... ridiculous heat and huge bugs aside, that is. :) The summer is absolutely flying by-- I didn't realize that my last blog entry was more than a month ago. Weeks 1 and 2 were difficult, as I knew they would be, but each week got easier and easier... it's hard to believe that I'm headed into Week 8! Let's see. Summaries: ----- @ the CRC: My job has been WONDERFUL-- probably one of my best professional decisions to date. The CRC staff has been beyond helpful, always willing to answer my questions, allowed me to observe most anything, invited me [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hey gang! Happy weekend! :) I'm really beginning to settle into my skin here in Gainesville with only two weeks down! Job is going well, I can navigate (at least some) of the area without Lucy the GPS, and I've had some social outings too, so all is better with the world. :) I did the "first round" of both of my presentations this week, and they went really well (better, I'd say, than my first run of KSU Admissions' Pretour... haha!). These presentations are for UF Preview students (incoming freshmen for the Fall)... one highlights the services provided by the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Greetings from Sunny (yet stormy) Gator Country! :) I've officially been away from Ohio for a week... in some respects that seems like ten minutes and others it seems more like ten years... but none-the-less, I'd say I've had success so far. Beth and I left Columbus early on Thursday morning (my alarm went off at 5:00am) and drove to Toccoa, Georgia. The trip took 12.5 hours and was somewhat uneventful- the mountains were cake and Charlotte wasn't crowded at all. North Carolina was a stormy place to be (Beth jokes that the Tracker got two power washes that afternoon), though, [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hey gang! The Travel Blog is back! :) I'm not going to be on the other side of the globe this time (though that trip does need to be repeated eventually...), but I'm going to have a completely different cultural experience this summer. (For my new readers: During Summer 2007, I chaperoned for the Oberlin Choristers trip to Sydney and New Zealand... and played the piano in the Sydney Opera House (AMAZING.) ... those entries are still attached, if you're interested...) My graduate program here at KSU requires several internship experiences before graduation; we are also encouraged to [View Full Entry]

---

---

Howdy! It's great to be back on this side of the Pacific- thanks for all the calls and emails! No, I didn't forget to update you all on the last few days of our amazing journey... but I did take about a week to recover from that crazy jet-lag. I tried to work on this entry twice and just stared at it. So I'm doing it now. Haha. That said, here's the "Reader's Digest" version of the final days of our whirlwind tour of Down Under: We left Sydney on the morning of July 4th- no Independence Day for us! This [View Full Entry]

---

---

So, um, we performed in the Opera House last night- what a thrill. Yesterday morning was a little chaotic, with visiting Featherdale Wildlife Park (I got to pet a koala, lots of very full kangaroos (too many people were feeding them) and a wombat!) and a trip to the top of the Sydney Tower (I think I could see to LA from up there...), but in the end we arrived on time, had our sound check and ate some dinner in a green room the size of a food court before our chance to be on stage. Playing that piano was [View Full Entry]

---

---

...wouldn't that be awesome?! (**insert parental anxiety here**) Anyway- hope this finds you all doing well! I keep seeing things all over the city that remind me of you back home and wish you could be here to share it with me. Another trip for another time, I suppose. And there will be another time. :) Everyone on the tour seems to be having a blast. My kids are in great spirits, no homesickness, lots of excitement to shop! Thursday night was an early night, after an Austrian dinner at a "little" Austrian restaurant nearby- they closed the place up for [View Full Entry]

---

---

Greetings from Sydney!! I can't believe I'm finally here! Yes, it's true, I skipped June 27 this year... but I'm sure that July 7th will make up for it! So traveling halfway around the globe is something else. Cleveland to Los Angeles was pretty uneventful. We arrived about 7:15pm, but the plane to Sydney didn't leave until 12:30am LA time (3:30am in Cleveland), so we sat around for a long time waiting in anticipation for all the fun to be had on our Quantas flight. As it turns out, I don't think I've ever had such a turbulent flight. Needless to [View Full Entry]

---

---

To my family and friends: I've wanted to go to Australia since I was in middle school. Ask my folks-- I'm sure they fought back the urge to laugh every time I talked about it in my "faux-British, wanna-be Australian accent." They're very gracious to me. Anyway- last spring I found out that I would finally have the chance to go. This is my second year interning with the Oberlin Choristers Touring Choir, and it's their practice to participate in an international choir festival every other year, so I agreed to go as a chaperone. What a tough decision. :) After [View Full Entry]

---

---