Week One- Done (Almost)!

It hasn’t even been a week?!

Downtown Juneau!

So, I wasn’t going to write another entry until after this weekend, but then I realized that a LOT has happened since I last wrote! And instead of following my usual pattern of waiting too long and spending two hours writing and editing each post because it’s four pages long, I thought I’d bite the bullet and update you all. Plus, multiple people have been asking me, “When is your next post coming up?!”. I love that you all are just as excited about my Alaskan adventure as I am!

So, let’s talk about how amazing this week has been- because it totally has been! As I wrote in my post on Saturday night, I kicked off my first complete day in Alaska with a breakfast with my quartet-mates and Lorrie. One of the violinists in our quartet won’t be joining us until the Fall, so for now, I met Sophia, the violist, and Heidi, the other violinist. It was funny to walk into this woodsy-feeling, welcoming coffee shop, scanning the large room for faces I had only seen through mild Facebook stalking! We found one another quickly and all exchanged hugs. It was strange to meet Lorrie in person because she was exactly how I expected- energetic and so enjoyable to be around- and it felt like I had already spent months with her, after the amount of emails we had exchanged back and forth! We sat at the table in this coffee shop (called Heritage), sipping our hot drinks to keep warm in the 55-degree Alaskan summer. Lorrie and a couple members from the Juneau Symphony who stopped by to say hi presented us with adorable gift bags full of tokens from each place with which we will be working: JAMM, the Symphony, and University of Alaska Southeast (UAS). So I received some free pencils and pens, a signed card from the JAMM kids (adorable!!), and a gigantic “Symphony” chocolate bar- whaaatttt?! And that’s why the Juneau Symphony is the best one in the country!

My Extratufs!

So after our meeting, Lorrie graciously drove us around town and took us to lunch at a local place frequented by both tourists and residents, called the Hangar. I had coconut prawns...enough said. Hey there, Alaska. Nice food. At that point, I was definitely feeling tired from the traveling...and because I had stayed up until 1:30am unpacking (oops. Was it worth it? Yes.), which felt like 5:30am for me! But exactly as the first Alaskans did when they crossed the landbridge over from Russia, I pressed on. And went to IGA. What a journey. Sophia, our violist, has been a huge help to me this week, as she has driven me to school every day and has helped me run errands. So after stocking up on groceries at IGA, Sophia and I entered into my version of heaven: the Western Auto Marine store. You may think I was enticed by the smell of rubber and fish or that the appearance of large hooks and hunting rifles appealed to me, but my true purpose of this mission was similar to that of Orpheus’ when he entered Hades: to capture my true love. The beloved Xtratuf boots. For those of you who haven’t heard about these yet, I promise you that you will get to know about them extremely well after reading my blog entries this year. I had found out about this classic Alaskan boot brand from Lorrie, as I prepared for my move. She told me that I should wait to purchase my pair of rain boots I’ll inevitably need almost every day until I arrived here. Because apparently Alaskans wear Xtratufs. It’s because they’re extra TOUGH. I looked up pictures and discovered that the boots only came in an ugly brown with a tan accent, and it felt freeing. No more fashion rain boots with heels (I’m sorry, but I never understood why someone would wear heeled rain boots when it’s already slippery out...and I wonder if the added heel makes an accented squish-squeak as you walk around inside?! Is looking cute worth annoying everyone?) or color-coordinated outfits on rainy days. Plain brown, rubbery boots with the label “Xtratuf” on them was what I was destined to get. And so, about 15 minutes after arriving at the Marine supply store, I walked out of there with my very own pair, after taking a picture with them on, of course! I’ve already worn them twice and plan on wearing them tomorrow. I actually look forward to the rainy days, just so I can wear my Extratufs!

So, skipping ahead to the big part: classes! It has been a fantastic first week (out of two) with the Juneau Basic Arts Institute. So while I am in classes all day for it, this is not technically “school” school yet. This institute is for Alaska teachers, and its focus is on providing core subject teachers with tools and knowledge of how to integrate the arts into their lesson plans. So Heidi, Sophia, and I are the only artists there! And we are also the only ones who aren’t official teachers in Alaska yet with extensive classroom experience. It has been such a great time to see people with decades of teaching experience still be interested in being more creative with their classes in order to better serve their students. I’ve also noticed a significant difference in the maturity level of this group, compared to my classmates in my college classes! Even though our schedule has been from 8:30 to 5 every day, we are all remaining positive and engaged. It’s really exciting to keep going, knowing that we are all exhausted (both mentally and physically) and are still giving it our all to make the most of this time to learn.

