New Moon On Monday!

I know I've been TOTALLY away, but it's all for the right reasons... And hopefully soon I'll tell you what I've been up to. :D

So, HOW IS EVERYBODY?? :D

I'm back in class already, starting this week... I'm actually excited about it, even though my classes aren't really that exciting! XD Hopefully I'll get rid of them and move on to greener pastures next year. Good things are I'm finally starting with a whole new repertoire in my piano class, and I'm also back to my German lessons. This year I switched to a different institution for my German classes - now I'm at the local Goethe Institute, which offers me a whole 6-year course and the opportunity to take as many international exams as I want. :P Looks like this course goes at a faster pace than the one I took before, because in the first class we were already bombarded with LOTS of stuff. XD But, hey, I couldn't be happier! I'm really enjoying it. :D

But perhaps the best part is going back to school is actually buying stationary and other supplies! I even bought myself a new bag... Because I actually need a rather big bag to carry my folder, my books and all that jazz.

I'm in love with my new bag, which is proving to be VERY useful and looks like this:

( Photo cut! )

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi and let you all know that I'm still alive and slowly reading and commenting on your journals. :P

Cheerios, people, I'm off to do some reading on the properties of musical modes. XD

Love and cookies!

-V

I FINALLY got rid of that freaking piano final...

And I PASSED!

:D

You wouldn't believe the bliss I'm in right now... I've been dragging that final for quite some time, and now that I'm done with it, I feel a major burden has been lifted off my shoulders.

I didn't do as well as I would have wanted to, but still I passed. I still get really nervous when I play in front of people, and that always makes my performances be worse than they could be. Nevertheless, the teachers that listened to me for the final (including my own teacher) were really encouraging. They've told me I really have what it takes to be a good pianist - I just have to get rid of my fears.

Sometimes I feel people trust me more than I trust myself. That's something I'm working on changing about myself, and I know I'll change it... Slowly, one step at a time.

I'm a really happy camper right now. :) Things are going really well. I feel there's still a lot ahead of me, but I'm enjoying myself every step of the way. This year has stared out really well for me, and I'm hoping things will continue looking up. :)

That being said...

I'M BACK, PEOPLE. :D

Love for all of you!

-V

Just incredibly busy!

I'm back at work, and I'm studying like a b!tch because in a couple of weeks I will FINALLY take that darned piano exam I've been postponing forever!

This means I'm not really devoting much time to my online activities, but hopefully I will be back to my usual self once I'm done with this final.

I will keep you posted about my progress, and I'll let you know once I finally have an official exam date, alright?

Just keep me in your thoughts and please send lots of positive vibes! :D

I LOVE YOU ALL! ♥♥♥♥ And I will be back, I promise!

Hope you're all alright! :D

Cheerios!

-V

I believe my dear Charlie The Piano and I will have to part ways soon. :-/

As any other acoustic piano, it gets out of tune with use and time. My piano was already having tuning problems - basically, it was always tuned around a semitone too low.

[boring explanation follows]

As you may or may not already know, most instruments are tuned following certain standards, so that you can actually tune all instruments in the same pitches. Just imagine what a band would sound like if you didn't tune all the instruments following the same standards. XD

The problem with my piano is that it's tuned, but not following these standards. The middle A should be tuned at 440 Hz, and it isn't - it's actually lower. SO, even though it sounds right, if I ever tried to play with another instrument, it'd really sound very weird, as if we were playing in different tonalities. Not to mention it really fucks up my ear, because every time I study, my ear memorizes the pieces I play and I hear them in my mind in a certain tonality, but when I play in another piano, everything sounds in a different pitch. D: So it's rather weird.

[boring explanation ends]

ANYWAY

It's about time I get this thing fixed, because it really fucks up my brain.

Our usual tuner isn't working anymore, so we had to get another one. And, well, his verdict was that, basically, my piano has a serious problem and I should totally replace it. There's a problem with my piano's internal machinery, and it can't be tuned to A-440 as it should be. Problem is getting the machinery fixed or replaced would actually cost just as much as the piano. XD

SO

Answer is

BUY ANOTHER PIANO!

Yeah, right.

I'm APPALLED by how much money a good piano actually costs. Don't get me wrong, it's totally worth it, especially for me, since playing the piano is a part of my daily routine. Nevertheless, I really wasn't counting on having to buy a whole new piano just like that, out of the blue!

