Hi again!
Well, I've got a story to tell...all I can say is WOW.
First off, I got through the audition. This means that I'll be permitted to participate in the main round on monday (and I'll have to work real hard to get the orchestral-excerpts they want to hear up and running until then...).
Now for the story:
I got up early, went to the station and got my train. No problem. My Girlfriend came along (I like taking her along for moral support...) and we also met another audition participant, a rather nice Mongolian-Chinese girl in the train.
so far so good. As we were getting close to our destination (about 40 minutes from Leipzig, our destination) the train suddenly started getting slower and stopped in the middle of nowhere.
OK, now what we thought...and after a few minutes we got a message telling us that "The train will be delayed indeterminately because somebody commited suicide on the tracks".
Well, first thing I did was call the Opera house and tell them that we're delayed. They said that we'd be allowed to play if we made it before the audition ends. It was about 11:15 then, the audition was supposed to start at 13:00 (our time of arrival was supposed to be 11:48 usually).
After a while we were told that the work on removing the corpse, examination of the whole case by police and so on would take rather long, so we were to be evacuated from the train and brought to the next village by bus. The Fire Department sent some people and equipment, they set up a little "bridge" so that we could leave the train safely and then we walked awhile until we got to the next street (calling it a street is a bit like calling a cat a tiger...^^).
So, there we were, standing in the middle of nowhere, the whole trainload of people, and waiting for the buses. The buses were a bit of a problem apparently...we were told to be patient...
At this point it started to rain...seriously...I'm not talking about a few drops here...it was a bit of a torrent actually...
Luckily I was pessimistic enough to have brought an umbrella. My girlfirend also had one along and so we stayed more or less dry (and sheltered the Mongolian-Chinese girl as well. Not everybody had umbrellas along...).
After still more waiting, starting to get a _bit_ nervous by now, and also a bit damp from below...we were standing in a rather muddy place after all...the first replacement buses started arriving. We're not talking about buses here, more like old fire-engines with room for about 10 people each. I'd need to show you pictures to truly make you understand what kind of transportation that was...
Well, since there were quite a few people there (it was an express train after all, they are seldom empty) it took the small bunch of "transporters" several goes to get all people ferried to the next train-station. Luckily the trip was short, sitting in the extremely cramped vehicle and being shaken around severly by every bump int he road would not have been so funny on a longer trip...
After almost all people had been ferried to the next station the first real bus arrived...that got a few laughs...
Well, when we were all at the station we were put into a train and driven to Leipzig. We arrived a the main station there around 14:30...remember...we were supposed to arrive at 11:48...
There we looked for the next taxi since we wanted to get to the place were we were supposed to play a quickly as possible. I knew that it was close by, but not exactly where...I had never been to that city before and neither had my girlfriend or the other girl.
So, we jumped into the taxi and off we went.
As soon as we had told the driver where we wanted to go he started berating us...he declared us for "mad", lazy" and several other things and complained bitterly that we forced him to leave his place at the head of the taxi-que for such a short trip that "would have been faster on foot". Explaining our situation and the circumstances brought no improvement...
When we arrived he realized that he had forgotten to switch his Taxameter on...he was so busy complaining...^^
Interesting effect:
The Mongolian-Chinese girl (if I could write her name from memory I would...
) gave him 10€ for his trouble...and immediately he went all friendly, wished us luck and everything...I've never seen anybody change modes so quickly!!!
Well, we got to the audition and it was still on (actually still going a while) and we still managed to play (!!!).
As I wrote above, I made it to the next round, the M-C girl unfortunaltey didn't.
The results of the day?
I'm feeling a bit wrung-out today, but otherwise fine. I got a nice boost to my self-confidence (they actually let 5 of the 26 who played yesterday on to the next round and I'm among them!) and am one experience richer (being evacuated from a train, seeing the blankets were parts of the body had been covered...the poor person was spread around quite a bit by the train...), being ferried to the next station by ramshackle "buses" after standing in the rain (and cold) for quite a while...not a neccessary experience, but an experience in any case!
I also befriended the M-C girl...we found out we have a lot in common...like her boyfriend is a designer and so is my girlfriend and stuff like that. She actually got along brilliantly with my girlfirend (turns out they have loads in common) and we promised to stay in contact. We went on the same train on the way back and it made the long ride rather pleasant, so I guess the day was pretty terrible but pretty nice as well...
Now I'm going to town to get some fast-food for supper...I'm looking forward to reading your comments to this story...
Thanks again to all of you who are following my story here, thanks for wishing me luck and thinking of me in this time of extreme tension for me.
I hope you'll all stay with me for the audition on Monday and (in case I don't get that job) for the last audition in May.
Posting my stories here an reading your comments gives me a great way to "unwind" after the auditions and helps me stay at least a bit relaxed through these trying times.
THANKS!