September 2014

After a busy summer, I was really hoping for some time to rest up and recover from being sick and all the strenuous travel.

Immediately after arriving home, I had to move apartments.  I love my new place! I have a 500-square-foot one bedroom apartment.  It's really great to have a place to myself.  Of course by this point, I'm all moved in, though I still need to hang up some of my decorations.  I'll try to post a house tour up here sometime soon, once I hang up the artwork.

Unfortunately, I had scheduled my recital for just one month after my return, and I hadn't had practice time to prepare before I arrived back at school.  The recital was on September 29, and it went pretty well.  Everyone was really complimentary, and, though everything wasn't perfect, I was happy with my work considering the difficulties of the program and the short time I had to prepare.

Also, it turned out that I had some unforeseen issues with my classes, which necessitated major schedule changes and caused a lot of bureaucracy problems.  Due to this, it wasn't until the first week of October that I was able to actually finalize my schedule for this semester!

I also had to take a huge doctoral exam in music theory.  I felt like I did ok, but I got a borderline grade, so they made me retake part of it.  Finally, I ended up passing, and I got the news just as I came off-stage from playing my recital!

With some collaborators after my recital

Despite all this business, I've also been doing some of hiking, sometimes alone, and sometimes with friends.  One weekend, a group of use went hiking and then had a barbecue in the state park.

Hiking in a state park with some friends

I've also been doing some home cooking in my new place.  I made some delicious Brazilian rice and beans, which you can find the recipe for here.

Beans and rice

Following my friends' and my monthly schedule for organized fun* we had a chamber music party near the end of September.  My friend had the cutest dog who loved the music and all the attention we gave him.

Cute doggy!

Ms. Haydn came to the party

What a crazy busy month, with no time to rest! October is going to be pretty busy as well, but with no recital prep, it should be slightly more manageable.

*Our monthly organized fun schedule:
First Wednesday: play pool
Second Thursday: attend a concert
Third Friday: movie night
Fourth Saturday: chamber music party
Fifth Sunday: brunch