beyond the green

03/19/2011

Hello, Bethel College Community, family, and friends. Greetings from the Concert Choir in the great state of Washington! Yesterday we drove to Wichita, KS and began our tour with an evening program at Lorraine Avenue Church. Several members of the congregation treated us to a wonderful meal and shortly afterward we performed our first concert, which went well, though I think we can perform even better if we’re able to get a little more rest somewhere in the next few days. The last week of midterms was hard for me at least.

The people of Lorraine Avenue and Hope Mennonite church graciously let us stay at their homes afterward, giving us soft beds and lots of food. After an early flight and a slight delay in Denver we arrived in Spokane, where we ate a hearty dinner at a cool local restaurant called the Rusty Moose before rushing off and performing in a cathedral called St. Aloysius on the campus of Gonzaga University.

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This past week has been chock full of musical performances at Bethel College. Most of the Bethel ensembles have performed in one capacity or another, as well as an influx of guest musicians performing along with them.

It started Friday, when during Convocation a Grammy award-winning saxophonist taught us about music theory and the relationships of notes to each other, and how that plays out in a song. Later that night he performed with Bethel’s Jazz Ensemble I, who played along with Jazz II and the smaller Jazz Combo. It was an inspiring show of Jazz.

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It’s about that time again. Midterms. There’s nothing more productive than a student faced with 4 exams in the coming week, not to mention an entire campus! It’s the time when the entire campus realizes, “Oh hey, it’s time to buckle down and study!” Several professors have long papers due this week, and almost everyone I know has at least 2 exams, if not more.

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One of the activities I have enjoyed the most this year is being a writer for The Collegian, the student run newspaper on campus. We meet once a week to either critique a just-released issue or plan for the next issue, or both. The people involved with the newspaper are all really excited about what they do.

For a communications major or minor you can take Journalism Practicum as a class, or you can get paid to be on staff. As a math and science person, I fall into the latter category which is also nice because I get paid to write articles and I usually choose ones I know will be fun to write. It’s like getting paid to have a hobby!

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Who doesn’t love saving lives? Especially when there’s pizza involved. Well, at Bethel one of the ways that we show our appreciation for our fellow man is by showing up to donate blood. It must be hardwired into our Mennonite DNA (don’t worry, if you’re non-Mennonite you too can develop a deep appreciation for volunteering) to do what we can to make the world a better place, and one of those ways is by having a blood drive.

Who doesn’t love having Vietnamese food? Not the International club. They took a trip down to Wichita to eat at a delicious Viet restaurant and experience multiculturalism through their stomachs. It was rightly glorious.

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