killedwithkarate

I had my various theory/sight singing/dictation exams and my interview today, and they all went surprisingly well. I'd be put in fundamental level for theory (which is fine and dandy for a vocalist, as we're renound for being theory impaired) but I actually did quite well on the dictation and sight singing.

With the dictation, it was a large room with people applying to all majors and we were given a test that increased in difficulty as it progressed, and it was done in a last man standing kind of way. After each section, we had the option to leave. Considering that I've never had any formal theorhetical training of any kind, I was surprised that I was the second last vocalist and one of the final five or so left in the room when I decided I was floundering.

My interview was with a composer who looked like Christopher Lloyd who spoke Japanese and had been all over Southern Ontario and Quebec. He was really nice, and we ended up talking about everything and nothing in particular, and it felt like it went quite well.

So, then I met up with a few of the students I had been in the first round with and we walked all around the upper west side and got cheesecake for a few hours. It's nice to be around other people who are into opera and actually driven enough to leave home to pursue it. We had a lot of interesting conversations about how we got into opera and how we relate to other music forms because of it.

A lot of people who go out to those sort of things have a really superior attitude or keep to themselves unduely, but these three were really funny. I guess there's a sort of a kinship that rises from growing up semi-normal (without insane stage parents or being surrounded by people with sticks wedged firmly in their asses) and being young and interested in opera. It's kind of a dying art, so it's peculiar and nice to meet people under 50 who are trying to revive it.

The dude from the group I was out with actually is transfering from the university my cousin goes to which is a tiny commune in rural Northern California, so it was a small world kind of moment when I found that out. The other lasses were from Seattle and NYC respectively, so they all mocked me for my supposed Canadian accent, but envied me when we got to talking about politics. Two of them were going to the Curtis audition, so I suppose I may very well see them in Philly.

After that, I walked down the whole of the west side from Mannes, into Chelsea and the Garment District, then through a lot of Greenwich Village, SoHo, TriBeCa, Chinatown and a little of the Lower East Side. I had the best damn dim sum (that's a tongue twister) I've ever had courtesy of the lovely Mikey_Dough, which brought me right back to my childhood. I've been a vegetarian for over a decade now on and off, and 5-6 years consecutively now, so I'm always happy to find a place where the meatless option consists of more than steamed vegetables and rice. But, bar none, that's the best.

Hey, remember when I first got this account and I was all pleased because I had lost weight and was eating really healthy food? Yeah. I've probably gained it all back and maybe even then some because of a constant influx of celebration, travel or the type of stress that can only be remedied by confections. I've been saying this a lot, but now that the insane month plus of various birthdays, valentines day, auditions and London/Montreal/NYC/Philly/Ottawa is about to come to a close, I will be eating better again because being all sluggish and bloated is not helping me stay afloat when I'm running around trying to get things done.

Here's a question for Canucks living in America (Girlie): How did getting employment while in university work? Is that allowed, or do you have to apply for some extra visa/wait a certain period of time? Because it's all well and good to want to go to a university, but even if I get a partial scholarship, I'm still going to need to work outside of gigs and odd jobs to make enough to support myself in a city like NYC or Philly.

I can eat on pennies a day and make it good, I have plenty of blankets to avoid unnecessary heating, I can live without luxuries and fun, but making rent is the one unavoidable condition of living in a big city, and I don't know about Philly, but the NYC rent for a one bedroom is two to three times more expensive without taking the exchange rate into consideration. Oy. I sure hope I can work in the US legally, because I'd make an awful sex worker, mostly since I'm so inappropriately awkward.

On that odd note, I'm going to relax for a bit before I decide what else (if anything at all... I'm beat!) I'd like to do. Maybe a walk along Times Square. It's bright and tacky and commercial and noisy, but that's fun, and I don't care what any earnest bohemian has to say about it. Nyeh.