Music Tour- Day Sixteen

On our first morning in France, we went to Paris. We were dropped off near an obelisk near the Seine and were given a couple of hours of free time. The Louvre was nearby, but Jenny said that the queue can take several hours and Claire said that the last time she went to France her parents, who were art enthusiasts, went to the Louvre for three days in a row, so consequently she wasn’t all too interested in the Louvre any more. We went to the Musée de l’Orangerie instead, which was a smaller art museum nearby. There was a good view of the Seine nearby, so we went to have a look in small groups so as not to lose our place in the queue. Nearby, a tour group from another school walked past wearing fluoro yellow jackets. We were grateful that we didn’t have to wear them!

I’m not an art enthusiast at all, so all this museum left me was the question of why there are so many naked people in art. I did find some paintings which interested me, though.

After the museum, we went for a walk to the cathedral where we would be playing next. On the way, Stevie J and Tori insisted on having a photo taken in front of a water fountain which they apparently visited as children. Once we had reached the cathedral, we were allowed to split up into small groups to explore the surrounding area and perhaps go shopping. This was a fairly expensive district so all we ended up doing was window shopping and meeting up with other groups which had arrived. Eventually, it was time to go back to the cathedral. On the way, I crossed when the pedestrian lights were green, which was a bad mistake on my part considering that I was in France and pedestrian lights don’t take turning traffic into account (turning traffic doesn’t have turning arrows to my knowledge, drivers turn when it’s safe to). First, I almost got run over by a white van rounding a corner and then I almost got run over by a motorcycle going in the opposite direction (in some roads in France, bikes and buses have special lanes and have to keep left instead of right). When I told Blake later, he said, “Okay, so first you almost get run over by a paedophile, and then you almost get run over by a bikie?”

At the cathedral, which was l’Église de la Madeleine (the Church of the Madeleine), Jess B met up with her family before we had a rehearsal. Only small instrumental groups were performing as well as Chorale. The acoustics in the church were great, especially in Joshua Fight de Battle ob Jerico.

Following the concert, we were driven down the Champs-Élysées to l’Arc de Triomphe. At first, I was a little scared that we would have to cross the roundabout, known historically as the Place de l’Étoile, but according to Wikipedia is now called the Place Charles de Gaulle. This roundabout is notorious as being one of the most difficult for motorists because not only are there three or so lanes in the roundabout, there are also twelve lanes leading in and out of it. If you don’t know what you are doing, you are in trouble. I didn’t have to worry for long, however, because we were soon led to an underpass that led directly to the central island where l’Arc de Triomphe stands.

Every evening, at 6.30pm Paris time, a ceremony known as the La Flamme ceremony takes place. Wind Orchestra performed our three ceremonial pieces (Largo, Blessed are They and Well Met, My Own True Love) as well as the French national anthem. After the ceremony, which I didn’t understand any more than I understood the one at the Menin Gate, one of the soldiers complimented us on our performance of La Marsellaise (the French national anthem).

After the ceremony, we were given some free time to wander down the Champs-Élysées in fairly large groups. We went to a few stores and I tried on something at one of the stores, but after experiencing just how annoying it was to go clothes shopping while wearing formal uniform, I gave up and just window shopped (though I did buy some earrings). Towards the end of our free time, we bumped into Murphy Minor who told us about the Sephora that she just visited, and all of the other girls in my group were excited about that so they insisted on visiting even though we didn’t have any time, much to the chagrin of the boys and I. It didn’t help matters that the Sephora store on the Champs-Élysées is massive either.

By the time we made it back to the restaurant we were to meet at, I thought we were the last group back. (I don’t think we were, as later on when I went to get non-carbonated water I think I saw some other people from our tour group queuing up.) The food was pretty good, but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to taste my dessert. I thought that I should go to the toilet before finishing my meal so that I didn’t get held up later, but the queue was far too long and moved far too slowly. To make matters worse, there was no toilet paper left by the time the last few people went so Murphy Minor had to give some tissues to people (unused, of course!). I had had tissues in my pocket, but unfortunately they were all used up due to my cold. I also had a full toilet roll in my bag (I find toilet rolls are better than packet tissues as packet tissues never seem to be absorbent enough for my nose, and besides Mr Hey had scared some of us, including me, by saying that there isn’t any toilet paper in public toilets in Hungary) but as we were told to bring only what was necessary to a crowded street such as the Champs-Élysées, I had left my bag on the bus and brought only my camera and the cleaning cloth for my glasses.

When we left, it was a rush to get back onto the buses. We were told to cross at the junction where the pedestrian lights were green, but I knew that it didn’t make too much of a difference because it’s France, so I made sure to look before crossing anyway. (I became a decent jaywalker in France because of the terrible pedestrian lights.) There were a couple of other people ahead of me because they’re more confident in their jaywalking abilities than I am, but I am a pretty good runner too, so I caught up to them. Eventually, after these annoyances, it was another hour or so drive back to our hotel in Senlis. The annoyances and long drive were pretty minor compared to the rest of the day, so overall I had a pretty good day with the bonuses of performing beneath the Arc de Triomphe and in the Church of the Madeleine.

Music Tour- Day Fifteen

On our final day in Belgium, we packed up and moved our suitcases downstairs in preparation to leave. It was raining, so instead of walking down to the buses as was our original plan, we had to wait for the buses to come to us and park illegally in the small road so that we didn’t have to carry so much in the rain. As we hurried on to the buses, I dropped my neck pillow in the gutter. I picked it up and resolved to wash it at the earliest opportunity.

It was a long trip from Belgium to France, during which we stopped several times. Our first stop was at two graveyards. Buses 1 and 2 went to one and buses 3 and 4 went to the other. A former student of our school was buried at each graveyard. One of the girls from Bus 3 was a distant relative of one of the former students buried at the graveyard that we visited. We had a small ceremony where the student gave a speech and we sang the school song and the national anthem. It wasn’t all too fancy, but it was certainly a very moving experience. If I hadn’t had to conserve my tissues due to the fact that I had a cold at this point, I would have shed a few tears.

Our next stop was a graveyard seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Apparently, a distant relative of Angus’ was buried at this graveyard, so we stopped for a short while to give Angus and his dad time to look at the graveyard register to find the grave and pay their respects.

Stop number 3 was at a fairly large town. If I remember correctly what Stevie J said, this town was called Lille. We had an hour or so to have a breather, eat, find a toilet and do a little bit of shopping. The toilet was a pay toilet and required 40 cents. The smallest change I had was a 1 Euro coin, so I shoved that in the change machine. I counted the number of 10 cent coins that came out to ensure that I didn’t get ripped off.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...

7, 8...

9...

10...

11!!

After we all made a trip to the toilet (our tour group made for a long toilet queue!) we had a look around the shops. We went into a game shop and saw Pokémon Black and White in French (Pokémon Noire et Blanche). We also had a look at some jewellery stalls, but none of us were really in the mood for shopping that day so we went back to the entrance where Stevie J was. Stevie J said, “You can tell that French people really like clothes, judging by the fact that 90% of the shopping centre is clothes shops!” (That’s probably the same for all countries though.) We ended up playing Cheat around the shop directory on the bottom floor until the security guard asked us to move off to the side. He asked us in French, so it was pretty good that we had Camille with us to translate.

Soon, we were back in the buses for the long trip through several toll booths to Senlis, where our hotel was. As we were waiting to receive our room keys, a few people who had already received their keys were making a big fuss about how there were double beds in the boys’ double rooms. Oddly enough, nobody was making a fuss about the double beds in the girls’ double rooms.

The hotel was more or less divided into two halves, with reception and half of the rooms in one building and the other half of the rooms in the other. I was in the same room (in the second building) as Jess C and Boyuan, and although we only had three in our room, we had a double bed and a bunk bed. It was fairly cramped in our room, but there was still just enough space to manoeuvre our suitcases, my clarinet and Boyuan’s violin.

