Yesterday I went with some people from my floor to this event called the Nuyorican Block Party. There's a cafe called Nuyorican Poetry Cafe on 3rd street that poetry slams and whatnot all the time, and apparently they have a poetry team that competes in poetry competitions. From what the lady announcing the poets was saying, their team usually does pretty well.
The event wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it was really cool to watch. It was outdoors, they'd blocked off the entire block and we were just sitting outside listening to people present their poetry. It was interesting, because all of the poets were African American, and it was really neat to hear their poetry because it was all from their perspectives and was about the struggles they face in day to day life. One guy kept repeating "Excuse me" in his poem that talked about his interactions with various white and black people throughout his daily life. There was one poem I really enjoyed about how we're so dependent on technology. The poet said something like, "I have an iPhone and an iPod and an iPad and an iHome and an iLife and an iMouse that I use on my iComputer". He was basically poking fun at how attached we are to our phones and such but it was pretty entertaining.
The atmosphere of this event was pretty cool too, because it was obviously a lot of families coming out to support the poets. It felt like one of those places where everyone knows everyone and everyone's business. At the same time, I didn't feel uncomfortable being there, because it was a really warm and welcoming environment. Plus they had free food and really yummy cotton candy, so I was happy about that.
I've also been spending a lot of time with some of the girls in the room next to me. Their names are Alexi, Emily, Caitlin, Natascha, and Jordan. This past weekend Caroline went home Thursday night, Dan-a went home mid-day Saturday, and Jasmine went to a friend's apartment in Jersey Saturday evening, which left me and Karen home alone. Karen went out with some of her friends, so I decided to hang out with the girls next door. We went out into the city and just walked around and explored, which was really fun. We walked past a lot of hole-in-the-wall type restaurants that we want to try out at some point.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Week Two, and Sweet Smell of Success
This week went better than last week, I think. I'm getting used to the swing of things, to my new routine. Its getting easier and easier to wake up for my 8 ams, and I don't feel as exhausted by the end of the day. I've been hanging out with two of my friends from my program a lot, Mitch and Gabriela. We'll meet up for dinner or coffee a couple times a week.
The homework load is bearable, I don't feel overwhelmed or anything yet. So far I've spent most of my Saturday working on homework and making sure I'm on top of everything. Not that I've been here long enough to fall behind, of course, but I don't want to let anything slide.
Two nights ago I went to go see Steinhardt's Vocal Performance's production of Sweet Smell of Success. It was absolutely incredible! Before the show started, they had a small ceremony/presentation to induct Marvin Hamlisch into NYU Steinhardt's musical hall of fame. A couple of people spoke, including Marvin's wife, Terri. It was so interesting to hear her speak about her husband and his work process. He was the kind of guy that you had to learn to speak quickly with and butt in, or not get in at all. I found that particular anecdote pretty funny. By the end of the half hour or so presentation, Gabriela and I were pretty impatient for the show to start. Once it did I was bouncing on the edge of my seat with excitement. I'm such a music geek; as soon as the orchestra started playing I was squealing and clapping because I love the orchestration of this show. It's so beautiful. The talent on that stage was mind blowing. The dancing was fantastic, of course (because MK choreographed it), and it goes without saying that the singing was phenomenal. Watching this show made me so proud to be a part of this program, and that this is the level of talent of my fellow peers. It also made me incredibly excited to start working on New Student Cab and to start performing again.
The homework load is bearable, I don't feel overwhelmed or anything yet. So far I've spent most of my Saturday working on homework and making sure I'm on top of everything. Not that I've been here long enough to fall behind, of course, but I don't want to let anything slide.
