Your Instrument, One Suitcase, and One Personal Item

   All summers are uncertain, whether you have it planned out to the day or leave it 'till noon to determine the day's funtivities. You might know where you will be, what roughly you'll be doing, but you can't foresee the friendships you'll make, the stifling days that leave you wiped out, or out the moments that will make you stop and smile goofily to yourself. Next summer, some things will be more certain; I'll know where I'm going to college, I'll be graduated from high school (unless calc decides otherwise). And the rest of my life will as undefined as my packing list for my trip starting tomorrow (and a slope over zero)! This summer is jam-packed, like I'll try to make my suitcase (hooray for similes!), but my brain is running wild imagining what I will encounter over just the next 3 and a half weeks. Will I get lost in a Russian city? Will Strauss 1 be recognizable when I play it for William VerMeulen? And, this is for you, Ms. Wayne: How many thesis* books will I read?

*Thesis: referring to the Belmont High School Senior Thesis, an 8 month long project beginning with reading 4 books by a chosen author.
     
    In 24 hours I'll be arriving in Purchase, New York for the residency portion of the inaugural season of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (or NYO, for ease!). After our residency, where 120 players rehearse together, live together, and become an orchestra, we go on tour with Maestro Valery Gergiev, with concerts in Washington D.C., Moscow, St. Petersburg, and London. For full information about the orchestra, visit the website at http://www.carnegiehall.org/Education/National-Youth-Orchestra-of-the-United-States-of-America/ and follow the NYO-USA facebook page for updates and pictures during the program! In addition to this blog, I might be blogging a bit for the NYO blog, so keep an eye out for that as well- I'll link to it here.

   As for the heat, the travel, and the one suitcase restriction, I respond with my grandmother's reaction to a rock in her way on the sidewalk today:
"I don't like you. I don't like you at all!" and brushed it aside.
Stay tuned for updates on my adventures- and I'll try to stay tuned to A442.