Thanksgiving Break

Over Thanksgiving I went to my friend Maddie's house in Vista, CA. It was a super fun and relaxing weekend filled with music, games, shopping, and movies galore! The weather was beautiful over Thanksgiving, so we walked by the harbor in Oceanside. It was so nice to hang out in a house with a family and eat non-school food! Maddie and her sisters took us to the Mission of San Luis Rey, the Benedictine abbey near their house, and some fun places to walk around. Our train back to campus on Sunday left at 5:40am, but we didn't let that stop us from having a great time. Being back on campus was nice, too, though--it's weird how quickly we started to miss everyone. It's so good to have good friends.

Section Dinner

First of all, I have a Public Service Announcement: my section (Section 1) is the best freshman section at TAC this year. It's objective.
Now that you know that, I'll recount a fun thing my section did this week...section dinner! Each freshman section goes to dinner at the house of one of their tutors, co-hosted by another tutor. We got two of our favorite tutors for section dinner, and it was such a fun night! It was really nice to be at a house again, eat homemade food, play with little kids, and just relax. We love hanging out together. On the way back to campus, we blasted Christmas music. And later that night, my choir sang for All-Night Adoration, which we have every First Friday.
Now we have a relaxing weekend, with our theology paper due in two weeks. We had no classes on All Saints Day (perks of Catholic school), so we're in a bit of an academic lull, which is nice. Every day it gets better. It's crazy how fast freshman year is going! What a blessing to be here.

General Life Update

Hello, yes, I'm still alive.

College is absolutely insane, but in a good way. I'm loving every minute of it. 

I love my section and my tutors. Here are my classes:
Math (four times week)
Language (three times a week)
Philosophy (twice a week)
Theology (twice a week)
Natural Science (twice a week)
Literature Seminar (once a week)
In addition, I have 13 hours a week of work-study in the kitchen and sing in two choirs. It's a lot of work, but I love it.
This upcoming week is Don Rags, which we have instead of midterms. It's when your tutors sit down together and evaluate how you're doing as a student. I'm excited because I think it will improve my section a lot, since we will know what we need to work on individually. Another nice thing is Don Rags means we get three days of no class!
We have four fabulous chaplains on campus, which makes it easy to get to Mass, Confession, etc. There is a Dominican, a Jesuit, a Norbertine, and a diocesan priest. They are all wonderful to talk to and such a beautiful presence on our campus.
When people ask me what I like best about college, its hard to answer, because there isn't really any aspect I don't like. It's surreal to be so at peace with a decision I've made.

Well, that's all I'll say for now. Gotta get back to studying.

NaNoWriMo 2016...done!

All finished with NaNoWriMo 2016! Final word count of 50,166, written in 28 days! 

I'm so glad I got my third book written...but man does it need editing! The agenda for next semester is revisions, revisions galore! 

It was so cool to participate again in a project that is so intimately related to a huge part of who I am. I think I will miss it next year, but in college maybe I'll be too busy to notice!

Thanksgiving

What a busy five days!
Patrick arrived on Tuesday and Isabel and Matt arrived on Wednesday.
On Wednesday morning, I received a lovely package in the mail including this letter:

So yay! It's official!

On Wednesday evening, the fam threw a surprise birthday party for Tessie. 

Thanksgiving had the usual festivities, none of which I have pictures of. Claudia had us over to her apartment, and of course we played games.

picture from Claud

Then, on Sunday, it was Tessie's actual birthday. I can't believe she is sixteen!

The only picture of the two of us on her birthday!

So it was a weekend full of celebrations! Now we are settling back down and enjoying Advent!

Things Galore

November always seems to be a busy month. What with NaNoWriMo, quiz bowls, choir rehearsals, standardized tests, and other random events going on, there hasn't been a lot of downtime. Today was a snow day for the high school so we had a relaxed "sweatpants day." The musical, Beauty and the Beast, opened yesterday, but they had to cancel tonight's performance because of the weather. Tessie was glad for the break.
On day 18 of NaNoWriMo, my current word count is 34,287. It's been a pretty steady climb. The most I've written in a day was 4,200-something, so I'm well ahead of the daily quota, but not crazy-ahead (like some of my writing buddies are). This book has definitely been more of a challenge to write than last year's, but I'm hoping the finished product will make it worth it. It's so cool to have time to write books in high school.
We have had three high school quiz bowls this year so far. My team has placed first, second, and third at each one, respectively. There were 46 teams at Monday's, so the competition was heated! The one scheduled for Monday will have 34 teams, so it shouldn't be quite so overwhelming.

Our first-place win in Brookings.

Both our teams at Roosevelt--we got third, our other team got second.

Yesterday we went to the opening night show of BHS's fall musical, Beauty and the Beast. It was a fantastic production, as always. I'm looking forward to going again tomorrow. 

She was such a cute piece of silverware! This is her smile after three performances in one day!

I've dug out the Christmas music books to start practicing for the season, and I'm enjoying it! We have some good repertoire in concert choir, and the Youth Choir Christmas program at church is going to be adorable. Now I just have to learn that music...

