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About Me:

My name is Olivia and I am a senior at Butler University. I spend most of my time in Lilly Hall as a BFA Dance Performance major. When not in rehearsal or ballet class, I write papers for my English Literature second major. In my super-abundant, never-lacking, this-is-highly-sarcastic spare time, I attempt to cook in my apartment kitchen, watch Youtube videos of ballet, knit sweaters that never seem to come to an end, and read books both silly and serious. If I could take any class at Butler just for kicks, I'd go for DiffyQ.

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Posts Tagged “spring break”

The Last Part of the Last Semester

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Olivia

Yikes, this title is like the first second day post at the beginning of the semester.

It’s Monday, and I’m back at Butler after the busiest spring break I have known. I had a wonderful time, but I also didn’t sleep in past 8 o’clock at any point during my break.

  • Sunday: Up early for church before the BalletMet audition
  • Monday: Up waaaay early to catch a plane to Tulsa
  • Tuesday: Up early to prepare for a company class with Tulsa Ballet
  • Wednesday: Up waaaaaaaaaaay early to go to the airport. I was supposed to fly in to Richmond at midnight, but my flight was cancelled, so I had to stay overnight in a hotel near O’Hare. But I bought $10 worth of soft pretzels with the meal voucher the airline gave me… and got to visit my boyfriend for an hour or so, since he’s near Chicago.
  • Thursday: Up early for a breakfast date.
  • Friday: Up early for a coffee date.
  • Saturday: Up early to get a plane back to Butler.
  • Sunday: SLEEP IN TO 8:15!!! (before an audition in Cincinnati)

Now school has started, I can sleep in. Maybe…

So the last part of the last semester. Off with a boom and a bang, we are. Rehearsals, papers, HUGE papers, mini papers, ice cream dates, warm weather, picking up caps and gowns… Everything’s rushing in toward the close.

Also, I have a new phone and can do fancy things like send myself pictures of my sister's guinea pig.

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Spring Break Photo Montage

Posted on March 17, 2012 by Olivia

My spring break in photos:

My friend’s grandmother’s cat in Columbus, OH. This cat was the softest, friendliest animal you could hope to meet.

Huuuuuge plane from Dallas to Tulsa. Forty minutes in the air, and I’m in an airplane larger than the one I rode when I went from Dulles to Ireland. It was rather fun.

Courtyard Marriot hotel in downtown Tulsa — I love the vaguely Asian wallpaper. (I’m linking to them because they were extremely nice, not because they put me up to it.)

Touring Tulsa on foot the night before an audition.

Touring Tulsa on foot the afternoon after an audition. The weather was gorgeous, both in Tulsa, at home, and now back at Butler.

Fancy Crowne Plaza in which United Airlines stuck me after my flight was cancelled and I was stranded in O’Hare airport on my way home.

What I did when I finally arrived home: Hung out with my family and Marcel the Shell.

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Spring Break: The Audition Tour

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Olivia

Spring Break. Lounging on the beach, in the hammock, by the pool, in a tree. All valid and envy-worthy activities.

I shall be traveling the country, looking for a job. Besides visiting BalletMet, Tulsa Ballet, and Cincinnati Ballet, I’ll be rewriting my BSI paper, getting a haircut… and seeing my family! I know lots of other senior dance majors will be doing the audition tour as well.

It’s weird to think this will be my last spring break ever. Though I might complain about being busy all the time, I still have academic calendar breaks. These disappear once I graduate and abruptly begin my tenure as a grown up. I guess I should enjoy the perks of not-quite-adulthood while they last. What has happened to the time?

I’m excited about graduating; I find myself more and more wanting to join what I call “the real world.” At the same time, I know that my grandfather at least thinks college is as good as it gets. I’m sure he’s right. I’m very spoiled here, living with all my friends in a very nice housing unit, doing what I love in a safe environment, etc, etc. Still, I want to hold onto that excitement; if I grow too nostalgic, I think graduating could quickly turn into a dreaded date. I want to look forward to graduating, so I’ll focus on the positive.

Anyway. That last paragraph got away from me. What are you doing for spring break? Butler’s Alternative Spring Break sounds extremely cool, and I just learned that my priest is going to Hawaii.

Spring Break 2011: My family rides the jitney -- I can only hope my three days at home this year are as epic.

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Choreography

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Olivia

I do not have a magic skill with choreography. I’m constantly amazed and inspired upon viewing my classmates’ choreographic work in class, but I just don’t have a natural gift with cranking out phrases. Who knows, maybe my classmates spend hours working on their movement in their kitchens as well. I’m taking a lunch break, but as soon as I’ve finished this post, it’s back to hopping around. I’m so close to finishing, too!

Dance performance BFA majors at Butler must take Choreography I and Choreography II. Choreography III is an elective course for those who chose to take it. Last semester’s Choreography I concentrated on producing and manipulating movement, with interesting results:

The project I will soon finish is for Choreography II; I am choreographing a solo to a short track of music–my second full work. (The first was Student Choreography.) I’m using the second section of Stravinsky’s “Three Pieces,” which starts at about 50 seconds in the video below.

