I’M SO EXCITED.

Yup. Last year my choir SMU Chamber Choir went to Sopot, Poland to participate in a choir competition. (I know, I haven’t churned out the blogposts! Please search for my photo albums on facebook)

This year we decided to go even further : St Petersburg, Russia! This time to participate in Festa Musicale. Last year we had a choir from the Philippines as our “fellow Asians” but this year I heard that the choir will be the only choir from Asia. That’s gonna be cool

Photo by neiljs

Yes. Russia. The land of onion domes and vodka. And matryoshka. And blini. And so many others.

It’s not exactly a tourist destination, especially when their visa requirements are quite strict and tight (btw I got my visa for free, courtesy of the embassy. How nice!). But every stories I read just made me even more eager to see this very country. Mystic, magical, that’s how I picture it in my mind. Let’s see whether my prediction is correct.

Now before going, I have to pack (a lot of things), and later have to endure a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong flight. Okay so I depart from Singapore, 13-hour flight to Amsterdam, 6-hour long transit in Schiphol, and then another 3-hour flight to St Petersburg (and who knows how long will the bus ride to our place be).

Nevsky Prospekt at night, photo by Geir Halvorsen

We’ll be staying near Nevsky Prospekt, a big road in St Petersburg which I found out to be the St Petersburg’s Orchard Road. Since it’s June and it’s Summer, St Petersburg will experience what they call “White Nights”. Simply saying, there will be no night! The sun sets very late (as late as 11 PM) and rises very early (as early as 4.30 PM) and in between there’ll be no darkness. It’ll be very beautiful!

Ok I’m off to packing (and this year I’m not bringing my huge suitcase – no thanks). I leave you with beautiful pictures from St Petersburg I found on Flickr. Thanks to all the photographers! Awesome works

White Night in St Petersburg. Photo by Becky Sullivan

White Night in St Petersburg (10 PM). Photo by Becky Sullivan.

Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood. Photo by chillihead.

Church of St John Baptist at Chesme Palace. Photo by Dystopos.

Peter the Great's Winter Palace. Photo by Edwin Land.

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24th of May, the last day of our competition

It was the folk music category.. Songs that we sang:

• Sohran Bushi (Japanese)
• Xiao Huang Li Niao/小黄鹂鸟 (Mongolian folk song, sung in Mandarin)
• Mamayog Akun (Philippines)
• Dayung Sampan (Singapore, with melody adapted from a Chinese song)
• Now I Walk in Beauty (Navajo traditional prayer, sung in English)

Pieroghi (dumplings)

Yummmmmmmmmmm

pieroghi!

Okay if you’re wondering.. I did eat two portions of pieroghi!

me and honey vodka

Hehe.. The first “gloomy” photo is my favourite photo of the lot! He even used it for his profile picture once

 

Mwahahahaha. Please don’t kill me, please. It’s just a joke

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22nd of may

it was the opening ceremony! We were parading down the “hippest” and trendiest street in town, Monte Cassino. Think of it like Singapore’s Clarke Quay, maybe. Or maybe Holland V. Just some street that people will go to hang out and meet friends and all that.
So here is the picture, our choir parading down Monte Cassino!

Oh ya, the choirs had their own flags..


But we didn’t! =( They gave us the Sopot flag instead…

(photo by Tracy Cao-the one in the picture below)

Every choir went up to the stage (just by the pier!) and performed one song. my choir performed “Dayung Sampan”, chosen because it has the word “Singapura” in it, despite the fact that the song was actually based on Chinese folk song melody.
I don’t have the picture of us performing =( nevertheless i will show you the stage!

The MC (second from left) was damn hot… *swoon*
And somehow damn hot people will sound hot. Weird accent became hot. Mwahaha.
Ahem. Anyway.
Read more to continue =)
Didn’t take a lot of pictures because was busy performing. Like obviously. Went around and bought some ice cream and nuts. Yes, this ice cream…

Not at the same place (that photo was taken in Gdansk), but same type of ice cream. Tall, creamy, and yummy!
If you’re not convinced…

That’s my friend Joshua. Photo taken by my other friend Jiaqi.

Moving on.. It was a super super sunny day. As hot as Singapore!
You can see..

Hehehe.
I made this with my camera! Cool right? I was so sian (bored) that day. The sun was too sunny so I was lazy to walk around.
However.. The wind.. Sigh.. The freaking chilly wind.. “Don’t be so tropical!” my conductor said.

The lady on the left is the conductor =D

Bonus photos of the sunny Sopot! =D

The original picture of the “postcard”

Cute kiddie rides!

This is St George’s church, where our competition was held =) Since it was so sunny it looks so pretty..


This guy does tap dance everyday with his good friend playing the guitar!
He’s quite hot..

Him with Tracy and Jiaqi

A “pancake” we ordered. Looks more like prata IMO. There was meat and veggies inside. You can see sour cream on top of it.

This is the Monte Cassino street (after parade)! The red building on the right is the St George’s church.

Some restaurant on Monte Cassino..

