Dienstag!

I remember that much of my junior year of high school was spent in awe of my chemistry teacher. He went to Harvard, he tried medical school but realized he had more of a passion for teaching, he was an extremely talented baker, and he spoke German! My family comes from Norway and Ireland so I know very little about Germany and German culture except for what I’ve been told in history class. The language I’ve heard spoken a few times by my chemistry teacher and a couple friends, but that’s about it. When I called my mother yesterday morning and shared with her that I was planning to attend a German hip-hop concert she laughed and then said, “Emmeline, I admire that you always seem to branch out your interests.”

Part of college is experiencing things you may have never thought about before so last evening I walked over to the Skidmore Dance Theatre and witnessed the talent of two German DJs from Berlin. They mixed “DJ-ing” with rapping and threw in the beats of some of the U.S.’s top 40 music. It was a highly entertaining experience, but I was rather saddened by the lack of attendance. There were about 30 people total (one of those was my organic chemistry professor) and most of them were from the German class. Everyone there was super excited and participatory, but I think the event could have sparked much more interest if it was advertised more and placed in a venue like Falstaff’s. We were all encouraged to get up and dance on stage, but in a place the size of the dance theatre and with only about 30 other people it was kind of awkward to go to the front and “shake it.” On a Thursday night in Falstaff’s I could see the event being brilliant. The advertisement would have been better, attendance would have been up, and the student population would be ecstatic to have the opportunity to dance to some new beats! While I wish the concert had been set-up differently, I still enjoyed it. I got to meet new faces, sing and dance to German music, and have a far more upbeat Tuesday night than usual.

Liebe immer (love always), Emmeline