Black Squirrels

Last night, between dinner and painting bricks for door stops, Stephanie and I decided to take a walk. We hadn't gone very far when we noticed a black squirrel out on the lawn. I don't know how it got to be black... but you certainly don't see black squirrels every day! Well, unless you live at Western. Anyway, back to the anecdote. Stephanie decided that it would be fun to chase it, so we were creeping up on it, and she was taking pics and videos on her camera. We were making all sorts of woopsie-doo comments about the creature, when this guy comes up next to us from behind. He seemed, shall we say, tentatively amused. After a few seconds, he continued on his way, leaving Stephanie and I to pursue the black squirrel and now a grey one, too. Blacky found a wrapper from a peanut Odwalla bar that someone had dropped, and was going to stash it away, as squirrels are wont to do, when the mean grey one stole it away. The grey one proceeded to agressively defend its new source of peanut-flavored crumbs, while the black one tried in vain to get it back. Eventually, the grey one ran up one of the giant maple trees with the wrapper. A few minutes later it dropped the wrapper, and Stephanie and I ran over and tried to snatch it out of the air! What fun... We tried to give it back to the black squirrel, who was still scampering around the area, but it didn't actually want the wrapper at all. It just wanted a friend. In my opinion, the grey squirrels hate the black one, so its only friend options were Stephanie and I. Poor little guy... Next we saw a grey squirrel with a small dark grey squirrel. They were a pretty chummy pair. Anyway, squirrel-watching is actually quite an entertaining fling, if there's plenty of space to do it in. All in all, it was a fun evening of romping around with the squirrels and observing their unique social system. Stephanie has decided to change her major to Zoology, subtitle: squirrels, focusing mostly on the social behavior of the genus. (hahaha!)
The brick painting was fun too. We did a white background; orange/red swirls on one part, and our room # in various shades of blues and purples in a very artsy arrangement on the rest. On the sides we did two-tone strokes of l.blue and white; it's very Donna Dewberry one-stroke painting. *gag* hahaha!

Merry Michaelmas!

WWU

Nash
My new home is 414 Nash Hall. Stephanie Battershell and I have one of the biggest rooms, plus we lofted our beds, and put our desks under them... and we actually have the weird problem of having too much free floor space! We want a couch. :) Today we decorated the closet doors in retro shades of orange and light blue, using Italian print paper to accent. (If I ever find the cord for my camera, then I can get a photo on here for y'all. Some day...) The deco really clashes with the piece of dark reddish carpet on the floor. Yay! Stephanie and I have poor co-ordination issues in common.

Batman
and Robin live on one of the dude floors of Nash Hall. We spotted them the first day. Batman, so named because of his black and yellow Batman shirt, is a geeky guy with plenty of short facial hair and black-rimmed glasses. His pal is about 4 foot, 10, completely bald, and has the same glasses. They both have stocky builds; they make quite a pair. Batman always looks very content, and I think every day is "the best day ever!" to him. When we pass by them on the sidewalk or somewhere, they always seem to be relishing a great conversation, probably about computers or bats.

Japanese
exchange students are all over the campus. Stephanie speaks Japanese, and plans on minoring in it. She's too shy to strike up conversations with them most of the time. It's fun, though, because when we're near a group of Japanese people, Stephanie sits there and makes translatory remarks, like, "They're talking about you."

An Adventure
Last night Stephanie and I went to Fred Meyer's. We took the bus there, without a solid plan for getting back. We bought interesting things like crackers for our room, toothpaste, and (best of all) an end table to put the TV on. The table was on sale- hooray! Then it was time to find a way home. We read the bus booklet a few times, and thought of taking the 16 back. This was the one we had come on. It would be a really circuitous route, but we knew it would get us back. The following moments sounded something like this. "When does the next bus come.... hmmm... 8:25. What time is it?" - "8:25." - "Oh, no!" Forget about taking the 16. After reading the book some more, we called the WTA people and found out that there was a nearby stop for the 11, which would go downtown, then turn into the 16, and come back to campus. We did that, and the cool thing was that it dropped us off right in front of our dorm. Perfect. Then we spent the next hour and a half putting together our new table. If I hadn't had a small flashlight and a cordless electric drill, we could not have put it together. Three cheers for power drills!!! Our TV is enjoying its new home.

Swing Kids
is the name of the swing dance club on campus. They're "the largest non-religious group on campus." Yes! Wednesday nights are swing dance nights, and I am so going to be there tomorrow. There is an hour lesson and an hour dance, and then, so I've heard, people go out and get dinner and the like. Sounds like way too much fun to me! When I found the group's table at the big fair thing yesterday, I even got to dance with some dude who was with them. I think his name was Josh. It was really amusing, and I learned a couple of new steps! "Josh" was really impressed: "You're the fastest learner I've ever danced with." Thanks, Jarsh.

