Monday, May 1, 2017

Final Semester Project Update

            This semester, I have spent over twenty hours of my time on an app called Duolingo. This has allowed me to improve my Spanish skills immensely, as I have done varying exercises each day in order to learn more. I have become familiar with everything from verbs to food to people and places to flirting and more. I have a 43-day streak going as of today, and I hope to continue to grow in my knowledge of Spanish, especially because I won’t be able to minor in Spanish like I had originally hoped to do.
            The app itself was very helpful. It was interesting enough to keep my attention and focus. Also, it sent me an email each day reminding me to continue my streak. Each exercise had different way of learning because you would have to translate Spanish to English, English to Spanish, match Spanish and English word translations, listen to a Spanish sentence and type it out, and even repeat back Spanish sentences using the microphone on your cell phone. It gave you all types of ways to commit the words to memory and to really make the words stick. Additionally, as you progress in level, the app would encourage you to go back and practice the exercises you had already completed to help you remember the words easier. There was also a reward system. If you met your daily quota of how many exercises you signed up to do for the day, you got to claim a reward, which were little ‘gems’ you could use to purchase special things to help you. Overall, the app was very helpful and user friendly, and I even got my boyfriend to use it to help him practice German.

            All in all, I believe I spent my twenty-hour semester project well. I had a lot of fun learning more about Spanish, and now I can bother my boyfriend more by speaking more Spanish at him. I will definitely continue to use Duolingo and also recommend it to my friends. Although I wish my first plan for the semester project had worked out, I do think this was very rewarding and very fun!

Friday, April 14, 2017

Volunteering as an Admissions Ambassador

            This semester at ETSU, I had the privilege once again to be an Admissions Ambassador and give tours to prospective students. This semester’s tours have been a lot of fun; there have been so many interesting people I have met and given tours to, as well have having winter weather tours in the snow. It is nice this semester to give tours, especially because I am comfortable with the route and information, so it is easier to relax and really give the people a personalized, fun tour.
            I have met all sorts of people on the tours. I’ve given tours to students and parents from all over Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, and I had a group all the way from California majoring in everything from physical therapy to bluegrass. Most people are very nice and easy to talk to, others are more quiet. I had a mom and her two kids come for a tour the other day, and the mom had actually gotten her Master’s degree at ETSU years beforehand. That was a cool experience because she talked about how different it was. Many major structures present on campus now were not there when she was a student, so she was really excited to see how much it had grown. She also gave a lot of interesting stories and pointed out buildings she used a lot back when she came to ETSU, so it was great to get that insight on the history of the school. Another group I had was a daughter and her parents. This was back during March Madness, when ETSU’s basketball team made it into the bracket and went to Florida to play the Florida Gators, which was huge for our school. The family was actually from Florida, and it was funny because they were conflicted on who they should root for as they were both Gator fans and Buccaneer fans. A special feature of ETSU is our Bluegrass program, which brings in people from all over the country and out of the country. I had a family from Virginia come, and the son wanted to major in Bluegrass. Well, out of all the Admissions Ambassadors, I think I am the only one who has bluegrass experience, as I play six instruments and am part of the Mandolin Orchestra on campus. They had a meeting with the Bluegrass head, so their tour had to be cut short. So, it was a fun experience to be able to give him my personal experience with the program and to show them the specific bluegrass building and practice rooms, something they wouldn’t have gotten if they were with another Ambassador. Overall, I have never had a tour group I did not like. Everyone has a different background and history, but they all are trying to find the college that fits best for them. The fact I get to help with that is such a rewarding and fun experience!
            I thoroughly enjoy getting to play a part in these student’s decisions on their journey through life. I have had students tell me at the end of their tour that, because of the tour, they had decided to come to ETSU. That is such an amazing feeling. To have influenced them so much and showed them why ETSU is a wonderful school to where they decided to become a Buccaneer is so gratifying. I love being an Admissions Ambassador. Despite the snowy, rainy, sleety, or extremely hot days, it is always an amazing two hours of my week to be able to volunteer to tours.


