Spring Semester

Hello everyone! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! It's been quite a while since I last updated and though I have quite a bit of homework for this next week, I have a loooong weekend what with a holiday on Monday so I decided to write. I hope this update finds all my readers doing well.

I have just finished my first week for the Spring semester of 2008. Going by the number of semesters I've taken, I'm doing my second semester as a Junior. However, technically I have enough credits to be considered a Senior. ^_^ Cool, huh? Also, I realized that I just have to take four more ACM classes next semester then I can graduate with my ACM degree! However, because I'm also majoring in History, I want to stretch out the classes of both majors so I get a mixture of different classes in a semester (I have seven more History classes to graduate with my History BA). So with 11 classes altogether left for my two degrees, I'm planning to stretch them out over 3 more semester since I hope to do an ACM internship as well as do a final thesis film. Exciting, isn't it? ^_^

Ok, so for this semester I'm taking (in level order):

KLS 164 - Beginning Karate: Yes, I'm taking a karate class... don't laugh! ^_^ This is just a one-credit 'fun' class for me. It's twice a week from 8:30 to 9:20 and so far I'm really enjoying it. I love being able to do some kind of exercise in the morning; it really helps me to wake up and keep my body from 'wasting away' since I'm not taking any dance classes nor being in any shows (so far). :P What's cool though is... I get a white karate gi! ^_^ So at least I look like a karate expert. Towards the end of the semester we have the option of upgrading our 'belt' which the teacher is encouraging the whole class. We'll see...

ACM 312 - Cinematography: This is Anne Misawa's class who I had as a teacher already last semester. This seems like it's going to be a really fun class since we really focus on cinematography which is something I'm weaker at. Not only are we going to take 'moving shots' but we're also going to have project which include taking still photographs which I love to do. ^_^ Lots of friends from last semester in the class which is really nice.

HIST 322 - History of Japan II: For this class I have the same teacher, Dr. Piel, as from last semester when I took part one of Japanese History. She's a really great teacher which is one of the reasons I switched to Asian/Pacific history instead of American history. Hurray to her! I love her teaching style as it really makes learning history of fun, plus she really cares about all of her students. I have a few good friends from last semester's again in this class which we've already formed our group together. ^_^

ACM 410 - Advanced Cinematic and Digital Production: Another of Anne Misawa's classes... I have a feeling that this is going to be the hardest and least fun of my classes. :P It seems that there's going to be quite a few projects we have to work on throughout the semester, a LOT which involves working out of classes which will take up a lot of my free time. *groan* oh, well... we'll see. Thankfully, again this is another class which I'm surrounded by a lot of friends from last semester which should make the projects fun (hopefully). ^_^

ACM 450 - Advanced Screenwriting: Another screenwriting class with Joel Moffett, who is also my ACM advisor. Again, I'm going to like this class even though it's a tough class. I already have to have TWO stories ready by next class! Thankfully I kind of expected him to pull off something like that so I had one story already ready... :P I just need to have another one ready!

ACM 460 - Media Ethics: According to the title of this class, you can imagine that at first I was really sort of dreading taking this class... but since I need an ethics course to graduate, I though I should might as well take it. It turns out... I really really really loved this first class! It's a ton of fun, Professor Brislin is a great teacher and made the 2 hour and 45 minute lecture class to be completely fascinating. This is a class that really makes you think and theorize which is why I think I'm going to enjoy this class so much.

Private Voice Class: This is going to be with Lina; haven't scheduled a time with her yet which I will be doing in the near future. My goal is to really improve my singing by being consistent in singing within the upper register. ^_^

So that's all of my classes for this semester. It's about the same amount I've taken over all my semesters... however, it's the first time I've had so many upper division courses in the 400 level (3 this semester). So we'll see how this semester turns out. This semester is really showing me that I'm no longer a student going for an Associates Degree but a student pursuing a Bachelor's degree.

I'll still be working about 10 hours in the costume shop a week. So far we're not really having to prepare for any shows so we get to work on our own sewing projects. ^_^ Did some stock work and a little sewing here and there for the upcomign show "The Tempest" but mostly I had 'free time' in which I've been working on a t-shirt; I'll let you know how it goes.

Let's see... anything else... I'll be trying out for Diamond Head Theatre's "Flower Drum Song" on February 1st. I'll be trying out for one of the leads though at this point with all the work I have for school, I would be very much satisfied to get an ensemble role. Also, Diamond Head Theatre is a level higher than Army Community Theatre; just to get into Ensemble is reeeeally difficult so I'll definitely be ecstatic if I get even part of the ensemble. ^_^ Plus, because this a Rodger and Hammerstein show, there'll be a lot of dancing which I'll love to do.

