Don't expect this to be a regular thing...

Sooo....

I have to post because I am excited out of my mind for this trip and I feel bad talking to some people about it because they can't go, and that just makes them feel bad so I'm here on the internet for some text-based happy dancing!

I'm going to England for May Term!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I'm taking Wartburg's British Literary class, and we will travel all over England for 19 days seeing and doing stuff that deals with famous works of literature!

We start the trip off in London for 6 nights and visit the Tower of London, the Globe Theatre, Westminister Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, Dr. Samuel Johnson's house, the Tate Museums, the Anchor Pub, Ye Old Cheshire Cheese, British Library, and the Museum of London. And we have a free day to ourselves.

Then we go to Bath for a night and visit Jane Austen's house, Stonehenge, and Tintern Abbey (which is actually in Wales.)

On our way to Stratford-upon-Avon we will swing through Oxford, take a walking tour of the place, visit Christ's Church College, and go punting.

We'll spend 2 nights in Stratford-upon-Avon, and visit Shakespeare's Birthplace and Anne Hathaway's cottage. We'll also visit the Holy Trinity Church and see a play by Shakespeare.

We'll stop in Lichfield and see Dr. Johnson's birthplace.

Next we will spend 2 nights in the Lake District and visit the Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum. We'll also see Coniston Water, Brantwood, and go hiking.

On our way to Edinburgh, Scotland we will visit Burns' birthplace in Ayr.

We'll stay for 2 nights in Edinburgh and visit Edinburgh Castle, the Writer's Museum and hike up to Arthur's Seat. We'll also visit Abbotsford House.

On our way to Bradford we will visit the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

We'll stay in Bradford a night and visit the Bronte Parsonage museum and go hiking in the moors.

Next comes Cambridge, and we'll be there for 2 nights. We'll go on a walking tour of Cambridge, visit Trinity College and do some more punting. We'll also get a tour of Cantebury Cathedral and Kings College.

We go back to London for the remaining 2 nights and get to see a Shakespeare play at the Globe, and have one last free day. The last night we will have a farewell dinner at the George Inn.


AHHHH! I've been mentally running in circles out of pure excitement for the past couple days! I had to post also because.... While I'm in London.... I will get to see:

LORD OF THE RINGS: THE MUSICAL!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Like.... This is like..... Unbelievably awesome! Like.... I don't know how to describe it!

I AM SO EXCITED!

I'm not gloating... and I don't mean to sound like I'm bragging... I just NEED an outlet for all my EXCITEMENT!

...Because I'm about ready to run a hole through the carpet.

For LotR Musical awesomeness check out this:



And all the other movie clips on YouTube. :-D


I'm also beyond excited for the two Shakespeare plays I get to see. I don't know which plays they are, but still. :-D I can't wait!


I am pretty much excited out of my MIND-- MY MIND, I TELL YOU-- for this trip!!!!




In other awesome news:

Saturday is my 21st Birthday



AND!

THIS GUY *points down* is coming to Wartburg in January. ROCK ON!




My future life is awesome.

Schedule and announcement

In case you're wondering why all my links have disappeared from the tool bar on the right, it's because I accidentally deleted my blog template and I haven't fixed it yet. :-P



Here's my schedule for Fall Term:


Mondays:

10:45 am: Conducting*

12 pm: Lunch

12:30-2:30 pm: Work at ITS

3:10 - 3:40 pm: Trumpet/French horn methods

3:50-4:40 pm: Symphonic band


Tuesdays/Thursdays:

8-9:30 am: Work at the Library

9:35-11:15 am: Music History II*

("Free time to eat lunch")

1:00 - 2:40 pm: Instrumental/Vocal Music Methods: Grades 5-12*

3:50-4:40 pm: Symphonic Band


Wednesdays:

9:30-10:30 am: Flute lesson

10:45 am: Conducting*

12 pm: Lunch

12:30-2:30 pm: Work at ITS

3:10 - 3:40 pm: Trumpet/French horn methods

3:45-4:40 pm: Flute Seminar


Fridays:

9-10:30 am: Work at the Library

10:45 am: Conducting*

12 pm: Lunch

12:30-2:30 pm: Work at ITS

3:10 - 3:40 pm: Trumpet/French horn methods

3:50-4:40 pm: Symphonic band


*Indicates a class is writing intensive.

