The Magic Flute is finally over, and I am slowly regaining my life! It was a wonderful experience, I learned a lot, and even got another gig out of it. I was asked to sing one of the Queen's arias at a VIP event for the Austin Lyric Opera, and got paid $50 to do it! I was TERRIFIED, but sang it really well anyway, and was just thankful Ross came so I could squeeze his hand before I had to sing. Now I just have to catch up on everything I let slide for the past 4 months!
Ross is doing pretty well in school this semester- just aced an exam in his computer science class! YAY!!! We are loving San Marcos- sometimes the traffic is bad and the 18 year olds drive terribly and we feel old, but it's a cute town, we're making friends, and school is better here for Ross than at UT.
Ross was also called as the Elder's Quorum president for our church here (for those who read this who aren't also LDS, that means he's kinda in charge of all the men in our congregation- he has to keep tabs of them and make sure they're doing all right;, they have an hour meeting every Sunday he has to preside over; and generally it's a lot of responsibility). Ross is terrified also, but I know he'll be great! Our branch is pretty small, mostly single college kids, a few couples. It's nice. It will be a lot of work for Ross, but we're lucky it isn't a huge family ward with hundreds of families with kids!
Friday, September 28, 2007
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Promised Pics of Costa Rica, Mexico
It took me forever, mostly because my camera broke almost as soon as I arrived, so I have had to rely on fellow singers' to post these before I could copy them. But here are some promised pics:
The group in front of the Children's Museum in San Jose (where we performed in Costa Rica)
The 3 Ladies in rehearsal
The Queen and Pamina (Juliann and Julie-Anne)
Il Directore at the Coffee Plantation
The beautiful waterfall
The hummingbird at the Truck Stop/Bird Garden
The truck-stop owner's cow with our stage manager's daughter
The Jungle Cruise (Katie, Me, Julie, Laura)
The Howler Monkeys on said jungle cruise
The 3 Ladies in performance in this theater (the Anna Peralta Theater in Mazatlan).
Also, check out this website for a story about the show, and even a little video clip of me!
The group in front of the Children's Museum in San Jose (where we performed in Costa Rica)
The 3 Ladies in rehearsal
The Queen and Pamina (Juliann and Julie-Anne)
Il Directore at the Coffee Plantation
The beautiful waterfall
The hummingbird at the Truck Stop/Bird Garden
The truck-stop owner's cow with our stage manager's daughter
The Jungle Cruise (Katie, Me, Julie, Laura)
The Howler Monkeys on said jungle cruise
The 3 Ladies in performance in this theater (the Anna Peralta Theater in Mazatlan).Also, check out this website for a story about the show, and even a little video clip of me!
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Jaco was a blast! Apparently, it is pretty well known for it´s surfing scene, and I could see why right away. The waves were ENORMOUS!! And the water was soooooo warm!! I was so used to the Pacific Ocean being nice and frigid, so it surprised me to find it actually warm and comfortable! I have a nice sunburn on my shoulders and back in some patches where I missed with the sunscreen to show for my 3 days in the sun, too!
The very next day after returning to San Jose´, I had to jump right back into a bus and head East- this time for Limon on the Caribean Coast! The ocean was gorgeous, and I was very sad we didn´t have time to take a dip. A beautiful coral reef is supposed to be close to Limon. But we were there for a concert, and then had to come right back to the city. The concert was really fun! There were very enthusiastic and appreciative people listening to us, which gave us loads of energy and excitement, too. That´s my favorite part of singing: when I´m singing for a crowd that is enjoying what I´m giving, it feeds me and is like electricity and it makes me give more. I love it!!!
One more day in San Jose, thank heavens, and then we head to Mazatlan! I wish I could be heading home. I´ve been really home sick and depressed (and I´m blaming the city for it more now that I´ve been able to get outside of it and actually enjoy Costa Rica), and will be happy to return to Texas. But Mazatlan should be fun. All those years living in Los Angeles, and I never once got to Mexico!
The very next day after returning to San Jose´, I had to jump right back into a bus and head East- this time for Limon on the Caribean Coast! The ocean was gorgeous, and I was very sad we didn´t have time to take a dip. A beautiful coral reef is supposed to be close to Limon. But we were there for a concert, and then had to come right back to the city. The concert was really fun! There were very enthusiastic and appreciative people listening to us, which gave us loads of energy and excitement, too. That´s my favorite part of singing: when I´m singing for a crowd that is enjoying what I´m giving, it feeds me and is like electricity and it makes me give more. I love it!!!
