Your Song

I'm going to take a quick break from my Liverpool posts to share with you what has been going on since I got back.

This year I had the opportunity to be a ballet teacher to 7-9 year old girls and it was a dream come true! I was able to teach at my old dance studio and it was blast. At times it was a little difficult but these girls changed my life and made me smile. 

Last weekend was the studio's end of the year recital. The recital theme this year was L.O.V.E. meaning that all the songs were about love, about places we love, or just songs us teachers loved! My girls danced to Your Song by Elton John and they made me cry. These girls are at the tipping point of choosing to take ballet very seriously or take it something fun to do and so I wanted to give them music and a piece that was a little more challenging.

These girls blew me away and I could not be more proud of them. I hope to return as a teacher this coming year and hopefully continue teaching these girls at a high level.

 My girls in their ending pose back stage

My friend Molly and I, we went from freshmen college roommates to dance teachers at the same studio. I could not have asked for anyone else to go through my first recital as a teacher with.

XOXO

ZMH 

Selfie Sunday

No today was not full of selfies because it was Sunday. I took this day to just have me time. It was so wonderful after this crazy busy week I had. 

I went up to Grand Rapids and went to Woodland Mall and several of the other shopping spots near there. I just wondered around the stores and enjoyed being by myself. I of course need some new shoes and clothes but the trip was pretty unsuccessful.

I did walk out of DSW with a brand new pair of heels. Now I have been on the hunt for the perfect pair of nude heels. The problem for me was that they were either super expensive or just not the right shade of nude for my skin tone. These heels I found though were perfect and I couldn't pass them up. They are Madden Girl and were under $50! I would call that a steal.

I cannot wait to break out these bad boys with a super cute dress or skirt. I will keep you posted about what I decided to pair them with for their first appearance. 

XOXO

ZMH

P.S.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how bruised and awesome looking my knees are right now. The things I do for dance.

Whirlwind

Man oh man this week was just nuts!

I guess everything just decided that this was the week to keep me super busy and going all the time. Don't get me wrong, it was a fun week but I am glad this up coming week is a little calmer and more normal. 

This past week I had several shift changes at work due to dance auditions. These auditions were for the faculty showcase in the spring, it's a pretty big deal here at Hope. I went to a majority of the auditions like I normally do but sadly was not cast in anything. I don't regret running myself wild trying to get to these auditions and wearing out my body because auditions are the best place to learn and push yourself as a dancer. 

I know your suppose to always push yourself in class but that can be really hard sometimes. You go to the same class a couple times a week and usually it's the same handful of combinations with a few tweaks. After a while it just gets very repetitive so that's why I LOVE auditions because their that extra pepper you threw into your chili. You encounter weird stunts, interesting pairings of body movements, and the choreographer usually will play their out-of-this-world music for you. Auditions are a complete game changer.

(This photo is from a while ago but I just love it! Teagan was super excited to help me tie my pointe shoes, it was adorable)

(I don't remember where I got this photo but I feel it really shows you have to have fun and goof off once in a while in dance)

(But working hard will get you to a point of almost perfection)

Besides the auditions I just had a lot of sorority meetings and a bunch of homework that seemed to pile up out of no where. In both those categories everything worked out and got accomplished, except some homework reading, but it was a bit of a struggle.

Alpha Gamma Phi is hopping right now trying to get things going. Can you believe we are already starting to plan our rush events? Here at Hope we only have rush and pledge in the spring so it's a little bit in the future which boggles my mind that we are already having to start planning that stuff. We even talked about formal and what our guess on a reservation number might be. Our formal chairs then proceeded to remind us we would have new members by then, everyone was just so blown away by that. WE WILL HAVE NEW MEMBERS IN ABOUT SIX MONTHS!!

Overall I have enjoyed the start of the school year and am really excited to do well. Tomorrow I will be relaxing by going shopping and then finishing up some last minute reading at the apartment. 

XOXO

ZMH

 P.S. 

I promise to post photos of my apartment soon. I have just been way too busy to take a few pictures and plus our apartment needs a little sprucing up.

(A couple weeks ago I treated myself by ordering this monogrammed necklace from Marley Lilly and I am so in love! I wear this necklace everyday and always get compliments on it. I highly recommend ordering a monogrammed necklace from Marley Lilly) 

(My sorority mama and I before a party we had with Hope College's mens swim team. We had so much fun and really embraced the 'freaks and geeks' theme.)

(One of my lovely sorority sisters Brittany. One of the few girls I know who is taller then me, it is quite impressive.) 

Summer Loving

           So let me apologize in advanced for not blogging at all this summer. I knew I would be super busy at camp but I thought I would have had a little time to keep you all updated. Unfortunately that was very wrong. But now I am back and will try to fill you in with everything I learned and experienced this summer.

            I worked as a camp counselor at Blue Lake Fine Arts camp up in Twin Lake, MI. I was there from early June until just a couple days ago. I was there for two whole months but I definitely did not feel that long. My summer sped by in a blink of the eye. I am so sad that it is done but I cannot wait to come back for next summer!

            Blue Lake has four twelve-day sessions for kids to come and explore their art, band, orchestra, dance, theater, or singing. The first two sessions were high schoolers and the last two sessions were middle schoolers. Every kid I interacted with changed me in some way or I helped him or her find out more about themselves.

            I was in a cluster of cabins called West Point. At Blue Lake all the cabins are named after some sort of artist and the cabins are clumped into units with a total theme. Our unit was called West Point because when West Point was built it was the western most point of camp. All of our cabins were named after famous male authors, why didn’t they name this GIRLS unit after famous women authors you got me. Our cabins were Sandburg, Michener, Hemmingway, Frost, Baldwin, and Faulkner.

