The Most Epic Day

Well, I accidentally just lost about half a page of what was going to be the blog post for today, so now I'll have to retype it all. =(

     This morning began very similarly to yesterday, so I won't go into too much detail. Ryan and I both woke up at 4:00 (again) and then tried to go back to sleep into around 5:30 (again) at which point we both just lay awake, unable to fall asleep, until 6:00 (again) when we finally decided to get up, shower, and waste thirty minutes until breakfast opened. Talk about deja vu. Breakfast and the green apple juice was as delicious as yesterday (we love the green apple juice so much that we even named our chaperone group after it, “The Green Apple Squad”). After breakfast, we drove off to our rehearsal. Though the rehearsal was slightly frightening because several things were definitely not where they should have been, we managed to get through in one piece.

     Back at the Grant Hotel Sophia for lunch again, though this time we ate inside (yesterday we were on the patio). Lunch consisted of (gasp) more vegetables, some meat with a strange, slimy texture, fried calamari (only some ate that), and a pudding-esque dessert. Several tables had some more fun making the crystal glasses ring, even experimenting with different liquids. After lunch, we picked up earpieces and short-range receivers to aid us in the upcoming walking tour to the Nevski Cathedral. Although I'm positive that our guide had many wonderfully educational things to say, unfortunately we were equipped with short-range receivers, and as such Meri, myself, and the rest of the people towards the back of the group heard choppy audio or nothing at all for about three quarters of the walk. Despite this minor obstacle, we reached the Nevski Cathedral, which happens to be the second largest cathedral in this geographical area. Our guide gave us a brief overview of the exterior and the painstakingly detailed interior. When we headed back to our waiting buses, it started to rain lightly, giving us another prime example of Bulgaria's unpredictable weather.

     We headed back to the hotel, where we had ninety minutes until dinner and the evening's concert. It was during this period that I learned an extremely valuable life lesson. Due to the absence of an iron in our room, I attempted to purify my concert clothes from wrinkles by steaming it in the bathroom (turning on hot water and letting the steam take out the wrinkles). When I came back twenty minutes later, not only did I find my clothes still wrinkled, but the steam had condensed on everything in the bathroom, leaving it covered in a think shell of water, and the tub half full of water (due to a bad drain). After this adventure, Ryan and I headed down to dinner where we got stuff that you can probably already guess (pretty similar to last night's dinner).

     In concert attire and with instruments in hand, the whole group once again made their way to the buses to be shipped off to the concert hall for the opening concert of our tour. When we arrived, huge TV cameras, mics littered around the stage, and the news that the concert was sold out was slightly intimidating to say the least. Fast forward two hours and the concert is finished. I can't even fully describe how excited the audience was. Here's a few examples: both sides of the hall were packed with people who, because there were no more seats, had still bought tickets so they could stand through the entire concert, several kids in the balconies started dancing when we were playing Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean, and after two encores the audience was still standing in ovation after we had left the stage. It was pretty amazing. And, if all that wasn't good enough, it turned out that the son of the composer of a piece we played was in the audience, as well as several members from the U.S. Embassy, as well as (to top it all off) the King of Bulgaria. Wow. During the reception, I was able to secure an audience with the King along with Ryan where we not only shook his hand, but also had a quite lengthy conservation about PSYO in general and our plans for the future. After so much excitement, we got back on our buses and came back here, to the hotel. It's now fifteen minutes past 11:00 PM and today has got to have been one of the most incredible days of my life. Off to bed.

-Philip

https://picasaweb.google.com/philipsheegog/Bulgaria629?authkey=Gv1sRgCNa4x_mm9_r24QE#

Second Day in Sophia

This isn't breakfast.

