Where have I been??

Just in case anyone is wondering where I've gone off to for such a long while, I have been unable to access my blog because for some reason it wasn't working on my computer, and now I am at Yiramalay (the aboriginal school) and have only my phone for (very limited) internet access. I really don't have time to update my blog here, so will write all the catch-up posts upon my return to Melbourne for the Easter holidays.

TTFN,
Noa x

Lots of things

Ok my organisation is really bad I'm so sorry.

Luckily I have iCloud which helps me remember everything I've been doing in the past almost-month!

So without further ado, Blog Post number 5 (Warning: it might be really long).

Since I started at King David, I really hadn't done very much in the way of things that I could get really passionate about. However one day, Nomsi said that it would be a good idea to show the teachers a little of what I could do. So I started planning some Klezmer composition lessons for year 6 to 8. I loved composing when I did it for IB music, and Klezmer, being the traditional music of the Jews, was an excellent way to make that composing relevant to a Jewish school. I also thought that the kids would be old enough to create a decent piece of music, plus I had taught kids that age for about 5 years at my Sunday School in Cambridge. After I made a PowerPoint to use for the lessons, I had a few meetings with Adam Yee, the head of music at KDS, and he helped me understand how best to teach about Klezmer and composing. His words of wisdom (which I will impart on you as well because I'm so generous) were, "Let the kids do the learning. Don't just throw information at them." 

Initial lesson plan for Klezmer Composition Lessons

In the end I realised that the lessons couldn't happen because we had orchestra rehearsals for the year 12 presentation evening. So that was a shame.

The year 12 presentation evening was held at Monash University. The orchestra were sat on stage in rows (I know, it was weird), with the violins at the front. This was quite nerve-wracking because the auditorium seated about 300 people (very approximate), but it was also cool because you couldn't tell who were the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd violins, so the hierarchy was completely dissolved and a feeling of equality and unity prevailed. Can you tell that I'm turning into a Communist from living here? We played the Harry Potter theme tune as all the year 12s paraded onto the stage in their robes, and everyone thought it was very funny. After speeches by a few year 12s and a rabbi, we played a Porgy and Bess medley. It was so long that you could practically see our biceps expanding from holding the instruments. All the speeches were really well done, and very thought-provoking too. I just think it must be nice to be at high school with the same people for a long time and be really close by the end of it, so that you can all really be there for each other during final exams- I never had that.

As well as the violin stuff, I've also recently started helping my cousin Eva with her piano practice. She (like every other kid I've ever met who plays an instrument) really dislikes practicing, so I go over there every so often and make her repeat each section a million times until she's learned it. For some reason she enjoys this, and we have a lot of fun together. You realise when you're teaching an instrument to someone else just how much work goes into it... I've been playing my instruments for a long time so I'd completely forgotten all of that.

From the 5th to the 12th of December, it was Chanukah. Usually in England my family has parties most nights of Chanukah but because I am now living with my grandparents who don't normally celebrate, I initiated the festivities, due to feeling that our traditions are important for us Jews.

Each night Nomsi and I lit the candles, and I said the blessings. It was quite different to being in England with my immediate family, where the children would light a certain number of candles each and my brother Zak would usually accompany a few renditions of 'Maoz Tzur' or 'I have a Little Dreidel' on the piano, before someone enquired about presents. However lighting the candles just the two of us was a great time to pause and reflect on life, the universe, and everything. Some very interesting discussions were had.

I did have Chanukah parties on two of the nights though. On the second night I went with my uncle and aunt (Pete and Ella) to my friend Ben's Chanukah party. There were a lot of people there who I didn't know (as usual) and a few KDS people. All the people my age were outside, and after some small talk we all began to fervently debate politics for a few hours because one person said that he was slightly right wing (the nerve!). 

