Vienna!

Dr. Allen began History of Music in Western Civilization today with a couple of shameless plugs for a couple of school-sponsored trips coming up. (Students, of course, pay, but less than under any other circumstances).

The first of these trips is at the end of this month (my birthday weekend, coincidentally). I'm going on this one - it's a trip to see 'Romeo et Juliette' by Gounoud at the Metropolitan Opera of New York. We'll be there for three days - well, more like two, if you do the math. We leave early Friday (Dr. Allen says that we will leave early enough to get to NYC by 3:30, but we'll see how well that turns out - it IS Dr. Allen, after all), Stephanie and I are already planning on finding tickets for a show that evening and I'm sure Katie will want to go, as well. We have all day Saturday to explore and have a good time, then Saturday evening will be spent at the opera. We leave on Sunday (my birthday) and I can't say I'm displeased. I like travelling and riding in the car with nothing to do but read is a good day for me. Altogether, the trip should cost about $200 total and my parents have agreed to buy half of it for me, as a birthday present. I doubt I shall get much else for said 20th, as money is tight right now, so I thought to ask for one big thing and screw anything else they may have been thinking about buying for me.

The other trip that Dr. Allen talked about is a trip to Vienna for May Term. We would leave Friday of exam week and come home right before graduation, though he says that students not graduating that year generally go on for another week and visit Italy, or Germany, or France. (My pick, I think, would be Germany. John has talked much of Germany in the time I've known him and my curiosity has been piqued. Besides, Ms. Flory would be beside herself knowing that one of her students voluntarily chose to visit Germany, the home of her favorite language and culture.) The problem with said trip is, of course, the money - or the lack thereof. I've had to take out several loans this year to help pay my tuition, due to the loss of my father's job thanks to the American government, and I don't know if they'd let me take out more. As it is, I'll be transferring the loans in my dad's name to my name come graduation, and I'm going to be poor for a long time. Ah, the joys of a private education!

Sometimes, I think that I should have thought more about the type of college I should have gone to, rather than the college I wanted. I should have considered that if I had gone to school in Pennsylvania, it would have been slightly cheaper. If I had gotten a diploma through Pennsylvania Homeschooler's rather than rebelled and insisted upon a parent-issued diploma, I would have had more financial aid for my freshman year. If I had gone to a state school, rather than a private college, I would have paid less in the long run though financial aid would have been more limited. If I had found a private school that cost less than $30,000 a year, I would have been paying less. In fact, if I had gone to Bucknell or Elizabethtown, I would have paid less due to family connections.

To be fair, I did consider Bucknell briefly last year when my sister was diagnosed with cancer again. But that was not due to the questionable merits of its theatre program, but due to the feeling that I needed to be closer to my family.

Too many if's in this equation, I think. Right now, I should not be thinking back and regretting past errors in judgement. I should be thinking ahead, really, because I can't change what was. Fact: I am a junior at Mary Baldwin College, in Staunton, VA.
Fact: This will not change, unless my loans go unapproved for next year.
Fact: I am going to be poor for a very, very long time. Unless waitresses start getting better wages. Or unless my tips get better.
Fact: I am going to do my damnedest to go to Vienna. And to try and see at least Heidelburg while I'm in Europe, since it looks pretty and I've heard so much about it.