And so the second half begins...

But first, I get to reflect upon my absolutely MARVELOUS Spring Break!!! Oh, yeah, btws, this is Nell! ;D

So you see, I'm in this awesome group called the Vanderbilt University Concert Choir. Cool, you already knew that. But really, if you love to sing or just love listening to singers, come check us out, join us, or just attend our concerts! :D But let's move on. Every spring, we are fortunate enough to go on a tour to random awesome cities. Washington D.C., Orlando, Chicago/St.Louis, and New Orleans. We go sing at churches and high schools to advertise what is the amazing Vanderbilt!

This year, we went to Chicago and St. Louis! See, look at our awesome tour shirt. (The blank spot has all of our names.) It was pretty amazing, honestly. Our Vice President did a magnificent job planning it, and we had plenty of choirites from both places to help us find awesome places and have fun times. One of those awesome places was... oh wait for it, wait for it....

THE ZOOOOOOOOOO!

It was FREE! Guys. I really love zoos. Like. I really really love zoos. And let me tell you, Lincoln Park Zoo was pretty amazing, actually! So I went with 7 other wonderful people who were just as excited to go see the amazing animals. It was a really enormous zoo, but somehow, my legs held up rather well, which was super exciting! Our lovely bus driver took us there, too, which we were really fortunate he did. Yay for awesome people! So, how about I show you some of the awesome animals we saw? Are you ready? It's going to be a lot!

So I'm actually really proud of this picture...  

Have some fearsome ants (aka choirites).

MEERKAAAATS! 

Ok, this aardvark was too cute.

And here, ladies and gentlemen, you may see a prime example
of the primates Homo sapiens in their natural domain.  

This guy kept stretching out his neck. He was great. <3

So, I should've paid more attention...
This animal I have never seen before, and it looks super awesome, so I am sad I do not know its name. 

I introduce you to Mr. Dwarf Caiman.
I will own one one day, that I can promise. 

All righties, so there is the end of THAT onslaught of pictures! That was just a very small portion of what was at the park, actually. We were quite fortunate in the weather, in that it was a bright shiny day in Chicago, and that a lot of the exhibits were actually indoors. It was amazing! Something even more amazing and a "what the heck" moment? I ran into some friends there! They were on ASB (Alternative Spring Break; it's a great program that you should check out if you like to volunteer), and they just happened to be at the zoo during their short break at the exact time we were there.
... What.
So yes! I saw some awesome band folk, and it was super exciting to see them.

We had a random snowball fights as well, and I got to hug an awesome little hippo statue, because hippos are awesome. Basically, the day was full of win, as you can see below in our final group photo.

But anyways! Enough with the zoo. The rest of tour was amazing as well. One of the schools was cancelled due to snow, so one set of choirite parents invited us to their home and feed us as they had planned, and then we sang for their family! Their dog barked at the beginning of the Alma Mater, but let's be honest, it was really loud. I dunno, it just would be really cool to have a university choir singing in your home, don't you think?

VUCC in the Basilica

One more highlight from this trip, though (since I overloaded on the zoo). Our choir sang at the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis. .... Wow. Just. Wow. That was phenomenal. I wish I could share a video here, because the reverb lasted for 7 seconds. Meaning it echoed for 7 seconds. That's a long time. All the pictures inside are mosaics; no paintings at all! Furthermore, 95% of these mosaics were completed by a father-son duo over 76 years. Isn't that crazy? Basically, it was a very powerful concert. In fact, our tour guide complimented us grandly in stating we were one of the best groups she had heard sing in the Basilica!

As per usual, the end of tour became rather emotional as we held banquet, where all the highs and lows (sharps and flats, haha, get it?), funny quotes, sweethearts, and Secret Buddies (like Secret Santa, but over an entire week) were announced. Then on Thursday, we left St. Louis for Nashville, were my Tata came to pick me up to go home. The rest of my week was relaxing at home, and it was exactly what I needed.

Now, here's to a good second half of the semester, for all of us!
Nell signing off.

Family Weekend's Here!

