Forse, Round 2

Even though I already posted this poem that I wrote earlier in the year, it reflects the exact emotion going through my mind and heart today, so I thought I'd post it again, just for kicks. Here it is, an ode to indecision, full of hope and dreams, and failure and heartbreak: Forse.

La parola più bella, piena di speranza, piena di opportunità: Forse
Ma anche la parola più brutta, più ingannevole, ti tradirà alla fine: Forse
Vale la pena sacrificare tutto per un sogno quasi impossibile? Forse
Ti importerà nella fine tutto che hai lasciato dietro di te nel cammino? Forse
Avrai la felicità? Avrai il successo? Troverai l’amore? Forse
Avrai il dolore? Sarai pieno di tristezza? Vedrai gli orrori? Forse
Il più grande il tesoro, il più grande il rischio
Ma devo tentare lo stesso?
Forse

Do we fight for the right to a night at the opera now?

I don't remember when I first fell in love with opera. It was probably the influence of my friend Nisha who got me hooked on musicals as well. I loved opera even before I started studying Italian and learned what they were actually saying, but I love it even more now. I even love the German operas. I especially love the opere buffe, or the funny operas. I think my brother enjoyed those too since I always forced him to come with me, and I think the tragedies bored him. In fact I'm pretty sure he fell asleep a couple times. My favorite all time opera that I've seen was Il barbiere di Siviglia, which I saw when I was in Venice. Oh buddy was that fantastic. On my bucket list I have still left to see Aida, which is in San Fransisco this fall, so if I can convince someone to come with....
I am also overly obsessed with musicals. I have seen quite a few fantastic ones, though my musical bucket list still includes Wicked, Lion King and ironically enough, Aida.
While I'm on the subject of opera and musicals, I guess now would be a good time to talk about my love of Shakespeare plays as well. My Shakespeare bucket list is too long to detail out here, but my all time favorite play is the Tempest, and I have still not seen that live, so one day it is a must!!

JONAS

So I’m going to use this as a little confessional. I like the Jonas Brothers. So sue me. It’s not that I’m the biggest fan of their music, in all honesty I rarely listen to it (though I may or may not have all 5 CDs….just in case). But I respect the fact that they are good Christian boys with amazing standards and are willing to stand up for these standards in the face of a nasty Hollywood society. And for that fact alone everyone else should support them too. Also their TV show is ridiculously hilarious, and I love to laugh, so I will keep watching it for as long as it keeps running. So if you want to keep making fun of me, that’s fine, I’ll take it, but just remember while your Hollywood idol is getting put in jail for the 3rd time, mine are supporting no sex before marriage, no drinking and no smoking. All while touring the world and writing hits that earn them millions.

MOCHI

I tried Mochi (Mochi--Wikipedia) for the first time yesterday. This is what happened. As I took my first bite, I started to giggle. It felt like eating a little fluffy Japanese anime character. I couldn't stop giggling as I ate the Mochi. I definitely recommend this delicious treat!

Totoro, TO-TO-RO!!

One of my greatest obsessions in life has to do with Studio Ghibli films, which is, using a not so good analogy, kind of like the Japanese Walt Disney. I was first introduced to Studio Ghibli thanks to my parents, who both served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to Japan in their early twenties, before they knew each other and were married. Because of that, me, my brother and sister often grew up with Japanese influenced things, like yummy food (which I still LOVE to cook!!), random phrases, Japanese shoes (geta) and kimono, and of course, anime. Blessed, blessed anime. When we were little we watched the movie “My Neighbor Totoro” for the first time. I’m not going to lie, Japanese cartoons can be a little confusing if you’re not really familiar with the culture, but oh buddy are they worth it. Pretty much ever since watching “Totoro”, I’ve wanted my very own forest spirit living in my backyard, especially a ginormous fluffy one that I can cuddle. Adorable. Since “growing up” (as if that is even possible), I’ve become very attached to “Spirited Away” as well, it always helps me gain the courage to get through the rough parts of life. I’ve also recently fallen in love with “Howl’s Moving Castle”, as you could probably note from my earlier post “The Perfect Guy…”. “Ponyo” is also fantastic. Is it odd that I want my love life to reflect that little friendship of two 5 year olds? Probably… I’m slowly working my way through the rest of the Studio Ghibli classics. Hopefully this is an amazing tradition that I can pass on to my kids as well, because let’s be honest, these movies are much better than most American cartoons by far!