The people are great, and the classes and instructors are just as fantastic! I really like how the institute is structured. The long days are divided into small chunks of 1 hour and 15 minutes, so we move around rooms and teachers often. The four main teachers are Lorrie, Katie, Ed, and Nancy. Lorrie leads us with movement and song in the morning, showing us different songs, dances, and exercises we can use with our kids to keep them engaged, wake them up, teach a content standard, and more. I have walked in late a couple times this week, and it’s always funny to walk down the hall and hear full-grown adults singing kids’ songs and doing dances together. We have also been learning different songs that incorporate body percussion (which can involve stomping and clapping), and we actually had someone who was in a superintendent meeting directly below us come upstairs and ask us to stop because the whole building was shaking. Seeing how Lorrie respectfully apologized but also explained what we were doing in a joyful, inviting way gave me tips on how to handle future conflict without changing who you are. The superintendent didn’t seem too enthused when Lorrie suggested she inform her colleagues (in a light-hearted way) that we were teachers, learning new things for our students, so we ended up putting that activity on pause until later in the day when they were gone!

Lorrie, teaching her Arts and Cognition class!

After our movement in the morning, which Ed also helps lead, we sit down for a class with Lorrie, where she discusses a variety of reasons why the arts support more effective learning for students, sharing studies and reasons as she talks. She has provided us with a phenomenal packet of all her “nuggets” of wisdom she has discovered as a teacher, which has already been helpful to look through. Yesterday in her class, we had learned about the seven character strengths for academic achievement and were split into groups and each assigned one trait. We then had to create a two-line rap with certain guidelines that we had to perfect, put to a beat, and present to the class this morning. Want to hear my groups’?!

Finish what you start, even when it's tough- that's grit.

Climb that mountain, you might fall, but just stick with it....WHAT!

We decided that I would say the rap because I was the most comfortable with fitting the words into the beats, and the group joined me at the ends of the lines. It was hilarious!

After that class, I go to my Visual Arts class led by Nancy. If you have seen any of my little art projects on Facebook, that’s where those beautiful creations are born! From day one of the class, Nancy said, “You are all artists. Don’t say you can’t create art. You can!”. I was a bit skeptical, knowing my drawing skills, but felt motivated to at least try because of her excellent artistic pep talk. And I have to say that while my creations aren’t exactly up to the standard I was setting for myself, I have learned a lot about not only how to create art, but also how to teach it. And I’ve had fun! Seeing Nancy interact with us, a bunch of adults who are set in our ways and feel very awkward developing such foreign, new skills, provides me with examples of how to be a fantastic teacher. I can only imagine how she is with kids! She has provided us with great tools, giving us paintbrushes and information on certain projects we can lead our class through. So although it may seem like we are just reliving our childhoods and are doing all these artsy projects for fun, we are learning how to do these things in order to teach our students, as we apply it to our subject area. And I can totally see a connection between the visual and performing arts. I would love to experiment with watercolors with my class, letting the students paint what they hear in the music! And Nancy has given me great ideas, such as showing them how to draw their instruments, which incorporates visual arts skills while also helps them know the different parts of the instrument.

After lunch is my favorite class: Digital Storytelling. It is something I find so fascinating and wonderful for students to learn to do! Katie, our teacher, has great experience with using accessible apps and tools to create neat projects. She has been guiding us through a project where we have to write and audio record a poem about some aspect of nature and then create a stop motion film that accompanies it. Isn’t that super cool?! If you don’t know what stop motion is, think Wallace and Gromit. But instead of clay, we are going to be using objects that we collect from nature!!! I’m so excited. So we recorded our poems today and learned how to use the app we will be using on iPads for the video (called iStopMotion) and will be collecting materials for our filming, which I think will start on Monday! We are free to collect materials from nature anywhere and at any point in time- remember that, because it will be part of an entertaining story I will tell later on in this post!

After that class, I have my Tlingit culture class with Ed, which has been a huge learning experience for me! If you are unfamiliar with the Tlingit culture and language, please look it up! Tlingit culture is fascinating, and its people make up a significant portion of the native populations of Alaska. As far as I have learned and seen this week, Tlingit has a very beautiful culture of storytelling, tradition, respect for its ancestors, and music and dance. We have been learning some Tlingit songs, basic Tlingit phrases, and the vowels and consonants of the language. Let me tell you, it is not Spanish! Well, duh. But it is very difficult to pronounce because it is all about breath as well as placement of the sounds in your mouth and throat. Some vowels are in the back of the throat and are said with fast, short air; others are the opposite, and still others are mixed. It’s intense. But the songs we are learning have great melodies and are really fun! We stand in a circle every class time and do our dance to the two songs we know fairly well at this point. It’s amazing what you can learn in a week! But as Ed continues to say, this class is not an instructional course for learning the Tlingit language. As a Tlingit Native, though, he has shared his stories and knowledge with us, which has been an honor. We were having a discussion about his Tlingit name (don’t even ask me to spell it!) yesterday, which dove us into a discussion of the Tlingit peoples’ view of names. Ed told us that to his knowledge, most people are named after someone in their family; if not, at least after someone in their clan. And that child, as it grows up, has the duty of representing the essence of his or her previous name bearer. Ed is named after his grandfather, and his parents actually referred to him as “father” when they spoke to him at times, as a way to honor and respect the person whose name he was given. Another Tlingit person described their name tradition like this: Your name carries you, until you carry your name. I thought that was really beautiful. It actually struck a chord with me because I am named after Ruth, the woman who rocked so much, she got her own book in the Bible. The story of Ruth shows her unending loyalty, faith, beauty, and love as she remained with her widowed mother-in-law when she herself became a widow and even followed her to a foreign land that worshipped a god different than hers. I often think about how I want to embody those characteristics of Ruth, and I feel honored that I was given the English version of her name. So this class has been a great lesson about a culture with which I was not previously familiar, and it has also provided us with ways to incorporate this very important, prevalent cultural aspect in our classrooms.

