happy birthday baby bro!

Hello everyone!

Today, my baby bro turns 21!
I can't believe it.
this little bebe, who spent his childhood getting squished by yours truly...  is now an adult!

long gone are the days that I could boss him around physically like this, as he is now twice as big as I am...

but I'll always have the memories of this tiny babe who always let me convince him to go along with many different crazy ideas of mine throughout our childhood. the baby brother who always committed himself completely to everything he set his mind to, even the crazy ideas of his big (sometimes reckless) sister.  

so, have a great day, favorite brother of mine!  

though we are living in opposite sides of the country now, I hope that when we 'grow up', we'll get to live close by with our families  =)

and remember, no matter how many people think you are a hunk of a human male specimen now, you will always and forever remain this little cutie pie to me  ;)  =p

soo much love!  

--big sis

Grad life... and a dance video!

Hi everyone!

IT'S FRIDAY!!!!!!!
Sorry it's been so quiet over on my end, but the past week has been pretty hectic, yet also pretty darn uneventful.  My grad life goes something like this:  wake up, get to school by 8 or 8:30 A.M, practice until 11 A.M., classes, lunch, rehearsals until about 4:40 P.M, go back home, eat dinner, get back to school to teach, rehearse, and do extra practice until 8 P.M or so, exercise (usually running or dancing with my man), shower, and bed by 11 P.M!  
Yup.  Gone are the days of staying up until 2 A.M,,, my aging body (?) can't handle the 7+ hours of violining on less than 7 hours of sleep.  It really makes me wonder how on earth I survived my undergrad years... going to bed at 2 A.M and waking up at 5:30 A.M to go practice ballroom... dear ballroom family that did 6-8 A.M. rehearsals with me,, what on earth were we thinking? how on earth did we do that?!   ahh, but such good times and memories though.. =)

Anyway, I'm happy to report that baby bro has also become quite a dancer himself, albeit a hip hop-ing one, and not a ballrooming one...  but here's a little video of his team's performance!  Apparently they put it together in 3-4 weeks, and I was really very impressed!  ;)  aww, baby bro, all grown up *sniffle sniffle*   sorry, having a proud big sis moment over here ;)

Enjoy!

Happy Weekend!!!
--Janny

San Fran with the Larks!

Hello everyone,

My hopping around the United States is almost coming to an end!!  It's been a crazy wonderful summer of Houston-Seattle-Oregon-Bozeman-Las Vegas-SoCal-San Fran-Seattle.  I am so blessed to be pursuing something that allows me to travel so much, especially since it's with two of my best friends  =)   This summer has really been an amazing one for our trio, and it's been exciting to see our group grow as a group, and also to meet amazing people along the way.  We are now in Seattle to perform one last time for the summer, but I wanted to share some photos of the lovely city we just left: San Fran!  It was kind of funny because I was just there for spring break with my man a couple of months ago, and it certainly brought back amazing memories, especially since we also visited Berkeley this time to see baby bro and my dear friend Alina again!

Anyway, we got to enjoy a couple of days in this lovely city of San Fran, and we can't thank Timmay's sister enough for letting us stay with her!  It was such a different experience too, staying in the heart of the city and exploring via the public transit instead of driving in from the suburbs!

walking around downtown...

We also got to meet some amazing faculty from San Francisco Conservatory and had a few coachings!

and if you haven't had Bi-Rite ice cream, and you're in the San Fran area, please, do go right now! so. soo good.  =)  Their Salted Caramel. Oh my goodness.  Just go try it (and all the other awesome flavors) and tell me it was not worth the trip into the city  ;)

One of the days that we stayed in the Bay area, we took the Bart over to spend a day in Berkeley with baby bro and Alina!  As we were wandering around waiting for them to both get off work/get done with class, we stumbled upon this store.

Too perfect. Isn't it?  haha    so sad..  =p  

Then, we met up with Alina and walked around the Berkeley campus  =)  It was so nice having my bestie roommate from high school and my bestie from college years both with me!  and they seemed to hit it off right away as well which was awesome!  but I mean, I knew they would, how could two awesome peeps not get along, right?  ;)

Oh, and funny story!  As we were walking around the campus, we happened upon this hip hop group rehearsing, and I said, "haha! that looks like something baby bro would be doing!"  When I looked around the group though, I didn't see him, and then I promptly got distracted by this adorable little puppy.  A second later, Abers poked me in the side, and pointed to this random kid in the back who was waving at us, and it was baby bro!  haha!  It was so funny, and we laughed about it all evening  =)

we ended the night with a lovely dinner with everyone, and then Abers and I took the train back into the city!

Oh San Fran, you wonderful city, you!  with amazing mochas. and beautiful people. and colorful buildings!  I would really love to live there one day  =)  Thanks for being the background for some incredible memories!

