So in my last entry I neglected to mention a small detail, that of me almost forgetting my bag in Vienna airport. I was sitting in the departure lounge waiting when I suddenly realised that I was minus a bag – usually I would have checked it in, but this time I had only packed a small carry-on bag and had completely neglected to take it with me after I went through security. So off to security I rushed back, somewhat frantically stated that “I think I've left my bag here”, and a stern humourless Viennese airport official replied “You. Think. You. Left. Your. Bag. Here.?” and brought it back to me with a condescending “tut tut, silly Ausländer” look on his face. Whatever dude, you could never be a vegetable, even artichokes have hearts, etc.
Anyway, back to Detmold. The short story is: I got in! The slightly longer version includes getting totally shocked at getting through to the second round, then being freaked out when the aforementioned slightly Nutty Professor came into the hall while I was warming up, then sat there and listened to me for ages, then asking for those exact pieces in the audition that he heard. Bizarre. Nothing could describe the shock/disbelief/joy/total sense of wtf-ness when I saw my name amongst the three that were picked from the twenty something Masters course candidates. “MO, #13” - never has there been a sight more pleasing to mine eyes.
The day after consisted of running around in circles to find the theory test room, being late for the theory test, not having a pencil and therefore doing the theory test in pen, and making it to my train back to Hannover with only minutes to spare.
I wanted to see some more of the city so I took a bike-taxi/tuk tuk type thing for about 4km around the Hauptbahnhof, and I am very sorry to report that Hannover is not very thrilling. In fact, that ride was probably the lamest thing I've ever paid 4 euros for. I gave the driver a 5-euro note and as he gave me back my 1 euro change he clutched onto the coin and said “ermm” which I took as an indication of “TIP ME PLZ”, so I gave him 20 cents. He took the 20c and looked even more puzzled but like, whatever dude, it's just a glorified bike ride and you didn't even have a baguette hanging out of a basket.
After I got back to Vienna I sat two more auditions, at the Konservatorium Wien and at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst – I thought I played TERRIBLY at the Kons audition and rather well at the Musik Uni audition but conversely, the results were that I passed the Kons but not the Uni. Which suits me just fine, as I always preferred the idea of going to Kons over the Uni. The icing on the cake was ringing the teacher (who was very critical) to ask about results, and to have her reply: “You passed! You know, you did say you were going to surprise me, but really you played so differently than the last time I heard you...every piece was alive and full of character, when you played Schumann it was Schumann! You are a musician Maria!”
I mean, wow. I don't mean to brag, but I just have to like, write that down for posterity, and feel awesome about it. Frickin' sweet!
The days after the auditions were filled with sweet sunshine, swimming in the Donau, lots of wurst, friends, and fun times. Ah, Vienna. You're a bit nice.
As of today I am in smelly, big London. I was detained (!!!) at the airport for an hour or so because I made the mistake of being an honest person and told the officer that my reason for entry was to play some concerts with my trio as a part of winning a scholarship in New Zealand. Oh ho ho, that opened a whole can of worms, from “which scholarship?”, “what's the name of your band?”(I loled inside), “why are you arriving on different flights?”, “do you have any paperwork?”, “are you getting paid?”, “where are you staying?”, “how can you prove this to us?”, “what do you mean you don't have paperwork? How are we supposed to believe you?”, blah blah blah. I was so hungry and stressed out by this point I forgot all semblance of sass and just burst into tears saying “you know, I'm totally innocent here, I could have lied about it but instead I told you everything honestly, it's not my fault that I don't have documents, I'M A NZ CITIZEN WE DON'T NEED VISAS TO COME TO THE UK WAHHHHHH”. And of course, true to form, I was beginning to entertain thoughts of “WHAT IF I NEED A VISA AND I CAN'T GET ONE IN TIME AND I SCREW EVERYONE OVER ALL BECAUSE I DIDN'T LIE AT THE AIRPORT.”. Ahhh, the joys of being neurotic.
Eventually they let me go with useless advice like “you MUST leave on the 21st like you said on your landing card because blah blah blah I just like to terrify tiny people from New Zealand by asserting unnecessary authority and I should really lay off the donuts on my breaks cos I'm bursting out of my uniform.” I know she was just doing her job but like, whatever, lay off the donuts.
After all that I reunited with Tamsin in a joyous post-auditions catchup and proceeded to go drink the worst beer ever (London Pride, anyone?). Every sip was a cruel reminder of how awesome Austrian beer is – I really hope that I manage to find good beer while I'm in the UK (suggestions, anyone?). We completely lost our way home (albeit unrelated to the beer, as we could barely finish that turgid concoction) and circled Oxford Circus about 15 times. The streets are SMELLY and it's quite hard to breathe here, especially with my persistent dry cough. What I will give credit to though, is the friendliness of the Londoners – that's right, after a month of Wiener Freundlichkeit, I get touched every time I hear a “oops, sorry, excuse me” from a passerby who happens to bump into me. Ahhh.
So here we are. I am pretty content with life. I have the happy dilemma of choosing between two awesome schools, I didn't get deported, and I have a whole two months of musicmaking and travelling ahead of me. Awesome.
Sleepy time!
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