Wittenberg University

I might be repeating myself when I say this, but I still believe it holds true that there are few feelings more triumphant—heroic!—than walking out of Hollenbeck Hall after the last class of the day at the end of the week, seeing the afternoon sun over the Hollow. I put it among my top Wittenberg moments, for sure. I mention this because I experienced that very sensation of accomplishment and relief today. Somewhat dramatically, memorably—definitely appropriately—my walk of glory today came not after just another class session, but an actual exam in Communication 200, no less. However, while usually these moments are on glorious Fridays, today is, in fact a Thursday, and as in most Christian-accepting countries, we get the Friday off. Officially, they call it “Easter Break,” since, I guess, the weekend comes right after, and it seems like a “break.” (It’s not really.) Not that I’m complaining, with my computer’s “Days Left Until Flying Home” countdown reading “21 days, 7 hours.”

The weather’s been kind of wonky (surprise!) in Ohio recently. Falling asleep (or lack thereof) has been accompanied by really loud thunderstorms and lighting the past few nights, and rain and gloom are commonplace. Every now and then there’s a glimmer of hope for the summer though. The rain was rather unfortunate over the weekend however, since Relay for Life was taking place on the stadium track. If you don’t know, by “for Life” they mean “against cancer.” In essence, it’s an event that lasts all day, organized in association with Colleges Against Cancer, to raise money for cancer research. The problem is that it involves running (or at least walking). Outside. As expected, the turnout was less that hoped for, had it been sunny—nonetheless, kudos to the many (even I went and paid my dues to helping) who ran regardless of the conditions.

Happy Easter!

Martin

The Wittenberg Series (colloquially “Witt Series”) is a selection of lectures, performances and otherwise events sponsored by Wittenberg University, by way of various endowments and individual sponsors. The series runs throughout the year and has, since September, brought performances by the likes of author Jonathan Safran Foer, the Diavolo Dance Company and artist Derek Boshier. I enjoy the Witt Series events a lot. This academic year’s selection came to a close last night (Thursday), with novelist Sara Gruen coming to Springfield.

Honestly, I hadn’t ever heard of Sara Gruen, either because I’m ignorant, or because I haven’t read much other than textbooks during the last seven months. But since novelists are generally the kinds of people I like surrounding myself with, I went anyway. Apparently, Gruen’s recent bestselling book Water for Elephants, is being released as a motion picture adaptation this month (with names like Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon in starring roles) and the word on the street is that she writes good books.

Worth mentioning also is the fact that this was the inaugural lecture in the Dr. Allen J. Koppenhaver Literary Lecture series, which promises to bring us fine speakers for years to come. As I discovered, Dr. Koppenhaver was a highly-renowned professor of English at Wittenberg, who—according to the Springfield News-Sun—began his 32-year career here in 1961. Koppenhaver having been an admirer of life, music and the circus, Sara Gruen, whose Water for Elephants describes life in and around a Depression era circus, had been chosen as an appropriate speaker for the first lecture in Koppenhaver’s memory. As someone quite new to the Wittenberg tradition, it’s fun to learn about people like him and Wittenberg history.

Unlike some quasi-famous writers (who shall remain unnamed) I’ve seen in similar speaking situations, who have come off as uncaring, detached and pretentious, Sara Gruen was virtuous and wonderful, and made us all feel like we were having a conversation with here. All the hundreds of us in Weaver Chapel. There were plenty of fun stories of life as a writer and she just seemed like a wonderful person. She’s definitely won my attention and I hope to give her books a go over the summer.

What I’m saying is, high praise for the Witt Series

Keep on keeping on,

Martin

Yet another testament to the reality that time in college is fleeting and diminishing at astonishing speeds, registration for next semester’s class (that is, fall 2011), began last week. As a freshman, my turn to register didn’t come until 11AM on Monday morning. It’s usually those pesky—and fun!—art classes, like photography, that close really quickly, but I got into most of the classes I had hoped to.

