Review Numero Sesenta y Ocho: HBHS California Band Trip

Have you been to Disneyland? Most likely, but never like this.

First off - The Hotel: I know I should start with the plane, but I'd rather rant about the hotel. We stayed at the Anahiem Hilton, approximately a 30 minute walk from Disneyland. The walk was all right, but it was hell on the knees. The room I stayed in (along with Kym Francis, Jessica Peters and Samantha Lemen) had two beds, a tv, a hair dryer, and a broken ironing board. No fridge. I mean come on! It's the frickin HILTON! THEY CAN AFFORD TO PUT A $100 FRIDGE IN EVERY ROOM. My reasoning for this is that when I stayed at the Best Western (right across the street from Disneyland), my family and I had a normal room like the one Kym and I stayed in and it had a FRIDGE! Besides that, the place was great, even though a 20 oz soda cost $2, but meh! The rooms were nice, the entrance was amazing. The pool was tiny though. They really need to quit with the false advertising.

Second - The Chaperones: There were 7, other than Voakes and Mr. Brown, but even all of them couldn't keep Dominic and Kendall off of each other... Anyway... There was Gayle (Kyna's mom), Jesse Lord's dad, Debbie (Samantha's mom), Jeanne (an orchestra parent), Katie's mom (She looked kind of my mom. Just FYI), Steven Ness' mother, and someone else I can't remember. My assigned Chaperone was Gayle, though I mostly followed Debbie. Both were great, but Steven Ness' mom was another story. "Gung ho" band parents with "meh" students don't really work. That poor boy, is all I have to say. The other chaperones were great.

Third - The Competition: This was at some obscure community school thing that reminded most of us of the San Francisco place. It was really awesome when we performed, and we did fairly well. Our clinic onstage was all right. Then at 5 the Jazz band performed and we did okay. I irritated the clinic guy (who coincidentally had done our clinic with us in San Francisco. Kristi held onto her mouthpiece tightly) by falling off the piano bench when he tried to sit down with me (I never even allow my piano teacher to share a bench, I get up and let him play.) and then acting stupid when he asked questions. Our clinic went well though, and I think everyone enjoyed laughing at me. I sure did...

Fourth - Awards and Ceremony: Okay... so we didn't do as well as I would like you to believe. But in our division, band received a silver award 4th place (of four) which is better than the bronze award we received in San Fran. The orchestra received the only Bronze award of the night (which made me want to laugh), but the Jazz band received 1st place Silver award in our division!! The ceremony was fun and though we probably were the smallest band there, we made most of the noise. Pre ceremony we had Craig and Brian (our resident cheerleaders) lead us with everything they knew - Even "I'm a little teapot" ^^;. Then we screamed really loud at Voakes while sitting up in our balcony area (where they put us to try and shut us up) and just had so much fun. Course the group next to us had to be a group of Middle Schoolers with incredibly high pitched, whiny voices, so that got annoying as they cheered back. Then we started the wave... The humor from the stage was irritating and the performance was second rate. The end.

Fifth - Days in Disney: We had a workshop which told us that we suck, then Jazz band performed at the plaza gardens and we had fun. I even did a little head banging during Malachi's bass solo in Engine #9. We got to see the back of Disney, which, if Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, is the crappiest place on earth. Not really, but it's pretty ugly. They wouldn't let us take any pictures either, so I can't show it to you. The rest of the days belonged to us. Jessica and Kym decided that instead of doing rides, they wanted to get characters pictures and signatures. That got old for Sam and I quick, so we pretty much ditched them and walked off around Disneyland and California Adventure. We ended up doing California Screamin twice (right after a big dinner) and Sam did Grizzly River Run twice before that. In all I went on 5 rides.(California Screamin, Pirates, Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain, Winnie the Pooh) I could have done more if I were more DA like, but what can you do? I did Build a bear and made a cute bear with a hot name then afterwards I treated Cassie (and myself) to a Jamba Juice and we walked back to the hotel, where we met the other freshman girls who had their own bears (except for Katie who had a pink poodle in army clothes named God. It should also be noted she has a [live]minature poodle named Satan). That is the most fun I've had with those girls.

Sixth - Planes: Both times we flew 737s. The first plane ride sucked, the second one was all right. Too much turbulence on the first flight. The early morning flight was okay cause we got doughnut like things, but the afternoon one had nothing.

