Need...oxygen

At 5 pm today the flutist who plays principal on the Brahms symphony called me and asked me to play for her - she has a fever. So with only one 20 minute soundcheck as my rehearsal, I played the whole symphony and it was...pretty good.
I'm going to back up.
We woke up this morning at 4 am to get to the airport to fly to Quito, Ecuador. We spent all day going through our bags, doing customs on one end and immigration on the other, etc. Last night I got to bed at 1 am and that was after I tried and said no to a lot of people about going out. Anyway, we arrived in Quito around 12. We slept until 4 pm. And the altitude! Oh, my god. We are at 10,000 feet here. They actually gave us oxygen backstage. I was shaking the whole time because I don't really know the symphony and it's such an important part. I made a couple of big mistakes, but overall it was a passionate, memorable performance.

We are going to be in Quito for the next week - tomorrow we start rehearsals for the Mahler and the two Glass pieces. At some point they are going to take us to the park with the equator so we can stand on it and take pictures!