Start of September, Second Day of Classes, and Silver Taps

My second day of classes began at 8:00 with a U.S. History class I signed up for just the day before. It appears that if I take over 15 hours of credits, I don't have to pay any extra, and since I'm going to have to work later to help pay for tuition, I figured I'd save time and money by getting another core class out of the way. This bumps me up to 17 hours now, though, so I'm a little anxious about how much work that will be, but we'll find out.

My history teacher ended up reminding me of my first piano teacher; he's got an attitude, but he was sarcastically funny, and the whole lecture hall was laughing at his quips. He claims he's not a sympathetic or understanding person, so it looks like I'll have to stay on top of things in that class.

After history, I had about a two hour break until my next class, so I filled it by watching the first of my Anthropology lectures online. It was pretty interesting stuff, and I was glad to see that the professor seems just as witty and amusing on camera as he did in person on Monday night.

When it was time to go, I packed up my things and went over to a nearby building for my Shakespeare Literature class. I hadn't expected it to be in a huge lecture hall because it's not a freshman class, but it was neat that I have both my junior friend Sam and my fellow INTS major Evan in that class, too. The professor himself spoke kind of slowly (he says he is hard of hearing), but he is clearly passionate about what he teaches, and he seems like a nice guy, although he did pull a very clever joke on us in an illustration about how we should be skeptical about Shakespeare's characters.

I was going to meet Evan down on the southside for lunch after he retrieved something from his apartment, but on the way over, I happened across Fr. David and the sisters from St. Mary's, accompanied by a couple older students I met this last weekend. They had just finished celebrating mass in the nearby All Faith's Chapel and were going to lunch at Sbisa together, so of course I got off my bike and joined them. It was a pleasant little surprise, and I love one of the sisters, Sister Raffaella, whom I have already gotten to know a bit and who has taken me under her wing. It also gave me the opportunity to introduce my friend Meghan to her since she had not yet met them. Apparently they celebrate mass every Tuesday at noon there and eat lunch afterwards, so I will have to look out for them in the future.

Getting back to my original schedule, I made it all the way down to Commons (which is quite far from the north side of campus where I live) and sat with Evan and a couple of his friends for a bit before they had to leave for classes. I, on the other hand, had several hours of time to spare, so I wandered into the basement in search of the fabled piano. It turns out it was occupied by choral auditions at the time, so I went upstairs and read my linguistics article in the meantime until I had to leave for my Antarctica seminar.

One of the things I love about A&M is how you can just run into people you know anywhere on campus, which really makes the place seem like a small town, even though there are almost 50,000 students here. I mention this because outside of the Commons, I met my friend and fellow INTS major Katie from Fish Camp. After talking to her for a few minutes, I made my way to the Oceanography and Meteorology building where I was introduced to my small seminar taught by two scientists who have visited Antarctica multiple times. I am very excited to learn about this fascinating continent, and the time-lapse video they showed us of summer and winter there were stunningly beautiful.

That night, I met my friend Lara and our fellow classmate Abbie to help them with their French homework since they don't have the book yet. It was really nice to be able to help someone with a subject I love and feel confident about, and it's really nice to know two other people who also know Spanish and love drawing connections between the two languages.

When that was done, we went together to the first Silver Taps of the year. Silver Taps is an event held on the first Tuesday of each month to honor Aggies who have died while they were currently enrolled at the school. It was a pretty surreal experience, but it gives you that much more of an idea of the strength of this school's community.

During the ceremony, the entire campus's lights are extinguished, and everyone walks in silence to the Academic Plaza, where one waits in the darkness, just listening to the bell tower playing mournful, traditional hymns. Then, one hears the slow, measured step of the Corps of Cadets approaching. In a moment, they appear as ethereal phantoms marching rigidly towards the center of the plaza, the pale moonlight reflecting off their white uniforms and glinting off the guns.

Then, one waits in silence for what seems like an eternity until the silence is shattered by the sharp report of a 21-gun salute, after which "Taps" is played on only whole notes three times: once to the north, once to the south, and once to the west, but not to the east because it is said that the sun will never rise on those Aggies' faces again.

It was a very sobering experience, but I'm glad I had the opportunity already to take part in yet another of this school's many, rich traditions, and although I'm feeling a little more tired lately, I think it's just the adjustment from summer idleness to a rigorous workload and full schedule, and I think I'm going to do well here.