WHEEEEEEE! I love New York. Having never really lived in a city (especially on my own) I'm just blown away by this place - the people, the food, everything is just fantastic! My place is at 300 W 20th St - a newly built dorm with apartmnet-style suites and practice rooms downstairs. Sweeet!!

My apartment mates are awesome too. All 11 of them. Basically all of us have singles (tiny, with lofted beds), and then there's a common space that houses the kitchen, two fridges, and a bunch of tables and chairs. The other day, somebody found a tossed out carpet on the street, so we brought it in and rolled it out. The talk is that we're also gonna add a couch and TV.

These are the people that I'm living with:
Parker: Parker's the terrorist amongst us. He has this short full beard and piercing eyes and slightly darker-than-regular-caucasion skin color. He consistently gets pulled over and searched at airports too. He's here to study architecture.
Matt: Matt's from Wisconsin, and here to study political science. Cool guy, pretty laid back. He used to play the violin when he was younger, so he keeps telling me how much respect he has for musicians cause he knows how hard it is.
Steve: Steve's an aspiring writer from Dallas, Texas. And that's exactly what he looks like with those thick glasses. He is absolutely hilarious! And a real good person too.
David: David's from Seattle and pursuing a degree in decorative arts. He's the only gay person in this apartment. He doesn't talk as much, but is pretty fun to hang around with too. Plus, it's hilarious (to me at least) that everytime we get to the elevator/stairs area and somebody heads for the stairs, he says "Oh I'm a smoker" and heads for the elevator.
Jonas: Jonas is from Sweden. And I can't remember what he's studying . I believe he's here as an exchange student though. He doesn't seem to hang out with us that much though - he's got a Swedish buddy somewhere in the building too, so maybe that's wehre he hangs out most of the time.
Mark: Big guy from the Poconos. He's in the acting school, that's about all I know - he moved in and then disappeared on Monday again, going home and not to be back until next week.
Scott: Scott is from Michigan and also aspires to be a writer. Though, he's interested in fiction, while Steve is going into poetry. Or maybe it's the other way around.
Brian: Kind of a quiet guy. He plays SNES and Genesis roms on his computer :). He made quick friends the first day because his girlfriend baked cookies and brownies for everybody.
Josh: The other actor in our apartment. Like me he turned away from technology (he was pursuing a degree in computer engineering) to come to New York (he's from Maine). His main interest is stand-up comedy. That man definitely has talent.
Frank: He's from San Francisco and originally from Hawaii. He also doesn't hang around in the apartment much, I think he has some friends nearby or so. Frank's here to study filming I think.
Antonio: Originally Mexican, Antonio now lives I dont' know where. He's an aspiring playwright and though more the quiet type, he has a tendency to spurt out completely unrelated statements in the middle of a conversation when he's drunk, which makes him prety damn funny too.

That's them, my apartment mates for this coming year. It should be noted that during the first 4 days of my living here, I have consumed more alcohol than in the entire year before that. Sunday night we played poker all night long with some of our neighbors while drinking beer and shots of something I don't remember. I was a bit out of it on Monday during orientation :P. Oh, it feels good to have a life again.

Anyways, I had my orchestra auditions today too. It didn't really go that well, but then again, I basically only had the last three days to practice. And I'm kind of sick of the Lalo concerto, so I decided to play Dvorak, even though I haven't really played it since I performed it with the Swarthmore Orchestra a year and a half ago. Oh well, at least it's over.

I also finally saw Spiderman 2 the other day with Josh. You should see it, it's a great movie!!! What? You've already seen it three times? Oh.

Addendum: it's a bit later now, and I just got back from dinner/hanging out at a bar. Antonio, one of my apartment mates, apparently has a crush on one of our neighbors (a freshman, Korean, and actually pretty cute) and had dinner with her. Apparently, she already had some drinks before they got to dinner. Then, they each had two glasses of wine over the meal, followed by J.D. and coke afterwards in our apartment. So by the time we left the apartment they both were already in pretty bad shape. Bad shape, as in Antonio turns around to David, and asks him "You're gay right?". David: "Yeah, I thought it was pretty obvious." Says Antonio: "Oh. well, that's cool, I'm ok with that. Wait, are you ok with me being ok that you're gay?" Wow. Then, we get to the Trailer Park, which is this cheesy Southern themed bar, where Antonio (urged by his date) manages to order two $25 drinks (rum, fruit punch and other stuff in a hollowed out pineapple) instead of one. I tasted a bit, and I tell you, it was strong. So Antonio pretty much chugs that thing down on his own, while his date pretty much pretends to drink but doesn't really. So then the two drunken lovebirds decide to go home on their own, managing to almost get arrested on the way because Antonio takes a piss in front of a police station. A bit later, the rest of us get home, where we find them in our apartment. His date, with a "can you guys help me? Antonio, have fun...I don't know what to say", disappears into her own apartment next door and we get stuck with taking care of Antonio, who manages to fall into the bath tub, piss while lying in there, strip down naked and change clothes with his room door wide open, and tumble all over his room before finally presumably falling asleep (he closed the door and took the keycard with him, so we can't check). Phew. I wouldn't wanna be in his shoes tomorrow.

