Today we took a tour of Londonderry and explored the city a little bit. Derry (also known as Londonderry) is also called the Walled City and so naturally, we explored the walls and all the historical landmarks. On the wall, sometimes the ladies in the past would wear their new clothes (their “Sunday best”) and walk around in them on this part of the walls on Sunday, and then outside the walls, fishermen would put out fishing nets to dry against the wall, and therefore this part of the wall was known as the catwalk. I kind of ruined the joke because I commented “it’s a legit catwalk” to some friends right before the punchline was revealed. Whoops. It was still clever, regardless.
Derry does have a lot of history to it. There is the Peace Bridge and the Peace Flame (which we saw lit up after our concert in GuildHall). Additionally, there is a statue of two hands and given the current state of things, there is a rainbow flag (LGBT flag) waving between the two hands. Our tour guide ended the tour at GuildHall and she sang a few verses of Danny Boy for us in the Cathedral and her singing was pretty good and Dr. D got teary-eyed.
We then had time to explore ourselves and so we went to an authentic Irish restaurant and ordered some food, then we roamed, found an ice cream store because you can’t not have dairy in Derry, and then walked around some more, I took lots of pictures, and then everyone met back up to go back to the hotel, change into concert clothes, eat dinner, and drive back to Guildhall for a soundcheck/rehearsal/warmup and then our performance.
This was probably the best performance we’ve given. Things were in tune and played right. Also, the acoustics were so wonderful in the hall. I still can’t get over how the audience always claps when we play Irish tunes (Like “Irish Washerwoman” and “Wearing of the Green”) and I still laugh and smile each time, as I’m playing the flute, which is a little difficult to do.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
50 Shades of Green: Day 8
Today we had a leisurely morning because we left at 11am. This meant that after breakfast at 9, Alex, Annika, and I decided to practice our tin whistles. Eric, Hannah, and Nick went with us as we tried to find the hot tub, but when we failed, we parked down outside the hotel (a good distance away) near a stream and sat on a bench and started learning more songs. We worked on intonation so we’re definitely more in tune than we were before, and our next step is fixing our air flow. One lady (we think it was a concierge person) came by and asked if she could take some pictures of us to put on the hotel’s website (HAHA) and then Dr. D and Mrs. D walked by later to take some pictures of us as well.
We then got on the bus for a 4 hour ride. First stop on our way to Derry was Drumcliffe, which is this very photogenic cliff, and then it has a church and next to the church is the grave of Yeats, the Irish poet. We decided to take the Riverwalk trail, which honestly was just a short path alongside this river that took us about 10 minutes to walk round trip. We are all getting a bit antsy because none of us have been getting exercise and have spent most of our waking hours sitting down, whether on bus rides, meals, or playing music. So though the trail helped somewhat, and we all really just wanted to be walking instead of sitting down, it wasn’t long enough and we thought we would hit a scenic spot to take nice photos, but we never really did, so it was a little disappointing. The river and the pictures we did take though were lovely and the trees shading the path were very picturesque and Eric kept wanting photos of him in it, which resulted in many very nice photos that also had Eric’s smiling face in them.
After heading back on the bus, we drive for 2 or so hours and then we stop at the cliffs. We saw the cliffs from a distance (we saw the water) and we got progressively excited as we neared. This was honestly the highlight of the day and the trip so far (sorry Yeats) because for the whole trip we were hoping to get to see the famous Irish cliffs, and we were (or at least I was) a little worried that we might not actually get to see them.
We stopped at Mullaghmore Head and got down to take pictures. I pulled out the piccolo to play a few Irish tunes and Meredith was an awesome photographer and took some nice photos. Soon, everyone sees Peter as he’s randomly kneeling on a cliff. From our location, it does not look safe at all, but pretty soon everyone is walking and trying to go onto that location and walk down on the rocks, even as Dr. D is worriedly calling out “no one go on the rocks!” But Dr. D eventually caves and comes down with us, and oh gosh it is just so beautiful. Seeing the dark rocks and the white waves crashing into them, and the beige porous rocks contrasting with the dark mussels stuck to them, it’s such a powerful scene. The wind was blowing and it was quite cool, and all of us got wonderful photos.
None of us wanted to leave and it was a sad trek back up the cliffs and back to the bus. The last leg of the bus ride was really rough and it did rain for some time (but when does it not rain in Ireland??). I try not to sleep on bus rides just because it doesn’t help jet lag, I’m afraid of missing some scenery, I like looking at the countryside, and also because I don’t want pictures taken of me. However, I did doze off for 20 or so minutes collectively, and Annika managed to get some pictures of me. Whoops.
