Friday, April 15, 2011

Odds and Ends

Pepperdine is winding down and I've been visiting Beacon more, initiating an origami paper crane folding fundraiser for Japan. The Bezos Foundation is giving $2 per crane up to $200,000 (no mistaken comma!), so we got busy,
producing 100 out of Japanese print. They were shipped to Students Rebuild in Seattle, who are making an art installation which will go up in the city of Sendai (what's left of it, anyway). Architecture for Humanity is in charge of the rebuilding project. This was an international effort, linking Camarillo with 19 other countries and 48 other US states (Mississippi excluded).
Chris and Hilary and several adults gave it a try.
Carolyn and Aiden.
Cranes are almost sacred in Japan and, like the tortoise and dragon, evoke longevity and good fortune:
Before the origami, Beacon had its all school egg hunt followed by Devin's resurrection message and...
hot cross buns!
Stoneground Bakery made them special order out of, basically, their prized challah recipe. They were beautiful.

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Fawns and California poppies on campus!
Pepperdine's International Programs sponsored an orientation for next year's students. The family met all 82 students for the first time; it was a grand success. We will basically pick up where we left off when we see them next in Lausanne. We made a Jeopardy game out of Swiss factoids, such as:

Richest man in Switzerland founded this company.
Most tools found in a Swiss Army Knife.
Name of a this very popularly used invention.
They consume more of this food per capital.
What product mimicking the property of a plant.
Only one of two of these in the world that's square.

Answers:

IKEA
82
world wide web
velcro
chocolate
Swiss flag

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Lastly, a lame picture of Michael's choir concert. Mozart's canon as a prelude to the Requiem, both performed with orchestra. Michael could recognized the liturgical structure of the piece, saying, "This is a church service." It was a gorgeous Latin text and powerful singing. Electrifying performance.

1 comment:

Lancasterj said...

I really don't know how to comment on the blog - but I just have to say that Jake's violin playing was TREMENDOUS - what beautiful form and tone he has. Michael was awesome on the piano too. I loved it! Need more.

Missing you guys,

Jenny