So this semester I've been attempting to tackle 19 credits (course overload) with my sophomore music ed. portfolio. Things seem to be going ok and all I had to do was give up the little free time that I had last semester! Oh well, taking 19 credits and some summer courses will free up my schedule (I will only have to take 14 credits per semester afterwards) and will allow me to jump ahead of some people so I can get into classes first. That's the horrible thing about going to a smaller school...there aren't enough teachers to make all classes available to everyone and many classes fill up fast.
This semester has also been filled with tours and performances. A few weeks before the semester started, I gave up the rest of my Winter Break to go on tour with the Bell Choir. The two-week tour took us to Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Out of the 14 days, we had 12 concerts. I think I gave my director gray hair with some of the things I did during several of them, like walking the wrong way when we were coming in or flipping one of my mallets off of the table, but all of our concerts went really well and we got standing ovations for all of them. :) Plus, I got to see a friend from my Sound of America trip whom I haven't seen in 4 years!
Schola Cantorum (sophomore choir) also has an annual tour every Spring Break, so I was on tour last Saturday through Wednesday with my sophomore class. We went to Virginia, North Carolina, back to Virginia, West Virginia, and spent a couple of hours in D.C. It was pretty slow the first few days, but once everything got going, it turned into an awesome trip! I feel so fortunate to be a part of a class like mine. Only my class would take something like a bus breaking down and turn it into a time to play Red Rover outside.
The first day wasn't the best day due to it being so windy and rainy. It was quite an adventure to walk 50 feet to the bus and load all of our stuff on it. It was also pretty funny to see that most of the guys (straight guys included) packed more than the girls. Considering how much guys complain about girls having too much stuff, seeing guys with larger suitcases was pretty entertaining for me.
There were two buses for us and I was on Bus 2 aka "The Sweet Bus." Unfortunately on Day 3, the bus broke down in the parking lot of the church that we all met at and after several hours of the repairman looking at it, we all took our suitcases out and piled onto the "The Sassy Bus" for the 3 hour drive back to Virginia. The next day, another bus came to replace the one that died and we were excited to see that it was larger (we had the smaller bus since we had fewer people on the bus), which meant that the 21 of us got two seats to ourselves. The people on the other bus weren't too happy about that, haha.
On these tours we were supposed to have home stays instead of hotels (to save money), but that wasn't the case for half of us. The last night, half of us were sitting around watching everyone else going with their home stay families and wondering where ours were. We found out later that we were staying in a hotel! When we got there, we dropped our stuff off and partied at Applebee's. Even though we had to get up at 5:30 the next day to leave at 6:30, it was worth hanging out for a couple of hours.
The final day we stopped in D.C. for a couple of hours before heading home. While a couple of hours isn't nearly enough to see D.C., we were able to visit the Library of Congress. We had a personal tour of the music section and the people handling the books wanted to personally select books for us to see. The selections included original manuscripts of J.S. Bach, Brahms, Bernstein, and Gershwin!!! I think they knew that they made the right choices when all of us started hyperventilating over the selections, haha.
With the death of my grandpop and getting sick, this semester has definitely had its hardships. However, many good things have happened this semester as well. The tours were great for one thing, but after two years, I landed a summer job with a steady paycheck. It's been so hard trying to find a job due to going away to school at the end of the summer and the economy, but I finally found something! I also am thinking about getting a house with some of my awesome friends for next semester because I desperately want to get off campus. Finally, I'm going to Italy in less than 3 months! I raised $2000 from my recital and with the money I saved from working, I covered the whole tuition! Now I still don't have much money for food and airfare, but I can just get a tube and paddle my way across the Atlantic. Plus, who needs to eat for 3 weeks, right? As long as I have the money to stay in the apartments and take classes, that's all that matters. :)
My recital. Thanks to all who came and donated! :D
Bell Choir with Curious George at Universal Studios, Orlando!
Fort Lauderdale, Florida!
I wanted to put this picture up to give you an idea of what my home stays were like. This lady has an elevator in her house! Her excuse? "I'm old..."
Schola plays the human knot game!
The most random speed limit sign I've ever seen.
College roomies!
At Applebee's!
Bach's signature!
Original manuscript of "I Feel Pretty!" from "West Side Story"
This is what happens when everyone ends up on the same bus together...
Our bus leader gave us vitamins everyday, so we made up a song whenever he came around with vitamins. :)
