Jan 2
Jet-lag is a bitch!! I’m drinking cold Yerba mate tea, and one of the chocolates our Airbnb host left for us, trying to stay awake so I can sleep at the right time. I’m starting a new 100-days-of-practice challenge. Not feeling like I have any New Year’s resolutions per se, but the words of Shinichi Suzuki are really sticking with me: when you think of something, do it. Easier said than done, of course, but he writes about it so inspiringly, telling the story of how one day his sister, with whom he was living, came home and said: “There was a homeless man outside the market. I thought of inviting him to dinner sometime.” “You thought about it?” Suzuki asks her. Immediately, she realizes what he means, and they go back out together and invite the man in. I think the important thing with this is not just that intentions mean nothing without actions, but that also the more actions you put out into the world, the less personally you take it if they don’t all work out: the less invested you are in each individual effort, and the more perspective you have that more opportunity will arise. I hope this is true, anyway. To the viola!!!
Oh, and here’s me brushing my teeth at 2am last night.
Jan 1
I’d tried to keep the pictures on the “Journal” page and the words here, but I think I’ve maxed that page out! Anyway, new year, new continent. We landed this AM in Barcelona. I didn’t sleep on the plane, and neither did the boys, I think! But they were having fun together the whole time, so what can you do. I really should be writing lesson plans, since the goal is to start school tomorrow. But I feel like my eyes are spinning round in my face.
I watched Barbie on the flight- finally!!! How come nobody told me how good Simu Liu is in it??? He and Ryan Gosling have such chemistry, they should make a whole series of buddy pictures (or rom-coms!) together! So fun. Best quote, when Ken says: “To be honest, when I found out the patriarchy wasn’t about horses, I lost interest anyway.”
Since the other page isn’t taking pics, here is our travel to Tarragona, with the view from our window!
Dec 21
We fly out of Mexico tomorrow. I’m reading this page, and it sure is a lot of words, even though I felt pangs from time to time for not keeping it updated enough. It’s been almost four months! In that time, I led the music theory, music history, and half of the art classes for both boys, and Aryeh— who’s been my charge for math, English, science (for half of it; C did earth sciences with the boys until Mérida) and violin— has done… ok let’s do this by subject.
Math: multiples and factors, including lots of times-tables drilling; 3-digit addition and subtraction; area and perimeter; area model for multiplication; all sorts of stuff with fractions; and yesterday, as a bonus activity since we finished the Khan Academy fractions unit, we did a class on Roman Numerals, which he really enjoyed. This was the subject I feared the most heading out, so seeing this list is making me pretty damn proud!
English: he’s read a book of short stories by I.B. Singer, a giant manga about a cat we got in Mexico City (both of those books have been sent home already so I forget their titles), The Railway Children by E. Nesbit, and Trevor Noah’s “Born a Crime,” (the YA version), which he’s doing his 4th grade “Bottle Buddy” project on. Griffin was in 4th grade when vivid started, and was obsessed with Trevor Noah, so we got the book on the iPad and on Audible. So it’s funny to revisit now, a different situation where non-paper books are very helpful! Aryeh struggles with spelling and writing, and I’m a grammar nerd who represented her school in the Hudson County Spelling Bee in 7th grade, so that’s been fun for us 🤯😵💫 I picked up a couple of paper workbooks and have been poring over every nook and cranny of education.com for materials. His writing is amazing, and it’s so cool to get to see these little daily activities the teacher would see but not necessarily share with the parents. I read to the boys almost every night from Huck Finn. We’re almost done!
We only did Life Science in Mérida and it was about Mexican biomes and animals, which he really enjoyed, and the water, carbon and nitrogen cycles, which he did not.
