Happy weekend! :)
Gratitude 22
I am thankful for the "Hungarian" yoga class that Christa (a student from the Isle of Man) took me to on Wednesday.
It's the weekend. Time for a bit of R&R and catching up on the ever-growing mountain of homework. I don't mind the work; it is important for my studies and my hopeful career in music. It can, however, get a little overwhelming. Nem baj. No worries.
The rest of my week:
Wednesday was a day of work/practice/errands, etc. I went to the music library and found the pieces János wrote down for me on Tuesday...nagyon szeretem! They are wonderful. The Vivaldi piece...brilliant! He's been trying to pull that coloratura out of me. I think this piece will be a good start. The other two are Mozart arias. I am not so keen on the one right now...I tried to convince him to let me do the shorter one first, but he stubbornly said no.
In the early evening, I received a call from Tracy, the woman who took Dr. Mathias' position. It was so nice to hear from her. She did her undergraduate at Capital University and studied in Hungary, too.
Later, I tore myself from my studies for a bit of much-needed "play" and went to yoga with Christa (as mentioned above). My brain was on overload. It was a neat experience. I probably understoood ten words of the Hungarian, but I figured out what she was doing...I pretty much just copied what she did. It was good to relax. Sometimes, my brain does not want to turn off, at which point it must be forced.
Thursday, I was praying it would not be a repeat of Tuesday. (I did NOT want to live another lesson like that one!) Solfege is really intense (yes, I know...I say that everytime.), but I am noticing improvement. I am becoming more and more musical...even with the little solfege exercises...and am beginning to hear things I didn't before. I have been getting dictations after only a few listenings...some after only one or two!...melodic AND harmonic dictations! :)
Chamber music with Roland was not the best highlight of the day...my Hugo Wolf piece was a mess, and Roland did not let it go unnoticed. I was really frustrated with myself because I thought I had fixed my trouble spots but really made them worse. We touched the Kodály piece, Kocsi szekér, for the first time, and that turned things around a bit.
I had a cup of tea before my lesson with János to calm myself down. I got to my lesson before he did, so I decided to do a bit of yoga. (I normally do that or at least just some stretching before singing. Last week, he walked in as I was doing yoga and looked at me like I was completely insane and said, "What is this? What are you doing?" When he finally arrived this week, he came in mocking me. I think he really just likes to tease me. Apparently, he's a Tai Chi man. My lesson went quite well, though. He is pushing me quite hard, but it is all with good heart. I know he will not push more than I can handle. And when I really get what he's telling me to do, it is incredible! I am making the biggest sounds of my life! Funny János moment: In the middle of a vocalise, he gave me that "serious" look and said, "Samantha! Vomit!" (As in the comment he made a couple weeks ago of, "Singing is a vomit with a smiling yawn.") haha!
My lesson ended (nearly 15 minutes late...oh well...doesn't bother me!) with a "lecture," I guess you would call it, alluding to my perfectionism. I needed to hear it, though. Things need to be shoved into perspective sometimes.
Friday (yesterday), I was feeling so much better. It may have helped that I went to bed early, so I was very well-rested. I ran errands after my morning music literature class. I went to the copy shop again with a stack of things to be copied. That place is brilliant and so much less stress for me! I realized in the 15-20 minutes I was in there how far just knowing the numbers in a language you cannot speak can get you. I am so glad my little sister Becca and I drove my parents nuts in car rides this past summer learning them! Thanks, Becca!
Last night, many of us went over to Heather's (formerly Sophie's) apartment to hang out for awhile. We had a good time playing games and eating pizza and pretzels with Nutella. Then, a few of us girls went dancing for a bit. We met some crazy Hungarians! It was fun, though. And we got to practice some our Hungarian (nothing new to any other day in Hungary, I suppose!). My vocabulary is getting larger...it is actually probably getting close to the extent of my German vocabulary (which doesn't say much for my German!). There was this one guy that I apparently made think I actually spoke Hungarian. I don't really know how that one happened. All I said was, "Nem beszéhlek magyarul. Csak kicsit," which means, "I don't speak Hungarian. Only a [very] little." However, the other random words I said when I actually knew what they were in Hungarian didn't convince him. He was trying to speak in English to Wendy, the new student from Australia with whom I was with, and when he couldn't figure out how to say it, he would look at me and speak in Hungarian like I would translate it. I kept saying, "Nem értem. Nem beszéhlek. Amerikai...Angolul,"...."I don't understand. I don't speak [Hungarian]. American...English." But he didn't believe me and kept insisting that I was really Hungarian, so he would speak nothing but Hungarian to me. I guess picking up these phrases and words can also pose as a difficulty because you also have to understand what they say back to you! I'm learning. Hungarian is nehéz (difficult/hard) but fun, too. It is truly incredible how living in a culture can influence your language skills. It's probably a "survival" instinct. I'm enjoying it, though. I was saying earlier that I'll go back to the States and be speaking Hungarian like we do around here (bocsánat, köszönöm, szivesen, jó nápot kívánok, etc.), but no one will understand what I am saying there! haha!
Today was a laid-back day. I went to the supermarket to get a couple of things...and a pumpkin (tök in Hungarian) because we are going to have a pumpkin-carving party this weekend in celebration of Halloween, but they didn't have any left! :( Tomorrow, I'll just have to go to the open market. However, I bought chicken today! AND cooked it! I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous, but that's a big achievement for me! Besides that adventure, I did some practice/work. And tomorrow will be the same. I shall end with an extra gratitude. (Probably cheating, I know, but it has been more than one day since my last post, so technically...)
Gratitude 23
Only in a place like Kecskemét would you find "grandpas" ("nagyapa") playing chess in the park! Aranyos! How cute! It makes me smile. :)
One last photo from my outing today:
Autumn in Kecskemét :)
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