Ah productivity, I've missed you so
FINALLY
Lj seems to be working again, well, at least I reached the 'post' page this time... I will definitely be copy-pasting into Word before I hit the button to actually post though.
For all my whining about not wanting to start uni again, I have had an absolutely amazing few days.
Monday I was late, naturally, to my first 9am lecture - I aimed to leave at 8am, so I ended up leaving at 5 past. Which makes all the difference in peak hour... ah well. Once I got to Indo though I calmed down and it looks like this semester is going to be good. Even though I wish my clash was on the opposite day - the translation class isn't one I tend to need much help with, whereas conversation (the one I'll need to miss at least half the time) is something you can only really practice IN class.
Anyway, Bu Y was hilarious as ever - I believe she managed to joke about S&M at one point... I don't even remember the context. At all. XD
She asked if any of us had done any 'Indonesian related activities' on our holidays, and someone was talking about watching Harry Potter movies, dubbed over. SO GOOD. Her response was that 'oh that's a great way to study, notice the translations etc' ... My next thought was that I could totally read my HP7 book in Indo and call it study. Win.
Then I hung out with Ame, who I have missed, and we talked about anything and everything - but not least about how we are going to be so good and keep each other motivated this semester. Planning study timetables, including breaks, deciding on a guilt-free night off (Saturday for me) and so far it is working. In 3 days I have done more work than I did in the first few WEEKS last semester.
She was also randomly sweet, bringing me back a muesli bar because I had to go to work, and saying some really lovely things. <3
Yesterday was another good day. I didn't quite get up and get going early enough, but it wasn't too bad - I had booked a practice room for an hour in the afternoon so I did do some practice before orchestra.
The first lecture I had was English, and this subject is going to be awesome I can just tell. The books look great, the lecturers seem like they'll be good, and now I'm just hoping my tute group is good too. The first book we read, Five Bells by Gail Jones, I highly recommend. It sucked me in so badly, I finished it in a day.
In the afternoon I hung out with snuggle_monster, including having someone else at uni make some presumeably innocent remarks/jokes that we found hysterically funny for entirely different reasons - and had to avoid eye contact at all costs or we would have lost the plot entirely. Followed by us flailing at each other by typing on her phone, which THEN turned into a mini d&m throughout performance practice. We're a bit ridiculous sometimes.
Then it was orchestra, and trying to play this guy's pieces is weird. so much self-indulgent sax playing too argh
The rhythm is going to take some bashing at with a metronome. Joy of joys.
Anyway, it was a relatively long day, as Tuesdays always are for me, but I got home to an email about my Spring Awakening audition. EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS AT ONCE. It will either be on the day of orchestra assessments (next Tuesday) or on the day of the orchestra concerts (Sunday week). I have to prepare two pieces and some of the music from the show that the music director is supposedly sending me... really hope he replies again with that soon.
So, back to my violin I went. I was pretty proud of my 4 hours of solid playing yesterday, actually. Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of pressure to get me off my arse and being constructive with my playing. Bonus is that I have picked pieces I like, and so am falling in love with it again. Decided I'll play the Hungarian Dance I did last year, and Rachmaninoff's Vocalise (it's so pretty <3) - I can definitely get that up to scratch quickly. Enough for a suitable musical audition anyway.
I love going back to old pieces, it often surprises me how much I've improved. Especially after a semester like the last one where I feel like I haven't really. The Hungarian Dance was so easy to pick back up, and I got a run that I always struggled with fairly quickly.
Then I saw my old ensemble piece I played with harpisan two years ago, and gave that another try. To this day I have NO clue how we pulled that off - I still struggled to re-sight-read it on my own, let alone with the difficult rhythmic figures it was played over. Wish we'd recorded the exam so that we could prove we did =P I could still hear the harp part clear as day in my head, though. Amazing XD
Today I even managed not to sleep in on my day off, took my car to get serviced (everything's fixed and good now) and started in on the practice/Indo readings/English reading/etc. I feel so accomplished, it's awesome.
Due to this whole 'getting-up-at-a-reasonable-time' thing I've got going, it's 11pm and I'm actually getting tired. So I shall bid you goodnight, and go get organised for tomorrow.
Rdm
EDIT: It's now Friday night, and I've been trying to post this since Wednesday. Fingers crossed this works...