For violin: when we got here, Aryeh had performed Minuet 1, from Suzuki, earlier in the summer, and barely practiced since then, totally stalling out on Minuet 2. His teacher, and my friend, Emily, had suggested taking a sideways path around and then back to Minuet 2, so on my iPad, I made a whole folder of music for him. Useful pages from the Essential Elements books the kids use in school orchestra, the first half of the Fairfield Fiddle Book, the first pages of Don Krishnaswami’s 2 octave scales & arpeggios (his book’s for sale on another page here! 😇), and a Samuel Applebaum book of first etudes (Beautiful Sound for Technique Building or something like that). Aryeh did all four fiddle songs- including Will the Circle Be Unbroken, a song I sang at Farm&Wilderness, so I always get teary when he plays it!! Plus he now plays a scale and arpeggio whenever he takes his violin out of the case!! And just the other day, we got to the end of Minuet 2. Finally!! I grew up a Suzuki kid, and I love the tunes so, so much. But it’s hard without the community element of a group class, all the other kids inspiring you, getting to hear the later songs played by kids, not by the perfect example on Spotify. I’m hoping we can make it to a Suzuki camp this summer.
One note about teaching my kid violin: last summer at Point Counterpoint, I asked my friend Tina Lee Hadari, whose two daughters are absolutely lovely, motivated and talented musicians, and who both started with her (the younger still studies with her, I believe), how she kept the difference between practice and lesson clear, since when Aryeh started, he took with me, and I was terrible at that. Tina said, “Oh, we don’t do lessons! I just practice with her every day!” That was life-changing.
Note: the boys also did Spanish, units on Mexican History, feminism (a great online course on intersectionality taught by Bettina Aptheker), and Mayan Studies with Christopher. I’m not writing about what Griffin has done because he worked with C during those periods when I was with Yeh. But Griffin is such a voracious, insightful reader, it’s been cool to see what he does when he’s limited to the books we brought for him and ourselves. I’m sure I’ll leave books out, but on this trip he’s read: The Autobiography of Malcolm X, two Murakami novels, Dubliners, the History of Mexico, and he’s deep in Don Quixote now. AND he asks to read my Joan Didion essays when he’s bored at night!
Dec 18
We’re in Tulum for our last few days in Mexico, and the contrast between “tourist” Mexico and “real” Mexico is shocking, especially for the boys. We walk everywhere, because there’s a “white people tax,” we call it anyway, on the taxis, and no Uber or InDrive (great app! Look it up when traveling). Of course, white ppl aren’t the only tourists, and I feel bad writing that. I guess I should call it a “gringo tax.” Which reminds me: Aryeh and I made new friends in Mérida, a super sweet-&-friendly boy his age and his mom, who also has a 2-year-old girl. And is traveling SOLO PARENTING! Absolute hero, and an amazing mom and super cool person. The boys played for 6 hours straight, and mom and I didn’t run out of things to talk about. She’s Black, and there was a moment when I referred to us as Gringas, and immediately wondered if that made her feel weird. That word isn’t just for white people, right???
I couldn’t practice with my left hand for a couple of days, since I hurt my thumb leaning on it the wrong way while watching Yellowjackets— which, by the way, is on Netflix OUTSIDE THE U.S. so we are trying to finish it before we fly back on Friday. So good. Anyway, I posted about it on the ol’ Bookface, and got so many great recs of ways to practice just open strings, I’m almost sad I can play with my left hand again. Almost! I found an arrangement of a Mozart violin sonata for viola on IMSLP, and am having a blast learning it. Why am I putting this in a travel blog? I guess, now that all the work for the Mérida residency is done, I have to find other ways to inspire myself to keep the practice streak up. And I gave the boys a lesson on Mozart in our Music History class the other day, and just about died at how beautiful his melodies are. The GOAT.
Dec 9
I posted this yesterday on my socials (when we started this trip, I thought I’d be writing way more here, but the bad internet at our last place made it much easier to just throw something up in a Facebook post instead! Trying to get into the habit of keeping this updated so I have one place to look back on our record of this year!!):
Say hello to our “Mayan Menorahs”— not anything particularly Mayan about them, except that we’ve been learning about traditional Mayan weaving, and how the patterns and colors have significance and meaning. And the boys made the connection that the Hanukkah story was happening right around the same time as the Classical period of Mayan history. So cool! And both civilizations exist to this day and are proud of their traditions. Even cooler!
Since we didn’t think to pack a menorah for this trip, we’ll be coloring in a light every night here.
Added some brilliant words by Liora RH.
