I have officially had all of my classes at least once this semester and I must say, I certainly have my work cut out for me. I will give you a basic run-down of my classes because those will probably be all I talk about this semester:

Music History: It looks like this will require a ton of reading and listening (much like my music literature class did last year). We already have a listening test on Monday, a project due that Wednesday, and a written test a week after that (on three chapters of information).

Practicum II: I will not meet my clients for a few more weeks but I have a TON of research to do before I meet them, so these next few weeks will be quite busy looking information up and calling people. After that I will spend the normal time planning, writing, and recording my sessions.

Form and Analysis: I'm hoping it is not too demanding. So far it seems fairly easy but that could change quickly.

Arranging: It sounds like it will be a practical class which will hopefully be enough motivation to get to class on time (at 8am).

Music Therapy Research Methods: I love research so I am excited about the class but it is already a ton of work. We have/will have a LOT of reading and writing to do.

Conducting: I am not too excited about conducting but I like the professor and it seems like it will be a fun class.

Wind Ensemble, Performance Class, Choral Union, Voice Lessons, and Flute Lessons are all classes that merely require practicing (and lots of it).

If I counted correctly, that's all 11 classes which total 20 credit hours. I thoroughly dislike math but I am going to use it to help me see what my life could potentially look like this semester. According to IPFW's helpful guidelines, I should be spending 60 hours a week studying. Just with school stuff, that's 80hrs worth of time each week. There are only 120 hours in a 5-day week, which gives me 40 hours to eat and sleep. On top of that, I have more responsibilities with STARs and the Music Therapy Club which add about 10 hours of work to each month.

Hopefully I won't FEEL that busy and I can find some time to be a college student and have a life. I am incredibly grateful that I get to spend all of my time in the music building again, know most of my professors already, and will enjoy many of my classes. I know this will be my toughest semester so I just need to put my head to the grindstone and push through these next few months.

I sincerely hope your first few days back haven't been too stressful and are excited about at least one or two classes. Good luck!

Posted by Kim Yoder at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am glad I came to Fort Wayne a week ago because this time has flown by and I feel like it's crunch time. I knew about my flute audition but I wasn't expecting my voice audition for some reason. I basically have three days to get my voice and flute chops in shape again (technically I have more days but they are filled with meetings and music therapy gatherings). I already ordered my books and bought most of the stuff I think I will need (as far as binders and paper go) so that takes some stress off. I've been thinking a lot about my classes and schedule for this next semester and it's a little intimidating. I am taking 11 classes which makes for a pretty full week, not to mention the phone-a-thons, tours, and meetings which I will have every month with a concert or two thrown in the mix. I have a feeling this semester will fly by.

Despite the pending stress, I am excited about the year. As I have mentioned plenty of times before, I enjoy being in Fort Wayne and think this year will be even better since my roommate and I have our own place. Also, I know that after this semester, I will be [mostly] done with my music core classes which means most of my classes will be ones I am really interested in, with a few gen. eds thrown in there. Another point of excitement is that I am a junior. I am halfway to getting my undergraduate degree! It feels weird being an "upperclassman" again.

I hope you are all having smooth transitions back in to school and wish you the best of luck!

Posted by Kim Yoder at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just moved back to Fort Wayne for the summer. The trip down wasn't incredibly fun or fast because I moved our cats as well. Our girl, Lilly (we have decided to keep her name because she doesn't respond to anything else), absolutely hates the car. She cried for almost the entire hour and a half trip. Both her and Tobias tried to escape from their carriers which wore them out by the time we made it to my apartment. I took them to my room and opened their carriers and they both ran for the bed and hid. Thankfully they were both exploring the apartment within the hour. I still have only seen Tobias twice since he began hiding but Lilly has quickly adjusted to her new home.

It feels really nice to be mostly moved in. I need to pick up a few more things from the store but overall I'm ready to live comfortably here. I do consider Fort Wayne to be my home now and it's nice. When I lived in student housing, I felt like a visitor even though it was my apartment simply because I knew I would be moving out at the end of the year. With the apartment I'm in now, it seems as though my experience will be much more personal and comfortable because this place is mine (and my roommate's).

School doesn't start for two more weeks but I feel like I still need more time. There is a ton of stuff I want to get done before school starts but I also want to be able to relax a little. I'm hoping I can set aside some time to enjoy the pool!

I would write more but I'm pretty tired. Hopefully I will get a chance to update later this week!

Posted by Kim Yoder at 8:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had an incredibly awesome weekend that I hope I remember for the rest of my life. It started out on Friday when they let us out of work after only 8 hours (which meant my friends and I got to go home at 6)! I was planning on going to Fort Wayne on Saturday with two of my best friends, Ashley and Genni, but since we got out of work a little earlier, we decided to head out that night. The three of us made it to my apartment around 11pm and spent the next few hours laughing at each other.

Genni goes to Boston University, and Ashley attends Purdue but will be spending this next year in New York at FIT (which is a very competitive fashion program). The three of us have been close friends since junior high/high school and it is hard to be so far away from each other but it makes our get-togethers that much better. We've all had very different experiences in college dealing with everything from friends to classes, and home-life to non-school activities, which gives us plenty to talk about.

Once we got our "what's new" talk out of the way, we got back to just being ourselves and laughing hysterically for stupid things. The next morning we went to Dunkin' Donuts and attempted to get some sun by the pool (unfortunately, the pool was way too cold to get in). At 1:00, we made some strong memories. We went to a tattoo parlor and got pierced. I got my cartilage done, Genni got her belly button, and Ashley simply got her ears double-pierced. It was quite intense because none of us had had anything pierced since we were much younger. After that, we went to Craig's new townhouse in Canterbury to check it out. Next on the list was the mall.

None of us had gone to a store with no real purpose in ages so it was refreshing to simply browse the racks and try on ridiculous things just for the fun of it. Genni and I usually return to a t-shirt-and-jeans look; that made shopping with Ashley quite interesting because she is a fashion major. Before we knew it, it was time to rush back to Elkhart. It was tough to split up again but hopefully we can get together at least once more before we say goodbye for a few months.

My Sunday was less eventful but no less fun. Craig's birthday was on Thursday and his family had his traditional birthday meal that Sunday at Olive Garden. After our delicious meal, we headed back to his house for some of his mom's ice cream pie (which is amazing!). We were all pretty beat after a few hours so I went home and took a welcomed nap. The rest of the day was basically wasted, as it should be, which allowed me to reset for another week of overtime at work.

I'm in my last week at Carpenter and can't wait until I get to officially move back to Fort Wayne!

Oh yeah...my roommate and I decided to rename Catalina "Mrs. Penny-Apple" from a "Family Guy" episode.

I think that's finally it for this post :)

Posted by Kim Yoder at 8:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)