I want to be a part of it: New York, New York.

So after a lovely few weeks back home in England I returned somewhat prematurely to the U.S.A. with a quick stop off in New York. To be honest, I don’t really know where to begin as it has been an absolute whirlwind stay in the big apple. Therefore, I shall begin from the beginning…

The airport

The sheer surrealism of the trip was probably first realised at Heathrow airport when we arrived at the wonderful terminal 5, home of the equally fantastic British Airways. Despite the heighted security things ran pretty smoothly and we were soon in the air. Sarah and I tucked into as many free glasses of wine as we could manage without appearing drunk and had a nice chicken tikka for lunch and a sarnie for dinner!

Anyway, enough about how much I love British Airways and terminal 5…now onto the gritty stuff!

1^st Night

The bizarre nature of our stay in New York doesn’t end with BA. We arrived at The Williamsburg Hostel on Bedford Ave, Brooklyn at about 3pm and were greeted by an English man who was looking after it while his friend was at the dentist! The place was actually more like an apartment with sublet rooms but it had such a cosy feel to it and all the staff were lovely. I especially fell in love with the cat, Frank!

Christian

The English guy proceeded to make us fancy tea (apparently the best in N.Y.C.) and tell us about his absolutely ridiculous (and in my opinion highly unreal) story of how he came to live in New York. Basically, he used to work at the Financial Times in London but ended up suing the company when he found out some sort of under cover corruption going on. He obviously couldn’t stay and had alienated himself so he flew over to New York where he fell in love with an extremely wealthy girl and married her in 6 weeks! The family didn’t’ like him and hired investigators to follow the couple. Eventually her sister drugged her and sent her to a rehab center. The family then got the two of them divorced in Idaho and he is an illegal immigrant (which he has been since he came out here!). He has now been living in New York illegally for around 15 years. Having kept us sitting in the lounge longing to see our room, shower and eat, we finally (3hrs later) got to our room! We didn’t see him too much after that because he went on a Buddhist meditation camp the next day. How he manages to do all of these things when he is an illegal immigrant baffles me completely!

Sarah and I grabbed a quick shower and headed out to find some food. We ended up going to a lovely Italian place called Fornio where I had my first legal drink (although they didn’t ask me for I.D. boo). We then went to a very English looking pub and drank some strawberry beer before retiring very early on in the evening. We were both lightweights!

Day 1

Words truly cannot describe how incredible our first day in Manhattan was. We got up early in order to catch the subway over and stopped off at a cute little coffee shop called ‘New York Muffin’ for a bagel and a smoothie which would become a daily occurrence in our vacation. Having queued for about half an hour in the TKTS line (a cheap box office in the center of Time Square) we decided to just splash out the cash and buy tickets to see the Lion King that lunch time. The show was amazing and from the beginning call and response shouts I had tears streaming down my face. Afterwards we walked to the Rockerfeller Center and went up to the Observatory as the sun was setting over Manhattan. I have to say that it was the most beautiful view of the skyline and I couldn’t help thinking that if anyone ever proposes to me they had better do it there!

Being so close to 5^th Ave we had a wander and took pictures of all the amazing shop displays and swooned over the Abercrombie and Fitch models (mmmmmm). A short hop onto the subway saw us in Grand Central Terminal so we thought that we might as well get off and have a look. As we walked up the steps the brassiest and roughest groove I’ve heard in a long time came bellowing down. When we reached the top there was a band called ‘Underground Horns’ made up of a beaten up alto saxophone and trumpet, valve trombone, tuba, conga & whistle and snare/bass drum set up. Everyone was enthralled by their sound, blocking most entrances and exits to platforms. After listening to a couple of their songs (and buying a cd) we headed up to Grand Central for a brief photo opportunity and then headed further downtown on the subway to the Blue Note Jazz Club where Joe Sample, from the Jazz Crusaders TX, was playing. Although it looked nostaligic and ultra cool inside, the prices were too expensive to stay so we headed next door to a bar called Groove where an amazing funk band were playing. They did two 45 minute nonstop segued sets of the dirtiest funk I’ve ever heard. After a massive burger and 2 or 3 cocktails (finally I got asked for I.D.!) we jumped back on the subway, once again exhausted, and headed back to Brooklyn for bed.

