A New Life

Hello friends! Greeting you over a bowl of oatmeal, brown sugar, blueberries, blackberries, a cup of coffee, and a slice of toast with the famous Wenger strawberry jam. I hope your morning has started off just as lovely as mine :)

A lot of people have been asking how my week has been since I have started Grad school, so I decided to write a post dedicated to the beginning of my new life here. Here is my week in a few pictures and words:

On Monday, the professors had an early morning welcoming breakfast for all the theatre MA students. I learned, during this meeting, that I am the baby of the group. Most of the other students are already teachers and many have families of their own. There is one other girl who just completed her undergrad like me, but she is married. Henceforth - I'm the baby. We range from 22 (me) to a few in their 40's and 50's. Quite a dynamic group! Everyone brings their own unique life experiences and stories. 

On this first day I immediately began to recognize some differences between Akron and Asbury. For starters, Akron has a bowling alley in their student center. Yep. A bowling alley. They also have a pool hall. I think I counted 15 pool tables when I walked by. This building also contains a Starbucks,

 Barnes and Noble, various restaurants, an Auntie Anne's, a bank, and this little gem: 

They show movies in here regularly throughout the semester. Pretty legit.

It also takes me a little more than ten minutes to walk to the other side of campus. Just a little more. Akron's campus is located downtown and the campus actually has their own bus system. New one on me. 

The one downside to the campus is the library. I absolutely love Asbury's library because it's so open and bright. Akron's library is dark, old and grungy. Granted, they are doing some repairs and upgrades this summer, but I was majorly bummed the first time I walked in. 

The architecture of the staircase is kind of cool, but that's about it. Probably won't be spending a lot of time here this summer.

This is where I spend most of my time on campus:

This is the back of the building. Oops. 

I am taking three classes this summer - Teaching Elementary Theatre, Creating Performance, and Lighting Design and Technology. Here is homework for day 2 of that last class:

I actually drew most of these by candlelight because a storm knocked the electricity out that night :)

The Lighting Design class is really informative and fun. We will be designing the lighting plot and transitions for one act of a play of our choice throughout the next week or so. I am doing "First Kisses" by Jay D. Hanagan.

Teaching Elementary theatre involves a lot of improv games and teaching techniques geared towards children. We will actually be devising lesson plans and teaching children during the last week of school. 

Creating Performance is about devising theatre from sources other than conventional plays. "Devising" is a new concept to me, and I'm learning a lot about new ways to create. Our theme this year is Myth, so we've been doing some interesting things with that. (More on this in a later post)

But enough about Grad school for now. I've been exploring the area and have found some cool places. Wooster has a place called "Buehler's" which kind of reminds me of Kroger. They do the same kind of things with providing lots of discounts for card members. 

Om nom nom - Buehler's fruit!

Unfortunately, Ohio doesn't have any Whole Foods Markets. But as I was driving around trying to find supplies for my Lighting Design class, I found a look-alike! 

I spent about a half hour walking around the store and it's almost exactly like Whole Foods. I didn't even have to buy anything - just walking around made me feel healthier :)

So that's what my experience, in a nutshell, has been so far. I will be writing more over this weekend about specific projects I'm working on as well as some stuff that's just for fun!