Vienna is for Singers

I'm so spoiled!!! 

This summer, as my last hurrah before I graduate from BYU forever

(yahooooo!! Comin atcha, world!)

I am going on another Study abroad in Europe,

this time to...

VIENNA, AUSTRIA!

When I tell people Vienna, the general response is,

Why are you learning German if you're going to Italy?

To them I say, No no no my darlings, Vienna is a musical hot spot in Austria--

With INCREDIBLE Operas and Orchestras,

and Kelly and I are going to take music lessons from some of the best!

Inside a Viennese Opera House

Did I mention Kelly is coming too?

We are going with BYU's School of Music,

she on cello, and I on classical voice (AKA Opera, let's be real:)

Kelly and her celly:)

It's headed up by BYU's trombone professor Will Kimball, a real swell guy.

We'll live with a cute Austrian family!

And make our way around Vienna as we need to for class and whatnot!:)

ANYWAY preparations are already weeeell under way for this event.

We've been studying German. We're still terrible at it.

I bought a new passport!! Since my last one was lost while I was in London

(What a GREAT story that is, I will have to tell you all about that!)

We still need to buy our plane tickets...oops...

But actually studies have shown the best time to buy a plane ticket to Europe

is 55 days in advance. In case you wanted to know.

Sigh. Such good times await us:)

I've already been told romantic tales

by Patients at the Physical Therapy clinic

and other friends,

about the waltzes held outdoor in the town square,

or in large extravagant ballrooms,

the Viennese Waltz

and of the chestnut trees lining the streets in full bloom.

Vienna has officially been listed as the #1 most liveable city for 2013,

doncha know??

If I find someone there to marry and get me citizenship,

I may never come back.

JK I love Utah too much:)

Also another SWEET part is that I have been hired to work while I am there!

But one can hardly call it work,

when it is going to be so fun and exciting!

I'm hired... wait for it... as a photographer!!

Me with my cam in front of Anne Hathaway's house (Shakespeare's Wife)

I'll be spending some time, entirely separate from the Study abroad,

working on a Research Grant with some of Brass players.

We'll of course spend most of our days right there in Vienna where we live,

but for one week we are planning to take off

to Budapest, Hungary

and then Prague, Czech Republic.

Basically, we are researching Brass iconography,

or in other words, taking pictures of paintings with brass instrument in old Churches,

to study how the instruments were held & perceived at different time periods,

and to interview people in the Churches,

who will definitely know more than we do.

An example of brass iconography

I'm way excited about it! 

It should be a fun project, rife with adventure.

It will also be nice to help earn back some of the money I'm spending to get there:)

Part of what I am supposed to catalogue for this project, however,

is not just the paintings, but the search itself.

The paintings won't be easy to find,

and we don't anticipate there will be very many of them,

so I am supposed to keep a detailed log of the entire adventure.

Which will be SAWEEEET!!

Brooke gets tired of Photographing adventures

As part of that I will SERIOUSLY this time, 

keep a weekly update of our work

on this blog rot hur! (hick accent for "right here")

Thanks for tuning in!

I'm Writing a Book!!!

Wow, it has been a looong time since I posted on this blog!

 I'm sad I didn't end up posting all during my adventures in London,

cause just those two were fun to read!

But tell me if I'm wrong,

Sometimes when you're having so much fun

you don't have time to stop and record it,

Ya know? And you think,

Well, hopefully the angels wrote it down

and I can look at it all again and laugh when I'm in Heaven.

A picture in front of the Grounds at Victoria and Albert's getaway Palace

So I'm sure you're all wondering 

what's brought me back today? Well let me tell you!

I am writing a BOOK.

Ya. A book. A piece of Fiction, a 3 Volume Novel

(Importance of Being Earnest? Anyone?)

and it's gonna be FUN!!

I came up for the idea for it while my little sister Kelly and I were out hiking

We like hiking together:)

And I started to tell her a mystical story.

Just for our entertainment, while my imagination was going wild in those pretty woods.

So anyway, soon after I started, 

suddenly every word was falling out of my mouth

so easily. 

And every detail was so clear, I almost wasn't even thinking it.

It was playing in my mind like a movie

I was just letting it fall out of my head.

And it was exciting!!

I mean, both the experience of telling a tale 

and the tale ITSELF were exciting!!

Kelly was enraptured, and I was enraptured--and I felt like I was, in that moment,

definitely making a little bit of magic.

Anyway here is a little snippet about how it began:

In holding with my Daddy's storytelling tradition

I started the story with characters that were veeeeery similar 

to the people who were present.

And in circumstances that were veeeeeery similar to our own at that moment

So that what happened to them next

would seem extra real and extra exciting.

As if it might actually happen to us when they rounded that next corner.

And thus the story started with two girls.

Sisters--one older, one younger, and though they were different, 

physically and temperamentally,

they were good friends. 

Names Janna and Klara.

One day these girls are visiting their Grandparents in Norway,
and they go out walking through the snowy woods,
havin fun, talking about their lives,

When they meet an old man with a silver beard (true story)

and cross a gap in a crumbling old wall (this all really happened to us)

 then BAM.

She wanders into the woods...

A tall Scandinavian hunter all dressed in blues and reds

appears through the trees on horse back. (This part didn't actually happen, unfortunately)

He saves them from a bear, they follow him through the woods

and realize they're not in Kansas anymore.

Oh, sorry, I mean Europe. 

Ok, they're not on Earth anymore.

They have found themselves in the Land of Old Norse Mythology

Where Thor and Odin and Loki lived

...many thousands of years ago. 

The world is ruled by another King now,

after the last Ragnarok (Norse word for the End of the World)

killed all the Gods, the world was burned in fire

the Sun and Moon were eaten by wolves,

 mankind turned on each other, Brothers killing Brothers,

and the Bifrost was destroyed.

Sounds rough doesn't it??

This last detail cut off communication between our world and theirs

since the time the Vikings were able to interact with the real Asgardians. 

And worship them as Gods.

The last Ragnarok was pretty bad

So at this point--

Things begin to develop, and the girls learn, as they try to find their way back home,

that Ragnarok is not a one time thing--

and it's scheduled to begin again at any moment, based on a prophecy. Essentially that prophecy says,

 "When two Midgard girls cross the wall,

the Reign of Men again will fall."

The girls get caught up in a quest to save Midtenheim

with the help of new friends and old magic,

from being destroyed again

by the terrifying, unstoppable, apocalyptic--

RAGNAROK.

Klara

Janna

Ta Daaaaa!! 

Ok I hope that sounded exciting, cause I'm excited right now:)

I've written many thousands of words,

and about 4 chapters (looong chapters--seriously, my editor is gonna chop so much I know it)

but I have the entire plot laid out, and all the characters,

so now it's just a matter of getting it all out there on the page!

Wooooot!!

I'm planning to post about further developments on this blog,

with snippets from my writing every once in a while

or just random updates about what I learn,

you know.

So feel free to follow me!

Whether you are an aspiring author yourself,

or someone who just really likes me (shucks:)

I'll let you in on all my intimate author secrets.

Such as they are.