Day 2

Having miraculously fumbled our way round Manhattan and having literally one of the best days of my life, day two was met with silly sleepy errors from the previous night before! Sarah and I headed to the Statue of Liberty in the morning without any real hassle. The boat trip wasn’t too bad although I felt a little bit ill and they had a female voiceover who was trying to evoke emotion out of people at 11am in the morning by telling us to ‘imagine’ and ‘feel’! We queued to go up the Statue of Liberty and took some snaps of some of the views but if I’m being honest, I think both of us were a little bit disappointed/bored by the whole thing. The constant queuing for things meant that by the time we got back on the boat when just went straight back to shore rather than visiting Staten Island.

The next stop was The Museum of Sex on 5^th Ave. The night before we’d checked prices and times but had failed to write down where on 5^th Ave it was. Anyone who has been or indeed looked at a map will realise the great error that we made as 5^th Ave runs for miles and miles. The obvious choice was clearly to head to ‘Museum Mile’ and although I took lots of pictures of Central Park and the Guggenheim Museum, we still couldn’t find it. Eventually, I rang Jesse in Denton and asked him for directions. It turned out that we were at 96^th Street and the Museum was on 26^th! However, a bus journey later saw us right outside the Museum. Having paid entry (I love having an American student card – money off!) we headed into what was perhaps the strangest thing I have seen in a long time. Having trawled through the picture of famous people in the porn business we ended up in a room dedicated to the history of sex, looking at early vibrators to real life latex dolls! It was interesting but I think we both felt a little uncomfortable, especially when we got to the sex and film room (no more information required!).

After 30mins of complete silence and contemplation we walked to Stardust café for our final night in New York. I had already been told what it was like but Sarah had never heard of it so we were both very excited! Again, we didn’t check the address and only knew that it was on Broadway but having asked a dishy police officer and then a lady at a ticket booth we arrived there (f.y.i. it’s on the corner of 50^th and Broadway!). The food was great and we sipped Sex and the City cocktails while our waitress (incidentally the best out of all of them) sang songs from Wicked and Grease. It was such a fantastic experience and I’d definitely recommend going back there.

Stripped of most of our money we headed back to the hostel, annoyed that we had been silly enough to not check where places were, but extremely happy that we’d had such a fantastic time in New York.

Day 3

Having had a nice (and welcomed) lie in we searched google for things to do a little closer to the hostel in Brooklyn. Walking the Brooklyn Bridge would be too long and a lot of walking for our already tired, and in Sarah’s case, bleeding feet. In the end we decided just to get on the subway and go to the Museum of Natural History. It was such a lovely chilled end to the trip and I have to say that the dinosaurs were fascinating! I’ve never been to anything like that so for me I was amazed and definitely took far too many photos.

When we got back we dropped off our keys called for a cab and that was it…goodbye New York. I literally can’t get over how amazing the experience was and I’m so glad that Sarah and I did it together. I have a funny feeling that there will be a lot of ‘in jokes’ that only her and I get like the true freakiness of Christian, the platform sweeper on the subway and the true beauty of the Abercrombie and Fitch models! My only wish is that we could have stayed longer which is why, money permitting, we’re hoping to go back at the end of the semester to experience New York in warmer climates!

Back to Texas and the hard graft that comes with it…

xXx Diane xXx

Home Run...

So this will be my last post for a month or so as I will be in England in front of the fireplace sipping Baileys in about 3 days! It's safe to say that I've wanted to be at home for probably the last month and with all the exams/deadlines and the statutory winding down that every university seems to experience, things have been a bit rubbish recently. Nevertheless, I seem to have kept myself busy and happy for the most part (probably because I need things to write on this blog! haha).

Okay, so I should probably begin chronologically in the hope of not missing out too much...

Thanksgiving, was an odd experience and if I'm honest is just a dry run for Christmas. Joe, Tim and I went round to Jesse's swanky apartment and ate A LOT of food. We were joined by 2 couples (woodwind & brass geeks from UNT!) as well as 2 of Jesse's close friends from Tennessee. The turkey was delicious and it wouldn't have been the same if it didn't have the statutory cranberry jelly from a can and macaroni cheese with bacon in it! I would say that "mac 'n' cheese" is probably the staple food of America. After stuffing ourselves silly with ridiculously calorific homemade deserts we 'watched' Hook (more like snoozed through). Then we decided to teach the Americans some drinking games - they love a good game of Ring of Fire. The addition of rules such as 'when an English person drinks, the American's have to drink' has become a statutory rule now. The only issue was that unfortunately the only people drinking alcoholic beverages was Joe and I. Of course I managed to control myself, having cans of Coke Zero in between, but it's safe to say that by the time we left Joe was skipping down the stairs and flapping his hands as only Joe can do! Needless to say, the whole weekend was a lovely, chilled, boozy relaxation and a much needed break from the intense life of the music student at UNT.

