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!