Friday, August 11, 2006
My firstborn shall be named Gunnar Snorri
And.....a last minute save by Ingunn's cousin Gunnar Snorri. After we got the runaround, Ingunn's mom called him because he's the head of Iceland's foreign service. And he got the Icelandic government, and the US Embassy, and Icelandair on the phone and got us and only us express permission to board the flight to Minneapolis with our instruments. I think we're going to put together a huge care package for Gunnar Snorri, because he is my new hero.
Well Fuck
So thanks to a foiled terrorist plot the day before I'm supposed to fly from Europe to the US, I'm screwed. They're not letting on ANY carry-on luggage - and that means my viola to. So I may be stuck in Iceland for a while, because there is absolutely no way I am sending my expensive instrument in the belly of a plane to be tossed around by ground personnel. As of now, everybody is telling us that there is no way we can get our instruments on, unless we get permission from the US Government. But the US Embassy here says it's up to Icelandair, and that they can't do anything. Fuck.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Iceland Pt. 2
The saga continues....
We left Reykjavik on Friday morning and drove on a big bus across the south to Jökulsárlón, a glacial river lagoon. It’s an offshoot of the giant Vatnajökull glacier that covers a lot of the southeast. It’s a lagoon, attached to the ocean by a small river mouth so that lagoon doesn’t freeze. The lagoon has been growing steadily over the years, due to an increase in glacial melting – about 100 metres breaking off each year. The lagoon has also been used in several films, including two James Bond movies (A View to Kill and Die Another Day) and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. For Tomb Raider they painted the amphibious vehicles they take tourists out in to resemble Russian ships, and for Die Another Day they blocked off the lagoon’s entrace to the sea, freezing it over. And then they totalled 5 Aston Martins on the frozen lagoon. After Jökulsárlón we drove back west to our farm/hotel Geirland, just outside of Kirkjubæjarklaustur. This is the farm that Ingunn’s dad Hallgrimur used to work on every summer, so we’re in his home turf.
Kirkjubæjarklaustur is very near the volcano Laki, whose massive eruptions in 1783 lasted for 10 months. Fountains of molten lava shot up around 1000 metres above ground level, and Laki spewed more than 30 billion tonnes of lava and 90 million tonnes of sulphuric acid. The black cloud that followed covered Iceland, killing crops and blocking out the sun, and 20% of Iceland’s population died. As well, the Laki cloud covered Europe causing crop failure, livestock poisoning, and starvation that led to, among other things, the French Revolution. A favourite story around Kirkjubæjarklaustur is that of a church pastor, who gathered his congregation in the church as the lava started to flow towards them, and proceeded to give a very fiery and passionate sermon. The lava miraculously split and went around the church, leaving it intact. The church is still there, surrounded by a lava field, but the only issue we could find with this story is that people can’t survive even just standing next to molten lava. It’s so hot, that even if you’re beside it you’d probably spontaneously combust. We were supposed to hike up into the Laki basin, as it is now dormant, but it was pouring and foggy and so they decided that if we wouldn’t be able to see anything then there was really no point. Icelander’s have lots of stories about religion and natural events, another one being a large eruption in the year 1000, the year that they accepted Christianity. Many saw this as a sign from the pagan gods that Christianity was bogus, but Iceland peacefully converted anyways so that they would be able to trade effectively with the rest of Scandinavia and Europe.
On Saturday we got up and were originally supposed to hike up Laki, but instead went on a hike to the waterfall behind Geirland. All the farms around the south have there own waterfalls, both for a source of fresh water, and before there was a national electrical grid many farms got their power from their own private substation at the base of their waterfall. In fact, one of Hallgrimur’s jobs when he worked here was to hike up to the waterfall and clear all the debris out of the grid under the falls. After that we changed into dryer clothes, as it had been pouring the whole time and we were all soaked. Then we set off to Fjaðrárglijúfur, a peculiar canyon carved by the river Fjarðrá, lined with steep rock walls. Then it was off to Fagrifoss (“beautiful falls”) on the Geirlandsa river just off the Laki road. Today was a day of falls, and after Fagrifoss half of us went swimming at the pool in Kirkjubæjarklaustur while the others went to the famous church that escaped the lava flow.
On our drive on Friday we crossed the Sandur, and stopped in at the Núpsstaður farm. The sandur is a broad desert expanse that lies across the southeastern coast, and is composed of deposits of silt, sand, and gravel carried down by glacial flooding when one of the two volcanoes underneath the Vatnajökull icecap erupts. The sandur is divided into two sections, the most visible being Skeiðarársandur, which stretches for 40 km between icecap and coast. Iceland has a Ring Road, and the very last part of it to be completed was the portion across Skeiðarársandur in 1974. They constructed large gravel dykes to strategically channel floodwaters away from the only road in the area, but it didn’t help much in the glacial flood of 1996. On September 29 a 5.0 earthquake rocked the Vatnajökull icecap, causing the eruption of a 4 km long subsurface fissure known as Gjálp. The next day the eruption burst through the surface, sending a column of steam 10 km into the sky. Meanwhile, the subglacial lake in the Grímsvötn caldera was filling with water from ice melted by the eruption, and on November 5 the ice lifted and the Grímsvötn reservoir drained in a massive flood, releasing up to 3000 billion cubic litres of water within a few hours. The floodwaters, dragging icebergs the size of 3 story buildings along with it, destroyed all the bridges across the sandur. The sandur is understandably unoccupied by anyone, and on the eastern edge we stopped at a small memorial to the 1996 flood, where they had on display some of the twisted metal girders that were a bridge.
