Siena

Venice

Albania, Greece, and little of Italy

This summer I had an amazing opportunity to go to Europe with a friend of mine, Shae Ashby. We spent most of our time with my sister, Heidi, and her family in Albania. We traveled with them to Greece for a little bit, and our last week we spent in Italy, just Shae and me.


Along one of the roads in Tirana. The buildings are all painted really bright colors with different patterns and designs. During Communism the buildings were plain concrete. The Albanians have spiced it up a little more now.


One of our first stops on our Albanian adventure. Gijyrocaster is an ancient fortress. We found out while we were there that they were holding Miss Albania here in this ancient fortess a week after the time we left. How disappointing.


Shae and I (with Tony in the background) at Gijyrocaster.



The ferry ride from mainland Greece, to Korfu was extremely windy.


The Baird family on a cobblestone street in Korfu, Greece.


On the balcony of Achilles' Castle on Korfu. This castle was built as a summer home by royalty from somewhere else in Europe. They named it in honor of their son, who had a weakness, so they associated him with Achilles. It was gorgeous.


Jonathan, Laura, and Timmy playing chess on a life size chess board. This was probably one of their favorite things of the whole trip.


Isaac watching the others play chess.


The oldest fortress on Korfu with the Athenian looking church and the clock tower at sunset.


Korfu, the Greek island is behind me. You can see the old fortress.


Heidi and I at the amphitheater at Butrint, and ancient Roman city in southern Albania.


When we drove back from Butrint to Vlor we had to drive over the mountain because it juts into the sea. This road switch-backed up the mountain, with no guard rails. I was very glad Tony was driving. He said the last time they took this road it wasn't even paved. Oh the joy of Albanian roads. The view was gorgeous though with nothing to block it.


A market in Kruja, Albania. I loved just walking through this market. I did get a really cool cifteli (a two string guitar like instrument) and a double holed flute.


Everyone at the beach at Schkoder.


Isaac playing in the very dark sand.


Yes, this is a stuffed animal hanging off a wall. The Albanians are very superstitious and feel that by hanging something on anything being built, it will keep away the bad/evil spirits. They were all over the place in Albania.


A little bit of old Albania with modern Tirana in the background.


The turtle we found on Timmy's birthday. All the kids wanted to keep it, but Heidi and Tony didn't think it would travel to America very well.


Timmy's birthday party. Notice his light saber cake.



The Grand Canal in Venice


Shae and I finishing our gondola ride.


A Venetian street

Spring Choir Concert

This past Wednesday I had my last choir concert at Edgemont for a little while. My kids sang really well. They got kind of nervous and had to be coaxed to sing louder. I was so happy to have two of my sisters there to support me, my roommate Melissa who just got back from Ghana was there, and one of my counselors from my ward. Here's a video of our last number, "Sesere Eeye." It comes from the Torres Straight Islands off the coast of Australia, and the students danced a traditional island dance with the song and included instruments. Playing instruments is a huge motivation for them, so I try to have at least one song with instruments for them to play. I wanted to post this video so that especially my parents, who are on a mission in the Philippines, could see a little of what is happening here.

Northwestern it is!

I finally made my decision this past week (seeing that the deadline to make my decision was April 15...) and I will be attending Northwestern University this coming fall. Northwestern is just outside Chicago. When I get there I will know absolutely no one, but I'm so thankful for the networking that happens because of the church. I've already got people who know that I am looking for housing, and they are keeping their eyes open for me. I'll be driving out there in late August/early September, and will then be there for the next year.

Northwestern

So, I have officially been accepted to both graduate schools that I applied to. I got an acceptance letter (email) from Northwestern today. I haven't heard back from either school about financing, but I should hear from Northwestern later this week and from Columbia in the next couple of weeks. My top choice is Northwestern (Chicago), but Columbia (New York) would be great too. I'm really excited for the possibilities right now!

Chicago

I spent President's Day weekend in Illinois. I flew into St. Louis, and my brother picked me up and I spent two days in Carterville, Il with his family. I love my nieces. I then took a train up to Chicago, had an old friend from BYU pick me up, and I stayed with a girl I had never met before. She was absolutely wonderful. She took me all over Chicago and was the best hostess. I met a lot of the singles in Chicago because of her and would really love to move there in the fall. I spent almost all of Monday at Northwestern University. I met with the professor in charge of graduate admissions, went to a master's level class and a doctoral class. I have to wait until March sometime to find out if I have been accepted.
Monday Tiffany took me to FHE, and then we walked around downtown Chicago. It was freezing, but so much fun. We finished the night by going up to the Signature Lounge in the Hancock Building (instead of the Sears-Willis Tower because this was free) and bought dessert on the 96th floor. Tuesday I was supposed to go back to Northwestern, but I didn't get in touch with the professor, so I went to see some things downtown. I saw the Cloud Arch, which looks like a big silver kidney bean, and then went to the Chicago Cultural Center, and it just so happened that the Chicago Children's Choir was doing an outreach to elementary schools in Chicago and they were performing song to celebrate black-history month. It was like they planned it just for me while I was there. All in all I really enjoyed my trip.


Tiff and me on the "L"


The Music Administration Building at Northwestern University


The view from the 96th floor (top) of the Hancock Building


Me and my reflection in the Cloud Arch


The Cloud Arch with Chicago behind


One of the elementary schools warming up to perform under the world's largest Tiffany Dome in the Chicago Cultural Center

Catching up

I finally downloaded some pictures from December when a lot of my family was here for Christmas. We played in the snow and built half an igloo. We put on the nativity several times. My nieces and nephews used my head-wraps from Egypt and they had a marvelous time. My mom, being the wonderful grandma that she is usually buys matching pajamas for her grandchildren. I absolutely loved spending that much time with my family. It's a rare opportunity for my family to get to spend time together.
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Teacher's College at Columbia

I got my acceptance letter today to Teacher's College at Columbia University. I am still waiting to hear back from Northwestern University, but it's a great feeling to know I've been accepted somewhere.

Christmas Concert

Life has been a little crazy and hectic this past month, but I wanted to show off my choir's performance from December. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of my students singing, but I made sure that I recorded the whole concert with a video camera. My students did really well and I was so proud of them. Here is a clip of the first song we performed, "Ding, Dong Merrily on High." I did a bell theme, and all of my choirs got to use bell plates, a less expensive form of hand bells. I borrowed the bell plates from BYU. What would I do without my professors?
I also have two amazing student moms that accompany my choirs. One comes in the morning with my before school choir, and the other comes for an hour during the day to play for my 5th grade and 6th grade choirs. I am so thankful for parents' support at my school.
I did little performances with every grade the last week of school, but this concert was the biggest performance we had. My choirs will have another concert in March and our final concert in May.