Events At Vandy From the 29th until the 2nd!

Hello All! Xaralambos here, to let you know about some events you might not have known about.


Tongue 'N' Cheek Vanderbilt's premier Improv comedy group is holding its final show of the semester, appropriately entitled "The Big Ass Show," this Friday at 19:30. The show will be held in Sarratt Cinema, and will be free. I know some of us will definitely be going, so come on by early, and grab seats! If Improv comedy isn't your thing, The Original Cast is presenting Memory in Retreat at 20:00. The show explores various memories, and the emotional effect said memories have on every person. If you're in the mood for more after either event, our Mayfield will be watching Legally Blonde as a group movie. Drop by if you're interested!
On Saturday, at 18:00, The wonderful Life Foundation will be presenting the excellent film, It's a Wonderful Life in the War Memorial Auditorium. If you've never seen it before, the event is free, open to the public, and any proceeds made will go to the families of children undergoing cancer treatment. Definitely give it a watch if you've got the time. On Sunday, the 2nd of December, The Blair School of Music will host a Marathon Viola Recital from 16:00 until 18:00, in the Choral Rehearsal Hall. In addition to this, there will also be a recital featuring students within ChiHee Hwang's Studio performing from 17:00 until 19:00, in the Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall. And one last musical thing, Vanderbilt University Concert Choir will be having their annual Holiday Concert in Sarratt Cinema at 16:30 until 17:30. Please come support one of our Mayfield members in this concert!

That's all for tonight! Until next time, have a great weekend!

Hi!

Katie here, with a Turkey Break update!

As you probably know, Thanksgiving was this past Thursday, so I spent the past week at my house in Memphis, TN.

Eating way too much of this

One of the highlights of Thanksgiving Break for me was getting to watch the Commodores win two football games, although I had to watch the second game from my house.

I'm so proud to go to Vandy right now.

Another awesome part of this week was shopping. My mom and I braved the lines at Target Thursday night to participate in the beginning of Black Friday madness. 

That is never happening again.

Other than that, I had a pretty typical, relaxing break. I celebrated my niece's second birthday, spent a lot of time playing with my cousins and my siblings, and watched way too much television. 

Of course, now break is over, and it's time to return to the real world and being an adult.

I believe this is my last blog post this year, since I will be in Spain next semester. So, thanks for reading, and good luck with exams, everybody!

Stuff to do at Vandy from Nov. 15-18

Brought to you by Luke.

Thursday, November 15th

Dancing with the Doors
7:15-9:15pm @ Student Life Center

-- Sponsored by VIDA, Vanderbilt's Latin dance club.

Israeli Folk Dancing
7:30-10pm @ Ben Schulman Center for Jewish Life

-- Also on Thursday, November 22nd.

CPC Pancake Palooza
8-11:59pm @ Commons Patio

-- Tickets are $5. All proceeds benefit VSG Angel Tree.

Blair Symphonic Choir
8-10pm @ Blair School of Music - Ingram Hall

-- Featuring folk hymns with director Tucker Biddlecomb. That's an awesome name, by the way.

Friday, November 16th

"Prison, Cinema, and the Senses: The Social and Psychic Experience of Film Behind Bars" with Alison Griffiths
12-2pm @ Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities Conference Room

-- Sounds wicked.

Men's Basketball: Vanderbilt at Oregon
8pm @ Eugene, Ore.

-- I guess you can cheer for the 'Dores if you're going back home to Eugene for Thanksgiving.

Saturday, November 17th

Vanderbilt Football vs. Tennessee
6pm @ Vanderbilt Stadium

-- Get out there and show some support!

Sunday, November 18th

Mayor's 5K Fun Run
12pm @ Public Square Park

-- Read all about it here.

Vanderbilt Community Chorus
2-4pm @ Blair School of Music - Ingram Hall

-- Featuring works by Blair faculty composers with director David Binns Williams.

Have a happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

A Recap on Disabilities Awareness Week

Hey everyone!

Jacob here! Although I'm sure I could spin the tales of an uneventful weekend into something exciting for you folks, I figured I'd do something pertinent to the project and talk about how our event, the Disabilities Awareness Week, went!

Quite a snazzy poster, isn't it?