Once we were settled, it was dinner time. After dinner, we went for a walk down to the fair. When we got there, it seemed as if the fair was closed, so we walked on past the cathedral in Senlis. It seemed huge to us, but then Mr Coy told us that the one we would visit in Amiens in two days would be three times larger.

As we walked back, we discovered that the fair was, in fact, open. A couple of people bought some lollies and things from the counter. Someone had a go at the skilltester (you know, those machines where you have to pick up a toy with the claw that can’t pick stuff up to save its life). Amy had a lot of goes on the Pokémon skilltester but to no avail, though apparently she has actually won stuff from skilltesters in the past. Eventually the climax of the night came: some people wanted to try the “ejection” ride, so the people working at the fair started it up for them. Two people could go at a time. When Jordyn and Courteney went up, one of them screamed. To this day, I have no idea who it was. Apparently it was Jordyn. If it was, that was one high-pitched scream, though I probably shouldn’t be too surprised: apparently Jordyn’s voice went up two octaves after the wedgie he got from the Big Swing on Health Camp.

Eventually the teachers decided that it was getting late and we had to head back to the hotel. On the way back, some people crossed the road at a junction because no cars indicated to turn into that junction. A truck then drove past, honking loudly, and the people on the road screamed and quickly ran off the road. The truck didn’t turn. I expected that the drivers of that truck laughed their heads off to wherever they were going. 

Music Tour- Day Fourteen

On the morning of my birthday, at breakfast, Jenny wished me a happy birthday and presented me with a gift of Belgian chocolates! These six chocolates were cat-shaped, and there were two white chocolate cats, two milk chocolate, and two dark chocolate. Later, as we prepared to leave the hostel to visit the “In Flanders Field Museum” that morning, while Stevie J was teaching someone how to tie a tie, Murphy Minor gave me two more presents: a chocolate dog and a pink and white large spiral lollipop, which she warned me not to eat all at once. It was great being showered down with gifts!

At the museum, Mr Hey mentioned me and two other people who had their birthday on the same day. We then got to enter the war museum and I took my time looking around and reading a lot of the information (though don’t ask me to recall any of it!). I think most of my friends had left by the time I left but I wasn’t the last one to leave.

We then had a little bit of time to spare at the hostel. Some of my friends were already walking around Ypres at this point while others were looking at manga stuff on the Internet. It didn’t occur to me to leave the hostel on my own (because I’m lame like that), but I did have some washing to catch up with (because I’m doubly lame like that). I think I also used that time to send a few emails as well on the annoying AZERTY keyboard the hostel had while listening to the Narwhal Song that some other people from my tour group had playing on the computer that they were using. In the end it was probably a good thing I didn’t see where the others were or that would have ruined the surprise for me when they came back: they presented me with a lovely ladybird cake. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to eat it at that point as we were about to go to Fromelles in France, and I wanted to save it for later because it almost looked too good to eat!

Oddly enough, although I hadn’t felt motion sickness at all earlier on tour, I felt slightly ill on the bus on my birthday, of all days. When we stopped at the first war memorial, I gladly took a breath of fresh air. This graveyard was rather small compared to the other ones that we had visited, but it was still fairly substantial. I wonder what Archduke Franz-Ferdinand would say to all of this? (I’m pretty sure most if not all of the graveyards we visited predominantly consisted of graves from World War One, and I think the death toll for World War Two was supposed to be higher.)

When I had finished looking around, I joined some of the others who were standing around near the bus. Someone went to the toilet on the bus, and not long after they did, we heard a whirring sound and then the splash of water hitting the road! Of course, that just led us to pretty bad conclusions. Sarah said, “Okay, guys... nobody do a number 2 in there!” Eric later tried to reassure us that that water was simply tap water waste or something.

We visited another two war memorials after that. The first was very small and didn’t have any graves (to my knowledge)- just a sculpture showing a man carrying a wounded comrade to safety. The second was larger. Eden borrowed my camera at that point so he could take 11 pictures of the door of the war memorial. Apparently the door was “cool.”

Our next destination was another town, Radinghem en Wappes, or to be more specific, a cathedral in Radinghem en Wappes. We had a rehearsal here for the concert that night. Wind Orchestra wasn’t playing, so I just warmed up with Chorale, and ate bits of my (now partially squashed) cake when I had a break. We then got to have a quick rehearsal on stage, after which Mr Hey called the three birthday girls to the front, and Chorale sang “Happy Birthday” to us- in four-part vocal style, which sounded really nice and was by far the best I’ve ever had this song sung to me.

Dinner soon followed and was prepared by the local people. It was only sandwiches (ham sandwiches and cheese sandwiches) but that was probably to be expected as there were so many of us to be served. The cakes that were served for dessert tasted pretty good though.

Following dinner, we got changed and had to walk to the cathedral in concert uniform. If I remember correctly, it was a pretty cold night, and I was quite grateful for my black wrap. In this concert, we got to sit on small chairs to the sides if we weren’t performing which allowed us to see what the other groups had to perform. Senior Wind Quintet was of particular interest to me because they played one of the songs that Junior Wind Quintet was learning before it ceased to run.

We returned to the hostel pretty late after this concert. On the bus, everyone in Angus’ room yelled at him to do his travel diary on the bus so that they didn’t have to shove him in the bathroom again. When we got back to the hostel, it was 11.30pm the first time I checked my watch. We were served waffles for desert, following which we didn’t have a specified lights out, it was just “go to bed as soon as you’re ready.” I don’t remember exactly what time I did end up going to bed, but it was almost definitely after midnight.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is following me everywhere!

So, I start reading Frankenstein, and what do I see on the bottom of page 21?

"I am going to unexplored regions to 'the land of mist and snow'; but I shall kill no albatross, therefore do not be alarmed for my safety, or if I should come back to you as worn and woeful as the 'Ancient Mariner'. You will smile at my allusion; but I will disclose a secret. I have often attributed my attachment to, my passionate enthusiasm for the dangerous mysteries of ocean, to the production of the most imaginative of modern poets."

My comments:

1. Some "allusion" this is! Did the narrator want to be any more explicit in which poem he was referencing?
2. The word "modern" in the last sentence is just further proof that 200 years ago didn't seem like 200 years ago back then, it seemed modern. According to the appendix of Frankenstein, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner was written in 1798. Frankenstein was written in 1818.

Music Tour- Day Thirteen

We spent our first morning in Belgium touring battlefield sites, starting with Hill 60 and Hill 62. Before tour, Mr Hey had warned us that if it had rained at all in the past week, our shoes would get muddy so we should bring old shoes that we wouldn’t mind throwing out after visiting the battlefields. It hadn’t rained, however, so I could keep my shoes with me for the rest of the tour.

Anyway, the first hill we went to (I can’t remember whether it was Hill 60 or Hill 62) was absolutely beautiful. We went to a clearing with a man-made lake in the middle. Apparently, the lake was caused by a mine explosion during World War One. On the other side of the lake, we could see many trees shrouded by mist. It’s hard to capture its beauty using words only. In fact, not only a picture could give you the full sense of what it was like there- you’d have to go there to get the entire effect. It’s odd how such destruction could have caused such beauty.

The other hill had a fairly convoluted landscape, again due to the battles during WWI. Some of the bunkers still remain there. You could tell which bunker belonged to which army due to the directions they faced.

After visiting the two hills we visited several other war memorials. The situation was the same- beautiful scenery in a place that exists to remember those who lost their lives during the war. Who would have thought that the death of an Austrian aristocrat could spell the death of so many others?

We had a little bit of free time in Ypres. I got some Belgian chocolate from one chocolate shop but then found out that the chocolate shop we had visited before that had had a special deal where you could get quite a lot of chocolate for only 10 euros! I was a bit annoyed at myself for that.

