I went to bed around midnight because first I was waiting that the boy and his friend finished eating and then the boy was doing the dishes. At least he did the dishes.
As usual everything took longer than expected, so his ramen meal was only ready around 10 pm. I had to politely decline the offer to eat some because I had already eaten dinner three house before and also the soup was pretty spicy and I still can’t do spicy food especially not right before going to bed.
So I was pretty tired all day but fueled by new month energy I did my complete morning routine.
My husband and I talked at length over breakfast, about teaching and students and other things. Very nice. I tried doing the breakfast dishes but was overruled and walked to the health food store instead. When I came back my husband was rather surprised. „But you just left!“ Yeah, and there wasn’t much on the list either.
Of course, right when I came back we figured out that we also would have needed carrots, garlic and oatmeal cookies.
I managed to wake the boy up in time beforehand because he was due to take a train to Munich to visit the strong beer festival. (Interestingly, when I go on the website and look for the English version there is an American flag there, not a British one.)
Of course it would have been too easy if they all met there, no, he had to take a train and the subway all the way through the city to the other side so they could all meet up at the institute for a group photo, then there was a break where he met with a friend for lunch and then they all went right into Munich proper for the festival.
I can’t tell you how it went because I haven’t seen him since he left the house.
So it was only my husband and I for lunch:
Right after I finished eating I got a slightly panicked text from the boy that he didn’t have his train ticket. He has one that auto-renews. But it’s the version for university students, so it does not auto-renew at the end of the semester. Duh. He asked if this was something he needed to do (and how) or I. Well, he could have done it. But he didn’t know his password. Guess who did know his password, the whole procedure and who whipped out her laptop to renew his ticket? Yep.
At least the process is much faster and painless than before, I could log him in, then connect the ticket with his university account and he had an email confirming renewal in his inbox within minutes. Phew.
Then it was time for me to start teaching. I had a rather frustrating conversation with a student who set out to prove to me that he actually doesn’t have time to practice at all. Mind you, we’re talking third-grader here. I mean, they do have a lot of things going on but, come on, we all know that’s not the real problem here.
Since I had a cancellation after that I decided to at least prove to myself that playing the piano is fun and played two pieces. One is the one I started learning a while ago, the one that I always gravitated towards when I play a bit, and then I saw some Burgmüller etudes standing right there, opened them up and tried the first piece.
I’ve been thinking about learning, frustration, desirable difficulty and such for a few days, and found myself actually practicing that one. You know, like noticing that that one measure is kind of weird and that you just stumbled on the same three notes every time you encountered them, and then taking those three notes and practicing only those? Repeatedly and with varying tempo and taking care with the fingering?
At one point I really need to teach my students how to do that but every time I try they look at me the same way I used to look at my piano teachers when they told me the same thing.
Then I went and worked on the WordPress theme course for half an hour. Speaking of frustration. I think if the course creator did a little less „click here, then click there“ and explained the concepts instead that would make a huge difference. But I will prevail.
One other student didn’t come at all without notice which I really dislike because then I’m waiting all the time and can’t really use the time for anything else. I did finish reading a story in my Mandarin reader, though, somehow that new month energy meant I turned back to that (pretty boring) HSK 2 reader. I’m struggling there as well because there is a ton of words that I should know, have read and heard a lot and every time I see them I have no idea what they mean or how they sound. Ack! Even when I just committed that word to memory a few hours ago.
After work I needed to refill the water in my piano’s humidifier, then my husband asked me to help him re-assemble the high hat stand in the basement which involved bending a bent metal rod back to a semblance of straightness with non-standard tools, and only an hour later I could finally eat dinner.
And then I fell into a huge evening slump. I sat in front of my laptop, half waiting for the boy and half determined to write a list for today and start this blog post. It took my almost an hour to realize that I just didn’t have the energy anymore and that I should really give up on watching anything and knitting.
Then my husband came and asked if I heard anything from the boy because he was worried.
No, I hadn’t. He is a 22-yo out with friends, probably drunk. But then I was startled awake and starting to worry too. So I texted him if everything was alright, and yes, it was, he said they were on their way to McDonald’s and that he would return home after.
I finally went to bed, about an hour late, and only saw the boy must have done the same at one point because the plate we set out for him at lunchtime was gone.
And yes, today will be pretty busy as well. It’s 10.15, I haven’t yet done my morning routine, I also forgot to pick up the two pounds of tea I ordered a week ago, and want to go for a walk/run.
On the other hand, there are still four hours left before teaching…
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