Day two of the orchestra trip.
Alright, the day was one of simple format, and it followed as such. After getting up and having a quick breakfast in the lobby, we got on the bus and headed over to Valdosta State University. Upon getting near the school, our entire bus was immediately bombarded by memories vocalized loudly by Nikhil, one of those on the bus who had done GHP. Edmund and Jackie reaffirmed his statements (which were nearly constant) though Edmund did little more than nod to do so. At VSU we performed for the orchestra directors who were Kirk Moss (former director at Walton, the guy that Holbrook replaced) and some other gentleman who was significantly older and was intent on making us sing while tuning, which didn't go so hot (the singing, tuning was fine). After playing for them and recieving perhaps a half hour of instruction on the kinds of nuances that Palmer would have gotten to had we been playing the music for longer than a month, and the kind of things that Dr. Holbrook focused on from the very start (strict terraced dynamics and musical phrasing).
After that we had Master Classes/Sectionals. The bass one consisted of walking to the Cello one, then being redirected to a room with 3 sofas, 2 chairs, and a very large thin business meeting table flanked by old rolling chairs (ie: rolling chairs that didn't look like they would roll very well). We (the basses) sat down while our instructor, a young graduate student played a Cello Bach suite for us on bass and then said that that was standard bass audition fare for graduate schools and orchestras (so much for Colin doing a major in bass performance, it looked like it was rough stuff play). He then gave us various lessons, most of which I had already had in one form or another, and ended by giving us all business cards, an odd young fellow, but decently competent and a good player.
Then we had lunch which was at "one of the 4 eating areas on campus" the other 3 being another cafeteria, and the two campus Unions which both apparently housed Chick-Fil-A. The food was decent, regular college cafeteria fare and conversation was amusing but not memorable (ie: I've forgotten). After eating Elizabeth, Sofia, and Emory went into some bushes to stand by a tree to get Edmund to take some pictures, and Elizabeth got ants on her sandals :(. She only got bitten once. Then we got a tour of the campus, or a small part of it. We started by going to one of the 20% of dorms that were not co-ed, this one being female (nope, no hot college girls) where we were taken in groups of a dozen to see a room. Edmund, Jason, Jerry (Jason's brother), and I all sat down, lied about already having gone when Palmer asked us, and got in two hands of Hearts. Our guide led us around some more, though there was nothing really of major note. While we were being led about, Sarah and Jackie got some valued practicing time in the music building.
After this excitement we went back to the buses where we again loaded our instruments and were greeted by Mrs. Green. Yes, that would be the assistant principal (Buck Green)'s mother, who had brought us candy, which was nice, though vaguely unsettling. We all got on the bus and headed off for the next hotel. That ride was accompanied by the movie Armaggedon. I don't know why someone brough it or why we watched it, but I do know that if you sing any Aerosmith around me besides Sweet Emotion or Walk this Way you may be abused. We got to the hotel and found that our room had a fold out bed/sofa as well as two regular twins, so we we're happy. The room lacked a Gideon's bible and the round table was very small in diameter and very low in height and there weren't enough chairs to set it between beds with two chairs on the other sides for a good card game, all of which was noted on the complaints card. Edmund went out to call Lisa and Jason and Keith went down to the pool because Sonica requested their presence, I lay upon a bed and promptly fell sound asleep. When my companions returned, they found that they had all left their keys inside and I didn't respond to their knocking so they got new cards. They tell me that they played Bomberman and Super Jump and Bumb (which I never did see, but I did hear on the first bus ride) very loudly, but I slept through. This process of falling asleep did cause me to take up the entire twin bed closest to the door and thus set the sleeping heirachy precendent for the rest of our nights at the hotel: I in the first twin, Edmund and Keith in the next, and Fu in the couch bed (which I think was really larger than a twin, but didn't really ever check).