The first event, the Disabled for a Day scavenger hunt, unfortunately fell on a cold, and later rainy, day.  However, the participants we managed to wrangle together ventured out bravely into the messy weather with enthusiasm!  Not only did they succeed (for the most part), they learned about the issues that arise when trying to navigate something as big as a college campus with a disability.

The next day saw our project hosting a discussion panel with some of the students with disabilities from the Vandy student body.  Although it was a smaller crowd, we still learned a great deal from the discussion! The students each shared their stories, and answered questions about their experiences on campus.  It was definitely an eye opening event, and everyone who wasn't there missed out on a great time!

The third day saw us giving the mic over to the Next Step program here at Vanderbilt to let them explain what exactly it is that they do. Not only did we get the opportunity to hear from one of the administrators about the specifics of the program, which provides post-secondary education opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities, but we also got to hear from a couple of students about their own experiences within the program! For more information, you go can follow that handy little link up there!

Finally, we capped off the week with our Pie A Professor fundraiser, to raise money for the ChairScholars Foundation.  In total, we managed to raise over $400 thanks to the support of both the student body and the families of the volunteers who came out to join us (and revel in the chance to pie their loved ones in the face).  In spite of the cold and Daylight Savings Time bringing the lights down a bit earlier than we'd wanted, it was a fantastic experience, with near-constant smiles abound.  Some photos of all our shenanigans can be found here at our Facebook page, but I'll leave you with my favorite out of them!

Sam really wanted to be pied. And so she asked a total stranger to do it!

That's all for now!  Thanks for reading this massive wall of text!

Jacob

Need some stress relief? Check out these events!

Lindsey Franklyn here to tell you about some of the awesome events going on campus this week and part of the next! (That'd be November 7-13). For anyone stressing about exams coming up before Thanksgiving break, I suggest going to some of these events as a welcome stress-relief.

First up, there's a Taming of the Shrew going on throughout the week of mid-November at Neely Auditorium. The closest shows are Thursday or Friday for anyone interested in getting their Shakespeare-watching on. Tickets are free for undergraduates!

For more information about the play, check out VU Theatre's Anchor Link page.

Mayfield 2: Defying Gravity is currently in the middle of their Disabilities Awareness Week!

All events are leading up to their Friday fundraiser, Pie-A-Prof, where you can pie your professors in the face. From 3:00-6:00 p.m., on the Commons Lawn, fifteen professors (including Dean Wcislo, Maryclaire Manard, Provost McCarty, and some Tongue N' Cheek members) will be allowing students to pie them in the face!

Proceeds go to Chair Scholars, a great foundation that focuses their interests on providing college scholarships to disabled youth seeking an upper-level education. Tickets are being sold throughout this week, and Mayfield 2 will be accepting 5$ cash at the door.

American Red Cross at Vanderbilt is having a Chili's Give Back Night to Hurricane Sandy. The event's taking place on Thursday, November 8, and it will be lasting from 11:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. 10% of sales will be going to Red Cross, which is helping Hurricane Sandy victims. 

If you're interested in helping Hurricane Sandy victims, but you're stuck in Nashville, this is a great way to help out while taking a study break. 

Come for the BEST weekend of your life! University Catholic (formerly known as Vanderbilt Catholic) will be having its Awakening Retreat this weekend, November 9-November 11.

Think it's too late to sign up? Wrong. Want your life changed forever through a closer personal relationship with God? Sure you do. If you're interested, look for some comments at Univesity Catholic about how Awakening has changed (and touched) a lot of people's lives! I guarantee that you won't regret giving Awakening a chance.

On Friday, November 9, at 10:00 p.m., Mayfield 2: Defying Gravity will be watching Legally Blonde. With Disabilities Awareness Week coming to an end on Friday, everyone is invited to join Mayfield 2 later that evening to relax.

Come out to State of the Word 2012, which is being hosted by Vanderbilt Spoken Word! Tickets are 5$, and the event is taking place at Sarratt Cinema.

State of the World 2012 will be featuring some of the best up-and-coming young Southern poets. If you're interested in self-expression or listening to the voices of many diverse perspectives, this is the perfect event for you!

Two words: Be there.

