I will have another post coming after this one explaining my trip to Panama and my thoughts about DCI lately but for now I want you to be updated on my life!
Last Tuesday I began rehearsing with the National University Orchestra, so far we have Overture to Egmont and Beethoven symphony no.1 in our folder, I believe we will be getting 1-2 more pieces. I went to this orchestra knowing nothing of what it'd be like, I assumed relatively similar to orchestra rehearsals in the US. But first I had to get there.... So I called an Uber and he took me to the front of the University's campus.... then it was another 10 minute walk to get to the building which is fine but I had absolutely no idea where it was other than the name of an auditorium inside of a music building I was supposed to find. Thank you security guards because absolutely none of the students knew where the music building was until I got close and saw musicians with instruments (as of which I totally followed them). I arrived right on time, 6pm, which for me is late. BUT here in Costa Rica we have what is called tico time. A tico is a person that lives or is native to Costa Rica. Tico time is when everything is 'pura vida' or relaxed, no worries and typically means late or at the leisure of whenever. We didn't start playing until 6:40pm. Now you might be a little upset at this but wow I needed that time to meet the director, find a music stand, unwrap my new chair, warm up AND stop sweating. Now at this point I'm realizing I really should've looked up some terminology to help me understand rehearsal tonight but did I? ABSOLUTELY NOT! So incase you're wondering, a 'compass' in Spanish translates to 'bar' or 'measure' in english. I only got lost a few times and one of the times the director stopped, introduced me to the ensemble and said 'everyone talk to Emily a lot!' as to which I said 'yeah, Spanish isn't my first language' but it went great other than a few mistakes.
I am getting ready for fall semester, I transferred my GRCC credits to WMU and I'm on track to graduate in the fall, along with taking a SCUBA class! So I'm thinking a lot about what's next. I don't know if I want to go to grad school right away, I don't know if I want to go to Spain for grad school or Minnesota for performance and repair. But I do know that if I don't get into the Aspen music festival with a fellowship (I find out today!) I want to stay home, complete a summer intensive EMT course, go to a music festival in Maryland, possibly IDRS if I can take that much time off and just save money and live in an apartment with Michael and try to not kill the veggies I want to grow.
Every week through the Sol education abroad program we have 'immersion excursions' where we go out and take a dance class, cooking, baking, or this week on Friday we went to a club. It was definitely weird going to a club on a school sanctioned event, it also included one free drink. I had a terrible time, not to say the club was bad or anything of such but I don't really like to drink, and I REALLY dislike loud music. Guess what they had,.... REALLY LOUD MUSIC! It was a live band and it was mic'ed terribly and the mic's were turned up incredibly loud on already loud instruments, which results in a nice screeching noise. We got there at 9 and I left at 10:30p, its all I could take. I do enjoy going out with friends but typically not at night and if we're going out for a drink I'd rather go to a restaurant so we can chat than a club or bar.
On Saturday I decided to begin training for a half marathon and practice to become a titan of the bassoon world. We'll see about the second one. I had been running down here prior to deciding this and I knew I wanted to run the Borgess run but at what distance? I've always wanted to run a marathon but I don't think its feasible in my current situation with time so 1/2 is halfway there and we can do the other part later. But running her is KILLER! I live in Heredia which is in a valley with a similar elevation to that of Kalamazoo MI, so no need to worry about altitude sickness but just because we're in a valley doesn't mean there aren't MOUNTAINS to run up every turn and a very strong headwind both ways! Here I run on an average about a 12 minute mile and I think when I get home it'll shave off 3 minutes a mile LOL. I also practiced for a bit this day, hit a nice flow in my practice session. I'm trying to memorize the Courante of the third Bach cello suite, which is an awesome piece to play but memorizing Bach is DIFFICULT because he repeats passages increasing in stepwise motion or only a step off and you really could play the same thing twice and it would sound okay but its really not.
On Sunday my roommate and I went to Ojo de Agua, which is a public pool here. It's a small kiddy pool, a young kid pool and an olympic sized swimming pool with platform dives. I was so excited to swim again! and I didn't get burnt! I think I did a little over 600m but who knows.
Today begins the last week of module 2 classes. So basically its finals week but we only have one final on Wednesday. Today we had a role play which is improvising in front of the class in a conversation with a partner using a prompt and a grammar tense previously decided. I was so unnecessarily nervous for this - it went fine we all got 100%. But we also learned swear words in Spanish! I also started my first tutoring class today, I want to learn to translate for a hospital. The tutor knows all of the words and we went over the respiratory, digestive and nervous systems but he doesn't really know what they do. I guess the purpose of translating is to directly translate and not advise but I want to be able to use this in my EMT and paramedic courses as well. I guess one will learn as time will tell.
Ten un buen día hoy, y mañana!
EM
Monday, February 24, 2020
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Rough day
Today was pretty good and then it was awful.
Classes went fine, breakfast was great (toast, melon, and yogurt with granola and a cup of coffee). We finished our presentations in class, which were about the best and worst moment of our life.... a little bit personal... mine were about when I went to China with the KJSO and how its bittersweet because the people in those photos, I will never be able to play with again even though they've gone on and continued their musical education profoundly. My worst moment was the entire debacle with Lukeman... and how the house made my face swell up and break out in hives for 4-5 months, how our ceiling fell on my cat, how when moving out they decided to come in early and clean everything out (including my piano) and throw it away. And how I sued them for it. Continuing on in class we spoke about future tenses of verbs, events occurring with nature in latin american countries and our final presentations.