I'll stop now and say good-bye for now. As I mentioned earlier, I have a lot of homework to do over the weekend and since I'm planning to go out for a movie later on in the afternoon, I want to get as much done as possible right now. Ciao!

Lots of News!

Aloha! Sorry for not having written in a while. School and just life in general has been keeping me busy and my priorities have been to be keeping up with homework. ^_^ I'm going to keep this short since I have to eat lunch before heading off to class in a little bit.

First off, I'm just love, love, LOVING school right now! I'm really enjoying all of my classes and the one and only class that's a bit boring (American Television History) is super easy and since I don't have to do much except show up for class, it's not that bad. :P My favorite classes would have to be my Digital Film Production class and Screenwriting. For the film class I'm in the midst of my first project in which I have to make a short documentary style video of how I've made Hawaii my home. ^_^ It's coming along pretty well I think... unfortunately I can't put it up on the web after I'm done because the copyright belongs to the ACM program. :P Oh, well, when I go back to Japan I'll be able to show it on my laptop or something. For screenwriting class I finished my first short, silent film screenplay which was fun to write. I'm thinking of actually filming it if I have the time. Now I'm working on a short film screenplay involving dialogue.

I have news... I went to auditions, got a call back, and got a role for Army Community Theatre's "Fiddler on the Roof" musical production! It's very exciting and I'm terribly honored that they offered me the role of Tzeitel, who is the oldest daughter of the main character. It's a pretty big role so it's just amazing that I landed it... on my first audition! First meeting will take place next Monday in which I'll get to meet the rest of the class. So far I think the director is great and of course the musical director is great... since it's Lina. ^_^ The choreographer is also really nice and (not to boast) but she said I was one of the best dancers. yay! It's also great that a lot of my friends got into the show: from "Evita" I have Kaori, Kenji, and Karen (3 K's!) and from other classes I have Shannon, Jen, Jason, and Marie! Jason got a big role so that's very exciting for him, too. Show opens November 15!!

Another exciting thing is that I might be working the Toyota Convention coming to Hawaii next weekend... we'll see how that turns out.

I miss you all! Can you believe that the 5th week of college is ending this week? I'm a little less than 1/3 of the semester done! I'll try to write more soon, perhaps after I've gone to my first rehearsal. Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Fun Fun Week So Far!

Been having a really great week so far, full of fun and busy-ness. ^_^ Let me give you an update on what's been going on so far...

Tuesday:

Couldn't sleep in because of time difference, but still slept really well. Went shopping to Macy's and I was able to get this really cute shirt at Wet Seal, my new favorite place to shop for clothes. ^_^

After a quick, light lunch at Chili's I headed over to UH to work at the costume shop for a few hours. Though school hasn't officially started yet, there's a lot of work already for the next show which is opening quite soon. :P Maria was able to come along with me so while I 'slaved away' (*wink*!) she was reading a book, talking with us, and even napping a bit. :P It was nice being back in the costume shop; Hannah and Kat were there so it was nice catching up on everything that's been going on while I was away for the summer.

So worked from 1:30 to 5:00 then headed for dinner at Big City Diner's. Met up with Jeff then we watched... "The Bourne Ultimatum"!! Words cannot describe how much I liked it! It just might be my favorite movie of all three. It was just really really good and this is one movie I can't wait for the dvd (or perhaps will go see in theaters again. ^_^).

After the movie the four of us went back to Big City Diner (:P) to eat... the BIG Oreo Sundae! It's just sooo good! HUGE sundae with three big scoops of ice cream, chocolate, caramel, and oreos. MmMMMmMMM! That's one dessert I really missed here in Hawaii.

Wednesday:

Met my father's high school friend and coincidentally someone Naomi's working for right now in the morning. ^_^ Met at Zippy's so I got to have Zippy's pastries for breakfast. Yum yum lemon bars!

Drove up towards North Shore and went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation to go through the HUGE maze they have there. It used to be the world's largest maze back in 2001; now they're expanding it probably to try again. :P Anyway, it took an hour to go through the whole thing and find all the 'stamp' stations hidden in the maze (8 stations in all). We had the hardest time finding the last one which was annoyingly somewhere very easy to find after all. :P

Went to this little secluded beach area to look at green sea turtles then had lunch at Giovanni's Shrimp Shack. Very delicious garlic shrimp!

Then went to the beach for about an hour or so. It wasn't too sunny so it was kind of just right. I would have liked to have gotten more of a tan but I still had fun. The water was just so clear and felt sooo nice and cool to swim in. On the way home we stopped by Dole Plantation again to have their famous Dole pineapple ice cream. Very refreshing after a long, hot day.

For dinner I just made ramen at home and we watched "Much Ado About Nothing"... very natsukashii. I just love that movie with such a stellar cast. Kenneth Brannagh is truly a great director and actually a pretty good actor (best role of course being Hamlet).

