Fluffy pillows from heaven

So my computer is dead. I think the battery life is gone, because it wont even start up when I try to turn it on. Very sad, since it is my only form of entertainment. However, it just turned on for the first time in days, and I'm taking advantage by writing this update. And for those of you who I owe an email, I shall respond ASAP. I just wanted to mention my new favorite meal the last couple of weeks. There is a tortilla place down the street from our house that makes fresh tortillas (and when I say fresh, I mean they make them as you stand there). I don't know why I haven't gone to this place sooner, but they are so amazing! Anthony calls them "fluffy pillows from heaven." Oh, and did I mention they are cheap? Andrea and I always get 2 pesos worth (about 20 cents) which is more than enough for both of us. My favorite way to eat them is with queso fresco, a soft white cheese similar to paneer, refried beans, and salsa. The cheese and beans are also made fresh daily at two of the stores on our street, and if you are thinking of the refried beans that you get in the US, they are nothing like that. Anyway, I just had my 6th tortilla of the day, and it was yummy. What will I do for my quesadilla fix when I'm back in Fort Wayne now that I'm a tortilla snob?

Rants and Raves

So there are both good and bad things to report. I guess I'll start with the bad. There is a drug war going on in Culiacán right now, apparently the worst one in years, maybe ever. The war is between 2 narco families struggling for power, although both families have been targeting the police as well as the government. In general, things are not too bad if you use caution and try to avoid going out, especially late at night. However, there has recently been a threat against the governor, and this affects the orchestra directly because we are scheduled to play at his house tomorrow. Not good. You would think that this concert would be canceled, and that the conductor would not want to lead his orchestra into any danger, but this is not the case. We are still required to play this concert, even though there is no guarantee of safety. Our assinine conductor has informed us that it is our chance to "get in good" with the governor. Yesterday, several members of the orchestra proposed that we boycott this concert, but when push comes to shove, I think a lot of them may change their minds. I'm not really sure what to do, but I am seriously leaning towards not going. I have several reasons, other than the fact that I think it's dangerous. First of all, I never get paid on time. Ever. It took them almost two months before I even got my first check, and that was a fight. Also, because I am now staying until December, they are supposed to pay me over the summer, which requires me to have a bank account. I asked for this months ago, and it still has not been done. Everytime I make a request, the answer from the administration is "Well, you're not a regular member, you're just a sub." This makes me think, why should I risk my life to go to this concert if I am not even a member of this orchestra? Oh, and the principal player took this concert off since it only requires 2 oboes. So who did he ask to play principal? Not me. He asked the 3rd/EH player, who, I'm sorry to say, is the worst oboist I've ever heard in my life, and not my favorite person. He informed all us gringos that if we can't deal with the violence here, we should go back to our own countries. Well, maybe I will. My country is starting to look pretty good right about now. Anyway, should I run the risk of being fired? Or should I just pack up and go home? Opinions and advice are welcome.

In good news, I celebrated Mother's Day with some lovely ladies. I don't remember is I've mentioned the Oxxo before, but it is a chain of convenience stores all over Mexico. There is one right across from our apartment, and we get a lot of our basic necessities from there. Anyway, the lady that owns it (who we finally found out was named Imelda) has gotten to know Andrea and me over the last couple of months. She and her 11 year old daughter (Fernanda) invited us for lunch on Sunday. Little did we know that they were going to take us to her mother's house for family gathering and feed us authentic Mexican food. It was pretty amazing. Her mother had a ranch out in the country where the rooms were indoors, but the kitchen/dining area were outside. There were all sorts of animals roaming around, and we found it pretty amusing to hear roosters crowing every few minutes. It was really nice of them to invite us into their home and show us some of their culture. All in all, a very nice day :)

Hace Calor

Oh. My. God. It is 99 degrees today. That is all.

The Beatles Espectacular

Picture this- a really bad sound system, 4 guys with Mexican accents and bad pitch trying to sing "Yellow Submarine" (pronounced Soob-marine), and a conductor who doesn't know what to do with meter changes. Yes, that was our concert on Wednesday night. The Beatles Espectacular. Really, the name says it all, so there's no need to elaborate. Thank God we have a few days off, although it's really too hot to go out and do anything these days. Luckily, there is a law here that the government pays 2/3 of people's electric bills from May-October, so it's not expensive to run your AC. Maybe they think the heat will drive people crazy? I must be going crazy, because I spent a hundred pesos on a pint of ice cream yesterday! It was so amazing, though. And after hearing about the gas prices in LA, I figure it's ok because I'm saving so much money on gas.
So what shall I do with 3 more days off, other than hide out in the AC and make reeds? Most things are closed right now, since it's some kind of Mexican holiday, including my yoga class :( Creative suggestions are welcome.

Relief!