The potato monster I made in the guest teacher's class!

The end of the day is full of other presentations. For example, today we had a fabulous guest teacher come in and talk about using the arts to work with people of all disabilities- art and music therapy for the win! That hour is also built-in lesson planning time. The final assignment that suitably ties together all we have learned is, of course, a lesson plan that integrates the arts with our core subjects, as well as incorporates the Alaskan cultural standards. Since we already teach an arts subject, my two quartet-mates and I have to choose a core subject and create a lesson plan using the music we know we will be teaching. So while I am glad we already have the performance aspect figured out and are not nervous about incorporating that, I am still trying to figure out how to teach a core subject...I was a music major! I don’t know- more cowbell?!?! But Heidi, Sophia, and I have been brainstorming together and are coming up with good ideas, so I am hoping we can solidify our lesson this weekend!

Speaking of this weekend, the three of us are planning on hiking together, and I’m so excited! But tonight when I got home from class around 6:30, I was feeling the adventure itch and wanted to go explore (and also exercise, after sitting still for 8.5 hours for four days straight), all by my lonesome. So I talked to Sue (my amazing hostess and basically Alaskan mama), and we agreed that I could definitely find the Perseverance Trail and hike it. Armed with her instructions and my Google Maps, I geared up and walked out the door with pockets containing a bag of pretzels and an empty grocery bag so I could start collecting natural materials for my stop-motion project (See- I finally brought it up! Keep waiting for the entertainment. Good things really do come to those who wait). I walked down my street and turned right. And then left...both of which I thought were correct directions because it’s what I thought my Google Maps had said when I checked before I left. And I had these directions so “in the bag” that I refused to check the maps again to make sure I was going the correct way. So I kept walking. And every time I heard or saw a car about to pass, I would jog a little bit so I didn’t look ridiculous in all my running gear. But honestly, I was walking and stopping every few steps to take pictures like a tourist. And then I got to a trail map for Mt. Roberts… wait- didn’t someone just die up there last week? Yeah, maybe not today...when I’m alone and am apparently directionally-challenged. Because this is definitely not the right way. So I looked at the map and noticed the trail I was looking for. But the map was upside down and backwards, which just really confused me. I tried to reorient my body to see what I was seeing on the map, but the idea of turning the other way and standing on my head was just not working for me (have I mentioned that I’m directionally-challenged?? I’ve decided to just own it at this point; it’s hopeless). So I just kept walking straight, going off of my memory from when Lorrie drove us down that road the other day...except my memory isn’t super sharp either. Perfect. After a few more curves in the road, I passed a gorgeous backdrop of mountains surrounded by fog, several spotted with gorgeous waterfalls trickling down amongst the trees. I kept walking. And then there was a bridge. And I looked to the left and remembered Lorrie saying something about a flume trail that led to the downtown area. So I thought, “Why not? I haven’t heard of any casualties here at this point, and I’m interested to finally see what a flume looks like”. So, there are a couple things you need to know. First of all, if you need a refresher on what a flume is, it is a man-made channel for water, and it is in the form of an open declined gravity chute with walls that are raised above the surrounding terrain. Yes, I copied and pasted that from Wikipedia. The second series of things you need to know are my biggest fears: natural bodies of water (especially waterfalls) and bridges. I don’t care if that sounds irrational, but my fear of waterfalls was definitely signed, sealed, and abruptly delivered when I nearly drowned under one in Ecuador last summer (yeah, not the best day of vacation...no wonder bungee jumping the next day didn’t feel like such a big deal!). So I go down this flume trail to find this raging, loud waterfall created from the flume. Terrifying. I had to cross a bridge over it to get to another bridge that would apparently be my trail for the entire remainder of the time. Talk about panic! To make matters worse, I had no idea how long this slippery-wet bridge trail next to the gigantic waterfall surrounded by large trees and sharp rocks would be. Also, bears. I’m sure my fear about the bears attacking me is slightly founded but mostly irrational, as multiple people here have told me to just let my presence be known as I walk, and I will be okay. Apparently, the bears don’t want to see me either. They don’t want to maim and eat me unless I provoke them. Well, the “inside Ruth thoughts” forgot all that. And all of a sudden, I was sliding my feet across this scary bridge for a mile, nervously singing and talking to myself to keep the bears away while looking back every 8 seconds or so. I was more afraid walking down that “peaceful, calm” trail in the forest than I was walking down the streets in Chicago alone, late at night. Maybe having my pepper spray with me on my hike would have made me feel better.

