The GSO cruised down the Li aboard a typical Chinese riverboat outfitted with comfy chairs and a kitchen hanging off the stern. As one of the very few tour groups out and about this day, the GSO enjoyed attention from a variety of both land-based and waterborne vendors.

The GSO came ashore in Yangshuo and was greeted at the evening’s lodging by a Chinese lion dance. Although the hotel’s power was out (due to weather), the locals assured the group that it should come on soon. Ever adventurous, the GSO checked in and then headed out to Western Street, a shopping boulevard rife with retail opportunities. A few Gusties got a peek at authentic local life at the Yangshuo market (also described as a “meat cave”). After dinner, when the power still had not been restored, tour director Lisa Westphal made the decision to return to Guilin. So the GSO packed up by candlelight and headed back to the Guilin Plaza via bus. While the change of plans made for a late evening, Guilin is a nice town, and one really shouldn’t be able to see one’s breath in one’s hotel room.

Wednesday brought more of the same weather, so the outdoor visit to Mount Yao was cancelled in favor of a visit to a huge local cave, complete with dramatic lighting. The group found the limestone formations intriguing, if a little too Disneyesque. Then the GSO departed for the Guilin airport to catch the 2 p.m. flight to Shanghai.

Unfortunately, thanks to the unprecedented winter storms in China which threw off flight schedules, and more snow today in Shanghai, the 2 p.m. flight turned into the 6-ish p.m. flight. After a group dinner, the GSO finally arrived at Shanghai’s Galaxy Hotel after 10 p.m. and missed a chance to cruise Nanjing Lu, a five-kilometer-long pedestrian-only retail opportunity of more than 600 shops and restaurants. Shanghai is a sprawling mass of neon and skyscrapers, spectacular even with its upper reaches shrouded in clouds. The city is home to a mind-boggling 19 million or so people and feels very western (Shanghai prides itself on being more like Hong Kong than like Beijing). One reason may be because while traditional open-fronted, single-room, street-level stores are common, so are chi-chi shops like Cartier and Prada and seemingly every western and Chinese iteration in between. And, judging by the housing options we saw, Shanghai has a much more firmly-established middle class. By the way, if you’re in town in March, both Björk and Harry Connick, Jr. have gigs at the Shanghai International Gymnastic Center.

The GSO enjoyed a few hours of free time in Shanghai on Friday morning, then headed off to lunch and one last retail opportunity at a factory seconds/dingers/knockoffs shop. A break in the weather afforded a timely start to our trek home, and this final post comes to you from Terminal 2 of the Los Angeles airport. The history-making cold and icy weather has made these last few days a bit difficult, but this isn’t the first time Gusties have had Old Man Winter change their plans. We understand he has stuck his frostbitten nose into a few things in Minnesota as well this week.

So, how to wrap it up? Perhaps a few students could say it best.

Special thanks to Bailey Tanis-Heyenga (stills) and Lisa Westphal (video) for images from Guilin and Yangshuo in today’s post. Look for an article on the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra’s trip to China, with lots of photos, in the spring issue of the Gustavus Quarterly.

The GSO checked into the Tangshan Hotel (dial-up internet service only, so apologies for the delayed posting) and enjoyed a leisurely afternoon. Our scheduled rehearsal was cancelled by the Communist Party, who decided to hold a meeting in the concert hall. From what we understand, the government pretty much gets to do whatever it wants, whenever it wants. But the free time was welcome, and the GSO dispersed into Tangshan’s internet café and enjoyed an extended retail opportunity at the shopping mall. A few homesick appetites even got a fix of McDonalds and KFC.

Dinner and the evening’s concert were sponsored by the local government and a huge pharmaceutical company with offices in Tangshan. After a special dinner with officials from these two entities, the GSO headed off to its last concert of the tour (an outdoor performance in Yangshuo [Day 10] has been cancelled because it’s too cold). The audience was appreciative, and local party groupies hung out backstage for most of the performance. Piccolo and flute player Abbie Johnson was mobbed at intermission after her performance in The Butterfly Lovers Concerto. After the concert, official proceedings had to wait until the crowd of people wishing to have their photo taken with violinist Mark Wamma dispersed. Tonight we said goodbye to Judy and Brian, two of our great guides, with gifts of Gustavus blankets and heartfelt thanks for their efforts, patience, and generosity.

