Wine and BEER!

Where do I begin? First, an apology for the extended absence. I have found myself in a state of shock the past few days as I came to the realization that I am in fact still taking classes and thus have work to do. So I've been reacquainting myself with the place called the library and an action called studying. We're going through a rough relationship at the moment. Second, a brief shout out to Julia. She gave me the title for this post!

Theology of the Musical has gotten more interesting. We sing pretty regularly. Singing is approached as if we all have this vast knowledge of every musical written and can recall the score to any song at a moment's notice. Well this is not the case for most normal human beings. The result is the American students sitting in a state of amused shock (or is it shocked amusement?) while the rest of the class and the professor sing. Loudly. And off key. Our Colgate professor's office is just down the hall, and she can hear us. I feel very sorry for her. Here's the thing with this class. I have noticed that some of the things brought up in class are points I had not previously considered. I played the trumpet book for Fiddler on the Roof my senior year of high school. To me it was an amazingly fun and challenging experience. But even after going through weeks of rehearsals and performances I considered Fiddler just another fun musical. I didn't realize how much talk and song about God was in the show. So in that respect, I have learned something from the class. I've reconsidered how morals and theology are transmitted in a popular medium. My issue with the class stems from its singular focus on the lyrics. I think musicals derive their power not only from lyrics, but from the musical setting. Unfortunately, this is not his area of expertise, so we must resign ourselves to a lyrical analysis. The class would be much more interesting (and probably effective) if it were taught in a single week. We could meet for a few hours each day and probably learn everything we'll be learning this semester. Oh well. It is fun to listen to the class sing.

So, the wine and beer part. The drinking age here is 18, so all of us are legal. It also means that there are a lot of university-sponsored wine receptions. Yesterday was one such reception. The Divinity school sponsored a Welcome Event (yes, 5 weeks in to the semester) for the Colgate and Baylor students. There was a lot of wine. A lot of wine. Basically my whole group quickly got drunk. Luckily I don't like wine, so I had a class and then was content with juice. But let me tell you, drunk people are amusing.

So this wine reception was followed by trivia at a local pub. My team is Lauren, Brandon, Professor Frank, her husband Jeff and their friend Claire. We got to the pub early to save a table. I ordered a beer. (Belhaven beer, it's wonderful and you have to try it.) Professor Frank arrived, after having been at our reception and visiting another along the way. When she arrived she ordered a round. So two beers down and the night had just begun. I was again content with my two pints of beer. Figured that was enough for me. Brandon doesn't drink, so he was my sober companion. Not that everyone else was necessarily drunk, but they were certainly on their way. The stories that get told around the trivia are exceedingly amusing. I unfortunately can't replicate them here.

Trivia ended around 11, and we stayed for another 45 minutes or so talking. I'm not sure how much of our conversations (or the night, for that matter) will be remembered by the parties involved, but I know for next time to bring my camera. Also, we won second place! It was kind of a miracle. Just to put our win into perspective, when we didn't know the answer to one of the questions, our first instinct was to write "F&*% that" as our answer. This was to be a theme during the night. So our win was quite unexpected. Our prize was a large bottle of "Apple Sourz". This stuff is grass colored liquid that apparently tastes like apple. I've been told it is very deadly. And it is green. Definitely don't want to drink anything that color. I also thought it was amusing that the night ended with us winning more alcohol. Like we needed any more.

So the night taught me that Colgate kids can't hold their wine. No real surprise there. It also reaffirmed my dislike of wine. I also learned that senior happy hour next year at Donovan's pub at Colgate is going to be a lot of fun. I also learned that the "D" in "D-Day" stands for Day. A day well spent.