Life at IU (Indiana University)

**The following post written on Mar 7 2009 at 10:17PM**

Dear all,

Since everyone is everywhere (mainly in the states and in Taiwan/China), it is not often that I have an opportunity to tell how/what I'm doing in IU--that is, Indiana University and not Iowa or Illinois University (just in case ;)

It has been a wonderful and precious experience for me both academically and spiritually. Normally, I wake up at 7:30AM for my 8AM classes. I'm taking one general education class (Art Appreciation), a few music education classes, and lots of music performance classes. I'm truly blessed because so far I love all of my classes despite some melt-downs I've had already with Art Appreciation. I've been more in love with my violin than ever before, and I've been banging on it with more passion and determination lately. I'm taking a total of 19 credits, including a 0 credit Studio class.

One of my killer classes is T252 Music Theory. It has been quite a ride because the amount of music I have to memorize has greatly increased from the last theory class (T251-- what I called the monk music with all the Renaissance music we did). My last exam required me to memorize a total of 7 hours of music. Excerpts of various pieces are chosen for identification--the composer, the date, the name, the section the excerpt it is in. Few questions are also asked to go with each excerpt-- how it is harmonically constructed/ the type of musical technique that is used/ the key relationship from the different section/ etc. It has been a crazy ride, but it certainly has been a fun one as I get to analyze pieces of famous music.

I'm currently "employed" in two regional orchestras that pay me well enough for my bread money. It is never easy when I have gigs that week because I would usually lose half of my day (4PM-11PM) with school orchestra at 4-6PM, departure from Bloomington at 6:10PM, and arrival back at Bloomington at around 11PM. I'm so thankful for even having the opportunity to play in such orchestras when the global economy crisis is going on!

I have felt my own spiritual growth since the departure from high school. I'm entirely thankful for that and I want to be even hungrier in the process of my sanctification. I used to be a slap in the face of Christianity, but it is just amazing to see how God has never stopped giving mercy to me and has continued to call me His child. I'm so glad to be involved in various ministries even with a tight schedule (though, definitely not as tight as last semester). I'm working on the concept of "bringing church to people" rather than to just "bringing people to church".

The small group I'm involved in at Chinese church has recently shrunk in size dramatically, but God has truly blessed me with this group because I have been working on my personality quite a lot (still a long way to go...). With a shrinking small group in church, I've been thinking about how I can reach out more to those who stopped coming lately-- and those who have never stepped foot in our small group. If you believe, please pray for me as I continue to think for a way.

So this is sort of it! There are still many unspoken things, but I'm afraid no one will read this if this entry gets any longer:) Since I've studied some Beethoven in T252 lately, how about ending this entry with a quote from him--

"We must praise Your goodness that You have left nothing undone to draw us to Yourself. But one thing we ask of You, our God, not to cease to work in our improvement. Let us tend towards You, no matter by what means, and be fruitful in good works, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord."
Ludwig van Beethoven

I hope all is well with everyone:) Please let me know if there's anything I can pray for/help with.

Love,
Anna