Reflection on Tuesday

Шопска салата - Shopska Salad

To anyone who read what used to be titled Tuesday and is now confused by seeing that it's now called Monday, I apologize. My time clock is so screwed up that I no longer know which day it is. That day was actually Monday and now I am going to write about Tuesday.
Tuesday was a day where everyone woke up to sunshine and another big buffet breakfast and then we boarded a bus complete with a tour guide and traveled into Varna for our half-day tour. Our first stop? An amazing lunch that was three courses plus dessert. It was a good thing we were walking... The first course was a salad called something along the the lines of a Shopska Salad? (I'll look up the correct spelling) It was my favorite part of the meal. It was cut up cucumbers and tomatoes and feta cheese. Absolutely delicious. The next part was an appetizer called mishmash and it was made of peppers and cheese and egg which you ate with bread. The main course was a chicken kabob, a meatball, mixed veggies, and potatoes. It was a little entertaining trying to get the chicken off the wooden stick and our guide took pity on me and helped me remove them before I sent them flying across the restaurant. The last and maybe even the best part of the meal, was our dessert, which was a three layer cake that was covered and filled with what was a combination of chocolate mousse and pudding. Oh it was heavenly...
After lunch, we walked through the town a little ways until we came to a gate. Inside the gate we were revealed a major surprise. Who knew that there were Roman Ruins in Varna, Bulgaria? Not me! Apparently they are the third biggest Roman ruins in Europe. They are ruins of a bathing center that they built in the 2nd century AD. Walking around, if you closed your eyes, you could imagine what it might have been back then. There was even one room which still had all the original pots that were heated and then the water was let in and the steam would fill the room. There were tops of columns that still had the intricate designs that are imagined by most when you think of Roman buildings. All in all, it was very cool.
The next stop was the Archaeological Museum of Varna where they have the oldest gold in Varna on display. That was neat. They had all these tiny, intricate, golden designs in rings and necklaces. There was an exhibition of graves that had been excavated around the area and they had found what must have been a ruler of some sort for he was found with gold adornments all over his body, and when I say all over his body, I mean it... They had many stones that adorned the tops of graves, but they were all engraved with pictures and each one symbolized something different... It was pretty crazy compared to what we see now days... My favorite thing that I saw though was a angel that was no longer than a pencil and no wider than a quarter. She was in 3-D though and she was holding a circle, but when a magnifying glass was placed above her, you could see that the circle had little 3-d swirls inside of it. It must have taken the artist forever to make her. She was beautiful..
After the museum we were let free to wander downtown for awhile before rehearsal. We found tons of tiny shops and all sorts of fun stuff. There was a bakery where some got all sorts of yummy, rich, chocolate desserts that everybody had to help finish off because the taste was just to much after a couple bites. The streets wove there way down until they reached a small circle where we entered the building that housed rehearsal.

Today was the first day we rehearsed with each of the individual conductors conducting a movement. It was an experience. It's one thing to switch to one new conductor, but when you switch to seven different conductors and throw a translator as well as an orchestra director, Mistro of the Bulgarian choir, and the overseer of the entire workshop, it gets to be hard work. I have never been so tired after one rehearsal, but my musicality has certainly stepped itself up and I now I can say the same of all my fellow choir members. I believe that we came well prepared and have certainly made a difference in the choir, and not just in volume. We were prepared and we're musicians with a passion to sing. Thank you Dr. Hart for that.

At the end, the Bulgarians threw us a cocktail party with some wild, authentic, rich food and drinks. Schnapps is famous over here, but most of us weren't that brave. We sampled the beer and wine, but the food?--we went all out. We ate cheese, lunch meats, cabbage pockets stuffed with rice, breaded pockets of potato and cheese, chicken wings, crackers, cake bites, and so much more. It was wonderful. My favorite part was when Beverly, a choir director from New Jersey who was auditing the workshop, pulled several of us into the back room. The next thing I know, she's teaching us a new song. It was a swinging gospel piece and instantly I realized we needed more people. Soon we had half the choir singing a four part gospel hymn and we weren't just singing it, we were rocking it!

After we performed it for the Bulgarians, we decided to call it a night and were shuttled back to the hotel. I tell you what though, I think we were all clapping and swaying in our sleep last night as we drifted off into our own dreamlands... amazing what we can do when given something new!

Christa