last few days here

i'm so glad to be going home in two days. i'm so excited to be home for a long time and spend basically everyday with my best friend, Lucie. this past weekend though was so busy. i saw the MTP's and theater majors perform directing scenes friday night which was so fun. saturday the freshmen dance majors had our first concert performing with just our class which was probably one of my favorite things i've done here so far. i just have four more finals and this project to get through and then i get to go home thursday afternoon. that night, the honors dance class at my high school has their annual concert so i'm going with a few friends that i was in that class with last year to support our younger friends that are still there. i'm really excited to see what they've been up to and what that class is like with out us in it. good luck to my RDE girls and see you soon Lucie! #rbhsdance #bestfriends #TYP 

one more thing. so i decided i kind of like writing blogs so i might keep writing one at least once a week (i'll try to still write two) even though this class is over. we'll see how long it last but i'll try to keep it updated over winter break!

oncers

not many people know about or watch this show but its called Once Upon A Time on abc Sundays. its basically about your classic fairy tale characters (Snow White and Charming, Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin, Little Red Riding Hood, Captain Hook, The Mad Hatter, etc.) that have been placed under a curse by the Evil Queen Regina (of the snow white story) that sends them to another world (our world, Storybrooke) where they have no memory of who they were in their magical world. all of these character's stories have some kind of twist on them and all the characters are intertwined, have something to do with everyone else's story or want revenge on someone. my mom and I started watching the first season last year and last night was the mid-season finale. by this point, the curse has been lifted but now Regina's mother Cora (who is worse than Regina) is coming to Storybrooke with Hook who wants to kill Rumpelstiltskin.

king henry viii

for our final project my group has chosen to research and write about King Henry viii and his six wives. i was in honors Shakespeare for my English class second semester last year and Shakespeare uses the Tudor family in many of his plays so i already had some background knowledge about that time period. last night in the library, i was basically looking at family trees of the Tudors to see exactly how everyone is related. 

- Henry viii is the son of Henry vii and Elizabeth of York
- siblings:  Arthur Tudor, Margaret Tudor, Mary Tudor
- first marriage: Catherine of Aragon. child: Mary i ("Bloody Mary")
- second marriage: Anne Boleyn. child: Elizabeth i (later declared illegitimate and later Queen Elizabeth i)
- third marriage:  Janey Seymour. child: Edward vi

long week

For the past seven days 20 of the freshmen dance majors have been working with a guest choreographer, Derrick Evans, for a piece in the Fall Showcase. The piece was also chosen to be performed in the Winter Gala Concert which is the best WMU dance concert of the year. Along with this, every freshman in the dance department started working with the Choreo III students (most of them are BFA juniors or seniors) for their works that will also be performed in the Fall Showcase. I love love love the two choreographers I am working with for that, Ronnie and Alana. Those are the last rehearsals I have before I get to go home for Thanksgiving Tuesday night.  :) And now, I will probably be staying up to wait for Coldplay's Live 2012 album to be released. Probably not one of my better ideas, considering I have class at 8am but, oh well I'll live.

reading journals

Seventeen -October 2012

Audience: high school girls. 
the article is about homecoming dresses. that's also the age of the girls in the pictures.

Purpose: to tell the audience what the cute styles are for homecoming this year. achieves this by giving picture examples of those dresses. 

Tone: the mood of this article is fun and casual. sort of like you are just talking with a friend.

Attitude: the author isn't really partial to one style over the other. they are just informing the reader about the styles.

Design: there are not many words on the page at all. the words 'dresses' and 'homecoming!' are in bold and different colors. there are four different dresses shown by themselves and a larger picture of a girl actually wearing one.

Medium: magazine pages. 

Glamour -December 2012

Audience: young women. (20 yr+) 
the article is focused on satin shoes. they are very expensive so not something that teenage girls could afford. 

Purpose: to show what shoes are in this holiday season. there are about ten example pictures of different shoes on the page. 

Tone: the tone of the page is fun and light.

Attitude: you don't get the author's opinion on any of the shoes.

Design: there are hardly any words on the page. there are many pictures of satin heels in all different colors on the page with three pictures of someone actually wearing a pair.