Thursday:

Woke up a bit early so that we could pick up Renee so that she could take her placement test to start college at Kapiolani Community College this coming semester. We also went to admissions and such which went pretty smoothly. Picked up lunch at I Love Country Cafe and we all ate back at home; loved their BLT sandwich!

Then I alone was dropped off at UH so I could buy my schoolbooks for this coming semester. TEN books in all! I'm guessing I'm going to have a lot of reading this year; fortunately, all the books looks either really fun or really interesting so I'm not having any qualms over the amount of books I have. ^_^ Book I'm most looking forward to reading? - "Japan Before Perry", "Art of Dramatic Writing", and "Film Directing Shot By Shot".

Went straight to work at the costum shop from about 1 to 5. Another fun day at the shop. Then Naomi, Maria, and Renee picked me up and we went to Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. We met up with Melody and Grant who is a 'theatre' guy and a good friend of a lot of my 'theatre people'. :P It was the first time to meet him; he was really nice and I liked him a lot. We were able to talk a lot about theatre and such. Plus he's into film, too, and actually has a small bit in a Ben Stiller film which is being filmed on Kauai right now.

After dinner, we rushed to Ward (Renee left though because she had work early tomorrow morning) and met up with Ericson to watch "Stardust". It was a very... 'odd' sort of film but I really, really liked it a lot. :P Kind of dark yet there were sooo many laugh out loud parts. Highlights? The 'strange' swordfight towards the end of the film. I can't describe it because it's sooo strange but it was hilarious! The whole theatre audience was cracking up! I really liked the 'old-timers' in the movie (Robert De Niro, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer) but I particularly liked newcomer Charlie Cox as the lead. He had a really charming, naive quality to him which was very real; looking forward to more of his movies.

Aaaand... that's it! I've caught up! Plans for this weekend? Well, I've had a really relaxing morning so far; going to have lunch at home then Ericson's picking Maria and me up to go see "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" in the early afternoon. Later in the afternoon thinking of shopping at Borders. Dinner perhaps either eat Thai food or eat home then am going to stay home to watch the premier of "High School Musical 2" on tv tonight. ^_^ Tomorrow (Sat) I had a morning class from 9 to 12 which is a prerequisite for my directing class then afternoon is free until 5 at which time I'm going to go babysit. Ah, full weekend. lol!

Until later; ciao!

Beginning My Junior Year

Miracle of miracles, I'm updating my blog. :P Hello all and welcome back to my blog! My 'new year's' resolution will be to update my blog at least once a week... let's see how long it lasts. ^_^ I had a wonderful summer back in Japan; thank you all the family and friends who made this summer very fun and special (and to my appendix which also made this trip 'special'...) lol!

Arrived yesterday morning around 7:30 am; called Naomi and she came right over but didn't go home right away because... Maria was landing 2 hours after me! ^_^ Waited for Maria to come out of customs/baggage claim then headed towards home. The flight had been really good and felt very short, particularly since I watched 3 movies straight and before I knew it, we were landing. ha ha! At the same time, because I was up throughout the flight, I didn't sleep at all. And since it was a 'night flight' and I arrived early in the morning in Hawaii, you can imagine how tired/sleepy I was by the time I had dumped everything out of my suitcases. I didn't realize just how much stuff I had... I was seriously unpacking on and off until the time I went to bed. ^_^

So unpacked in the morning then for lunch it was off to Happy Days. Yum yum, missed the dimsung there. Got back home and by this time, Maria and I were exhausted. Maria took a nap then after writing some e-mails and chatting with my parents, I also took a 2 hour nap. Really, REALLY had needed that nap so it was good that I did.

Unpacked some more then for dinner, Naomi made beef and chicken quesadillas! Mmmmm, very natuskashii having home made dinners in Hawaii. ^_^ After dinner watched "Bourne Supremacy" and I must say, though Matt Damon is of course the coolest thing about the series, Karl Urban as baddie Kirill is very, VERY cool. *wink!* Then because I wanted to clean my room some more, I just popped in "The Ron Clark Story" and before you know it, Maria and I were just watching the whole movie on my laptop. lol! SUCH a fantastic movie; the acting in it is soooo good, not just Matthew Perry in the title role but also the kids who play his students. Sooo good.

Then it was off to bed around 11pm.

Plans for this week? Well, I'm hoping to watch a few movies at the theatres which I missed while being in Japan. But also have to work a few days at the costume shop which is going to be fun. ^_^ Will go to the beach and the Dole Plantation maze some time this week for Maria though the beach is more for me. ha ha! I'll let you know what comes up. ^_^

Until later! Sorry, no pictures but I promise to put up some next time. Toodles!

