Que frio!

hola a todos desde españa!
it´s been almost 3 days here, and the weather has been awesome. nice and cold, just like i like it! we have had 3 rehearsals, a seating audition, and no full rehearsals yet. the section is pretty strong already. i got the music on friday morning, and was the only one who hadn´t seen it before that time, so i had all of 1 hour this morning before rehearsal to learn the following:
bernstein- west side story suite
handel- water music suite
gershwin- porgy and bess suite
tchaikovsky- fancesca remini

needless to say, its been a little slow going, but everyone here is really nice and accomodating to my attempts at making some conversation. the rehearsals are all in spainish, and i am surprisingly able to understand everything our teacher is saying (he´s from italy, but plays in the OSG here, and speaks very clear spanish with a gallego accent).
everyone in the orchestra smokes (todo el mundo!), and every restaurant has smoking inside, so i´m feeling a bit crappy right now. i´m probably going to be sick in a day or so. i can´t take all the fumes....
the city of Coruña is interesting. its right on the atlantic ocean, and the views from the walkway along the ocean are amazing, but the town has sections that are not so great. its kind of a typical european town, with a hint of amsterdam (what i imagine that would be like), and a bit of spain. its not what i expected from spain anyways. sorry for the rambling, but i´m a little exhausted already! i can´t keep up with the kids here, they bring a whole new meaning to the party lifestyle.
my room is really really small, and i thought i would have it to myself, but my roommate showed up late thursday night. she´s very nice, but very quiet, so we don´t really say much to each other. the room is also at least 90 degrees at night, but we can´t keep the windows open to air it out because there is so much noise from the street below, so i haven´t exactly been sleeping.
we have our first full rehearsal tomorrow, which i´m lookign forward to. phil, keith and i (the maryland gang here) went out to a nice dinner with mr. ross last night, and he showed us some of his favorite places from when he was living here years ago. the town definitely comes alive at night (and all morning, for that matter).
i will say that i have never before been homesick when i got to europe, but i am a little bit here. i alwyas miss my friends and family, but i feel like i´ve really started to build something of a life in DC (as much as I might not want that necessarily), so i miss the normalcy and comfort level associated with knowing how things go.
anywho. i miss you guys! i´ll try to send post cards later this week, and update this.
besitos y abrazos!