Where is Love?

Dear friends,

This is not an article about romantic love. In fact, I have never felt in love, so you won't get much advice from me.

But what I can tell you is that besides the autumn leaves, my other favorite thing to see as I walk across the campus is the different couples on campus.

They sit here and there, hold each other's hands, and they would just talk for a very long time. As I walk to class, I see some kissing each other goodbye, or when I am in the library, I see them studying right next to each other. You can be homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, transgender, and nobody would care. This is what I love about PLU- always being accepting no matter how different you are from your peers.

You will find people smiling at you as they walk passed by;

You will find employers who are just like your grandparents who would offer you ice cream and tea after a long shift;

and supervisors who would prepare care package for you as final's week approaches;

You will find professors who would help you move out of your old apartment because you don't have a car, and professors who expect you to be good, encourage your to be good, and also inspire you to be good;

Photo by Amanda Brasgalla

You will find sweet greetings from front desk workers in each residential hall as you walk in and out throughout the day;

You will find people who are just like Olaf and give the warmest hugs;

You will find baristas working in the market who would break the rule just to satisfy your midnight craving for milk shake;

You will find janitors vacuuming and dusting and cleaning while the world is still dark and asleep;

You will find the university baker and her helpers baking at six in the morning so that you can get some warm and fresh baking goods when you are awake;

You will find delicious scones and cookies being offered in the library during the most dreadful final's week;

You will find RAs spending their own money to provide quality hand soap for you and your neighbors who live in the same wing;

You will find on a special Facebook page some heartwarming compliments, which come from those who are too shy to tell you ;

You will find friends who would cry with you, listen to you,

laugh with/at you,

sing for you,

go on adventures with you,

spend days and weeks with you,

and love you for who you are.

There are SO many more nice things you will find at PLU, so many more kind spirits you will meet at PLU, and so much more love you will feel at PLU. I just can't list them all. It is cliché, but love...

really is everywhere.

I will love you always,

Shishi

Music To My Ears

As I might have mentioned in a previous blog post before, I have been involved in music at PLU for the last two and a half years. In fact, music has played an important role throughout most of my life. I started taking piano lessons when I was 4, and have continued to take some type of music lessons. 17 years later, I'm so happy that PLU has helped me keep music a big part of life even though I am not a music major or minor.

Let me tell you about my involvement in music at PLU. First of all, to fulfill my requirement of receiving a music scholarship, I am required to take lessons and play in an ensemble. Lessons really help me develop my skills as an individual, while playing in the PLU Concert Band really allows me to play in a big group. Meanwhile, I also play in a saxophone quartet, and this is mainly for fun! I love playing in this small group and it's a lot of fun playing different types of music and experimenting with those.


PLU saxophone studio (taken by Erik Steigner)

Students who take music lessons are also required to participate in a studio class. This year, we had a very large studio class of 17 saxophone players! Our saxophone studio class plays in two concerts during the year. The first one in the Fall semester is the woodwind recital, usually in the beginning of December. The second one is a joint concert with the University of Puget Sound (another university in Tacoma) saxophone players, which is always a lot of fun! We take turns hosting the concert, and this year it is at PLU so you should come if you are in the area! Concert Band also has one concert per semester, and musicians work hard to prepare for this.

Unfortunately, since I will be busy doing research and working on my senior Capstone project, I will not be participating as much in music next semester. I'm really thankful for the opportunity that PLU has given me to continue playing music even through college, and I encouraging you to support the musicians at PLU whenever you get the chance to do so, because I personally think we have great instructors and musicians at PLU!

Enjoy the holiday season, and I will be back again in January!

With love,
Loana


 

Let's talk about FOOD! Well, more like let's talk about The Commons @ the AUC.

Hello Lutes and everyone else!

How has your week been? Some of the words that many might relate to are words like hectic, sleep-deprived and stressed.

Finals week is just around the corner and I'm sure everyone's preparing hard for this final battle!

Let's forget about all that for a while and talk about something that usually motivates people and enlightens moods.

FFFFFOOOOOODDDDDD! Not any food, PLU FOOD! Specifically, Food @ The Commons.

I had the pleasure of interviewing The Commons Student Manager, John Pham. He was nice enough to offer about 20 minutes of his time on a busy day at the cafe.

We chatted about how things worked at The Commons, how menus are prepared, feedback and improvements.

What are some of your day-to-day tasks/duties as a student manager?

• Making sure that people show up.
• Scheduling shifts. 
• Running the service area.
• Ensuring that stocks, ingredients, supplies etc. are adequate. 
• Delegating tasks during shifts.
• Maintaining a supervisory role.

Then we talked about food and related issues/items. 

• Head chefs would decide menus for the year.
• Feedback from everyone is welcomed and in fact, encouraged.
• They do listen to what we want!
• Our happiness is their main priority :)
• There are dining committee meetings (panels) that are open to all students.
• So if you want to voice an opinion or talk about food quality, choices etc. be sure to catch these meetings!
• Menus for the week are posted online on the Commons webpage! Go to the PLU webpage and search for The Commons, or, just click here.

Anddddd.... Something we could all do to help out at The Commons.

• Always remember to clean up after ourselves!
• Bring your own dishes back to the machine that moves like a conveyor belt.. Apparently it's called the accumulator. 
• Currently low on custodial staff so please remember to help out a bit in cleaning!
• Oh and also, if you're not sure about recyclables, just put it on the accumulator. 

So, that's about it. Thanks again John, for your time.

Thank you for reading this and I hope you've learnt a bit more about The Commons, our main food provider on campus. 

Have a great weekend and take care always!

Joel