Paul McCartney
is another celebrity from Nash Hall. This kid is basically Paul McCartney, age 18. I'll have to try and get a secret photo of him to show everyone. Today Stephanie and I were walking out of the dorm, when we saw him sitting on one of the lounge couches. We started laughing; I hope he didn't realize that we were laughing because of him. Oops! I wonder what he would say if I told him he looked like Paul?... "Everyone says that." Probably.

Clarinet Audition
This morning I played my audition. I will be placed in either the symphonic band, wind symphony, or orchestra. My preference is chamber music. :) That's what I really want to do, but I don't know if it will happen. I played the beginning of the Brahms 1st Sonata, which I played at my recital. That sounded fine. Then I played my Rudolph Jettel really-hard etude. It sounded kind of terrible, but OK. Then I just had to play a simple sight-reading page. There were about 3 lines, 6/4 time, but 6/8 feel, and it was in D Maj. So, that was a happy conclusion to my audition. Oh, and the clarinet professer, Gene Zoro, is really cute and old and delightful. I'm looking forward to starting lessons with him next week!

Classes
start tomorrow. I am not looking forward to music theory first thing in the morning. But then, I'm definitely not happily anticipating my first keyboarding class on Thursday morning. Oh boy... Speaking of music, though, they have a really neat music library here. I look forward to listening to records by the hour and checking out more Rudolph Jettel studies for the clarinet.

The Newman Center
There is a new Newman Center at WWU. I haven't been there yet, but I was told that it's a few doors down from my dorm. (Nash is right on the edge of campus, by the way.) Perfect! I'll have to get down there on Thursday afternoons for daily Mass. I look forward to getting to know lots of Catholics around here!

I'm going to go eat some dinner now. The food is tolerable, I suppose. I'll try to keep you updated as much as possible! Enjoy!

I'm still alive

Very much so, actually. And so I'll give a very quick update on what I've been up to in the past month (isn't that insane? I just finished my fourth week of classes! And Claire hasn't even started yet...)
I'm in St. Therese Hall, rooming with Sarah Kelly, and definitely behaving myself. Therese is a great dorm, and way louder than last year, apparently. It's still quiet enough that I can get a lot of studying done in there, but we have a good time.
Starting with classes: my section is kind of not so great, we have a tendency to get stuck on things and never resolve anything. And people talk non-stop, and it's almost impossible to get a word in if you have any manners at all! That said, I'm enjoying it, and the reading is all really fun. We had our first all-school seminar last night, where they mix up all the classes and we all read the same thing. So I had a bunch of sophomores (who can't actually spell "Sophmores"), juniors and seniors in my section, and a couple of freshmen who aren't in my normal section. Considering that it was almost entirely different people, we still managed to get stuck, interupt each other and not resolve anything... Hmmm.
Dorm wars started last monday, and came to an abrupt halt on Thursday. Three days is the standing record, I belive, for shortness. They were glorious while they lasted, we got thoroughly wooed by Blessed Serra dorm, with wine, chocolates, flowers, couches, flaming juggling sticks, etc. Unfortunately, dorm wars got called off before we could officially accept them.
Today is the thirty-fifth anniversary gala dinner and such. We're having steak, and I'm excited. Food is always good, especially when it's good food. We're going to "steak" out a table for our group, and then once someone has claimed it, the rest of us will exclaim, "well done, well done!" Thank you to Sarah Susanka and Stephen Sims and myself for those "rare" puns.
I almost broke my nose a week or so ago, trying to go to bed. It was late in the week, and our room was getting messy. And my table lamp was sine a lightbulb, and therefore I had to use the overhead light. So I wandered over to the door to turn off the light, surveyed the path to my bed, and shut off the light. I promptly ran into Sarah's chair which was in the middle of the room, got completely disoriented, fumbled around with my hands, completely missed the supports for the bunk bed with my hands, and instead crashed headlong (nose first) into the support. It was extremely uncomfortable, and I wish someone had been there to see it (although it was pitch black so the wouldn't have been able to see me do it) because as it was it just hurt, and it would have been somewhat amusing had someone been there. I find it amusing now though.
If any of you want to send my pictures of the great Northwest, i woud greatly appreciate it. Or send some rain my way... Has the rain begun yet? It almost rained a couple days ago. It was utterly delightful.
Anyway, i love you all. Feel free to write or email me. Or call me, if you have my number. Here's my school address:
Fiona Bernhoft
c/o Thomas Aquinas College
10000 N. Ojai Road,
Santa Paula CA 93060

fbernhoft@hotmail.com

Love,
Bing

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