Darn all those stupid students who just have to download music all day. The school network has these periods where everything just gets sooo slow. As in, I type something, and it shows up like a second later. I messaged Mike the other tday that if I unplugged the cable from my computer and started sucking on that thing the data would probably come out faster.

Today, Steve, Parker and I ventured into lower Manhattan to scope out a second hand book/records store, where I bought a couple LPs, including one of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15 conducted by his son! On our way back from there we found a couch sitting on the street - a little bit stained, but otherwise in pretty good shape. Perfect for the apartmnet, we thought, picked it up and started walking. Now, this was slightly south of Washington Square, at Bleecker and Thompson St - that's probably a good 2 miles away from our dorm. The three of us carrying that thing through New York was awesome, just attracting attention from New Yorkers along the way and hearing their comments was totally worth the soreness we all had in our arms afterwards. And when it was time to take a break? Just put that sucker down, sit down and chill, baby! Parker took a couple pictures, if I get them I'll put them here. During one of our stops, this homeless guy walked up to us and was like "Yo, what you guys doing in my couch, get up! Get up!" And we were like "nooo, that's ours dude. We're taking that!" Then, somewhere along the way this guy with a digital video camera came up, put his camera on the couch while we were carrying it, and kept saying "Couch cam, that's the couch cam. Say hello to the couch cam!" Hi-larious. Of course, then we lug the couch all the way up to our dorm only to find that the security guard won't let us in. New School Law allows only new furniture in the building he says. Sanitary reasons, I assume, and it makes sense, but still a bummer. So the journey ended with us sitting outside in front of the building in the couch for a good half hour before saying good bye.

But wait - is that really the end? The current plan is to wait until the security guard's shift ends and try to get it in on one of the nicer guys' shift. Heheheheh. Follow-up: oh well, apparently the RA's, maintenance people, and that security dude made sure that all the other security guards won't let us in. Boooooo.

On another note, I found out my class schedule for the fall. I'm taking Graduate Counterpoint review, Cello class (a group cello class), orchestra, chamber music, lessons of course, and a string pedagogy class. Check this: I placed out of Graduate Theory review and Graduate dictation review! Though, my advisor told me that the review classes don't cover everything the undergraduate students go through during their four years here, so I asked her what level theory I would place into in their undergraduate program. Third year theory. And that after only two semesters of theory at Swarthmore! I'm going to try to get into that class this semester - it's a yearlong course, so if I don't start now I won't be able to take it until next year. And if that was the case, I wouldn't be able to take 4th year theory at all. And that would be unfortunate.

Phrase of the day: this homeless guy on the street we passed: "Can you spare a hundred dollars?"

Ugh, just got back from my first of many many many many weekends home this semester. I did a good amount of practicing, tought some of my students, and had triple concerto rehearsal. I tell you, the concert is going to be AWESOME. Yesterday was only our second rehearsal together, and it's already rocking!!

My mom finally got her cell phone. I set up her voicemail and taught her how to save contacts - since then she's been sitting nonstop with her phone in her hand and putting all her students' info into it. And she keeps saying "this is so much fun!!" Ah, mom. :)

And my turtles are getting huge. I filled up the aquarium about 4/5 full with water, and the biggest of the turtles can stretch from the bottom of the tank to the surface! That's just scary. Hans, are you sure that bottle of water treatment isn't a bottle of radioactive Ooze? One day my mom's gonna come home and find that turtle standing upright, swinging my brother's katana and making terrible pizza jokes.

In other news, the Austrian national soccer team tied England this weekend!!! You're probably saying "Austria? They have a national team?" which I can't blame you for, because they've sucked pretty much since the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland where they placed 3rd. But, yes, on Saturday they tied England after being down 0:2, against players like Beckham, Gerrard, and Owen!! Here's an animated gif of the second goal for Austria that a user on an austrian soccer forum made:

It was really a gift by the English goalie, but, really, so was the first goal England scored too. But according to all the media reports, the tie was definitely deserved, which makes me just oh-so-proud of the team!!

