Me and Vlad Tepes statue

Carpathian Mountain village

WELL!!! Once again, it's been a year since I wrote! HA! It's like that organ piece by John Cage "As Long As It Takes" or whatever the title is. He began with a REST which lasted something like 40 years (I think) and then they filmed a subtle chord change which a handful of Cage worshippers witnessed in person. I think it's somewhere in Germany. Anyway, I just returned from a fantastic trip to Bulgaria and Romania. I've been to Bulgaria 6 times before to participated in the same workshop, but this gtime, I took some students and decided to simply sing and learn from those around me. It was GREAT!

Haystacks

Yummy vegetable soup!

The very first time I went, there was this depressive event in my life and Bulgaria just magically transformed me into a non-depressed person! It was a choral workshop. I like the country so much that I created a small proposal to teach a class on American music and Amer. Music Education there after the next year's workshop. It was so much fun! The course lasted a week. The third year, I went again and taught a smaller course afterwards. That year and the fourth and fifth years, I did both the choral and the orchestral workshops, one following the other. I learned so much. The 6th year, I just went to visit for a few days and then went to Northern Scotland where I rented a car for a whole week and drove across the Cairgnorms on single track roads and ate whisky pecan pie and angus beef. It snowed on the way to the Isle of Skye and I thiknk I drove through one of the towns where some of my McPherson ancestors used to be. THis year, I met some awesome new friends from Australia and Brazil and also got to see four of my American conductor friends there. I think I fell in love again, damn it for those romantic people who are also hot and extremely ingtelligent! Grrrr on them! Alas, here are some pictures from that trip. I'm glad to be back, but in some ways, the Transylvanian region of Romania and the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria have claimed some of my heart and soul. I also feel like I could just stay there forever, but I know I really couldn't!

So, I'm not posting any people here, but you can check my website to see MANY more pictures and figure out who my awesome new friends are! : )

Well, Friday evening's here and I'm watching Law & Order. I actually haven't watched it in a while so it feels ok. I can't believe I haven't seen this episode! I was just checking out Fourmilab's Earthviewer and noticing that you CAN really see big cracks in the ice covering the planet. One view of it that I zoomed in upon even looked like the cracked (sort of fuzzy, cracked) view of Europa they alays show you on NASA. I assume (as they all do) that is really is water frozen over there and it's cool to see how our planet's ice also fractures and makes patterns. Too bad we're losing large chunks of it almost daily. Wish we could fix that easily. Better buy my house in northern Canada if I want to have grass instead of sand for a backyard when I'm old!

I also wish that drivers would not drop trash out of their car windows. Since I've moved to New Orleans, I've been noticing this regularly and from all kinds of people: students, Mommies with their carpools, construction workers, businessmen, prissy girls, and people walking along the road. I can't stand it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I'm following someone who does this I honk madly at them and even once, rolled down my window and shouted that they shouldn't do that, but what I REALLY want to do is jump out of my car, run over to them and throw it back at them through their open window. I'm not just talking about cigarrette trash....and I personally DO consider butts to be trash! I used to see this in Macon, GA and came to think of that city as a dirty place with disrespectful citizens. Once, in Macon, at a CONCERT in the civic auditorium, I saw a mother walking with two children and her husband out of the building, presumably to pick up her other child who was just finished singing. That in itself was annoying because it wasn't fair to the rest of the kids who were left to perform. Anyway, she was walking past a trash can and then four feet later, DROPPED her fast food cup on the floor without even stopping or slightly pausing. I would assume that any normal person would either put the trash into the trash can OR hold onto it until they come across one. I've even taken trash home in the car or left it inside the car until I find a place for it. I used to think that perhaps it was a sign of poor upbringing or stupidity, but honestly, here in New Orleans, I have witnessed SO many people dropping trash out of their cars that I can no longer blame it on education, class of society, or full trash cans! It is sooooooo aggravating. For me, THIS is my kind of road rage and my blood just boils. I hope to one day find a proper way to scream at these idiots, GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

I guess I'll end on a lighter note : )

I found an awesome apartment IN the French Quarter so I can't wait to move out of this hellish place. There's this one nutcase in my current complex who I had to call the dept of children's services on because she can't handle it when her baby cries. Talk about Law & Order episodes......this was exactly like a few of them that I've seen. I've had to call the police on two other sets of neighbors, Grrr. My happy ending is that I am moving to a highly beautiful and very quiet place with a gorgeous courtyard and in the Quarter! Hurrah!

