My Ocarina's Here!

The ocarina awaited inside of this.

So, my ocarina arrived in the mail today. Well, not really today, I actually got it some days ago, but for this posts sake, let's pretend I got it today. I don't remember exactly when I ordered it, but I think it was a couple of weeks ago, and I'm really happy that it's here. I ordered a dragon tooth ocarina, and I had a small fear of it being ruined.

When my dad told me a notice had come from the post office yesterday,  I got a bit confused about if it actually was a retrieval slip, since it was only a scan of some sort, and had no actual writing about that I had a package at the post office. I assumed it was a retrieval slip, and that it was for my ocarina, since it was the most likely thing to be, and I wanted to get it right away, but the post office had closed by then, since it was after 5. I had to wait a whole damn day before I could fetch it!

I was really looking forward to getting it after school the following day, but I had to sort some stuff out there, and got a bit delayed. I thought of picking the package up on the way home, but the piece of paper allowing me to pick up the package was at home, so I had to go by home first to get it. I went off the bus at about 16:40, and rushed home with my relatively heavy backpack to get the paper piece, but I first got home at 16:50, and knew that I had very little time to get to the post office, which is about a 15 minute walk away. I took off my backpack, grabbed the paper, and headed back out without even saying hello, and began walking fast towards the post office.

When I got about 1/6 of the way there, I checked the clock, and saw that I wouldn't reach it at the speed I was holding. I started running, and constantly feared that the wind would take the paper from my hand by some accident, and that I wouldn't be able to pick up the package. Luckily it didn't, and I got to the post office about 5 minutes to 5. I got lucky, and I noticed I wasn't the only one who had gotten late to the post office. There were about 5 other people there (and 1 heading out), so I pushed the button on the ticket-machine, and got a line number. It was a three-digit number that was 409 or something similar. I remember that it ended in 09, but I don't remember the first number.

After waiting for about 10-15 minutes, it was finally my turn. I handed the paper to the woman behind the counter, and asked if it was a retrieval slip. She didn't answer, but went away for 20 seconds, before coming back with my package. I took that as a yes.

I wasn't sure about if it was the ocarina or not, but upon closer inspection of the package, I noticed a small blue ocarina-bird symbol, and I knew that it was my ocarina. I spent about 20 minutes walking home, savoring the feel of my ocarina having arrived. I walked upstairs when I got home, into the living room, and started unpacking my ocarina. Well, first I took a picture of the box to put here.







In the box, was an envelope. The envelope was rather heavy, and obviously didn't contain anything made of paper. It shifted from side to side as I moved the envelope, and also jingled slightly. I opened the envelope (which had been folded over the middle), and discovered a metal chain, that was supposed to be attached to the ocarina to make it both easier and safer to carry.

Can I call this an ocarina leash?

The next thing I took out of the box, was ''The Legend of the Dragon Tooth Ocarina'', a brown-colored booklet with a dragon printed on its front page. It was slightly bigger than my hand, and had about 45 pages, where roughly half was purely song tabs, and the rest was a story/song mix.

The booklet in the box.

 In the box was also another, smaller box, which had been sealed with a bit of tape. The box was a typical brown box, and was about the size of my hand. In the box was a wooden ocarina stand. It had some slight dirt on it, but nothing that was really too bad, and had been carved out of a single piece of wood.

The ocarina stand. (Made in India)

After finding these things, I scoured through the box for more things, and found the main thing I had been after; In the midst of all the white mushy popcorn-thingies, was the ocarina, wrapped in a piece of decorative red cloth. The cloth was stretchy, and had a ''tail'' used for making a knot to make sure that the ocarina wouldn't fall out.

This is the ocarina in its clothing.

When I took out the ocarina, it was black, as expected, with the same type of ornament as the one in the picture from the online store. It had a total of 14 holes, where one was the hole to blow in, and another was where the sound came out of. In contrary to what many might believe (and I used to), the whole ocarina does not make sound. Only one of the holes do, and the rest only variate the sound coming out of that hole.

This is the ocarina, naked.

This is the underside of the naked ocarina.

I must admit that the ocarina looks cool, and I like the shiny-ness of it, combined with the nice sound it makes. I plan on learning how to play many songs, and I'm going to play through the booklet first, and then move on to other songs, such as songs from ''The Legend of Zelda'', or any other songs that I find and feel like playing.



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Post Script:
I've played a lot on my ocarina the past few days, but since I had to write the D&D post, I didn't have time to write about the ocarina, despite how much I wanted to. I've learned a lot, and plan on learning a lot more. I'm not so good that I can perform in public yet, but I can play some decent tunes.