Ross is Coming!

Ross’s flight is scheduled to arrive in Sarajevo in just a couple of hours, and I’m so anxious to see him.  Before I see him, time gets slower and slower, and two hours seems like an eternity!

Ross’s parents are also flying to Sarajevo, and I look forward to showing them around the city and taking them to check out the upcoming Sarajevo guitar festival.

Anyway, I might get a little bit behind on my blogging, since I will be busy with Ross, his parents, the guitar festival, my quintet, and preparing for the April Philharmonic performances.  We are only playing five shows this month: two Peter and the Wolf shows on Tuesday, the premiere and reprise of Eugene Onegin toward the end of the month, and a reprise of the ballet on the 30th.  However, we still have a completely full schedule because the opera will take so much preparation.  At least I will have a few days free this week, so I can watch Ross participate in the guitar festival and show his parents how much Sarajevo is a great city!

Graffiti

           I’ve been meaning to write a post about graffiti in Sarajevo for months.  Graffiti is everywhere here!  When I first came to Bosnia, the amount of graffiti made quite an impression on me.  I saw tags on almost every building I passed, and all over the inside of the tramcars.  There is graffiti in every neighborhood that I frequent: in the city center, Bascarsija, Ilidza, and Otes.

In the US, graffiti is usually only found in certain places: on the sides of highways, in public restrooms, on public transit. There is a stereotype that graffiti artists are young urban males.  For better or worse, graffiti in America is often associated with poverty, gangs, crime, and violence. There was a huge anti-graffiti/vandalism campaign in New York in the mid-1990s.  It was part of a controversial, though possibly somewhat effective, method of crime prevention under Mayor Guiliani’s administration.  Of course, graffiti can also be viewed as a unique means of artistic and personal expression, and there are some beautiful works that have been painted both legally and illegally.  I’ve seen some graffiti that was commissioned by private companies or city governments.  I have even heard of graffiti being displayed in art exhibitions and galleries.  However, many Americans still, more often than not, view graffiti in a negative light.

I don’t think that Bosnians have exactly the same attitude toward graffiti.  From what I can tell, graffiti does not seem to have the same strong associations with crime, violence, and gangs.  (Maybe it does and I’m just not aware.)  I can’t understand many of the tags, but it seems to me like there are more political/nationalistic messages than in the US.  I have also seen a lot of memorials and proclamations of love.  Without further ado, here is a short "photo story" of the graffiti in Sarajevo:

Tags on the ceiling, walls, and seats of the tram

A typical building facade in Otes, covered in graffiti

The American boys bring the graffiti inside their apartment!

Example of "political" graffiti, in Sarajevo's city center

Close-up of tram graffiti

Graffiti in Mostar: Red Army 1981?

Graffiti is featured in this billboard ad for snacks

Best picture of all!!!  An old woman encouraging a young boy to tag a building in broad daylight in Sarajevo's city center. What?!

Addendum: As I’ve been going through my old pictures to find ones with graffiti, I’ve been surprised and amused to remember some of my first experiences here.  I haven’t put most of my fall photos on my blog, since I didn’t have internet at my apartment until November.  I have them on facebook, complete with some funny captions, and I hope to have a free hour to two this week to put up some of the best ones here.  It will be interesting to reflect on some of my captions, since my perspective has changed a little bit over the months.  So stay tuned…

Lady of the Camellias

The Sarajevo Philharmonic has spent this week rehearsing for an upcoming ballet performance.  We are playing for a ballet titled “Lady of the Camellias”, which depicts the story of “La Traviata” using a compilation of music by Verdi.  At the beginning of March, when I saw that the orchestra had 11 rehearsals scheduled before the performances, I was surprised. (We usually have 4-5 rehearsals before playing a concert of new repertoire.)  I couldn’t believe that there would be so much to rehearse.

            It turns out that my part is incredibly demanding.  I have to have good control over the entire range of my instrument, play extremely soft in certain passages, and execute tricky technical passages with fast articulations and awkward fingering patterns.  On top of all of these challenges, I have to play certain parts of the ballet without any breaks, so I my embouchure is constantly on the verge of fatigue.  So needless to say, I really appreciate having all of these rehearsals so that I have time to figure out what kind of reed to make and how to pace myself for the concerts.

            Fortunately, we have a very good conductor from the Bolshoi Ballet to lead us through the rehearsals and the premiere.  He has a great ear, and has fixed many of the intonation and balance problems that constantly plague our orchestra.  I’ve been forced to think more than usual about my timing, phrasing, and articulation, which has been a good challenge for me.  But having such intense rehearsals has been exhausting, and I am really looking forward to having a free weekend to recover.

