An Oberlin Day in Pictures

When I applied to college I didn't get the chance to visit very many schools. College guidebooks, the internet, and word of mouth all helped paint a picture of certain schools in my mind, but what I really wanted was to see what a school looked like. Every admissions page I went to had a number of highly stylized photos of bucolic quads, imposing old libraries, immaculately clean dorm rooms, and high-tech classrooms, none of which left me feeling like I'd really seen the school. (I consider myself a reasonably neat person and even I don't make my bed with hospital corners.)

So I spent today walking around with my camera taking a few pictures of what Oberlin looks like on a regular day. Hopefully this spattering of photos helps inform your aesthetic understanding of Oberlin; they may also, by way of reflection, give you some idea of what a weekday at Oberlin might entail.

This is my room, a single in Langston, the northmost dormitory on campus:

This is Langston ("North," in Obie vernacular) from the outside:

My 10:00 classroom; the class a composition seminar focusing on experimental music:

My 11:00 class, a music history lecture in an auditorium usually reserved for smaller, more intimate concerts:

Stevenson, one of the two major dining halls on campus:

With a little ingenuity, a garden burger and some other loose ingredients can turn into a pretty good lunch:

After lunch I had a coached rehearsal at Hales with a piano trio I'm drumming in this semester:

Drummer extraordinaire and ensemble coach Paul Samuels showing me how to make music that actually sounds good:

Then it was on to Aural Skills (ear training class). Not the best picture I took all day; at the time, I was a bit preoccupied with hastily finishing a transcription that was due. Nevertheless:

One of the nicest spots on campus (so much for that earlier bit about not showing off the pristine, pastoral parts of the college), the koi pond in front of the conservatory:

Then I went and "did work" (read: napped) on the lawn in front of my dorm. I was so entranced by my "work" that I didn't even bother to push my prone torso out of the frame of the shot. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon:

Now this next one I took on my way to my practice room (where I spent four--yes, four--hours tonight) and it needs an explanation. What looks to you like an unsightly construction site looks to me like an unsightly construction site that will, in 8-12 months, be the new jazz building:

And my practice room, a home away from home (cave away from cave? den of self-flagellation away from den of self-flagellation?):

My motivational ribbons on the wall in front of me:

That's it for the day. Very music-heavy compared to what a normal double-degree day might entail, but I only have one non-conservatory class this semester and it's a seminar that meets Wednesday nights. Hope that's been helpful and please let me or any of the other bloggers know if there's anything on campus you're interested in seeing.

(As a post script I can't help but briefly mention the show my band recently played at the Grog Shop in Cleveland. The show was great fun and a lot of our friends here at Oberlin made the trip out to see us play, for which we are forever grateful. One of the bands we opened for, Stars Like Fleas, played at the 'Sco a few nights after the Grog Shop show and slept in the basement of Fairchild co-op. Talk about a welcoming community.)