Math, Musicking, High School in the late 1970s, and British Visas

Musicking Moment: My school's music department arranges for a group of private music teachers to use the school's equipment and space to teach lessons after school. So I take bass lessons from this one Argentinian guy named Ezequiel, and on Tuesday afternoon we were upstairs in a classroom on the third floor. We were playing Girl from Ipanema, me on bass, Ezequiel on piano, and we were taking turns playing accompaniment and solos, when all of a sudden this saxophone teacher who was giving lessons down the hall walks right into our classroom and starts belting out his own solo. Ezequiel didn't see him come in and just about freaked out when he heard a saxophone right behind him, but we all kept on playing. This guy just kept on going for a few minutes, and then we went back to the melody and finished. The sax player chatted with us for a couple of minutes, then went back to his own classroom, and that was it. Total spontaneity! It was pretty sweet.

One week from now I will be in London at the math competition! With Jason! Yay! This is TASP reunion no. 4 for me too, Dylan, so we'll be tied. Our math team is having a rather unique problem right now - one member has had to give up her spot in the competition because she can't get a visa to go to Britain and compete. The four members of our team who aren't EU or American citizens (plus our Romanian coach) all had to go the British Consulate to get visas, but this girl didn't have one of the documents they wanted to see, and now she can't get a visa appointment in time before our flight out on Thursday. So our coach is frantically trying to recruit an American or EU citizen to fill out our team. Interesting manifestation of the importance of nationality, perhaps a type of cultural elitism? The non-Western kids have to get visas if they can go at all, while the rest of us just walk in free. It's a sobering issue, especially at an international school.

OK, I have to re-comment on the prom vs. academic thingy debate. I must say I was shocked to see so many TASPers boosting prom - I guess I'm a little out of touch over here, but I thought that prom was a heck of a lot more like a drunken frat party than Dylan's message seems to suggest. Puzzled, I consulted my parents (both raised in the fatherland) about the attraction of prom. For what it counts, they both said it matters a lot while you're in high school, but that it really doesn't have much meaning after you leave. My dad didn't go to prom - he appears to have no regrets. My mom did - it doesn't figure largely in her memories of her high school days. On the other hand, they both did state academic/model-government programs, which they talk about without being prompted. I would venture to suggest that in their cases at least, state academic thingies were much more fulfilling and memorable than prom. OK, my parents graduated from high school more than twenty years ago, and maybe things have changed, but you've got to understand my cultural isolation from such all-American rituals as prom. I use what sources I have. And I'm still firmly in favor of the academic thingy. *high-fives Isaac*

Don't forget to bring your camera, Jason!

Groetjes,

Sam