La Música de Mis Venas

While I am not a cultured person in the least, I do enjoy a little mixture of Mozart, Bach or Tchaikovsky now and then. Plus, I have spent many hours of my life ticklin' the ivories thanks to my parent's urging and the competitive sibling rivalry of trying to be better than my almost perfect brother in at least one activity. I also attempted the flute for a while (I even went to band camp... it's where all the cool kids went), but after receiving a "C" in band in 7th grade (who gets a "C" in band?!), I decided to part ways with the wind instruments.

So, after arriving here in Oviedo, I started looking for tickets to see a classical music concert. With an already packed schedule due to my tendency to over-plan, the options were limited due to my few free weekends. However, I ended up deciding with Joanna and Lauren, two friends from my program, on a concert of violonchelo with pieces from Tchaikovsky and Schubert.

The adventure truly began the day before the concert. Unlike many of the ticket systems back home, I had to go to Cajastur, a popular local bank in the region of Asturias where one can print their tickets. However, after entering my debit card and selecting "Imprimir Entradas (print tickets)", I proceeded to watch the first, second, and third ticket all get stuck in the ticket box as the door would not open however hard I pushed/pulled/banged on it (I'm truly doing my best to re-assure the infamous perception of "dumb Americans").

So, as ticket #3 fell and the door to the box once again did not open, I decided to turn the woman at the ATM machine next to me and ask her if I was misunderstanding how to use the machine or if she knew of a number I could call. She tried to open the box to no avail and then turned to the other 4 women that were standing at ATM machines nearby, which caused me to be swarmed by 5 overly attentive Spanish women.  It is at this point that I would like to state how wonderfully helpful the Asturian people have been whenever I have asked for help in the form of directions, grammatical questions, or the case of the trapped concert tickets.

In the end, I had to call the 24-hour customer service line and spend 15 minutes explaining my situation and finding a remedy. The service agent informed me that she would forward my information to the ticket box and that I could enter with just my debit card and identification. The irony of this mishap is that after asking the name of the customer service agent to potentially reference later, I had to laugh as she told me "Esperanza"... or "Hope". God is sooooo humorous.

To get to the main point of the story, the concert was incredible! With the heart-stirring performance of the main cellist supported by a string orchestra, I was beyond thrilled and quickly forgot the trouble of the previous day. I have attached pictures as well as a short clip from "Andante Cantabile" by Tchaikovsky for your viewing pleasure.

Also, the second video is from a free concert I was invited to by my friend Lauren's host mom who is an accordion aficionado. The short clip is from one selection of "Filomenillas", a collection of short duets for violin and accordion composed with a child-like quality. Please enjoy!