B-town

Last week I found myself once again in Bloomington, this time for college orientation and to register for classes. In some ways, this visit to B-town was less stressful than others, because this time, I knew I was going to the university and the Jacobs School in the fall. The program was two days long, although I believe everything could have been squeezed into one day.

Thursday I retook the music theory placement test to see if I could get a better score and test out of one of the classes. Afterwords, a large group of incoming freshman Jacobs students were taken from program to program, telling us things from how to use our student id card to how to use our brain and not be attacked. There were more placement tests to be taken as well. Everyone took a math test, which was simple algebra that I couldn't do. Out of the 26 questions, I remembered how to do about 5 of them, and I don't think any of them were correct. The German test was much more doable, but a few minutes into it I felt like I was going to throw up. The base of my skull throbbed and my head was spinning, and I found myself looking at the same question for about three minutes at a time. I left about half-way through and sat in the bathroom, but nothing happened, and I returned and finished the test. Somehow I almost tested out of the first semester of German, so I'll be taking an accelerated German course, which is basically two semesters of German into one.

I spent some time both days with friends of mine that go to IU. Thursday night my parents and I met up with a friend from Youtheatre and walked around B-town. We passed John Mellencamp on Kirkwood smoking a cigarette; he's shorter than me. Friday in between my piano test and registering for classes, I got together with Laura and her friend Marla for a few hours. Speaking of piano, I tested out of all of the piano classes and the proficiency test, taking a huge chunk out of the courses I'm required to take. I've heard tales of horror about amazing musicians who are terrified they won't graduate because they can't pass the piano test. My academic advisor tried to recruit me to be an accompanist, but I'm nowhere near that level.

I also had the chance to see a room in the dorm I'm living in. The room is at least twice the size of the rooms in TJ, with nicer furniture and lights that actually illuminate the room, and the walls looked like they had been painted in the last ten years. In other words, it won't be like living in a jail cell.

So, I'm officially a college student. There are still some things that I need to take care of, but for the most part, I'm ready for IU!