While Thanksgiving was a welcomed break, I had definitely not anticipated the onslaught of weeks that would follow. As soon as we returned juries were upon us and I was frantically rehearsing with my accompanist to try and get the Bernstein together. I also had a lot of concerts to attend which are mandatory if you are in one of the wind ensembles here. I also foolishly volunteered to playing in a new composition for clarinet octet, the concert being the same day as my repertoire jury. My experience with working with the student composers here is definitely a bizarre one. They are literally a different breed. On one occassion we spent 30mins listening to them debate about whether a note in the 6th clarinet part should be an F# or a Gb. In the end we stepped in as any remotely sane person would with "Who actually gives a sh*t?". It was very frustrating to say the least, but the piece was actually very clever (and tonal!) which no-one could really complain about.

The following week was D-day (or maybe J-week as nothing seemed to happen other than an obscene amount of juries). My accompanist cancelled the last rehearsal before my jury so it's safe to say that I was a little anxious before going in. However, it went fairly well and although she messed up the piano part a couple of times I slotted back in with her which definitely earned me brownie points! The next day was technique juries. This one I was a little worried about. You basically have five minutes where they keep throwing scales and technical patterns at you until you fail miserably in a heap on the floor! To make matters worse, everyone is sitting outside listening in intently, hoping for a small slip somewhere that might give them the upper edge. It's very nerve-wracking stuff. Luckily I'd prepared fairly well, so there were only a few small errors where I just took a scale too fast and fumbled on a harmonic. I did enough to get me an A- from my clarinet teacher and an A from the rest of the panel for my repertoire, so I was pleased.

This week is finals week, so most students are just at home studying for exams. I only had one, this morning (Friday) at 8am. As you can imagine, I was a little bit annoyed about the fact that I had to wait around an extra week when I could be in England. With this in mind Sarah and I went to a house party on Friday. It was absolutely ridiculous! They had 4 bands playing, my friend's band not starting until 2.30am. The police seemed absolutely fine with it, but obviously I wasn't going to get caught for underage drinking so I only had a glass or 2 of wine. We eventually got back (after an obligatory stop off at 'What-A-Burger' - the dirty burger place) at 4am and crashed! The next morning, we left dull-eyed and definitely not bushy tailed to go to a high school football in Waco, about 2-3hrs away. It was absolutely brilliant, and although mine and Michael's team, 'Stony Point' lost, we still had a lot of fun tailgating. The evening was obviously spent drinking our sorrows and watching American football films after an IHOP dinner haha. I then spent the rest of the week suffering with a cold that Joe had kindly given me. I suppose it gave me something to do!

This brings us to Friday, today. The exams are over, the other English lot are all on planes back to England and I must begin packing for my departure. It seems odd that I'm half way through and I haven't yet decided whether I'm looking forward to another manic 4 months of music. I feel that I've grown both musically and personally and would definitely say that the study abroad experience has benefited me greatly. I'm absolutely ready for home comforts now and I'm just praying that the airports don't get snowed in. The thought of spending my 21st birthday in an airport is not a pleasant one!

See you in 2010!

xXx

Week 12!!!

Okay, so I've been here for 12 weeks now which seems ridiculous! In 5 weeks time I will be on the plane with Joe watching children's films on the way back to Heathrow airport. Time is going incredibly fast but I struggle to remember what I've been up too (strange I know!)

I don't really have an awful lot of time to talk as I'm off out round Ty and Josefin's for Sunday dinner in about 15 minutes but hopefully I can cram in as much as possible. Music is crazy here at the moment and with juries (music exams) coming up very soon, things are getting tense! I have fallen in love with the Latin Jazz Lab Band and I will be trying out for it in January. I feel fairly confident (especially now that I have my flute going) but you can never really tell. It really is all about getting in their with the ensemble directors. There are so many of us here that you need to do something extra special in order to be more than just your student number to the faculty.

