Boxing Day

Finally made it past Christmas. It has been the magic mark, once I get past Christmas, it is only a few days till I can go home. I am glad that there is only one more night in that hotel room, it feels so small with all of us in there all of the time. I think that we are all feeling a little clastrophobic. Nearly home time.

The weather this week has been great! It is only as cold as I would expect during a Melbourne winter, I went out with only a t shirt and jumper today. Last load of washing in the IRC, last time I use the computer lab in the IRC, last night in the hotel room.

We are off to Outback Steakhouse today! Kind of a goodbye celebration. Goodbye to America.

I hada great christmas, we all got one gift from eachother, and a gift from the Coles. There will be another christmas for me when I get home. That should be fun. I am a little nervous about coming home, how will the re adjusting work out? Will I find home to be confusing? Or will the fact that it is so familiar make fitting back in easier? There will be a lot of moving houses when I get home, Mark is moving into a unit about an hour away from where he is now, so I will help pack up the house and unpack it somewhere else. Then there is me moving back into my house for uni, finding where I put all my things and furnature. That should keep me busy for a few months.

I have to try to get back my safeway job too. As much as I am saying that I don't want to do it anymore, I have to persist for a while longer, until I can make music a full time job and earn enough money from that. I will be putting a lot of energy into making it work, getting started with a few students. I have a lot of work ahead of me on my horn, but I at least have a great starting point this time, after a lot of very useful lessons from my horn teacher at UVA. The fun thing will be finding a teacher at home who will be able to keep up with what I have learnt this semester. I feel that I have learnt more about my playing in the last four months than I have during two and a half years at Melb Uni.

Christmas Week

Less than 5 days to christmas, and 13 days till I leave to fly home. All the snow is melted, and I don't think that we will get a lot more before I leave, so it won't really be much of a white christmas. But at least I have seen it snow and been out in it. Pity the last time turned from snow into an ice storm that cut power to everyone. Its a week later and some people in the worst areas still don't have power.

Its a good thing that our family is good at getting along with eachother, we have been squashed into the same little hotel room for 10 days now and still getting along fine. No one has fought with anyone else, and things are relatively tidy. There are only 5 more days of sharing. Then I am off with the band to Nashville for one last fling with the band before setting off on the lonnnnnnnnng trip home. I leave from Dullas airport at 7.30 in the morning, and get there when it is 11.30 (with a few hours time zone adjustment...) and then my flight doesn't leave until 9.30 at night. Ahhhh! What am I going to do with allllllll that time? Maybe I can go out into the city for a bit. But where would I go? And with all that luggage. I will just have to wander around watching people for the day. See how many random people I can get into a conversation. Hope that no one steals my bag...I would hate to have to beat them up over it...

Oh Christmas Tree!

I felt that the hotel room was empty without a tree, so Jill and I had a think about what we could do for a tree, (now having no money left after finishing present shopping...) So with scissors and tape and plenty of newspaper I eventually fashioned a tree. I am pretty happy about it.

I am so SMRT!

Real Winter Storm

Hehehe, this sign can be read two ways. Dad laughed at it first. Bad Dad.
The storm last night was big! It snowed in the morning, which later in the day turned to freezing rain, then to normal rain. It was horrible to go out in. You would see a frozen surface, which covered a foot of water. Can't tell in the dark. Then the power went out at the hotel about 7pm. So we decided that there isn't much fun to be had with no lights on and all went to sleep. Today everything has mostly dried up so its not too bad out now. Jill and I are off to see Harry Potter again tonight. I love Harry!

No Parents

These photos are from today, my parents are off to Lexington to visit Mums friend from the lace chat Tamara. They rented a car and are driving on the right side, (read wrong side) of the road. Good luck to them. Jill and I are parent free for the weekend. Mum has done a good job, we can't think of anything to get into trouble with. Really...hehehe.

Monticello

We have all been having a wonderful time, all on holidays. There should be some snow or sleet today or tomorrow, it is FREEZING outside. Too cold to go anywhere really. So far they havent been finding the Jet Lag too bad, but they conk out about 4pm and sleep for about an hour. The hotel room is really nice, the heating is really hot. I have been gradually saying goodbye to people I have met here.

We went to Monticello today, the home of Thomas Jefferson. It is a really beautiful house, fantastic design that shows how creative and busy he was. He designed so many things, his house and the university among the biggest around here, and then also the Declaration of Independance and many other pursuits. It was a fun afternoon. But cold. Very cold.

Jill

Jill isn't much different whatever side of the world she is on. They made it safe and have seen the rotunda!

Trents Post

Hi my name is Trent Cole. Leona gets to sleep in my room tonight, I cleaned it up, so its not too messy. I play Basketball on every single monday until christmas, then every saturday is games and you start getting stars. I don't know what else to say. I am learning to play the piano. I have been Leonas host family for this semester. Happy Christmas everyone.