The beautiful, scary Flume Trail.

If only someone could have heard me talking to myself. I was saying things like, “I am talking right now because I am afraid of the bears and don’t know why I chose the trail that makes me face all my fears in just thirty minutes…’Face all your worldly fears in thirty minutes or less!’- that should be its slogan in a commercial…” As I went along the path, I would get to a part of the bridge that was all of a sudden drowned under a smaller waterfall. So I would take a few minutes each time to situate myself on the rocks in order to leap to the other side or just quickly make a break for it. Every time I approached a waterfall, I would go through my whole panic mode again and try to find the path that kept me the farthest away from the rushing waters! And once my waterfall-jumping days were over, I heard a noise. I was actually bending down to pick up some fallen leaves (I began collecting objects along the bridge path for my project), when I heard nearby sounds and quickly jumped up and turned around to see...two people. Who didn’t seem scared at all. And here I was, some random girl all of a sudden prepared to run and scream, when just seconds ago, I was being equally as strange, bending down and putting things in a grocery bag while singing to myself to ward off the bears that won’t attack...but just might! Yeah, they seemed weirded out. I eventually let them pass me and followed them at the end of the trail because I didn’t know where to go. And then I finally looked up directions to home (I gave up on the whole Pocahontas, follow-the-colors-of-the-foggy-misty-wind idea once it was 8pm and I was hungry), thinking, “Oh, I must not be too far from home, since I’m supposedly close to downtown!”. Wrong. I was still somehow over a mile from home. It really is impressive how impossibly lost I can get myself. I truly have a knack for looking at my final destination and walking in the complete opposite direction. I’m like a broken compass that never learns to right itself. So I walked through all the curvy, hilly roads in the transformed misty-now-downright-rainy weather state, taking pictures along the way. At least I got good pictures! And I finally made it home. Bearless. I checked behind me all the way up to the front door. So that is my entertaining anecdote for the night. I know most of this “getting exercise”, nature-gathering experience was centered around my irrational fears, but I was able to laugh at myself during it and am still laughing.

I am looking forward to tomorrow, not only because it means the weekend is almost here, but also because we are going on a field trip, which will include a performance by my trio! We were able to rehearse together last night and made it into a fun belated birthday celebration for Sophia, making our own pizzas (gluten free, dairy free pizza for me, of course! Yay for cardboard with goat cheese! Just kidding- it was actually good, but that was probably because I smothered it with olives!!!), and baking cookies! So, we are ready and all sugared up to perform for the class tomorrow.

This weekend, I am also planning on trying out my first Alaskan church. First on the docket is Chapel by the Lake, which is a gorgeous, tiny church right on UAS’ campus, overlooking the ocean and the Mendenhall Glacier! I’m really excited to check it out!

So if you saw how incredibly long this post was (see- it still ended up being long!) and decided to just read the first and last paragraphs of the entry, here’s a quick recap for you: I am incredibly happy. I’m learning a lot. Alaska is beautiful, rainy, and bear-infested. Just not apparently anywhere I am (just kidding- they really are in my area!). And, of course, I am just as silly as ever.

Traveling Day

Wait- you're moving to Alaska?!

