First chair

 "Alright, next is..." Please not me, please not me, anyone but me... "Sakura"
      This is pretty much the norm for me, always picked at the worst possible moment. This particular moment happened a week ago, when we were doing the seating test for Orchestra and I'd completely forgotten to even go over the expected music. Usually before a test like this I practice something over and over and over the night before, but it just happened that I'd completely and utterly forgotten about the test in general. The piece Mrs. Tuke wanted us to play was only about 6-8 measures, but it was all slurred and there was about fifty accidentals, added to the fact that to play said accidentals I have to switch into like 2nd and a half position. (Not a real position, or something I'd ever done before) Suffice to say, it was challenging.
      Watching my stand partner play, I noticed she slipped in the middle and had to retry, but she did really good compared to some other orchestra students. The rest of the cellos also did really good. "Good job, my friend. The second time is the charm- or is it third? Anyway, you did amazing."
       As soon as Tuke said my name, I picked up my $2,500 instrument, placed my fingers boldly on the fingerboard, and began to slur the first four or five notes; I immediately chastised myself for playing the C#s flat, and rested a beat before beginning the next slur. I smiled a bit as I hit all the right notes, and let myself add a little bravado to the end. Bad idea. The bravado, small as it was, made me lose some essential mileage on my bow, making me hit the frog on my next slur. (Frog- the end of the bow. I didn't have enough space to hit all the notes using an up bow) After that I missed a another sharp, another flat (noticing as I did so that Tuke frowned slightly and wrote something on her paper.) and ended with a nice loud (and maybe a tad obnoxious) open D, my absolute favorite note to play. Well, only when it's in tune, and it was!
       After more dissection and thorough thought on the matter, I realized that I did horrible. I believe some of the eighth grade cellists did better than me, which is really sad. I also had an odd thought- why did I care so much? It really doesn't matter how well I'd done; I was almost sure I would get second or first chair, and both those positions are amazing. Why was I so worked up about this test? To this day I'm still not sure exactly, but for now I'll call it my overly competetive trait showing through a little bit.
      Mrs. Tuke is going to give us our new seats tomorrow, which is what brought on this entire blog post. Tomorrow I'll find out if I keep my position of first chair, or lose it to someone else. And I was also volunteered to play the cello for the french play Cinderella, or the french 3's version of it. And I'm working on my ensemble piece, Rosamunde. Which brings me to ask yet again: Why am I so focused on this tiny little seating chart test? Why, of all the millions of things I'm doing, am I fretting about something that happens to be completely irrelevant? Maybe it's a matter of pride; the first chair is always looked upon with a certain amount of cordial, and maybe even removed, respect. I want to showcase my hard work and my amazing cello,as well as sit in the very front of an orchestra I will soon be leaving. My Orchestra is like my family. Granted, it's a huge family, but we're still close and have fun playing together at concerts and even just in class. I want to be among the few, the chosen, to sit in the front and represent my section. Only time will tell if I get this privilege, or if it's passed on to another cello. 

Proteles Christata

     Also known as an aardwolf, this proteles christata is a little known cousin of the famous hyena. Hyena's are large, aggressive animals capable of taking on wilderbeasts and zebras, while the aardwolf is much smaller and depends on it's coloring and overall appearance to scare away predators. Both animals are placed in the Hyaenidae family, althoug the aardwolf is alone in the subfamily protelidae.
      The most interesting aspect of the aarwolf is that it feeds primarily on termites, with a few larvae and carrion in the mix. The 'aard' part of it's common name is taken from aardvark, on account of it's unusual diet. Aarwolves are nocturnal and 'hunt' at night, eating up to 200,000 termites per night. When hunting, the aardwolf takes special care not to destroy the termite mounds he eats from, ensuring that they will repopulate it, and thus ensuring a continual supply of food for the aardwolf.
      The aardwolf is usually found in brushland, or savannahs and has been reported to live on sparsely populated farmland. Most farmers treat them as useful, harmless animals, but it has been killed for it's fur. These animals live in dens hidden by bushes, and live in packs most like those of wolves. Aarwolves mate for life and often raise their children in dens that their parents used, though they tend to change dens every six weeks when not raising young aarwolves. Aarwolves are solitary when they hunt, creating the illusion that they are solitary 'lone wolves'.
   
     This animal caught my attention earlier today when I was googling random animals. It's odd how close it is to a hyena, yet how very different. My guess is that they have addapted to look like hyenas because of the hyena's reputation with other animals. Kind of like dressing like a big bad biker guy to scare away potential scam artists or pickpockets. I like this animal a lot, even though I've only read about and seen it. It just reminds me of a sweet, mini version of a wolf or a hyena, and I find myself automatically connecting with it. I usually blog about animals that are threatened with extinction, but this animal is totally free from the after effects of deforestation and other usual causes of indangerment. (Except for, of course, the threat of pesticides and poison on farms. Reminds me of peregrine falcons becoming endangered because of DDT.) I blogged about this animal purely because I wanted to, and to show people something they wouldn't see every day.

