CLOG AMERICA TO REPRESENT THE USA IN ISTANBUL, TURKEY

CLOG AMERICA, the International Festival Ensemble from South Jordan, Utah, has received an invitation to represent the USA at two prestigious folklore festivals in Istanbul, Turkey designated as the “2010 European Capital of Culture”. The group’s 22 dancers and 8 musicians will participate in the “5th International Kucukcekmece Lake Festival” from July 8-17 and the “10th International Yesilkoy folk Dance Festival” from July 15-20, 2010. CLOG AMERICA will join 19 other international ensembles from around the world for festival celebrations viewed by audiences estimated to be over 65,000 people with extensive press and media coverage.

Prior to arriving in Turkey, CLOG AMERICA will travel to Athens, Greece for additional performances and cultural activities. The Utah group has represented the USA in 55 International Festivals throughout the world since 1991 and was designated by the Utah State Legislature as “Utah’s Ambassadors of Peace and Friendship to the World.”

Official Press Release

Photography

A few weeks ago Ananda and I went to SLC for an international festival being held there. As opposed to the ones I'll be going to in less than two weeks, this one fit onto one city block. They had several stages set up and we spent some time just wandering the grounds around the city courthouse and taking pictures. Ananda taught me a few tricks with my camera, and I got some fun results! Rather than work on my class preparation (which I have no clue where to begin) I decided to share some pretty pictures. And fold laundry. Enjoy!

Self Esteem Spectrum

Within six hours this evening, I had two very different messages conveyed to me regarding myself. That sounds weird, but it's late and I'm tired and just want to put the stories somewhere before I forget them. 


1. Near the end of my girls' dance recital tonight, all the teachers were brought on stage and given flowers. Lynne named the teachers and what they taught. Until she got to me. Then she looked at me and realized she didn't know me and (microphone in hand and audience listening) asked me my name and then told everyone that she'd only seen me once. Thanks, Lynne. I've been to at least two meetings at your house before and introduced myself there. And she saw me during the show, right before my girls went on stage. And asked me then who I was. Yup. I'm glad I was wearing a cute outfit. I kept the flowers. And I think that moment helped solidify my decision to not return to teach next year. 


2. So, in order to rebalance the "blow" to my self esteem, see what happened at the rodeo. I went with Collin, Jimmy Chung, and Betsy to the Strawberry Days Rodeo in Pleasant Grove. So fun!! That's a good group to go with, for sure. Anyways, there were some people in front of us who wanted to get a group picture once the rodeo ended. They asked Collin to take it, then gathered their friends around. So I'm standing there, just kind of waiting for the picture to be finished. And this guy pops up, looks at me, and seems suddenly disoriented. He asks me my name, says his name is Landon, and shakes my hand. Still giving me a funny look. I ask if I know him. He says no... then sort of wanders over to join the picture. I'm like, ok. That was interesting. Picture ends... and he comes back and introduces himself again and shakes my hand again. Then he asks Collin if we're together.... to his credit Collin kind of fudged and said yes, we'd come as a group from the same ward. Singles ward. So the guy got the answer he wanted.. that Collin and I weren't a thing and that I was single. Thankfully, we were exiting the arena. I could see him watching me the whole time I walked out, but thankfully I didn't have to make much eye contact as we passed (thanks for jumping the fence, Jimmy!). It was a little weird and a little flattering. I seriously stopped him in his tracks, I think. And I'm 99% positive he would have asked for my number, had he gotten the chance. 


And there you have it. Two very different experiences on the self esteem spectrum tonight. I'll probably post more about dance once I get the pictures up here... and it's so late and I'm tired. 

Blast from the Past

 I know, I know... I should be in bed asleep. Or studying for my final tomorrow. Really, the urge to write on here hits me at the worst times. I'm either at work trying to focus or at home needing to do other things .. oh well! 


So remember how in April I sprained my ankle and even got it x-rayed because I could barely walk? Well I took pictures of it one day! And I downloaded said pictures just the other day. I hope you can handle what you're about to see next. 

Apparently I didn't get a very good shot of the swelling. But colors are so much prettier to look at than bulgy swellingness. You know what the best part is about these pictures? They were taken at least a week after I'd sprained my ankle. And two and a half weeks afterwards I played on my intramural Ultimate frisbee team. (I told that doctor that if he wanted me to not walk on it, he'd have to tell me that I needed crutches. I wasn't about to voluntarily immobilize myself.) Don't worry, I wore a brace on it. Still do, in fact. And probably will have it wrapped for most of the shows in Europe, depending on how it holds up. Speaking of Ultimate Frisbee, I'll be posting some pics from our tournament game soon! 

PS- My foot doesn't look like this anymore, if anyone was worried. It is 95% normal looking, and I'm probably the only person who can see the 5% not normalness of it. 

PPS- Now accepting donations for a pedicure. Icky feet!

Good times, great oldies

 

In remembrance of old roommates and ugly sweaters. 

This is the face of FHE: one big crazy family.

Blonde!

I know you didn't think it was possible, but I'm blonder than ever! I like it a lot and thoroughly enjoy the blondeness. I'm pretty sure my hair hasn't been this light since I was a tow-headed tot. It was hard to get pics with good lighting, but soon I'll have hundreds of photos to share of my new hair, with Greece and Turkey in the background! Wahoo and whoa!! I just realized I have two weekends left before I go. YIKES! I need to make some lists and make sure I've got everything I need. And I sure hope I can find my fishnets from last year..... You'd think they'd be easy to find in a relatively small apartment but no... Ok well that's all for now.

Alice In Wonderland

Last night I went with some wardies to see Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland." I realized two important things during that film. 

