Violinist.com Blog

Link to my violinist blog:
http://www.violinist.com/blog/Michelita

After Nicaragua, back to D'Olancho!

I'm back in Juticalpa, Honduras. To celebrate this relaxing day and return home, I cooked up some frijoles rojos with a bunch of D'Olancho and also prepared an ensalada with lechuga, tomates, vinagre, sal, pimiento, and aceite de oliva. I also bought some decent tortillas de maiz. I still need to find a person to buy good corn tortillas from!

La Michele, Lindsay Michel, Cristobel, Elaine, Sariel, Kenny, Abuela Consuelo, y Freddy.

For the last days of 2011 and the first of 2012, I was in Nicaragua. I had a blast. It was my primera navidad outside of the United States. . . and not with my immediate family. I celebrated with my Nica family: Abuela Consuelo, Aquiles, Zadyr, My Tio Ricardo from Florida, and finally from my dad's family Tio Carlos O. and Tia Jenny O. with their hijas and nieto.  That's not it, though. Zadyr has a wonderful girlfriend Sandi Bel. Among the two, they have 5 wonderful children. And even more, the maid of my Abuela, Maria celebrated with us too. She has the cutest little boy ever, Freddy. I am in love with him! So is everybody else. He's such a wonderful baby.

Maria y Freddy

 Relleno, Pollo, and Ensalada

These pictures are only some of the comida I ate.  I ate tons of gallo pinto, sopa, mariscos (pescado) y relleno. Aquiles and Zadyr took me to Mercado Oriental to buy some soup one day, another day, they made me sopa de pescado. What else? I ate some yummy salads in Montelimar, San Juan del Sur, and Managua. And, delicioso pollo in Catarina. I also rode this lovely caballo in Catarina. The path overlooks Laguna de Apoyo. I like this picture because it gives me some ideas for my new novela that will entertain my mind while I've nothing else to do. When I'm not watching Teresa, I suppose!

In San Juan del Sur, my family and I ate, and then I stayed after they left. I really just needed to relax, and this was a perfect opportunity. This beach is beautiful, and of course full of tourists. I didn't really talk to anyone because I was just soaking in the beauty and wrote a lot, went to bed, and went back to Managua dark and early on the bus.

 

Izquierda: Michelita, Aquiles, y Sandi Bel. 

I don't know if you can see, but Aquiles and I are joined at the hip. At least, we were for this trip. It was really nice to get a tour from Viajes Aquilitos, como siempre.  

Derecha: Zadyr and Sandi Bel. They're really cute, and Sandi is such a warm being. I'm also really happy that she loves to bailar! I love dancing!

I had such an amazing time. No tengo suficiente palabras to describe how much I love going to Nicaragua to spend time with my family and get to know my country. There is so much more that I did and have done, and I'm happy to share it! I can't wait to go again!

Art Lesson Plan Website

http://pinterest.com/

Calimax Store Pictures

Calimax

"D'Olancho" the chile salsa salsa picante "D'Olancho"

el heladothe ice cream

 the tomatoes

los tomates

the bananas and onionslos bananos y cebollas

 el queque
the cake

 El pájaro

The bird

Muffin!¡Moffin!

Miercoles 7 diciembre

Programa a desarrollar: 07 de diciembre de 2011 - 7:00 pm

1. Olancho relatos Regionales (Autor: Dario Euceda Roque)

2. Historia de Manto 

3. Mosaico Literario

Maestra de seremonia: Profa. María Luisa Mendoza Aguiluz

At La Casa de la Cultura, I was able to perform for my very first time in Honduras!  I'm proud to say that I've performed in Central America before.  I played in a concert featuring cover songs of the Beatles in 2007. 

Anyway, I had fun playing.  I was a little shy during the days before the event. Sometimes I just don't want people to hear me!  But, then again, that's why I play music.  After all, if a tree falls down in a forest, and no one is there to hear it, then does it make a sound?

I got over it when I practiced playing for my music classes at school. Playing for students always makes music so fulfilling.

I was planning on playing the Honduran National Anthem which is called Tu bandera, Mozart Violin Sonata in B flat Major, and Bach's Partita 3 Gavotte and Rondeau.  I managed to leave the Mozart at school and was asked to play an extra piece.  I played Bach's Air on the G and La Cinquantaine by Gabriel-Marie in between introductions and during topic transitions. 

I had so much fun playing! I loved every moment and was excited to see the crowd it drew.  Teachers that I worked with came, some of my students came, and a variety of others went to the event.  I didn't know many of them, but they seemed to enjoy the event.  Some people said that they had never heard their own national anthem on the violin.  I really liked having so many varying supporters. 

The next day, I had two students turn in extra credit reports for this event. I enjoyed reading what they said because not only did they say how much they loved my playing, but they also said that the books made them be proud to be Olanchanos and basically that they want to remember what their roots are. I was pretty impressed with their connection with the book. They actually paid attention! One girl kept her program.  I told them that I was going to keep their extra credit papers forever. And they received 50 points for writing it.  

I really enjoyed my time with the locals that I met through this time, and I am looking forward to working with La Casa de la Cultura for another recital and the Day-Star School art show.  I'm pleased to know that there are some cultural events going on, and a place that these ideas can come to fruition.

friday. . . calimax . . . what to do what to do

it's friday night in juticalpa.

i'm not going to work (as in enter grades or lesson plan up until january).


i don't even know if i'm going to party.
maybe. but maybe not.

what i might do, however, is take a walk to the local calimax. it's a little store owned by nice people.

things i might buy:
1. a brush to clean the pila
2. toilet paper
3. a tomato
4. already bought beans and tortillas, so can't buy that
5. if  i had a sweet tooth i'd buy ice cream. i'm not that ambitious to do that tonight either.
maybe i could buy matches. or paper towels.

or  just hang out and watch a bit of a novela. the end.

Peter and the Wolf

Peter and the Wolf is an orchestral suite by Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953).  Prokofiev was a pianist and a composer -- he wrote an opera and wrote pieces for the piano before the age of nine.  He was from Ukraine and he traveled to Europe and the United States. In 1936, he wrote Peter and the Wolf for a children's theater in the Soviet Union.

It's a story about a boy who lives with his grandfather.  The boy, Peter, is represented by the string section of the orchestr (notice the melody of the piece).  The grandfather is represented bythe bassoon . The flutes represent the bird, while the duck is depicted by the oboe.  Prokofiev wrote the clarinet to represent the cat and the wolf by the horn section.  Finally, the hunters are represented by the kettle drums.  Peter is told by his grandfather to not go out and look for the wolf, and so of course, Peter goes out and tries to capture the wolf While he tries, his friends the bird and the duck aren't so lucky in the situation because they seem to make a good dinner for the wolf.  However, in this interpretation of the story, there is a happy ending and Peter is a hero and the duck survives.  

Peter and the Wolf Part 1

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Peter and the Wolf Part 2
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Some information was gathered from http://www.philtulga.com/Peter.html.