In coming to New Mexico, I assumed I would be snow-free, and was proven wrong. It doesn't snow much at all in Albuquerque itself; I think it has snowed three days that I've been here, and each time, it's never more than flurries. Nothing sticks.
Outside of Albuquerque, though, the mountains get a LOT of snow due to the elevation and temperature differences. A good amount of the students, especially at my high school, live in the mountains and travel about a half hour or so to school every day. So, sometimes Albuquerque gets flurries or rain, but the kids in the mountains have heavy snow. This morning, all Albuquerque Public School District schools were on a 2 hour delay because of the weather. Instead of just calling off school for the whole day, they push the schedule back, hope the weather will clear a little, and start two hours later to give the kids in the mountains a chance to get themselves to school. This is a nice idea in theory, but half the mountain kids still show up late throughout the day due to car problems, and half the kids that DON'T live in the mountains just never show up, because if they're coming in late, they figure that they might as well not show up at all.
This morning, there was some ice on the ground in Albuquerque and the streets were wet, but there was no visible snow. The mountains are covered, though, and while it looks pretty, it causes a lot of transportation problems for the families that live there. The high school ended up canceling tonight's concert because a HUGE amount of the band kids didn't make it to school at all, and would have a hard time making to the concert.
The unfortunate part isn't that the concert had to be canceled, but that it cannot be rescheduled this semester. We have two weeks until the end of the semester, and within those two weeks, there's a huge jazz concert, finals, and all the craziness that finals brings. The high school director is also going to be out of town for a few days, and there are other events going on in the gym, so space is limited. The way it works out, it just won't be possible to reschedule the concert until January, when I'll already be back in Wisconsin. :(
So, it's disappointing, but it's life. Really, most of the valuable learning moments occur during class, and performing is an exciting experience because you get to share what you've learned. It would have been nice to perform with the high schoolers and I'm disappointed that I can't, but at the same time, it's just not possible to reschedule and I feel good about the musical progress that we made, performance or not.
Also, once I'm back in Wisconsin, telling people that my New Mexican Christmas concert got snowed out will be an entertaining story.
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