The Importance of Knowing Elena

Salut, fellow students! Je m'appelle Elena Grout. I am a First Year at Trinity, planning on declaring as a double major in History and International Studies with a minor in drama. I am from Seattle (it does not rain as much as Grey's Anatomy would make it seem), proudly vegetarian, and aspire to be a writer of novels and screenplays. I have two cats at home, Charlie and Cassie. As you may have guessed, I studied French for many years and plan on spending a semester in Paris, as well as an additional semester somewhere else in the world. 

I cannot show you a current picture of my home on Google Earth, unfortunately, because the house pictured there no longer exists due to a fire in December.

I have worked on computers since Kindergarten when we got to use fun programs to enhance our learning. I was a teensy bit of a technology geek when I was younger and technology was far less advanced: I played typing speed games and used math and language programs for fun! Now, I am certainly competent, as most of my generation is, but my best skill is knowing how to coerce someone who actually knows what they are doing to help me! I was required to take a computer skills class in high school, which I was able to test out of. 

My secret fact, if I remember my post-it correctly, is that I have played the mandolin since I was 9. I have learned since then that most people don't even know what a mandolin is, so I will elaborate: a mandolin is a stringed instrument found predominately in jazz and bluegrass music. It has the same strings as a violin (GDAE), but two of each placed close together (i.e. two A-strings are placed less than a quarter inch apart, I would guess). It is fretted like a guitar. See this picture of a mandolin fingerboard for further elucidation: 

You can contact me for any reason at egrout@trinity.edu, and of course via Facebook.