Monday at Meadowmount

The first actual day at Meadowmount was...interesting haha. I had such bad back pain that I only got through 1.5 hours of practicing (out of the four required in the morning, 8:30-12:30) before I had to spend the rest of the time at the nurse's office. Two ibuprofen, an Icy Hot patch, an ice pack - all useless! So then a counselor (Yuni) had to drive me and another girl from my dorm (Rachel) to the doctor in Elizabethtown (E-town), which is less than 15 minutes away from Meadowmount. The doctor had a bit of a hard time trying to figure out what I had done to mess up my back, but she thinks that the muscle is pressuring my nerve (not exactly a pinched nerve though). She prescribed medicine for me to loosen my muscles, and while we waited for the drugstore to get my prescription ready, Yuni and Rachel and I went to eat ice cream! Maybe it's because the cows are like right across the street, but the ice cream was delicious! That was the nice part about going to doctor's :p

Later in the evening, some girls in my dorm got together in Ruth's and my room to play B.S. with my Andy Warhol cards. It was so much fun, even though everyone was losing to Ruth haha! At 7:30 p.m. we had a technique class in the performance hall with professor Van der Sloot, who came for one week from Canada. It was very interesting and eye-opening, but a bit too long-drawn. All of the violinists in the camp came with instruments, and he asked everyone to stand up (about half of us, including myself, got to stand on stage). Then he explained different aspects of playing, including the effect of gravity on the body and violin playing, and various bow strokes, such as martelé and detaché. It got to be very tiring by the end though, and everyone was relieved when it was finally over. Until next time!

~Lisa

First day at Meadowmount

I woke up at 5 am to make my morning flight to Burlington, Vermont, the only airport Meadowmount lets its students fly in to. On the plane, I sat next to a violinist named Brooks (20), who goes to Luther college in Iowa, and we chatted about Meadowmount and our music experiences and the like. It was nice to already have a friend by the time I got off the plane :) There were seven Meadowmount students on my flight, and we were met by a taxi driver employed by the music school. By that time, I had made friends with Harriet from Northbrook (15), Courtney from Peoria (17), Jarvis from San Diego (16), and Marla from Florida (20). After half an hour of driving through gorgeous New England (trees and mountains, oh my!), we got to even-more-gorgeous Lake Champlain. A ferry took us across the huge lake to Essex, NY, where we were met by a woman with a huge minivan into which we stuffed our huge suitcases and set off on the 13 miles to Meadowmount, a.k.a the Middle of Nowhere.

Soon, we pulled off the main road and onto a thin but long strip of forest-y land where the first white cabins of Meadowmount appeared. We drove by Lalo, Ysaye, Heifetz, Casals, etc, all the names of box-like cabins were students' rooms are located. Then we got to the Main House, which I have the blessing of staying in for the next 7 weeks! The Main House includes the infirmary, the dining hall, the lounge with interent service (score!) and an upstairs hall of spacious, twin rooms with wood floors and no bugs! I was sooo happy! I had to stand in line for two hours downstairs to get through registration, which was really frusturating but allowed me to meet two other students, violinist Justin from Vermont (17) and cellist Willis from Michigan (21). Afterwards, it took me over three hours to unpack everything and figure out where to put all of my belongings, after which I spent another good hour plastering wall stickers to, yes, the wall, as well as hanging hot pink streamers on some of the particularly empty looking sides of the room. Afterwards, Courtney (from Peoria) and I went exploring the campus, walking from one end of Meadowmount to the other. We took in all of the beautiful trees, the extremely fresh and fragrant air, the clouds and the cabins (which are tiny and bug infested, so the rumors say), and the setting sun, which was casting picturesque shadows on ground strewn with pine needles. We took one of the paths up the mountain (is it a mountain? maybe we're on a hill...I don't know yet haha), which really worked my leg muscles out. It was a beautiful little trek, and I felt very healthy afterwards.

