Istanbul Day 1

I am very, very behind with my blogging!  Between trying to see all the sights in Istanbul, spending time with Ross, and having a complicated trip home, I never had time to post anything.  I have started writing though, so here’s my account of my first day in Istanbul.

Thursday:

The flight from Sarajevo to Istanbul was a breeze. (Not as much on the way home.  More on that later.)  It only took about 90 minutes.  And in a time when airlines in the US are cutting back/charging for every tiny amenity, I really appreciated my complementary headphones, TV, music, half-liter bottle of sparking water, and lunch.

I was a little bit nervous about finding Ross in the Istanbul airport.  Neither of us had cell phones, so we planned to meet near my baggage claim.  As soon as I landed in Istanbul I realized that the airport was even bigger than I expected.  We exited the plane early and got onto a shuttle bus, but wound up sitting on the bus for 45 minutes waiting for other plane traffic to clear out.  By the time I got to baggage claim, Ross wasn't there and I was worried he left for the hotel without me.  Fortunately, I have a patient husband, and I saw him as soon as I cleared customs.  We found our driver and headed for the hotel. (Our hotel sent a driver to pick us up for free!  This is a great perk when arriving in an unfamiliar city where you don't speak the language.)

As our driver took us to the hotel, we wound through our neighborhood, called Sultanahmet.  It is a great neighborhood because of the proximity to all of the most famous landmarks.  Before we even got to the hotel we saw the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, and the Grand Bazaar!  It sounds strange, but all of the windy, hilly, cobblestone streets reminded me of San Francisco.

Even though I was a little bit tired, both of us were feeling excited and adventuresome, so we decided to go outside and wander around for a bit after checking in.  Ross has a good intuition, so we wove our way around a few streets until we hit one of the main streets that leads directly to all of the famous sights. (Not to mention a McDonald's and a Starbucks.  I can't believe that these chains are so popular.)  I was happy knowing that we wouldn't get lost when we went touring the next morning.

Though it was quite cold, rainy, and a weeknight, the streets were still full of people buying and selling everything from chestnuts to bottle of water to souvenirs.  As soon and Ross and I thought about stopping for dinner and slowed our pace a bit, we began to be heckled outside every single restaurant.  There was a man standing in front of each one, holding a menu and explaining why his restaurant was the best one. (e.g. we have a fireplace, we have a dining room with a view upstairs, we have complementary coffee and tea, etc.)  Most of these guys didn't bother me, but some were a bit too aggressive for my taste.  I'd been warned that I would be dealing with some aggressive salesmen if I visited the Bazaars, but I wasn't ready for the restaurant promoters.  I'd have preferred to have a moment or two to look in the window and glance at the menu in peace.

After going a couple blocks, we found a restaurant that looked quite comfortable, with reasonable prices and a good-sized vegetarian menu.  We were sold, so we went on in.  I had some grilled vegetables, which went perfectly with the rice and sour yogurt that was also served on my plate.  Ross had a chicken dish.  We also got an appetizer called “borek”, to compare to Bosnian “burek”.  Turkish “borek” are small pieces of pastry dough, usually stuffed with cheese.  Bosnian “burek” is also stuffed pastry dough, which Bosnian’s call “pitta”.  However, Bosnian “pitta” is usually shaped into a large round spiral, and the name “burek” almost always indicates that the dough is stuffed with meat.  (The cheese-stuffed pasty is called “sirnica”.)

            After dinner, we were tempted to explore the neighborhood a bit more, but were pretty sleepy from our travels.  We picked up a bottle of wine from a small market and went back to the hotel to relax, sleep, and save up energy for Friday’s trips to the Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace.

Day at the Zoo

           I had Monday off this week, so I went to Sarajevo Zoo with my roommate Sara and my friend Adi.  I don’t usually think of going to the zoo as a normal wintertime activity, but we went to see a special exhibition with life-sized dinosaur (and other pre-historic animal) sculptures. So, we got in touch with our inner-5-year-old and checked out the dinosaurs.  I really did feel like a child again because all of the labels were in Bosnian, and I couldn’t read them very well!  Adi translated some of them, but I kind of liked just enjoying the exhibit without having to read anything. (I have a tendency to spend 50% of my time at museums reading about the exhibits rather than looking at them.)

Feeding our new pet stegasaurus

            I think the best part of the dinosaur exhibition was the fact that the sculptures were life-sized, so you could get a great perspective of the size of the animals.

            We posed for lots of pictures.

            Of course, what would a trip to the zoo be without seeing some live animals as well?  After making our way past all of the sculptures, we wandered back to the terrarium to see turtles, monkeys, a caiman, and a snake. 

Majmun/Monkey

We also went to see if any of the other animals were outside, and surprisingly, many of them were doing just fine in all of the snow.  Most of the animals were “farm animals”: goats, donkeys, bison, ponies, llamas, and hens.

