A Nashville Fall Break
This fall break I decided to stay on campus for a few reasons. The main reason was that there was really no point in going home for 4 days when my friends are at school across the country. Another reason is that my parents and my brother are coming to Nashville next weekend for family weekend! And last but certainly not least, most of my midterms are next week, so I wanted to take some time to prepare and start studying for them. Although I still have one night left on my Nashville fall break, so far it has been both relaxing and fun!
On Thursday, I spent my day working at the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. I normally work around 12-15 hours a week, but because Vanderbilt was off both Thursday and Friday, I wanted to squeeze in a few extra hours. After work on Thursday, a few of my friends and I decided to watch some scary movies on a big projector screen in Buttrick (an academic building) to celebrate the coming of Halloween. The first movie we watched was The Collector, a movie about a serial killer who traps a family inside of a house and tortures them one by one. It was very similar to the movie Saw, and although it was a little too gory for me, my friends and I all still enjoyed it. The second movie we watched is one of my all time favorites, Halloween. This classic 70’s film follows the psychotic murder Michael Meyers as he escapes from a mental institution and heads to his home town to stalk and kill a teenage girl and her friends. This eerie slasher film is a must for all scary movie fans! Finally, we concluded our movie night with Paranormal Activity. I had never seen this film before, but it was one was one of the scariest movies I had ever seen. The movie follows around a couple who are haunted by some supernatural force inside their home. What was cool about Paranormal Activity, was that it was presented in the style of “found footage” which means that all of the footage from the movie comes from the characters recording it on their own personal camcorder. This style really makes you feel like you are actually apart of the movie with the characters, which helped make the movie much scarier. This Halloween movie night was great way to hang out with my friends who had stayed behind for this fall break.
Again on Friday, I spent my day working at the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. I also gave my first solo tour (!) to a group of about 20 prospective students and their families. On Friday night, my best friend Mason and I, decided to see the Nashville Symphony Orchestra (NSO) perform Beethoven’s Fifth. The NSO is housed in the beautiful Schermerhorn Symphony Center, which is located right in the heart of downtown Nashville. We decided to take Vanderbilt’s free “Beyond the Bubble Bus” which picked us up on campus at 7:30, and brought us downtown right in time for the show at 8. Unlike most traditional Symphony halls, the Schermerhorn has a set of seats that are directly behind the orchestra, which is where our seats were. Online these seats were being sold for $60-$100, but because of the Soundcheck program and Schermerhorn’s commitment to get college students exposed to the arts, our amazing seats were only $10. I repeat, $10!!! The first act, NSO played Haydn – Symphony No. 31- “Hornsignal” and Stephen Paulus – Three Places of Enlightenment. After intermission they played Beethoven’s famous Symphony Number 5. As two people who played in an orchestra in high school, both Mason and I were absolutely blown away by NSO’s performance. It was an absolutely astonishing performance inside a beautiful concert hall, and I am eager to see NSO perform again as soon as possible! After the performance, we had a great japanese dinner at Ichiban, a sushi bar located downtown. I had some great vegetarian sushi and tofu tempura. Although I can not get enough of the amazing food that we have here at Vanderbilt, it’s always nice to grab dinner off campus every once and while!
Although there is still one last night of break left, I will be spending it in the library preparing for all of the work I have ahead of me next week. But fortunately after all my midterms, I will get to spend the whole weekend with my parents and my older brother! Until next time!