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| Keeping it peppy in the trumpet section even as Utah celebrates. |
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| Be prepared, kids! |
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| World of public relations here I come! |
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| Free t-shirts + pizza + dessert = a college event for freshman |
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| Kaisa modeling the "58s" on either knee after soccer tryouts. |
This blog began when I got the opportunity to live in Aachen, Germany, which happens to be 5000 miles away from my home state of Oregon. Although I am back in the US, I'm continuing the blog to keep friends and family all over the world updated on my life in America.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
The Band Always Wins
You may have caught it on ESPN, but the Ducks got demolished last Saturday in football by the Utah Utes. It was pretty demoralizing, especially when there was a mass exodus from Autzen Stadium during the third quarter. They even started playing football in the student section of the stands because the actual game was too painful to watch. Afterwards, however, I learned something pretty great: the band always wins.
A few of my marching band buddies and I went to the grocery store on campus right after the game in order to use up a bunch of leftover meal points we had that wouldn't rollover by buying snackies and other good dorm food (chocolate). Since it was an unusual week where meal points didn't rollover, the store looked like something out of an apocalypse movie. There was a line thirty people long wrapped around the store and students had their arms overflowing with granola bars and juice and cereal.
The best part about hanging out in uniform on campus for a bit after the game were all the high fives and "great jobs" from our classmates. I felt appreciated for the work we do. It was also fun getting to go behind the scenes in the Matthew Knight Arena, UO's huge basketball stadium, before our performance at Freshman Convocation, which is an event officially welcoming all freshman into their time at the university.
My first class was Journalism 201: Society and Media Monday morning at 8:30am. One of the first things our professor instructed us (all 120 or so of us in the lecture) to do was follow her on Twitter. Of course there is much more to the journalism and communications field than Twitter, but as soon as she started talking I knew it was the right place for me. Some of our assignments in the weeks to come involve listening to NPR, interviewing people, and using designated hashtags. I guess I've been studying all my life for this course!
After J201 I had my math class, which is in the oldest building on campus. It was built in the 1870s in time for UO's founding in 1876. It's an interesting contrast to the other, very modern, very sleek, new buildings I spend most of my time in, including the one I had my third class in yesterday-- Marching Band in Autzen. After band, there was an event for the College Scholars Program at the UO, which I'm in. We learned about the special classes we get to take and additional scholarships available for us. In classic college fashion, there was lots of free pizza. It's actually ridiculous how much pizza there's been for freshman these first few days. No wonder the freshman fifteen are a thing...
Speaking of staying fit, my roommate Kaisa is not only a super roomie, but also a super athlete. Last night were women's soccer tryouts, and it was a testament to how athletic and also how huge the UO student body is. Instead of names, each player was assigned a number that was then written on her legs in order to make the tryout run smoothly with all the women who'd shown up. The UO is a big school, but there are so many neat opportunities here. It's only the beginning of my third week here and I'm already excited about the potential I see at my new home. I could get to go to a bowl game or intern at Nike or become friends with future novelists and groundbreaking researchers or a million other things that I don't even know are possible yet. But for now, it's time to study!