A New Starting "Pointe"

Yesterday I taught my last lesson as a teacher at MSUB.   Now summer is here.  I will keep teaching some private lessons, and then in August I will move to San Francisco!  Crazy how time flies.  I am so happy though.

This week I ordered pointe shoes for ballet.  I'm excited -  I tried pointe several years ago and then I quit dancing for quite a while.   When I started again this year I wasn't sure if I would do pointe again but now that I'm getting stronger I decided I want to try it again.     I will post a picture when I get them!  

I am also really happy because there are so many ballet schools in San Francisco where I can continue dancing... and there happens to be one that is very close to where I will be living (only a seven-minute bus ride away!).  So I am planning to go there to keep dancing if possible.  It's so beautiful and such good exercise, too! 

April Photoshoot

On Sunday my sister Rachel asked me if she could do a photoshoot of me so that she could try out some new equipment she got for her photography.  She's becoming quite a wonderful photographer.... Here are some pictures from the shoot:

More Happy News

So I got a letter today, that, strangely enough, makes me very happy.   The letter was from the Fulbright Foundation, informing me about the results of my application for a scholarship to study in Italy next year.   Here is the letter:

Dear Miss Weitz,

The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board has asked the Institute of International Education to inform you that you have not been selected for an award under the U.S. Fulbright Student Program.

I know you will be disappointed, but I wish to assure you that your application received careful and serious consideration by the Board, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State, and Fulbright supervising agencies abroad.  However, as is often the case in the U.S. Fulbright Student Program, the number of well-qualified applicants this year far exceeded the number of awards available and the limited opportunities for placement abroad.

I emphasize that this decision in no way prejudices your chances for participation in the Fulbright Program at a future date.  Each year's selection is separate.  If you wish to apply again for a Fulbright award, your application will be considered, as before, solely on the basis of eligibility requirements, merits, and the placement possibilities in the country of your choice.

We appreciate your interest in the Fulbright Program, and hope that your interest in and support for international educational and cultural exchange activities will continue.

Sincerely,

Theresa Granza

Director, U.S. Student Programs

Why would this make me happy?  Well, I came to the realization, after I got accepted and offered the scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory, just how much I wanted to go there to study singing.   It's not that I couldn't have done that, anyway, even if I had been offered the Fulbright, but it would have been a very difficult decision.   It has been a dream of mine for years to go and study piano in Italy, and the Fulbright scholarship would have paid for EVERYTHING for me to do that, from food to housing to school and transportation.   And it would have been a wonderful opportunity to become fluent in the language, to learn about another culture and expand my horizons.... so it would have been difficult. 

However, now I don't have to worry about that decision.  

On top of that, BYU rejected me from their voice program!   And I was actually very happy about that too.   

I had prayed to God in the past month or two, that if I am not supposed to go to either of those places, that I just won't be offered the opportunity - that God would make the pathway clear to me.   And so it has been.   And I am SO excited about the opportunity to go to San Francisco and study voice for two years in such an amazing environment with so many wonderful teachers.   I am so grateful to God and to all the wonderful people in San Francisco for giving me this chance.  

I am so happy!