On the sixth night we had a party at Nomsi and George's with almost the whole family. I designed and sent out the invitations, bought a Chanukah CD and some hollow dreidels filled with candy to use as party bags for the kids, and bought napkins, cups, and straws in the traditional blue, white, and gold. Nomsi cooked all the food and made sure I didn't go overboard with the decor. It was a great evening, the kids played dreidel as much as possible with the 12-or-so bags of chocolate gelt we had been given by the aunts and uncles, the food was delicious, and we had a little sing-along at the end of some well-known Chanukah songs. We also did this fabulous hair train:

Cousin hair train at the Chanukah party

Another thing that happened recently was that I finished working at EthicalJobs, which was sad but I know that it was a great experience to have had this year. I got to meet some of the most left-wing people ever, and learned a lot about the organisation of a company, whilst being able to help myself to the abundant tea, fruit, and chocolate that was constantly available. (Feel free to quote me for advertising the company, Michael). Not to mention the delicious sandwiches we made together every Wednesday- where everyone had a different vegetable to cut as thinly as possible before we all stood round to carefully place everything in order onto the bread. A few days after I left EJ, they had a Christmas party. We ate consistently for about an hour, then the dinner arrived. I chatted with everyone about things I'd never have talked about whilst I was working there, and played with the 2-year-old boy that someone had brought along. All in all it was a great way to end my time at EthicalJobs.

A few days after the EJ party, I had a meeting at Wesley College which is a private school in Melbourne, that has a studio school called Yiramalay in the Kimberley, WA. After the summer holidays here, I'll be going to the school which is for aboriginal children, which will be super interesting because the kids come from their communities to get a western education (they finish by completing VCE, the IB, or some other qualifications that I've never heard of). All the teachers are really nice though and the Aboriginal people always get a say in whatever goes on (some of the teachers are aboriginal too). To give you a rough idea of where I'll be travelling to when I go there, here's a map:

It's quite far away.

So the purpose of the meeting (I thought) was for me to ask about the school and discuss what I'll be doing there, but when I arrived, there were two other people there and one of them kept asking me questions like, "Why do you want to come on the programme?" "What extra-curricular interests do you have?" "Do you do anything other than music?" which was a bit strange, but when I got an email a few days later saying "Congratulations, you have been accepted onto the Wesley/Yiramalay programme!" it made sense. It had been an interview, which made me think, "What if I hadn't passed the interview? What would I do with half my gap year?" Anyway I got in, so that's what I'll be doing from February until July!

A couple days ago I went to Pilates with Nomsi, my cousin Avi, and my auntie Cari. I haven't been since I first got here so it was really nice to go back and do an intense physical workout. After that, I took Avi to a Lindt cafe where we gorged our faces with chocolate pastry things which completely undid the Pilates (Avi ate his whole eclair before they even gave him the fork), and then bought lots of chocolate from the shop. I'd highly recommend for anyone in Melbourne to go. 

I should be paid for all this plugging..

And now we're up to yesterday. Yesterday, as most of you will know, was Christmas. I've never really celebrated Christmas before except for once when mum made a Christmas lunch. Staying with my grandparents has the advantage that they are highly sociable people, so we went to four different houses to celebrate. The first house was of their friend, whose son's girlfriend had a KITTEN. Needless to say I didn't really talk to anyone but her and the kitten. That may have also been the first time I've ever received presents on Christmas! The second house was of my uncles Jonathan and Chris. They had some friends over as well as us so we had a very nice lunch. Normally on Christmas they go out for Yum Cha but didn't this year which made me sad because I've never had it before so I will bug Nomsi to take me another time. The third house was of a large Macedonian family (the sort of family who don't really know how they're all related, so just say they're all cousins). They were all very friendly, and one of the uncles kept offering me more champagne. Finally we went next door to the neighbours- a woman called Ericka and her two little daughters. I played with the daughters and then sat down with the grownups and discussed the meaning of life. Then we left at about nine, and I fell asleep almost as soon as I got into bed.

There you go - a substantial post to get you through the week, you're welcome. Now I must go pack for the beaches of Mount Martha!

