#14.
Listen to a full clock tower chimes concert and guess the songs played
Before the
class of 2016 showed up in the Middle of Nowhere, New York, Cornell sent us a
list of 161 things to do before we graduate (hopefully) in four years. I've completed a few of them just by being on
campus and going about my daily life, but I recently struck off a couple items that I had to go a little more out of my way to do.
Tuesday
morning, I was up earlier than normal and decided that it would be worth my
while to go to the morning chimes concert at 7:45. So I packed my backpack for the day, headed
out, and climbed to the top of the clock tower.
While you can’t go to Cornell without hearing the chimes, I couldn't
actually say that I’d sat through an entire concert. Well, now I can.
Every
morning, the chimes start the day off by playing the Jennie McGraw rag, which
is basically a collection of over 200 notes played as fast as possible. On the day I was there, they also played “Holy,
Holy, Holy,” “Shenandoah,” and “In Christ Alone,” which I recognized, and Gigue
from First Cello Suite (Bach) and Air and variations for carillon (Handel),
which I didn't.
The
chimesmasters like to decorate for holidays, so they had a Happy Valentine’s
Day banner and a whole bunch of hearts taped to the walls and chimes, plus they
turned the clock face into a heart (only visible at night when it’s lighted
up). Sometimes they also play music to
fit the occasion, and my personal favorite example of that was when Hurricane
Sandy gifted us with lots of rain and wind and the chimes played “Under the
Sea.” Ithaca College decided to cancel
evening classes; Cornell didn't. I went
to Intro to ChemE office hours.
That was #14
taken care of. I completed #13 on
Monday, when I went to my first basic rocking climbing class. Granted, I didn't climb to the top of the
climbing wall, but I did go climbing, so it counts. For the first class, after all the paperwork
was taken care of, the instructors just let us try some climbing. We were below the bouldering line, so we
weren't roped up, but you can still do a lot without going high.
Because
this is probably my new favorite PE class, it warrants an entire post to
itself, but I also wanted to mention it in terms of the 161 Things.
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