My busy day

I've never really blogged about my piano teaching stuff. 

 I don't know why, I've just kept it private.  

I guess feel like the student/parent/teacher privilege is much like the

patient/doctor, or lawyer/client privileges that others enjoy.

I still feel this way.

I try very hard not to talk to other students about other students.

I'm not completely successful, but do pretty well :)

Today is recital day.

For my students this day just smoothly happens.

They DO have work to do getting their piano pieces ready . . . . 

but they come and the recitals work like a well oiled machine.

For me, it is a different story.

It began many years ago when I decided I wanted to hold the recital at the church.

Actually it was decided for me. 

The store I had had it in went out of business!

I started having the recitals in the Relief Society room.

Because the size of my piano studio grew

we soon grew out of that room.

Then I held them in the cultural hall.

I had to roll in a better piano and it was lacking to say the least.

I just didn't think it was "just" (fair) that a perfectly good baby grand piano

was sitting in the chapel . . . . 

so unused,

and so wanting to be used by my students

 :)

(I just know that piano wanted to be used)

The challenge?

LDS people have so many rules pertaining to the chapel.

No clapping.

No filming.

My students were mostly non-members at that time.

Can you imagine asking them NOT to film, NOT to clap for their children?

I couldn't do it.

So I approached the then Stake President of our Stake and bent his ear for a while.

He gave me permission to film and have applause

AND use the baby grand in the chapel.

My then bishop quickly agreed to the concept.

Three bishops later,

I can't tell you I've had a smooth path,

NOT from the bishop, 

but from the many members who have felt very uncomfortable

filming and applauding in the chapel.

Every new student/new parent that gets exposed

to this concept has a learning curve,

if you are LDS you know why.

They learn quickly that it is okay though.

Even my most stalwart families are applauding and filming.

All but one family,

but that is another story.

WOW, I so did NOT plan to tell this story.

I was going to talk about the shopping I do for rewards for the students at recital.

I was going to tell about the certificates I print out.

The agony of deciding the order in which the students play 

and printing the program.

(they all notice where they are placed in the performance

 and whether they've moved up or down a notch)

Parent's requests for early performances in the recital.

Parent's request for late performances.

The seating arrangement in the choir seats.

I was going to tell about the five different baked goods I'm going to bake today.

FIVE.

It is baking day,

recital day,

a day where I have to shine as much as the students,

and possibly am more nervous than my students.

The night after a recital I have a hard time sleeping.

My brain is processing, processing, processing.

Processing the performances,

and the conversations had with parents.

For my students/myself/and parents,

December will be a month of  playing Christmas carols

and a complete lack of getting ready for a recital.

NICE!

He did it!

It is the beginning.

It is the end.

Here I lay, in bed . . . . .  

while my son is at seminary.

I should be sleeping but can't.

The important thing is . . . . . . . 

HE GOT HIS DRIVER'S LICENSE!

Our conversation in the car yesterday.

He:  "I can go do stuff on my own now"

Me: "yep"

He:  "I can go to Safeway"

Me:  "yep"

He:  "I can go to Gamestop"

Me:  "yep"

He:  "I can go to Lawry's"

(a 30 minute, narrow, windy road drive)

Me:  "yep"

(wondering what I've gotten myself into!)

the conversation DID continue . . . . . 

And all I can think of is 

I GET TO SLEEP IN TOMORROW!!!

What am I doing awake????

This bed is so comfy!!!

The Reluctant Driver

I am totally amazed by my young son McKay's

Lack

of desire to become a licensed driver

of an automobile.

I remember that this was something I

COULD NOT WAIT FOR

a right of passage,

freedom,

independence!!

Our conversation yesterday.

Me:  "You have 13 days until you get your driver's license!"

(assuming he passes :)

Him:  "   silence    "

Me:  "Aren't you excited?"

Him:  "You mean I'm going to have to drive, BY MYSELF?"

Me:  "That is usually how it works."

Him:  "You are STILL going to get up and warm up the car for me aren't you?"

Me:  "  silence       "

Him:  "I don't feel OLD enough to drive."

Me:  "I can't believe I'm the one counting down the days!"

Really? 

Can you believe he doesn't want his driver's license? . . . . 

He's going on a double date next week,

that either I, or his dad will need to be the chauffeur for.

You'd think THAT would be motivation enough to get your license!

His first date . . . . . Awwwwwww!

Messina, Sicily

The city of Messina is a province of Italy,

located on the Island of Sicily.

We didn't stay in the city for our excursion,

which was entitled "In the Godfather's Footsteps."

I'm not a real "Godfather" fan,

(maybe I'll have to watch it!)

so taking this excursion was like taking 

"The Sound of Music" tour in Austria without seeing the movie!

The towns were sounded so quaint though, that I couldn't resist the tour.