The Butterfly Lovers Concerto is a beautiful, asian flavored piece that incorporates a gu ban, a percussion instrument which joined the GSO’s inventory for this tour. Percussionist Andy Jensen was the gu ban master, and enjoyed its unique characteristics.

As we rolled out of Tangshan Monday morning, we passed fireworks vendors offering lethal-looking wares at tables alongside the main road, so people could stock up for new year celebrations. We made our way to Guilin via the Beijing Regional Airport.

Guilin is in a minority autonomous region. From what we can gather, this means that the minority populations (China recognizes 56 distinct nationalities within its population) enjoy some freedoms here that they haven’t elsewhere in China. The upshot is that they have been able to practice and preserve their individual customs and culture in this place. The communist government still runs everything, but the groups get to keep their traditions alive. And being able to experience the various cultures is part of the draw of Guilin, a region populated by only 700,000 people but which hosts more than 20 million visitors a year.

The big draw of Guilin, though, is the scenery. This area is karst limestone, so it is prone to erosion. With Guilin’s annual rainfall of about six feet, plenty has eroded, and what is left is mighty impressive. You’ve seen those images from Chinese art of tall, domed hills with waterfalls and caves and mist? Well, this is the place. When the GSO arrived, Guilin was enjoying freezing rain, so no awe-inspiring photos today, but a cruise down the Li River through that spectacular landscape is on the schedule for tomorrow, so check back.

Dinner at our hotel this evening included a 21st-birthday celebration for Alli Linn. Rest assured that Alli received the same traditional Chinese frosting-smear tribute as Joe did (see Day 4).

Oh, and as promised, a chicken head-eating tale from the GSO’s banquet with Qinhuangdao’s mayor (see Days 6 & 7) .

You may have noticed that the days have been renumbered. Some say that during international travel all the days seem to blend together, and in this case two really did. So now we’re back on track, and here’s what to expect for the rest of the tour:
Day 10: Li River cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo, overnight in Yangshuo (probably no posting—Yangshuo is quaint)
Day 11: Mt. Yao visit and fly to Shanghai
Day 12: Morning time in Shanghai, then fly to Beijing en route to Los Angeles, to arrive in Minneapolis Friday morning at the crack of dawn

We rolled into Beidaihe, a seaside resort just south of Qinhuangdao proper. Or should I say THE seaside resort. Apparently this is the place to be in the summer. However, in January it is mostly shuttered. Some members of the GSO strolled through town past closed shops, but if they were seen by the proprietor within, the doors were quickly flung open and services eagerly offered. We are staying in the generously named Seaside Garden Hotel, a mere ten-minute walk from the beach. It is a nice place, though, with a cool lobby. We toured Olympic park, which is a public park glorifying Chinese Olympic achievements—complete with hand and footprints of former champions—and Pigeon Nest Park, a public garden set beside the sea. This garden boasts a tall promontory of pitted rock overlooking the Bohai Sea, as well as one of the few remaining statues of Mao, which is surrounded by painted concrete penguins. The view from the top looks across a mostly-frozen bay to Qinhuangdao’s harbor, from which container ships form a dashed line on the horizon.

In the evening the GSO journeyed into Qinhuangdao to a hotpot restaurant. Hotpot is a very common style of family meal here. A setup much like a stainless steel fondue set with a daunting flame heats a pot of broth to boiling. An equally daunting array of items are offered for cooking in the pot, from very thin slices of lamb and beef (think proscuitto) to whole shrimp, whole heads of blanched garlic, mushrooms, greens, seaweed, noodles, tofu, and on and on. You concoct your own dipping sauce using ingredients such as chile oil, garlic oil, fermented bean curd, and soy sauce. So it goes like this: make your sauce, drop an item or two into the boiling pot, agitate it a little with your chopsticks until it looks edible, then fish it out, dip it, and eat it. Repeat until nearly stuffed. Both tasty and entertaining. After dinner, our guides sang for us. Dinner and a show—what a deal.

Saturday dawned bright and clear for our trek to the First Pass Under Heaven, a militarily important outpost on the Great Wall guarding the most geographically prudent route for invading China from the north. The Eight-Power Allied Forces pretty much destroyed this section of the wall in 1900, as well as many other sections all the way to the Bohai Sea. In 1984, the Chinese rebuilt this outpost and other damaged sections as part of a national pride program.

