IrishOboe

I blame Skype.  Stephan introduced me to it and now I can have a quick chat with my mom whenever I want to.  That means the principle person who nags me about a neglected blog is no longer ever-present in my subconscious because I can simply tell her what’s on my mind.  I don’t want to lose the rest of my audience, so please forgive this two-week absence!  I see I really deserve a beating because the last post before the silence was depressing.  You’ll be happy to know that Steph has been doing a good job of cheering me up.

So what’s to brag about?  I just helped my new roommate (M) set up her computer to use the wireless network here.  I suppose the achievement wasn’t so great because I’d just been through the ordeal with Steph and she got advice from her brother as to what to do.  I must say I was quite disappointed it didn’t just work because we’d spent a few hours with Dad’s computer trying to get it to work and ended up changing a setting on the router that we thought would allow any guest to use it with ease.  Still, with the tech skills of Steph’s brother we got hers working and I got a better idea of how all this crazy computer stuff works.  The reason I’m proud about helping M is that not only is her computer in German, she has Window’s Vista.  So much for knowing where things are and simply guessing at the German terms.  That’s how I got around my Japanese computer while teaching.  I managed to find Network Connections, but a right click didn’t give me property options and at every step we kept getting a scary warning sign, which I assume is meant to scare people away from working on their own computers.  Of course we had the option of letting windows self-diagnose.  I wonder how often that actually works.  Anyway, I couldn’t find my way around so I ended up using my computer to get to the windows help that we’d used to set up Steph’s computer then I switched the language and managed to find the same page in German, though it wasn’t smart enough to keep me where I was before.  From that I was able to follow along enough to find what I needed and once past the levels of “idiot proofing” things looked more familiar.  Well, the internet worked and I’m a hero.  I’m not sure what my bragging rights are, but I’m just happy I fixed the problem even if it didn’t take much original thought.

Now I have the problem of how to go about catching up with the past two weeks.  I think I’ll go backwards again.  Today was March 1^st and Steph came over in the morning so we could study German together.  We studied.  It just so happens we probably talked more than we studied, but give us a break, she’s was gone for two months and has only been back for two weeks.  We had lunch together then went on a run and as we went along the forest path I found myself gritting my teeth and saying “It’ll get better soon” before I realized that I’m ridiculous.  I wouldn’t have any pain if I just wore shoes.  It’s amazing how the calluses disappear so quickly.  I’ve been biking a ton, but not running so frequently.

I took a tiny nap and had rehearsal, which went well.  I’m not so scared about doing this monophonic piece where I have to improvise accompaniment for Anais’s recital, though it will still be a challenge.  Sorry for the English, I don’t have time to actually make sense . . .

We just came out of the Improvisation in Medieval Music Symposium that was Thursday and Friday (Feb. 28, 29).  It was tiring but fun.  Last night (29^th) was the big final concert of improvised music and dance.  It turns out it was about the same program that I watched in March the first time I was in Switzerland.  I wrote all about it here but I’ll quickly summarize by saying it was one of the more memorable evenings that convinced me that the Schola was a special place, and early music and dance something I just had to study.  I remember clearly my impression of the Renaissance dance and since I’m visual I remember much of what it looked like, too.  I remembered some of the music as well.  For example, we got a new piece in ensemble class about a month ago and I knew I’d heard it somewhere but didn’t know where.  I wracked my brain before coming up with the idea that it was the opening piece of the Tanzabend (some ten months ago at that point).  Would you know, I was right?  The point I’d like to make is that I’d been in Basel for two months and doing Renaissance for less than that, so I didn’t understand what they were doing at all.  I saw the evening as a lay person would both in terms of music and dance.  This time I’d learned much of the dances and knew most of the steps so I could follow what the dancers were doing with an educated mind.  It is a rare opportunity to be able to see the same thing with two totally different eyes and remember enough to compare.

This time I wasn’t nearly as delighted with the playful spontaneity and flirtatious fun for perhaps two reasons.  First, I was watching their feet and trying to understand what they were doing and second, I knew some of the moves so they weren’t as surprising.  Instead of seeing a women dancing between two men and their flirtatious game of hind and seek I saw “person one moves forward for eight counts of pivas then person two joins with the same step and then person three.”  When you know the moves, you anticipate and so aren’t as surprised and delighted at each new turn.

On the other hand, I was able to appreciate what they did on another level because I could tell where they were following the dancing books and where they were improvising.  I caught the subtleties of their interaction as they tried to follow and anticipate what the other dancers were doing.  I laughed delightedly in different places, but was still fascinated the whole way through.  I wish I could express how surreal it was to be in such a different place while being in the same physical environment.  I wonder if that can give some sort of glimpse into how God is outside of time and can see today informed with the knowledge of yesterday and tomorrow.

To be continued . . .