We've got trouble, folks, with a capital 'T' and that rhymes with 'P' and that stands for.....Student Academic Support Center

Hola!

It"s been one cold week, and I still can't figure out how to work the heater in my dorm room. I figure by mid-January either my roommates and I will have it figured out or turn into little freshman ice-cubes. Speaking of January, it's registration time for all spring and J-term (1 class for 1 month=1 semester) classes. I was pretty excited, but then I looked at the list of all the possible first year classes for J-term. It was intense. I mean, they had everything from Chinese film studies to "The Big Question" philosophy courses. As of right now, I'm on one of the last days available to schedule classes. At first I was upset about it, but then I realized that it would give me more time to think about what I actually wanted to take for the entire month of January.

But, back to why a capital T rhymes with P and stands for SASC. First and foremost, SASC stands for the Student Academic Support Center ( I think....). It is a entity of Luther College that helps students with anything academic: from study techniques to getting back on their feet after failing a test. I decided to turn myself in last week and finally break down and get an appointment with one of the counselors. I am a horrible studier. I always have been and hope to change that soon. In high school, I unfortunately found it very easy to not study and still get by. I've found that that is next to impossible, especially with upper level courses, here. I also have found that I find it very easy to spread myself thin because I am so busy. In SASC, they also help with time management. Mary, my counselor, and I worked though the schedule that I have on my computer and talked about ways that I can try to study, different things to try, and times to do them. It's only been three days, but I can already see improvement in the quality of what I do. It's odd that I needed someone to tell me how and what to do....but it seems to be working out so I won't complain at all.

Today I had the opportunity to play in a masterclass with some other Luther pianists for a phenomenal concert pianist, James Tocco. Skeptical? Check You-Tube. Lordy, can that man play. I heard that after his recital, our in-resident piano tuner, Conrad, said that he'd have to touch up the piano after that performance. I've done a few masterclasses back in my former piano studio, but we each had 30 minute time slots, and I actually took quite a bit from him in the small time. That's another great thing about music at Luther. We have recitals all the time, but we also have frequent guest musicians. It's really cool to see what is possible in the professional realm of music performance.

So, I guess not all of that had to do with any sort of trouble, or pool....but I had the music man stuck in my head today. I hope the college search is going well!

Later
Jake