Golden Arches

      Here we are, already on our penultimate day in Europe. Although the days all feel lengthy and exhausting, the trip has gone by in a flash. Our busy itinerary has kept us up into late hours, so all of us are gradually getting more tired. This morning, we overslept again, getting down to breakfast at (gasp!) 7:30. Right before we left for morning's rehearsal, Cameron demonstrated his unique and hilarious ingenuity when he accidentally threw a euro coin out our open window. If you remember the scene from Pixar's “Up” where Russell throws his Wilderness Explorer GPS out the window, it happened exactly like that. So funny!

     For our rehearsal, both my trio and the Shostakovich trio were banished to the the Hostelek (a piano shop?) because the faculty thought we didn't need another coaching (so the coaches could work with some other groups), which we took to be quite high praise. Since we didn't have a coach, our trios decided to play for each other and give some comments. It was really fun and very helpful. After our rehearsal time was over, we hung out with the other trio, waiting the the bus to show up. The bus, however, ended up being twenty minutes late, so we just played on the pianos (and a harpsichord!) for a while to pass the time. After getting picked up, we played Egyptian Rat Slap (the official card game for classical musicians) until we reached the drop-off point for lunch.

     A few of us adventurous folks had a craving to try Austrian McDonald's, so we found the magical golden arches and ventured inside. The restaurant was packed with people, so Ashlyn and I run upstairs to snag a table in the kiddy section. While waiting for the food, Alec Hon (brother of Allan, and also a cellist) made a chair out of giant Lego-like blocks for himself. The food itself was actually quite good. But then again, I haven't been to an American McDonald's in a while, so I don't really have a good reference to compare it to. Regardless, the meal fulfilled its purpose and made all of us quite happy. We stopped in a few nearby shops before heading back to the bus and saw a few interesting places, such as “Red Bull World” and “Scholosserei Bieber”. In addition, we passed by a few groups of street musicians who actually were quite decent. The bus (and another epic game of Rat Slap) took us back to the hotel, where we are now. Tonight's concert is coming up fast and everyone is excited to perform. We'll be leaving for our final sound check in about half an hour.

-Philip

https://picasaweb.google.com/109511667393649244721/Austria41212

Americans

4/12/2012

    Amazingly, this morning we overslept. Up until this point, Cameron has woken up exactly at 6:30 which is the time I have my alarm set to. This morning, however, Cameron woke up ten minutes early. We both stayed in bed for a little while, waiting for the eventual alarm, but accidentally fell asleep and overslept by half an hour, eventually waking up at around 7:00 (meaning we weren't the first ones down for breakfast, alas...). Breakfast was as usual, including the marionette show and Austria's equivalent of Barney (this morning's episode was a sing along about “Cowboy Joe”). When we were leaving the hotel it turned out that a cellist, Alex Mansour, was missing. Although he was accidentally left at the hotel, he ended up being able to get a taxi to the rehearsal hall and everything worked out fine. We had another full morning of two practice hours and an hour of coaching with Mr. Jun, all of which were very productive.

     After the morning activities, we had the choice of visiting Salzburgian Salt Mines, going on a tour of the Mozarteum, or just hanging out around the Musikum. My trio, another trio, and the respective parents decided to hang out, walk around the city, and shop. The first business of the afternoon, however, was lunch. We found a cute little cafe close by and ordered our drinks and food. While an explanation would be lengthy, suffice it to say that I spilled my tall glass of orange juice all over Alan (the cellist of the other trio), which knocked over a glass of water and a soda. The chaos was hilarious! We were able to clean up the mess, and the management was very understanding. Later, after a few people had gotten their food, Ashlyn (a violinist) was courteously waiting to eat until the rest of us had gotten our food as well. While she was waiting, the waitress walked by and, seeing that Ashlyn had barely touched her plate, thought that she didn't like the food. The final laugh of lunch involved the cheese grater, which Weston (my pianist) used up almost immediately after we had gotten it, prompting him to ask for a refill. The waitress reluctantly agreed. Alan's summary of the lunch experience, from the eyes of the waitress was, “Those stupid Americans. They spill our juice, don't eat their food, and waste all our cheese.”

