Well, here I am at the beginning of another week of school. Last Friday at the end of Men's Chorus I was asked to remain behind for a few minutes by the student Co-Chairs of the choir. They asked me to be the Music Chair for my section - tenor 2. This basically means that I am one of the four students in the choir who is responsible for helping the directors make the choir sound good. So I now float around the tenor 2 section listening to the men sing, pointing out when they need to fix or improve something in the way they are singing. This is a great opportunity for me, and I am really excited to help make the choir as good as it can be.
For the first block of the semester, (until June 7th) I have a Book of Mormon class, and five music classes. I am loving the semester as far as the classes go. But, at this point, I have much more spare time this semester every day then I did last semester I was here. I have to admit, I much rather be busy with things all the time, then have lots of spare time. It makes me feel like I am not doing very much in a day. It is not like I don't have lots to do in a day, or that I have hours on end of time to spend on frivolous things, I just don't have as much to do. Hopefully this will changes as the semester goes on. My schedule is still not completed. I will not know when my private voice lessons will be yet, and I am very hopeful that I can do some accompanying again this semester (which is for the money, which I desperately need, and to fill in some time; not to mention, I really like doing it.)
No calling as of yet in my new ward. They have not called people to be over Family-Home-Evening groups yet either, so that has not started... not that I am excited for that. Last semester, FHE was the biggest waste of my time all semester. The worst part was that it was a recurring event. Oh well... it wont always be like this. One day I will be in charge of FHE with my wife... and we will do things a little differently than what we do here.
I have resumed my regular visits to the Seeley's house on Sunday evenings, where they graciously have me over for dinner every week, and then let me stay and talk, or play games or do what ever until late. It sure is nice to get out of the apartment and into the real world once a week.
I am realizing more and more recently that I am not good at making new friends. This does not bother me normally. I am usually quite content to just be with myself and those closest around me, family and the few close friends I already have. Unfortunately in my current situation, none of my immediate family - outside of my cousins (whom I only see once a week, with the exception of seeing Kate at school)- and none of my close friends are here. Most of them are a long way from here. It gets lonely some times. And what I miss is the true social interaction that I am so used to at home; having a good conversation mostly. At college it is all about going out and having "fun". This mentality really urks me, and I am not generally inclined to participate in these "fun" things. (It probably goes unstated that "fun" things often go hand in hand with stupid things.)
Week two in a nutshell; I love my classes, and am having a great time. I don't like the college scene sometimes and get a little lonely. Good room mates cannot fill the void of close friends.
Don't forget your daily dose of Music!
Apr 19, 2010
Four Major Accomplishments
Since last I blogged, I have had quite a few eventful things happen... here are some of them...
1) I finally got registered for all the classes that I need for this next semester. This may seem like an easy sit down and click the mouse a few times, then presto! you are done kind of project. Let me assure anyone who is operating under these delusions that it is not an easy sit down at computer and press a few buttons kind of project. It is, in fact, a long and drawn out process.
The first hurtle in this process that one must first cross is the "Pay your Student Insurance" hurtle. This hurtle looks like a little pop-up on your screen that says something like "Registration for some or all of the classes you have requested has been blocked by error 1163547: Student Insurance Fee Owing". After having read this, I proceed to try and find the page where I pay for my student insurance. Luckily, all things designed to accept money are easy to find, and never hard to understand, this did not take very long. I then proceeded to return to the registration page. After having selected all the classes I need for the semester, I once again press the GO button. Up on my screen again pops the "Pay your Student Insurance Fee blocker message. So, I pulled out my phone and called the school to try and figure out why I still could not register after I had paid the insurance. I now know that it is apparently standard procedure to put anyone who calls with a specific question on hold for an hour, and then transfer them to kingdom come and back before they are told that the person that can help them is unavailable, and will need to call them back. At this point, I am frustrated, but agree to have the person call me back. Several hours later the person calls me back and tells me that their system needs me to declare that I will be continuing to use BYUI's student insurance and that I can then register.
I go the page and declare that I will be covered by BYUI for another semester, and the proceed to register. At this point, it has taken several days to get the Insurance all straightened out, and so there are not a lot of 100 level classes open for me to register for. So I quickly scan for classes still open that are required for my major. I got into a Book of Mormon class, and a science class. Then I tried to register for my music classes, and I couldn't register for any them. So I called the school again to figure out why I could not register for all the classes that I really wanted to be in. Apparently I had to email all the professors and get them to give me permission to be in their class. So I did. I got into all the classes I wanted no problem, except one. The class that I needed to is taught by a Professor who decided to take a semester leave from teaching. (This professor also happens to be my favorite teacher.) So I emailed the professor he directed me to, and asked him if I could get into the second semester of class for the subject I needed. We emailed back and forth for a couple days, and he ended up not deciding that I really needed to take the first semester class before I take the semester class. So now I am one credit down from being able to keep my scholarships, and desperately looking for any class that I can get into. I emailed several teachers in the music department to find out if i could get into a composition class, or into a conducting class, both of which were 300 level classes. No, I couldn't get into either of those classes. So I just started looking for any class that I thought would be good to take, and saw a Music Technology class. I emailed the professor and asked him to let me into the class, even though it was full. He did. Finally, I had all the credits I needed, and all classes that could count toward our major.
Whew...
2)I got my first set of stitches about two weeks ago. I was helping to lift a 450-500 lbs copy/printer for the High School. I put my hand under the machine, and was feeling for a good place to lift from. The other guys started lifting before I was ready, and pinned my hand under the machine. The weight of the machine pressure cut the skin right away from the bone, and kept it from bleeding. The cut was right in the second knuckle on my middle finger of my right hand. Because of were it was, we took it into the emergency room to make sure that I hadn't damaged or cut the tendon. Fortunately, I hadn't. They put four stitches in, and sent me home. We didn't go back to have them out.
