Back to School

Dear readers,
I have been on a trip to Venice for the past four days! I did not get a chance to blog because we thought that it would be best not to bring our computers. (But of course you already know that because you follow my blog so diligently!) I am currently working on a four-blog post that fills you in on the details of the trip, but that takes time, and I am feeling slightly lazier since returning to Vienna, so y'all will have to deal. :)

The past day has been very emotional for me for personal reasons, but let me just say, its all better now and there is nothing to worry about. If only I had known that from the beginning of my day I would have been a little more stress free.

10:30 a.m. After a stressful night, it comes to a nice end very late, and I wake up feeling refreshed but still haunted by the drama of the night before. Sorry I don't really feel comfortable sharing details, but I do feel like it is important to follow today that you know I was just a little distracted throughout the days events.

I shower and dress quickly after waking up because there is no internet to distract me, as Kim, so I thought, had taken the converter to school with her to use her computer. (In reality, it was actually in the bathroom the whole time, which we figure out when we see each other.)

I head to school early, hoping to have a chance to practice piano in the practice room at school downtown.

I get to the U-Bahn station near school, and instead of taking the bus to the next stop, I walk all the way to school. It is a nice walk, you go through a park, and along several blocks of little shops and bakeries. I just wanted to clear my head, and catch up on some listening. I ended up listening to the first movement of Mahler 2 twice because the second movement just pissed me off in the mood I was in. :)

11;50 a.m. I arrive at school, and head to the office of my advisor for the key to the practice room but he is not there, so I situate myself on the second floor in a comfy chair and do some more listening in the hour before Kim gets out of her art class, which had started at nine.

Of course sitting in the hall always runs me into all kinds of people!

I see J and we (hopefully!) make plans to all hang out Kim, me, the Fabians, and Bruno maybe? Some adventures are sure to ensue!

I also meet a girl and a boy, the latter from Connecticut and going to school in Montana who play the piano! The boy is the one whom I always fight over the key for, but had never met him! All three of us were excited to meet some other students excited about music. I got both of their names and hopefully they will join us for some concerts in the future if all goes well.

1:00 p.m. Well, by then Kim was out of class, and she was starving! So we head out to lunch at our now favorite chinese place right by the U-Bahn before our voice lessons. Best chicken-fried-rice ever. Pretty different from the kind you get in the US. The veggies are actually crunchy and they use much more of the flavorful dark meat of the chicken. And this is the best part: They Gave Us To-Go boxes!!!! That is a first, and now we have reusable tupperware and dinner for later!

2:30 p.m. We had some time to kill, so we went to the Naschtmarkt for a few minutes then head over to our teacher's apartment for our lessons.

3:00 p.m. Celia was there from her lesson too! We all made plans to go on the Beethoven walk together on Saturday! Very exciting. Oh! and also Diana promised to take us to "her people" at the Naschtmarkt! I want some fresh-ass strawberries! Sorry too many exclamation points, just trying to convey my excitement.

Kim went first, I went second. Time for a subtitle:

New Teachers

Having a new teacher is exciting. It can also be very frustrating. Especially if the new material that you are learning seems to be contrary to everything you have learned up until this point in your life. It is confronting, but at the same time can be really fun. I happen to be the type that is very loyal to my teachers, but I always think of myself first when it comes to my voice. I will always try something once, but if I think it is unhealthy or not conducive to good singing, I will not continue to try it. I think the important thing to know is that a new teacher must respect a student enough to know that another teacher out there cares more about that students voice and soul more than the new teacher. (Unless the situation is not a good one.) Everyone has a different approach to singing, and there are so many different ways to find beauty in a person's voice, and different ways to make beautiful singing, even in a single voice.

That being said, I did have a great lesson, and I feel like new things are being presented to me, and I get to play! It is really exciting to experiment with the different colors of your own voice! I may not agree with everything that I hear in my new lessons, but here and there, I find something that I have never thought of before and I really like it. And isn't that the beauty of being the instrument? When you find something new in your voice, you find something new about yourself.

5:00 p.m. After lessons we head home, each with our own frustrations and successes from the lesson, but both tired and ready to watch some American TV and skype some peeps from the states!

8:30 p.m. Got to fb chat Katherine, then Skyped with my mom, Nora, and Matt and Jason! Ugh! Missing everyone!

Now off to work on my Venice blog entries, and to bed! We have a listening quiz tomorrow in music class that we need to do a little cramming for too.

Goodnight!

E