I’m working on the write up of my traveling adventures, but it seems each hour of fun takes an hour to write about. This week has been “simply” work, so it won’t take so much time to write about. Plus there are no pictures to label and sort and upload . . .
March 5th was the official start of the Schola Cantorum Summer semester. We had nice weather to match it. I’m auditing Notation (I went to one class before the break) and this time it was mostly a lecture – in German of course. I was very proud of how much I understood and I looked up words I didn’t know and kept track of them. When I learn a word in context the image and sound of the speaker gets imprinted in my mind and it’s easy to recall the word and it’s meaning, often without an English translation. Progress makes me happy! Speaking of German, inlingua classes have had their ups and downs. They tried to motivate us with a big scary test, but I’m done with the days of caring about such trifles. I’d started a new way of spending class time in an attempt to get more out of those precious hours, but I didn’t put in any more time than I have before. In fact, it was a little less due to the other tasks I had to accomplish this week. Guess what? The test went just fine. It probably wasn’t an “A” – oh dear!! I stick my tongue out at the little beast screaming in my ear “you need to be perfect!” Woah, that was probably ‘way to much insight into the psychology of my mind.
So, back to the Schola. Dance class is a little different since we’re preparing for a dance and improvisation evening ball. I went to an improvisation session thinking it was a workshop when it was really a jam session. I couldn’t even find what piece they were working from much less follow how they improvised. I was filled with such a desire to be able to do it, though. It was so beautiful and seems like so much fun! Afterwards I overcame my fears and blurted out in a cascade of bad German my desire to learn to the teacher, and he’s willing to work with me!!! The same students who played at the session played for the dance class and we learned a number of dances and they are now all jumbled in my head. It was fun, though!
I’m learning how to use the language switch. I saw some lost Japanese tourists the other day and offered my help in Japanese. We had a conversation for about 20 minutes waiting for and riding the tram. I did resort to English when I couldn’t remember the Japanese word, but again I understood nearly everything they said and was able to function better in Japanese than I had on the Glacier Express. Oh wait! I haven’t posted about that yet! Oh dear. I shouldn’t write half a post before posting another! Of course they were very gracious and said my Japanese was very good.
Today I jumped into an Indian modal improvisation class. Did that surprise you? The Schola has two semesters, but the classes run all year long. Hence, I just clapped and babbled and imitated and had a great time being nearly utterly clueless. It’s when you’re right on the edge of utter incomprehension that you loose all self-consciousness in the effort to extract something meaningful out of the activity around you. What fun! I look forward to learning what it’s all about. We clapped complicated rhythms to Indian syllables, then sang in Aeolian with the Indian solfege. I took some notes at one point along with other students but stopped since I knew Indian music is taught aurally as with Irish music and it would be better to learn just what I could retain at each session. Though the class was in German the teacher is American and I had a nice chat with him after the class. More on that as the ideas and possibilities materialize!
So much for a short update of the week! Oh, and I forgot to mention the historical harp studio class, which was small but delightful. I did about 20 times better than the first class. Hurrah for starting out so bad that there’s nowhere to go but up!
I love you all and hope you’re surviving the cold until Spring. The winter here has been so mild I tend to forget that you’re having such a cold winter!
Hugs and kisses, Janet