Graduation and "All That Jazz"

Eep... It's been forever since I last wrote in my blog! I've been doing really great this past few months: my "Evita" show went fantastic, my finals weren't too bad, school is over with now, and my parents are still visiting from Japan! ^_^ Yesterday I had the most fantastic evening as the directors and almost the whole cast came over to my house to watch the "Evita" dvd I made from the 'archives'. Had a blast, people came around 6 and a lot of people stayed until around midnight. :P Thank you so much to my parents and Naomi for letting me open the house for my friends!

Oh yes, Erin and Maki have not been forgotten. They're in San Fransisco having a blast before coming back for few days to then leave Hawaii for good as they go back to Japan. *sobs* Good news is that instead of having to move out because we're losing two roommates, Naomi and I are going to be staying in the same house! ^_^ Erin's room is going to be turned into Naomi's office... well actually, it's already been turned into her own office. She got a really nice desk in the room and she has already 'moved' her office in. Also, because Maki is leaving I'll be having my own room now so with the help of my family we completely rearranged my room! Sooo fun... the room looks completely different but very ME now. lol! I'm still keeping the 'blue' scheme in the room though I have a black/white/silver thing going on for my Windows laptop.

Yup, I have to specify which laptop because about two weeks ago Aunt Jean bought me a MacBook Pro! I'm very excited about it though the Mac and I had a few 'difficult' moments to get through. lol! The reason I had to get the Mac is because for the film classes I'm taking, I'll need to use Mac-only-accessible Final Cut Express. So I've already been 'testing' Final Cut by making "Evita" dvd I mentioned earlier. It came out pretty nice I must say... ^_^ I'm really excited though to learn more about filmmaking.

Plans for the rest of this week? Well, I'm definitely going to be watching "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" on Thursday. ^_^_^_^_^_^ I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited about it! Who can resist Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow? Also, as Erin and Maki will be back for a few days before going back to Japan, we're having a good-bye party for them, either on Saturday or Sunday. Will be a beach party on Magic Island which I'm happy about, particularly since we'll hopefully be putting up a volleyball net. Yay!

Sorry, I have only two pictures for you guys. :P I think the pictures are pretty self-explanatory... they were taken at my graduation on the 18th. My "Evita" 'family' was there which made it so special... but what what made the graduation even more special was the fact that my parents were able to come. ^_^ Thank you so much for flying aaaaaall the way over here to come see me 'walk'!! Oh, just a random comment... I'm soooo glad that the graduation robes were blue this year for KCC. I love the blue! But even MORE exciting is the fact that when I graduate from UH in a couple of years, I'll get to wear the UH green robes! I love, love, LOVE the UH green! Ok, enough random comments... till next time!

Hello All! So Many Pictures for You Today!

How is everyone doing? Well, if this post was yesterday I would have had to say honestly that I wasn't doing well. :S Yesterday I came down with a REALLy bad cold; a flu's been going around and I must have caught the bug. Anyway, I didn't want to miss school because there was going to be a quiz in my theatre class and my American Studies class was going to give out a new assignment. So feeling really bad, I still went. And it turns out my teacher didn't give us the quiz. Hmmm... :P THEN when I went to the American Studies film class, he didn't give us a real assignment. Oh well... it was still good to go I guess. There's no school next week because it's Spring Break; and since my Film in American Culture is only once a week, it was good to go. PLUS, the teacher is going to Paris for a few weeks so I won't be having that class until the middle of April!! ^_^ Well, I'm going to miss the class because it's fun but still... it's nice NOT having class, you know? :P

Anyway, I went home and by that time (around 3:30-ish), I was REALLY sick. I had a really high fever and was just feeling awful. Was sooo bad that I couldn't watch tv and just fell into a coma... ok, not a coma, I SLEPT, but it was kinda like a coma. You know me, I NEVER fall asleep in front of the tv but it happened yesterday... traumatic, huh? lol!

Naomi woke me up a few hours later since she didn't want me to sleep so much that I wouldn't be able to sleep well during the night. Ate dinner and did some reading. I got Timothy Zahn's new book "Night Train to Rigel" which is turning out to be pretty good. Has the "Icarus Hunt" vibe to it (one of my FAVORITE books of all time; also by Timothy Zahn) so I hope it turns out to be just as good.

