Well, it is about that time. Everyone is in the end of our 10th and final week of classes, final papers/exams/presentations are being prepared for, and seniors are getting ready to complete their undergraduate education. I am definitely keeping busy with 2 final papers, 2 exams, and presentation I have to complete before the term is over.

There is also a fair bit of sentimentality flying around these days. I am about to officially conclude my junior year, but so many of the people I have come to know and love are graduating in a little over a week. I am especially close to the seniors who participated in the all-theatre term last year, Rep Term. We have such an amazing, close-knit group. I have had classes with so many of them since then, and I feel like we’ve experienced so much as a group. We’ve been in shows together and have always found time to hang out. My friends who are graduating are some of the most amazing people I have shared my last 3 years with. We have lived together, worked together, played together, and sometimes struggled together. We’ve traveled to Ohio to attend professional Theatre auditions. They listen patiently as I excitedly explain what I’m doing in my science classes I am going to miss them so much next year.

Another important thing to note is that Professor Robert Whitlatch (known to students as Doc Bob) is retiring after 42 years of teaching at Knox. Doc Bob was the head of the theatre department when I got to Knox, and he has been the adviser for my theatre major. He has taught several of my classes, directed me in two main-stage shows, attended softball games I pitched when I was playing for Knox my first year, and has been a really awesome part of my Knox experience. Doc Bob helped install the Theatre program when he first came to Knox, and it has certainly grown and flourished over the past several decades. For those of us who have had the privilege of working with him, he will always hold a very special place in our hearts.

Last weekend I had the great pleasure of representing the Knox Ambassadors at my professor’s show in Chicago, Passage to India. I drove up with some friends on Saturday afternoon, and we spent the weekend with some Knox Alums who were at school when we began at Knox and have since graduated and moved to Chicago. Two of them are actually working with our professor Liz Carlin-Metz on her show It was a really great weekend. On Sunday we all attended a Knox event held at an Alumni’s house. She had a huge, gorgeous house, and served us all various Indian dishes. It was delicious. It was also a really great opportunity to talk to Knox alums from all walks of life, as well as get some future Knox students excited about their years at Knox. From there we went to the theatre to watch the Sunday matinee. It was a very solid production. My favorite parts of the show were the versitility of the set, and the physical nature of the show. The set was designed by our Tech professor here at Knox, Craig Choma, and it was fantastic!

And now I am finishing up the 9th week of classes, which means that there is only one more week to go. There are so many papers, final projects, and finals to work on and study for. My Neuroscience lab recently performed an RT-PCR experiment to see if we could identify the TRPM8 receptor in the hippocampus of mice. We will run the gel later today, and I will find out then if we have real data!!! (knock on wood!)

There is the buzz and stress on campus as seniors finish honors projects, senior recitals, etc and everyone is scrambling to get done all that needs to be done. I’m hoping to spend a good portion of my timeover the next week and a half with my good friends who are graduating. So many of them aren’t quite ready to bring up the subject of graduation; the Knox years have truly been some of the best of their lives.

We had a very special May Day this year at Knox. Students were woken up in the wee hours of the morning to a huge, all-campus celebration. It was FLUNK DAY- that one surprise day during spring term when all classes are suddenly canceled and the entire school gets to participate in fun out-door activities. I got to play with exotic animals from all over the world (my favorite was a monkey that sat on my shoulder!), go on rides, compete against my roommate on the huge inflatable obstacle course, make a street sign with my name on it, hang out with Elvis and Abe Lincoln, and eat every meal out on the lawns with my fellow students. The evening ended with a concert from Lucky Boys Confusion, and the whole day was a pleasant day off.

Last weekend were the performances of the spring term mainstage, Hamlet. Working in the costume shop, I knew more about the production than most students on campus, but I still hadn’t actually seen any of the show. It was a very enjoyable play! It was great to see all of the costume shop’s hard work turn out so well on stage. The actors in the show played multiple characters, so the cast list was condensed down to 8 people. This made for some interesting situations, like the same actor playing both Claudius and the Ghost of King Hamlet. The set was quite dark, but offered several levels and lots of poles for Hamlet to sigh, brood, and lean on. It was a long show (approx 3 hours), but it was cut down from the full script of Hamlet (which usually runs about 5 hours). All in all, it was a successful, engaging production.

Next weekend I have the exciting opportunity to travel to Chicago to see my professor’s theatre company perform Passage to India. I will be representing the Knox Ambassadors, so the trip won’t cost me a thing! I’m very excited I’ve heard that the production is very visually appealing, and a trip to Chicago this time of year will be great.

This has been my craziest week of the term. I took my Shakespeare mid term exam yesterday, which covered the plays Titus Andronicus, Hamlet, and Othello. We have also read A Winter’s Tale this term, and are slated to read Macbeth next. I have also been putting in a lot of hours rehearsing a scene from Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice for my Women Playwrights mid term project.

My Neuroscience lab had excellent success over the last two weeks, and we are now in the process of analyzing our data and drawing conclusions from our results. Lab last week was so much fun! We have been testing the effects of menthol on the fEPSP of a rat hippocampal slice, and everything went well 4 out of the 5 times the lab was performed. We are also getting ready for our next round of experiements, which will be a RT PCR lab where we try to find evidence of TRPM8, one of the receptors that reacts to menthol. It is exciting.

Last week was Earth Week, and Knox went all out. We had a band come from Iowa City and play in the Gizmo one evening, a food night where students were encouraged to taste the difference in organically grown vs. non organically grown foods, and a talk by environmentalist Derrick Jensen. Jensen spoke with students for more than 3 hours about becoming aware of the area we’re living in, getting to know the natural things that are here in order to care about and preserve them. He talked about points from his book End Game, including the fact that we are all animals and it is natural for us to consume, but we also must become responsible for maintaining that which we consume. It was a lively and enlightening speech, and it was well attended by the Knox community. Earth Week ended with a big kickball game in the center of campus on Saturday. All in all, it was a very nice week that prompted many discussions about living greener lives.

On Sunday AMEBA, an acrobatic and aerial dance company from Chicago gave a free performance of their show “On the Edge”. They performed nine very unique pieces that varied from solos to the complete company. They used trapezes, silks, bungees, small ladders, and each other to create innovative movements. The dances were very energetic and a real delight to watch.

This week I am participating in the workshops AMEBA is offering. Series 1 is a workshop devoted to an Introduction to Aerial Dance Technique, where we are learning tricks and hangs on the trapeze and some basics of silks. Series 2 is an Introduction to Low Flying Technique, where we use harnesses to hook into ropes or bungees and practice controlled movements, leaps, and formations in the air. Both workshops have been a blast!! I really enjoy doing this sort of work because it combines activities that I love such as dance, athletics, and rock climbing.

Well, I am off to perform my scene from Eurydice. If I can just get through this week, Mid Terms will be over and life will be a bit less hectic. But I’m enjoying it just the same

It is finally that time again. The sun is shining, the temperature is in the 60s or 70s, and everyone at Knox seems to have come out of their winter slum with a renewed energy and enthusiasm. Entire art classes spend their time outside painting landscapes of campus, soccer balls and Frisbees fly everywhere, hammocks pop up in trees, and students bring out blankets to find a cozy bit of grass and continue their mid-term studying. It is a really wonderful, rejuvenating feeling.

Of course, spring term also means something special for Knox students; the anticipation and excitement for Flunk Day. One day every year during spring term, students are woken up in the wee hours of the morning to shouts, mayhem, and the eventual realization that all classes and activities have been canceled for the day. The lawns are transformed to a huge spring carnival with all sorts of games, activities, events, food, and freedom. Students and faculty unexpectedly get the entire day off to enjoy the weather and the festivities. One of the best things about Flunk Day is that we have no idea when it is coming. Students often try to figure out when Flunk Day might occur by keeping close tabs on the going-ons at Knox; watching the events calendars to see if a day with nothing going on props up. However, it is rare the anyone actually figures it out, so it is always a big- very welcome- surprise. Ah yes, it certainly is Flunk Day season. I’m looking forward to it!
Knox hosted a fun event on campus today. Out in the beautiful sunshine on the Gizmo patio, the Henhouse Prowlers gave a free outdoor concert. The Henhouse Prowlers are a traditional bluegrass group from Chicago that our environmental club on campus sponsored to play for the college. It was quite a lively event, and everyone really seemed to be enjoying the music and the beautiful day. The music was really good, and the whole thing was quite enjoyable.

In all of this lovely weather, there is of course the reality of school. This week we are entering Mid-Terms, so the next 10 days will be pretty busy for everyone. Also, I am working in the costume shop for the mainstage show Hamlet, which will go up in a few weeks. All in all, I am keeping busy and incredibly happy that the weather has taken a turn for the better!