YouTube Preview Image

And that’s how I’m ending my spring break. Better get back to work! [UPDATE: I'm done! I've been working on this project all week, and now it's finished! Yaaay!]

P.S. If you don’t know XKCD, you lead a sad existence.

P.P.S. For the record, I drew stick figure comics BEFORE I started reading XKCD.  Just want to put that out there.

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Book bribery

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Olivia

Why, why, did I end up with so much homework during Spring Break? While I procrastinate, I will share a few tricks I have discovered to make homework seem, if not easier, than at least surmountable.

How to bribe oneself to do schoolwork during what is supposed to be an academic vacation:

1. Music. I have a classical music CD I love to listen to, since it reminds me of fun times and awesome people. I only listen to it while I’m writing papers. If I want to hear the pretty sounds, I have to craft the pretty words.

2. Food. If I cannot have lunch until I’ve finished a chapter of reader or a paragraph of writing, well… By now I hope you have ascertained the depth of my love for food.

3. Isolation. Who went to the library Monday of spring break? That’s right.

4. Company. If my sisters do their homework, I must do mine. I can’t do anything else for fear of distracting them. Also, there will then be witnesses to my procrastination. I even had a Skype-enabled homework party with a fellow Butler student today.

5. Books. I’m sure you have heard the sad news about Borders filing for bankruptcy. If not, do so now. There’s a whole host of problems facing the publishing industry, but that is probably fodder for another post, another day. My dad and I visited the Borders location nearby that was holding its closing sale. Those empty shelves… heartbreaking. However, I got some lovely new books I’ve wanted to read for long lengths of time: since the summer, since last November, and since two years ago.

I can’t read any of them until I finish my long paper. I guess I should return to the task. Happy spring break, everyone.

http://nnedi.com/about.html

Post-Apocalyptic Africa.

Pirate- zombie- steampunk-adventures during the American Civil War

(actually, not purchased from Borders) Meta-textual humor. Have been waiting for ages for its US publication.

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College vs. High School: Spring Break Edition

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Olivia

Welcome to College versus High School: The Spring Break Edition! Today we shall examine the differences between spring break pre-college and spring break during college.

High School: All your friends from school have the same week off for spring break. Spring trip? Hanging out? Typical mayhem? Yes, yes, and yes. Then again, is it a break if you do the same things you normally do all week?

College: Your friends from home may or may not have the same spring break as you do. Lunches and reunions take a bit more planning but are ultimately more satisfying. If your family has moved since high school days? Nobody’s around.

High School: Visiting friends or going on trips without family? Possible, but your parents probably want you to stick close to home.

College: Your parents miss you, but as a slightly more responsible college student, there are more opportunities for service trips, staying with friends, and alternative break activities. Butler University has a Alternative Spring Break program, as do many other universities.

2006Group 2009Trail

High School: Unless you are traveling with family or friends, expect the same weather as always.

College: Attending an out-of-state university means you’ll be going somewhere else. In my case, I go to humid Richmond, Virginia, where my grandmother was working in her garden the day it was negative eight and I don’t have to wear multiple pairs of pants.

High School: Siblings, provided you have them, also have vacation. This may result in arguments over car use, sibling bonding time, or even a family trip.

College: Your siblings may or may not have the spring break you do, with a higher probability of the “may not” result. This means you have mornings free to catch up on homework, but it also partially negates the whole “getting to see my family again” aspect of break. Try not to distract them too much while they are doing their homework.

High School: You may or may not have homework assigned over break, but most teachers are pretty good about giving you some freedom from academic responsibilities.

College: This post is an excuse not to finish my two-page paper, my ten-page paper, my three-page paper, my choreography solo, my choreography duet, my class schedule for next semester, various essays for the Butler Catholic Community, and a play. I did finish half of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner during my plane rides yesterday and my breakfast this morning.

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Pre-Spring Break

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Olivia

The week before spring break? Not so relaxing. I lucked out in that I don’t have any midterms due this week, like many other college students. I even discovered many of my projects will be due after spring break. While I want to get most of that done before break starts so I can enjoy being home with my family, it takes the pressure off this week.

What’s going on:

  • Sleeping Beauty rehearsals
  • Mardi Gras party at the Blue House with the Butler Catholic Community. There’s a great Cajun Creole restaurant nearby called YATS. I ate a lot of YATS last night. Then I did homework.
  • Paper on Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables due today (Wednesday). I’m still finishing the reading on Emerson.
  • The usual two-paper analysis for my Romanticism class tomorrow on William Blake’s “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.” I got a bit worked up during the discussion on Tuesday, and I hope I’ll be more coherent tomorrow.
  • I’m working on a 10-page Emily Dickinson paper for the EN 185 class that’s due after/during break. (Don’t worry, would-be English majors! I’m the TA; You don’t need this paper for your normal Intro to the Discipline of English class. Everyone else will write a three page response to a poem.)
  • I have a choreography solo, a dance history paper, and a dance history midterm the week we return.

Even though I do not have too much due this week, I need to start my other projects so Spring Break will be somewhat relaxing. Does anyone else end up with homework-heavy vacations?

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