The Núpsstaður farm is on the western edge of the sandur, and is set into a cliff side. The small turf roofed church on the farm, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is mentioned in church records as early as 1200. It was restored in 1657 and again in the 1970s by the National Museum, and is one of the last turf churches in Iceland that remains in general use. This farm was also home in the early 1900s to a postman and farmer who was said to be the only person able to cross the sandur in all conditions. Before they built the Ring Road, people would often detour to walk over the glacier, as the sandur is full of quicksand and other traps that claimed many lives. The postman’s 97 year old son still lives at Núpsstaður, and when we stopped by he was just o his way to the little turf church to scrub the floors!!!
On Sunday morning we packed up our stuff and loaded up the bus. We went to two more waterfalls (there sure are a lot of them), and visited the history museum at Skógasafn. We drove by Katla, an active volcano that is expected to erupt any time. There is a funny legend about Katla involving a nun and some magic pants, but I’ll save that for another time. Our bus driver had reported that we were in the area, and if Katla had started rumbling we would have been given a 30 minute warning to get the hell outta there! Now we’re back at Ingunn’s apartment in Reykjavik, and we had a very quiet day today seeing as we were all tired and sore from all the excitement over the weekend. And now I must return to Buffy.
We left Reykjavik on Friday morning and drove on a big bus across the south to Jökulsárlón, a glacial river lagoon. It’s an offshoot of the giant Vatnajökull glacier that covers a lot of the southeast. It’s a lagoon, attached to the ocean by a small river mouth so that lagoon doesn’t freeze. The lagoon has been growing steadily over the years, due to an increase in glacial melting – about 100 metres breaking off each year. The lagoon has also been used in several films, including two James Bond movies (A View to Kill and Die Another Day) and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. For Tomb Raider they painted the amphibious vehicles they take tourists out in to resemble Russian ships, and for Die Another Day they blocked off the lagoon’s entrace to the sea, freezing it over. And then they totalled 5 Aston Martins on the frozen lagoon. After Jökulsárlón we drove back west to our farm/hotel Geirland, just outside of Kirkjubæjarklaustur. This is the farm that Ingunn’s dad Hallgrimur used to work on every summer, so we’re in his home turf.
Kirkjubæjarklaustur is very near the volcano Laki, whose massive eruptions in 1783 lasted for 10 months. Fountains of molten lava shot up around 1000 metres above ground level, and Laki spewed more than 30 billion tonnes of lava and 90 million tonnes of sulphuric acid. The black cloud that followed covered Iceland, killing crops and blocking out the sun, and 20% of Iceland’s population died. As well, the Laki cloud covered Europe causing crop failure, livestock poisoning, and starvation that led to, among other things, the French Revolution. A favourite story around Kirkjubæjarklaustur is that of a church pastor, who gathered his congregation in the church as the lava started to flow towards them, and proceeded to give a very fiery and passionate sermon. The lava miraculously split and went around the church, leaving it intact. The church is still there, surrounded by a lava field, but the only issue we could find with this story is that people can’t survive even just standing next to molten lava. It’s so hot, that even if you’re beside it you’d probably spontaneously combust. We were supposed to hike up into the Laki basin, as it is now dormant, but it was pouring and foggy and so they decided that if we wouldn’t be able to see anything then there was really no point. Icelander’s have lots of stories about religion and natural events, another one being a large eruption in the year 1000, the year that they accepted Christianity. Many saw this as a sign from the pagan gods that Christianity was bogus, but Iceland peacefully converted anyways so that they would be able to trade effectively with the rest of Scandinavia and Europe.
On Saturday we got up and were originally supposed to hike up Laki, but instead went on a hike to the waterfall behind Geirland. All the farms around the south have there own waterfalls, both for a source of fresh water, and before there was a national electrical grid many farms got their power from their own private substation at the base of their waterfall. In fact, one of Hallgrimur’s jobs when he worked here was to hike up to the waterfall and clear all the debris out of the grid under the falls. After that we changed into dryer clothes, as it had been pouring the whole time and we were all soaked. Then we set off to Fjaðrárglijúfur, a peculiar canyon carved by the river Fjarðrá, lined with steep rock walls. Then it was off to Fagrifoss (“beautiful falls”) on the Geirlandsa river just off the Laki road. Today was a day of falls, and after Fagrifoss half of us went swimming at the pool in Kirkjubæjarklaustur while the others went to the famous church that escaped the lava flow.
On our drive on Friday we crossed the Sandur, and stopped in at the Núpsstaður farm. The sandur is a broad desert expanse that lies across the southeastern coast, and is composed of deposits of silt, sand, and gravel carried down by glacial flooding when one of the two volcanoes underneath the Vatnajökull icecap erupts. The sandur is divided into two sections, the most visible being Skeiðarársandur, which stretches for 40 km between icecap and coast. Iceland has a Ring Road, and the very last part of it to be completed was the portion across Skeiðarársandur in 1974. They constructed large gravel dykes to strategically channel floodwaters away from the only road in the area, but it didn’t help much in the glacial flood of 1996. On September 29 a 5.0 earthquake rocked the Vatnajökull icecap, causing the eruption of a 4 km long subsurface fissure known as Gjálp. The next day the eruption burst through the surface, sending a column of steam 10 km into the sky. Meanwhile, the subglacial lake in the Grímsvötn caldera was filling with water from ice melted by the eruption, and on November 5 the ice lifted and the Grímsvötn reservoir drained in a massive flood, releasing up to 3000 billion cubic litres of water within a few hours. The floodwaters, dragging icebergs the size of 3 story buildings along with it, destroyed all the bridges across the sandur. The sandur is understandably unoccupied by anyone, and on the eastern edge we stopped at a small memorial to the 1996 flood, where they had on display some of the twisted metal girders that were a bridge.
