Last summer in Rome, there was a relentless musquito that hovered around my bed for about 5 weeks. I thought I'd never meet another one with such fierce endurance. Well...it appears that the Motherland has Rome beat where musquitos are concerned. These beasts are fierce. They fear nothing. It seems they're true Stakhanovites. I now have about 40 ( Read more... )

Greetings from die Mutterland. Midwesterngal made it to the Very Northern Metropolis, and her summer peregrinations have begun. I guess she won't be "midwesterngal" until august 2008, unless, of course, you consider Northern Metropolis part of the Midwest.

I always seem to greet the MotherLand with a simultaneous sense of awe and horror. St. ( Read more... )

Midwesterngal can't believe it's almost June ( Read more... )

The problem with teaching literature is that I sometimes forget how to read for pleasure. Or, rather, reading for pleasure brings me very little pleasure. That's when I fear my job the most -- like it's robbing me of what I love most. But, I guess that's what summers are for (and research leaves, woohoo!). The neverending semester came to a close. ( Read more... )

Ack! Rostropovich died today. I wonder what i fell in love with first: the cello or Rostropovich playing the cello. The events seem to have occurred simultaneously. I remember hearing him play the Saint Saens cello concerto in Vienna in early September 1995, the night before I took the night train to Paris for my junior year abroad. I remember ( Read more... )

Midwesterngal just witnessed something strange. The music librarian at Universidad del Hamleto has a toupee (sp?). This morning, when I came in to get a recording of the Kreutzer Sonata to play for my students, I witnessed him combing and styling his toupee. It was a strange sight. Do those things really need to be combed? Don't they just have a ( Read more... )

If you happen to own a Mountain HardWear fushia zip-up Fleece, boy does Midwesterngal have advice for you: don't stand too close to the stove when you're boiling water for an afternoon cup of tea! Fleeces are flamable! I didn't set myself on fire, but almost. It heated up pretty quickly and smelled funny ( Read more... )

HAPPY BUNNY DAY!!!!! I love Easter. I wish there were Jewish holidays with cute little pastel colored bunnies! Boy, would I be a Happy Midwesterngal!

If colleague X hadn't gone on leave this year, and I hadn't weaseled my way into the huge-window office, I might never have rediscovered Bergman. Strange how these things happen. Colleague X teaches ( Read more... )

It happened again. While in the Northern Metropolis, Midwesterngal had a vision of the perfect haircut she wanted. I managed to convey the vision to RockStarSister, who understood exactly what I meant. She recommended her snazzy "sytlist," so off I went. But somehow when I was trying to relate the intricacies of my overarching vision, something ( Read more... )

I have a theory about C major. there's something ethereal about it, and it was confirmed yesterday, when I went to hear Northern Metropolis University Orchestra and Choir play Bruckner's TE DEUM. I don't have much of an ear (at all), but i knew that piece had to be in C major just listening to it...ok. not much of a theory yet, but i'm working on ( Read more... )