Yes, finally!! Classes started today - I've been itching to start. There is a girl in the class I had today who got her undergraduate degree in Taiwan. In fact, judging from the mailbox assignment list there seem to be quite a few Taiwanese/Chinese students at Mannes. I'm kind of curious to meet them so that I can talk Chinese!

I'm officially retiring my trusted old green "Walker" music bag. I've been using it for at least the last seven years, bought it in Austria and brought it over when I moved to the US. But alas, it's long due for retirement: there's a big gaping hole on the bottom on one side so that all my music is actually exposed there. So here's a picture for posterity:

Mike Cho (Swat '04) came to visit today; he's staying overnight. We met up in Chinatown, where we had an early dinner, and later met up with two of Mike's friends, Cindy and Joyce, who are now living in NY too. Full from our early (and big!) dinner, Mike and I basically spent the remainder of the day drinking liquid - my final tally is 3 bottles of beer and a whole lot of glasses of water (waiting for the ladies to finish their meal...). By the end of the day, Mike and I were hitting the bathrooms in 15 minute intervals, and I'm not exaggerating. Joyce and Cindy also sort of became the first two members of my NY fanbase. Sort of, because they were like "yeah, so we both want to come to your concerts!!" but then didn't tell me how I could reach them. I didn't ask for their contact information, because - call me paranoid, but - I just didn't wanna risk giving off the wrong impression.

Anyways, tomorrow I'm off duty - no classes - but hopefully I can chase down some of the profs for the classes that I want to add. It's odd: even after a whole year of having virtually no life, always hurrying from one commitment to another, I just can't help feeling the urge to add as many classes as I can, knowing that that's just going to lead to the same kind of exhausting life...I want to say it's because of the perfectionist in me that wants to make the best of my 2 years here, but somehow I feel like it lies deeper. At times I can feel this need surfacing in my mind that I have to prove myself worthy of having this life and having the talents that I've been blessed with. Maybe even though most of the time I'm not aware of this desire it's still subconsciously present and is the reason why I push myself so much. Or... maybe I just like showing the world that I'm a superior being. Muahahah. Muahahahah. >:)

Today...is a special someone's big day. I just wanted to say that :).

Austria's second game in the World Cup Qualification rounds, against Azerbaijan, was today. Guess what - they won!!! It's unbelievable, I'm just so used to Austria playing horribly against the so called "little" teams. But today, they just blew them out of the stadium. The final score was 2:0 but they had enough chances to score like 5 more goals. Even so, because of the result of the other games, Austria is now actually leading in their group. Go Austria!!

I got a haircut! And it's from somebody else than my mom! Actually, I don't know if I'm that excited about it, because the lady who cut my hair was russian and I dont' think she quite understood that I only wanted to trim my hair a little shorter but leave the general shape of it...I don't know yet if I like what she did. We'll see.

Yesterday was quite a day. I had string pedagogy seminar from 10:05 - 11:55, then Theory III (where the prof made us compose 3-part counterpoint in our head) from 12:05 - 12:55, then orchestra from 1:05 - 3:55, and finally counterpoint review from 4:05 - 5:25. Ugh. Thursdays are going to be hell. Afterwards though, I rushed to the Rockefeller Center at 50th street, where Josh and I had tickets for yesterday's taping of "Last Call with Carson Daly" on NBC. Interview guest was Marilyn Manson, music performance at the end by Mase! Those were kind of the high points of the show, the rest was kind of lame, which Marilyn Manson did not hesitate to express, to Carson Daly's great dismay. I think the show airs on Friday 9/17, at 1:30am (I guess technically that's Saturday). Interestingly, the interlude music was provided by Medeski, Martin & Wood, who performed at Swarthmore a couple yars ago.

My second weekend home. Friday: Stopped by my old working place, the [GRASP lab at UPenn]. I missed my former Computer Science prof [Bruce Maxwell's] talk at the lab. Chatted a bit with my colleagues there, then picked up a couple requests for things to fix...Next up, Triple Concerto rehearsal at Swat. Then home. Saturday: first day back at the Bryn Mawr Conservatory. Six of my students were willing to make the switch to Saturday for their lesson. Overall, good day of teaching. Got onto the 10:09 pm Septa leaving the hauntingly quiet 30th St Station, got back to NY around 1 in the morning. Approached by three tall, big guys smelling of alcohol in the subway station. One wants me to play something on the cello. I say no. He says, I pay you 10 cents. I say, hell no, fucker. Ok, maybe I didn't say that last word out loud. We chat instead, and I find out they're students at NYIT on Long Island. The guy who talked to me is Brazilian. "What about you?" he asks me. "Taiwanese." He likes it. His former roommate, Kuan, was also Taiwanese. No, I don't know him. I get home, and find most of my roomies drunk/stoned/a combination thereof. I open my door, and am immediately reminded that it's time to do laundry again. Had conversation with a stoned visitor about Mandolins and Blue Grass music, then cracked up over my roommate Antonio who, drunk & stoned, cracks up over anything. Then went to bed, read about the Nazi rule in Denmark during WWII and how it relates to a lock of [Beethoven's Hair] and fell asleep happy and inspired by the heroics of the citizens of small fishertown Gilleleje, Denmark.