So today I woke up feeling a lot better; still a bit sick but a lot better than yesterday. I had my ACM class this morning. We were broken up into groups and we're going to start our storyboard projects. I was made my group's captain since they asked and I told them that my major was to become a director. :P It's really cool because two others in my group are animation majors (one just 'transferred' from the art department) so I'm excited that I'm having good artists in my group to do all the drawings. :P

Went to Voice class then after getting home, Naomi and I went to run a few errands. I got to pick up my 'painting' that I did for Theatre Production class. What we did was paint a marble texture over a course of a few days; we painted several layers with different paints and painting styles. Came out really good if I do say so myself! It's actually more blue than it shows in the picture. Anyway, today we finished the painting portion of the class and everyone was just going to put all our finished work in the scrap pile! I was like no way so I decided to keep it. :P

Went to my Evita rehearsal... LOTS of fun as usual. ^_^ Came home and after dinner watched American Idol. We're down to the top 11 and I'm definitely rooting for Melinda Doolittle and Blake Lewis. They're just sooooo increeeeedibly talented whenever I listen to them sing I get goosebumps. :P Blake's rendition of "Time of the Season" tonight was just so smoooooooooth; I say it's as good as the original which is saying quite a lot... ^_^ Melinda was good though my favorite performance by her has so far been "Home." Tomorrow is elimination night though I'm not worried about either of them getting eliminating; I know both will be sticking around for a while. :P

Speaking of music... I got to go to Foreigner's concert last week!!! They were in Honolulu for one show and I was able to get tickets! Went with Naomi and I must say, it was one of the best, maybe even THE best concert I've ever gone to. The music was fantastic, the lead singer was phenomenal, and the whole band was just soooo talented! Not just great musicians and singers but also fatnastic show men, I was soooo impressed by how they 'worked' the crowd. It's an experience I will never forget and I'll honestly say that if they come again, I'm definitely going to see them again. Long live 80's bands, those who have REAL talent! :P Ok, I may be a bit biased... but I just feel that after seeing this concert, these 'old guys' could easily take on any of today's bands and still rock better than them. If you know what I mean...

Anyway, I could go on and on and on about how good Foreigner was so I'll stop here. :P Before I 'leave', here are a few pictures from my musical theatre class... sorry I'm not in any of the pictures since I'm the one taking. lol! You can see in the back the staircases and levels we're going to have on the set. Cool, huh?

Second picture (on the right) are the directors, Lina and Mitch, looking extremely serious.

Third picture (on the left) has some of the girls (I'm usually there, too) waiting for the next scene. It's funny, we always have to be sooooo careful not to hit our heads when going 'into the cave' as it has been dubbed by one of our directors. Interestingly enough, only the guys have hit their heads on it, including the director himself once... ^_^!

Finally, a picture of the oh wonderful, stupendous, great Mina who plays piano for us. She's really fantastic, in the middle of working on a UH major in piano. She sight reads everything and can pretty much play anything you put in front of her.

Ok, since none of the pictures so far has had me in them, here's a picture of me at my birthday party with cute Alana!

An Update... Yup, I've actually updated!

Hello all, how're y'all doing? A very important thing happened since my last post... I'm no longer 19 years old! Yes, my birthday was last Friday on the 9th of March. I want to thank everyone for their wonderful gifts and well wishes; a special big thanks to Naomi and Tina who helped organize a kind of surprise birthday party for me. Last Friday I was told that we're going to go out to eat dinner with just us and maybe a few friends. Turned out that actually a LOT of people were waiting there at the restaurant to surprise me. ^_^ So many, many, many thanks!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this but... I'm working at the costume shop now as an employee! It's really cool because on my birthday, I was 'in charge' of the shop since the manager and the other workers were all unavailable. A lot of pressure I guess but it was a really neat experience to have people coming to me for questions and such. I also had a student came in to do a few hours in the shop and since she had never done sewing before, I was helping and watching over her. The people there are soooo nice though; for my birthday they threw a small surprise party in which they got me a haupia chocolate pie which we ate with vanilla ice-cream... MmmMMmMMM!!

"Evita" is coming along really nicely. Had rehearsal today which was as always sooooo much fun. What's cool is that Mitch gave me a short 'piece' to choreograph so I'm having fun doing what I love to do. ^_^ I also got my rehearsal schedule for the next few weeks... It's gonna be pretty crazy since there will be rehearsals every day from April, even on Saturdays. Though it may seem like... EEP!!!... I'm actually really looking forward to all the rehearsals. I've never done rehearsals to this intensity and because I really love the show, my directors/teachers, and my cast 'mates,' I'm excited about all that's going on.

I'm going to be singing at the international festival week at Kapi'olani Community College next week Thursday. Am *slightly* nervous about that though I think it's going to turn out well. I'm singing "Momiji" as a duet with another girl for my 'ethnic song' assignment. I'm sooo relieved because my 'ethnic' song is in a language I'm fluent in. :P Almost everyone in the class is singing a song from their ethnicity of which they can't understand the language at all. :S So I'm happy that I don't have to stress out so much or work as hard. :P

My other classes are going well. I'm in midst of writing papers for each of my film class ("Film in American culture" and "Cinematic and Digital Media"). The first is basically a paper on whatever I want so I decided to write about how films can be basically focused on one or two characters, following their 'journey of self-discovery.' Then this idea crosses over with the idea of films with non-traditional endings; basically, does a film have to have the classic 'happy ending' for the character to be a good film? For the other film class I'm writing an analysis about mise-en-scene (technical term for the staging of film shots/scenes) in the film "His Girl Friday." Fun fun fun! ^_^

Lastly for my Theatre production class I'm in the midst of the painting section of the class. We're working on learning how to paint marble textures and it's cool because yesterday I was team captain. muahahaha. ^_^ My team decided on using the colors black and blue to do our painting and so far the first layer turned out REALLY cool. Tomorrow we'll be adding another layer and so on and so forth until we have four layers. I'll try to remember to take a picture when we're done.

