North Carolina Honors Orchestra Weekend

 This weekend I attended the North Carolina Honors Orchestra in Winston Salem. It was such an amazing experience. Mother drove me down, and Anna came along for the ride and to do some shopping at the Hanes Mall, which was right across the street from the hotel we were staying in. 
 We arrived around five o' clock and went directly to our hotel to get checked in and settled. Until we had to be at the Watson Hall which is on the University of North Carolina School of the Arts campus (from now on I will abbreviate it as UNCSA for the sake of time), we just relaxed in the hotel and ate some snacks.

 Around 6:30 Mother and I (Anna stayed behind in the hotel to study) set out to drive to the UNCSA campus and locate Watson Hall. It was completely dark by that point, so I was rather nervous about navigating. Luckily, however, we made it to our destination without getting lost once.

 Rehearsal started at seven. Seating for the time being was random. Generally the later you arrive the farther up you get to sit, since everybody is rather shy of sitting concert master or concert master assistant (the second stand back). I arrived a little on the later end, so I sat fourth chair. The first girl I met was Ashley, who was my temporary "stand partner" till the conductor politely asked her to take the concert master position. She is a senior in high school and attends UNCSA (to clarify, it is both a college and a high school campus, but the students don't associate with each other). She didn't strike me as a very happy person, and her eyes had an emptiness to them. I know nothing of her background, so it would be wrong to jump to any conclusions, so I'll say no more, but if any of you happen to think about it, it would be great if you would pray for her. There is so much darkness in the world, and here it's especially prominent in the music realm.

 I didn't place nearly as well as I hoped I would. My audition went poorly, but after Friday I was okay with it for the most part. I was 13th chair, so I was up front, but just on the second row of violins, so the experience of being in the "middle of the orchestra" was the same.

 Rehearsal lasted till ten. I was really tired by that point, and Mother and I headed directly back to the hotel. I couldn't help thinking about my poor audition most of the way back, but as I said, by the next day, I was fine with it.

 The three of us woke bright and early. I took a shower, which was very pleasant till the water turned freezing cold about halfway through. "Well, it was to be expected" I thought to myself "knowing how many people are wanting HOT showers this morning." 

 At 8:30 we went down to the lobby and partook of the continental breakfast. Edie Royal, a friend from ASU symphony, who plays the cello, came over after a few minutes, and we consoled each other in that we both placed fairly badly. We talked about how we had both worked so hard on the Tchaikovsky and had failed to polish the other two as much, which happened to be the ones they auditioned us on, and the easy-ish parts too.

 That day consisted of rehearsal, rehearsal, more rehearsal and rehearsal after that. We did have a short break for lunch and then another one for dinner though. During the dinner break, the three of us walked around the UNCSA campus. It was really pretty and reminded me some of CIU. Unlike Boone, it still looked a lot like fall, and there were several trees that still had the vibrant yellow leaves.

 Saturday evening we had rehearsal from 7 to about 9:45. Having made us promise that when we got back to the hotel we would go directly to bed, our conductor let us off a few minutes early, which I was very thankful for. However, when I finally did get back to the hotel and had crawled into bed, I lay there wide awake with the "Tchaik" (as we all call it) flying through my head.

 Sunday morning we had an hour and a half rehearsal. The night before I had sent my friend Willa a text hoping that we might be able to get together during the hour and a half we had before we were due to check out of the hotel (She is a senior in high school and this is her first year at UNCSA, and in fact her only year). Mother and I were just getting ready to pull out of Watson Hall after the rehearsal, when she called me and said she could be over in five minutes to say hi before we had to leave. I didn't see much point in just seeing each other to say hi, but we ended up hanging out for about twenty-five minutes, which was really nice. She showed me around the campus and then we went to her dorm room and we talked there for a while. After she introduced me to a couple of her friends, we headed back to the car, where Mother had been reading and crocheting, and said goodbye. I was really hoping to see her, so I'm so glad it worked out.

 Well, the next three hours I just spent with Mother and Anna looking around the Hanes Mall and buying boots, a dress and whatnot for Anna. We had Thai food at the Food Court in the Mall, which was really good. I don't think I have ever eaten such good chicken, and it was cooked to perfection.
Anyway, I hope I'm not boring anyone to tears with all the detail I'm throwing in.

 The performers were due to be at the Stevens Center, which I guess was sort of an "extension" of UNCSA in downtown Winston. We spent a half hour in the warm up room talking and just doodling around on our instruments. I sat with Edie for a while. We showed each other the fun and exciting parts of each of our own music, and chatted some in between warming up.

 Next thing we knew, it was time to perform. The concert went as smooth as could be, and the audience started clapping before we had even finished out the crazy-exciting ending of the Tchaik. I loved every bit of it.
 Within twenty minutes, we hit the road and headed back up to Boone. We stopped at a Sweet Frog to "celebrate," but other than that we made no stops. I got to drive from just outside of Boone to home, which was fun.

 So that was it. I think I could say that it was the very best weekend of my year!