After the walk, Courtney and I went to dinner at the Main House - I had a vegan burger, which was one of very few options. At least the bread wasn't moldy! There are so many rumors about food as well as accomodations that I had heard about, but everything seems to have been blown out of proportion a little bit ;p after dinner, I met my roomate Ruth (17) from Dallas, who was really sweet and a friendly. We talked for a while and played bananagrams in our room after curfew. Both of us were not very functional that late, and it was Ruth's first time playing the game, so we only got halfway through the game before we called it quits and went to sleep. So, that's all for today, folks!

~Lisa

Wedding Gig in Lake Geneva

A few days ago, I played my second wedding gig. The first wedding gig I ever played was in an enormous house for a woman that looked like she was 40 and wore a dress that resembled a tutu. It was very bizarre. We played in a balcony suspended between two sides of the house on the second floor while all the guests milled around below. There was a group of kids that ran by, and one was dared by his other friends to stand in front of us and conduct, which he did. Quartets do not have conductors, so it was quite hilarious to us. At one point, a man who looked like he was the CEO of a company stood up in the balcony to give a toast, and his large stomach and booming voice made him look like he was about to break out into opera. The gig was quite fun, and very memorable.

The second gig that I played this Sunday was in Lake Geneva for the wedding of our violist's mother's friend's daughter (I think). The wedding was at some very wealthy golf resort, and we set up outside for the ceremony. We played Glazunov and Mozart before the ceremony started, but it was a complete fiasco! The wind was blowing our pages off the stands (we had forgotten to bring wind clips) or flipping the pages over so that we couldn't see the music, and we were all freaking out. The music sounded terrible, but thank G-d no one at the wedding seemed to have any background in classical music! Pachabel's Canon, which we played as the guests filed into their seats and, later, as the bride arrived in a horse-drawn carriage (yes, it was very cute) was also a disaster; all of us must have faked the notes by trying to play the chords at least once during the piece because of the flapping music. Luckily, during the ceremony where just the pastor was talking, Ariel (the violist)'s mum gave us empty ring boxes to clip our music. Someone had asked her to hold onto them, and we were so grateful, because they came at just the right moment! I have no idea how we would have played Bach's Aria and Vivaldi's Spring (pieces none of us actually learned: most of the music for gigs is sight-read, which means played for the first time or never practiced) with the wind throwing the music everywhere!

The rest of the wedding went smoothly, and the entire process only lasted about an hour. We each received $125, which is quite a nice sum for a gig, especially since we played for so little time. We packed up our things and went to eat lunch in a tiny restaraunt. The restaraunt was in a concrete-floor basement scattered with comfortable sofas, book shelves, and antique-looking furniture including a great statue of Tom and Jerry.  There was one little old woman behind the counter, and the food options were limited to: Turkey and cheese sandwich, chicken salad sandwich, or a quiche. I had the vegetarian quiche, and it turned out to be quite delicious :) After lunch we drove the hour back, while each of us told as many jokes as we knew. There was a lot of laughter in the car. The best joke was told by Allen (our substitute violinist) and involved himself, Ariel (violist), and me. Here is the joke:

So we three get into a car accident, and we go to Heaven. In Heaven, G-d says that the only rule is that we can't step on any ducks. Then he opens the gates, and sure enough, there are ducks EVERYWHERE. Soon after, Allen steps on a duck. Instantly, G-d comes up to him and chains him to a hideous woman. "This is your punishment for stepping on a duck," G-d says. A few minutes later, Ariel steps on a duck. Again, G-d comes and chains her to a hideous man. "This is your punishment for stepping on a duck," G-d says. Just a little while later, G-d comes to me and chains me to an amazingly handsome young man. Allen and Ariel break out in protest. "How come we were chained to such ugly people, and Lisa gets to be chained to someone so beautiful?!?" The young man looks at them and replies, "I stepped on a duck..."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

-Lisa

Road Trip to Indianapolis - Day 2

After a restful night, Kate and I set forth to find Bloomington's Farmers' Market. We stumbled upon a small Arts fair at first, but found the Market just two streets away. The fruits, vegetables, and flowers were all beautiful and there were many people milling around despite the cloudy sky showing signs of rain. For breakfast, we had delicious tamales (Kate had mango chicken and I had black bean/goat cheese). They were wrapped in corn husks that we found out were used for steaming and were not supposed to be eaten. The portion seemed deceiving small but turned out to be very satisfying. After breakfast, we set out on the ~40 minute drive to Indianapolis.

