so many fun things to do here
Jan. 27th, 2011 06:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaOne of the nice things about moving in with someone who has been living in the same community for many years is that it makes developing a local social life very effortless, so long as your interests overlap, which, in this case they do. The first two weeks I was here I went along with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
archinonlive to his choir practice and sat in the corner and listed to them rehearse for their upcoming performance. Now that the performance has happened and the new term has started the choir is open to new members, and this one has only one entrance requirement "must enjoy singing/want to sing". I easily meet that requirement! Therefore this week instead of sitting in the corner I participated in the singing. Luckily they continued to work on the songs that I'd heard during the practice and performance I'd already heard. Therefore it was reasonably easy for me to join in.
However, one of the songs, in Swedish, has sheet music which is written in the space-saving format of a single line for both altos and sopranos and a second line for both tenors and bases. This is all well and fine for those who are good at reading music. Since I don't fall into that category I spent a number of hours yesterday and today typing up the tune into noteworthy composer with each voice on their very own line so that I can mute the other voices and listen to just the part I need to learn (yet still listen to all of them, too, to see how mine relates to the others). Next I'll translate the words as part of my quest to learn Swedish one song at a time. Alas, the time I spent on this project is time I didn't spend working on finishing up my research from Italy. Why then, am I doing this when it is Very Important (TM) for me to finish that project and get published? Because we have a mini-performance on Friday, and it would be nice to have heard my part before then! Besides, my predecessor in this research project took about 10 years before publishing the results of his experiments. If I can get mine written up within a couple of months of leaving I'll feel good about it. Therefore, if I'm not posting progress reports at least weekly saying that I am working on that goal, please poke me.
Other social activities I'm enjoying include role-playing games, SCA meetings, and jodo & iaido (Japanese sword and staff martial arts I'd never heard of before, but the group welcomes beginners, too, so I went along).
This morning, on the other hand, I went to Oertha for a bardic. Love my internet connection--Skype is my friend. I really enjoyed getting to spend a couple of hours hanging out with friends in Alaska and sing with them, and was more than worth getting up at 05:00 to manage it (that is 19:00 there).archinonlive had to get up for work before the bardic ended, so they got to meet them and he sang them a song in Swedish (not one of the ones I've learned, yet).
I am enjoying my Swedish for Beginners class--I am a bit ahead of my classmates in terms of pronunciation and understanding, due to the extra work on the topic I've been doing with the songs and children's books.
archinonlive to his choir practice and sat in the corner and listed to them rehearse for their upcoming performance. Now that the performance has happened and the new term has started the choir is open to new members, and this one has only one entrance requirement "must enjoy singing/want to sing". I easily meet that requirement! Therefore this week instead of sitting in the corner I participated in the singing. Luckily they continued to work on the songs that I'd heard during the practice and performance I'd already heard. Therefore it was reasonably easy for me to join in. However, one of the songs, in Swedish, has sheet music which is written in the space-saving format of a single line for both altos and sopranos and a second line for both tenors and bases. This is all well and fine for those who are good at reading music. Since I don't fall into that category I spent a number of hours yesterday and today typing up the tune into noteworthy composer with each voice on their very own line so that I can mute the other voices and listen to just the part I need to learn (yet still listen to all of them, too, to see how mine relates to the others). Next I'll translate the words as part of my quest to learn Swedish one song at a time. Alas, the time I spent on this project is time I didn't spend working on finishing up my research from Italy. Why then, am I doing this when it is Very Important (TM) for me to finish that project and get published? Because we have a mini-performance on Friday, and it would be nice to have heard my part before then! Besides, my predecessor in this research project took about 10 years before publishing the results of his experiments. If I can get mine written up within a couple of months of leaving I'll feel good about it. Therefore, if I'm not posting progress reports at least weekly saying that I am working on that goal, please poke me.
Other social activities I'm enjoying include role-playing games, SCA meetings, and jodo & iaido (Japanese sword and staff martial arts I'd never heard of before, but the group welcomes beginners, too, so I went along).
This morning, on the other hand, I went to Oertha for a bardic. Love my internet connection--Skype is my friend. I really enjoyed getting to spend a couple of hours hanging out with friends in Alaska and sing with them, and was more than worth getting up at 05:00 to manage it (that is 19:00 there).
archinonlive had to get up for work before the bardic ended, so they got to meet them and he sang them a song in Swedish (not one of the ones I've learned, yet). I am enjoying my Swedish for Beginners class--I am a bit ahead of my classmates in terms of pronunciation and understanding, due to the extra work on the topic I've been doing with the songs and children's books.
