Outdoor movie, berry picking, and auditions!

And I'm back with more stories :) The past few days have been raining heavily and I had nothing to blog about except how cold and wet it was, so I waited out the nasty weather for something interesting to say. Sure enough, this weekend turned out to be half-decent and my excursions included an outdoor film, berry picking, and auditioning for a choir (yikes).

The outdoor movie experience was fun, but very cold. I saw the movie "Milk", which was sad, but well-taken. Not going to spoil the plot for anyone.

When I learned that it's blueberry season in Stockholm, I decided to go-a-picking on Saturday. Then someone told me that one can pick berries in the forest excepting those that are noted as "preserved areas". After much google searching and questioning of Swedish friends, I found a forest north of Solna (about 30 min north of Stockholm) that apparently is "ripe with berries"...and below is a picture of what I found (and picked)! These wild berries are very small and burst easily, which means that when you pick them, your hands end up all red-purple in color!!

Don't they look juicy?

Well if they do, you're wrong. These berries are super bitter. I suppose I should I have tried eating one in the forest before plucking a whole bunch. I guess they will have to become jam or something...

On a completely unrelated adventure, I auditioned for a choir on Sunday. Many of you know that I'm a singing addict, and the idea of staying in Sweden for a year without participating in a choir crushes me..

Getting to the place of the audition was an experience itself. It was held in a countryside church, and the roads leading to it had many street signs missing. I really didn't think I would make the audition because I was wandering around for half an hour!! Even though I'm directionally challenged, I somehow found the place and got to my audition in time. whew.

Then the audition began. First, we went through a few scales and vocal exercises. Ok, I struggled a bit, but that was me being nervous. Next, I was to sing my own song! Hooray. I succeeded...

After that, everything went downhill. Why? My third task was to sight sing a line from a Bach piece! Nooooooo. Sight sing = not my forte at all. Half my mind was telling me to call it quits right there, but I decided that I worked really hard last year to learn how to read music and well, this was going to be a test to see how much I improved! So.. I sang it. First, I got most of the notes right, but I got the rhythm wrong. Then vice versa and vice versa and so on.. It was so funny after a while that I just couldn't manage to get the right note with the right beat! So frustrating. And if this wasn't hard enough, then I had to sing another "modern" choral piece that had about 8 bajillion flats and sharps in the same line. Let's just say I decided at the end of my audition that: 1) I wasn't going to get a part in the choir; 2) I was fine with not being in the choir because I'd have to work really hard to learn that music; and 3) I'd have to travel a long distance to some countryside to sing in this group. That all being said, I'm still glad I went through that because I found out just how much my music reading ability has improved. :) Guess I won't be too sad when that rejection email comes...

Next Saturday, I try out for an all female choir! At least this time, I got the sheet music in advance, so I have a much better shot at getting a spot. Wish me luck!

And if none of the singing stuff works, I guess I'll just take up Lindy Hop instead :)