So, it's been a while since I've updated this, and lots has happened since then, so I'll just jump right in.
Jenny and I went to Thailand for a week in the beginning of November for the Eid holiday break and that was pretty amazing. I went to Bangkok for a few days before Jenny got there (on her way back from Arizona) and we were there during the height of the flooding. I was able to do a bit of touristy stuff, seeing temples and wandering the city, and soaking up a lot of good food and drink that is not available in Bangladesh. We then went to Koh Samui for 4 days and stayed at a pretty luxurious resort on the beach which was great. We didn't do too much sightseeing and mostly soaked up the peace and quiet that is difficult to find in Chittagong. We did do a snorkeling/island hopping boat trip one day which was really amazing, saw lots of great sea-life and then hiked this really craggy peak, 500 meters straight up (i was wearing flip-flops=BAD MOVE) and when we got to the top after literally scrambling to the top of a wooden platform atop slippery and jagged rocks, it began to rain buckets. we slowly then worked our way down the mountain with one of our tourguides and this German tourist, both of whom were also wearing flip-flops. Completely drenched, we got to the bottom and took the boat back to our hotel.
Since then, I've been continuing to teach my music class and have begun teaching folk songs from some of the countries represented here at the University. I've taught songs from Bangladesh, Nepal and Vietnam and aim to teach songs from all of the other South Asian countries represented here by the end of the school year. It's been a lot of fun and I've had a lot of help from my students with language, without which I really wouldn't have a clue. I've also been teaching a lot of guitar and am setting up some flute classes thanks to one of the other teachers here donating her time to teach the class, as I have no business doing so.
We had a big thanksgiving at the teachers/professors' apartment building in which about 30-40 of us expats live, which was good times overall.
And this past week, my class was preparing for a performance at a fundraiser for the University, which happened last night and went pretty well. I'll post photos soon, most of the students seemed to enjoy themselves, and we took loads of photos while all of the students were dressed up in their national outfits. I wore a suit. I'm going to set up a music showcase at the university in January for my class to perform and probably a few others playing violin and harmonium.
As for my own musical endeavors, I'm spending a lot of free time recording some of my own music at our apartment, and I had a performance at Bishaud Bangla, a local artspace and cultural shop here in Chittagong thanks to the owner's generosity. Alam, the owner, found me a tabla player as well to accompany me for my performance, and it was really great to have a chance to work with a Bangladeshi musician, I think that I'm going to have another performance and I'm going to try and get the same tabla player again to accompany me. I keep trying to post a few videos of it here, but the internet speed here is really slow, so it hasn't worked. Most of the audience was made up of my students and I got them to sing along at a few points in the evening, and they reminded me that a some of my lyrics are a bit funny and absurd, as evidenced by their laughter as I taught them "Meowing". You'll see it in the video.
Ok, that's all for now, I'll post some pictures tomorrow and hopefully I'll at least get a link posted to the videos once I can upload them. Sorry this was a bit bullet-point oriented, lots of ground to cover y'know