      After lunch, our ragtag band wandered the streets and checked out various shops in the nearby area. We visited a bakery where I bought a cinnamon roll for Alan in apology, a grocery store, a candy shop, a toy store, and a dollar store. We also found a random refrigerator in the street. We returned to the Musikum to get picked up for our dress rehearsal, where I wrote the majority of this post. The bus showed up and took us all off the Mozarteum for our dress rehearsal. The rehearsal went well and many of the groups were astounding. After the rehearsal, we loaded up the bus again and headed to dinner. Erkin, our bus driver, demonstrated his driving prowess when he pulled us through a road barely wider than the bus itself, as evidenced by branches scraping against both sides of the bus. We reached the restaurant, pulled out our cellos for Bachianas, and ate another delicious meal. Quite amusingly, we had chicken and very American french fries. In addition to some people sticking their fingers in the candle fire, our table played some more of the Idiot Game. Although we had to skip desert, our cello ensemble was able to pull off a pretty decent Bachianas, especially considering we'd looked at it together for a total of two hours prior. After the evening festivities concluded, we returned back to our Meininger Hotel, where I am currently finishing up this blog post. Hope you're all doing well in the States!

-Philip

Mansions, Jets, and Picnics

4/10/12

     This morning was much more enjoyable than yesterday. Not only did we three all wake up at a reasonable 6 AM, but I discovered an awesome dark chocolate and oatmeal mix that tasted amazing and kept breakfast feeling fresh. We got our first taste of the Mozarteum this morning with a few hours of practice and a masterclass. Our masterclass teacher, Professor Kern, who was intelligent, funny, and understandable. All three groups that played were fantastic, though a loud air humidifier turned on during the last group's lesson, providing a consistently annoying ambiance. As soon as the masterclasses ended, it was a mad rush to change into casual clothes and get to the bus. All the faculty was worried because we had a scheduled boat ride that would leave without us if we were late. Fortunately, everyone was able to get changed and get some food from chaperones and parents. We zipped along the highway to a large sea where our boat was still waiting. The large, motorized boat took us to one of several islands where, once we arrived, we took a small hike up to the third mansion of King Ludwig II. As we came to the central walkway leading up to the palace, two military-grade jets flew literally right over us; pretty epic stuff. Absurdly extravagant described just about every aspect of the mansion. Each room seemed to outdo the last. Highlights included a room with twenty-two-hundred candles, a ten-thousand (if I remember correctly) liter bathtub, and a food elevator that takes half an hour to raise once. Suffice it to say that we all were blown away. After the official tour, we had an hour and a half on our own to explore and relax. A few of us sneaked into the attached museum a few minutes before it closed, then rested our feet outside and fed some local deer.

     As the sun was setting, we hiked back to the dock and, because the boat was running late, a few of us played the Idiot Game and learned how to speak Gibberish. Once the boat arrived, we continued to entertain ourselves through a One Word Story, which had something to do with a penguin who eats lions. Upon docking, a short bus ride took us to dinner, where we started another One Word Story, this one dealing with smoking schoolchildren and aquatic bees. The food was great (even Weston and Ariel Mizumoto's vegetarian dishes were exemplary by their own standards) as usual, and another round of amazing German ice cream concluded the meal. In the time between dinner and leaving, our table played several logic games, like Click Click Bang Bang, Black Magic, and Picnic. A discussion of homeschooling and music occupied the bus ride home.

    Once we got back to the hotel, the cellos had a brief Bachianas rehearsal which was really good. Fifteen minutes of rehearsal and it was already sounding pretty epic. We got word from Susan that we would be able to perform at Thursday night's dinner for the rest of the JCM group, meaning it would be a casual, stress-free environment, but we would still get a chance to play with a unique group. After that rehearsal, we all went to bed. Our room had its usual shenanigans and craziness, including watching more women weightlifting, Grey's Anatomy (in English!), and another random TV show.

-Philip

https://picasaweb.google.com/109511667393649244721/Austria41012

Apologies

     I'm so sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. Between having wifi only in the lobby and getting back to our hotel after 11:00 each day, it's been hard to find time to record what we've been doing. I'm finishing up my entry for Day 3 right now, hopefully I'll get Day 4 up today as well. Thanks for reading!

The Hills Aren't Alive

Forgive me for any grammatical errors. I'll attempt to correct mistakes when I have more sleep.