Concerts are going very well and I am progressing very nicely through symphonic band up to 1st clarinet parts on some pieces. Hopefully next semester 1st will be a more regular position but to be honest any clarinet part is extremely hard as we are essentially the violin part of an orchestra! My playing is still improving immensely and I've plucked up the courage to practice a bit more at the apartment. So far there haven't been any complaints from the neighbours, but we'll see once I start exploring even higher ranges haha. My wind trio have performed quite a few times too and we're getting better and better which is very promising. I'm not too bothered though as most people seem rather jealous of us due to the fact that we actually go out and have dinner together and socialize a fair amount, which most groups don't tend to do.


Hallowe'en, as I'm sure you can imagine, was an absolute blast! I dressed up as a pussycat and we dressed Joe up as some kind of dead person (I said Roosevelt but by the end of the night nobody really cared what anyone was haha!). We went to a house party at our apartment complex and ended up meeting a lot of great people. They had a keg of beer, which Joe tucked into very nicely. There is also a thing called a keg stand where you hold somebody up over the keg and pump beer into their mouth. As you can imagine, it gets extremely messy! I found myself very fond of the 'trash can punch'. Apparently it's usually made in a cleaned out trash can (rubbish bin for the brits among us) but to be honest I'm pretty glad that they decided to make it in a big cool box. Little did I know, 5 cups down the line, that it had a rather lethal concoction of alcohol in it, including a substance called Everclear which is 95% alcoholic! As you can imagine, the night was brilliant, involving bears on bicycles, slutty taxi drivers being turned upside down to drink beer and poor tea total Tim sitting in his Hawaiin outfit watching everyone else get progressively drunk! We also learnt a brand new game called Flip Cup. Basically you have some beer in the standard plastic red cups and there are 2 teams that stand in a line on opposite sides of the table. You have to go down the line in turn, drink your drink, put the cup half on the edge and then flip it so that it lands upside down on the table. The next person then goes. It is literally my favourite drinking game so far! haha

We've also finally been to Brunswick bowling alley (twice this week!). I'm hoping that I will get better with repetition. I can't seem to really get the hang of it but a large majority of the time I am drawing with Tim for the win by the last round (he ALWAYS beats me though because I lose my nerve haha!). We've had a lot of people round at the weekends which is nice but I kind of feel like I want to be doing more work and practice. I also seem to get really tired a lot so occasionally I end up bailing at 1am and going to bed. My new custom musicians ear plugs are incredible! I literally don't hear anything other than my own breathing.

I went to an absolutely fantastic concert last week by the UNT symphony orchestra which featured my clarinet teacher as a soloist. They played Schubert's 5th Symphony which, if I'm being honest, I enjoyed! It's not usually my kind of thing and I was definitely there purely for the second half but the string section were extremely good. The second half began with Debussy Prelude a l'apres midi d'un faun which was INCREDIBLE! The flautist had such a beautiful earthy sound and really captured the childlike essence of what the piece is. The second piece was a Concerto for 7 winds by Martin. It is a fairly new piece but very cool and requires a lot of concentration by all members of the orchestra. It featured the heads of faculty at UNT and I must admit that even though they are getting on a bit (the sort of thing where they are fantastic musicians, but better teachers now!) it was extremely good. I've also been page turning for a lot of concerts and I'm now starting to earn myself a bit of money doing it (apparently I'm quite good! haha). Page turning for all these recitals has made me think that maybe I will do a recital of my own next semester. The recital hall is beautiful and it would help me immensely in preparing for the 4th yr one in Leeds! Watch this space...

I am currently preparing for my juries, which are the equivalent of the performance exams at Leeds. You have 2 exams that you sign up for. One is on technique and they ask you whatever you have been working on in the semester. For me it will be extended major scales and arps with new resonance fingerings as well as chromatics in certain patterns. Then you sign up for a solo exam where you play a piece of music. For me, I'm doing the Bernstein clarinet sonata which isn't too tricky other than the 5/8 in the 2nd movement. The most annoying thing out here is that you have to pay for accompanists. All the teachers expect you to rehearse before your lesson and then bring the accompanist to the lesson. As you can imagine the costs mount up fairly quickly. My accompanist is called Anatolia Ioanides and she is fantastic! She's from Greece but studied at the Mozart Conservatoire in Austria. We have lots of chats about Europe and UNT which I think helps with the rapport that we have.

Finally, Joe and I have been making an effort to spruce up the place. Primarily this has just involved making silly drawings and sticking them on the wall. Yesterday we stopped off at the Home Depot store and bought some plants and a 'grow your own herb' pack. It's safe to say that we are extremely excited (I just hope they grow and that we don't kill them!). I will be sure to report on their progress haha.

