now I'm big and important; one angry dwarf

I was awoken this morning by the sound of knocking at my door followed by the jingling of keys. I officially snapped out of groggy when the two workmen entered my room and I fell out of bed in an attempt to snatch my comforter off the floor to cover me in my sports bra and granny panties. They were here to fix the window. I gathered myself, kicked a path through my laundry and showed them to my window (which for some reason I suppose I thought they couldn't find on their own). So once again it is possible to both open and close my window. And I am sleeping in sweats from here on out.

I've now just returned from a chamber choir rehearsal where we focused on the Russian folk music rather than the liturgical stuff. Our conductor, a highly energetic and large Russian woman spits the text at you joyously and you are expected to spit them just as joyously back. We got through the pronunciation of one of the last pieces this afternoon and she says to us "Good! Now you are peasants! Now you leave!" Rehearsal was over.
There's something about the guttural sound of the Russian language that just puts me into a kind of meditative stupor, especially when the alto line calls for these rich sustained whole notes that only float around scale degrees 1-2-1-5-1-2-1-5 and so on. The Russian choral tradition is very different from the western choirs of Italy and France and such, that is to say that these and sustained notes and melodic lines do not breathe themselves, do not surge and deflate with the music but are stagnant throughout it. I can't explain why the music demands it- personally I think all choral music must move, much of today's rehearsal was spent with our conductor attempting to instill in us the importance of consistency between notes. I don't know. I don't think I like it. It means one has to detach your instincts from the movement of the music, and engage your head. Plus it...kind of put me to sleep. This is why I prefer Bach- not simply because I happen to believe his music is "better", if you will, but because it sings you.

Now I'm back in the room, going to read for a little while before soccer, after which a bunch of the girls are heading over to the student pub for drinks. I am tired and I ache in ways I can't really find words for. So I think soccer is just what I need.