Great Find

So I had a great find today at DI. I went there looking for some 80's neon attire I can wear for my clogging team. We are dancing to Celebration "Celebrate good times . . . C'mon!" I wasn't finding anything too good in the women's section so I went to the girls section. If I really want to I can usually fit in the biggest girl sizes especially if it is only for a short period of time and if it is something stretchy. I looked and looked and then I saw two pairs of neon green leggings. Luckily one size was extra large. I also grabbed a short jean skirt and a baggy white t-shirt. I went and tried them on in the dressing room. They looked great and I was excited. They were literally fluorescent. I wanted to see if there was a different color skirt so I went back to looking around through all the clothes racks. As a I passed one of the ladies suit racks I saw this crazy one piece suit; it was a mauve color and kinda baggy. I would have tried it but the torso was so long that the crotch was at my knees but the end of the legs was only at mid-calf length. I decided to look on that same rack and see if by chance they happened to have any other one piece items. As I was sliding clothes along the rack I saw it. . . . sticking out from the bottom of all the other clothes. . . . purple foot straps. I hurriedly pushed the other clothes aside and saw the most hideous, hilarious, perfect, wonderful, shiny, purple unitard hanging on the rack. I snatched it up (not that anyone else was going to take it but. . . . . ) I rushed to the dressing room trying not too look too excited and trying not to laugh out loud. When I tried it on I knew it was the one.




More pictures to come of the finished costume!

Finished!

So finals are completely over (finally). Ironically my hardest final was my last final and it was scheduled. I don't know if it was the hardest solely because of the class or because it was my last final, the last day of finals week and I was very ready to be done. I felt like it went okay. It was a fill-in-the blank/essay test. I kind of like essay tests because you can explain yourself and the fill-in questions were definitely the hardest. I am so glad to be done for the semester.
I have a lot of plans for the summer break (some I am sure won't happen but at least I have plans)
I want to:
Plant a garden
Bottle and dry fruits, sauces, etc
Deep clean my house (cause it needs it)
See if I can get a teaching job at one of the charter schools
Start teaching clogging
READ for FUN
Go camping
learn how to sew some type of clothes (I can only really sew curtains, blankets, anything with a straight edge)
Finish putting the home videos onto DVD
Relax

I think that is most of them

Hurray for summer break!

Finals

So I am half way done with finals (and taking a little break from studying). I took three finals on Saturday. One was scheduled and the other two I chose to take then. I actually did quite well and felt fine cramming that many tests into one day. I did very well on my nutrition final which made me extremely happy. That was the last one I took and all the while I was studying I just wanted to take it so finally I broke down even though I wasn't sure I had studied everything. I ended up getting a 92% my best score of the semester in that class.
The funniest and awkward part of the day was during my clogging final. It had two parts, our own duet choreography and our teachers choreography. We did our teacher's dance first. I had practiced and felt good about it. We tested in groups of three. My duet partner, me and another girl went together. The sequence for the dance went A A B C D. C is a breather step; it is made up of simpler steps so that you can catch your breath before the end. We got through B alright but then for some reason all three of us blanked out on part C. I have never blanked out during a dance before. I really had no clue what step I was supposed to be doing. I kept dancing, but was just doing basic kick steps over and over because I didn't know what to do. The only step I could think of was the pull-back step which starts part D. Anyway we all kinda stood there not really doing the steps for about 16 counts (which felt like eternity) then on part D we came back in and finished the dance. I didn't really care because I was just taking the class for fun and it was my second time taking the class. I hadn't struggled before then so I didn't really care what my score was I was more just a little embarrassed because that 16 counts was very awkward.
Just thought you might want to hear that funny story, especially for those of you that have ever just lost your place in a performance of any kind.

Clogging Final

For my advanced clogging final we had to choreograph and perform a duet. Brooklyn and I did ours to Aaron Carter's "Aaron's Party". The quality is not the best because I haven't totally figured out how to work video and blogger. Enjoy!

