Cross Country Adventure Part 2: The Rest of the Trip!

Last time we met Ben and I left you at a the Virgin River Casino Restaurant with a huge breakfast too big to finish.  From there we drove through the rest of Nevada, a corner of Arizona, and up into Utah.

I just love driving through Arizona (especially if I don't have to get out of the car and feel the heat).

Cross Country Adventure Part 1: Barely getting through California

We have arrived in Bloomington, Indiana!  Yesterday I had orientation, which has helped me feel much more at ease about starting school and jumping into designing a show.  I'm feeling pretty stoked about it all.  Ben is working really hard to move us in and has already found an audition for the Jewish Theatre of Bloomington.

Now for pictures from our trip!

 

 This is a google map of our route.  We took about 5 days to drive just over 2800 miles.

Gondola Ride on Lake Merritt

Good morning!

Yesterday was a rough day.  It was actually a good day, but a bunch of time was wasted waiting for our car radio to get diagnosed, and many of you may not know this, but I don't deal well with wasted time (at least not when I don't have much time to waste!).

All that to say, the first part of the day was rough, but then I got a couple important things done and headed out to Lake Merritt in Oakland for a complimentary Gondola ride!  And oh, how we like complimentary things!

A teacher once told me...

In high school I was really bad at turning in my math homework on time.  It wasn't so much that I didn't do my homework; rather, I would miss one assignment and as a result the following assignments would also be late.  One day my calculus teacher, Mr. Miller, approached me and gave this bit of advice:  instead of doing the oldest assignment first, start with the newest assignment and catch up on the older assignments later.  That way, only a couple assignments would be late rather than all of them.  I don't think I ever actually applied this to my math homework, but every time I open my journal (or log onto this blog) and see how far behind I am, I think of Mr. Miller's words and do my best to focus on what's happening now rather than worrying about all the things I've missed.

Indiana University

Last Tuesday, March 1st, Ben and I flew out to Bloomington, Indiana to visit the campus of Indiana University.  Unfortunately, we have absolutely NO pictures because the trip was SO fast.  We left our house Tues. at 4am to catch our 6:35 flight.  We flew out just as the sun was rising.  It was absolutely GORGEOUS and I kick myself for having the camera in the overhead.  We had a connecting flight in Chicago, landed in Indianapolis at 4:55 and drove an hour to Bloomington.  The drive was great - Indiana is so different from California.  I thought it was really pretty, even with completely bare trees.

Walking Albany Hill

The Bay area is fairly hilly and we live at the base of Albany Hill:

Our apartment is located approximately at the arrow.

I really like this hill because - though it's hard to tell here - it is cover with Eucalyptus trees so the hill looks as though it has a head of hair.  I also like it because it's a random peace of relatively unadulterated nature in the middle of the city.

Chicago - a big entry for a big trip.

Last Friday, February 4th, Ben and I flew to Chicago to participate in the Unified/Resident Theatre Association (U/RTA) - in other words: Grad School portfolio reviews, interviews, and auditions.  Despite the huge storm the country experienced a few days before our travels, our flights were not effected by the weather - but only just barely.

This was the first time I spent this much time in this much snow and cold since I was about six - and even that I barely remember, so it was pretty exciting.

Saturday was my big presentation/interview day.  Each design candidate was given a table on which they created a portfolio display.  The set designers most often than not, were the most elaborate in their configuration - they had some creative displays!

Posing with my Portfolio Presentation