Last but not least, next week is McGill's birthday week at their TV Lounge! All of these events are open to all undergraduates, regardless of whether or not they have plans to live in McGill. (The chocolate tasting event is definitely incentive to consider McGill, however, as well as the great people living there). 

History of Improv: November 12, 7:00-9:00 p.m. Come join the McGill community, Dr. Amelia Winger-Bearskin, and members of Tongue N' Cheek for an Improv Workshop!

40 Years of McGill History: November 13, 7:00 -9:00 p.m. Dean Mark Bandas, the original McGill Head Resident, will be coming to McGill to discuss the latest forty years of McGill history.  

Chocolate Tasting: November 15, 6:00 p.m. If you love chocolate, this is the event for you. On Thursday, come join Professor Fischer and McGill faculty to taste chocolate. Yearning for some coffee afterwards? At 8:00 p.m., McGill will also be having an Coffee House Open Mic Night. Anyone is free to join the stage.

Whew! That's a lot of events going on this week, as well as part of the next week. Hope some of these events will provide you guys some stress relief!

- Lindsey Franklyn. 

The Weekend I Met Turniphead

Greetings, dear readers! Samantha, here!

This weekend was tame, but enjoyable. On Friday night, our house continued the tradition of a group movie night. We watched Howl’s Moving Castle, a kid’s cartoon endowed with enough character development and beautiful animation to enthrall college students. Every character had their own interesting qualities, but Lindsey and I consider Turniphead to be the best. As you can see in the gif to the left (courtesy of ghiblistudio.tumblr.com), Turniphead wears a bow-tie and a top hat, and has a cheerful bounce to his step. What's not to love?

Katie was absent from our movie watching party because she was at Relay for Life. As a cancer survivor, she gave a speech. We missed her terribly, but knew she was at an important cause! You go, Katie! 

On Saturday, I went on a grocery shopping trip with Katie, Lindsey, and Bobby. That may sound boring, but thankfully, Katie ran me over twice with her scooter on the way, making it plenty dramatic. Don't worry - it was accidental, she only ran over my foot, and it isn't even bruised!

I greatly enjoyed buying a tremendous amount of food (really, who doesn't?) and figure it might be helpful for fellow college readers if I list a few simple, quick, and fairly inexpensive dishes that get me through my week.

1: Wraps. Vandy students, you don't have to rely on Commons, Rand, or Grins for these. Tortillas are pretty cheap, and whatever you want to fill it with - cheese, lunchmeat, tomatoes, avacados, etc - are also useful in many other dishes. Also, if you fold them correctly, wraps are much neater to eat on the way to class than a sandwich. If you never learned how to fold a burrito/wrap, here's a handy photo from www.lanascooking.com.

Also, if you watch carefully, the Rand workers in the Randwich line are pros at this. Learn from the best, dear readers.

2: Eggs! Protein to power through your day, stressed-out college kids. Take the meat and veggies you'd normally put in a wrap, and warm them in the frying pan before putting in your beaten eggs for scrambled eggs. That adds some vitamins to your dish. You can eat the eggs like that, or put them in between two slices of bread. I'm also a huge fan of omelets! They require more effort than scrambling, but this helpful video can make it easy for you!

3: Pasta. I know, I know, you eat squiggly spaghetti with red sauce all the time, and it's terrible for you. All carbs, no vitamins. You can change that. I'm a huge fan of Jamie Oliver's Pasta Carbonara recipe, which includes an egg (yay protien!), peas (or any veggie you like!) and bacon (yay bacon!). Pasta al Limone is a great way to change up your pasta flavor, as well.

While we're in the kitchen mindset, I'd like to share this photo of the blackberry muffins I made today! There were a dozen of them an hour ago, and now there are five. Conclusion: they're delicious.

They were especially tasty with milk, which our Mayfield has no shortage of right now!

Yes, there are currently 7 containers of milk in our fridge.

Turniphead, grocery shopping, and muffins are honestly the most interesting summary of my weekend I can manage! It's been quiet and studious, but pleasant nonetheless. Since I'm a sentimental sort of person, I'll leave you with an encouraging quote from Mary Oliver, "A lifetime isn't long enough for the beauty of this world and the responsibilities of your life...Be good-natured and untidy in your exuberance."