Bogota - Quito

At some point yesterday in Bogota I looked down at the pen in my hand and it said "Oberlin Alumni Association." And it was weird.
I have had a couple of challenging days on the tour. We left Cali at 3:45 am on...was it Thursday? or Wednesday? I have no idea.

I will give you a summary of life here in Bogota:

* leave Cali at 3:45 am two days ago; arrive at 7 am in Bogota
* sleep until 12:30 pm
* attempt to wash everything in my suitcase at Pablo's apartment - this took ALL DAY because we kept leaving to do stuff and then we had to come back to switch the loads.
* I've been allergic to EVERYTHING and have been feeling really poorly, even with my medication
* while my laundry languished wet in a hamper waiting transfer to the dryer, we went to the Candelaria section of Bogota, which is the oldest section - saw the presidential house, the congress, and the supreme court. It was beautiful! And we saw some filming of a telenova in the streets.

The hardest part of this day was that I couldn't just go back to the hotel and sleep some more. I was tethered to a bunch of crazy latinos. At 11 pm, with my laundry still not in the dryer, we went back to the hotel to get Pablo's bag. Everyone got out of the car and they were just hanging out. It drove me crazy, and I just started to cry because I was so tired. Immediately I was told to go to bed - and these amazing people finished my clothes and folded them for me. They are amazing. People really try to take care of each other in this group, and they will drop everything to take care of someone who is feeling bad.

Okay, now a summary of today:

* wake up at 8:30
* play a CONCERT at 11 am
* lunch was confusing because it was in employee cafeteria of a supermarket and there were only two people serving food to about 150 people. Waited for food for about 40 minutes.
* play ANOTHER concert at 5 pm. yes. another concert. 3 hours.
* 8 pm: go back to the hotel. Have a cocktail party for all the donors. Lots of speeches. LOTS of speeches. Pablo's band played. And then finally, at 10 pm, dinner.
* Okay, and here's the best part! We wake up at 4 tomorrow to go to Quito - and we play ANOTHER concert tomorrow night!!!

The most difficult part of this day has been the altitude. 8600 feet is really high. And several people (including my Chilean roommate had to sit out the concert because of altitude sickness. And she plays viola! Xiomara, my oboist friend, didn't play the morning concert, either, but managed the evening concert. Olga almost passed out in the middle of her flute solo in Shostakovich. It's really bad -- and Quito is even higher. So we are trying to take care of ourselves, but it's been very difficult under the circumstances. I don't know when we're going to get a day off again. The schedule in Quito is very compact because we have to learn Mahler and all of the Philip Glass pieces for recording.

Somehow, through all of this, we are having an amazing time! I love my friends, I love this orchestra, and I love Colombia. On to Ecuador...