Llamas

The highlight of the trip for me was the donkeys.  For some reason, I have a special place in my heart for them, haha.  It was hard to see them, so I jumped up on a ledge of snow to get a better look.  I must have surprised one of the donkeys, because he got a bit excited when he saw me, and started carrying on.  “Hee-haw, hee-haw” for a good full minute!  My roommate wanted to make a video, but unfortunately, he stopped by the time she got the camera ready.

Mr. Hee-Haw

Monday wound up being an eventful day not only because we went to the zoo, but also because Sara and I had the worst luck ever getting back to Otes.  I don’t want to be whiny, but I think that the story of our Monday afternoon commute is a classic example of one of those days when nothing goes your way.  It’s very tiring at the time, but rather funny when you look back on it.

We tried to leave the city center via tram a little bit after 3pm.  We saw the trains running as we were leaving, but by the time we got to the stop, no trams were working.  We waited 15 minutes, and then tried another stop.  Still no luck.  I suggested getting a cab, but there were probably 50 people trying to do the same thing, and all of the cabs were full.  We tried walking toward Bascarsija, but still couldn’t flag a taxi. Grrr.

So, Sara suggested that we get a coffee and try again one hour later.  I said “forget coffee, let’s get a beer”.  Why not?  So we went to a nearby pub, had a beer, and by the time we finished, the tram was working again.  Hooray!

            Of course, the tram was incredibly crowded because of the delay.  I was so thankful that I didn’t have my instrument with me.  I found a nice little corner to stand in so that I didn’t get too pushed around.  We very slowly headed toward Ilidza, until we got about 3 stops away.  Then the power went out.  Ack!

            If the tram had broken down anywhere else, it would have been better, but it broke down right along a busy street with no sidewalks or open cafes.  We were pretty close to Ilidza, so Sara and I tried walking.  But walking along the side of the highway at dusk is not the safest thing, and we wisely decided to stand up on a curb and figure out another solution.

            The entire tram’s worth of people were trying to call and flag taxis.  None of the cabs would stop, I think because the drivers can only make a few marks between where we were stranded and Ilidza.  I called almost everyone I knew to ask if they had a taxi driver friend who would come for us.  Alas, we didn’t get any reasonable offers (though someone offered to take us the one or two kilometers for 50 marks!)

            After standing around for about a half hour, a white bus pulled up and a bunch of people started to squeeze on.  Sara and I had no idea where this bus was going, but it was going in the right direction, and I figured that anywhere was better than along a busy road with no sidewalk.  I was relieved to hear some people say, “do Ilidze” as we were boarding.  Fortunately, the bus did indeed stop in Ilidza, and we didn’t get in trouble or have to pay for boarding it.  Normally, the walk from Ilidza to Otes seems like a bit of a hike in the snow, but in this case we were so happy to be back in familiar territory that it felt like a breeze.  I collapsed on the couch in our apartment with relief around 7pm.  I’m glad it doesn’t usually take 4 hours to commute home!

            Tomorrow, I leave for Istanbul, where I am meeting Ross for a little 4-day vacation!  I can’t wait to describe the city, and post pictures for you readers, so stay tuned.

*Photos courtesy of Sara.  Thanks Sara!

Grover Schiltz

           On Friday, I received the sad news that my former oboe teacher passed away.  He was not only a teacher for me, but also a role model, and even a friend, despite our 50-something year age difference.  I was really looking forward to contacting him when I got back to the US, and sharing stories about my experiences in Sarajevo.

            I want to write this short blog post about Grover because he was such a great example of how a hard-working classical musician can still have a well-balanced life that is full of adventure.  Grover Schiltz played oboe and English horn in the Chicago Symphony for about 45 years.  (He can be heard on dozens of recordings of the orchestra made between about 1960 and 2005.)  When Grover began playing in the CSO, the orchestra had short seasons and paid very little, so he and his wife ran a dog kennel to supplement their income.  In the meantime, Grover was an active supporter of the American musicians’ unions that eventually succeeded in improving the working conditions, audition process, and compensation for professional orchestral musicians.

            The Chicago Symphony is one of the best orchestras in the world, and its musicians are constantly pressured to meet the highest standards in their field.  Despite this, Grover never gave up his passions and hobbies, and maintained a great sense of humor.  I had so many fascinating conversations with him about cooking, wine, oriental rugs, travel, dogs…  He was so passionate about collecting rugs that he and his wife recently traveled to Romania just to see them, learn about them, and purchase one or two to bring back home.

            As a teacher, Grover was extremely honest but never discouraging.  He often would have frank discussions with me about how being a professional musician can be difficult.  However, I also felt like he had faith in my abilities, and I got the message that if I was hard-working, patient, and entrepreneurial, I could find my place in the music world.  I’m not sure that I would still be a musician today if I hadn’t had supportive yet realistic guidance during such a critical point in my education.

