On the second day of our trip, we headed to campus to wander around and sit in on some classes with our former teachers.
We walked down to the lake from the Academy side, a ways away from our cabin.
Seagulls hanging out on top the dance building.
The fall colors on campus were stunning.
Main campus, between the dorms, cafeteria, and classroom buildings.
We attended Mr. McCall's Early American History class on the slave trade. Mr. McCall was definitely one of my favorite teachers and it was fun to chat with him about the class material, and to pick his brain about the shutdown, the 2016 election, etc.
(Me, Kira, Mr.McCall, Tracy)
Only a few of us registered for the reunion, supposedly the reason it was canceled, so we easily fit into a group photo.
We wandered around the concourse where our academic classes took place.
Saw some old faces...
and some new flyers for theory tutorial and the Chamber Singers concert.
We saw the new (to us) library in what used to be the gym. When we were there, the music library was very much like a dungeon underneath the cafeteria. But now it's a swank, college-style building with the internet and everything.
Kira and I also attended Dr. Van Maanen's first year music theory class and participated in the day's lesson on second species counterpoint. Woohoo!
The day ended with a trip to the photo archives where former Academy conductor, Byron Hanson, hauled out a bunch of containers of Academy photos from 2002-2003. It was a perfect thing for us to do, and we almost definitely wouldn't have gotten to do it if lots of people had attended the "real" reunion.
If you'd asked me ten years ago if I would want to teach at Interlochen, I would have said definitely not. It's so cold and isolated in the winter, and I couldn't imagine wanting to endure that indefinitely (little did I know we would move to Canada, so the joke is on me). Now, though, I'm in my 7th year of teaching (!!!) and I would totally jump at the chance to teach at Interlochen. The kids are engaged, the institution supports creative work, and it's prestigious, so famous people visit on a regular basis. I might not want to live in Northern Michigan forever, but I would happily sign up for a winter there if it meant I got to teach in such a vibrant, intellectually stimulating place. And the winters are the price for what are a pretty beautiful summer and fall. Not that they have a job opening or anything, but I may keep my ear to the ground now that I've visited as an adult and witnessed the great teaching that takes place there. It makes me realize how lucky I am to have been a student in such a place.
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