The Talent Surrounding Me, Part 2

Raul was in the Costa Rican paper (www.nacion.com/proa "Talento Continuo") Sunday! You don't need to go through all of the trouble of following the link; I've uploaded the picture they took (see below) and will give you the low-down!

So basically, Raul and two other guys, (his friends Jose and Jorge) have been in the Youth Orchestra of the Americas for quite a while. This is a prestigious organization made up of young musicians from North, Central and South America. They've been all over the place at all kinds of cool places, like D.C., Mexico and Argentina. These guys hang out with people like Yo-Yo Ma and Placido Domingo. Oh yeah, and last year, they played at Carnegie Hall. Bet you feel crappy now.

There's a section in the article just for Raul, and I'll attempt to roughly translate some of it now. If I totally miss the meaning of entire phrases and paragraphs, please forgive me.

Raul is talking about how he began playing violin:

"They told me that because I was big I had to start with viola. But, at that time there were no violas available, so they gave me a violin. I was enchanted by it and never gave it up," recalls this 21 year-old young man who has earned many national distinctions and has been part of the leading orchestras of the country. In 1994, he was admitted into the Children's Orchestra, two years later, into the Youth Orchestra, where he was first violin (Concert Master!) up to the beginning of this year, and finally, into the National Symphony Orchestra.


I bet it really hurts you to know that if we were in high school, and we were seniors (and in the same country), Raul would take me to prom, and not you.

You'd be sooo jealous, and would stay at home in your pajamas, eating double fudge ice cream and crying.

(just kidding, you would go to prom too. but not with Raul, so you might as well have stayed home.)