The Núpsstaður farm is on the western edge of the sandur, and is set into a cliff side. The small turf roofed church on the farm, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is mentioned in church records as early as 1200. It was restored in 1657 and again in the 1970s by the National Museum, and is one of the last turf churches in Iceland that remains in general use. This farm was also home in the early 1900s to a postman and farmer who was said to be the only person able to cross the sandur in all conditions. Before they built the Ring Road, people would often detour to walk over the glacier, as the sandur is full of quicksand and other traps that claimed many lives. The postman’s 97 year old son still lives at Núpsstaður, and when we stopped by he was just o his way to the little turf church to scrub the floors!!!
On Sunday morning we packed up our stuff and loaded up the bus. We went to two more waterfalls (there sure are a lot of them), and visited the history museum at Skógasafn. We drove by Katla, an active volcano that is expected to erupt any time. There is a funny legend about Katla involving a nun and some magic pants, but I’ll save that for another time. Our bus driver had reported that we were in the area, and if Katla had started rumbling we would have been given a 30 minute warning to get the hell outta there! Now we’re back at Ingunn’s apartment in Reykjavik, and we had a very quiet day today seeing as we were all tired and sore from all the excitement over the weekend. And now I must return to Buffy.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Iceland, Pt. 1
Recap of Iceland so far....
We flew into Keflavik on Saturday the 29th, arriving at 6:30 am. We took a flight that left Minneapolis in the early evening on Friday, and since we were travelling east it "took" all night. Ingunn's dad Hallgrimur met us at the airport with her uncle Stefan to pick us up and take us into Reykjavik. The international airport is 40 km outside Reykjavik in Keflavik, where the US Army base is. They built the army base as a strategic North Atlantic position during WW II, and the US is only pulling out of Iceland now, as they are having to divert their resources towards the Middle East (ie Iraq). They built a base in Iceland because before the jet plane days, they had to stop and refuel in Iceland to make it to Europe. Also, during the Second World War, North America saw Iceland as the last European blockade before Hitler would expand to America - so it was an important asset to protect. So when Icelandair, the national and only airline with landing rights in Iceland, decided to build and international airport, they built it in Keflavik so they could just piggy-back on the runways the army base had already built. The Keflavik airport only does international flights, and Icelandair also has a domestic airport in Reykjavik on the Nes peninsula near the University, that services all of Iceland.
When we flew in Hallgrimur and Stefan took us over to Stefan's house, where his wife had a huge, delicious breakfast waiting for us. And this is when I had my first tast of Skyr, elixer of the gods. It's this yoghurt-like staple of Iceland made from skim milk. Traditionally they left the milk to ferment in a pig's bladder, and there was an enzyme in the bladder that turned the milk into Skyr. They have now of course identified the enzyme, and there are two companies that produce Skyr commercially. And like yoghurt they also make it in many different flavours. But the best way to eat it in my opinion is plain Skyr, with blueberries and a little Ryómi (cream). After breakfast at Stefan's, they took us to our temporary digs that we stayed at until Ingunn's apartment was ready. Michelle and I ended up in an apartment-style University of Iceland residence on Eggertsgata, while Catherine and Ingunn stayed in the guest room of Hallgrimur and Gudrun's friends Hans and Sölvig on Reynemelur. We tried rehearsing but we were too exhausted, so we crashed very early.
On Sunday we got up bright and early for church, because in order to get the church we were playing our concert in for free, we had to play at a service. So we headed over to Neskirka (Nes church) for service. Then we had some major rehearsing to do, as our concert was on Monday night. So we rehearsed our booties off, and played our concert. It went well, and a reviewer from the paper came. We are still eagerly anticipating the review, as it hasn't been published yet. As well, Icelandic Public Radio recorded our concert, I'm not quite sure why. Then on Tuesday there was more rehearsing to be done, and we said goodbye to Eggertsgata and Reynemelur, and moved into Ingunn's apartment on Bógahlid. It's a very nice, big apartment in a three story walk-up. She's close to downtown, and the University, so it's a very nice location.
On Wednesday we got up for our 9 am recording session at Neskirka, recording the Kansas Quartet by Thordur Swinburne for Icelandic Public Radio. It took about 2 hours to record a 20 minute piece, but I think it will turn out OK. Then we went swimming and after that to a big dinner at Hans and Sölvig's. Ingunn's brothers had both flown in that day or the day before - Gunnar with his wife Adrienne, and Benedikt with his wife Lee, daughter Elizabeth, and Lee's parents. Benedikt had gone fishing that afternoon with Stefan, and so we ate the huge catch he brought in - about 8 large cod. If was a fun night, but long and exhausting. Made even more exhausting by the fact that we got up at 6:45 this morning to go swimming.
The pools in Iceland are so cool! They're warm, and either very lightly or not chlorinated at all. They get the water from natural underground springs and every public pool also has 3 hot tubs (hot, hotter, and ow! burning!), and a sauna. In order to not heavily chlorinate, they have very strict rules about showering, with signs in the showers showing you where you have to wash before going in the pool. So we've been going swimming alot, because it's so nice, and even when it's chilly out, the pool is still around 20 degrees.
