Thursday, December 18, 2008

where does the time go?

well! since i last posted (ages and ages ago) many big things have happened, which i will now list.

i turned 25 - HUGE birthday
i got tenure
i went on tour with my quintet to the south of chile (pictures below)
my uncle and best friend both came to visit (pictures below)
i played a contemporary music concert at one of the universities
OBAMA won the presidency, and virginia went blue for the first time in 44 years (go VA)
i fell in love with buenos aires (pictures below)
i bought my first painting (in BA)
my brother won the short course swimming national championship in the 100free (!)
i've partially learned to surf

so, lots of GREAT things going here. something that is not so great is that it is now technically the "holiday season" and yet it's getting warmer every day. i've been trying to get myself in the holiday spirit but things don't really seem to be working. how can people be putting up xmas trees and also wearing tank-tops? didn't THE church think of this when they spread Catholocism to the ends of the earth? didn't they think it would confuse everyone if jesus was resurrected in Spring, in April, and yet here, it is Autumn? this backwards season/holiday temperature issue has really been getting to me.

i tried to make xmas cookies the other night with a friend, and we listened to a bunch of xmas music, but none of it worked. not even the cookies - they came out as scones. disaster. so i'm hoping that at least when we're bbqing for xmas, i can compare the feeling to that of 4th of july. i'm going to my "family's" house in Las Condes for Christmas Eve since i'm not able to go home to the States. i've decided to make a Red Velvet Cake to take since they've definitely never had it and i associate it strongly with Christmas. it's the right colors, after all.

also, tonight and tomorrow are the last nights of work for me before the holiday week off. we're doing the "american" concert, and we're playing Copland Appalaichan Spring, Barber Violin Concerto (incredible oboe solo in the beginning of the second movement), Ives Unanswered Question and Bernstein West Side Story. a great program but i confess it makes me a bit homesick. especially since i'm from the appalaicha area and copland's open sonorities are so quintessentially american. also i don't know if i could love a concerto more than i love the barber. we have a great soloist as well, mark kaplan, who teaches at IU and is one of those soloists who really lets the music speak. we're lucky. it's all gorgeous.

here are some pictures of the south:



and also of my trip with my uncle to Hacienda Los Ligures:



buenos aires:



some pics of me and katie in pichilemu: