Holy cow. This school's opera program is ridiculous. But heck, I'm definitely checking out the production, if only for the set!

In the meantime, I just got back from St. Meinrad Archabbey, one of only two archabbeys in the US and eleven in the world (via Wikipedia). It's a very beautiful building (the picture on the website doesn't even do it justice, especially on the most beautiful weekend in fall in southern Indiana). The Trinity Episcopal Church (Bloomington)'s student group took a less-than-24-hour retreat there, and it was pretty nice. For better or for worse, we live in a very secular society, especially historically speaking (the fact that the "far right" has some clout in politics doesn't really change this a lot), and it's been on my list of things to do for a long time to see what it would be like to live in an almost purely religious society. I imagined going to prayers upwards of eight times a day, silence, and contemplation, all of which sounds pretty cool. Well, it turns out they only pray four times a day, and we weren't there for two of the services. But I got up to go to the 5:30 service as well as mass (it helped that they're one of the crazy Indiana counties on Central Time--for the whole completely insane story, check this out). It was less awesome than I imagined, but it was definitely interesting. There was a lot of chanting, and we even got a mode 4 (that's Hypophrygian for those of you who like to use ethnic names...) chant, which was pretty far out. It was an incredibly echoey acoustic, and the monks (who by several times outnumbered the congregation even at the 7:30 mass, much less at 5:30's Vigils/Lauds) spoke in very deep, very soft voices. I have a hard time reading anything--much less biblical texts--without at least some degree of meaning and feeling, and I have a higher voice, and I was participating where appropriate (there were very few indications, but fortunately a fellow student seemed to know when we could recite along). The monk who kept the congregation in line by holding up chant numbers and appropriate books walked over to my side of the congregation and sat in the row behind me. Between prayers, he reached over and tapped me on the back, and said, "You're a bit louder than everyone else. You're also a little bit ahead. So be a little quieter." Then between prayers he walked back to his seat on the other side of the room. Well, that's the last time I get rowdy at Vigils/Lauds. For the rest of the service I went into full mumbling-conformity-Catholic mode.

All in all it was nice, though. I did a fair amount of walking around the beautiful grounds and surrounding forest, played ping-pong with some friends, and visited the book store (on the back of the casket shop...) with its rows of cloying "Inspirational" volumes and book on John Ashcroft (I bought some tasty-looking jam). It was a nice sort-of-break, but it's also nice to be back in Bloomington. And back to the grindstone. Thanksgiving is looking mighty nice from here...