Passport Trip: World Race Exposure, 2015

Hello, all of you wonderful people!

A huge opportunity has arisen me this summer. I have been accepted to join the Passport missions team through Adventures in Missions for the month of July. Basically, the passport team joins up with a group of young adults that are currently traveling 11 countries in 11 months on the World Race missions team. We will be joining them for the month of July in the country of Malaysia. I am SUPER pumped about this. I have spent the past 8 years dreaming of the day that I can live and work in Southeast Asia. Although I am not living there yet, I am excited to experience it for the first time!

I am so thankful to all of you that have contributed towards the cause. I pray that the Lord blesses you for your willingness to help fund my trip. The total cost of the trip is $4,000, and I have already raised $2,835! That's about 70% of my funds. I am selling T-shirts to raise money for my trip. Each t-shirt is $20, and they look like this:

If you would like one, you can order one through PayPal on the right hand side. I will need to know what size t-shirt you would like, so I will contact you to find out the details of size and quantity. I am ordering the super soft variety. :) If you are between sizes, you might want to order a size up, because they tend to run a little small.

If you would like to support me, but you do not want a t-shirt, you can donate through the PayPal button on the right. If you want tax credit, you can go to this website and choose the "Passport" option as the program, and type "Amy Melton" as the name of the participant.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Sincerely,
Amy Melton

Oslo, Day 3

Hello!

We've had a bit of a mishap-- the hair mousse exploded and got in the laptop. Now it won't turn on. Prayers would be appreciated! For that reason, I am blogging from Dad's phone. I'll try my best not to let the quality suffer!

Today was a day that I have looked forward to for 6 months: a lesson with Frøydis! For those of you who don't know who she is, Frøydis is the former principal horn player of the Oslo Philharmonic and former teacher at the Norwegian Academy of Music. She is extremely well known in the horn community and is a fantastic teacher.

Some highlights from my lesson: it is important to buzz all major intervals both ascending and descending (half step, whole step, major/minor thirds, perfect fourth, perfect fifth). Wow. I struggled through that in my lesson. It's so easy to just follow the diatonic scale! Also, she suggested that my breath not be so loud. This is an odd concept for me to reproduce, but I totally understand how this distracts an audience from your solo. Also, I learned that Europeans like to play on the B horn almost all of the time. I was convicted to learn all of the fingerings of both horns in order to make educated decisions about which ones to use while playing.

This is just a taste of everything I learned!  She even gave me her book, which I was already planning on buying.  Here's a picture of us together:

She didn't want to stand up because she didn't want to appear as if the teacher was "looking down" on the student! How considerate! :)

After this, we walked to the train station to ride to Sandefjord, one train stop  away from the airport. The hotel was only a three minute walk from the train station! (A lot better than the thirty minute walk to the music academy this morning).

The hotel is really nice! This is a whaling town right on the fjord, so the hotel has the whaling theme. They were serving complimentary Norwegian waffles, fruit, and tea before a complementary dinner served later at night. We actually had a pretty full meal for the first time in a while. (Budget traveling means  less food while staying in expensive countries.) I had a salad and the best bread I think I have ever had. Norwegians love their bread! They eat it all of the time. Normally, I try to be gluten free, but I have made some exceptions on this trip. I also ate some pineapple and watermelon. You can definitely tell that Norway has strict laws on agriculture- no GMOs!! That pineapple was amazing! It tasted more flavorful than the bland veggies and rice I had at the train station.

After dinner, we walked to the train station to buy train tickets for tomorrow. Afterwards, we walked around. It's such a quaint town! Very few people were out and about. We walked to the pier, which was beautiful. Check it out:

 Their sewer is a Viking ship! 

A really cool rope at the dock that seems to be made of recycled material. These Europeans love recycling!

Jellyfish!

We passed some beautiful sights on the way there and back:

A fountain honoring the whaling tradition. Notice the full rainbow. 

A really neat community garden surrounded by very imaginative wooden towers. 

You can't really tell, but this is a green space with tons of flowers and a statue honoring motherhood. 

Tomorrow we get up at 3:45 to eat breakfast and ride to the airport. From there we fly to Amsterdam for a layover to Tallinn, Estonia. (Don't ask me why we fly so far I. The opposite direction for a layover...). I cannot wait! The trip is flying by. I have been missing home a lot, even wishing I could go home, but as the trip is 2/3s done and drawing to an end, I don't think I want to leave!

You probably will not hear from me until Wednesday. I don't think there will be anything to write about tomorrow!

Until Wednesday!
Amy