USC
so i got back from USC on sunday. due to photobuckets shitty bandwidth i have to wait until february 6th to post pics. my mom and I drove down saturday and arrived in pasadena around 9. we had dinner at this place, green street east, where i used to have dinner all the time when we'd visit my grandmother when she lived in pasadena. sunday we woke up and went over to usc. my audition went so well. unlike the other live auditions where i was put in an office with the professors like a few feet away from me, i was put in a recital hall on a stage with a 9 foot steinway where the professors were like 30 feet away. it felt more like a performance than an audition which i think allowed me to play better. after the audition, my cousin bj met us in the athletic center and gave us a little tour. we talked and sat in his dorm for a bit then we left back to pasadena. pasadena is probably the greatest non-beach town in southern california, maybe in all of california. it is absolutely huge and everything there is rediculously nice and expensive. it was around the high 70s low 80s all weekend. now im at a point where im really leaning towards any southern california school i get into, preferably chapman or usc. i think im really convinced that i should have grown up in southern california instead of the bay area. both of my parents grew up there and we've gone down there about 2 or 3 times a year ever since my mom was pregnant with me to visit family and family friends. i just feel at home when im down there. everything about southern california makes me feel better in every way possible. i feel like i can focus on things better, i feel better socially and i just feel better overall as a person. up here in norcal my mood changes with the days. sometimes ill feel great and others i just have the worst feelings about everything. i dont think ive ever been in a bad mood when ive been down in southern california. im going to miss quite a few things up here in norcal, specifically the bay, san francisco, the view of the goldengate bridge and the sf skyline on my way to my piano lesson in berkeley, telegraph avenue and the rest of berkeley, however id rather be where its much warmer. im going to miss a lot of people and landmarks and scenery up here, but its really time i move on and finally get to live in a place where i feel complete. i'm really anxious now, more than ever, to see where i am accepted to see where i'll spend my next four years.