Violin Lessons

This past week was the first week I felt completely overwhelmed and under China’s control! The rumbling of the city, the many people hustling to cross the road, the lack of knowledge of Chinese symbols, and to top it off, feeling HOMESICK! Even though I have lived on my own for a while now, something about acknowledging I was in China and how far I was from home was frightening. However, despite feeling frightened, I realized that I was here, surviving and everything! I’m proud and happy to be able to survive in a city that can be overwhelming but also beautiful. China has so much beauty! Its parks have so much charisma to them, so much personality and natural energy.

This past week I decided to take violin lessons; I played the violin when I was younger (elementary school) and stopped playing as soon as middle school started. I walked passed a music shop, went in and started looking around the store at its instruments; pianos, violins and guitars, and more. I immediately remembered how much I enjoyed playing the violin and how rewarding it is to play a song and hear that I, myself, can also make a song come to life! Very cool.

After my day dreaming I walked back to the entrance to the register and asked about classes and prices and schedules with my little Mandarin knowledge, and the lady at the register pointed to the stairs. I laughed to myself because that is what my life is all about now … BODY LANGUAGE COMMUNICATION! It is as much fun as it is frustrating. When I made it to the upper level I started my body language and little Mandarin again with the other receptionist (laughing to myself again) and I could see I was actually getting somewhere!! By the way, the moment in which you realize that the person native to the language you are foreigner to understands what you want to express is one of the happiest and most exhilarating experiences! At first, they were very resistant  to offering me classes, mostly because, well, chances of me understanding my teacher were very low. I somehow managed to convince them, though, and they offered my a one-class-trial type of thing. I accepted only because they were going to lend me a violin, meaning I did not have to buy it for a single class only to later find out I was going to understand nothing of what my teacher would try to teach me.

Turns out, my first Chinese violin class went amazingly well! My teacher was a lot of fun and extremely optimistic. She offered more classes and now all I have to do is buy a violin. No big deal, right??

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