Dream Vacation

I think my dream vacation at this point in my life would be to go to the Louvre in Paris. I’m not the biggest art connoisseur in the world, but this museum would be so amazing to go through! Though one has to see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo while there, I think the pieces I’m most interested in seeing are David’s Coronation of the Emperor Napoleon, David’s Oath of the Horatii, Delacroix’s Barque of Dante, and Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People. I think that while I’m in Paris I should also stop by the Musee Rodin, in honor of my favorite sculptor Auguste Rodin, and see his masterpiece The Gates of Hell, inspired by Dante. The Gates of Hell include Rodin’s two most famous pieces, The Thinker and The Kiss. Technically there is a copy of this work here on the Stanford campus, but it would be so much cooler to see the original, in Paris no less.

When I Look At The Stars...

Stars fascinate me. I love looking out in the night sky and getting lost in the stars. They are so incredible and mind boggling. One of my favorite childhood memories is one night when me and my brother and sister spent the night on our trampoline outside, and my brother taught me and my sister all the constellations using a flashlight and a little star map he got from Scouts. My favorite constellations are Orion, Drago and Scorpio. One of my favorite classes at BYU was a random astronomy class, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with my major or minor. I would love to be able to discover all of the mysteries space has to offer. Staring up into the stars always makes me think of the scripture in Alma 30:44 when Alma says “all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.”

Mi affascinano le stelle. Amo guardare al cielo nella notte e perdermi nelle stelle. Sono molto incredibili e fantastichi. Uno dei miei ricordi più bello della mia infanzia è stato una notte quando mio fratello, mia sorella ed io siamo stati fuori una notte , e mio fratello ci ha insegnato tutte le costellazioni da una mappa che ha ottenuto degli Scouts. Le mie costellazioni preferite sono Orion, Draco e Scorpio. Una delle mie lezioni prefereite nell’università è stata la lezione di astronomia, anche se studiavo la medicina dello sport e l’italiano. Mi piacerebbe scoprire tutti i misteri che contiene il cielo. Guardando le stelle, sempre mi fa pensare nella Scritura in Alma 30:44, nel Libro di Mormon, quando Alma dice “sì, e tutte le cose denotano che vi è un Dio; sì, anche la terra e tutte le cose che sono sulla faccia della terra, sì, e il suo movimento, sì, e anche tutti i pianeti che si muovono nel loro ordine stabilito testimoniano che vi è un supremo Creatore”.

Switchfoot--Stars Music Video
Switchfoot--Stars Boston Live Excerpt
English Lyrics & Testo Italiano

My Best Friend Blizzard

One of my greatest memories of all time happened when I was 12, but to get a better understanding of the awesomeness of it all, I have to start when I was 7. On my 7th birthday I went to the zoo to celebrate, and as a present I got to choose one thing from the gift store. I chose a ginormous snow leopard stuffed animal, which I promptly named Blizzard, and he immediately became by all time best friend in the entire world. Blizzard slept in my bed, was a part of every game I played, and I may or may not have talked to him and thought he was real. 5 years later, my family went to a petting zoo near the Oregonian coast, and this petting zoo had many baby animals that people could pet or hold with a zoo-keeper by their side. On the day my family was there, they just happened to bring out the little baby snow leopard cub….named BLIZZARD!!!!!! It was my dream come true!! I don’t think I’ve had a happier moment in my life then when I held that little cub. I still want a pet snow leopard, but one that won’t eat me. I want a couple of them actually, then they can be like a Royal Guard and walk by me and look menacing as if I am an important princess they are protecting. But then of course they’d be super friendly and cuddly with me, not mean. Yeah, that’s the life…

The Motherland

So a good part of my family comes from Austria, and since the internet isn’t giving us any help in trying to search for our ancestors the only logical next step would be to take a massive trip to Salzburg to try and find the town that doesn’t exist that my Great-Grandpa claims to have come from. Clearly I’ve already started to prepare myself by listening to Tokio Hotel and learning German from their music, though at this point I think I could only really have conversations akin to breaking up with someone, stopping someone from committing suicide and talking to an alien who has come to our planet for a friendly visit. Regardless, fluent in German or not, my search for a mythical city is going to be a fantastic adventure fit for the movies, since all searches for mythical cities always end up in movies, like El Dorado or Atlantis for example. This is definitely one trip that I will have to take my camera on. Now if only I could magically earn a million dollars and make this trip happen…