Stay tuned for more updates of Priscilla's life as a UH student! ^_^ Ciao!~

A New Look!

Yes, I'm back now with a new look. What do you think? Do you like it? I felt like doing something 'green'... ^_^

Been really busy with school and such so I won't go into too much details of what's been going on. I've just today finished my 45 hours of theatre lab requirement in the costume shop... and guess what? Hannah the costume shop manager likes having me help so much that she's going to hire me!! So I'm going to be 'officially' working in the costume shop at the Kennedy Theatre and I'm going to be getting paid! We'll see how it goes though I'm really hoping that it works out since I love working there. All the people working their are really nice and it's nice to be 'doing' something, if that makes any sense. On Wednesdays & Fridays I have only one 50 minute class so I like having something to look forward to in the afternoons. Recently finished work on the theatre production of Kyogen so now we're getting ready for a Dance production as well as an upcoming Shakespeare production of As You Like It.

Oh, and as for Evita! It's going well; I'm enjoying myself quite a bit, not just as part of the ensemble but also being the dance captain and 'swing'. The dancing is really fun and challenging though I think the hardest part of the whole show is AAAAALLL of the singing! It's pretty much basically an opera because it's all singing... for a whole two hours straight show! So you can imagine just how much we all have to memorize since this show is very much an ensemble show. Oh, one cool thing happened this week. Melissa, who is playing Evita, couldn't make it to class so I had to sing her parts. ^_^ Fun, though I'm REALLY happy that I don't have to be Evita because of all the pressure of having sooo much singing to do. :P lol!

Yay, it's the weekend! And a full three day weekend, too! Monday is President's Day so I don't have school. I wonder what I'll do... *sigh* well, I do know what I'll be doing, which is studying for my ACM 255 Digital Media midterm which is on Tuesday. I don't think it'll be very difficult, but I'll definitely have to study for it. Wish me luck!

I finally got a letter in the mail today telling me that I've 'officially' received my Associates in Arts degree from Kapiolani Community College. I'm gonna be picking up my diploma next Tuesday at the earliest. I've also found out that I just have to take one more theatre class next semester and I'll have my Theatre minor!!! Looking at how much I've done in just four semesters, I'm thinking that perhaps, perhaps, I could double major, though it's only thinking right now. I'm just putting my thoughts down right now, nothing concrete so don't take me too seriously right now. :P Then there's the possibility of minoring in theatre, history, and dance. Ok, maybe I'm being too ambitious. :P ^_^ Ahhh, dreams! I can't help it though... I love college as crazy as some people may think...

Tomorrow's plans you ask? Well, nothing planned except go watch a movie, Music and Lyrics, at Kahala Theatre. I'm looking forward to watching a movie and this movie looks particularly 'cute and fluffy,' perfect for the weekend. ^_^

Until next time!

Nice, Relaxing, Yet at the Same Time Busy Weekend

Hello to all! It's Sunday evening right now and I must say that I've had a pretty nice weekend. ^_^ Let me give a recap of what has happened since I last left you on Wednesday:

Thursday:
I didn't have class until 11:30 so I decided to get some things done in preparation of handing in my Scholarship application. First off I went to see Mr. Cassity, a former History instructor of mine for three semesters for those who my have forgotten. :P Anyway, I was able to talk with him about writing me a letter of recommendation which I'm really happy about. Mr. Cassity is the instructor who has known me the longest during my college years so I know that he'll be able to write me a good letter. Then while waiting around till next class, I bumped into a former classmate of mine and we were just talking for about twenty minutes, just catching up.

I had private voice lesson from 11:30 to 12; I think I did pretty well. I'm still working on my posture and breathing as well as loosening my throat. Sooo many things to think of when singing though Lina repeatedly tells me that you have to be 'stupid' to sing and not to think too much. :S Easy for her to say... I just have a hard time shutting my brain. :P lol!

Voice class II was next. I might have mentioned before but the class was divided into three groups and we have to work on arranging our own opera. Basically we have to think of simple plot and then add words to a well known melody. My group is doing a story about a group of friends hanging out at someone's house at 2am in the morning, all the while the owners trying to kick us out. :P Ok, a slightly 'stupid' story but it's supposed to be really simple. Anyway, it turns out that my group was the only one who had finished. ^_^ Hurray, we're ahead! Plus Lina listened to ours and said it was good, meaning we have the 'ok' to 'perform' next week.