            Besides rehearsing, I have been trying to be outside as much as possible.  We are having great spring weather here in Sarajevo!  It’s sunny almost every day and the snow has finally melted.  One of my favorite things about Sarajevo is that most of the restaurants set up tables and chairs outside when the weather is nice, so I’ve been doing a lot of al fresco dining with my roommate and our friend Adi.  I’ve also made several excursions to the park in Ilidza, including my first jog of 2012.  I really love warm weather, and can’t wait to enjoy it during my final three months here!

March 17

I discovered that St. Patrick’s Day is not really celebrated in Sarajevo.  When I asked some of my Bosnian colleagues about whether they were doing anything in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, their initial reaction was, “What is that?”  Once I described the holiday, some of them nodded and said that maybe there was something going on in one of the two Irish Pubs in Bascarsija.  They didn’t really understand why Matt was wearing green and pinching me and Sara for forgetting. J My American colleagues (as well as Matt’s girlfriend) were eager to party in honor of the holiday, and managed to find green beer, Irish car bombs, and other celebratory Americans at “Celtic Pub”.

In the meantime, my quintet continued our tour of Bosnia, and played our third concert in the city of Tuzla.  I had heard of Tuzla before coming to Bosnia because my husband’s guitar teacher is from there.  Vedran, the clarinetist from my quintet, told me a little bit more about the city on the way there.  Tuzla is the third biggest city of Bosnia, located northwest of Sarajevo.  It is famous for having salt mines, and has a long history of salt production.  Apparently, parts of the city are now sinking (maybe on top of the mines?), and a lot of the buildings have floors that are no longer quite level!

My colleagues spoke quite highly of Tuzla, and it seems like most Bosnians I meet are fairly fond of the city.  Although Tuzla was attacked during the war, it was not hit as hard as Sarajevo, so there is not quite as much damage.  Most of Bosnia is so beautiful, so I had high expectations about how the city would look.  When we got to Tuzla, however, I saw that the city is comprised of a lot of dirty, concrete, rather ugly buildings.  The mountain scenery around the city is quite attractive, but I found it hard to enjoy the cityscape, especially after being so enchanted by Sarajevo and Mostar.  I guess it’s the good people and the fun things to do in Tuzla that my colleagues like so much, and not the view of the city itself.

By contrast, the drive from Sarajevo to Tuzla was gorgeous.  We wound our way along curvy roads, through the mountains with pine forests, past quaint small towns and villages.  I was riding with our horn player, and he apologized for the windy, treacherous road, but I reassured him that I was used to it.  It reminded me so much of being in Colorado.  As I got sleepy, I half-expected to turn onto the road leading to my parents cabin in Evergreen!

Once my quintet arrived at our performance venue, we unloaded the car and headed inside to set up and have a brief rehearsal.  It was quite odd, since we were in a large auditorium.  However someone had created an intimate space appropriate for chamber music by drawing the curtains at the front of the stage, and then placing about 100 chairs around the sides and back of the stage.  The lighting was a bit dim, but the acoustics were great.  I was so excited to finally be able to perform in a room that was neither too live nor too dead.

Once we finished rehearsing, one of the administrators from the venue took our quintet out for dinner.  We went to a nice restaurant called Biblioteka.  Before a concert, I don’t like to eat too much, and I stick to relatively bland food, so I just had a bit of polenta with cream and cheese.  It really hit the spot.  Our quintet likes to talk a lot and enjoy themselves, so we went our again after the performance, to the “American University” student club, conveniently located inside the same building as our concert hall.  The club was designed to imitate American bars, filled with pool tables and blaring classic American hits from the speakers.  I was asked whether the bar reminded me of America, and I had to confess that it didn’t because everyone was smoking (something that’s now banned in all indoor public spaces in Denver, Baltimore, Chicago, etc).

I didn’t get home until very late on Thursday night, because it is quite a long drive from Tuzla back to Sarajevo.  I was pretty tired, but stayed awake for the ride, since my colleagues, in true Bosnian fashion, spent the whole ride listening to music, singing, debating, and telling stories.  I got home to my American friends winding up there St. Patrick’s Day festivities, but didn’t feel too left out, since I also got my fair share of fun for the evening.

