So Thursday (March 6) marked the beginning of our tour!  We had all decided to meet at 7:45 am at the Radisson Warwick hotel to catch the Lady Liberty shuttle to the airport.  I'm not much of a morning person in general, so I began by getting a coffee for the shuttle ride.  We got to the airport around 8:15 am and we checked in and went through the security.  Anymore, you have to get there so early just to get through the security lines!  We hung out around the gate for a while.  I tried to start reading an assignment for my Language and Literature class, but I get ridiculously distracted by noises in general, so I didn't really read that much.  Finally, we boarded the plane.

The flight was short and sweet.  Vicki and I were seat buddies for the plane.  We both tried to get some shut eye, but as usual on planes, it's practically impossible to sleep!  Also, I hate it when I'm sleeping on a plane and I miss my in-flight drink!  I mean, what do you do if you're sleeping and you STILL want your in-flight drink?  Do you leave your tray table down?  Sometimes that seems to work...  Anyhow, we landed at around 11:00 which was 15 minutes earlier than the estimated time of arrival which was sweet!

We got off the plane and walked over to baggage claim.  I don't think I've ever seen such a slow conveyor belt in my life!  After picking up our luggage, we headed over to the rental car area.  As Mr. Diaz and Margo were getting the car, Bella, Vicki, Yu-Wen, and I had a nice little bonding talk about how music is EXTREMELY distracting while trying to study.  I kinda thought I was the only person who felt that way...  When we walked out to our car, I noticed that we had rented a MONSTER VAN for the six of us!  It was pretty intense!  As we were driving, everyone was getting hungry.  In particular, Bella felt compelled to read the name of every restaurant and fast food joint in Maine.  We decided we would check into the hotel first and then we would get some food.

We checked into our hotel around 12:30.  It was sweet that I got my own room!  I like having the option to be alone when I want, and I can always invite people to hang out if I want to.  My room was really nice and quite spacious!  The TV had most of my favorite channels which was pretty sweet too!  We dropped off our stuff and left to get food at 12:40.  Mr. Diaz recommended the Brunswick Diner, so we all decided to go there.  It was unbelievably delicious!  I got a bowl of seafood chowder and a smoked turkey club.  After I ate, I just wanted to go back to the hotel and sleep, but our rehearsal was scheduled in Studzinski Hall from 2-5.  We had to drive right off to rehearse!

The hall was beautiful!  I had the opportunity to play in the same hall last summer.  The sound is really pure and clear.  We started by running through the Strauss (Capriccio Sextet).  That piece is so difficult to play when your fingers are cold!  After running it through, we decided to work on some spots which proved extremely helpful for me.  Then we started working on the Schoenberg (Verklarte Nacht).  What’s amazing about this piece to me is that fact that every time you play it, you notice different things about it.  It’s really a great work of chamber music, and such a pleasure to play it with such great musicians!  Also, the fact that we’ll be playing it for the next two weeks is unbelievable!  We rehearsed the Schoenberg till around 4:30 or so, so we didn’t really leave quite enough time for the Dvorak Quintet.  We rehearsed the first movement and decided to save the rest for the next day.  Bella, Vicki, Yu-Wen, and I were supposed to play some quartet stuff for part of afternoon program on Friday, so we decided to spend the time from 5-6 rehearsing Beethoven’s Op. 95 quartet.  It was interesting to play it as a quartet after having played it as a string orchestra in Carnegie Hall.  It’s such a great piece to work on.

We went back to the hotel to drop off our instruments, and then we went out to MJ’s Grill and Tavern in downtown Brunswick, Maine for dinner.  Again, the food was great!  I got a Cedar Planked Atlantic Salmon entrée, which was awesome!  The seafood is SO great here in Maine!  Dinner conversation was full of great stories by both Mr. Diaz and Margo.  It’s always really cool to hear stories about great artists that seem to deal with the same mundane issues we all deal with in life…

We went back to the hotel around 9 and we had some time to just chill out and get re-grouped for the next day.  We have to get an early start tomorrow, so I think I'm going to head off to sleep!  Enjoy and I'll write again tomorrow...