IrishOboe

I leave early tomorrow for a short retreat in the mountains.  I will return Sunday night.  I plan to spend the first few days in Pontresina.  I'm sorry I haven't written about my adventures up to now.  I must make note on the train so I remember to write the interesting details.  Until then, it will just be notes when I hit an internet spot.  Peace!

Tuesday evening was the final night of Luzern’s Fasnacht.  Corrine, a friend of Anu’s from work, had invited me to come with her to enjoy the festivities.  I gladly accepted and after work on Tuesday we met at the Basel SBB station to take the hour train to Luzern.  Corrine grew up in Luzern and her mother still lives there.  After dropping our stuff at her mothers we walked down the street to the middle of the old town.  It was getting dark when we arrived, but it was still beautiful.

 (More)

There is something wrong when a Google search for "Fastnach 2007 Zurich" brings up my blog as the first hit.  I'm fifth for "Fastnach 2007."  Of course that means I can't spell.  The correct word is Fasnacht.  I don't know about other cities, but if you're interested in Basel's Fasnacht, check out the official site for Basel Fasnacht 2007.

www.fasnachts-comite.ch 

 Viel Spass!

It’s hard to keep up with the blog when I’m hardly at home.  I can’t believe it’s been a week since I’ve written, and that I’ve been in Switzerland for a month!  Last Sunday I spent the day with Stephan, Anu and Tamino in the northernmost part of Switzerland.

 (More)

I've just had time to recover from the busy weekend and I'm heading out again.  In an hour I go to Luzern with Corinne.  We'll enjoy the fastnacht there then spend the night at her mother's.  I'm going to skip German class (times have changed since I had a hard time skipping college classes, though I was better than my mother, who never skipped-ever!) and enjoy a day in Luzern.  Sadly, Sergio is back in Brasil, but that gives me an excuse to come to the city again after he returns.  As if that weren't enough traveling the next week is off for Basel fastnacht.  After two days of the festivities I'll skip the third (there's only so much druming and eating one can take) and probably head down to the Vaud region for scenic train rides and cheese factories.  Apologies in advance if this schedule makes blog communication a bit scarce.  I love you all!

Note: Due to computer problems this is being posted a day late.  I had more adventures today (Sun. Feb 18^th) but in this post “today” refers to Sat. Feb. 17^th.

 

Well, I supposed it wasn’t much of an exploration, but Friday and Saturday I went out alone to discover what came my way and felt good to be free of duty even though I didn’t actually go to a city I’d not been to before.

 (More)

Thanks to my gracious God for not making we wait too long before relations with my first German teacher improved.  The very morning after I complain about it in a post we had a session so tolerable I almost enjoyed it.  Today wasn’t bad either.  Maybe we’re all loosening up, but whatever it is, it’s in the right direction.

 (More)

This is a little note on the food I’ve been eating.

 

Sausage at the Market Square!

 

 . . . and I am IN LOVE . . .

 (More)

Hello all!  I am happy to inform you that each day has been getting better and I am now happy with Switzerland, my life here, and the world.  Okay, so not everything is perfect, but when you’re feeling good everything seems to go better.

 (More)

Today (Sat. Feb. 10) I went to a five hour Baroque dance workshop at the Schola.    It was extreme fun for the first 4 ½ hours, but then my brain turned off and my muscles are letting me know they’d had enough.

 (More)

I’d rather not write much about my experience at said pub.  I’m not writing the name again because I don’t want someone to find this post when searching for it.  Let’s just say I’m only a pub person when there’s a nice session going on.  The Swiss, even in an Irish pub, are not so friendly as Americans or the Irish in a pub.  The band only did songs, and I’m more of a reel and jig kind of gal.  Yet, I enjoyed the hour of music and my tram ride home.  There was this crazy Italian lady yelling her head off at her cell phone.  I wish I could have gotten a video of the looks the Swiss gave her, but that would have required being obvious with the camera.

2007-02-09 crazy Italian lady on tram cut.mpg

I wanted to share with those of you who are interested the Renaissance Madrigal we did in Baroque harp class.  The title is “Doulce memoire en plaifir confumee” and it’s something to do with a memorial in memory of a deceased loved one.  I chose to sing it because I’d just finished practicing oboe and was too tired to get through it beautifully.  As you can see it’s in French so I’m just singing on “doo.”  I’ll blame my vocal problems on the poor recording quality, except for the last line where I messed up the intonation in the run (sorry!) but you can hear the correct notes the first time I sing that run.  I know the video is too hard to follow with the music, but you can see the music in the picture.  I split the video in two because it was too big, and the first video covers the cantus part on page one (minus the last note) and the second video covers the cantus on page two (starting after the last note of the previous page).  In looking at the piece again I think I figured out what some of the marks meant that I didn’t catch in class.  If my memory serves me right I got it right finally.  Maybe if Sarah checks this post she can tell me where I’ve gone wrong.

 (More)

Today (Feb 9) we finished our first week of German classes.  We’ve done a lesson a day, which is a fairly good clip.  At home I did two or three lessons a week, so five in a week is quite enough for the brain to handle.  Unfortunately I’m not enjoying our first teacher of the morning too much.  I’m hoping that will change since she’s still a bit sick and so teaches with little energy.  All the normal tricks students play on teachers to make them think they understand work very well on her.  I’m trying to avoid them, but it’s such a temptation to mumble when you don’t know the answer and she’ll somehow hear the correct answer.  I also find her hard to understand and hard to follow, but I’m hoping that will changed with her improved health.  The second teacher we have I continue to enjoy.  She is clear, energetic, interesting, and helpful.

 (More)

The beginning of the week was great for German classes, but emotionally it was a bit rough.  I think it was a strange combination of feeling I had a lack of news from home, knowing I had some intimidating emails to write and business to take care of that I didn’t want to do, and maybe it was just that time in my emotional cycle.  I kept checking blogs but not updating my own, and checking a blog every hour is not a good way to satisfy communication needs!  So it shouldn’t be surprising that I’m four days behind in my blog, but it is.

 (More)

I came early to my first day at Inlingua, and the teacher is sick so we have a substitute, but we will start a half hour late.  So far there always seems to be a little problem, but things happen so I'm not judging yet.  It is disappointing that we don't get to start with our teacher, but such is life.  They have some computers we can use, hence I decided to use my time to write to you.  It'll take me half and hour to edit all the z's that are supposed to be y's . . .

 Maybe I should go study.  What an idea.  I haven't studied since I've been here.

Okay then.  I can't wait to tell you that everything went great!

A few Hours later . . .

 (More)