Cups of tea and made up German...

Spring break! (Really it is just mid-semester break, but my university likes to call it "spring" break in the middle of winter.) All scheduled papers and exams completed...and with only one freak-out I might add! In my melodramatic tendencies, I have been known to stress out and freak, but I am doing much better about it. (One of my good friends says that God's still working on me.) I just sat back and said to myself that everything would get done without me worrying about it, and it did. I only freaked when I got upset about something entirely unrelated. From there, everything started to get to me, but I got over it quickly enough and was fine. I am not sure how well I did on my exams in my general education courses, but it'll all be alright. I had to choose between studying for music and studying for gen. eds. because time does not stretch to allow for everything, and I chose what means most to me. And I do not second guess my choice in the least. Friday, I sang on recital hour, and it was pretty great. We ended up in the hall again rather than the recital hall. (In the conservatory, we have two halls...the concert hall, which is like a big auditorium, and the recital hall, which is more intimate and where students have their degree recitals. Every Friday morning, we have a recital hour and alternate between general recitals, which is the entire conservatory in the concert hall, and area recitals, which divides the instrumentalists and vocalists in the two halls. The vocalists normally get the recital hall because we're a smaller department, but once in awhile we get the big hall. I love singing in both but for different reasons. They have such a different sound.) It was really cool for me because I am so used to the concert hall after all those rehearsals and the competition in there. Before, it used to scare me...such a big sound. Now, it's fun. Just have to remember to "make yellow shimmer all around you!" hehe! I sang two pieces, one Italian and one German...kind of made up some German near the end of that piece...memory blanked and I could not remember what can next, but's all good. Afterwards, I just threw my hands up in the air and said, "How fascinating!" I got that new philosopy from The Art of Possibility, which I finished last night...finally! It's pretty much an absolutely amazing book! My teacher told me afterwards that I did everything we had talked about in my lesson on Thursday...we worked on my technique and sound, and I was making some really exciting sounds...it was a really good lesson! YAY! I love it when things actually sink in! I am not sure what I would do without Lynn. She takes such good care of me. She calls her students "my lovelies." A bunch of us decided to design a t-shirt that says "Lynn's Lovelies" with our names on the back. Can't wait till they come in! Fabulous! My grandparents were at recital hour, too...they came in the day before because they were bringing me home for break. And, of course, my grandma made cookies just for Chadwick. If she could, I really think she'd adopt him. And Chad's love's my grandma...probably because of the cookies! He told me in my piano lesson that he'll miss me while I'm in Hungary, but he'll especially miss the cookies. Oh, Chad! Speaking of Hungary, I do not know anything yet. Lynn said to me in my lesson, though, that she was so glad I was going because it'll be so good for me as a musician...and help me with my inner pulse. Argh! So frustrating, but it is true. It will help me so much. It's just really scary. I am so excited, but there is always fear in anything worth doing. Hopefully, I will hear more about my application soon. So...now I am home in PA for the week. It only took 8 hours for a 3 1/2 hour drive. It was an adventurous trip. Snowstorm, two hour traffic jam, 45 min. traffic jam, a sheriff guy coming from nowhere walking to the front of the line of traffic and back twice. It was craziness. However, we made it. Back to slow internet connection and the house of crazy. Gotta love it. Now, I am sipping my cups of tea and doing pretty much nothing. I have no plans for the week. Just practicing a bit and learning some of my really sweet repertoire for this semester (finally all chosen...and it's fun!). Maybe some more reading, colouring and watching movies with my little sister, maybe some knitting, bonding time with our little yorkie Rafiki, so many possibilities! I probably won't be writing much until I get back to school...although choir will be consuming my life for the whole first week I'm back...Eric Whitacre is coming to the conservatory for a festival featuring our choir and then choir concert tour the 7th thru the 9th. Fun!