Arriving at the hotel, I am for the third location, roomates with Meredith (we’ve settled into a comfortable routine with each other though and I’m infinitely grateful that she is a sound sleeper and puts up with me staying up late because I’m uploading photos to Facebook and writing blog posts), and the rooms are nice, but the one small meh factor is that the rooms are all metal keys and there is only one key per room. It makes it more inconvenient to go back to the room, and one person has to be in charge of the key, preferably the more responsible one. Actually the major downside is that wifi doesn’t work in any of the rooms, and it is barely functioning in the lobby, but hey, that means most of us were off our phones!
Before dinner, many of us played card games in the lobby (everyone gravitated to the lobby for the wifi, but with so many people on, the wifi just stopped working altogether). After dinner, some of us had to find an ATM to exchange money, and so we ended up walking around town and exploring a bit. We pass by Emil and Camille, who tell us that the ocean is a 10 minute walk from our hotel. We don’t believe them because we wander around and don’t find the ocean. We walk down a neighborhood and this dog has put its head through the bars of the fence and 5 minutes later, we look back and the dog is out of the gate and running around. So this starts a 10 or so episode of us trying to figure out how to get the dog back into the gate and we eventually realize that the gate is held closed by this large log leaning on the gate doors, so we open the gate by removing the log, the dog eagerly runs in, and then we close the door and leave.
We then meet up with a bunch of the chaperones, and we all walk down this path because we see the ocean in the distance.
It’s a long walk, but we do make it eventually, and take pictures of the sunset and the traintracks (and there was a field of sheep and they were baaaaing so loudly and Clara and I took so many pictures of them).
We watch the sunset over the ocean and it is so beautiful. The lighting created a silhouette effect and lots of us were taking pictures of each other (new profile pictures?? Today was definitely the day to take amazing new profile pictures, between the cliffs and the sunset over the ocean).
Obviously it’s past curfew (curfew is 10pm, we got to the ocean at 10pm) but hey, we were with chaperones so it is 100% okay. I teach Joe how to skip stones and so many of us just stand there sifting through the rocks to find some smooth pebbles to skip. Emil and Eric are really good, and I think Neil (new jazz director) had 9 or so skips, which is crazy.
When we get back to the hotel, it’s almost 11pm and we just sit down in the lobby because we are too pooped to walk to our rooms. The walk did everyone good. Everyone has been antsy because of the lack of exercise, and I know that we will all sleep very soundly tonight. It’s past midnight and I need to sleep. Goodnight and stay tuned for tomorrow’s post and pictures!
We then got on the bus for a 4 hour ride. First stop on our way to Derry was Drumcliffe, which is this very photogenic cliff, and then it has a church and next to the church is the grave of Yeats, the Irish poet. We decided to take the Riverwalk trail, which honestly was just a short path alongside this river that took us about 10 minutes to walk round trip. We are all getting a bit antsy because none of us have been getting exercise and have spent most of our waking hours sitting down, whether on bus rides, meals, or playing music. So though the trail helped somewhat, and we all really just wanted to be walking instead of sitting down, it wasn’t long enough and we thought we would hit a scenic spot to take nice photos, but we never really did, so it was a little disappointing. The river and the pictures we did take though were lovely and the trees shading the path were very picturesque and Eric kept wanting photos of him in it, which resulted in many very nice photos that also had Eric’s smiling face in them.
After heading back on the bus, we drive for 2 or so hours and then we stop at the cliffs. We saw the cliffs from a distance (we saw the water) and we got progressively excited as we neared. This was honestly the highlight of the day and the trip so far (sorry Yeats) because for the whole trip we were hoping to get to see the famous Irish cliffs, and we were (or at least I was) a little worried that we might not actually get to see them.
We stopped at Mullaghmore Head and got down to take pictures. I pulled out the piccolo to play a few Irish tunes and Meredith was an awesome photographer and took some nice photos. Soon, everyone sees Peter as he’s randomly kneeling on a cliff. From our location, it does not look safe at all, but pretty soon everyone is walking and trying to go onto that location and walk down on the rocks, even as Dr. D is worriedly calling out “no one go on the rocks!” But Dr. D eventually caves and comes down with us, and oh gosh it is just so beautiful. Seeing the dark rocks and the white waves crashing into them, and the beige porous rocks contrasting with the dark mussels stuck to them, it’s such a powerful scene. The wind was blowing and it was quite cool, and all of us got wonderful photos.
None of us wanted to leave and it was a sad trek back up the cliffs and back to the bus. The last leg of the bus ride was really rough and it did rain for some time (but when does it not rain in Ireland??). I try not to sleep on bus rides just because it doesn’t help jet lag, I’m afraid of missing some scenery, I like looking at the countryside, and also because I don’t want pictures taken of me. However, I did doze off for 20 or so minutes collectively, and Annika managed to get some pictures of me. Whoops.
