Aka. "Destination Anywhere", "The Boy and Girl from County Bavaria"... After a very intense year in Würzburg (Germany), I'm back in Salamanca. I probably won't have that many experiences to write, but there's always an excuse to post a new entry!

Although I'll probably be posting the next chapter in a few hours, I take a break from Inner Desires (from which I've already uploaded 10 chapters, written about 18 and translated 14) to talk about something a bit different. This post will be especially dedicated to D. Briegas and my Li'l Mushroom, who were the ones who asked.

Unfortunately for some, luckily for others, the end of the summer is near. This means back to work, back to routine... and having to say goodbye to the holidays and certain activities. In my case, I have no real routine to go back to. My plan so far is to start a masters's degree (or whatever it's called) on Education, which would be something relatively new for me. First of all, I don't know whether I'll be chosen or not, but that's another story.

As for the goodbyes, on Wednesday I'll have my last session of one of the things that have kept me going these days. I probably would have had it harder to face my summer storm if it hadn't been for this. At the end of June this year, now that I don't have to study or anything else to focus on, I decided to start getting closer to one of my dreams and take singing lessons.

Searching the Internet for singing lessons (or music bands from this town who were searching for a singer/lyricist), I came across an ad from a man who was giving modern singing lessons here. So I wrote to him asking for some more information and got a reply immediately. A few days later, we had our first session together, and we've been meeting an hour a week in his studio apartment ever since.

There's one word to describe my teacher: RANDOM. I'm still trying to figure out how his mind works. When we first met, what surprised me most was that he's only 5 years older than me and really into 'black' music. In fact, he directs a gospel choir. But leaving that aside, his method consists of giving his pupils a compilation of ten songs in different styles (jazz, pop, blues, latin, country, bossa nova...) He records them in a CD and prints the lyrics. Each week, I've had to learn one or two songs and then sing them in front of him while he played piano or guitar. These were the ones we've been working with:

1. Adoro (Armando Manzanero)

2. Garota de Ipanema (???)

3. Dust in the Wind (Kansas)

4. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free (Nina Simone)

5. Because You Loved Me (Celine Dion)

6. Soldadito Marinero (Fito y Fitipaldis)

7. No Voy a Cambiar (Malú)

8. Autumn Leaves (Diana Krall)

9. I Hear You Knocking (???)

10. La Gota Fría (Carlos Vives)

As you can imagine, some were easier and some were harder; some were great fun to sing, while some others were really annoying. Personally, I felt terribly embarrassed whenever I had to practise "Adoro" and "Soldadito Marinero" (oh well, I bet Tarja Turunen had to practise stupid songs, too, when she was still learning), while I particularly enjoyed "I Hear You Knocking" and "Because You Loved Me". In any case, I tried to practise my songs everyday and had a lot of fun while doing so.

Since last week, when we finally got to the last song in the compilation, we started talking about technique. You might be wondering why we waited for so long before learning the basics of singing, and so was I. According to my teacher "Learning this takes time, so if we had spent two months doing breathing exercises, you might be the Mistress of the Air by now, but still have no clue how to perform a song" Either way, now I lock myself in the bathroom for some minutes (I've never counted exactly how long), see myself in the mirror and pay attention to my shoulders and chest, so I don't raise them while inhaling. Then there are other variations of the exercise, which include exhaling hard and quickly, making an "Ah" sound while breathing out, or counting from 1 to 20... It's actually trickier and more fun than it sounds. Reminds me of yoga.

I'm determined to continue taking lessons wherever I go. Hopefully, I'll become the new Mistress of Air with some more practise... and who knows, maybe in a few years the name Kate Lennon will be between Ji-In Cho and Liv Kristine on the list for the Metal Queen Election ;P For now, enjoy Gale Storm's version of my favourite song of the compilation: