Melons, Mountains, and Music

I honestly make an effort to not do the cheesy titles too often, but sometimes you just need a little alliteration in your life! Besides, everything in that title is relevant.

Saturday I had the opportunity (with a few other people of course) to table for Love Your Melon at Jay Peak, a ski resort with an indoor water park. As I'm not a skier, this was my first time to a "mountain," so to speak, and I was very impressed. I also had not realized how close Jay Peak is - only an hour and a half away. Smuggler's Notch (or "Smugg's," to all you snowlovers) is even closer than that, and I'm sure there are other ski mountains around that I just haven't heard of yet. We are certainly not lacking in mountains up here!

Anyway, I think we had a very successful tabling session. We raised some money, talked with some really cool people, and spent a lot of time watching all of the cute ski-children so wrapped up you could only see their eyes. We also may or may not have consumed a number of lollipops that we'd brought for our table, but I'm pleading the fifth on that one.

That covers mountains and melons, leaving... music! Professors can sometimes get tickets to the Flynn (in a process unknown to me) and take their students to see productions, free of charge for the professor and the students. Wicked awesome! My philosophy professor got us tickets to hear the Ying Quartet, a string quartet, play Beethoven's Opus 131. We have been studying what truly makes up truth and beauty, so this was our firsthand experience of "the beautiful." Preceding the performance, Soovin Kim, a violinist who also founded the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, walked us (the audience) through the piece with the help of the Quartet. As a musician (fun fact: I play both the piano and the flute!), I found that really interesting. I don't know a lot about strings, so to have a string player explain certain aspects of the sound and dynamics of the piece, as well as other features, really helped me appreciate the piece more. Yet another amazing Burlington afternoon, this time courtesy of a professor.

I know this is a tad brief, but unfortunately I have a midterm tomorrow (no, they do not magically disappear in college), so I should probably concentrate on that. Next post: A Midsummer's Night Dream, courtesy of Saint Mike's theater program!
Laura