Making a New Home

I can't believe its been almost three months since I last posted here. The semester has really flown by. I'm still going through the cultural adjustment, but things are definitely starting to level out. The seminary itself is beginning to feel like a second home and I'm making good friends, enjoying classes and learning a lot.

Back in October, I made a trek back to my undergrad college town to see friends and attend a couple concerts. The trip was too short and fast, but just what I needed. It also made me realize that as much as I love Fredonia, love the people there and miss them terribly, it is not really my home anymore. Not the way that it was six months ago when I was preparing to leave it. I will always be able to return and remember, even after all my friends are graduated and gone. It was always be a part of what I am today, but it is not my home anymore. Grand Rapids isn't quite yet my home either. It will never be home the same way Fredonia or Wappingers was, because they are all different places. I'm starting to understand that's okay.

My apartment is much smaller than anything else I've lived in, but on the flip side, a bit nicer. I will also not have any roommates other than my cat. I'm still lacking a couch, not finding anything within my price range that I like. In its place, I'm using a folding camping chair covered with a comforter. Its interesting and makes entertaining limited to the floor and dining room table. One of the wonderful things about my apartment is the working wood-burning fireplace in my living room. I've already used it twice this season and its quite lovely. During the Christmas season in Fredonia, the cable company provided a channel that had the Yuletide log burning and played Christmas carols. I remember many nights sitting in that living room with my friends with my Christmas records playing, while we all sang along, and the TV fire and Christmas lights twinkling away. This year, I can have a real fire!

For those wondering, I'm spending Thanksgiving with family out here, but will be back in NY for Christmas and New Years. As I've reminded my mother for the past three years, this may be my last Christmas in NY for a while. She just smiles and says, "We'll see." For this year at least, she gets her Christmas wish and I will be back.

Beannachd leat.

Transition and Adjustment

Moving is always a big event for me it seems. Not just the packing, then unpacking but then also the adjustment to a new place. Finding the grocery store, the parking lot, that kitchen spoon you thought you packed...

I'm finally in MI and hoping to have some exciting pictures and information to post soon. Orientation to the Seminary started last week and Adjustment to Grand Rapids only a few days before. I went from a tiny town in western NY with 3 grocery stores to a big city in western MI with around 300 grocery stores. Maybe not quite, but it certainly feels that way at times. The eight miles I travel from my apartment to the seminary is 6 miles longer than the entire length of my little western NY town.

Adjustments.

I went from a section of NY that had few, if any Reformed churches within a hour radius to a section of MI that has more Reformed churches within that same hour radius that I could visit within a year.

Adjustments.

Its not culture shock, just culture adjustment. And as the seminary semester has not really started, I'm still in transition. One more week of orientation and then the schedule will settle out a bit.

And I'm actually not scared anymore! Look for pictures and more information about seminary life in coming posts.

Beannachd leat.

Good News of February

Recital Poster

February seemed to be a good month for me.  On Monday, February 16th, I performed my senior performance recital on both oboe and English horn.  Unfortunately, I was sick with a cold and head congestion which made things a little more difficult and often times rather interesting.  But I was still able to get through the recital.  My dress  was absolutely beautiful and I am currently trying to find another place to wear it!  I don't have pictures yet as my camera was not used, but hopefully will soon from others!  My parents came out on Sunday after their church service and we enjoyed a late dinner.  Monday was spent preparing for the recital and reception following.  My aunt and uncle from Rochester were kind enough to bring their chocolate fountain and supply chocolate for the reception.  My mother brought another fountain from a colleague at work.  I was almost more excited about the reception than the recital itself.  In attendance at the recital were my oboe studio and other various school friends, along with members from my local church.  I was so excited to see everyone.  As a special surprise, my Aunt Kathy and her two sons, Matthew and Tim, drove from Indianapolis to see me and attend the recital.  I loved being able to share the night with all my friends and family.  It meant so much.

The other exciting news of February is my acceptance to Calvin Theological Seminary.  This past Thursday, I was at church doing some work with the secretary and received a phone call from a young man named Eric, who introduced himself as my student ambassador.  He is a second-year Master of Arts student and was very pleasant.  He encouraged me to attend the Seminary Preview Day in March, which is an opportunity to visit the campus and meet with professors and other students.  I was somehow curious as to why I would be assigned a student ambassador before I had been accepted into the seminary.  On a hunch, I checked my email from the church computer, and there in my inbox was the acceptance email.  I immediately called my parents and told them the good news.  I have some place to go in the fall!  In Friday's mail, I received the official letter in the mail along with other information.  The Seminary Preview Day happens to fall on the Friday of my spring break, so I'm preparing for another road trip west!  I'm excited about this new chapter opening in my life.  There is a lot I will miss about Fredonia, and western New York in general.  But I am ready to move on, step forward into the future.  This semester cannot end soon enough!

