Here’s the video we recorded in Piteå for Maria!
Hittade for solo marimba and 3 percussionists, by Maria Finkelmeier
Category: piteå
Last night in Piteå
So the other night we had our friends over for my farewell party. It was a dessert party, so I made a lemon merengue pie and biscuits, and everyone else brought cakes and stuff. It was amazingly filling and nice. We have some really nice friends here!
Today the four of us percussionists recorded a piece by Maria. She played the solo marimba part, and Charles, Jake and I were batterie. It was great! We used nice cameras to get good angles, and used the University media students to record the sound and do the lighting. We ended up having a very professional setup. It only took three takes to get a really good recording. Then we had to bump out and move heaps of percussion and other gear. But after that it was like 6pm and it was home time! It was sad saying goodbye to Jake and Maria – we’ve become really good friends. Maria gave me a signed copy of her piece – parts and all – so when she’s rich and famous I can say “I knew her!”. The recording will be up on the internet in the next few days, so stay tuned!
Charles and I came home super tired from standing up and playing and moving gear all day. Had dinner and then our OTHER friends Margrét and Gisli came round to collect their cups (we borrowed them for our party – Charles only has 4 cups) and had a coffee. I’m going to miss them heaps! They are special people.
So now it’s almost bedtime and tomorrow we’re off to Stockholm! We’ll be there for two nights and then I’m off home to Australia. I really do love Australia, so I am looking forward to being home. But it just will hurt to leave Charles here. I know he misses home more than I do!
Aurora Borealis
Last night at around 9:30, Charles and I were just chilling out here in Piteå. Then we suddenly got a text from our friend saying “Aurora!” We dropped everything and put on coats and walked out. We could see the aurora faintly from our building, but wanted to see better. We went to the field outside the university. Even there was quite bright, but standing in the middle of a snowy field was darker than anywhere else we could think of.
The field is covered in about a metre of snow. There’s a path through the middle that’s raised and made of compacted snow. If you stray even one centimetre off the path, you step into snow up to your bum.
On the way out of the field, we saw another path that would be a shortcut. Bad choice! It was super deep snow and NOT a path, and I fell over about 6 times. Not a shortcut, but pretty fun!
The big pole of light is a spire at the concert hall. It’s cute that we got it in the photos – makes the photos very Piteå-y. A nice romantic evening in the presence of magnetically charged particles!
View from outside our window
This is the view from outside our front door in Piteå. Snow everywhere! Giant piles of snow! It’s quite pretty, but it’s mostly overcast. I’d been looking forward to seeing the Aurora, but now I don’t think it’ll happen. I’ve been keeping a lookout!
I’ve been having a nice domestic sort of holiday. Baking lots of biscuits and cooking lots of soups. It’s hard for us to get around since we don’t have a car and there’s not easy public transport. We walk everywhere. We go to uni daily where Charles works on stuff and I practice. I have access to practice rooms and instruments! So I’m working on repertoire for my Honours (I totally got accepted into Honours). Sometimes we go to friends’ houses for dinner which is lovely!
Last week we had a day that was -28 degrees. That was a day we chose to walk into town! Oh gosh we nearly died. Even though we had all our warm clothes on, the air attacks your face and your breath freezes on your cheeks and in your nose. My gloves are only knitted, so they were practically useless. My boots, although warm, couldn’t stand the cold and my feet turned into blocks of ice. It was crazy cold! It’s usually only about -12 so it’s quite okay. I’m going to have way different definitions of cold from now on.
We’ve been taking photos with the Diana Mini and we’re going to walk into town (45 minutes ugh) to get them developed tomorrow! I hope!
I took a video of us walking into uni the other day. It’s not that interesting if you’ve lived with snow! But for my Australian friends, it’s kind of bizarre.
Christina Hopgood 