Two nights ago I went to go see Steinhardt's Vocal Performance's production of Sweet Smell of Success. It was absolutely incredible! Before the show started, they had a small ceremony/presentation to induct Marvin Hamlisch into NYU Steinhardt's musical hall of fame. A couple of people spoke, including Marvin's wife, Terri. It was so interesting to hear her speak about her husband and his work process. He was the kind of guy that you had to learn to speak quickly with and butt in, or not get in at all. I found that particular anecdote pretty funny. By the end of the half hour or so presentation, Gabriela and I were pretty impatient for the show to start. Once it did I was bouncing on the edge of my seat with excitement. I'm such a music geek; as soon as the orchestra started playing I was squealing and clapping because I love the orchestration of this show. It's so beautiful. The talent on that stage was mind blowing. The dancing was fantastic, of course (because MK choreographed it), and it goes without saying that the singing was phenomenal. Watching this show made me so proud to be a part of this program, and that this is the level of talent of my fellow peers. It also made me incredibly excited to start working on New Student Cab and to start performing again.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
First Week of College Down!
I apologize for the late post.
My first week of college was fun. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, especially the 8 am classes. I think I just need to get into a schedule and I'll be fine. Maybe I should try going to bed slightly earlier as well...
I love my ballet class. Starting the day off with MK is so great, she makes getting up at 7 am completely worth it. She's so energetic and enthusiastic that it rubs off on my and makes me excited to dance at an ungodly hour. So far we haven't done any actual "ballet", we've just been moving around and getting our bodies used to movement again, but I appreciate that. It's been a while since I've danced seriously, with structured warm-ups and exercises.
My speech and diction class is going to be fun, I can already tell. My teacher is super relaxed and chill; he told us to call him Evan. He's so adorable, because on the first day he told us that he'd been married for exactly one year and two months, which of course all the girls aww-ed at. We played a name game to get to know everyone's names and I think I've got it down. It's similar to the summer program in that for most of our classes we're split into two roughly even groups and for the rest we're all together, but the groups aren't always the same from class to class.
English diction isn't going to be fun, I don't think. For one, it's the last class right before lunch, and we're all exhausted from being up so early. I think at that point the energy buzz from ballet/our Starbucks run in between dance and S&D wears off, so we're all kind of tired. It's also kind of a boring topic--I think I know how to speak English. But I understand the necessity of it, so it'll be a good learning experience.
I LOVE my choir class! I love the teacher, which is such a foreign concept to me. He's this fabulous gay man who's super bubbly and friendly. We've already started two songs, "Under the Willow Tree" and "Cindy", and they both sound amazing. He told the girls that we'll be singing soprano half the time, and alto half the time. So for "Under the Willow Tree", I sing alto 1, and for "Cindy" I sing soprano 2. Singing alto 1 is actually really enjoyable, because even though it's lower it's still harmony which I love singing. It's challenging but it sounds so good when we all sing together.
On Wednesdays we have New Student Seminar, also taught by MK. I'm not entirely sure what this class is yet, but I automatically love it because it's led by MK. I love that I get to start and end my days with her.
So Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are good days for me because they're all my musical theatre classes. Tuesdays and Thursdays are not so fun. I start out with 8 am basic musicianship during which I always have a hard time staying awake. My teacher's voice is pretty monotone and he's hard to hear, so sometimes I kind of just give up on trying to hear what he's saying and work on the homework for the next class. So far it's been fairly easy, just basic stuff, but it's all stuff I know I need to practice and work on. I actually really do appreciate my basic musicianship class because I've never gotten any specific training in music theory. I always felt that that was something I was missing out on, so I'm really glad that I have a class dedicated to just that.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are also the days where I have insanely long breaks. I have musicianship at 8 am and then my next class isn't until 11. So sometimes I take a nap, or I actually get ready for the day (if I decided that I was too tired to put effort into my appearance for musicianship). My 11 o'clock class is unfortunately my African Diaspora lecture, so if I'm tired (which I usually am), it's bad news. I have to fight to stay awake in that class if we're not taking a lot of notes. If the teacher decides to talk more and give us less notes then I really have to focus on staying awake. There's one girl in my lecture who lives in my building, and is actually someone I kind of knew through Bellarmine theater from back home, so I sat with her today. Now I have someone to go to if I miss a lecture or something.
