Friday, December 28, 2012

More Pictures!

Finally, I'm home! (Well, I've been home for quite a few days now, but I haven't had time to write until now.) It is so wonderful to be able to just relax and spend time with my friends and family and do those little projects that I have been meaning to do for weeks.

Christmas was so wonderful! Now that I don't get to see my family as often, time spent with them is very special. Overall, I had an awesome (but busy) Christmas. I'm sad it is over, especially because my first day home was the 21st. I felt like I didn't get to experience Christmas this year for as long as normal. However, now that we are done with cleaning and cooking and shopping and present wrapping and celebrating (as fun as all that was) I have much more time to relax. The 26th was the first time that I can remember not having anything at all that I had to do. It was wonderful. In a month I will probably be ready to go back to class, but for now I am very grateful that I have so much time off!

Anyway, the main point of this post was to let you all know that I updated my pictures page. You can find the link to it on the top of this page. I added lots of new pictures, so even if you have seen it before you should definitely check it out again. And if you have any questions about any of them feel free to ask! I  always think pictures are one of the best ways to understand a place (besides going there in person) so hopefully you guys enjoy the little glimpse of Wellesley and of Boston.

Have a great break if you happen to be a student like me, and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

It's Beginning to Sound a Lot Like Christmas

No more finals! Hurray! It is one of the best feelings in the world to know that I will have absolutely no homework for the next 5 weeks! (Although I will feel even better once I actually know what my final grades are...)

As usual, I've been wanting to write for a long time, I just have not had time. For the last few weeks my more responsible half has been telling me that I should be studying and writing papers instead of blogging. So, that's what I've been doing! (Well, mostly.)

Anyway, I have a great story from this weekend that I wanted to share with you guys. I'm pretty sure I mentioned in another post that I'm in the Guild of Carillonneurs here on campus, which basically means that I take lessons on how to play the carillon. (And by the way, if you don't know what a carillon is, now would be a great time to look it up! Otherwise this blog post will be rather difficult to understand.)

Well, in the Guild of Carillonneurs we also get to take field trips, and this Saturday I was able to go on my very first one. We went to this town called Norwood, where they have a bell tower in their town hall. We played a Christmas concert there (hence the title of this blog post).

They had fewer regulations at their carillon, so were actually able to go up where the bells are and look at them. While it was somewhat terrifying because we were at the top of a bell tower on a scaffolding with no railings, it was also awesome! I had my camera with me so I took pictures. Isn't it so great that I get to learn how to play this instrument? I believe this carillon has about 50 bells, the largest of which weighs nearly 4 tons. (Ours here at Wellesley is somewhat smaller).





One of the best parts about going to Norwood was that I got to play a real carillon for the first time! I am currently only an apprentice in the Guild, so I can't play the Wellesley carillon yet. (Which makes sense, because it would be really annoying of us to make the entire campus listen to inexperienced carillon playing.) However, apparently the town of Norwood doesn't care that much! I only played two really easy songs, but it was so great to be able to play an actual carillon for once (I've only ever played on practice keyboards). The first song I played was Ding Dong Merrily on High, which I thought was fittingly ironic.

Anyway, that's pretty much the whole story. Not actually all that eventful or interesting, just something unique that I get to do, so I like talking about it!

And just for good measure, here's a couple pictures I took on campus when it snowed a couple weeks ago. These last few days it has looked nothing like this, its been raining almost every time I go outside. Is it strange that I miss Minnesota winters? When it does snow here though, it is beautiful!




I will be home for the next few weeks, so hopefully I will have more time to blog (and maybe even see some of you that are back in Minnesota!)

Oh, and Merry Christmas!