Road Trip

            On Thursday, the American quartet took a road trip to Dubrovnik and back, since we needed to cross the border to renew our visas.  I felt a bit overwhelmed by all of the beautiful places that I saw in only one day, and am even more convinced that Bosnia has some of the best landscapes in the world.  I never thought I would enjoy spending over 12-hours on winding roads, smushed into a very, very tiny car, but I did.

            We began our journey by meeting Suad, the driver for the Sarajevo Philharmonic, at 7am, in front of our building in Otes.  Suad speaks only a few words of English, but he is very easy to get along with because he is so friendly and energetic, and quite good at pantomiming.  So, he greeted us with a huge grin on his face, and we loaded up the car and headed out on the highway toward Mostar.

            I have made the first part of the trip before, since Sara and I visited Mostar in the fall.  However, this time the mountains were more barren, and the upper peaks covered in snow.  I was surprised that the river’s water level seemed very low, especially considering how much snow we got this winter.  Just as before, I especially like the area around Jablanica: the view of the river cutting through the mountains is so perfect that it doesn’t even look real.

            I guess I have bad luck with the traffic police in Bosnia, because it seems like whenever I’m in a car, the driver is arbitrarily pulled over to check something or other.  Today was no exception, and poor Suad got pulled over only an hour or two into our trip.  From what I can understand, everything was okay though, and we were on our way again after only a few minutes.

            On the way to Dubrovnik, we made a very short stop for some snacks near Jablanica, and then passed through Mostar and two border crossings (into Croatia and then back into Bosnia’s 20km stretch of coastal territory) before making a longer stop in Neum.  We pulled off the highway, into a parking lot along a small plaza on the water.  It was so warm and sunny; it was the first time in months that I’ve been able to be comfortable outside without a coat.  Seeing small orange wildflowers also made me hopeful that spring is just around the corner.  The water was calm and very clear, and we climbed out on the rocks to get the best view before continuing on our way.

Americans in Neum

            On the way from Mostar to Neum, there was a dramatic change in scenery, from snow-covered mountains to the green fields, vineyards, and orange groves of the warmer Adriatic climate.  The land is still mountainous, but seems “softer” due to the greenery, temperate air, and sunshine.  I almost felt like I was in the hills surrounding Los Angeles, especially because of the prominence of palm and citrus trees.

Palm and Citrus Trees

            Once we left Neum, we crossed the border one more time to get into Croatia.  The Croatian seaside near Dubrovnik is becoming more and more popular as a tourist destination, so the coast was dotted with new white stucco and glass hotels.  However, the hotels haven’t completely over-run the coastline, so it remains as a very pretty rocky shore, with the Adriatic Sea glittering in the background.  I tried to take a few pictures from the car, but it is almost impossible to get anything good while moving that fast.

View of farms near Croatian coast: one of my few decent pictures from the car

            We finally arrived in Dubrovnik a little past noon, passing a dock lined with very fancy-looking boats and then coming across the walls of the Old Town.  Old Town looks kind of like a giant castle, because the centuries-old stone walls are punctuated by turrets and towers.  We parked and entered inside the walls onto the main street, called the “stradun”.

The walls of Dubrovnik's old town

            The stradun is a wide stone pedestrian street, lined on each side by stone buildings that contain shops, restaurants, monuments and museums.  We passed a large centuries-old fountain before ducking into one of the many souvenir shops.  I didn’t find anything particularly unique: just the usual magnets, t-shirts, keychains, etc.  Then we continued down towards the bell tower at the end of the street, and stopped inside a small museum that contained a memorial to those who fought in the siege of Dubrovnik in 1991.  (Like Sarajevo, Serbian forces shelled Dubrovnik, holding the city under siege, during the breakup of former Yugoslavia.)

On the Stradun

Next to Orlando's column on the Stradun

            Near the bell tower, we passed under the walls again, and out onto a set of piers that overlooked the water and a small island called Lokrum.  I felt so happy in the sunshine and warm breeze.  There was a set of benches where we could sit for a few minutes, pet the stray cats, and admire the view.  If I looked to each side, I could see parts of the city climbing up the steep hill of the coast, and it seemed straight from a photographic advertisement for Adriatic tourism.  Even though it was warm, it was not exactly hot, and the water was still quite cold.  So I was surprised to set about 10 men swimming around the pier!

View of Dubrovnik from the pier

Lokrum Island

Crazy swimmer

Soaking up the sun and the view

            After taking some pictures and getting a few more minutes of sunshine and sea air, the American quartet and Suad headed back the way we came, stopping at a café for some coffee and tea before making the long drive back.  The prices were comparable to American café prices, which seemed so steep to us after being in Sarajevo for six months.  However, my drink was very good, and we had a fantastic spot along the stradun to people-watch while we chatted. 