Sometimes traveling to other cities is useful just to be able to check off a place where you never want to live. Indianapolis sports several skyscrapers, a cute canal where families were enjoying paddle boats and kayaks, and a great mall that resembles the one in Vernon Hills (same shops, but better architecture), but it came out to be quite boring and unattractive as a place to live. Kate and I first visited the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial, which was unapproachable due to construction, but was very beautiful (and only a tiny bit shorter than the Statue of Liberty). Then we visited the mall, followed by a long walk in the heat past the Capitol building (great architecture) and some other interesting buildings to get to the canal. By then, we were very hot and tired, so we sat under a tree in the shade by the canal and watched families paddling by. THEN we walked all the way back to the mall, and I headed to the car to put more coins in the parking meter while Kate went into the Italian restaraunt 'Buca' to rest. It turned out to be a very long walk to the car and back to the restaraunt, but I could tell that it was going to have a great impact on my legs ;) Kate ordered some spicy pasta and I orderded stuffed pasta (two long rolls filled with different cheeses, including one of my favorites, ricotta). Though I was full, I couldn't help buying Praline ice cream at a Chocoloate Cafe after lunch.

On the way back to the car, we stopped by at an adorable, tiny little shop called TeaPots n Treasures. It was stuffed with shelves along the walls and as stand-up islands, and everything was covered in little antique figurines (mostly of tea and teapots) and hundreds of little packets of tea. There was almost no room to maneuver between the walls, shelf islands, and customers! There were several teapots of brewed tea offered as complimentary tasting, and the ones I tried were delicious. I ended up buying a little bag of tea after a joking dispute with one of the sales girl's about the pronunciation of the word 'lemon,' which she said as 'limon.'

As we exited the shop and started for the car, I realized that my ice cream was melting through the bottom of the cone and was dripping everywhere: on my skirt, through the napkin, on the boutique's brochure, the ground, everywhere! I asked Kate to stop by at the nearest cafe to get me napkins, and turned around to throw out the one that was soaking through on the bottom of my cone. As I turned back, Kate pointed at the cafe and mouthed "It's closed." With no other options, I plugged the bottom of the cone with my fingers and we ran to the CVS pharmacy down the street. While I stood outside looking ridiculous and quickly creating a pool of ice cream on the ground, Kate ran in to get me paper napkins. We managed to wrap them around the cone enough that I could gobble dessert down, and there was a bit left over for me to wipe my sticky, ice cream covered hands off. As the ice cream crisis came to an end, we finally got to the car, and both of us just burst out laughing at what had just happened.

Done with Indianapolis, Kate and I filled up the gas for just $3.59/gal (yes, it was amazing) and started for Indiana Dunes. On the way, we stopped by for a quick dinner at a cheap chinese restaraunt. As we finished our food, Kate got up to throw out her garbage and dropped the leftover red, sweet and sour sauce all over the tiled floor! We were so appologetic, and I said to Kate that I was going to be extra careful with my garbage. About 30 seconds later, my bag of unwanted crispy Chinese crackers was all over the floor! We broke out into laughter, appologized profusely, and ran out in embarassment. Neither one of us could stop laughing for the next two minutes. With our moods brightened after dull Indianapolis, we made it to the Indiana Dunes beach half a Phantom of the Opera soundtrack CD later. At the beach, we discovered that the water was way too cold for swimming (big disappointment for me) and that the free astronomy star-gazing event that was going to be held at the beach was canceled because of the cloudy sky. The beautiful sunset that we were looking forward to was hilariously anticlimactic as we had come a bit too late, the clouds were obscuring everything, and the weather had turned from 90 degrees to around 60 with a cold wind blowing. Kate and I took shelter under my blanket and amused ourselves by listnening to the Lake Michigan waves and watching the comical seagulls squawking at each other. It turned out to be quite restful and made the rest of the car ride home much easier. By 8:30 pm Chicago time we left the beach, and by 10 pm we were back in our sweet, wonderful, pristine bubble of Vernon Hills. All in all, we were thankful that a potentially disastrous road trip sans parental units had ended successfully and safely.

