Jukebox Taxi

Taxi rides are a part of my daily life here in Amman. I mostly enjoy them. And I mostly get made fun of for my "shway shway Arabi"- or if my driver happens to speak English particularly well, am asked if I'm married (YES! ABSOLUTELY!) and how old my children are (when they ask, I have two - Sarah and Marcus). But tonight when Joe, Maryellen, and I piled into a taxi, the driver was singing to himself. It even took me a while to realize that he wasn't actually listening to the radio he was singing so loudly. And every time Joe would give him a direction, he would pause for a second, repeat the direction in a questioning tone, and not even wait for confirmation before continuing to sing. He had a nice voice, too!

This morning I had my first group lesson with the "SOS" students. These students are orphaned children anywhere from ages 6 to 14 who are interested in music and want to learn a wind instrument. I have four students. Only two of them had instruments to use today - and only one of them speaks English. This (in complete sincerity) made for a really amazing hour. One of my girls is an advanced beginner, and her English is really quite good. She helped me show the other students the names of the notes and their fingerings, how to hold the instrument, etc. And I had to laugh, because under pressure, even the Arabic that I am completely comfortable with goes out the window. After asking each of them "Shoo is mik?" I said "Ana min Aimee" instead of "Ana Aimee" - "I'm from Aimee", not "I'm Aimee" And especially since Rand's English is so terrific, I really felt like a moron. She didn't really seem to mind, though.

In other flute related news, Maryellen and I had a private sectional tonight - and it was so wonderful to just play duets! I feel like we got more accomplished tonight - and are now more motivated to practice - than we've achieved in any of our large-group sectionals so far. I'm just wishing that I purchased more flute duets in college! (And am missing Cora something awful).

I am very Ithaca-sick these past few days. If you're there, please deeply breathe the Autumn air for me. And look at the leaves. :)