Week 1 of Juilliard/NYC

WOW...

Soooo, ever since the plane ride up to New York, I have been without my lovely pink personal computer, and thus I have not been able to upload pictures OR update my blog. Now, a week past, I have so much to say about it all I don't think I can even remember all of it! Anyways, I'll try and give you the basics of what this week was like:

We arrived in the late afternoon of August 29th, checked in to the Empire hotel just two blocks from Juilliard (way to go Priceline!) and had a room overlooking the school and the Lincoln center. My parents were just going crazy with excitement and I found them absolutely hilarious and embarrassing. Perfect. For dinner we started walking around the streets looking for a Chinese food place that I loved, but could not remember where it was and just about that time I got news from my Russian, Dima Volkov, that he had won 1st place in the Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition!!! So here we are on the street, all three of us, screaming in excitement, all pulling out our cell phones to tell whoever else we can and loving all the strange stares and smiles we were getting from people passing by. It was a beautiful moment :)

Next morning was move in. We walked over to the school with 4 suitcases and two violas, a computer AND two venti Starbucks coffees (that's really important) and were feeling like we had a lot of stuff until we saw other people loading boxes upon boxes out of their cars! We had a few minutes to mingle before all the Orientation leaders (students) came out with big bins and started directing us where to go. All of them were SO incredibly energetic. It was hilarious, especially all the dancers who just could stop moving and cheering! What a great welcome! Once upstairs, we got to unpacking in my TINY room right away, but magic did happen and everything fit perfectly! The best part- my closet! I've seen other rooms and they have nothing like this, but there were two closets in the room. One was shallow with a bar hung around head level. The other closet, on my side of the room was deep with room to walk in it, and two bars and two shelves! I figured I would have to share it with my roommate, but it turns out, she doesn't like to hang things, so it's all mine! WOW, who knew you could go to college and have a walk-in closet....The rest of the day was filled with shopping for various little storage things and student and parents meetings in the dorm, all welcoming us to the school. My roommate is a dancer, from Dallas, TX! And though we don't see each other that much, I think we will be great roommates :)

Starting Monday we had various sessions and placement exams to take. Mom and Dad also had a few "parent orientation" things to go to and they left that afternoon feeling (I think) very satisfied where they were leaving me, in a school that would take great care of me. I agree :)

As for my Japanese Aesthetics test..well it went well enough because I made it in the highest class I could. I do have to admit though that the teachers are probably laughing at me since my "art form" that I used as an example was "latte art" (It's cool, just believe me ok?) Needless to say, afterwards, when my friends asked me what I wrote about, I got a few laughs. But at least I have friends yeah?

The few people that I refer to as my "friends" are actually quite a ool and diverse group. Unfortunately this means that once school starts I probably won't be seeing them much. My floor in the dorm has quite a few drama students, so I've been hanging out with a few of them. I've also hung out with a jazz pianist, a horn player, a trombone player (from Houston!), a vocalist, some dancers and two string players that I met at camp this summer. That's basically what this week has been- a combination of lectures on rules and schedules, practicing, and exploring the city at night. I will have to write a new post soon summarizing a few of my observations about New Yorkers ;)

This weekend we have had several opportunities to go out. Actually, Friday night we had "casino night" and I won a $15 Barnes and Noble gift card (did you know you can buy coffee there too? :D) and the grand prize of two tickets to the Mets vs. Cubs game yesterday. (That was kinda fun, but the Mets suck..sooo. I'm going to a Yankee's game tomorrow with a good group and friends and I'm more excited for that). This morning a group of us went to volunteer at a soup kitchen except there was some major miscommunication and a jerk of a boss once there, soooo no soup kitchen. But I did just have a wonderful lesson with one of my two teachers. We had a long lesson because there was no one after me today and then we spent about 15 minutes taking notes together on what we talked about in the lesson and what we will be working on next time. Organization: I love it. Tuesday night we have a semi-formal Juilliard school party/dance on a Circle Line cruise boat that will be taking a trip around the island at sunset. I'm quite excited :)

I don't want to drag on about my week since you probably need to stop reading and get back to your life and I to my viola (which is my life) But I just wanted to let you know that all is going well. I think I am going to be extremely busy this year, but also very happy. I can tell already the opportunities are abundant and amazing. I really like the access to more than just other classical musicians. For example, Thursday night I spent two hours in a dorm suite listening to drama kids act out various scenes from Shakespeare. ahhh, it is so cool.

Thank you for your support!

Love,

Violamad