run-thru

today i had my run-through for the competition, i was very nervous about it, never really played through this whole program straight through, and first time playing in public, surprisingly, the crowd was big this time...didnt really tell a lot of people only to ppl who asked about the competition or people who thought of going to the competition (but it was too far so I dont think they should), but everyone whom I talked to came...so surprised! well except timothy as he had a last minute plan.... and everyone came early!!! I was so impressed..thank you all for the support !!


Comments/review:

a little bit tense in hands overall esp LH, affect LH accompaniment in Mozart

randomness

went to cafeteria for dinner

met this girl, whom i saw in the afternoon at lunch but we didnt talk

this time i happened to sit next to her, she introduced herself, she is stacey

a guy sitting opposite to her,... i think his name is ..justin, not sure

stacey is probably one of the most interesting ppl i ever met in my life, she is a bassist..."where are you from" is probably the most difficult question for her because she is from everywhere, born somewhere, grew up in many different places, been to over 40 countries...her favourite is africa though

"what made you choose the bass?"

in england, everyone signed up for an instrument, i signed up for flute, later someone called and told me that 20 ppl signed up the class is full and they put me in double bass, i have no idea what that is...when i went and saw that instru..i cried and told my mom..mom, i dont wanna learn that thing........but later somehow i just felt in love with it (love is just sometthing so interesting isnt it), and now i hate the flute (so is hatred)

the guy ...omg, he studies in hawaii-manoa, a school that i almost went, the school gave me a really really good offer, i wanted to study with this pianist who does very interesting chinese music with piano and he is into contemporary music which is what i really like...忽然一丝 的遗憾，i kept asking him about how the school is like, the environment....and of course about that pianist whom I almost study with, he helped me so much hoping that i would go..

stacey she is now studying in northwestern even though she got the chance to study in curtis (but she still goes to curtis every summer to study with her favourite bass teacher there), what a great music school, she said her teacher is this very young famous guy from china (25 years old)...so she is in chicago...reminded me about this school in illinois that I almost went, they gave me a really really good offer too, the piano professor whom I wanted to study with helped me so much as well.....

so these two people were here today to remind me about the two schools that I almost went instead of here OKC?

i came back at about 10:30, suddenly i decided to go for a swim, i told myself that i'll have to feel the water before i leave oklahoma city this summer, because i just saw them changing the water few days ago, and by the time i come back..the weather may be bad again, so i have to do that before i leave..择日不如撞日， after finding out that they close at 11pm, i basically ran there after putting on my swimming costume...havent swum for so long..it felt good......then i went into the jacuzzi...my first time here in cokesbury after almost a year can u imagine that!!!! well they just got it fixed not long ago actually.thank you...it felt good...i wish some people were here with me when i was in the jacuzzi hot tub..it should be fun to chat while in there ..i met 3 other ppl, one guy from tulsa..and two other girls...he thought i was a dance major...interesting...he wasnt the first who thought i was a dance major....well i wish

bass

nothing much today

I had my piano lesson today, after that i felt that i couldnt really sit down and practise

highlight is probably the meeting with timothy kok, we had quite a long talk and we touched on things that we never did before, surprisingly. He is leaving OCU, another person is leaving! it is kinda sad, reminded me of the professor who is leaving OKCU and not coming back next semester, I was very sad about that, although i know i should be very happy for him...that kind of 矛盾 always happens in life isnt it...same thing happened to him, he got a better offer...congratulations! we said we will meet again before he/we leave(s)...I am leaving at about the same time for boston and NY...funny that we couldnt stop 'blaming' how busy each other was

and then i returned joseph's call. i got his msg saying that he was back from india. He asked if i had time this evening, it would be the last day of jam session in rococo for this month...i was however more interested in the bass convention thing...basically all the great and famous bass players from all around the world will be gathering here at OCU just because it so happen that this year ISB is held here right at OCU...i met so many people from diff countries these days in the school, esp down there in the practice rooms area...it is really a big thing, wish more ppl knew about it, there are concerts whole day everyday this week from morning to night in different places:
http://www.okcu.edu/news/news_details.asp?article_id=13936
http://www.okcu.edu/news/news_details.asp?article_id=13934

and because of this convention, rococo will have jam session everyday starting from today...i decided to go check out a little bit....too bad the bass people came late, and i decided to leave before knowing if they were gonna go out and play or not...