May the whole world be allowed peace and light and safety and justice. And great tunes! (Just discovered an AMAZING playlist of Sephardic tunes for Hanukkah 🤘)
🕊️
Dec 4
I’m in a cab on my way to the recording studio, where I’ll record, god willing, the Songs and Poems. I don’t know the engineer, I don’t know the studio. But I’m in such a beautiful city, on such a beautiful day, it’s hard to have any serious anxiety about it. But it is a huge undertaking so I have been super conscious of how I got my day started, mental and physical prep, packing, etc. We’ve extended our stay here in Mérida by a few days instead of the trip to Belize we’d planned. The boys love it here! It’s funny to me; we spent a few days an hour north, at Sisal, a small beach town on the Gulf. To me it was absolute heaven. The Airbnb was perfect, it opened up right onto the beach. The seabirds were unreal. Just a magical place. But on our second night, the boys were like, “when are we going back to Mérida?!” So, since we’ll be doing a lot of shorter stays and country-hopping in Europe, our next leg, we thought “let’s save some $ for that, chill here.” Plus since I’ve had this crazy residency, I haven’t had as much time to just explore the surroundings, so I’m looking forward to more of that. And the extra time means I can give the violists I’ve met and connected with at the UNAY a Bach class next week. When I wrote to them asking if they’d like one (one of them had asked me if I could hear his Bach, and I’d heard a few of them fiddling through different Bachs, so I thought, let’s do a class), they immediately responded with dancing cat and cute frog GIFs. I’ve found my people.
Nov. 19
Just. So. Tired. Today. Last night I played the recital I’ve been preparing for MONTHS for. First time playing Philip Glass’ Songs and Poems, as well as first outing of Jessie Montgomery’a Rhapsody #2. Both of those pieces have been technique-expanding pieces for me, just absolutely pushing me to my limit. I had four local violists, all current or recent grads of the UNAY (universidad de Artes de Yucatán), join me for two ensemble pieces too, and the rehearsal process leading up to that was fun and only grueling because my Spanish wasn’t up to the task! The recital was at a beautiful gallery called Casa Gemela, and there was a nice crowd, plus my family being there meant a lot. But as well as it all went (with plenty of flubbed notes, to be sure!), I’m very much feeling how taxing putting it together was, and after we went for a walk into the center of town and played some soccer in a park, and after I practiced for the NEXT big project— playing Stamitz concerto and a new piece written for me by Judith Alejandra Gonzalez Benitez next Sunday— I passed out for an hour and a half this afternoon.
Nov. 10
We leave Puerto Escondido tonight on an overnight bus back to Oaxaca. I got the date/day wrong and this whole time thought we left TOMORROW night. Thank goodness I caught it this AM,, but we’d promised the boys a “sleepover party” tonight- letting them stay in the separate bedroom that was supposed to be Griffin’s, though ultimately he didn’t like sleeping apart from the family and slept on the living room couch instead. We were gonna get them a 6-pack of soda, and let them stay up as late as they wanted to together. Needless to say, everyone’s disappointed. This place has been so magical: from the beach five minutes away, to the pool ten steps outside our door, plus the super friendly neighbors on all sides, including one who gave us swordfish from his fishing trip. It’s also the last stop of our trip before I have the intense residency with all the concerts and rehearsals and engagements in Mérida. I’ve been sick a lot here, though, so I’m really hoping that at least that part improves, because it really feels bad to leave your partner to the homeschooling all by themselves. I will be doing that to him a lot at the next stop, so I’m in particular feeling it here.
Nov. 8 part two
I forgot to take note of an incredible experience I had our last morning in Ciudad Oaxaca. I went to an outdoor Zumba class with Adictos de Zumba Oaxaca, which I HIGHLY recommend anyone traveling to this beautiful city join before they go, so they can join in on some of the funnest, most energetic outdoor free dancing I’ve ever been party to. This one was a benefit for Breast Cancer Research, and most of the dancers (who were almost all ladies) wore pink. Sadly, I packed not a thread of pink clothing for this trip, so I was in blah black. They introduced three instructors at the start, and I figured each would do, like, a third of their normal class. After about an hour of one, who was SO high energy and fabulous, the next one took over, and proceeded to lead what felt like another normal-length Zumba class. I had to go after an hour and a half; I’d dragged along with me a giant bag including books and the rug we’d bought at Teotitlán del Valle to send home, and proceeded to have, after the class, the polar opposite of a fun Zumba experience which included trekking back and forth between the post office and various convenience stores to try to get one of them to sell me a potato chip box. Fun times. Anyway, the class seemed to be continuing on for infinite minutes and steps and energy I have no idea how these women had, but I was sorry to leave. This is the only photo I got before it started, of the setup at the El Llano park.