This area's history is very old . . . . 5th Century.

I included this picture because I love plant life.

The lighter greenery in this picture are olive trees.

The little towns where they filmed the portions of the "Godfather"

movies in Italy are perched very high in the mountains.

We had a full size bus for our tour,

and at times the driver had to stop and back up to get around

these curves.

Our tour guide assured us we had a good driver,

as all the bad driver's were gone by now because of some accident or other :)

You could tell the locals were used to the buses,

they would just stop and wait for them to make the corners.

(backing up to Mt Vesuvius, the bus drivers would honk three times

 before they'd take a corner, warning the oncoming traffic)

When we reached the top of the hill we received our breakfast.

Our guide told us this was a traditional breakfast.

A fresh lemon slush and biscotti.

The slush had seeds in it!

This is the cafe that we had our breakfast at.

I think they served us "breakfast" 

so we could use their bathrooms.

As public bathrooms are VERY rare!

Such a nice cafe, under a bunch of vines.

As with all of Italy, the facades are cracking away

leaving the underlying building material showing

creating a fun atmosphere.

This is a speed sign.

0-24!

I collect Nativity scenes for Christmas time.

Italy is full of Religious art.

I was able to purchase a couple of interesting nativity scenes on the trip.

I was excited to learn that this flowering plant 

I'd been seeing was Bougainvillea.

I have seen this flowering plant mentioned 

in the descriptions of books I have read,

so actually seeing it in person was fun. 

Up close:

One of the people who put this and another little town on the map.

Some sights from the hike around the town.

This church was in the movie.

A sign outside the church.

A tropical desert.

This is part of a cistern

 system under some houses.

Imagine doing your laundry there!

We moved along to another town on the top of the hill

that filming took place in also.

During on of our precious bits of free time I got a Cannoli.

I'd been hearing lots of good things about them.

This one just tasted greasy to me.

I had to choke it down . . . . probably should have thrown it away!

Sorry to tell you the truth about it . . . . 

The shop where I bought it was cool though!

A castle, perched on top of a mountain.

The coastline from above looking toward Messina.

Another church where filming took place.

I included this picture so I could remember our tour guide, Toni.

She is a German who has lived on the Island of Sicily

for most of her adult life.

She was hilarious, telling us about the Sicilian way of life.

It is kind-of Hakuna Matata, no worries.

I needed to include this picture

taken in a CATHOLIC church.

The FATHER, Son and Holy Ghost

(in the form of a dove).

It is not often you see The Father and His Son represented in art.

The gateway leaving the church.

We walked through this, the narrowest street I have ever seen before!

A wall.

These are choir seats in the cathedral.

Carved Wood.

Incredible!

and a far cry from our choir seats in our chapel :)

This gas station consisted of the pumps.

And a bowery of vines.

That is it!

By the way, gas was $12 dollars a gallon in Rome.

Not sure what it was here.

They sell it by the liter and in Euros,

times that by four and convert to US dollars,

$12.  YIKES!

When we got back to Messina we wandered around a bit.

In Sicily, they take a "siesta" (not sure what they call it)

from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. every day.

whether or not there are tourists that want to shop.

The cruise ship director told us no matter how much money they

might be losing by staying closed during those hours

they stay closed anyway.

The Sicilian way of life . . . . so what?

Our waiter told us to take our laptops or other Internet devices with us to Messina.

Their cafes are known for their Wi-fi hot spots.

Even the ships crew that can, get off to use the Internet there.

ON ship, Internet costs 75 cents a minute to use

and it is SUPER slow . . . . it took me 8 minutes JUST to get to my e-mail home page!

If you wanted to use your data plan it could be up to $15 per data unit.

(however that works, I don't know!)

I took my tablet off the ship, 

bought a pizza

and sat there for a while

getting in touch with my husband after a long trip away.

My mother-in-law who didn't even want to eat because it wasted precious time,

was very patient with me.

She understood how much I missed home and needed to touch base.

Bless her!

Technology can be wonderful at times.

And unless I decide to blog about "ship life"

this will be the end of my journeys

on the blog!

When people ask me how the trip was, it is hard to put into words.

Maybe after reading some of my posts, you would understand why.

There are no words.

A trip of a lifetime . . . . my only regret is 

I wish I could've shared it with Lincoln.

Maybe someday . . . . . 

Dubrovnik, Croatia

When looking at our list of destinations,

I didn't realize that Dubrovnik, Croatia would be one of my favorite places to visit

until we experienced it.

I LOVED this town!

It is sooooo picturesque and beautiful. 

You can tell they take great pride in their city and for good reason.

This was on the side of our bus.

The next picture is

A "panoramic" view of Dubrovnik.

This city has a history that goes back as far as the 7th Century.

