nov 13-14-15
november 13-14-15
so i've been kind of slacking with getting my travel stuff written down for the past few days... haven't been able to access internet in my room because the ethernet plug is messed up and consequently have been using the laptop very little. anyway, will try to remember everything that has happened.
nov 13 -- was very pleasantly surprised when, walking out of the hotel, noticed that a) the sky was blue and b) the air was breathable. i guess the wind had come up the night before and blew away all the smog. wonder where it went. anyway, made beijing much more bearable for our day off! we got on the busses and headed out to the great wall, which i've seen before but figured it might be fun to go anyway. good hike if nothing else. had a good time, got hassled by some scarf vending ladies who honestly followed me and kate for at least 300m trying to harrass us into buying stuff... oy. also, some people in the orchestra clearly weren't very well informed about what to expect as one of the violinists showed up in a short skirt and high heels. as some may know the great wall is both incredibly steep in places as well as at this time of year quite cold, much colder than the greenhouse-effected beijing.
oh yes, and some students from the beijing university who were also climbing the wall tried to pick me up with their 3 words of english. that was hilarious. they told me i was beautiful, how nice. oy ve.
once we got back from the wall we decided to go out to the markets again... this time to yashow (or, Yaxui, as spelled properly in pingling), my favourite market of the days of yore from last sept when i was here with ron's band. had a good time, the vending is a little lower-pressure there so it was generally more pleasant. they also have a few different things, including fitting rooms for the jeans... bought some stuff for really not much money; i think i'm getting pretty good at the haggling thing.
had plans to go to the gym and the hot tub in the evening, wound up swimming/hot tub instead. they made me buy a bathng cap, which i wasn't terribly happy about, 60 yuan gone forever! but whatever. better than getting my hair in the smelly water i guess. yes, that was read correctly. the water in the pool smelled. quite disgusting, to tell the truth. grodie. hot tub was nice though, actually hot as opposed to kind of... quasi-warm like the one in montreux. although the hotel, city, scenery, etc etc etc in general was much better in montreux, don't get me wrong. ;)
nov 14 -- rehearsal day #1. had no idea what to expect as we've switched conductors for the second half of the tour. anyway turns out that the new guy has this way of flailing around that makes him absolutely impossible to follow. and then he yells at us for not playing together. don't get me started on the frustration factor here... oh and he also loves to take things way too fast, to the point that they become impossible to play. it's not that i don't know my music; i've played some of it before with other ensembles. am not happy about this situation. anyway i asked him at the break if he had an idea of what tempo the soloist was going to be taking the mandolin piece at, and he said he wasn't sure, but sang a clip which was just a little faster than i'm comfortable with... we'll see if maybe i can talk him into taking it a little slower. he also mentioned that the soloist isn't sure which encores he is going to be doing at all yet, so it's entirely possible i won't be playing the mandolin at all. huzzah!
we were given (ish, we had to pay 30rmb per lunch for the next few days) lunch at a restaurant near the hall. was relatively good, but am really starting to question how people here manage to stay skinny -- everything is deep fried or swimming in fat of some variety. ick. also tried a thousand year old egg. strongly not recommended, especially for those with aversions to vinegary/livery flavoured things, or things with nasty-ass texture. eggs are not supposed to be that chewy.
evening was spent back at the silk market, then at the gym with stani. we tried to check out the bowling alley (yes, there is a bowling alley in this hotel, how ridiculous is that??) but apparently here being open until 24:00 means being open until 23:00. argh. am intending to play a game or two in the next few days.
nov 15 -- rehearsal day #2. after our lovely first encounter with our acrobat/conductor yesterday, was expecting maybe things would be more comprehensible today... nope. in fact, worse. he has a thing that he doesn't like any two 16th notes to be the same length -- a concept i've actually run into before, and works to a certain extent -- however NOT in a setting where you have 16 people per violin section trying to play together. ick. is still impossible to follow as well. rehearsal really dragged on, and things started to get pretty tense; conductor was being pretty rude in places because he was getting pissed off. he also went through every single piece for with the singer, including encores, except for the mandolin piece. so maybe this means i won't have to play it... fingers crossed. however it would be nice to know now so that i can stop carrying the damn thing around and give it back to the stage managing/instrument guys. anyway rehearsal really dragged because we were just stop/starting all the time, and most of the time because of things that were fecking up because the conductor is so unbelievably unclear. it would be nice if, for example, if he says he's going to beat something in 8, if he would do those 8 beats in you know, different places, like a pattern or something. because at this point it's impossible to tell what beat he's on, EVER, and to boot, he changes tempo literally every one or two beats, so you can never be sure that you've counted right if you look away from him for an instant. argggggh.
lunch today at the same venue as yesterday. it was okay i guess but i am REALLY starting to get sick of the taste of msg and i think it's starting to bother my stomach, too. i felt really crappy for the afternoon rehearsal today and have been having some indigestion/gastrointestinal difficulties. ick.
evening: shopping again. one of the girls in the orchestra was saying that last time she was in china a couple years ago she actually wasn't able to change her leftover rmb back to useful currency at the airport, so i'm kind of concerned and am thinking maybe i should buy more stuff. however i have no more weight/space in my luggage, plus i don't really need more random shit. argh. i think i'll get a massage tomorrow... or maybe go somewhere legit and buy something expensive and get rid of it all in one shot.
also went to the gym. unexciting, but reading on the stationary bike is def. more entertaining than staring out the window on the treadmill. either way: ugh.
one more day of rehearsal and then concert day. i don't know how we're going to pull off this programme, it is a complete disaster right now. and gotta keep the fingers crossed re. the mandolin cancelling...
