Mazatlan

So last week was our first trip of the year to Mazatlán. Apparently, the orchestra goes quite often, but this was my first time. Overall, it was a really good trip, and it was nice to get out of Culiacán for a bit. The bus left on Thursday morning, and we arrived in Mazatlán 3 hours later. In the 2 days that we were there, we only had one 3 hour rehearsal and a concert, which meant that we had tons of free time. We were also put up in 5 star hotels on the beach and given an extra 700 pesos. Andrea, of course, was my roommate.
If you haven't been to Mazatlán, I would recommend going. There are some great restaurants, and the beaches are really nice. Since we ate out every meal, we managed to try a lot of restaurants. My favorite was called Cocina de Ana. It's a buffet style place with home cooked food that isn't greasy or heavy like most restaurant food. And it's super cheap. They had amazing fish ceviche, which is a mixture of cucumber, tomato, onion, and lime juice. The fish is raw, but the lime juice cooks it a little bit. We went there for lunch two days in a row. As for beach time, we didn't get as much as we would have liked. It was kind of cold (for Mexico). But, on the last day, it was warm enough to go jet skiing! I had never been before, but I got talked into it by Andrea and two of the trumpet players, Mike and Matt. So much fun! If anyone comes to visit me, I'll take you jet skiing and restaurant hopping in Mazatlán. I think that's pretty good incentive.
As for the concert, it went pretty well. I take back what I said about the singers, but I stand by my opinion of the conductor. The soloists this time were really good, especially the tenor. He sang "Nessun Dorma" beautifully, and the audience loved him. He is still very young, but I wouldn't be surprised if I heard more about him in the future. Wish I could remember his name, though.
Anyway, it's back to the grind in Culiacán. We have quintet Mon-Wed, and then we start rehearsals for our program in Guadalajara next week. The 3rd oboist is going to be playing a lot of 2nd on that program since he's hardly played at all this year. It works out well for me, since I have decided to take the President's Own audition next month, and I could use the extra practice time.
Here are some pictures from after jet skiing. Don't ask me what we were doing in the second one..

Deep fried sushi

Hola amigos! A lot has happened in the last week, and I haven't keeping up very well. I apologize to my faithful reader(s?). Here is a brief recap. I had sushi for the second time today. You may be wondering what sushi is like en México. Not anything like it is in the US, or probably Japan. I was first introduced to Mexican style sushi when I went to Hermosillo, so it was not a surprise to me, but I will try to describe it as best I can to you gringos. First of all, almost every roll has Philadelphia cream cheese in it. Rolls come in 3 styles: natural, capeado (lightly fried), and empanazado (deep fried). They fillings include the traditional fishy stuff, but may also contain chicken, beef, and other weird stuff. Oh, and to top it off, it is served with mayonnaise and green onions with a citrus flavored soy sauce. Leave it to the Mexicans to make sushi completely unhealthy. It was surprisingly tasty, as you may have guessed, since I have gone twice since my last post. Other than sushi, I have been eating lots and lots of avocados. They are super cheap at the market here, and so good. If I have a slightly greenish tinge the next time you see my, you'll know why. If you are wondering about my ice cream situation, I have splurged. Twice. Hey, I have to keep my sanity.
Tuesday was the first installment of our chamber music series. My group doesn't play for another three weeks, but I did attend last night's concert. It included a double bass duet, a woodwind quintet that played that Chimnée piece by Milhaud, and a percussion ensemble. The percussionists played some unbelievably cool pieces, including one by John Cage, and a piece by a German composer involving rolling pins. They also did a rendition of Barber's "Adagio for Strings," which I was very skeptical of, but turned out to be really beautiful. Tomorrow we are taking a break from chamber music and traveling to Mazatlán for a few days, where will play more opera stuff with bad singers and an even worse guest conductor. Yipee. But at least we get to hang out on the beach.
Well, it's getting late, and my cane is done soaking. As you oboists know, cane waits for no one. I shall tie my reed, pack, and go to bed. Buenas Noches.

¡Buena Suerte!

Good luck to all the Debut folks this weekend. Have a great concert! I miss you guys...

Mmmmm...quintet

Buenos dias todos! I thought I would write a quick update before rehearsal this morning. We don't have any orchestra rehearsals this week. Instead, we are rehearsing with our individual chamber music groups for concerts in February. I (of course) am in a woodwind quintet. Language is not a problem in my quintet, because we all speak English. Anthony, the bassoon player, Chris, the clarinetist, and Andrea are all American. Antonio, the flute player...well, I'm still not sure what he is. He is of Polish descent, but was born in Belarus. He also lived in Russia, Korea, Argentina, and now Mexico, so he speaks a zillion languages. Luckily, English is one of them. And if you're wondering how my español is doing, it is still sucking quite badly. But I am getting really good at making accent marks on my computer. á é í ó ú ñ. Woo!
Anyway, we have to prepare two pieces. One is for a children's concert where we demonstrate our instruments and play something fun for the kids, and another one is for our "serious" concert. We chose "Across the Serengeti," and the Francaix Quintet, so we have been rehearsing those every morning rather than our usual orchestral stuff. The best part of quintet rehearsals is the fact that they take place at people's houses rather than at the hall, which means we usually have some really good snacks at our break. Rehearsal is at my place today, so Andrea and I made a double decker chocolate cake! I think I look forward to the food more than the rehearsal, although I really like playing with my group. Everyone gets along and is enthusiastic about the music, which makes it so much more fun.
Alas, it is time to get ready for rehearsal. Hasta luego, mis amigos!

Quiero Helado!