After swimming we walked back to downtown and met up with people (mostly Ingunn's family) for a noon hour organ recital at Hallgrimskirka. It's this huge church in downtown Reykjavik that was partly designed by Ingunn's grandfather. It's a good orientation landmark because it's about five stories taller than any of the other buildings around it. You can see Hallgrimskirka from anywhere in town, so if you're looking for downtown, you just follow the church! It also has a famous, super good organ, so there's always an organ recital going on. After the recital, the entire family (plus us) headed to the 66 North outlet store to pick up discount fleeces. And now we're just relaxing at Ingunn's apartment, in our new comfy fleeces, before we leave for our trip to the south tomorrow.
So that's all from Iceland for now. It's kinda cold and rainy, and hopefully our entire weekend in the South won't be this bad. It's kind of hard to hike in torrential rain!
We flew into Keflavik on Saturday the 29th, arriving at 6:30 am. We took a flight that left Minneapolis in the early evening on Friday, and since we were travelling east it "took" all night. Ingunn's dad Hallgrimur met us at the airport with her uncle Stefan to pick us up and take us into Reykjavik. The international airport is 40 km outside Reykjavik in Keflavik, where the US Army base is. They built the army base as a strategic North Atlantic position during WW II, and the US is only pulling out of Iceland now, as they are having to divert their resources towards the Middle East (ie Iraq). They built a base in Iceland because before the jet plane days, they had to stop and refuel in Iceland to make it to Europe. Also, during the Second World War, North America saw Iceland as the last European blockade before Hitler would expand to America - so it was an important asset to protect. So when Icelandair, the national and only airline with landing rights in Iceland, decided to build and international airport, they built it in Keflavik so they could just piggy-back on the runways the army base had already built. The Keflavik airport only does international flights, and Icelandair also has a domestic airport in Reykjavik on the Nes peninsula near the University, that services all of Iceland.
When we flew in Hallgrimur and Stefan took us over to Stefan's house, where his wife had a huge, delicious breakfast waiting for us. And this is when I had my first tast of Skyr, elixer of the gods. It's this yoghurt-like staple of Iceland made from skim milk. Traditionally they left the milk to ferment in a pig's bladder, and there was an enzyme in the bladder that turned the milk into Skyr. They have now of course identified the enzyme, and there are two companies that produce Skyr commercially. And like yoghurt they also make it in many different flavours. But the best way to eat it in my opinion is plain Skyr, with blueberries and a little Ryómi (cream). After breakfast at Stefan's, they took us to our temporary digs that we stayed at until Ingunn's apartment was ready. Michelle and I ended up in an apartment-style University of Iceland residence on Eggertsgata, while Catherine and Ingunn stayed in the guest room of Hallgrimur and Gudrun's friends Hans and Sölvig on Reynemelur. We tried rehearsing but we were too exhausted, so we crashed very early.
On Sunday we got up bright and early for church, because in order to get the church we were playing our concert in for free, we had to play at a service. So we headed over to Neskirka (Nes church) for service. Then we had some major rehearsing to do, as our concert was on Monday night. So we rehearsed our booties off, and played our concert. It went well, and a reviewer from the paper came. We are still eagerly anticipating the review, as it hasn't been published yet. As well, Icelandic Public Radio recorded our concert, I'm not quite sure why. Then on Tuesday there was more rehearsing to be done, and we said goodbye to Eggertsgata and Reynemelur, and moved into Ingunn's apartment on Bógahlid. It's a very nice, big apartment in a three story walk-up. She's close to downtown, and the University, so it's a very nice location.
On Wednesday we got up for our 9 am recording session at Neskirka, recording the Kansas Quartet by Thordur Swinburne for Icelandic Public Radio. It took about 2 hours to record a 20 minute piece, but I think it will turn out OK. Then we went swimming and after that to a big dinner at Hans and Sölvig's. Ingunn's brothers had both flown in that day or the day before - Gunnar with his wife Adrienne, and Benedikt with his wife Lee, daughter Elizabeth, and Lee's parents. Benedikt had gone fishing that afternoon with Stefan, and so we ate the huge catch he brought in - about 8 large cod. If was a fun night, but long and exhausting. Made even more exhausting by the fact that we got up at 6:45 this morning to go swimming.
The pools in Iceland are so cool! They're warm, and either very lightly or not chlorinated at all. They get the water from natural underground springs and every public pool also has 3 hot tubs (hot, hotter, and ow! burning!), and a sauna. In order to not heavily chlorinate, they have very strict rules about showering, with signs in the showers showing you where you have to wash before going in the pool. So we've been going swimming alot, because it's so nice, and even when it's chilly out, the pool is still around 20 degrees.
After swimming we walked back to downtown and met up with people (mostly Ingunn's family) for a noon hour organ recital at Hallgrimskirka. It's this huge church in downtown Reykjavik that was partly designed by Ingunn's grandfather. It's a good orientation landmark because it's about five stories taller than any of the other buildings around it. You can see Hallgrimskirka from anywhere in town, so if you're looking for downtown, you just follow the church! It also has a famous, super good organ, so there's always an organ recital going on. After the recital, the entire family (plus us) headed to the 66 North outlet store to pick up discount fleeces. And now we're just relaxing at Ingunn's apartment, in our new comfy fleeces, before we leave for our trip to the south tomorrow.
So that's all from Iceland for now. It's kinda cold and rainy, and hopefully our entire weekend in the South won't be this bad. It's kind of hard to hike in torrential rain!
Friday, July 28, 2006
I'm Goin' To Iceland
Well, the day has arrived. My car comes in an hour to take me to the airport, and I'm meeting up with the girls in Minneapolis to catch our flight to Keflavik. Woot! I'm so tired and hungry, it's really just unbelievable.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
MONEY!!!!