Arriving at the hotel, I am for the third location, roomates with Meredith (we’ve settled into a comfortable routine with each other though and I’m infinitely grateful that she is a sound sleeper and puts up with me staying up late because I’m uploading photos to Facebook and writing blog posts), and the rooms are nice, but the one small meh factor is that the rooms are all metal keys and there is only one key per room. It makes it more inconvenient to go back to the room, and one person has to be in charge of the key, preferably the more responsible one. Actually the major downside is that wifi doesn’t work in any of the rooms, and it is barely functioning in the lobby, but hey, that means most of us were off our phones!
Before dinner, many of us played card games in the lobby (everyone gravitated to the lobby for the wifi, but with so many people on, the wifi just stopped working altogether). After dinner, some of us had to find an ATM to exchange money, and so we ended up walking around town and exploring a bit. We pass by Emil and Camille, who tell us that the ocean is a 10 minute walk from our hotel. We don’t believe them because we wander around and don’t find the ocean. We walk down a neighborhood and this dog has put its head through the bars of the fence and 5 minutes later, we look back and the dog is out of the gate and running around. So this starts a 10 or so episode of us trying to figure out how to get the dog back into the gate and we eventually realize that the gate is held closed by this large log leaning on the gate doors, so we open the gate by removing the log, the dog eagerly runs in, and then we close the door and leave.
We then meet up with a bunch of the chaperones, and we all walk down this path because we see the ocean in the distance.
It’s a long walk, but we do make it eventually, and take pictures of the sunset and the traintracks (and there was a field of sheep and they were baaaaing so loudly and Clara and I took so many pictures of them).
We watch the sunset over the ocean and it is so beautiful. The lighting created a silhouette effect and lots of us were taking pictures of each other (new profile pictures?? Today was definitely the day to take amazing new profile pictures, between the cliffs and the sunset over the ocean).
Obviously it’s past curfew (curfew is 10pm, we got to the ocean at 10pm) but hey, we were with chaperones so it is 100% okay. I teach Joe how to skip stones and so many of us just stand there sifting through the rocks to find some smooth pebbles to skip. Emil and Eric are really good, and I think Neil (new jazz director) had 9 or so skips, which is crazy.
When we get back to the hotel, it’s almost 11pm and we just sit down in the lobby because we are too pooped to walk to our rooms. The walk did everyone good. Everyone has been antsy because of the lack of exercise, and I know that we will all sleep very soundly tonight. It’s past midnight and I need to sleep. Goodnight and stay tuned for tomorrow’s post and pictures!
Monday, June 20, 2016
50 Shades of Green: Day 7
Today we hopped on the bus for a 6 hours, leaving Cork for Westport. The 6 hours were pretty bad. I was definitely sleepy, but I didn't want pictures of me while I'm sleeping to exist, and I wanted to take in all the scenery (though the Irish countryside has very little variation unless you look closely enough), so I tried to fight off the drowsiness (though I'm sure I dozed off for the last half hour or so). It was made easier because I'm still fascinated by cows and this bus ride brought a lot of cow sightings. Also I really enjoyed how picturesque the countryside looked because here, instead of wood and wire fences, there were stone fences that divided up the grass into squares, a lot like quilt squares. We did get so bored that we played a slapping game that Eric taught us involving cards. So you know the boredom is bad when we have to resort to playing slapping games. However, most of the bus was sleeping for most of the bus ride.
We stopped at Blarney to do some shopping, get lunch, take a bus break (including bathroom stop), and take a picture of the whole MYA group in front of the medieval castle there. Of course, we gravitated towards the instrument section and as wind players, we ended up buying tin penny whistles, some song books, and then playing "The Last Rose of Summer," "Irish Washerwoman," and the "Minstrel Boy" (three songs that we already know because we play them in the Irish Suite). Even though all our whistles were in D, they were slightly out of tune so trying to play all together was a little rough. But we did it and we performed "Minstrel Boy" for Dr. D! (We meaning Alex, Eric, Shawn who is a chaperone, Annika, and myself). The sad news is that the tin penny whistle is banned from every hotel room because our roommates don't want to hear it, and it is banned automatically from buses because hearing that godawful shrieking in such a small confined space when we're all stuck with each other is not pleasant at all.
Buuut, if there's anything worth getting from Ireland, the tin penny whistle is the most fitting item.
We arrived at our hotel and we see these black vans parked out that look a lot like Secret Service cars. People joke that the president is here, and it turns out, Joe Biden is coming! We file into the hotel, get our rooms and unload our luggage, and then later we see more cars come, 5 german shepard dogs on leashes (sniffer dogs) being walked around the parking lot and on the hotel grounds, and apparently, Joe Biden is flying in tomorrow...but we leave this hotel tomorrow! Dang we missed him by a day. It would have been so cool to have been able to see him though.