I like my haircut more, now that it has had a chance to get messier.

I am exhausted! All the sudden, everything just went up to full blast: Chamber music rehearsals have started, I'm already getting tests for classes, and my solo workload is all set for this semester. Plus, last weekend was my first weekend doing my whole teaching routine, which I find pretty exhausting too.

My chamber music group thing is kinda funny. I have two groups, a piano trio, and a piano quartet, and in both groups, all of the other members are korean females. I like the groups though, we all seem to get along pretty well. I'm doing Brahms with both groups: Trio No.2 op. 87, and Quartet No.3 op.60. The third movement of the quartet starts with a gorgeous cello solo :P, littered with V7/IV chords (Brahms' signature harmonic device for expressing love). The rest of the quartet is in C minor, which represented death and murder to him. Yeah, it's not hard to guess at what was going through the poor, love-sick man's head at that time...In a letter to the eventual publisher of the piece, Brahms even told the publisher that he should put a picture of a head with a revolver in front of it as the cover.

I actually wrote a paper about the Trio couple years ago for a Brahms class taught by Tony Barone. It's interesting to be so familiar with the piece. You can find it [here].

The test I had yesterday was rough...composing 3-part 2nd species counterpoint in your head and then only writing it down to hand in to the prof. But, I survived. Plus, I find that having worked for a year and having been exposed to a world outside the classroom really changed my outlook on grades and all that.

All in all, I'm just so glad to have decided to come here. I feel like here, in the music world, is where I belong...I scanned a bit through some documents of mine that are still floating around on my computer and found a collection of music related quotes I had collected a while ago. My favorite one: "Music isn't just learning notes and playing them, you learn notes to play to the music of your soul." (Katie Greenwood)

By the way, we got another nice couch from the streets, this time, one of my apartment mates told the RA and security guard that it was from home...they didn't quite seem to believe it, but they let us in for now; Monday, the RA's supervisor is coming to take a look at it and make final judgement...

Funny how small the world is. Yesterday, because of the downpour that the hurricane brought upon NY, I was hanging out in the subway station on 23rd st waiting for the rain to slow a bit (bad day to forget to bring the umbrella) when all the sudden I hear two people next to me speaking German. And not just any German (which in a city where even a waitress at a cafe a block down is from Germany I've come to seize to be surprised about), but German filled with the characteristic slang-like words and contractions that only a Viennese would use! I was so excited I just had to start a conversation with them...to my delight, my German is still in pretty good shape. We talked about things like what they were doing here, what I was doing here, what Austrians in general think about the US, about how one of them knew this cellist from Chicago who flew to Vienna to have one lesson with a member of the Wiener Philharmoniker. Apparently, Viennese perceive American musicians to be schooled more like in a Russian way - heavy, powerful, bombastic kind of playing - while Viennese are more about delicacy, beauty and such things. I don't know what to think of that...it reminds me of what my brother did for research last year for his asian studies course, where a member of the Philharmonic expressed his feeling that you have to have "Viennese blood" to play music the "Viennese way" because it can't be taught - reason enough for the orchestra to not hire any Asian players until very recently (I think 2002?). Anyways, three blocks down from the subway station I parted from the other two Austrians. But not before finding out that they, too, were fans of the most awesomest soccer club in the world, [Rapid Vienna]!.

Also yesterday, in the middle of cello class (where all the cellists of mannes get together to play for each other, discuss issues, etc.) all the sudden the girl sitting next to me turned around to me and asked me "Are you Taiwanese??" totally out of the blue. I nodded, to which she said to me in chinese "because you don't look Taiwanese." "Really?" "Yeah. You know Han na [The violinist in my quartet]? She told me you were Taiwanese and I didn't believe her." Hm. Must be that "Austrian nose" that my brother keeps saying I have.

The [RA supervisor] person never (as far as I know) came by so I think we can make it official: We have a couch & TV & XBox setup in our apartment!!

I am enthralled by the first movement of Brahms' third piano quartet (op.60). My right index finger hates it - it's not easy to make pizzicato on the G and C strings audible with all three other instruments playing.