Emily's Exploits

I'm going to Vienna, Austria for a semester (Jan-April 2009). I'll be living in Landstraße Hauptstrasse, which is the 3rd district. From what I see of the pictures, I simply can't wait to be in such a historic place! Here are just a few for your viewing pleasure. Right now I'm learning German. The group of us that are going will perform a 3-month concert series in the city. I can't wait to learn so much about a different culture!!!! Belvedere Palace (remind anyone else of Count of Monte Cristo???) The monument to Strauss in the Stadtpark. A hotel on the river in Landstrasse. Some street in Landstrasse, a market place!

This Monday night for FHE my ward had a Halloween dance/costume party! There was a costume competition as well as a cake baking competition. Me and my roommates set out to thinking what we could be WEEKS beforehand. And what did we decide? DISNEY PRINCESSES! Each girl in my apartment really does look like one of the classic Disney princesses: we've got Ariel, Jasmine, Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Belle. Of course we had to do a little tweaking, but it was amazing. We found our costumes at the DI and Savers, and then added bits of fabric and other embellishments later. We spent a long time on Sunday evening sewing and perfecting our outfits! The finished product????? When we left the ward dance at the Wilk, we went downstairs and there were a ton of families with Japanese exchange students having a dinner, and they were all leaving. We all walked toward them and little girls ran up to us, were holding our hands, and we must have been there for 30 minutes taking pictu...

I auditioned for a Community musical production called "Sweeney Todd" at the end of September and got cast as Johanna- a supporting lead role. Once again, I play the "Girl" in the show- Johanna is a 16 year old girl who lives with an evil, lascivious Judge (who plans to marry her). But she has fallen in love with a young sailor named Anthony and has plans to elope with him before the Judge finds out. Sweeney Todd is a Broadway musical composed by Stephen Sondheim and its one of my favorites so I was ecstatic when they gave me the role of Johanna! The show is put on through "Actor's Repertory Theatre Company" in Provo. We perform in the Castle Amphitheater just behind the Utah State Hospital on Center Street in Provo. It's a beautiful outdoor amphitheater made of stone with turrets and terraces—simply beautiful, and it overlooks Provo and the sunsets are gorgeous! www.castletheater.org

I made a blog in the spring of this year through google pages, which was good, but it was a little hard for me to keep up, and i think this is a better set up for my overall blogging purposes. So now I've switched to blogger.com. For those of you who haven't read my "blogs" previously, this is a big conglomeration of my musings and discoveries that I think more appropriate for the public eye than my journal. With interesting tidbits and pictures! :D I guess this is a "Welcome!" post. Thanks for reading. A thought: "Do not waste time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbour; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him." --C.S. Lewis