people from earth

Today we were welcomed to the orchestra and introduced to the faculty members who will teach us during our residency. One of the Brazilian teachers talked about how we are all people on Earth, and we don´t meet enough. I kind of liked that.

It is true that there are people from all over the world here. The cello teacher is from Finland. There are people from all over the Americas, and a new friend of mine is a Slovak girl studying in Montreal. In one conversation, you hear Portuguese, Spanish, French, and English. It´s been fun trying to remember my high school French along with the new languages I´ve been studying just for this tour.

It is absolutely beautiful here. I cannot stress that enough. But it gives me a strange feeling to be in a very expensive resort (which I dont think anyone on this tour could afford in real life) that is surrounded by very poor people. The disparity in wealth here is very obvious.

I audition for seating this afternoon, and then we begin rehearsals tomorrow. That gives us most of today to fool around, swim, and lie on the beach!