In which it all begins...

...or at least this blog does. In this post, I'm going to attempt to summarize the past 3 years or so, for everyone with whom I have not kept in such good contact (that would be most everyone, actually). For die die Deutsch sprechen, werd ich versuchen mal was auf Deutsch zu schreiben, aber es wird meistens auf English sein... sorry.
After graduating from Rudolf Steiner High School in 2005, I moved to Germany for a year, and worked at a Gasthaus through the Friewilliges Soziales Jahr program run by the German government. That meant that the government paid the Gästerhäuser Hohe Rhön, where I worked, to provide me with food, housing and insurance, and a stipend, while I worked. It was an amazing year: I learned a lot (and not just in terms of fluency of the language!), and made some of my closest friendships. It was hard though, both the work and living in that community. I came back a few days before Germany took third place in the WM (sadness), and thus experienced-- and was infected by-- much of the football mania of Germany. :) The picture above is a portion of the team, in front of the house where we lived, on the evening I left. There are more pictures of that year here.
In the fall of 2006, I started at the University of Chicago, which was a whole new flavor of hard work. I love it though, and it gets better and better (and my grades get worse) as I finish the Core requirements and focus on things which actually interest me, and more challenging classes. The UofC is on a quarter system, which means that we end in the middle of June, but we don't have to start until the end of September. Also, we get to take a lot more classes, which I love. My favorite two classes have probably been "The Young Shakespeare, " about the early plays, and the works that influenced them, with the world-famous David Bevington; and "Tolkien Medieval and Modern," with the equally talented Rachel Fulton.
I do a lot outside classes as well. I am active at Brent House, the Episcopal Campus ministry at UofC, and this past year, I was a peer minister. This meant that I helped Stacy, the chaplain, organize events, and so on. I was primarily in charge of music: I picked hymns for each week, and put together a small choir, which sang at the Tenebrae service I organized, and then at Evensong during Bishop Lee's visitation. Oh, that reminds me: Fall quarter this past year, I also got to go to the Diocesan convention for Chicago, as part of the first campus ministry delegation. I enjoyed it, and gave a short speech about campus ministries to the convention (talk about scary... way to many people in one room...). At that convention, we elected Bishop Jeff Lee, who I like quite a lot.
First year, I was a member of the circus, doing whip stunts, sword and firesword fighting and face painting. here and here are some circus photos. Here are some more photos from first year, of Fall quarter, break, Winter quarter, and again, Spring quarter, and again, and again. If you want any of the stories behind the pictures, please ask! I just don't want this post to be any longer than it already will be.
Let's see, what else do I do with my non-existent free time? Orchestra, of course! I play in the Chamber Orchestra, which, while it matches my practicing levels, doesn't measure up to other orchestras I've played in, alas. I think that's it for extra curriculars First year...
That summer, I went back to Europe, to visit friends, mostly in Germany: Peggy in Bonn, Heike in Passau, Maria in Salzburg, John in London, Rachel in Regensburg, and the Team reunion in Frankfurt, Hannah in Schweinfurt, Tabea in Hirschaid, and Schini and Thea's wedding back at GHR. Here's the rest of the summer, and the Michigan Renaissance Festival, where I worked for money, after years of working for free. On that subject, here are some more swordfighting pictures, from the summer of 2006.
This year, I was less trigger happy, and busier. I started taking ballet classes, but that really only lasted a quarter, as the school was on semesters, and the breaks didn't match up at all, so I kept getting behind. I also wasn't doing as much with circus, but I was doing a lot more with Brent House (as previously described), I was still in orchestra and I started working with University Theater. Fall quarter I worked with a professional costume designer on a production of Top Girls, Winter quarter I designed (by myself), the costumes for Loot. Spring quarter, I choreographed and trained the fights for Richard III, sometimes physically restraining the director, who was a little too keen on violence. (no, Griffin, you can't actually cut your actor's ear off. no.). I also did some safety training (and minor choreography) for Batboy: The Musical, which was a much better show than I expected.
Here are pictures of Halloween, winter break, and winter quarter.
Now, that isn't quite everything I wanted to put in this post, but I have to be done. so, TO BE CONTINUED!