Weekend at Anne's House

Hello everyone!

This week was busy as usual. Tuesday, Stephen, Matt, Rebekah, and I went to the thrift store on Tuesday to look for more winter clothes....we found a little more than we bargained for. Check out Matt's........ummmmmmmm.........find:

Yes, that is indeed a fully operational Barbie piano, complete with microphone, sound effects, and three song selections (one of which is "Oops, I Did it Again" made famous by Brittany Spears. Matt vows that he's going to write it into a fugue someday.).

There was an UMSL jazz band/ensemble concert Thursday. Matt and I went to go see our classmates perform. We got to sit next to our awesome aural training teacher, Mrs. Hylton, who is one of the sweetest ladies you will ever meet. The concert was really great! It's funny when you get to know someone in one setting (like a classroom) and then see them in a different one (performing). I'm no jazz musician, but it was like they'd all been put in their element. I loved every minute of it. :)

On Halloween, Graham took me to an SLSO concert. It was really fun because they played the standard Halloween literature (Night on Bald Mountain, Danse Macabre, Symphonie Fantastique mvmt 5, and In the Hall of the Mountain King) and all the symphony members dressed up! None of the other sections coordinated, but the viola section all dressed like zombies. At the end of Night on Bald Mountain, there's a section when the violas don't play for 30-some-odd measures.....hahahahahaha, during this section, they all stood up and started shuffling around like the undead, and sat back down in time to play their part again. I talked to Kurt's wife (who also plays in SLSO) afterwards, and she said she didn't think anyone knew that was going to happen except the violists themselves. It was AMAZING! I am sooooooo in the right section. :) After the concert, me and some of the other string students went to Joanna's house for a party. Kurt and his wife were there, too, so we talked smack and ate food and generally had a good time. Hahahaha, here's a picture of a violin Joanna had sitting in her living room. The viola section moved it, and I think it's much better here, don't you? ;)

One of my violist friends, Anne, invited me to spend the weekend at her house this weekend, so after SLSYO rehearsal on Saturday, I went over to Anne's house and rode the Metro back to UMSL with her this morning....unfortunately that meant I had to get up at 5 AM, but that builds character or something, right? ;) We stayed at her mom's house and I got to meet her little sister Kate, too. We had a wonderful time. Her mom cooked us some amazing German food. I think I'm spoiled for ProHo now. :) We went to a pottery painting place, where you can pick a piece of pottery and decorate it, and they fire and glaze it for you and you pick it up in a week or so. We watched the 4th Star Trek movie. Anne was shocked and horrified that I'd never experienced Star Trek, so she insisted. So we watched Admiral/Captain Kirk, Spock, and the lady from 7th Heaven save the whales. It was good times. :)

Anne's family is Catholic and Anne plays for her church's mass on Sundays, so we went to mass on Sunday at Our Lady of the Snows church, which is apparently the headquarters for a group of missionary oblates that travel around the world. It was quite the campus, actually...with visitor center, outdoor amphitheater for outdoor masses, a regular chapel, grottos, stations of the cross, gardens, retirement center, and things of that nature. It was certainly a different sort of church experience than I am used to. This is actually the second mass I've been to since I've been in Missouri. I'd never been to a mass before I came here. I'm trying to suspend judgement a bit, but so far my impression of the Catholic church, or at least the masses I've been to has been that some of the symbolism is amazingly beautiful....but a lot of it feels very.......memorized, or insincere, or routine. I don't pretend that I can see into any person's heart, but that is the feeling I get. It makes me think about the Protestant church, and how even with less structured liturgy or less structured services, we fall into the same sort of trap and the same mindset. I know it can be so easy for me to go to church and simply go through the motions of prayer and worship instead of focusing on who God is and what He has done! In any case, I don't yet know what I make of the Catholic church.

After church, Anne's mom took us to a place in Illinois called Eckert Orchards, which has lots of produce, but is especially known for its apples. We picked some apples in their orchards and visited the country store. Here I am in the nice weather enjoying being out in the country. :)

Here are Anne, Kate, and I sitting on the shuttle that took us to the orchard:

Here we are enjoying the fruits of our labor (they let you eat apples while you pick them! Isn't that joyous?):

So I found out about the concerto competition Joanna is making us all do. It's on Friday. My time is 3:50. The memorization is going better....I just have to give it a bit more character and it should be a little better. I have an accompanist now, and we've rehearsed together once. We have another rehearsal tomorrow morning. Her name is Vera, and she is really great! She plays with SLSO sometimes and with some of the other universities in the area. Something that's really funny that I didn't find out until after we rehearsed together is that apparently she goes to my church! How crazy is that? Mom, it's really weird not playing with you, though! I don't think I've ever had another accompanist!

We have an UMSL orchestra concert on Wednesday. Dr. Richards, our orchestra conductor, has a sub for this concert due to medical reasons, so we've been getting used to a different conductor. The program has changed a little bit, too, due to the unforseen circumstances, so some of the chamber groups will be playing as well. None of mine, are, however. Sunday is our first SLSYO concert, which I'm pretty excited for. We had a really bad rehearsal on Saturday, but then we had an extra one on Sunday that was much better. Since the Sunday one was extra, a lot of people couldn't make it to the rehearsal. We only had 5 of 12 violists, and I got to sit principle. That basically made my day....I miss sitting in the front circle a LOT. I suppose it's good for me to sit somewhere else, though.... :) I haven't decided what to make of SLSYO yet. It's very, very different from OPAYCO, although I think if I keep comparing things to OPAYCO, I won't ever find anything like it. :) I think what has been bothering me about SLSYO is that there is probably more raw talent in the orchestra, but there is less heart and maturity and investment in the playing. That's what I think it is. I'll keep thinking about that one....and at least we play amazing literature! :)

Since I've been here, time and reality have started to feel a little bit warped. The days are so busy and drag on forever, but the weeks go by like lightning. I feel a little like I have two realities: Oregon and UMSL. At first, UMSL felt a little like a summer camp or something, where you just stay for a small bit and go back home and when you get home the whole experience feels a bit dreamlike. I've been here for quite a while now, and I think I've really started to find my niche. This sounds funny, but even in just that past few weeks, UMSL has really started to feel "real" to me. The idea that I'm living here most of the year is sinking in. It's just been a strange shift in perception and thought processes.

So apparently this fall has been exceptionally long. After it got cold that one week, it warmed right back up again, and the trees are all beautiful! I think it's supposed to drop again this weekend, but until then, here is a picture of one of my favorite trees on campus, right in front of the dorm.

So, there you have another week, with all its eventfulness and turmoil. Only 40 days until Winter break! :)

All my love,

Maren