good to be here

Last night I did something kinda crazy. Today I led a rather solitary existence, but my day was a full of exploring and music. Crazy, exploring and music. Good things. Where to begin?
Well, this morning I checked out the weekly Capital City Public Market I've heard so much about. Described as a European-style open market in downtown Boise, it boasts locally grown and crafted food, art and music. Unlike Boston's Haymarket, which is the cheapest place to buy fruits and veggies from April to October, the Market here is more upscale, more about quality food at decent prices. And it is definitely an Event. Boise is funny that way, very conciously building its city-ness. It's kinda cute, really, like a nine-year-old glaring up at his 6-foot-2 cousin and insisting, "but I AM big!... or, well... I WILL be!"
Anyway, I liked it, the morning downtown. For the first time since landing in this little piece of desert, I had the thought, "it's good to be here." Another thing I am enjoying is riding around the city on my bike Joe - he's basic transportion, a working bike, an average Joe; gotta love him. Then there is food gathering. I do most of my grocery shopping at this awesome store called WinCo that's near campus. It's set up semi-warehouse style, and they don't accept debit or credit cards beacuse the fees assocaiated with those would "cause a Price Increase", as the sign ouside the front door says. I go at least once a week and get a couple bags, just enought to carry on my bike, then store the food in my instrument locker at school til I go home. It's great to open my locker at the end of the day and get a whiff of blueberry/apple granola and ranch salad dressing mix! :)
Anyway, last night. Basically, it rained. This was the first time I'd seen precipitation since I got here, so it was a new thing for me. My first or second day here I found that I loved the smell in the air in the morning. I realized that it was the smell of dew on the dry ground and grass - a wet hay smell, I guess. Yesterday, it was a lovely evening, cool and windy, and some pretty clouds. Then it started raining and I decided I just had to be out in it. By the time I got out on my bike after supper, it was around sunset and the raining as hard as ever. I was soaked after just a few minutes and thought, "Sylvia, what are you doing? you're gonna get sick or run over because it is dusk and raining and the people here do not know how to drive in the rain..." Then I saw the rainbow, so clear and close it looked like solid thing, a beautiful sight with one end of it touching the yellow-brown foothills and the other melting into a tree straight ahead of me. At one point I looked up and realized that could see the whole rainbow, then looking back to the road I saw a deer just to my right. Frightened by my presence, she scampered off, and I was like, "Thanks God; this so great. I'm wet and freezing and tired and sore, but it is definitley worth it!"
So I made it back home all right, took a hot shower and slept like a baby. Today, after experiencing downtown Boise, I got a dose of Boise State community when I went into the Student Union to make a couple photocopies and the Food Court was set up as Bronco football central. The weekly game, this one against Oregon State, was being watched by a roomful of blue and orange clad fans. Already being a football fan, I found the atmosphere infectious and I took a moment to watch a play - two minutes left in the 1st half. 4th and goal. good guys, up only by three, on offense. could they get it??? "Ohhh." great defense by OSU. Palpable dissapointment, but not yet worried, still up by three points, right?
So, I headed back to practicing my violin - 3 and a half hours today; not bad. Then later, I attended the recital of a young Russian pianist brought into town for the Student Union's Classic Performances series. His name is Vasilly Primakov. He gradauted with his BM and MM from Julliard, and now at 26 he is an up-and-coming performer touring the globe, even including Boise, Idaho. A real handsome dude in the head shot on his bio, he is also wonderfully dorky in person as only artsy folks can be, pianists in particular, I think. He wore these great pointy shoes and made faces while he played and he performed Chopin and Beethoven like nobody's business. I laughed, I cried, I sighed - not out loud of course, but I did do a "woo, hoo!" whem he finished the last piece, a stellar rendition of Beethoven's "Appassionata" Sonata. And we all gave him a much deserved standing ovation.
So that was my day and a half. I'm not sure what I'm doing for church tomorrow. I think there's a little church near by that I can bike to, so more exploring first thing in the morning. Better get some sleep then, eh? So thinks for reading and Guten Nacht.