I survived fall semester again!

Oh man...thank you God! Class-wise, fall semester was over yesterday. This whole week, I've been running around with 10+ extra hours of rehearsal for the annual Readings and Carols concerts as well as scrambling to get things done for all of my professors who show no mercy, lol. I had 5 hours of sleep (at the most) every night and had to skip a couple of lunches to get all this work done, but I no longer have to worry about getting papers done. Yeah, it's a great feeling. It will be an even better feeling when I'm done the final Readings and Carols concert (which is tonight) and get all of my finals done, but I'll take any relief that I can get right now :)

This week, I had my very first photo shoot for head shots. I found out that a photographer was coming to school with a student discount to get head shots and I decided to get some since I know I'm going to need them in the future. I'm interested in getting more involved in competitions/performances/workshops and I don't think a silly picture of me would be very appealing to the judges, though one would never know, lol. Anyway, the photo shoot was just as I expected...I was quiet and awkward, had no idea how to pose, and had some issues with taking "diva shots." Don't get me wrong, I had some really nice shots, but my laid-back poses were much better. I never thought of myself as much of a diva anyway, lol.

The student discount package also included a hair and makeup stylist. I absolutely loved what she did makeup-wise and I'm going to try to figure out what she did so I can do it again. I especially loved what she did hair-wise. For my whole life, I've been fighting my hair and trying to control the frizz. I've tried so many different kinds of gel and the frizz always won. However, on Thursday, the hair stylist got rid of the frizz and it stayed frizz free for the rest of the day...even with the strong winds. She did it with...a curling iron??? I could've just bought a curling iron??? Seriously, she curled my hair for about 5-10 minutes and it was frizz free for the rest of the day. Boy, do I feel dumb, lol.

This week I also made an interesting discovery. Ever since last Tuesday, I've been questioning whether or not I have perfect pitch. During my lesson, I was singing a piece and Julian didn't like the key I was singing in. He played a D on the piano and asked me to sing starting in that key. To my surprise, I looked down at the music and couldn't register the key change and I couldn't figure it out until he actually played the chord of the key he wanted me to sing in. He asked me if I had perfect pitch and I said, "no," but I started to question it later. I've showed many signs that there is some type of pitch thing going on. I hate hearing something in a different key than what's written, I can instantly tell when I'm singing sharp or flat, I can hear intervals better than I can see them, and if I hear something like a car horn, I can tell you what note it is. Also, in high school, when I practiced for auditions, I eventually was able to hum the starting pitch without a pitch pipe. My piano and theory professors both tested me and they both think that I either have latent perfect pitch or some type of long term relative pitch (which is basically the same thing as perfect pitch). I'm going to work to see if I can develop this more, but for now, I'm going to guess pitches to car horns and lawnmowers with some of my friends at school. Don't judge me...I'm not a dork. I'm just...special...yeah that's it. I'm special, lol.

All I have to do is get through the next few weeks for finals and then I'm home free for winter break! I enjoyed this semester, but I'm so tired and worn out, lol. Can't wait!

My little makeover for head shots :D

Swine flu???

How is it that I am able to post two blogs two days in a row?  It's because I'm currently home sick and according to my doctor, I have the swine flu.  Joyous...

The regular and swine flu has been going around WCC like the "plague."  In fact, that's what we call a sickness that goes around the school since it's such a small school and all of us are in class and rehearsing together...the WCC Plague.  Anyway, it started with the Symphonic Choir (the choir that consists of juniors, seniors, and grad students that sing with the major orchestras) and it's been slowly coming down to the freshmen and sophomores.  I started feeling sick on Friday when I woke up and started having coughing fits.  Originally, I thought that the coughing fits were from my allergies as I had something similar several years ago at choir camp in which my allergies were the cause of it.

I felt worse on Saturday and I decided that the best thing for me to do was to go home just in case I had something contagious, especially since the sophomore choir concert is coming up (this Friday).  I didn't want to be the one responsible for the sophomore class dropping like flies the week of the concert.