Medium: magazine pages.

memes!

http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3rnhfy/

sunday funday

I actually really don't like Sundays, I don't think they are very fun at all. Anyways, I was sitting here and almost forgot to write a blog and then noticed I didn't write one Thursday either. Wednesday night through this afternoon Orchesis Dance Society had their 2012 concert which was AMAZING. The last three shows were sold out which is always a good thing. I was able to watch only on Saturday night and this show contained two of my favorite pieces I've ever seen. They were choreographed by seniors in the dance program which is probably one of the reasons why they were so amazing. I'm so glad to be a part of this program here and can not wait till I'm an upper class-men, can perform and choreograph like they do and all the freshman look up to us like we look up to and admire them.

successful weekend :)

My parents, sister and one of my best friends from high school, Jamie, came to visit this weekend. It might have been one of my favorite weekends that I've been here. Had dinner with all of them Friday night, then went out with Jamie and some friends. Saturday we went to the game, an open rehearsal for the dance department, downtown Kalamazoo for dinner which was fun because I had also never been there. Then Jamie and I watched The Sandlot that night.It was one of the best things to just sit with her, catch up, and just laugh about the movie and great memories. We went out to breakfast this morning and they all left a little while later. Now I just got back from seeing Spring Awakening. Again, I was impressed. But going back, I find it so crazy that spending time with people you love goes by so quickly. So thanks to my family for everything and thank you Jamie Payne for being an amazing friend that I can do dumb things with but also know that I can come to you when things are rough. ♥ #besties

The Prestige pt. 2

Yup, my first idea for this paper wasn't working out like I thought it would so after thinking about it for days, I changed my thesis tonight. Typical. My new thesis is that Cutter (the narrator of the movie played by Michael Caine) is manipulating everyone and every action is pre-planned. I think I'm having a hard time with this because everything makes sense in my head but I have a hard time writing it all out with every detail that is needed for it to make sense to other people. I also feel like sometimes after I write it, it stops making sense or confuses me a little bit. I feel like this is on the way to being super confusing to everyone so I'm going to bed. Night.

funnyyyyyy

http://iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=36594

I found this gif at the end of senior year (probably when I should have been doing homework but it was second semester senior year, oh well.) and thought it was literally the FUNNIEST thing I had ever seen. I was laughing about it for a good fifteen minutes. This girl gets me every single time I see this. I showed it to a friend at school and luckily she thought it hilarious too. Anyways, I just remembered that and thought I'd share. I hope you find it at least half as amusing as I do.

The Prestige

The Prestige (2006) directed by Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite movies of all time. I'm a little (okay maybe a lot) obsessed with it. So, that is what I will be doing my second project for this class on. Getting points to watch my favorite movie? I'll take it. I don't want to give away the movie for anyone that hasn't seen it but I'm trying to make my thesis work around the idea that the entire movie is a prestige or illusion. The whole first and last scenes are EXACTLY the same so I'm really hoping that this will work out in my favor. So that's what I'll be doing this weekend, watching my favorite movie :) 

story of my life

I didn't realized till about Friday night that I completely forgot to post a blog for Thursday. Whoops, sorry guys. Maybe because my weekend started on Thursday for my first time here just hanging out and a having fun with friends because dance majors didn't have classes on Friday.  :) Anyways, it was pretty much a typical weekend in my life at WMU. ITM house Friday night (drama!), I went with my friend to her sorority dinner Saturday night (which just confirmed even more that I'm so glad I'm not in one.) And rehearsal and spending some time at the library today. I did see Sleep Deprivation Chamber tonight though which was incredible. My friend Nate is the main character, Teddy, and I was so amazed at how great he is. It was the first theater production I've seen at Western and I can't wait to see more!

homecoming weekend

I know most people are probably thinking that this will be about WMU's homecoming but its not. I went home to Illinois for the first time this weekend. It was also my high school's homecoming Saturday night. I saw all most of my younger friends which was so fun. I  can't believe I was in their place just one year ago, its kind of crazy. It was so nice to see everyone and feel completely at home. Good luck to all my babies, Acad and RDE loves ♥

peer review

I've never really done that much peer review of papers in my English classes before. It was neat to see how the other students in my class write and what has made them into the writers that they are. Reading their comments on my paper was helpful right then and I hope it will help when I write the second draft. I've also never been required to write multiple drafts of papers for English. We usually just had to turn in one paper and then we were given the option to fix it and turn it back in for more points. So I've always been the person that can sit down and just write a whole paper the night before its due and get a good grade on it and that's how I've always written papers for my English classes.