One more day in San Jose, thank heavens, and then we head to Mazatlan! I wish I could be heading home. I´ve been really home sick and depressed (and I´m blaming the city for it more now that I´ve been able to get outside of it and actually enjoy Costa Rica), and will be happy to return to Texas. But Mazatlan should be fun. All those years living in Los Angeles, and I never once got to Mexico!
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Beach Excursion!!
I cannot wait! Tomorrow morning we leave for Jaco, a beach town on the Pacific Coast! We will be staying at Hotel Cocal, which looks very nice. It has 2 pools, horseback riding, air conditioning, and the best amenity yet: hot water!!! I´ve really been enjoying my homestay family, but I must say the idea of a hotel after 2 weeks here seems perfectly heavenly!
An update on Ross: he got his acceptance letter to Texas State and spent yesterday in an orientation for transfer students. He´s registered, finding most of his classes did transfer over (minus the Italian, but as he´s just doing computer science here that isn´t a problem), and that financial aid is pretty comparable to UT. Life is wonderful indeed!!
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Midway Point Update
Hello Loyal Blog Fans!!!!
I promised updates before I realized how quaint and antequated Costa Rica really is! I have been having issues since day 1 with the internet and phone availabilities here. I am at a computer lab in the museum where we perform our opera, and even here the internet is cutting in and out. Such a pain! But definitely a lesson in what I take for granted at the same time!
Costa Rica is a very beautiful country. The people are warm and friendly and wonderful. But I hate it here and am miserable anyway! Isn´t that terrible? Well, we are staying in a very ugly, depressing city. Every building in San Jose is concrete with metal bars covering the windows, large metal gates surrounding the buildings, and barbed wire coils across the top for good measure. The roads are dirty and in very poor condition, and the city is very unsafe. One of our first evenings out we witnessed a 2 men in masks pull over a car, hold pistols with silencers up to the passengers` heads, and steal their car. The owners of the restaurant where we were when we saw this kept trying to keep us calm because witnesses to crimes often find themselves way more involved here than they would wish for. I know carjacking happens a lot in US cities as well, but we usually don´t see it or the signs of it in our little bubbles, and having to go home after that incident through the ever-present caged streets of San Jose really effected me. I can´t wait to leave this city behind me.
San Jose has been pretty exciting, though. I sprained my ankle on the opening night of our opera and had to go to the hospital for x-rays after the show. It was a very nice hospital, and I was very fortunate to be seen by an ankle-knee specialist who was trained in Canada (so he spoke excellent English.) I speak a few words of Spanish now, but am mostly getting by on tons of sign language and a little bit of Italian! Another singer here, our Pamina, also spent an evening in the ER, due to an allergic reaction to an anti-biotic she got at a pharmacy here. I think we are all pretty stressed out and there seems to be quite a bit of illness going around our little group of 11 singers.
But we have also had some fun excursions. We've been to 1 beach for a day trip, and will go to another for 3 days this coming weekend. We went on a guided tour and got to eat breakfast at a coffee plantation, see a volcano (I had just hurt my ankle the day before so I didn´t get to see the actual crater, but it was beautiful), see a couple very impressive waterfalls, the rainforest and cloud forest, as well as go on a jungle cruise. That was my favorite part. We rode a boat that looked just like the ones in Disneyland down a river, where we saw some iguanas, some lizards that walk on the water, some howling monkeys that actually howled at us, a 3-toed sloth, a gigantic crocodile, and some very beautiful birds- all 100% real!!! Very cool.
The opera is going pretty well despite illnesses and accidents. We have 2 more shows here in San Jose, and I only get to sing 1 more time as the 1st lady. I lost one of my performances of the Queen of the Night when Julie got sick and had to go to the ER. But I don´t mind too much since I get to sing it again in Mazatlan and Austin.
We have 16 days left, and the final 7 of those in Mexico. I am hoping I will enjoy that country more. I really enjoy traveling, and really enjoy beautiful places like the rainforest and cloud forests, and the beaches here are gorgeous, so I can´t fully explain why I am so depressed here. It is a very poor country, and that has a lot to do with it I suspect, but not all. I will try and see if I can verbalize it more in my next post.
I promised updates before I realized how quaint and antequated Costa Rica really is! I have been having issues since day 1 with the internet and phone availabilities here. I am at a computer lab in the museum where we perform our opera, and even here the internet is cutting in and out. Such a pain! But definitely a lesson in what I take for granted at the same time!