We then travelled 5 km or so to Shanhaiguan (shan = mountain, hai = sea, guan = pass), where the Great Wall meets the sea. The Chinese call the Great Wall Old Dragon, so Shanhaiguan is the Old Dragon’s Head (the tail is somewhere in the Gobi desert). Some members of the GSO managed to find a retail opportunity tucked into the fortifications, and frolicked in a model military maze in a reconstructed army training camp. A very small section of the original—and I mean original—Great Wall is preserved at Shanhaiguan. The ancient construction is a kind of earthworks, made from a mixture of sand, earth, limestone, and glutenous rice soup. Yep, rice soup. But the stuff is tough. The ancient portion here at the Dragon’s Head sat under tsunami waters for three days and kept on tickin’.

After detouring around unannounced road construction, we drove into downtown Qinhuangdao, where we spent a little free time visiting a supermarket and clothing mart. What a glimpse at the culinary culture. You can get virtually any part of an animal in the butcher shop, or choose the convenient bulk packs of frozen chicken feet. This item also available cooked in a variety of flavors and vacuum-packed, located right beside the similarly prepared pig snouts in the potted meats aisle. The GSO stocked up on gifts for family and friends (I hope I didn’t spoil any surprises), and we headed to the concert hall for rehearsal. A snapshot of China’s developmental contrasts: Across the street from tonight’s venue—a modern music hall less than six months old—is a high-rise construction project: a multi-building complex more than 30 stories tall. On the building site, two men were moving portions of concrete forms using two-wheeled carts pulled by mules.

The mayor of Qinhuangdao and other local dignitaries hosted a dinner for us. After speeches and renewed friendships (Maestro Friesen and the GSO visited here in 2004), we were treated to a meal of nearly twenty courses, including a whole roasted chicken dish. Check back tomorrow for tales from those adventurous enough to eat the head.

The GSO played to a packed house tonight. The Butterfly Lovers Concerto was particularly well received, and soloist Brian Buckstead had his hands full signing autographs after the concert. Tomorrow, we roll on to Tangshan.

Note from January 28, 2008: You may have noticed that the days have been renumbered. Some say that during international travel all the days seem to blend together, and in this case two really did. Apologies.

The center was established in 1995 to teach arts (music, visual art, calligraphy, martial arts, dancing, and so on) to primary-school-age children. While primary education is mandatory for students up to grade six, only academic subjects are taught. The average school day runs 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and then there may be activities after that and certainly homework. Then on weekends, many children attend something called Saturday-Sunday school where they learn arts, calligraphy, or language (like English). The CFCAC is one of these Saturday-Sunday schools. (Students at the school midday today were attending the center’s Winter Happy Camp, which runs during the winter school recess, a two-week nationwide break for new year celebrations.) The center teaches both traditional Chinese arts as well as modern and western variations. As the center is sponsored by the government, tuition is really cheap: 49 yuan (about $7) buys your child a semester’s worth of class. In addition to taking classes at the center, students can participate in school ensembles, including a traveling Art Troupe, which has presented traditional performance arts and music in more than 60 countries.

Upon arrival in Tianjin, we checked into our hotel and then visited the center. We toured the facility: performance spaces, cafeteria, park, and several floors of glass-fronted rooms, each floor dedicated to one subject, i.e., music, visual arts. Each room is a classroom, equipped for a specialty. For example, the music floor boasted a classroom full of drum sets, and small drummers banging away in unison. On the art floor we visited a class learning Chinese calligraphy, a lesson rich in the history and meaning of the characters. GSO percussionist Andy Haaheim tried his hand at the character for sun under the watchful eyes of the students.

After our tour, we were treated to some lively student performances. The tiny mistress of ceremonies also presented recitation and a song, but her enormous personality may serve her well as a TV host.

Then it was off to rehearsal for this evening’s joint concert with the Art Troupe, followed by dinner hosted by the CFCAC. A good crowd filled the concert hall for the GSO’s 7:30 performance of John Williams’ Olympic Fanfare and Theme; the Andante con tenerezza from Howard Hanson’s Symphony No. 2 “Romantic”; The Butterfly Lovers Concerto by Gang Chen and Zhanhae He, featuring Brian Buckstead as violin soloist; four dance episodes from Aaron Copland’s Rodeo; and local favorite Red Flag Ode. The extraordinarily energetic CFCAC Art Troupe played a variety of Chinese folk and regional pieces featuring remarkable young soloists. The GSO rose from the audience to play a finale of Auld Lang Syne, with the audience singing three verses in Chinese. It was a wonderful moment, as the Chinese are on the cusp of their new year. The GSO played strongly and was warmly received both during and after the concert, when the GSO musicians were kind of mobbed by local teens seeking autographs.