This morning began with a tone that remained throughout the day- it was like the sound of a beautifully composed cluster chord, filled with feelings of nervousness, excitement, tiredness, and hectic chaos. I feel like that introduction sufficiently sums it all up. But if you want to know the boring details that I try to make sound entertaining, you first must know that I have certain routines when I travel. I usually begin packing a significant amount of time before my trip. Check. I started packing over two weeks ago. I prepare myself mentally for the trip by checking in, going over in my mind what I am about to do and how I will react to different situations. Done. I must say that the Delta app is the obsessive planner’s dream and nightmare, depending on which way you look at it. And then I pick out the comfiest blobby outfit I can get away with wearing while still looking like a college graduate. However, this day of travel was different for me. This is my first time moving myself to a new place. It’s the beginning of a new journey where I am older and am making significant life choices by myself. Because of that, I felt that it deserved some class. And by “class”, I mean first class. Oh yeah. Okay, no. I mean, I did fly first class. But there’s actually a “reasonable” reason: I’m moving far away from home for a year and have a lot of stuff. First class= three free checked bags that can each weigh 70 pounds. So it actually ended up being cheaper to fly business because I have four very large, very heavy bags containing almost all of my possessions. If you know me well and how I pack, you are very proud of me right now. On top of my four large bags, I also had my good old cello- Mr. Cello, or “Ruth Cello”, as it is written on his boarding pass. He might not be talkative and may be annoying to lug around when traveling, but he certainly attracts attention and gives me “coolness” points. So as Mr. Cello and I prepared for flying first class, we both agreed that we needed to go for the sophisticated look. I wrapped him in my llama sweater and stuffed a bunch of last-minute laundry around him and closed the case. So he was good to go. I took a little more work. I decided to go with a classic look: jeans, casual shoes, solid-colored shirt, nice blazer. I got up extra early to get ready and do my hair (airplane hair is just not a good look on me) and stuffed all my other last-minute things that didn’t fit in my cello case in my nearly-bursting suitcases. I know that my fashion choices do not particularly interest most people, but getting so dressed up and preparing for this flight made me feel so grown up and excited! So it was an important part of the process. So by the time I finally got ready and had all my things packed, I was, of course, late. My dad is the kind of person who will get in the car the moment we are supposed to be leaving and sit there until we are actually ready. Even if we are running late by ten minutes or more. Unfortunately, he couldn’t even do that to express his impatience with me this time because he was waiting for me to bring down the rest of my belongings so he could load them into the car! But we still made it to the airport with great timing and somehow fit my four checked bags, his one bag, and my five carry-on items in the car. We did have a slight bump along the way to the airport...in the haste of us leaving and him trying to rush me out the door, my dad had left a notebook of his on top of the car. It impressively remained on top of the car as we backed out of the driveway and turned down our street. And then it slid off the roof the moment we entered a much busier and faster street. My dad saw it fly in front of us and then circled around the area until he finally found it, sending me to retrieve it. Of course, it ended up being too far for me to reach while remaining inside, so I quickly unbuckled my seat belt, ran into the road, and scooped it up. He didn’t even need it for the trip…! We joked that hopefully the rest of the day wouldn’t be quite as difficult, and thank goodness, it wasn’t! As we were driving, I called my bank to notify the phone robot of my upcoming move out of the state. I don’t especially enjoy calling strangers, especially when it’s customer service-related, but I love talking to the robots. I know that the call is probably recorded and possibly monitored at that moment, but I feel the freedom to truly express myself with my mechanical friends. So every time robot man asked a question, I would reply with some strange voice or accent, and when he asked where I was going, I exclaimed, “ALASKA!” in a really strange, squealy voice. My dad was laughing as hard as he could without making any noise, in fear that the robot would pick up the noise and go into his, “I’m sorry” spiel. Unfortunately, robot man couldn’t understand my craziness, so after a while I resumed to being a normal human being. But that was definitely a fun way to express my excitement! My first flight from Detroit to Seattle left in the afternoon, and my departure time was perfectly synchronized with my dad’s flight to Colorado (he was traveling there to join my mom for a two-week vacation)! My dad and I have spent the past two weeks together, just the two of us, as my mom has been studying at Colorado State for a Master’s program. This was the first time my dad and I had spent more than a day alone together, and we had a blast!!! We did a lot of chores (for both himself and me), ran errands, and watched a lot of Alaskan reality tv shows. Oh, and Grey’s Anatomy. We even developed our own inside jokes (remember when I had you pretend to give yourself a root canal with a can opener on camera, Dad??). And there were two phrases that we would repeat to one another constantly: “Can’t touch this!” and “Good work, Squidward!”