New York Utica

sooo, i was called to the New York Utica Mission....woohoo, ill have to put on the video sometime of me opening it. It was definently a lot of fun.

Actually the very same day my car broke down, apparently its dead and requires 2000 bucks to be revived. Dad decided it was a better option to sell it or junk it (im leaning towards the first option, but well see what happens)

Other than that ive been trying to keep busy with various parties and movies with friends. I'll be heading home around Sept 3rd. anyway sorry its only a quick update but its an update nonetheless.

The Last Month

Sorry its taken so long, life got fairly busy. I had The masquerade ball the last weekend of January. My roomie and her fiance helped me construct my mask out by paper mache-ing my face. Rather amusing and then it was taking forever to dry so we took out the blow driers and attempted that. If you ever try this don't hold it too close cause your face will burn. trust me. Oh and that towel I was laying on got completely ruined so keep that in mind. After that I let it sit out and dry for about 2 weeks and then cut off the edges and made eye holes and such (which is a lot harder than it looks). Then I bought material scraps and super glued every inch of the material to the mask. Following that I put my decorating skills to use. I think it turned out pretty well. The actual dance was a ton of fun. I'd have to say my favorite part was that the guy i took was nice enough to force me to dance almost every other song. Oh and thank J's Roomie for giving me the amazing dress, i think i would have been lost without her help.

So for all of those who might not know I get to go to Korea and Japan with the Wind Symphony for about 3 weeks in May. And around the end of January I finally got my passport which i must say looks amazing and I am very excited to start using it.

I went to the MTC to volunteer for the first time. It was surprisingly a ton of fun. One of my roomies is a teacher for all sisters going to visitor centers and so she has them set up a fake visitor center and they lead us around and teach us. For the first time we act like general Christians who aren't Mormon, then second time we act like ourselves. I enjoyed the first time better just cause i've used to go to all my friend's revivals (for the free pizza and games) and knew exactly what type of religion I was pretending to be and all the doctrine they know of. It was rather amusing.

So currently i am a general music major but I am trying to apply to the Music Education Major. They only accept 12 people from all band and orchestra backgrounds so competition is pretty fierce . We had to send in a 10-15 minute video of ourselves teaching a group of children a musical concept. So I scrounged up some children who were siblings to a fellow euphonium player. I did really well for the first 5 minutes but the children apparently knew all of the concepts (it would have been like teaching our family around age 9 about dynamics, its just something we knew). So I continued with random other affects you could create with dynamics which ended up being a lot of fun. I finished the rest of the application and turned it in so now i am just going to play the waiting game till april.

I had a concert last night. Fairly difficult music. My Euphonium teacher gave me a new solo which Is way too difficult to play but it is what i have to work up for my jury at the end of the semester. Here is a recording i found online of it. I won't play it near anywhere that fast. and he did change a few things to be higher than what they are. But the highest note found at the end is a high E flat which is the 1st line on the treble clef (piano version, not to be confused with the euphonium's tenor clef which looks exactly the same)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPpSalT9AMY

Sickness

So, I went to the health center after a week of not feeling the best and discovered that its not just a feeling and that I am actually sick. I have had to skip 2 classes of music theory (a quiz and 2 assignments), piano proficiency, dictation (a test day), mission prep, private lessons, and sight singing. This is positively ridiculous. I feel like i have more work to make up than was probably assigned. grrr. Now I know we grew up as kids who when your sick you push through and go to school but to skip this many classes is insane. The drugs make me feel great so i feel i could probably go but the doctor signed me off for 6 days (of which i am taking 3). The other factor is i am going to be missing wind symphony. A class i never EVER miss, but apparently i must. anyway just figured id rant and rave a little. I personally think ill be fine by friday night but i guess well see.

oh and by the way jon this definentaly breaks my new years resolution of not missing more than 5 classes.

Birthday Party

Well, my roomies and I decided to throw a birthday party as it occurred over the break and all. So we made cakes, food and many other sweets. It was also centered partially around DDR which i am soooo glad i brought back with me this year. Heres the pics with commentary...



This is my living room after the lovely D and T(my roomie) decorated it with amazing helium balloons of different shapes and sizes. Oh and if you look closely on the tree the rings of colors are glow sticks. (we recreated the feeling of being new years eve.)









I made crazy bread, which you can tell was half eaten before the party started. T(my roomie) made Texas Sheet Cake on the right. D and T then made meatballs spiced with Jamaica Hot Sweet and Crazy Sauce (sooo good), and then spicy queso with chips. and always as with any 21 year olds party a few Martinelli bottles.








So we then took a group photo.
Top layer : D (T's Fiance), T (my roomie), Z ("Band" Friend)

Middle layer : S (Old Roomie), me, M and L (2 friends from back at the BC)

Bottom layer: MD (my section leader), J (New Roomie)

Behind the Camera: M (New Roomie)







Blowing out the candles on the texas sheet cake. I ended up slowly blowing them out, anyone from our family would have called it a fairly weak attempt. The funny thing i found out later was that they were trick candles. The box said only a tornado could blow this out. hahaha. Oh and if you look closely my earrings are glow sticks. amazingness.