Greek Life.........

No, I am not a part of Greek Life, nor do I really have an interest in becoming part of it. One of my good friends is though so I decided I would go with her to a frat last night. Bad idea. We spent the night walking around Frat Ville with some girls in her sorority without ever getting anywhere. I could have had a fun, productive night hanging out with friends at the ITM house..but no. Spending sometime at the Alpha Xi Delta house last night made me very sure about my decision about not being in a sorority.

Phil Levine

Friday night I went to hear Phil Levine speak with a few friends. I had never been to a poetry reading before so I figured I'd give it a chance. I think it would have been more fun if I actually liked poetry... It was hard for me to pay attention to what he was reading. He kept telling what I guess were jokes but I didn't get them or find them very funny (maybe because I'm not into poetry) but everyone else was laughing and I didn't really understand why. My friends and I were talking when it was over and they both felt the same way. Both of them are dance majors as well and I think we (or at least I) wasn't interested in it because I had nothing to watch. I've noticed that before too when I've had to watch speakers that I lose interest quickly if I have nothing to watch. That's probably just because I have been watching dance my whole life and that what I love to watch pretty much no matter what and that's what I'm knowledgeable about. I don't think I will be attending another poetry reading anytime in the near future. 

HeLa

Yes, I am a person that uses abbreviations for things whenever possible. This week for class we had to read part one of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I started this book over the summer and didn't mind reading it. I'm kind of a history nerd (mostly American history and WWII stuff) so I actually find the things that take place in the past interesting to read about. I've never been a fan of science but reading about the history of science and how far it's come isn't that bad. It's crazy to me that; one, the HeLa cancer cells never died and that they are in people today, still helping others and being used in medical science. And two, that Henrietta and her family were never told that her cells were still growing outside her body and that they were being used in research. I think the family should have been told what the doctors were doing with her cells. If it were me, I don't think I would have been happy not knowing that my cells were being used for medical research until after it had already been done.

being away from home

I really have loved the past three weeks I've been at WMU.  I've met so many new people that I absolutely love to be around but of course there is that little part of me that really misses everything at home. It didn't really hit me until yesterday when some things sort of blew up in my face (long story). I was talking to my roommate Lizzie this morning and we were just saying it's all the little things we miss. Like driving, the places to go to eat at home, your own bed...and of course all by best friends. I actually did talk to my best friend at home yesterday and I told her how I do have really good friends I can talk to here but it's definitely not the same as seeing and talking to her every single day. So a big shout out to Xenia Mansour for always being there for me, no matter what. ♥ #bestfriends #snookiandjwoww  

Where I'm From

While we were writing our "Where I'm From" poems, I realized how much I appreciation I have for everything and everyone back home. I always knew I was lucky to be given the opportunities I had, I just didn't realize how rare those experiences were. I'm not talking about the things I owned or anything, I'm talking about my experiences in the dance world. My dance studio is my second home and family (that's basically what I wrote about in my poem) and I am so thankful I spent my whole life there. I know so much about dance history because of that which I have really come to realize how rare and special that is. So many of the other dance majors don't know as much about that stuff as I do and I think that might be one of my biggest strengths here. Lots of them have never heard of famous dancers and I'm lucky enough to have performed some of their works. Writing this poem really helped me realize all of this too and I'm so glad it did.

that awkward moment...

I don't know about anyone else, but my life is filled with awkward moments. More like my life is just one huge awkward moment. Lots of people say that things aren't awkward unless you make them awkward so maybe it is my fault. The worst is when you're with a group of people and everyone stops talking all at once and then no one knows what to say at all. Or when you're driving and you think you see someone you know at a red light so you pull up a little to see if it is them and it turns out it's not them and the other person sees you staring at them. I know I've been in much more awkward situations and I know there will be many, many more to come.

Get to know me :)

Hi, welcome to my blog! My name is Rachel, I'm from Chicago and I am a dance major at Western Michigan University. I'm pretty quiet until you get to know me but I love meeting new people. I've never had a blog before so this should be interesting...enjoy!! 

My little sister and I on our way to a wedding we attended this summer right before I left to come to school.