. They might not make sense to you, but they were highly amusing to us. We somehow ended up yelling Squidward at each other habitually, and it never got old. I said goodbye to my dad (sadness!) and soon after boarded my flight to Seattle. Let me tell you, flying first class across the country is snazzy. I’ve never had flight attendants treat me so well. And all of a sudden, being a passenger who brought a ginormous, intruding instrument on the plane didn’t make me imposing or annoying, but “interesting” and “cool”. I strapped Mr. Cello in and had several people, including the flight attendants, ask me what I do and if I was a professional. The man across from me leaned in and asked if I had just played on NPR. He had recently heard a cellist perform and thought that maybe it was me! It must have been the blazer. I tried to hide my amusement and said that unfortunately, no, that was not me, but maybe someday (what else do you say?!). I think my favorite part of the flight was the blanket. Oh, and maybe the free drinks and the delicious meal! I only had one drink per flight, but to be able to order alcohol on a plane made me feel so grown up. And I had a nice salmon salad for lunch. The attendant spread out a little tablecloth for my tray and everything! And don’t get me started on the warm towelettes. It was crazy. I spent the four and a half hours eating, listening to music, and texting with my family with the wifi I purchased (all of these were firsts for me!). Before I knew it, I was stepping into the Seattle airport, looking for my next gate where my flight to Juneau would be leaving from in three hours. I stepped up to the board, and just as my dad had predicted (if you knew how he predicted it, you would realize that he is the perfect obsessive consumer for the Delta app), my gate was literally across the hall from where I was standing. BOOM. I found a charging station and wrote my first blog post as I waited for my plane. Two and a half hours later, and the gate attendant announced that we were beginning to board in three minutes. Ahh! I was nowhere near ready. And packing up all my things while collecting and draping all five bags all over me was no quick task. But I was still toward the front of the line by the time boarding began. As I did with my first flight, I explained to the gate agent that I had two tickets, and there were no problems- praise the Lord! With my flight to Seattle, I had two tickets next to each other. But with my flight to Alaska, I didn’t. So I played multiple rounds of musical chairs with other people in first class to get a row with just me and Mr. Cello.
Traveling with an instrument makes for a good conversation starter and can also provide entertainment (Example A: NPR fan-girl man). Another example: when I walked onto my second flight, lugging both my cello and suitcase in front of me, I kindly asked the flight attendants if I could have a seat belt extender for my cello. They all three looked at me with a sort of hesitant, curious, disturbed look. And then I added, “I bought a seat for it”, and all of a sudden their expressions changed and one of them said, “Of course! Let me get that for you”. Oh goodness. The magic words. Also, when I was going through security in Detroit, the man working there just looked at me and my cello travel buddy and said, “Uhh you have to check that”. And I just wanted to be like, “Uhh I bought a whole extra seat for that”. I offered a politer reply than that, and all of a sudden, everything was okay. It’s honestly fun to watch people panic for a moment when they see me with this giant creature, as they become terrified of what it might do to inconvenience them.
Once I got a seat with my cello and strapped him in place for the second flight, we were golden. Unlike the other flight, this one had the personal movie option, so I took advantage of the free movies for a little bit as I ate! The flight attendant was very warm and friendly, and she would make jokes about offering food and drink options to my cello as well. Always a good joke. Yes, I’ve heard it quite a few times now, but it’s still cute! It was also sweet because I told the attendants on both flights that I will be playing with the Juneau Symphony, and some of them wanted to get information about the concerts because they all spent time in Juneau in between flights. I thought that was really neat! Maybe I could trade a free concert for a free flight with them! That’s about even, right??
I finally arrived to Juneau after 11 total hours of traveling!! It felt like 1:30am to me, but it was only 9:30pm. My wonderful hostess for the first month, Sue, graciously picked me up and even helped me with my gigantic bag pile! I had texted her a picture of me with them earlier that day to show her what I looked like, and she joked about how she would just strap me down to the top of her car. Classic!! She found me rather quickly at baggage claim, after I accidentally gawked and smiled at a woman I thought was gawking and smiling at me! Nope. Definitely the person behind me. But we made it safe and sound to her wonderful house, and she even told me a little about the area as we drove the fifteen minutes from the airport. I am tucked in bed and am pretty unpacked and can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings (besides the inevitable rain)! I know that I am meeting with my quartet and Lorrie for breakfast, and then our first educational experience that will last for ten days, the Juneau Basic Art Institute, will kickoff with a dinner in the evening!
My first observations about Alaska are:
1. It is as gorgeous is it looks in the pictures.
2. The people are really friendly.
3. The water tastes like it came fresh from the mountain gods.