Snow

Good morning IRC-angels,
As cannot have slipped by your notice, we have been bequeathed by a charming blanket of snow. In consideration of your safety, snowfall fighting is prohibited on all university property. This may seem ridiculous, but snowballs can contain rocks, carcasses, or any number of other unpleasant entities and the so the university classifies them as "projectiles," and if you are caught engaged in a snowball fight, you can receive a VSOC (see Terms and Conditions #24 for the source of this rule).
Additionally, quiet hours begin at midnight tonight. No conversations in the hall, no music playing with your door opening, obviously no screaming or loud laughing. Get it all out of your system today. If you feel you need to be a little raucous, come by my room to do so. I have very little remaining work.
Good luck with exams and the last day of classes.
Beth, BD

Carcasses? Ewww!

Last night I experienced Sleet. Its strange, rain that freezes when it lands. Or is kind of frozen on the way down. It looks like it is raining, but I noticed a tinkling sound when I went outside, the sound of it hitting the ground. When I got up this morning, everything was covered in two inch white coating of ice. People were up early this morning clearing the roads and sidewalks with shovels.

My parents are here somewhere. Hopefully I can find where they are soon...

The Llama Song

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php

This always makes me smile.

Silence

The funny thing I noticed about the snow today was how quiet it was when I went outside. I don't usually notice the noise, but I noticed the lack of it. The sun is out today and some of the snow has thawed. I'll have to go out walking in it a bit later. All the snow making everything white, makes me feel like a new world has been dumped on me, everything has familiar shapes, but its almost a monotone colour, just a few leaves and stuff sticking out.

Talking about things being dumped on me, I answered an email a few weeks ago about helping to paint some decorations for the Harry Potter themed ball tonight, but nothing came of it. Then two days ago I answered another email sent out about the same thing. I got an email back this morning saying, 'Great, can you paint all four crests for the wall? Everything is in the second floor munford supply closet. I don't think that anyone else will be able to do it...' Just fantastic. Why didn't he get back to me a few weeks ago about it? Cause guess what, tonight is the event.

I had my last class today, thankfully. Now I just have to survive the next few days.

Pretty in Uniform

Cause there just aren't enough photos of me looking pretty in uniform. This is the horn section waiting to go on for one of the half time shows.

IT'S SNOWING!!!

Today is the first day of snow! I woke up and went outside, and there was all this white fluff in the air. It looks really light, and hardly feels like anything. Everyone is talking about how the snow is not 'sticking', which means that its melting as soon as it touches the ground. But it is supposed to snow today and tomorrow, and they predicted 4 - 6 inches. So there should be some build up. Keep an eye on the rotunda cam http://www.virginia.edu/cgi-local/rcamcgi, and see if it builds up. Keep in mind the 16 hour time difference though.

UVA Wind Ensemble

I conducted The Susex Mummers Christmas Carol. Photos from Amy Lawhorn.

Program Bio

Leona Farrell is a third year student at UVA for one semester of Study Abroad. She comes from Melbourne, Australia, and is studying French Horn at Melbourne University for a Bachelor of Music. She moved to Melbourne to study music at University from a large country town called Shepparton, two hours inland in central Victoria.

Leona started learning piano when she was 11, and took up French Horn when she started High School. She has been involved in many different musical pursuits, including competitions with the Shepparton Brass Band where she won the Junior French Horn section of the National Brass Band Championships; Percy Grainger Youth Orchestra, traveling two hours to Melbourne every Saturday for rehearsals, and going on tour to Sydney; many theater shows with the Shepparton Theater Arts Group; and the University of Melbourne Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, and smaller ensembles.

Leona plans to expand on her musical career by earning a double degree of Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Teaching at Melbourne. She would like to teach music at High School level, and has aspirations to run a very dynamic and challenging music program. Leona is very excited to be given this opportunity to conduct the Sussex Mummers Christmas Carol with the Wind Ensemble. Percy Grainger is a celebrated composer in Australia, and a very worthy piece for her first conducting experience.

New York

Here are a few photos from my New York trip. One day in the future I will have to go to the top of the Empire State.



Inside Grand Central Station. It is really pretty in there, and there are heaps of shops inside the complex.



We went back to Ground Zero. There are heaps of photos and information up on the mesh barriers, and heaps of construction going on inside. This cross will hopefully stay up. When the towers fell, the cross beams broke off and left the cross standing. You can see something hanging off, a bit of tin on one of the arms of the cross.

Take a ride on the Staten Island Ferry! It's free, and takes you past the statue. One day I will have to go to the top of the statue too.

Beautiful skyline as seen from the Ferry.

Broadway has heaps of lights. This is 42nd street where we went to see Harry Potter at a big cinema. There are these hot dog vendors all over the place. Look on the right, down the bottom, the last item. Knish. We had to go ask, and the guy told me it was some kind of potato thing, but I wasn't game to try one. Next time I am there I will try it.