On Tuesdays I have my voice lesson at 2 which I really enjoy. My teacher, Dan Lawler, is super friendly and doesn't care if I make a mistake. He's very encouraging. He gave me two new songs to sing, "I'll Know" from Guys and Dolls and "Out of My Dreams" from Oklahoma. I sight read "I'll Know" a lot better than I thought I would, which was pleasantly surprising. "Out of My Dreams" was a bit more iffy because I know the tune, but I kept thinking it was in a lower key than written, so that threw me off. But I'm excited to work on my music and get to know the pieces. Dan wants "I'll Know" memorized for next week so that's my big challenge for the week.
Finally I have my Writing the Essay (WTE) class. I actually really enjoy that one. It's a small class, maybe 16 or so people. I made friends with this girl Elle who lives on the 16th floor of Brittany, so I have someone to walk to and from class with. We've been getting dinner together after class too. She's super sweet, and she said I could use her printer whenever I need it. That'll be nice, for the times when it's kind of late and I can't walk over to Bobst to print something out. My teacher for WTE is pretty nice too. She's fairly young and very New York, is the best way to describe her. I don't feel nervous or intimidated to share my thoughts or opinions because whenever I say something she seems to really think about it and take the time to formulate a response to my statement. So far we've had a few homework assignments for the class, but it hasn't been anything super hard. We've done a few quick writes in class which I enjoy, because I like to write on a subject for five or so minutes to see what I come up with. I always look forward to that class.
Fridays are an entirely different story. I get to sleep in, for starters, which is super exciting. I don't start class til 10! And I begin my day with vocal production with Prof Heldman so that's a huge plus in my book. She's a great teacher, and I can't begin to describe how lucky I feel to be able to work with her again this semester. The subject matter should be interesting as well; it's all about how the voice works and how sound is produced and how we can use this knowledge to our advantage as singers.
After vocal production I have program seminar, which I was very shocked to discover meant everyone in the program, and I mean everyone. It wasn't just freshmen, it was sophomores and juniors and seniors too. From my impression, it kind of seems like just an hour where they can have us all in one room and make any important announcements or talk about whatever. There might be some performing going on at some point too, which could be cool. I like it because it means I get to see my upperclassmen/sophomore friends.
Most of my peers are done after program seminar but lucky me, I have my recitation at 2. It's not so bad I guess, it's in some dark-ish room in the lower level (code for basement) of the cultural center or whatever at NYU, and its about 18 people. However, we were missing some thing like 6 people last week, which I thought was kind of funny. My TA is a grad student in the history department and her specialization is African Diaspora, which is really convenient for us. She had us turn to the person next to us and interview them so that we could start getting to know each other. I met Will, who's a sophomore transfer student from some school in Indiana. Apparently, he used to be a professional ballet dancer for 10 years but he had to quit because he got injured, which I guess is why he also transferred over to NYU. Our TA tried to have a discussion with the class but she decided to let us out early because it was Friday and it was gorgeous outside. It was a really pretty fall day and she wanted us to be able to enjoy it, which was really nice of her.
Other than school, I've just been trying to figure out a good schedule for myself, a new routine to get the hang of. I need to figure out good practice times to work on my material for my voice lessons, and the whole printer situation. Buying my own printer is starting to sound reeeeal appealing right about now. It's just so convenient, especially since I'll be printing stuff for WTE all the time, not to mention endless amounts of sheet music.
I plan on seeing Sweet Smell of Success on Thursday, which I cannot wait for. It's being put on by the VP program, so a lot of my friends are in it. I'm excited to see what the people in our program are capable of!
My first week of college was fun. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, especially the 8 am classes. I think I just need to get into a schedule and I'll be fine. Maybe I should try going to bed slightly earlier as well...
I love my ballet class. Starting the day off with MK is so great, she makes getting up at 7 am completely worth it. She's so energetic and enthusiastic that it rubs off on my and makes me excited to dance at an ungodly hour. So far we haven't done any actual "ballet", we've just been moving around and getting our bodies used to movement again, but I appreciate that. It's been a while since I've danced seriously, with structured warm-ups and exercises.
My speech and diction class is going to be fun, I can already tell. My teacher is super relaxed and chill; he told us to call him Evan. He's so adorable, because on the first day he told us that he'd been married for exactly one year and two months, which of course all the girls aww-ed at. We played a name game to get to know everyone's names and I think I've got it down. It's similar to the summer program in that for most of our classes we're split into two roughly even groups and for the rest we're all together, but the groups aren't always the same from class to class.
