the next email
hello again, everyone!
I'm back in Santiago again after another unpredictable week outside of the country. two weeks ago, my grandfather passed away, and I decided that it was best to book a ticket to be with my family for the memorial service. I am so glad that I did. It was a whirlwind three days in Oregon, but so good to see my whole dad's side of the family together (minus granddad) to celebrate his life. I'm pretty sure I would have regretted it for a long time if I hadn't made it back for that. the memorial service was really beautiful, and I was glad to be there sharing it with my family.
So I got back to Santiago on Wednesday morning after a long, sleepless flight and have spent the last couple of days getting my sleep schedule back to normal. I played again with the Alhue Jazz Band on Friday night and had a good time. So it's back to the Santiago Routine now, whatever that's supposed to be.
Before I left for the states, I think I started to settle into something. Of course, leaving again has messed all that up momentarily, but I think I can work myself back into a groove. This semester, the "groove" has been practicing trombone, going to class, and playing on the weekends. I'm working with a really great professor, a real hard-ass who keeps me honest and has me working on the things I'm not already good at, the things I need to improve: intonation, slide technique, tone quality, etc. he's also a very nice guy, and has helped me get into the music scene in the city. I'm working towards a final jury in december, where I'm going to have to play all of the major and minor scales and modes, as well as a trombone solo ("Concert Piece" by Alexandre Guilmant) for a bunch of professors for my grade. I'm glad I'm doing that, a real test and challenge, to prove to myself that I am capable of getting my musical act together and playing some classical stuff that's a little bit outside of my comfort zone.
my other classes are pretty much just about showing up. I was lucky not to have missed more than one instance of each class during my trip, because of a holiday that made for a long weekend here. Spanish isn't really doing much for my spanish, but living in spanish and being in spanish mode all the time certainly is. My history class continues to be very interesting. Right now we're learning about how much damage Theodore Roosevelt's egoism did to Latin America at the turn of the century. I have to write a paper for tomorrow about that: American Imperialism from either the US or Latin American point of view.
So that's the more mundane reality of my semester here in Santiago: classes, music, experiencing another way of life. These have been the gaps between my awesome trips to places like Argentina and Bolivia, and I am really learning a lot from it: about how big the world is, about myself and my goals, and about how to focus myself for my return to Amherst in January.
I hope that all is well in the States, especially all my friends in Amherst. I am extremely proud of Dave, the bassist for The Shark Spaceship, for being featured in this month's Jazziz Magazine, and even on their CD. Here's a shameless plug link to the track description: http://www.jazziz.com/pages/jazziz_on_disc/extended/V22N10extended.asp . I hope that everyone else is having a good time as the semester gets underway, and that you're all not already too busy to write me back and tell me what's going down. I have the internet in my room now, after a long struggle with my brother Francisco that I won't get into, so I'm online and checking mail and stuff pretty regularly. But I still want to hear from you, so write back and tell me what's up back "home".
Best of luck to everyone as fall turns into winter ... I'll be living it up here as my spring turns to summer :)
que se vayan bien,
alex
I'm back in Santiago again after another unpredictable week outside of the country. two weeks ago, my grandfather passed away, and I decided that it was best to book a ticket to be with my family for the memorial service. I am so glad that I did. It was a whirlwind three days in Oregon, but so good to see my whole dad's side of the family together (minus granddad) to celebrate his life. I'm pretty sure I would have regretted it for a long time if I hadn't made it back for that. the memorial service was really beautiful, and I was glad to be there sharing it with my family.
So I got back to Santiago on Wednesday morning after a long, sleepless flight and have spent the last couple of days getting my sleep schedule back to normal. I played again with the Alhue Jazz Band on Friday night and had a good time. So it's back to the Santiago Routine now, whatever that's supposed to be.
Before I left for the states, I think I started to settle into something. Of course, leaving again has messed all that up momentarily, but I think I can work myself back into a groove. This semester, the "groove" has been practicing trombone, going to class, and playing on the weekends. I'm working with a really great professor, a real hard-ass who keeps me honest and has me working on the things I'm not already good at, the things I need to improve: intonation, slide technique, tone quality, etc. he's also a very nice guy, and has helped me get into the music scene in the city. I'm working towards a final jury in december, where I'm going to have to play all of the major and minor scales and modes, as well as a trombone solo ("Concert Piece" by Alexandre Guilmant) for a bunch of professors for my grade. I'm glad I'm doing that, a real test and challenge, to prove to myself that I am capable of getting my musical act together and playing some classical stuff that's a little bit outside of my comfort zone.
my other classes are pretty much just about showing up. I was lucky not to have missed more than one instance of each class during my trip, because of a holiday that made for a long weekend here. Spanish isn't really doing much for my spanish, but living in spanish and being in spanish mode all the time certainly is. My history class continues to be very interesting. Right now we're learning about how much damage Theodore Roosevelt's egoism did to Latin America at the turn of the century. I have to write a paper for tomorrow about that: American Imperialism from either the US or Latin American point of view.
So that's the more mundane reality of my semester here in Santiago: classes, music, experiencing another way of life. These have been the gaps between my awesome trips to places like Argentina and Bolivia, and I am really learning a lot from it: about how big the world is, about myself and my goals, and about how to focus myself for my return to Amherst in January.
I hope that all is well in the States, especially all my friends in Amherst. I am extremely proud of Dave, the bassist for The Shark Spaceship, for being featured in this month's Jazziz Magazine, and even on their CD. Here's a shameless plug link to the track description: http://www.jazziz.com/pages/jazziz_on_disc/extended/V22N10extended.asp . I hope that everyone else is having a good time as the semester gets underway, and that you're all not already too busy to write me back and tell me what's going down. I have the internet in my room now, after a long struggle with my brother Francisco that I won't get into, so I'm online and checking mail and stuff pretty regularly. But I still want to hear from you, so write back and tell me what's up back "home".
Best of luck to everyone as fall turns into winter ... I'll be living it up here as my spring turns to summer :)
que se vayan bien,
alex