What do you think about when you hear that BW is a Methodist college? Is it a good or a bad thing? I know at first I was a little wary due to the fact that, personally, I am not a religious person. However, the Methodist association is not really that important to regular campus life. There are certainly a good deal of people with that religious affiliation, but there are also many other religions active on campus, as shown by the large number of students who attended Mass on campus for Ash Wednesday. There are Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Wiccan, etc. on campus and quite a group who are athiest or “spiritual.” It is a very nice mix and I don’t think I’ve ever encountered anyone on BW’s campus who has tried to convert anyone else to their religion (such as the Church people who gave a group of BW students walking around Washington DC (when I went with the Model UN trip) free water bottles as long as they would answer “Who is Christ to you?” and then proceeded to argue about our answers). While I am definitely not an expert on religion on other campuses, but for being a Methodist college, BW is very open to anyone with any beliefs and all fit in.

Today the weather was rather silly. When I woke up to go to the gym it was almost sixty degrees (!!!!!) and misty. I made a mental note that I would definitely only need a sweatshirt for later. So, at 10:21 I threw on my thick black hoody and my (mesh) Puma sneakers. BUT at 10:23, after I’d made it out the door and towards French class, it began to downpour. Perfect. Wet. I was very wet by the time I made it all the way to Kamm. For the following hour and fifteen minutes I smelled like a wet, grungy dog who had escaped the tub mid-bath. Post lunch etc I made it back to my dorm through more rain and even more puddles.

By the time 2:00 rolled around I was completely ready to face torrential rainstorms, even lightning and thunder. Well, maybe not, but close enough. Yet, when class was let out an hour later, Ohio weather did not fail to surprise. It was SNOWING! Unfortunately I was gloveless and my poorly circulated body was not prepared to rush blood to my little hands. Oh dear.

Thankfully it is Friday and all of this is rather amusing.
So if you are coming to dear old Baldwin-Wallace next year, be sure to bring all manner of weather-countering paraphernalia. I.E. an umbrella, rubber rain boots, furry snow boots with very grippy treads, GLOVES, an assortment of hats for all types of precipitation, many hooded articles of clothing, leg warmers and those hand warmer things etc etc….maybe even a shovel.

It isn’t always easy
to focus on
how to say “merci” with the
correct amount of throatiness,
or cultural universals or
logarithms or poetic
devices or world wars or
compelling introductory statements or
the legal system or, well
anything,
when in only one week
you will be eighteen hours
away from here
with the now cloud-hidden
sun embracing your shoulders
and soft shifting sand beneath
your tired tired feet. When,
once these next five days are past
you won’t be thinking about
books or schedules or how slow
this class is going, how insanely
antsy you are during
a three o’clock math class
on a friday afternoon.
When, ah!, you’ll
be on spring break!!!

I know every college likes to hype up the type of people it has on campus, whether that be students or professors, but I had an experience today that I just thought to prime an example of BW to pass up. I was carrying a huge container of lemonade out of the Union around lunchtime today, to take it to the Spanish Club’s Language Panel in Kamm, when I heard a girl behind me ask if I needed help. The distance between the Union and Kamm is pretty far when you are carrying a large thing of liquid, so I turned around gratefully and accepted her offer. I figured she’d probably carry it as far as the dorms, Constitution and Heritage, since she had a to-go box with food in it and obviously would want to eat soon. However, she surprised me by holding the other handle all the way up to the second floor of Kamm. I didn’t even know who this girl was, she had no idea what the lemonade was for, but she still took time out of her day to help me out.

I’ve heard the term hump day used a number of times, but it wasn’t until today that I figured out that it means Wednesday, and that it means you’ve gotten halfway through the week and the rest is downhill. I guess I see how that can be the case, but this week for sure has been getting tougher as it goes along. Monday I studied my rear off for a ginormous language test (and we’ll see how that turns out), and now I have to read a 400 page book I hadn’t started by Friday–I thought I had an extra week to read it. Oops. The good news is, the book that was originally due tomorrow has been moved back to Tuesday next week. So I’ve hit a busy little pocket. Also, before I know it, I’ll be doing some community work for my one education class at an Alzheimer’s Center. More on that later, to be sure. On another note, this past weekend meant OAC’s for a few sport teams, and on Friday a few friends and I made a trip to Akron to see another friend diving (who made it to the finals) and stayed there a few hours. That was exciting, and I even got to see an old friend I went to high school with who goes to the University of Akron. I didn’t go to the wrestling OAC, but a few people I know did, and it turns out that my friend here made it to nationals. So, a big ol’ congratulations to Andrew Scavuzzo for making it to Nationals for wrestling at the 174 weight class. It’s a hike, but a few others and I are considering driving to Iowa to see… But until then, I have a lot of reading to do, and my break from that is over.

