Tulips

Spring in St. Louis is beautiful. I know Mom is "oooh"ing over the tulips right now. I've been enjoying 50-70 degree weather (well, for the most part--it snowed two weeks ago). Things have been crazy lately, but I guess that's the way it goes.

We had our first build day for the solar peanut dryer yesterday. So far, we have a bunch of cut but unattached pieces of wood, some fun pictures (that I haven't been able to get my hands on yet--sorry!), permission to use the engineering shop, and a place to store our dryer-in-progress.

I got my guitar fixed. It got knocked over a couple times (don't know who would have done that...) and I finally managed to knock off a tuning peg. Still, I got it fixed at the music shop on the Loop for $14! Sweet!

I played second oboe in an oboe-oboe-English horn trio last monday at a recital. That went fairly well. Oboes in harmony are so nice!

Anyway, I don't really feel very philisophical right now. Things are just...busy. I have three more weeks of school and then I'm done. Two more weeks until finals. Two of my classes have no final, just final projects. The project would be really neat if it weren't for the fact that we're given very little time to work on them and each one is worth about a third of my grade! Here's a concept sketch for one of my projects:


Since the school year is coming to an end, I guess it's time to reflect. I really like college. It's a good feeling to be on your own, figuring out life for yourself.

I feel like I can cause things that I care about to happen. I'm very happy I've been leading the Haiti project with Engineers without Borders. Going to Haiti was an eye-opening experience of course, but I was amazed at how much I was pushed and stretched to get it in motion. I had to make many phone calls, and do a ton of coordinating, because it takes a lot of people to make such things happen. I've found a lot wanting in myself, but I think I've grown a lot this year as well.

I've made some friends here at Wash U. My roommate, Carissa, is awesome--we're rooming together next year! I still haven't settled down completely in a church, but I've made a lot of good friends through the church groups on campus.