Nov. 8
New foods the boys have tried this trip: many different kinds of meat tacos (Al Pastor, arrachera, bistek, cecina, carnitas…), chicken cooked in mole negro (but none of the sauce really), swordfish caught off the boat of our neighbor here in Puerto Escondido. That’s it! We’ve got some picky picky kids.
Nov. 3
Sadly, the timing of our travels meant we were gone from Ciudad Oaxaca for Dia de Los Muertos, which is famously excellent there. Here in Puerto, all we saw was people’s home altars. Aryeh and I had a long talk last night about who we’d honor and how, if we’d thought to make our own altar (doh!! 🤦🏻♀️ next year)— for Uncle Jay and Aunt Patricia, for my friend Sara Booth. Aryeh said he’d have vanilla ice cream for Aunt Patricia because his first memory of her is of her offering him either mint chocolate chip or vanilla, and he chose the latter. It really is such a beautiful family holiday idea, and I think we will take back our own version of it.
One thing that’s been a feature of this trip for me is the way technology keeps me looped into my very scattershot, freelance musical life. I’ve applied for two grants, one International Viola Congress, and one remote job since heading out on this journey, and am waiting on all of them. Being on such an epic journey gives perspective and makes waiting on these things less stressful, but I do sometimes wonder if I should have just totally disconnected…?
Oct. 23
We took an overnight bus to Puerto Escondido, and it’s now our first day of homeschooling at the beach! We’re going to start with half-days so we can maximize ocean time. The gringo scene here is even more extreme than in Oaxaca city, with all the surfers and MTV-reality-show-looking Europeans. When did this happen here? The wedding Christopher and I met at was 18 years ago, and we drove to this beautiful, sleepy coast in ramshackle vans, to find a pristine, truly “hidden port” (what Puerto Escondido means in Spanish). It’s not Cancun level yet, but it’s pretty nuts. The funniest part for me is my gringo kids, who keep saying loudly, in front of other gringos, “There are so many gringos here!!!”
Oct. 20
Our last two days in Oaxaca (the city; we travel to the Pacific coast of Oaxaca on Sunday). I have to take note of some of the amazing food we’ve had here. Best breakfast: the huevos en cazuela at Marco Polo (where I had an incredible seafood dinner last time I was here). Best lunch: El Asador Vasco, a super fancy, old-fashioned Basque restaurant overlooking the Zócalo. Also great for dinner, we just had a phenomenal Sunday lunch there. We got there right as it opened at 1:30, and were the only diners for a while. Such a lovely, classy spot. Best dinner: Humito Cocina y Foro– this is the place right near our Airbnb on Panorámica Fortín, and has music 4 nights a week for 120 pesos (like $7!) and the food and drinks are so good!! We went for breakfast, too, but all our food was covered in chapulines (grasshoppers) without being warned in advance by the menu! We wimpy gringos were not pleased. Plus my chilaquiles were lukewarm. But definitely go there for dinner or just drinks and/or dessert while you enjoy the music. Such a magical spot. We went to the Mercado Central de Abastos to visit the famous memelas of Doña Vale, as seen on TWO Netflix food shows. But after I waited for a long time, an Australian camera crew cut me in line and Doña Vale very happily started performing for them, making them their own memelas. I was so pissed I walked out. Got a great jugo verde at the stall next to her, and the boys all had tacos. The market is amazing for the sights and the food, whether or not you visit a Netflix-famous spot.
And we HAVE to shout out Los Tacos de Esme, the tiny hole-in-the-wall spot that we’ve gotten Tlayudas and tacos at more times than we can name. A very sweet husband and wife run it, and their 4-year-old daughter, after whom the spot is named, though she’ll introduce herself to you as Lisette, will possibly make your whole family a second dinner out of Play-Doh. This place was right at the foot of the insanely steep stairs we’d have to walk to get to our street, so a bag of tacos Al pastor and de bistec, and tlayudas (I got the veggie, C got the al pastor) with salsas and avocados and limes to put on top, was just the thing to bring home and eat after all that climbing.