Here we go! Alaska, DAY ONE!

And the adventure begins!

What on earth ARE you doing??

It is official. By the end of today, I will have flown 3,000 miles through multiple time zones, leaving behind what Alaskans call “The Lower 48” with 7 hours of contrails. Ahh, North to Alaska (yes, I listened to that Elvis song to get myself pumped for the move!).
Since this will be my first blog entry, I wanted to recap what I will be doing for the next year and also explain my purposes for this blog. My next entry will include my travel stories from today, so be prepared for multiple posts this evening!
In order to share with you about what I will be doing this year, I just have to share the crazy backstory of how I became enrolled in this amazing program. When I entered my senior year of college at DePaul, I was enamored with the idea of adventure, post-graduation. If you kept up with my blog entries from Peru, you actually know that I was toying around with the idea of moving down there to continue my great experiences of playing and teaching that I had in Trujillo. I had fallen in love with Peru and liked the idea of picking up and moving somewhere so fresh and different. However, as I began to think of what it would entail to move to a different country (including moving all my things, becoming fluent in Spanish, figuring out how to work and live in a country in which I wasn’t a citizen, and being on a different continent from my family), I decided to leave that as a daydream that may just become one of those stories I share with my grandchildren with starry eyes, as I talk about that time I spent two summers in Peru and wanted to move there.
Once Peru was off the list, I began to consider Chicago. I love Chicago. The music scene is incredibly vibrant, and I had been able to find good playing and teaching gigs. I also really valued the friendships I had made and felt like I had found a great church community. I was playing in an indie folk band, The Diving Bell, with church friends and was diving more into genres such as those as a cellist. It excited me. As someone who had moved around all throughout my childhood, the idea of staying in one place sounded terrifying to me but also exhilarating. Finally putting down roots seemed like an intriguing, foreign idea. On top of gigging with orchestras and bands and teaching, I was really interested in continuing my involvement with InterVarsity, the student Christian campus ministry with which I had worked that had provided me the opportunity to lead a Bible study for artists at DePaul. So with all of this in mind, I went through the lengthy process of applying and interviewing for InterVarsity staff in order to have a part-time, year-long job that could supplement my freelancing income.
But I didn’t want to give up on the adventurous part of myself just yet. I decided to apply for a Master’s program in LA for El Sistema education I had learned about last summer. El Sistema has become a passion for me throughout my time teaching with various El Sistema programs in Chicago and Peru the past four years. I was also taking a class about El Sistema’s history and philosophies at another school, North Park University, my whole senior year, and it fascinated me. I always felt giggly and energized when I left that class. I lit up when I thought about working with children from other areas and cultures and providing them with a hope of a brighter future and a loving, learning-filled present. The problem was, leading Bible studies and mentoring people spiritually also lit me up and got me excited. So I applied to this LA program and IV at the same time and waited. Then winter came, and a completely unexpected door both appeared and blew wide open. When I eventually found out I was accepted into the El Sistema Master’s program in LA, I was actually no longer considering it as an option. After talking to a couple current students and with colleagues who knew about it, I felt like it was not the right fit for me, financially or educationally. I had also realized throughout the Fall that I was really not interested in moving to Los Angeles; it has just never been my kind of scene. Actually, I was feeling a strong desire to leave the city life- the rush, the constant noise and busyness- and try someplace totally different….
So I focused my attention on being on staff with InterVarsity, as I was feeling pretty set on staying in Chicago. But I wasn’t completely sure if that was what I actually wanted. I was faced with these two gifts I had (teaching music and being a college campus missionary)- both involving working with and helping others, both challenging in different ways- and wasn’t sure which part of myself to continue to nurture in a serious way for the next year.
And then my dad swooped in and saved the day. That sounds dramatic, but I mean, he actually sort of did. He emailed one of his colleagues who is well-known in the El Sistema world, asking about the LA program to help me finalize my decision about it and completely close that door, and she reaffirmed my opinions. But at the end of that email, she casually mentioned that there is a brand new program starting this summer in Juneau, Alaska with a similar timeline but very different structure and emphasis that I might want to look into.
My initial thoughts: “Psh- Alaska?! Yeah, right! I have no interest in going there. That’s just too nuts” (if you’re from Alaska, I’m sorry!! I’ve obviously been converted since then). I had just never given that state any thought, so it was very hard to imagine myself living there. But I humored my dad and looked up this program. I immediately noticed the beautiful pictures on this website that outlined the JAMM (Juneau, Alaska Music Matters) program and was shocked by the complete beauty of the city and college campus. And then I began to read about the program and its founder, Lorrie Heagy. I watched videos and read articles and was in complete awe when I saw Lorrie, a woman with such a big heart and infectious laugh, seemingly working miracles with these adorable Alaskan children. I was taken aback when I read about JAMM’s progress since it began: the program now exists in three different schools, providing free music education to 150 children. My interest was piqued, and I emailed Lorrie. Within four hours, she had replied and we had scheduled a Skype date the next morning- at my 9am and her 6am. She was just as friendly as I had expected and began to tell me all about the program. I remember hanging up from that call and speed-walking to a chamber music rehearsal (because I was late!!), beaming. I walked into my group’s rehearsal room, still glowing, and said to my violinist and pianist, “Guys...I think I’m going to apply to go to school in Alaska…!”. I don’t think they were quite as excited about it as I was, which is understandable because I was late and it was early in the morning! But I just could not get it off my mind. So as soon as I could, I went for it and applied for the Master of Arts in Secondary Teaching program with University of Alaska Southeast.
If you go to that wonderful website that began it all here, you can read more about the program. But in a nutshell, I will be getting my Master’s in music education in one year. At the end of this, I will be certified to teach music in public schools, K-12, and will have student taught under Lorrie at her three El Sistema school programs. In addition to this (and this is something I LOVE about this program!), I will be the cellist of a Quartet-in-Residence with the Juneau Symphony as part of my scholarship and will also be playing in all of the Symphony’s concerts. So...I get to teach and learn under Lorrie, play in a quartet and an orchestra, and live in a beautiful place! All of my classes at UAS will be online, so I can structure my schedule the way I need to. The more I learned about the program, the more it seemed to be the perfect fit for me. Financially, this program is so affordable. Only the four of us were accepted, as we receive scholarship funding from the Juneau Symphony. I was granted in-state tuition as well because we are part of the first class. So I am getting my Master’s for essentially nothing. What?!?! I’m still in shock. As I said, this entire program was unknown to me until winter, and yet now I can’t imagine doing anything else this next year.
It was still a tough decision to make, as I was choosing to move across the country and start over again. It was difficult to face leaving Chicago and turning down being on staff with IV because that did seem like a neat opportunity that would help me grow so much as a leader and Christian. The application process for Alaska was also intense for me, as I was in Finals week when everything was due and was also finishing applying for IV at the same time! And since I was applying to work in the Alaskan public school system, I had to pass a standardized test as well as get fingerprinted. So I ran around the city a little bit to get it all done, but the end of that week wrapped up with my IV interview, and I felt so relieved afterward.
So in summary, if you are reading this blog to find out more information about the program because you’re interested in participating in it or simply hearing about a new and exciting advancement in El Sistema education, great! Do not feel guilty if you skip over the personal stuff. No hard feelings. If you are mainly reading this to see how I am doing on those winter days where I will only see sunlight for six hours, I totally understand. You have a right to be concerned. I am also. So embrace all the feelings that will likely be poured out on this page. Everybody, prepare yourselves!
Either way, I am really excited to begin this journey and am incredibly thankful to the people who helped me get here. I know that is often said so casually, but it is true. Without the support, guidance, and education of so many people, I wouldn’t have felt equipped or brave enough to do this. I was offered the InterVarsity job a few days after my interview and had a couple weeks to decide which path to take the next year. I had to make this decision the weekend of my Senior recital...Talk about everything happening at the same time! But after a lot of prayer and thinking, I just knew that I had to take this amazing opportunity in Alaska. And the moment I decided and committed to it, I felt like I turned toward that beautiful state, started walking, and never looked back. I know that I made the right choice and have never once questioned it. It’s just perfect, and I know that this was always in God’s plan, even when I couldn’t see it. And it really feels like it is so me!