After that, we had a concert in the market square. Wind Orchestra was performing, as well as the Saxophone and Jazz ensembles. After playing Fantasy on an Australian Folk Song or Waltzing Matilda (can’t remember which one it was that we played) one of the members of our audience yelled, “Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!” I was surprised at this- I didn’t know that so many Europeans knew the Aussie Aussie Aussie chant!

Wind Orchestra performed last. After we were finished, we all packed up and headed up the road towards a restaurant to have dinner in our group of 166. I think we practically took up the whole restaurant. I think we had steak or some other kind of meat served with chips, which is basically what we had the night before (vegetarians had had omelette that night, but I’m not sure about this particular night).

This restaurant was where we all had our most awkward toilet experience ever (well, those who needed to go had an awkward experience anyway). The toilet was a unisex toilet. Basically, the door opened to reveal the urinal and a sink, and there was another door which led to the toilet itself. Nobody used the urinal, and I don’t blame them. It was barely concealed by a screen- in fact, the people sitting across from me at my table could see the urinal clearly. In the queue for the toilet, the boy behind me asked the waiter if that was the only toilet in the restaurant, and he said yes. The boy then said, “Good, because I’d feel awkward if I was queuing up for a girls’ bathroom.” I didn’t say anything, but I thought, “How do you think I feel?! There’s a urinal here!”

After dinner, we went back down the road but instead of going all the way back to our hostels, we stopped at Menin Gate, an arch-shaped memorial. Wind Orchestra was playing its memorial repertoire again for the ceremony, while the choir, which was present this time, sang. Quite a lot of people were watching the ceremony. I didn’t understand what was going on a lot of the time, but at least I understood what I had to do, unlike at the Dawn Service where confusion abounded.

When the ceremony was over, there were some Australian army people there handing out badges, stickers and balloons. I considered getting a badge for Tyko but by the time they got to me they had run out so I took a few balloons instead. As we walked back to our hostels, I heard someone behind me say, “Wow, what time does it set in this place?!” I looked at my watch and understood what they were talking about- it was 8.50pm and it still looked like 5pm on a summer evening! (I’m not sure what time the sun actually did set because I wasn’t paying attention.)

Lights out was 10.30pm, half an hour after the hostel manager said we had to be quiet otherwise the neighbours would complain. At 10.32, Mrs F came to our room and asked us why the lights weren’t out. She must have been pretty exact considering that our room wouldn’t have even been the first one she would have visited! I must commend her for trying such tactics on a group of teenagers on tour.

Music Tour- Day Twelve

At 3am, we woke up.

Yes, 3am.

No breakfast straight away, either- we had to get dressed, go to the Dawn Service, and sing for our breakfast.

I didn’t know that we were allowed to wear our jumpers for the Dawn Service (though not for the service afterwards), so I didn’t have mine. I found out when we got on the bus, but by that time, I thought that I would be okay without it, and besides I couldn’t be bothered going back to get it or lugging it around Westminster Abbey later. So I soldiered on without it.

When we got off the bus at the Dawn Service, I found that I may have been wrong. Actually, I’m not sure if wearing a jumper would have helped because it was my face and legs that were cold- apparently 120 denier just wasn’t going to cut it for me on a British spring morning. I probably would have been semi-okay for tiredness if I wasn’t feeling so cold. The cold just made me feel terrible, and the terribleness made me remember my tiredness. In fact, I lamented to someone, “This is my first Dawn Service- and it’s probably going to be my last.” Stevie J happened to overhear, and he laughed before remembering that he should be serious and said, “Don’t say things like that!”

Programmes were handed out, but they never reached my end of the choir. If I had had a programme, I would have known that we were to sing verses 1, 2 and 5 of Abide With Me, and I would have known what the words were. Unfortunately, I thought that we were going to sing verses 1, 3, 4 and 5, the way we had practised in choir, and in choir we had been told that we hadn’t had to learn the words for verse 2. That was the first problem I had in the choir. I managed to borrow a programme off someone else later (they at least had someone that they could share with while I didn’t) when we had to sing New Zealand’s national anthem, so at least I had the words for that. When the band played, they left a random pause before the last line which threw everybody off, at least the first time around. I think they may have also done this for the Australian national anthem too. In any case, it was pretty annoying.

After the Dawn Service, we headed off somewhere else for breakfast. I can’t remember what the place was called but I do remember that one of the chaperones or teachers said that it was a “bloke’s club” which is why there were only two ladies’ toilets. (I was lucky enough to go when there were only three or four people in the queue- by the time I left the queue was several metres long!) Anyway, when we got to the place the ten of us found that most of the tables were taken up so, after Mrs F telling us/half-yelling at us to sit down, we accepted our fate and split up. I ended up at a table where I was the only girl. We went up table at a time to get our breakfast, and when our table was called, Mrs Harvey said, “Okay, boys, you can get your breakfast!” I went up to her and indignantly told her that not everyone at that table was a boy. According to her, I was the lucky girl among all the boys. (So she says.)

The next event after breakfast was our performance at Westminster Abbey. There was a bit of panic at first as the instrument van was not waiting for us and some of the teachers were trying to ring up to find out where it was. I was a bit nervous at this- the only time I’d left my clarinet on the van, it failed to arrive! Fortunately it turned out that the van was simply late, and not too late either.

Only Wind Orchestra performed at Westminster Abbey- everyone else was singing at the Cenotaph service. It made things a bit awkward when on the Westminster Abbey programme it said that one of the songs (Thine be the Glory) would be led by our choir- which I soon realised was represented only by us band members! There were some bits in the service which felt a bit drawn out but there were some bits which I found fairly moving, even though I’m an atheist.

The service was followed by a hectic pack-up of instruments before returning to the youth hostel. Eventually we loaded everything onto the buses, and after getting on the buses, a lady got onto the bus and told us that as there would be no eating on the buses and there would be several hours until we got onto the Eurostar, we would have to eat before leaving, so we did. When we returned to the bus, Claire, sitting at the back, said, “If anybody needs to go to the toilet, go to the toilet at the youth hostel! We will seriously punch you if you use the bus toilet.”

On the bus, I played Mario Kart DS with Angus, Boyuan, Jess and one or two other people. Angus was using his sister’s DS, and for some reason his sister had set the DS name to “Lindsay” so everyone was laughing at him for it. I did pretty well at the races but soon it was time to get off temporarily at the Eurostar station. I had a look at the bookshop inside the station even though I wasn’t planning on spending any money (I wasn’t even going to bother finding anything that I could buy with 7p).

Eventually we got back on the bus and the bus drove into the train. I was excited about going on the train because of course it’s a totally new experience. I also thought that there would be carriages for vehicles and then a passenger part of the train, but I was wrong. The train we were on was entirely for vehicles. There were 17 carriages (if I remember correctly) with toilets at either end, though I’m not sure if the toilet carriages were included in that count. We were in the second carriage, not counting the front carriage with the toilets (which apparently were vacuum toilets but I didn’t need to use them).

Our ears all popped as we went downwards into the Channel Tunnel. Although I don’t usually get claustrophobic, I did feel a little hemmed in because the train didn’t have any windows. I went out of the bus to take a bit of a walk to the toilet carriages and back. I had a bit of an odd fear that I would get trapped between two train carriages and fall between them but it was okay because most of the time someone would be opening the door on the other side so I didn’t have that to worry about. It seemed like only an hour before we had to reboard the buses to resurface but apparently it was only about 45min or less!

We drove out of the train into France, and then north into Belgium. Apparently there’s a sign indicating the border between the two countries and we shouldn’t blink or else we’d miss it. I think I blinked because I didn’t see it. My first indication that we were in Belgium were road signs in Dutch, especially the one pointing towards Ypres (Ieper in Dutch). Eventually we arrived in the beautiful Belgian town which apparently got practically rebuilt after WWI. We headed towards our different hostels. Bus 3 and Bus 4 shared the Salient School Hostel, and it wasn’t too much of a walk, which was good. After listening to the talk about rules and so forth, we headed up to our actual rooms, where I began to make a list of pros and cons about the place.