Lj seems to be working again, well, at least I reached the 'post' page this time... I will definitely be copy-pasting into Word before I hit the button to actually post though.
For all my whining about not wanting to start uni again, I have had an absolutely amazing few days.
Monday I was late, naturally, to my first 9am lecture - I aimed to leave at 8am, so I ended up leaving at 5 past. Which makes all the difference in peak hour... ah well. Once I got to Indo though I calmed down and it looks like this semester is going to be good. Even though I wish my clash was on the opposite day - the translation class isn't one I tend to need much help with, whereas conversation (the one I'll need to miss at least half the time) is something you can only really practice IN class.
Anyway, Bu Y was hilarious as ever - I believe she managed to joke about S&M at one point... I don't even remember the context. At all. XD
She asked if any of us had done any 'Indonesian related activities' on our holidays, and someone was talking about watching Harry Potter movies, dubbed over. SO GOOD. Her response was that 'oh that's a great way to study, notice the translations etc' ... My next thought was that I could totally read my HP7 book in Indo and call it study. Win.
Then I hung out with Ame, who I have missed, and we talked about anything and everything - but not least about how we are going to be so good and keep each other motivated this semester. Planning study timetables, including breaks, deciding on a guilt-free night off (Saturday for me) and so far it is working. In 3 days I have done more work than I did in the first few WEEKS last semester.
She was also randomly sweet, bringing me back a muesli bar because I had to go to work, and saying some really lovely things. <3
Yesterday was another good day. I didn't quite get up and get going early enough, but it wasn't too bad - I had booked a practice room for an hour in the afternoon so I did do some practice before orchestra.
The first lecture I had was English, and this subject is going to be awesome I can just tell. The books look great, the lecturers seem like they'll be good, and now I'm just hoping my tute group is good too. The first book we read, Five Bells by Gail Jones, I highly recommend. It sucked me in so badly, I finished it in a day.
In the afternoon I hung out with snuggle_monster, including having someone else at uni make some presumeably innocent remarks/jokes that we found hysterically funny for entirely different reasons - and had to avoid eye contact at all costs or we would have lost the plot entirely. Followed by us flailing at each other by typing on her phone, which THEN turned into a mini d&m throughout performance practice. We're a bit ridiculous sometimes.
Then it was orchestra, and trying to play this guy's pieces is weird. so much self-indulgent sax playing too argh
The rhythm is going to take some bashing at with a metronome. Joy of joys.
Anyway, it was a relatively long day, as Tuesdays always are for me, but I got home to an email about my Spring Awakening audition. EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS AT ONCE. It will either be on the day of orchestra assessments (next Tuesday) or on the day of the orchestra concerts (Sunday week). I have to prepare two pieces and some of the music from the show that the music director is supposedly sending me... really hope he replies again with that soon.
So, back to my violin I went. I was pretty proud of my 4 hours of solid playing yesterday, actually. Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of pressure to get me off my arse and being constructive with my playing. Bonus is that I have picked pieces I like, and so am falling in love with it again. Decided I'll play the Hungarian Dance I did last year, and Rachmaninoff's Vocalise (it's so pretty <3) - I can definitely get that up to scratch quickly. Enough for a suitable musical audition anyway.
I love going back to old pieces, it often surprises me how much I've improved. Especially after a semester like the last one where I feel like I haven't really. The Hungarian Dance was so easy to pick back up, and I got a run that I always struggled with fairly quickly.
Then I saw my old ensemble piece I played with harpisan two years ago, and gave that another try. To this day I have NO clue how we pulled that off - I still struggled to re-sight-read it on my own, let alone with the difficult rhythmic figures it was played over. Wish we'd recorded the exam so that we could prove we did =P I could still hear the harp part clear as day in my head, though. Amazing XD
Today I even managed not to sleep in on my day off, took my car to get serviced (everything's fixed and good now) and started in on the practice/Indo readings/English reading/etc. I feel so accomplished, it's awesome.
Due to this whole 'getting-up-at-a-reasonable-time' thing I've got going, it's 11pm and I'm actually getting tired. So I shall bid you goodnight, and go get organised for tomorrow.
Rdm
EDIT: It's now Friday night, and I've been trying to post this since Wednesday. Fingers crossed this works...