After band each day I study until 6 pm when Rachel V., Rachel D., and Leah are done with their classes and then we all go to dinner together. Lourey usually meets up with us at the the Mensa. Eventually piano lessons will be in there too. I budget about 10-15 minutes of time to walk from the FAC which is at one end of the campus to my dorm which is at the other end.

Sooo yeah... All my classes are writing intensive--meaning a minimum of 30 pages total will be written for the class except for my flute lesson, band and Trumpet/Fhorn methods. My 5-12 class also requires 10 hours of classroom observation.


Band audition results:

I have been placed in 5th chair in symphonic band. Which is 2 places down from where I was last year. Kind of.... sucky. But there's little I can do about it now. There's also about 30 flutes in Symphonic band. 30 flutes! (We had 20 incoming freshman flutes this year! TWENTY! AHH! >:-O Plus, Wind Ensemble didn't take ANY more flutes then they did last year.) Which is freaking outrageous. I literally can sit there in band and pretend to play and not make a difference in the sound. (I'd have to be horribly out of tune to even kind of stand out.) It's really discouraging. Because I know it matters that I'm there. Meaning I know that by my being there in band my personality makes a difference. But my playing does not. And don't tell me that that's not true. Because it is. No one can stand on the podium, have the whole band play and then tell me that you can hear me specifically. There is no way anyone can say that every flute in band is important to the piece. I'm reading off a photocopy for crying out loud! There are too many flutes! I'm not mad about being 5th chair. I'm very frustrated with the amount of flutes in Symphonic band. It really really sucks.



Also, due to the amount of schoolwork I have this semester, I have decided, for the first time, to put this blog on hiatus until further notice. I really want to do well and keep up with my schoolwork so I am going to work hard to not let myself be distracted by any sort of obligation I
feel to update my blog. Because I do feel bad when I don't update at least every-other-day.

Consequently, I doubt I'll be on MSN or AIM very much either. If anything I will be "away." That means that even if I'm there, I have no obligation to reply to you. If someone wants to get a hold of me, they can email, text/call my cell, or leave me a message in the comments or on Facebook. Calls to simply chat (with the exception of my parents and Jessica) will be very short. It's kind of rude, but I have so much stuff to complete this semester that's just what I'm going to have to do. I am already feeling overwhelmed and I've only gotten through my second day of classes!

I'm kind of bummed about the course load also because I turn 21 this month and I have no time for anything other than school.

Before I finish this post, my junior recital is going to be November 13th at 8pm on the Orchestra Hall.

Some of you I'll see around campus, or next door, or at home so hopefully after I survive I can give a nice long update!

Party time!

Happy Birthday Daniel!

I hope your day was fantastic! I thought this STAR WARS cake of Max Rebo was pretty cool, so I put it up here for you to look at and imagine what it would taste like. :-) Pick out some good ice cream for your party tomorrow! I wish I could be there! Lots of love from the 'Burg!

Hoo-ha Nerdfighters!

Hey everyone, I'm still here. I just finally have a moment to sit and type an actual blog post. Life has been busy back at the 'Burg, and it's taken a while to finally get settled in, but I think that aspect of dorm life is going pretty good. I hope the people who read this haven't missed me too much!

Well, I survived my week of being the only person here. I actually had very little time to sit and be like, "Oh woe is me... I'm alone with no one to hang out with." The first two days were spent in training for ITS, unpacking, enjoying the cable channels on TV, practicing for my band audition and studying for the PRAXIS. Ted and Kellee both invited me to come hang out with them, but it never worked out. Thursday and Friday were like Monday and Tuesday, sans the PRAXIS studying and swapping the ITS training for training at the library. Friday night Rachel V. moved in and tonight Lourey moved in. Leah moves back in tomorrow. She moved her stuff in on Sunday, but then she left again to be with her fiance, Travis.