Easter Egg Hunt

So Lin and I dyed eggs and then hid them for each other; we even had big Easter baskets to put them in. We took a ton of cheesy pictures. . .



Lin's Turn. . . .

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Easter Surprise

So I woke up this morning, looked out the window and saw. . . . .




Yes snow on Easter. I didn't know that they had predicted snow so it was surprising to wake up to 2-3 inches when we were bbq-ing last night.
Gotta love Utah weather!

Spring festival

SO the annual Folk Dance Spring Festival of Nations was last night. My team did a Lithuanian Polka piece. Basically Lithuanian dance is all about formation. For the most part we just skip but the formation is changing constantly. If anyone gets off it basically train wrecks the whole piece. Wed. in class we did it perfectly we got the formations correct. Wed night however was a different story......We started the dance super close together. This caused a few collisions, nothing serious just enough to startled the people involved. But in the third formation two of the girls braids got caught together. This was the first time we had danced in the costumes, and the first time we had even tried on the head pieces. The costumes included two very long braids and a headband thing that tied over the top. So two of the girls braids got stuck and they couldn't manage to get them apart until right at the end of the dance. Amid this problem we all kept dancing, some of the boys forgot to come inside the girls circle which they finally fixed by just cutting through the girls. This made everyone late for the next formation. One of the guys almost lost his pants (I heard rumor he actually went off stage, but I didn't see that). By the end of the dance we were all laughing really hard because we knew that our dance was a train wreck by this point but we all kept going. When we finally got off stage everyone burst out laughing and just kept saying, "Wow! that was horrible!; Can you say Train Wreck!" Nonetheless it was fun and Spring Festival is such a chill performance anyway it wasn't a big deal. Today everyone just kept laughing anytime anyone would ask what team any of us were on because we weren't sure if we wanted them to know.

Rocky Mountain Express here I come!!!

So my clogging teacher at BYU, Greg, owns a clogging studio in Orem and it is one of the best in the nation. His team wins the national title quite often (you can't win if you won the year before). The other day I asked him if he had any openings in any adult classes and he said I could probably come on his premier team in June or September because that is the end of the season. I was really excited because I want to experience dancing in a studio before I try to teach on my own. Today I came to the class I TA for him and he asked me what my Wed nights are like. I told him I occasionally have folk dance stuff but other than that they are free. He said he was talking to his team on Wed night and they just started learning a new piece. He had mentioned that he had someone who wanted to start in September and then realizing they currently have an odd number on the team he asked them if he should just see if I would start now. They said yes and so today in class he asked if I would start next week. So next Wed I am officially a member of Premier (I think that is the name) with The Rocky Mountain Express clogging studio. It will be a jump from my current skill level but Greg says I will be just fine.
The dance they are learning is to "Celebrate" and is 80s themed. The costumes are 80s warm up attire. So I will now be competing at Nationals in May (I think) AHHHHHHH!!! I can't decide if I am more nervous or excited.

Update on Stockton

So I went and talked to Ed (the folk dance director and the director of my team this semester) to see if there was any funding I could get to help me go to the Stockton camp. He said he could probably round up enough to pay the rest of the room and board so I may only have to pay for transportation. :) I am so excited I can't even wait. When I get back he wants me to teach any dances I feel students will enjoy to the Folk Dance club at a rec night in the fall.

Great News

So I applied to go to a folk dance camp this summer. It is one of the best ones in the US. It is held in Stockton, CA. There was a waiting list so I wasn't sure if I would make it in. I also applied for a scholarship from them because it is too expensive for me to go. The lady over the scholarships said she would try to get me in without being put on the waiting list. She somehow fan-angled it so that there was a spot for me and she is giving me whole tuition $465. I just have to pay for the living expenses which are still a little much but both Lin and I think it will be a priceless experience with the networking it creates as well as building my repertoire. I am so excited!!!