The idea really brought me down, partly because of the money, and partly because I'm really fond of my piano.

Nevertheless, a friend of mine gave me a suggestion I'm really digging right now:

( Clickity-click because this is getting long... )

Had the lousiest day ever in class (feeling totally discouraged right now; FMF on that subject will come soon; this is the kind of moment that really makes me feel like I can't wait for my next therapy session), but I still have good news:

( Photo! )

And this next thing is for drbillbongo:

( Photo Number 2! )

Well, that'll be all! :D

CHEERIOS!

-V

For all you German speaking people out there:

I've learned that you use the word Steak. How do you pronounce it - just like it is in English, or do you pronounce the S as it should be in German?

Thank you for you help in advance. :D

For sweetestremedy:

( Present for you! )

1. Name:
2. Birthday:
3. Place of residence:
4. What makes you happy:
5. What are you listening to now/have listened to last:
6. Do you read my lj:
7. If you do, what is particularly good/bad about it:
8. An interesting fact about you:
9. Are you in love/have a crush at the moment:
10. Favourite place to be:
11. Favourite lyric:
12. Best time of the year:
13. Weirdest food you like:
14. What makes you laugh?

Recommend
1. A film:
2. A book:
3. A band, a song and an album:

Me
1. One thing you like about me:
2. Two things you like about yourself:
3. Put this in your lj so I can tell you what I think of you

---

I'm a happy, happy camper. :D

Work is going great. I'm totally clicking with my coworkers and I've really adapted to the job.

German is going great too. We're having lots of fun, and my teacher had this idea for a Stammtisch, where we basically get together in a bar every Thursday evening, not just my class, but also people from more advanced courses as well. It's really awesome, we're really getting to know each other and, even if there isn't much German involved, we always have a blast. XD (We've learned how to say ein Bierchen, and that seems quite enough. XDDD)

School is going slow but well. I'm getting ready for a Piano final, so I'm studying quite a bit.

So, yeah. I'm alright. :D

Hope you are too. :D

Cheerios,

-V

How do you say "You talk too much" in German?

XD

Thank you in advance!

-V

1. I MISS MY GERMAN TEACHER. :(((
He's in Germany right now (reason why I should envy him rather than miss him! XD), and he'll be there for three weeks, so we have a substitute teacher. She's great, the substitute, very nice, BUT I MISS MY TEACHER. :( Beyond any biased comment I could make, my teacher is the kind of guy that was born to teach - you know when somebody oozes a certain authority, something that makes people respect him right from the start? That's what my teacher has. He's got a personality that allows him to run a class almost with no effort. The substitute teacher certainly doesn't have that - she tries to impose herself, and that created a bit of a horrid environment in class today. You know when you can perceive nobody's really relaxed? That kind of thing. That never happened with my German teacher. So, I MISS HIM AND I WANT HIM BACK. :(

2. 6.54 AM today, on our way to work, my brother and I were talking. I don't know how we started talking about what to wear for his wedding (I still have a major conflict with that whole thing, by the way). And that's when I started ranting:

Me: WOMEN ARE SO STUPID. THERE ARE NO FORMAL WINTER CLOTHES FOR WOMEN. WOMEN WEAR STRAPLESS DRESSES IN WINTER JUST TO SHOW OFF, AND I'M SUPPOSED TO FREEZE MY ASS OFF TOO JUST BECAUSE EVERYBODY DOES? EVEN I WANTED TO GET DECENT CLOTHES, THERE AREN'T ANY!

And this is where the best part came:

Me: BEING A WOMAN SUCKS. I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BORN A MAN. A GAY MAN. I HATE WOMEN.

XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

And this is where my brother shows he's a troglodyte:

Him: But if you had been born a man, you'd like women.

Me: NO, BECAUSE I WOULD HAVE BEEN BORN GAY!

Him: But you can't be born gay.

(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TROGLODYTE, I TOLD YA!)

This is where we finally got to work, and we found ourselves in the middle of the whole vortex of people arriving as well, so we couldn't really keep talking. BUT HE PROVED HE LIVES IN THE MIDDLE AGES. And I still believe I should have been born a gay male. XD

*sigh*

I hope you're all doing fine. :D Take care! *glomps f-list*

CHEERIOS!

