Homesick

For a while, things were busy here in Vilsendorf (back in Germany-I don't know the last time I wrote) and I didn't have much time to write. Then things slowed down a bit and I started to grow homesick, enough to keep me from writing, not wanting to admit it. Burying myself deeper into my family here seemed to help for a while but I finally gave in to admitting it. Last night was... interesting. I'm feeling much better finally, knowing that wherever I am, I have a heavenly Father who is always with me. Nevertheless, I'm very excited to see my family in a few short weeks.
So what have I been up to since the Czech Republic? I've been enjoying the time here in Vilsendorf and surrounding areas. Last Thursday I visited Köln (Cologne) with my future house-mates Emma and Katrina Bobbs and their family. It was wonderful to finally meet them or at least most of the family. We visited the famous cathedral but for the twins' sake didn't stay long. Our next stop was the Lindt chocolate museum- really a treat! The museum shows all aspects of chocolate, including harvesting cocoa beans, transporting them, the people who harvest them, how chocolate is made, the advertisement and history of chocolate, etc. My favorite was the actual chocolate manufacturing and tasting :).

Ah, time to go eat some ruccola-garlic-bacon-onion noodles! Will write more later.

Perhaps you've noticed that I haven't written in exactly a week now; I hadn't!
I apologize that this is short- I'm off to the Plzen brewery- but will write much more later.
From Wednesday to Monday of last week, my time was occupied with preparing for lessons and chamber rehearsals, attending concerts, and writing a cadenza which turned out much worse than I had imagined. Good thing I'm not a composer! After Amir left on Tuesday, however, things slowed down a bit musically. I still had lots of chamber music, up to three hours a day with the group, but it was well worth it for our concert on Thursday night. The second violinist arrived Monday morning so we had to work quickly. Despite my fears of things not working out, the concert went surprisingly well and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Though perhaps rescuing himself from a previous comment that I shouldn't go into music professionally, my coach, Mr. Zigmund, encouraged me to play chamber music. "If you can do that well, you have the brains to do any sort of performing well", he said. It's been a while since I'd performed and it felt good to be at it again. I'm looking forward to next semester and hopefully putting together repertoire for a winter concert. So far, I'm working on Haydn D maj concerto, Bach suite 2, Hindemith Sonata, Beethoven Variations on Judas Macabbeus, and Dvorak's Waldesruhe. Quite a program! If all goes well, I hope to share it with my family and friends in a concert in December in St. Petersburg :)
Well, I should head out soon: it's going to be another wonderful afternoon of Plzen. I promise to write more about the synagogue here, the view from the top of the cathedral, the bohemia jazz fest, blahovec pond (?), toilets, ivan zenaty, the plzen brewery, subterranean passageways and hopefully oldies disco dancing!

Lesson

I feel like I'm flying from a lesson on more technique and Haydn. I have so much to think about and work on, but it's an exhilerating feeling :)

Fish and Haydn

Yesterday's weather called for an evening on the terrace! Ragnhild and I went to an italian restaurant right near the Skola Dopravni, the dorms where we live. It's just up the hill and has a decent view of the city (not a beautiful city from above, though the actual buildings here in the centre of town are quite ornate). The menu was huge and I couldn't decide on what to order. Everything looked good but just didn't fit my mood. When the waiter finally came around, I asked him for some advice. He mentioned that they had sea wolf with rosemarry potatoes baked in the oven. I asked him more about the sea wolf, as I'd never heard of that before, and replied, "Would you like to see it?". I wasn't sure if he was going to bring out a filet or the actual dish or perhaps even the whole fish. Not two moments later was he back with the sea wolf, the entire fish, on a plate. Caught me a little off guard, but no big deal. I've seen fish before. I told him I would try it, something a little new. Ragnhild changed her mind from a risotto dish to salmon, another fish he brought out. About 40 minutes later, our waiter returned with our meals. I could only laugh that the same two fish came out, looking just as they previously had, but covered in breadcrumbs. I was not expecting a whole fish for dinner! Thankfully the waiter was kind enough to cut it open for me, take out the backbone, and remove the head. Dinner was certainly an adventure. Ragnhild and I talked about our hometowns a lot and discovered that we live in two totally different places. She comes from a town of maybe 3,000 along a fiord on the western side of Norway and I come from a sauna surrounded by palm trees and beaches. We both learned to not take for granted where we live!
I had a wonderful lesson today, almost 2 hours again, on the Haydn D major concerto. It's so good to finally be studying again and to be criticized and challenged in helpful ways. I have so many things to work on, and only 22 hours before my next lesson! Mr. Eldan has so many wonderful musical ideas as well as methods of working out technical passages. I'm growing ever more excited to be here at the festival.
Okay, off to find some lunch and then take the tram back up to the dorm to practice. Tonight I'll be back here in the city for a concert of gypsy music and classical composers' take on it (Brahms and Sarasate). Should be good stuff. :)

Scales and such

Just had an amazing lesson on technique with Amir Eldan. Let's just say I've got a lot of practicing to do...

Pilsen!