Sunday night I felt really warm, but I assumed it was because I was covered in blankets and lying next to a heater (complete denial right?).  I ended up having a fever of 101 but I didn't admit it until later when I was lying in bed with the fan on full blast and still feeling like I stuck my head in an oven.

When I went to the doctor on Monday, I was expecting to hear that it was just my allergies or I developed an upper respiratory infection since all of my symptoms were in that area.  Instead, the doctor told me that I had the flu and more than likely it was the H1F1, meaning swine flu.  I was so shocked and in such disbelief I actually argued with him for a little bit, however he got me when he told me that along with my fever I had a runny nose and shortage of breath, which are also symptoms of the swine flu.  This stinks...I was a week away from the swine flu vaccine coming to the school.  So close...

Today, I feel much better and much of my energy came back, however there's one problem that's still in the way...my fever.  It's being such a pest.  It went down to a measly 100, but of course, that's still a fever and it's enough to keep me from going back.  So, I'm sitting here extremely annoyed that I feel better but my silly 100 degree fever is the one keeping me from going back, haha.  Oh, well, I guess I'll enjoy relaxing and sleeping in while it lasts... 

Halloween Weekend!

I didn't really get into Halloween that much, but after coming to WCC and seeing so many people getting into it, I couldn't help but get into it myself.  My girlfriends suggested that I should be a flapper to match my new haircut.  I originally wanted to get a dress that was similar to the flapper style so I could wear it again, but my mom found this great flapper costume that I just had to buy.  I also bought some long gloves and a red boa.  I loved wearing that costume and I'm sure everyone loved me too for getting feathers all over the hallway.  I didn't realize that my boa liked to shed...

After going to a potluck party that Friday night, I went with a couple of friends on Saturday afternoon to get some pizza and then we headed off to a corn maze about a 20 minute drive away.  There were 12 stations in the maze that we had to find and if we found all 12 of them, we would get free gourds....I'm sure you guys are in so much awe right now.  Anyway, when we first went into the maze we didn't bother to look at the map in the front (they don't give you maps but they have maps for you to look at at the entrances and at the stations just to show where you currently are) and we circled around for a 1/2 hour before finding ourselves back to the entrance.  Whoops, lol.  But after we decided to look at the maps, we marched through that muddy trail, through that windy maze, used objects besides the stations as points to show us where we are, such as the WaWa that was across the street, and found those 12 stations.  Yes, we won those gourds and only had some minor panic attacks along the way, such as when I dropped my card used to mark what stations we went to and couldn't find it for 5 seconds...that was terrible.

As soon as we got back to school, I packed up and went home for a day.  It was really nice to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" with the family, though my mood was ruined when the Phillies lost (and my mood got even worse when they lost the whole thing).  Oh well, I still love them.

Now I'm counting down the days to Thanksgiving break!  For me, tomorrow afternoon will be 2 weeks and while it seems really close it's not coming fast enough...

   My flapper costume!

                                          

                                                

 

Entering the corn maze!

                                                  

Map of the maze

                                                  

We got all 12 of them (never mind 13-18...they weren't there)

                                                   

 Momma's going to be so proud of me!!!

                                                   

                      What a great day!!!

Half way done already?

I figured now would be a great time to finally post another blog since my voice lesson was cancelled and I have no classes for the rest of the day :D  I can't believe that I'm already halfway done this semester.  Time flies when you're having fun...and when you don't have much time to sit still for a while.

So many things have happened this past month and a half.  I got an on campus job and so I'm now working for Westminster's Performance Management.  I'm usually either an usher or stage manager for the concerts/recitals on campus, but other times I will be found working in the box office selling tickets or editing programs.  What's great about this job is that it basically revolves around my schedule.  I can look at the concert dates and tell my boss which days I can make and which days I can't, which is such a great thing since my availability varies.  The first time I started working was actually on Sunday when I was stage managing a faculty recital and I realized how awesome it is to get paid to make faces and dance backstage with the performers waiting to go on.  However, I don't think the next time I work will be as much fun.  I'm working in the box office on Saturday and Saturday is the day of chaos when the holiday tickets go on sale for WCC/Rider students and since it's only a three-hour event, it's going to be madness.