3M - Meditation, Mozart, Magic

today i woke up early, at 7:58am. My yoga teacher was very kind that she offered to pick me up to her house from my apartment to her house for group meditation. I had three meditation sittings about two weekends ago, when all these great masters came over from dallas, and so she thought I should start going to group meditation to not waste the sittings.

Ok so we started off with some cleaning before we started the actual meditation.

There was this Indian doctor sitting opposite to me..

so people all left, except me, this other lady, my teacher and this indian doctor, my teacher said she wants to show us a film next sunday, then this indian doctor said he would like to talk about some things next sunday, to share his feelings and experiences with meditation, he thinks some people still dont get it, suddenly he pointed at me, and said like you and the lady next to you, i feel something is going on....i am not talking about her, and her.. ( he was pointing at the seats where two other people sat), but her and this person next to her ( he was pointing at me and the seat beside me)..something is blocking u, u have no idea, there were many questions....i was a little bit surprised, I was just writing on the notepad (everyone got to write on our little note book after each group meditation)...I wrote: this is my first group meditation, dont know why so many things that i didnt expect at all just entered my mind... (Was that a subconscious thing)...obviously i was being very honest with myself when i wrote that instead of saying how i did achieve the state and felt the 'nothing'...now that this doctor was saying that...i have nothing to say of course. My teacher said...yes it is hard isnt it, yes I think "it is hard to be simple,"...I have always wanted a simpler life...

Now that I am playing Mozart, it is soo difficult because it is very simple...it should sound simple at least (no matter how difficult it actually is)...the notes are so simple that a tiny little mistake will throw u off

Then I met with my Japanese teacher for lunch. We decided to do hot pot, i learnt a whole bunch of stuff today,

i learnt everything that i saw:
rice, mee, fish, vege, squid, (and I remember water from risa), soup, clam, shrimp....bag, sun, phone, money (okane)

Review:
Please go ahead and eat
how much is this/that
this is (very) yummy/tasty/delicious
this is fun
that was (very) fun

new phrases/ sentences:
I like rice
I like mee...etc...I learn how to connect them when I am liking more than one thing...so I like rice, fish, vege, shrimp, mee, and soup
Do you like fish?
I am still hungry
Are you full
not really/ so so (mama)
drink it
there is still mee inside
no thanks = no thats enough (kekkoudesu)
yes please (um, Onegai shimasu)
I am happy (shiawase) today


A joke:
I asked him why he msg me "yokatta" that day after i answered sth, wasnt that "afternoon"? Oh maybe he wanted to help me to review the word, but how did he know that I learnt 'afternoon' since I dont remember telling him that ..he was like...what? OH....the truth is...afternoon should be yuugata...uhuh! haha i mixed them up, but no one really told me what yokatta was before, good that i asked..they were so similar anyway

Something funny:
I passed him a stack of napkins, and he wrote some Japanese words on the napkins so that I can remember them better, I got them back...I flip and flip..weird..where is the one with words (there was one that we wrote on)..he said, "Magic" I thought he was kidding, so I kept flipping them, and then he said: no I am serious it was magic!" I looked at him and said: "U ..know magic?"

"Yeah I learnt it before"
"Oh WOW"
"But..I forgot how to bring it back.."
"WhAT?"
"I am sorry I forgot how to..." and he didnt look like he was joking because he seemed a little bit embarrassed
"u remember how to make something disappear but u forgot how to get it back? interesting..." I have to try hard not to laugh
"Next time I will show you some more magic"....

.."But where is it?" I am still very concerned about missing napkin
We started to look around


Finally, I found it on the floor under his chair !.!>!>

coming...

kanashimi

i promised myself to sleep early today, cuz tomorrow is so important for me, cant explain why now, i have to do my best for the lesson tomorrow. BUT something came up, i cant sleep, thats why i am here

u r leaving, i know that, leaving for good? r u kidding? ....u like to joke so much, why isnt this a joke this time?

bad bad timing

(ok because I cant sleep, and it is a waste of time anyway I decide to go to school now even though it is probably close now)

