Life. . . . .

So it has been a while since I updated my blog. School is taking up a lot of my time now so I don't think about updating anything. I am still enjoying school, I love all of my classes. I got to teach in my clogging class (the one I TA for) because my teacher was out of town at a clogging competition. It was so much fun and I actually filled the whole class period, which usually when the TA teaches you get out early; whoops! It was fun though and I felt like I could actually start teaching now; that boosted my confidence, or my self efficacy as I have been learning in my Behavior Change class. :) I really want to find somewhere so I can start teaching.
My other classes are fun and interesting as well. Some of my public health classes seem like common sense, but I can see why they are important in order to understand why someone does something and how to help them change.

Update on school

So the first week of the semester flew by. It feels like it shouldn't already be Friday, but yet I have been so busy that I don't know where the days went. I am loving my Public Health classes. I wish I had found this major earlier. In most of my classes we are learning about why people choose to do things that they know are bad for them and how we can change their views depending on their reasons. I am especially interested in showing people that just by doing small things they can eat healthier and feel healthier. For some reason there is a misconception that healthy food is expensive but I want to show people that you can make a healthy meal, that is more filling, and tastes better for cheaper or equal price to a fast food meal.
Anyway the semester is going well. I am also a TA for Intermediate clogging, which is a lot of fun.

Learning from a master

So I have had one of the neatest experiences ever! This week I got to learn at the feet of Mihalyi Gabor (Misi). He is the director for the premier Hungarian State Folk Dance Ensemble. That is the top professional performing group in Hungary, and he is the most well known choreographer there. He has been teaching my Hungarian Dance class, which has been so much fun. He doesn't speak very much English so his partner (a dancer from the company) translates. He has such an enthusiasm for dance and even though we don't speak the same language you can feel his love for it. This morning he also taught my World Dance Choreography class. He talked about how he choreographs and why he does what he does. He also showed us some videos of his performances.It is amazing! It would have been amazing just to meet him, but to have him teach has been even better. We took a picture with him in my Hungarian class; if I can track it down I will post it.

New Semester

So the new semester starts up tomorrow. I am a little excited just because it will put a schedule back in my life, although I have enjoyed having days where there was nothing pressing to get done. I am excited to start school again. All of my dance classes are on MWF and my Public Health classes are T Th so that is nice. I can wear normal clothes and do my where my hair down for a few days of the week instead of a ponytail everyday. Hopefully I enjoy Public Health because I don't know what else I will do.

Sloppy joes

So I officially made my first homemade hamburger buns, thanks to the recipe from Judy R. It was definitely an experiment this first time but they taste wonderful and were great for the sloppy joe meat. I am excited to try them again.

CHRISTMAS

Christmas was so wonderful. Our ward choir (the best ward choir ever) sang in sacrament meeting the Sunday before. It was a great start to the week. Lin and I had so much fun getting each other presents and the names we drew for each of our families.



Lin went shopping for stuff to fill my stocking late on Christmas Eve the only store open was Kmart. While he was there he found a 5- in-1 stereo (record, tape, cd radio & mp3 player input) on sale for really cheap. We have been wanting to get one like this for awhile but they are normally $200. This one was marked down to $65 so he got it. We can finally listen to the records we got from Lin's grandma.



Our tree was so awesome this year. It is a Utah tree (not a farm tree). and it looks crooked because it is. The trunk is anything but straight. We both felt like this gave it character.

Finals

So finals went pretty well. My composition class final was a piece we choreographed on other people in our class. The hardest part, I felt, was not the actually choreographing but trying to remember the things choreographed on me. I really enjoyed all of the groups I was in, but some of the choreographers have a much different dance style then me so in some I felt very inadequate for their choreography. I think it went well though. If I ever figure out how to post video I will post my piece.

This is my Polish costume, I don't have a digital picture of the whole thing


This is my Croatian/Macedonian costume and my partner.



This is Taylor, Kayleen and I before the show



This is a close up of my costume. The crown was so awesome and the jewlery was so heavy.

Christmas Around the World

Christmas Around the World, (the folk dance show) was so amazing! We had some crazy late night rehearsals and somehow by the weekend we pulled it off. It was such a great experience to be in a huge production like that. Friday morning (Dec 4th) we had a matinee performance for elementary schools from all over. They were such a good audience. They cheered more than any other audience. We also got to go and talk to the kids before the show and show them our costumes. I was wearing my Polish costume.
The shows went really well. I actually didn't really have any mess ups myself which was amazing. One crazy change in my classes piece was that one of the boys could not come to the performances because he was also in a play and the director had given him permission to come but at the last minute changed his mind. So before the show we taught a guy from PAC (the touring team), this kids part and he pulled it off somehow.
This show was the 50th anniversary and many of the alumni came and participated. It was fun to meet them and talk to them about their experiences.