Heard the UPSA (University of the Philippines Singing Ambassadors) fully performing for the first time. They were DAMN GOOD. I almost cried at the song “You Raise Me Up”. At first I was like, er, duh, you raise me up? It’s like overplayed already. But oh my god….. *speechless*
I present you a video of UPSA singing! Not “You Raise Me Up”, but “Circle of Life”.
Update : If you want to hear “You Raise Me Up”, try this link. =)
Before you begin.. Let me tell you first.. Every sort of sounds you will hear in the video were made by the choir members themselves.
P.S. Pardon the shaking hand.

Circle of Life – UPSA from Sylvia Giacinta on Vimeo.
even a video can’t give a good representation of how good they sing. UPSA, my heart is for you.

Stay tune for the next day – the first day of competition! Whee!

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It’s quite a long way to go to Sopot.. But we have decided, and go we shall.

So of course it began in Changi Airport..

To view the rest of the post.. Please read more to continue.. (too many pictures!)

Went to the gate after wandering around various shops in the airport. Saw one pack of Estee Lauder perfume (travel pack) for only $50 something. Contained 5 types of perfumes. But, sigh.. Didn’t buy it…

And of course after the gate we’re going inside the plane!
Here is me inside the plane…

And since it was a long flight.. We had TV!

But it was not working properly…. =( in the end the only thing we could watch was the flight tracker. They also have cockpit camera but it was already night, so who cares anyway?

But anyway, I (and Krishna) were assigned seats just at behind. It was seats of 2 (seats ahead of us were seats of 3), so it’s good that we’re not cramped between unknown people. And our seats were at the back, so it’s very near to the toilet and… Self-service area! Apparently at mid-flight they serve various snacks. We got ourselves some sandwiches, one tub of ice cream, and cup noodles! Helped to warm the body in the freezing cabin. And also they’ve got drinks. I always get thirsty easily, and I was so grateful I could just shuttle to and fro from my seat to get drinks.

After 12 hours of flight, we landed in Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.

About 2 hours before our next flight…

CDG airport was wonderful. You might have read my blog post about it.
And here are the pictures to prove the beautiful architecture of CDG airport!




Pretty right?

And so after walking around and around, it’s time to board the plane to Warsaw!

My friends Anjana and Krishna posed before the flight.

Up and go!

Marvelous, right?
Somebody was awed by it too.. (I suppose)

It was just a short flight. 2 hours or so. Well it’s a bit longer than flight from Singapore to Jakarta but considering I was in 12 hour flight, that was seriously short.

In no time, I arrived at Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport.

Yes, now you can see my huge suitcase.

And in no time too, we boarded a coach to go to Sopot.
And this was all we saw during the trip to Sopot….

Yellow fields. Was it canola? I’m not sure..
And moreeee yellow fields.

We stopped by to grab a bite.. And of course I had to take a picture with the yellow field in the background.

This is what I ordered. A hamburger.

I ordered this because it was the only thing I could understand/comprehend from the menu.

This is the coach that brought us to Sopot.

Hmm. Are you wondering why I could take the picture of the coach?
Well, the true story was.. There was a long traffic jam and we got stuck. We got stuck for quite a long time so we decided to go out and get some fresh (cold) air.

And since we were a choir (not that we aren’t now), we sang! In the open field. In the cold air. There’s a video posted on Facebook but I couldn’t embed it here.. =/
And since we were… Erm.. Narcissistic..

And finally the jam looked like it’s moving and we got back into the bus.
And we finally reached the place we’re going to stay in!
It was a church cum seminary.. Up on the hill. More photos of it at the next post

For now.. Let me show you my room there!
I was quite the luckiest girl in the choir (with 3 others.. Hehe). We got this very big room that’s actually more like a studio apartment. Initially I and Jen (my buddy cum my roommate) got the other room, but were offered to move to this bigger room coz there were 2 other girls that’s assigned there and it’s quite a waste if only 2 of them were there. My previous room with Jen was just.. Erm.. Just enough to sleep and move a bit and so we accepted the offer!
Here’s the room!

(photo by Jenevieve Yeo)
this is just a part of it.. In this photo you can see a fireplace, 3 very comfortable sofas (we later found out that the biggest sofa is actually a sofa bed!), wardrobe, and 2 beds for me and Jenevieve.

Here’s the other part of the living room.

Yes! We’ve got TV!
But we can’t watch any of the programmes broadcasted there. Erm.. Actually.. We can’t comprehend anything. There were actually English programmes (like those quiz shows), but they were all dubbed! The unique thing in Poland is.. There’s only 1 dubber for the whole show/movie/whatever. So no matter whether the real person speaking is male or female, it’s always just one dubber! Hahahaha. So we heard a blonde pretty girl speaking with deep hoarse voice of a man! It was soooo funny we LMAO’d.

That door you saw leads to the kitchen…

Juz beside the kitchen was the bathroom (not pictured).

If you wonder where the other two girls were sleeping…

The apartment was actually 2 storeys high! Hahaha..

And so this was the upper loft where the other two girls stayed.

Our room was so big that every night friends will come over to watch TV or some chit-chat.

So we rested that day to get ready for exciting days ahead!
More in the next post…

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