I know I said in my last blog that I liked the material in my Historiography class.  Well, I should've waited a little longer before I told you that because I no longer like it, lol.  There's just too much material to remember.  Hearing the professor saying, "Ok, you need to study your notes and then reread pages 2-158 for your midterm," isn't exactly the thing that I wanted to hear, especially since the flash cards that I made solely from the notes were a little less than an inch thick when I stacked them up...and the flash cards were made of printing paper, not the thick index cards.  Not only that, but I also had to memorize 50 chants and who wrote them (I really hate that because that's information that I shouldn't have to memorize.  I can look that up if I really want to...)I studied for at least 12 hours for the midterm and I still struggled on it.  As of right now, I don't care what grade I get, as long as it's passing so I can get out of it.  

My piano lessons are going really well and my professor is telling me to start picking out some accompaniments to learn starting either the end of this semester or the beginning of next semester.  He thinks that I'm ready to start learning how to accompany singers, especially since I will be doing that either in a classroom with a choir or giving private voice lessons to a student.  To all of the voice majors, naturally the best book for me to choose for accompaniments would be the 24 Italian Songs and Arias since it's used so often, so I will be learning a couple of pieces from that.

I don't have any education classes this semester (I figured I'd take a break after nearly killing myself over the summer with my Critical Pedagogy class), but I have been going to several Saturday seminars.  The one that I particularly loved was the one last week with elementary teacher, Phil Greco.  For the past year, I've only heard about Critical Pedagogy from the books that I've read and the lectures about it in class, but this was the very first time I got to see it put into practice.  As a student, I was having so much fun that I didn't notice that the seminar was 3 hours long.  Instead of simply learning notation or giving a lecture, he gave us a project to do, which was to create our own video game and making a soundtrack using the instruments provided.  This allowed us to use what we already know from home to put into use in class and then he gave us ideas to help us along.  For the music teachers who learned Critical Pedagogy, he also satisfied all 4 learning styles and as a student, since he took attention towards the way I learn best, I was more than happy to work with him when he was teaching using the other 3 learning styles.  It was amazing!  Also, for the music teachers, his website is www.portraitsofpractice.com.  He has video clips of projects he has done with his students, such as where his students got to pick a song and show the expression through movement.  The kid in the video demonstrated expression using a scarf and at the age of 7, picked the overture to Mozart's Magic Flute...yeah I already know he's going to be like me when he's older, which is really scary.

Something really strange happened during my voice lessons last week.  I always hum before I start singing, and I had really weird hiccups while I was humming.  They didn't hurt and it felt like I could go higher, so I talked to Julian about it and we decided to explore it.  When I started singing, I ended up hitting a Gb; the one an octave above the one sitting on the treble staff.  That never happened before, and it was a shock to not only me, but to Julian as well.  Also, I'm starting to be able to sing my scales much faster and with better agility.  He told me today that he almost called in another voice teacher, who's a dramatic coloratura, to observe last week when all of this was happening.  I don't know what this means, whether I'm a coloratura or not, but either way, I'm having so much fun singing my scales and warmups really fast...well, except for when I end up going out of control because I get too excited, lol.

I'm sorry that I don't have any pictures this time.  I had a video that I wanted to show you of me playing one of my piano pieces, but it won't upload :(  Oh well, I'll have plenty of pictures next time.

First full week=done

I've officially gotten through my first full week of the semester!  Surprisingly, it was much easier to get used to, probably because I was more aware about what to expect in terms of the stress level that Westminster offers.  This has also helped me out in terms of what I can do for extracurricular activities, especially since I went overboard my first semester last year and tried to take on all these activities with 10 classes and dying a little each day...  I'm finally breaking my habit of saying "yes" whenever someone asks me to help out with something.  It feels so good, especially since I actually have some down time now.  Not much, but a little.

