The third day was the biggest adventure of all. Our driver was stopped near the border for apparently having not slept enough the night we arrived in the South of France and for not properly scanning his documents. We spent about 45 minutes trying to negotiate with Spanish policemen, who were demanding 1000 euros. The French got it down to 300 euros. Kind of embarrassing. This shortened everyone's visit in Barcelona in a significant way. But wait, there's more...
We hardly got to visit Barcelona at all, given that we only had a couple hours to walk around and do the stores. Everyone, at the very least, got to snap shot the cathedral shown above. The town of Barcelona is filled with pickpockets and it is really infernal how much theft happens in this international city. Spain, being a poor country, in comparison to France obviously has its share of crime and poverty. This turned out to be to the group's disadvantage when a pickpocket stole a bag with the medication and passports of two elderly New Zealander chaperones. This happened right in front of their eyes. I think, in the end, the couple has been able to contact the Embassy and get necessary paperwork together, but still, they were robbed of credit cards and 400 dollars in cash. Such a sad reminder of the world we're living in.
The second and final concert of our trip took place in a middle school in Sabadell, which is a suburb of Barcelona. A truly beautiful room where we gave our concert. The kids seemed to be appreciative of the music, even though they weren't well-behaved. But kids will be kids, no matter where you go. Of course, I know this well after having taught middle school for 7 months. They started clapping to the beat at the end of "Pirates of the Caribbean," which was pretty funny but enjoyable. And we gave an Encore performance of the piece at the end.
When we were done with the performance, we greeted our bus, which was escorted by the police. I have to say, our bus driver was the weirdest part of our trip, since he got us turned around multiple times, had to turn around on what seemed like a cliff. And for all the mishaps that he caused us, he never once apologized. But you have to forgive the poor guy, since his job wasn't exactly simple. Oh well...
The fourth day was pretty free. And I took advantage of opportunities to shop for my family. Got to drink Sangria on the beach with the entire orchestra. The brass band played and entertained beach-goers. And it was a pleasant moment to wade in the Mediterranean Sea in spite of the rocky state of the beach. Later, in the evening, I went with the English travelers to a bar to drink more Sangria, prepared by the Spanish. We had some complementary hors-d'oeuvres with our Sangria. Nice ending to the orchestra trip.
Day five: Traveling all day from 8:30am to 8:30pm. It was a long day, but fortunately, I picked up a Le Clezio book to keep me occupied for the remainder of the journey. There is so much joy in the journey.
Now to pack my things and prepare for the departure home.
No comments:
Post a Comment