Next stop?  Seattle.

the view coming into Seattle

We just got back from a camping trip to the Goldmyer Hotsprings, so stay tuned for the update!  It is such an incredible place, and I can't wait to share the pictures with all of you!

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!
--Janny

Spring Break Part 3 :: Berkeley

Hello everyone!

The penultimate day of our spring break was spent in Berkeley!

It began with a lovely brunch at La Note with my baby brother

Such a cute little place, and amazing food!

and of course, wonderful company  =)

It was so nice to catch up with lil bro again,

and it was fun seeing David and lil bro meet for the first time 

and bond over their experiences attending Berkeley.

Then, because lil bro was preparing for midterms and such undergraduate tasks,

we went for a walk around the Berkeley campus.

The first place we visited was the stadium because before I left, Mr. Lin told me that I HAD to go straddle the fault line that runs through their stadium.

so, here we are, straddling the fault line,

thanks, Google, for telling us where the fault line was located!  ;)

Then, we ran around the field and goofed around a bit.  =p

More of the Berkeley campus,

on a tour with my very own tour guide  ;)

When we got tired of walking around the giant campus,

we took a lunch break and went to the Cheeseboard.

yuuuuummm!! 

so good, AND they had live music!

AND THEN!!!!

we met up with ALINA!!!

AHHHHH

we hugged and screamed for good couple of seconds when we first saw each other,

and I still feel so warm and cozy inside whenever I think about our reunion!

We were roommates in high school when we both attended Interlochen Arts Academy,

and we just clicked from the first moment we met one another.

you know when you meet someone, and you just know that you are like soulmates?

yup. that was us.

So many nights spent staying up talking about history, literature, current events, religions, etc etc...

yes, we were quite the nerdy room, but we LOVED it so!

It was so awesome because she gave us a tour of the farm she's working in,

--because she is uber cool like that and is working in a food justice program--

and we got to harvest chicken eggs, try whole bunch of different plants she has helped to grow,

and for the first time in my life, we tried edible flowers!

and then we took a long walk, caught up on 6 years of our lives we spent apart from one another.

(this must change, dearest cheerio, 6 years is just too long!)

It was so incredibly wonderful to be reunited again, and I can't wait to see her again  =)

After the wonderful afternoon spent with dearest Alina,

we went out for dinner at Chez Panisse.

such a classy restaurant with amazing local, organic food!

the atmosphere was wonderful, our waiter was so classy,

trying oysters for the first time was awesome,

and though I'm not usually a pasta fan, 

their homemade pasta was so delicious!

After our wonderful dinner,

David took me on a hike that he kept promising would be wonderful.

I was a bit skeptical at first, because it was a moonless night, 

and most of the hike was really really dark, 

and then I got rather scared because I kept hearing noises that sounded like bears or coyotes or something of the wild animal kind.

However, once we got to the top, it really was quite breathtaking.

You could see the whole of the Bay area!

it was definitely worth the hike  =) 

That wrapped up that day for us, and we proceeded to go back home to our family friend's house to pass out for the night.

Sight seeing is rather tiring!  haha

I'll be back soon with the post about our last day of our spring break soon!

Happy beginning of the new week!

I can't believe school is starting again...  I'm not ready yet!  haha  

--Janny

Happy Birthday to my baby brother!!

Hello everyone!

Today is my baby brother's birthday!

Well, he's not so baby anymore,,,

in fact, he's turning 19 today,

and he's grown quite a bit from the little baby brother I used to drag around everywhere I went  =)

He's grown up to be quite the guy;

being so passionate about everything he's involved in,

always taking on the challenges head on, and never giving up,

always being so caring and willing to help out his friends
-whether it's with academics, dancing, or anything else-
and even when he's going through that 'I'm a teenager, and I'm so cool phase',
still retaining that tender heartedness that he's always had since he was just a baby.

-------
I'm so proud of you lil bro!
And though you'll get older, and inevitably change,
I hope that your heart never changes  =)
-------

And even though he's grown up to be much bigger than I am now,

you know what they say;

he'll always be my baby brother   ;)

I hope you have a wonderful day lil bro!
Good luck on your midterms!
(poor guy, midterms on his birthday...)

I can't wait to see you soon!
Love,
Big Sis.

Celebrating 2012

Hello everyone!

I am currently in Bozeman, Montana, spending some time with Abers and her wonderful family, and waiting to be reunited as the Meadowlark Trio with Timmy on New Years Day!

And as I am sitting here, waiting to kick off 2013 with two recitals that I get to perform with my bestest friends, I can't help but be filled with incredible warmth, happiness, and gratefulness.

(more information on these recitals will be coming soon, but you can also go to our trio blog for the times and places!   =))

I have truly lead a blessed life, and I am so thankful for everyone who has played a part in making it so wonderful!  

