It has been quite the weekend here at Hope (in the best way)! Friday started off for me with a trip to Grand Rapids Community College to attend a voice master class featuring John Wustman. Going into it, I had no idea what to expect, but it was an awesome experience! Seven extremely talented college students from the area sang and Mr. Wustman critiqued them. Even though I didn’t sing, I learned so much from him!
Friday night I attended a music education banquet in Nykerk. We ate dinner and then talked and played some games to get to know each other. It was so cool to get to know some of the upperclassmen in the music ed department since I hadn’t gotten to meet too many of them before. I am so excited and blessed to be a part of such a great department at Hope!
Then, that night, some friends and I took a trip to Captain Sundae! I love Captain Sundae so that was an awesome way to cap off Friday night. Here is a picture of all of us!
Saturday morning I got up bright and early once again to attend my first music education conference. It was held on-campus and I got the chance to go to some really cool music ed workshops and learn some great teaching tips from current teachers! It was a really great experience to have, especially as a freshman just starting out in the program.
After I left the conference, I went straight to the event of the weekend (or the semester, or the year, or the century, or you know, forever): THE PULL! If you aren’t familiar with The Pull, it’s a giant tug-of-war across a river that occurs every fall. The 18 freshmen (coached by the juniors) pull against the 18 sophomores (coached by the seniors) in the most intense tug-of-war I’ve ever seen! Each puller has his own moraler, a girl who cheers him on, gives him water, acts as his eyes, and is basically his biggest support system throughout the event. It was so exciting to watch and I have so much respect for everyone involved in it.
The view across the river to the even year side! The pits are blocked off by huge banners so each side can’t see the other.
Even Year ended up coming out on top this year, but it was still an awesome thing to experience! You can read more about it here!
After the Pull, I went to Peachwave (a frozen yogurt shop downtown) with some girls because they were having a fundraiser to benefit leukemia and lymphoma, a cause that is very close to many of our hearts. You can’t really go wrong with frozen yogurt for a cause!
This morning I went to Pillar Church with my friend Grace. I’ve been going there pretty much since school started and I really like it. It reminds me a lot of the church I grew up in and I absolutely love the sermons. This afternoon I got all my homework done super early, which is pretty much miraculous since I’m usually up until about 3 AM doing homework after the weekend. Then I took a long nap and woke up to go downtown and have dinner with a few of my friends at the brand new Jimmy John’s! Then we went to the Gathering, Hope’s Sunday night worship service. I hadn’t been able to go to the whole thing in a couple weeks, so it seemed even more awesome than usual this time! The Gathering is such a great way to start off our week. When we came back my lovely friend Jessica made nacho dip and, as food generally does, it brought several clusters together!
All in all, it was an awesome weekend in the middle of what I’m hoping is a series of really great ones! Last weekend my parents came to visit me, this coming weekend is my brother’s wedding in Indiana, and the following weekend is fall break, so I’m finally going home! I love Holland, but I am so excited to go home and see my family and best friend, go to my home church, go to my favorite pizza place and apple orchard, and sleep in my own bed!
Thanks for sharing in my Hope experience with me! Feel free to leave me a comment, send me an email at kathryn.krieger@hope.edu, or tweet me at @hopekathryn17! Hope you all have a wonderful week!