Late Nights, Friends, and Good Times

Oh my goodness!  Time is flying!!  It’s been 15 days since Valencia Day!  We’ve been in Spain for nearly 2 months!!  We have gotten quite comfortable in our new roles and lifestyle.  A couple of weeks ago Jake was feeling in a funk.  Since he’s a man and is not the greatest and identifying the cause of his emotions, I couldn’t help myself but to pick his brain until we came to a possible conclusion.  He expressed how he didn’t know what his role was at school.  I thought that was a funny comment because it seemed pretty darn clear to me.  “You’re a student. Your job is to go to school and learn.”  But in talking a bit more, I realized that after 10 years of being in the business of creating experiences for other people’s benefit, he was having a hard time shifting into the mindset of just enjoying the experiences others (professors/program director/etc.) have created for him.  It was almost like he was still seeing himself as the “teacher” or “role model” for his classmates and it was his duty to help them get the most out of the program.   I think after pinpointing this frame of mind, he’s been able to let go of that self-induced pressure, and now fully engage in just being a student. 

Last Friday Jake had another studio recording session for his Orchestration class.  In that class they learn about a new instrument each week, and come back the following week with a 30 second piece written for that particular instrument.  Then an instrumentalist plays through every student’s piece while they all look on and observe the do’s and don’ts of writing for that instrument.   So after going through all the wind instruments, for their mid-term, the students had to write a 2 minute wind ensemble piece.  The professor gave them this crazy narrative to write to, using flute, clarinet, English horn, bassoon, and maybe an oboe?  Don’t quote me on that.   Luckily, I was available to sit in on this one.   The night before, Jake played me his piece and walked me through the narrative.  He’s so sweet to let me put in my two sense.  I told him that I wasn’t sure if it was just the sound samples it was being played on at the moment, but it sounded a little “storybook-cartoony.”  He said, he was going for “storybook” based on the narrative, but that it will also sound different live.  He made a few slight changes to temper the parts that seemed a bit too literal, and that was that.

During the recording session he went in with seemingly more confidence than the last couple of times.  He didn’t waste any time communicating with the instrumentalists what he was looking for.   They sight read through it the first time, and he immediately gave them further direction on what he was looking for.  They would then say, “Like this?” demonstrating what they thought he was asking for.  Jake appeared to know exactly what he wanted, and I think the musicians appreciated that he has not inhibited by timidity or overcompensating confidence.   From what I’ve noticed it’s still rare for the students not to fall victim to one or the other during these recording sessions.  I was sitting next to one of the student’s Spanish girlfriends, and she was so tickled by the fact that Jake was attempting to communicate with the Spanish speaking musicians in Spanish.  Having no trouble identifying that Jake is not a Spanish speaker, the musicians would just respond back to him in English.  She thought it was really cute.

In the end, I was caught off guard by how great the piece was, considering my skepticism the night before.  I could tell the students in the room were impressed with it as well.  After he finished I overheard the stoic professor say, “Great job.  I really liked it.  Honestly, I’m not just saying that.  I really thought it was great.”  So, maybe I can get Jake to upload it somewhere and post a link.   Remember, all these recorded assignments are either to some film clip, or to a specific narrative created by the professor.  Here is the crazy narrative for this wind ensemble piece.

“Wadi el Natrun, Egypt, January 1936. Renowned investigators Lucius Goldzweig and Benjamin Howe have been sent down to look for French writer/aviator Saint-Exupéry and his flight mechanic, reported missing after their plane crashed in the remote Scetis desert right before New Year’s Eve. Upon arrival at the accident site, the investigators follow the aviators’ traces, but will soon get lost in the dunes themselves, where they wander for three days and nights and extreme heat and water deprivation make them experience mirages and hallucinations. One night, a horrendous, mischievous creature appears before them, so they fear they have completely lost their mind and the end is near. But an old Bedouin caring for a herd of camels finds them the next morning and gives them shelter in his tent. There, he will reveal Lucius and Benjamin an ancient, well-kept desert secret: the evil creature they saw the night before wasn't a sensorial deception…”

