Silent Tunes

The main problem with this blog is that it's about me. Though I may be captivated by all that I write about me, I doubt that anyone else is. In fiction you can write about yourself under the guise of writing about made-up people.

I live in Budapest, Hungary; I'm here studying music. My father's a diplomat and was posted here for three years. When he got a new assignment in Africa (Libreville, Gabon) my older brother began attending college in the States (Notre Dame), and I decided to stay here. I study piano with a private teacher and attend a music high school for other subjects like solfege and music theory.

I'm interested in people. I enjoy watching them in the buses, on the sidewalks, and in the underpasses. I like listening to them. And I like writing about them. I haven't quite figured out yet how much of a person's art comes from themselves or from the people around them.

Because Daddy's in the Foreign Service, we've traveled a lot. I've lived overseas since I was five, with only relatively brief returns to the United States. This has had the result of making America a foreign country to me: strictly speaking, it is not my home. There really isn't a culture or society that I feel is my home, as I've grown up in so many. Being homeschooled has added to this effect.

I expect it would be good to thrown in a mention (for effect) at this point of the failed mutiny we lived through in Central Africa, and of the riot that took place when we were in China. The latter resulted in our being evacuated from our apartment behind the consulate to a hotel, and the former in our being evacuated back to the States, though in both cases Daddy had to stay behind. During the riot I remember being frightened by the burning down of the consul general's residence next door, and by the thought of how small the walls around our apartment building were. My brother and sisters slept through that night. During the mutiny, I recall continuous gun fire (I was ten at the time) and driving in a military truck through town and not being able to take off at first for Cameroon because of fighting near the airport.

On a final note, my favorite Agatha Christie mystery novel is And Then There Were None.

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		wWednesday, July 21, 2004
		Teaching is fun, did you know that? I, Rebekkah Laeuchli, have been teaching English for about three and a half weeks now to a very nice four year old French boy. He's extremely well-behaved. He already speaks some English and part of the class is just devoted to playing games and looking at books so he can practice that. The other part is trying to teach him to read. He's been going to an American school, and I must say they did a very poor job. They taught him the names of the letters but neglected to mention that letters actually have a use, i. e., they make sounds. So that's what we've been learning. He's caught on pretty quick. Now we're trying to move on to the idea that you put letters together to make words. Unfortunately, he and his family are going on vacation soon, which will put a stop to my teaching career. French is also fun, did you know that? It translates so directly into English that it's beautiful. One of my poems placed first in TYWC's annual poetry contest. I can't say it's a great accomplishment but I was pleased anyway. I thought my poem would probably win. There's modesty for you. Voila the link. Sarah is coming to Budapest! Sing Hallelujah and Hosanna! After my brother and I leave Gabon the family are going to India to vacation for a month. They come back via Paris and my sister is going to stop off in Hungary for a few weeks. Naomi insists she's old enough to come too but she hasn't managed to convince les parents of that. Toodles! posted by Rebekkah at 11:18 AM

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