As a word of advice, however, it isn’t wise to put off taking the math placement test as long as I have. Since I haven’t taken any math classes all year, there hasn’t been a particular need to receive math placement so far. And since math isn’t my strongest suit, it just seemed like something to endlessly procrastinate on. Until, however, the morning of my class registration, when I realized that I wasn’t able to register for certain economics and statistics classes, having not taken the placement exam necessary. Oops! I finally took it last night, since the circumstances demaned—it wasn’t that horrible! But obviously, this is not an example to follow. Beware, future students! If I’m lucky, the math-related classes I had hoped to take won’t be full by the time my exam results come in, and I’ll still be able to register for them.

If not, mea culpa.

Martin

Every now and then you get people saying “Oh, there’s nothing to do in Springfield/at Wittenberg”. Those statements, I’m afraid, are greatly exaggerated.

Case in point—allow me to describe a few snippets of my own last weekend. After dinner, the Springfield Museum of Art (owned by Wittenberg University) opened a new photography exhibition featuring the works of Wittenberg’s own Dan McInnis, a photography professor, as well as some well-known photographers of the 1980s. Dr. McInnis’ exhibition was entitled “Presence” and was a collection of portraits of friends and strangers, that he had captured over the course of the past few years. Worth mentioning is that they had been “shot” on a large format view camera (the kind you might have seen a century ago, where you need to pull a dark sheet over your head when taking a photograph.) The photographs were lovely and evocative; if you knew what to look for, you could also see evidence of some very interesting technical capabilities that are only possible with the kind of camera McInnis had used. The artist had actually brought the camera he had used to the gallery too—the whole contraption was taller than I am!

Saturday, after plenty of reading, and Little Siblings Weekend raging all over campus, with events featuring comedy and magicians (!), I was convinced by a few friends to go see a movie at the local theater. We ended up seeing a film called “Battle LA,” which, while visually cool, ended up being laughably bad in terms of almost everything else (namely, dialogue and character development—ouch!)

On Sunday afternoon, another group of us got together and drove over to Columbus, Ohio, to see the Columbus Blue Jackets and Vancouver Canucks play a game of ice hockey. The trick is to go an hour earlier and, with a valid student ID, ask for a “student ticket,” with which you’ll be able to see an NHL game for the rather agreeable price of $15. The seats we got for it were fantastic as well. Since I love big cities, being able to walk around bigger streets, lined with Starbucks coffee shops was fun for a change too.

Moral of the story: there’s plenty to do in and around Wittenberg, usually without even having to look hard.

Martin

Last week was the first week back from Spring Break and the beginning of the end for this academic year. I always think that the mark of a good vacation is that, without even trying, you are able to forget work and school issues—completely tune out and live in a whole different way, an entirely new, fulfilling regimen, even if just for a few days. By this criterion, my Spring Break trip to Seattle, Washington (2000 miles away, on the other side of the country!) was a superb vacation. The only downside of course, was that the reading and work I should have been doing during my vacation, had to be made up for after getting back, since I was just so darn distracted.

Most people around here either go to beaches of Florida or back home, for the duration of Spring Break. Since my actual own home is something like 4500 miles from Wittenberg, I sometimes rely on the kindness of friends and their families for break destinations. (Or Florida.) And thus, I trekked back to the state of Washington with a good friend from school, whose family itself is more or less native to the Seattle area. And what a world opens up before your eyes after getting off the 4 hours flight from Chicago, and landing at Seattle-Tacoma airport! The mountains! The winding landscapes! Forests! Snow! Rain! Coming from Ohio, a place that is geographically, in its seemingly perpetual flatness, far from the most interesting of states, you kind of need to rub your eyes and pinch your cheeks once you get there, because it’s all just so pretty.