Before I walked out the gate, I figured that I forgot to bring my wallet...do i even need that? yes because i would need my gate card to come back in, so I went back home and came out again. This time I bumped into the same Japanese friend who was running. He asked where I was going I said to school, he offered to walk me to music school. Even though I wanted to walk alone and I felt that this may not be a good time to meet/talk with people I didn’t say no, that would be rude….but then later on maybe he could sense something, probably because I was very different and didn’t really talk, he said if I felt like walking alone he could leave me alone

“I just feel sad cuz one of my friends is leaving, and I just knew about it”

“Sorry I am so different today”

I don’t really remember what I said, just remember that I did most of the talking, I guess it was sth like talking to myself, I don’t even know if he understood what I said

“Do you ever feel sad?” Suddenly I was curious, cuz a person like him, who has almost the same routine everyday, probably does pretty much the same thing everyday,..just a very disciplined life in short, probably meeting the same people everyday…..maybe a simple life like this has very little ups and down

“Of course” (I knew of course he must have..and I knew it was a stupid question even before I asked)

“Like today, I didn’t do as well as I wanted to in my exam…” (Oh it was about self achievement…wonder how about other thigns like r’ship with people or emotions…)

The school was not open I decided to turn back, I thought ..ok why not make full use of the time and make myself happier, so I started to ask ok whats the word for the day, he looked around and said, how about light, while he pointed at the lamp-post on top of us (oh…ok sure…never expected that). Then I remembered how he told me how to say “how much is this” earlier in a restaurant, So I said in Japanese, “this is light”…He pointed at another lamp post which is further, and said “that is light”…Oh so “XXX means that…”….

Then we learnt “we are walking” and stupid things like “I am human”, and gradually come into a conversation in Japanese:

”Oh of course you are”
“and …You are human too”
“yeah you are right”
“Really? I am rite?”
“yes…”
………
……….
…………


We walked past the gate, now by the pool, suddenly I asked in English: How do you say I am sad?

“Watashi wa kanashi desu”

He asked: “Nande?”

I said, “because you are leaving. How do you say that?”…

Ok, so:

To you, dear friend:
-------------------------------------------------------------
Kon ya wa (tonight)
Watashi wa Kanashi desu ( I am sad)
Nazenaraba (because)
Anata wa Kae-tte shimau (You are leaving)
-----------------------------------------------------------------

I feel that I should say something to him too, cuz he is a little bit sad too

So I requested to learn this;

Kanashima naide (Don’t be sad)
Kondo wa kitto umaku ikimasu (You will do well next time)
Ganbatte!!! (I added this)

“Hontouni Arigatou” (thank you so much)

“Dou itashimashite” (You’re welcome)

“Anata kara takusan manabimashita ( I learnt a lot from you)

“Hontouni Arigatou”

“Dou itashimashite”

“Watashi wa kaerimasu” (I am going back)

“Wastashi wa Nemurimasu” (I am going back to sleep)

“Oyasumi”

“Oyasumi”

a star

Today, I was supposed to meet with my piano student earlier in the afternoon. She (and maybe her dad) became my first student(s) here in Oklahoma and today would be the first piano lesson I gave in OKC so I was pretty excited about it. I had like 7 students in Wisconsin but I didn’t really teach in my first year here. His dad called me last minute and said that his daughter had to take an exam and asked if we could do later in the evening… I went to school, bumped into Satoshi, whom I just met last Friday, he was a new graduate student from Japan. He knew I just started to learn Japanese. He asked how’s my learning going? I said, oh I just learnt .."night" yesterday. He said, Yuugata! "What?" "it means afternoon" "oh thank you, I have to go…."

Later I came out from the music school, wanted to go back for food, bumped into him again, same place, he was outside the library. I saw so many ppl walking in and out from the cafeteria so I went in to check out. Wow there was food right OUTSIDE the cafeteria (tables were set up and it was very crowded), I asked one of the people who served food there what was that about , she said...just free food...so I thought to inform satoshi about that since he was telling me that he couldnt cook in the uni dorm at all, he wasnt outside the library, so i went into the library and grabbed him...he told me..."hon" (=books) when we walked past the bookshelf. ok so today i learnt two words

