Hey, it beats the Greyhound
Whew...what a day! I sat in a train today for about 10 hours. The day started out early as I bought my ticket from the automatic ticket machine in the train station. I rode about 5 hours south to Mannheim, which is south of Frankfurt, for an audition. It's for an "artistic diploma," or something comparable, at the music conservatory as well as a position in the academy orchestra, including chances to play in 4 local orchestras (Heidelberg, etc.) . The audition is not just for oboe, it's for all wind instruments, from which they will select 4 total. So I did it for the same reason I take other auditions...every audition has slim chances and you just keeeeeep trying.
So I arrived in Mannheim and was not that impressed with the city. Whereas most German cities have a pretty area around the train station and downtown, this one was plain and seemed like a bunch of ugly buildings. I walked to the music conservatory which was downtown and it was also in an unattractive area. When I got to the audition room a couple guys who were auditioning asked where I was from and when I said Berlin they were really shocked that I'd have driven all the way for the audition. Apparently even though the positions are advertised all over (my prof. had the announcement taped to his wall), normally only Mannheim music students audition for the position...and even then said it was hardly worth it. Maybe they have more gigs in Mannheim, because to complain about orchestral playing is something you DON'T do in Berlin because you can't. There isn't enough for everyone so we jump at the chance to play when we get it.
Anyway, I warmed up and went down to the audition. It lasted all of 8 minutes and most of those stupid excerpts I practiced so hard were not even asked for. That's okay...maybe I didn't play them this time, but I will have to know them for other auditions. I felt like I played pretty well...technially stronger than my last audition, but you never know what they're looking for. There were actually about 15 people sitting in on the audition, too, so that was a funny feeling. They were either professors from the music school or musicians in one of the 4 orchestras the chosen students will play with.
After the audition I set out for the downtown. I wanted to check out more of the city before taking my train home. The downtown was a little better than the train station area, but not much. I really have to say it's one of the least attractive German cities I've seen so far! But hey, can't win 'em all! Anyway, I went into "United Colors of Benetton," a store many Americans have probably forgotten about but still lives strong in Germany. They were having a close-out sale and I found a nice pair of dress pants for 15 euro. I realized today, while picking out audition clothes, just how few nice pants I have. So that was a good deal.
In other news, I got a phone call yesterday from the boss of the "walk and listen" English tour CD company. They want to work with me and asked when I could start. Yay! He really wants to start recording this weekend, but for me that was a little too much. Like I said before, my Greek friend, who studies in Belgium, is here in Berlin visiting her bf and she and another girl from our orch. are throwing a party tomorrow night which a lot of our orch. friends will be at. And she and I wanted to get together on the weekend at some point,too. But I compromised with the boss and will go in for 4 hours Sat. and maybe that much Sun. I'm not looking forward to going in Sat. at noon with a raw voice from yelling over music.
He also sent me the texts I'll be reading and asked me to check them over. They were originally in German and then translated to English. But I tell ya, whoever did the translations was a few fries short of a happy meal. He or she mostly just translated directly from German, so verbs are all backwards, strange phrases are everywhere, even vocab. selections doesn't make sense sometimes. Plus, whoever wrote the original texts (in German) tried to throw a little humor into the deal by using some risky political references. I'm thinking...okay, and this is supposed to be a serious tour guide CD and you're talking about how "politicians these days will just be lucky if they keep a promise in their lifetime," etc.
Some of the history of the area on the recording is also a little off, or at least don't follow all the stories I've heard about some of those buildings. So I basically don't know how much re-arranging I should do or just simply correct the grammatical errors/funny word order, or if I can also add tidbits and/or take out worthless junk. Out of 12 pages, I got through 5 in 3 hours. I'm getting a small amount of money to correct the translated texts, but I don't think my boss realized how bad it was. I'll have to talk to him and let him know the extent of the damange.
I'm really exhaused after this long day. Tomorrow I get up early again for my favorite class: Padagogy (learning how to teach), where the teacher always gets into philosophical discussions. Then I babysit the little German girl. Then it's off to the party....Greek style!