One of the things I am really thankful for this year is the fact that I started this blog.  

I have never been good at keeping diaries of any sort,

but somehow, I have been able to keep up with uploading onto the blog at least once a week!

Perhaps it's the gentle nudgings from my family members who are scattered all over the world whenever I get lazy with the postings?

or perhaps I do find that blogging can be rather therapeutic, much the way others find diaries therapeutic?

or perhaps that I find it much more interesting than diaries because I can include pictures?

Whatever the reason, I am so glad that I kept up with the blogging because it's such a great way to look back and remember all of the wonderful things that has happened in the past year!

So here are some of the many things I am really grateful for this past year.

1. 

I am so grateful that I had a travel buddy during the most stressful time of the year; 

the audition season.

Meredith and I were both studying with Julie at UNL,

and both of us were auditioning for Master's programs this year.

Somehow, we were fortunate enough to not only have almost all the same schools on our list,

but also able to schedule all of our auditions at the same time!

This meant that we could travel together,

we rarely had to be alone in a foreign city,

and also that we each had a cheerleader by our side as we went to go kick some butt in the auditions!

I really couldn't have asked for a better traveling and auditioning partner!  ;)

Me trying to have Meredith hair.  at an antique store in Ann Arbor, MI.

2.

I am so grateful that I had so many opportunities to collaborate with amazing musicians/friends!

I had worked with Nels Drue Daily, who is really a wonderful composer, for a couple of years,

and this year was really an incredible year of collaboration with him!

He wrote a piece for April and I called "3 Impulses", and we got to perform that at a festival in Kearney earlier this year.

Then, our trio premiered a piece he wrote us called the "Meadowlark Rag" in May!

It is such a fun piece, and we are so excited to get to perform it again in the recitals coming up this week in Bozeman!

He is currently writing another piece for me and April, and we can't wait to premiere it in a recital next year!

Here's to another year of wonderful collaboration!  ;)

Abers and I with the Daily's.  Ashley and Nels; beautiful people, wonderful musicians.

In May, a couple of good friends and I formed a tango band, and gave a tango-ish/latin-ish recital!

It was my first time really venturing out and trying a different 'style' of music,

and it was So. Much. Fun!!

I got to try many things I had never had to do before like improvising and transcribing,

and it was fun to get to play with different instruments like the Cajon, the double bass, and the guitar.

We also premiered an original piece by our guitarist, Alexios Anest,

which had a bit of a bluegrass-ish kind of a feel, which was really fun as well  =)

Such a fun project! 

our tango-ish band  haha  ;)

Then, of course, there was the 'Friends Concert'.

It was a concert where the four of us performed different pieces with one another,

sort of as a farewell concert.

It was I believe the night before graduation?

the three of us--Michael, Tim, and I--were graduating,

so it was quite an emotional recital.

I'm glad we all got to play together though  =)

and actually, all four of us will be together again!

Funny how life works right?

we were so sad because we thought this concert would be our last,

but the Meadowlark trio is back together for a concert, and Michael is coming to join us to hang out!

I cannot WAIT for all of us to be together again!

friends.  there really could be a TV show about us--we went through so much together..  haha

3.

I am so grateful for so many graduations this year!

Mom graduated with her Master's degree, and also got her Nurse Practitioner certificate (go mommy!).

I graduated with my Bachelor's degree from UNL.

UNL will always hold a special place in my heart because it was a place that allowed me to pursue my love of music, my love of history, my short but intense interest in math, my interest in all sorts of different subjects of study, and my desire to always be neck deep in extra curricular activities.

I've also met wonderful friends through my involvements in different student organizations, and through Chi Omega Fraternity, and I've had the chance to work with incredible teachers and professors.

I am especially thankful for Julie for guiding me for those 4 years and also a couple years previous to my officially studying with her.

Without her, I probably would not have been able to pursue violin the way I am right now,

and for that, I am so incredibly thankful!  =)

and lil bro graduated with his high school diploma!

and I'm so glad I got to attend lil bro's graduation.

Yay for so many new and exciting beginnings!

4.

I am so grateful that I got to go on a road trip to San Francisco with lil bro and grandma!

What a city.  I would love to live there someday.

and road trips with your loved ones are the best!

5.

I am so grateful that I got to attend Emily's wedding!!

We've been friends since elementary/middle school, and it was so fun to celebrate with her as she began a completely new and exciting chapter in her life  =)

what a beautiful wedding--look at them glowing!  ;)   haha

6.  

I am so grateful that I was chosen to attend Foulger International Music Festival as one of their fellows!!

I had incredible performance opportunities with amazing musicians,

and met many wonderful people  =)

It was definitely a summer to remember!

with Allison Eldredge, Alex Beyer, and Hsin-Yun Huang.

favorite people  =)

7.