进去不久却看见一个人在拉小提琴， 在cafeteria 别人的餐桌旁拉小提琴？ 这个人是怎么回事，在这么吵的状况下还拉得那么开心。 我门拿了食物后选了个位置， 我一直往那里看，忽然间想到， 他该不是那个我一直想认识的。。。kyle 吧， 第一次听到她是从贝的口中， 她说他有一个朋友， 跟她合作过， 很爱玩即兴，觉得我们有相同的兴趣 应该约出来介绍我认识。。听了关于他好多东西，我也一直都想找个小提琴家合作一些现代的音乐， 编曲或即兴之类。。。 终于有一天在一个作曲家的发表会上看到他演奏，看到节目表上写kyle, 那整个演奏会很震撼， 他的表演更是其中一个很大的贡献。。演奏会完毕我想过去道贺， 不知道怎么的我跟作曲家与其他的主要的表演者道贺了就是没有机会跟他说话， 好像是太多人走去找他而我又赶时间。 今天， 我忽然觉得现在这个人有可能是他， 身形很象， 不知道哪来的胆子 在他拉完一曲后， 我走过去，他一转过身看到我就很热情的拥着， 我想他大概是把我误 以为是一个他认识却不记得的fans。 因为我很肯定他不认识我， 所以我有点被吓到，我说。。。excuse me ..r u。。 kyle? "YES"..."OH I have heard so much about you....." "..........." "................".................. "oh thank you so much for approaching me, where do you sit let me come play for you.."结果他真的走向我门那一桌， 我们刚好坐在角落，桌与桌之间的空间小到不行，他就在那个很狭小的缝里拉起来，我还没那么近距离看一个人拉过琴，基本上整个乐器就在我眼睛旁边没有几公分的距离， 看着怕演奏者会 不自在， 不看也不是， 一曲 后又一曲，近距离看只觉得技巧很吓人， 而且他实在是太自然了， 纵使那么靠近观众， 然后他蹲下来跟我与satoshi 说话， 因为他站的位置小到没办法放张椅子...他听到satoshi 从日本来就说什么上过日本的哪一个电视台什么的， 惊叹的表情忽然间在satoshi 的脸上出现， 后来他才告诉我说那是日本最大的电视台。。。更让我惊讶的是，我还以为他还搞不太清楚马来西亚在哪里 的时候， 他说他到过那里好多次了。。我看他飞吗来西亚的次数比我还多。。他说他被邀请表演给我门的苏丹（就是我们国家宫廷里的皇族）。。这。。。感觉上我门就象看到大明星一样， 可是他一点架子都没有， 还拿出卡片， 我门请他签名， 我问他有没有在什么地方表演他说每个星期四在kamps 希望我门有时间可以去看看， 后来我准备跟satoshi 离开他刚好走过来跟我说话， 我坐回去， 聊了好一阵子， 聊 到一半 又 坐着拉了一首啊拉伯 乐曲， 说道我以前编过一个马来西亚民谣给以前我在wisconsin-madison 的乐团他忽然见拉起我门最有名的一个民谣还才唱起来。。。rasa sayang eh, 我刚感冒好没什么声音可是还是跟着一起唱了一点。。天啊他真的什么都会也。。他也很友善， 知道我暑假要到boston 和纽约去参加一些音乐活动，他说走前可以 get together， 我说贝之前有想过找他可是觉得他应该很忙， 到处飞到处演奏， 他说是没错可是呆在oklahoma 的时间也不少。。。哦对了聊 到一半 我看到了一个象我门学校president的人站起来准备离开，我说， 哦that is our president...他说哦have u met Tom? " I ...", 他忽然间 就这样子喊‘tom!。。” 他没有听到继续走， 我还来不及阻止kyle 他又再叫了一下， 他回头， 我吓到， kyle 带我走过去介绍说"have u met yl?" president 也很友善跟我握手说话， "she is a pianist."..' Oh I think I have seen you before...i saw you play.." 他想不起来哪一次， 我想可能他大概听kyle说我弹琴 就想到可能有见过我。。。’very talented.." 走前他有些激动地搭着kyle 对我说: 不管别人认不认同, kyle is the best student OCU ever produced....




oops, i almost forgot about my student because of all that, i better left..。。



what an interesting day today, it was like meeting a star...我比较可以理解歌迷疯狂于偶像的感觉了，i hardly felt that kinda excitement on many things (or people) that many people might be crazy about, but i think when it comes to musicians whom I like i would be so excited to meet and talk with them