Chow-town

This post really should be all about Europe, but I don't have any pictures from Europe because they are all at home in Texas with my sister, so I'm not going to write about that just yet. Although, I will say, there is much to be told, and it was a big adventure.

I am now at Chautauqua. I play in an orchestra for 7 weeks and then go home. Piece of cake. Heh.

I definitely showed up on Sunday not having played my flute in 3 WEEKS. I sit down in rehearsal in the 2nd flute chair, praying that I don't have to play 1st or piccolo. Don't worry, the other flute players eventually came and one of them told me I was in her chair. Snap. The parts are rotating for the entire 7 weeks we are, but I somehow ended up on 1st for the first concert. Rehearsal starts, and I'm totally thinking that the conductor is going to give us a nice welcome pep talk and I will have some time to lament my fate, but no, he just raises his baton and says, "Pictures, please." So the big brass fanfare starts and all of these "sightreaders" sound really good and I pretty much started panicking! I haven't played in 3 weeks and I'm supposed to sightread this thing practically perfect?! Psh. Didn't happen.

It also didn't boost my ego or anything that I got to know the two other flute players and found out some lovely tidbits about them. One is from Ecuador and he won the NFA Young Artists competition last year (that's pretty much the biggest thing you can win as a flutist in the US). The other I know from Michigan, I actually went to a party at her house, and she is really nice. I asked her if she had been to anything like this before and she's like, "Oh yeah, I've been doing these things forever. I went to Interlochen in middle school, I've been to Brevard and Aspen" and on and on and on. And then she's all, "What about you?" And I mumbled something about that I hadn't ever done anything like this before and yeah. Needless to say, I am the black sheep. The great thing is, both of the other members of my section are SUPER nice. I really like them! I'm looking forward to getting to know them and learning from them. Hello, they are super talented.

And as far as Pictures at an Exhibition goes, can I just say one thing? Why do flute players always have to be birds?! Seriously. This movement about chickens hatching out of their shells is about to kill me. And I'm supposed to play it perfectly by tomorrow. No prob. I'm a star.

But Chautauqua is great. I don't know why more BYUers don't audition for it. I'm going to tell everyone I know to come here because it is so fantastic (and I've only been here for 2 days)! We live in dorms, eat cafeteria food (bleh. bleh. bleh.), but we are right on the lake, everything is so green, there are people biking everywhere, boats sailing, it's like 70 degrees, and the houses are beautiful! I guess this is basically just a summer residence town. There are like 200 people that live here in the winter and 10,000 in the summer. Or at least that's what they said at the meeting this morning. And the great thing is, people come here because it's beautiful and all that, but also because they love the arts. There are artists, actors, dancers, and musicians all over the place, and performances going on all the time. Seriously, does it get any better than this? Maybe. Probably not though. And the cherry on top is that you don't go to a practice building. No no. You go to a "practice shack," which is your own individual, air conditioned, newly painted cabin, where you practice out of earshot of everyone else. It is so fantastic! Tell me you are jealous people. I just can't get over what a vacation this is. I mean, practice 4 hours a day, rehearse for 2 and a half, and then do whatever. HELLO. This is the life.

Anyway, I just wanted to post to say how much I like this place. No one probably cares to read this, but I'm hoping that if I am eventually loathing my life here I can come back and read this post! Hooray for Chautauqua. I hope things go well here this summer. Peace out.

Skipping the country

My lovely family and I are going to Europe tomorrow and will be gone for 19 days. All I have to say is----

Cheerio,
a Bientot,
auf Wiedersehen,
and Peace Out A-Town.

This begins the craziness of my summer. Oh snap.

Don't miss me too bad.