There were only six of us assigned to room 3, and it was a room designed to fit ten, so it was pretty comfortable. One of the bunks was pretty isolated, so we divided the remaining four bunks among us. I had a bunk to myself so I took the bottom part. My suitcase stank pretty badly due to the clothes that didn’t dry properly while I was in London, but Julia O possibly had a worse problem- one of the liquids in her suitcase spilled over half of her clothes. Once we were set up, we went and looked in one of the other rooms, where they weren’t so lucky- they had one of the attic rooms which looked quite cramped due to the slanting roof but at least there was the novelty factor I suppose.

Other good things about the hostel included the showers. Larger rooms had two showers, and since our room was meant to fit ten, that included ours. We had two showers for six people, which was as good as the shower to person ratio in the hotels. The showers were quite good as well. We also had access to computers downstairs (though they had AZERTY keyboards which were pretty annoying for us English-speakers used to the QWERTY variety), with free internet and calls to landlines. Finally, we had sole use of this hostel, as well as the hostels that Bus 1 and Bus 2 were occupying, so we didn’t have to worry about security.

There were some drawbacks, though. Firstly, we had to carry our suitcases up the stairs. I’m pretty weak, so I was glad that I only had to carry my suitcases up one flight of stairs. I felt sorry for the people who were sleeping on the 3^rd floor. Also, the next day I found that we were to have continental breakfasts as opposed to the full cooked breakfasts that we had been having previously. All in all, though, the hostel was a pretty comfortable place to stay.

Music Tour- Day Eleven

Although Sunday was yet another free day, we had a tour of the Tower of London scheduled in the morning. Bus 3 and 4 were first, followed by buses 1 and 2 later on. This was fortunate for us because that meant that we could have the rest of the day to explore freely without having to worry about being anywhere at any particular time (though we had to be back to the hostel fairly early-ish due to the early morning the next day).

At the Tower of London, we waited in the absolutely massive queue for the Crown Jewels. That must have been the longest queue I have ever been in. The queue went through some of the other rooms of the building, out the door, snaked around for a bit and then stretched out down the path from one wall to the other. Outside, someone got their photos taken with one of the guards. In the rooms, there were little videos playing displaying some information about the crown jewels so that you had something to do while waiting. When you actually got to the jewels, you had to go on a conveyor belt so that you didn’t stand gazing at them and holding up the queue. The end crown, if I remember correctly, was only worn once because the king or whoever had to wear it complained that it was too heavy!

After coming out of the building, we had lunch and were given some free time to explore the Tower of London (which, incidentally, is made up of several towers) as we wished, though we had to be back to the spot we were eating by a particular time. After eating lunch I decided to explore the central tower which displayed lots of old weapons and armour which were quite interesting to look at. Towards the end of it I needed to go to the toilet, so I waited to go downstairs in the super slow-moving queue and then made a beeline for the toilets (at least the queue for the toilets was relatively fast-moving!) before dashing back to the meeting point. I ended up being exactly on time (to the nearest minute, at least- not sure about seconds).

When we left, we decided that we would head for the British Museum. The British Museum is absolutely huge, and it’s free to enter. We had time to visit the China, Korea and Egypt rooms before it was time to head back downstairs. When we did head back downstairs to our meeting place (under the banner which said “Australian Season” on it), we were told that we were allowed to have another 30min to explore, but it was a bit pointless since the museum was so large we wouldn’t be able to do very much with half an hour, especially now that we were away from the exhibits, so we went to the gift shop instead. I had £5.06 left to spend by the next day, so I spent £4.99 on a Horribly Famous book about Julius Caesar and was left with only 7p, so I had spent my money fairly neatly. (I found another 1p coin when I got home, so now I have 8p. Whoop-de-doop.)

As we left, the other members of my group decided to stop by some of the souvenir shops. I had a look around as well, to see if there was anything that 7p could buy or if anybody was 7p short of anything. The cheapest item available was 10p, and that was a postcard.

Finally, we returned to the youth hostel for dinner. That night, Diffy and I were the sensible ones. We both set our alarms and made plans to go to bed at least semi-early. Xanthe and Boyuan, however, decided to go to Jess’ room. I decided to go after them and give them one of the keys to our room so that they did not have to wake us up when they returned. I gave them an awful fright when I went over there. When I knocked, I heard agitated whisperings: they thought I was a teacher! I waited while some of them hid and the rest tried to look like they were almost ready for bed. At long last, the door was opened, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. I handed Xanthe the key and headed back to my room to hopefully get some decent rest before the next day.

Phobia Awakens

I have mild composer's block. So this section isn't quite finished yet.

And I apologise for the terrible quality voice over and my retarded voice :P Ah well this was a test run.

Music Tour- Day Ten

The previous night, Stevie J had told us that breakfast would be served at 8, so I planned to get up at 7.45. I changed my mind, however, and got up at 7.30am instead. This turned out to be a good thing: at 7.48am Stevie J came to our room and told us that the buses were waiting for us! We hurriedly made our final preparations to set off. Unfortunately, the clothes we had hung up to dry didn’t dry properly and were instead starting to stink, so we all had to set off smelling odd.

When we got to the ground floor, Tori said that about 10 people were late, so at least it wasn’t just our room. Everyone was equally confused. When we got on the bus, some of the chaperones were “tut-tutting” us and other people said, “Well, you guys took your time!” The ten of us who were late were understandably annoyed. After a little bit of asking around, we managed to piece together what had happened.

We were the first bus back, so Stevie J was simply telling us the original plan for the next day. After everyone went off to their rooms, the adults on our bus went to the shops so they missed out on being told the change of time. By the time they found out, they assumed that all of us had been told. We weren’t: some people went around door-knocking the next morning at 7.30am warning everyone that they had to be on the buses by 7.45am, but they missed two rooms: my room of 4, and Jess B’s room of 6. In any case, I’m one of those people who isn’t comfortable when things don’t go to plan, so this didn’t go down too well for me.

We set off for Westminster Abbey. Wind Orchestra set up facing an orchestra from New Zealand. The three songs we practised were our “war memorial” songs- three slow songs that sap all of your breath if you’re playing a wind instrument. They were Handel’s Largo, Blessed Are They and Well Met, My Own True Love. After practising, we went outside and I began to nibble on some of the biscuits in my brown paper bag- the only breakfast I got that day (this was possibly the first day in my life in which I didn’t have breakfast). I was told to put my clarinet in the pile of instruments to be loaded on the instrument van so that I didn’t have to carry it around London. I did, and watched the instruments being loaded onto the van until mine was safely loaded on. As I watched, I felt an odd sensation: I felt a sense of loss as my clarinet was parted from me.

We then set off in our bus groups to explore London. Our group went shopping for a bit and then to the park outside Buckingham Palace for lunch. If I remember correctly, we heard a fanfare and could make out the shapes of soldiers marching near the palace. After that, we went to Oxford Street and, while we were at H & M, we saw a protest march pass by. When we were done shopping at H & M, we went into another shop and then took the tube to St. Paul’s Station. We stopped off at a café to have milkshakes before heading off for St. Paul’s Cathedral.

St. Paul’s cathedral has several floors. The first long flight of steps took us up to a ring-shaped floor called the “Whispering Gallery” because apparently whispers can be heard from the other side. Julia O came up here with us, but when we went up to the next gallery, she went down because she’s scared of heights. Jess C went down as well to keep her company. I can’t remember what the next gallery was called, but it was outdoors and afforded a good view. The last gallery was called the Golden Gallery, and to get there, you had to go up lots of metal steps above… the unknown. It was a little scary at times, particularly because you were trapped in a way: you couldn’t go up or down  because so many people were in the way. At the top, I walked around the Golden Gallery, took a few photos, and bumped into the attendant at the exit who was trying to get as many people to go down as she could so that more people could come up. I told her to tell my group that I’d gone down.