So the classes I'm taking this semester are Musicianship II, Western Civilization I, Music Histriography I, Math, Schola, Voice Lesson, Piano Lesson, Music Education Lab and Concert Bell Choir I.  Provided that I pass all of them, these classes give me a grand total of 18 credits.  Musicianship II is a fancier way of saying Music Theory II.  It's definitely going to be challenging for me to understand what my professor is talking about since I didn't have the greatest professor last semester for Theory I (I basically spent all of my time analyzing intervals and chords.  Plus, he didn't help when it came to ear training...).  I feel a little embarrassed because there are a good number of freshmen in my class and they have asked questions using terms that I didn't even know existed.  But then again, they must have been spoiled with getting theory classes with good teachers in high school.  Oh well, my professor seems to grade more on effort than accuracy, so as long as I try really hard, I'll be ok.

Can I just say that I absolutely love Western Civilization I?  Aside from being a history freak, my professor (who has a really cool Russian accent if I may add) is so cool and when she teaches, everyone can tell that she's really passionate about it.  So take a professor who loves what she's doing, add ancient Egypt, and it becomes one of my favorite classes :)

Music Histriography I is basically like Western Civ, only it's about the history of music (although I have no idea where the word "Histriography" came from and apparently my computer doesn't know either because it keeps underlining it in red).  I find the class to be really boring, but the material in the book is really interesting.  Did you know that the Greeks understood music by using letters/symbols, which told them the specific notes and there were over 70 of them?  Makes reading notes on a staff seem so much easier, doesn't it?

Math....oh boy.  I'm sure my professor was a good teacher...about 40 years ago.  Now, he just rambles about nonsense and when he writes on the board, he doesn't show every step he takes to get an answer so I get really confused because the numbers randomly come up and I don't know how he got those answers.  Plus he chooses the hardest ways to get an answer.  Instead of writing a simple equation, he has to count every single thing out and scribble on the board until there's no room left.  It's not like the math is hard, in fact, it's probably Algebra I stuff, but I haven't taken any math since 11th grade.  I don't remember any of it.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I'm going to need a math tutor.  This is not something I expected to have trouble with, but apparently I was wrong, haha.

Schola (Schola Cantorum) is the sophomore choir at WCC.  Good news:  I don't have to wear that red robe until commencement!!!  Bad news:  I get to spend most of my spring break going on a concert tour and I get to pay a "small fee" to go on it.  That really upsets me that I have to pay for a tour that I'm forced to go on.  We will be heading down south to Virginia and North Carolina, which didn't surprise us at all since they've been going to the same places for 3 years straight.  I'm not looking forward to it...

Voice and Piano are still my favorite classes.  My piano professor was so happy with the progress that I made over the summer.  He's also realized that I've been taking a liking for Baroque music (after I learned it and am not ripping my hair out and throwing my music across the room because I'm making Bach roll around in his grave), so he's giving me more Bach and Handel pieces.  My voice professor was really happy too, which was a good thing because I was 25 minutes late to class (I thought it was at 1:45, but it was really 1:15).  He made fun of me because I showed up with this really goofy grin on my face, all ready to start my lesson and then I turned 7 shades of red when I found out that I was that late.  Whoops.  Speaking of voice lessons, I'm no longer a mezzo-soprano.  I've now moved up to soprano again and it's actually more fun than I thought.  I'm loving the high notes now that I can actually hit them and I feel so much more comfortable up there.  However, now that my high notes are good, my middle range needs work, so I have to retrain my middle range.  It seems like every time one range is fixed another one needs retraining...

Music Ed lab is going to be interesting this semester since we will be hosting a Madrigal Dinner at Rider in December.  It's going to be catered and we will be entertaining our guests like they did during the Medieval Times, where there would be actors, jugglers, and chamber choirs singing madrigals at the dinner.  It's somewhat similar to the Christmas carolers at Jessyca's wedding, only there will be more groups.  

I'm now a part of the auditioned Bell Choir this semester!  I'm so excited to be in this choir.  14 of us will get to play the largest collection of handbells in the world (8 octaves!!!)!  And the best part is, I will be touring Florida in the winter and people are paying us to go on tour so we don't have to pay a cent!  See, Schola should learn something from Bell Choir...and every other choir at WCC that goes on tour.  Probably the school concert that I'm most excited about playing in is the Readings and Carols concert.  It's going to be so much fun playing in the Princeton University Chapel, plus I will have lots of things to do and not have to stand and stare for 10-20 minutes while other groups are performing, haha.