Another crazy thing that has happened since deciding to move to Alaska is my housing situation. Long story short, I was planning on living on campus because I wasn’t sure where else to go, but that was going to make it difficult for me because campus is twenty minutes from downtown, where I will be teaching and playing and where all the grocery stores are, and I am hoping to not buy a car. However, the public bus system apparently does not allow cellos onboard...so I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do. Thankfully, Lorrie, being the amazing person she is, asked her friends around the downtown area to see if anyone was renting out a room. And lo and behold, she set me up with two great families with whom I will be living. I will be in one house the first month and another for the rest of my time, and both are beautiful and seem to have very kind hosts. I am very excited to live so close to downtown (I’ll be walking- distance from it!!) and to get to know the people around me. My housing arrangement was another unexpected gift. So now that you have a better grasp on what I will be doing and how I came upon this significant life change, I wanted to explain my purposes for keeping this blog. As I began to reveal to friends, family, classmates, and colleagues my plans for after graduation, I received a host of different reactions, comments, questions, and tips (from those who have actually been to Alaska...unlike me!). Many people were incredibly jealous of me because of the beauty that is about to surround me. There were definitely a few who were puzzled; I couldn’t tell if it was because they couldn’t imagine me in the wilderness or if they were just projecting and couldn’t imagine themselves in the wilderness! Many people were interested to learn more about this program, since it is in its first year and seems fantastic. And others just wanted to hear how I will be doing through such a big, scary change (yes, I definitely fluctuate between panicking and jumping up and down). So this blog is for everyone I listed above. Even for the skeptics! I want it to not only be a way for me to record everything I am doing for others to read, but it will also be a good way for me to sit down and reflect during this whirlwind adventure. I’ve always been able to process through writing; it makes me feel centered and brings me such joy. So to have an excuse to write sounds good to me! I will try to be honest and detailed, and I will also try to be consistent! My current goal is to write at least once a week. Keyword: goal. I don’t yet have a grasp on the amount of free time I will have, what with taking 4 online classes a semester, playing in a quartet and a symphony, and student teaching at 3 or more schools, AND hiking and whale watching (I’m jealous of myself). So, everybody, thank you for being with me as I begin...my adventure to Alaska!!!