-V
(761 unanswered emails)

Two things:

1. I talked to the Chief of Staff regarding my job transfer today. :) I basically asked her what are my chances of landing a good transfer, and she said they're actually very high, so that's good news. :) I might have to wait for a short while before actually getting transfered, but she totally understood my reasons, so my hopes are high. :)
I'll be talking to the woman who deal with all the transfers tomorrow (she actually works in the office next to mine, so she's very familiar with me) and then, in a few more days, I'll have to deal with the hardest part... Telling my boss.
Things look good though. :D

2. This is my Outlook Express inbox:



It's all true, unfortunately. XD
Do bear with me, RL is being a bit of a bitch right now and it might take a while to get back at you. BUT I promise I will. :D

Thank you all for hanging in there. You're all made of awesome. :D (Not me, as I wrote before. XDDDD)

<3,

-V

YOU GERMAN SPEAKING PEOPLE HAVE A

WEIRD

WAY OF COUNTING.

XDDDDDDDDDDDD

(No offense, it's just that it's so different from the two languages I already speak, and it's giving me quite some work, so I'm lashing out, but I'm sure I'll love it once I get how it works! XD)

Still, one of the things I love about being able to count from 0 to 100 in German is the fact that I can FINALLY understand Nena when she sings

NEUNUNDNEUNZIG LUFTBALLONS!

YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!

That stupid song has been playing in my mind all day, ever since I realized I could sing along to it. XDDDDDDDDDD

STILL

I need to practice die Zahlen. I'm trying to catch the Lotto numbers on the German channel on TV to see if I can actually understand them. XD If any of you would be willing (and has the time, of course :P) to record a few numbers in German for me to guess, I'd owe you and love you FOREVER. It'd be a great help, and it'd make a great anecdote for my German class too. :P

By the way, now that we can count, MY TEACHER HAS FINALLY CONFESSED HE'S 44 YEARS OLD! :-o Twice as old as I am, but still...

I dig him.

*hides*

ANYWAY

Nothing else is new with me.

I missed a test today at my uni because I forgot to take my bus card and any money with me. Which means I basically had no way of getting to college, except for walking. *facepalm* I have this class at uni right after my German class (which I take at an institute downtown), and I basically have to FLY LIKE THE WIND to catch a bus and get to uni ASAP. I had no way to take the bus today, so... This test didn't really matter anyway, because it doesn't influence my grade (it was just a diagnostic test), but still, GRRRRRRRRRRR. It makes me angry. IF I GOT PAID TO BE A DORK, I'D BE A BILLIONAIRE. XD

And just in case that wasn't enough of a *facepalm*, now I have another reason to claim I LOSE AT LIFE: I get depressed on Sundays. XD To drown my depression, I went to the supermarket with my family last Sunday. Lots of people shop when they're sad - they buy clothes, books, anything. I shop too. But, what do I buy? FOOD. XD Danish cheese, to be exact:

( Photos courtesy of my brother )

OH, AND, BY THE WAY, nadiamdq, LOOK WHAT I FOUND ON THE SUPERMARKET!

( XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD )

ENOUGH FOR NOW!

NEUNUNDNEUNZIG LUFTBALLONS!

Cheers!

-V
(361 unanswered emails!)

But I still wanted to post at least something, because, even if it doesn't seem like it, I really hate it when my LJ goes unupdated (??? XD) for too long.

SO

ANYWAY

Nothing new. I still lose at life just as much as last week. XD

But, still, there are a few mindless things I wanna share with you.

1. Did you hear/read/see Boris Yeltsin died? O___o I'm one of the most apolitical people in the world, but it kinda shocked me when I read about his death, because I grew up watching his white hair and his red nose on the news! He was a part of my childhood! So I feel old now that he'd dead. :-/

The newspaper where I read about Yeltsin had this little YouTube video of what seems to be a press conference with Yeltsin and Bill Clinton (back in the day when they were both presidents), AND IT WAS ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS. XD

( Watch for yourselves )

2. Now that I finally have a salary, I've been indulging in certain little luxuries that I couldn't afford before, like buying two CDs in one week. XD I bought Arvo Pärt's Da Pacem last Thursday, and today I got myself a CD of Chopin's Etudes and Mazurkas performed by Leif Ove Andsnes. (I'm FIXATED with Leif Ove... I'll never be able to enjoy anybody else's version of Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto after listening to Leif playing it. The guy is plain genius. Plus he's Norwegian and he's hot. And, yeah, I lose at life. XD)

I'll probably make a post with a list of AAAAAAALLLLLLLLL the classical academic things I should listen to and still haven't. I'm a music major and I can't even recognize a Mozart symphony... which is kind of unacceptable. So, I'm gonna start culturizing myself! Don't get me wrong, I have my culture - I can discuss Philip Glass, Arvo Pärt, Piotr Tchaikovsky, Frédéric Chopin - I've listened to their works, but I really need to expand my horizons even more, and listen even to those composer I don't really dig that much. So, that's the mission.