4/9/2012

     The first day after long, international flights are always amusing to no end. Tiring flight + massive jet lag = zombie musicians. As you might recall from Bulgaria's second day, our experience over here was no different. My two roommates and I, Cameron and Ben, woke up early and, after an hour of silence, decided to get out of bed after Ben said it was almost 7 AM. After getting up, we realized that it was not 7 AM, but 5 AM. Unable to return to the wonderful realm of sleep, we amused ourselves with various pointless activities, including Cameron injuring himself multiple times (we kept count for the day, eventually stopping at thirty-nine), until 6:30, at which point we broke out our instruments and started jamming on Bach, Kruetzer etudes, and other random stuff. We survived the painful morning until breakfast which, thankfully, was worth the wait. Creepy YouTube videos of morphing sheep and narcoleptic goats aside, breakfast was refreshing.
     Afterward, we left on the bus for our first tours of the day, which included a medieval castle and the twelve-hundred year-old city of Laufen. Following these tours, we were given an hour to find lunch on our own. A group of us stumbled around the area, searching desperately for a place to eat non-desserts as all the places we seemed to find were bakeries. We ended up eating at the “Picnic”, which looked and smelled slightly shady. When we tried to leave, the waitress thought someone hadn't paid for two sandwiches, resulting in a long attempt to convince her that all the food had been paid for. Thanks to Allen Hon's knowledge of German, we successfully settled the confusion and left for the next item on our agenda. Little did we know that this next item was a three and a half hour walking tour of Salzburg. Everyone was already exhausted and jetlagged, making the long tour seem even longer. The tour was not without its merits, though. We got to see Mozart's birthplace, some gardens, a cathedral, bridges, and the largest castle in the region (situated on a massive hill, to boot!). Nevertheless, upon seeing the bus again, kids were running to give their feet some much deserved relief. At this point, our bus was looking very much like PSYO's “zombie orchestra” in Bulgaria. People were passing out left and right, leaving the bus very, very quiet. The hills of Austria were definitely not alive with the sound of JCM students this afternoon.
     We had an hour and a half at the hotel before dinner, giving us some time to practice, or sleep, if desired. The group was a little more lively for dinner, and for good reason. Dinner was as fabulous as last night, and the shenanigans that occurred at our table contained some of the funniest highlights of the trip so far. As if this wasn't enough for one day, Alec Hon and I followed up on a crazy idea we had earlier. Villa Lobos' Bachianas No. 1 is scored for eight cellos and Alec had access to the music, so we thought it would be worth a shot to read through it and see if it would be feasible to play. We scrounged up eight cellos, got access to the hotel's conference room, and read through the piece with amazingly good results. Now we're back in our bunks, hoping to wake up at more reasonable hours tomorrow morning.

-Philip

https://picasaweb.google.com/109511667393649244721/Austria4912

Easter in the Air

Sorry for the delay, Wifi is only available in the lobby, so I couldn't get this post up until this morning.

Here we are at the start of another epic adventure, but one not too dissimilar from the others. After checking into LAX and making sure TSA agents didn't completely wreck my cello, I tagged along with several other arriving families and got through security with setting off any alarms (checkpoint-friendly laptop backpack worked like a charm!). We arrived at our gate and, with three hours to kill, wandered back to security looking for friends, ate a bagel with garlic-tainted cream cheese, and heard some terribly terrible lame jokes. The time passed surprisingly quickly, and soon enough we were on board, ready for another long, trans-Atlantic flight. Fortunately, the plane was a newer model, meaning it had built in TV screen for each seat pre-loaded with a dozen movies, TV shows, music, and other such forms of mind-numbing, time-passing entertainment. Like in Bulgaria, the flight food was excellent, though we didn't get any of the special “folding forks”. Despite being an eleven hour flight, the time passed quickly and we soon found ourselves touching down at the International Airport of Munich. Traditional post-flight rituals commenced, and everyone was able to get past security and find their baggage in a timely manner. The two checked cellos (mine and Nathan Le's) were both intact. After leaving the terminal, we packed our luggage into what apparently is the largest bus in all of Austria, a double-decker which seats eighty people. The bus took us past vast snow-covered fields and mountains and past the German/Austrian border to our dinner destination, where we received a hearty meal of spaghetti bolognese, salad, and a mound of gelato (a welcome contrast to the vegetable-heavy cuisine of Bulgaria!). Good conversation and food made our first meal in Austria an extremely positive experience. After another brief bus ride, we reached the hotel, where we checked in, battered down the hatches, and prepared for our first day in Austria.

-Philip

Pictures! Labels should hopefully be up soon:
 https://picasaweb.google.com/109511667393649244721/Austria48

T-Minus Seven

One week till departure...and a fifteen hour plane flight. Whoop-dee-doo. =)