Budva Preview and Niagara Falls?

I know, I know…I should be posting all of my Budva and Kotor photos.  I will!

Tomorrow is my day off, so it WILL happen!  In the meantime, here is a preview of Budva:

—-

And here are a few pictures from my trip to Niagara Falls in August 2010.  I wanted to try editing some pictures, so I looked for some with great colors in them.  I know this is completely unrelated to Montenegro, BUT it does fit within the “World Traveler” theme!

This one didn’t turn out so great, but it was my first attempt.  It’s still pretty, though.

—-

This one is my favorite!  I love how there is a really faint rainbow that just sort of fades into the water.

—-

I submitted the photos above to a world photography blog on Tumblr, and they posted most of them!  They’re now being re-blogged and floating around the interent.  Kinda cool.

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]renderVideo(“video_player_4009182627″,’http://volemusika.tumblr.com/video_file/4009182627/tumblr_lifeqqnygV1qgvmzm’,400,300,’poster=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_lifeqqnygV1qgvmzm_r1_frame1.jpg,http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_lifeqqnygV1qgvmzm_r1_frame2.jpg,http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_lifeqqnygV1qgvmzm_r1_frame3.jpg,http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_lifeqqnygV1qgvmzm_r1_frame4.jpg,http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_lifeqqnygV1qgvmzm_r1_frame5.jpg’)

Tell me what you think of the video style post! 

I have two files full of pictures from my last two trips to other cities in Montenegro, Budva and Kotor.  Expect two more posts later this week!

Friends.

There’s not really a whole lot to say about this, except that these are my two beautiful friends, Duda and Marija.  This was from a coffee adventure one night last week.

School days, school days, dear old golden rule days.

I know you are just dying to see some photos of the school!  

The school Andre Navarra is named after the cello teacher of the founder, Aleksa Asanovic.  Andre Navarra was a successful French cellist who traveled around the world performing with famous orchestras and taught in various places in Europe.  Aleksa Asanovic was one of his most talented and hard working students.  The two of them became very close throughout their time together.  Aleksa opened a music school in his teacher’s honor in 1992, just a few years before another school was opened in his honor in Paris, in 1995.  

So, that’s the story of where I work!  The school is an old house that has been built onto to accomodate more classrooms.  I took these photos while the students were in class, so that’s why there’s no one around.

—-

Here it is!  There is a really cool statue/sculpture just outside the gate that surrounds the school.  I tried to get a shot of it on my way out yesterday, but my camera died before I could get it.  I’ll try to snap a pic of it for a later post.  

When you walk in the door, immediately in front of you is a quite steep staircase.  I was actually afraid to climb it the first time…then I was afraid to walk down.  There are two or three rooms up there that are used for private lessons.

—-

The school in Montenegro was opened before the one in Paris.  They are not associated aside from who they honor.  I think it’s interesting that Aleksa beat the French people to it.  After all, Andre Navarra was French!

—-

Just to the right of the front door is the office.  I am greeted by the person who holds the school together…the lovely secretary (oh my goodness.  I know her name, but I have absolutely no clue how to spell it!), who offers me fresh coffee each morning.  Always make friends with the secretary!  She can make your life bliss or hell.  But really, even if she wasn’t the secretary, I would still be friends with her, because she’s awesome.

—-

This is sort of a gathering room in the middle of the school.  People hang out in here, play piano, and I think recitals take place in here.  Two students came to audition last week, and their auditions were held in here.  Want to know something fun?  They had been interested in the school already, but they became especially interested when they heard there is an American teacher this semester.  I wonder who that is??  

Yeah, I’m famous.

—-

The other side of the room.  There are a bunch of old instruments, decorations, and trinkets in that cabinet.  I am thinking about doing a picture post of all the art, pictures, posters, decorations, etc in the school.

—-

A little sitting area with a vending machine that contains delicious European num-nums, drinks, and an instant coffee maker with cute little cups.  There is a sort of teacher’s lounge to the left.  The building that you see through the windows is the addition where all the classrooms are.

—-

The garden area that connects the old house to the new addition.

—-

One of the classrooms that I use sometimes.  There are four or five more that look just like this one.

—-

This is the room where orchestra rehearsal is held.  The desks get moved around and chairs and stands are set up in a circle.  I had my first rehearsal with my quartet in here yesterday.  It was such a happy rehearsal.  Yay for chamber music!

—-

Maybe next time I will introduce you to my students.

Free time makes me lazy.

I didn’t really know what kind of work schedule to expect to have when I got here.  I think I assumed I would be working many hours a day, with little time to do anything else.  Well, that is not exactly true.  Actually, it’s completely untrue.  