Well, the tour is going well. We currently have $2100 in the quartet bank account, with another $500 confirmed, and more coming in from our Regina concert tonight. And I got some exciting money news for me - UBC gave me full scholarship plus more! I'm very excited, because I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to afford it..... When I was accepted by the Faculty of Music, they gave me a $1000 scholarship. And when I was origionally accepted by the school they gave me a $500 scholarship. I applied for more, not thinking I'd really get anything, and yesterday my letter came in the mail saying I had been awarded the $5000 Chancellor's Scholarship, and the $2000 President's Scholarship. And my tuition is only about $5100, so they're just going to cut me a cheque for the rest. Yay! I'm thinking of investing in a laptop, because to keep my scholarships I have to keep a pretty high average, and so I think it might be beneficial for my work to have one. But I'll deal with that when it comes. Maybe I should pay off some of my debt too...... Tomorrow we head back to Calgary, and on Friday it's off to Iceland!
Sunday, July 23, 2006
HOT!
Wow, it's hot in Calgary today. It's 11:15 pm and I'm sweating like a pig. Disgusting. Anyways, our tour has basically officially started. We kicked off with a concert at Ingunn's parent's house in Calgary on thursday night, where people were extremely generous and we came away with $815 CND, plus $20 US (we have a stop-over in Minneapolis). We played a concert this afternoon in Sundre AB at the Mountainview Festival's new unfinished concert hall - when it's finished it's going to be pretty sweet. Tomorrow we play at the opening ceremonies of a museum in Markerville, then are on the road for Toon-town. We'll probably get in pretty late, seeing as how I don't think we'll be leaving Markerville before about 4 pm, and it's an approx. 8 hour drive. Yee-haw. And sadly, we have to listen to Ingunn's CD selection, which is odd. I guess she's just older than me though, because alot of her CDs are sort of before my time a little - like by a couple of years, but it's mostly stuff I could care less about, like REM. All their songs sound the same, but in a more depressing way than the way all Britney songs sound the same. But I'm sure we'll survive somehow. Our pieces are going okay, but our intonation is still a little off, due to a number of factors. The biggest being that with the extreme heat, and even high humidity (for the prairies), and the change in humidity for Catherine and Michelle who came directly from humid places (Toronto and California), our instruments don't really stay in tune for the time it takes us to play a whole piece. It's actually super annoying to have to re-tune every couple of minutes. Gah! And it doesn't help that all our locations are churches, not climate-controlled concert halls (which the instruments would react to better). Throughout our concerts the hot locations invariably get hotter, forcing our instruments more and more out of tune. But I'm sure we'll live somehow. Iceland will be nice and cool - I think somewhere around 15 degrees?
Monday, July 17, 2006
Cowtown
I know it's been a while, I'm sorry. My whole stay in Saskatoon was entirely uneventful, except for that I got sick a lot. I got heat stroke one day, and it was not pretty. And then towards the end of my stay I got this really bad fever, and I just thought that I had whatever bug was going around. So I hopped on a bus to Calgary last Friday, and spent 8 1/2 hours popping Tylenol to keep my fever down. The day after I got to Ingunn's, my face and neck swelled up and I got a full body rash. It was very painful, and I also had a dangerously high fever. Turns out I was having an allergic reaction to these antibiotics my doctor had put me on. It was unpleasant, but at least when the doctor asks if I'm allergic to any medicine, I have an answer other than, "I don't think so..." So we've been holed up and rehearsing, but we have to venture out to Canmore today because Catherine's soundpost is fucked up, and Ingunn has an open seam. So we are taking their instruments into Wilder and Davis to get fixed - it's hard to rehearse when nobody can play their instruments. So we have to go do that now.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Daddeeeeeeee
Well, it's been a while since I updated. Mostly because since I've been in Saskatoon I've been sitting around watching movies. The weather has been crap-tastic, overcast and rainy, for almost two weeks. I'm supposed to be doing yard work for my Aunt Margaret, but not much chance of that in this weather. I worked for three days this week at Lorne Calvert's MLA office filling in for the woman who normally works there. I got to deal with lots of annoying people who didn't understand that the provincial and federal governments are different things. Argh. And also people who want you to do things for them, and have you to magically have all the answers for them right then on the phone. So then after they abuse you, and you look into it and find out the answers, they don't say thank you because they're jerks. But it was an interesting learning experience - and I did get to meet most of the Saskatoon MLAs. They all know Cayley because of his position in Regina, and then they started waxing poetic about what a nice young man he is. Right. I could enlighten them on a few things. Anyways, I basically am going to be sitting around for the next week or two till I go to Calgary to rehearse with the quartet, so I most likely won't be updating.
Happy Father's Day!
Happy Father's Day!
