Last Few Days..

The last few days have been seemingly uneventful. Monday night I had baseball practice, which resulted in me getting hit in the face by this wannabe Gold Glove catcher guy. We were warming up, and his throw went off my glove, and into my face. So, I guess it's more my fault for not catching it. But the wannabe Gold Glove part comes in when we were throwing each other ground balls and such. This guy kept trying to do these stylistic sweeps to catch the ball, instead of getting in front of it. Needless to say, he missed a lot of them. I spent a good amount of time on Tuesday finishing up my American History essay on Indian policy in the 1830's. I feel like it's a fairly competent essay, that possibly has a point. But then again, I could probably turn in something I did the night before and get a good grade. I find that academics here are by now means as rigorous as Luther. I think practically anyone from Luther would agree with me on that. That isn't to say that it doesn't get stressful. I still have to write 2 more major essays by the first week or so in December. But overall, and gleaning what I can from the various syllabi, first year courses at university are nothing like you would get in the States. There actually was an article in a prominent British paper a month or so ago, discussing why European universities in general have been falling so far behind American ones. Anyways, after all that, I ran downtown and got two tickets for Chicago when it comes to Nottingham in early December. Mary and I are going to hit it up. Speaking of America, the election was watched with great interest over here. People are quite pleased (myself included) that the election went the way it did. There is a sense that "America finally figured out that George W. Bush is an idiot" over here in Europe. In fact, The Independent, a respectable British newspaper, published a huge picture of Bush looking very irritated on its front cover today, with the caption "It's the war, stupid." Last night I went to brass ensemble, and finally realized what God awful tone a large majority of the trombone players were using. Dr. Smith (Luther trombone professor) would be absolutely horrified. We are playing some cool pieces though. Anyways, I actually have finagled my way into a wind ensemble besides the brass thing. The conductor of the top wind ensembles here, knowing I can't do Tuesday nights this semester, asked me to play in a smaller wind ensemble. We're only playing one piece for a concert in December, but since orchestra is over, it's good to have another ensemble. It's also good to play in a band. Once again, the messed up British rehearsal schedule means there are only 2 rehearsals before the concert, but whatever. Another house trip this weekend, this time to Southwest England. Think Bath, Stonehenge, etc, etc, etc. Have I mentioned how glad I'll be when these trips chill out in the spring? Next weekend features an independently funded trip to London. All 4 guys are going to be there, but we're sort of traveling in groups of two, with occasional meetings. I think that's how it's going. Ryan and I have tickets to Monty Python's Spamalot on Friday night (don't ask, it wasn't my pick), whereas all 4 of us are going to see Wicked on Saturday, featuring Idina Menzel, who won a Tony on Broadway for her part in the play. Excitement abounds. There might also be a pilgrammige to Elstree Street Studios to see where Star Wars was filmed. That's what's up.