Say Cheese

I finally went in to get my "resumé" photos taken. In Germany you have to attach a professional picture of yourself to your resumé when you are applying for a job, even for orchestral jobs. I find this strange because then the employer can make judgements based on your appearance before you are judged based on your abilities. In America a lot of orchestral auditions are even done behind a curtain, at least until the last round, to make an initial absolutely non-biased opinion of the musician. But this is Germany, so even though I don't like the idea, I have to succomb to the policy if I ever have a chance of them taking my application seriously.

So as I'm in the process of sending in my resumé to any orchestral internships and jobs I see available, it was time to get the photos taken. I went to a little instant photo store where they take your pic, including passport or resumé/professional photos, and print them out in minutes. I wanted the pictures to be taken with my oboe, which the photographer assured me would bring luck... we'll see, but they did turn out well.

The whole process took about 20 minutes and as the photographer was cutting apart the printed shots, she surprised me by asking me if I'd be interested in posing with my oboe for pictures to use as advertisements. She said they don't get people very often who bring their instruments so this would be a chance for the store to make some shots of me with my oboe to show how it would look to have an instrument in the picture. She said they'd take several different shots with different clothes, sizes, black and white photos, etc. and I'd be able to keep the copies for free. So I heartily agreed! She already called last night to schedule an appt., but I was playing at our studio recital.

The recital went pretty well. I was annoyed by my lack of concentration at the beginning of my solo. I was kind of thrown off by the amount of other oboe players there, also from the other studio, so even though I didn't feel that nervous, I just kind of felt like it wasn't me playing. I had to tell myself to kick it in gear for the next 2 movements. I felt like it was a little wobbly in the first movement but the last 2 were solid. I don't know, though; Ulas recorded it on mini disk so I need to listen to it to make the final judgement. After the recital the studio went to a pizzeria around the corner from the music school with the money we earned from playing in the nursing home before Christmas.

Tomorrow we have our music school choir concert. I took choir because it's required for one semester of the degree. I'm not sure if that also applies to me; it might just be for students in the first half of their degree, but I took it just to be sure. Besides, I wanted to take some classes just to have a little more substance in my schedule. I usually get more done with more to do and more structure. But it's been fun to sing again, not having sung since high school choir, and though I'm not saying I sound good, it's been fun and also a chance to meet some new people.

I also got a new English student, a older German woman. She called me from a recommendation from Diana, my infrequent, go-go dancing Russian English student, who has recently gotten a new job (not as a go-go dancer as planned, thank goodness), and hasn't gotten paid yet, so hasn't been able to have lessons. Anyway, Beate, the new student, came over last Friday. Sporting a 'do of half blond, half black short hair and long painted nails, this 50-something "trend-setter" explained she was the stylist and nail-doer for Diana, which made sense. She said she wanted to learn better English to get by better on their annual trips to the good ol' US of A. Apparently she and her husband are big Vegas fans but also try to hit other traditional tourist spots along the way. She also hasn't told her husband she is going to take English lessons in order to surprise him with her (hopefully) drastically improved English skills the next time they have to speak English and to make him jealous. I don't ask; I just do my job!

I never know what to expect with the level of English of the different students, but I found out after her "deer-in-the-headlights-look" with the first couple of questions I posed that she really was at a beginner level. So instead of asking and translating my questions the whole time, I decided to start from scratch with prepositions and the conjugation of 'to be' and 'to have'. With all the others it's really conversation (in the case of the kids, playing in English) so this is fun, too, because of the challenge of really teaching someone the language. We'll see how far I can go before having to look up grammer rules as a refresher!