Seventh - UCLA: This campus rox. 'Nuff said. Check it out. It's so pretty and they have their own Krispee Kreme.

In all: Four Alps (AAAA) for the trip.
Two (AA) for Chaperones. Two for the hotel. Five for UCLA. Three for the Plane rides. Four for the days in Disneyland/Awards. Five for performances.

Review Numero Setenta y Siete: Cornell University

Before I review, here are some basic facts about Cornell University, located in Ithaca, NY:

College of Arts and Sciences

990 Freshmen, 1100 Seniors

25% of students Double Major

Major is declared between frosh orientation and end of sophomore year

AP credits count for graduation, not for major, use the AP tests to test out of intro level classes

Writing seminar classes emphasized as part of liberal arts

Honors programs available, writing is very important

All courses taught by faculty, only writing seminars taught by PhD students

Admissions

Admissions Requirements fit with Skyview grad req's

28% of Applicants are admitted

Roughly 30% admitted are early decision

Mid-range SAT 1450

Essay, written application portions essential

Need based financial aid, no merit scholarships

Housing Tour

All Freshmen live in North Campus residence halls

Single, double, triple, and quad rooms available

Rooms have TV hookup, internet jacks, desks and beds

All you can eat buffet option for meals, also cafes and other restaraunts on campus

Rec rooms throughout residence halls for study, TV breaks

Most of campus is covered with wireless internet

Music Department

All programs and classes open to non-majors

Less than 50 music majors, more than 10 faculty

Practice rooms, storage lockers in Lincoln Hall music building

Jazz bands, wind ensembles, marching bands, choirs...


Yeah, I focused on a few specific areas. So sue me, it's a huge university. Everything seems good here! There are dozens of options for eating, even the dorms provide a bunch of choices for every meal, and the food is surprisingly good. The dorms are mostly new, everything seems mostly organized. While admission to Cornell is a bit difficult, and tuition is probably expensive, it's worth a try. Cornell is like a streamlined, Ivy League, UW... but probably better. Been a while since I've been to UW, so I'll wait and maybe do a comparison of them later.

Despite all the advantages, there are two really big disadvantages. Cornell is a full day's plane travel away from Vancouver, involving at least two flights and a bus or train trip. Also, the weather is cold. When it's not cold, it's summer. Otherwise, expect some rain and snow, but a lot of cold. Hmm... average high in January / February : upper-20's.

Four and a half Alps (AAAAa). It's not perfect, but its the closest thing I've found so far.

Review Numero Setenta y Seis: New York University

Ahh, the college hunt. This is the first in a series of four reviews, possibly more if I get around to them later.

NYU is in the Greenwitch Village area of Manhattan, near Washington Square Park. The first thing a visitor notices is that there is really no "campus," in the traditonal sense. The buildings are scattered among ten blocks or so, with additional buildings throughout the city. Most of the buildings require a NYU student ID to get in, because of the obvious security concerns faced by an urban college. While this ID system is good for safety, it makes it very difficult to really see inside many of the buildings.

Tuition is very steep, coming in around $45,000 including room and board. Ouch. Cost of living in NYC is pretty insanely high, so I'm sure it doesn't stop there. SAT scores are usually in the 1400 range, and only 20-something percent of the applicants are admitted. Early decision is binding, and still doesn't help too much with admissions.

Housing is nice, and it is available on campus all four years. Given the cost of an apartment in NYC, that's a really good thing. Dorm rooms are primarlily doubles, with a bathroom in each room. Most of the dorms were originally apartments or hotels, so they are pretty nice. All the buildings are new-ish and well maintained. The NYC location gives plenty of opportunities for social life and culture. The school itself has a pretty pansy mascot (the violet... meh... some people use the bobcat, short for the BOBst CATalog system in the library.) There is not football team, and I didn't see any of the athletic facilities.

As for the colleges within the University, they mostly focused on business. There are great business, economic, and political opportunities in NYC. Musical opportunities are also present, many are available to non-majors. Unfortunately, the math, science, and engineering colleges seem to be lacking, or nonexistant, in the case of the engineering college. Internships and study abroad programs are available.

All in all, Three Alps (AAA). The city is the biggest draw, but also a big drawback. The lack of open space, and the narrow selection of courses hurt the university overall.