IIIIIIIII'm Baaaaack!

Prepare yourselves for a torrent of posts. They're coming. But not today. Or tomorrow. They'll probably start showing up Wednesday or Thursday afternoon. We'll see. Until then I'll be a little busy. We're taking Trent to the MTC on Wednesday, so I'm trying to squeeze in as much time as possible with him before Wednesday.

But, just to whet your appetite, here are some things I've been up to:

*Climbed about in cool tombs from the last Chinese dynasty.
*Purchased two bamboo flutes.
*Got a mission call.(To Phoenix Arizona, Spanish speaking for those who may not have heard yet. I leave September 15th and couldn't be more excited).
*Learned to read the Chinese music notation system while trying not to pull my hair out. It was more than a little humbling after playing music for nearly 2/3 of my life now to not be able to quickly read and play simple pieces.
*Attempted to begin to understand the Chinese ornamentation system. If my reading skills made it to being an 8 after three weeks then my ornamentation understanding tipped the scales at a 3 out of 10. This stuff makes baroque ornamentation look like child's play.
*Learned to play said bamboo flutes. Or at least to make a good show of playing them. For three weeks I don't think I sounded too shabby.
*Ran around Tianjin.
*Took a weekend trip down to Hong Kong.
*Played more on my flutes.
*Explored a little of Beijing
*Came back to America.
*Chopped off my hair. (It's way short and I love it. Aaaand contrary to what everyone thinks, I didn't do it for my mission. I did it for me. I wasn't thinking at all about getting a "missionary hair cut" I wanted a Nicole sanity hair cut, aka short and easy. I don't leave for three more months people, puh-leese missionary hair cut. Not a chance.)
*Came up to Idaho.
*Cheered for the little brother while he finished a half marathon.
*Visited America's first Nuclear reactor.

Over the next few days we'll be visiting some more family so Trent can say good byes, going to Manti for the day, and dropping Trent off at the MTC. Should be lots of fun, and I'll have plenty for you after that. Till then, adieu.

The makings of a good week...

Yes, I know, it's not even Friday yet, but this week has been pretty good.

1. No all-nighters, as opposed to last week where I pulled two and wanted to die.

2. I'm running regularly now since the weather has decided to play nice. I feel sooooo much better when I run, but I'm too much of a baby to run in the cold. So if it is cold you can count me out.

3. The favorite little brother opened his mission call. The lucky stinker is going to Manchester England... speaking Mandarin?! I'm really, really, really jealous of the location, the language not so much. It was a little weird to watch him open his call, because I realized that I will be the one opening a mission call in just a few short months. Wow.

4. I went to Evening of Concertos with Tia thanks to getting two free tickets from Danielle. The concertos were awesome, and I loved listening to all of them, however my favorite by far was the Barber Piano Concerto. Love, love, love, love, love. And Jackie never disappoints, she's a fantastic performer.

5. We had scale day in masterclass. The completion of scale day would make any flute major happy. Ode to Taffanel Gaubert #4, how do I love thee...

6. I finally figured out my summer. I received an ORCA grant from BYU this year to go study Chinese flutes up at the Tianjin Conservatory (semi near Beijing). I'd been struggling with when to go, but after talking to my faculty mentor I decided to go at the same time that he does. So I'll be spending two and a half weeks in May running around Tianjin and playing bamboo flutes. If you weren't jealous before, feel free to be jealous now. I am so incredibly excited. Aaaand as the double dose of icing on the cake, I got to drop my spring term classes (excited, moi?) and I'll get to spend some time with my family and my brother before he goes into the MTC. Yep, I'm excited. Can we just fast forward to May now? Pretty please?


I'm gonna get to play flutes like this!!! *cue manic grinning*

15 Things

It's been fifteen days since I last updated, and I'm too tired to have much to say, but here are the events of the last two weeks.

1. Finals suck.
2. Finishing finals isn't so bad though, particularly when the last one is on blackboard and way easier than you expected.
3. Planned packing is for wimps. Just dump whatever is lying around in your room into a suitcase and go... if it's out an available you probably use it, so why not bring it.
4. Flying it Christmas is a party, airlines are incompetent, everyone is cranky, and if you're lucky you'll fall and remove that precious layer of skin on your knee caps.
5. Kimbob (the Korean version of sushi) is amazing.
6. Chinese meat cleaning procedures are not.
7. China isn't nearly as dirty as you would expect, I'm constantly amazed with the streets and how clean they are, Europe was never this clean.
8. The metro in China is also way cleaner, faster, punctual, cleaner, and I never had a hairy smelly man stick his arm pit in my face. Win.
9. There are some really really cool things to see in China, they're cool in miniature, but I really want to see them in full size too.
10. I don't really like Hong Kong. I had high hopes for the city, I've read about it in books, but it just didn't measure up... it was dirty like a European city, with none of the perks. Shenzen was much better.
11. Number 9 again, but this time for the world... we visited two miniature attractions, the first one showing the highlights of China, and the second showing highlights of the world... when I grow up I want to be a professional traveler.
12. I'm not exactly sure where Christmas break went... all I know is it was all too fast.
13. Going to the orphanage tomorrow, should be good. Those kids need all the lovin' then can get.
14. Also going to pick up my dress and more pearls. Yay.
15. I'm tired. the end.

