Orchestra in Brum

So I meant to write a post about orchestra. I wrote part of it, never published it, and my plethora of fans complained. 

My apologies. 

There's a ton of orchestral projects going on this semester. Some people are in many, some people aren't in any at all. During the first week, I found out I wasn't assigned to any of them and begged Louise to sneak  me in one. And that Wednesday evening, I found an email in my inbox describing the rehearsal timetable for the symphony orchestra. I flipped out a little after I found out rehearsals started the next morning and I was expected to have already collected my music from the orchestral office and bowed the parts. After misreading the timetable and showing up to a violin sectional, I visited Ed in the orchestral office to get my part.

I described to him how I was a little overwhelmed by the sudden work load and pleaded, is there another project I can do?

"Louise came to me and said she had this violist who was only here for the term who wants to do everything."

Well, yes. That's true.

 He assured me Symphony was the best possible project. It's the senior players. They play in symphony hall. The project only last a few weeks, etc. 

Fun fact: inside and outside chairs here are swapped in the viola section. First chair sits closest to the second violins. 

I'm glad I participated. We played a bizarre program, Bantok's Pagan Symphony (yeah good luck looking that one up), Britten's Young Person's Guide, and Berlioz Roman Carnival Overture (viola excerpts, represent!...)

The conductor was funny, the concertmaster wore American flag sneakers, my stand partner was adorable, I made many new friends, and I just had a great time. 

Unfortunately, I was sick all week of the performances. "Freshers flu" or just a nasty cold. Which sucked. Big time. But I made it through the week, and Ed says I can make up all missed rehearsals by participating in the next project: Composers Orchestra.

"I'd love to." 

Brum's Rain, Groceries, and Dancing

I lived here almost three weeks before even considering holding an umbrella. The mild weather was a fluke, and no one warned me. But for the past week I've taken my umbrella everywhere, and 

I've had to purchase a heavier casual coat. I'll make it, everyone assures me. 

Other than the lousy weather, I've had a wonderful time and I feel almost fully settled in with the culture. I may have been cheating a bit, though. Yesterday a friend introduced me to the American shelves of the Tesco supermarket. I fell prey to pop tarts and a payday, and if I wasn't home sick before, I might be now. Speaking of foods, the conservatoire Cafe Bar introduced me to flapjacks. Seriously delicious rolled oats and butter and something I have no idea. It's probably filled with controlled substances, making them both pleasurable and highly addictive. 

I've been doing some cooking, so I spend a good bit of time wandering around the Morrison's supermarket at Five Ways. I thought I'd share some odd quirks of grocery shopping in this country: 

Eggs aren't refridgerated (and yet I get home and immediately put them in the fridge) 

Bacon is a vague term for ham of many sorts, our beloved bacon strips are called "rashers"

When checking an expiration date, it's written day/month. No, not all of the mozzarella is expired. 

Lemonade isn't lemonade. It's sort of sprite. 

There's only one option of canned refried beans, and it's £1.79

There's only one option of canned Black Beans, it's in the organic aisle, and it's £1.39

Digestives are....I still don't know what digestives are. 

The largest aisle display is the booze aisle 

Cokes aren't made with high fructose corn syrup 

Shortbread is delicious

In other, Academic news, I've been having fun. I went to my british folk music lecture this morning and we talked about all of the dances...and then we danced. We have a shortage of men, so my partner was my dashing friend Beky. We were pretty awesome, and Beky promises to take me out barn dancing. 

Louise and I have been trying to plan rep for my junior recital in February, and I have another lesson tomorrow. The whole viola studio is amazing, and we're all scrambling to get prepared for the Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition, coming to the conservatoire at the end of November. I'm excited! Also coming at the end of Novemeber is Thanksgiving. I'll be making Thanksgiving dinner. 

Cheers,

Roselyn xx

Freshers' Week

This whole past week has been "Freshers' Week". It's kind of a welcome to the conservatoire sort of thing.

First thing I learned this week: "Fancy Dress"- don't wear your fancy dress. It means costumes. Thankfully, I asked before I could show up anywhere in my Sunday best. 