Hello there, lovely people of Vanderbilt and the world! You get another lovely upcoming weekend update from Nell, here! :)

I'm going to start the weekend a bit early, because I have something super important going on this Thursday evening. I am on the Holocaust Lecture Series Committee, and we have one of our events tomorrow night! Dr. Sheri Rosenberg will have a lecture at Flynn Auditorium at Vanderbilt Law School regarding the Responsibility to Protect project (R2P). She will discuss human rights and international laws around the world and this project's goals. She will be speaking from 7:00 to 9:30 pm, and we will have refreshments afterwards, such as cookies, brownies, seriously good stuff, yum!! I would love to see a lot of support from you lovely people tomorrow night.

Friday night, we will be showing a movie in our Mayfield, as always! I believe we determined that we'll be starting at 10 pm, and Linda has picked out Billy Elliot for this week! So if you have the chance, please stop by and join us!

Not only that, but please remember that Friday will be World Arthritis Day. Please remember that many people suffer from arthritis, and they deserve all the funding possible to live pain-free lives. One of my friends suffers with this, and she fights through pain every day, so please wear blue in honor of her and anyone else you may or may not know!

More importantly, however, this weekend will be full of family's visiting their students for Family Weekend! Vanderbilt will be sponsoring lots of fun events, such as Athenian Sing, a campus-wide talent show that will be at Langford Auditorium! It begins at 7:30 pm and ends at 8:45, and the tickets cost $8, but many campus organizations will be taking part. And of course, no Family Weekend is complete without a football game. This Saturday, Vanderbilt will be facing the Florida Gators at 5 pm! You'll definitely want to be there for the excitement in the atmosphere! I'll be there with the Spirit of Gold Marching Band, obviously. So get pumped! We'll be performing our annual patriotic show!

Finally, I will be singing Sunday morning at the 9:30 am Episcopal Service at Benton Chapel with the Vanderbilt University Concert Choir as well. So if you're up for some worship and beautiful songs in the morning, I hope to see you there too!

Honestly, there will be a ton going on this weekend, and you shouldn't miss out on it! Enjoy the rest of your week and weekend! :)

What Week is It?

GAME WEEK!

Hi! It's Nell! I'll explain Game Week in a second. :) For now, I'll let you know what Mayfield 2 will be doing on Friday night! As my fellow housemate mentioned Sunday, this Sunday, Luke will be playing with the orchestra at Blair in Ingram Hall. The concert will start at 8 pm! We've gone to a lot of these concerts, and they are always a treat.

Afterwards, we will be returning to our Mayfield to watch a movie together. There will be popcorn for anyone who wants to join in. The movie we are watching is a Polish Christmas movie called Listy do M. (Letters to S.) that came out last year. Yes, that was my pick. :) There will be subtitles, no worries! So please stop by our safe haven if you want something fun to do. It'll probably start around 10 or 10:30 pm, depending on the time the concert ends (estimated around 10).

GAME WEEK! Being the manager of the Spirit of Gold Marching Band, a lot of my time during the week is dedicated to sitting in the band office and helping out behind the scenes. It's been getting busy, but this week is an important one, because there is a football game on Saturday at Vandy! This week, we will be playing against Presbyterian College at 11:30 AM! (Morning games are nice.) If you feel like tailgating by the stadium, and if you want to see the team going into the stadium, the parade at Star Walk begins at 10:00 AM. No matter when you start your Game Day, you should go to the game and stay to watch the halftime shown! :D What are we performing? Well, you can come and see!

Those are the things I know for sure I'll be going to. I wish I could go to the movie that the Russian Film Series will be showing in Buttrick 102. It is called The Diamond Arm. It will be in Russian, so this weekend is perfect if you love international movies, so it seems! It's a comedy, and they'll be starting the movie at 7 pm! I'd go if I could.

One other thing! Shakespeare in the Park is still going on this weekend! It's Much Ado About Nothing, and it starts at 7:30 pm, but there is some pre-show stuff going on at 6:30 pm. I might go this Saturday, and you should go if you haven't had the chance yet! It's still in Centennial Park, so why not give it a whirl?

Also, all of these events are free! Well, the football game is free for students, at least. I hope to see you there, or in our Mayfield! Nell logging out.

EDIT: There also seems to be a Tongue 'n' Cheek show going on tonight! What's Tongue 'n' Cheek? Well, they are our lovely comedic improv troupe on campus, and yes, they are wonderful! The show is free, at 7:30 pm tonight (Friday, 14 September). And as always, they are indeed performing at Sarratt Cinema!

Therefore, lots and lots of choices! Good luck!