           

            Now my unit’s staff was the best ever. I bonded with those girls and formed friendships that will hopefully last for a very long time. We all loved each other so much and lets just say Niagara Falls was present on the last day of camp in our unit. I can’t believe that I don’t get to see those lovely ladies everyday for the rest of the year. It is the saddest thing.

            So that kind of gives you a brief over view of camp this summer. Down below are some photos of my fellow staff members and I.I hope to write a few more blog posts about camp as the days go on. I just have so much to share that if I were to include it all in one post it would be twenty pages long.

XOXO

            ZMH

The lovely Blue Lake beach.

Staff Dance Ensamble

Meg and I 

This picture perfectly describes Claire and I's relationship.

All the lovely counselors of West Point minus our unit director.

XOXO

ZMH

Tulip Time

So college is over for the summer and I can finally relax a bit before I have to pack up and move up to camp.

I really enjoy when the semester ends because here in Holland the following week is Tulip Time! It's like Holland is just waiting for all of us college students to be done with school and then Holland throws a week long celebration to help us kick off summer vacation.

Tulip Time for native Hollanders, like myself, can either be a bunch of fun and you love it or you absolutley hate this time of year. I know many people from Holland who always plan their vacations during this week so that they miss the whole ordeal.

Now Tulip Time has been going on for quiet a while. It is a week long celebration of our beautiful Tulips all around the city and to also celebrate our Dutch influences in the city. There are three different parades: the Volksparade (the people's parade), the Kinderparade (the children's parade), and the Muzeikparade (the music parade). The parades are probably my favorite part of the whole week, besides the carnival food! The parades consist of a lot of floats, beauty queens, school children in dutch costumes, and lots of really cool local and national marching bands. Everyone comes out to see the parades, rain or shine, and really show their support of the walkers by cheering and screaming at people they know or their favorite floats.

There are so many other things that make up Tulip Time it is so crazy. There is a Tulip Time 5k run, fireworks, two carnival locations, dutch dancing showcases, a quilt show, and an arts and crafts show. Those are only a few things. We also have many different theater shows through the week as well as a special guest each year who is also our grand marshall for the last parade. This year our special guest was Bill Cosby! It was so neat to see everyone really excited about this because we haven't had someone so famous before here just for Tulip Time.

I love Tulip Time and enjoy everything about it! Growing up I didn't like it so much but growing up around it I realize that I love the aspect of community that comes out. Sure I do get annoyed by the traffic and tourists but I just have to remember it's only for a week. Tulip Time is a great time to visit Holland if your planning a visit, just make sure to make reservations for a hotel at least a month in advance! Haha!

Here is the link to the Tulip Time official website:

http://www.tuliptime.com/ 

Here are some photos I took from this year, Enjoy!

We always have our local hero's from past and present in the parades. It's great to see how much pride and honor our community has for those brave men and women.

There are always a few very interesting and eye catching group.

Holland High school is the biggest high school in the area and they take their Dutch pride very seriously. 

Holland High School marching band

Holland Christian baton team, I always wanted to be one...let's be honest I still want to be one.

I love seeing all of the colorful flags that the color guard teams carry. Their so pretty!

We have beauty queens from all over come to be in our parades. This is the Bavarian queen and her court from Frankenmouth, MI

Of course no parade is complete without Sinter Claus

My friend Rachel, she was super excited for the parade...the picture doesn't really capture her excitement.

There are always really nice old cars in the parades too.

Zeeland High School marching band

Zeeland High School marching band

Oh hello Ronald McDonald!

Thing 1 and Thing 2 creating chaos at Tulip Time.

The lovely Salvation Army ladies of Holland in dutch costume.

 Zeeland Christian marching band

 The local old folks from Evergreen Commons

Holland Christian marching band

Well I hope you enjoyed this post! I am sorry I didn't get many photos of the dutch dancers and their costumes but if you follow the link I posted above you will see many photos of the dancers.

XOXO
ZMH

Spring Break

So today marks the second week back from spring break. These last few days have gone by so fast and I love it and also kind of hate it. I now have 4 weeks left of my sophomore year as a college student which is terrifying and exciting. I am happy the year is almost done because then I can start on having a wonderful summer but I don't want the year to end so quickly because I have a lot of stuff to still do before I move back home. AH!

Talking of time going fast spring break felt like it was only two days long. I did not do much the first couple days. I stayed at home, watched TV, and ate a lot of food. My dad and I had a daddy/daughter day together and went down to Michigan City and did some shopping. Such a good and long day with my dad! About half way through spring break I went back to college to meet up with some girls from the dance department to go to the American College Dance Festival Association. It was my second year going and this year we were in Chicago at Northeastern Illinois University. I had so much more fun this year mostly because I knew what to expect and how to go about which classes/workshops to take. (I'll post a link to the ACDFA website at the bottom so you can check it out!).

So we got back from the festival a day before classes so I took that day to go back home and relax and get my stuff together. I had to mentally prepare myself for going back just because I knew I had a lot to do that I had procrastinated on. Typical me though, I always until the last minute to finish or start anything. I am a very organized person and would prefer getting things done early but I work way better under a time crunch especially when it comes to writing papers.

Now that school is wrapping up I get to start planning about my summer job up at Blue Lake Fine Arts camp as a counselor. I cannot wait to be back there and interact with all the kids that will be coming.

How was everyone else's spring break? How much more of school does everyone else have? Anything you are looking forward to this summer?

Here is the link to the ACDFA conference I went to!

https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1259412

XOXO

ZMH