The first week of having villagers has been crazy, but fun. On Monday, the students arrived, and I was one of the three counselors who went to Zurich to pick up the arrivals at the airport. There were a few flights that came in later in the day, so I waited for them, and I brought them to the camp on the train. There were five trains we had to take, and then 2 buses, so it was crazy but I got to know them pretty well, which was fun. The rest of the staff stayed at the institute and checked [View Full Entry]

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The village of Ftan, Switzerland has approximately 500 people, but that number goes up quite a bit when Concordia Language Village's English immersion summer camp is in session. The facility that we use is what is used as a boarding school during the school year. It is really high up in the Alps, and on a hill overlooking the village. I, along with a guy who flew in from Omaha and a girl from Sweden, all arrived at around the same time in the morning on Monday at the Zurich airport (about 3 hours northwest of Ftan.) We met up with [View Full Entry]

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Well, I just accepted the job as one of the English teachers at Doga Koleji in Istanbul, Turkey. It starts September 1st and goes until June 15th. I'll be working with children age 3 to 6. It's in a camp-like setting, but it's a school -- there are horse arenas, swimming pools, a climbing wall, and a stage that is used for lessons. They implement theatre into the everyday curriculum. All teachers are provided with medical insurance, a furnished apartment (my roommates will be other teachers from the school), and they pay for about half of our airfare. I've researched the [View Full Entry]

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On May 12th through 15th, Sara, Fiona, and I took the Megabus and explored Milwaukee, Whitefish Bay (a suburb of Milwaukee), and Chicago. Peg and Dick were extremely kind and welcoming; we stayed at their house in Whitefish Bay. It was a beautiful area, with Lake Michigan and all. Monday, May 12th, we got to Milwaukee at about noon, took the city bus and got off at the wrong stop, about two miles away from their house. Peg was really nice to come and get us. That evening, Fiona, Sara and I walked to Bayshore, an outdoor mall (that's the stop [View Full Entry]

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A couple weekends ago, my sister, Fiona, my friend Nash, Mom, and I went to Duluth. It was very pretty, as always. We stayed in this cute little cabin; it was run like a motel but each "room" was its own cabin. My mom and I have stayed in those same ones before. It is right in front of Lake Superior. [View Full Entry]

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Saturday I graduated from Augsburg with a BA in Music and a BA in German! It is a very big relief and I had a lot of fun. The graduation was at 11 am, and I had several friends there, as well as my mom, sister Sara, and Fiona (Sara's long-time friend, who came with her from England to visit.) Afterwards there were receptions for each department, so I went to the humanities one first, but missed the music one; oh well. I'm glad I was at the humanities department's reception, because I got to sit with my friend Matt, the [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday I got my contract from Concordia Language Villages, so it's official - I am working at the English language village (called "Hometown Europe") in Ftan, Switzerland this summer! It is from June 30th to August 3rd. I applied for jobs at both that village and the German language village (Waldsee, where I work during the school year), and decided that if I got offered jobs at both, I would take whichever one contacted me first. My job titles are "mentor counselor" and "store manager." Ftan is a tiny little village of about 500 people near the border of Austria. It [View Full Entry]

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Indiana University, located in Bloomington, IN, is one of the best music schools in the country, or maybe even the world. It was really great to see it. I have a friend who is a piano performance major there, who I met while in Vienna, so I went to visit her for a few days during my spring break. I got to hear a lot of piano music, of course, while hanging out with her! We went to a John Adams concert, which was pretty amazing (China Gates, Phrygian Gates, and Hallelujia Junction for Two Pianos were played -- I had [View Full Entry]

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This weekend, Mom, John and I drove down to Iowa City so that we could meet up with Will, Mom's first cousin (Aunt Shirley Ann's son.) John and I had never met him; I'd been wanting to meet him for a long time, and was excited to. I was also excited to see Iowa City, which I consider one of my favorite homes. Even though we lived there for only two years, I feel so connected to Iowa City, and miss it often. Friday night, we hung out with Will at his hotel. He works for Proctor and Gamble, and was [View Full Entry]

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The alarm went off, apparently... several times, in fact. It's definitely a good thing I was at home with Mom last Saturday night, who woke me up at 4:30 the next morning; otherwise I might have missed my flight to Florida with the orchestra. So, waking up in time for the flight was a good start to the week. We (approximately 40 of us) flew into Orlando and got there at about 10:00 (Florida time.) As it was my first time in a state east of Illinois, I was pretty excited. The weather was a complete 180 from Minneapolis's weather, so [View Full Entry]

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