I'm also starting to think about birthday things. I hope folks are still up for London town! Let me know ideas...

Diane xXx

Mammoth catch up: part 1

Okay, so I was reminded today that I haven't posted anything for an obscene amount of weeks. It also reminded me that people actually read my blog which is a little scary if I'm being honest. Basically too much has gone on for me to remember so I will endeavour to put most things down but I have less than an hour before my occupational health class and I'm sitting in the foyer on a mac (AGAIN!) so there will be chapters to the blog haha.

Things are very crazy here, which is partly why I haven't blogged because I'm always doing something. I guess the main thing is that finding a mode of transport for Joe and I isn't really necessary anymore as we have made a lovely collection of friends with cars to take us places! Having said this, most of the time we invite them over to ours for 'english' meals and a lot of wine in the hot tub. We have also bought an eco friendly pack of cards so I know a lot of english, swedish and american card games (drinking games) for my return to England.

A couple of weeks ago we experienced 'homecoming'. If I'm being honest, I still don't really understand what it means, but this is what I can make out:

• It's essentially for the fraternities and sororities.
• For sororities it consists of lots of semi naked gyrating on a tiny stage in the hope of having sex with a frat boy.
• For fraternities it consists of getting really drunk and doing 'jackass' type stunts in order to attract the sorority girls.
• For most Americans it is their very first bonfire.
• Everyone goes to the football game (drunk) to watch the Mean Green Eagles lose their 8th consecutive match. It's absolutely not about the match. It's about the 'tailgating' which is where you arrive at 8am in a truck (hence tailgate) and have a massive bbq and a few too many budweisers.
  

So I hope that goes some way to explaining 'homecoming' haha!

For the past couple of weeks Joe and I have got into an awful habit of staying up late and watching films. I think we did an 8 day straight before realising that the computer game 'roller coaster tycoon' could be a welcomed break. We've also cooked 2 extremely successful roast dinners with 3 courses (homemade tomato soup & homemade bread, roast chicken with sweet potato mash, roast potatoes, broccoli, carrots, pigs in blankets, followed my apple and berry crumble with cinnamon on top!). It's safe to say that everyone loves us haha.

I've found that the Americans don't really understand British humour at all and quite a lot of the time I come off as being sharp or rude. Therefore, I've resorted to extreme banter with Joe because I know he gives as good as he gets. It actually gets pretty hilarious when the Americans start laughing but they have no idea what is going on. We're still getting the 'married couple' comment but I think that's because we're so horrible to eachother that nobody really understands haha.

Exam/music wise, I've had 2 more tests in jazz history. I got 93% in my last one so I'm pretty chuffed but I've just finished my last one and I think my luck has run out. I rather stupidly set my alarm for 7.20pm rather than am and Joe woke me up 5 mins before the bus came. I was fairly awake in the exam but that coupled with a lack of proper revision (due to a rather fantastic thunderstorm the night before!) and no food or drink meant that I wasn't really on form. Oh well, I guess I will find out later today and put it in the second part of my blog!

Having scrolled up the page I see that this is already a fairly lengthy bit of text and I also have 15 minutes to get the laptop back to the computer room and maybe eat something before occupational health! I hope this is long enough to keep those of you bored at work occupied for a little while!

Catch you in a bit...

Week 4

Well i hate to say it but I am struggling to think of things to say. I can't decide whether it's because the weeks are jam packed and just fly along without me realizing or whether it's because I don't actually do very much (and the weeks fly by without me realizing haha!). With all this in mind, I think I will probably end up making this a bi-monthly blog so that it sounds as if I am doing loads of crazy things all the time haha!

One thing that has been pestering me ever since I arrived in Texas is the crickets! They are literally the most annoying things known to man. Joe tells me off for killing them but I have to admit that in a really sadistic way I enjoy doing it because the bastards keep me awake all night in fear. In fact I bought a pair of sandals that zip up at the back (don't be mad mum!) and the sound of the zip clanking at the back made me think that crickets were following me. Seriously, I think it's making me insane. Joe and I have thought that they are coming through the air conditioning vents and I finally plucked up the courage to have a look at the vent and managed to shut it off! Since, there has only been one (unfortunate) cricket in my room so hopefully it's done the trick.

