Amount of Activities, Overwhelming!

Okay, so those who know me won't be surprised--I'm getting myself into too much stuff.

Yesterday I had an audition for the Technichords; WPI's no fella a Capella group. They were all extremely kind and welcoming, and I had a wonderful time despite my anxiety about auditioning. The song went pretty well, and even though they were nice it was a little disconcerting to have roughly ten people listening to you sing and taking notes about things. Also, the wind ensemble was rehearsing in the room just down the hall, so I had to sing a Capella with that going on. Needless to say, it was difficult, but hey, I got to sing, so I have nothing to complain about there! Then, they had me sight-sing the melody line from a song. That caught me off guard a bit, because I thought they had said we were going to be doing ear training where they would play something on the piano and then I would sing it back to them, which is what I am actually good at. After I attempted it, they encouraged me and had me sing that same arrangement with the second sopranos and first sopranos, and then the entire group to see how well my voice blended with theirs. I had such a fun time singing with them! They are incredible musicians, and if you get the chance you should check them out on iTunes, just look up the Technichords! It's an extremely competitive group to get into, so I probably didn't make it, but I had so much fun singing with them that it was worth the bit of anxiety just to audition. If I don't make it this time, I will definitely try again the next time auditions open up!

The girl who was auditioning before me, Melanie, was extremely nice. When she came out of her audition she gave me a hug even though she didn't know me and told me I would be great. I love people like that! She was talking to someone outside when I came out and started heading back to my dorm, and so we started talking about Harry Potter and Pokemon--I love going to a nerd school! We also ran into this guy named Owen who has been to all of the Game Development Club meetings, who joined in on our conversation about HP and Pokemon. We discussed which houses we think we would be in, and even almost broke out into a wizarding duel... unfortuantely I don't know enough fair spells to really duel effectively (I wished Navid and Roxy had been there, they would have been all over it!)mI had to leave early to get back to a floor meeting, and so he walked me all the way back to my dorm and we discovered that we both love D&D! He is actually registered with Wizards of the Coast as a DM, and was looking for a group! I think Megan, my roommate, and I will probably be joining him. He's so great!

I talked to my awesome RA, Maddie (who is a FIRST alum from Flagstaff, AZ :]) about the audition after our floor meeting, and she helped me look at the audition as a fun opportunity to sing, regardless of the outcome. If I don't get in, I plan on using the extra time as an opportunity to take tons of swing dancing lessons and possibly to compete, because the Social Dance club asked me to join when I went swing dancing with my friends last night and I had tons of fun dancing with them.

Tonight is also very busy! I am going to choir after my classes for about an hour and a half, and then we are all getting on a bus to O'Connor's, which is an Irish pub near the school. We all get free appetizers and drinks if we are of age (I wish I had a crazy straw for my water...) and we get to join tons of singers in really fun Irish folk music. I won't get back until ten, so I need to go look over one more physics problem from the homework that is due tonight (THAT I DID IN ADVANCE BECAUSE I AM A GOOD STUDENT.)

More later,

Lydia

Welcome To College

Despite all of the preparation my high school and friends had given me, I didn't really know what to expect when our rental car stopped at the curb across the street from my dorm. I thought that I would feel some sort of gripping fear or anxiety, but it seemed like just another day to me. Thomas and I removed our bags from our cars, handed them over to frat boys we didn't know who were assigned to take them to our rooms, and proceeded to the main dorm on our quad to get our keys and access cards.

After moving in, we were submitted to the whirlwind that is New Student Orientation (NSO, one of the thousands of TLAs [three-letter acronyms]) of WPI--even the college's common name is a TLA! We listened to speeches about succeeding in college, high-fived over a thousand people (our class is about 1040 students,) got tons of free food, played rubber chicken volleyball--all the usual stuff. Then, it was time for classes...

...Which have been pretty manageable so far. For those who don't know, this quarter I am taking PH1111, which is a calc-based physics mechanics course, MA 1024, which is Calculus IV (multivariable and stuff,) and Fundamentals of Music I, which is "this is a note!" For the first three days at least, the work load has been fine. I love taking calculus-based physics; the professors have lifted the curtain that prevented our prior teachers from admitting that the basic kinematic equations are related through calculus. I also switched into Calc IV from Calc III, which in retrospect was an excellent move because I love multivariable and hate series. Fundamentals of Music I is pretty easy; we're going from "this is a staff!" to ear training, so it's starting off slow and will hopefully pick up soon.

Now for extra curriculars(ssssss because I am, of course, in all of them.... >.>)

Game Development Club

There are two parts to this club: a development side and an events side. The former is self-explanatory and the latter puts on tournaments and gaming nights and things. You can guess which one I will end up doing if I stick with this club. :P This weekend we reserved a lecture hall to project matches from MLG Raleigh. We had to cancel on Sunday due to the hurricane, but it's really cool that they did that for us. Not too many people showed up because it was last minute, but I'd love to get more organized MLG parties and tournaments going in the future.

Choir

The choir here is amazing. It requires no audition, because they believe that all engineering students should know how to sing or do something musical by the time they graduate (I know what you're thinking, yes, this school was made for me!) I just did my vocal placement, nailed the ear training section, and showed up. Though it was an informational meeting, we jumped right into singing in between powerpoint slides about all of the options for vocal performance at WPI. The WPI chorus was featured on a Grammy Award-winning CD--needless to say, it was pretty awesome. I am excited for the first rehearsal for the women's chorus tomorrow, and the trip to New York City at the beginning of October! Details about this trip forthcoming.

Robotics

Mentoring a FIRST (italicized for Roxy <3) robotics team is really intense, especially for a college freshman, so I don't think I will get too involved in the team this year. However, I do intend to work on off-season projects, volunteer for events, and get shop certified so I can use the 11 CNC machines in the Washburn shop whenever I want! Thomas' roommate already has an idea for an engineering project, but for now I will keep it a secret. :P

Additionally, this Sunday was the first official video conference meeting of the 2011 Dean's List Winners! We had a bit of trouble with the technology at first, but we got a few things accomplished and have more in the works. It was really great to see everyone again; I've only been away from Manchester for a week and I already miss all of them!

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Tonight pretty much summed up my social life at WPI. Thomas and I grabbed some dinner after our math class, and then had our first laundry adventure (which of course involved starcraft.) Then, my roommate and I met with two of the guys from upstairs, and we walked over to Fuller for the Outing Club meeting. There, we learned that we could pay $20 to have unlimited access to a slackline and access to WPI's climbing wall from 7-10 every weeknight FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR! That sounds like a sweet deal to me (parents, take note.) They are also planning a kayaking trip soon, which I may go on if it isn't too expensive (again, my mom and dad don't know this yet and will probably find out by reading my blog... >.>)

After the meeting, the four of us walked to the library and rented movies for a movie night we're planning for tomorrow after the ice cream social that our dorm is having. Then... the best part of the whole evening! We were walking back to our dorm across the quad, and we saw tons of people larping... we asked if we could join, and they handed us swords and helped us jump right in! I love going to a nerd school. :)

Congrats! You have made it to the end of this unusually long post, or at least skimmed to the bottom much like you would for an end users' license agreement. I promise to write shorter entries with greater frequency; it just takes a significant word count to capture the way one's life can change entirely in one week. For those who are interested, I will post my recount of the Dean's List trip later in the week when it is not a time I should be in bed.

Friends and family, please comment with how you are doing! I miss you and want to hear from you.

Much love,

Lydia