I have AC! This means that I finally have some relief from this weather, which has been in the high 90s and very humid every day. This makes practicing and reed making much easier.
Last week was another interesting one in the orchestra. We had an excellent guest conductor. She was from New York, but spoke fluent Spanish because her family is from Mexico. We played some pieces that I though would be way beyond the capabilities of this orchestra (including another awful piece by a local composer), but she got a very solid performance out of us. I hope she comes back...
We have been traveling almost every weekend lately, and will continue to travel a lot until the season is over in June. Many of the trips are to Mazatlán, which is always fine with me because not only does that mean beach time, but it also means I get to eat Thai food. Culiacán is not exactly known for its ethnic restaurants, and I really crave it sometimes. Anyway, Andrea and Anthony introduced me to this place a few weeks ago, and I think it is one of the best Thai places I have ever been to. Definitely on par with Thai Pepper, Allan's favorite Thai place. So, that is more incentive for people to come visit me in Mazatlán. Really, lots of good food and beaches. What more do you need?
Ok, I'll stop with the shameless plugs and get back to practicing...

Catching up...

So, I'm a complete and total slacker, and it's been almost two months since I've written! In my defense, I've been busy, and I'll explain why. Since my previous post, I've made two trips to the US. I'll give you a very brief recap of both of them. The first was for an audition for the Marine band in DC. Overall, kind of a stressful and rushed trip since I stopped in LA on the way, and I played like poo. However, I did get to see Kyung and Joe, some old friends from Round Top (I went to that festival almost 5 years ago!) and my high school oboe teacher Joan, so the trip was definitely worth it. My second trip was the last two weeks in March for Semana Santa and Semana Pascua (Easter break). This trip was also a little bit hectic because I went to 4 different cities, but worth the trouble because I got to see so many friends. I stopped in LA and had a lovely dinner at Noshi with Jon, Gabrielle, Kristin, Sonia, Kelly, and Christy. I also got to have lunch with Agnes. Then Jon and I went Jacksonville for Heather's wedding where we also got to see Ruth Ann, Mike, and Marianne (an IU quintet reunion!), and on they way, we saw Cat for a few days in Naples. Then it was off to the Fort, where I hung out with my parents for a while. Lastly, I went to Chicago to catch my flight back to Culiacán, and picked my brother up on the way from Purdue. I got to see Rupal and Ashok very briefly, and also randomly ran into my friend Nameeta who I haven't seen in 6 years! And she doesn't even live in Chicago! Anyway, it was a busy but good vacation.
I was sad to leave, but we did get to play Tosca when I came back, which was fun. We had a good guest conductor, and believe it or not, the singers (at least the soloists) were good! Unfortunately, the week after, our program was terrible. Really awful. Bad. Honestly the worst piece I've ever played in my life. Some local "composer" wrote a piece for us, but I'm not going to go into further detail because the memory of it is too painful.
Oh, I almost forgot the thing that has been occupying my time the most! I'm going to peru in June!!! I'm very excited, but planning out the trip is taking a lot of time, and therefore my blogging has been sporadic...or non-existant. But I'll try to do better for my faithful reader(s) and update more regularly.
Buenas Noches!

Pizza, Cake, and Eyedrops

It's about time for an update! I'm going to take advantage of the fact that my computer seems to be behaving itself right now. Let me go back in time almost 2 weeks, when our quintet was still preparing for our chamber music concert. As I mentioned previously, each chamber group in the orchestra had to prepare one "serious" piece of music and one piece to perform for a children's concert. We performed our serious piece, the Francaix quintet, on the 12th. Overall it went pretty well, and to celebrate, we had a party at Chris' house afterwards. It was supposed to be just the quintet, but some other people in the orchestra heard about it and ended up crashing it. Still fun, though. Here are some pics of our quintet.

On the 14th, we were supposed to play for a group of kids in Mazatlán. We chose "Across the Seregeti," a fun, kid-friendly piece, and prepared a little presentation. Oh, and remember the amazing pizza that Antionio's mom makes? Well, his parents live in Mazatlán, and invited us to their house for lunch afterwards! So we dragged our butts out of bed and left for Mazatlán at the crack of dawn so that we could perform for the kiddies and of course, eat pizza. On the way there, we joked that we would rather skip the performance and go straight for the pizza, and I guess the pizza gods must have heard our wishes, because the performance never happened. We got to the hall and set up, and after waiting an hour for the kids to arrive, we got a call saying that there had been a mixup and the kids weren't coming. It wasn't a total waste of a day though, since we had an amazing lunch and played some of the Francaix for Antonio's parents in their apartment.

So the 19th was my birthday, and I wasn't expecting it to be anything special since I don't know a lot of people here, but all in all it was a really good day. I got to talk to a lot of my family in India (Skype is amazing!) and had sushi and cake with the bassoon players, Anthony and Noemi. The bad part about the day was that I woke up that morning and couldn't really open my right eye. Not a good feeling. I couldn't put my contacts in and my glasses had recently broke, so I taped the frames together so that I could see. Let me tell you, it was pretty stylish. Anyway, the conductor ended up driving me to the eye doctor, and it turns out that my corneas are inflamed. The doctor gave me some eyedrops and said I can't wear my contacts for a few weeks, so I get to walk around with taped glasses for a while. Cool.

Anyway, I need to go pack because I am going to LA/DC for an audition tomorrow. More details later....