I've started getting creative in the apartment as it was looking a bit bare. I tied those Hawaiian flowery neck things to make some groovy bunting round the window and breakfast bar. There are also some posters on the walls and I've put up some posters that I bought in my room. I will post pictures when it's finished! Joe and I have started getting a bit creative with food. We're both pretty hot at risotto now and recently we've made pitta breads and victoria sponges. I suppose deep down we feel we have a duty to try and eat healthily!

The wind trio is going really well and we get on brilliantly. After every rehearsal we end up going out to lunch or dinner! oooops Reading band is okay but a little boring and I'm struggling to see where it's progressing too but nevermind. My saxophone and flute teacher actually lives in teh apartment complex right next door to me so I am having lessons at the weekend which works really well for both of us. Bring on a lab band next semester! Symphonic band is going well and we have 2 concerts tomorrow (lunchtime and evening) which should come off effectively. The lunch time one is a children's performance with the theme of 'tradition' so we're playing the national anthem! It's been arranged and jazzed up with loads of scrunchy half diminisheds and sustained chords so I'm really struggling not to laugh when I play it! Finally, music wise, I got my unit 1 test result back for Jazz History and I got 87%. Of course I'm not completely happy with it (especially as when I looked at my paper I'd made silly mistakes like marking me answer in the wrong box!) but it's a good start none the less and I should still be on for an A.

I'm actually missing Leeds quite a lot at the moment. I think it might be all the facebook freshers week status'. HiFi, Mission, The Fav, Danceband, Symph, Hyde Park, The Eldon, marmite, real cadburys choccie aaaahhhh!

Oh well, I suppose that it's the 4 week blues or something! It's exciting making new friends (especially sorting between the wierd stalkerish ones and the cool ones!) and my playing and knowledge is already much more advanced.

Speak soonish! xXx

Week 3

Blimey! The weeks seem to be flying by...you know what they say about having fun etc! I'd say that finally I am settled in America and I have made enough friends already to see me through the yr (although a few more are always very welcome!). I also realise that my weekly blog is more like an 8 day blog and although I have the intention to do it every Monday, it doesn't always (in fact most of the time) happen! I'm currently in the music building computer lab on an applemac computer and obviously struggling, but I didn't want to admit defeat when the guy on the desk asked me whether I would mind using one! Anyways enough general chitchat...let's crack on with week 3...

In contrast to last weekend, with cars, trips to Dallas and big steaks, we had quite a reserved (and personally very welcomed) chilled out weekend. I met up with my wind trio on Saturday (2fl and a cl) and had a very productive practice. I'm pretty excited about playing in the recital hall fairly soon as we've picked some wicked repertoire to play. Whilst in the library, which incidentally is incredible, I was chatting to the guy on the music check out desk who happened to be a composer. He was really excited to hear about my trio and is going to write us a piece to perform at the end of the semester :0) You should check out his website, www.brittandrewburns.com (I think that's correct!). He writes some pretty cool stuff. Anyway, after the rehearsal I managed to catch a lift back to the mall with one of the flautists, Grace because she had an interview there. Again I bought things that I didn't particularly need (shoes obviously!) but I also got some A-MAZING bubble bath stuff. Grace then gave me a lift home because it was raining. This is the kind of attitude that most of the americans have. They are so unbelievably friendly and kind...sometimes it feels too good to be true!

Anyway...in the evening we decided to go out to dinner in the mall again at this mexican place called El Chico. After my last horrific experience at Taco Bell (I foolishly ordered Volcano Nachos - it has been the butt of Joe's jokes now for 2 weeks) I went for something a little milder in some shrimp, chicken and beef tortillas. The nachos kept coming, as did the sprite, and it was really lovely to be out with all the brits again. Afterwards we went to watch a film at the mall cinema. It's $2 a ticket and only $1.50 on a Tuesday which is ridiculous! The film was called Funny People and starred Adam Sandler as a comedian suffering with Leukemia. I was a bit disheartened by the lack of plot if I'm being honest, but there were some hilarious bits that Sarah Mawby and I could not stop chuckling about...and you know how loud my laugh is!