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Back in Black
Well, I'm back in Saskatoon. The recital was Thursday night, and it went good, and then I came back on the bus yesterday. This morning my mom woke me up at 10 and told me that I had to not only pick up my brother Cayley at the bus station at 11, but that he was taking me to the neighbourhood cleanup. So I picked him up, and headed into the 'hood. It's an initiative by the NDP constituency office, because Premier Calvert is our MLA. They told all the home owners, landlords, and tenants that any crap they wanted hauled away (tree branches, old appliances, etc.) to just put them in the alley and we'd come and haul them away. I met Premier Calvert, and Yvonne who I'll be working for at the office in a couple of weeks. However, we really only made an appearance because the whole reason Cayley's in town this week is he has to go to a wedding with his girlfriend Carly. Some friends of hers from the U of S are getting married, and he was her arm candy. Only, he had no idea what time the wedding was. So at about 11:40 he got a call from Carly on his cell saying her hair appointment just finished, and the wedding was at 1, so he had to pick her up from the Midtown Plaza. So we went and picked up Carly, and I dropped them off at her pad, and I returned home. I've just been bumming around this afternoon, unpacking all my boxes so I can organize what I need to take to Vancouver and what I can leave here. Tonight we're going to a Prairie Virtuosi concert - they're a chamber orchestra I used to play in, and they agreed to put inserts for our quartet concert in their programs. Sweet.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
OK Fine
So, I take it back. They're not that wierd - they're actually really nice. If a little overly religious, but of course they must find my complete lack of religiousness a little strange also. I had to go and buy a crappy Dan Brown paperback to read, because the only books in the house are religious ones. But other than that, it's all good. We're rehearsing this afternoon at somebody's house who has a grand piano, and since they live near West Edmonton Mall, Matthew and I are going to rehearse the Clarke first and then I'm going shopping!!!! After, I'm going to meet up with my Aunt Elaine who's been in Korea for the past five or six years. So, good work.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Wow
Well, I'm in Edmonton now. Markerville to be more exact. I dropped my bow off to be rehaired at a place in Edmonton, they said they'd put a rush on it and I'd have it by Wed night or Thursday morning. I can't say very much because I'm on the communal computer in the living room, but after meeting only Matthew's mother, I'm surprised he's as normal as he is. Seriously. That and they have bible quotes all over their bathroom.
Home again
Home again, home again, jiggity jig. Well, to be more precise, Ingunn's home. But whatever. Domaine was super awesome AGAIN, and I even enjoyed the retardedly long concert yesterday. It lasted 7 1/2 hours - I went on stage at 2pm with the first group, and the last group finished at 9:30. So then we had to party. Like crazy party, with people peeing in the bushes and everything. We ate a late dinner after the concert, and the best part was as I walked into the room where we ate, one of my chamber coachs, Ian Swensen, handed me a beer. Then after we finished eating, my other chamber coach, Anssi Karttunen, invited all the people from his two groups up to his studio where he produced a bottle of Veuve Clicquot. Apparently in the States, teacher aren't allowed to pour liquor down their students throats. Just one more reason to study in Canada. I then proceeded to drink lots, and mix my liquors, which was a very bad idea. As I discovered this morning when I woke up in a room full of stolen pate and cheese, and could not keep anything down for hours. Apparently while very drunk, Carolyn and Catherine thought it would be genius to steal the pate and cheese from the party. But then they just left it sitting out all night. Needless to say, it was very disgusting by the morning.
About a week ago Carolyn told Martin Beaver about Steve leaving all these messages on her phone and how he pronounces my name (Kah-tya). Martin thought this was hilarious and proceeded to call me Kah-tya all the time, and got everyone else to do it also. Then he started singing it, while conducting himself like a choral conductor at the same time. It culminated in the moment when I walked back into the room from drinking champagne in Anssi's room, and the entire camp (all the students and all the faculty) erupted into singing. Singing "Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah-tyaaaaaaaaaaaa". It was pretty awesome, I have to say. I'm thinking of hiring someone to just follow me around all the time singing my name. You should try it.
We set off from Domaine around noonish and got as far as Chez Ginette's, the local greasy spoon at the bottom of the hill. It's a Domaine tradition that you have to eat one last cheeseburger before you leave, but unfortunatly I couldn't stomach more than a few bites of poutine. Happily though, the grease soaked up the rest of the liquor in my stomach, and by Quebec city I was feeling good again. We decided to show Ingunn a bit of Quebec city from the car, as she'd never been there before, but we just ended up getting kind of disoriented and lost and its windy and confusing streets. We finally made it out, and it was clear sailing the rest of the way back to TO. I'm off to Edmonton tomorrow (or rather, later today) - watch out, it should be hilarious. Check my Flickr site for more photo goodness from Domaine.
About a week ago Carolyn told Martin Beaver about Steve leaving all these messages on her phone and how he pronounces my name (Kah-tya). Martin thought this was hilarious and proceeded to call me Kah-tya all the time, and got everyone else to do it also. Then he started singing it, while conducting himself like a choral conductor at the same time. It culminated in the moment when I walked back into the room from drinking champagne in Anssi's room, and the entire camp (all the students and all the faculty) erupted into singing. Singing "Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah-tyaaaaaaaaaaaa". It was pretty awesome, I have to say. I'm thinking of hiring someone to just follow me around all the time singing my name. You should try it.
We set off from Domaine around noonish and got as far as Chez Ginette's, the local greasy spoon at the bottom of the hill. It's a Domaine tradition that you have to eat one last cheeseburger before you leave, but unfortunatly I couldn't stomach more than a few bites of poutine. Happily though, the grease soaked up the rest of the liquor in my stomach, and by Quebec city I was feeling good again. We decided to show Ingunn a bit of Quebec city from the car, as she'd never been there before, but we just ended up getting kind of disoriented and lost and its windy and confusing streets. We finally made it out, and it was clear sailing the rest of the way back to TO. I'm off to Edmonton tomorrow (or rather, later today) - watch out, it should be hilarious. Check my Flickr site for more photo goodness from Domaine.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Flickr
I made a page on Flickr for all of my photos. Check it out. http://www.flickr.com/photos/39938743@N00/
I don`t have much time, as we`re in the middle of the big chamber music marathon. The concert started at 2 pm, and will probably go till about 10 - there`s 12 groups all playing full works. Yeehaw.
