Hurry Up and Wait

WARNING: THIS POST IS VERY LONG

Let me start by saying that I made it to the airport.  My flight from Corpus Christi to Houston leaves at 1:10.  It is currently 10:45.  Since I have a long wait and free internet I thought I would update you all on the last week. 

We left California Sunday afternoon and drove to Vegas for a surprise trip for my youngest sister Alyssa.  She turned 21 June 5th and Anna and I haven't been to Vegas since before we turned 21.  This was the first time we could all enjoy Vegas.  We stayed at the Paris hotel and absolutely loved it.  With most Vegas hotels/casinos SOME of the rooms are decorated according to theme, but at the Paris ALL of the hotel and casino area are decorated in theme and it is super cute.  Some of our friends from USC met us out there and we got dressed up and went dancing on Sunday night.  Monday was more of a chill with family day.  My sisters and I got these large plastic mugs in the shape of a skull from the Treasure Island bar, I'm thinking about keeping detention and referral slips in it on my desk in my future classroom :-p

We left Vegas around noon on Tuesday and started our long drive to Texas. Our first stop was at the Hoover Dam and the next was for dinner in the Phoenix area with my best friend Amanda.  It was a nice surprise because she had come to say goodbye on Sunday.  I can't remember the last time we saw each other twice in the same week lol.  I drove for most of the evening and called it quits around 11pm.  We switched drivers a little south of Tucson.  Anna took over for an hour but "the road lights were playing tricks on her" so Alyssa took the wheel around midnight or so.  That's when the party started.  Alyssa MUST have music when she is driving, and the music was even more important because she would be driving through the night.  I was the DJ and we basically stayed awake until the sun came up singing at the top of our lungs.  My poor dad didn't get any sleep, but we had a good time.  We occasionally took a look out the window and the amount of stars we saw was absolutely beautiful and ridiculous. (I will now go on a tangent about a book...)

Whenever I'm in the desert I think about Stephenie Meyer's book The Host.  This is the only other book outside the twilight saga that she has written.  For those of you who haven't read it, I highly recommend it.  And for those of you who can't stand Stephenie Meyer.....too bad.  The story takes place in the Arizona desert, and one of the main characters goes on and on about how she thinks the desert is so beautiful.  I think about this book whenever I drive through desert and I honestly try to look for the beauty in it. I have to admit that I don't completely get it.  I also thought about this book when we visited the Hoover Dam.  The story is basically about body snatching aliens.  There are two main characters and they both reside in the same body - Wanda is the alien and Mel is the human unwilling to give up control of her body (most humans in the story don't put up as much of a fight as she does).  The aliens then make Earth a more peaceful place but continue imitating human behaviors.  The Hoover Dam was swarming with tourists.  For some reason I thought that it was kind of a silly/unique human quality to attach so much importance and wonder to certain places.  The Dam has this really cool celestial mapping of the stars as they appeared when the Dam first opened.  The reason is that if for some reason the Dam is forgotten and then rediscovered by generations far into the future, they would be able to determine the exact date of the Dam's dedication based on the mapping at the monument.  I'm sure I lost some of you about how exactly alien body snatchers, tourists, and celestial maps are all related, but it made sense in my head.  I guess I just wondered if visiting the Hoover Dam and other touristy spots would have been one of the behaviors imitated by the body snatching aliens.  Or if future archaeologists discover an abandoned dam will they wonder why we thought it was important enough to chart the stars on the day of its dedication? (End Tangent)

As the sun came up the sky over the Texas plains turned beautiful colors.  My dad said that he took a grey hound from Orange County to Corpus Christi a few times when he was a kid and he and his brothers always tried to stay awake to see the sun come up.  He never actually managed to do it until now.  We arrived in San Antonio Wednesday afternoon and spent the rest of the day eating and drinking along the River Walk.  It was a really cool environment, but the humidity was just awful.  Thursday morning we walked around the Alamo and then got back in the car for the final leg to Corpus Christi.  