     Wow, Day 2 and I'm already falling behind on this stuff. Sad face. Anyway, after a very restless six hours of sleep, myself and my roommate, Ryan, got up because the sun fully risen by 5:30. We tried entertaining ourselves till breakfast by watching TV, but most of the channels were either sappy dramas dubbed in Bulgarian or news channels covering very boring topics. We held out until 7:00, at which point we flew down the elevator and entered the breakfast buffet, and what a breakfast it was. To begin with, there was an assortment of breakfasty meats (including really thick bacon) and your typical continental breakfast choices, like eggs and toast, only they tasted a ton better. Then, there was an omelet chef who had an awesome accent to complement the very little English that he spoke. Next was the fruit bar, which, aside from the grapefruit, contained exceptional specimens of peaches, oranges, pineapple, and watermelon. Finally, as if that wasn't enough, there was the drink bar. Three uncommon juices, green apple, peach, and pineapple, pretty much stole the whole show that morning (especially the green apple). I don't know how they made it so good, but those juices were pretty addicting.

The delicious chocolate pudding.

     After loading ourselves onto two buses, we made our first trip to Sofia Hall, the venue of our first performance, while snapping pictures of various historical buildings, strange street signs, and McDonalds billboards. Once inside the hall, we rehearsed, yay. The hall is very different from UCI or Segerstrom in that it's pretty small for a concert hall, seating around 1,500, and has very little reverb, meaning that there is no echo to help cover up mistakes or slight timing mishaps, and that the acoustics we had gotten used to over the season were now making us a very uncoordinated group. Regardless, the rehearsal was productive, despite the majority of the orchestra being dead tired. After the rehearsal, we walked to the Grand Hotel Sofia, where we ate lunch. Unlike breakfast, the lunch food was much more Bulgarian and vegetabley-tasting. There were, however, delicious cups of pudding, crystal glasses which we utilized in a musical manner, and little glass soda bottles.

Museum of Natural History

Zombie orchestra

     After lunch, the orchestra was split into two groups in order to make our afternoon excursions more manageable. One group would start at the Museum of Natural History, while the other would start on a walking tour of Sofia. My group started at the Museum, which contained a plethora of ancient artifacts, some dating back to several thousand years B.C. The most striking part of the museum's artifacts were carvings made of wood, gold, silver, or other various materials. Some of these carvings, usually of religious purpose, were so finely detailed that I could barely make out the lines, let alone fathom how an ancient civilization created such pieces. After the museum, our Bulgarian guide, noticing how zombie-like the group was becoming, decided that those who wanted to could take an abbreviated version of the walking tour which the other group had done first. Being good students, both my sister and I went. Instead of the normal two-hour trip, we only made one stop at some ruins of the ancient Roman city some ten feet below the current ground level. Several walls, as well as the frame for a gate, were visible at the location where we went.

    We returned to the bus, headed back to the hotel, and went to dinner. Like lunch, the dinner food was more Bulgarian, though less vegetabley than lunch. Of particular note was the lasagna, which was cheese based. Although very rich, the cheese tasted quite good amongst all the layers of noodle. Several guests whom Mrs. Stahr invited spoke, talking about their lives in Sophia and giving some handy life lessons. With the conclusion of dinner, myself and Ryan headed back to our room and, after some evening socializing, went off to sleep once again.

-Philip

Pictures

While Meri and I have been taking dozens of pictures each day, we can only post so many per post (or else the aesthetic value of the post would be as good as none). However, for those who want to see the entirety of the pictures and videos that we've taken, I will be posting links from here on out at the bottom of each day's post that lead to photo albums from each day. Beware, there might be some bizarre shots and videos in the mix. =P

Airport/Day 1:
https://picasaweb.google.com/philipsheegog/Bulgaria626authkey=Gv1sRgCJC63d3poNPq1wE

https://picasaweb.google.com/philipsheegog/Bulgaria627?authkey=Gv1sRgCMDWpaujm9jJ4QE

Day 2: https://picasaweb.google.com/philipsheegog/Bulgaria628?authkey=Gv1sRgCN3U78W4wKHUxQE

-Philip

Another Perspective

Just wanted to let any and all readers know that there is another blog being written about our trip which will likely prove to provide another perspective on our stay here. I encourage you to check it out. =)

pacificsymphonyblog.org

The Adventure Begins

Note: Friends, family, and anyone else reading this. Sorry for the delay in posts, there wasn't any Wi-Fi in the rooms so I had to figure out how to hard-connect to the hotel's network, hence the delay.