            It is hard for me to believe that I studied with Grover for only two years, because I feel like I made about five years of progress under his tutelage.  He taught me to break down a phrase note-by-note and ensure that my vibrato, intonation, and tone color always progressed logically and musically.  If I didn’t play something well, he would do humorous, and maybe slightly cruel imitations of how I sounded.  I think he knew that I wasn’t overly sensitive, and I didn’t take the imitations too personally.  I liked that Grover always held me to the highest of standards, no matter the technically difficulty of what I chose to play for him.

            Grover was incredibly open-minded.  He was always experimenting and trying to improve his playing and reed making, even during retirement.  I was sometimes afraid to try a new instrument, type of cane, or shaper tip, but Grover convinced me that a little experimentation can only lead to improvement.  After all, there is no reason to play a Loree oboe just because everyone you know plays one. (And yes, I still play a Loree oboe, haha.)  I really admire that Grover continuously tried to learn new things and improve, even at the very end of his career.

            So, yes, I miss my teacher already, and will be thinking of him throughout the rest of my time in Sarajevo.  I hope that I can honor his memory by being a conscientious musician, an honest yet supportive teacher, an adventurous tourist, an avid learner, and of course a kind and accepting friend.

Self-Doubt

          I am feeling very humbled tonight after listening to a short recording of myself from about one year ago.  I was pretty proud of it at the time.  In fact, I used it to get my current job in the Sarajevo Philharmonic!  Now this recording sounds absolutely terrible to me.  I hear so many lumps and bumps in my playing.  Ugh.

            I’m surprised that my perception of my playing has changed so much.  I thought that after starting to play professionally, I would feel more confident.  It’s true that I am proud of all that I’ve accomplished, but I am realizing more and more how far I am from playing as well as my mentors and idols.

            I also wonder whether and how I am improving from my experiences here.  (As an oboist.  In other ways, I feel reassured that I am growing quite a lot.)  Since arriving in Sarajevo, I am often forced to learn music very quickly, and play through pieces without doing much analysis. Also, it is my first year of not having regular lessons, so I have to make decisions on my own, rather than consulting with my teacher.  I’m sure that I am learning from playing a lot of repertoire and having to be completely independent.  However, I don’t want to become thoughtless or arrogant just because I’m not consistently being critiqued.

            I am bothered by my recording partially because it sounds rather disjointed.  I play each note and phrase in the way that I’ve been taught, but they don’t sound connected to each other.  I try to play with perfect intonation and rhythm.  My phrasing and articulation are dictated solely by what is printed and what my teachers have told me to do.  As a result, my playing sounds very heavy and unoriginal.  I am perplexed…how do I balance “correctness” and “creativity”?  It is often hard to play “originally” without sounding bizarre.

            Of course, feeling dissatisfied with my oboe playing leads to a more general sense of self-doubt.  Do I really have what it takes to succeed in a field that is so competitive?  It’s one thing to be mediocre in a field in which competence is all that is required to make a living.  It is another thing to be merely satisfactory in a field where 99 out of 100 people fail to find work.  I think most people who believe that they can have careers in top American orchestras are delusional.  How can I avoid being delusional without being defeatist? 

            At least I am comforted by the fact that all of my hard work on the oboe has led to an amazing opportunity to move across the world, see new places, and meet new people.  Whether or not being a professional oboist is my lifetime career, I won’t regret the time and effort I’ve put into my training.  Also, living in Sarajevo has reminded me that we make music in order to enjoy it.  It is not life or death.  If I don’t play well, I may feel disappointed in myself, and I may even disappoint my colleagues or my teachers, but I can always try to do better the next time.

After the Storm

Of course, Sarajevo is still recovering from the storm, and will continue to do so for quite some time.  I’m hoping that it doesn’t get suddenly warm, or else there will be some massive puddles!

Along the road in Otes

Rather than canceling our concert this week, the administration decided to postpone it by two days.  So I’ve had yesterday and today off, but we go back to rehearsal starting tomorrow.  We’re going to play Rhapsody in Blue and Mendelssohn 1, a very unique program.  I’m looking forward to getting back to work, and am very glad that “the show will go on.”  However, the tram is still not running all the way to Ilidza, so we’ll have quite a long commute tomorrow, going first by foot, then bus, and then tram.

I walked from Otes into Ilidza on Sunday and yesterday to take pictures and buy some groceries.  On Sunday, there were very narrow pathways that made it possible to walk, but still difficult to drive.  By Monday, most of the major roads had been cleared, both by shoveling and by bulldozers.  Now the snow banks are almost twice as tall as me!

