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Rhinestones, hair spray, and glitter – oh my!

If anyone walked through the Hogan Campus Center yesterday, then he or she waltzed right in to the ballroom dance world.

The team hosted our annual competition yesterday, and I’m quite happy to say that all of our intense planning paid off. Cecilia and I have been planning the competition since (literally) the end of last academic year, and everything went extremely smoothly. Even the snow couldn’t affect what a wonderful day it was.

We were very lucky – all of our competitors were able to get to our venue safely and (for the most part) on time.

This year was our biggest year – we’re now officially a large competition in the Northeast area, which is really exciting. What was also exciting is that we had two Holy Cross alums come back to do the professional showcase. Mike and Jess are our first couple to turn pro (not like I’m anticipating another or anything…*cough* *cough*) and they’re professionals in American Smooth.

The show case was absolutely stunning, and I’m so glad that we were able to have a former Holy Cross couple perform.

Here are just an odd assortment of photos from the day:

Kelsey went to Oxford the year before me and was on the dance team. She’s the one that started the trend, I guess. It’s an Oxford Dancesport Team tradition to shout out “OXXXXXXXFOOOOOOOOOORRRRRD” as your teammates are dancing, so we just did the abbreviated version.

Of course, as you can probably tell by this photo, Cecilia and I are exhausted now (we were both up at 4 a.m. on Sunday and that bag of candy was our breakfast. Nutritious and delicious!) The competition was worth it, though. But now I have quite a bit of work to finish before I head off for Spring Break on Thursday. Eeeeek!
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Full Circle

Firstly, I am still bouncing up and down after my Toronto acceptance. Now I’m just waiting for Oxford. Come on, Brits!

One of the requirements to graduate in the English Honors Program is to take a metacritical course. Although my paleography tutorial at Oxford would have counted, I decided to take Professor Mulrooney’s Contemporary Literary Theory course because…well…he once advised me to take a course in Literary Theory if I ever wanted to go to graduate school. Well, I listened to him, and I’m glad that I did. Don’t get me wrong – Literary Theory is tough stuff. It’s basically the application of philosophy to literature – what is a text? What, exactly, is writing? How do the constructs of language affect our writing? It’s all just in a day’s work for this class. But as tough as it is, I’m glad that I’m taking the course, especially as a second semester senior since this course explains how the English department here teaches literature and why. I ran into this a bit when I was abroad last year – even some of my American friends from other universities approached literature very differently from the Holy Cross kids. We’re taught from day one in CRAW Poetry (wow, that’s a blast from the past. Haven’t heard me say that in a while, have you?) to analyze just what’s on the page – the author, time period, etc., shouldn’t affect our interpretation. We’re also not looking for a meaning from a poem; instead, we’re taught to see what imaginative work the poem asks us to do. Now, when you’re a freshman (I’m not speaking from personal experience…at all…hum dee doo deee dumm….), you think that you know everything that there is to know about poetry, and this approach seems…well, silly. For the most part, metacritical studies simply aren’t a part of the English major, compared to some other universities. For instance, one of my American friends last year could tell you everything about any literary “movement” (sorry, I just read Derrida so he’s affecting my interpretation of those words a bit), but if you asked her to analyze a poem, she was lost. So, during my freshman year, I didn’t understand the value of the type of training that Holy Cross endorses. But now that I look back, I’m glad that I learned how to first analyze poetry and then find my own literary movement affiliation rather than reading every piece of literature through one lens. Especially with graduate school next year (EEEEEEEEEPPPP It still hasn’t hit me that I’ve been accepted), I’m glad that I have some sense of  Literary Theory, though.

Aaaaaaand if you’re not an English major/even remotely interested in the Humanities, tune in tomorrow for a non-English major related post! Wait. I can’t guarantee that.
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Happy Valentine’s Day! And Some Good News!

Firstly, Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! Campus has been a bit crazy today – one of the traditions at Holy Cross is that the Delilahs (the female a capella group) sells “singing Valentines” so they’ve been running around all day serenading people. Erin, a member of the ballroom dance team, bought one for her boyfriend, Chris, also a member of the ballroom team, and the Delilahs came to serenade him during our practice tonight.

One of the beauties of having a Blackberry is that I got to take photos of it while it happened.

And now the good news:

I found out today that I was accepted by the University of Toronto for their graduate program in medieval literature! I am so excited about this acceptance, since it’s one of the best programs that combines my love of medieval languages, literature, and manuscripts. I have to hear back from another school, but at least I know that I have one option for graduate school next year! But, if I accept Toronto’s offer, I already know what day they want me there – September 7th. They also indicated that they want me to continue with my Latin over the summer break and expect me to sit the Latin Entry Level Examination. It’s really weird to think of myself at another institution, though. When I went to Oxford,  knew that I would eventually return to Holy Cross. But I know that this isn’t a year abroad – it’s a new place. It is exciting!
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100 Days Left. Wait. What?