Tomorrow we travel to Qinhuangdao, summer playground of the rich and government-connected, and future host to the preliminary football matches of the Olympic games.

A note about about kids in China. Faced with a ballooning population and dwindling ability to feed it, in 1979 the central government instituted a one-child rule. Every married couple could have one child only or be hit with various monetary and lifestyle penalties. There are a few exceptions, such as in the case of divorce and remarrying, the new couple can have any children from previous marriages plus—after five years—a new one of their own. Also, ethnic minorities whose populations are less than 10 million (Tibetan, Mongolian, Yao) may have as many children as they like. But the vast majority must adhere to the one child rule. What is it like to grow up in a nation that is mostly free of brothers and sisters?

Apologies for the tardiness of today’s post. I had to check a bunch of facts or risk offending about a billion people. Literally.

Being an imperial palace, the place also has a history rich in drama and intrigue. The joint was almost completely razed by the Anglo-French allied forces in 1860, to be subsequently rebuilt by Dowager Empress CiXi (aka The Dragon Lady) using funds embezzled from her own navy. Later, it was essentially a prison for her 20-something nephew, who was then emperor, imprisoned there by the dowager empress who did not share his affinity for reforming the Chinese feudal system. In 1900, the palace was ransacked by the Eight-Power Allied Force, and, after China’s revolution in 1911, was opened to the public. It is now a popular recreation spot, and a few Gusties played there today. And the GSO helped Joe Finocchiaro (violin) celebrate his 19th birthday in the royal restaurant. (It is a local custom to abuse the celebrated one.)

After the Summer Palace, we visited a government-run silk factory. Silkworms are caterpillars that eat only mulberry leaves. After they fatten up, they spin a cocoon from a single thread high in protein content, so it is very strong. To harvest silk, the cocoons are immersed in water before the pupae emerge, which releases the tightly-wound thread enough that it can be unwound in a single strand. Astounding fact from the insect world: a single silkworm cocoon is made of a one-kilometer-long thread. After viewing the process for extracting silk, the GSO was welcomed into the factory shop. What happens to the pupae? Well, in China they have a saying, “Everything with four legs except the table, everything with two wings except the airplane.” Essentially, they eat everything.

By the way, in case you are wondering where I come up with great things like “everything with four legs except the table…,” all credit is due to our wonderful guides. They teach us a little basic Chinese, a lot of Chinese history and culture, folk songs (”Spicy Girls Love Spicy Food“), and today they made all the arrangements for the birthday cake surprise. Thank you, Judy, Simon, Brian, and our fearless drivers.

Post-silk, we visited another of China’s national treasures: pandas. They were pretty active, as pandas go, and completely ignored us as they ate, scratched, strolled, and lounged. Then back to the hotel briefly, and off to dinner and a performance of Beijing opera. We have an early start tomorrow as we leave Beijing to travel to Tianjin, where the GSO will visit—and perform—with young music students.

At Ju Yong Pass, the wall loops around a central valley surrounded by high, rocky hills textured with abandoned wheat terraces (the central government banned agriculture in areas close to the wall for environmental conservation). The wall itself has been built, patched, and rebuilt for thousands of years. The steps have apparently been resurfaced several times, and the most recent stones show heavy wear from visitors, mostly along the edges where one can cling to iron rails. Official estimates place the human toll of building the wall at 10,000 lives, one for each kilometer of wall. A large memorial to the laborers who died building it stands in the access complex. The wall in its current iteration is 3,300 miles long—not all contiguous—but at one point it was much longer. Starting in Qinhuangdao, at the Dragon Head, the wall rises out of the sea and meanders across northern China to its tail in the Gobi Desert. FYI, the wall cannot be seen from space, contrary to popular belief. After all, it is only 50 feet or so at its widest, and is the same color as the local landscape (locally sourced materials, after all).

En route to the Great Wall, we stopped at China Beijing RunDe-Jade Garden, a jade-carving factory, where we received a brisk education on the various kinds and qualities of jade. We also learned the significance of various traditional carved forms such as dragons, happiness balls, and Smiling Buddha. Maestro Friesen was favorably compared with Smiling Buddha, which means we will have a successful and happy tour. Retail opportunities ensued. By the way, it now will run you $5 to rub the maestro’s belly.

