| | So I haven't updated in awhile, but so much has happened since my last posting, here at Smith College. It feels like it is "that time of year again", except time is moving a lot faster than I had expected it to. Despite all of the snow on the ground (Smith College just had its second ever snow day last Monday!), there is the promise of Spring in the air ... Spring Break is only a week away, but first we have to get through midterms....
So what's been consuming me, since my last post? Well, academically, I have made a 360 of sorts. Much to my dismay I have abandoned by quest for a self-designed major. After discussing the issue with my parents and the wonderful Smith faculty I decided that it would be no real benefit to creating an urban planning major as an undergraduate, when I will defintely have the possibility of being well-prepared for a program at the graduate level. As sad as I was to abandon my dream, everyone was extremely supportive of my decision. Instead, I am now a psychology major, and not surprisingly I am loving the classes I am taking in this department. The faculty members I have this semester are brillant. I am enrolled in Child Development and Psychology of the Black Experience, two topics in psychology that I have been dying to cover. I am also taking Statistical Methods, and although this class is giving me some trouble, the professor in the class is really great - he's thorough and explains everything. I'm sure I'll pick up the progress in this class shortly.
In addition to switching to the psych major, I have also been going through the application process for study abroad. I have decided to go abroad for one semester, in the fall to either a program in Copenhagen, Denmark or to the University of KwaZulu - Natal in Durban, South Africa. Although these locations seem so different from one another, they both give me the opportunity to study psychology and urban studies/landscape studies. I could not be more excited! Although I haven't heard officially about whether or not I'm in yet, the thought of spending a whole semester away from Smith in a foreign country is scary but will ultimately be life changing. Most of my friends here are also going to study abroad - one is going to Smith JYA Paris, another is going to Smith JYA Florence, and two of my friends are going to universities in Australia. It will be wierd and sad, I think, to return to Smith in my spring semester without them :( but hopefully I will make new friends :)
Finally, things for me in the music department have also been picking up. I have a master voice class both today and tomorrow, in which I will be singing an Italian aria and a jazz song in front of my peers, professors, and tomorrow, a master jazz vocalist. In jazz ensemble I am busy planning the details for our 10th Anniversary Concert, and we have several other gigs including our Annual Jazz on the Lawn Concert, Spring Concert and The Williams College Jazz Festival to look forward to. Some of us have also formed a small gig band, and we have another gig as well for which we will be paid. <3 I just can't wait to perform -- it's one of my favorite things, and I am so glad that I have gotten involved in music at Smith on this level so that I can enhance myself as an artist but also get really strong instruction in voice.
Well, that isn't everything, but I'll be updating more frequently this semster with all the goings-on at Smith, and in my personal life. Right now I just can't believe that the weekend is almost here again. There are whisperings that it's supposed to be 52 degrees here tomorrow ... hopefully that will wash away some of the snow ... and this time next week I will be planning to depart Smith for Spring Break, in which I will be visitng my mom in Boston (she moved there!), going home to New York for a couple of days and then going visit my best friend in Tampa, FL (sun, beach, fun!!). Can't Wait!!! |