1. Your momma knew what she was saying when she told you to chew gum with your mouth CLOSED. This now ranks on my list of turn-offs, simply because it is so annoying to hear a rhythmic chomp-chomp-smack-pop-smack-smack-smack-chomp-chomp from the beginning to the bitter end of a movie. (Bitter only because of the chomper, not the actual film.)
2.  Amazingly, I have learned something from my film theory and adaptation class. 
   http://www.physorg.com/news192877463.html?scr=outbrain

Georgia On My Mind

Sometimes I wish I could just sit and write forever. I doubt that in the end it would make much coherent sense, but when I get in my writing moods I tend to lend myself to stream of consciousness writing. I've had several things on my mind lately. For example, my class is ending in less than 2 weeks (hooray!) and I need to finish off a project for it. And by finish I mean finish starting... and then finish finishing. Plus the scene analysis I need to do. But that will be quick and easy, relatively speaking. Then there's the fact that I need to write my class for Fall. And that is exciting but somewhat more stressful. Did I mention that my allergies have been flaring up lately? I've got a smidgen of a headache, a bit of body aches -- although that could also be from the all-day reherasal -- and hopefully I will get to sleep early tonight. 

I went to my second wedding reception of the week. Crazy! June is a popular month to get married, and I'm happy for my two friends who have tied the knot this week. The first reception had a gelato cart for while we waited in line, which was a tasty and great idea. Tonight's open house was a crepe bar, which was also quite tasty and fun. I want to do something fun and creative for my guests when I get married, but I also want a fairly inexpensive wedding. Thankfully, that's a pretty achievable goal (if I get married in Utah, especially). And... I've probably got a little while to prepare, so in the end.. yeah, I'm tired of exploring that path of thought. 

I remember the first reception I went to where I wasn't sad to be at someone else's reception. You know, the woes of being single? I think it was about a year ago, and I was so thrilled to realize when I came home that I wasn't subconsciously sad that it wasn't mine or something like that. Receptions are quite enjoyable these days. Plus, its fun to run into old friends who come too and great to see friends get married and be happy. In all honesty, I love seeing other people happy. I had the cheesiest smile at the first reception this week, just seeing how happy my friend was. 

Ok, now I really am tired of talking about weddings and such. I've had some Georgia on my mind this week... Atlanta to be specific. Part of me worries that I'm over-romanticizing things... easy to do with the distance. I suppose the other part of me is simply less than patient. If there's any specific weakness I've discovered about myself, it is that patience doesn't come easily to me. I'm used to being able to work hard for something and achieve my goal. Makes sense... I've danced for twenty years (wow!) and a major part of dance training is that you work hard, train, and achieve certain results. Of course it's not immediate, but you learn about how long it will take you to reach your desired end. Same with piano and practicing, and school and homework. The irony is, I know I need to work on learning patience... but it takes time! 

I like my Book of Mormon. I have a blue one that I used for class my freshman year. I've since kept it as my bedside book and have gone through it several times in the past few years.  During that time I've kept notes, some on post-its but most written in the margins. As I overlap and re-read, I find it fascinating what verses struck me with significance before: which ones don't anymore but I remember why they did; which ones still do and mean the same thing; which ones mean new and deeper things than the first time around. That scripture I put up a few posts ago? I actually wrote a post including that a little over a year ago. That's one of those gems that I think will always mean the same thing today. 

Since I'm on a roll, I guess I'll continue. This goes back to the Georgia on my mind. I came across a blog the other day, which both made me wish Atlanta were not so far away and gave me some food for thought. In that blog, the writer talked about how sometimes they would enter the numbing process, which in turn causes a distancing from the Spirit -- at a time when divine guidance and love is most needed. I've thought a lot over the past few days, trying to evaluate my situation and see if I have inadvertently taken the path of numbness. I'm pretty certain that in some ways I have taken that route. Memories, for example. The actual memories of our time together (meaning former boyfriend), rarely come up. Sometimes I'll have a .... hmm a composite memory? Something general that encompasses emotions of the time but isn't specific to a certain event or anything. I think that's been a coping mechanism. As time has passed that tendency has faded. But so have the frequency of the memories. And they're not emotionally difficult (generally) anymore. 

Why? Well I hope it's because I've been striving to rely on the Lord, trust His plan, and move forward. I have been extremely determined to move forward, no looking back. It's amazing to me that that has actually happened. I have come back into my own... perhaps even more strong and confident in myself than I was for most of the year. 

• I'm outgoing again. I'm making more of a point to make friends in the ward and be involved and fun when there are activities. One of my friends from early last year even commented how I had sort of "checked out" for a while and that I'm back now. 
• My testimony is stronger than ever, and deeper too, I think. 
• Perhaps for the first time, I don't care that I'm graduating (again) next year and am not married. I vividly recall my senior year, thinking that my time was running out and that if something didn't happen by the time I graduated, it never would. I'm not sure if that's a good example.... basically I just don't think my life will end at graduation. 

Ok, I'm tired now. This will surely be ridiculously long. I apologize to anyone who read through the end.... I guess this was mostly for my benefit. Like I said (or maybe I didn't actually say it? but I meant to...)  I like writing. 

Visiting Eden

I headed home over the long weekend for some much needed rest, relaxation, and TLC. While there I got to re-discover that Missouri really is the garden of Eden. I had a lot of favorite moments, but some of the best ones were sitting in the bright blue pool, surrounding by vibrant green grass and trees, a cloudless azure sky overhead and nothing but the call of many birds for accompaniment. No people crowding into spaces and places. No buildings infringing on the landscape. No trucks or cars or sirens. Just pure nature. Did I  mention the gloriously warm sun was bronzing down on me? Perfection. 

In reality, being at home was (and always will be) perfection, no matter where home is. Why? My family is there, and that's what matters. Friends are incredible, but family is just something else. I love them, and they love me, and that's all there is to it.