So I arrived in Mannheim and was not that impressed with the city. Whereas most German cities have a pretty area around the train station and downtown, this one was plain and seemed like a bunch of ugly buildings. I walked to the music conservatory which was downtown and it was also in an unattractive area. When I got to the audition room a couple guys who were auditioning asked where I was from and when I said Berlin they were really shocked that I'd have driven all the way for the audition. Apparently even though the positions are advertised all over (my prof. had the announcement taped to his wall), normally only Mannheim music students audition for the position...and even then said it was hardly worth it. Maybe they have more gigs in Mannheim, because to complain about orchestral playing is something you DON'T do in Berlin because you can't. There isn't enough for everyone so we jump at the chance to play when we get it.
Anyway, I warmed up and went down to the audition. It lasted all of 8 minutes and most of those stupid excerpts I practiced so hard were not even asked for. That's okay...maybe I didn't play them this time, but I will have to know them for other auditions. I felt like I played pretty well...technially stronger than my last audition, but you never know what they're looking for. There were actually about 15 people sitting in on the audition, too, so that was a funny feeling. They were either professors from the music school or musicians in one of the 4 orchestras the chosen students will play with.
After the audition I set out for the downtown. I wanted to check out more of the city before taking my train home. The downtown was a little better than the train station area, but not much. I really have to say it's one of the least attractive German cities I've seen so far! But hey, can't win 'em all! Anyway, I went into "United Colors of Benetton," a store many Americans have probably forgotten about but still lives strong in Germany. They were having a close-out sale and I found a nice pair of dress pants for 15 euro. I realized today, while picking out audition clothes, just how few nice pants I have. So that was a good deal.
In other news, I got a phone call yesterday from the boss of the "walk and listen" English tour CD company. They want to work with me and asked when I could start. Yay! He really wants to start recording this weekend, but for me that was a little too much. Like I said before, my Greek friend, who studies in Belgium, is here in Berlin visiting her bf and she and another girl from our orch. are throwing a party tomorrow night which a lot of our orch. friends will be at. And she and I wanted to get together on the weekend at some point,too. But I compromised with the boss and will go in for 4 hours Sat. and maybe that much Sun. I'm not looking forward to going in Sat. at noon with a raw voice from yelling over music.
He also sent me the texts I'll be reading and asked me to check them over. They were originally in German and then translated to English. But I tell ya, whoever did the translations was a few fries short of a happy meal. He or she mostly just translated directly from German, so verbs are all backwards, strange phrases are everywhere, even vocab. selections doesn't make sense sometimes. Plus, whoever wrote the original texts (in German) tried to throw a little humor into the deal by using some risky political references. I'm thinking...okay, and this is supposed to be a serious tour guide CD and you're talking about how "politicians these days will just be lucky if they keep a promise in their lifetime," etc.
Some of the history of the area on the recording is also a little off, or at least don't follow all the stories I've heard about some of those buildings. So I basically don't know how much re-arranging I should do or just simply correct the grammatical errors/funny word order, or if I can also add tidbits and/or take out worthless junk. Out of 12 pages, I got through 5 in 3 hours. I'm getting a small amount of money to correct the translated texts, but I don't think my boss realized how bad it was. I'll have to talk to him and let him know the extent of the damange.
I'm really exhaused after this long day. Tomorrow I get up early again for my favorite class: Padagogy (learning how to teach), where the teacher always gets into philosophical discussions. Then I babysit the little German girl. Then it's off to the party....Greek style!
posted by Heidi at 4:34 PM
2 Comments:
Hey pooch,
Finally a real message aside from all the spam messages....
Sounds like you've had a busy day/week. We'll have to catch up with each other at some point when things aren't so hectic!
Miss ya lots,
Megs
Hey Pooch, yeah, what is with those spam messages?? How annoying. Thanks for a real message! I'm looking forward to chattin' again! Miss you too, Heidi
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