I wanted some Martinelli, and someone yelled take the bottle, From there it went to chug the bottle, and From there it went to funnel the bottle. So as any normal 21 year old would do i funneled a bottle. granted thank goodness S was pouring cause she gave me plenty of time to gulp.








It seems only a few are truly gifted at DDR so we found a easier new innovative way to allow all of us to play. It was a ton of fun, but I know the apartment below us must have been hating us ;)














Here is Z and T posin' before gettin down with DDR.













T was very proud of her A with a circle, Z was a bit less proud and decided to drown his sorrows with MY glass of Martinelli.















After that we did a bit of dancing around, inhaling helium balloons, and going crazy. And we all had an amazing new year.

Classes

My classes and opinions of them so far

Music Theory --> I have a different teacher and he is quite different from my last teacher. He requires a lot more quick knowledge. With my last one we would do a ton of homework and the new one gives only one problem each class and then we practice on recognizing certain chord progressions in a hurry.

Dictation --> Way too easy but also taught a little differently. I am not allowed to say 5 7 i have to say a dominant 7 chord. Soo its taking a little getting used to.

Sight singing --> super easy

Wind Symphony --> The music for euphonium is super hard this year. Im gonna have to step up and practice a lot more

Private Lessons, Tuba Euph Ensemble --> fairly easy, I've already practiced 7 hrs this first week, so ill need to step it up.

Mission Prep --> i'm learning quite a bit, but to me it seems fairly strait forward. It's more just re familiarizing myself with the field

Korean/Japanese Culture Class --> I thought they would be teaching us how to act in the countries but it seems more like a history class so far. I'll probably learn more about how to act from my friends who have been there.

University Band, Intro to careers in music ed --> haven't had it yet


Those are my classes soo far. Overall a fairly easy semester.

CHRISTMAS

Sorry, it took me so long to write again, school has been hectic. For those of you who didn't know i spent my Christmas w/ the rest of the younger kids in my family. It involved a lot of reading, completing puzzles, and above all relaxing. We got to go caroling in a semi-jewish neighborhood. I was amazed at how many people sat there in plain sight watching tv and decided not to open the door and at least take a plate of cookies. Here are a couple of the very few pics from the break. It was difficult considering my fam isn't the most photogenic of people.




Here is a lovely pic of my sis and her recently (to me) highlighted hair.








Jon makin faces at the camer







Occasionally when the other kids were reading i would get bored and attempt to take various posed shots. well it did do its job to entertain me.







Here is another of my brothers working on the puzzle that I believe Jamie had received for Christmas.







For my birthday we went to Body Worlds which was absolutely amazing. I can't imagine how much work it was to separate every muscles and keep the whole body intact. In other words its super easy to make a mistake when dissecting and those bodies were perfectly prepared. Although the idea that our bodies can be plasticized is kinda creepy and weird. After that we went home and relaxed till midnight and had root beer floats as an alternative beverage to bring in the new year.

Finals/ Vegas Bowl Game

Figured I'd create a blog since im pathetic at emailing my family.

Finals went horribly. Since we had the bowl game i had to fit them in four days which wasn't bad but im a procrastinator. I decided to pull an all-nighter before the bowl game to complete my religion final which was online. Around 3:45 while I was taking the test my internet cut out and i was blocked from finishing the test. This was after answering about 20 questions out of 80. Frantically i emailed all people possible and sat and waited frantically not being able to sleep.

I then packed and tried to ignore the fact that my grades were currently hanging in mid air. I arrived early to the busses to take us to vegas. My friends convinced me to take a pic with one of the bus drivers who had an amazing full fur coat on. I haven't smelled that much smoke on anyone in a long time.

The bus ride was super long. We watched Dark Night on the way up, which i fell asleep during ( it was only my 4th time seeing it).

We arrived where we hung out for a while, got settled in with all our band stuff. Then Z and I went to go see Stomp which was freaking ridiculous. Ill have more pics of that soon. I wish we could all understand the workings of rhythm as well as these performers. They used pots, pans, sinks, dishwater, soap, plungers, brooms, newspapers, cards, bags, fruit, cups, straws, cupboards, fridges, bowls, water, tubing, baketballs, boxes w/ sand, etc.

The band stayed in Planet Hollywood. The them of the baritone girls room was an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Above our bed was a pic with guns pointing at us. It was quite calm and peaceful (sarcasm intended).We went the next day to play at a pep rally, but it was one of those things that you have to hurry up and wait. So while we were waiting we entertained ourselves by socializing with the other band and building a human pyramid.




















We then had went to have our last practice of the season. Below is a picture of half our section and our fearless leader MD, who was also was featured in the Vegas Newspaper for a danceoff she did with a kid from the other band. She did amazingly well and much better than the other guy, but their crowd was quite a bit louder


Z, MD, and I then had a past band friend bring us deep fried twinkies, possibly the most unhealthiest thing one person could eat. We also ended up getting powder all over the floor of the hotel.



Well i should probably cut this short as it is fairly long now. MD, Z, B, and I went to eat at a burger place after watching some piano duelers.

We then continued onto the game where it became not as exciting. We ended up losing to Arizona, but at least i know we dance better than them.

I might put more pics of Vegas up later but for now im out.