Where am I?!

Again, few months since my last entry!!  As I handwrite my own journal, I easily forget about this online stuff! lol  Also, I just came up with this conclusion that this site - or any kinds of blogging sites like this - can't be referred to a journal or a diary.  It's rather like letting some people I know what's going on in my life since I can't talk to everyone I know in person.  I would say "briefly reporting my life" lol

Concerto Night went well.  I also got to play this concerto again in Wright State's "Arts Gala" festival few weeks after the concert.  This truely marks a big event in my life b/c even until few years ago, I never thought I'd be playing this Tchaikovsky violin concerto with an orchestra.  It would be every violinist's dream to do, and I'm glad I got this chance A LOT earlier than I thought.  It just feels great.  lol

Now, the crazy year - trust me, it was my CRAZIEST academic year ever - is over and I came to Korea last Thursday for summer.  It always feels great to see my family and friends who always pray for me and support me though I occasionally even forget about them a lot THANKS to the crazy insane school stuff - classes, tests, homeworks, pracitce, rehearsal, concerts, etc...  Feeling being loved is such an amazing bless <3

Btw, I just got my wisdom teeth removal - oh! actually "tooth", I'm getting the other one done next week - yesterday, and here's how much I spent on it.  I calculated in approx. US Dolloars,

Registration : 6.50

Surgery : 25.00

Pain-killer : 3.60

Overall : $35.10

Yeah right.... $35.10 "US Dollor" amount (Korean currency is actually "Won")..  It wasn't even just an "ok" hospital, but one of Korea's most qualified, popular (university) dental hospitals.  Actually my old violin professor's husband is one of the co-chief professors/dentists there but I only got free X-ray through him and payed everything else.  Even if I didn't get that free X-ray, it still wouldn't have been more than $50..  Don't you think this is something that American government and those ugly insuarance companies need to learn?  Seriously..

Life goes on, and so will I..

Wow, it has been... how long??  Sorry, had to count using my fingers - It's been more than 7 months since I wrote here last time.  I've been even forgetting about this website.  All the sudden, "xanga" popped in my mind today, and rather than feeling like I have to write something b/c it's been a while, I simply just wanna tell what my life has been like since last summer.  So, here we go..

Lots of things happened, of course.  The biggest thing would be winning Concerto Night again.  The audition was last October(early November? I don't remember..), and the performance is this March 11(Tue), 7:30pm, in the CAC Concert Hall of Wright State.  I'll be playing the first movement of Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto Op.35 with Chamber Orchestra..  Yes, Chamber Orchestra!!  Thank god!!  When I played Mendelssohn concerto with Community Orchestra(well... "University Symphony Orchestra", but whatev..  I love the old name a lot better) 2 years ago, I struggled a lot in the rehearsal and even in the concert b/c some of those STUPID wind players would never carefully count so I sometimes had to count wrong ON PURPOSE to keep pace with them..  After the audition, I had some conflict with one of the faculty members about which orchestra I'd play with.  It's still kinda frustrating that it actually took quite amount of effort to make it happen..  Whatever..  I got what I want, so I'm gonna shut up here.

One more exciting thing..  I'M FINALLY TAKING FREAKING GERMAN 101 THIS QUARTER!!  Germany is like my second hometown, but I've been always shamed of not even being able to have a lengthy conversation in German with my mom or mom's friends and their families in Germany.  Guten Tag!(Hi!)  Freut mich!(Nice to meet you!)  Ich lerne Deutsch 101 und ich finde es wunderbar!!!(I'm learning German 101 and I think it's wonderful!!!)  The professor is Frau(Miss). Marcia Bernhard..  She's my favorite!!  She used to sing in Dayton Phil Choir and now sings in Bach Society Chorus of Dayton.  She's so musical, so many times she relates things we're working on it in the class with something musical - like, she relates having to work on German class material every single day with having to constantly practice before the piano lesson, etc.  We got to talk a lot after classes and one day I learned that her mom is a retired professional violinist and has a perfect pitch!!  Violinist!! Perfect pitch!!  So, I'm now secretly best friends with her mom..  She lives in Idaho and Frau Bernhard is gonna see if she can be in Ohio for my Concerto Night next month..  Oh, it'll be so great if that happens... lol  Hahahaha, too much about her musical background..  Yeah, so I really really love this class.  She speaks a high-level native German though she's American(but her husband is German and her father-in-law speaks a really really high-level German, she says that helped a lot), so I can learn a great standard native German pronounciation from her.  Her lecture never gets boring, and I'm always motivated to listen to what she says in the class.  She's just soooo sweat, and I'm pretty sure not only I but everyone in this class feels like she's our sweat nice grandma..  I'm gonna take at least 3~4  more quarters of German continously, and I DO HOPE I can take them all with Frau Bernhard!!

I now have some issues going on, but I'll tell you later after these are all solved as I want.  It's not a big trouble or something like that, but I obviously need to fix it..  Hope I can make it that way I want..  Just wish me luck!!