I am so grateful that Linda came to visit me in Seattle!!

We've been best friends since middle school, and I'm so glad we got to spend a week together before she went off to NYC to study in Columbia (she's a smart one  ;)  haha)

I can't wait to see her again soon... 

because we will!  somehow  ;)

8.

I am so grateful that I got accepted into Mr. Lin's Studio at Rice University Shepherd School of Music!

As I mentioned above, I was auditioning to pursue a Master's degree in Violin Performance,

and I was so ecstatic when I finally got the acceptance phone call from Rice.

In fact, the director of admissions told me that I had the best response he had ever heard  haha.

So glad I get to study with Mr. Lin at Rice and be a part of this amazing studio!

9.

I am so grateful that daddy came to help me get settled in Houston.

I really don't know how I could have done it without him.

It was the first time I had to set up an apartment from scratch, get a car, register different things, and etc, 

and I would have been a serious mess if he had not been there.

so, thanks daddy!!

you can see a bit of our Houston adventures (mostly of Rice campus) here.  

10.

I am so grateful that I had more opportunities for collaboration!

Rice hosts a Chamber Marahon every semester,

and this semester, I got to play in two different groups;

a piano, clarinet, and violin trio,

and a violin octet!

What wonderful people and what interesting music!  =)

Can't wait to collaborate with the trio again next semester

the Khachaturian Trio

Gran Turismo

11.

I am so grateful to have met so many new friends!

It was such a blast to meet so many new people from so many different schools at Rice,

as well as reconnect with friends I've known before,

mostly from high school (Interlochen Arts Academy)

There have been such epic parties like the Texas style BBQ

Thanksgiving!  

the TURDUCKENHEN.  4 birds.

and the Ugly Sweather Party!

12.

speaking of friends,,,

I am so grateful for my roomy, Amulet!

oh Amulet...  

I can't even count how many times we were both dying because we were laughing so hard...

though I can't remember what we were laughing about exactly,

(probably mostly at each other) 

we never fail to have these giggle/laughing episodes incredibly frequently.

Thank you for always trying to get me to practice,

then failing to practice yourself because we end up talking for hours on the floor in my room  haha

Though we are quite opposites, somehow we manage to coexist incredibly well,

and have a lot of fun doing so.  ;)

I'm so glad we are roomies Amulet, 

my Rice experience would never have been the same without you!

<3

13.

I am so grateful for wonderful friends and visitors to our apartment,

and the consequent baking sprees.

yuuuuummmmmm!!

they are documented here, here, and here.

Grace and Abers

Making of MO with David and Abers

14.

I am so thankful for the chance to join the Rice Ballroom Team.

I didn't think I would get to do ballroom at Rice,

and I can't express how elated I was when I found out that Rice also had a ballroom team!

It's been so fun getting to dance again and getting to know everyone on the team.

A few of our performances have been documented here, here, and here.

15.

I am so thankful for David.

Partna!!

It's been so great getting to know him through ballroom dancing, running, baking, cooking, hosting parties, David offering to help fix the things that Amulet and I have broken in our apartment, working, etc, etc.

Thanks for always being so thoughtful and caring, being excited to try new and different things, and for being willing to carry on a conversation with minimal input from me while running--because I can't put together long sentences when I'm focusing on putting one foot before the other.  haha  =p

Here's to another year full of the many things we enjoy doing together!

16.

and last, but not least,

I am SO incredibly thankful for my family.

I would not be who I am without them, and I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family.

My parents have always been incredibly supportive of everything I wanted to try,

--and trust me, there were many... my poor parents probably spent half of their lives in the car driving me back and forth to all of my extra curricular activities...  no joke--

and they have always been wonderful role models for me.

I am always so in awe at how they are able to juggle working incredibly hard, 

and yet always find time to enjoy life, have fun, and have time to spend with their loved ones.

happy 25th anniversary mom and dad!

much love!

and of course, my lil bro and my lil cuz.

they're both doing so well and growing into quite the gentlemen, if I may say so myself

--they always carry my luggage up to my room for me  ;)  haha

I am so proud of them for always working hard at whatever they set their minds to,

and growing into kind and respectful human beings.

After all, as our dad always says, you have to be a 'human' first before you become anything else.

--the 'human' is in quotations because when you say that in Korean, that means 'a kind and respectful human being'--

And finally, my baby.

McKinley

 I could gush and gush about my baby, but I've already done that so much on this blog that I should probably refrain  haha  =p

(the gushing can be seen if you click on the link above)

but yes, so glad he is a part of our family.

what a character, this guy.  

quite the lovable little devil   ;)

Wow, what a long post,,,

but it was an incredible year full of so many blessings  =)

I hope all of you had a wonderful year as well,

and here's to 2013!

I can't wait to see what it has in store for us!

Happy New Year!

--Janny