In addition to orientation type things thought the days, there are social events every evening. The first event I attended was at the YardBird. Conservatoire-formed bands performed at a jazz club bar in Paradise Forum.  I almost didn't go, but I'm so glad I did. I met so many people, and the music was great. I thought It would only be freshers, but at around 9:30, the club flooded with older students crashing freshers week. I met plenty of people in my year, too many organists to count (yes, people who actually study the organ), and even a couple of violists. It was too loud to get people to remember my name, so at some point in the night I switched from Roselyn to Rosie.  

We're back to Rosie, everyone. 

I even got to use my new local phone for the first time, and I actually read my number off the receipt to my new friends. 

The other event I went to was Pub Quiz
This is one I was not going to miss.
It's three rounds. Each round had three or four sections. It's quiz bowl, the English way. (Add Pub to anything, and it's the English way).
My team consisted of Myself, Beky and Michael (my new organ-playing friends from the night at YardBird), and Emily. Our team name was "Organists Like Y'all and a Trumpet Player."  I kid you not. Michael composed that little gem of a team name.
Except for the sports section, we did really kick ass. I have no idea how Michael knows that the zero spinner section is green, and my teammates thought all hope was lost when we were asked "in scrabble, how many points is J worth?" (It's eight. All hope was not lost in the slightest.)
We did alright in the pop music section- except I was silent. I have no idea what any of that was.


On Tuesday I had an important meeting with Steve Halfyard to talk about my schedule. Steve is the one who...I don't actually know Steve's title. I want to say it's undergraduate something or another, but she's also a tutor. But if I want anything, she's the one I ask.
Aside from properly correcting me on how I should be calling professors (Tutors) by their first names, Steve also informed me of my new class schedule that we crafted.  I'll be taking a few modules outside of my First Study (which is all things viola); 

British Folk Music
Further Baroque Counterpoint
Performance Traditions
And Professional Portfolio (which is pedagogy this term)
"What if I want to pick up one more class, is that okay?"
"Is it Film Music?"
"Editorial Techniques"
"Oh good, anything but Film Music...you could audit whichever classes you want"
"What's the difference if I audit it?"
"Auditing doesn't count towards your graduation. But you will pretty much be auditing all classes you take. We're just borrowing you."
"Oh." 

On Thursday, I had my BMus3 meeting.

Pronounced Muzz, not Muse. As in Muzzic. 

Yeah that's what I was thinking.

At the close of the meeting, I asked Steve about magpie sightings. 

     A week or so ago, I told my Spanish housemate/landlord Aina that I had seen these massive black and white birds everywhere. She told me that at work, she found out there's some sort of superstition surrounding them. You're supposed to converse with the birds. I told my dad and Marise, and they laughed at me. 

So I asked Steve. She said you're supposed to greet "Mr. Magpie" and ask about his wife. HIS WIFE. We discussed a few other things I was a little confused about with English culture, and they cleared a bit of it up for me. 

We said our goodbyes and I began to walk out of the recital hall. "Enjoy your culture shock!" Steve called after me. 

I figured out how to book a practice room online. It's a pretty impressive system. Like most music buildings, the conservatoire is a convoluted maze of practice rooms, some of them on half floors or without room numbers. I think they're purposefully trying to make me late for everything. 

Claiming your booked practice room is all very polite. 

"I booked this room for 2:30"

"half-past?" Looks at watch. 

"Yes." 

"Okay" 

"thank you!" That was easy...

Later that day, I had my blind audition for orchestra. 

The blind audition process here is intense. Weeks ago, we were all assigned numbers, audition times, and a warmup room. It's pretty legit. 
There was a guy that needed to use his office while it was my warmup room. 

"And what's your name?" 

"Roselyn"

"Ah yes the violist on exchange from Texas?" 

"Yeah-everyone seems to know this." 

"I had to type out your name about four times last night." 

"Oh. Ok." 

I have no idea who he is. 

The best part of blind auditions? Barefoot auditions. 

Tomorrow is Strings Day. No idea what it is, but I'm going with it. That's my motto lately. 

