This and That

I did get out today on my day off with a group of five to West Lake and it was almost tolerable walking short distances under the shade of tree-lined walks. It did feel good to see the lake and some temples and hills in the distance. We strolled through five small, connected museums displaying stones, lacquer, Chinese scrolls and a Chinese artist painting in a Western style.  My unofficial guide was a soon-to-be Level III student of mine coming to California, like me, next week. Her English is minimal, my Mandarin non-existent, but she valiantly tried to explain much of what I was seeing, often using her native language of dance and song. It was lovely and yes, there are many roads to communication. At the same time, it is a bit wearing on the psyche to try to figure out the deep insights she was trying to communicate, followed by the usual sitting at a meal with everyone talking Mandarin and me out of the loop. 

 

Speaking of Mandarin, complimentary copies of my Teach Like It’s Music book now translated into Mandarin and published in China arrived and after a two to three-year negotiation, it was a grand pleasure to see the final product. A tasteful cover and a hardback edition and not counting a Russian translation of my Play, Sing and Dance book that I found out about wholly by accident some ten years back, this is the first of what could have— and should have—been, many translations that I discussed with eager students I’ve taught in Spain, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Iran that never quite got off the ground. I’d be pleased if some of them might now follow suit. 

 

Post-lunch, it was back to the hotel room, hand-wash three T-shirts, play hide-and-seek with my Surfshark VPN as we do every day to see if and when I can connect to e-mail and such (with me losing time after time),  sit outside the hotel in spiky grass in the shade while waiting to see how fast my shirts would dry in the sun and 100 degree heat. (Answer: Not as fast as I thought. Still damp after an hour.). Within an hour, it’s the next dinner out and return to room, a routine, truth be told, I’m tiring of. Tomorrow is the start of the three-day Jazz Course and I know that back in that big room with some 50 teachers, I’ll be back in the “zone.” But I am sorely missing the feeling of being wholly some place with its full character. Truth be told, I could have done all this work in a shopping mall in the Peninusula south of San Francisco and it wouldn’t have felt much different. Except for easier Internet.

 

Walking alongside the lake this morning, I remember a couple of inspired thoughts coming up the way they do when I’m out and walking in the world. But as you can see, none of them made it to this post! So I’ll leave it as a little bit of this and a little bit of that and close with a photo of the book covers. Hope your day is more inspired—and cooler— than mine!