Man, oh man!

Well, I am happy to report that I did well on my music exam, which involved playing a couple of songs on the recorder and also reading a couple of passages of music. This is where you have to read the names of the notes with the correct rhythm and stress, drumming out the beat on the table. This apparently is a big thing here-- it's called "solfeo" (because the note "G" is called "sol") and it's taught in schools or in special music academies (in which it is usually part of voice training or learning to play an instrument.) I started playing the viola in fourth grade, and I had regular music classes all through grade school, but I don't remember having to do that. Anyway, I am very happy to have this exam over with, because I grossly underestimated the time and effort it would take for me to learn to do it. The music wasn't difficult at all-- it only involved half notes, quarter notes, eighth and sixteenth notes, and only the musical notes of Do (the lowest one), Mi, Sol, and the next Do up, four in total. I glanced at it at the beginning of the summer and thought, "Oh, that's easy," and figured I could safely leave it until later. Well, once I really got going on it, it became evident that my brain was not cooperating, and coordinating the rhythm, stress, and names of the notes was asking just a bit too much. With a lot of diligence and practice, it finally came together, but yikes, that was a bit of a shock.

But the title of this post refers to something else. When I first came here as a study abroad student in 1992, I was amused by the Spanish interjection, "¡Hombre!" It's used for any number of things-- for emphasis, to show surprise or annoyance or to introduce a sentence (I'll leave it at that, since the possibilities are numerous, and although I'm geeky enough to think it might be interesting to catalogue the most common uses of this expression, I'll spare us all.) While it is very common, it's not something Santi says very often, so I was especially amused to hear it coming out of Elias's mouth on a regular basis this summer. He is great at picking stuff like that up (unfortunately) and has been using it in all the right situations, with perfect intonation. The culprit (um, model) is my mother-in-law, who he has been spending a lot of time with this summer. But, it doesn't take him long-- after a quick visit from my brother-in-law, Elías started saying "Voy a mear!" (an expression we don't use, that means to urinate) and thinking himself quite clever. That didn't last (the expression, that is-- he still thinks he's quite clever. And he is.) But it appears that "¡Hombre!" is here to stay.

And in Pedro news, he has a loose tooth! Finally! (That last bit reflects his feelings on the subject, not mine, as to him a loose tooth means a visit from El Ratoncito Pérez and a coin-- or, he hopes, a toy-- under his pillow, while for me it means that my baby is growing up-- sob!)

And back to my news (this is my blog after all), Thursday I have my Phys Ed exam and then I will be done until October. Luckily for me (very luckily) it is theoretical, rather than practical...