Oct. 9
This is supposed to be a page for keeping track of our travels. We’re in Oaxaca now— the city. In 2 weeks, we’ll head to the beach, by Puerto Escondido. This Airbnb we’re in now is built on the hill almost as high as the Guelaguetza Theater, the place where Oaxaca holds its world-famous indigenous and folk dance festival every summer. When Christopher lived in Oaxaca for a year, in the early 90’s, none of this was built up. The theater was so on its own, set apart and above the city, that he thought it was outside the city. Our street is called Panorámica del Fortín, and it is teeming with multilevel houses, hostels, “miscelanea” (bodegas), and a couple restaurants, our favorite of which, Humito, is owned by Lila Downs! (Google her if you don’t know her music). Meanwhile, literally next door to us is a bunch of … dwellings? What do you call houses that aren’t houses, without indoor plumbing, doors or even a front wall? It’s like a 3-story lean-to, each apartment shielded from the driving rain by a blanket hanging on a rope. The family in the apartment closest to us has a brand new baby— like, BRAND NEW, like, I thought s/he was maybe born in the apartment and I was seeing them take them out for their first sunlight! And here we are next door, in all of our privilege, taking a year to just explore the world.
I was thinking of our neighbors as I went on a deep Wikipedia dive into the history of Gaza yesterday AM. I kept seeing it called a “giant, open-air prison.” There is poverty all over the world. Poverty is very, very hard to escape from. Was the former-holder-of-an-Israeli-passport in me apologizing for the blockade of Gaza? Egypt maintains the blockade, too. Hamas didn’t attack them this weekend. Gaza stands as an example of the Occupation to everyone in the world, even though Israel doesn’t exactly “occupy” it; there are no settlements. Having spent considerable time in a West Bank settlement when I lived in Israel, that whole scene really disgusted and infuriated me. I was there in 2005 when Israel “disengaged” from Gaza. I never saw Gaza with my own eyes, whereas the dichotomy, the disjunction of the West Bank towns vs the Israeli “settlements,” which really should be called something much more permanent, with their shopping malls and restaurants and INFRASTRUCTURE… How someone can live in poverty while having to see every day the privilege next door to you, that seems like torture. At least here, we can say buenos días, buenas tardes, etc (the boys are loving how saying hello changes for the time of day), and “¡que lindo bebé!” We’re not separated by checkpoints or bulletproof glass. We can look each other in the eye. Which makes me realize the real torture is the isolation.
One last thing on my mind: a Japanese friend of mine, mom of Aryeh’s friend, asked me what Hebrew school was like, and I told her they learn about holidays, Hebrew letters, songs, etc. I asked her if they were members of a religious community, and she said no, and then hesitated for a moment— “My husband and I, we believe that religion is the reason for all wars, so …” She shrugged.
A friend of mine, talking about the events of this past weekend, wrote, “One thing’s for sure: I stand with atheism.” And it’s true that the extremists on both sides of this— Hamas and the far-right, pro-settler Israeli government— are religious. But my friends in Israel are some of the least religious people I’ve ever known. Judaism is defined in Hebrew as an “am,” meaning nation. For me, the saddest part of Israel/Palestine is that the lesson we should have learned from the Holocaust was not just “never again,” but also: everyone needs a home, and not just land but an actual country that will defend you and your rights. And we Jews should be the first to budge over and make room, especially as there is ample evidence in Israel itself that coexistence is possible. I know I’m writing stuff here that is beyond banal and cliché and heard before. Maybe if I just bang my head against this wall over here, change will happen. Sigh.
I was very much hoping that we’d make it to Israel on this journey, and to that end I’ve been more in touch with friends over there, this last month or so, than I’d been in years. Playing chamber music with people is a sure fire way to build some strong connections, and I’m really thankful for them now, and thinking a lot about my musical family over there.
Sep. 14
Some thoughts about traveling and Mexico.
Some folks have asked for “worldschooling” advice.. I don’t really have any yet except: I’m so glad I packed my foldable yoga mat and Brita bottle with water filter. And I’m glad we chose this order for our journey: starting with the country that causes the least amount of jet lag was low-key, unexpectedly brilliant.
