The Summer Begins

This week begins my first summer in grad school. After wrapping up classes and turning in my final projects and papers last week, summer has finally begun. There have been a few loose ends to tie up this week at the university as part of my TA, but now everything is complete. I am free to sit on the couch in our apartment - which is most likely how I will spend much of the first week (or two, or possibly three) of the summer. Before I can completely relax though I have a weekend chock-full of rehearsals and a concert with the McHenry County Youth Orchestras.

I am looking forward to this summer because I have several projects on which to focus and I can do them at my own pace. I'm going to spend some time with Mozart, Verdi, and Puccini operas as well as a list of other pieces that I want to study. I'm not going to any workshops or festivals so I don't need to frantically prepare repertoire. As a side note I did apply for one festival, but it turns out that I sent the application in late and to the wrong address. Always read the directions. Epic fail on my part. Oh well, there is always next summer.

As a beginning of summer treat Kaia and I took a trip up to Chicago for an evening. We spent some time in Millennium Park and then saw Riccardo Muti rehearse a festival youth orchestra at Symphony Center. We spent the night in the city and the next day we visited the Museum of Science and Industry. At the museum we were the youngest people who weren't a) accompanying a school group b) with their own children c) accompanied by their parents. Apparently all of the thirty-somethings visit at a different time (or they go to different, more "adult" places like art museums and bars) but it's okay because I was the king of the museum. Those little kids were no match for me when I wanted to:

Drive the train


or use the aging machine to find out what I will look like when I'm 74

Terrifying.

I was also way better at reading and following the directions on the exhibits than all of the school groups. They just starting mashing all of the buttons or spinning the dials. That's right folks, I'm better at following directions than an eight year old - at least when it comes to the science museum. Apparently I'm still learning how to do this in other areas of my life (see above) but at least I can take solace in the fact that I am able to operate the "tsunami simulator" with great skill.