Greetings and Reunions

The past week has gone by so quickly, I feel like my life is set in fast-forward.

After my stay at Edo's house last week, I got settled into my apartment and happily reunited with most of the Otes family. Slowly, I've run into all of my old friends, had lunch, drinks, coffee... Everyone is just as warm, open, and funny as I remember and it felt relatively easy to pick up where we left off.

Besides meeting old friends, I also greeted new ones. I met my oboist colleague, Lindsey (the American oboe player who came last year has decided to stay here permanently) and was delighted to find her so friendly, easy-going, and funny (oboe players tend to be a bit quiet and awkward). We hit it off right away and I know we will have a ton of fun this year. On Tuesday, a group of four new Americans came to fill out the bassoon, horn, and trombone sections. Since then, I've gotten to know the bassoonist, Andrea, the most because she is my roommate. We have a lot in common (vegetarian, married, double reed players) and hit it off immediately. I showed her and the three brass players around Otes and Ilidza on Tuesday night, encouraging them to stay up until bed time to avoid jet lag. On Wednesday, everyone came with me to the city center to meet with Alisa and get paperwork and errands taken care of.

On top of all of the greetings and reunions, I've had daily rehearsals for the Britten War Requiem, which has kept me quite busy. I'm trying to keep up with practicing, learning the repertoire, figuring out the orchestra's new English horn, making reeds, and working on my dissertation, but haven't quite managed to avoid getting behind. I'm sure that I can catch up once I settle into a routine a have a day or two off to get organized. It's hard to resist the temptation of going out with friends when I haven't seen them for 14 months!