Zut! Mon Chien monge le devoirs. Si, au lieu...

     I've noticed lately that I like to borrow a lot of words from other languages. My favorites are French, Korean, and Japanese although I've been caught speaking Spanish and Portugese too. (You might even count Shakespearian! I have to memorize a quote from Romeo and Juliet) I love Romeo and Juliet purely because my name is Julia, or Julie. It makes for a lot of entertaining circumstances. Anyway, I've always called people mon ami, or my friend en Francais. (In French) I'm also watching a lot of animes (Japanese) so I'll randomly say Nii-chan or Onee-san. They both mean older brother, but there's about a million ways of saying it. The endings depend on multiple different situations, explained below. Although honorifics are an important part of Japanese, you don't record it when you are writing or typing someone's name. Here's some of the most common honorifics and their meanings:

San-(さん) Is the most common honorific, and its used between equals of almost any age. You would call your classmate Jessica-san, and a distant relative could also be addressed with it. If you use san with an animal name, it is the equivelant of Mrs or Mr and is deemed childish. For ex: usagi-san. (Mr. rabbit)

Sama-(様) The same as san, only more honorable. You might use this to address an elder, or a higher co-worker.

Chan-(ちゃん) Is an endearing honorific, and is mostly used for intimate relationships or teenage girls. It can also be used for a cute animal, but to use it on someone higher than you would be very disrespectful. Also, some girls drop the -ko at the end of their name and add -chan instead; for ex: Kanako becomes Kana-Chan.


Bō-(坊) Is the equivalent of chan, only it's used exclusively for boys and is much rarer.

Kun-(君) Is used to address under-classmen, or students. For teenagers to use this term is almost always disrespectful.

Senpai-(先輩) Is used to address those in higher grades than you, and is slightly less honorable than sama. You would never adress a teacher or a political figure by senpai. Also, it is pronounced sempai.

Sensei-(先生) Is the most honorable of honorifics, and is used to address teachers, politicians, and people who have reached a certain degree in an art. It's most commonly used in America to refer to the head of a dojo.

There's a lot of other honorifics, but I won't bore you by listing every single one. Now do you see why Japanese is so very difficult? I also have a wide vocabulary of Japanese words, but lets move on to Korean. The most prominent words I know is a sentence I learned at the Boys and Girls Club, from a Korean exchange student. 

바보 개 고물 사과나무 

It sounds like: Pabo mung-mungi bongu sagwa-namu. Or in English: Stupid dog pooped on an apple tree. Don't know why I know this exact sentence, but I do know that it's not fluent and it's literally stupid dog poop apple tree. 

      So if I randomly exclaim some odd sounding sentence, don't mind me- it's probably just a French swear word. Or if I call you some weird name, look it up later. (By the way I'm still just an étudiants, so if I screw up just let me know :D)

TKAM and WTM Comparison Essay

            Have you ever read To Kill a Mockingbird, or Walk Two Moons? After I read these two books I realized that Salamanca Hiddle and Jean Louise Finch (Scout) have a lot in common. They also have multiple differences but all in all they have formidable personalities.

            Scout and Salamanca are alike in that both of their mothers are dead. In Walk Two Moons, the quote, “There, on a little hill overlooking the river and the valley, was my mother’s grave.” Illustrates that fact as does, “Our mother died when I was two, so I never felt her absence.” Both of their mothers died at different points in their life. Salamanca’s mom died when she was old enough to miss her afterwards, while Scout never really knew her mother. These points were elemental in teaching them that life is not always full of “Smoothbeautiful folds.”

            Both Scout and Salamanca learned the hard way that life isn’t always fair and happy. Two quotes that illustrate this point are: “It can’t be dead. It was alive just a minute ago.” From Walk Two Moons and “It’s like bein’ a caterpillar in a cacoon…I always though Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world.” From To Kill a Mockingbird. Both Scout and Salamanca learn the world isn’t all fluff and rose petals from two different, yet similar situations. They also have numerous differences.

            One of these differences is the way they talk. While Scout can be found saying, “I’ve been chewin’ it all afternoon and I ain’t dead yet, not even sick.” Salamanca speaks in a more educated way, and likes to state facts with less personality than scout. “My father once said I was as gullible as a fish. I thought he said edible. I thought he ment I was tasty.” –Salamanca

            Both Scout and Salamanca have a friend with a large imagination. Scout’s friend and fiancée, Dill, once said, “ I-Smell-Death.” He then went on to say that an old lady taught him how to tell if someone is going to die. Salamanca’s friend, ‘Peeby’, is the equivalent of Dill. “In her world, no one was ordinary. People were either perfect…[or] they were lunatics or axe murderers.” Both Dill and Phoebe were using their imagination and half truths to explain their world.

