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.
To finish up Sunday, I went back into town to meet Sarah for coffee at Unternehmen Mitte, and we had a lovely time chatting about Eastman and Basel, and many other random topics.
I don’t know how long we talked because it didn’t feel very long, but it must have been a while (the bladder is an honest time keeper). It amazes me how the mind gets confused after being thrown in the blender of new situations and a non-routine life. How could I forget all the vivid experiences of just a few days ago? I’ve not forgotten them, but they will come to mind when they will and not when I request a chronological report.
This week I’ve been trying to find a good rhythm so that I make the most of my time here. (But given my emotional state I’ve not come close to the “masking the most of the time” part yet) I’ve been getting up in time for breakfast before catching the tram to Aeschenplatz for German class from 9-12. The first day was easy, the second day was good, the third day was a bit of a workout for the brain, and today I missed half of the class (to be explained later). I like my teachers and I like my fellow student, Val. He has fairly good pronunciation (maybe because he’s a musician, too?) and we usually understand the same amount. I know a bit more grammar, but that’s because I’ve been through the Inlingua 1 book. In any case, it doesn’t hurt me to hear it again since grammar never was my favorite. I’m finding here and there my gut tells me what’s right from having listened to Hippo tapes and doing the Pimsleur lessons. That’s very good because if I’m taught straight grammar I simply cannot keep the rules straight.
In the afternoons I’ve been practicing oboe and whistle and enjoying it very much. You know you’re in a boomy room when you walk into the bathroom and the sound dampens! I’ve been working out a new set of tunes from Cherish the Ladies “Out and About” CD and that’s been tons of fun. I forgot to mention that the moment I come home from class I do my homework over lunch. I spend as little time as possible on it so I come closer to my goal of not holing up to study but experiencing Switzerland. Well, I guess holing up to practice doesn’t quite qualify, but practice must be done.
Tuesday was the height of my procrastination depression as I’d set myself a deadline for the emails to be done by the end of the day. Thus, I did this and that and practiced a long time and stayed up late and waited until I couldn’t wait anymore. What is it with these mysterious tasks that become like a plague? Well as it always turns out I had nothing to fear and none of it was as bad as it seemed.
Wednesday I finally dropped by the Allgemeine Schule during business hours (I’d managed to find them online) and discovered that the early music classes are handled by the Schola, so I went there and signed up for the Renaissance dance course. I’m not worrying about the price – that’s what the scholarship is for! It happened that the class was that evening (or is it the procrastination problem again?!) so I hopped home to change into clothes I might be able to dance in (why didn’t I think of bringing some dance clothes since I knew I wanted to dance here?!) and hopped back for the class. I was strangely not nervous for this encounter with a class in German. Making the arrangements terrifies me, but jumping mid-way into a class taught in German on a subject I have no experience in with people I’ve never met doesn’t even dull my smile. It took a little prodding to introduce myself to a student who was waiting outside the class. I would say she was a little cold at first, but after my feeble attempts to make small talk (in German of course – remember, a foreign language is a great mask to hide behind) she started carrying the conversation as well. I know people (including myself) tend to find the Swiss less than friendly, but they are in fact, quite friendly behind their cold exterior as I have evidence of every day. Every single person associated with the Schola, without exception, has been incredibly kind and helpful. I would expect to be met with some strange looks and pessimism from at least a few persons if I were trying a 5 month, loose association with an American institution. Nobody here has so much as questioned why I’m doing it this way! Yet even in this situation I am not a total stranger, since we have at least some business to discuss. Strangers are not friendly to strangers, or are they? Today I rounded the corner at the Schola and saw the number 3 tram closing its doors. I started running knowing full well I’d have to spend 8 minutes in the rain waiting for the next one, but the driver opened the door again and waited for me. Remember, these are the Swiss where timeliness is next to godliness! So, I’m learning to look past the external tough-as-nails, I-don’t-give-a-darn exterior of the Swiss. When they visit America I if they think everyone is on happy drugs or wants to sell them something.
