New Zealand

Finally the New Zealand trip is arriving.

Our original plan of leaving New Years Eve changed after an unfortunate complication with borer control. Forced to change our plans and leave a little more then a month later, John and I were feeling a little discouraged. The time since has felt like quite the eternity since John had to go back home to Boston and I stayed home in PEI. But now 12 days to go doesn't seem to bad. I was lucky enough to get a temp job in an office in town where I am right now. You can tell that they're keeping me really busy here...

I will be flying from Charlottetown to Vancouver on the 5th of Feb., meeting John the next day when he flies in from Boston and we'll be together for the long journey across the Pacific. About 14 hours to Aukland, New Zealand and then from there to our final destination; Christchurch.

Missing Ireland

So after what seems like an eternity of flights and waiting, checking in and picking up luggage I'm finally home. I flew from Dublin Sunday evening, arrived and stayed in the London airport all night until my flight left at 8:30 the next morning. Then flew to Toronto and then to PEI. It's funny how my first flight was about 2 hours long and it went by fairly quickly, then the flight from London to Toronto was about 8 hours but I had movies and an interesting girl sitting next to me so the time passed fast enough. But the flight from Toronto, about one and a half hours, felt like an absolute eternity. I don't know how many times I fell asleep and woke up feeling like I slept for a long time but it turned out it had only been like 2 minutes. I just wanted to be home!
So during my overnight stay in London I decided to stay in the airport since I had all my luggage with me and it was pouring rain. I hung out outside for a long time under an overhang roof where I read and stuff. I took out my violin when not many people were around and played a few tunes. While I was playing a leaf fell off a tree and into my case. The leaf is now my London souvenir.
First thing I noticed when I came home was when we got in the car and we were driving on the wrong side! haha It's funny how quickly you adjust to these things.
So now I'm getting back into the regular swing of things. I played Anne and Gilbert tonight and in many ways it was nice to be back, though in others...well, you know. Back to the Mackenzie theater tomorrow.

Homeward Bound

Last day in Ireland! I can't believe it's over. I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Dublin after a couple hours of liesurely walking around. My camera batteries are dead so no pictures but it's very cool. I've been on Connor Street for a while and it is a very busy place.
The whole time I've been here I've noticed that the parts of Ireland that I have seen are very similar to PEI. Except for the ancient stone walls and crumbling stone buildings everywhere. It will be nice to get home and actually rest a bit though I will miss this very much. I'll miss my roomies and my friends that I've made here. Happily I will see some of them soon in Ottawa but some I'll just have to miss :(

Sick Day

We traveled to Ennis yesterday to perform our Mini Mozart Opera and Benjamin Brittan's "Noah's Flood". It was a beautiful church but it didn't have a bathroom so we had to walk to the nearest hotel to use their facilities.
Noah's Flood is the student opera that they have been working on since the beginning of camp 2 weeks ago. They have a nice set, very cute costumes and spot lights. I'll post pictures later but the little girl that plays the dove is so adorable. She looks like a little angel. I was sitting watching the opera from the audience and I happened to be right behind her parents and they were so proud. At the end of the show she gets carried off the stage on Noah's shoulder and she flaps her arms like a bird. It's just too cute.
I've got a bit of the flu today. I just took a nap for an hour and I feel a bit better but hopefully a good nights sleep tonight will get rid of it.

Beach Day

We've finally got the internet back up and running. The highlight of the last couple of days was definitely Sunday. We all were planning on sleeping in since it was our only day off of the week. I woke up at 9:30, looked out the window and it was so sunny. I jumped out of bed, ran to the front door and walked out into the most beautiful of days. It was already very warm and it was only early! I was so excited I ran upstairs and woke everybody up. I ran over to the guys house (Fabio and John) across the road and yelled at them through their open windows until they finally both peeked their heads out through the curtains and saw the beautiful weather.
We had a big breakfast all together and then left for Salt Hill which was about a 20 minute walk from town. By the time we got there it was very hot and three of us (Sarah, Nora and myself) laid on the beach while the others went to this big cliff. We had seen similar cliffs on the Aran Islands so we stayed and basked in the sun. Nora and I went swimming in the very cold Atlantic ocean. Not too much different then home.




Went to an awesome concert tonight. David Stewart played this amazingly virtuoso piece that impressed everyone. During the intermission of the concert David informed us that we, the violinists, are playing in a concert tomorrow night. So I better get back to practicing! I'll be playing the first movement of the Ravel violin Sonata.

I'll have pictures up on facebook soon!

Still Alive

The internet has been down in our flat for the last couple days. I'll update soon when we get back online!

So much music!

Yesterday we went to a concert in the evening at the "grand hall" on the University campus. It is a beautiful old church like building with a huge courtyard and small recital halls that are perfect for chamber music concerts. Before the concert we had a lot of fun taking pictures in the courtyard and on the steps outside the building.





The concert opened with a solo performance of a Bach cello suite, then a contemporary piece performed by piano, clarinet, viola and an alto singer. The second half was a Schuman piano quintet (piano, two violins, viola and cello) and was performed by the String quartet, Contempo, who have been leading our orchestra at camp.

So during the concert there was a lady sitting beside me who was obviously very interested in seeing this concert but also very obviously falling asleep. I really wish I could have gotten a picture of her while her head was hanging about an inch away from my shoulder. Then the music would end and the sudden applause would jolt her out of her awkward slumber in she'd sit up very suddenly and vigorously rub her face, cross and uncross her legs and then slowly fall back to sleep with the next piece. So I don't have a picture of her sleeping but Simon took this one...




We have orchestra rehearsal every day at 1:30 and our conductor, Paul, always has this huge clock on the floor beside him so that he knows exactly when to start and when break is and everything. So today Paul looked down to check the time while we were playing a bit of the Dvorak Symphony and couldn't see his clock. So while we were playing he squatted down and started rummaging through all the papers and sheet music on the floor around him trying to find his clock. Eventually he stopped the music and asked if anyone had seen his clock. Meanwhile the principal cellist had a very devious look on his face and as Paul looked closer he saw that the cellist had taken his clock, put it on his own stand and hid it under his music. We all had a good laugh and then Paul discovered that the time was turned forward so that we could all get out of rehearsal early, which unfortunately didn't work. Then when he went to fix the time he found that the batteries were missing. Bogdon, the concert master, then pulled the batteries out of his shirt pocket. Great moment.

More to come!