Seven weeks into the school semester already and I am having a blast! It’s hard to feel down in Miami with beautiful weather 80% of the time. The other 20%, when tropical storms roll in, is just the universes way of saying, stay inside and get some work done. Midterms are almost over so I finally have time again to enjoy the beautiful weather.

I guess it’s probably time to tell everyone about the absolutely fantastic opportunity I have been given by some of the students at the University of Miami. I am officially part of the a cappella group, UMiami Tufaan (find us on Facebook), a fusain singing group operating out of the University of Miami. Even though I am only here for the semester, the group has taken me under their wing and showed me what being in an a cappella group is like in the United States.

Firstly, it’s no easy task. With two, 2 and a half hour practices occurring weekly, and often running late into the night (think midnight), it takes persistence to get good enough to compete. It would be easy to say that it was all too hard and to run away, but the fact that we don’t just proves the group is serious about music and about performing  well. We all have a passion and all want to do well and improve our musical ability.

With a musical background I can definitely say that this group of people are an extremely talented bunch, who teach me new things constantly. The rehearsals are a lot of fun, though very tiring and with every week we can tell that we are getting better. We had our first performance last week. With 2 days’ notice, we did a pretty good job to pull everything together and perform a very decent show.

I am so very grateful for the opportunity I have been given to not only sing, but to become great friends with this group of people. So, to Ravin, Roshni, Madhu, Sarah, Neil, Diana, Karna, Sumedh, Merike, Parth, Vedant, Amit, Annissa, Ravi, Rachel and Lander, Thank you!

See you on the flip side

Xoxo Haylee