Next week is the flood of siblings for Thanksgiving. We're excited to have all seven kids together for the first holiday in two years!

Freedom, Conscience, and Law

On this Election Day, I've been thinking about some of the things I learned in Moral Theology recently.

The chapter I just finished was about moral conscience. The one before that was about freedom. And the one I began today is about law.
As human beings, we are subject to eternal law. Eternal law is "the cosmic order established by God," or in other words, the set of rules by which God governs the universe. Everything in the universe is subject to eternal law, by nature or by reason.
Human beings have a special relationship with God because we have immaterial souls which share in His immortal nature, and we possess intellect, the ability to reason. We are self-aware, are capable of self-reflection, and hold dominion over all other creatures because of our rational souls. This special likeness to God we have comes with its own set of responsibilities.
Every human possesses both freedom and free will. Freedom is our choice between right and wrong. Free will is our God-given ability to recognize and choose the good. By freedom, we are not puppets of God. By free will, we can conform our will to God's and grow in a relationship with Him.
We also possess a conscience, which is one's faculty for making moral decisions. We have an obligation to form our conscience according to, among other things, natural law. Natural law is that part of eternal law which pertains to human life. It is inscribed in our hearts and forms the basis for moral knowledge.
Conscience is subject to law, which is subject to truth. The purpose of law is to protect the common good of a community, which means protecting each citizen's freedom of conscience and other inalienable rights. If a law goes against what is true or good, it is void. Right conscience prevails over unjust law.
All this means that one's civic duty is also one's moral duty. To separate matters of civil law from matters of morality would be to deny the nature of both the former and the latter. We have a civil obligation to participate in the government in various ways (such as voting) and a moral obligation to do all in our power to help the government maintain only that which is necessary for the common good. Law is necessary for the organization and harmony of society, but society does not exist as a result of or a vehicle for law. Therefore civil law is subject to moral law. Moral law informs civil law and ensures its justness.
That was just some of my rambling about this fascinating topic. Moral theology is one of the most interesting things I've ever studied.
May God continue to bless this country, regardless of the election results.

Some Art

The twins had asked me for some art for their birthday, so I took the opportunity last week to do some art with books. I got a book from the antique store and had fun doing things with the pages.

 First I tried different styles of "blackout poetry." I plan to do more interesting versions of these in the future. It's hard to choose the words, but looks pretty cool once it's finished.

For the twins I made quotes on the book pages, which I'd done a watercolor wash on first. I was really happy with how these turned out.

SD Allstate Chorus 2016

This past weekend was Allstate Chorus: a fun, exhausting, and music-filled experience! Every year Allstate Chorus is comprised of quartets from almost every school in the state. The school holds auditions to decide on its representatives, and the number of quartets a school sends depends on the size of the school. Brookings takes four quartets every year, and I was the alto for Quartet 3.

We drove down to Sioux Falls on Thursday night and ate dinner together before checking in at the Premier Center and going to the hotel to sleep.
The next morning we climbed into the bus bright and early so we could get good seats. Because of the number of people in Allstate Chorus (around 925) seats are not assigned, and as the place is gigantic it's good to get there early and sit toward the front so you can see the director. We sat in our quartets, and we were actually able to have two Brookings quartets right next to each other.
Then the rehearsing began. I think on Friday we had a total of around 9 hours of rehearsal. Our director, Jerry Blackstone, is from the University of Michigan and won a Grammy at some point. He took some getting used to, but he really knew what he was doing and had no problem getting 900 singers on the same page. One of the coolest things about honor choirs, etc. is getting to work with well-known and highly skilled directors that you'd never meet otherwise!

source

On Friday we were also able to see a short live jazz concert before dinner, which was fun except by that time we were so tired many of us fell asleep! After dinner it was back to rehearsal until 9pm. We were all glad to finally return to the hotel and get some much-needed rest.
Saturday morning didn't start out quite as early, since we already had seats. We took a group photo in our Allstate shirts before going into rehearsal.

source

Then we had another full day of rehearsals, including practicing our two combined songs with the orchestra. At around three we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the concert. Some parents brought us an early dinner to eat while we got ready, and then we had a very long photo session. (I don't have pictures of that yet.)

Then we loaded the bus for the concert! The concert went quite well, surprisingly well, I might say. By the end of the night we were utterly exhausted and I was glad to hop into the car back home and sleep and sleep.

Our concert program:

The Star-Spangled Banner (with the orchestra)

Then the orchestra played their three pieces, which I don't know the names of.

How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place by Brahms, sung in German (with the orchestra)

Alleluia from "Songs of Faith" by Paul Basler

Come to Me, My Love by Norman Dello Joio

Music Down in My Soul, a gospel song arranged by Moses Hogan

Loch Lomond, a Scottish folk-song arranged by Jonathan Quick

Bright Morning Stars, a traditional Appalachian song arranged by Shawn Kirchner (my personal favorite; we sang it in memory of a four-year Allstater who was killed in a car accident on Monday)

If Music Be the Food of Love by David Dickau

Zadok the Priest (Coronation Anthem I) by George Frideric Handel (with the orchestra)

 It took a while to find my family in the enormous crowd after the concert, but I eventually found them and we got some pictures. Can you tell how exhausted I am?

