Random thoughts on home

So what follows is more or less random thoughts that have occurred to me in the 1.5 weeks or so since I got home.

Eight months of basically no piano is really hard on the hands! I've been having to go back to the good ol' Hanon exercises to try and get my chops back into shape, what with the fair amount of playing I'll be doing in the new year. I've also got to get back on track with my program to learn a crapload of music in my lifetime -- I'm slowly (very slowly) pecking away at the Chopin Etudes for now, I figure that will occupy me for a fair amount of time (read: looong time)...

Canadian beer is really expensive and not very good...I mean, almost $2 for a can of Canadian? Give me my €0.57 Erdinger Weißbier! It made me sad inside to go into a liquor store.

We really are more polite here. First time a dude apologized for brushing by me on a bus I was so confused for a second..."what did he do to me?"

Speaking of buses...."free" transit is so vital! In times past, I've had a U-Pass, and in Germany I had a Semesterticket (essentially the same thing), and when I came back, the week between when I landed here and when I went up to campus to get my U-Pass, was super expensive...I mean, $4.50 for a 3-zone ticket? C'mon!

More later, probably...