Oberlin is very small. everyone told me that, but i didnt really think it would be this small! i mean, it's relatively normal sized for a town in the 1950's or something (which is about as modern as the architecture gets too) and not much has changed since then. there's the same old vintage movie theater, old buildings, "downtown" shops, etc. it's kind of an odd mixture, because the college is in the middle of the town and is a mash of old or retro and new/modern buildings. it's one of those funny little towns where everyone seems to be so bored with the ordinary people they see every day that if you're new they will talk your ear off. literally. driving into town i got that going-to-visit-grandma feeling. you know what i mean? how it seems like no matter how many years go by, everything will be the same and stay that way. tradition! the bed and breakfast i'm staying in even has that grandma's house smell.
it's definitely the house of a collector. there are thousands of pig figures (who knows why, havent asked for fear of never leaving) tea pots, and clocks. i feel like i flew out of san francisco and landed in Alice in Wonderland. the clocks especially annoy me. purely because they are all those loud old tick-y ones that chime on the hour and half hour (2 even chime on the 15 and 45) BUT because they all chime and "sound so beautiful" they're all set at about 2 minutes apart. so one chime say for 5 o'clock could last 15 minutes, at which point it's time for the next set of chimes to start. i was sitting in the living room after class today and seriously counted 8 clocks. JUST IN THE LIVING ROOM!!!!!! the couple who own the house are nice though. definitely those talk your ear off folk, but nice. and they live 2 blocks from the school, which is very nice. (when i say they live 2 blocks away, just bare in mind that i believe the farthest away one can live is 5 blocks away. so it's not like you're gonna need a car to drive to class or anything.)
On that note, i had my first, and only, class of the day. it was a lot of fun actually, and pulled me out of my i-dont-like-this-small-town funk a bit. it was a class with all the students from a voice teacher, lorraine manz. all of the females who sang were mezzo soprano's, but most had an amazing, pure tone. there was only one girl who had a bit too much tremolo and was a bit flat, but i learned after class that she was sick with a bad cold. as a coloratura soprano, i was wondering most of the class what i would sound like if i studied with her, or if she just took mezzo's. she had a few tenors as well, and it was fun listening to the difference in tone between the men and women.
they are (all the students i've met or watched) are very intense about their art though. almost everything they talk about has to do with pronunciation, diction, beats per measure, tone, pitch, what one teacher says versus another on a certain piece, etc. it was nice to see a bit of a change for a few minutes before class when one boy started playing some jazz and a girl started swaying back and forth to the music, and another group started laughing hysterically at a SNL video of Lonely Island they were watching on someone's laptop. it was a good change of pace, and helped me see that they aren't just business and one track. i mean, they're still unbelievably focused, which is intimidating, but they're also juniors and seniors, and i would be a freshman.... so maybe the intensity comes with time and practice? i dont know.
anyway, more later.
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