YTSO - March 13th, 2011, Day 1 in Sydney, Australia... Later

Around 5:00, Dad and I went down to the 3rd floor to meet the other YTSOers and go on a tour of the Opera House.  It's just a short walk over there from the hotel, so we got a lovely tour of the harbour as well since we walked pretty much all the way around it.  It's rather like Victoria's Inner Harbour, except bigger and more restaurants and such.  Buskers are everywhere, but they use amplification and speakers.  Huh.

We went up the big, beautiful staircase into the opera house.  The first place we went was straight into the concert hall, which seats well over 2000 people.  It's made pretty much entirely of wood: the walls, the ceiling, even the seats are wooden, which is why the acoustics are so fantastic.  The back curtain was up, but we could still see the top of the incredibly huge organ, which has over 10,500 pipes.  We were told that it took ten years to finish: eight to construct, and two YEARS to tune.  Can you imagine?!  My goodness.

We were taken around several more of the theatres in the Opera House.  There are six altogether, but we'll be rehearsing in the Studio (a theatre in the round) and in the concert hall.  We saw the Concert Hall, the Studio, the Playhouse, and underneath the opera theatre.  Backstage, there is the Central Passage, which is a big wide passage through which you can access any of the theatres.  This is where they bring set pieces in and such things.  We also saw the Green Room, which is an enormous hangout area (complete with pool table) for crew and performers, and also includes a cafeteria.  We were underneath the opera stage for a while, where I heard "I Feel Pretty" being sung by what I thought was rather an over-vibrated and too operatic soprano... but I digress.  We saw the set pieces for Carmen and other operas.  The stage of the opera theatre descends into a giant room adjacent to where we were, set pieces are moved onto it, and then it moves back up to the audience. !!!!!!!!!

The Sydney Opera House ended up being a whole lot bigger than originally intended.  It was supposed to have two theatres and cost something like 16 million dollars, but it has six theatres and cost over 100 million.  It's absolutely beautiful, with views of the harbours from each of the foyers.  Amazing... I CAN'T BELIEVE that I get to play there for a week.  Wow.

After the tour of the opera house, we walked back around the harbour to a restaurant bar thingy.  We hung out outside for a bit, sipping our drinks and nibbling on appies, and then we were invited inside.  Thank yous were said, and then Michael Tilson Thomas stepped up there (HE WAS STANDING LIKE THREE PEOPLE AWAY FROM ME) and told us how excited he was, etc.  After some more speaking, it was announced that they had solved the problem of us getting Australian SIM cards for our phones.  Google decided to GIVE EACH OF US A PHONE.  A REALLY REALLY NICE ONE.

FOR FREE.

Each of us got an... android, is it?  Nexus?  It looks like an iPhone... and calling anywhere is absolutely free for this week.  After this week, we can keep the phone and put our own SIM cards into it.  Dom, the wonderful guy who did a lot of organizing for YTSO, said he felt bad because of all the phone questions being asked, and he couldn't tell us before today that they were going to give us all phones!  Naturally the first thing everyone did was scream with excitement when we heard we all got ridiculously nice phones for free.  Once we all got our phones, I called Mom at home (it was 2:30 in the morning her time...) and told her.  Her first question was "...how are you calling me?"

Well, Mom, it's an interesting story...

Tomorrow: the first orchestra rehearsal, and then... beach?  Goodnight (morning?), everyone!

EDIT: Have a picture, why don't cha?  This was at the restaurant last night, looking over the harbour.

YTSO - March 13th, 2011, Day 1 in Sydney, Australia

After 24 hours of travelling including a 15 hour flight from LAX to Sydney, we made it.  I'll skip the boring stuff like driving to the airport and flying to LA (other than the fact that we had to take three trains just to get to our other gate in Seattle) and get to the good (or at least somewhat better) part.  Keep in mind that I half-slept about six hours last night so perhaps I won't be incredibly coherent, but I'll do my best.

We got to LA, found our gate, and I soon located the people with the instrument cases.  We introduced ourselves and hung out for a bit before boarding the flight to Sydney, Australia.  I hadn't realized just how many people they could fit on that plane.  Dad and I were in row 72, but one of the other violists was in row 84, so I'm not entirely sure how far back it even went.  So let's say 90 rows, ten seats across, and let's not forget the WHOLE OTHER LEVEL ABOVE US.  Yeah.  I know.  Wow.  Luxury aircraft all the way... the seats were pretty big and comfy, with a decent-sized TV (they called it a "personal entertainment system" or something of the sort) and a remote attached to the armrest.  They actually had awesome movies.  After takeoff, I watched the King's Speech (which is FANTASTIC and you should all watch it), then stayed up a bit longer and tried to sleep.  I slept for a few hours, which I was incredibly happy about because it meant there were only ten hours left in the flight.  Sigh... so, I played some solitaire, some tetris (thank you, Personal Entertainment System), looked at some more movies, dozed a bit more, went for walks, met up with fellow YTSO-ers, etc. etc.  They served us two meals, snacks, and a ton of drinks including free beer (and no, I didn't have any! :P).  The food was pretty good for an airline meal, which was a pleasant surprise.  I felt like they did everything in their power to make a 15-hour flight as comfortable as it could be, and I really appreciated it.  Thank you, Qantas!

We got to Sydney, got through customs, and then waited on the other side for the rest of the YTSO people to come through.  I hadn't realized it, but there was another flight coming in from LA about an hour after ours that contained a few more orchestra members.  While we waited, we stood outside, enjoying the sunshine and heat and talking about how utterly fantastic a shower would be right about now.  A couple of hours later, we got to the hotel, where we were allowed to get clothing from our luggage but couldn't go to our rooms until after the harbour cruise.  Rats... the shower would have to wait.

So, after leaving our luggage for the hotel people to take up to our rooms, we traipsed over to the harbour to get on the boat.  We cruised around for a while while the tour guide told us about the many sights we were seeing, but I'm not entirely sure if anyone was listening because we were far too excited about introducing ourselves to everyone and getting to know each other.  I met all of the other violists as well as most of the other orchestra members, which was lots of fun.  I met my stand partner, Mauricio (who has his DOCTORATE in viola performance!!!), and he is delightful.  I'm really looking forward to working with everyone!

I was SO glad I changed into shorts because if I hadn't, I probably would have fainted from overheating.  Okay, so it wasn't THAT hot, but I'm not used to heat and I've never been particularly good with hot weather.  Nonetheless, it was WONDERFUL being on the water in the bright sunshine with lovely people.

After the cruise, we walked back to the hotel eagerly anticipating our much-awaited showers.  We got our rooms and goody bags (which include a YTSO t-shirt, towel, music bag, pencils, pin, and sunscreen), and went up to check them out.  The room has an amazing view of the Sydney Opera House and the harbour, and is bright, airy, and very clean.  More pictures to come!  Next up, a tour of the opera house and the orchestra welcome dinner.  :D

Intro and welcome to Day 2

Hey all!  Welcome to my blog.  I figured I'd get one since I've been posting Facebook notes, but not everyone who wants to hear about my travels has Facebook.  I'll post what I wrote yesterday on Facebook, and then I'll have another one later today once I've actually done something other than sleep. :D I did pretty well for sleep, it's about 6:00 am here and I went to bed at 10.  I woke up at 1:30, probably because I'm used to getting up at 6:30 Canadian time and my body was going WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL.  Actually, I don't, but thanks for your concern.  I woke up again about an hour ago and tried to sleep some more, but nothing happened.  I think I'll try again now since breakfast doesn't start till 7.