A Trio of Triumphs (best title I could think of for this post)

I am so bad at keeping this blog up to date...

The past few weeks have been a little bit of a blur of routine, but interspersed with some really great experiences.

I've been helping with the King David Southwick Campus musical, as "Assistant Director", which is what the head teacher calls me, although I basically just help keep the kids under control and give the occasional bit of choreographical assistance (yes I made that word up). It's been a lot of fun, and the show is tomorrow night, so it will be really nice to see how it goes- although the teachers were still instructing the kids during the last rehearsal...

Update: it went well.

Oh hey who's that at number 2 on the programme?

I also had a night out with my uncle Ben, going to the Melbourne Noodle Night Market and my first ever cocktail bar. The noodle market was awesome- dozens of stalls selling small "asian" things that were really asian-inspired food made more fashionable. You could try loads of different things as they were all so small, so we completely stuffed ourselves and then headed to the Crème brûlée stall that had really cool flavours and a massive crowd in front. I got a chai and chocolate flavoured one. After all that fun we went to a cocktail bar. To get there you had to go down this completely random dingy little alley-way like in films and you had to knock on the door and ask for Charlie... no I'm kidding, but we did go down a really creepy alley and the door was only slightly better-looking than all the other doors in the alley. Inside it was super cool- it was dimly lit, all the waiters had on 20s-style clothes, and they were playing jazz music, like in a speak-easy. Ben and I both got this cocktail that tasted like a hug, warm and full of cinnamon. It tasted like you needed a bath robe and swivelling arm-chair to properly enjoy it. Here is a picture of me pretending the cinnamon stick was a cigar (to get into character): 

I also went to a show called "Opera and the Bowl" with some family, and it was excellent. It was held at the Melbourne bowl which is huge- there were a few thousand people there I would guess, and we got seats right at the very front! Here's a picture to give you an idea of how lucky we were:

The concert consisted of performances by four very ostentatious opera singers (do you like my alliteration?), a choir, and a full orchestra. They sang lots of great opera pieces, my favourite was that one from Carmen- you know, the one that was in that old Simpson's episode?

Ok that's all I can remember for now and anyway it's very late so I must retire to my bedchamber! I'll do another post if I remember more :)

The Grampians

So a few days [edit: about a week- sorry!] ago I got back from an amazing mini-holiday. We had a long weekend here, because there was a public holiday because of - wait for it - a horse race. Almost as good a reason for a holiday as the football match about a month ago.

Anyway, the long weekend was great because I got to go to the Grampian Mountains with my cousin Avi, my aunt Cari, one of my violin students- Anna, and Anna's family. I haven't seen very much wildlife this trip, so it was very refreshing and made me feel more at home in this land, I think because almost every time I've been here in the past, we've gone camping (like the time we travelled around for 4 months).

The best thing to do in the Grampians is go hiking, which is what we did. On day 2 we did a 2k hike up a mountain, and all of it was on an incline of about 50 degrees, and I thought it was a lot of fun. When we got to the top Avi just sat down and cried. When I asked him what was wrong he said "It was just so BORing!" Sorry about that Avicado... (a bit of cake cheered him up pretty quickly though). We also went to a bunch of lookouts and took lots of pictures, some of which I've put on Facebook.

Some photos from when Anna and I took posey pics of each other at a lookout. (The socks and sandals was intentional).

We weren't camping though- we stayed in a motel that was very nice, except I kept hearing quite a loud noise in our room, so I decided that in order to get some sleep, I'd take my blanket and rough it in the bathroom for the night. After that I felt that I had had my share of camping for the trip.

We also did lots of shopping in the Halls Gap town, and Anna bought some Beanboozled jelly beans, which we had lots of fun with during the hikes (feel free to pay me Jelly Belly), however there's probably lots of half-chewed jelly beans on a few of the mountains.