At the bottom, we saw Jess C and Julia O waiting for us. They told us that they could hear Stevie J talking through the headsets so they were eavesdropping on them as much as they could.

When everyone was downstairs, we headed back for the tube station. First, we took the train to Bank and then took the Waterloo and City line to Waterloo. The Waterloo and City line is the best train line ever- it only has two stations! Waterloo Station itself is huge as it also houses trains going around England, so we got lost looking for the correct bus. We ended up having to take lots of tube trains until we finally found the right bus! At the end we were exhausted from public transport, and were grateful for getting back to the hostel. We had some time to get ready for watching Wicked, which was a really good musical and had everyone saying, “That was wicked!!” at the end of it.

Music Tour- Day Nine

Friday was the day we travelled to Bath via Stonehenge.

As we left, we got a view of the Buckingham Palace gardens. Angus said, “Now here’s a photo opportunity I’m not going to miss!” and got out his camera, but soon a bus came and blocked his view. “Oh no!” Angus exclaimed. “Bloody bus!”

We had a rest stop on the way to Stonehenge. At the rest stop, some of the boys had decided to annoy Scotty. They asked me to help by taking his bag and hiding it under the bus. I didn’t do that, but I did run around the buses until I lost him and then ran back on the bus and hid his bag in the toilet. When Scotty got back on the bus, I had to tell him where I put his bag.

Eventually we got to Stonehenge. It was a lot smaller than most people expected it to be. We were given headsets but I don’t think anybody listened to all of the information- there probably wasn’t time anyway. We took several pictures of people in such a way that it looked as if they were holding up Stonehenge with their arms and also a couple of pictures of sheep on the hillside. (Yes, we went to Stonehenge to take pictures of sheep.)

After an hour or so, we set off for Bath. Our first stop in Bath was Parkview Gardens, where we gave a concert for an hour. Halfway through the concert, Jonty went to the cathedral in Bath because Mr Hey said that there was going to be a special Good Friday Mass there. Unfortunately, it turned out that it was cancelled or something so he had to come back and play Marche des Parachutistes Belges. His piccolo wasn’t warmed up so it was extremely out of tune when he had to play. Poor Jonty!

After the concert, some of us left our instruments for the chaperones to look after while we had a guided tour of Bath, which didn’t last for very long. At the end, we had a little bit of time to get an ice cream and watch a horse and carriage tour pass by. Right before we went back on the bus, I asked if there was a toilet nearby because I wanted to avoid using the bus toilet as much as possible, but it was probably going to be a fair distance considering we had to be on the buses soon. In any case, there was going to be a stopover on the way back.

When we were near the buses, I got my clarinet back from the chaperone. When I got on the bus, Alastair had given us another reason to avoid bus toilets.

He dropped one big stinker in there.

Additionally, the bus toilet wasn’t a vacuum toilet: it was worse. It was one of those toilets that had a flap which opens directly over the septic tank, so you can smell of the contents when you flush.

Everyone was cursing Alastair for stinking up the back of the bus. Eden sprayed Eau de Cologne everywhere.

After most of the smell had diminished, Stevie J came on the bus holding a Buffet R13 case, asking for me! I was dumbfounded: I thought I had already put my clarinet into the overheads! Upon further inspection, I saw that Stevie J was indeed holding my clarinet. Confused, I opened the overhead locker and took down… Adrienne’s clarinet! Everyone had a good laugh at the confusion between the identical clarinet cases.

Finally, we set off. On the way, Eric had motion sickness, giving us yet another reason not to go into the bus toilet. At this point, I decided that I would do whatever I could to avoid having to clean toilets for a living.

Eventually, we stopped off at the rest stop, and, after making a massive fool of myself when I bought food, we set off for the youth hostel for the night.

Music Tour- Day Eight

The towels that were meant to have arrived the night before were still missing. Apparently there were some communication problems between head office and the youth hostel. In the end, Jenny (one of the chaperones) had to go out and buy over 100 hand towels using the emergency money.

That day, we set out for the Globe Theatre. We went around in groups. The lady who showed us around said that the original Globe Theatre burned down 14 years after its construction in the Great Fire of London. The Globe Theatre that stands today is an fairly accurate replica built by following blueprints and drawings of the original Globe. The main differences between the current Globe and the original Globe are the exits: there are fire doors and more of them. (In fact, quite a lot of doors that I saw in London were fire doors.) We went inside the actual theatre itself and the lady explained that you only had to pay a penny to stand on the lowest level of the theatre, and it was often crowded. People on the upper tiers would yell insults at the people on the bottom such as “Penny-stinkers!” or something like that.

After having a look inside the theatre, we were taken to another building a short way down the road. We went through some acting exercises and we were shown an example of a script during Shakespeare’s time. Actors wouldn’t get the full script- they’d just get a cue script, consisting of the actor’s lines and the last words spoken before each of the actor’s lines. We all had a go at using cue scripts. It was pretty difficult because I felt that I was concentrating too hard on listening for the cue words and not really taking in everything that was being said. Another difficulty was that a character might tell a character not to grab on to them, and since cue scripts don’t have actions written on them, people only realised that they were meant to grab on to another person after the line was said.

We had lunch in a small park next to the Globe Theatre overlooking the Thames. We got a good view of the Millennium Bridge- in fact, it was almost directly in front of us.

Our itinerary said that we were going to walk to Australia House for our next concert, but we ended up driving instead- probably because of all of the instruments and concert uniforms that had to be transported. Apparently the parts of Harry Potter involving Gringotts were filmed in Australia House.

We had to get dressed in partitioned-off corners of the basement floor, which not everyone was too keen on doing since if you stood at the right angle you could probably see inside the other gender’s dressing corner (no, I didn’t try this). After getting changed, some people began warming up their instruments. One of the Low Foul Winds decided to play an ostinato on their instrument- F, C, F, C, F, C, F C D E. Cookie then joined in with “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” in the altissimo register (the high squeaky one). Senior Wind Orchestra played Pastime with Good Company, Fantasy on an Australian Folk Song and probably one or two others as well which I’ve forgotten. After the concert, some people were able to meet up with relatives.

We boarded the buses yet again, this time our destination being the London Eye, a.k.a. giant Ferris wheel. While waiting for the bus to leave, I saw the London School of Economics through the window. I took a picture of it for Mrs Reilly, the enthusiastic economics teacher who went on Canberra Tour with me (I felt sorry for her, but then again I feel sorry for anyone who has to go on the same plane as me). Then it was off to the London Eye.

The queue was hideous, even though our tickets were pre-bought. The queue was actually in two parts, and there were people in the first section who would highlight the tickets so that when you went to the second part the people there would be able to see that you weren’t a queue jumper. We boarded in groups of about 10. Due to the size of the wheel, and the fact that it had to go slow enough for people to get off and on, it took a while to get to the top. Julia O had a fear of heights but she was brave about it and got on anyway. Finally, it was back to the hostel for dinner and sleep. By this time, the hostel didn’t seem so bad after all. It must have just been the shock of the first night.

Music Tour- Day Seven

This day was the day we would go to London. First, however, we had to spend our leftover coins. We walked over to the marketplace in groups. Over there, we split up further. One group decided to go into the market building first, while we decided to go down the street. I decided to look for seven or eight key-rings for my friends that were around 250HUF or less (I had less than 2000 Forint on me). I found some, but was then hurried along because our group decided to go and explore the market building in the remaining time we had. I followed along because I figured that I would be able to find key-rings the same price or cheaper in the building, but unfortunately this turned out not to be the case.

Upon returning, we had to do some final touch-ups to our packing before putting our suitcases out in the hallways. The chaperones then came up and checked our rooms before giving us the all-clear. We were lucky to be the first group- by the time the second group came back from the marketplace, they found that their cards had stopped working because it was past check-out time and they had to get their cards reprogrammed. We then had to load the buses before heading for the park. The bus driver was nice enough to open the bus for me to put my clarinet down so that I didn’t have to lug it around.