I tried to make a small conversation with Suad, which was reasonably successful between hand-gesturing and my limited Bosnian.  He asked where we wanted to stop for lunch on the way back, and I explained to him that I am a vegetarian.  Like most other Bosnians, Suad was somewhere between shocked, horrified, and amused that I never eat meat.  Hahaha.  “If you don’t eat meat, what do you eat?!”  He suggested stopping in Mostar, and I reassured him that, yes, I can find something to eat there.  Sometimes, I wish that being a vegetarian wasn’t such a novelty here, so that my Bosnian friends would stop worrying about whether I can eat anything when we go out.  I always find plenty of options.

            In total, we had less than two hours to spend in Dubrovnik, so I saw beautiful old churches/theaters/etc inside the Old City, but unfortunately didn’t have time to learn about them.  I hope I will have time to go back to the Croatian coast later this spring and see more of the city.

            We drove directly from Dubrovnik to Mostar on the way back, without any stops in between.  When we got to Mostar, Suad parked in the old part of the city, and we made our way down the bumpy stone streets.  Strangely, Suad recommended the same restaurant Sara and I patronized this fall.  I remembered that it was very good, so I happily agreed with him that we should go inside.  We were all a little bit sore and groggy from the squishy car, but after some beer and good food, we all felt re-energized for the ride home.

            Before getting back in the car, we stopped by the old bridge, since it was Tim’s and Matt’s first time in Mostar.  I found it strange that the bridge was completely empty, with no tourists in sight.  (When Sara and I went this fall, Mostar was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with tourists!)  We took a couple pictures, and Suad pointed out an area just below the bridge where the Sarajevo Philharmonic performed to celebrate the bridge’s reconstruction.  Earlier, in Dubrovnik, Suad had also pointed out a space where the Sarajevo Philharmonic performed years, ago, so I thought it was pretty neat to retrace some of the orchestra’s history.

Americans in Mostar

Spot in Mostar where the Sarajevo Philharmonic once played

Spot in Dubrovnik where the Sarajevo Philharmonic once played

            From Mostar, Suad drove us straight back to our apartment building in Otes.  I felt like we were getting home in the middle of the night, even though it was only 7:30!  It’s weird how traveling can be so tiring, even when you’re sitting for most of the day. But our mission was accomplished: our passports had new stamps, and we had made it all the way to Dubrovnik.  I still can’t believe how much I saw in such a short period of time!

Just Say Da

The past few days have been pretty routine.  Rehearse, perform, celebrate, make reeds, practice, rinse, repeat…

Our performance of Brahms 1 and Dvorak Cello Concerto was, for me, the most difficult program we’ve played thus far.  I spent a lot of time working on my intonation, and tuning with the other principal wind players, and yet I still had a lot of difficulty in our concert.  It is very hard not to go sharp when there are discrepancies within the orchestra, and the pitch slowly climbed higher and higher throughout each movement.  I have a few excellent recordings of Brahms 1, and now I appreciate them so much more!

I’ve been slacking off on studying my Bosnian these past two months, and am trying to get back on track.  (It was much easier to study when I didn’t have the internet in my apartment to distract me.)  I have still been improving, just because I’m exposed to the language so frequently, but I learn much faster if I study a little bit each day.  Once in a while, I excuse myself by thinking that I only have a few months left here.  Then I have to remind myself how much I can learn in a few months, and how great it feels when I actually can understand what’s being said around me.

My comprehension is sometimes quite good, and sometimes very bad.  I am still intimidated about speaking, but try to force myself to make small conversations every time I go out.  At the grocery store, I try to say one or two extra words or phrases each week.  Needless to say, I keep the cashiers well entertained. There was a new cashier today, and I think I said enough to trick her into thinking that I can understand the language, so she started saying a lot to me, and very fast.  I just stared at her and said “da”…what else could I do?  Sometimes, I think that I come across as either hard of hearing, or mentally challenged, due to my blank looks.

In my quintet, most of the members speak English to me, but our flutist doesn’t feel comfortable speaking in English, so he just speaks in Bosnian.  I try very hard to understand what he’s saying, and often have to ask, “sta?” (“what?”) several times to take everything in.  If I still don’t understand, I usually just agree with him, “da”.  The clarinet player finds this to be quite funny, and has designated my slogan to be “just say da”, a play on Reagan’s “just say no” campaign.