Bulgaria: Day 1

     Finally time for our long-awaited trip to the far side of the world. Yesterday (well, technically two days ago since I'm typing this up in Bulgaria and the time change basically ate another day) saw us off to the airport, where we rendezvoused with Allison and the other cellos/horns/bassoons/trombones. Then, we got to wait for the rest of our group to arrive, killing the time with some Rat Slap, 13, and Pictionary. A couple hours later, we had our entire group through security and waiting at the gate. We had somewhere around an hour or two before our flight left, so several people found wonderfully overpriced airport food, while others watched Unknown (Liam Neeson) on Mr. Austin's laptop. When the wait was finally over, we boarded the plane and prepped ourselves for the twelve hour flight.

    All I can say about my initial impressions of the plane is “wow”. Being my first time on a 747, it was quite exciting to both myself and Meri and see two columns of seats, as well as the staircase leading to the lower deck. Each seat had a touchpad screen which could be used to browse through dozens of movies, hundreds of CD's, and a bevy of TV channels, all included with the flight price. As if the entertainment wasn't enough to keep our little minds amazed the entire trip, the food that we received was equally impressive, or at least dinner. Dinner was a selection between a pasta or chicken entree, a roll, fruit cup, some salad, and a brownie. Meri and I both got the pasta and were immensely impressed. The rest of the meal was just as good, the salad was crisp, the brownie was fresh, and the fruit was very sweet. The majority of the flight felt pretty much the same: some people were sleeping, others were incredible still not sleeping, a handful of lights in the darkened cabin were lit, and the constant drone of the engines annoyed me to no end. During the flight, I invested two hours into The Adjustment Bureau, a movie released last year if you haven't heard of it. The movie delves (lightly) into the issue of free will (versus Predestination...) and perhaps how those set along a predestined path can “overwrite” that path with our free will, or something like that. It was a very interesting movie that provided a little more meat to the thinking watcher than your average hack and slash flick. I also got through about three quarters of Rango which, despite the slightly negative things I heard about it, I found quite entertaining and funny.

     Well, time shift ahead half a day +ten hours for the time zone and we're in Munich. Our legs rejoiced as we walked down the jetway and into the German terminal. We checked out some very expensive gift shops, saw an Asian cuisine, and laughed as my cousin got ripped off by the horrible airport currency exchange rates. The next flight was considerably shorter and less lavish, though it was still fairly enjoyable. Finally, after around thirteen hours of air time and twenty-five (I think) hours later, we arrived in Bulgaria. After claiming our baggage, checking to make sure none of the cellos were damaged, and exiting the airport (while being filmed for TV broadcast), we met our Bulgarian couriers who drove us to the hotel where this blog post is being typed. We checked in, got our keys, and promptly went to sleep.

-Philip

T-Minus One...

Ahh, last day before our expedition begins! Unfortunately, it turns out that we have to get to the airport an hour and a half earlier than expected because I have a cello. Lame. And, we cellos have to put those incredibly ugly "fragile" stickers all over our beautiful cases. Double lame. =( Despite such things, we are both super pumped for this trip and excited to be so close to departure. Blog posts should be coming en masse very soon, so hopefully we can satisfy all you readers' voracious appetites for all things Bulgaria. Back to packing!

-Philip

Rehearse, Rehearse, REHEARSE!

Yes, we have had rehearsals everyday this week, and slowly but surely getting back to a descent level of playing.  Some of my friends are commenting on how long the rehearsals are, but if you think about it, 20 hours of rehearsals really isn't that much to get ready for our first international tour.  At a tour dinner on Monday, Maxim was telling about all the publicity we're getting already.  It's a little scary!
  One thing that has made this week a bit crazier than expected was my grandfather's passing.  He passed away on Saturday morning, and everyone (my mom and her siblings especially) has been working very hard to get the service together before we leave on Sunday.  God is good all the time, but He has been especially gracious during this time, letting the church and cemetery be open, the pastor available, family being in the area.  Even the day and time he died couldn't have been better.  So the service is tomorrow is tomorrow and the burial on Friday.  Then we're full steam ahead to Bulgaria!