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