We hear that short phrase often, don’t we? I’ve got much of it during this interesting third semester at MUN. I’ve been submerging into St. John’s music-educational lifestyle, performing with a few Cirque du Soleil artists as well as other prominent Canadian artists, ice-hockey and opera experiences in St. John’s, and a few more. There truly is “A Time For Everything”!
Right from my first semester at MUN, I’ve been planning on taking jobs as a music teacher in St. John’s. I applied to STEP (Suzuki Music School), which I’ve mentioned earlier in my previous blog post, and I’ve got in; now I am an active accredited STEP violin teacher. I also applied to another teaching-job at Long & McQuade Music Centre, which is a pretty big and well-known music school and music store in St. John’s (and throughout Canada). I didn’t initially plan on applying, but I heard from my fellow music students that they were hiring a new teacher, so I applied. The process went very fast. It only took a week. They called me for an interview twice and then sent me an email saying that I am now in the team. I’m so pleased with these 2 job application results, and I’ve been teaching for a month now. I can’t wait to really get into the music life in St. John’s, to teach residents of St. John’s, to gather with music teachers around town, and to see what these steps lead me to. I used to teach kids back home. Having missed teaching and having interactions with kids so badly these past months, it felt great to be able to teach and play around with kids again here in St. John’s.
The Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra (NSO) has served me very well in this semester (more specifically, the days after my first blog post). We performed with a few artists from Cirque du Soleil, as well as with Canada’s The Tenors in another event.
It’s great, at least for me, that I got the chance to participate with NSO to perform and make new friends with other Canadian artists; yes, I still keep in contact with the people I met from Cirque du Soleil. Another interesting step for me was the invitation for NSO to perform in the opening home game for Newfoundland’s ice-hockey team, The Growlers. Unfortunately, this was just a small-sized NSO chamber ensemble. And following that performance was my very first time watching a live ice-hockey match. As it turned out, some of them also had not seen any live ice-hockey games before. I assume that it was also a very special evening for Newfoundland’s hockey lovers too because Newfoundland has their brand-new team. What a night!
Aside from NSO, I recently joined one of Newfoundland’s biggest Opera Companies, Opera On The Avalon, as the ensemble player. We had two opera shows back in mid-October as our support for Remembrance Day. It’s also my newest step to be part of St. John’s musical lifestyle, through this amazing opera company in the city.
Thinking back, last year was a year full of classes, credits, assignments, projects, and many other things from uni. But I only have 3 credits for this semester; I was supposed to have an internship, but it’s going to be next semester. However, I am still taking another class (chamber ensemble) without credit, and it has been a really fun time to learn ensemble playing with our fabulous coach. I am also in a master-class with an experienced artist from the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. I have a very big repertoire to work on during this year (2 semesters) that will be performed in my recital at the end of next semester. Regardless of how much music students practice in the music school during school days, we do have lots of homework during the holidays! But luckily, I think we’ve dealt with it as part of our lives as musicians.
Speaking of holidays, I’m going to go back home for a few weeks because my sister is getting married in December! I’m extremely excited for that, but on the other hand, I’m not looking forward to sitting in an airplane cabin for 30+ hours. I think I’ll bring with me some cards, or download some games on my laptop, so then I can ask my seat-mate to play games together 🙂 (I like this idea because I had one flight where my seat-mates offered me the chance to join their monopoly card game – and what is important is that I won the game!).
This would be a good flight-hack to deceive yourself into thinking that time is going faster. This is especially useful for someone who travels 30+ hours like myself. Ask your seat-mates to play games with you, and they could end up being your good friends. Or, go to the kitchen back there and ask for a drink and a small talk (fortunately, I often get to fly with very nice and chatty cabin crews, and a few other passengers who are ‘hanging out’ in the kitchen). I hope that these tips will ease any horrible thoughts about long-haul flights that any of you may have if you are going somewhere far this upcoming December!
Whilst it was still October (and not yet snowing), I hurried to get myself and a few friends to go hiking. There was one time we had Thanksgiving dinner at church, and I found these new hiking buddies. We went to the popular Signal Hill, because believe it or not, even though I’m in my second year of study, this was my very first hiking in Signal Hill. It was fun, and like always, SCENIC!
I’m hoping that everyone is having a lovely semester, and soon, a nice holiday too!
Cheers!