so i've been kind of slacking with getting my travel stuff written down for the past few days... haven't been able to access internet in my room because the ethernet plug is messed up and consequently have been using the laptop very little. anyway, will try to remember everything that has happened.
nov 13 -- was very pleasantly surprised when, walking out of the hotel, noticed that a) the sky was blue and b) the air was breathable. i guess the wind had come up the night before and blew away all the smog. wonder where it went. anyway, made beijing much more bearable for our day off! we got on the busses and headed out to the great wall, which i've seen before but figured it might be fun to go anyway. good hike if nothing else. had a good time, got hassled by some scarf vending ladies who honestly followed me and kate for at least 300m trying to harrass us into buying stuff... oy. also, some people in the orchestra clearly weren't very well informed about what to expect as one of the violinists showed up in a short skirt and high heels. as some may know the great wall is both incredibly steep in places as well as at this time of year quite cold, much colder than the greenhouse-effected beijing.
oh yes, and some students from the beijing university who were also climbing the wall tried to pick me up with their 3 words of english. that was hilarious. they told me i was beautiful, how nice. oy ve.
once we got back from the wall we decided to go out to the markets again... this time to yashow (or, Yaxui, as spelled properly in pingling), my favourite market of the days of yore from last sept when i was here with ron's band. had a good time, the vending is a little lower-pressure there so it was generally more pleasant. they also have a few different things, including fitting rooms for the jeans... bought some stuff for really not much money; i think i'm getting pretty good at the haggling thing.
had plans to go to the gym and the hot tub in the evening, wound up swimming/hot tub instead. they made me buy a bathng cap, which i wasn't terribly happy about, 60 yuan gone forever! but whatever. better than getting my hair in the smelly water i guess. yes, that was read correctly. the water in the pool smelled. quite disgusting, to tell the truth. grodie. hot tub was nice though, actually hot as opposed to kind of... quasi-warm like the one in montreux. although the hotel, city, scenery, etc etc etc in general was much better in montreux, don't get me wrong. ;)
nov 14 -- rehearsal day #1. had no idea what to expect as we've switched conductors for the second half of the tour. anyway turns out that the new guy has this way of flailing around that makes him absolutely impossible to follow. and then he yells at us for not playing together. don't get me started on the frustration factor here... oh and he also loves to take things way too fast, to the point that they become impossible to play. it's not that i don't know my music; i've played some of it before with other ensembles. am not happy about this situation. anyway i asked him at the break if he had an idea of what tempo the soloist was going to be taking the mandolin piece at, and he said he wasn't sure, but sang a clip which was just a little faster than i'm comfortable with... we'll see if maybe i can talk him into taking it a little slower. he also mentioned that the soloist isn't sure which encores he is going to be doing at all yet, so it's entirely possible i won't be playing the mandolin at all. huzzah!
we were given (ish, we had to pay 30rmb per lunch for the next few days) lunch at a restaurant near the hall. was relatively good, but am really starting to question how people here manage to stay skinny -- everything is deep fried or swimming in fat of some variety. ick. also tried a thousand year old egg. strongly not recommended, especially for those with aversions to vinegary/livery flavoured things, or things with nasty-ass texture. eggs are not supposed to be that chewy.
evening was spent back at the silk market, then at the gym with stani. we tried to check out the bowling alley (yes, there is a bowling alley in this hotel, how ridiculous is that??) but apparently here being open until 24:00 means being open until 23:00. argh. am intending to play a game or two in the next few days.
nov 15 -- rehearsal day #2. after our lovely first encounter with our acrobat/conductor yesterday, was expecting maybe things would be more comprehensible today... nope. in fact, worse. he has a thing that he doesn't like any two 16th notes to be the same length -- a concept i've actually run into before, and works to a certain extent -- however NOT in a setting where you have 16 people per violin section trying to play together. ick. is still impossible to follow as well. rehearsal really dragged on, and things started to get pretty tense; conductor was being pretty rude in places because he was getting pissed off. he also went through every single piece for with the singer, including encores, except for the mandolin piece. so maybe this means i won't have to play it... fingers crossed. however it would be nice to know now so that i can stop carrying the damn thing around and give it back to the stage managing/instrument guys. anyway rehearsal really dragged because we were just stop/starting all the time, and most of the time because of things that were fecking up because the conductor is so unbelievably unclear. it would be nice if, for example, if he says he's going to beat something in 8, if he would do those 8 beats in you know, different places, like a pattern or something. because at this point it's impossible to tell what beat he's on, EVER, and to boot, he changes tempo literally every one or two beats, so you can never be sure that you've counted right if you look away from him for an instant. argggggh.
lunch today at the same venue as yesterday. it was okay i guess but i am REALLY starting to get sick of the taste of msg and i think it's starting to bother my stomach, too. i felt really crappy for the afternoon rehearsal today and have been having some indigestion/gastrointestinal difficulties. ick.
evening: shopping again. one of the girls in the orchestra was saying that last time she was in china a couple years ago she actually wasn't able to change her leftover rmb back to useful currency at the airport, so i'm kind of concerned and am thinking maybe i should buy more stuff. however i have no more weight/space in my luggage, plus i don't really need more random shit. argh. i think i'll get a massage tomorrow... or maybe go somewhere legit and buy something expensive and get rid of it all in one shot.
also went to the gym. unexciting, but reading on the stationary bike is def. more entertaining than staring out the window on the treadmill. either way: ugh.
one more day of rehearsal and then concert day. i don't know how we're going to pull off this programme, it is a complete disaster right now. and gotta keep the fingers crossed re. the mandolin cancelling...