English diction isn't going to be fun, I don't think. For one, it's the last class right before lunch, and we're all exhausted from being up so early. I think at that point the energy buzz from ballet/our Starbucks run in between dance and S&D wears off, so we're all kind of tired. It's also kind of a boring topic--I think I know how to speak English. But I understand the necessity of it, so it'll be a good learning experience.
I LOVE my choir class! I love the teacher, which is such a foreign concept to me. He's this fabulous gay man who's super bubbly and friendly. We've already started two songs, "Under the Willow Tree" and "Cindy", and they both sound amazing. He told the girls that we'll be singing soprano half the time, and alto half the time. So for "Under the Willow Tree", I sing alto 1, and for "Cindy" I sing soprano 2. Singing alto 1 is actually really enjoyable, because even though it's lower it's still harmony which I love singing. It's challenging but it sounds so good when we all sing together.
On Wednesdays we have New Student Seminar, also taught by MK. I'm not entirely sure what this class is yet, but I automatically love it because it's led by MK. I love that I get to start and end my days with her.
So Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are good days for me because they're all my musical theatre classes. Tuesdays and Thursdays are not so fun. I start out with 8 am basic musicianship during which I always have a hard time staying awake. My teacher's voice is pretty monotone and he's hard to hear, so sometimes I kind of just give up on trying to hear what he's saying and work on the homework for the next class. So far it's been fairly easy, just basic stuff, but it's all stuff I know I need to practice and work on. I actually really do appreciate my basic musicianship class because I've never gotten any specific training in music theory. I always felt that that was something I was missing out on, so I'm really glad that I have a class dedicated to just that.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are also the days where I have insanely long breaks. I have musicianship at 8 am and then my next class isn't until 11. So sometimes I take a nap, or I actually get ready for the day (if I decided that I was too tired to put effort into my appearance for musicianship). My 11 o'clock class is unfortunately my African Diaspora lecture, so if I'm tired (which I usually am), it's bad news. I have to fight to stay awake in that class if we're not taking a lot of notes. If the teacher decides to talk more and give us less notes then I really have to focus on staying awake. There's one girl in my lecture who lives in my building, and is actually someone I kind of knew through Bellarmine theater from back home, so I sat with her today. Now I have someone to go to if I miss a lecture or something.
On Tuesdays I have my voice lesson at 2 which I really enjoy. My teacher, Dan Lawler, is super friendly and doesn't care if I make a mistake. He's very encouraging. He gave me two new songs to sing, "I'll Know" from Guys and Dolls and "Out of My Dreams" from Oklahoma. I sight read "I'll Know" a lot better than I thought I would, which was pleasantly surprising. "Out of My Dreams" was a bit more iffy because I know the tune, but I kept thinking it was in a lower key than written, so that threw me off. But I'm excited to work on my music and get to know the pieces. Dan wants "I'll Know" memorized for next week so that's my big challenge for the week.
Finally I have my Writing the Essay (WTE) class. I actually really enjoy that one. It's a small class, maybe 16 or so people. I made friends with this girl Elle who lives on the 16th floor of Brittany, so I have someone to walk to and from class with. We've been getting dinner together after class too. She's super sweet, and she said I could use her printer whenever I need it. That'll be nice, for the times when it's kind of late and I can't walk over to Bobst to print something out. My teacher for WTE is pretty nice too. She's fairly young and very New York, is the best way to describe her. I don't feel nervous or intimidated to share my thoughts or opinions because whenever I say something she seems to really think about it and take the time to formulate a response to my statement. So far we've had a few homework assignments for the class, but it hasn't been anything super hard. We've done a few quick writes in class which I enjoy, because I like to write on a subject for five or so minutes to see what I come up with. I always look forward to that class.
Fridays are an entirely different story. I get to sleep in, for starters, which is super exciting. I don't start class til 10! And I begin my day with vocal production with Prof Heldman so that's a huge plus in my book. She's a great teacher, and I can't begin to describe how lucky I feel to be able to work with her again this semester. The subject matter should be interesting as well; it's all about how the voice works and how sound is produced and how we can use this knowledge to our advantage as singers.
