End of Orientation Week

This week has been full of lectures, meetings, and other orientation activities, but it is drawing to a close after tomorrow (Friday). I have gotten the chance to practice multiple times everyday, which is a new experience for me (at home, I usually got in maybe an hour or two of practice 4 or 5 days a week)! The practice organs all have their own character, some are Italian screechers, there is at least one Appleton, a few broken down Skinners, and some other mechanical organs (Holtkamps? Someday I will learn what they are all called!). Any organ can be made useful for practice, however, so I am grateful I have access to them!

Academically, I attended my advising session today, and I will register for classes tomorrow morning. Somehow, my theory placement examination results were damn good; I was extremely happy to learn that I have been accepted to Honors Theory. This means that I will be on a theory track that is accelerated (only 4 semesters, while everyone else takes 5!), small (only 12 students out of the entire freshman body are accepted), and challenging. There is no textbook to buy, and it is a little less structured, but it will be an amazing experience, I'm sure. Very excited for that class! After the initial theory test, a group of 25 or so students were called back for personal interviews and evaluations, and apparently I sightread well enough to join the program. Again, I'm psyched!

Maybe I will post my full class schedule somehow on here tomorrow...the classes mostly all sound great, save the mandatory Freshman Colloquium, which is a 'class' in which one must sit through long lectures each week. I also have a mandatory writing class--I'm hoping to get into the one where we read Woolf, Joyce, and Faulkner. Every other class is musical. 

Tonight our orientation committee will perform a recital for us freshies, and that should be fun. Sometimes I forget that everyone I am see and interact with around here is a musician of the highest caliber. I'm feeling very lucky to be here. Hopefully my spirits will be as high in a week, after classes have started!