I should have stated this before, but the purpose of this trip was to visit my great aunt and uncle (on my dad's side).  They live in Corpus Christi.  Tío Simon is a 91 year old WWII vet and my Tía Julia is in her late 80's.  My sisters and I had never met them but my grandmother talks about us all the time.  Obviously they don't have much time left (which they rather morbidly repeated throughout our visit) so we thought it would be good to visit them.  Corpus is right on the Gulf of Mexico so the humidity was EVEN WORSE than it had been in San Antonio. 

We got to their house Thursday night and spent the evening with them.  It was kind of heartbreaking how happy they were to finally meet us.  It was also kind of weird because I walked into the house and there was an 8x10 photo of me in my band uniform hanging on the wall (again I had never been in that house and I had never met them).  My tío launched right into stories about WWII and how he and my tía met.  Luckily I had my flip camera ready to go.  I think I documented some great family history.  The "highlight" of Friday was visiting my great grandmother's and another great aunt's graves.  That might sound kind of morbid, but I am very into family history and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to learn a little about where I came from.  The singer Selena is buried in the same cemetery as my great grandmother and great aunt so I was able to see her memorial as well (Selena lived in Corpus).  Friday and Saturday we took our time exploring the city a little, but mostly visiting with family.  My aunt and uncle (Dad's brother), my grandmother, and my youngest great aunt had also come out for the trip. 

Sunday was a rough day for me.  My flight doesnt leave until today (Monday) but my dad and sisters needed to start the drive home Sunday morning.  They left me at the hotel and I kind of freaked out a little about being alone.  It made me really nervous to be alone in a city I barely know.  (I know that sounds silly considering how many places I've been.) I knew our hotel and I knew where to get food and how to get around, but still.  I was worried about getting to the airport on my own - even though I knew I was going to take a shuttle from the hotel next door.  I was also nervous about the airport.  My home is LAX, I know that place like the back of my hand at this point, so I was nervous about having to navigate a new airport, espcially because I have a transfer/layover in Houston before going on to Lima.  I was able to keep the panic down by spending most of the day outside.  I went to the aquarium, I visited the art museum (it was pretty lame) and I just tried to stay busy outside and around people.

This morning went by with no problems.  I got to the airport super early and there was literally NO ONE in line to check in.  I felt like I was the only person in the airport who didn't work here.  Now that the hard parts are basically over I'm finally calming down and getting excited about my trip.  The next time I post should be from Perú!

Words That Scare Me

In my first post I explained that I will be teaching music, specifically flute, to kids in Trujillo, Peru.  In this post I will elaborate on this subject.

I received an email from the program director several weeks after being accepted to Vive Peru.  Rachel (the director) had spoken with the director of the youth orchestra and had more information about what I would be doing.  I will have 3-4 private students that I will meet with once or twice a week during the day.  I will also be at evening orchestra rehearsals 2-3 times a week.  No big deal, I can do that.  Here is where things start getting scary:

The director wanted my to send my repertoire list (which is standard) and also wanted to know if there is a concerto (SCARY WORD #1) that I could perform that was easy enough for the orchestra to accompany me (!!!!!!!)  I've always thought it would be really cool to perform a solo with orchestral accompaniment, but the idea of actually having to do it is TERRIFYING!!!!  I am now going to go on a bit of a tangent.

For those of you who don't know I received a Bachelor of Arts in Music.  That means that I studied music but did not concentrate on the PERFORMANCE aspect of it like those receiving a Bachelor of Music did.  Sending in a repertoire list is standard, and while the pieces I played were very difficult for me, my list is not nearly as long nor as complicated as that of a flute player with a BM.  This is where one of my biggest hang ups lies.  On the one hand I feel like a big fat fake - I'm a BA, not a BM, I really only consider myself to be an intermediate or early advanced player.  On the other hand I feel like I short-change myself a lot.  I mean, I studied at USC's Thornton School of Music, an amazing music school.  I had the same professors as the BM students, and (except for performing) I had to do the same work, so in that respect I'm just as prepared to do this as anyone else....right?  This constant struggle was one of the reasons I took so long to formally audition (SCARY WORD #2) and declare my music major.  End tangent.

So I was doing ok and feeling confident about teaching music - until I was asked about the concerto.  THEN I learn that the youth orchestra is part of a conservatory (SCARY WORD #3) conservatory just sounds so official and professional and intimidating.  Not only are these students taking private lessons and playing in the orchestra, but they are also studying music.  They are taking music history, ear training, and music theory - just like I did.

