Musicals!

People keep asking me what exactly am I studying, and what classes am I taking, and what am I writing my thesis about. So here is the answer, in bulletpoints:

• I am studying Film, TV, and Media. Basically, I watch, study and analyze movies. I do NOT make movies. What I do is WAY easier than making movies...


• I don't have any classes this year! My sole existence as a student revolves around writing my thesis.


• Speaking of my thesis, my topic is about musicals. Specifically, I am writing about new musicals that take a genre characterized by fantasy and try a realistic approach. Um, yeah...

So, here are my two main examples so far:

Once: a charming little Irish movie with really great music.

Dancer in the Dark: a grueling melodrama from director Lars von Trier.

Besides my schoolwork, I am again involved at my church here. I have started helping out again with children's church, and I am going to start getting trained on AV and sound. Also, I will probably start helping out with editing the church magazine, which I am really excited about. I get a strange little high off of proofreading.

I think that's all for now. I'll leave you with ten songs I have in high rotation right now:

"The General Specific" by Band of Horses

"Click Click Click Click" by Bishop Allen

"Suspcious Character" by The Blood Arm

"The Crane Wife 3" by The Decemberists

"Les Champs-Elysees" by Joe Dassin

"Strangers" by The Kinks

"Second Chance" by Liam Finn

"Sorry Signs on Cash Machines" by Mason Jennings

"Mr. Pitiful" by Matt Costa

"Every Line of A Long Moment" by Roddy Woomble

Summer Vacation

Hello everyone! I have been grossly negligent with my blogging lately, but I have a good excuse. I was on summer vacation! And now since I am not back at school, I figured my first entry should be a classic "What I Did On My Summer Vacation Entry" to sum up the last three months of my life:




First, right after classes were over, I headed down to the bottom of the North Island to spend a few days in Wellington.
Wellington is a beautiful city right on the harbour.





It is known for being the capital of New Zealand, as well as being something of a cultural center. It also holds the nations film industry.
This is a picture of the national museum, Te Papa. I spent a lot of time there...



Ok, after Wellington it was back to the USA. I was back just in time for Thanksgiving in New York City with my family.
This is, of course, Time's Square.


Isaac and Graciana on the Staten Island Ferry.


After the holiday, I spent a few days on my own doing some siteseeing.
This is a view of Manhattan from the Empire State Building.


And, I got to take in a concert! This is me up front to see Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche live in concert. He is one of my favorite artists, so it was a real treat so see him live.

By the way, he did all the music for a nice little movie called Dan in Real Life which stars Steve Carrell.

After that I spent Christmas in the Chicago-area as usual. There was some nice snow there, and good times visiting old friends.
And the rest of my time was spent in the LA/OC area as I was working at Biola with my old financial aid buddies.

Some of my favorite people took me to the airport for a final farewell as I headed back to the other side of the world.

Steve, Kimi, Brynne, Bethany, Mike and Wes

I can't believe how much I crammed into such a short amount of time! It seems a shame to gloss over it, but after all, this is a blog for Kiwi adventures... I promise to bring you updates soon about my life here. Thanks for sticking with me for a second year!