ZOOOOOM!

These past few weeks have been a blur of school, PYSO, and music. I wish I could have blogged more (and taken more pictures) because  I'm bound to forget so much more than I ever could have remembered, but... let's face it- I can't stay up till 3am anymore because I haven't blogged yet. Being older with responsibilities sure puts a damper on personal growth opportunities

I always feel like when I tell my friends about my life in person, where I went the past weekend or an exciting thing that happened to me the other day, the story always falls short. Either the mood's not right or I don't want to be selfish and just talk about myself, or I understate the coolness. Thank goodness for being able to write things down so friends that I don't always get to talk to or perhaps when I suck at making conversation can relive the experiences with me. 

February 18-21: PYSO Colorado Trip 

Colorado Springs (Hotel, Mall), Air Force Academy, Garden of the Gods national park

Air Force Academy, Chapel

Group Picture, Where's Waldo?

I ended up going with the symphony group on their annual retreat (Colorado Springs to play with the Air Force Academy and Colorado Springs Youth Orchestra) this year. Why Colorado Springs? Last year Blue Steel (a professional rock band from the US Air Force Academy) played a rock concert with our PYSO and they liked us so much that the next year, Blue Steel invited us back to play for the Academy. 

I was a chaperone/coach for Colorado and every minute of it was fun. I got to watch over 2 rooms of middle school (and 9th graders) boys and quickly took a liking to them. It felt like camp all over again- you were the big brother making sure everyone's following the rules, but also having lots of fun. I also ended up being a pseudo-chaperone to another room of guys, only because they were all my viola students and they liked me. 

If I ever felt like a parent with kids, it was the very first day when we had to go to the airport. Eyes and mind alert, I watched my boys like there were eyes growing out the back of my head. Middle school boys + heightened security + stressed out PYSO adults = bad combination. But luckily I had one group of very well behaved, quiet, studious (code name Asian) boys (one of them was actually in the Cal State high school program) and another that only needed a little more watching (rebellious within reason I like to think of it). 

We got to Colorado around lunch time and all the kids went crazy about the airport. If you've never flown into the Denver airport, it's spacious, got an airy light filled feeling, and is shuttled around by trains. The first night, we got settled at the hotel and went to the local mall to eat dinner. The Colorado Springs mall was pretty small and kind of sad. What made it worse was there were some small groups of punk looking teenagers (literally weird colored hair, chains, and dark makeup) who looked at our small army of 80 of so students like we were aliens and gave us the "what are YOU doing here in OUR territory" kind of look. I guess it's not very diverse in Colorado because we stood out... and everyone kept asking us where we were from. 

On Saturday, it was breakfast at the hotel, rehearsals at the Air force Academy, a tour of the academy, then to the nearby Colorado Springs high school to have a classical concert with the CYMO (Colorado Young Musicians Orchestra). While we were given the tour by a seasoned Academy student and a bunch of first year students, I think even I was slowly getting brainwashed into wanting to go there. The average GPA of the incoming freshman class is 3.9 with a SAT range that equals top schools. Every student needs to take a bunch of classes (more science classes than any non-sciencey major at Berkeley for sure) on top of the strenuous physical workouts (I'm talking 100+ pushups and miles of icy weather running). Speaking of icy weather, you'd think all the kids would be like "WOOOOAHH is that a real fighter jet that actually went out into war???" or "Wow look at them run their laps!" Instead, they saw piles of dirty slushy ice/snow on the ground and ran to it like they just witnessed the second coming of Twilight. I had to yell "Back away from the snow! Put the snowball down. Yeah just drop it. Just drop it. Yes I'm talking to you _____" way too many times. 

During the rehearsal, I took a clip of them rehearsing Defying Gravity with Blue Steel. (The vocals is amazing even if she missed a few notes because she was signing like that for hours straight)

After the rehearsal, we had lunch with the other orchestra as well as some of the Academy Cadets who were playing with us as well. P.S. The Airforce Academy is the only branch that has an orchestra for cadets to play in. (Let's all go apply to the Airforce Academy!) I'm not kidding about the overwhelming sense of patriotism that came with this visit. 

The rest of the trip was a back and forth tango, shuttling the kids one place to the next, always on a tight schedule. I was the exact same way (still am)...but middle school students don't understand that when someone says "bring your jacket," it really means to.. well bring your jacket. Everytime we left the hotel, we'd always be at least 10 minutes late because we'd make the announcement "We told everyone to bring their jackets because it's going to be about 20 degrees. Did everyone bring their jackets?" and everyone would nod their heads, but only 3 minutes later, 10 kids run out the bus to.. well, grab their jacket. 

The best thing about this trip is that all the students in PYSO pretty much know me by name basis now, and aren't afraid to say hi whenever they see me. I guess it helped that I was the youngest chaperone there and in my early 20's, so I was automatically cool. I think the boys I chaperoned are all pretty cool too, much more so than I was at that age (though I was definitely a LOT less dirty and a lot more innocent, that's for sure. Oh and I didn't have a cell phone to play on the bus 24/7). 

Here's my "boss" Mr. Jack Taylor (Is he considered a Maestro?)  I've known this awesome mentor since Bellis.

I want to continue about the Big Bear String orchestra retreat and a lot other stuff that's happening to me but it's almost time for bed because tomorrow's an early and long day for me.

So to be brief: I'm still really into yoga and now am quite good. I feel like music has found me again and is a really big part of my life at the moment. I wish I was closer to all my best friends, hanging out everyday and what not like at Berkeley. But alas, I am a lot older, feeling a lot less wiser (because there is so much more to know I realize), but still content.

Hopefully, I'll blog tomorrow. Especially since I want to share about my Strengthsfinder 2.0 test!