Charlotte's Web Play

            East Tennessee State University’s theatre program this semester did Charlotte’s Web.  I was excited to see it because I had a VHS tape of it that I got out of a McDonald’s Happy Meal back many years ago. I remember after first watching the movie I wanted to grow up to be a spider for a few months because I thought Charlotte was cool. I haven’t watched the tape in years, but watching the play, I remembered a lot of the scenes, and the play was very nostalgic because of this. I also liked hearing what the children sitting around me thought, just because it was a different perspective (they also really liked it, except for this one girl sitting near me, but she was unhappy from the start and just wanted to go get a milkshake). Charlotte’s Web was overall a well-written, well-casted, and well-designed play. From the actors and their mannerisms to the costumes and the set, everything was great. The effects that Charlotte’s actress preformed were probably my favorite part of the whole thing.
            I thought the script was nicely written and that actors and actresses all did a great job preforming it. I liked how it was presented, with all the actors and actresses up on stage at the same time to present it and give insight throughout the play. The script was funny, especially the use of the puns, and the people did a great job delivering it with their facial expressions or dramatic pauses or over-the-top laughing. The play was very nostalgic for me, and throughout the play there were parts that I remembered seeing in on the VCR movie I had. Each person, individually, was chosen very well in my opinion for each part. The young, frizzy haired boy for Wilbur, the boy-ish, sarcastic-sounding girl for Templeton, the big-mouthed, curly-haired, high-pitched girl for the lamb, and the neat, calm girl to play Charlotte. The casting was very good and really made the play.
            The character’s costumes were very well done in my opinion. The costumes were well designed, in the sense that they fit what animal the actors/actresses were portraying, but not so much that they looked ridiculous or were distracting. The costumes also helped add to each character’s personality. Wilbur’s actor wore overalls (which fits the whole farming/agricultural lifestyle) with a pink shirt, brown fingerless gloves, and brown and pink shoes (which gave the idea of hooves). His outfit was playful and quite innocent looking, which helped played into his character. Charlotte’s character wore an all-black outfit that fit snugly with a back hat. Her outfit was very elegant and spider-like, especially when she was still. The goose fit the description of ‘mother goose’. She looked like the storybook mother with a bonnet, apron, and dress. The other bird wore goggles and a scarf, making him look like an early pilot. Templeton’s clothing fit very well, because it didn’t really fit at all. She had splotchy brown clothing with patches sown in, with big pants that made a wide circle around her, fingerless gloves, and simple, flexible black shoes. The older sheep looked like a typical grandmother, with her two canes, large, quilt-like dress, and white poofy hair. The lamb’s outfit fit her character because she was arrogant, young, and energetic with purple and little pom-poms on her shirt that gave the effect of wool. All the animals had hats, too, that helped cover up a little more of the humanness and give an extra flare to the natures of each animal. The family all wore typical clothing of what you would see farmers wear—overalls and flannels and layered simple dresses. Each character’s costume added to their personality and helped to animate them more.
            What added more to each character was the combination of their costumes and also their mannerisms. Wilbur was kind of all over the place with his fast and jumpy words and actions. He did a lot of rolling around and looking in a lot of directions. Charlotte was very graceful, deliberate, and slow in her movements, much like a dancer. She created an elegance about herself and her work. The geese repeated themselves and had light voices. The lambs both had jittery voices, like the baa-ing sound a sheep makes. The younger lamb bounced and jumped a lot, and her facial expressions added to her arrogance, while the older lamb was slow with canes and wisdom with her age. Templeton’s scrunched up, little movements gave her a more rat-like nuance and aloofness, and the way her laughter sounded also added this effect. Overall I thought the actors, actresses, and designers did an amazing job with helping the characters come to life.
            The set was really nice as a whole. I liked how they had their musician up on stage so you could see him. His music was very nice with the guitar, banjo, and violin being use interchangeable to mix things up and give different scenes a different feel and tone. Charlotte’s web was extremely cool, and it was interesting to see how they included the ladder-like set pieces so the actors/actresses could climb around on them. My favorite part of the play was the effects that Charlotte’s actress was able to pull off. The climbing around the spider web in her constantly-fluid motions was really cool. Then, her use of the aerial silk dancing was amazing and perfect with her spider character. I wondered what kind of effects they would use with her spinning her webs, and I was amazed and very excited when I first saw her use the aerial silks. It was really funny, too, because the first time she glided down the silks, the children in the audience gasped and a lot of them were awe-struck about it. Even as I was walking out, I heard some kids say how they wanted to do that and how they would practice the monkey bars to be able to climb on the web like she did.

            Overall, I liked the play very much. It was entertaining and funny while also having some really cool effects. The cast and their costumes added to the play and helped to prevent the fact that most of the play was done by talking animals from ruining the play or making it ridiculous. The set was nice and allowed the characters to enhance their personalities by being able to use it to the extent they did. The script was funny and enjoyable for both children and adults. Though Charlotte’s death was sad, it was nice to see her children being born healthy and also to see that three of them decided to stay at the barn. The theme of friendship and perseverance present in the play left the audience with a warm feeling and hope for the future.