Monday, December 24, 2012

Fall Orchestra Concert

Recently, I had my first concert in orchestra this year. This is my second year in Camerata Strings.  We practice every Saturday from 9:00 to 11:30. The conductor is really nice and she picks beautiful pieces or us to play. Everyone must practice there part during the week, so we could play it together on Saturday.


My day started early in the morning because I needed to get dressed in a white top and a black skirt and black, shiny shoes. I had to be at the dress rehearsal at 11:30 because we needed to practice on stage. There was a lot of waiting around for our groups turn on stage. Finally, it was our time to perform. I was very nervous when I got on stage, but after we finished playing, there was a lot of clapping from the audience which made me feel very excited. 


We played Fiddles out West,  Sahara Crossing, DECKorations, and Starfleet. Fiddles out West was a very melodic, fast, and a light piece. Sahara Crossing, was a very slow piece. When I play this piece I imagine people crossing the desert suffering because they don't have enough water. Deckorations is a happy piece When I think of  it, I think of all the holidays in December. Starfleet was my least favorite piece. It didn't have much melody and my mom didn't even record it.


Here is a video of our performance. I am kind of hidden behind some of the older kids. I am sitting right behind the blond girl in the front. Sometimes you can see me peek through. I will try out again for first violin in January. I hope I will make it this time. 









Which was your favorite piece?

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Spending Time with Grandma

A few weeks ago, I went to my grandma's house. Each of my siblings gets to spend one day with grandma alone and today was my day. In the morning, my grandma took me to my orchestra practice. I play the violin in the junior orchestra and we practice every Saturday morning. After orchestra practice, I went to grandma's house. When I first came, we cooked schnitzel and borscht. Borscht is a kind of soup that is red because it has beets inside it. It also has other vegetables such as potatoes, cabbage and red peppers.   It was delicious.

Then we took a nice walk with their dog Elsie, and picked flowers . When we came home, we planted flowers. My grandma cut some of the bad leaves off and I made a hole in the dirt and stuck the flower inside it. I hope it will grow! When we went inside, we played  domino's. It was a very close game but I won.  

Late in the afternoon, grandpa and I took another walk with Elsie to a high school field. There was a huge hill that Elsie really wanted to climb so my grandpa let him. Elsie went racing up the hill and he pulled me all the way to the top. It was very fun. When I got home, we had to get ready to go to my cousins birthday party. My grandma made my hair in two ponytails. It looked very cute. Spending a day with grandma is interesting and fun.


Do you have someone that you like to spend a day with?