Our Concert today (#5) was at the Town Hall Theatre Westport. It's our first formal concert in a long time and we haven't played Academic Festival Overture and Misty Mountain and other songs for so long, that rehearsal goes a little rocky, our playing is a little shaky, and we're not that all confident on our ability to deliver a good performance.
So we play Academic first, and it goes fine, perhaps a little rocky because we haven't played it in a long time and haven't been rehearsing these past few days either, and then I suddenly have to go pee. The rest of the program is absolute torture because Dr. D has put in every single slow song we have that doesn't require a singer. So sitting through Barber's Adagio, Mvmts 1 and 2 of Misty Mountain was a struggle, Minstrel Boy" and "The Girl I Left Behind Me" from Irish Suite, Irish Tune from County Derby (aka Danny Boy), Imperial March, and Sousa's Washington Post March was pure torture. And then the audience stood up at the end so we gave an encore. First it was "The Irish Washerwoman," then it was "The Rakes of Mallow," and finally it was "The Wearing of the Green." Yes, we gave 3 encores. MY BLADDER.
But aside from my own personal issues, this concert was very cool. During the Washington Post March, I think the clarinets had some rests, so they used that to clap the beat, then Dr. D turned around and motioned for the audience to clap, and so for the entirety of the song, the audience was clapping the beat and when so many people are doing that in sync, it's a very powerful feeling because you feel the beat pulse through your body. It was heartwarming to see them enjoying the Sousa march. Also I think Dr. D said we were taking all the repeats for that song, but then none of us did (there was a minor almost-trainwreck that happened at a repeat where some people repeated but most didn't), but ah well.
The audience members collectively "ooohed" and "ahhhhed" each time Dr. D mentioned the name of an Irish tune, and it did feel good knowing that we were playing something that they were used to hearing. "The Wearing of the Green" was our last encore and after Dr. D introduced the name, the audience "ooohed" and then when Dr. D raised his baton, the lights shining on us turned green, and we played the final piece bathed in green light. The lighting this whole concert was a little hard on our eyes because our music was dark and when the light was green, everything was neon green but our music was still a dark grey...but nonetheless, it was a cool concert indeed.
We stopped at Blarney to do some shopping, get lunch, take a bus break (including bathroom stop), and take a picture of the whole MYA group in front of the medieval castle there. Of course, we gravitated towards the instrument section and as wind players, we ended up buying tin penny whistles, some song books, and then playing "The Last Rose of Summer," "Irish Washerwoman," and the "Minstrel Boy" (three songs that we already know because we play them in the Irish Suite). Even though all our whistles were in D, they were slightly out of tune so trying to play all together was a little rough. But we did it and we performed "Minstrel Boy" for Dr. D! (We meaning Alex, Eric, Shawn who is a chaperone, Annika, and myself). The sad news is that the tin penny whistle is banned from every hotel room because our roommates don't want to hear it, and it is banned automatically from buses because hearing that godawful shrieking in such a small confined space when we're all stuck with each other is not pleasant at all.
Buuut, if there's anything worth getting from Ireland, the tin penny whistle is the most fitting item.
We arrived at our hotel and we see these black vans parked out that look a lot like Secret Service cars. People joke that the president is here, and it turns out, Joe Biden is coming! We file into the hotel, get our rooms and unload our luggage, and then later we see more cars come, 5 german shepard dogs on leashes (sniffer dogs) being walked around the parking lot and on the hotel grounds, and apparently, Joe Biden is flying in tomorrow...but we leave this hotel tomorrow! Dang we missed him by a day. It would have been so cool to have been able to see him though.
Our Concert today (#5) was at the Town Hall Theatre Westport. It's our first formal concert in a long time and we haven't played Academic Festival Overture and Misty Mountain and other songs for so long, that rehearsal goes a little rocky, our playing is a little shaky, and we're not that all confident on our ability to deliver a good performance.
So we play Academic first, and it goes fine, perhaps a little rocky because we haven't played it in a long time and haven't been rehearsing these past few days either, and then I suddenly have to go pee. The rest of the program is absolute torture because Dr. D has put in every single slow song we have that doesn't require a singer. So sitting through Barber's Adagio, Mvmts 1 and 2 of Misty Mountain was a struggle, Minstrel Boy" and "The Girl I Left Behind Me" from Irish Suite, Irish Tune from County Derby (aka Danny Boy), Imperial March, and Sousa's Washington Post March was pure torture. And then the audience stood up at the end so we gave an encore. First it was "The Irish Washerwoman," then it was "The Rakes of Mallow," and finally it was "The Wearing of the Green." Yes, we gave 3 encores. MY BLADDER.
