After drowning sorrows with fellow competitors on Wednesday night, I woke up on Thursday feeling a little better about things. Distance is a good thing – can’t have perspective without it. I decided to head to the hall in the morning and listen to some of the remaining competitors. I heard the first three, and thought I would die if I had to hear the BACH motive ever again. But of course, I would! Then I hit the coffee house for lunch and headed back to the hotel room for a little relaxation (translation – nap). I did not sleep well on the night before – could be the vodka, could be all the thoughts running through my head. Probably a combination of both. These types of experiences always make me ponder my life and its direction. I always ask myself, how will my life be different after this experience? After all, what’s the point of putting yourself through it if you aren’t willing to be changed by it?
Nap – check. Back to the hall. There are only 3 competitors left to listen to, and I’m sure the judges are just as tired of listening to these pieces as the rest of us are. I heard some good performances, including the one guy from Estonia who played just fantastically – I smell a winner. After all had performed, we were told that the results would be announced in an hour. We left the hall en masse and headed to the coffee shop. I hadn’t eaten dinner yet, and I treated myself to a chocolate croissant and coffee for dinner. Yum. As we were walking out of the coffee house, we ran into the rest of the competitors who happened to be sitting in the other room! So we joined them. The Good Assistant was there, and after an hour was up she called the hall and found out they were still counting. So we had some time to veg. One of the interesting things in this competition is that the common language is English. In all my other international experiences, the common language between competitors, judges, etc., has always been German. Most of the people here who speak English speak it very well – something the US needs to work on. I think kids should learn to speak another language fluently while they are growing up – thy may not end up using it, but you develop another set of learning skills that go along with it. Yet, I digress…We chat nervously amongst ourselves before we head back to the hall. It’s after 9:00, so it’s dark out and we are walking down streets we wouldn't even dare venture down in the US, even if we were in a group of 15+. But that’s Russia, for you.
We arrive at the hall and settle into the auditorium. They’re still counting!!! This is excruciating! We wait, but only because we have to. Finally, the judges appear. The air is tense, and everyone is sitting up straight in their chairs. There’s the obligatory speech from the head judge about how hard the judging process was, and how it took them so long because they are musicians, not mathematicians, and they can only add up to 7 or so. Ha ha ha, get on with it. This is all announced in English with a Russian translation trailing behind. The jury president announces the 6 names of the people going on to the final round, and we are all listening intently to hear our names butchered in his German accent (incidentally, he speaks fantastic English). Alas, my name was not called. It wasn’t a complete surprise, and I had already prepared myself for it. We congratulated the winners, and the 3 of us from the US had a brief discussion with the one judge from the US. Then we all gathered on the stage for a photograph and headed back to the hotel for a stiff drink.
Our Vodka choices….
It was raining, so we took the bus back. We were all filled with relief and disappointment – relief that the waiting was finally over, and we knew what the results were. Disappointment that we were not the Chosen Ones. The 3 of us had drinks at the hotel with our new friends – one from Finland (she’s actually Russian – from Belarus, to be exact) and the other from the Czech Republic. They were very fun to hang out with, and I had a lot in common with them. The woman from Finland is the same age I am, and we shared stories of the difficulties of practicing while working full time and being distracted by daily life. Our Czech friend is a good 10 years younger and is working on a degree in chemistry while studying organ. Adequate practice is also a challenge for him. The vodka loosened us up a bit, and I had a good time listening to the two of them talk about life in their countries. By the end of the night, we were being schooled on how to properly pronounce Dvorak (the “r” is supposed to be pronounced with a sound that’s a combination of a French “r” and the word “je”) – I just couldn’t get it. Czech is a difficult language! And he manages to speak it with a French accent…fascinating.
Well, that experience was finally over. I was disappointed, of course, but knowing exactly why I did not play well actually helped – not enough practice, and not enough of the right type of practice. One of the hardest things about these competitions is that you do not get much time on the performance instrument – you must be able to adjust to the console and the action immediately or you’ll never feel comfortable. That’s something we are somewhat lazy about in the US. When we play recitals, we generally have the luxury of more than ample time to prepare a program. This is not the norm in the rest of the world. What I should have done to prepare is fling myself across the city to play on a number of different instruments with limited time to prepare. I knew this, and yet did not do it. Why don’t we do the things we know we need to do? You have to be willing to go the extra mile in order to really excel.
Our consolation prize is a pretty cool one – a trip to the Baltic Sea. We got up in the morning and boarded a bus to the Baltic with the jury. Many people took the opportunity to grill the jury about their performances. Most of them had brought their comment sheets with them, but of course the two people I asked had not. That’s ok – today was for relaxing and besides, I was still in my philosophical mood, contemplating what I was really put on this earth to do. For a while there, I thought I already had that figured out, but I’m not so sure anymore.
After about 90 minutes we arrive at a place called the Curonian Spit. It’s a slim tract of land in between the Baltic and a lagoon. We got off the bus and walked into a place called the Dancing Forest. Because of the wind and some other factors, many of the trees have grown in some very strange ways.
Pretty cool. We get back on the bus to head to the Baltic. It’s an incredibly windy day, and when we finally make the trek through the trees to the beach, the wind is whipping around us fiercely, but the view is spectacular.
This was really astounding. I kept mentally picturing where we were on a map and thought, what a privilege. Who knows if I’ll ever get back here ever again. I walked the beach a bit and just closed my eyes and smelled everything I was seeing. The sound of the waves crashing on the shore was mesmerizing. I knelt down and waited for the next wave to come close enough for me to put my hands in the water. It was cold, but I let it wash over my bare skin and over my shoes. Very cool.
We head back to the bus for lunch – we’re STARVING cause it’s almost 3:00! We arrive at a little restaurant very close to the shore and sit down to eat a traditional Russian meal.
When we sit at the table, I notice a pitcher of a dark brown liquid that is carbonated. Wow, a pitcher of Pepsi, I thought. Perfect – my blood sugar had already tanked. We poured some in our glasses, and the minute I lifted it towards my face to sip, I realized it smelled different. Not Pepsi! “I think this is beer!” No beer! It’s a drink called Quas (sp?) – a traditional Russian drink made from bread. Bizarre. Interesting flavor. The rest of the meal consisted of a light slaw made from cabbage and carrots, and a cold salad of pickled cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes. Yum. Then they brought out crocks of what seemed to be chicken noodle soup with pieces of potato in it. A little bland, but good. The main course was some type of fish with cheese melted on top (I could see all those food network chefs just freaking out – fish and cheese is a big no-no!), chicken, rice and potatoes. A feast! We ate well, spent some time socializing with our new friend Olga who works for the competition, then headed back to the hotel. All in all, a great way to spend the day, and I was glad I had the opportunity to see the Baltic up close. In all honesty, though, I would rather have been at the cathedral practicing for the final round…
The rest of the evening was pretty low-key – went to the mall to Skype the hubby, met some new friends at the coffee shop for dinner (I had another chocolate croissant for dinner tonight!) then came back to the room to veg. Two more days in Russia – we’ll spend a good portion of the day tomorrow listening to the final round, then the closing ceremony on Sunday. Looking forward to shopping around town tomorrow – I’m never very good at buying gifts for others, and I’m even worse at getting things for myself while I’m away. We’ll see if I can break that trend tomorrow…
And I would be remiss if I did not take the opportunity to thank you all for the incredible support – all your notes of encouragement meant the world to me! I look forward to sharing more with you when I get back stateside.
More later…
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