Holy Cross - a first wrap-up of sorts

Things I will not miss:

That, hard as it may be to distinguish, is a rather large turkey roosting in a tree outside our balcony. Today it woke up before 5am, with some urgent news that had to be announced to the entire surrounding area... Considering that we saw about ten of them at one time, I suppose things could be worse.

That being said, there are many more things that I will miss:

Both the chapel and the barely-visible hawks atop the cross have provided a sense of beauty and awe over the years. Then, there is my classmates' sense of humor. Next year's SGA president has (by coincidence) a parking spot that is only two spots away from the parking spot of the university president. Which, of course, brought about the following idea:

But in the end, we do come back to nature


The picture above was taken from our balcony. On Sunday, as we were leaving for church, Magda stopped me and said "You need to go back." Four deer were grazing, not twenty meters from the road. They looked at us, as if to say "Could we have our breakfast?" and continued their leisurely Sunday morning.

Red Sox and Graduation

It really wouldn't be right for me to leave Boston without mentioning the Red Sox. In a very unlikely turn of events, Magda and I went to last night's game against the Tigers. I guess if you're only going to see one game, Daisuke Matsuzaka's first complete game is a pretty good one. And overall it was a pretty good game, with things staying close until the eighth. I couldn't quite figure out why the Tigers brought back Robertson for the fifth - he'd gotten hit hard in the fourth and it continued in the fifth, even though he only gave up one run in each. All in all, it was a pretty fun evening.

In unrelated news, I got sent to the principal's office. Well, not quite - I got called to the dean's office to be told that I will be this year's Holy Cross valedictorian. That means one more chance for me to get in trouble before leaving campus (the graduation speech). :)

Concert

Last night the "Deacon's Singers" had the last concert of which Magda and I will be a part. It was a joint performance with the campus Greek dance troupe - another student-led group that has enriched life here on campus. The joint program:

Christ is Risen (Slavonic, Latin, Romanian)
You Are the New Day (John David)
Alma Redemptoris Mater (Tomas Luis de Victoria)
If Ye Love Me (Thomas Tallis)
Paschal Exapostilarion (Bulgarian melody)

Omorfoula
Leventikos
Zaramo
Macedonian Syrtos

Intermission

Zeibekiko
Pentozali
Thracian Karsylamas
Dodecanese Syrtos

Et La La La (Ninot le Petit)
Die Nachtigall (Felix Mendelssohn)
Sweet Adeline (Harry Armstrong)
The Long Day Closes (Arthur Sullivan)
Christ is Risen (English, Greek, English)

A few thoughts, now that our time here is over. It takes a lot of effort to organize a choir - especially a small one, at a school where everyone's schedule is overloaded - but it can be done :). We've done a few challenging pieces of music over the three semester and if we had more time than the one hour we had for rehearsal each week, we could have done a lot more: the ability was there. Finally, this past semester, out of need, I took over conducting duties and it was a steep learning curve. However, it was also a great opportunity to learn to listen, count, and sing at the same time and to start thinking (towards the end of the semester) of how I would like to approach each piece. Towards the end I had actually gotten to the point where I could enjoy conducting, rather than hanging on for dear life...

And that brings to a close another interesting chapter. To be continued :)

Are you being served?

Ever since about 11:30 today I've been telling people that I feel like Mr. Humphreys.

Cpt. Peacock: Mr. Humphreys, are you free?
Mr. Humphreys (in a high pitched voice): I'm free.

I've taken my last exam (I'm free :) and while (at Fr. Nick's request) I will not say for ever, for right now four degrees certainly seems like more than enough.