My everyday is full of things to do.  I hardly get to even take a break because I just practice all the time when I dont' have a class or a rehearsal.  I do believe I don't take as many classes as music education majors do, but I practice about 6~8 hours a day.  But it's ok..  This is my life I chose, and this is the way that I want myself to be.  No matter how big violinist I become later - I can be a concert soloist, chamber player, orchestra member, or a private teacher -,  every single day I'll be starting my morning with piano scales and etudes, then for violin, finger stretching, bowing technique, hours of scales, ettudes, Bach, concert repetoire, etc as I've been doing since years ago..  I love being a perfectionist though I know no one can be perfect, and I love that I don't get bored doing it.  Despite of all the things driving me crazy and getting me down, I basically love my life and myself..  Yeah, life always goes on, and so will I..  Wir sprechen uns später!(I'll talk to you later!!)  Tschüs!!(Bye!!)

So.. what's new?!

Hey! How's everybody's summer?! Hope it's AWESOME... I've been staying in Korea since the summer break.. What's new w/ me?! Here we go,

1. Tchaikovsky Lesson is KILLING ME..

2. I sometimes play in a wedding and get paid as a summer job..

3. I'm madly in love with Joshua Bell.. Both his personality and his musical brightness..

4. I haven't got drunk at all since I came to Korea this time... it's misterious..

5. I find German & Korean foods are much better than American foods, but I still damn miss Bob Evans..

6. I'm addicted to Sudoku these days.. I usually do 8~10 of them EVERYDAY..

7. Every single day filled with only practice+yoga is actually a lot of fun..

Happy KOREAN NEW YEAR'S DAY!! HA!

Today was Korean New Year's Day(Ok ok,, aka Chinese New Year's Day!! whatever... it's Korean for me!).. I didn't even know it was and Jocelyn told me on Friday.. I din't do anything for it but just wrote my zillion papers and practiced... Yeah... It was just one of those 52 Sundays in a year for me because I don't have Korean friends or community I'm in anymore... That's ok... I'm already havin' a lot of fun and being happy with you guys.. Love ya all... hehe

What really made me kinda sad wasn't the fact that I forgot Korean new year's day but was that I'm ridiculously busy this quarter... I'm taking 22 credit hours this quarter.. But as ya know, music classes hours are not that much compared to other major's classes (even a 3-hour Chamber Orchestra that I'm playing in it counts as only 1 credit hour)... So, it generally feels like it's 24~5... I even haven't reduced the hours that I spend for practicing...

Well, I'm still doing fine not skipping classes and getting good grades.. Yeah, I'm trying my best to keep being on a good academic status.. But I've always thinking this quarter that it would've been much better if I took 18 taking with only one gen-ed instead of two.. I don't mean I wanna slack but everyone needs a break, a rest - to refresh him/herself and focus on really good.. I'm being SUPER-productive overall but not perfectly productive as much as I want myself to be on each single one that I have to do... You know what I mean?? "A" makes you happy, but A with 100 and A with 90 feel really different though they are the same.. I always wanna get 100 or as closer as possible to 100, and I can't do that this quarter because I'm doing too many things.. As I have a competition that I should play 4 full pieces soon, I should practice a lot as I've been doing or even more than that...

I'm really happy that I'm still going fine, but I wanna do stuff TAKING SOME BREAK... I'm gonna DO MY BEST to do everything greatly, but it's obvious that I'm not doing this 22 hours again... I'll take a little bit less than that and do all of them much better than I'm doing now.. I think that's a lot more productive and smart... hehe

Ok, I'm gonna take my laundry back and then go to sleep... Bedtime at 10:00.... I know, I'm pretty much an old man... :p

G'night everyone! Love ya all and see ya tomorrow! Happy KOREAN NEW YEAR'S DAY!! LOL

Disaster... woo...

I actually thought I updated this last Monday night and just found that I didn't when I logged on to write the other one... me=special.....oh yeah... So hear we go,

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The disaster started early this morning.. Yesterday(Sunday), I practiced like for 8 hours... I was in a really good condition, my violin sounded fine in spite of that shitty dry air in the practicerooms which sometimes makes me throw face, so I couldn't stop practicing... It was good.....

However that crazy practice made me pass out... I set my alarm at 5:45am, but I could never get up.. I was not just "asleep", but was more like "passed out".. When I finally got up, it was 8:15... Sweet Jesus... I have a piano lesson at 9:00 every Monday.. I took a really short shower, got out of the bathroom, walked to the sink to do the next stuff - wearing contacts and lotioning!(please don't you judge me, I do what I want! ha!).. But this morning was already being against me.. I tried the right-eye lens first, but shhooot!! It fell off!!! and I could never find it!! I had to wear a new one... So the whole progress only for wearing contacts took me like 5 minutes...yuck... Now, lotioning! I put moisturizer(I'm just reminding you again... Don't you judge me! My skin gets PEELED OFF if I don't moisturize!!), and then suncream(Don't you make fun of me unless you're gonna love your super-WRINKLED face 10 years later!)... Guess what... I found I wore my shirt INSIDE OUT!! After lotioning!!! I had to take it off and flip it inside out again.. Sweet...