Last night was the 100 Days Ball sponsored by the Purple Key Society. Technically, there are 104 days left until graduation, but you all get the idea – there’s very little time for us seniors! The dance was held at the historic Mechanics Hall in Worcester, which was a gorgeous location. Oddly enough, the last time I was there was during my freshman year for a FYP event. How everything comes around…

Anyway, here are some photos from the event:

I met most of my friends in this photo freshman year. And we’re still as crazy as we were then!

We tried to stage the Marilyn Monroe photo, but we were lacking an air grate. Carrie tried to be one, but it didn’t really work.

Carrie, Robin, Rebecca, and Me

Although we might look it, I swear that neither Jess, Kevin, nor I are possessed.

Bill, Jenn, Kevin, and Me – the four senior Liturgical Coordinators

Carrie, Tina, and Me – Carrie and Tina are current roommates, so this is a bit of a roommate triangle…ish?

Please just humor me and say that this looks like it’s from “Dirty Dancing.”

Grant and Me dancing the night away

Tina and me before the ball

Tina and me once again

Fallon, Janet, and me dancing

Tina, Margaretmary, and Kate dancing
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Transitions

Well, the “snowpocalypse” was a huge let down. Instead of fifteen inches of snow, we had ice pellets. My dream of a snow day will never come to fruition, I suppose…

All dramatics aside, if you’ve been to the Holy Cross website in the past day, you’ve heard the news that Fr. McFarland is stepping down from his position as President of Holy Cross. I just wanted to take a moment to thank Fr. McFarland for everything that he has done for the college in his past eleven years of service in this capacity. I have been fortunate enough to know Fr. McFarland personally (see – you should sign up to be an altar server. It’s the best way to know the administration around here!), and his intelligence, spirituality, and dedication to the liberal arts and Ignation outlook of our college have been truly inspiring. I will never forget his sermon at that Mass of the Holy Spirit my freshman year – his words made me feel comforted, that I had found a home. Indeed, I have, and he has been an integral part of making my experience at Holy Cross so formative. Thank you, Fr. McFarland.
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Snowpacalypse: Or, how Holy Cross is invicible when it comes to snow

Growing up in Georgia, snow days were a bit of a rarity. Instead, we had “hot days” – seriously, sometimes it’d be so humid that we wouldn’t have classes due to fear of overheating students. Even if there was a threat of snow, my sister and I would wake up extremely early just to see if school was canceled. Eight times out of ten, it wasn’t. Then there’d be the off-chance that it did snow and the roads were somewhat bad, so the school declared that if you couldn’t drive, then you would receive an excused absence. Since my parents know how to drive in the real snow, we always went to school when that situation occurred. But then there was the beautiful one-in-a-million chance that you would get that elusive and coveted snow day – albeit due to one inch of snow. If school ever closed, then everything – and I mean everything – shut down.

Now, since I’m at a school in Worcester, MA (aka the snow capital of Massachusetts), you would think that I would finally get to enjoy those snow days that were stolen from me in my youth. Besides, we’re on a hill, aren’t we? Hills + snow = tricky! So when Assumption cancels classes, you might anticipate that Holy Cross would cancel classes. Wrong. In my four years here, despite the snow drifts being taller than me sometimes (and I”m not exaggerating), I have never had an officially sanctioned snow day. The grounds crew are always out extremely early so that the roads and stairs are plowed, and HC Dining actually has an emergency staff that is prepared to sleep in Kimball so that students have food, even in extreme weather emergencies. Holy Cross’ invincibility also extends to its professors – no matter how icy or snowy the roads are, I have never had a professor cancel class due to snow. Frankly, I find this remarkable. And now, even as we’re gearing up for the Snowpacalypse, classes are still going, professors are still here, and I’m still expected to report to Kimball at 6:45 a.m. If this happened in Georgia (as it did toward the end of my break…well, a much less intense version), we wouldn’t have school for the next week or so. But everything is still going – we’re all still walking to classes, Kimball, and Hogan. My Northern friends seem completely unphased by all of this, but this is incredible to me – no runs to Price Chopper for bread and milk. What comes down as white puffy flakes must melt, right?

This is what Kimball Quad looked like at 10:30 this morning. Suffice to say, I won’t be wearing the outfit below to any outside performances soon:

Check back tomorrow for more pictures of Snowpacalypse ’11. I plan on documenting it through a slideshow to show my Southern friends how to truly handle snow.