Back again, only different than before...

Hello, Hello. 8 months later, and decided to start up the blog again, because well.... tis the season!

 A lot has happened since my last post, so I guess I should do a little update. 

:)

Let's travel back in time:

SPRING!

 Spring Quarter was a bittersweet quarter: Sweet because some of the most memorable moments of this year occurred during this quarter; Bitter because I had to say farewell to some of my closest friends that I made when I first started at UC Irvine. I got to perform with two ensembles that I love dearly: Etude Ensemble & Jazz Ensemble, and I also danced alongside my best friends in my old roommate and one of my first friends at UCI's thesis. It was a quarter of new friendships, dance & music performances, pub nights, and all sorts of wonderful. 

View of the Commencement Ceremony: UCI Class of 2014 feat. President Obama

Jamie Nishimura's Thesis <3

SUMMER!

In front of the Colosseum 

1. Rome!! I went to Rome this summer  and it was probably one of the biggest highlights of my year. I got to work and perform with super talented composers and musicians from Rome and improvise on stage with fellow UCI dancers. I experienced the beautiful ancient ruins of Rome and was constantly overwhelmed by the amount of history each part of Rome held. I immersed myself into the busy life of Rome and got myself lost in the city where I found some of my favorite things: little streets with no names, a cafe that opened up to a hip urban bar at night, and fountains constantly surrounded by emerging artists and university students. The experience of Rome is something that I will forever cherish, and I'm so happy to have been given the opportunity to go on this trip. 

NY/VA Photo Collage

2. After my Rome trip, I made a pit-stop on the East Coast! I was in NYC for a couple of days to watch a couple of shows, take some dance classes, and visit old friends of mine. Then I went over to Shirlington, VA to visit my lovely niece Lucy Evangeline Rogers who is the definition of the cutest baby in the world. I'm biased, mainly because she's my niece, but already she is full of spunk and personality and it's probably because she has the coolest parents ever. She's now almost 10 months old and likes crawling, biting things, and giving a mean stank face.

SKC

3. After being away from California for approximately a month, I finally drove back to dear old Half Moon Bay and worked for the remainder of the summer with Steve and Kates Summer Camp! It was my second consecutive year with Steve and Kates, so it was nice to return to a familiar environment. Always a trip when you see that some of the kids you were a counselor for last year have grown significantly taller...

FALL

 Fall Quarter was something that I was looking forward to starting, and by the end of it, I was glad to see it go. I had about the roughest fall quarter to date with a whopping 38 Units (Intro to Earth System Sciences, Poetry, Journalism on the Edge, Choreo Project II, New Slate Dance Concert, Jazz III , Contemporary Dance Immersion, Senior Seminar, Laban Notation, Jazz Ensemble, and Etude Ensemble) because I thought it would be a good idea to dive myself into school (spoiler alert: IT WASN'T A GOOD IDEA). Despite the tears, stress, and an overworked state of mind and physical being that Fall quarter brought, I survived, passed all of my classes and made Deans Honors List! *pats self on back* I've never been so happy to see the end of a quarter. 

Photo from Cierra's Choreo Project

"Moji" New Slate Dance Concert 2014, Choregraphy: Elke Calvert, Photo: Skye Schmidt

Now: 

I'm currently on Winter Break where I'm enjoying days where I can sleep without having to set an alarm, spend time with my family since it's rare to get all of us in the house at the same time, and binge watch on Doctor Who, American Horror Story, and The Office. Why did I start this blog back up again? Probably because of the sudden surplus in leisure time I have due to this break. But mainly, this blog was kind of a writing outlet for me.Writing is something I've always loved, and it's nice not having to write up something for an assignment every once in a while. Hopefully I'll be better about updating this little thing for the upcoming year. :) 

Update Part 2: I'M AN AUNTIEEEEEEEEEEEE & Going to ROME

Also, Just wanted to let THE WORLD KNOW:

My sister gave birth to a beautiful little girl by the name of Lucy Evangeline Rogers on April 13th, 2014!

SHE IS THE CUTEST!!!!

Lucy Evangeline Rogers <3

Flashback to the very first day Jackie and Phil told us about baby Sesame on the way!! 

TEARS OF JOY

I seriously can't wait to meet her officially... I've already met her through Facetime but she probably doesn't remember because she was sleeping. Also she was like four days old and I don't think anyone can remember stuff from when they were four days old. She's got such a cute derpy face. HEH. I'll be meeting her in the summer after my Rome trip...

Which leads to my ROME trip!

I'm officially going to ROME with seven other dancers from UCI-- three undergraduate students(including myself) and four Graduate students. This was actually a really last minute decision, but I've decided since I wasn't able to study abroad this summer, I can DANCE abroad-- which is basically like studying abroad. It's going to be really cool because we are working and collaborating with musicians at the University of Rome and doing three performances there. Last time I was in Europe I was in Austria performing with my old dance studio.... and it was the best time of my life, though I admit I was quite young at the time and didn't really understand how precious it was. SO i'm super excited to go again to Europe for dance. I'm also just really excited to travel to Europe satisfy my traveling crave I've been having ;)

Also who knows, maybe I'll meet an Italian popstar who will ask me to impersonate his Italian popstar duo partner that looks coincidentally exactly like me and then I'll have to sing and dance and present an award at the italian pop music awards and then---- oh, right that's the Lizzie Mcguire movie.... woops.

I'M READY FOR MY OWN LIZZIE MCGUIRE MOVIE! Lexi Friday takes on ITALIA WOOOO

Season's Greetings

It's been a while since I've posted anything on this. Funny how I was so determined to keep this updated every week, but alas, I'm terrible at keeping promises/commitments. Something I'm going to try and work on this upcoming year.


Significant events that happened since I've last posted:

• My SKC co-workers are actually really awesome and I'm glad I was apart of such a fun camp. It was a long week each week, but overall I enjoyed it. I also learned how to make friendship bracelets so that was cool.
• Fall Quarter of UCI started out rough, but slowly got better.
• I joined the Whovians Club and Her Campus writing club (again) and it was probably one of the best decisions I made this quarter.
• I sort of like Linguistics and I absolutely hate Bio Sci- Life Sciences.
• I really love my Etude Family and still can't believe I'm apart of the ensemble.
• I'm staying an extra year of school (I'm not graduating on time because of the year I took off) and I'm still kind of training myself to accept that it's okay.
• Because I'm graduating in 2015 and not 2014, I am planning on picking up a minor in Literary Journalism. I realized that I really enjoy writing and I want to get better at writing. Hopefully that can turn into a major, if I work hard enough in my time at UCI. I'm also thinking about business/management as well... 
• My ankle is slowly but surely recovering. 
• oh and I'M 21 (and invincible)

Anyways, I'm home for the holidays! I drove home from Irvine for the first time by myself. That was kind of a big accomplishment for me since I absolutely loathe driving, so I was really happy about that.

I'll have more to write about when I'm not marathon watching Grey's Anatomy. In the mean time, Enjoy the Her Campus articles I wrote this quarter:

Her Campus Author: Lexi Viernes

Happy Holidays!