But aside from my own personal issues, this concert was very cool. During the Washington Post March, I think the clarinets had some rests, so they used that to clap the beat, then Dr. D turned around and motioned for the audience to clap, and so for the entirety of the song, the audience was clapping the beat and when so many people are doing that in sync, it's a very powerful feeling because you feel the beat pulse through your body. It was heartwarming to see them enjoying the Sousa march. Also I think Dr. D said we were taking all the repeats for that song, but then none of us did (there was a minor almost-trainwreck that happened at a repeat where some people repeated but most didn't), but ah well.
The audience members collectively "ooohed" and "ahhhhed" each time Dr. D mentioned the name of an Irish tune, and it did feel good knowing that we were playing something that they were used to hearing. "The Wearing of the Green" was our last encore and after Dr. D introduced the name, the audience "ooohed" and then when Dr. D raised his baton, the lights shining on us turned green, and we played the final piece bathed in green light. The lighting this whole concert was a little hard on our eyes because our music was dark and when the light was green, everything was neon green but our music was still a dark grey...but nonetheless, it was a cool concert indeed.
Sunday, June 19, 2016
50 Shades of Green: Day 6
It is June 19, 2016 and though I'm getting better at converting between Celsius and Fahrenheit, euros and USD, kilometers and miles, time zones are such an abstract thing that though I know that Ireland is 6 hours ahead of CST, these post times are in CST, not Ireland time, and it's weird.
Anyways so today we head out to the Cork Mid-Summer Festival. It is raining, a steady drizzle that occasionally strengthens to rain, but remains fairly constant. The sky is an icky sad grey and thankfully there's a shell that the orchestra can huddle under, very tight cover from the rain, but the turnout isn't so great...more like 30 people (at max) came to watch us play. The security guards said that normally this festival is so packed, that they have to turn people away. Perhaps it was the combination of rain, it being Father's Day today, and it being a Sunday morning in a country where Catholicism is huge and Mass is a big deal, that caused the low turnout.
Regardless, it was still fun. There were these two guys dressed as birds (storks perhaps?) who were goofing off and cawing at everyone (pictures on facebook album). There were still food stalls and so of course we all ate delicious food that was also not expensive, win win all around! The park we were at had a playground that is by far the best playground I've ever seen and even us teenagers were goofing off and having fun. The park had a pond and near the edge was a sign with a life buoy and the sign read "A stolen buoy is a stolen life." Ireland is actually really safe. At the beginning of our first concert (the one with Paul Byrom), the concert began with a quick reminder of where all the exits were. I don't know if this is made even more important by the Orlando and Berlin shootings, along with all the crazy things that have been happening, or if it's usually this safety-conscious, but yes, I've been noticing and really appreciating how safety-conscious everything is. It's so well-thought-out and it always surprises me in a good way.
Also Ireland is way cleaner than the US. Just...the streets aren't dirty, the bathrooms are fine...I don't know. The portapotties at this park were cleaner than the ones I've seen at the US and all the streets I've seen in Ireland are cleaner than those of the US. I'm really liking what I've seen of Ireland so far.
Jazz combo performs and in this empty lawn, we play ninja and clap loud to make up for literally no audience.
After that, we are dropped off in downtown Cork where we walk around and visit some shops. We go into Penney's, which is a department store. It has raincoats for those of us who didn't bring one, and other clothes and shoes and household items. We stop at a sports outlet for some people to look at sports jerseys (cause Euro Cup is happening right now), and also walk into a candy store, where I find Willy Wonka chocolate bars! But they cost 3.5 euros and I'm not paying that much for a bar of chocolate. Oh yes, and we pass this park that's called Bishop Lucey Park which is funny because it's almost my name...but the park looks pretty. I didn't get a very good picture of it because Eric kept photobombing. My picturetaking has definitely calmed down (I took 780 photos the first two days, but have brought my daily photo count down to around 300 or less. A lot of the photos are pictures of other people that I take for them and then privately send to them, and of each scene, I take two or three to make sure I have a few to choose from. So I'm really not taking that many photos at all.)
We then head back to the University and we have 45 minutes until we go eat dinner. Everyone basically chills, I go out and run around and try to explore a bit, and I do see some nice small streets, but I didn't run very far because I'm out of shape and I had little time to run, and so I ended up running the way to the dining hall, taking a left, running in campus and then out of campus, and then running outside of the campus, and then basically looping back to this arch that I've already seen at least 5 times from our walks to and from the dining hall for dinner.
After dinner was again on our own time, and so we just crashed someone's apartment and hung out until curfew at 10pm. Curfew is always very early, but none of us want to stay up and out of our dorms past then because we're all just so exhausted. Despite most of us sleeping well (I am the exception along with select others), and despite the fact that most of us nap on all the bus rides (again I'm excluded from this category), we are a tired bunch and none of us protest the early curfew.