Went home and had a late lunch before heading off to musical theatre class. We had our pianist in class today so we worked on the first scene for Evita. It was fun preparing for the scene as we all 'got into character.' Well, it was more like Cynthia, Brent, and I (who are all playing Evita's siblings) were poking each other, untying each other shoe laces, flicking sunglasses off other's heads, etc. :P We were getting into character! ^_^

After class I went home for a quick dinner and then Erin, Maki, Tiffany, and I went to see the Kyogen play at the Kennedy Theatre at UH. As I said, I'm working at the costume shop so I was able to get us all freek tickets for the preview show. ^_^ Muahahaha, cool huh? What was even more cool was that my name is on the 'credits' in the Kyogen pamphlet!! "Costume Accessory Construction: [... several names... then] Priscilla Stafford" Isn't that cool?! ^_^ Anyway, a friend from Kaimuki church, Yoko, and a friend/classmate of mine were also there which was nice. Afterwards, Mitch (who's the house manager of Kennedy Theatre so he was there) showed me where the Lights/Sound booth and I was able to see my friend Aya who was the light board / sound board operator. Really neat to see all the switchboards, headsets, and etc.

Friday

You know, at first I didn't like the idea of having to go to school on Friday. But now that I've been going for a few weeks, I actually like getting out of the house even if it's for school. Only one class and I love being in the costume shop. So anway, had Theatre class from 11:30 and because it was just a review for an upcoming exam, we got to leave around 11:45. :P So my friend Aya and I went to the campus cafe to have some cafe. It's really nice having a friend now at UH to hang out with after class and such. Then from 1 to 5 I was working in the costume shop. Since the costumes for the Kyogen is done and the costume designers are working on the designs for the next show (Shakespeare's As You Like It), I was finishing the edges of a quilt which the costume shop makes to help pay for parking and sometimes to donate.

Went home and then after dinner, started watching The Miracle Worker with Erin and Maki but I was sooo tired for some reason that I left midway to lie down. :P Woke up after sleeping for a little over an hour then watched The Ron Clark Story with Naomi. It was actually a really, really, REALLY good movie! Similar to The Freedom Writers which I went to see in theaters a few days ago, but I really liked The Ron Clark Story, starring Matthew Perry who was nominated for Best Actor in a TV movie. I need to probably watch again.

Saturday:
Slept in till around 9:00 then from 9:30 to around 10:45 I was at Kaimuki Church since Joe was starting his 'open' drums lessons again. ^_^ It was nice because no other people came today so it was just me and Joe. Joe was able to teach me some 'exercises' to help me get better which I felt really good about since for some reason I've felt that I've hit a 'wall' with my playing. I just haven't felt like I'm improving at all; so it was really good that I was able to have Joe teach me 'privately' and I feel a better in a way.

Naomi and I went out for some shopping and had a really nice lunch together. Was able to get a lot done since Naomi needed some things before she leaves for Japan soon. So we were out until around 4:30. Got home and then since we found out that a couple we know from New Hope Diamond Head Church just had a baby early that morning, we went with Tina and a few others to see the baby around 6:30. The baby's name is Rebecca Melody Dean and was soooooooooo cute! She has an older sister, Alana, who is 2 years old and is also really adorable; she kept saying 'baby!' and wanted to touch her new baby sister. :P

After the visit at Tripler hospital, Naomi, Tina, and I went to eat dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory. I just love the food there though for some reason I couldn't eat much. :P

Sunday:
Finally Sunday! :P Went to the 8:00 service at New Hope Diamond Head then had our own service around 10:00. Then from 11:00, we all went to Magic Island for a barbecue hosted by this family from Kaimuki Christian Church. Their Young Adult Bible study group was there along with Naomi's New Hope Diamond Head Church's Bible study group. It was lots of fun, especially since there was a volleyball net set up. ^_^ I played a lot of volleyball, and my teams won!!!

Left around 4:00 and came home. I just relaxed in front of the computer for a while. Got to talk to my mother which was really nice; it was her birthday today in Japan! So... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!!!

For dinner I made ramen and all four of us watched What's Up, Doc? It's really been a while since we've watched it so that was a lot of fun. And now... I've finally caught up with writing my blog! :P Sorry for it being so long. Anyway, tomorrow's plans are to go to school and to turn in my scholarship application. :S Wish me luck! I also might got to the New Hope Diamond Head college Bible study group so I hope that goes well, too. Until next time!

I Know It's Late But... Happy 2007!!

