greetings to you all. another great day in paraguay. slept really well last night and actually slept in until 9am this morning. didn't have anything on my schedule so thought i would catch up on sleep a bit. went down and had breakfast at 930 or so and jim came in as i was finishing up. we talked a bit and got caught up from the night before. it is kind of weird. we came down together and stay in the same hotel, but we rarely see each other as the percussionist in the orchestra pretty much take him to themselves, which is very cool. he teaches lessons and rehearses the percussion ensemble all day, and then they party all night. he didn't go to bed until 2am last night. i am too old for that.
i went shopping a bit more today and bought some stuff for Jill, Ashleigh, and Don and Jana. then i went on over to rehearsal to meet diana barboza who will be singing with us on the concert. i played the mp3 of the banner for her and she recorded it onto a handheld recorder. then to make sure she had the right melody, she had me sing in acapella into her recorder. now that was special.
the highlight of my day was the volunteer chamber music rehearsal we had from 1215 until 215. the players did not have to be there, but the really like to play and they were all willing to come to a rehearsal on friday when they didn't have to. I really appreciate that. we worked hard on the persichetti, the jacob, and the gounod. all three are sounding almost concert ready. we didn't have time for the haydn so we will hit that hard next time. i asked about when we would be able to rehearse again next week thinking it would be hard to get 12 players together, but lo and behold, they had already talked amongst themselves somehow and they have a rehearsal scheduled for 1030am on monday. how cool is that. they really sounded very good and i know they are really enjoying playing the music. we are planning on giving the concert on thursday night next week.
after that, i went for merianda (late afternoon snack) with aldo. you may remember that he was my translator last summer and really took good care of me. it was great to visit with him and catch up on what has been going on in his life. he has an 18 month old daughter. he had come to the states for 3 1/2 weeks this spring so he told me all about his trips to chicago, st. louis, new york, and salt lake city. He is mormon. somehow, it was worked out that he got to play with the mormon tabernacle orchestra on a concert while he was there. he was so excited about that opportunity. he is a fine oboist.
now i am back in my room hanging out until jim comes back. the percussion section, jim, myself and gustavo are all going out to a bar/pub tonight. should be fun. my trip to the fall today got cancelled as the brazilian government is being jerks to americans and i would have to pay 300 bucks for a visa to get into brazil to see the falls as they are on their side of the border. not worth it. i am very disappointed about this, but that is life. so instead, tomorrow gustavo and his dad are going to pick me up at 8am and we are going to drive out into the countryside and see some smaller towns and villages. I really want to see the non-downtown part of paraguay. i am sure that will be interesting. when we get back, gustavo's wife rosanna and her sister patty are going to take jim and i around to some places, then we are going to attend an asado and one of the percussionist's home. An asado is a big cook out with lots of various meats, snacks, and evidently alot of cerveza.
The picture i have posted is from the other night when we were just hanging out at the hotel for awhile.
Well, hope you enjoyed today's entry. a good day indeed.
Cioa, Cioa
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