Last Thursday, Jeff, Holly and I left warm California behind and visited the beautiful chilly state of Utah to look at the three universities that Holly has applied to for next fall.
Cheryl O'Bryant brought over a good luck gift for Holly. It was a CD of famous arias performed by the world's best opera singers!
THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
Built in 1850, this is the oldest college campus in Utah. It is located in downtown Salt Lake City. The Park Building, in the center of campus, is the school's administration building. There are about 30,000 students here!
Cameron, a music major, gave us a tour of the school and the college of music. This was a gorgeous concert hall. Holly will be auditioning here at the end of February.
UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY
Utah State is located about two hours north of Salt Lake in the cute little college town of Logan. This started as an agriculture college and if you go here, you are called an "Aggie". You can't tell really from this photo, but the tree behind Jeff's head has a blue "A" step to the left of it. Traditions are huge here, but the biggest is to become a "True Aggie". To become a "True Aggie" you must be kissed at midnight on a full moon by another "True Aggie" on this step. Sometimes there will be an hour's wait to get up there!
Utah State's dorms were by far the best! The basement is really cute with different games, a big screen tv, a fifty's style kitchen, and music practice rooms.
It is also the coldest weather here too, averaging 10 degrees less than Salt Lake or Provo. It was about 25 degrees when we visited. Utah State has 16,000 students.
This is the beautiful Logan Temple!
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY
BYU Provo has the biggest concentration of Mormons, having a 98 percent population. Everyone was smiling and having a good time around the whole campus (big contrast!). That's why they call it "Happy Valley".
Their library is almost completely underground and stretches across the length of two football fields. It is the number six best library in the nation! Holly saw six friends while visiting BYU. BYU has 30,000 students. Thirty percent of the school's students come from Utah and thirteen percent come from California.
Last December, Holly sent in a DVD with her singing three classical songs in German, Italian, and English. BYU prescreened 160 DVD's and chose only 30 students to come for a live audition. On Saturday morning, Holly had her voice audition at BYU. She was up against other college students, even juniors! Only 10 will be accepted into the program at BYU. We find out mid February if she is one of them. Wish her luck!!!
Holly's Grandma Starr gave her a very special gift while we were up in Utah. Holly's great great grandfather was a professional opera singer in Norway. He was fired after he joined the church and he and his family moved to America to be with the saints. These were two of his opera books Grandma Starr had and now has passed down to Holly. She loved them - what a treasure!
Today we took the Penrod family for the Chinese lunch, Dim Sum, in Irvine. While we were waiting to be seated, we ran over to the Asian Market and picked up a few items. We got seaweed, rice, sweet treats and cakes from the Chinese Bakery!
Fawn was excited to try all the new foods, but I couldn't talk her into the chicken feet - the dish on the bottom right.
Corrine, Emma, Carey and Fawn did try just about everything though.
Here is Holly and Emma with Barbecued Pork Buns and seasoned rice wrapped and steamed in tea leaves.
Here I am trying the cold Jellyfish. It was marinated in vinegar and seasonings. Jeff, Fawn, Carey, Holly, Corrine, Luke, and Shera all tried it too!
After lunch, we walked across the center near the pond and went to Lollycup for Boba. That is basically a Chinese fruit smoothie (all sorts of flavors) with black balls of tapioca at the bottom you can suck up with a straw and either chew or spit them out at each other. Sometimes the kids have wars with them! I know it sounds gross, but the kids have fun with it!