Hi y'all, I'm still alive! :P I humbly apologize (again) for not having upped my blog in a while. It's my first post for this new year of 2007! Exciting, exciting. As most people know, I'm now a university student at University of Hawaii at Manoa! I'm taking a total of six classes, three of which I'm taking at UH and the other three I'm taking at Kapiolani Community College. Just for reference sake, I'm listing my classes and my thoughts on the classes:

UH

Theatre 240: Introduction to Theatre Production
A fairly interesting class though at times a bit 'dry' though that could partly be because of the teacher... :P

American Studies 458: Film in American Culture
I'm happy about this class because... no quizzes or tests! ^_^ It's mostly a discussion type of class where we'll see clips of film and how it relates to the American culture.

Academy of Creative Media 255: Cinema and Digital Media
I already love, love, LOVE this class! Definitely my favorite class at UH. My teacher is awesome and we get to watch complete movies! We've watched An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and Citizen Kane so far; next week we're watching Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon which I'm really excited about. This class we basically analyze the technical aspects of a film which is different from the film in American Culture class which seems more... 'deep'. :P Deep doesn't necessarily mean that much though... I prefer this class. :P

KCC

Music 231B: Private Voice Instruction
Yes, I'm taking private voice lessons. :P My teacher, Lina, last semester highly recommended I take this class because she says that my voice, with training, can get better. The class is 30 minutes private instructions once a week. I've only had one class so far and I think it's going to be interesting. :P In just the first class I learned a lot about what it means to sing physically and just how much posture can effect the voice.

Music 221B: Voice 2
Another voice class but this is with a class. We're going to be focusing on classical, jazz, ethnic, and country western styles of singing. The past few weeks has been cool; we've been writing our own short 'opera' song which we'll be performing in groups next week. :P I'll tell you how it goes after we 'perform' it. ^_^

Music 230: Musical Theatre Production
This semester, I'm going to be in the KCC production of Evita! I'm really excited about it; we had auditions and callbacks the first week and we've gotten the cast list. I'm going to be in the ensemble which I'm happy because there's not too much pressure and I'll get to dance a lot. ^_^ The BEST thing though is that I was named Dance Captain, which means I'm going to be working with the choreographer Mitch to actually help teach the dancing. HURRAH! It's really an honor, well a double honor because I'm also the 'swing', meaning that I'm understudying for all the female roles. PLUS I'm going to be involved in stage managment... so much to do! But this is really what I want to do in theatre/film; to be involved in the actual production and behind the scenes sort of stuff. Wish me luck!

Besides these class, for Theatre 240 I need to either be involved in a UH production or put 45 hours in the prop shop or costume shop. I opted on the costume shop and I'm really, really, REALLY loving it. Everyone in the costume department is REALLY nice, including Hannah who's in charge. UH is putting on a Kyogen from this week so I've been helping to sew hakamas, obis, kimonos, and etc. ^_^ I've been able to help a lot; in fact, after I finish up my 45 hours, Hannah has offered me a job to work in the costume shop! We'll see what happens though it sounds like something I would love to do.

Ah, soooo much! :P I'm probably overwhelming you. lol! I'll give you a quick 'what-happened-today' before I sign off. Woke up and got to watch an episode of Mission Impossible before heading off to class at UH. Just to let you know, my parking situation for UH is that I found a street parking area which always has space and is about 15 minutes away from my classes. So you can imagine I do quite a bit of walking now. :P

Anyway, went off to my 11:30 class; finished early (around 12:00) so I hung out with one of my new UH friends then since it's Wednesday, I started work at the costume shop from 1:00 (I work from 1 o'clock to 5 o'clock in the costume shop on Wednesdays and Fridays). Today was a bit different though because around 2:30 I did my friend a favor and drove her to a frabic store since she needed some material for a class. I went back to the costume shop to finish up until 5:00 then headed home. My turn to cook though mostly it was leftover. I can heat up things very nicely. ^_^

After dinner, I started 'tweaking' my resume. Which reminds me, I've been nominated for the UH Presidential scholarship!! It's a full tuition scholarship including a $2,000 stipend and $2,000 to be used for some sort of travel. Isn't that AMAZING?! Of course, I haven't received the scholarship or anything. :P lol! But I am working to put together my resume, letters of recommendation, personal statement, and transcript. Please be praying for me since this is all in God's hands. ^_^ Oh, yes, on another note. I'll be meeting with an advisor this Friday about the BA degree I'm pursuing. Please be praying that the meeting goes well!

At 8:00 we had our weekly prayer meeting then Naomi and I finished watching a movie, followed by watching American Idol which I taped earlier in the evening. The audition was in New York so you can imagine that there were quite a few 'iiiiinteresting' people. lol!

I'm off to bed in a bit. Tomorrow's a full day with (hopefully) a meeting with a teacher about a letter of recommendation, then private voice class, Voice II, and musical theatre class. Woohoo! Till next time!