I had a great lunch of beans, rice, some noodle salad, roasted cauliflower, and a chickpea soup. And then I went to have a lesson with Isabel, this is where I found out that my phone doesn't have data. I had no way to contact her to let her know I was at her house so I rang the bell at her neighbors, who didn't answer, rang the bell of the business next door and was able to use their phone. Had a good lesson, went really well and we're progressing.
The next step was getting home.... I stopped in a cafe to use their wifi to look up a bus route. Got to the bus stop on time, got on the right bus it told me to and I'm following it along and then it makes a wrong turn and I pull the string to get off but he doesn't stop... so I go to the front and ask him if I can get off at this Stop sign. He says no... So I stay on the bus and he finally stops halfway to Heredia... as of which I had an appointment for allergy shots at 5pm. Its now 4:30p and I have to walk to a different bus stop but I'm too far away from the bus stop to calculate the correct time to get on a bus because I'm already to late and missed it, and I can't look up another bus because I don't have data. So I walk all the way home. And I sweat through every piece of clothing I'm wearing and I get home at 4:50p... I'm not going to my appointment.
Em
Classes went fine, breakfast was great (toast, melon, and yogurt with granola and a cup of coffee). We finished our presentations in class, which were about the best and worst moment of our life.... a little bit personal... mine were about when I went to China with the KJSO and how its bittersweet because the people in those photos, I will never be able to play with again even though they've gone on and continued their musical education profoundly. My worst moment was the entire debacle with Lukeman... and how the house made my face swell up and break out in hives for 4-5 months, how our ceiling fell on my cat, how when moving out they decided to come in early and clean everything out (including my piano) and throw it away. And how I sued them for it. Continuing on in class we spoke about future tenses of verbs, events occurring with nature in latin american countries and our final presentations.
I had a great lunch of beans, rice, some noodle salad, roasted cauliflower, and a chickpea soup. And then I went to have a lesson with Isabel, this is where I found out that my phone doesn't have data. I had no way to contact her to let her know I was at her house so I rang the bell at her neighbors, who didn't answer, rang the bell of the business next door and was able to use their phone. Had a good lesson, went really well and we're progressing.
The next step was getting home.... I stopped in a cafe to use their wifi to look up a bus route. Got to the bus stop on time, got on the right bus it told me to and I'm following it along and then it makes a wrong turn and I pull the string to get off but he doesn't stop... so I go to the front and ask him if I can get off at this Stop sign. He says no... So I stay on the bus and he finally stops halfway to Heredia... as of which I had an appointment for allergy shots at 5pm. Its now 4:30p and I have to walk to a different bus stop but I'm too far away from the bus stop to calculate the correct time to get on a bus because I'm already to late and missed it, and I can't look up another bus because I don't have data. So I walk all the way home. And I sweat through every piece of clothing I'm wearing and I get home at 4:50p... I'm not going to my appointment.
Em
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
No sé que quiero por un título?
We're going to Panama this weekend! .......its a 13 hour drive..... we're leaving at 2am.... BUT I'm excited to see a new place (even though it'll be pretty similar, maybe a little colder because we'll be in the mountains) ALSO!!! I bought an awesome duffel bag today for the trip AND IT HAS BACKPACK STRAPS!
Lessons:
Things have been going really well with Bassooning, last week during my lesson she assigned me to memorize Milde no.1 and the first half of the Courante from Bach cello suite no.3. The Milde isn't too bad, some accidentals throw me for a loop but the Courante is H.A.R.D, and I believe its only difficult because I'm also trying to play it in the correct Baroque style while memorizing which gives some liberty but when your memory falters it ruins everything lol! We are also continuously working on major and harmonic minor scales and the Mozart bassoon concerto (also played in the same Baroque style)
School:
I'm a little upset with school. The professors are amazing people and I would love to be acquaintances with them but when it comes to quality of teaching, organization or other incredibly important things necessary for being an educator, they lack. And it's quite frustrating that I am still paying for college credit but I don't believe I'm still getting the same quality. Pros, these classes qualify for my upper level Spanish classes, and my capstone project for minimal effort.... not sure if its right morally but never-mind that.
TTFN,
Em
Lessons:
Things have been going really well with Bassooning, last week during my lesson she assigned me to memorize Milde no.1 and the first half of the Courante from Bach cello suite no.3. The Milde isn't too bad, some accidentals throw me for a loop but the Courante is H.A.R.D, and I believe its only difficult because I'm also trying to play it in the correct Baroque style while memorizing which gives some liberty but when your memory falters it ruins everything lol! We are also continuously working on major and harmonic minor scales and the Mozart bassoon concerto (also played in the same Baroque style)
School:
I'm a little upset with school. The professors are amazing people and I would love to be acquaintances with them but when it comes to quality of teaching, organization or other incredibly important things necessary for being an educator, they lack. And it's quite frustrating that I am still paying for college credit but I don't believe I'm still getting the same quality. Pros, these classes qualify for my upper level Spanish classes, and my capstone project for minimal effort.... not sure if its right morally but never-mind that.
TTFN,
Em
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