Ilidza on Sunday

When I went into Ilidza yesterday, I walked with my roommate Sara, and met up with our friends Ingrid and Mattia.  We had some coffee and it felt so good to get out of the apartment and socialize.  On the way back we had a little bit of a snow fight. J  It’s funny how massive snowstorms tend to bring out the kid in everybody.

Snow

I never run out of things to blog about.  I just had the “honor” of experiencing a record snowstorm for Sarajevo!  Over the past two days, we’ve gotten about 110 centimeters (4 feet) of snow.  In comparison, there was a huge snowstorm in Chicago last year that shut down the entire city for several days, fondly nicknamed “snowmageddon” and/or “the snowpacolypse”.  The “snowpacolypse” was about 50 centimeters, less than half the amount of snow we got here!

Ross in the Chicago storm in February 2011

Sarajevo storm in February 2012

The snow started falling Friday morning, but despite the heavy snow, everyone went about business as usual.  I had to go into the city for a concert on Friday night, and had quite the commute.  By the time I left, the bus from Otes to Ilidza was no longer running, so my roommate and I hiked over to the tram by foot.  We got to the tram, and I got a bit worried when I overheard people saying “ne radi”, which means, “not working”.  I guess that tram had to stop running for a bit, but it started as soon as we got there, lucky us.  So we boarded a tram and were on our way.

Departing toward Ilidza by foot

Everything was going smoothly until we got about half way to the city center.  Then, the tram stopped, and started moving in reverse.  There was a little bit of panic amongst the passengers, since no one knew what was going on.  However, we soon started moving full speed ahead again.  I think the driver was just trying to get a running start so we could make it across a very snowy intersection.  All in all, it took about one hour, but we made it to Bascarsija in time for our dress rehearsal.  After the concert, I was fortunate to get a ride home, so I didn’t have to try to commute by tram again.

Bascarsija on Friday afternoon

I spent yesterday inside, awestruck by the size of the storm and enjoying a relaxing day at home.  However, most of the people in my neighborhood still went out!  I did not see any snowplows or mechanical snow blowers.  Instead, all of the men, and even some women and children, went outside and shoveled the roads and sidewalks by hand.  I am very impressed by this pro-active attitude and willingness to help out the community.  There have been a couple of times when I’ve heard a rude stereotype that Bosnians are “lazy”, and this reaction to the storm clearly proves that stereotype to be wrong.  “Laid-back”, maybe, but “lazy”, no…

Before they're shoveled out, the cars are merely small bumps in the snow.

It will be interesting to see how we recover from the storm this week.  The snow has stopped falling for now, but we will probably get a few more inches over the next few days.  I think it might take some time for the transportation system to start running and for the grocery stores to get restocked (they’re completely wiped out right now).  I am hoping that our orchestra will still perform our concert next Thursday, but am not sure if it will happen if the city is shut down most of the week.  In the meantime, at least I have a lot of friends in Otes to keep me company.

View from my room yeserday

Music Academy

          I’ve spent a lot of time at the music academy this week, playing in a small orchestra for someone’s conducting recital.  We just have three short rehearsals, and the ensemble is not playing very well, but I can’t help but have fun because of the program.  We are playing an all Beethoven concert: the Egmont Overture and the Emperor Concerto.  I’ve been waiting to play Beethoven all year—we’ve yet to play him in the philharmonic.  I think I enjoy playing his music more than any other composer’s, and I’m not really sure why.  Good music plus fairly idiomatic oboe writing, I guess.

            I’m not sure I’ve described the Sarajevo Music Academy for this blog yet.  It is pretty much the equivalent of a US “conservatory”, with college and graduate students who specialize in music.  There are some very strong programs and teachers for certain instruments (e.g. violin and cello), while others are completely absent (e.g. there is no oboe program).  There are a lot of accordion players at the music academy, which is a novelty for me, and a nuisance, I think, for everyone else!

            The Sarajevo Music Academy is located in the city center, just behind the Catholic cathedral.  It is a convenient location for us philharmonic musicians, since it’s only about a 10-minute walk from the National Theater.  The building contains an elementary school on the ground floor, a music high school on the next floor, and the music academy on the top two floors. 

Being in the music academy makes me feel a bit nostalgic for my undergraduate days. The old, slightly run-down building reminds me of the Peabody Conservatory.  As do the clashing musical sounds bleeding into the hallways, and students sweating over their solfeggio exams.  I feel pretty comfortable in such an environment after going to music school for nearly an entire decade.

In other news, the weather forecast for the next few days is crazy!  Over the past 24 hours we’ve gotten maybe 6 inches of snow.  Tonight we are supposed to get another 2-4 inches, tomorrow 8-12 inches, tomorrow night 10-15 inches, and Saturday another 10-15 inches!  About one year ago was the “snowpocalypse” in Chicago, so I guess now it’s Sarajevo’s turn.  Man, I sure do have bad luck with winter weather!