A Viola and a Library Card

I have discovered a couple of things that I always look forward to doing: going to orchestra rehearsal and visiting the library. These were things I liked while back home as well, but here they are even better. I'm not exactly sure why, but it might have to do with the fact that I can find some really awesome things at the library, and some of my favorite people I have met here so far are in the orchestra.

Just to give you an idea, this is what I have checked out from the library right now:

Tintin in America (French and German editions), a book about digital photography (German), Calvin and Hobbes (French), a book about design (German), a translation of a John Updike novel (German), the piano works of Erik Satie, Dvorak's American Quartet and a quintet, and a French audio version of Roald Dahl's classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Let's just say it's enough to keep me entertained for a while. I always leave the library with something I'm really excited about, and the only downside is that I have to carry the heavy books around until I get to a bus stop. But it's definitely worthwhile.

About orchestra. In a previous post, I told you about how I finally found an orchestra I am happy with and that I might have the chance to play viola in it. Well, I now have the viola and it is functioning well. It was sort of like a scavenger hunt to find all the parts I needed and to get it to work properly. I had to get the music from one person, the actual viola and case from somebody else, a bow from yet another person in the orchestra who happened to have one she was willing to lend me. And the strings were very old and needed to be replaced; the concertmaster is a luthier and took the viola with him to work on it. I met him at the Conservatory the next week and he said that he had had to adjust the bridge and the sound post as well as replacing the strings. Fortunately the orchestra fund was willing to pick up the tab. And my violin shoulder rest, when adjusted to its largest size, was miraculously able to fit on the viola, saving me around 50 CHF. At the beginning I had some trouble with peg slippage, but it seems to be getting better now that the strings are stretched out. This paragraph is dedicated to my stringed-instrument-playing readers, who would have understood all the terms used, and to my non-muscially-inclined readers, who toughed it out and read all the way through even when encountering strange words like "luthier" and "sound post."

So that's the viola. And actually playing it has been a success so far. I only started viola last year, also because I was in an orchestra that needed another one and because there was somebody that was willing to lend me one, so it can still be difficult for me to read the clef. I'm getting better, though. And the section sounds better with another player. The director is pretty happy that I switched and throws me compliments on my playing here and there. Some of them are in the form of viola jokes yet still manage to be nice. Yesterday was my second rehearsal in the viola section and the section unanimously promoted me to the first stand.

Orchestra people are awesome. It's always nice to be part of a group, but there is something about playing music together that creates an instant bond. Even though we all speak different languages (quite literally, there are those who prefer German and those who prefer French), we get along very well. One time I actually spent the entire break talking to a group of university students in English, but I don't anticipate that happening again. In general, I try to discourage people from speaking English with me, with the exception of other exchange students whose first language is English. The only difficulties I have with the other orchestra members are that there are so many names to remember, and that it's hard to remember who prefers which language. But I'm sure it will get better after a while, once I have had more time to talk with them.