Today I saw an interesting movie called "My Darling is a Foreigner" about the relationship between a Japanese woman and an American man who is living in Japan. The couple speaks in Japanese, and it is about their getting through the cultural differences that pop up during the course of their relationship. However, in my opinion, there weren't too many cultural differences that created hardships in their relationship. As one of the characters in the movie expressed, a person's nationality won't make or break a relationship, it's all about the two people's personalities and whether or not the personalities mesh.

Yesterday I went to a barbecue and was able to speak to Dunia, the mother of Julia (the girl to whom I'm teaching violin). I was worried that my descriptions of how to hold the violin and bow and how to move the bow across the violin strings were insufficient, but Dunia informed me that based on my serious attitude and persistence during the lesson, Julia has been practicing very diligently. She has even started to work on "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" all by herself, although we didn't go over it in the first lesson! She seems to be progressing rapidly and self-motivated, so I'm pleased to hear that. Tomorrow I'm going to teach her how to read treble clef.