After vocal production I have program seminar, which I was very shocked to discover meant everyone in the program, and I mean everyone. It wasn't just freshmen, it was sophomores and juniors and seniors too. From my impression, it kind of seems like just an hour where they can have us all in one room and make any important announcements or talk about whatever. There might be some performing going on at some point too, which could be cool. I like it because it means I get to see my upperclassmen/sophomore friends.
Most of my peers are done after program seminar but lucky me, I have my recitation at 2. It's not so bad I guess, it's in some dark-ish room in the lower level (code for basement) of the cultural center or whatever at NYU, and its about 18 people. However, we were missing some thing like 6 people last week, which I thought was kind of funny. My TA is a grad student in the history department and her specialization is African Diaspora, which is really convenient for us. She had us turn to the person next to us and interview them so that we could start getting to know each other. I met Will, who's a sophomore transfer student from some school in Indiana. Apparently, he used to be a professional ballet dancer for 10 years but he had to quit because he got injured, which I guess is why he also transferred over to NYU. Our TA tried to have a discussion with the class but she decided to let us out early because it was Friday and it was gorgeous outside. It was a really pretty fall day and she wanted us to be able to enjoy it, which was really nice of her.
Other than school, I've just been trying to figure out a good schedule for myself, a new routine to get the hang of. I need to figure out good practice times to work on my material for my voice lessons, and the whole printer situation. Buying my own printer is starting to sound reeeeal appealing right about now. It's just so convenient, especially since I'll be printing stuff for WTE all the time, not to mention endless amounts of sheet music.
I plan on seeing Sweet Smell of Success on Thursday, which I cannot wait for. It's being put on by the VP program, so a lot of my friends are in it. I'm excited to see what the people in our program are capable of!
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Making Friends and Street Fairs
I can now officially say that I have two new friends at NYU who are not my roommates! Jen Sax, who is another Steinhardt VP major, lives in my building on the fifth floor. Sonja Haroldson I met at the second Steinhardt orientation, she's a studio arts major.
I went and got coffee with Sonja yesterday, which was a lot of fun. We just sat in Starbucks for about an hour and talked about ourselves, where we were from and what our interests were. She's such a nice girl, and we have a lot in common. She's from Washington, so we've got that West Coast connection going on, and she's extremely energetic and spunky like me. We also ran into her boyfriend's roommate Danny, who seemed really nice. After Starbucks we walked around this street fair that popped up on University and Broadway. I think it's there for the holiday weekend, though I'm not sure. It's pretty cool though, there are a lot of vendors selling really neat artwork and tapestries and such. Kind of like the art in the park thing back home. After walking around for a while we decided to head over to Weinstein for lunch, because we were both super hungry. I had a pretty good meal, which I was pleasantly surprised by. I'm not getting bored of dorm food yet! I'm just trying to figure out which cafeterias I like the best. Then after lunch we headed back to our separate dorms, but I think we're probably going to try to hang out soon. We're both pretty excited to have made a good friend already, because we both feel like we're trying to find a solid group of people that we could hang out with at any time. I think I'm getting there! She's going to introduce me to her boyfriend and his group of friends, so maybe that'll be my group, who knows?
This morning I met up with Jen, the girl who lives in my building, and her friend Raf for lunch. We were going to go to Weinstein but we passed by a Chipotle on the way and discovered that Raf had never been there before, so naturally we had to eat there. It turned out that there were a few VP upperclassmen in line before us, Raf's mentor included, who ended up inviting us to sit with them. It was kind of exciting but also a little bit nervewracking to sit with these guys because they kept asking us questions about freshman year and our classes and if we were excited and whatnot. They were super nice and it was cool that they were trying to get to know us, but I could tell that Jen and Raf and I were all super intimidated by them. One guy, Steven, is from the West Coast (he's from Oregon) so he decided I was his West Coast buddy. The upperclassmen left after a while because they had to go to rehearsal for Sweet Smell of Success (which I'm SUPER excited to see in a few weeks), so Jen and Raf and I decided to go check out the street fair a bit more, the one on Broadway. I had my first deep-fried Oreo which I'm proud to admit I loved, and I kind of want another one. Jen had a date tonight with a sophomore from our program, so I went down to her room to help her get ready. She didn't seem too enthusiastic though, because we've both heard some pretty sketchy stuff about him in terms of him being a player, so we'll see how that goes. Raf and I were joking that we should stalk them by going to whatever restaurant they were going to and sitting at a table nearby to keep an eye on them. We never did, but Jen is a tough girl, I know she can handle herself.
