Vassar Graduation

I became a Vassar College graduate exactly one week ago...and it's still sinking in! Here are some highlights from graduation. It was a beautiful day; rain was predicted but never came. It was warm but there was cloud cover, which was nice for us in our big black robes, and the sun broke through the clouds a few times during the ceremony. It was held on a hill on campus that overlooks a lake, so it was a really beautiful setting.

Lisa Kudrow, Vassar Class of '85, was our commencement speaker. Her speech was really interesting - if you feel like watching it, go here and fast forward to around 78 minutes in.

Meryl Streep (class of '74) is on the Board of Trustees, so she was also in attendance. She's sitting on the far right in this photo, with the blue drape over her shoulders. Click on the photo to make it bigger and check out her awesome heels!

Senior class marching to the hill.

My Italian professors in their academic garb.

Ty, future Vassar student, class of 2031!

Ty's picture even made it onto the Vassar website, since he looked so dashing in his Vassar t-shirt - go to http://commencement.vassar.edu/ and click on picture #27!

The Final Countdown

Today is May 3rd, which means I turn 22 in 10 days, and graduate in 20 days. Commence freakout. Or, commence senioritis. (Or more accurately, a little of both.)

On Wednesday we had spring convocation, the ceremony that marks the end of the academic year, when juniors officially become seniors (and get to ring the bell on top of Main building - see this post from last May) and seniors officially become alumni/e. But of course, that's all symbolic because we haven't even finished classes yet, let alone final papers and exams. We did, nevertheless, get to dress up in our graduation robes and march into the Vassar Chapel, and listen to some people make speeches.

The absolute best part of convocation was the speaker from the Alumni Association of Vassar College, a graduate from the class of 1995 who founded Peanut Butter & Co., a peanut butter company with exotic flavors such as White Chocolate Wonderful and Dark Chocolate Dreams, that even has a sandwich shop in Greenwich Village. The speaker, Lee Zalben, was funny and encouraging, and here's the best part: we all got free peanut butter! They handed out jars of Smooth Operator, Crunch Time, and White Chocolate Wonderful, and there was enough that each senior could take two. So now our house has eight jars of peanut butter, in addition to the jar of Skippy that was already open in the fridge. (Yummy.)

Nothing like a little peanut butter to soften the shock of becoming an alum...

Classes end tomorrow, and I'll be done with everything by May 12th. It's a crazy two weeks ahead (jazz dance performance tonight, tap performance Wednesday night, then final papers galore) but the weather is beautiful and it'll be senior week before I know it, so I'll try to enjoy every moment. All too soon I'll be an alum for real...ahh!!!

Choir Concert Webcast

This is late notice - I meant to post this a few days ago and then forgot - but if you're sitting in front of your computer around 3pm today you should watch the webcast of my choir concert at http://music.vassar.edu/concerts/webcast/index.html. We're performing Handel's Israel and Egypt, a baroque piece about the Passover story. It's really cool, and we're singing with an orchestra too. Catch a bit of it if you can!

Blossoms, Class Ring, and Dante

It's spring at Vassar too! I took these photos last week when the trees were covered in blossoms - unfortunately they've already fallen and green leaves are sprouting where the blossoms used to be.

I also got my Vassar class ring in the mail today!

This is my high school class ring:

...But I don't wear it that often. Sometimes I wear it if I'm wearing something red and it matches (I chose a red stone because red and black were PPAS's school colors) but I love that the Vassar ring is so simple, elegant, and understated. I'm also glad it arrived more than a month before graduation so I can enjoy wearing it facing towards me; once you graduate you turn it to face outward.

Isn't it pretty?

In other news, I finished memorizing the entire Canto III of Dante's Inferno this afternoon! The professor of my Italian seminar on the Inferno gave us the option of memorizing and performing a canto (the equivalent of a chapter in poem form) in Italian in lieu of writing a final paper, which sounds easy, but is actually quite a challenge. The canto I chose is 136 lines long. I still have to perfect it and cement it into my mind, but I have about a month in which to do that. I'm so happy I finally got through it all; when I was halfway through, the end seemed so far away! But I guess that can be said about a lot of things. People tell me that now I'll remember this canto for the rest of my life. I don't know if that's true, but if you want me to recite it the next time you see me, I'd be more than happy to oblige! Or you can request just a line or two if listening to 136 lines of medieval Italian seems a little overwhelming.

And another side note - did anyone watch Glee last night? My housemate and I both did presentations in our art history seminar today, so we didn't watch it last night, but we're watching it tonight and are very excited...

Lisa Kudrow is speaking at graduation

Vassar just announced that Lisa Kudrow (class of '85) is speaking at our graduation in May. I've seen her speak on campus before and really enjoyed it. We're very excited because last year's speaker was...really boring. Although now this will make seats at graduation even harder to snag, if you're one of my blog readers who's planning to come (it's first come, first seated). Luckily, I'll have a reserved seat. ;)

Spring Things

Vassar tradition dictates that after Spring Convocation, rising juniors go up to the bell tower on top of Main Building and ring the bell, officially becoming seniors. Convocation was this past Wednesday, and we waited in line for a long time to climb to the tower and ring the bell. It was very much worth it - the views from the top of the building were gorgeous.

Tradition also calls for rising juniors ringing the bell to write their name somewhere in the bell tower. People have written everywhere, from the back of the door to the tower all the way up to the flagpole next to the bell.

The staircase leading up to the bell tower

Side of the second staircase

View of the academic quad

Main Gate with the Catskills in the distance

Side of Main Building, and the Chapel Lawn

Ringing the bell

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, so I took a few pictures of the lake. I couldn't believe I had never taken these pictures before, after being here for three years!