My Life as a Music Major: Florence Voice Seminar

I know it's been a REALLY long time since I last posted a blog. This one is about my experience at the Florence Voice Seminar, which was from May 16-June 8. 3 weeks in the beautiful city of Florence with voice lessons, cultural tours, and gelato. :)

In terms of weather, mid May to early June was the besttime to go to Italy. However, I really wished that it started a few days later. May 16 was the day after I got out of school and boy was it frustrating for the parents and me to take everything out of my dorm and pack for Florence at the same time. Everything that was in my dorm ended up in a HUGE pile in the family room. I've heard my parents say, "It looks like a bomb exploded in here," before, but I think the pile in the family room beat out the piles inmy room. Suzy really seemed to like getting herself comfortable on my dirty clothes (or burying a biscuit underneath them). I got to see some pretty hilarious pictures of her in the pile when I came back.

While I've had several trips overseas before, this onewas fardifferent from the others. One thing that was different was that I didn't have to pack my suitcase every other day to move to a different place. I loved not having to constantly carry my suitcase on and off buses, plus I enjoyed walking around and gettingto know where things were in the city. It's a good thing that I got to know where things were in the city too because another thing that was different about this trip was that I was on my own most of the time. Each of us had our own schedules with lessons and coachings, so while our teachers andsupervisors were around to help when we needed them, we had to learn how to maneuver our way to certain parts of the city without them. Let's see...an American girl who only knows, "Hello," "Thank you," "Your welcome," and "Where's the bathroom?" in Italian walking around a foreign city byherself. Scary right?It was for me, at first, but then I figured out that as long as I could see the river (the Arno), I would be able to find my way back to the apartments. Plus, my newly invented language of Spatalian (a combination of Spanish and Italian words) along with pointing (whenever I was trying to tell the cashier what I wanted) got me through 3 weeks...somewhat...

The only bad thing that happened on this trip was getting sick. I remember Sam posting on my Facebook wall, "I guess your allergies were like, 'She's in Italy now...LET'S DO THIS!'" That pretty much sums up what happened. I started wheezing, completely lost my voice the next day, then spent the next week trying to recover enough to sing in the recital. However, with the help of my teacher (and telling me that I was going to be ableto sing for the recital when I lost all hope of that ever happening), I somehow managed to get it together to sing. Now, thanksto all of my teachers and coaches, my voice is better than it's ever been!