According to Wikipedia, it is one of the top 10 medieval cities

and rivaled Venice in prosperity.

Unfortunately today they aren't as fortunate.

Our waiter we had on the ship is from Dubrovnik,

He will not marry or have children because he feels there 

is no future for children in his country.

His story is sad and thought provoking

as is the country of Croatia's story.

When he, (Zoran) decided to try for a job on the cruise line,

he had to learn English.  

He worked full-time for $4 a day, 

and paid his English tutor $6 an hour for English lessons.

He had 1 English lesson a week,

Studied every spare minute,

(his mom told him if he would had studied like that in school he could have gone far!)

and got the job and worked his way up to being a head waiter.

His beginning salary was only $320 a month,

but when you consider he used to make $4 a day, 

it was a step up.

Anyone who has taken a cruise knows that getting to know

your waiter is a highlight of the day on board the ship.

On previous cruises we've had Croatian waiters also . . . . 

One thing different about being in Europe is that you hardly ever hear anyone speaking English.

THEY CAN and will speak English thankfully!

but you are surrounded by many different cultures.

It's really kinda neat.

Dubrovnik is a walled city.

Our excursion was called "Walking the Ramparts."

We walked around the city!

The ramparts were built to defend Dubrovnik,

but they never needed to use the ramparts until 1992

when they decided to become an independent country.

They won their independence from Yugoslavia

(our waiter was actually a soldier during that war)

and are so proud of the fact that they will become part of

the European Union very soon.

They have their own currency,

but since they are soon joining the EU

Euros were accepted everywhere we went.

Here are some bullet holes from the 1992 war.

This is part of the stairway of the ramparts.

We traversed over 1,000 stairs!

Most of the "Old Town" was bombed during the war.

They have rebuilt very meticulously trying to keep the ambiance of the town.

In the foreground of this picture you see older roof tiles.

The older roof tiles are buildings that did not get bombed.

The newer redder tiles are what had to be rebuilt.

Most buildings had to be rebuilt.

Our tour guide is from the "old town" within the walls.

He said only 1,000 native people live there now.

Most of the property belongs to developers that rent out the space.

(our waiter has an apartment there) 

You can see people walking along the ramparts in this picture.

I thought the clothesline was interesting.

It's just a little peek into the life there.

There is no car traffic in the town.

These people who live there have to walk

and climb steps to grocery shop or to do anything they need to do.

Your thighs would become strong

especially if you lived in the back part of the city along the coast!!

A view of the outside of the walls to the Adriatic Sea.

You can see a little cafe on the cliff and wall.

A church.

I felt a little like I was invading this lady's privacy,

she was hanging her underwear on this little clothesline.

I couldn't resist snapping the picture though :)

Most of the city has been rebuilt, 

but this part is still in ruins.

Notice the satellite dish?

they are forbidden, because they want to keep the city "old."

This one will have to be removed if discovered!

After hearing how they wanted to keep the city "old" looking,

I was surprised to see this!!!  

Maybe a school?

Gotta keep the kids busy doing something!

One thing cool about Dubrovnik is that is you were paying attention,

bells would ring about every 15 minutes.

I wanted a video of it, just to remember the sound.

I only took one video

and didn't realize there was a guy hacking up his lungs in the background

until I listened to it JUST NOW!

But you can still get the idea of the feeling it gives the town.

(reminds me of The Sound of Music movie)

Such a beautiful place.

Something spectacular around every corner.

A guard shack at the top of the rampart.

This was at the very top of our climb.

At the top!  I made it!

The tiles on the ground were so smooth they looked like they were polished.

Our guide told us that it was just foot traffic that polished them.

My brother-in-law Jeff really wanted to swim in the Mediterranean Sea.

This was his only chance.

Our only problem . . . . . 

it was the Adriatic Sea!!!

Here he is jumping off some rocks.

Earlier we had seen some people jumping off these rocks

and our tour guide told us it was illegal.

OH WELL!  he did it anyway.

I didn't bring my swim suit along with me,

so I just put my feet in the sea.

The water is crystal clear as you can see.

It was quite deep here.

Probably four or five feet deep.

the water temperature was really cool!

burrrrrr!

Wetness from the sea!

It was so hot that day

that just getting my feet wet cooled me off.

Me, my mother-in-law Claudette, and sister-in-law Celesta.

We thought this cove looked inviting so we found our way down to it.

And found the rest of our group sunning themselves there.

This was in the cove area.

A home?

It looks like a fairy tale house.

This looked like something that belonged on Pinterest.

A little cafe that had seating made out of old bathtubs!

A peek inside another cathedral.

Nice!

I misspoke on my last post . . . . 

I said that Croatia was our last destination.

It was NOT!

One more to go . . . . . Messina, Sicily tomorrow!