June 19, 2016
Saturday, June 18, 2016
50 Shades of Green: Day 5
Today we played in the Shandon Street Festival. We had a very easy morning because we only had to be ready by 11am, as opposed to the 8-9am.
We played at the Shandon Street Festival today and we set up in front of Firkin Crane. Our formation is a bit odd, with basically violins standing on the stairs, winds on one side, violas and cellos on the other, but we do somehow manage. We're given 1.5 hours before we perform to roam, and with free tickets to go up to the belltower, some of us decide to go up there now. Walking up the stone stairs is challenging because the stairwell is so narrow, at some points, only one person can barely squeeze through. So imagine, as people go up, others are trying to come down and it is just hard. We're given headphones so that we don't go deaf from the bells and then we start walking up stairs.
First we hit the bell-playing floor, and there are 8 bells (one octave) and each is controlled by pulling a string. With the strings labeled 1-8 and a songbook that lists the numbers, we ring out "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Amazing Grace." We fail trying to decipher the "sheet music" for "Star Wars" and later when we're up on the top, we hear someone trying to play The Sound of Music's "Favorite Things." Oh, and from the bell-ringing floor, the chiming of the bells is very faint.
We climb up more flights, hitting the floor where the bells are situated and thus requiring headphones to be on. Due to the traffic jam of people trying to go up and down and the stairwells only allowing one person in width, it mean that the bell floor was very tight and as some of us stood precariously close to the clapper (the part of the bell that swings, located in the middle and looks like a pendulum), we really prayed that none of us would get hit.
At the topmost floor, the view was breathtaking (I was also breathing a little heavily as I walked up the stairs). We saw all of Shandon and Cork laid out in front of us and we saw Firkin Square, with all the chairs and stands set up! To try to get some good pictures, I crawled (sort of) onto the sides, and though it was a little windy, I didn't fall over the edge or drop my phone. So all is well.
After that, we did have some time left before our performance, so we visited small stalls and food stands.
Performing was fun today because with today's performance, we have finally played through all of the songs in Irish Suite. And these rollicking songs are fun and I saw the faces of the audience light up as they recognized all the tunes. Every time we play Irish music, the audience gets so into it and some of the older people (especially older women), start crying. Every concert we've played so far, this has happened.
We played Sousa's Washington Post and Dr. D clapped and got the audience to clap, so that was a nice touch because it felt like the audience was more engaged then.
Afterwards, we were in Shandon until 5pm so we had full rein to walk around, watch MYA Jazz perform, and eat more food. This was a street festival outdoors and there were tents for food vendors, souvenir sellers, wildlife petting, and so many things.
We visited the Cork Butter Museum (yes, it's a museum about butter because butter is a big deal in Ireland and Irish butter just may be one of the best things ever) and we were all ready to pay the 2 euros, but the museum person said that the music we played was so lovely he was told not to charge us. Wow wow. But the museum was very informative...did you know that around 1000 AD, different tribes would conduct cattle raids because cows were that important? I may have a borderlining-on-obsession with cows, but they're also important to the Irish! And thus begins my slow transformation into an Irishwoman.
Among the sugar I ate today was a lemon and sugar crepe, a churro that I dipped in the honeycomb ice cream I also ate, and some of Eric's candy floss (cotton candy). Protip: sharing food is very advised because it's cheaper and you can try more things that way.
I've given up on updating photos on here. I do post 40 or so pictures each day (of the 400 or so that I take) on my facebook under the album 50 Shades of Green, so do take a peek at: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1749778885303195.1073741841.100008133005252&type=1&l=f58f570de4
We played at the Shandon Street Festival today and we set up in front of Firkin Crane. Our formation is a bit odd, with basically violins standing on the stairs, winds on one side, violas and cellos on the other, but we do somehow manage. We're given 1.5 hours before we perform to roam, and with free tickets to go up to the belltower, some of us decide to go up there now. Walking up the stone stairs is challenging because the stairwell is so narrow, at some points, only one person can barely squeeze through. So imagine, as people go up, others are trying to come down and it is just hard. We're given headphones so that we don't go deaf from the bells and then we start walking up stairs.
First we hit the bell-playing floor, and there are 8 bells (one octave) and each is controlled by pulling a string. With the strings labeled 1-8 and a songbook that lists the numbers, we ring out "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Amazing Grace." We fail trying to decipher the "sheet music" for "Star Wars" and later when we're up on the top, we hear someone trying to play The Sound of Music's "Favorite Things." Oh, and from the bell-ringing floor, the chiming of the bells is very faint.
