Croeso i Gymraeg!

I just got back from a first class in conversational Welsh. I learned that my oral learning skills still aren’t very good (I need to see things written out before I can retain them). I also learned that I am pretty terrible at drawing dragons, chickens, and roses. I’m okay at drawing weasels, but it was supposed to be a cat.

Small world, woodwind edition

Last week at D’s clarinet lesson, he tried out five different mouthpieces so his teacher could help him select the best, and now he owns a mouthpiece that cost considerably more than the clarinet itself (thanks to my sister for using my mom’s money to pay for most of it). The teacher was really excited – it’s like Christmas for her, trying out new mouthpieces. I thought the second and third were the best, but they preferred the fourth and the fifth. When I heard the fourth, I thought, wow, our cat Sorin would hate that one. Turns out whatever quality I was noticing was actually a good thing, and that’s the one they picked.

Anyway, two of the mouthpieces were made by Clark Fobes, and three by Richard Hawkins. The one they picked was a Hawkins one. I was exchanging e-mails with him on the optimal way to return the others, and after he’d clarified everything for me, I asked if he knew Aaron Helgeson, who with his twin brother were B’s best friends in middle school and high school. Aaron had gone to Oberlin for undergraduate in flute and composition, back in 2000-2004, and Richard H. is at Oberlin now. Well, Aaron is one of his best friends! Aaron is now a professor at Oberlin too, and he composed a piece for Richard H. that’s on his latest album. Awesome!