After leaving the wall, we visited the Beijing Cloisonné Factory, where we received another education (brief but not brisk) in the art and craft of cloisonné. We then had lunch in the factory’s restaurant, followed by another retail opportunity.

From lunch we traveled to the Sacred Road of Ming Tombs. 16 Ming dynasty emperors ruled China, and 13 of them are buried in tombs in a valley north of Beijing. China’s governments preserved the area with enough care to earn it a listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The road we traveled led toward the valley, and is basically a long walkway flanked by gardens and stone statues. We were nearly the only ones there today, so, after precarious ramblings at the wall and enduring Beijing rush hour (which lasts, well, all day), the GSO cut loose with some well-deserved giddiness. Surly retail opportunity at the end was mostly avoided.

Then back into the heart of the city, with a swing past the Olympic Village and the way cool new Olympic aquatic center and main stadium. Okay, it was more of a crawl past, since traffic is truly awful. And scary. It seems like there may be some basic driving conventions (nothing as formal as rules), one of which seems to be to just keep moving regardless of who pulls/rides/steps in front of you. Beijing’s street system traditionally accommodated millions of bicycles, but now the main mode of getting around is cars. With 2,000 additional cars registered every day, it just isn’t working.

Eventually we arrived at a popular Peking duck restaurant. Birds were carved tableside and duly consumed in what some described as duck tacos, utilizing rice wrappers. Then back into the vehicular fray to our hotel, followed by a variety of nearby entertainments.

Tomorrow we will once again brave the morning commute to stop by the Olympic structures, then visit the Summer Palace, with lunch at a silk factory restaurant (retail opportunity to follow?). Afternoon promises a visit to the Panda Zoo. Don’t forget your bamboo.

After breakfast at our hotel, we bussed to Tian’an Men Square, the largest outdoor forum in the world and home to Mao Tse-Tung’s tomb. We did not view the chairman’s well-preserved remains, but we did wander—under the gaze of a massive portrait of Mao—midst a heavy presence of army guards, police officers, and determined peddlers offering hats (stocking caps bearing “Beijing 2008″ with the Olympic rings, fake fur army headgear) and gloves. A trio of charming and insistent women milled through our group, eventually selling a pair of gloves and an Olympic cap. As we began to leave Tian’an Men Square, the three peddlers bolted past us and hopped the security fence surrounding the square. Judging by their backward glances as they ran and the direction in which they shouted indignations (some language is universal) once safely out of reach, they were evading the Beijing police. We left quietly with our apparent contraband to continue our tour in the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City is the Imperial Palace, a massive complex built by a series of emperors from the Ming and Qing dynasties, who first moved in in 1420. It is called the Forbidden City because no one unbidden by the emperor could enter, and that meant most everyone. If, as a woman, you became a member of the royal household (say, a concubine or the actual empress), you never left the Forbidden City. If, as a man, you joined the imperial court (say, a palace guard), you became a eunuch. Long story short: emperors rule.

Oh, and remember that detail about the number nine (see “Day 1″)? The status of a building’s occupants was denoted by how many carved mythical creatures resided on each corner of its roof. Guess how many are on the emperor’s personal dwellings. (Why the critters? Fire protection. The wooden buildings comprising the Forbidden City were protected in a practical way by massive pots of water placed strategically throughout the complex, to be handy in case fire broke out. And they were protected magically by those carvings of mythical creatures placed on the corners of the roofs. It seems that different creatures had different strengths—i.e., one bites, another has power over fire, yet another flies—and this determined where you placed the creatures on your structure. Kind of like Pokemon for true believers.)

The Imperial Garden was our last stop before leaving the palace. It is a magical place of ancient cypress trees, fantastic rock formations, intimate gazebos, and blessedly warm tea and souvenir shops.

Photos simply can’t convey the massive complexity of the Forbidden City, but a few panoramic views—populated with members of the GSO—can give an inkling of the scale of the place. Chilly as they were, some members offered their thoughts on the day, and on Chairman Mao’s mole.

Post-palace, we had lunch at Wahaha Restaurant and then returned to our hotel for a brush-up. Then off to rehearsal, dinner, and the first concert performance of the tour. Details on that tomorrow.

