My home is here now, in Urumqi, with Matthew, and what's more: I FEEL AT HOME.AH, what could be more beautiful than the sounds of fingers hitting ivory keys (well, plastic in this case), creating a warm feeling of joy and happiness and pure melodious bliss? Nothing. Matt and I have gotten ourselves a piano and I'm just super happy about it!! Originally i was thinking of just renting a room with a piano at the University so i could keep up my practicing. But we found out that we could actually rent one for a cheap price ($30 CDN/month). So off we went on Friday with a friend of ours, Diana (who is Matt's secretary and whom i've somewhat befriended), to look at some pianos. Quite bull-headed and fairly agressive in terms of mannerisms and just getting things done quickly, Diana is a modern Chinese Urumqi woman, and if you are in search of a contact person, phone number or piano (!), she's the woman to ask. Maybe this is the best way to describe her: upon seeing my engagement ring which Matt and I had custom-made in a Uyghur jewellery shop so beautifully with Xinjiang silver and part of the seashell Matt found and gave to me in Thailand, her one comment was "oh that is so economical." Haha. Bless her heart.
Anyways, back to the piano. So we took a look around, played on a few of them, tested them out (or "ooooott", i've been teased almost on a daily basis on my Canadian pronounciation for this sound.. I still don't hear it. I'm not even aware i do it until it leaves my mouth or it's blatantly pointed oooot to me).... right, piano. We pay the deposit that day and a few hours later, about five Chinese guys wheel our new baby into our flat. We have moved some stuff around the house, decorated a bit and incorporated the piano into our living room area - just gorgeous! We've been practicing quite intensively, and Matt's been dedicating a lot of his time to downloading sheet music (Fur Elise, Flight of the Bumblebee, Scarborough Fair, the Mission Impossible theme song, Greensleeves, and some basic beginner's blues music).
Oh, good story: so i had to work on Saturday, and when I came home, he told me he had been practicing Fur Elise all day and wanted to play it for me. Just as a side note, i'm extremely impressed at how quickly he learns and puts into practice the theory of music-learning and note-reading. I'm not even trying to be extra nice and complimenting because i'm marrying the boy, he really is like an adult prodigy! Oh, but of course we shouldn't disregard the spectacular abilities of his teacher...Ok, so anyway i'm there, sitting on the couch waiting to hear the results of his hard work. He's sitting at the piano, back to me, getting ready to blow my socks off. And all of a sudden, instead of Beethoven's Fur Elise, he starts to play "O Canada"! You can imagine my shock and utter disbelief! It was so unbelievably cute AND given the fact that he has only ever heard the Canadian national anthem on television during the Olympics, I was mucho impressed at the accuracy of it all (melody, speed, etc). Great moment in Matt's early piano career!
Oops, gotta run. OPI's (Oral Placement Interviews) summon.. work!!!
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