Practice is going okay although I feel like I'm facing a continuous battle with practice vs. the phenomenal UNT gym. Either of them are good for me I suppose but I have to say that I prefer sweating away to the sounds of Stevie Wonder and James Brown rather than in one of the dungeon-like practice cells playing Baermann scale passages. I can't emphasise how good people are here, especially the pianists. I am baffled at how they can concentrate for any longer than about half an hour although today there was this chinese girl next to me religiously practicing her octave stacatto scales who broke out into the cheesiest piano piece I have heard in a while (I think it's even cheesier than the stuff that Russell plays! :0p). My teacher is so unbelievably friendly but I feel like it is absolutely a teacher pupil relationship rather than a friendship one which has hindered my lessons in the past. One time he asked me what we call the 'pinkie' in England to which I replied, 'little finger!'. He thought this was much better as he has a lot of black, korean and spanish students and couldn't help but feel racist when he called it the 'pinkie' hahaha.

So I guess that is it for this week. Me, Joe, Tim and his girlfriend went to The Garage on Fry St last night and played pool and darts! It felt like home again and was a good laugh. Surprisingly I'm not really missing the alcohol and it was pretty funny to see the only legal drinker (Joe!) slowly getting legless as the night progressed. I suppose what I am trying to say is that I can no longer handle going to bed at 1am and getting up at 7am for a 9am lecture anymore and I am exhausted! There's another lab band gig tonight (3 o clock and 2 o clock) which I think I might go to but then I am definitely heading back for some Damien Rice, The Girl at the Lion D'or by Sebastian Faulks and a hot bath with my lavish, if somewhat expensive, bubble bath! Maybe I will have a little nap now before heading to the gym? hmmmmm

Anyway, apologies for the randomness and very grammatically incorrect week 3 blog. Hopefully I will write a bit better next week!

xXx

P.S. There aren't any pics because I am not on my laptop! (Stupid Apple Macs!)

Week 2

So after my somewhat depressing post last week things inevitably seemed to pick up instantly. One full week of lectures made me realise pretty quickly that I can't possibly hope to get as much out of the yr when I'm spreading myself so thinly. With this in mind, I have dropped off the Jazz Saxophone Performance Fundamentals class and sax lessons. What they don't tell you is that it's not simply 1 credit = 1hr. So for instance, although the sax class was only 50 mins long, I was expected to attend and prepare transcriptions to play in every saxophone studio class on Fridays. As you can imagine, all of this coupled with double the amount of credit on clarinet and 6hrs of symphonic band practice a week was just not realistic with the academic stuff. The head of jazz sax was really lovely about it and there is a teaching fellow who is really keen to teach me saxophone privately (ie. I can work at my own pace without having to attend all the other things!). I am doing the reading ensemble. Basically it's a group designed to make you better at stylistic as well as simple reading ideas in bigband charts. I think it will be really useful and it has a really positive link with getting into a lab band next semester!

I had my first clarinet lesson on Thursday and it was fantastic. I managed to get the head of the dept and he clearly knows what he is talking about. Immediately he noticed my problems with my wrist and helped me to correct that. I just loving his teaching style and we seem to have hit it off immediately. I've already probably learnt more in a lesson than I did in a yr at Leeds so hopefully when I get back to the UK I will be able to kick some butt and get myself into a college for post grad! The clarinet studio are also equally as friendly and the english accent doesn't seem to lose it's charm with them. Tim and I have been stopped in the street with people saying 'OMG what kind of accent is that?'...to which we reply english! It is pretty funny trying to explain that they actually stole our language and have an american accent!














At the weekend we hit Dallas again, this time to another mall called the Galleria. It was absolutely brilliant and even had an ice skating rink inside it! Surprise, surprise the 2 Sarah's and I went spending crazy, but it was actually a really nice break from everything and made me feel like I've started to settle down a bit. On the way home we stopped off for an epic steak (what a surprise) and had a good chinwag with our lovely waiter, Justin.














We have spent A LOT of time in our pool as it is really pretty and cool at night. We still haven't managed to work out how the hot tub works so at the moment it remains a 'luke-warm' tub but at least it's a good topic of conversation to start up with our fellow neighbours. There is a big party for all the residents at the Ridge in a couple of weeks so hopefully we should be able to make a few more friends here.

Joe and I went to a houseparty on Golf Court last week. Little did I know that they would all be percussionists! It was pretty challenging but I actually really enjoyed myself. Being under the drinking age and all that I was a bit cautious so didn't drink but managed to make friends with a steel pan player called Shannon who also wasn't drinking! There are some pretty hilarious pictures from that night and I had forgotten how much fun it was laughing and teasing drunk people!

So I guess that is it for now! Catch you next week! xXx