There is no good ice cream in Culiacán. Well, there is some, I just can't afford it. For those of you who know me well (or maybe not even that well), you know this is a problem. I spotted some Haagen-Daas in Walmart today, but when I saw the price I almost cried. 72 pesos! Almost 7 dollars for a pint! And about 13 dollars for a quart. Alas, ice cream eludes me again.
In other news, we had our first concert last night. It went pretty well, considering we hardly rehearsed the music. We played the Marriage of Figaro Overture, Beethoven's Emperor Concerto (with a god awful pianist), and some opera excerpts/musica Mexicana with some dreadful singers, among other things. The audience didn't seem to notice, and in true Mexican style, gave us an encore (which also involved the terrible singers). It was still fun. I like playing with the principal oboist, Plamen. He's Bulgarian, and his sound is really different than what I am used to, but he's a good player. He also has a lot more experience than I do, and I think I can learn a lot by sitting next to him.
So today was the beginning of my first weekend in Culiacán. Concerts here are usually on Thursday or Friday night, which means we have the entire weekend off. How does one pass the time in Culiacán, you might ask. Well, a trip to WalMart is always an option. Surprisingly, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club are the best places to shop around here. I'm usually anti-WalMart, but when in Mexico...Anyway, niether are within walking distance, so Slava's brother Savva was kind enough to drive us and Andrea there to do some shopping. It was pretty exciting, other than the whole crying about ice cream incident. One day I will splurge...
After we got home, Andrea and I went our separate ways to finish practicing and cooking/eating our new WalMart purchases, but decided to meet up later and hang out. After all, it was Saturday night. You may be wondering, what does one do for entertainment in Culiacán? We were wondering the same thing, and after our brains got tired from wondering, we decided to watch some DVDs that I brought and play cards. All in all, a fun evening, but definitely different than the endless possiblilties of entertainment in LA. We'll have to think of more creative things to do in the future.
Oh, one more thing. Those of you who are keeping up with election converage, please keep me posted. I'm a bit out of the loop. Gracias!

No Habla Espanol

I need to learn Spanish. Like now. It's kind of hard to feel comfortable in a city when you can't communicate with anyone and you can't get around by yourself. People keep telling me that I will pick it up, but I'm not sure if I believe them. It's been a really long time since I've had to learn a language, and I'm not sure if my 25 year old brain is as absorbent as it used to be. My cousin Avani, who lives in Riverside, gave me a crash course before I left, so at least I know some basics. I thought I could get by okay in rehearsal, but I totally started in the wrong place today. I think it was pretty noticable, because the conductor looked at me and said, "Problema de idioma." Okay, enough whining.
Other than that, I have just been getting settled in, unpacking, and meeting more people. I'm living with Kristin's fiance Slava, who is the concertmaster of the orchestra, until the end of the month. (Kristin in the oboist that I am subbing for until June). Then Slava is moving into his own place, and Andrea is moving in. Strangely enough, Andrea is a horn player from Kokomo, Indiana, which really close to Fort Wayne. Both Andrea and Slava have been really helpful the last couple of days. We went to the botanical gardens yesterday, which is something that the city of Culiacán is known for. I'll post pictures of it when I figure out how. Slava showed me where to go to pay my rent/bills, and is helping me get all my paperwork done so that I can legally work in Mexico. He has been here for several years, so he is fluent in Spanish. Andrea just moved here in September, so I guess we can work on our Spanish together. She is also a runner, so maybe she will bring out my athletic side. Probably not, though. I think all the walking I am doing here will help me get in shape, since 3 years of living in LA and driving everywhere has made me a bum.
Alas, it is getting late. I think I will spend some time with my big book of Spanish verbs, and then go to bed.
Buenas Noches.

Skype

If you want to talk with me while I'm here, you should download Skype. It's a great program where you can talk directly through the computer for free. I've been using it to talk to my family everyday. You can download it at skype.com, and add me as a contact. My username is icecreamlover19. Hope to hear from you soon!

Bienvenidos a Culiacan

Hola from Mexico! For those of you whom I haven't talked to in a while, I will be spending the next six months in Mexico, playing 2nd oboe in the Orquesta Sinfónica Sinaloa de las Artes. I was encouraged by my friends to keep a blog of my "aventuras," so here it is. My writing skills, like my oboe playing, are a bit out of shape. It's been a while since I have written anything besides payment delinquencies and collection notices at Phoenix Spirit, so let's hope that my posts will get a bit more interesting and grammatically correct as time goes on. It was sad to say goodbye to my friends in LA, but I had a lovely farewell dinner at Il Pastaio (which I highly recommend if you haven't been there), and then said some more goodbyes over cupcakes and ice cream the night before I left.
Some of you know that I went to Hermosillo back in November to play with an orchestra there, but that is in no way reIated to what I am doing now. I think it did affect my decision to come to Culiacán, because I had such a good time when I was there. I can only hope that the people here are as nice as they were in Hermosillo, which they seem to be so far. I also hope that the audiences are as enthusiastic about orchestral music.
I arrived in Culiacán on Sunday, the day before the first rehearsal. From the little exploring I did, it seems to be a very different place than Hermosillo. It almost reminds me of a much less crowded and less polluted version of Calcutta. The streets are windy and badly laid out. The sidewalks are completely uneven, and there are little shops everywhere. Kind of a big city with a small town feel.
The first orchestra rehearsal was on Monday morning. We read through Elgar's Enigma Variations and Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto. I met my section mates, Plamen and Dante. I also met the conductor, who told me, "You look like you should know Spanish." Yup. I don't think I have ever been so unprepared or out of shape for a rehearsal. Kind of embarassing. Anyway, I'm off to bed now so I can get up early and actually warm up before rehearsal tomorrow. Wish me luck!