Ross had a great stay in Sarajevo, and I was very sad to see him leave this morning. I felt much more at home with him here, and now I need to adjust to being on my own again. Fortunately, I will be flying to Los Angeles in only a few weeks to visit Ross’s family, and enjoy the festivities of the West-coast wedding reception they are planning for us.
Since I haven’t updated for a while, I will give a brief* account of what Ross and I have been up to since last Tuesday. I’m hoping that later, once he’s home and recovered from jet-lag, Ross will contribute a short post about Bosnia from his perspective.
So, backing up to Tuesday…the philharmonic’s director and administration kindly gave Ross permission to ride on the orchestra’s bus to our concert in Zenica. We had a short rehearsal upon our arrival, and unfortunately I was quite cranky. We had a lot working against us: the theater is not properly heated, so it was extremely cold, the technicians kept playing with the lights, so we had to warm-up in the dark, we couldn’t really see the conductor or our music very well with the lighting that was chosen, and the winds were sitting very far back on stage, so it was hard to hear the strings. Rather than sucking it up and dealing with the problems in a mature way, I regrettably got pretty sulky and played terribly in the rehearsal. In the future, I hope that I will keep a more level head when things aren’t going as planned, since having a bad attitude only made me play and feel worse.
Ross patiently waited in the hall until the concert began, and was subsequently joined by hundreds of children! (We were playing Peter and the Wolf/Peca I Vuk by Prokofiev.) As soon as we started performing, I instantly cheered up. The narrator was great at getting the kids interested and excited about the music. They were so cute that I couldn’t help but smile the whole time. It was amazing how strongly the children reacted to the music and the story. One poor little guy kept crying every time the wolf theme was played by the horn section, and had to leave. I can relate—it is pretty scary! Of course, being an oboist, I had to play the poor duck that gets eaten alive. Sigh. Probably the funniest moment was when the narrator introduced my roommate, a bassoonist, as a grandfather. He asked the children, “it she a grandfather?” when she stood up, which left most of them scratching their heads, mouths agape.
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| Ross in Zenica |
Because the concert in Zenica was for children, it was earlier and shorter than usual, so we got home pretty early in the evening. This gave me a chance to have all of my Sarajevo Philharmonic neighbors down for a drink so they could get to know Ross a little better. I am happy that he likes my friends and colleagues just as much as I do, and we both had a lot of fun spending time with them this week.
Wednesday was a free day for me, so I went with Ross to see an English professor at the University of Sarajevo, who is friends with Ross’s guitar student. (I think I’ve mentioned earlier that Ross teaches guitar to an older Sarajevo native who is an English professor in Chicago.) Ross exchanged some papers and books with the professor (it is so expensive to mail things between the US and Bosnia) and we chatted with him over coffee. He was a very interesting man, and kindly shared a few stories about his life. I was especially intrigued that he had helped preserve the university’s books and valuables during the war by sneaking in past the snipers to hide them in the basement. I know that the war is very difficult to talk about, but I think it is important to remember both how cruel and destructive, and how kind and courageous human beings can be. So, I appreciate it when I meet people who are willing to share their stories.
On Thanksgiving Day, the orchestra had two performances of Peter and the Wolf in Sarajevo, but fortunately, they were matinee shows and we were finished by 3pm. After the shows, I rushed home to prepare a Thanksgiving meal for my friends, and neighbors. (My roommate Sara has dubbed them our “Otes family”.) We lined up three tables from the various apartments, and set the tables with colorful plastic-ware. We managed to find American football on TV, so naturally had it playing the background. (I have no interest in football whatsoever, but it made Thanksgiving feel more authentic, haha.)
I made mashed potatoes, peas, and stuffing, and put out cranberry sauce along with bottles of wine, beer, and water. My roommate set out bread and made homemade apple pies. Ross and Matt buttered, stuffed and basted two chickens. (I don’t think they have turkey here.) Everyone else brought various side dishes, desserts, and drinks, so we had quite a feast. Everything turned out delicious—in fact, we barely had any leftovers! All in all, there were twelve people at our Thanksgiving meal: 5 Americans, 4 Albanians, 3 Bosnians, and an Italian. There was lots to be thankful for, and we had a great time celebrating with our friends from all over the US and Europe. I think that our guest didn’t realize how much we would be eating, and everyone was pretty lethargic and full after we cleared away the meal. We still hung out for a bit before calling it a night, but it was a pretty subdued party. J
I never thought that my first Thanksgiving with Ross would be so far from home! We have always split up for Thanksgiving, each celebrating with our respective families. It was nice to finally be together, and I look forward to many more to come.
I was lucky to have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off. I had many ideas and many plans for the weekend, but unfortunately the time flew by and we only got to do some of them. At least now I already have ideas for places to see with Ross when he returns this spring. We did not have clear weather for going to the top of the twist tower, or seeing Mostar. But we did go back to Bascarsija on Friday and Saturday, and took a nice long walk in the park in Ilidza on Sunday. Also, Ross got a chance to try traditional Bosnian coffee on Friday, and eat a bit more cevapi on Saturday. Being an omnivore-herbivore couple, we are used to compromising, so Ross sat with me and had a couple falafel while I ate at Vegehana, and I sat with Ross and nibbled some French fries while he ate at the cevapi joint.
It seems like Ross is very excited to return in late March or early April. We had coffee with my colleague, Adi, and his brother, Djani, who happens to be a guitar teacher at the music academy. Ross was able to talk to Djani about a guitar festival that he runs during the first week of April, and it sounds like Ross might be able to participate. I’m all for an excuse for him to spend some extra time here!
*Okay, so maybe my account wasn’t so brief after all. J
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