Day 2 & 3 – week 2:

So, moving along at a steady clip, but also going back frequently and reviewing, which is providing some much needed feelings of “I can do this”.

On Monday, I resisted the urge to write the names of the notes under the music but, by Tuesday, I was having trouble keeping up (sound familiar?) so broke down and penciled the names in.  That helps a lot.  We’re spending about 1/3 of our time on chords, which I’m okay with, and 2/3 of our time reading music and picking notes, both of which I need a lot of practice doing.  But practice is what it’s all about and now I know what to work at when I get home.

As we don’t have anything to “show” for Thursday’s walk-around, Eve has decided that we’ll put on a mini concert in front of the cafeteria on Friday morning, just before lunch. We’ve learned quite a few numbers, including harmony parts, and tomorrow we’ll decide on what to include in our concert, then we can practice in the afternoon so we don’t humiliate ourselves too much. Perhaps I can get Steve to take a few photos…

Speaking of photos… here are a few from my classroom…

    

   

and Steve’s…

    

   

(so serious…)

We met our landlords last night – Jack and Ann.  (They were away when we arrived but their son and daughter, Anthony and Corina, gave us a very warm welcome.)  Jack and Ann were entertaining neighbours on each side of them but still invited us in for drinks and a chat.  We stayed about 2 hours! and although they invited us to stay for dinner, we felt it wasn’t really our place so came “home” to a very good meal of left-overs and corn on the cob.

Tonight was our mid-week dinner out night, and we went back to the quirky Italian restaurant, The Corner Cafe, in West Guilford.  They did not disappoint and now we are both well-fed and feeling a little sleepy.  We both might be in bed a little earlier tonight… but not before I take another Benadryl and rub hydrocortisone cream over my mosquito bites, which I acquired over the weekend and which seem to be getting worse as the week wears on.  There’s nothing worse than waking yourself up, scratching, in the middle of the night.

As I write this, I’m thrilled to hear the calls of a loon from the lake.  This really is a beautiful and peaceful place.