Sorry

I here by promise to update once I get home for Christmas break. Until then you will simply have to make due with the fact that I'm studying for my four exams that are in the next four days. Sorry!

Papers

For the life of me I cannot write this paper!
As a music student I spend most of my time practicing music, improving my musical skills (not very much like nunchuck skills), and completing theory assignments. Thus I hardly ever write papers. Except for the occasional one, like the one that I'm desperately trying to write now.
I've been blaming my lack of proper research skills on the fact that this is only the fourth paper I've written all semester and the other three were merely reflection papers on classes I had attended.

So why is it so hard for me to write papers? I pumped out a kajillion papers while in TREAD and now all the sudden an eight page research paper (a.k.a a paper where you are given all the information already you just need to reorganize it in order to present others research [supposedly it's a good learning experience]) is staring me in the face and I want to run and hide in a wardrobe that will take me far, far away.
In the time that it has taken me to write the less than 100 words I have put together as an intro, I'm almost certain we could have solved 63 Rubik's cubes, made a pie that looks like a UFO, preformed a reenactment of every episode of Friends (it was the only TV show I could think of that's been on the air for more years then man has been on the moon), and found a way to create an anti virus program that would show you a little monster eating the evil viruses that infect our computer (and I have no idea how you would even begin to create a program). Oh dear me.
So there you have it. If anyone has a great way for me to stay focused and accomplish this paper before it's due on Tuesday, please let me know!

Lack of Update

The reason I haven't updated in two weeks is due to the fact that I haven't been alive. Whatever I caught seemed to have sucked most of the life out of me.

I had been living in the schools quarantine room for a week (I was most thankful for the privacy of my own bathroom) where I spent my time sleeping, watching movies, drinking plenty of liquids (thanks Kylie), sleeping, talking to my mommy on the phone, visiting friends from a distance, sleeping, attempting to do homework, and some more sleeping. Which is why there hasn't been an update.
Unfortunately there is nothing new to report about my life because of the fact that I have either been sick in bed or at the Urgent Care Clinic waiting to see a doctor or attempting to catch up on my homework...my life is so thrilling!

The Theory Assignment that is Never Done

Hours and hours I've spent working on this assignment
Pouring over notes and rests
Trying to figure out how to make sense of this great big line of black dots on a page
Instead of sweet completion,
I am left with utter confusion
I would like to say that I'm good at music,
That it comes naturally for me
But it would seem that Second Species Counterpoint desires to prove me wrong
I suppose that you could say maybe I'm too creative for it's limitations
Or maybe that the context in which it is constructed does not suit my learning style
You might also say however,
that I just don't get it and should go running through a field to try and clear my head
Or that today just isn't my day
Any old way you look at it,
I've got a few hours left before it needs to be slid underneath the door to my professors office
And yet, here I am blogging about it

Winter

Winter is here at CMU. It seems like just yesterday that it was fall. Well, actually it was. The leaves on the trees were green, the sun was shining, and then all of the sudden the wind blew in, the leaves instantly fell from the trees (it was the strangest thing I had ever seen), and the snow started falling. It was a strange and beautiful sight all at once.
I've always loved the first snow fall. At home we always play a Christmas CD or two on the first snow fall, so this morning Kylie and I played Ella Fitzgerald's, "Ella Wishes you a Swinging Christmas." It was a great way to start winter.
Here's a look-see at what the weather is like outside.

Not as snowy as it was earlier, but winter has arrived!

The passing of music history

Two blogs ago I mention how much I loved music history and talked about all the neat and interesting things I had been learning.

This week, however, I had to drop the course. Due to some rather pesky illness that I've been fighting all summer I felt that it would be better to drop one of my most time consuming courses and take time to get better, rather than be dead at the end of the semester and not be able to come back.

I am slightly, but not overly, saddened that I had to drop music history. It is such an insightful course that has taught me boundless loads of information about where Western music came from and how it is what it is today. Also, now I don't have to study my brains out in an attempt to pass the nearly impossible listening tests that are once a month; which makes me very happy.

School is a wonderfully amazing thing and I think I would be a student forever if 1) I didn't have to pay such an exorbitant amount for tuition, 2) I didn't require final exams to pass classes (final exams hate me and I hate them), and 3) if I could keep everyone roughly the same age so that I didn't feel like one of the Golden Girls every time I walked into a class room.

Pictures

I finally took the pictures of my room I told you about. So here they are. And yes, it's a mess.

A colourful closet of clothes

Our palm tree

 My cool Tibetan birthday present from Chris

 

Work space

Our desk. See how much stuff we can fit in one small space?

