One of my friends is a new grad student in the department this semester. She drives from Yankton, but is gracious enough to pick me up, so I don't have to walk, or, worse, waste gas driving, the one mile to campus. Her favorite color is purple, and in my gratitude for a ride, I made her a lanyard for clinic. (Actually, she doesn't want anything for picking me up, but she also needed a lanyard, and she didn't want me to make one for free.)
This weekend we had a workshop for gamelan (check out the "audio postcard" on the linked page to hear our director and members talk about the music) at the National Music Museum on campus. I joined the group this semester, having been invited by my supervisor, who is a long-time member of the gamelan ensemble. I usually play the saron, and for this weekend, we worked on interlocking melodies, where two sarons play on different beats, creating a melody between them. Our Javanese gamelan instructor came from Minneapolis for a whole weekend to teach about the music and culture of Indonesia. It was relaxing and informative, and I didn't even miss doing my homework.
-吴碧芙