Hey y’all
Sorry I’ve been missing the past like week and a half, this has been seriously crazy here. My roommates dad just got rushed to the hospital so I’m kind of dealing with that, on top of school work and volleyball. I think I’m well over due for an update.
School is going well. I have actually A LOT of work to do this week. I have a five page paper in english due thursday, a three page paper in business due tomorrow, and a Human Biology test on Friday. So the rest of this week shall be extremely busy. Two weekends ago was valentines day and the guy on my volleyball team decided to throw a “We dont have Valentine’s” party. It was a huge success.

Volleyball could be better. Right now I feel like our team has officially hit rock bottom. This past weekend we were at Indiana University for a tournament which lets just say did not turn out as planned. We went two and four which is not good for us. I hope we can pull ourselves together; I know we are a much better team than that.
Well those are the big events, but I’l be sure to keep you up dated because this weekend are my friends Caroline and Josh’s birthdays, so pictures are soon to come. I just have to survive this week first!
Until next time-

Jehu

On the lovely B-W Campus, a good chunk of the student body is going around with some “bug”. I’ve been lucky for the past few weeks and just have the usual run of the mill cold/cough. However, waking up today…. It was horrible.

I’m a person who doesn’t enjoy being sick. When you’re sick, you miss school work, in class time, and well people. So, I still got up and went to my 8:00am stats class. I didn’t feel too amazing in that class so I paid a visit to the “Health Center”

As the name implies, The Health Center is B-W’s lil “you’re not feeling good, but you’re not that bad you need to go to the Emergency Room” type of deal.

The Health center has… Check this out…

Free Nurses, Free Counseling, Free Information for those hypochondriacs out there, and ultimately, someone with medical knowledge to make you feel better.

So I stopped in, did 2 mins of paper work, and go to see a nurse. The Nurse that saw me was Joanne, she was the Grandmotherly type (I was waiting for her to give me cookie, but alas no…)
She did the usual doctor gig.

How are you feeling?
What’s your symptoms
Allergies?
Still have your appendix, etc.

Anyways she told me to intake fluids, eat light foods and rest. I got a goodie bag filled with saltine crackers, some info, and some extra strength tylenol. All for about $8.

So I got back and rested, and now I feel fine. Yay!!!!

Anyways, here’s a link to the Health center.
http://www.bw.edu/resources/health/

-David

I just got back from this little, glorious B-W event, called “Dance Concert”. As the name implies, it is a concert of Dance.

Dance concert is student choreographed, student danced, and student everything else… Minus parts where faculty needs to step in.

The Dance concert is a showcase of several types of dance. There was hip-hop, jazz, swing, ballet, lyrical, modern, and the neatest was eastern (India-styled) dance.

I had several friends who took part in Dance concert and they were fabulous. Dance concert is just one of several “events’ in the fine arts area that B-W puts on.

There is an advantage to being a B-W student when it comes to these events and shows…. IT”S FREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

So far, I have seen 3 plays, 1 concert, and this dance concert… All for free. All of these shows were amazing.

It is these events that really displays the talents of B-W students. Here’s a fun fact, did you know that B-W was one of the two colleges chosen for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera…

It’s incredible the talent that is here at B-W and I’m ecstatic to be part of the excitement.

Congrats to all who worked really hard for dance concert.

Shoutout to JKlol, Bales, Luke, and DJ…

< <333 <333
Yay B-W!!!!

Parts of the Dance Crew

Tonight there is a Home Track Meet. My cousin is a pole vaulter so I try to go see him vault when his meets are at BW. The last time that we attended, we enjoyed ourselves for the most part. Excluding the yellow haze that seemed to cling to every surface of the rec center. Not only did Nathanael vault quite well but the shot put athletes provided an incredible amount of entertainment. We noticed that each person used a completely different technique, whether it was swirling around numerous times before throwing the shot put or tucking fist and ball behind neck in preparation. BW’s participants in the event seemed less energetic than their opponents that night. I could imagine that Friday night meets would be tiring. Ah, well. Good luck tonight trackies!

Rachel and Roberta and I are in the practice room at the Con. As we walked up the hall lined with practice rooms, we could hear shrieking sopranos and frantic fiddles. Music majors were hard at work. We seemed to be the only ones taking over a practice room for the sake of sheer amusement. In between Rachel’s soothing sonatas, I was sure I heard the voluminous vibrato of the female lead in last weekend’s opera. I am fascinated by voice and vocal chords. Mostly because I do not have the ability to use mine properly or in a way that could ever be pleasing to hear. But also because I never really thought much about people who are really dedicated to “voice”/singing…and doing it well.

Sitting here in the corner of the cozy, unfurnished practice room, I wish that I were a music major. That I could slip into the corners of the conservatory and practice and practice hours and hours music. But I am not. And am unsure that my violin skills would allow my entrance into any sort of definite program.

I am an English major.

They should make practice rooms for English majors.