The rest of my suite did laundry for the first time today. I passed because I didn't feel like I had enough laundry to merit a trip down there, but they said it was quite the experience, so I have that to look forward to. Caroline and Jasmine went to go see the new One Direction movie, and Karen went to the FYRE cruise (a freshman-only overnight cruise) with her friend Derrick. So it's just me and Dan-a chilling in the dorm room which is totally fine, we're just watching movies and generally hanging out. It's nice to be able to relax now because I know that once school starts it's going to be a nightmare.
I went and got coffee with Sonja yesterday, which was a lot of fun. We just sat in Starbucks for about an hour and talked about ourselves, where we were from and what our interests were. She's such a nice girl, and we have a lot in common. She's from Washington, so we've got that West Coast connection going on, and she's extremely energetic and spunky like me. We also ran into her boyfriend's roommate Danny, who seemed really nice. After Starbucks we walked around this street fair that popped up on University and Broadway. I think it's there for the holiday weekend, though I'm not sure. It's pretty cool though, there are a lot of vendors selling really neat artwork and tapestries and such. Kind of like the art in the park thing back home. After walking around for a while we decided to head over to Weinstein for lunch, because we were both super hungry. I had a pretty good meal, which I was pleasantly surprised by. I'm not getting bored of dorm food yet! I'm just trying to figure out which cafeterias I like the best. Then after lunch we headed back to our separate dorms, but I think we're probably going to try to hang out soon. We're both pretty excited to have made a good friend already, because we both feel like we're trying to find a solid group of people that we could hang out with at any time. I think I'm getting there! She's going to introduce me to her boyfriend and his group of friends, so maybe that'll be my group, who knows?
This morning I met up with Jen, the girl who lives in my building, and her friend Raf for lunch. We were going to go to Weinstein but we passed by a Chipotle on the way and discovered that Raf had never been there before, so naturally we had to eat there. It turned out that there were a few VP upperclassmen in line before us, Raf's mentor included, who ended up inviting us to sit with them. It was kind of exciting but also a little bit nervewracking to sit with these guys because they kept asking us questions about freshman year and our classes and if we were excited and whatnot. They were super nice and it was cool that they were trying to get to know us, but I could tell that Jen and Raf and I were all super intimidated by them. One guy, Steven, is from the West Coast (he's from Oregon) so he decided I was his West Coast buddy. The upperclassmen left after a while because they had to go to rehearsal for Sweet Smell of Success (which I'm SUPER excited to see in a few weeks), so Jen and Raf and I decided to go check out the street fair a bit more, the one on Broadway. I had my first deep-fried Oreo which I'm proud to admit I loved, and I kind of want another one. Jen had a date tonight with a sophomore from our program, so I went down to her room to help her get ready. She didn't seem too enthusiastic though, because we've both heard some pretty sketchy stuff about him in terms of him being a player, so we'll see how that goes. Raf and I were joking that we should stalk them by going to whatever restaurant they were going to and sitting at a table nearby to keep an eye on them. We never did, but Jen is a tough girl, I know she can handle herself.
The rest of my suite did laundry for the first time today. I passed because I didn't feel like I had enough laundry to merit a trip down there, but they said it was quite the experience, so I have that to look forward to. Caroline and Jasmine went to go see the new One Direction movie, and Karen went to the FYRE cruise (a freshman-only overnight cruise) with her friend Derrick. So it's just me and Dan-a chilling in the dorm room which is totally fine, we're just watching movies and generally hanging out. It's nice to be able to relax now because I know that once school starts it's going to be a nightmare.
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