I don`t have much time, as we`re in the middle of the big chamber music marathon. The concert started at 2 pm, and will probably go till about 10 - there`s 12 groups all playing full works. Yeehaw.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
It`s Alive!
Well, now here I am at Domaine. I`m in the middle of nowhere, where no one speaks English. It`s totally awesome. It`s wierd though, being disconnected from the world. The internet was down for the whole day here yesterday because it was super stormy, and everybody was really antsy. It wasn`t that we had to really DO anything, but it`s our only connection to the outside world. Just the fact that we couldn`t check our email or read the news was unsettling. It`s been disgusting and rainy ever since we got here on Wednesday, and the sun only came out this afternoon. Praise be. Now I have to go to Chez Ginette`s for a cheeseburger, because both lunch and supper were completely inedible and I haven`t eaten since breakfast........
I aplogize for my wierd apostraphes - it`s a French keyboard, and I have no idea where anything is on it.
I aplogize for my wierd apostraphes - it`s a French keyboard, and I have no idea where anything is on it.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
It's Art I Swear
So............they just put up a trailer on Apple for the new movie 300 based on a Frank Miller thing about some sort of Greek war or something. I think that it is going to be a cinematic gem to be passed down through the ages, mostly because it seems as though the entire movie is greased up men wearing nothing but metal underwear. As seen is the hot hot hot picture of Gerard Bulter in his metal underwear. I'm thinking that I may just have to see this movie over, and over, and over, and over again. Because I care about art. I swear.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
End of an Era
Well, I shipped the last of my boxes today. The Zapfs/Tom have offered to take my furniture off my hands, and so I'm basically moved out. It's so sad! When I cleared all my stuff out of our apartment today, it looked so bare! It's a naked and sad apartment.
When I was driving my stuff down to the Greyhound depot, there was this really wierd low-lying smog over downtown, so I had to take a picture of it. Because what good is a camera phone if you can't take random pictures of smog!
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Mostly sleeping
Well, I've been doing a whole lot of nothing lately. We played a gig for the Department of Training, Colleges, and Universities on Thursday night, and then since then I've mostly been sleeping, hanging out, rehearsing, and packing. I scored a bunch of wine boxes from the LCBO, and so far I've packed all my cds, dvds, books, and music. All that's really left is my assorted misc. posessions, clothes (which I still need to use), bedding (which I also still need), and computer (which I'm using right now). I do have this whole plan for how I'm going to pack everything when the time comes. I just really wish I had a laptop, because I don't know how I'm going to survive without my computer. It's my best friend. Well OK, second best after my iPod.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Mmmm...Sunny
Well, it's been an exciting couple of days. We flew in on Monday, and seeing as how it was Catherine's 21st birthday we decided to do something exciting, like a BBQ. So I made home-made burgers and we ate at a picnic table in Michelle's back yard. Then we went and picked Ingunn up from the airport (she was on a later flight, it's a long story), and sat down and wrote our grant proposal for the school, and all the thank you notes to people that we've been putting off. Then we went to bed. Party animals, I know. On Tuesday I got up at about 10:30, and puttered around the house until about 11:45, when I left for school. I ran through the Clarke with Matthew in the concert hall from 12:30-1, then I bummed around at school, and then went on a chase for new headphones. I then hung out at Ingunn's until my Mozart trio rehearsal at 5. This clarinettist at school asked me to play the Mozart Kegelstadtt trio in his recital, and he was so desperate I couldn't say no. Anyways, it's not too hard, although there's this one chord that has a b natural instead of a b flat, and it keeps messing with my head! But I digress. After the Mozart rehearsal I headed home, and picked up a box at the LCBO on my way home. They only had one, but they said they'd have more later in the week. So I sat up until 12 pseudo-cleaning my apartment, and I packed up all my dvds and books. Almost. I have a lot of crap.
Today I got up at 10:30 and puttered around the house until 12 when I went to school and practiced before my rehearsal with Matthew at 2. After that I went to the Starbucks on Yorkville Ave, right smack dab in the middle of trendy Yorkville, and I sat outside on their 'patio' with my venti green tea and people watched until my gig at the Four Seasons at 4:30. It was one of the most annoying gigs ever, for Manulife Financial's Board of Directors dinner. It's one of those gigs where no one pays the slightest bit of attention to you, you can't hear the other people in the quartet, and then to top it all off they gypped us and paid us each $75 less then they said they would. I was so angry, I stole Diet Coke (it was the only thing convenient enough to take. The desserts would have just made my purse a mess). Anyways, it was arranged through our assistant dean at school, so we're going to see if he can rectify the situation for us. The moral is though, don't trust Manulife Financial. They can't count.
