A beautiful day! I think I slept for almost 12 hours Friday night, and I woke up feeling like a dead log. No biggee – nothing important to do before 2:00, so I spent the morning in the room preparing scores. I loathe preparing scores – tedious work, to say the least. For lunch I went to - you guessed it – the mall! I had a yummy sandwich and finally was able to Skype with Ben. Of course, it was 3 am in San Francisco where he was, but he didn’t complain. Went back to the hotel to wait for my assistant who would take me to the Gliere Music School to practice. She was late, so we took the bus. On the way there, she kept pointing out different things along the route. I thought she was just showing me cool things about the city, but I realized later she was showing me landmarks so I could find my way back! We got to the school late, and after a prolonged conversation with one of the ladies who works there (who knows what they were talking about, but she kept looking at me – I just kept smiling at her) she took us to a pretty recital hall that had a small organ in it.
Very pretty, and almost exactly what comes to my mind when I think of a little Russian music school. But I think it’s been a while since they’ve dusted the organ, don’t you think?
So, I show my assistant what I need her to do for the competition. This takes 5 minutes – I’m pretty independent when it comes to these things. The last thing I want or need is some clumsy person next to me at the console (and no, I’m not referring to you, Brian). Then she asks me if I remember how to get back. I laughed. If I’m not driving, I might as well be riding around with a blind fold on, cause I don’t remember a thing. Just ask the hubby. Luckily, I did remember the things she pointed out. Incidentally, I do have a photographic memory – I just don’t use it enough for it to be useful (I know the hubby is laughing at this now). I asked her to draw a map for me to get back. This is what I got:
Did you notice there are almost no street names???? So, I get started practicing (1/2 hour late, I might add) and get kicked out ½ hour early by the next person. Oh well. I take my maps and hit the road – it’s about a 45 minute walk, but I like walking to get to know a new town. Some interesting things along the way:
They knew I was coming!
Just when I think I may have made a wrong turn, what do I turn the corner and see? Say it together now – the mall! I take a left at the mall and go down to where Sergei showed me the currency exchange. Getting low on cash, and that per diem I remember reading about on the website is quickly becoming a fantasy. I walk into the exchange, and immediately feel like I’m doing something tricksy – it’s kind of dark, really small, and people are eyeing each other suspiciously. I watched the man in front of me: put your money in the drawer, tell her what you want, get what you want. Ok, I can do that. I put my Euros in the drawers, said “rubles” with as much conspiracy and clandestine-ness I could muster, and got my money.
Get more money – check.
Believe it or not, I did NOT stop at the mall - ha! I did brave one of the convenience stands on the street and bought a pepsi. Thank God the numbers are the same. I decided to veg at the hotel in the afternoon, and entertained myself watching GI Jane in Russian. Just doesn’t have the same flair, you know? Since I filled up on those bacon potato chips in the afternoon (big mistake) I decided to skip dinner and wait until the competitor from Kansas I friended on Facebook finished practicing at 9. So, I took a nap – a baaaad habit. 3 of us got together a little after 9 and decided to hit the coffee house down the street that had wifi (and English menus!!!!). Hey – even Chelsea brought her computer with her. So we sat, surfed the web, ate and talked for a while. Turns out their assistant is 10,000 times more useful than mine. They had all kinds of information and the program booklet – I had nothing. What the hey???!!! I shot off a quick email to the competition (I promise, I was nice) to see if I could get more info. We’ll see…
Hopefully, tomorrow I will be enlightened. Hopefully, tonight I will not get bit by so many mosquitoes while I sleep - an unfortunate consequence of sleeping with the window open to get some air. Apparently, I taste good. Hopefully, I’ll at least get some more practice time – I’ll even take a piano at this point, or else it will be coitans for me, coitans. They have some nice Estonia grands at Gliere…
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