We climb up more flights, hitting the floor where the bells are situated and thus requiring headphones to be on. Due to the traffic jam of people trying to go up and down and the stairwells only allowing one person in width, it mean that the bell floor was very tight and as some of us stood precariously close to the clapper (the part of the bell that swings, located in the middle and looks like a pendulum), we really prayed that none of us would get hit.
At the topmost floor, the view was breathtaking (I was also breathing a little heavily as I walked up the stairs). We saw all of Shandon and Cork laid out in front of us and we saw Firkin Square, with all the chairs and stands set up! To try to get some good pictures, I crawled (sort of) onto the sides, and though it was a little windy, I didn't fall over the edge or drop my phone. So all is well.
After that, we did have some time left before our performance, so we visited small stalls and food stands.
Performing was fun today because with today's performance, we have finally played through all of the songs in Irish Suite. And these rollicking songs are fun and I saw the faces of the audience light up as they recognized all the tunes. Every time we play Irish music, the audience gets so into it and some of the older people (especially older women), start crying. Every concert we've played so far, this has happened.
We played Sousa's Washington Post and Dr. D clapped and got the audience to clap, so that was a nice touch because it felt like the audience was more engaged then.
Afterwards, we were in Shandon until 5pm so we had full rein to walk around, watch MYA Jazz perform, and eat more food. This was a street festival outdoors and there were tents for food vendors, souvenir sellers, wildlife petting, and so many things.
We visited the Cork Butter Museum (yes, it's a museum about butter because butter is a big deal in Ireland and Irish butter just may be one of the best things ever) and we were all ready to pay the 2 euros, but the museum person said that the music we played was so lovely he was told not to charge us. Wow wow. But the museum was very informative...did you know that around 1000 AD, different tribes would conduct cattle raids because cows were that important? I may have a borderlining-on-obsession with cows, but they're also important to the Irish! And thus begins my slow transformation into an Irishwoman.
Among the sugar I ate today was a lemon and sugar crepe, a churro that I dipped in the honeycomb ice cream I also ate, and some of Eric's candy floss (cotton candy). Protip: sharing food is very advised because it's cheaper and you can try more things that way.
I've given up on updating photos on here. I do post 40 or so pictures each day (of the 400 or so that I take) on my facebook under the album 50 Shades of Green, so do take a peek at: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1749778885303195.1073741841.100008133005252&type=1&l=f58f570de4
Friday, June 17, 2016
50 Shades of Green: Day 4
Today we had to get up early and be ready to go at 7am. With our luggage all packed up, we hopped onto our coach buses and headed to Tralee for an outdoor concert. We set up in the middle of an square in the tow,n with the last two rows of winds up on a platform.
Tralee is definitely very quiet compared to Dublin and you could tell from a peek inside one of the malls, from all the closed shops and empty rooms, that Tralee is more rundown.
The streets were lovely and it was a sunny day (so sunny that it was such a relief for our eyes to wear sunglasses during our performance...and some of us got sunburned). The outdoor buildings were painted different colors, mostly pastel, and Tralee was definitely a town worth visiting.
Jazz band played first and we stood there watching and other townspeople came to watch. One Irish man to the right of me was bobbing his head and tapping his foot to the beat, and during the break between songs, he turns to me, points at the jazz ensemble, and says "very good, very good" in a thick Irish accent that I could barely understand. Oh yes, Irish accents are lovely but they are a bit hard to understand, and it's impossible when the speaker is talking fast. The jazz combo played "Mercy Mercy Mercy" and the tenor sax (Damien) and Neil (the new jazz director) almost had this battle with music because they basically played a duet that was all improv, and it was so cool not only because they were talented and the riffs they cranked out were crazy cool, but also because they just got so into it, and you could also see that they were really feeling it, and it's that sincerity that really sold everyone on their performance. It was so fun to watch them play and though jazz can be boring, that certainly was anything but dull!
You can find a recording here (the beginning was cut off, sorry!): https://archive.org/details/IMG5254
It was a 4.5 hour trip to Tralee, which I had entertained myself by taking photos, staring out the window at all the road signs and the incredible mountainside/countryside scenery (most of the people on the bus was fast asleep but I can't sleep when the sun is out), and moving up to sit next to Sara and talk to her a bit because up front had better vantage points for taking photos and it was cooler so it would be less likely that I got lulled into drowsiness. Also on this leg of the journey, I became very comfortable with converting between km per hour and miles per hour, using 5k is approximately 3.1miles as my conversion factor...my halfmarathon training (and thus frequent exposure to 3 miles / 5 km / 6 miles / 10 km ) has done some good!