I've posted my updated schedule.  I decided that Monday is going to be my day off from practicing, lol.  I know it's only been one week, but I can already tell that it's going to be a much better semester than my first one.  I'm having much more fun and I don't feel like I'm drowning in papers and woods/strings/brass/percussion instruments.  Now if only I could get rid of having 8 am classes every day of the week...     

Back at WCC!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm back at zoo...I mean, Westminster Choir College, and my first day as a college sophomore starts tomorrow!  I sometimes feel like I only recently graduated high school and then I have to remind myself that I already finished up my first year in college.  It's really exciting and scary at the same time...

Move-in day was last Thursday for returning students (everyone moves in so early because the choir conductors have to place everyone into voice parts in the choirs).  When I walked in with my parents, who were once again really happy to drop me off and get me out of the house, we looked around the room and saw that there was no chest of drawers.  Now I know the closet has space, but it doesn't have enough to fit all of my clothes and my bath/cleaning supplies.  We found my RA and asked her to put in a work order for drawers, but she told us that they may have a short supply because so many people were already putting in work orders for drawers.  Great...  So, I left all of my clothes in my suitcase, set up everything else, and by the time my parents and I came back from lunch, we saw a chest of drawers sitting awkwardly in the middle of the room.  Well, I told my dad that Sarah, my new roommate who is awesome btw, and I would handle it.  Unfortunately, Sarah and I couldn't find any 

room to put the drawers on the wall, so it still sits awkwardly in the middle of the room.  Sarah decided to cut some sticky notes and make a smiley face to stick on it as well as hang up hooks to bring some meaning to the drawers.  I now have two hooks on my side that will eventually hold all of my scarves.

So since move-in day was Thursday and classes start tomorrow, I basically had a whole week of free time.  I thought that it would be really difficult to find things to do, but I was wrong.  I had three movie/game nights, a picnic on the Princeton battlefield along with a fun and interesting game of badminton (six people while only having four rackets, the wind blowing, and none of us being very athletic), a welcome-back BBQ with the Westminster Christian Fellowship, and a girls' night out to a Chinese restaurant and the small movie theater where I got to see "Julie and Julia" for the second time :)  I had so much fun getting reacquainted with my friends, plus my friends seemed to enjoy the fudge I made for them.

Even though I'm having such a wonderful time, I'm not having the best of luck when it comes to injuries.  In six days, I managed to give myself two major blisters (that was my own stupidity) and a swollen shin.  On Sunday, I did the mile walk to Trinity Church for the first time since May and I decided to wear my brand new high heels without any stockings/pantyhose/padding and I gave myself two fine blisters on each of my pinky toes.  Much to my embarrassment, the family showed up to church, but it was also nice that I had a ride back to the campus, haha.  The shin, on the other hand, was the result of me being the unfortunate one who was on the end of my team's line when we played "Red Rover" at the Christian Fellowship BBQ.  A person on the other team was called over and she tried to run and break through the grip between Andrew (the guy standing next to me) and me.  She didn't get through, but she took me along for the ride and I ran into the side of the swing set that was next to me.  My shin hit a corner and it's now swollen.  I guess being part-Treusch I should know that I'm prone to getting injuries.

Anyway, I've been having a great time and I'm enjoying the last few hours that I have before I lose most of my social life.  This year, besides taking classes, practicing voice and piano for 4-6 hours a day, and ripping my hair out over music theory homework, I'll be returning as an active member of Christian Fellowship, Sigma Alpha Iota, and MENC (Music Educators National Conference).  I'm also going to serve as a coach for students taking 

Critical Pedagogy II online, you know, the class I took over the summer and almost needed therapy afterwards.  I'll still be at Trinity and I will once again sing with the CMENC Singers (where we sang choral music from Brazil).  This year, we will be singing Hanukah jazz music and will be going on a trip to Longwood Gardens in December!  This is worth double Professional Development Activity (PDA), so I'll have all my hours done for this semester and next semester!  Wish me luck!  I'm going to need it...