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Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Summer 2008 - The Beginning

Well, these thing seem to be popular these days, and I think posting on this will be easier to do more frequently than my family's one... so here it goes. The first couple though are from my family's blog, but they're sort of "big news" things, so I'm going to use them anyway!

Australia and Graduation:

On April 26th, I left for Australia with the 44 other Young Ambassadors, plus about 6 faculty members and their spouses. After an incredibly long flight (a stop in L.A. and New Zealand as well), we finally arrived – the morning of April 28th. Yes, Sunday did not exist for us. It was kind of cool, actually…to have a day entirely disappear like that. Anyway, throughout the trip we went to the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Canberra, Albury, Hobart (Tasmania), Lanceston (Tasmania), and Melbourne. It was a busy 3 weeks! We had the same bus driver for the entire trip minus the few days we were in Tassie (as it is called by locals). He wasn’t a member, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he becomes one eventually. The last night of our trip we had two firesides and dedicated the last one to him and presented to him a Book of Mormon signed by all of us, and he was so choked up he couldn’t even talk. The 4 days we were in Tassie he said he was going crazy because he didn’t have us to wake up to every day. In Brisbane I randomly ran into a from the Prince William ward (Kyle Curd) who is currently serving his mission there. Small world! I was in Hobart on my birthday and the YAs got me this little cake and almost everyone in the group wrote a little note to me too. It was pretty cool. We got to go to a wildlife sanctuary and feed and pet kangaroos! They ate right out of our hands! We saw koalas and Tasmanian devils too. We walked past an emu as well – it was in the same area as the kangaroos. You could walk right up to them if you wanted. By the way, kangaroos are really soft. They are also the Australian deer and are a common hunted animal because they are overcrowding the land. In Tasmania we went to this place called Cataract Gorge that was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my entire life. I took plenty of pictures, and don’t worry – I’ll include the link. If there’s anything specific any of you would like to know, let me know! There’s too much to include in this one little thing.

One more quick update. As many of you know, I’ve gone back and forth quite a few times on what exactly I plan on doing once I graduate. Well, I finally figured it out, and it is definitely sticking this time. I discovered that if I take classes this summer, I can graduate in December. So I’m going to walk in August and be officially done mid-December! Then it’s off to L.A. I have high hopes for it. I’ve already been connected with one sound mixer out in L.A. thanks to a guy I met on the Singles Second Ward set; and through my job I got to sit in on my boss and this other audio guy named Mike (for anyone who may know audio stuff, Mike has mixed tons of stuff at Skywalker Ranch in CA. That’s pretty much the best studio in the country. He also mixed movies like Star Trek – don’t know the actual titles, but two different ones) and watch them mix this movie called “The Jerk Theory.” It’s kind of like…I don’t know, 10 Things I Hate About You or something. Anyway, throughout the 2 days I got to go (it only took 3 days for them to mix), I met the producer, director, writer, and film score composer. The producer told us to keep in touch and let him know when we graduate because they always need more audio people. The composer gave me and this other audio guy I work with free reign to drop in any time we want and watch him work and watch how he composes stuff and even mentioned that he sometimes gets bogged down with projects, so hinted that we might actually even be able to help him out too. Anyway, those are just a few new developments. I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted! Below are the links to some of my Australia pictures. If you want to see any of the videos, you’ll have to get facebook. ;-) Hope everyone is doing well!!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2187112&l=09111&id=17800076

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2187118&l=e9326&id=17800076

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2187225&l=bc283&id=17800076

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2187231&l=19993&id=17800076

-Marisa

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