Plainchant

As a music student, I spend a lot of time listening to, playing, and experiencing different genres of music. In my music history class we've been looking at the history of plainchant or Gregorian chant (think monks from the 12th century). As much as people talk about how boring that style of music is (I mean after all, they just keep going back to the same note all the time and between that they only go up and down within an octave), I love it. Like really, really love it!

I have been listening to plainchant all week and enjoying every single minuet of it. My favorite composer thus far is Hildegard von Bingen. She was an extrodinary woman, focused on her Creator and on the obtainment of knowledge. Various books on science, medicine, music, theology, and many other topics are accredited to her name. She was one of the first people to write an entire musical production. She's my hero.

To say the least, looking at music in a very simplistic form has been a wonderful eye opener for me. I'm enjoying every minute that I get to spend learning about the various aspects of music; all the way from Biblical times to present day.

In the Swing

So I'm back at school; trying my best to get into the swing of things here and trying hard not to think about the fact that in a few months I'll be trudging across the road in -50°. So cold!
I have moved back into the same room that I had last semester and also have the same great roommate. Kylie and I get a long so well it's almost like a match made in heaven. I'm both enjoying and not enjoying dorm life at the same time. Sharing a poorly functioning bathroom, having to open a million doors just to get anywhere (especially when your arms are full), always eating cafeteria food, etc, can get a little sad after a while. Then again, our door room is very cozy and I have a wonderful roommate. Plus the girls on our floor are amazing, funny, and generally quite great!
This semester I'm taking 5-6 classes. I have 5 academic classes (all music classes except for one psych) and piano lessons. Plus an on campus job, volunteering at the Blaurock Cafe here on campus and Wednesday night worship. I'm quite pleased with all my classes thus far (I will finally have my psych class for the first time tonight and find out how much work that entails). Music History 1 will be just as much of, if not more than, a challenge than last year. I wish I could upload the pieces into my brain with all the little details that go along with them. But I guess I'm stuck with old fashioned memorization until that technology comes along.
Kylie and I, along with another friend of ours, Nils, are attending the Faith Covenant Church here in town. It's just a quick bus ride (45 minuets) away. The pastor speaks well and uses lots of Bible verses (that's important, right?), the music thrills my soul (nice and loud on this last Sunday), the congregation is very welcoming (met some really great people, but darn it all I can't remember their names), and they gave us FREE food (we get fed leftovers on Sunday afternoons here at school so the BBQ was a thousand times better)!
Soon I'll try and put up some pictures so you can all see what it looks like around here without the snow and cold winds blowing.
Karissa

Free Food

Tonight I was craving some Chicken McNuggets (I know, I know, not the healthiest craving) so I told Korey we should run down to McDonald's and grab some. After giving our order in the drive through, I thought it was funny that the girl never gave us our total. Once we arrived at the window we were both pleasantly surprised to find that all their tills were down and the food was free. Seriously, they were just giving food away! It made my day. I love free food.

Ireland

A few simple days ago was the one year anniversary to when I jumped on a plane and flew my way over to Ireland to meet up with my most wonderful friend Jill. It was an exciting adventure, filled with many sunny days, a violent flu or two, some EXTREMELY touristy moments, the ringing of some bells in Cork, the hiking of the very large Croagh Patrick, hiding out from the rain in a fairy glade, celebrating my birthday at a medieval banquet in a castle, the kissing of the Blarney Stone, seeing Fungi the dolphin, exploring the burren, attempting to see the cliffs of Moher through the fog, staying in some pretty scary and some pretty sweet hostels, and so much more. Really, the list is endless. Here are some of my favorite pictures (in no particular order) to celebrate the "one year anniversary!"

Croagh Patrick from afar

Before the climb

The climb

At the top!

The Rock of Cashel (which I actually thought was just a rock we were going to see when Jill first told me about it)

"Over yonder"

Dance, dance, dance!

The Kylemore Abbey in Letterfrack

The waves of Inishmore

A wooden gate with Dun Aengus in the far off distance

Rooster in the window

The cliff side

The Carrick-a-rede rope bridge

The Giants Causeway

Dublin Zoo

Jill and I at Donegal Castle

Shipwreck on the Dingle peninsula

Jill at the Independent Hostel in Derry

The Shandon Bells

Don't walk on the grass near the seagulls

Chatty birthday girl

Sometimes Jill and I did crazy things. Such as running around in the forest with bags on our heads yelling that we found the fairy glade!

Belfast courthouse

A walk along the beach in Balley Castle

The Island

I really and truly LOVE the Island!

