Thursday, May 28, 2009

The End of Junior Year

So as I said in my last post, I'm now going to say how junior year wrapped up. The Easter celebrations were wonderful - we had our new chapel of course, and the choir sounded so good in it. We sang for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil, all of which were very beautiful services. After the Easter Vigil we had our traditional 3 a.m. "brunch" at which was served a vast quantity of many different delicious foods. The Hallelujiah chorus was played over the sound system during the meal, and everyone sang along, which was glorious. Then we danced the rest of the night, and it was so much fun! Anthony left at 5 a.m. that morning to go to D.C. for a short visit with his brother's family, so I spent the next two days doing homework and such things.

On April 15 we got the terrible news that the college's president, Dr. Thomas Dillon, had died in a car accident in Ireland while there for an academic conference. We had a Mass for him and his family that day, and the next week was his funeral and burial. It was all very sad, and we definitely miss him around the college - he was always around talking to people and being cheerful; he even played basketball and other sports with the students when he had the time to. So now the Board of Governors have picked out an interim president and are in the process of selecting a new permanent president. Luckily, the college's guidelines state that the president must be chosen from among the Roman Catholic teaching faculty of the school, so he will be someone that we already all know and that will uphold what TAC is all about.

As a result of Dr. Dillon's death, our Easter break was extended 4 more days so that the faculty had time to sort out a bunch of stuff and get itself back on its feet again. Anthony arrived back at school when Easter break should have ended, so we decided that in the extra time off we would go to Magic Mountain, as he had a 2 for the price of 1 coupon. So we went, and it was a lot of fun! The rollercoasters were so amazing, especially Goliath. I sat in the very front seat, and wow. It was crazy. :) We were gone pretty much all day, but it was a very enjoyable time.

The next big event was the Spring Dance, put on by the freshmen. They had a cruise ship theme, so the commons was decorated as if you were on the deck of a steam ship, with murals of the sun setting over the ocean and the city skyline on the walls, and red and white flags and Christmas lights hanging from the rafters. It was really quite clever. I think they did a good job. While on the theme of dances, the Chez Martin was the weekend after the Spring Dance. This is a sort of farewell dance that the senior class puts on every year shortly before graduation. I didn't really stay for any of the actual dancing, but the entertainment and the food were great! (Though nothing can quite compare to the Chez Martin that last year's seniors put on.) The very next day was the junior-senior dinner and dance. This is an event that the junior class hosts for the seniors, as our goodbye to them. We had the dinner down on the lawn by the hacienda (the president's house), and there were steaks, asparagus, mashed potatoes, and chocolate tiramisu. It was really good. The dance was held up on the plaza between the faculty building and the chapel. The big fountain that's there and all the bushes were decorated with Christmas lights, and we also had floodlights so that there was more light. It was a really good dance, and people dedicated songs to each other, and danced and talked and signed senior year books. It was a really fun evening.

Another event that happened that same weekend, on Friday evening, was our choir's musical. This year we put on Gilbert and Sullivan's "Princess Ida". The basic plotline is this: a prince and princess are betrothed to each other at the ages of 2 and 1, respectively, with plans to meet again and get married 20 years later. But when the princess is supposed to show up to meet the prince at that later time, it is revealed that she has scorned the world and all men and has opened a women's university, where no men are allowed, and where all the girls promise "to repudiate the tyrant known as man." So then the prince has to figure out a way to get the princess back. What he ends up doing is taking two of his buddies, and they disguise themselves as women and sneak into the college, where mayhem ensues once it is discovered that they are really men. Finally, the prince's father comes in with an army, and the princess is forced to yield (except by this time she is actually rather willing to yield as the prince is "fair and strong and tall.") It was a lot of fun. I played one of the two girls at the university who fall for the prince's two buddies. After the performance, we all went over to our director's house, had a bonfire and roasted kielbasa and had sandwiches.

Finals week was crazy busy, as is to be expected. I started studying with a group of girls from my section about a week in advance, and even so we were scrambling to get everything done by the time the finals rolled around. But I think I did well on all of them, and hopefully when my report card arrives in the mail, it will confirm my thoughts. :) And then of course on Saturday was commencement. It was so exciting, and yet so sad, to see all of the seniors processing down in their caps and gowns, and getting their diplomas. *sniff* They're all leaving us. I'm going to miss them next year. It's so weird that I'm actually going to be a senior next year. There will be no other classes above us anymore. I remember being a freshman and thinking the seniors must be the smartest people in the world, which of course seems really ludicrous now since I know that I don't really know all that much.

Anthony and I went out for dinner on Friday night, and to the beach on Saturday after commencement, so as to hang out and relax on our last couple of days together before break. It was really nice. We both left pretty early Sunday morning, so we didn't see each other after Saturday night. I miss him, but we write to each other, and I'm visiting him over 4th of July weekend out in Wyoming, so that ought to be fun.

As of right now, I'm home, and looking for a job, which is NOT fun. I've turned in a lot of applications and contacted the guy I worked for a couple of summers ago, but so far no luck. Hopefully I find something soon, because tuition isn't exactly cheap. Anyway, I should go continue all of that lovely job-hunting. So, I hope everyone has a good rest of the week, and a good summer!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home