As it stands right now, I am working Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from about 10am-2:30 or 3pm.  I have five private students right now (I am starting lessons with another next week, and there’s a possibility of acquiring yet another student sometime soon) and one quartet.  I have two 45 minute lessons a week with each student, as well as two rehearsal each week with my quartet.  So, if you do the math, that’s just a little over 2.5 hours of actually working per day.  I spend my free time in between lessons drinking coffee, talking to teachers and students, and practicing.  

Other than being at the school for 20-25 hours per week, I have absolutely no other commitments, aside from lunch at 3:30 every day.  I haven’t had this much free time since…..um never?  Really, there is no excuse for me not posting for two weeks!  I need a schedule though, otherwise I am basically incapable of doing anything.  Since I’m realizing this fault of mine, I have been trying to make some sort of schedule for myself.  This week I have slowly been trying to switch over to the new agenda I have planned out in my little brain.  You know you want to know what it is!

6am: Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory!  Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory! Rise and shine, OH, give God the glory, glory, children of the Lord.

*Typing out the whole song was probably unnecessary, but I loved that song when I was little and I felt like singing it to you. Ok? Ok.

6am-whenever Nathan feels like going to bed: Skype date with my man! (it will be 11pm his time)

7am-ish: Burn baby, burn! Some calories, that is.  Last week I started running in the ‘little forrest’ here.  It’s about a ten minute walk from where I live and it has a pretty good track.

8am: Shower, get ready, blah, blah, blah.

9am-whenever it’s time to leave for school: Go downstairs to grab my breakfast, go back upstairs to eat and drink tea on the terrace outside of my room.  I plan to also use this time for journaling and blogging.

*School*

3:30pm: Lunch

Okay…that’s all I have planned so far.  I’m not sure about the afternoons/evenings yet.  A few times a week in the evening I go out for coffee with friends.  I can use the afternoons to practice, plan wedding stuff, read, etc.

10pm: Night, night!

I know, you’re so impressed with me.  Don’t be too quick to assume that I will actually follow this schedule, though.  Ha.  I’ll post about it after I have tried it for a week.

——-

I just read through all of that and realized HOW lazy I made myself sound.  While I do have mass mounts of extra time on my hands that mostly consists of me sitting on my rear end, I actually have done a lot in the last couple of weeks.  I have been running, I have spent hours and hours researching and planning wedding stuff, I visited the city of Budva (post to follow), I have walked around town and explored,  and spent a lot of time with friends.  So, the image you have in your mind of me sprawled out in bed all day with the covers all rustled and drool come out of my mouth is not true…well, not completely.

Week 1

My first week in Montenegro was filled with food, coffee, friends, a new language, coffee, exploring the town, teaching, coffee…did I mention coffee?  It’s a good thing I love the stuff.  Sitting down to drink coffee is a daily ritual here.  Actually, more like a two-or-three-times-a-day ritual.  I’m not complaining though!

The very first thing I experienced when I got here was, of course, the food.  Here are a few pictures of my dining experiences thus far:

—-

“Kafa” = Coffee

—-

“Slana Palačinka” literally, salty pancakes.  They are more like crepes filled with meat and cheese.  Pretty tasty!

—-

Tiramisu!  It was different than any tiramisu I’ve had before.  It was mostly the creamy, custardy stuff with the cake in the middle.  Yum.

—-

One of the many home cooked meals I have enjoyed, prepared by my host mother, Nada.  She has some mad kitchen skills!

—-

I LOVE FOOD.

Expect many more pictures of num-nums.

—-

Last Sunday I went for a walk around town-a very long walk!  I spent about three hours exploring the city.

—-

“Millenium Bridge”

—-

Beautiful water!  There hasn’t been a lot of sunshine here this week, but I bet in the sun light, the water is even more colorful.

—-

A quick snapshot of downtown Podgorica

—-

I found some of the local Universities.

—-

This is the school of law.  I think on the other side of the building is the school of economics.

—-

And for the last picture of the day…

Three of my new friends:

Maša, Milijana, and Marija

—-

Now that I have rested up this past week, I plan on having many adventures next week!  I also fixed a problem I was having with my camera, so there will be maaaany pictures.

I’m here!

Here are some pictures of my 19 hour trip to Montenegro.

————-

Just before taking off in DC; my last glimpse of the US for a while!

————-

Airplane food.  YESSS.  Actually, it wasn’t too bad.  The coconut cheesecake was yum.

————-

Oh, hello, Vienna!  How nice to see you.

——-

Coffee from the airport in Vienna.  Yes, Please.  Delicious!

————-

Mountains…in Montenegro

————-

About to land in Podgorica!

————-

Today was my first full day here!  I’ll have more pictures later!