(photos from Mom)

Overall, a successful, though tiring, weekend! I came home with a cold, but at least I didn't get sick before the concert! A huge thank-you to everyone who makes these things happen!!

October Things

Altering my Allstate dress--concert is on Saturday!

Babysat this cutie a couple of times this month.

Ceal came home for fall break (a surprise for us) so we had some fun times!

Tessie gets creative on the whiteboard while assistant-teaching religious ed.

Nina's Profession!

Mom and I were so incredibly lucky to attend my aunt's First Profession of vows in Eichstätt, Germany this weekend! It was a fantastic and unforgettable trip, and I'm so thankful to everyone who made it possible for us to go. 

Our first flight was from Sioux Falls to Chicago. It's always fun to see the patchwork of farm fields from the airplane window. Seeing Chicago and the shore of Lake Michigan was cool, too.

We had a short layover in O'Hare, then boarded an Aer Lingus plane for the eight-hour flight to Dublin.

As we landed around five in the morning, we didn't get to see Dublin in daylight until the way back. 

The Dublin airport was very nice and we enjoyed the quiet and wifi until we boarded the next plane for Munich.

A beautiful sunrise from above the clouds.

After landing in Munich, we had to get a bus to the Munich train station, then hopped on two trains to reach the small town of Eichstätt. I took a panorama at the train station.

We stayed in the abbey guesthouse, and our rooms were beautiful. We were glad to take showers and change before eating dinner at the abbey.

The beds were super comfortable, especially after a night on an airplane!
 

We enjoyed the abundance of Baroque art at the abbey, including the famous Madonna found in many Bavarian towns. 

The entryway of the guesthouse had some beautiful things on the walls.

All the old doors were impressive. If I had thought to photograph more of them I could've made a post of just the dozens of doors.

Nina's profession was a beautiful ceremony, which took place in the small chapel of the abbey. Five priests concelebrated and we had front row pews. Besides us there were several oblates who attended.

The official photo of Sr. Martina OSB with her black veil.

After breakfast we were allowed a tour of the cloistered gardens, which were breathtaking, but I don't have any pictures of it. Check on mom's blog for those.

These doors lead to the upstairs and downstairs of the crypt, which contains the famous tomb of St. Walburga.

The stripy doors lead into a tunnel to the abbey courtyard.

We spent a good amount of time in the crypt, praying by the tomb of St. Walburga. Every year from around mid-October until her feast day in February, miraculous holy oil leaks from her tomb. There have been countless miraculous healings brought about by this holy oil, and the tomb has become a pilgrimage site. 

There isn't a set date that the oil starts flowing in October, so every day a sister goes down to check. On the day of Nina's profession, the sister discovered that the oil had begun flowing that day. On the day it starts the sisters go down into the crypt at night and sing the Te Deum. Normally this a strictly private affair, but Mother Francisca invited us to go with them. After singing the Te Deum, one sister climbed up and opened the door, and we went up one by one to see the oil that had collected in the bowls and condensed on the door.

The underground part of the crypt. 

On the upper level are statues of St. Walburga, her two saint brothers Willibald and Winibald, and their parents. The walls are covered with pictures commemorating healings or pilgrimages to the site.

They open this gold door to collect the oil.

Downstairs, the ceiling has pictures with bible verses involving oil.

I took several photos of other artwork. There are paintings everywhere in the abbey. This Madonna and St. Benedict hang on the wall of one of the guest parlors.

These are in another guest parlor, where we had breakfast with two priests on Sunday morning.

The building is centuries old, so the walls are very thick!

On Sunday after breakfast, Mom and I walked down into town to see some of Eichstätt. We visited the same museum and cathedral that we had gone to two years ago.

The door of the museum, which is the ruins of the old church, was wide open, so we just walked in.

St. Thomas Aquinas

Part of the floor was lined with tombs, so that part was roped off. 

Tombs in more detail

The ceiling had coats of arms, presumably belonging to Bavarian families.

We walked out through this door into one of the many cute plazas.

St. Willibald is the patron of Eichstätt, so there are statues of him everywhere.

The we went by the gorgeous bridge that we remembered from our last visit.

Later that day, Nina took us into the big church of the abbey, in which she would have had her Profession, but there was a diaconate ordination the same day. 

The abbey was established around 1035, but the Swedes came and destroyed Eichstätt during the Thirty Years War. The sisters begged them not to destroy the church, which they were in the process of restoring, so the church is the only building that remained intact, and they were able to complete the Baroque restoration and rebuild the rest of the abbey.

Every corridor of the abbey was a work of art and a history lesson. 

The local castle/bishop's residence, which is now a museum.

It was an amazing visit and we had such a fun time with the sisters, partaking of their otherworldly lifestyle for a weekend. We were sad to go but glad to return home.

Approaching Ireland.

Taking off from Chicago at 10:45pm.

We returned home at 1:30am after waking up at 5am in German time, and had a wonderful night's sleep. We'll never forget this trip, and I hope I'll be able to visit Nina and Eichstätt again soon!