After we played in Tralee, we hit the road for a 2.5 hour bus ride to Cork. We'll be staying three nights in Cork at the University College Cork. The housing is exceedingly nice; the rooms are apartment-style with 4-6 people sharing an apartment. Each person has their own room and bathroom, and there's a common lounge area that is shared that includes a balcony, kitchen, and couches. Comfortable indeed.
We had dinner right when we got there and then had freetime until 10pm which was curfew. 10pm may have been curfew and may have been on the earlier side, but we have all just been so exhausted (lots of people just sleep on all the bus rides), no one is complaining about the 10pm curfew and if anything, we're probably going to sleep even earlier than that.
Tralee is definitely very quiet compared to Dublin and you could tell from a peek inside one of the malls, from all the closed shops and empty rooms, that Tralee is more rundown.
The streets were lovely and it was a sunny day (so sunny that it was such a relief for our eyes to wear sunglasses during our performance...and some of us got sunburned). The outdoor buildings were painted different colors, mostly pastel, and Tralee was definitely a town worth visiting.
You can find a recording here (the beginning was cut off, sorry!): https://archive.org/details/IMG5254
It was a 4.5 hour trip to Tralee, which I had entertained myself by taking photos, staring out the window at all the road signs and the incredible mountainside/countryside scenery (most of the people on the bus was fast asleep but I can't sleep when the sun is out), and moving up to sit next to Sara and talk to her a bit because up front had better vantage points for taking photos and it was cooler so it would be less likely that I got lulled into drowsiness. Also on this leg of the journey, I became very comfortable with converting between km per hour and miles per hour, using 5k is approximately 3.1miles as my conversion factor...my halfmarathon training (and thus frequent exposure to 3 miles / 5 km / 6 miles / 10 km ) has done some good!
After we played in Tralee, we hit the road for a 2.5 hour bus ride to Cork. We'll be staying three nights in Cork at the University College Cork. The housing is exceedingly nice; the rooms are apartment-style with 4-6 people sharing an apartment. Each person has their own room and bathroom, and there's a common lounge area that is shared that includes a balcony, kitchen, and couches. Comfortable indeed.
We had dinner right when we got there and then had freetime until 10pm which was curfew. 10pm may have been curfew and may have been on the earlier side, but we have all just been so exhausted (lots of people just sleep on all the bus rides), no one is complaining about the 10pm curfew and if anything, we're probably going to sleep even earlier than that.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
50 Shades of Green: Day 3
(pictures will be added much later. if you're impatient, you can visit my facebook album for this trip)
Afterwards, we were dropped off at Christ Church Cathedral (where we played Concert #1 that evening with Paul Byrom, an Irish tenor) and were allowed to disperse and get lunch while we were at it.
Annika, Clara, and I ended up stopping at a coffee shop to load up on caffeine...and I ended up getting a double shot of espresso which was a really bad idea because it made my hands shake (and thus taking pictures from this point was made even more difficult).
We walked around and ended up seeing and hearing some street musicians and wandering cobblestone streets. All the buildings are different colors and styles; modern glass buildings alongside the River Liffey, large estates in the embassy area, red brick apartments with doors in every color, gothic-style churches and cathedrals, and colorful storefronts, some ornate and others more rundown.
Afterwards, when everyone met back at The Christ Church Cathedral, we did a soundcheck in the Cathedral to get used to the acoustics (aka our second rehearsal with Paul Byrom that was more just a runthrough of everything) and then we headed back to DCU (Dublin City University, where we have been staying) to get dinner and change into concert clothes.
We left our instruments all locked up at the church and we were all a bit apprehensive about it, but ... who would rob a church? Everything was okay, all equipment was there when we came back.
Jazz ensemble does the pre-concert but since it's raining outside, they play inside the cathedral. Then orchestra played. Academic Festival Overture, Misty Mountain Mvmt 2 (Double Fugue), Copland's Hoe Down, The Last Summer (with Paul Byrom), Go the Distance (with Paul Byrom), You Raise Me Up (with Paul Byrom), Remember Me (with Paul Byrom) (who apparently his father-in-law wrote), and then jazz ensemble headed back on stage while orchestra headed to the back.
After theirs, we gave an encore performance of Derby County, and then the audience all stood up so Dr. D played another movement from Irish Suite, and the audience stood up again, and so Dr. D played another movement. There were several audience members crying and it was a rellief to see that they liked the music.
The concert was over at 10pm and we got back to DCU at 11pm. We are exhausted out of our minds. Poor Emil, he had the hardest job. He is the only trumpet in jazz and he's 1st chair in orchestra, so he was playing this whole concert...and we have a lot of trumpet solos in our pieces. And the movements that Dr. D happened to choose to play for the encore were also trumpet-heavy.
That's it. Tomorrow we have to have our luggage packed by 7am because we're driving to Cork!
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