Day 13-Kind of an Uneventful Day

Today marks the 13th day that I am in Miami and it was a day of planning. I made a few phone-calls and set-up some more interviews. I called Trompetica, who is a well-known Cuban trumpet player. I was lucky enough to meet him in Philadelphia a few weeks ago when the Afro-Cuban All Stars came into town for a concert at the World Cafe Live! He gave me his telephone number and told me to call him on 7/20 when he would be back in Miami from his tour. So, I called him on 7/20...What I didn't realize was that he only speaks spanish, not a word of english...I was able to explain to him who I was in spanish over the phone, but I had a hard time understanding what he was saying to me (loud background noise combined with fast Cuban-Spanish). So...I had to call my Cuban music teacher and friend in Philadelphia (Albert Aguilera) for some assistance. Albert called Trompetica for me and explained everything about my project for me. Trompetica told Albert to tell me to find a translator and call him back to set-up an interview. I am still working on finding a translator, but hopefully should have one in the next day or so. I also was able to set-up an interview on Thursday with Carlos Puig, a recent Masters Graduate of UM and a Cuban-born musician (trumpet). Also, I called a percussionist by the name of Yoel Del Sol who I met at the Loews hotel on Monday night. He had instructed me to call him to set-up a time to meet. He told me he would have time on Thursday afternoon and to call him Thursday morning to confirm and make a definite time. Overall, today was very eventful in terms of planning, but not so much in terms of actual events taking place.