glad that I have been able to continue working on it here at Oberlin. We just finished the light hang for the first opera of the year, Street Scene, which opens on November 5th.

This lovely picture, taken by a good friend of mine, captures me sleeping on a drive to Crocker Park, a mall about 45 minutes away from Oberlin. While Oberlin does have everything that you will need on a day-to-day basis at Gibson's, Ben Franklin, and Slow Train, it can be nice to leave the Oberlin bubble for a little bit. While I clearly did not take advantage of my opportunity to see more of Ohio on the drive there, I did take advantage of the candy store in the mall, and stocked up for the drive back to Oberlin.

We decided to study outside while the weather is still nice. It's been getting colder and colder, but today was lovely. This is me, Sophie, Theo, and Ellie (left to right). I was working on reading for my first year seminar, Agreeing to Disagree. It's a class on game theory and the evolutionary background of cooperation, which I find very interesting. I also had to do reading for SexCo, which is a course taught through the experimental college. In summary, it's the sex education that you should have gotten in high school — a much more inclusive, open, and honest dialogue about sex and how individuals function in our society. There are a ton of ExCos in a lot of different topics, like the Beatles, Taiko, and blues and swing dancing.