Hurricanes and Zucchini Bread

It gives me great joy to share that I only have to take one review class! I have completed all of my entrance exams, and thanks to great preparation on the part of some wonderful Whitworth professors, and many study parties this week, I tested out of Music History, Ear Training and Music Theory review classes! I also took a keyboard skills placement exam and will have to be in a sight-reading review class once a week - so not too bad! And I can always use practice sightreading!

I feel a bit like my brain got sucked out of me, jumbled around a lot, and shoved back in. So I am spent - but grateful to be able to dive right into classes that will count towards my degree! I registered yesterday and will be taking an Ethnomusicology course, several accompanying and keyboard classes, and a required "Music Bibliography" class. I will also be filling up my time playing for probably 4-8 voice students and the "Singing in Italian" class. As a graduate assistant (GA), I have to work an average of 4-5 hours a week as an accompanist - so I will be working to fill those hours. The other Accompanying GA, Nadja, is from Serbia. She is a GPD student (Grad. Performance Diploma), a wife to an internal medicine resident, and a mother to a 7-mo. old (she did her audition for the program with a 4-week-old!). Since we met for the first time on Wednesday, we have done nothing but laugh, and I look forward to getting to know her more.

I also got to have my first rehearsal with a student yesterday. A student, originally from Bellingham (did his undergrad at Western) called to ask if I would run through some music for his opera auditions. It was a wake-up call in terms of the level of music I'll be playing and how much repertoire I will be responsible for. But it also was a taste of the incredible people I will be working with. We ran through an aria from Mozart's "Magic Flute," and I immediately felt at home. This is why I came here. And as an added bonus, it was also great to meet someone who wears chacos and has an REI backpack ;o). We talked for awhile about places to hike in the area, and he also is bringing me zucchini bread as part of my payment (made from a giant zucchini he grew in his garden).

Liz and I are headed out soon to get some hurricane supplies before the winds get too strong. Some other gals are coming over this evening to watch movies (until our computer batteries die) and play games as we wait out the storm. We are enjoying our last weekend of freedom before the semester begins on Wednesday.