I just re-read my last post (from the beginning of April!) and noticed that I promised another update before six-months had gone by. I guess I am still two months away from that deadline, but at the rate I'm going and with the way the days are flying by, I am sure that if I don't post now it will easily be Christmas before you hear from me... so here goes!
My mom's visit way back in April was perfect and so much fun. She had already seen Semana Santa here in Andalucía many years ago, but it really is quite a spectacle and she loved it just as much this time around as her first experience about 9 years ago. This year, there was the added bonus of Emily and I both taking part in processions on different days. She dressed as a pennitent on Friday and I played in the band for Thursday's celebrations. We both enjoyed ourselves immensely and it was so fortunate that my mom was here to be with Emily for the 6 + hours I was playing.
We didn't do a lot of sightseeing with Ga, it was mostly a play-at-home visit, but it was wonderful and far too short (as always). I was working for part of her time here, which meant that Emily had her grandma's uninterrupted attention for hours at a time--just the way she likes it. Ga and I were hard pressed to find time for mother-daughter bonding and found ourselves staying up into the wee hours after Emily's bed time just to have a moment to ourselves. ;)
As far as the band goes, our Semana Santa performance blew the whole town away and roused a great deal of interest in the band. Since then, we have had several new members join and enrollment in the municipal music school quadripled with students (young and old) learning an instrument in hopes of joining the band soon. Among those new students is my Emily. She has taken up clarinet and although she practices very little, she does enjoy it and is steadily improving.
We recently had a summer concert of pasodobles which was another huge success and now we're taking a month break before rolling full steam ahead into autumn and winter. Emily has no choice but to attend all out practices, but in fact, she loves going. She could hum our complete concert repertory and was bursting at the seams with pride at our concert. She's taken to wrting music for her stuffed animals and directs a mini band with gusto! I love it. It makes my heart happy to see how music is becoming so important for her.
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| This was a little concert she and her classmates had at the end of the year. |
Other news is that our summer intensive classes are in full swing at the academy. We've got a pretty cush schedule at the moment: 9:00-13:00 form Monday through Thursday. Maintaining three-day weekends has been wonderful. And only working four hours a day is also a dream come true. There is a lot of work that goes on at home and before and after hours. We've got 31 students which meand 31 exams a week to be corrected along with other daily exercises. However, I usually take my corrections with me to the city pool after lunch and it is quite pleasant to grade in the shade and take a dip whenever I get overheated. No complaints here.
The biggest news of late is that Maggie surprised us a few weeks ago by announcing that she could come visit in August if the dates worked for us! I have a week holiday in August and so she's coming on the 8th and staying through the 15th. I hadn't made any plans for my week of vacation because we're going away for a weekend at the end of the month to celebrate Angelines's 50th birthday so we're saving money for that. Nevertheless, a sister visit calls for some amount of extra spending so we have arranged for Maggie to fly in and out of Madrid (my new favorite itenerary) and I will join her there when she arrives for two nights before coming back to La Roda together! I am exceptionally excited about this particular plan because I am going ALONE to Madrid! I love my daughter, but... I do feel a little guilty for taking this solo time to galavant around the Spanish capital with my twinnie while mamá stays home alone in the heat with Em, but... C'est la vie, non?
And speaking of/in French, I am looking forward to practicing with Maggie, too. We are planning to speak frañolish (francais/español/english) everywhere we go. :) Duolingo is still ravenously eating up my free time, but just this past week I was first in the Diamond Division (the highest division in the app)...so it's paying off. I am also pleased that I understand my Belgian friends' posts on Instagram and can even reply in French.
Well, that's a pretty abreviated version of the last four months, but you get the idea. Thanks for continuing to check here and not completely giving up on me. ;)
Salut!
