Hey Fam,

I actually don't have that much to say but I thought I would do a quick update!

It's been a wild ride the past couple of weeks!
I went to the Met!
I went on a hike in the New York mountains!
I played Wagner Tuba for the first time. (Spoiler alert, weirdest instrument ever)
I went to Mike's house for Thanksgiving!
I turned in two 15 page papers!
I took the NYC subway for the first time!
and I'm sure other things that aren't coming to my head.

So first:  I went to the Metropolitan Opera! Mike took me, it was so awesome!

Here is us in the building.  It was super fancy.  A nice German couple took our picture.  I'm not super thrilled with the picture, but that's ok.  It's the only one I have from inside.  We saw Manon L'escout with Anna Netrebko as the lead role.  It was SOOOOOOOOOO amazing.  Also Mike said he enjoyed it.  Which made me super happy.

Here is us on the train to the city.  It's a silly picture, but it makes me happy so... And this picture is from when we went to Mood fabrics.  For those of you who don't know, that is the fabric store they go to in Project Runway.  Mike LOVES project runway.  Which makes me super happy because I also love it.  The dog is Swatch, he is basically the most adorable little dog ever and gets a decent amount of screen time on the show, because:adorable.

The next three pictures are from my hike.  I went with my roommate Kelci and one of her friends from work.  It was fun! And I don't have a picture, but you could actually see the NYC skyline from the top.  It was pretty awesome.

Ya know, gotta include a really silly picture of us...

Here is me playing the Wagner Tuba.  It's a horrible instrument (Thanks Obama...or should I say Wagner...) It's played in lots of symphonies with HUGE orchestras.  It's basically a horn, but with a slightly different sound.  Wagner created it with the attempt blend the horn sound with the rest of the brass (see: conical vs. cylindrical instruments)  It was fun to play.  This was my "action shot" as Wes Ballard put it as he took my picture.  Lucky you guys, I also included a video of me playing it! So it may seem like at first I was struggling, but the thing about this instrument is that it isn't actually like the french horn at all except the mouthpiece.  So I was sight-transposing, using different fingerings, the placement of the notes were all in the wrong place.  So the fact that I figured it out on like try 3 was kind of amazing.

So I went to Thanksgiving at Mike's house.  No pictures.  It was fun, and I really liked his family, but the truth is, I was super disappointed by dinner.  No mashed potatoes, no rolls, no relish tray.  And I had to eat squash soup.  Not awesome.  Also I didn't get to fill my own plate, and despite my requests, literally the entire plate was filled up with turkey.  I didn't know what to do...But it was fine, and fun, and his family was good so that's all that matters.

 
These pictures are just crazy fruits at the local grocery store.  That crazy yellow thing is called Buddha's hand.  It was super crazy.  I was surprised by all the weird fruits they had.  So I took a picture, naturally.



Here is my selfie.  The elevator in the music building is finally fixed.  It's really fun to take selfies in it because it's all mirror.  I basically take a selfie in it everyday.  I know it's ridiculous, but it is just a such a great spot to take pictures.  Especially since I don't have a full length mirror in my apartment.  Ha...

Well, that's all I have for ya.  I'll be done with my first semester of grad school soon! How crazy is that!  I'll be home late on the 20th and I'll see you all then! 

Kbyee, love you!

Song of the day: This came up randomly on youtube the other day and I realized I had forgotten how much I love this piece.  I require all to listen to it!