Dobre rano from Plzen!
I arrived on Sunday after 9 hours of train travel from northern Germany. Unfortunately- and my grandparents would blame this on sticking my head out the train window while it was raining-I caught a bug that is slowly going away.
It has been many years since I traveled to a country where I didn't know the culture or the language. Being in Plzen and the Czech Republic in general has opened my eyes to many new things. It's a wonderfully awful feeling not to understand a word of Czech, other than the common greetings. I thought shopping at Jibi was difficult; Lidl here is even crazier. The best way to shop, I've decided, is to buy the freshest veggies one can find and then just follow an older woman around and buy everything she buys! That's how I found milk and quark, a sort of yogurt. Everything, and I mean everything, is a challenge here. It's in a good sense, however, that I write that.
Practicing is finally back to normal, with 4 hours yesterday and 6 today. Okay, maybe that's not quite normal, but it makes up for all the time spent with family and friends. I have a lesson tomorrow with Amir Eldan about which I'm very much so excited!
I've made a few new friends despite the total lack of organized social events here at the festival. One literally has to go knock on a door and introduce oneself and ask if he/she would like to do something. Basically, "do you want to be my friend?". I've spent some time in these past two days with Camilla and Ragnhild, two girls from Norway. They are so adorably sweet. I went for a nice long exploratory walk with Camilla today. We both needed some fresh air and life (the dorms here are very much so remnants of the communist era; my toilet is always broken and I've learned to put in contacts without a mirror). Thankfully, not far up the hill is a beautiful park with lake surrounded by rock cliffs. We hope to go back to go swimming. The evening light was gorgeous as was the fresh cool breeze. (Can a breeze be gorgeous?) We also found a swing set near a little forrest; it looks almost enchanted to me. Not far from that is an awesome playground with an eiffel tower sort of jungle gym, a zip-line and 'sunken ship' in the sand. We thought about turning around and heading back but instead took a different road back. We're both thankful for this decision as we happened upon a cherry tree and quickly climbed up it. Though cherries aren't quite ripe yet (oh goodness do I look forward to the Koerner's cherry tree when I return in two weeks!), we enjoyed their freshness and tartness. We just sat in the tree for a while and got to talking about spiritual issues and what church is like in Norway vs. America. Overall, a wonderful walk. I cooked dinner for the three of us, including Ragnhild. It wasn't fancy- just some tortellini with tomato sauce and broccoli- but it was nice to eat here rather than going out. I must comment that the food here is incredibly cheap! I bought a whole box full of groceries for the equivalent of 10 euros (222 crowns). And the chocolate- that's a whole different story.
Tomorrow's a long day, so na schladanou and gute nacht!

Adventures in the Supermarkt

After sleeping in a while this morning, I had the priviledge of riding Annette's bike down to the Jibimarkt, a little grocery store. I locked up the bike, walked into the store, and began to look for a shopping cart. They have a sort of entrance gate, which I walked through to further my search, only to suddenly rememeber that the shopping carts are kept locked up outside. If only America would understand the benefits! One has to put a euro coin into the shopping cart to unlock it from the rest. Once you're done shopping, you have to attach the cart back to the rest and the coin pops out. How brilliant. Those poor Publix workers would never have to go fetch all the carts in the heat.
Speaking of heat, it's pretty stinkin' hot here. Northern Germany (and perhaps other places in Europe) is having a heat wave and it's 35 degrees celsius. That#s 95 without AC! Gotta run for lunch and then the soccer game in the city :)

Wow, it's been a crazy first day! Somehow I managed to wake up at 6:45 without an alarm clock- I think the German birds did it. Ate a nice German breakfast of muesli and then took the bus into the city. We first stopped at the Bahnhof, or trainstation, to make reservations for the 8 hour trip to Plzen on Sunday. Bought a new pair of pants as my favorite jeans ripped on the way over... Bought some buttons at Karstadt (that's a conversation for another day!), visited Michi's(my cousin) workplace, the Evangelishes Krankenhaus, or hospital, and his school. Then we went to the Sparrenburg, an 800 year old tower/fortress that overlooks the city. One of my parent's first dates was there! Stopped at the post office to grab some stamps (it's apparently quite expensive to mail letters to the USA) and then ran back to the straßenbahn, or streetcar, to return to Vilsendorf. Annette, my aunt, had prepared the day's hot meal, a swedish summer soup with fish and potatos. Rested a little then got to cello playing until my grandparents arrived. Worked in the garden brieflz with Christian, mz uncle, and later returned to pick fresh johannesbeeren for rote grutze, perhaps one of my favorite desserts :) Played some cello out on the lawn for Andreas and Melanie who are to be married in August and then just sat around talking. I have so much more to say, but not the time. Here are some interesting things Iäd forgotten or learned:
Germans have long legs, or at least all the pants I tried on were too long.
One has to pay to use the restroom, about .50 euros.
Germans move with their refridgerators...
Everzone in Europe talks about soccer. Come on, USA, get on the bandwagon.
Czech crowns are crazy huge!

I'm quicklz forgetting how to think in English, so I greatlz apologize for my syntax :)
Off to bed to hopefully sleep a little longer tonight- going on a run durch den Wald mit Michi :)