Here's another picture and if you don't know this particular flower, it's an awesome one to see and smell : ) It's called the Night-blooming Cereus. The leaves remind me of cactus stems, but the flower comes off of the end of the leaf instead of being on a separate stem. Here is a pic that I took.......

No, it's not blooming, you'll have to wait until it gets dark, DUH......Night-blooming : )
Here are a few websites to read about it if anyone wants:

This particular varity is called the Epiphyllum oxypetalum ....I think.

1. http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/2443/

2. http://rfovell.bol.ucla.edu/cereus.html

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_the_Night

So, the coolness of this new apartment will hopefully cancel out the crappiness of the old one. I move in July, but not sure when, depends on money....as does everything, for so many people in today's world!

Before I sign off, I just had to post a picture of my dear cat I mentioned below! AWWWWW! SO CUTE!!!! : )

Well the concert was GREAT!! I really can't believe a whole academic year has passed down here! I'm loving living here even though I'm still lonely as hell (waaannnh!) I will be in New Orleans next year and will wait and see what happens with the national search next fall. I think I'd probably like to stay put and explore the potential that UNO has. I musy say though that it kind of sucks to have obtained three degrees in my field and be making the salary I make! I guess at least I AM making a salary that I (think) I can live off of......BUT it's waaaaaaay less than some people make right out of college - GRRRRRR. I LOVE what I do, but it's shame that I have to rely solely upon that. Teaching at the university level pays much less than in the public school systems - I'll bet plenty of people don't know that! Maybe they do....regardless...it's a crying shame it's this way. After all, teachers pave the way for the non-teachers to be able to do whatever it is they do well (we HOPE they do it well)! Here's a picture from the concert last Tuesday! It was a nice ending to a year where the students worked very hard to accomplish some excellent musical offerings! I am so proud of them! They didn't believe in themselves at first, but when they went through the Moses Hogan concert on March 13 (we combined with Loyola, Dillard, and Xavier) they got a chance to measure up and also hear themselves (combined and as an indiv. choir)! Well, I"ve done my laundry finally so that's it for today - I dislike this apt complex greatly....there are so many inconsiderate tenants living here. Hopefully, I can find a cool apt, something like a half-house / duplex somewhere in New Orleans. My good friends live in the Marigny, but so far, I haven't found anything there that I can afford or that takes pets! I don't know what I'd do without my little Sasha!

concert tuesday night!!

Now it's 2007 andI'm in New Orleans! What a wondrously weird 5 years in between posts! I'm working at UNO now and liking it. I'm home sick today and actually should go back to sleep. My heard hurts so much I feel like it's about to explode. I HATE colds!

By the way, for anyone who really cares.... the times of my posts are always wrong and I can't figure out how to make them right, it' 6:03 right now, maybe I'll ask Patrick when I hear from him...

I just had a pretty cool choir practice. I like them so much here. That choir is one of the main reasons I'm thinking of staying in this area (milledgeville, a tiny town). They not only did everything I asked them to do this evening, but they did it well. They also had questions for me and sometimes they'll have suggestions. This is good, it means they're still free-thinking, after all, I'm not always right! We're doing a contemporary piece called "As the Deer" ( it's one of the better contemporary ones ), "A Prayer of King Henry VI" by Henry G. Ley (English school), an arrangement of "Amazing Grace" by Jackson Berkey, "Set Me as a Seal" by Rene Clausen, a Cameroon Processional (published by Earthsongs), an Anglican chant in four parts (in the Presbyterian church!), and tons of other things. I'm trying to give them a HUGE variety. I don't feel anyone would complain if I didn't, I think variety teaches them more chorally and textually as well as stylistically. I also think it's less boring. The "Set Me as a Seal" piece is soooooooo beautiful, I'd like to have it sung at my wedding one day!
I'm tired...I actually think I'll watch a bit of the TV. I rarely watch anymore, just things like Datelines and ER....hey that comes on in 10 min. I'm in luck....wheeee. Maybe I'll NOT watch TV now though and read instead and then watch Star Trek later....hhmmmm..... Tomorrow I think I'll work more on my paper....... Goodnight networld........zzzzzzzz

Hello world, this posting contains a link to view my pictures frlom my Bulgaria / Greece trip!
Here it is, http://www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b3013bfac4e1

Caroline