After getting into the city, Seattle has plenty of perks. The Space Needle, the first Starbucks coffee shop, the pier with its delicious seafood restaurants, and fun indoor markets, like the one at Pike Place. Outside the city, there are ferries to ride to the many picturesque destinations within the Puget Sound. North of Seattle, in Everett, is the location of the world’s largest building (by volume,) which houses a Boeing airplane factory, offering excellent tours and a chance to see the construction of the very airplanes we’ve come to rely on in getting around the world. Redmond, a short drive from Seattle is home to Microsoft—no, I didn’t see Bill Gates’ house. Driving south takes you along the Pacific Ocean, with its cliffs and mesmerizing views. If you go down far enough, you get to Portland, Oregon, which is home to (what claims to be) the world’s largest used and new books store. It was definitely very large.

With so much to do and see—as well as sleep to catch up on—it’s easy to imagine homework not getting done. I really owe a humungous thanks to the wonderful folks that gave me a place to stay and made me feel like one of their own. A thoroughly wonderful week it was, sans doute.

Martin

The weekend came and went—for me—in a much busier and poetic verse-riden manner than usual. Every night, for the seven days leading up to Sunday, I dressed up in knickers and hoes, and sung and played music on stage. “As You Like It” was only performed on four nights, but that didn’t make the rehearsals prior to it any less tiring or intense. It was great to see students, professors, and friends among them, in the seats—their attention entirely made up for the occasional noisy child in the audience. People seem to be saying that they really loved the performances, that it was both a highly entertaining, as well as finely interpreted production. I only played but a modest fraction of what “As You Like It” was, and my fellow cast members really deserve hearty applause for the impressive and inspiring work I was able to witness them do.

Now that this play is over, I suddenly have hours of free time during my evenings! This really couldn’t have come at a more opportune time, since midterm week has started, meaning longer library hours and, frankly, less sleep. I spent much of yesterday evening (and night) putting the final touches on a philosophy paper, and now have a communication exam to prepare for later in the week, in addition to some shorter writing assignments.

I got an email this morning though, reminding me of the flights I had booked for later this week, for my Spring Break trip to Seattle. It’s as if it’s taunting me. But the work will soon be done, and calmer times will arrive. Until then, I am going to take a nap, and crawl back into my study-bubble!

I found out yesterday, that there is a full-fledged playground with swing sets on the very edge of campus. Live and learn.

Over and Out,

Martin

This semester, I’ve had the great fortune of being cast in the Wittenberg Department of Theatre and Dance’s production of the Shakespeare comedy “As You Like It.” Our month and a half of daily hard work has come to fruition and finally got to be shared with the rest of the Wittenberg and Springfield community, as the show opened last night in our very own Chakeres Memorial Theatre.

In the production, I play a character named Amiens, a lord of the court, who accompanies his duke into exile, and wanders jollily in the forest with his band of jovial companions. What makes my character unique is that he gets to sing and play guitar in the forest, bringing smiles to all of our faces. Opening night tends to be a little bit more nervous that usual, since it’s really the first time you’re going through the motions before the eyes of an actual audience. It only gets better from there, though. “As You Like It” will have another three performances, the last one being this Sunday afternoon – come along and bring your friends!

In other news, the end of next week ushers in Spring Break. At the same time, we woke up this morning to .. snow. Yes, more snow. What was rain last night had become snowfall in the morning. I’m no meteorologist, but it seems like the weather can’t quite make up its mind about whether to be cold or warm, so it seems perpetually (hopefully not) stuck in this purgatory of rain/ice/snow.

One more week to sleep and freedom,

Martin

There is so much to celebrate. I write this on a lovely Friday afternoon, with classes over, the new Radiohead album playing in the background and not a worry in the world. This Thursday was my 19th birthday. Instead of getting up in the morning and being congratulated by my family, along with coffee and sandwiches, this birthday morning was just a matter of going to class and coming back from class, with only a Skype call to remind me of the folks back home. The fact that it was a Thursday didn’t stop me from celebrating though. The glorious cast of “As You Like It” (opening next Thursday!) brought out a cake for me at the end of rehearsal and sang “Happy Birthday.” Somehow, it’s become a tradition for me to eat Chinese food for my birthday, at least back when I lived at home. In light of this, after rehearsal, me and a few friends drove around Springfield, in search of a place that would cater to my culinary cravings. Unfortunately, EVERY SINGLE Chinese food place was closed by 10PM, but we realized we could acknowledge the day without it too. That being said, I think we’re going back today, earlier.