So that was my weekend in the Grampians. It was a lot of fun and I hope I can see more Australian bush this year at some point.

Afterthought: I've been thinking of writing a Roald Dahl-style book about snobby private school girls who are called things like Influenza, Diptheria, and Eczema (get it, because they're sickening?) I think it would be funny, because diseases ending in -a make quite good posh-girl names.

Another Blog Post

I felt like writing another blog post. :)

I wonder where I'll be when I look at this blog in the future... to be honest it will probably be in a couple days' time when I decide that I really had nothing to say in this new post and it was a pointless endeavour. But I might be looking at it in 10 years' time when I'm the new Mary Beard or something so that will be cool.

Tbt the time I met Mary (we're on a first name basis) and looked like a gorilla.

Ok now I should probably write about what I've been doing recently. Last week I (obviously) went to a family gathering, and I saw my baby cousin Mathilda who is so cute! Her dad was letting her crawl around the garden and eat everything, which is apparently really good for babies because it strengthens their immune systems (you're welcome, aspiring parents).

I also went to see the King David year 12s doing their final school assembly and it was awesome. The choreography was great and the boys' timing was excellent.

Maybe I'll be a dance critic when I look at this post again...

The skits and the speeches were also great.

I've been doing other things at King David too, like proofreading students' work, playing in the orchestra (recently there was a concert for years 3 to 8 that we played in and we've also been playing uni students' compositions which have all been a lot of fun), and helping out at the prep to year 2 campus with their upcoming musical- about the letters of the alphabet getting jumbled up and having to sing and dance to restore order (I think we should all do this to resolve things in the future). The dance teacher used my choreography in a couple of the dances, which made me happy.

As well as my (voluntary) work at KDS, I've been teaching violin on weekends, which makes me almost a fraction of what my parents paid for the music lessons that got me this far! It's a lot of fun and I'd like to publicly thank my piano teacher Stephen (for about the millionth time) for teaching me everything I know re music.

Okay that's about everything that's been going on, so bye!

Sorry!

Hi everyone!

Sorry this is like.. two months late. I've just been so busy having fun and getting set up here in Melbourne that I completely forgot about the fact that if I don't document this year, I will probably (knowing me) forget most of it.

So where to begin... how about we start at the very beginning (that's a very good place to start). My family and I arrived here about two months ago (I know this because I wrote one diary entry on the 20th of August before promptly forgetting to write any more). All I remember from when we got here was that it was cold and dark. This was very unpleasant because we'd been frolicking on a beach in LA only a day before. It didn't feel like Australia at all which was really sad, because I was so excited about coming to the country after having not been in about 5 years. We were bombarded with family almost immediately which was really nice and would preface the rest of the year, as I came to learn.

A few days after our arrival we began preparing for my cousin Jessica's Bat Mitzvah- my two brothers and I were going to play Pachelbel's famous Canon alongside Jessica at her party. Zak didn't have a cello so Leo and I had a couple rehearsals by ourselves. We then had one rehearsal all together and then it was the performance! We dedicated it to our grandma Nomsi. This was a lot of fun and Nomsi loved it :) . You can find the video of this on my Facebook wall.

The next day the whole family flew to Byron Bay for a holiday at my uncle Jonathan's beach house. We do this every time we come and we spend the days lazing on the sand, eating great food, being very familial (and occasionally performing for each other- this year my cousins and I made a cover of the famous Cup Song- found on my Facebook wall), and digging ginormous holes. Don't ask. We also had a surfing lesson and I managed to surf all the way to the shore!

This is me before I got covered in sand and saltwater. 

This is everyone concentrating really hard to learn how
to get up on the board.

After we got back from Byron my family left, and my gap year began! Since then, I've been teaching the violin, working at my uncle Michael's company, babysitting, assisting classes at the King David school, making friends, and seeing lots and lots of family. 

That's pretty much all the important stuff, and you can follow my blog for more pretty-much-the-important-stuff. 

Seeya soon,

Noa