First Day in Bosnia

Written on 9/14/2011:

 So, I said I would post more about my first night in Bosnia later.  I’m just going to give a play by play, because I’m not really feeling creative right now.  We (the four new American players) were so lucky that after we got in, a trumpet player from the Sarajevo Philharmonic had us over for dinner and showed us around our neighborhood.  The trumpet player, Admir, also let me send Ross an email on his phone, which meant so much to me since I felt homesick after such a long journey. (I’m sure it meant a lot to Ross and my parents too, who were able to find out that I was safe and sound.)  Later that night, we went out for beers and met Admir’s girlfriend, who is also in the Sarajevo Phil as a violinist.  I cannot imagine how hard that first night would be without their company.  They speak excellent English and Admir translated everything for us.  (Admir’s girlfriend is from Albania, where they speak a language completely different from Bosnian, so they have both learned a lot of English in order to have some language in common).  We didn’t have any Bosnian money, so Admir generously treated us to everything.  I would have had a long, hungry night otherwise!

I am writing this post on our third night here, and it feels like our first night is a distant memory.  So much has happened since then, and the longer I wait to write about it, the more I forget.  So, without further ado, I will begin my day 3 post.  Also, enjoy my account of day two below.

Today was my first morning in Bosnia, and my first time riding the tram from Ilidza to Sarajevo.  It’s slow, and crowded, but there are lots of people and things to watch.  I think that the commute will be very similar to what it felt like to take the el down to Civic rehearsals several times per week.

The first thing we did when we got into the city was visit the National Theater to get music, file paperwork, etc.  Alisa, who is part of the orchestra’s administration, led us around to take care of all of it.  She also introduced us to many of the other musicians, and many of the younger ones speak great English.  The second oboist is an older man, who speaks no English, so I’ll have to work hard at learning Bosnian better so I can communicate with him.

The National Theater is a very nice building with a gorgeous stage.  All of the performing arts groups in Sarajevo rehearse and perform there: opera, ballet, symphony, theater.  It is kind of exciting to walk by all of the singers practicing, the dancers in rehearsal, and the stagehands experimenting with lighting for the night’s show.

After visiting the theater, we went out to do errands.  Sarajevo is pretty much built along one long main street.  The city is pretty dense, so it will take me a while to take in all of it.  There were some noticeable landmarks: the tallest building is a twisty glass and metal structure that looks like it belongs in Chicago.  We also saw the famous yellow Holiday Inn, the American Embassy, and later walked by the Sarjevo McDonalds (oh boy).

We drove to get our white cards, walked to set up our Bosnian banks accounts, change money, and got Bosnian pre-paid cell phones. All in all it was a very productive day.  Alisa was so helpful, showing us the ropes, treating us at the café, and translating everything for us.  I still do not feel entirely comfortable with the way of life here, but feel reassured by the fact that the Bosnian people seem to always be very kind and generous hosts.

We went to lunch at a newly open mall called BBI.  BBI was quite fancy, and they have relatively fast wireless, so I may spend quite a bit of time there until I have wireless in my apartment.

We finally got home around 6pm, which gave me my first chance to practice and work on reeds here.  We are rehearsing La Traviata tomorrow morning, so hopefully my act is in gear enough now that I can make it through.  The orchestra has played the opera before, so we only have one rehearsal and then the performance on Friday night.  I’m a little worried about performing at an acceptable level, being so tired and overwhelmed, and never having played the opera before.  We’ll see…

After practicing, it was already 9pm, so I suggested to Sarah, Matt, and Tim that we get dinner.  We decided to walk across the street to the little store and buy pasta and sauce for dinner.  Unfortunately, either our stove is not powerful enough to make a huge pot of boiling water, or we don’t understand how to turn it up, so after waiting for over two hours for the water to boil, I got impatient and threw the pasta in the hot-but-not-boiling water.  It instantly turned soft, but weirdly chewy and sticky.  The sauce that we bought was also a little unappetizing, since we thought we got marinara but it was a very bitter bell-pepper sauce instead.  Dinner fail.  Tim was a good sport and ate it, but the rest of us ended up eating beer, bread and cheese for dinner, which finally happened around 11:30.  Maybe I will eventually figure out how to cook in Bosnia…I sure hope so!