The last good thing about February was the surprisingly warm temperatures which melted all of the snow from January before my parents arrived for the recital.  This is a picture of my deck, looking out my kitchen doors, with the snow at about its deepest.  

It would melt down, and more snow would then arrive.  Now there is brown grass and though it tries to snow, its rarely very successful.  Dunkirk Dan, New York's famous groundhog, predicted an early spring and so far he seems to be right on.  We've had days in the 50s where I've barely needed a coat to go outside.  I believe 50 degrees in always warmed at the end of winter than the end of summer.  Temperature is relative, and even the high 20s we've had this week seem pleasant.  Here's to hoping the snow is done for the season!

Beannachd leat.

2009 Update

Mom's beautiful living room decorations

Its now a few weeks into 2009, and so far I'm pretty happy with this new year!  The days leading up to Christmas were, as usual, a whirlwind of rehearsals, arranging music, hugs, kisses, how've-you-beens and finally the Christmas Eve services.  As hectic and stressful as the holidays can be, I can't imagine not doing what we do.  I can't remember a Christmas Eve where my parents and I weren't involved in the services or running around, driving each other insane.  That is part of our tradition.  Christmas Day is to slow down and relax, watch the fire and spend all day opening presents.  And when I say all day, I mean all day.  Granted we didn't get started until about noon time with the stockings.  Staying out until 2 in the morning does not make anyone want to get up early, even with all the presents under our tree.  With phone calls from family and a prime rib dinner, the last present wasn't opened until quarter to ten.  That too, is part of our tradition.  As much as I love receiving gifts, I also love watching my parents' faces as they 

open the presents I've bought them.  Or the presents I know they've gotten for each other.  All part of our family tradition.

And so, Christmas came and went.  Katie Morag survived the Two Grandmothers, and did enjoy the time she spent with them.  As a present to them, and myself, my parents sent us to Mohonk for the day.  We had lunch and spent time enjoying the decorations around the house.  I love the views of the lake and all the little lounges with wood-burning fireplaces.  We stayed after lunch and had afternoon tea before returning home.  It was a lovely day for just us to spend together.

A few days later, my Aunt Judy flew into town to surprise her mother.  She stayed until New Years.  Mom, Grandma and I drove to the airport, not tell where we were going.  Grandma's face was priceless when the car door opened and there stood her youngest daughter.  We then drove to the city to visit a cousin who is a Jesuit priest and enjoyed lunch with him.  From there, we scooted across the river to Jersey and stopped at my grandfather's grave.  Also buried in that graveyard are his parents and grandparents.

Slight digression for a little family history.  My grandfather's grandfather was a man named Gustav Wasmer, who was born in June of 1855.  His mother, Maria married a man named Urban Baier in March of 1855.  For reasons unknown, Gustav took his mother's maiden name of Wasmer instead of her married name.  Urban and Maria went on to have six other children who took the Baier name.  This leads us to believe that Urban was not Gustav's real father.  This many years later, we don't know the circumstances that led up to these choices.  Maria's choice not to abort the baby or even abandon it after it was born.  Urban's choice to marry a woman who must have clearly been pregnant, and then their decision to give Gustav the surname Wasmer.  Yet those choices are why we are not Baier, or the Americanized Beyer, but rather Wasmer.

Sarah, an oboe friend from college, arrived the evening that my grandmothers left to partake in the New Years festivities.  I had a few other friends from high school over as well and we watched Cinematic Titanic's Santa Claus Conquers the Martians before watching the ball drop at midnight.  I have spent the past four or five New Years with the same group of friends and it is always enjoyable.  Sarah and I spent Friday in the city, visiting all the tourist spots - Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Lincoln Center, Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  We walked a lot, and had an excellent time.  The picture is taken from the top of Rockefeller Center looking towards the Empire State Building, all lit up for Christmas.

The next week was a bit more relaxed, as the house was finally empty.  Except for Mother who enjoyed another snow day.  I finally returned to Fredonia on Saturday, dodging around the winter storm and other bad weather.  The entire next week I practiced and organized and unpacked.  It snowed every single day and the temperature stayed in single digits, positive AND negative.  So I kept to the apartment as much as I could.  This picture is taken at one of the docks into Lake Erie.  I'm not sure if the entire lake is frozen yet, but considering that it keeps snowing, I don't think it is!

Yesterday I finished the last piece of my seminary application.  So now the waiting begins.  Thankfully, I have plenty to keep me busy with my recital hearing next week and the actual recital in February.

Speaking of my recital, I should go practice again.

Beannachd leat.