In the Sun

I'm back home now. Enjoying the sunshine. Enjoying the warmth. Enjoying my family!
Being back from school has been strange. My mind is still fried from final exams and it's having trouble processing looking for work, which really isn't a good thing.
Also, now that I'm home, I go to bed early. Like it's 10:30 now and I'm seriously considering getting my pj's on and crawling into bed (especially because my sheets have been freshly washed and my bed smells like the sunshine because I hung everything out on the line). What's with that? At school I would never make it to bed before 12:00, but that could be that excitement didn't usually start until after snack (which began at 9:00 pm).
On a completely different note, the other day I was thinking about moving and how often I've done it in the last little while. Since I've graduated I've moved seven times. Unless of course you count my time in Ireland, then it's nine times. Crazy eh? It's definitely become a lot easier to say good-bye to people and also to meet new people.
And on another note, I'm completely at a loss as to what to do for work this summer. The truth of the matter is that I really am not going to be given a chance to be picky because there isn't much around, but I still don't even know what I'm interested in. I love "behind the scenes" kinda stuff where no one sees me (like banquets) but am not sure if there's much of that available right now. I guess we'll find out when I start pounding the pavement later on this week. Yay job searches!
Okay, so now that I've done another random information post I'm going to check the newspaper and see if I can't find myself some workage. Night!

My Castle

This is where I go to school (except that for the majority of the year there is snow everywhere!).

Path


Hall


Doors


Front


Heater

Icons

Icons make me happy. I don't know why but icons like this one...

...always make me smile and think artsy thoughts. I'm not sure what artsy thoughts are exactly, but I think them when I look at icons.

Especially icons related to musical things like the treble clef.
I'm not sure why I'm blogging about icons and musical things or even artsy thoughts, but I am. It could be that I'm writing a 1500 word paper and my brain snapped somewhere along the way that which caused me to think about icons and music notes and artsy things.
Or maybe I'm just strange like that...

Blogging

I don't actually like blogging myself. I often feel like I have nothing special to say or that my life isn't really interesting enough for people to want to read about or that when I do do something interesting it wouldn't make sense to the people who weren't there and the people who are there might not find it interesting to read a blog about something they've just done.
I do however, love, love, love (did I mention that I love) to read other peoples blogs! They always seem to have the most interesting things to say, where as I feel like mine is missed the mark.
Blogs tell me about their lives; kind of like getting an e-mail but not as personal. Through blogging (and Facebook) I've found out about at least five of my friends or acquaintances getting engaged. I've discovered some quirky things about peoples personalities or what their like. For example, Jill will never look into the bottom of the glass when she's drinking. Now that's something I never would have known if I hadn't read her blog. And now every time I drink out of a glass I'm amused; thinking about Jill and her avoid-eye-contact-with-the-liquid-inside-the-cup.
So I suppose that if I find it interesting to read about other peoples quirks, then somewhere out there someone might be interested in mine. Now I just need to find something different to write about.

Oh and this picture makes me happy.

Sleep and Psych

It would seem that the words University and sleep don't go together. Someone told me one time, you can only pick two out of the following three while you're at University: your options are sleep, socializing, and good grades. So it seems that sleep has flown out the window. I am however doing quite well at socializing and attempting to gain good grades.
Last night a friend and I were studying for the psych test we have today. I figured out that once I'm finished this psych course and I combine it with the one I took last semester, I'll have taken eight psych tests; two of which are final exams. Its just a wee bit insane! Don't you think? I thought five was crazy enough last semester.
So I was up til a very early hour studying and visiting. I mean, if I'm not going to get sleep I should probably try and succeed at the other two options right?
Now, however, it's time for me to go finish writing a term paper that's due tomorrow and study some more. Doesn't University sound great?!

Minneapolis Road Trip

Last week four friends and I headed down to the States for a road trip adventure. We began on Friday afternoon, once everyone's classes were finished up, and headed straight for Minneapolis. I had contacted Joshua, from TREAD, and were were able to crash at his families place for Friday and Saturday night. It was great to see him for the first time in about a year and half as well as get to meet his family.
Our trip consisted mostly of time spent in Minneapolis shopping, catching the sights, checking out areas of downtown and being lost. Fortunately we somehow always managed to make it back to the 94 and find our way from there. Here are a few pictures of our adventures.

Kylie and I in the car on the way down.

At the IKEA playing with the kids toys.

I want one of these chairs so badly! Unfortunately I would be a wee bit squished to sit in it for an extended period of time.

Stefan, Kylie and Karissa at the Mall of America.

The Mall of America

Kylie and me by the giant palm tree.

Kylie and I by the Giant Spoon

Karissa, Chris, Stefan and Brad by the Giant Spoon

Buildings.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of us with Josh or at his house (at least nothing exciting that you would want to see). We had a most fantastical time and I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the very, very, very late update.