Adventures in ...

... Public Transportation

Until moving to Arizona, I had never ridden a city bus in the United States.   Other countries? Sure.  Spain, Luxembourg, Germany ... but never America.  So, at first, it was a very strange experience riding a bus here -- actually being able to understand everything being spoken, what a concept!  (Really, it's just a reflection on my rustiness of foreign languages, but that is a different subject.)  Arizona State has a cool discount program for students called the U-Pass, and it is quite affordable -- and gives students unlimited access to all the bus routes and the light rail.  The bus even stops directly in front of the school of music, and there is also a stop right outside the gate of the apartment.  That was actually a factor in choosing the current abode: how far is it, to walk to the bus?

I have the feeling that I am going to get to know the bus drivers as the semester continues on.  I have observed that the drivers seem to have a good rapport with the regular passengers, though obviously the nature of their job prevents them from lengthy conversations.  Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised, but I figured that since Phoenix is so large, people would be much less warm and approachable than I have found them to be.  So far, I have found that even the complete strangers -- those who have no reason to take time out of their busy lives or current task -- will take time to wish a stranger good day.
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... Cooking -- with my new roommate, Qiudi!

So, Qiudi and I have been talking about cooking things once or twice a week together.  Our first cooking adventure was Wednesday, and we decided to cook Ratatouille!   It was a little bit of a modified version, because we just used the ingredients we had.  We used fresh tomatoes instead of stewed, added potatoes instead of zucchini, etc.   All together, I think the entire (giant!) meal cost us approximately $6...and we had 8 servings of leftovers after stuffing ourselves.  It was so tasty, and might become a staple.  It's just a nice way to have a bunch of vegetables all together.    Our next cooking adventure will be tofu-stuffed giant pasta shells.   It's been awesome to be able to spend time together as roommates and get to know one another -- in fact, it's only been a week but is so comfortable, I feel like we have been roommates much longer.  It's always awesome when that happens.  AND, we even have the exact same old laptop too!  It was just meant to be!  No one has this laptop anymore -- it's a 2008 model.  Win!



... First day of classes

None of the performance-based classes will be busy until next week, so the first day of classes was pretty relaxing.  I had one meeting to pick up some music and my office keys (I get an office -- shared with two other people.  Awesome!), then our first French diction class.   This class is going to be so much fun!  Actually, the ratio of pianist to singer is about 1:1, which is a very unusual ratio, so the in-class accompanying should be very interesting.  Usually there are 12-15 singers and 1-2 pianists.   We didn't cover too much, since it's the first day, but we at least all met one another and had first assignment/overview of the class.  It is shaping up to be an awesome semester, so far.



Grammar note:   By the way, I have not said this on the blog here yet, but I realize that I have not had an actual grammar class in years even if I write a good bit.  I realize I have family and friends who have much more experience than I do in this area.  Any writing critiques / grammar corrections are freely welcomed, since I am constantly working to improve my skills.


More adventures coming soon, I'm very sure.  Ensemble classes will begin next week, I think, so many fun things to report soon.  New music, orchestra, wind ensemble, and plenty more!