After breakfast, we visited the Temple of Heaven, where emperors went to talk with gods and offer animal sacrifices in return for good harvests. The temple resides within an enormous complex of structures, all originally imperial in nature and function. Sunday, the grounds were abuzz with Chinese enjoying a day off, playing mahjong, poker, singing and dancing, and a variety of tai chi-like activities involving weighted balls and rubbery paddles. A few intrepid Gusties laid their heads on the Center of Heaven Stone, the central element in a tiered structure designed to reflect mathematical relationships between sacred elements of 16th-century China. FYI, the number nine was reserved for the emperor’s use only—use it and lose your head.

After lunch at a colorful local restaurant offering a wide variety of favorites from Chinese bread (steamed) to fried, paper-thin pork on a stick (how very State Fairesque), we retired to the hotel for a brief breather. Roughly half of the GSO took off for the Beijing flea market, a weekend-only, open air market with a vast array of local vendors hawking wares. Haggling was the order of the day, with varying results.

Tomorrow we head to Tian’ Anmen Square and the Forbidden City before rehearsal and an evening concert at the Central Conservatory of Music. In the meantime, we all could use a little shuteye before our next eye-opening experience. By the way, you can click on any of the images here to see a bigger, somewhat better version.

The GSO will leave January 18 for two weeks of touring and performing in China. The current itinerary (which is subject to change):

January 20 — Arrive Beijing, the capital of China, home to 11 million people, and the host city for the 2008 summer Olympic games. Activities start right away with a visit to the Temple of Heaven.

January 21–23 — Tour Beijing and the surrounding region, including Tian An Men Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, Beijing Panda Zoo, and others. The GSO will perform an evening concert at the Central Conservatory of Music on January 21.

January 24–25 — Transfer to Tianjin (120 km), the largest seaport of North China and host to the Olympic soccer matches (the new stadium, Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium, is an architectural marvel). The GSO will perform a joint concert with the Art Troupe of Tianjin Cathay Future Children’s Art Center. Transfer to Qinhuangdao (220 km) on the 25th.

January 26–27 — Qinhuangdao is a favorite summer resort of the Chinese elite. It is a port city situated between forest and the Bohai Sea. The GSO will visit Shanhai Pass, where the Great Wall marches down into the sea. The GSO will play a joint evening concert at the New Qinhuangdao Concert Hall, and enjoy a dinner hosted by officials of the Qinhuangdao Cultural Administration. Transfer to Tangshan on the 27th.

January 27–28 — Tangshan sits on the Bohai seacoast and is the “capital of porcelain” in the region. The city is a major center of heavy industry and a tourist attraction. Tangshan was flattened by an 8.2-magnitude earthquake in 1976 (which killed more than a quarter-million people). The GSO will play an evening concert at the Tangshan Town Hall. Transfer back to Beijing and catch a flight to Guilin on the 28th.

January 28–29 — Guilin is in the Guangxi region, and is surrounded by incredible, cave-riddled chalk mountains and clear rivers. Today the GSO will cruise down the Li River from Guilin to Yangshuo, with lunch on the boat, and end the day with a street performance in Yangshuo. Overnight in Yangshuo.

January 30 — Back to Guilin to visit Mt. Yaou, the highest mountain in China. Afternoon transfer from Guilin to Shanghai.

January 31 — A little free time in Shanghai, then fly back home.

Traveling with the GSO will be Warren Friesen, director of the symphony; Brian Buckstead, assistant professor and violin soloist; Lisa Westphal, director of music tours at Gustavus; and Sharon Stevenson, director of design services and your faithful blogger. Check back often during the tour—both here and the Gustavus Fine Arts page—as we hope to share our daily adventures. And don’t forget, the orchestra will perform a home concert at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, February 17 in Christ Chapel. This concert is free and open to the public.

Today I attended Dr. Kate Stenger’s class, The Politics of Same-Sex Marriage. The students in this class, and perhaps not surprisingly given the topic, are extremely engaged. In fact I would go as far as to say that I have never attended a class at Gustavus that had more student-started discussion with such minimal encouragement from the professor. Because of that, the two hours seemed to fly by. As I sat and listened to the class discussion, I started to ask myself why can’t all college classes be this way? What changes need to be made in college cirricula so that more classes could provide this type of educational environment and exchange of ideas?

Much of today’s class discussion centered around the many similarities and differences between the civil rights movement of the 60’s and the gay rights movement. The students did a remarkable job of approaching sensitive subjects with respect and yet at the same time had no trouble agreeing and disagreeing with one another when necessary.