Salvete, everyone!
Hope everyone is doing well! I’m a bit tired because I just returned from a fantastic weekend at home—I went for my cousin’s baby shower. As I explained before, my cousin Kevin married his wife Amanda a couple of years ago, when my family and I came up to Worcester for the wedding oblivious to the fact that Holy Cross was ten minutes away. My aunt threw a lovely shower for them in our hometown, and I spent a relaxing two and a half hours talking to my aunts and cousins. The weather was unbelievable—sunny and so warm I didn’t need a jacket. It was, as usual, a shock to step out of the car on the Hill to bitter winds and evidence of very light snow on the ground. However, I still cannot get over my habit of completely lighting up at the sight from the highway of Holy Cross aglow atop Mt. St. James. No matter how cold it may be outside, this campus never fails to give me a “warm fuzzy” feeling!
I’m quite sad, because besides classes winding down and Easter break fast approaching, another indication that the school year is drawing to a close is the end of the housing selection process for next year! Housing placement works on a lottery system, and the group one chooses to go in with receives a housing appointment at which time the group members pick where they want to live for the following school year. Jill, Amy, Katherine and I all went in as a group and received a very decent lottery time, 5:40 p.m. (appointments started at 3 and didn’t end until 11 or so!). I’ll be rooming with Jill, right next to Katherine and Amy, on the second floor of Clark. This year was a tad strange, because with our time we should have been able to snag a place in Lehy, a dorm still on Easy Street but closer to Hogan (the campus center). However, we’re still appreciative that we even had a choice in the matter—lots of people will be living in Mulledy for a second year, and some people won’t actually know about their housing until the summer!
Wednesday my Montserrat cluster, the Self, will be hosting a roundtable discussion about our common reading, Ann Patchett’s Truth and Beauty. The book is a memoir written about Lucy Grealy, a very talented writer and Patchett’s best friend, detailing her struggle for self-acceptance and self-definition. In conjunction with our reading of Truth and Beauty, every class within the Self visited the Worcester Art Museum, or WAM (as Professor Joseph could not help repeating emphatically every chance he could get). We had a student-lead tour during our class time and saw four paintings and one bust, which we related to Patchett’s memoir in terms of theme and composition. Our guide, interestingly enough, was a Classics major, and gave a very interesting spin to the works we discussed (since our class is grounded in an ancient mindset, anyway). I always love to discuss art in relation to historical and literary context, so I had a blast.
Off to bed! I have work at Kimball bright and early. Valete, omnes!