Reunited

...and it feels so good. One of the hardest goodbyes I had to say when I left the states was to my cello. I braced myself for a long period of time not being able to play. Turns out the stars aligned just right because the wait is over. People living in Chiang Mai tend to agree that this whole "coincidences" or "things happening for a reason" seems to occur at a strangely high rate here. It's almost as if you make a wish to yourself and then the next day someone comes up to you and grants you your wish. Happens all the time. It almost doesn't surprise me anymore.

I was walking to work one morning last week after a long night of listening to cello music and wishing I could play. (You think I'm making that last part up when you hear the rest of the story, but I swear to you I was in the midst of a cello withdrawal). My coworker (whom I've talked to for maybe 30 seconds three weeks prior) honks his motorbike at me and waves me over for a ride. I take a moment to even recognize him and accept the offer. We start talking and grab a coffee on campus and then he tells me the other schools he teaches at. I don't recognize any of them, and I assume he teaches English, but I ask what he teaches anyway. "Guitar and cello," he says. I stopped dead in my tracks and say "I play the cello!" He stops dead in his tracks and says, "I'm just a beginner teaching other beginners and I need a teacher!" The conversation continued as we kept topping each other with excitement and other good news. I say I've taught lessons before and I could teach him, but I don't have a cello. "I just bought a cello and you can use it anytime you want! AND I can introduce you to the music schools who are in desperate need of a cello teacher." I kid you not, it just gets better and better. Turns out his roommate plays the piano and has also been looking for a cellist to play with. All of my wishes were just handed to me on a silver platter. Moral of the story: all good things will come when you hop on the back of a stranger's motorbike. Ok maybe not something that you'd write a children's book about, but it's pretty neat how things like this happen.

What makes this so extraordinary is the sheer lack of cellists and orchestras in Chiang Mai. I feel like I won the lottery. So today I went to his house, got to play his cello (it was a load off my shoulders the instant I had it in my arms) and gave him his first lesson. I also met his roommate and we just hung out on the floor listening to pieces in his extensive music library. Classical music has not been a conversation piece of mine for what feels like an eternity, so in a strange way I felt like I was home.

We (the pianist and I) have our first concert date set, I have my first private student, a practice space and cello to use whenever I want, I am meeting the director of a music school for lunch this week, and I will hopefully have more students soon. Does it get any better? Probably not.