            Scout and Salamanca are alike in many different ways, and different in multiple others. Although they are from two completely different worlds, they still hold striking similarities. 

5 More Minutes

     "Please Mom, 5 more minutes."
"Yes Julia. In 5 more minutes we will be leaving for Salt Lake."
Once my brain computed that sentence, I jumped out of bed like a cat out of a bath tub. I realized I'd slept in my jean skirt and a tank top, so I threw on a random pair of long socks (It just happened to snow yesterday and I'd rather not freeze my legs off yet) and a T-shirt, grabbed my mini back-pack with The Brass Verdict inside and a few party favors from when our church celebrated Hanukkah, and ran out the door.
     As we were driving out of the driveway my mom handed me and Alex identical letters from Lagoon, asking with no small amount of typos whether we wanted to go back to Grounds or not. I stuffed mine in my Tinkerbell bag and realized I'd forgotten to grab my (engraved) Bible and mentally cursed. Of course I then mentally abolished myself for mentally cursing, and commenced to read The Brass Verdict until I was thoroughly car-sick.
     As we pulled up to Salt Lake City Christian Center, I looked down at my outfit and realized that I'd put on black knee socks with skulls and paint splatters with a pair of white flats covered in red, paisley blue, and baby pink polka dots. Add the jean skirt, Girls Only T-shirt and pigtails and what do you get? A five year old who didn't want to listen to her mother when she told her that her outfit didn't match. I had to deal with lots of stares during church, firstly because I was the only one of my friends wearing a skirt, and second because of everything else.
     After church I went over to my Grandmothers house and was promptly covered in three different colors of dog hair. After being jumped on, hugged and dealing with my little brother tracking stuff all over the house(we're still not sure whether it was dirt or poo), I finally sat down to a nice meal of home-made chicken nuggets. We joked about hot oil until the topic was thoroughly exhausted, and then sat down to look at old pictures of my aunt's visit to Scotland. Halfway through my mother handed me the laptop and told me to apply, which I did. After looking over my sisters shoulder at her application, I realized I had a lot of errors on mine, including putting the wrong dates on my previous employments, and (almost!) putting that I was currently out on bail. After that I set to work blogging, and here I am now, with about two more minutes until I go watch the football game. Which reminds me of my pastor saying on the pulpit that he bled orange, and looked forward to going home & cheering for the Broncos. Also my little buddy Alice (pronounced Lee-Cee) is moving back to Brazil next month. Now if you will excuse me, I have some funnies to read.

Holiday Spirit

     Cheese and crackers. Now my brother is threatening to duck tape my mouth, since I'm almost screaming at him and my sister, "STOP POKING ME!". And now Alex is yelling in my ear to change the spelling of duck tape to duct tape. I WILL CHANGE IT LATER! Oi, why can't I ever get two minutes to blog?! It was the same this entire break, including Christmas. Normally I never get angry, but my fuse is really really short this season. Good thing I have multiple Christmas 'toys' to play with and ignore my entire family for a short while. Until Colton yells my name and blames me for clogging the vacuum in a very loud (no, he's not yelling...ugh) voice while trying to simultaneously deflect Dad from giving him more chores and and drag the vaccum upstairs.
     Firstly, Colton and I pooled our Walmart gift-cards and went on a fabulous trip to buy Skyrim the day after Christmas, with millions of kids screaming, "Daddy, I want it!" or, "Why did he get me the red lip gloss when I obviously wanted the Persimmony Pink one?!" Well we finally got it, on New Year's day. Amazing! I absolutely love this video game, even though I've only been as far as I've seen on the tutorial, due to Family Cleaning Day. I'm a Kehjit (hopefully I spelled that right, I'm too lazy to check) and the female version is so much smaller than the male version it's comical. I also got a how to draw manga book, (MangaMania Girl Power!) and a small drawing notebook with, da-ta-da, crayons.
     I also got my cello refinished over the break. I bought my cello at Summerhay's and my parents have almost payed her all off so we took her in to do some minor repairs before the insurance wears off. Summerhay's is in Salt Lake City, so we had my G-ma pick it up and bring her up to our house today, and she told me that the guy who fixed it up, Christian, lectured her for ten minutes about how to care for my cello. She was pretending to be severe as she handed Rosalia to me, but she couldn't help but crack a smile. And yes I named my cello, it's Rosalia because that's who made her.
     I also got lots and lots of candy, including Poky (the yummy strawberry kind) and various other Japanese candies. One of my favorites so far out of all the candy is a chocolate covered 'biscuit' from England. I got a new book series about wizards and a Halloween clock with cats on it. Every hour the clock makes creepy Halloween noises, though at night they seem to be quieter. I got kokeshi and neko erasers, and my sister got sushi erasers. Kokeshi is a small japanese doll, and neko is a cat with it's paw up in the air. So Kawaii.
     Although the holidays have really tested my patience, I had fun.