Costa Rica is a very beautiful country. The people are warm and friendly and wonderful. But I hate it here and am miserable anyway! Isn´t that terrible? Well, we are staying in a very ugly, depressing city. Every building in San Jose is concrete with metal bars covering the windows, large metal gates surrounding the buildings, and barbed wire coils across the top for good measure. The roads are dirty and in very poor condition, and the city is very unsafe. One of our first evenings out we witnessed a 2 men in masks pull over a car, hold pistols with silencers up to the passengers` heads, and steal their car. The owners of the restaurant where we were when we saw this kept trying to keep us calm because witnesses to crimes often find themselves way more involved here than they would wish for. I know carjacking happens a lot in US cities as well, but we usually don´t see it or the signs of it in our little bubbles, and having to go home after that incident through the ever-present caged streets of San Jose really effected me. I can´t wait to leave this city behind me.
San Jose has been pretty exciting, though. I sprained my ankle on the opening night of our opera and had to go to the hospital for x-rays after the show. It was a very nice hospital, and I was very fortunate to be seen by an ankle-knee specialist who was trained in Canada (so he spoke excellent English.) I speak a few words of Spanish now, but am mostly getting by on tons of sign language and a little bit of Italian! Another singer here, our Pamina, also spent an evening in the ER, due to an allergic reaction to an anti-biotic she got at a pharmacy here. I think we are all pretty stressed out and there seems to be quite a bit of illness going around our little group of 11 singers.
But we have also had some fun excursions. We've been to 1 beach for a day trip, and will go to another for 3 days this coming weekend. We went on a guided tour and got to eat breakfast at a coffee plantation, see a volcano (I had just hurt my ankle the day before so I didn´t get to see the actual crater, but it was beautiful), see a couple very impressive waterfalls, the rainforest and cloud forest, as well as go on a jungle cruise. That was my favorite part. We rode a boat that looked just like the ones in Disneyland down a river, where we saw some iguanas, some lizards that walk on the water, some howling monkeys that actually howled at us, a 3-toed sloth, a gigantic crocodile, and some very beautiful birds- all 100% real!!! Very cool.
The opera is going pretty well despite illnesses and accidents. We have 2 more shows here in San Jose, and I only get to sing 1 more time as the 1st lady. I lost one of my performances of the Queen of the Night when Julie got sick and had to go to the ER. But I don´t mind too much since I get to sing it again in Mazatlan and Austin.
We have 16 days left, and the final 7 of those in Mexico. I am hoping I will enjoy that country more. I really enjoy traveling, and really enjoy beautiful places like the rainforest and cloud forests, and the beaches here are gorgeous, so I can´t fully explain why I am so depressed here. It is a very poor country, and that has a lot to do with it I suspect, but not all. I will try and see if I can verbalize it more in my next post.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Leaving on a jet plane
My bags are not even out yet, let alone packed, and I leave tomorrow morning!!! EEKS!!! I'm getting more excited today, but a little freaked out at the same time. I will try and update my blog while I'm gone, but pictures will have to wait until I get back. Ross and I decided I should leave our digital camera state-side: should anything get stolen, we'd much rather it be something easy to replace! Give Ross a call- he'll be all alone! :( We got our new digital phone number finally: (512) 667-6868. Call away and let us test it out!
I'm sorry I won't get a chance to call all my sibs before I leave, and even more sorry I am broke and won't be able to get souvenirs for anyone. But I am hoping to send out postcards! If you want one, email me your address at rossandjuliann@gmail.com- gonna be checking that one at internet cafes when I get a chance!
I'm sorry I won't get a chance to call all my sibs before I leave, and even more sorry I am broke and won't be able to get souvenirs for anyone. But I am hoping to send out postcards! If you want one, email me your address at rossandjuliann@gmail.com- gonna be checking that one at internet cafes when I get a chance!
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Our New Address, for the Faithful Few!
For those who still check my blog despite the lack of regularly updated posts, here's our new address!!!
As far as I can tell now, email addresses and cell phone numbers will all remain the same. Ross and I will be getting a new digital phone number- hopefully this weekend- but will keep our cells for emergencies. I'll post it when we get it!
Ross and Juliann
520 Linda Drive #1207
San Marcos, TX 78666
520 Linda Drive #1207
San Marcos, TX 78666
As far as I can tell now, email addresses and cell phone numbers will all remain the same. Ross and I will be getting a new digital phone number- hopefully this weekend- but will keep our cells for emergencies. I'll post it when we get it!
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