WORKSHOPS EVERY DAY :: blanca
SUN OCT 21 - LEON - GUANAJUATO
We taught two private workshops for Lupita and her group DAE who drove 3 hours from Morelia. Carmine taught Middle Eastern rhythms, then together we gave a drum solo workshop. Taking the workshop was Alvaro, a musician with the Symphony Orchestra in Morelia.
After the workshops we went to Guanajuato, my favorite town in Mexico. We stayed at the most gorgeous place... the view of the town was glorious, every detail was beautiful. We were on the top of a tall mountain and from our window we could see the fireworks in two different parts of the the city, announcing the end of the Festival Internacional Cervantino, the largest arts festival in the country.
MON OCT 22 - GUANAJUATO - SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE
Wish we could have enjoyed the magical place that is Guanajuato longer but at 9 AM sharp we had to drive to San Miguel de Allende to meet Elsanne and teach at 11. By the time we finished the workshops I knew something was very wrong with Carmine because he had slowed down to a mere 10 jokes/hour. Elsanne gave us her dentist's number who prescribed an antibiotic over the phone and gave us a next day appointment with the root canal specialist who luckily was coming to town just that one day. 
TUE OCT 23 - SMA
Just as the dentist anticipated, Carmine's pain was completely gone right after he took the medicine and he was able to teach our drum solo workshop.
After 2 hours of agony at the dentist's office, Carmine came out feeling perfectly fine as you can see from the picture [phew!]. Elsanne took us to a gorgeous Rancho for the best-looking and best-tasting party ever. 
WED/THU OCT 24/25 - LEON
We went back to León and taught 6 workshops in 2 days... n
ice! By now Carmine is able to teach about half of the class in Spanish. He's even contributing new words to the Spanish language, such as "tamboristas" (female drummers).
FRI OCT 26
At 6 AM Carm and I leave for the airport. We have a 6-hour layover in Mexico City, the perfect amount of time to have breakfast, change our currency and write a drum solo. He leaves for California, I fly home.
I called Celia my sister to tell her I'm home and she tells me she and her son practiced with Carmine's DVD today.
"we were trying too hard, shoulders hunched, then we heard his voice say: 'relaaax...'. We turned to look at the TV screen and saw his smiling face... we couldn't help but smile too..."
It looks like that dentist was a little too generous with the laughing gas.
Posted by: Melissa the Loud | October 28, 2007 at 03:56 PM
Seeing the joy in the eyes, there's no doubt
that luck and magic was in the air.
Posted by: jerome | October 28, 2007 at 05:37 PM