3. Did any of you watch Children Of Men? Wow, maybe I was feeling rather sensitive, but it really got to me, in a very bad way. It's a very dark film, so try not to be in a black day if you're about to watch it. It's very well done, though. Very well filmed. I have the book, but I read it a million years ago, so I can't remember a thing. Maybe I should read it again.

OK... I guess I've said enough nothing for now. :)

Take good care of yourselves!

-V

(PS: I still have 319 unread email messages, including LJ comments/posts, so bear with me. XD I'll read and/or answer them all soon!)

I promised...

...and now I'm delivering.

All thanks go to glasklar, nadiamdq, fawsley, miman, annebloom188, catunia and drbillbongo for making this post possible! :D

( My German notebook! A nervebreaking story including a catfight between two divas! Read on... )

And just in case you're interested... (And also because I'm a book nerd...)

( Other German acquisitions! )

Enough of my excitement with German for now...

Carry on!

AND THANKS ALL OF YOU AGAIN! :D

Cheers,

-V

PS: ESPN's not airing Germany's match today... Which means I'm stuck on an online LiveTicker. *sigh*

Well...

I have finally started my German course! :D :D :D :D

First class was very cool, actually. :D No direct diving into the language, but rather a more laidback introduction. We pretty much introduced ourselves, what we do, and why we've chosen to study German. It's quite interesting, because we all have different reasons - some people have family in Germany, some others just enjoy learning languages, some people have German ancestors, some others have an academic interest... I'm a part of that last group (studies in Musicology requre a good deal of German), and I also have another reason for studying German - ICH LIEBE FUSSBALL! XD

My teacher seems to be absolutely cool. :D He's a he, and not a she as I had suspected, and, for what I've heard, he's demanding but accessible. My kind of teacher! I don't mind the hard work, as long as I'm dealing with cool people. He's not German (he does have Swiss ancestry, though), but he's worked and studied in Germany for ages. Now he teaches and works as a translator too.

My teacher pretty much devoted the first class to clear up any doubts and fears we may have ("Is German difficult?"; "How much will we know by the end of the year?"; "I've heard writing is harder than speaking, is it so?"; "Does speaking English help in learning German?") and also to check out what kind of ideas and preconceptions of Germany and the German language we have. Besides, he made some things clear - German is quite different from Spanish, and the greatest difference is vocabulary. Plus, the best way to learn a language is to listen to it and try to repeat. "You need to go find German, German won't come find you," he said. What I really like about him, though, is that not only does he seem to speak the language with absolute fluency, but he's also very culturally and historically aware. He knows the entire map of Europe by heart, and he added lots of details about history and culture to the conversation, which is always interesting. :D And I think he knows a bit of fussball too. WE'RE GONNA GET ALONG. XD

Anyways, I already have my first assignment for next class (on Thursday): I need to bring something, anything at all, that I relate to Germany or the German language. Hm. I have lots of ideas, but I haven't made up my mind yet! SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME! LOL

By the way, I had totally forgotten we're having some serious fussball action this weekend! Time does fly, wow. I still believed we had a long way to go before the match against the Czech Republic. But, nononoonon, it's here! ONE HELLUVA MATCH, let me say. Can't wait!

College classes start next week. The year is slowing starting to roll...

Let's hope it's a good one! :D

Cheers, y'all!

-V
(who promises to throw in some German as soon as she learns something to say XD
and who also promises another update soon :D)

In the meantime, take care! :D

Cheerios!

-V

PS: I haven't forgotten about my notebook... You will see pictures soon, very soon! :D

( My job sucks, but you already knew that )

( On to something brigther... New study plans )

( PS: )

Alright... As I already said once, I HAVE NO SENSE OF BALANCE - I disappear for ages and then, when I show up, I make a marathonic post! *tsk tsk* Anyway, to sum it all up, I'm doing good now and I hope you are too. :D

Cheers

(AND THANKS FOR THE GOOD VIBES, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU),

-V