Holding Strong

            Being a freshman and spending my first year at Penn State I didn’t know what to expect. I have heard so many good things about Happy Valley and never anything bad. Sure enough, after spending only two months here I was nothing but happy. Everywhere I went people we nice to me and always smiling. I was never to a Penn State football game before and it only took me one game to realize how big of a deal they are down here. The fans go crazy, and the stadium fills up so fast. JoePa is an icon for Penn State and is a legend. Penn State idolizes JoePa and everywhere I looked I saw anything you can imagine having to deal with the Penn State pride Happy Valley is full of. Walking through McLanahan’s I see Penn State slippers, spatulas, scarves, golf balls, foam finger…anything you can imagine. The pride this university possesses is unbelievable. The students, alumni, and fans are all followers of this “cult” and JoePa is their leader.

         I remember sitting at my first game and thinking how crazy it was that there were over 70,000 people out at Beaver Stadium to watch a football game. Upon seeing Joepa for the first time, I thought to myself how wonderful it was that he was so old, but it was his passion and love for the game, players, and fans that kept him going.

         After finding out about the scandal I felt confused, embarrassed, and upset. I was upset because Joepa is getting so much attention drawn to him, and the media is portraying him as being a terrible person. The way the media portrays him makes people actually think that it was JoePa that raped the children, not Sandusky . The riots really confused America because they happened right when the world was notified that JoePa had been fired. A lot of people were still uninformed about what was going on, and the riots were the first thing that they saw. Students got a out of hand, and their rioting made people believe that there cared so much about football and not at all about the victims. In my opinion, I feel that the riots were just an impulsive act. They were not aimed toward the victims or case in any way. I feel that upon finding out that President Spanier and legendary Joe Paterno were fired outraged students. Both of these people ran Penn State. They represented Penn State and were the two people at State College students looked up to most.

         I feel that people associate us with rude, crazy, immoral behavior. By holding the vigil, I feel that Penn State made a point and delivered the message that we are more than a party school or school that riots or is football crazed. It showed that we care. We are Penn State and we are here and want to help.

         Overall, I feel like the media got too involved and for the wrong reasons. They weren't even talking much about Sandusky or the victims. People aren’t even educated that well on the crime. It is sad how one man’s sick mind and nauseating acts make others view Penn State as a bad place. It was one man’s bad decisions. I don’t appreciate the jokes made about Penn State, the South Park episode, and comments. Majority of the people do not what is going on exactly. Who are they to open their mind and go off on a matter that they aren’t even well educated in?  It is embarrassing because people are blowing things out of portion and making JoePa seem like a rapist as well as the Penn State community. That is embarrassing to me because it is most certainly a lie. I hate the fact that one man’s actions is effecting our university so much.

         All of this going on my freshman year really affects me. It showed me how people could be very impulsive and go crazy as demonstrated by the riots. It also showed me how thousands of students can come together for a good cause as seen in the vigil.

         Reading Housely’s article summed up exactly how I feel. I am still proud to be a Penn Stater. I still wouldn’t imagine a better place for me to attend school.  I do not want to leave Happy Valley and still wear my blue and white with pride. I love the point he makes about Happy Valley saying that 99% of people are doing the right thing. I also like how he mentions that people are in their own little bubble or world here at State College. We don’t commonly see bad things happening and are so absorbed into this “Happy Valley”. An event such as this scandal is scarring and I completely agree with Houseley. The Penn State community is definitely in its own little bubble from my perspective. Therefore, something awful like this happening seems shocking.  I think Penn State will eventually be calm again and things will settle down. Regardless of what sort of situation our Happy Valley gets itself into, I will always be proud to call myself a Penn Stater. 

Kiss Me Kate !

     I have never heard of the Playhouse Theatre or Kiss me Kate. Being a freshman I feel it is important for me to get acquainted with the campus. After all, this will be my home for the next four years. I didn’t really know what to expect. I couldn’t even find the Playhouse Theatre at first. I was anxious to see what this musical was about and enjoy a day at Penn State different from my typical Saturday, which consists of sleep, homework, and the football game.

            I haven’t really been exposed to that many live theatre performances. My high school’s drama club put on the only plays I saw. The drama club did a really nice job considering they weren’t professionals, and had to balance schoolwork and preparing for a show. I give them a lot of respect. It takes a lot of time to memorize lines, design sets, and do all the work that goes into a show. Some of the performances I saw included: Into the Woods, Pirates of Penzance, Romeo and Juliet, and Annie. Of all of these, I really enjoyed Annie. A few of my friends were in the musical so it was cool to see them dressed up as a character and at times I even forgot that they were my friend because they played their character so well. I loved the set they designed for scenes in New York in Annie. There were skyscrapers, bright lights, and it looked just like the city.