Although it’s a little risky, I am trying to maintain an open-minded and agreeable attitude while I’m in Bosnia.  So “just say da”, really is a good slogan.  I remember a mediocre Jim Carrey movie, called Yes Man, in which Carrey resolves to change his life by saying “yes” and seizing each opportunity that comes his way.  Of course, agreeing to everything can be dangerous, but I tend to be a bit shy and cautious, so trying to be more agreeable and adventuresome has been quite good for me.  After all, my whole year here began with a “yes”.

Brahms 1

           Tonight, the Sarajevo Philharmonic is playing Brahms Symphony No.1 and Dvorak’s Cello Concerto.  This program involves many exposed wind parts, so the preparation this week has been incredibly tiring.  No matter what I’m doing, my mind keeps wandering back to my reed case, calculating and re-calculating whether I have enough good reeds in progress to be prepared for the concert.  I need decent reeds to get through the rehearsals, and a very good reed or two for the concert, and so I’ve been finishing some reeds while hoarding the ones with the most potential for later.  I hope this strategy works.  In addition, I was asked by our director to cover some of my colleague’s second oboe solos in the Dvorak, so I have to figure out whether I want to change to a “special” reed for all of the quiet low notes, or just stay on the same reed throughout the piece.

            Even though I’m tired and a little bit nervous about the concert, I am also excited to perform such great repertoire, and especially to play with our cello soloist, who is fantastic.  However, my favorite moment of the program is in the Brahms Symphony, towards the beginning of the fourth movement, despite the fact that our orchestra has yet to do it justice.  There is a beautiful set of horn calls that makes me feel like I’m in a gigantic open space.  I’m a bit of an agoraphile (if that’s a word) so it’s quite a nice feeling.  Maybe the best part is that I have rests, so I can just sit back and enjoy.  I hope it goes well for my colleagues tonight!

            In other news, it is starting to feel like spring in Sarajevo!  We’ve had great weather (sunshine, finally) almost every day.  It’s been just warm enough to start melting all of the snow, without much flooding, which is quite a relief.  The days are also getting longer, and I am happy that it’s no longer dark outside when I come home in the late afternoon.  It  never feels like spring in Chicago until the end of April, so I’m a bit surprised that it came so soon here.

            Finally, today is “National Women’s Day”.  I’m not really sure what that means.  I guess I’ll find out…  I think it’s kind of like Valentine’s Day meets Mother’s Day, but you don’t have to feel left if you don’t have a significant other or a child.

Independence Day

         Thursday, March 1^st was Bosnian Independence Day.  It marked the 20-year anniversary of the passage of a referendum for Bosnian Independence from Yugoslavia.  Although I didn’t notice any particular traditions for celebrating, most people had the day off of work.  However, I learned that the holiday is not celebrated in the Republic of Srpska (the Serbian territories within Bosnia and Herzegovina).  So on Independence Day, I was unfortunately reminded of how much Bosnia and Herzegovina remains divided: ethnically, territorially, politically and religiously.

Lately, some of my friends have told me more about their lives during the war, and I’ve seen more photos and videos about what happened here.  It is hard to forget the war when physical evidence of the destruction remains visible nearly everywhere in the city.  It is even harder to forget when I hear particular stories, or see particular footage connected to the damage.

My friend Adi has shared the most with me about what it was like living in Sarajevo from 1992-1995.  He has shown me the bullet holes (and even a bullet lodged into a chair) that remain in his apartment.  He’s told me personal stories and played/translated Youtube videos of the fighting that took place nearby the theater, at spots that I pass by every day.  Adi has even shared a short memoir that he wrote in English towards the end of the war, aptly titled “It’s Better in Jail”.

Adi is almost exactly my age, so I cannot help but compare my own life and experiences during that time.  When the fighting began in Sarajevo, I was about 7 ½ years old, and when the Dayton Agreement was signed in the end of 1995, I was 11 years old, in the middle of sixth grade.  During those years, I was so sheltered, and so sensitive.  I hadn’t yet seen an R-rated movie.  I was so upset by the idea of killing animals for meat that I became a vegetarian.  When my guinea pig died in 5^th grade, I started worrying about death and couldn’t sleep well for weeks!  I’m not sure how (or even if) I would have handled living through a war.

