better late than never

Hi all,

I had intended to write a bit more often, and have been ribbed repeatedly by a certain very diligent blogger on this site, but now we're at the last stop on tour and I'm writing my first entry. So I say better late than never. :) I'll start by listing the cities we've visited and the food that I ate that was famous for that town.

Kansas City--Barbecue
Chicago--Deep-Dish Pizza
Omaha--Steak
San Francisco--Dim Sum (in Chinatown)
Los Angeles--something expensive
San Diego--In N Out Burger
Eugene--something organic


The baked beans in Kansas City were out of this world.

I gave a masterclass in Chicago, our second stop on the tour. It was pretty much my first real masterclass. It can be slightly awkward for me in teaching situations since my students can be my age or even older (I'm 22), but I guess that will get better with time. :) It went well and afterward I got to have dinner with Gene Pokorny, the tuba player with the Chicago Symphony. I know him pretty well from having a number of lessons with him, and I guess we're friends now, although it feels weird to say that about someone you've idolized for a while. He's a great guy, and completely hilarious. He says I'm priveleged to live in Philadelphia, as it is the birthplace of Larry Fine of the Three Stooges. If he ever visits us in Philly, his ulterior motive will be to visit the Stoogeum outside the city.

I think most of us were pretty exhausted by the time we got to San Francisco. We had just traveled and performed for the last four days and three nights, and finally we got some time to rest and be tourists. After our free days in SF, about a third of the orchestra showed up with sunburns. :) My sunburn was from a 12-hour day of tourism, which included a morning boat tour, exploring Chinatown, hanging out at Pier 39 with the sea lions, biking across the Golden Gate Bridge, and a whole lot of walking. I did apply sunscreen in the morning, but my SPF 30 was no match for that massive amount of touristing.

My boyfriend Dave joined the tour in Los Angeles. He was excited because he got to ride the train with us from LA to San Diego. He's a HUGE railfan. It's very cute. We had a hotel room in Eugene that had a balcony that overlooked a train station. In the morning Dave heard a train coming and was so excited to go watch it that he forgot he was only wearing his underwear. :) Don't worry, I reminded him in time.

It's getting a little late. I'll try to write some more stories later, but given my track record so far... I guess we'll see...