            Kiss me Kate contrasted a lot with the plays I have seen before. I thought the sets and scenery all looked so good and you could really tell a lot of time went into them. My high school drama club’s sets were nice, but Kiss Me Kate’s were a whole different level. They were more sophisticated, professional, and realistic. The costumes were also a lot better. Clearly my school’s drama club didn’t have that much money to give toward costumes and usually the same costume was worn throughout the entire play for the same character.  Sometimes the main character would get two outfits. Kiss me Kate had many characters with several different outfits. Also, everything ran together a lot more smoothly and the choreography was ten times better than that of which I have been exposed to. I thought all of the dances were beautiful. There were a lot of nice lifts, and even the male actors they did wonderful ballet and I really enjoyed watching it. I didn’t really expect to see choreography that great. Everyone was on time and together as well. It was wonderful.

            Honestly, I am not really into musicals. They aren’t my forte and I would much rather go see a movie in the cinema with my friends or watch a sporting event. I did enjoy Annie, however, which says a lot, because I don’t really enjoy sitting through musicals. The songs always are stuck in my head for the rest of the week and I sometimes have trouble following the plot and keeping up with the characters.  Kiss me Kate lived up in some ways to my feelings on musicals. I thought the play was somewhat confusing but I understood most of it. There were a few scenes in the Act 2 that I really had to concentrate and think about in order to understand because the play kept flip flopping between the play and the play within the play. I loved the dancing though. I thought it was beautiful and it was a pleasure to watch and that’s honestly what kept me going and interested in the play. Whenever I would become confused, frustrated, or didn’t understand part of the play I would instantly become at ease and relaxed whenever the actors would break out into come chorography accompanying a song.

            I have never seen The Taming of the Shrew, which may also be a factor as to why I felt confusion at times throughout the play. I felt that the performance was well done but there were obviously some scenes I think that they could have done a little bit differently that would have made the message clearer. I was confused during the scene with Bianca in the second act “Always true to my Fashion, “ and concerning the money situation. I also think that the whole concept of the gambling issue was confusing and how it was resolved.

            My favorite parts were definitely the chorography and I loved “I Hate Men”. Lilli was very passionate during it. I also thought that the “Tom, Dick, or Harry” scene was good and full of lots of nice dancing and clearly you can tell a lot of time and effort went into practicing it. Overall, I give the choreography two thumbs up and the play was good, just not for me. 

flowers galore

            I really enjoyed going to the Arboretum.  It was beautiful, relaxing, and a nice break from the stressful school week. My partner and I walked around and discovered a lot of interesting and beautiful flowers, trees, wildlife, and landscaping. At the beginning of class we were asked to name a couple things we thought were necessary for something to have in order to be considered art. In my opinion, I believe something needs to be inspirational. Someone needs to be inspired to create something or something needs to bring inspiration to those that look at it.  Another quality I think that defines “art” is its ability to provoke emotions. I think “art” should make you feel a certain way. When you look at something it should make you feel happy, sad, depressed, excited, nervous, content, etc. I also think that art should be diverse and unique. I don’t really associate common things, like blades of grass, as art. For me art should be beautiful, something that captures your attention and makes you go “wow”.

            Walking around I found many things that fit my criteria for “art”. One thing in particular I found was a tree that in the back, behind the building where we met. This tree was certainly unique. It had a bunch of branches that were twisted in many directions and each curve was different. The tree just created an overall mysterious, melancholy mood. Upon discovering this tree today, I remember turning around after we were instructed to go off on our own with a partner and explore, and thinking about how cool that tree looks. I have never seen a tree like that before. Each branch was wildly branching out in it’s own direction. It was if they all had a crazy mind of their own.

            Another thing I discovered and was moved by was the water fountain when I was walking it. It was just so beautiful, and relaxing. It is the perfect thing to look at to calm you down and get inspiration from. The flow and sound of the water was soothing and music to my ears. It’s location right in the front of the arboretum is appropriate since that is what people are going to see as soon as they walk in. Upon seeing it, I automatically felt positive and I felt like I was going to have a great day.

            We also came across a house that was exactly what I would imagine a house looking like from a fairy tale. It looked old and was certainly unique. It was stone and the architecture of the house was unlike any other I have seen in State College. I felt like it fell out of the sky right from a fairy tale. It created a moment of mystery, fantasy, and rekindled my childhood feelings. The house was so unique and different looking I don’t even know how to explain it. It is something you just have to see to experience the feeling of it. It is hard to describe but I associate it with a fairy tale, which made me happy.

            I really enjoyed our visit to the arboretum. It was fun and I definitely want to go back again. I think it is a good place to go to get your mind off of things. It definitely has a calming, relaxing atmosphere and is the perfect place to go to have time to yourself or ponder on life. The arboretum is a great place to draw inspiration from because you are surrounded by beautiful things that are all natural. I want to go back and was thrilled to find out that we would be spending our class there today.