In other news, Spring has most definitely made an appearance, filling campus with tangible joy and bringing students back outside to play frisbee in shorts and t-shirts. And just last week it had been freezing. Wittenberg campus is exceptionally beautiful these days, especially around three in the afternoon, when the sun is on its way down and the yellow glow makes the trees look especially pretty. Yes, it’s absolutely poetic. William Wordsworth would have loved it.

Drinking up the sunlight

Martin

I overheard a staff member telling someone at the gym yesterday, that in the twenty years she had worked at Wittenberg, school had never been closed for three days in a row. And yet, that’s exactly how the first three days of February came to Springfield, Ohio. Apparently, there’s a magical temperature somewhere between freezing and not, where precipitation swings from rain to ice – the end result being that the ground outside is uniformly covered in a sheet of ice, mostly from rain hitting the ground and quickly freezing. The first day was anticipated and a welcome chance to sleep in. The second day of school cancellation was a somewhat surprising one that came in the form of a text message at 6AM. That day was actually the one during which I woke up to snowfall outside. I also got to take some pictures of people skating around campus and playing ice hockey on Alumni Way, the walkway that goes past the student center and dining hall. Most of us were ready to go to class on Thursday morning, but the sidewalks still hadn’t been cleared up quite well enough for it to be safe to go to class, so students let out yet another campus-wide sigh of relief and allowed themselves a few extra presses of the snooze button.

There have been plenty of jokes made about Ohio weather, since I got here, but it goes to show, that they are more than warranted. You never know what or when to expect when it comes to meteorology around here. Apparently, a big chunk of the country is under snow from the very same storm though. I saw pictures of downtown Chicago, which looked decidedly apocalyptical and entirely snow-colored.

Since we hadn’t been to class on Tuesday or Wednesday, Thursday felt something like a Sunday, along with the idea that we had a whole full week ahead of us once again. But here I am now, well rested, on a Friday afternoon, with a whole new weekend ahead of me. They don’t make them all like this.

Martin

It’s been a week and two days since Monday, January 17, the day that this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day fell upon. For a number of reasons, that day and the ideas that go with it are ones that I have been turning around in my head rather often since then. In commemoration of Dr. King’s birthday, Wittenberg had asked a man by the name of Cleveland Sellers to speak at a special convocation marking the occasion. Dr. Sellers, a man who knew men like Martin Luther King Jr. as friends, marched for many of the same reasons that he did, and – indeed – took a bullet for it, got me thinking about the ways in which issues of race, discrimination and belonging in the United States are so unlike the issues (or lack thereof) that are dealt with where I come from, as well as in many of the countries I’ve lived in. Although racial and ethnic issues definitely exist in Europe today – and these issues are spread far from homogeneously throughout the continent – the meaning and emotions they take on across the pond, I would argue, are distinctively different. As I listened to this year’s speaker, I couldn’t help but feel that I was witnessing living history, the legacy of a historic movement that happened not at all long ago and is continuing to this day.  As a foreigner, the realities and the people who still remember the days of campaigning for the equal rights of humans in America, are, culturally, extremely fascinating. The small, but tender population of Wittenberg also made me feel an unmistakable sense of community and support in its devotion to the very same themes Dr. Sellers spoke about and the value which they hold today, both in Springfield and around the country. These differences and similarities aren’t things you necessarily think about when coming to the States, but when you realize their existence, they can really absorb you.

In other news, Polis House, the “international dorm,” got a new multi-region DVD player over the holidays and we celebrated its arrival by watching an Icelandic movie called “Börn Náttúrunnar.”

Don’t slip on the ice,

Martin