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Trip Down Memory Lane: Installment #2

From about June until the end of July of 2007, I checked STAR religiously every day to see my housing assignment. I wanted to know where I was living (well, I knew that because I was in FYP) and who was going to be my victim er…roommate. Day after day, STAR kept on reporting that there was nothing to report. Then, the facebook group for the Holy Cross Class of 2011 sent out a message one day in late July – roommate assignments were published on STAR. I immediately logged into STAR, clicked on my housing arrangement, and saw the following two lines:

Hanselman Hall 318

Carrie Staab

Being the cool kid that I am/was, I immediately went back to Facebook to find this Carrie Staab figure. Turns out that she had already found me, though, since I had a friend request from her. For the next month and a half, we talked about our sleeping preferences, who was bringing what, and tried to get to know each other (people before facebook: how did you do it?). We met on move-in day (maybe one day I’ll actually document how awful of a day it really was).

For the first semester, we lived well together, but we weren’t the best of friends. We got on just fine, though. We had classes together and we went to Kimball together; she introduced me to some of her friends through her clubs, and I did the same. Toward the end of first semester, though, that all changed. As I lamented going to our mutual 8:00 CRAW Poetry class, I said, “But, Mommy, I don’t want to go to school! I want to stay home and bake cookies with you!” Carrie stared at me in disbelief, and asked me, “Wait. You say that too?” “Yup. I’ve been saying it since I saw Space Jam.” “Same here!” After that, we became the best of friends.

Please don’t mind my weird hair. I don’t know what was up with it that night.

The man, the myth, the legend: Professor Kee. Little did he know exactly how much of a role he’d play in my life after that simple FYP course… He’s also Carrie’s thesis reader.


We decided not to room with each other sophomore year since we both had already made arrangements with other girls. But we still continued our friendship – we took classes together, hung out all the time, and even made pecan pie at the end of first semester.

Carrie and I were able to talk about things that no one else really understood about us – I was thinking more about the medieval period as a profession, and she was thinking about academia in general. In keeping with this academic theme, we were even inducted into the English Honors Society (Sigma Tau Delta) together.

Yes, I’m trying to be tall. Give me a break.

Then, we studied abroad together in Oxford last year. We were constantly hanging out with each other – we usually had tea breaks with each other, studied with each other, and ranted to each other when our tutorial assignments seemed too much to handle.

Welcome to the Theology Library at Mansfield College!

And welcome to the Botanical Gardens. We went there on Midsummer’s Day at noon and sat on this specific bench for  a reason…any Philip Pullman fans out there?

We also went to Sutton Hoo together in the middle of winter, which was definitely an adventure.

Then, we returned to Holy Cross for our senior year. Between our classes, discussions about the future, and tea sessions, we’re still the best of friends.

So, dear Residence Life staff that was responsible for placing us together: Thank you.

And, yes, we’re still crazy.
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Crunch Time

I graduate in exactly one month. Yes, it’s a frightening thought.

Officially, I only have a week’s worth of classes left, and my thesis will be finished by next week (it’s not due until May 9th, but I just want to finish it). There’s only two ballroom practices left, and I only have 5 Masses left at Holy Cross (including Baccalaureate Mass). Kimball’s almost finished, and I have my final reflection meeting for the Magis program next week.

And while everything seems to be rushing toward the end, I’m still enjoying my time here day by day. Yes, there’s lots of work to do (understatement. I even finished a lot of work over the break, and I still have work galore!), but I know that it will all get finished…eventually. But the late nights with friends, the conversations with professors, simply walking around campus (even when it’s raining) – I’m trying to enjoy and make time for all of those things before 10:30 a.m. on May 27th.
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Trip Down Memory Lane: Installment #1

Firstly, happy Easter! I spent Easter on campus again this year to a) help out with the Masses on campus and b) get ahead with some work. Mom flew up on Friday, and will be here until this coming Saturday. I was able to have a nice (read: excellent!) Sunday brunch with her, my grandmother, and my cousin, Mitchell, who is a senior at Tufts. Never fear – I had a wonderful Easter, and it hasn’t been all work.

So raise your hand if you remember this:

The short hair, the non-dance shoes, and the lack of stage make-up. Yes, you’re looking at a photo from my first ballroom competition, which was held at Harvard.

Quite poetically, my last American competition was held at Harvard on Saturday (which is one of the reasons why Mom came up). Let’s compare, shall we?

