Sunday, June 17, 2012

The school that's fun to say

Annabelle and I began our journey to Michigan last Thursday by driving to northern Indiana, stopping for the night, and then proceeding on to tour Kalamazoo College the next day. Really she was just humoring me regarding the tour, as she hadn't been terribly impressed by the school's website. All that changed though on the tour, and K'zoo is definitely going on her applications list for next year.

I kind of suspected it might be a good match when our guide turned out to be Annabelle's 4-years-older doppelgänger, wearing a similar dress and similar hairstyle and boots that I just knew Annabelle was secretly coveting. The similarities continued though when we found out she was majoring in theater and minoring in French and sociology. I managed to get a photo of the 2 of them without appearing too creepy (I hope):



Kalamazoo is a pretty campus, set into a hillside in the city of the same name. This is their performing arts center:




The stained glass as seen from inside:



We were quite impressed that such a small school (1400 students) would have 3 separate performance venues--a black-box theater, the recital hall, and the main theater:



Annabelle was favorably impressed with the dorm room we went into. It's a nice, large room with plenty of storage:







Also, each dorm has a wonderful lounge area and full kitchen:







After the tour, we did a little bit of exploring downtown. We had an amazing supper at a restaurant called Food Dance and talked about some of the highlights from the tour. Annabelle was really taken with K'zoo's flexible curriculum. Beyond the foreign language and physical education requirements (the latter of which can be fulfilled through classes such as Stage Combat), there are no other general education requirements, which makes it easier to double major. Kalamazoo also has a huge emphasis on study abroad, with something like 85% of the students going overseas at least once.

I'm glad she has another school for her application list that she feels really excited about!

3 comments:

Dad said...

"K'zoo"--is that pronounced like the musical instrument?

Also, don't you love the trees in Michigan? They're just the right height!

Anonymous said...

Hi Annabelle and Bonnie,

Michigan is surely a beautiful state. I lived in neighboring Battle Creek from '44 – '47 and Kalamazoo was our chief rival. There are three hills in Kalamazoo, Western Michigan on one Kalamazoo College on another and a mental institution on the third. We used to joke that the third hill was the only one that you had to improve mentally before you got out.

Actually, Annabelle, anyplace you choose you'll get a good education because you want it.

Love, Joy and Peace,

Dave

Bonnie said...

Love the story about the 3 hills, Dave! K'zoo is definitely on the list.

LOL re the trees, Dad! I did notice that for the most part they seemed tall enough to reach the ground. ;-)