At the park, I learned how to make a daisy chain. After that, we climbed up the man-made hill-shaped thing (not sure what to call it) in the middle of the park to watch the mini game of soccer going on below us: two little Hungarian boys against two of the boys from our tour group. At the end of the game, the two little Hungarian boys took their shirts off, which got a few comments from some of us.

After that, we were yelled at by some Hungarian man. We don’t know what he was saying, but it was probably something along the lines of “get down from that hill,” so we got down from the hill. Angus played something or other on the ukulele and Amy updated her travel food diary.

Finally, we were taken to Budapest International Airport. It took what seemed like forever to check in all 166 of us. Security had two entrances, so we were sent in different directions so as to avoid overcrowding one of the entrances. By now, I had become accustomed to the security drill, so everything was all right.

We emerged into the duty free area. One of the shops had a promotion in which you could play roulette for free and win sample chocolates. Some people decided to play. I made a joke about what Mrs F’s reaction would be if she saw. She did see, when she came up through security after having finished directing everyone through different entrances. “You know what we always say about gambling,” she said. “You never win!” We told her it was free, and then she said, “Well, that’s alright then,” and walked on.

We had a look at perfumes, and then we went to the loo before meeting the rest of the tour group again, half an hour before our flight which was generally the time to board. We all headed in the direction of our gate before realising that we had all overlooked one thing that would hold us up: passport control.

It took us a while to proceed through passport control. Some people got to go through quickly because they had UK passports. I was the last person to go through. By the time I had joined the end of the queue for the boarding gate, there were only a few minutes to go until the scheduled time for our flight.

There is something inexplicably hilarious about 166 people delaying a plane all at once. Especially when the plane in question only has 168 seats.

We had to watch the safety video twice: in Hungarian and in English. Some people commented on how weird the people on the video looked (on Youtube, someone wrote “The Sims fly with Malev!”). The creepiest person was the stewardess who was pointing out the sign on the toilet door saying “no smoking” because the expression in her eyes was… odd, to say the least. And we had to see her again when the video replayed in English.

Safety videos are hilarious. I love how they tell you all the things that could go wrong and then at the end say, “Enjoy your flight!”

We were stuck on the tarmac for a while. I surmised that this was because we had probably missed our original take-off slot and had to wait for another one. In any case, it seemed to take forever.

The flight passed fairly uneventfully. When the flight attendant came around, I was practically deafened by the engines so Dianna, who had the aisle seat, had to relay what the flight attendant was saying to me, who unfortunately had the window seat.

As soon as we landed, I heard someone saying, “Wait, why is JJ panicking?” As soon as the seatbelt sign went off, we knew: JJ made a dash for the toilet. Meanwhile I was sitting in odd positions because I was waiting for an opportunity to use a normal toilet. (And, just like when I went to Sydney, the airport toilets were worse: in Sydney they were louder, and in London Gatwick they weren’t as clean.)

I followed the crowd to pass through security and get my luggage. Once we had collected our luggage, Mr Hey came around, saying, “Open the blue door and see what’s inside!” Someone said something along the lines of, “What is this, Play School?” Mr Hey just smiled.

I went beneath the blue sign (the blue door was staff-only) and found myself in the foyer of the terminal. We were all crammed against roughly one third of the open space. Eventually we were allowed to move directly outside where we formed bus groups. Three people joined our bus and were assigned numbers for the count-off.

At long last, we made it to the buses which took us to the Thameside Youth Hostel, which was to become our home for the next few days. The hostel came as a massive shock to us after the luxuries of a hotel, a shock which we didn’t cope with particularly well. A diary entry written the day after (probably the next morning) says it all:

We’re in London now- arrived here last night. The youth hostel hasn’t given us a very good impression of London. I was expecting the youth hostel to be as nice as the one in Sydney, but my goodness, I was wrong.

It all started when we were waiting for Mr Hey to finish talking to Bus 3. Dougal leaned out of the window, yelling, “This place is a hole!” When we went in, we were told to take the stairs if we could, so Xanthe took the stairs while I had to take the lift. I got to Room 211 first and stood waiting in the small, unwelcoming corridor until Xanthe came (there were only two keys between us, and Xanthe had one of them).

It took a while for us to work out how to turn on the lights. Thankfully, we could do so- many of the boys’ rooms did not have lights in the shower at all. Everyone ran around the hostel for a little while, yelling, “This place is an (insert word here) hole!” Eventually, a chaperone shut us up by telling us that there are normal people in the hostel, and some are in room 108, which was behind us.

There are some good things to be said about the hostel. One is that their water tastes normal. Another is that their hash browns taste nice. Last, but not least, the beds, while low to the ground, are still decently comfortable.

Our discomfort was made worse by a major stuff-up by the hostel. We had not been told to take towels (though some people brought them anyway). Mr Hey knew that hostels generally did not provide towels, so he called the hostel and paid them in advance. Alas- when we arrived, only 30 towels were available, and I didn’t get one of them. After asking around, I was told that there would be towels the next morning, so I planned to take a shower before leaving the next day instead and went to bed that night feeling a little uncomfortable.

Music Tour- Day Six

That morning, I checked my itinerary. It said that we would board the buses at 8am. The noticeboard in the foyer of the hotel said that we would board the buses at 8.20am. At 8.06am, I decided that I would go with what the noticeboard said. It turned out to be 8.20am, but I was late anyway.

We headed off for the markets in Szentendre. Almost as soon as we arrived, a few of us needed to go to the toilet so we set off looking for one. We asked one of the shop owners and he gave us directions, but we missed the turnoff and went too far. We asked another shop owner and they gave us better directions to a different toilet.

After coming out, Diffy decided to leave a tip. She left some coins in a few random currencies. When Jess and Dianna came out, we noticed the horrible truth- we were actually meant to have paid 100HUF! Dianna paid, but neither Jess nor I had change. Jess and I were a bit worried that they would notice that we hadn’t paid. (However, a little later I bought an ice cream and I don’t think I got enough change, so I guess it evened out.)

When we were walking out, we passed by a shop with some massive pencils (roughly 1m long, if I remember correctly) outside. We stopped to have a look. Jonty came by and showed us a special wooden box that required a fairly complex procedure to open. His had his name engraved on it.  The shopkeeper then showed us some of the other boxes he had, and how to open the boxes. He then showed us an even bigger pencil and allowed us to have our photos taken with the pencil.

We met up later on the buses. A few of the boys had bought model gas masks and quite a few people had bought the special boxes. The bus then took us to the Skanzen open-air museum. This museum consisted of rebuilt villages modelling the old architecture in use a few hundred years ago (I think). Each group went to different parts of the open-air museum before returning to the café for lunch. Just before we did so, though, we all found ourselves sitting beneath a tree. A few girls were talking about the manga Alice in the Land of Hearts and they said something about Alice going out with a Mafia guy. Angus overheard, but not knowing that they were talking about manga, said, “WHAT?!”

That night, we had our first overseas concert, at the Italian Cultural Institute in Budapest. I can’t remember everything we played but I know we did play Nessun Dorma (in fact, it was a requirement to play something Italian) and we played Pastime with Good Company in which one of the soloists was unfortunate enough to squeak. Right before Wind Orchestra’s performance, Miss J asked me if I was feeling excited. I said no- I generally try not to have adrenalin pumping through my body wherever I can. (After Canberra Tour, I got very sick of that of that stuff rushing through my body.) Chorale was the last to perform that night. After the performance, we had to prepare for the river cruise that night in the rooms where we had dumped all of our stuff (an idea that nobody liked, but hey, it was better than getting dressed on the stage which was what Mr Hey’s other suggestion was).

While waiting outside the Italian Cultural Institute for the order to move to the buses, Angus started singing a song which I assume he made up.

“Bang, bang, bangitty bang, bang bang bang bang ba-bang bang!”

When asked to shut up, his response was, “It’s a pretty cool song though! How often do you get to hear a song sung only to the word “bang?”