(For those who're reading this in Korea or who don't know that much about me, my everyday breakfast is toasted wheat bagel with strawberry creamcheese and coffee at the library cafe of my American mom, Barb..) I had to decide whether to have breakfast or not... If I don't have breakfast, I still can make it to my lesson on time... But I won't skip my breakfast because I'll be growling so hardcore during the whole lesson if I don't eat something before then... I called Barb to start toasting my bagel before I got there, and it was ready when I ran into the library.. I looked up at a clock hanging on the wall of her cafe, it was 9:00... whatever... I don't care anymore... I just don't wanna starve... :p

I finished my "most delicious breakfast ever in the world" really quick, and went up to my professor's office... She wasn't mad but was really worried about if I was really sick... I appologized for being late but she just kept saying ok... She was like "As this was because of your crazy practice, that's totally fine.. I know you practice the most in the whole music department, so you definately deserve some break.." omg... How super-nice of her!!! I love her!!!! We worked on that Mozart Concerto as usual, and did a little bit of Chopin ballad but couldn't do that much because 'I was late', and I had sight singing class at 10:00.. But all went well.... I love my piano lesson... It always makes me start a great week...(it didn't this time because as I said on the title, it was a TOUGH day... Y.Y)

Had lunch with Michael(of course!! we're bonded!! lol) and Jessi.. I ordered a Turkey BLT, which was actually not written on the menu but they had it... It made a girl working there so confused.. She thought I wanted the meat be bacon, so she put a lot of bacon on the bread. I told her I ordered Turkey with a little bit of bacon.. She finally understood what I meant, but didn't take back those million slices of bacon and just gave me that sandwich... It tasted like heaven... I kinda wanna try to trick that girl again next time(I didn't meant to though!!)... :p BTW, Sweet Ron Walker was havin' lunch at a different table and he ate 6 TACOS... omg..... I almost threw up... It's still less then $6, but man!!! 6 TACOS!! I'd rather starve if I have to finish 6 tacos.... But it was good to run into Mary, Barb, Amanda, and Nick there.. Good times...

Next class was music listening... It wasn't bad - I think... :p

The second disaster was after then.... Someone says(I think it was Ron..) my music theory professor Dr.Hangartner is not gonna teach this class next quarter... The reason is - there're two sections of 2nd year music theory. I'm in Dr.Hangartner's class which makes me so HAPPY because nobody can teach music theory as great as Dr.Hangartner can!! - the other section doesn't have enough students, so the chair of music dept decided to combine these 2 sections, and the other professor is gonna take it because she is fulltime but Dr.Hangartner is not... I kinda lost my mind and when I got back, I was screaming... I don't know how many f words I said... It was totally RIDICULOUS!! They're gonna fire Dr.Hangartner just because he's not a fulltime, though more and more students switched to his class from the other one?!?! How the **** does that make any sense? I even laughed when I first heard it because I was pretty sure someone made up a joke or the fact that - we possibly would not have our class tomorrow because there're gonna be a huge snowstorm so Dr.Hangartner can't drive from Cincinnati - was just way exaggerated.. I finally found it was serious when I read the e-mail from Dr.Hangartner saying he's not gonna teach next quarter... I still can never understand how this COMEDY can happen here..

But you know what? It's not over.. I can never take this. Something is going totally wrong.. I'm gonna talk to the chair and start getting people's signatures to show that a lot of people(I'm pretty sure it's EVERYONE) can't take this weird, wrong decision and think Dr.Hangartner should be hired as a fulltime professor for those all of us - sophomores who're taking his class right now, freshmans taking 2nd year theory next year, and a lot more music majors coming to Wright State in the future- .. Some kids in my class already started this with me and we're gonna put a lot more people on our side..

Then, as usual, Communivirsity orchestra..... Today was even worse than the other days... From the stupid questions like "Can I just slur these?" "I can't hear them!(omg..)" to rushing like twice faster or not being ready with all the bowings. Most of the people in this orchestra are really nice, but that still doesn't mean that irresposiblity and useless, stupid questioning can be allowed..Whatever.. I'm not gonna talk about this anymore... It'll happen all the time unless Dr.Cha replaces most of the sections with who can Play and have a RESPONSIBILITY..

I've been writing it still being really tired and exhausted, but guess what happened! Mary came over to my room(she lives on the same floor with me but in a different wing) escorted by Brian - really nice kid! - and gave me a valentines day card!! Aww, I was really touched, so I gave her a big hug... She sure made my day a lot brighter!! lol

Yeah...A lot of things happened today, some of them were good and some were not. All still make me really tired..I'm gonna go to bed now.... I hear it'll snow really heavy over night... School hopefuly would be canceled and I'll DO appriciate that because I have 5 classes tomorrow from 8:00am~7:45pm.. ok... Gnight!