Just Say Da

The past few days have been pretty routine.  Rehearse, perform, celebrate, make reeds, practice, rinse, repeat…

Our performance of Brahms 1 and Dvorak Cello Concerto was, for me, the most difficult program we’ve played thus far.  I spent a lot of time working on my intonation, and tuning with the other principal wind players, and yet I still had a lot of difficulty in our concert.  It is very hard not to go sharp when there are discrepancies within the orchestra, and the pitch slowly climbed higher and higher throughout each movement.  I have a few excellent recordings of Brahms 1, and now I appreciate them so much more!

I’ve been slacking off on studying my Bosnian these past two months, and am trying to get back on track.  (It was much easier to study when I didn’t have the internet in my apartment to distract me.)  I have still been improving, just because I’m exposed to the language so frequently, but I learn much faster if I study a little bit each day.  Once in a while, I excuse myself by thinking that I only have a few months left here.  Then I have to remind myself how much I can learn in a few months, and how great it feels when I actually can understand what’s being said around me.

My comprehension is sometimes quite good, and sometimes very bad.  I am still intimidated about speaking, but try to force myself to make small conversations every time I go out.  At the grocery store, I try to say one or two extra words or phrases each week.  Needless to say, I keep the cashiers well entertained. There was a new cashier today, and I think I said enough to trick her into thinking that I can understand the language, so she started saying a lot to me, and very fast.  I just stared at her and said “da”…what else could I do?  Sometimes, I think that I come across as either hard of hearing, or mentally challenged, due to my blank looks.

In my quintet, most of the members speak English to me, but our flutist doesn’t feel comfortable speaking in English, so he just speaks in Bosnian.  I try very hard to understand what he’s saying, and often have to ask, “sta?” (“what?”) several times to take everything in.  If I still don’t understand, I usually just agree with him, “da”.  The clarinet player finds this to be quite funny, and has designated my slogan to be “just say da”, a play on Reagan’s “just say no” campaign.

Although it’s a little risky, I am trying to maintain an open-minded and agreeable attitude while I’m in Bosnia.  So “just say da”, really is a good slogan.  I remember a mediocre Jim Carrey movie, called Yes Man, in which Carrey resolves to change his life by saying “yes” and seizing each opportunity that comes his way.  Of course, agreeing to everything can be dangerous, but I tend to be a bit shy and cautious, so trying to be more agreeable and adventuresome has been quite good for me.  After all, my whole year here began with a “yes”.