Today I got up at 10:30 and puttered around the house until 12 when I went to school and practiced before my rehearsal with Matthew at 2. After that I went to the Starbucks on Yorkville Ave, right smack dab in the middle of trendy Yorkville, and I sat outside on their 'patio' with my venti green tea and people watched until my gig at the Four Seasons at 4:30. It was one of the most annoying gigs ever, for Manulife Financial's Board of Directors dinner. It's one of those gigs where no one pays the slightest bit of attention to you, you can't hear the other people in the quartet, and then to top it all off they gypped us and paid us each $75 less then they said they would. I was so angry, I stole Diet Coke (it was the only thing convenient enough to take. The desserts would have just made my purse a mess). Anyways, it was arranged through our assistant dean at school, so we're going to see if he can rectify the situation for us. The moral is though, don't trust Manulife Financial. They can't count.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Sleep Now
Well, I'm back from Manitoba. It was pretty good, if a little cold and rainy. We flew in on Friday morning, and we had enough time to get to Ruben's house where we were staying, and eat something, and look over the Communist songs before we headed off to the mini-reunion at the Fort Garry Hotel. We played a montage of Communist songs while they played a retrospective video, and then we ate. We went back to Ruben's place and folded down the sofa bed, and blew up the air mattress, and crashed for the night. On Saturday we got up and I made Catherine and Ingunn go running with me - we left Michelle behind to make breakfast. We went down by the river, but the problem with Winnipeg is that the riverfront is mostly private property, so they don't have nice trails like there are in Saskatoon. They did it wrong. Then we went back to Ruben's and had breakfast. After that Michelle's parents took off for a tour of the printing press, while we stayed behind to rehearse. Then we got all dolled up, and went off to the big May Day banquet. It was good times, we danced the night away until about 10:30, then we went back to our uncomfortable beds and slept.
Sunday was our very exciting trip to Gimli. Our ride picked us up at 10:30 and drove us to Gimli and dropped us off at the hall we were playing in so we could rehearse. We warmed up, and had some coffee and scones at the tea room downstairs, then we played our concert at 2. There was about 40 people there, and they loved us. And I love people who love me, so I had a good time. Afterwards, the woman who drove us out there wanted to take us out to eat in Gimli, but first showed us the sights. This consisted of a giant cartoonish statue of a Viking, and driving us through all the residential streets and talking about who might live there. "I think Hallgrim lived there." "No, they moved two years ago and sold it to Gudrun and, the Bjarnssons moved down the road." "I thought they lived over on the next street." "No, that's the Gunnarssons." And etc. I gotta tell you, it was gripping. Then we finally arrived at the fish and chip place where they wanted to take us, and it was closed. So we ended up at some random place down the road. But hey, who doesn't love free food! Then we got back to Ruben's at about 7:30 and decided we should get some food because we had cleaned Ruben out. There were three grocery stores within walking distance of his house, but being a Sunday night in Winnipeg, they were closed. So we ended up at 7-11 where we went for the healthy choice of Slurpees and candy. We then went back to Ruben's and set up shop on the couch. We watched Grey's Anatomy, then Forrest Gump on TBS. By the time it ended at 1 am, we were all exhausted and crashing from the sugar, so we sat there for the last 20 minutes of it and cried. Forrest's so sweet!!! And then Jenny died!!!
We got up this morning and packed up our stuff, and flew back to Toronto. We had some excitement boarding the plane, as they absolutely could not let me on with my ginormous instrument. I am so pissed off at Air Canada, and am considering never flying them again. I fly quite a bit, and I've only ever had problems flying Air Canada - I've not just been hassled, but had to deal with openly hostile attendants who belittle me and act like I'm a stupid little girl who has no idea about anything. On Westjet, they're nothing but nice, and even let me pre-board with my instrument. Our union has a deal with all the carriers that violins (and violas) are allowable carry-on even though they're longer than the dimensions allowed, but nobody at Air Canada ever seems to know this, and they all act like it's giant travesty and that I am the stupidest person alive. I hate them, and I hope they all burn.
So now I'm bitter and back in Toronto.
Sunday was our very exciting trip to Gimli. Our ride picked us up at 10:30 and drove us to Gimli and dropped us off at the hall we were playing in so we could rehearse. We warmed up, and had some coffee and scones at the tea room downstairs, then we played our concert at 2. There was about 40 people there, and they loved us. And I love people who love me, so I had a good time. Afterwards, the woman who drove us out there wanted to take us out to eat in Gimli, but first showed us the sights. This consisted of a giant cartoonish statue of a Viking, and driving us through all the residential streets and talking about who might live there. "I think Hallgrim lived there." "No, they moved two years ago and sold it to Gudrun and, the Bjarnssons moved down the road." "I thought they lived over on the next street." "No, that's the Gunnarssons." And etc. I gotta tell you, it was gripping. Then we finally arrived at the fish and chip place where they wanted to take us, and it was closed. So we ended up at some random place down the road. But hey, who doesn't love free food! Then we got back to Ruben's at about 7:30 and decided we should get some food because we had cleaned Ruben out. There were three grocery stores within walking distance of his house, but being a Sunday night in Winnipeg, they were closed. So we ended up at 7-11 where we went for the healthy choice of Slurpees and candy. We then went back to Ruben's and set up shop on the couch. We watched Grey's Anatomy, then Forrest Gump on TBS. By the time it ended at 1 am, we were all exhausted and crashing from the sugar, so we sat there for the last 20 minutes of it and cried. Forrest's so sweet!!! And then Jenny died!!!
We got up this morning and packed up our stuff, and flew back to Toronto. We had some excitement boarding the plane, as they absolutely could not let me on with my ginormous instrument. I am so pissed off at Air Canada, and am considering never flying them again. I fly quite a bit, and I've only ever had problems flying Air Canada - I've not just been hassled, but had to deal with openly hostile attendants who belittle me and act like I'm a stupid little girl who has no idea about anything. On Westjet, they're nothing but nice, and even let me pre-board with my instrument. Our union has a deal with all the carriers that violins (and violas) are allowable carry-on even though they're longer than the dimensions allowed, but nobody at Air Canada ever seems to know this, and they all act like it's giant travesty and that I am the stupidest person alive. I hate them, and I hope they all burn.
So now I'm bitter and back in Toronto.
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