THEN I learn that the conservatory doesn't have a flute professor (two words, but for my purposes they count as SCARY WORD #4), which basically means that I AM THE FLUTE PROFESSOR (!!!!!!).  I just finished my master's degree.  Getting my music degree was one of THE hardest personal struggles I have EVER faced.......and suddenly I AM THE PROFESSOR (!!!????)

I was getting more and more anxious the more I found out so I asked the program director what level the students are at.  She told me that they are intermediate students and she was sure I would have no problem teaching them. (Recall that I said a few paragraphs ago that I don't consider myself particularly advanced).  Finally, a light bulb goes off in my head and I ask, "What are the ages of the students I will be teaching?"  Rachel replies, "18-23 year olds."  (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)  I thought I would be teaching 10-15 year olds!!!! My students are COLLEGE students, they are MY AGE, at a music CONSERVATORY.

I've never really taught flute before.  I've always wanted to take on students but I've never had the time.  With most things in life I would rather shy away from commitment than take on something and end up looking like a flake so I just never took on any students.  All of these scary words coupled with the fact that I've never really taught flute before is kind of freakin' me out. Oh yeah....

and did I mention I have to do all of this IN SPANISH?

As I said in my first post: I don't really speak Spanish.  I was counting on the language being my biggest struggle, but then all of these scary words were added to the mix.  However, I have heard a lot of stories from classmates and professors about how they studied with some crazy person who barely spoke their language, yet somehow they all turned out to be amazing musicians - so I'm just gonna go with that.  Also, I'm going to have to adjust the way I think in musical terms.  I may lose some of you with this next part, but my musician readers will understand.  I learned music using "movable - do" solfege, apparently in Peru they use "fixed - do" and not only that, I heard they don't even use the letter names for notes.  Instead they just call C - "do,"  A would be "la."  That's gonna trip me up for a while I'm sure, or maybe I could just teach them my way?  I dunno, I guess I'll figure it out when I get there.

I'm leaving this Sunday (June 19th) for a week long visit to Texas to meet my dad's aunt and uncle.  I will leave straight from Corpus Christi to Peru on Monday June 27.  I'm not really sure how often I will have internet connection once I get down there, but I hope its often enough to send you updates on how things go.

<3   -  D

Introduction

I know I've talked to a lot of you already, but I thought I would provide the basics for those who have not yet heard and to refresh the memories of those who may have forgotten.

I graduated from USC with my Master's of Arts in Teaching - secondary English a few weeks ago.  I am so happy to be done with school (although in the back of my head I keep thinking about the pretty red robes that I'd get to wear for a doctorate).  I'm hoping to find a teaching position for the fall, but I had nothing really planned for the summer.  As a result, I applied (on a whim) to a volunteer program in Peru for the summer.  I applied for two positions: teaching English, and teaching music.  The program accepted me for music; they specifically needed flute teachers and I have conveniently played the flute for about fourteen years.

I will be in Peru for six weeks (June 27 - Aug 6).  The first week is orientation, then I will teach for four weeks, and the last week I am planning on visiting Machu Picchu!  I will be living and working in the city of Trujillo which is in the northern part of the country and also near the beach.  I've been told that this is the second largest city in Peru, after the capital city of Lima.  It has a broad range of living conditions (very rich to very poor) as most large cities do.  I will be staying with a Peruvian family.  I'm a little nervous about my home-stay because I've never done one before (I lived in an apartment with other students when I studied abroad).  As most of you know, I'm very particular about my living conditions, and I tend to be anti-social when I'm at home (I hide in my room....if I wanted to be social I would go out).  Also, I'm really looking forward to this trip because I need to develop my Spanish SPEAKING skills.  I can read it, and I can understand a lot of it, but I've always cheated out of having to use it.  It will be interesting to see how the Spanish works out with my home-stay, especially because I'm sure they will want to work on their English skills (even more so if they have children).

I think that is all of the basics for now.  If you would like to receive email updates when I've made a new post please type your email into the gadget at the top of the page!