Kind of a difference, right? More like a massive difference. For starters, the ratio of rhinestones to body space is definitely higher in this photo than in the one from my first competition. And I finally discovered how to achieve that dance look with fake eyelashes, hair extensions, gel, and copious amounts of stage make-up.

Josh and I did quite well – poetically enough (sorry, I know that I used that phrase before), I made a goal at that first Harvard competition to end up on the Advanced floor. Josh and I competed on the Advanced Rhythm floor, and we made it to the semi-finals, which wasn’t bad for practicing only two hours before the competition.

The transformation in my dancesport look has been extreme – let’s take a look through some of the older dance photos, shall we?

Here’s one that probably conveys the transformation most clearly, though:

No, no – not that one. Although it does show how crazy dance has made me, and how knackered Josh can get after one round of Rhythm (he perks right back up in you give him water, though).

This one. This was almost the cover of the HC Magazine, but the editors decided to go with something a little less…sexy (can I use that word on this blog?). This doesn’t manifest just my transformation, but the team’s. We were the cover article for the HC Magazine, which was just amazing. We had so many people come to our booth at Accepted Students’ Day telling us what a wonderful team we must be to have that type of coverage. On top of that, we were also nominated for the Outstanding Club Sports Team of the Year. Our competition this year was the largest in our history, and we were officially bigger than the competitions run by UConn, Harvard Beginners, Brandeis, and BU. It’s incredible to see how much this team has grown – we started out as just a bunch of students who wanted to learn how to dance, and now we’ve become a real team. It’s beyond remarkable.

Don’t worry – we’re still crazy.
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Moments of Gold and Flashes of Light

I think we have all known each other long enough for me to finally tell you that I am obsessed with 80’s power ballads. “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” by Celine Dion is a personal favorite, and has been since an inside joke originated about it in high school.

Anyway, who remembers this?

Ah, the short, blondish/brownish hair (I refuse to label it)…yes, this is the photo from my first year of blogging (and, actually, the first photo of me at Holy Cross. That’s actually a lie – the first photo of me at Holy Cross is me moving into my dorm room and crying. True story.). Or this? Anyone remember the time when Ashley and Katie mixed up their hair dye? Apparently, that’s a really popular blog entry post.

Or when all the girls of Hanselman 3 made a menorah with Sarah’s face in the middle?

Or when a huge snowstorm hit during my Latin final and I almost didn’t make it home for Christmas break?

What’s wonderful about these four photos is that they occurred all during my first semester of freshman year, and these four photos don’t even begin to cover the memories that I made during that single semester. I was going through some of my old photos from college – some of them are hilarious, most of them are embarrassing, but all of them are wonderful and remind me of the amazing times that I’ve had here on the Hill.

So, here’s my plan: in addition to keeping you all in the loop about my life and how I’m preparing for graduation (which is in 34 days. WAIT WHAT), I’m going to make at least one post a week with old photos. I plan to do them chronologically, but I might end up having a couple dedicated to certain subjects (i.e., ballroom – trust me, there are some good ones -, campus ministry, the seasons at Holy Cross, etc). This is going to be just as much fun for me as it is for you. Hopefully you’ll be able to relive some of the great Colleen moments (such as me throwing away my ID card accidentally and then rummaging through the trash for the next half hour. Oh. Wait. I never posted about that? Ehhmm…). Think of me embarrassing myself as a way to thank you all for reading this blog for the past four years.
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“So, what exactly do you do?”

Raise your hand if my posts about paleography lost you. Raise your hand if you have no idea what a medieval manuscript looks like.

Well, do I have good news for you! For my final project in my Chant as Popular Music class, I’m making a catalog of all the Gregorian chant manuscripts located in the Worcester area. The local colleges and universities have been so helpful in this research. I just spent the afternoon at Assumption College, where I was able to work with Fr. Donat Lamothe. Assumption has several flyleaves of Gregorian chant manuscripts. So…this is what I do:

Welcome to the Emmanuel d’Alzon Library at Assumption College!

Assumption College has several flyleaves of chant manuscripts in its archives. Now, since I’m still a non-specialist, I can’t handle the manuscripts. Instead, they have to remain in the frames. Even if I could take them out of the frames, I would have to wear gloves to prevent any oils on my hands destroying the already delicate sheets. Three of the leaves were framed in such a way that I could see both sides (recto and verso), but I could only see the recto side of the other two leaves.

This is an antiphon for the Feast of Pentecost. This manuscript is from the 1400’s, and I’m still trying to identify the specific hand. It’s definitely on parchment, and this manuscript was probably intended for monk use only since it’s not that elaborate.

