June 2, 2006 at 6:45 PM

Hello from the sunshine state. Which, currently, is not sunny...rather, it's cloudy, hot and muggy. A typical day in "paradise".

I've recently been basking in my school-less-ness, enjoying many happy hours of doing relatively nothing, cleaning, and practicing. I was positively peeved when I learned that my Viotti music (I'm working off of a xeroxed working copy right now) and my new Bach partita CD were both backordered until mid-late June. Oh the pain! On the bright side, my Paganini caprices arrived in all their glory the other day. After a mere fifteen minutes, your truly had mastered the first caprice. Well...the first *measure* of the first caprice....but I'm sure the rest will come in time. :-) My teacher wants me to learn #16, so I spent a while today playing up to the repeat. It's coming, it's coming...

Preparations for Brevard are under way. I promised to withdraw a tidy sum of $1000 to pay my parents back asap. They ended up paying $800 some dollars, after I put in my money and all the scholarships I was awarded, so that made them relatively happy. I say they're getting a good deal; they get rid of me AND get me educated, housed, and fed for only eight hundred smackaroos! What a deal!

A recent rub has consisted in looking at colleges and planning highschool. My mom finally helped me plan a strategy for the next two years, which my dad then revised and returned to me and I agreed to. It includes me taking college math and Chemistry and ends up with me graduating with a year's extra of HS credits than are required...I should end up a fairly well rounded person when I'm done, I think. If nothing, I'll be oval. :-P
In the recent past, I had been looking at University of Michigan as my top school option, a choice my Dad was less than happy with, due to the "silly" undergrad courses they make you take nowadays. So, I scouted around elsewhere, and am now leaning heavily toward CIM. I was worried that my Dad would balk at the idea of a conservatory associated with what I thought was a lesser-known college...turns out it's a much better university than I thought it was, and my Dad's best friend went there. So Dad's happy with the academics and I'm happy with the music, and I'm thinking that's going to be a top choice.

That, I think, is the bulk of recent events. I still have lots of stuff to do, so I'll pop off!

~natasha

From Sydney Menees
Posted on June 2, 2006 at 8:57 PM

Yay! CIM! Haha, your over-planning (definitely a good thing) is making me think I should start some of that! I'm afraid to tell people I want to major in music, though...

From Pieter Viljoen
Posted on June 3, 2006 at 8:03 AM

Natasha...

don't look to a school as a means to becoming a well rounded person.....

Just a thought. If you're going to consider CIM, keep in mind that their violinistic requirements are considerably higher than Michigan's... Amy F., Jessica Hung and Andrew Sords (from this website) go there. Just to give you an idea of the quality which you'll be competing with to get in.

From Karin Lin
Posted on June 4, 2006 at 4:36 AM

You have a point about school not being the key to being well-rounded, Pieter, but I think Natasha meant that she'd end up with a well-rounded education. And true, that's not the same as being a well-rounded person, but based on what we've heard about her, I don't think she's in any danger. :)

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on June 5, 2006 at 7:03 AM

What undergrad courses does you father consider silly?

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June 2, 2006 at 6:45 PM

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