3)I went on a choir tour. We went down to SUU, did a master class with the professors there, performed at George Wythe, then went down to Dixie college, and did a master class there, then hiked Zions all day Saturday, then came home. It was great.
4) I am back in Idaho, and almost ready to start another semester tomorrow. I thought I would be excited, but right now I am not. Oh well... as soon as music classes start, I bet that will change.
Don't forget your daily dose of music!
1) I finally got registered for all the classes that I need for this next semester. This may seem like an easy sit down and click the mouse a few times, then presto! you are done kind of project. Let me assure anyone who is operating under these delusions that it is not an easy sit down at computer and press a few buttons kind of project. It is, in fact, a long and drawn out process.
The first hurtle in this process that one must first cross is the "Pay your Student Insurance" hurtle. This hurtle looks like a little pop-up on your screen that says something like "Registration for some or all of the classes you have requested has been blocked by error 1163547: Student Insurance Fee Owing". After having read this, I proceed to try and find the page where I pay for my student insurance. Luckily, all things designed to accept money are easy to find, and never hard to understand, this did not take very long. I then proceeded to return to the registration page. After having selected all the classes I need for the semester, I once again press the GO button. Up on my screen again pops the "Pay your Student Insurance Fee blocker message. So, I pulled out my phone and called the school to try and figure out why I still could not register after I had paid the insurance. I now know that it is apparently standard procedure to put anyone who calls with a specific question on hold for an hour, and then transfer them to kingdom come and back before they are told that the person that can help them is unavailable, and will need to call them back. At this point, I am frustrated, but agree to have the person call me back. Several hours later the person calls me back and tells me that their system needs me to declare that I will be continuing to use BYUI's student insurance and that I can then register.
I go the page and declare that I will be covered by BYUI for another semester, and the proceed to register. At this point, it has taken several days to get the Insurance all straightened out, and so there are not a lot of 100 level classes open for me to register for. So I quickly scan for classes still open that are required for my major. I got into a Book of Mormon class, and a science class. Then I tried to register for my music classes, and I couldn't register for any them. So I called the school again to figure out why I could not register for all the classes that I really wanted to be in. Apparently I had to email all the professors and get them to give me permission to be in their class. So I did. I got into all the classes I wanted no problem, except one. The class that I needed to is taught by a Professor who decided to take a semester leave from teaching. (This professor also happens to be my favorite teacher.) So I emailed the professor he directed me to, and asked him if I could get into the second semester of class for the subject I needed. We emailed back and forth for a couple days, and he ended up not deciding that I really needed to take the first semester class before I take the semester class. So now I am one credit down from being able to keep my scholarships, and desperately looking for any class that I can get into. I emailed several teachers in the music department to find out if i could get into a composition class, or into a conducting class, both of which were 300 level classes. No, I couldn't get into either of those classes. So I just started looking for any class that I thought would be good to take, and saw a Music Technology class. I emailed the professor and asked him to let me into the class, even though it was full. He did. Finally, I had all the credits I needed, and all classes that could count toward our major.
Whew...
2)I got my first set of stitches about two weeks ago. I was helping to lift a 450-500 lbs copy/printer for the High School. I put my hand under the machine, and was feeling for a good place to lift from. The other guys started lifting before I was ready, and pinned my hand under the machine. The weight of the machine pressure cut the skin right away from the bone, and kept it from bleeding. The cut was right in the second knuckle on my middle finger of my right hand. Because of were it was, we took it into the emergency room to make sure that I hadn't damaged or cut the tendon. Fortunately, I hadn't. They put four stitches in, and sent me home. We didn't go back to have them out.
3)I went on a choir tour. We went down to SUU, did a master class with the professors there, performed at George Wythe, then went down to Dixie college, and did a master class there, then hiked Zions all day Saturday, then came home. It was great.
4) I am back in Idaho, and almost ready to start another semester tomorrow. I thought I would be excited, but right now I am not. Oh well... as soon as music classes start, I bet that will change.
Don't forget your daily dose of music!
Apr 4, 2010
Apr 2, 2010
Mission prep and College
The last few days have been very exciting. In preparation for my mission papers I have had to visit both doctor and dentist, received multiple shots, have blood work done, and pay a lot of money for the dentist to tell me that my teeth are great - no cavities, and I don't need my wisdom teeth out. (I was particularly grateful that I don't have to have my wisdom teeth out.)Fortunately, because of my student insurance, I didn't have to pay very much for the doctor to tell me that I am in great health.
My semester break is coming to an end. Less than three week before the semester begins again. Last time I was very nervous to leave home, live with a bunch of guys I had never met before, and to start college all at once. My primary sources of comfort were my cell phone, an instant line of communication home, and my cousins who lived close by and whom I visited often. This time around I am not nervous. Of course it helps that I know most of the guys I am rooming with, I've already moved out once, and am now familiar with the college and many of the professors. Nevertheless, you may rest assured that I will still have my cell phone and visit my cousins often.
As always, don't forget your daily dose of music!
My semester break is coming to an end. Less than three week before the semester begins again. Last time I was very nervous to leave home, live with a bunch of guys I had never met before, and to start college all at once. My primary sources of comfort were my cell phone, an instant line of communication home, and my cousins who lived close by and whom I visited often. This time around I am not nervous. Of course it helps that I know most of the guys I am rooming with, I've already moved out once, and am now familiar with the college and many of the professors. Nevertheless, you may rest assured that I will still have my cell phone and visit my cousins often.
As always, don't forget your daily dose of music!
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