But back to the dance class. Ms. Véronique Daniels was extremely helpful in her emails and even nicer in person. She introduced me to the class with a fairly long explanation in German that I mostly followed. The class of course seemed cold at first, but by the end I felt as though I had eight new friends. The class was in German, but Ms. Daniels (who is French) would sometimes give me instructions in English. I really do love learning by being thrown in the middle of a situation. I didn’t know any of the dance terms (besides reverenze) but as I watched and listened I learned a number of them. Of course I don’t know exactly how they are executed, or even less how to spell them (they’re mostly French), but it was much more fun to observe and make the connections than it would have been to study the terms in a book or have them explained to me while the class waited. We did two Renaissance dances, and what fun it was! I was just able to get the whole thing by the end of the practice, and otherwise I had to rely on watching others, but I kept up better than I did at my first Irish dance class! One cool feature was that we had a live lute player for most of the class. That really added to the charm of the dance. Of course, I was concentrating so hard on my feet that I wasn’t able to fully appreciate the nuance of having a live musician responding to the dance, but even in my beginner state it made a difference. What fun! I can’t believe this is actually happening!
After the class I watched the advanced Baroque class and it was fun. It is much more like ballet, and I’d love to learn about how it developed through the centuries.
The next day (Today, Feb. 25th) I skipped the first half of my German class to go to the Baroque harp studio class. Sarah had invited me and I’d obtained permission of the instructor. I met Sarah at the school and we went there together. I expected to watch, but I was invited to play! We all played a madrigal together. Now we’re talking serious learning to swim by drowning. I’ve only studied pedal harp for two years and have played harp for two weeks in the past two years. I’ve never read old notation, and have only seen it a little in theory class as an illustration. I’m not used to reading different clefs, and this one was in some clef where middle C is the bottom line. Thankfully there are five lines (though no bar lines) and stemmed notes, but there are funny marks and strange looking notes I don’t even realize are notes at first. I’m given a lever harp since I stare in awe at the chromatic harp (three sets of strings lined up next to each other!). Even so, I have never changed levers in the middle of a piece sine the harp I used at home had still levers that didn’t change the correct amount anyway and this piece has many accidentals. The teacher leads the class mostly in English for Sarah and me. The other students (from France, Germany, Greece) follow easily. Even the man working the cafeteria speaks decent English. I just can’t get over how well and how many languages Europeans speak!
We all (six) play the cantus line together, and it is a gorgeous Renaissance melody that is apparently quite famous. I’m so lost that when the teacher tells me to just skip the accidental notes I don’t know what she means (new clef remember). I let my ear guide me as my eyes guided me last night and I begin to figure out the meaning of the funny marks on the page. The teacher starts moving my levers more me since I’m not sharp enough to avoid playing a note that will be wrong, but as we try it again and again I pick up more and more and even start to move the levers at the right time. I just start to get the hang of the melody when we move to the tenor line, and another clef. I figure this one out more quickly as I remember how I used to transpose in order to play my various instruments with the piano growing up. Maybe it’s cheating, but at least I know what note to play! What a thrill! I can’t believe they would just let me in the class like that so acceptingly and patiently! I learned a ton in that one hour and I look forward to working out other things next time that I didn’t catch this time. Oh it’s heaven to just absorb and experiment as a fly on the wall with no tests or expectations by my own. If I could keep that attitude and feeling when there are expectations on me, then I’d have it made!
I made it over to Inlingua for the last ten minutes of the first 1 ½ section. Of course, this was the day our teacher finally was well enough to come in, so I felt badly that I’d missed it, but oh well. We talked a bit and I had a hard time understanding her. The other teachers have very clear German and she sounds like she has cotton in her mouth. I trust I will get used to it. I hope I like her teaching style as much as the others!
I think tonight I will go to McGuinness’s Irish Pub to listen to the Irish band “Tickle Your Fancy.” The pub caught my eye as I came home on the 2 tram and I found their website and list of events. I emailed the owner (Brendan McGuinness from Dublin) to see if there were Irish musicians in Basel, and sadly there aren’t sessions, but Brendan says he wants to set them up soon and to introduce myself when I stop by. I’m not sure how I will handle the smoke in the bar, but I’ll have to try!
I think that roughly catches us up. Tschüss!