Dear Mom,

Yesterday I had an interesting experience. I was at my flute teachers and we got talking about height. She made the comment that when she was younger she always wished that she was shorter. This struck me because I was hard pressed to find a time in my life where I really wished that I was shorter. I began to wonder what the difference is. I've heard lots of girls who are tall talk about how they wish they had stopped growing sooner, but I've never really been one of them. Being tall is my thing. I love it. Then I realized that the difference is in how you brought me up.
Thank you for teaching me that it's okay to be taller than all the other kids. Thanks for telling me over and over in seventh grade that I need to stand up tall and be proud of my height. You showed me how to be tall with out looking weird. People tell me over and over that they never realize how tall I actually am until they come right up next to me. They always comment that really tall girls often look "lurpy" but I don't, so that's why I seem more "normal." Thanks for teaching me how to feel comfortable with who I am.
Love you lots!
Nicole

Happy Saturday

It's Saturday morning, I woke up at 10:30 and ate a delicious bowl of Alfredo. Life is good. Actually this whole week was a good one. Here are the best part of my week.



1. I made a midnight run to I-hop with some friends last night and we ate crepes. YUM!

2. Trio was and is a blast. The other two girls in my trio are so funny! The best moment was on Thursday as we were sight-reading; Meleece suddenly made the most peculiar noise over and over... why? Because she wanted to make the grand piano next to us resonate. Once we finished laughing she was finally able to explain that one.

3. MY PRACTICE ROOM LIGHT GOT FIXED!!! YAHOOOOOOOO!!! It means that as of Tuesday I no longer have to lurk around trying to steal a practice room.

4. The power went out in the HFAC! It was probably the most epic moment of my week (minus a few of the amazing quotes by Tae and Tia). I was down in the practice rooms and suddenly everything went pitch black (remember the practice rooms are underground with ZERO natural light). It was sort of fun. All the instrumentalists came out into the hallway and we just sat and waited for power again (since none of us could leave our instruments, and we couldn't really pack up either). The piano majors kept playing... show offs.

5. I found out that even the music profession is going politically correct: Collaborative Pianist = Accompanist. (Technically a useful move, but it made me laugh.)

6. I survived both of my tests this week. And my composition presentation. And life in general.

7. I FINISHED MY PARIS RECORDING!!! Now I just have to sit and wait... and wait... and wait... until March to find out if I've been accepted. The hard part for me is over.

8. I am listening to Qawwali music (pronounced Ka-bali). It's pretty well my new favorite, and makes me wish I was from Western India.

9. My family gets home in just over a week! I can call them again!

10. Denise, who is one of my favorite people ever, and I have a laundry date. Sounds boring but it's not. We head to a laundromat, and while the machines clean our clothes we party. Last time we watched Cars. Here's a picture of the two of us at her bachelorette party, thus showing how cool we really are. *grin*

Cyclical History

This semester I'm taking a Humanities of Asia class. I love it! The teacher is very passionate about what she teaches and class is fascinating (even at 8am, which says something). Last week we began studying the Vedic Religions of India, particularly Hinduism. I find Hinduism fascinating. It's one of the oldest and largest religions in the world with a very long rich history. One of the key elements in understanding India and the Vedic Culture is the idea of re-incarnation. Not only does it mean that the pesky fly you killed could have been your Uncle Fred, but it leads to a unique view of life, the past, and the future. My teacher presented it like this: "Under the Hindu concept of time, what has not happened will never happen, and events that have occurred previously will occur once again." I'll admit I half scoffed at this idea. Being a history person, I understand that history does repeat. Those who are stupid enough to make the same mistakes as their predecessors often meet the same deaths, particularly those who try to invade Russia in the winter. This I comprehend and accept. I was a little more sceptical of the idea that this repetition occurred between generations in daily life.

Now to the point behind my mini history/culture lesson. Today I went apartment hunting with Megan and Noelle. Megan wanted to look at some apartments and I wanted to look at some condos. First we went to the apartments. I walked into the apartments and knew that I had found my next "home". We wandered around a bit after that, but nothing else fit. Now you are wondering how apartments and Hinduism tie together... ready...

MY DAD LIVED THERE FOR 4 YEARS!!!

No joke. Chalk up one point for Vedic time concepts and zero for Nicole. My dad lived in exactly half of the apartments in the complex, met my mom there, and I believe lived there until he married Mom. There have been Okeson's at this complex, and there will always be Okeson's there. Such is life.

The real bonus is I'll never need to give my family directions to my apartment. Just follow memory lane.