First Day at Irish Fest Summer School

 

Today was my first day at Irish Fest summer school. My Irish teacher came very early in the morning to pick me up, and we drove to Wauwatosa, which has had some flooding. You may have heard about it; it was in the news. The Celtic Cultural Center was unaffected, so we were able to go to our classes. 

My first class was Intro to Irish Fiddling. I was afraid I'd be so rusty that everyone would mock me, but I did fine. We learned a couple of polkas by ear today. The music classes all seem to be in the big Lutheran church across the street that looks like a castle. When class got done, I came back to the Celtic Cultural Center and joined a session led by a flautist who I have seen perform with one of the local Baroque groups, so I had no idea he did Irish music too. By the time I got done with that, my Irish teacher and the red-headed flute player both had classes, so I invited myself along to lunch with two women who, as it turned out, were in my other class. We still had a lot of time until that class, so I took a rosary walk in the neighborhood, lugging my fiddle and my purse. 

The second class is Intermediate Irish, and I wasn't sure I was good enough for it. I was right about that, but we had a lot of fun, because the teacher had us do improv in Irish, first that we got pulled over for drunk driving, and the guy who was the cop was trying to determine which one of us was driving because we were all in the back seat. More fun was the one where I was a shopkeeper trying to sell a dress to a bride, and she said she wanted a purple dress with gold flowers. She didn't like the price I quoted and said she wanted a green and orange dress, so I said I had a green dress with orange dolphins on it. Her "fiance" was skeptical, so I said it was perfect for a seaside wedding, and he said, "What if it rains?" so I offered to throw in a matching umbrella. The Irish teacher had to help me a lot with all those words, but he gave me kudos for creativity.

After classes, I met up with my Irish teacher and the red-headed flute player to go to the apartment we'll be staying in, except not the redhead because she has to get home to her dog. It's within walking distance, so we walked back toward the Celtic Cultural Center. A lot of the local restaurants were closed due to flooding, so a bunch of us ended up at a soup and sandwich shop I had gone to with Travalon previously. We had passed a gelato place, but it was closed by the time we got done with dinner, so my Irish teacher and I just went back to the apartment until the faculty concert at the Celtic Cultural Center. My fiddle teacher played, and so did my Irish teacher. (He played the bodhran, or drum.) There was going to be a session after that, but we were exhausted and just went back to the apartment, where I am blogging now. Maybe I will check in tomorrow too, or not, since there will be a big session tomorrow night. Stay tuned...

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