~Lisa

Road Trip to Indiana University - Day 1

It was dark outside when I picked Kate up at 3 am. Only 150 miles or so later did the sun rise in a beautiful orange that illuminated the farms scattered on the sides of the road. The four and a half hour drive wasn't tiring, and Kate and I had some interesting conversations about music and religion (seperately) once she woke up around 6 am. We arrived in Bloomington at 9 am by Chicago time, but 10 am by the city's clock. Though most of Indiana seems flat, Bloomington is particularly hilly, full of wildlife and nature with trees growing everywhere, and all the buildings are a sandy grey/white color, reminding me of the northern city of Haifa in Israel. We quickly found the main music building for Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music; it smelled musty in an arts way (for those of you who know what I mean) and reminded me of the fine arts building of Chicago. Sitting around a conference table for over an hour, we listened to the admissions officer's very informative spiel about different degrees and opportunities at the Jacobs School of Music. Afterwards, Kate and I went on a guided tour around the four buildings of the music school - the architecture and color schemes were quirky, often laughable 60's and 70's styles. I loved the multitude of practice rooms primarily because each one is soundproof, and there are lockers available for all the students to store their instruments in!

After the tour and a speedy lunch at Noodle's & Co. on Kirkwood avenue, the main street in Bloomington, Kate raced back to catch a 30 minute lesson with a voice teacher (I couldn't get in touch with a violin professor) while I ambled around the campus. The weather was not too warm, the sky was blue, and there was wildlife everywhere! I feel like Indiana U is a campus in the middle of a forest: trees and flowers, birds and bunnies, little brick pathways leading through the foliage from one building to another - it's very unique, definately alluring, and almost magical to walk around. I got a bit lost as I was trying to find my way back to the music building where Kate was supposed to finish her lesson soon, and the thought "Wouldn't it be nice to find Hillel and look around?" popped into my head. At that moment, I turned around and staring me in the face from across the street was the Hillel center (main Jewish social organization on every college campus)! Even luckier yet, though it's summer, Lance daSilva (one of the people who works for IU Hillel full-time) happened to be in the building, and he gave me a quick tour. It was quite large, with a spacious dining hall where Kosher meals and Shabbat meals are served, a library for regular students and Jewish Studies students, couches and armchairs to lounge, study, socialize, or sleep in, and even a fitness room with treadmills and the such! Their slogan, "Your Jewish Home away from Home" really seems to fit, and I can only image how fun it is to be part of the Jewish atmosphere on campus through Hillel at IU!

After Hillel and Kate's lesson, we found a Red Mango shop that sells delicious frozen yogurt and treated ourselves to a between-lunch-and-dinner snack. Then we parked the car, kicked back the car seats all the way, grabbed pillows, and took a two hour snooze. It must have been 95 degrees outside, because when we woke up, we were literally DRENCHED in sweat! It was incredibly unappealing...At that point, about 5 pm, we were invited by our friend Karen Mari (who was attending a summer music camp at IU with several VHHS school friends) to eat dinner at the Indiana-famous Mother Bear pizza restaraunt. The pizza really was delicious, and not expensive at all :) After dinner, we followed Karen and two other friends to the Honors concert that the summer camp was giving at Auer Hall (beautiful, large performance hall) for Karen's trombone solo. We left at intermission after the first half of the program featuring four student soloists (including Karen) had concluded. It was great entertainment! Bloomington is pretty small, and relatively quiet during the summer, but I can only imagine the flood of activities that 40,000 students bring to the campus starting in the fall. The admissions director said that there are (roughly, because my memory is so-so) 3 orchestras, 13 choirs, and a concert almost every day!! I would have such a hard time choosing where to go and what to participate in...

Finally, Kate and I stopped by at Starbucks to recharge my laptop and watch a movie. We watched 'White Chicks,' a hilarious comedy about two black FBI agents that disguise themselves as two white girls as part of their undercover service and, of course, end up saving the day. After the movie, with brains full of information from the day and legs sore from walking everywhere, we retired for the night. Next Stop: Indianapolis!

~Lisa