Sunday Rachel V., Bryan and I also went in to Waterloo. We went to Target and Barnes and Noble. We had lots of fun adding "in my pants" to the ends of book titles. It made us very giggley and we got a couple of weird looks from a lot of people. One of the better ones was "The Secret Life of Lobsters [in my pants]" and "What They are Teaching our Kids in Public School [in my pants]." It was pretty awesome. I bought the book The Last Unicorn (heeheehee... in my pants) by Peter S. Beagle. I remember seeing the old 80's movie so I figured the book would be something nice to eventually read. Then we had drinks at the Starbucks there and I had a strawberry and creme smoothie, and I accidentally sliced my thumb on the plastic rim of the dome top to my cup. It hurt and Rachel laughed at me. :-P

Tomorrow is the opening convocation which starts the school year. Classes start on Wednesday. Rachel and I got our books yesterday. For spending over $300 in the bookstore I got a free Wartburg orange highlighter pen. Which makes the outrageous prices they charged for my book okay? Not really, but whatever. Since I'm taking conducting this year I had to buy a baton. It kind of felt like I was selecting a wand, like in the Harry Potter books. I suppose I'll put a picture of it up here eventually.

Did I ever mention that we got a goldfish last March? As part of a floor program? Everyone on our floor last year got a goldfish, they had to provide the bowl etc, but the goldfish was free, and whatever room kept the goldfish alive would win a prize. Leah and I named our goldfish Monteverdi after a composer in the Renaissance who we were studying in music history at the time. Well, Monteverdi is still alive, so we still have a goldfish in our room. (For the record, Monteverdi was the longest living goldfish on our floor, but we never got our prize. How lame is that?) It's kind of fun to have just one fish. He likes to come up to the glass if you ever get close, because he thinks he's going to get fed. Rachel V. has a Beta Fish that she named Benedick after her favorite character in Much Ado about Nothing.

I just have an ivy plant named Charlie the II (because Charlie the I died...) and Jessica's mom gave me this mossy carpet-like pant that I named Marv.

I worked at ITS today and it was really really busy. There are so many people who don't know how to connect to the internet at all. Or they are lazy and want ITS to just do it all. Either way we were hopping today. Between the phone ringing and people taking messages and setting up appointments, or trying to troubleshoot over the phone and people walking in and simply saying "my computer doesn't work" (which tells us a whole lot...) Hopefully by the end of September it'll settle down a bit.

I have my band audition tomorrow at 3:03 pm. I'm kind of nervous but I feel rather prepared. I'm actually not sure what band I really want to be in. Because I think symphonic band is more fun than the higher band, wind ensemble, just because there is less pressure. But wind ensemble gets to travel and is the more "prestigious" of the two bands. There's a certain sense of "awe" tacked onto people who make wind ensemble. But in wind ensemble I wouldn't get to play piccolo. No flutes graduated last year and the piccolo was already spread thin amongst the people who want to play it. I love playing piccolo. I really really do. (If I could major in piccolo performance, I would.) And it would be really hard and really sad to have to sit and not play it. Or play like, only one piece. If I was lucky. In symphonic band, I'd have a pretty good shot of being the only player or one of two. That's okay. It's when you get past 3 players that it gets ridiculous.

...Also, the pressure I feel my flute teacher puts on me to make wind ensemble makes me want to go and do the opposite just to spite her. Not making wind ensemble last year was kind of a big deal because they were going to Japan. But I ended up going to New York instead and I think I enjoyed that so much better. I'm totally over that. I wouldn't have traded New York for anything.

I've been going on a run almost every morning. And the mornings I've missed, I've gone on long walks so it alternates nicely. The route I take when I run has telephone poles alongside it, which work as excellent visual markers/goals. So each day I can run to the next pole and go farther and farther. I'm starting to tell that I am beginning to build up my endurance, little-by-little. It's kind of a nice feeling! :-)

Last night, there was this terrible racket in our building around 4 am. Rachel V. heard it too. Neither of us know who or what it was. It woke me up, it was so loud! It was a really loud banging and crashing noise that sounded over irregular intervals. It sounded like someone was trying to break down a door somewhere. Part of me wanted to get out of bed and tell who-ever it was off for being so freaking loud at 4 in the morning, but I didn't know WHO was out there or what was going on. I was about to call security but it finally stopped and I went back to sleep. This morning nothing in the hallways looked damaged, so I have NO idea what it was. Our building has a mandatory meeting with our RA Wednesday night, with everyone there so maybe I'll ask to see if anyone else knows what happened.

Bleh. I also have my junior recital to prepare for.


Have I mentioned how busy this year is going to be?

Absolutely crazy. But I plan to work my butt off. I'm not ready, but that's okay.




And I'm still looking for a car to buy.