To give you a frame of reference, that was 2 weeks ago.  Berklee choir was cancelled that night so we ended up heading to church where Andres’ little sister was having her 15 year old birthday party.  We went and hung out with Bonnie and friends while all the church youth and a few of her school friends played games in the sanctuary.  Of course, by the end they pulled Jake in to play with them.  Funny thing is, I actually think he felt more comfortable playing games with the youth that doing the small talk thing with everyone else.  He makes all our new Valencia friends laugh so much!  With the little Spanish he knows, he cracks jokes as much as he does in English.  After the party we adults went to Andres’ Spanish rap show at an Irish pub in a very American commercial center.  We actually had to take the freeway there, and the second we pulled up Jake and I both felt like we had just been transported back to the States.  We had to blink a couple of times when we saw all the restaurant signs in English.  We caught the end of a futbol game and cheered like locals.  The pub packed out, and we stayed until about 2am.  We were one of the last to leave since we were with Bonnie and needed to wait for Andres.  Some other people offered to give us a ride home a little earlier, but we decided to stay.  By the time we left, Jake had the last people there, MariEli, Bonnie, and Karol, rolling with laughter telling stories and being his silly self. 

The following weekend (this past Saturday) Jake and I went to a symphony concert that was conducted by his conducting professor.  The concert program consisted of major film scores.  It was soooooo awesome!  Being right next to a live orchestra playing the Jurassic Park theme song had me picturing actual dinosaurs traipsing across the auditorium.  And I don’t even need to tell you about Jaws!  But hearing some of the great film composers side by side gives me an immense respect for John Williams.  There is no comparison even with the best of the best.  We bought the cheap seats, even with the small Berklee discount.  But luckily these seats put us behind the orchestra with perfect view of the conductor.  Wow… and my husband works with this guy every Thursday?

We had a great evening, and even went out with a few Berklee peeps and their significant others afterward.  Of course finding a place to eat for nine at 11pm on a Saturday night in the posh part of town is not possible.  The best we could do were drinks outside.  A place to eat was finally available at midnight, at which time Jake and I decided to head home.  Plus, the drinks were surprisingly expensive and we didn’t really have enough money left for dinner anymore.  Oh well.  We got the social time in that we were hoping for anyway.  We don’t hang with Berklee people too often, so this night was the perfect opportunity.

On that note, Sunday afternoon we finally got to hang with Jared and Gabi, a Berklee married couple, that live on our same street.  They’re American, and Jared is in Jake's program.  We’ve been trying to get together to go to this tiny bar in our neighborhood called Lapaca.  It has this gypsy-grunge sorta vibe.  Jake and I go there when we need to get out of the house.  We get a drink and appetizer for 1 euro!  So we felt it necessary to introduce our friends to this find.  We sat there with Jared and Gabi for 3 hours just talking.  Just a really chill time.  Gabi is also teaching English around town and hooked me up with one of her contacts looking for more teachers to teach their business professional students.  I met with them yesterday, and we’ll see if it pans out. The young girls I teach are now down to just 2 days a week now, which is actually better for them.  4 days a week was too much for them, and draining on me when they begin the spiral of complaining a bit of defiance (or just distraction…it’s sort of hard to tell which).  I may decide to call it quits there if this other situation works out because these classes would be 5 minutes away instead of 45 minutes! 

Spanish classes are still going well.  I moved up a level this week.  I am comprehending more, but I realize only in the context of the classroom.  On the street or with Spanish friends, I’m still frequenting people with my blank stares and confused looks.  Mondays are the hardest.  I go back to school and my Spanish brain is squash after talking with my husband and Berklee people in English all weekend.  It certainly put a damper on this Monday. But luckily that was changed after Bonnie had me over for lunch and taught me to make Spanish Tortillas.  It’s basically a fried potato and egg cake.  Super simple, super Valencian, and super possible for me to make!!  I’m not a lover of the kitchen so something easy that doesn’t force me to follow a recipe is fabulous.  I’ve been surprising myself here with my made up recipes lately. I’ve been inventing my own dishes left and right, and Jake seems quite pleased.  However, I have trained him to have low standards. ;-)  Speaking of which, it’s time to go clean up my fabulous meat and vegetable marinara pasta dish.  (You really must decorate the heck out of spaghetti sauce here or else you wouldn’t know the difference between it and Chef Boyardee).  In the end tonight’s "Chef Boyardee" special sure was tasty!