A few pictures for your viewing pleasure: 

"A Popular Beer of America"

On the bus. America represent. 

Happy Practicing! 

Roselyn xx

First Day of the Good Stuff

I've decided on the blog. I type out all the good bits anyways, why not just share them with you?

If you're just joining us, in February of 2014 I decided I just had to study abroad. 4 months, dozens of emails, 20 minutes of audition tape, and an 82-page petition later, both the University of Tennessee and the Birmingham Conservatoire at Birmingham City University ok'd my semester abroad.

I'm living in a 5-bedroom terraced house in Five Ways, about a mile west down Broad St from the conservatoire (Email me if you want the address to send me some american goodies). Out of my four housemates, only one is English, and she's not even from Brum. The other three are from Spain, Croatia, and Romania. I actually have five housemates if you count the cat, Lily. I'm pretty sure Lily is English, but I never asked. She likes to stand around watching people cook or unload groceries, but this usually results in a stern talking to from Ana in an angry sounding Romanian.

The conservatoire had my email wrong, so I've been confused about what I'm supposed to be doing so far. Today is mandatory international orientation at the conservatoire, but I didn't know what time it would begin. Things seem to start later here, though. People go to work later, classes begin later, so I ventured out of the house at 9:30. I made it down Broad St to the library and Symphony Hall, but I couldn't find the conservatoire. In Victoria Square (which I thought I was in Paradise Circus at the time)  I saw a young guy with a guitar on his back and a cumbersome piece of luggage on each arm. He was stopping frequently trying to wrangle it all and I couldn't leave him there. I've been struggling to make friends, anyways.  I really felt for the kid trying to carry all if it plus an instrument.
"Do you need some help? I can carry one."
"What? Are you sure? They're really heavy."
"Yeah I've got a free hand."
"Are you real? Can I touch you? My god, I thought I'd fainted."

I picked up one of the bags and we headed to the New Street train station. He was going back to Wales for "Uni" and had been in Birmingham visiting his mom. He asked me where I was headed before I stopped to help him.
"I'm not sure."
"Come to Wales, it's lovely"
(don't worry dad, I politely declined. I don't travel abroad with strangers.)

He asked me about Texas, what the people are like, "I've never met someone from Texas before, are they all as friendly as you?" "Do they all have mustaches?" And he wondered about California as well. "have you ever been to California? what's it like? Tell me about it."

I told him I had not had much luck with friendly people in Birmingham. He agreed, "yeah they're all a bunch of dicks."
"Strangers haven't been very nice to me. I just couldn't leave you there."
"My god, you're like a big ray of sunshine on a cloudy day!"
Probably the highest compliment I've ever been paid.

After I left Zack ("Zed, a, c, k") in the ticket line of New Street station, I dared to find my way to the conservatory. Within the next 30 or do minutes, I had probably passed it a dozen times. It's actually nestled in the city. It doesn't stick out, and it isn't grand, and you can walk around it and under it and through it about 9 different ways and not even realize it's there.

Orientation was great. Fresher's week beginning on Monday will be ten times better, but orientation gave me a good feel for the school. Everyone there was friendly and nice to me, even though I did most of the approaching. I think I met about 7 girls from Malaysia. (This is not important, I'm just pointing out the large number of Malaysian students.)
They told us that there were 76 new International students this year, and 6 exchange students. That's me, an exchange student. I met two others so far, an organist from Norway and a french horn player from West Texas A&M.

Every time I mentioned Louise Lansdown (my professor while I'm here) to someone, they always raved about her. Key reviews include "Amazing" and "Little Fireball." That's a good sign.

At the conclusion of orientation, current international students spoke about their experiences, and what they wish they'd been told. Daniel, An american guy whose been here 4 or 5 years explained that making friends with the British doesn't get any easier. Approach and introduce yourself, You'll catch them off guard, but they'll get over it.

I did make friends today. We even went out and got dinner together (Including a really nice girl from the Czech Republic who was maybe even impressed by my phrasebook Czech and knowledge of the "hacek"). Tomorrow I'll do some touristy museum stuff and figure out a local phone.

xx

Roselyn