I’ve had some strange reactions when thinking and learning about the war here.  I watched a fictional dramatization of the war from an award winning short film, and then couldn’t stop weeping for nearly an hour.  Even the trailer from Angelina Jolie’s In the Land of Blood and Honey made me cry.  When I read my friend’s memoir, I kept making this weird, demented-sounding laugh to keep from crying, and then worried that he thought I was laughing at his imperfect English.

However, when I watch actual footage, it seems too surreal, and I have yet to cry.  I don’t know when or how I became desensitized to violence in this way.  Maybe it’s because I’ve followed the international news off and on for the past 15 years, and it’s impossible not to detach oneself to avoid going crazy.  In fact, sometimes I am literally so detached that I feel like I am watching myself look at the pictures/videos rather than actually watching them.

I know that war and violence chronically shape human history, and will continue to destroy lives all over the world.  It is so hard to understand, and, to me, never worth it, no matter the circumstance.  It is even harder to feel helpless, and to know that there will continue to be violence, no matter what I do.  So I know it’s idealistic, and maybe a little bit stupid that I have been and will remain a pacifist.

Maybe it’s a good thing to be idealistic and naïve.  I can’t imagine that it would be possible to go on living if I didn’t at least feel a little bit hopeful that the world can become a more peaceful place.  Therefore, in a weird way, seeing the physical reminders of war sometimes gives me hope.  Sarajevo, though not without its problems, has become a thriving and beautiful city again, and a home for so many interesting, kind, and creative people.  Seeing war damage every day constantly demonstrates how far a city can come only 20 years after it’s destruction.

Bizet, Busy

Pardon the cheesy title, but I couldn’t resist…

Since I’ve gotten back from Istanbul, my schedule has been quite a bit fuller than it was earlier this year.  Right after I got back, the Sarajevo Philharmonic began rehearsing a program sponsored by the French Embassy, featuring Bizet’s Symphony in C.  We also played Beethoven’s Leonore Overture and Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C.  (I found it funny that the entire concert was in C Major!)  Bizet’s Symphony in C Major features a lengthy oboe solo, so I had my work cut out for me.  I wasn’t completely satisfied with my playing in the concert, but I wasn’t disappointed either.  I guess many members of the audience liked my solo, because at the post-concert reception, I was recognized and introduced several times.  I got to meet “zee French ambassador”, as well as representatives from the French, Italian, and Spanish embassies.  Of course, I had fun enjoying my 15-minutes of fame.

            The weekend after the concert seemed to fly by, and I was still recovering when we rehearsed La Traviata on Monday, and performed the opera on Tuesday.  My days were completely packed with rehearsal and concerts all week, because in addition to playing La Traviata, the orchestra began to work on our upcoming program, (Brahms Symphony No. 1 and Dvorak Cello Concerto) and my quintet performed a short concert in the nearby city of Zenica.

            Our quintet concert was on Wednesday evening, and I got to spend a bit of time with them in Zenica both before and after the performance.  I think I’ve written about it before, but I’m definitely the odd one out: the rest of my quintet is older, male, and Bosnian.  I’m glad that they are very gracious about translating everything that goes on for me.  J

            I’ve heard that the cevapi in Zenica is a bit different than in Sarajevo, so it was interesting to investigate this claim on Wednesday afternoon.  (One of my quintet colleagues is from Zenica, and another is from Sarajevo, and I’ve overheard them heatedly debating which city serves better cevapi.)  Of course, I don’t eat cevapi, which are little spiced sausages, but I do eat the bread, onion and cream cheese that are served with it.  I’ve had the bread (somun) and the cheese (kajmak) many times in Sarajevo, so I decided to try it in Zenica and make a comparison.  It seemed like the bread in Zenica is prepared a bit differently, it’s softer, moister, and a bit spongier.  The kajmak is also a bit fluffier.  I’m not sure what I prefer.  I think maybe it’s good to be diplomatic in my quintet anyway, haha.

            In addition to the Bizet concert, preparing the Brahms concert, playing La Traviata, and performing a quintet concert (whew!) I also played in a children’s opera this week called “Jezeva Kuca”, meaning “Hedgehog’s House”.  The woodwind parts have some tricky little technical passages in them, so I was grateful that the performances were relatively low-pressure situations.  I got lost once or twice during some of the repeats/cuts/pages turns, but always found my way back.  I’m glad that I’ll have a shot at redeeming myself when we play it again later this spring.

            So, I guess that’s the short update on how my life is going in Sarajevo, and why I’m quite behind with my blog.  I hope that I will soon have some time to be a bit more reflective and write something more interesting…