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[Sep. 30th, 2005|01:21 am] |
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I hate solfege! I'm so terrible at it. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 19th, 2005|02:24 pm] |
I managed to get run over by a truck on my bike today.
I'm bruised and sore, but otherwise intact.
My bike's all bent.
*sigh* That is all. |
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| Some Dutch Information |
[Sep. 14th, 2005|03:31 pm] |
So, I've been here a little over two weeks now and I'm finally beginning to get things straightened out.
It was a rather rough start. The organization here is a little to be desired. I arrived in Groningen to an appartment with no key. No one had contacted the landlord to let him know I was coming. The girl who had been living there before had taken the key with her (and as I later found out the matress and most of the furniture that was supposed to be there.) After much calling around, the landlord (who is a god for going to all this trouble) said he'd get a key made in the morning. I spent that first night in a local hostel, which was quite pleasent. The next morning I got into my room.
My flat is amazing. I have four other female housemates. We share the kitchen and bathroom. My room is about twenty square meteres (huge for housing here) and looks out over a 16th century church. (The oldest Protestent church in the Netherlands, as I later found out.) I have large bay windows and the room is airy and pleasent. Best of all, it's all of about a 10 minute walk (or 5 minute bike ride) from the center of town. It couldn't be better.
(With the exception that I only can rent it through January. After January 15th, I have to find somewhere else.)
Starting classes was another study in disorganization and confusion. More about that a bit later. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 12th, 2005|03:57 pm] |
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Hopelessly drunk in Europe. How much more fun can it get? |
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| Eg er vikingur! (Musings about Iceland) |
[Sep. 11th, 2005|10:40 am] |
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"I am a Viking!"
Reykjavik is the northern most capital in the world. It's small (about
115,00 people including all the suburbs). The city first settled by
Norweigans and Celts in the 900 century. It's parliament is the oldest
continuous parlimentary democracy in the world. The "Alping" was
established in 930, and while its effectiveness was at times undermined
(such as during the Danish rule) it remained a governing body. Iceland
only officially recieved its independence from Danish rule in 1940.
The scenery surrounding Reykjavik is breathtaking-- green peaks capped
in snow that sweep dramatically down into the sea. The city itself is
slightly drab and gives the impression of a large town rather than a
bustling capital city. Part of this image is due to the fact that the
tallest buildings are the churches. It's possible to navigate from one
end of the city to the other by steeples. There aren't any buildings
over four stories and they're all the same stone grey. There doesn't
seem to be a whole lot of bustling, either. The main population I
encountered on the city streets tended to be tourists or Icelanders
doing the occasional errand. There are two main shopping streets
containing a large selection of restaurants, winter clothing stores and
an inordinate amount of erotica shops. There is a distinct lack of
banks, offices or grocery stores.
The real experience to write home about, however, is the geothermal
baths. Ahhhh. The baths I visited consisted of five outdoor pools of
various sizes. They were part of a new sports complex that also
contained a full gym, an indoor pool, massage, sauna...
You have to remove your shoes before you're allowed to enter the
changing room. Once there, you're expected to strip down completely
naked and shower before putting on your suit. Then you shower again.
Only after two scrubbings are you allowed to enter the baths. The water
steams in the cold air. (It was in the 40's-50's when I was there. I
had to keep reminding myself it was August as I wandered around in my
coat, hat and mittens.) The hottest pools are smaller, for soaking and
there are two larger, slightly colder pools for lap swimming and
general horsing around. (There was a water slide in one of the larger
pools.) I spent an hour and a half moving between pools, listening to
Icelandic and soaking. The verdict? Every town needs geothermal pools.
My 24-hour stay in Reykjavik was rather short, but acutually about the
right amount of time for the city. What I'd really like to do is go
back and backpack outside of the capital. Volcanoes, gysers,
mountains... the countryside of Iceland looks very exciting. And, of
course, there are more geothermal baths to enjoy. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 11th, 2005|03:35 am] |
So, here I am, having lived in the Netherlands for almost two weeks now, and not made a post.
First, it was because I was so busy getting settled and then it turned into "wow, I have so many stories, I can't write a post until I have the time to write them all."
There will be stories: Iceland stories (and pictures), getting into my flat stories, first week of classes without any classes stories, and many more.