Here’s a close up. What I do now is I transcribe the hand and then I’ll translate it. The line with the fancy “A” reads: “Accipite spiritu sanctum,” which translates to “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Oh, and those squares are neumes, which is a precursor to modern musical notation.

Let’s look at another one:

This manuscript is much more elaborate than the first one. This manuscript is printed on vellum, for starters (yes, that’s animal skin), which was much more expensive than parchment. This one is also Renaissance, and I’m thinking that it’s probably English. I have to look at it a bit more closely before I can determine that. What’s really interesting about this manuscript (and the other two that are identical to it) is that it just gives the incipits (or, the first line of the chants) and not the actual melody or lyrics, as the other one did. The people using this text would have known the chant melody and lyrics by heart. This one specifically details the Christmas Mass. How can you tell? Look at the big fancy “P.” The letters after it are “uer.” This is the first word of the ultimate Christmas chant, “Puer Natus Est” – A boy is born.

Here’s a close up of that P. Pretty incredible, isn’t it?

Here’s another manuscript written in the same hand:

This one is the incipits for the vespers of the Feast of the Assumption.

Luckily, the title tells us that. That’s quite rare, usually.

But let’s take a closer look at that “A”:

Isn’t it gorgeous? And, if you couldn’t tell from the Latin that these chants are intended for the Assumption, then you can definitely tell from the illumination of the letter A. This is where my true interest in paleography lies – the connection between word and image. That’s another entry for another time, though.

There are more photos of my adventure at Assumption today, but I think I’ll stop where I am now. Welcome to the scary world of a future medievalist!
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The Road Ahead

Tonight, the Ballroom Dance Team deliberated on next year’s e-board. Seeing another HCDBT member with my title for next year is a) weird but b) exciting. I truly wish that I had another year with the team since the team is capable of so much next year. But I know that our new co-chairs next year have a vision for next year, and it’s going to be a fantastic year for all involved. What was truly great about the process was just to see how much interest in leadership we have on the team – it’s so exciting to see a group of dancers who are thrilled to take on leadership positions to continue our team’s traditions and create their own.

In other news, I officially decided on graduate school. Despite what some of you might think, this decision was actually pretty tough, and I deliberated for quite some time. There are too many factors that went into my decision to elucidate them here, but please trust me when I say that my pros and cons list for each school was extensive. And now…the drumroll please…OXFORD!

Yes, I chose Oxford. I’m excited (but still nervous) to spend the next two years of my life pursuing my MPhil in Medieval Studies at Oxford. It’s going to be so different from my year abroad – I mean, this time, I’ll be a fully matriculated Oxford student. I won’t have the support network that I did during my year abroad. I’m on my own. I’ll be staying up late and analyzing manuscripts, translating Latin and Old English, and learning British slang all over again. Who’s excited!?
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Sunshine!

Well, after one of the longest winters imaginable, it seems like Spring is starting to take control of campus.

This, of course, means that we’re all spending as much time as possible outside. We’re all swarming Lower Kimball and making picnic dinners to enjoy outside. Welcome, Spring!

In other news, the Chaplains’ Office hosted the L’Arche community for the weekend. L’Arche is an international community in which non-mentally disabled families live in solidarity with mentally disabled individuals. The Ballroom Dance team was asked to perform for them and teach them the Merengue. There were some extremely talented individuals in the dance session, especially when the Macarena started to play.

So, looking at the week ahead: We’re deciding the E-Board for ballroom tonight, and then I have to give my practice thesis presentation tomorrow night. Ah! Where are the brakes!?
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A Day In the Life of Colleen

All those years ago when I first started this blog, my goal was (and remains) to show prospective students what life at Holy Cross is really like. I realize that most of my posts on here are general overviews of how life is going, but I haven’t really gone into detail about what each day holds for me. So, I spent yesterday taking photos (on my phone. Sorry about the quality!) to try and depict (literally) what an average day at Holy Cross entails for me. Now, granted, I was documenting Thursday, which is a bit busier than most days. But…here we go!

Thursday morning started with my alarm going off at 6:25 a.m. No, I’m not in ROTC. I had to work the breakfast shift at Kimball, which starts at 6:45. I did, however, get to see the most beautiful sunrise on campus.

See that clip above the time clock? Yup – that’s the piece on me that was in the HC Magazine. My boss cut it out for everyone at Kimball to see. Needless to say, most people didn’t make the connection since I have my long hair on for that photo!

Welcome to what we do at Kimball. This is Patty, who is one of my friends that I met in Freshman year and fellow captain on the shift. My job isn’t glamorous, but it is fun.

