Our first full day...unreliable internet last night :/ Sorry for no pictures, they take forever to load.
I'm about to make everyone living in
the northern states a little jealous. I'm just sitting poolside,
typing in the dark, a few of my new friends are close by, but I
already went for a swim and it's time to blog. Today was
incredible-the first time I saw my surroundings in the sun
light..palm trees everywhere! I woke up early, and indulged in some
fresh pineapple, watermelon, and papaya, as well as some potatoes
cooked with onions and peppers. My roommate and I took a quick walk
on the beach and then went for a dip in the pool, before heading
upstairs to get ready for today's adventure.
We got to the school at 11, and met our
students for the next week. I have 5 amazingly talented
clarinetists-4 on Bb and 1 bass clarinet. If I didn't have a
clarinetist who wasn't amazing at English I don't know what I would
have done! I always knew I should have taken Spanish in high school
instead of French! My limited vocabulary posed a little bit of an
issue, but we were able to laugh about it. A fellow oboist had only
one student today, because we were still waiting for our Haitian
students to arrive tonight. She started speaking to the oboe player
and he said “No English”...she responded “No Spanish” and
they laughed...but it's amazing. I found that you can teach music
without even speaking. By demonstrating on our own instruments, we
found a new means of communication.
Here was my schedule:
11-12: meet and greet with our
students, then finding out respective rooms for the coaching
12-1:00: auditioned them, handed out
parts, warmed up and started playing the rep
1:00-2:00-lunch
2:00-3:45: clarinet sectionals lead by
me, with the help of one other student who could speak English and
translate for me
3:45-4:30: break, where I hung out with
some friends in the shade of some trees while meeting a really nice
Dominican girl who was helping out with MESDA, plus some
snacks...papaya juice with these huge fried wonton-esque chicken
filled snacks
4:30-7: more sectionals, including the
oboe, at at 6 we joined with the flutes
7-9:30: ceremony
We all had a huge lunch together at the
school, and went back to rehearsing. Lunch was salad with generous
slices of avacado, rice, and beef cooked with peppers and
onions...with some pineapple juice that was too sweet (probably
because sugar cane is the most valuable crop here). For the last hour
(out of 5), the clarinets, flutes, and oboes joined together to start
learning one of the new pieces.
At the end of the day there was a huge
outdoor ceremony complete with speeches, a small chamber piece,
awards, a high school band playing their national anthem, dancers,
singers, and even some fruit-filled punch at the end.
(It is here where I take a break from
blogging to take one more swim...the bar at the hotel closes at 11,
but apparently right outside they were selling more beer, so five of
us split 2 more 40s while talking about Mahler in a pool in the
Dominican Republic. Dude...life is so good)
We got back to the hotel at 10, and
started eating dinner...then we were wired from dinner and a few of
the girls decided to go swimming. There is nothing better than
getting into a pool after being sweaty, hot, and clammy all
day...plus our brains were mush from teaching all day.
I can't wait for tomorrow. We get out a
little on the early side, so there will be time to not only teach,
but relax. What a rewarding experience so far.
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