Nora came by and we all greeted her. There was great excitement as she told us that she would be accompanying us on the river cruise!

Once on the bus, Angus diverted his energies into singing the tune of Viva la Musica to the syllables “herp” and “derp,” which in my opinion was far more annoying. At least we didn’t have to sing the “bang” song in Chorale.

When the bus got going, Eva told us some of the things on the menu on the river cruise. One of them was chicken. At being told this, everyone groaned in an almost joking manner- we had been served chicken almost every day, if not every day, since coming to Europe. The meal was a buffet, though, so if people were truly sick of chicken they could easily choose something else.

Towards the end of our meal, we heard random thumping noises from the upper deck. Later on, when we moved up there, we realised what it was: every time we approached a bridge, a bunch of people would move up towards the bow of the boat. When the boat passed beneath, those people would then proceed to stampede down the boat. Meanwhile, I took plenty of pictures of the undersides of these bridges, as well as the amazing views of Budapest at night. Eventually, we all returned to the hotel, exhausted yet happy, to pack for the upcoming journey to London.

An Intense Meal

(Based off a real meal in Hungary)


Aaaannnnd... it's dinner time! In the leftmost seat, we have Andrew! In the rightmost seat, we have Boyuan! May the eating commence!

Down the hatch each bite goes... but not without each diner staring at the other! Ah, yes, here come the narrowed eyes, the tense jaw, the lack of a smile! But wait- is that a laugh escaping from Boyuan's lips?

(10 minutes later)

After ten minutes of intense staring, we have come to the end of the main course! Our two diners must now prepare themselves for the upcoming predicted-to-be-equally-tense dessert. Wait- what's this? They propose a sculling competition with the carbonated water! All right then- the contestants are ready- on your marks, get set, SCULL!

Down it goes! 100mL down, 200mL... oh no, Boyuan has stopped to laugh- she'll have to pull herself together if she hopes to beat Andrew! Right, she's started sculling again... the score is now 400mL to 250mL... 500mL to 350 mL... and SCORE! Andrew reigns victorious!

***

INTERVIEW
Reporter: So, Andrew, how do you feel about your victory over Boyuan tonight?
Andrew: *BUUURRRP* <-- the result of drinking too much soda water
Reporter: Hmm... I see. Have you got any tips for an up-and-coming sculler?
Andrew: *BuuuURRRrrrp*

French vs. Chinese

One of the massive differences between French and Chinese is easily outlined in how you ask for food at a restaurant.

French: Je voudrais [insert food here], s'il vous plait.
Chinese: Wǒ yào [insert food here].

In the French version, "voudrais," a more polite form of the verb "vouloir" (to want) is used. After the name of the food, you say "s'il vous plait," which means "please," and in fact it's an even more polite form of "please" ("s'il te plait" is more informal).

In the Chinese version, you literally only have to say "I want."

Here are the two statements, this time translated into English (I'm not really sure what to call them, because you're asking but you're sort of asking indirectly by saying what you would like rather than asking if you can have that particular food).

French: I would like [insert food here], please.
Chinese: I want [insert food here].

Chinese is so blunt sometimes. In the Du Du Xiong books, one of the pigs is called Xiǎozhū féiféi which literally means "little pig fat fat."

And that is why I like learning Chinese.

We all need to gatecrash CHOGM and...

... rickroll 'em.

RICKROLL'D!!!!

Music Tour- Day Five

The next day, we returned to the Kodály School for morning workshops. Before we left, we saw a taxi with the coolest phone number ever- 5-555-555. Angus came around handing out Theodora water (the water that I quickly learned to identify and then avoid because of its taste). I took a bottle, simply because I figured that it was better to have horrible tasting water than no water at all. Angus agreed with that- in fact, when he was handing out the bottles, he did say, “It’s pretty gross, but it’s better than nothing!”

By the time we reached Kecskemét, Eden had somehow tied a knot in his Theodora water bottle. How he did that is, as yet, a mystery of life still to be resolved.

At the Kodály School, a class had been set up on the auditorium stage for us to observe (in a non-creepy way, of course). We watched as the class warmed up and I was wondering if they would make people sing on their own, Miss C-style, in front of all 166 of us.

They did.

And they were brave about it, too.

Such incredible courage they must have! I mused to myself that if we were asked to do the same and Miss C asked me to sing on my own, I would have outright refused. I learned something quite important from these Hungarian students, though: I learned that if I sang more bravely, then it would help me to sing better. I think it was this day that one or two of their girls’ choirs sang for us. My favourite song out of those that they sang was “Hello Goodbye” by the Beatles.

That afternoon, we travelled to Tanyascárda, a puzsta (I think it’s a type of farm) in Hungary. We had goulash for lunch, during which several musicians performed to us. One was a violinist, another was a double bassist and the third a percussionist playing an interesting keyboard instrument I had never seen before but had heard of in some country music. They played a lot of songs that we all knew, like Csárdás and Hungarian Rhapsody. During “My Heart Will Go On,” the violinist serenaded Claire (though from my point of view it looked as if he was serenading Jacinta)! The violinist then sold copies of his CD for 3000 Ft each. Unfortunately I only had 2 000 Ft on me at that point. It was a shame since that was the thing I wanted the most in Hungary.

After lunch, we were introduced to some Hungarian students in an advanced English class from the Kodály School before participating in some games such as the sack race and a wheelbarrow race (using a real wheelbarrow-type thing, not that thing where you lift up someone’s legs and they walk with their hands). Stevie J participated in everything.

We were then taken to a horse show by horse and carriage. We had to be taken in groups (I think it was bus groups again) because there weren’t enough horses to take us all. While waiting, someone managed to put a daisy chain on Stevie J’s head! Trent then lent him his sunglasses, and soon Stevie J was surrounded by everyone taking a photo of him! Angus then asked Boyuan to write “What a Gun” on his arm using a marker he had brought along, and Boyuan wrote “water gun” instead to really annoy him.

Eventually our time came to be taken to the horse show. Along the way, Scotty dropped his bag. The driver stopped to allow him to pick it up. When Scotty was nearly back to the carriage, the driver started up again! It was an amusing sight, watching Scotty sprinting after the carriage. (The driver eventually did stop to allow him to get on.)

The horse show was pretty interesting. The horse trainers could get their horses to sit like a dog and lie down on their sides. The horse trainers even lay down on top of the horses, and the horses stayed stock-still! Later, a donkey trainer arrived and demonstrated the same tricks. We also saw some games that the horse-riders played. One game had one player with a scarf and the other players had to try and get the scarf off them. After the show, we got a chance to look at the farm animals, some of which were very young.

Before we had to leave, we had to sing one final song for the advanced English students who had come with us. The song chosen was a parody of Viva la Musica- “Viva la Kecskemét.” I accidentally sang along with the basses at the start, but fortunately nobody noticed!

On the bus, the boys were going on about “sleazing for the camera.” Of course, Scotty did this the best- no surprises there. On the way back, while I was rejoicing in the fact that I wasn’t one of the people who stepped in horse shit, we listened to music on the CD bought from the violinist. One of the songs on there was Vltava- one of my favourites!

Music Tour- Day Four

On Sunday, we left our hotel early for Kecskemét, a town in Hungary. Towards the end of the bus ride, I finally got the Flower Duet out of my head, but unfortunately this only happened because the Tetris Song got stuck in there instead. We first visited the Town Hall and were greeted by the chiming of bells from both the Town Hall and a nearby church. Once inside, we were greeted by the Mayor of Kecskemét, and I felt as if I spoke a minority language because we needed one of the tour guides to translate for us! The mayor welcomed us and spoke a little about Hungarian history, and I felt that I would go home knowing more about Hungarian history than about Australian history.