What I’ve noticed in Mexico: there’s a shockingly low amount of toxic male energy here. Maybe it’s the fact that the next president is (most likely) going to be a woman. Maybe it’s the fact that we’re in a neighborhood with so many cute couples and young love, maybe it’s the fact that we’re in Frida Kahlo Ground Zero— it just seems like a place where women are objectified less and respected more.
There are also a lot of thoughts in my head about the US being the economic colonizer of Mexico. Coming here with this nasty rhetoric of DeSantis and others saying there’s an “invasion” at the southern border, then seeing how much better healthcare, education, workers rights policies are down here, it feels to me like it’s only a matter of time before the “invasion” heads in the other direction.
Sep. 2: Day 4 in Coyoacán, officially a neighborhood of Mexico City, but really kind of it’s own world. We start homeschooling the boys on Monday, so these first few days we’re spending like tourists. Yesterday we took a cab into downtown to visit the Castillo and Parque Chapultepec. The luxury of staying here for so long; we can just go do one thing, then go home when we’re tired. We’ll be back to see the anthropological museum and other parts of the park. The luxury also of not having started homeschooling yet: I can practice every morning (as soon as we hit 9am, to be nice to our neighbors).
Walking around, getting to know our neighborhood, some observations: SO MANY dogs here, and many get walked off-leash, but there are also still street dogs around (fewer than I’ve seen elsewhere in Mexico but still). Christopher went out early this AM and discovered a mass dog training session in the Zócalo- I was so bummed that I missed it! There’s a holiday coming up: Independence Day on 9/16, so once the month turned, everyone started decorating and there are flags EVERYWHERE. G and I had a conversation this morning about the idea of patriotism- it’s much more comfortable here where your government hasn’t been responsible for atrocities abroad, yet with the disappearances and cartel-related-corruption, it also inspires people to demand much more of their government I think. My very tiny two cents. We’ve been trying to follow the political news and there are a lot more interesting, powerful women, per capita, than in American politics! Google Claudia Sheinbaum and Xóchitl Gálvez to see what I mean.
First post: Ossia is an Italian word: it’s a path away from the main course of music, suggested either because that passage may be too difficult , or because the composer is offering the performer some agency and choice in the performance. You choose whether to play it or not, and then you return to the main line afterwards. And it’s also the name of the student-lead new music ensemble I played in at Eastman, an experience that gave me a lot of joy and inspiration for my own later musical path. It’s a word I’ve been thinking about a lot as representing the coming school year. We are taking a different path for the year, then coming home. Christopher and I are taking leaves from our jobs, taking the boys out of school to homeschool them while we travel the world. First chapter will be Mexico, then Europe, then Japan. The news is out- Aryeh in particular told his whole class and all his teachers months ago- but it still feels a bit scary to share the news. As a freelance musician, there’s some fear I have of being forgotten or replaced. I know that’s silly, 9 months goes by in a heartbeat, but still I have to be open about the darker side of the excitement in finally making this dream of ours happen. I’m going to use this space as a travel log, and very much hope to keep in close touch as best I can with loved ones.
June 22, last day of school for the kids
One thing I’ve been weighing is the balance between this year abroad being allllllll about family— having adventures together, really getting the quality time with each other and the kids that we’ve been missing through these last very busy years, homeschooling them— and the fact that I’ll be traveling with my viola. I have a residency scheduled in Mérida, Mexico, during which I’ll be playing a recital of solo music as well as the Stamitz Concerto. Other than that, nothing firm. I’m torn between reaching out and trying to make connections so I can play that recital program (music by Philip Glass! Emily Koh! Jessie Montgomery! Betsy Schram! Caroline Shaw! Mazz Swift!) and just being mellow and truly focusing on family, and hoping I keep up my practice habits without gigs to play. It’s a tough one. Hard to hang that ambition up, but also kind of nice to imagine just taking a year to play whatever I want.
I thought I’d set this page to “posts” which means I could update it blog-style, but that seems to have erased what I wrote before. Switching back to a regular page style, maybe posts will be somewhere else? A work in progress…
I was so preëmptively nostalgic, taking the boys home from their last day of in-person-with-other-human-beings school today. Next stop is homeschooling, and we have a lot to prepare! But for now, most important is decompressing from this crazy year and getting a true summer vacation in before we go.