Life · Vacation

The last week of summer

Yu-Ting

This week is essentially my last week of summer vacation. Next week I’ll be taking one week for the Orff Masterclass in San Francisco followed by another 2 weeks of Orff for Level 3. I’m super excited for that!

Something I’ve been thinking a lot about is milage. I’ve been thinking about the term in every aspect of my life.. playing the cello, teaching, running, etc. Such as cello for instance. During my first 4 years, I put a lot of hours into cello while being ineffective. These last 4 years have been only effectiveness–but I didn’t put a lot of hours at all. It is like the first four years I’ve traveled to multiple destinations but didn’t get the point. The next four years I was taking time to smell the roses but I don’t get to a destination at all.

Now that I’ve reached my 9th year of my musician/teacher career track.. I think a healthy combination of milage and effectiveness is in my future. Perhaps then I’ll reach my destination in life!

So how will I spend my last week of summer? I’m planning go do what I’ve been doing the last few weeks… eating, sleeping, practicing all my instruments, running. I should clean up today though since I don’t think I’ll prioritize that once the school year starts.

Vacation

Summer Plans/No plans

Yu-Ting

I originally had my summer packed all the way up till the school year. However, plans have changed. I’ve cancelled a couple of the workshops I signed up for because I want to slow down and smell the roses. This last school year was very strange. I’ve made progress as a teacher–and at the same time, I’ve regressed. I’m not as stressed out as I was the year before, but I’m drained, angry, or sarcastic. It feels like 6th grade all over again. It is terrible because I can see how some of my students are copying my behavior.

So I’m going to take a vacation! I’d like to say I have 5 weeks of doing nothing–but that would be untrue since I’m teaching private lessons, practicing, fixing instruments..etc. But I’d be doing it all stress free because I’m not going to give myself a deadline on all this stuff.

Life

Fall 2014

Yu-Ting

I’m halfway through my Thanksgiving vacation. I figure that I should update about how things have been.

Part 1: Work
The start of the school year has been a long one. I’m finally starting to feel settled down with my classes. Most students–if not all of them–have instruments checked out to them. I am sadly not done with inventory yet. Most of it is done–but I have some violins that need to be fixed before I enter them into the database. I have 353 instruments entered in and have another 30 instruments to add in. This inventory project took much longer than I had expected. Somehow I thought I could get through it all in a matter of weeks rather than 5 months. I still need to order the replacement bows for the 3rd grade students. I haven’t handed out bows to them yet.

I will be so happy for all my hard work next year. Checking out instruments will be a breeze.

Part 2: Playing Cello
West Side Story was great up until the very last day. There was some confusion as to who was using the car and then I ended up arriving 5 minutes before the show started on the very last day. :( Not so happy about that. It was partly my fault because I should have made my schedule clear with all members of my family. I sometimes wish that I could just teleport to places rather than drive. I hate driving.

South Bay Symphony had their concert on Sunday. I really liked playing in this ensemble and it brightens by night whenever we have rehearsal. I hope all the cellos join for the next concert set because they’re all super cool people. Zara, Cindy, Kathy, Tommy and Kevin were there to watch. Kathy and Kevin enjoyed the Barber. After the concert, my siblings headed over to a small cafe with Zara to catch up. It was a really nice evening.

Next up cello-wise is the Nutcracker with San Jose Dance Theatre and Mary Poppins with Children’s Musical Theatre.

Part 3: Goals Goals Goals
– After I finished my half marathon, I haven’t been exercising. I should head over the the YMCA today and start again from C25K. I’ve already signed up to do next year’s Rock n’ Roll Half-Marathon. I finished at 3:07:57. I know I’ll have a better time next year. Perhaps in 2.5 hours? We will see.
– I applied for Orff Level 3. I hope I get in. I don’t think I’m quite ready for it teaching/performing-wise. But I will go if given the opportunity.
– I better submit my audition video for Suzuki training. I need to submit both violin and cello videos by mid-April.

Anyways–now I’m off to spend the rest of my break more productively!

Life

Summer 2014 Recap

Yu-Ting

The first day of school starts on the 25th and I officially start work again next week on Wednesday the 20th. However, I’ve technically been at work already since I’ve been trying to inventory as many instruments as I can before school starts.

To officially end summer vacation, I am writing this end of vacation post reviewing the major activities I did in the last three months.

Bow GripPart 1: Bow Rehair Course
Took bow rehairing classes with Lynn Hannings over at the Violin Craftsmanship Institute in Durham, NH. I had a fantastic time learning about bows. Aside from bow rehair, I learned how to wind thread/silk grips! It is pretty cool because you can totally personalize the bow that way.
I also learned about the Glasser Bow Reconditioning program. It is a pretty sweet program where you send in your old Glasser bows they they can be repaired and given a new lease on life. I just got my first batch from Howard Core today and plan on sending my next batch of bows tomorrow.

Part 2: Repairing Instruments
I spent a good month after my bow rehair class repairing and inventorying instruments. So far I have about 50 instruments all checked in and ready. I probably have about 300 total in my program, so I better get on with it. They won’t all be fitted and perfect–I just need them have new strings and make sure everything is there. My goal for this next week is to get a total of 150 instrument inventoried!

Part 3: Orff Level II
Just a week ago I was getting ready for the Level II sharing for the San Francisco International Orff Course at Hidden Valley. I loved taking Level I last year and Level II was even better as I got to connect with more of my classmates. Last year we learned about basic body percussion and the pentatonic scale. This year we learned about modes and mixed meters. The instructors, like last year, were totally fabulous. I hope I can attain their level of professionalism someday. I really hope I get to come back for Level III. If not next year, then the year after that etc.. I don’t really think I’m ready for it since my musical skills are lacking, but I need more of this Orff stuff in my life.

And that basically summarizes up my summer. Things to look forward to in the next month…
1. New School Year
2. Playing West Side Story with Stage 1
3. Running in the Rock n Roll Half-Marathon

Now… time to get more instruments in the inventory!