After the mayor’s welcome talk, we left the town hall and sorted ourselves into bus groups. Two groups were to go directly to the Kodály Institute, while the other two groups looked around the town briefly (and I do mean briefly). While waiting to move off, a couple of guys cycled past on interesting bikes. It was like a fairly large unicycle with a trainer wheel at the back. They cycled forth once, then back, whistling as we snapped photos. Eventually, bus groups 1 and 2 moved off and we were left aimlessly looking around Kecskemét while waiting for groups 1 and 2 to leave the Kodály Institute.

A little to the left of where we were standing (from the point of view of leaving the Town Hall), there was a small model of Kecskemet. After admiring this model and the beautiful flowers nearby, our attentions turned to a small hill-shaped monument which everyone took turns sliding down. Next up was a fountain, followed by a wall with the year “1956” engraved on it (I’m not sure what the significance of this was, there was probably a description somewhere but most likely it would have been in Hungarian anyway).

We finally set off for the Kodály Institute. We were shown into an average-sized room with about 5 pianos in it (if I remember correctly, there were one or two grand pianos and a two or three upright pianos). We were shown a video about the Kodály Institute which had a song that we all recognised- we had had to learn it in choir so that we could sing it with Hungarian students at the Kodály School. The song was called Cohors Generosa and had lyrics in Hungarian and Latin. After the video was finished, we collected pamphlets about the Kodály Institute. The people there said that we could show them to our teachers, but our teachers already used Kodály methods anyway.

We then headed off for the buses. On the way, a car had to slow down for us as we crossed the road (then again, the car probably would have slowed down anyway as we were crossing at an intersection). My fear instincts suck because they aren’t helpful at all- in fact, they probably compromise my survival. I froze but then I quickly leaped to catch up with the others. There’s always safety in numbers when crossing the road. (Later on, I wrote in my diary, “standing in the middle of the road, even on a dotted line, is one of the worst things that you can do (*cough*Jasmine COJ-girl*cough.*)”)

The bus took us to the Kodály School, which was a mixed primary and high school specialising in music. On our way up the stairs, we encountered a poster which said that our school was famous, which intrigued us. At the top of the stairs, we were given morning tea- different types of juices and biscuits.

The toilets at the Kodály School were, to put it lightly, strange. They sounded like wannabe aeroplane toilets, and at the time I wrote that they sounded like vacuum cleaners on steroids, though not as loud as aeroplane toilets.

After morning tea, we entered the auditorium. The teacher there was pretty funny. He told us about the music program at the Kodály School and their ensembles. Boys’ choir wasn’t compulsory for the same amount of time as girls’ choir- probably because the boys there apparently annoy their teacher to no end because they’d rather play soccer than sing. A few minutes later, a bunch of Hungarian girls came in, and the teacher said, “Oh, these Hungarian girls! You tell them to come at 10.15, and they’ll come at 10.30! You tell them to come at 10.30, and they’ll come at 10.45!” The Hungarian girls sat in between us. The teacher told us to introduce each other, which we did. I wouldn’t be able to pronounce the name of the girl next to me even if I tried, but it sounded something like “Jill” except 10 000 times more awesome. As a group, we all warmed up and sang two songs together: “Cohors Generosa” and another song called “We Gather Here Together.” The Hungarians’ pronunciations of solfa put us off at times, because they pronounced “re” “ri.” “Ri” using Australian pronunciations for solfa is one semitone higher than “re.” Some people, including me, were tempted to sing “ri” instead of “re” because of the confusion. Another solfa-pronunciation difference which turned legendary was in what seemed to be their most common warm-up: “doh-re-doh-lah-doh.” The Hungarians pronounced this “doo-ri-doo-lah-doo.” Pronunciation differences aside, the Hungarian girls were amazing singers, and afterwards we all discussed how inadequate we felt beside them!

After singing together for a little while, we had lunch in the cafeteria of the Kodály School- a three-course-meal, which I thought was amazing for school food (especially considering that prior to Europe Tour I would have only had three-course-meals at restaurants if at all). Max managed to eat all of his quickly and go back for seconds, whereas I only just managed to finish mine. I seem to remember that there was one fruit that nobody wanted to eat (can’t remember whether that was due to it looking “suspicious” or whether everyone was full by that time) but I can’t remember what it was- I think it may have been an orange.

It was then back to the auditorium for practise for that night. If I remember correctly, Senior Chorale practised “Like a Prayer,” “Viva la Musica” and “Joshua Fight de Battle ob Jerico.” Wind Orchestra didn’t get a chance to perform because the stage was too small. After practising for half an hour or so, anyone who wasn’t performing in any other ensembles got to have afternoon tea and then go for a walk, though not too far. It was during this time that Jeff and some other boys discovered McDonalds, and when they returned, they returned with a hilarious story about Jeff ordering food. He wanted chips, but the guy didn’t understand him, so he had to point to a picture of chips. Then he wanted coke, and he had to say, “Coke! Coke! Coca-cola!” before the guy understood! (It doesn’t look so funny written down, but it was hilarious at the time.)

When most people had arrived back from their journeying around the neighbourhood, a few games took place. Boyuan, Jess C and Jacinta grabbed daisies from where they were growing nearby and stuck as many as they could onto Stevie J’s back before he noticed and tossed them all off his back. Eric tried to do a 720, and he succeeded before falling in a heap on the floor. A competition then ensued between the boys to see who could be the first to jump on to the raised circular platform in front of the Kodály School no-handed. Last, but not least, there was a limbo competition in which I was one half of the bar. A bunch of people participated, including Murphy Minor.

After performing that night in the concert, which seemed to have pleased the audience very much, we boarded the bus to learn that Nora was to be our tour guide no longer because she would have to work at BP on weekdays. (If I remember correctly, she said something about this on the way to Kecskemét- something along the lines of, “I started working at BP two weeks ago. I hate it!” and then proceeding to talk about BP’s rules for going down stairs!) Nora introduced us to our new tour guide, Eva. While Nora was talking, I decided that my favourite accent was now Hungarian and not British.

***

That night, I had the funniest dinner in my life.

Boyuan, Amy and I were sitting at a table with Andrew, who was sitting there really awkwardly. He even showed it by making the “awkward turtle” sign. Somehow, throughout the conversation, Andrew began glaring at Boyuan really weirdly, making us all laugh. The way Andrew and Boyuan were glaring at each other made dinner very intense. That in turn somehow managed to lead to a competition in sculling soda water. Andrew won, and burped lots of times, really loudly too.

After dinner, the teachers organised a walk around Budapest (which Amy and I didn’t go on). Apparently, a random Hungarian guy yelled “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!” at them, to which all the people who went on the walk (and there were a LOT of them, probably around about 100!) yelled back, “Oi! Oi! Oi!” Upon hearing about this, I was sad that I decided not to go on the walk that night, but at least I got the chance to have a good shower. I also got the chance to write in my diary:

“We are an Australian school in Hungary. We must represent our country with dignity. So we do. We:

·         Have soda water sculling competitions

·         Have intense limbo competitions in front of the Kodály School

·         Dive down the sides of a hill-shaped monument in Kecskemét

·         Say “Thanks, mate!” to the waiters in a Hungarian restaurant

·         Add loads of sugar to the soda water

·         Make suspicious-looking drinks that taste really weird by combining a bunch of available ingredients

·         Answer the phone in odd ways (e.g. “George Washington is not here!”)

·         Play saxophone in our rooms (I can hear one from here)

·         Make plenty of innuendoes

·         Wear our belts backwards

·         Sit in terrible positions

·         Stick flowers on Stevie J’s back

·         See who can be the first to jump on a particular point

·         Attempt to do 720s

·         Do everything “just casually” (this seems to have been the catchphrase of the trip so far)

·         Scream “SHUT UP!” at each other when an announcement comes on for our flight

·         Invade McDonalds in Dubai Airport and Hungary

·         Eat an entire main meal with a knife

·         Blow across the water bottles to make a sound

·         Tap on the bottles with cutlery to make sounds

·         Play UNO in the corridors of the hotel