For the momemnt, it's 9 am right now and I'm sitting in my flat eating breakfast. I'm going to head off to the Conservatory to practice for a couple of hours. Stories to follow later today.
I absolutely adore it here. I can't believe I get to be here for a whole year. This is so exciting. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 27th, 2005|10:02 pm] |
the Packing is complete
Now, all is left is to clean.
Leaving: tomorrow at 1200.
Yikes. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 27th, 2005|06:32 pm] |
Dilema:
I want to travel with as little stuff as possible. The idea was to just take one suitcase. I'm not sure this is going to happen. Maybe it'll be one suitecase and my hiking backpack. Then I can still move around easily.
It's rather hard to know what to pack for a full year. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 22nd, 2005|09:25 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  bouncy | ] |
I have a place to live!
I will not have to sleep on a park bench or under a grand piano in a practice room.
I have an place with 4 female roomates right outside the center of town. Shared kitchen, bathroom, but private bedroom. If my calculations are right, it's about a ten minute walk from the conservatory.
This is very exciting. |
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| Some Background Info, Please! |
[Aug. 21st, 2005|11:07 am] |
Looking back, it always seems to be the seemingly inconsequential decisions that cause the monumental changes.
My life changed the summer after my senior year of high school when I met the Russian concert pianist, Tamara Poddubnaya.
I was working for the Hurricane Island Outward Bound school in Rockland, Maine for the summer. I had been accepted to Mount Holyoke College for the coming fall, but had deferred my entrance. I wanted an adventure before settling down in one place for four years. At the time, the options were: travel to Nepal for a year and teach English or live in Bali and work with the locals in developing environmentally sound farming techniques. Both definitely qualify as an adventure, but as it turns out, an entirely different adventure was awaiting me that summer... one I couldn't even have imagined.
I have played the piano (in the broadest sense of the word) since grade school. My first teacher was a local woman who was more interested in talking to my mother than correcting my fingering. So, I taught myself, and, as a result, learned all my music by ear. Not having the proper training didn't stop me from plowing through pieces, however. When I was ten, I decided I wanted to play the Moonlight Sonata. Never mind, that I had never played any sonata before or that I couldn't really read music. I labored over the first movement for a good six months and played it in the anual recital. I doubt I played it well, but I loved every note of that piece.
It wasn't until I got to high school that I ended up with a teacher with proper training. It was then I finally learned how to read music decently, began to practice scales and got started on repetoire appropriate for my abilities. Ironically, my musical interest declined. My teacher, good as her intentions were, spent the majority of our lessons telling me that I was never going to be a decent musician because I hadn't recieved the proper training and now it was too late to make up for it. If only, she lamented, had I been taught correctly earlier, I might have had a career as a pianist. It was a lost cause now, of course.
To be fair, my high school teacher did fill in some much needed gaps in my training, but the constant reminders that I was never to be any good meant that, by senior year, I was hardly playing at all. When I began working for Outward Bound following my graduation, weeks were spent climbing and sailing where I would never even think about the piano.
Towards the end of the summer, I recieved a call from my teacher asking me if I would participate in a master class with a Russian pianist.
I really didn't want to attend. I hadn't touched a piano in weeks. I had no pieces to play. I was supposed to spend the weekend on Hurricane Island, partying with my co-workers.
At my mother's insistence, I ended up going to the masterclass.
That is where I met Tamara Poddubnaya.
I played the first movement of a Mozart sonata (F major) and what Tamara saw in those fumblings, I'm not sure. To my complete astonishment, by the end of the lesson, I had been invited to study under Tamara in Tennessee as well as travel with her to Bulgaria for an international competition. Tamara explained that she would work with me for the month of August and part of September and then travel with me to Dobritch, Bulgaria for the competition. I could enroll in Maryville College, where she was working as a guest artist and take classes as well.
You could have knocked me over with a feather.
How do you refuse an offer like that?
Two weeks later, I had flown to Tennessee, enrolled in Maryville College and had daily lessons with Tamara on my Mozart sonata and Debussy's "Clair de Lune".
I traveled to Bulgaria the second week of September and played in my first real competition and my first international performance.
That was how Tamara Poddubnaya entered my life. She's the reason for the fact I still play, that I adore playing, that I majored in music instead of biochem in college and that I'm going to conservatory in the Netherlands for a year.
One woman, and one random decision to attend a masterclass and I started down a completely different path. |
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