After my shift at Kimball (which ends at 10:15), I’m off to class. The first one is T.S. Eliot, which I’m auditing. The second class is Contemporary Literary Theory with Professor Mulrooney.

We meet in Professor Mulrooney’s office since there are only four of us in the class. On Thursday, we discussed Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. Pr. Mulrooney uses the case studies as a tangible way of applying the theory that we read, and it’s extremely beneficial to synthesize the theory with actual literary works (makes sense, doesn’t it?).

After class, it’s time to run around for RSO Re-recognition (we have to re-recognize Ballroom Dance as a club sport every single year. There’s so much paperwork involved), but then it’s Thesis Time.

Now you realize why I write my thesis in my room. And those are just the books for the parts on Flannery…

It’s inevitable that if you write a thesis, you will drink lots of tea within a short amount of time. You might even render yourself immune to caffeine, which is not a good thing.

Unfortunately, I had to cut my time short with Mr. Thesis (as my friends call it, since I spend as much time with my thesis as I would a boyfriend) since we had our student-led ballroom dance practice until 10:00 p.m.

We spent most of yesterday going over what people liked about the team this year, what they didn’t like, and what they’d like to see in the future. I’m getting ready to leave and Cecilia is preparing to work with another student as Co-Chair next year, so we’re trying to get all of our affairs in order as soon as possible.

And that, my friends, is a typical Thursday. There’s always quite a bit to do, and the early start doesn’t help. Don’t worry – my Wednesdays and Fridays are a less structured (no classes on Friday. It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing).
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“Whan that Aprill with his shoures sote…”

Despite the snow, my last April on the Hill has started quite swimmingly. Yesterday, Margaret, Carrie, and I went to Culpepper’s (which is the best bakery and it’s only a five minute walk from campus) for tea (the three of us kind of got used to meeting for tea last year in Oxford, so we’re trying to keep that tradition alive).

Okay, so I had coffee. But the red velvet cupcake was delicious!

The conversation that the three of us had was great – although all three of us are busy and we’re all wondering about what the next year has in store for us, there wasn’t any sense of urgency. We all know that we’re graduating soon, but instead of worrying about it, we’re just trying to enjoy the last 54 days that we have with each other. It’s actually a really nice feeling.

Then I went to trivia at the Pub on campus at night. Bill and I were on a team with Buck, Tyk, and Joe (who are some of Bill’s friends). During the night, Bill, Tyk, Buck and I talked about what our plans are for next year. And the same thing happened – everyone was really relaxed about it. It’s kind of funny to see the transition from the hectic mess that was first semester for most of us (when you’re trying to figure out your life and still take four classes, it can get to be a bit much!) to the calm and collected feeling that most of us have this semester. Oh, and we ended up winning trivia. 🙂

Of course, what might be fueling this feeling of contentment is that my thesis is almost finished. That might have something to do with it just ever so slightly…

Oh, and speaking of April Fools’ Day – although we might not have enjoyed Mother Nature’s prank on us, everyone at HC did enjoy MBTA’s prank.

Yes, they changed the “BC” line to the Holy Cross line. I’m proud, MBTA! Good work!
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April Fools’…?

I just wanted to check that it is April. Right? As in, the sun should be shining, it should be at least 50 degrees, and we should all be wearing dresses and skirts as we enjoy our last 55 days on the Hill. Right? Okay, good. Because this is what campus looked like this morning:

(Sorry for the bad quality. A) I didn’t have my camera on me, and B) my camera is acting kind of weird.)

This is one of the best April Fools’ Day jokes I’ve ever seen!

In other news, you should check out this issue of the  HC Magazine, because…

That’s right – the Ballroom Dance Team is the lead article! Kind of cool, right? And yes, those are my feet. You can check it out here: http://www.holycross.edu/magazine/. That’s just in case you don’t get enough ballroom from this blog. Hehe.

Also, most importantly, CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ACCEPTED STUDENTS FOR THE CLASS OF *shudder* 2015 (especially Grace L.! Grace’s father went to high school with my dad, so Grace and I go waaaaaay back.). You know what’s really scary? I will never meet this incoming class (well, unless you’re coming to Accepted Students’ Day. Because I’ll be around campus all day for that!). Frightening how time flies.

Well, I’m off to play in the snow. In a weird way, I’m glad that I can experience one last snowfall on campus. The snow at the beginning of this semester was so much, but now it’s fun snow. I’ll be the person in the middle of the Kimball Quad making snow angels during lunch today.