snyo | written thoughts

>I know that my Italy trip with SNYO ended like a month ago and today is 26th August. I just finally had my deserved free time because …….
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MST AND SEMESTER EXAMS ARE OVER! Contract Administration paper marks the last paper of the long 3 weeks of horrendous study hours and mugging and unnecessary stress! FREEDOM 😀 Ohh. that’s the contract admin paper. I scribbled on it after i finish the whole paper and i didn’t take the picture of it during the exam. Duh! Can bring home question paper, that’s why. (: HAPPY FIDAH 😀

Okay. And now, i shall begin the post on

SNYO Italy Trip 2008

10th Florence International Music Festival

9 to 19 July 2008

Before we began our journey to the other side of the world, we had our concert the night before the trip at the Esplanade Concert Hall, 8th July 2008.

Went to school before rehearsal then concert for IT lesson in the morning and yes, me and Darsh can’t help it but to camwhore during class (:

Sophia + Rafidah + Christopher + Benjamin = HORN SECTION 😀

BN la BN 😀

SPSB People! hahaha. Didn’t expect this much.

And of course, Darshni and Adilla came! 😀 thanks girls!

Few shots with the people who came (:

Overall, the concert was great although there’s screw up here and there. And this was only the beginning of the 3 repertoire that we are bringing to Italy for the Italian audience. Anyway, i can’t remember much. But Jinjun had post up a short video of our rehearsal. So click here; #1 to watch (: Went back home and prepared for the trip and school. lalalaa~

The start of the journey; Changi Airport Terminal 3

Parents sent me off (:

Bestie too!

Kelly and I with the Kesian Boys plus Bettina and Jiaxing .

The Brass Section at T3.

Horn horn horn section before boarding the plane (:

And so, we have to report to T3 at 830pm to check in and such. Met Bestie after school and head down to PP to get last minute stuff and hurried home to pack and such. Thanks to her, everything is done (: Had photo taking with the banner which i think throughout the trip, we only used it once. HAHA. Checked in, walked around, talked a lot and pretty much felt tired because it was almost 12. Boarded and sat and the journey begins! 12 hours of flight, is no joke. Butt pain, can’t sleep much. Slept for like 3 hours and spent most of the time watching movies (Ayatayat Cinta, Step up 2, Over Her Dead Body, 27 Dresses) and dramas/comedies and cartoons and playing games and listening to music.

Day 1: Arrival in Milan; Montecatini Terme, Tuscany

View of the airport from where i was sitting in the bus.
Happy me, happy Sophia (:
This is purely random. But this is the phone is my room! Super super antique. you really have to turn the thing around to dial and it’s pretty heavy. Really!

A very tourist picture, one of the few, i had. This is at the palace something something.

The walk down to the centre of the town of Milan. Pretty buildings (: I was in love with the architecture!

At the mall mall mall!

The very famous Cathedral in Milan. Interior very pretty, very peaceful, very historial kind. Exterior very bold. It was built, if i remember correctly, during the 14th century. Took 100 over years, if i remember. Memory failling la. shit.

Don’t ask why. It was my suggestion for Jump shot. HAHA. And and and i really love jump shot ok? (:

Basically the first day is focus on Sight seeing in Milan, after which followed of 5 hours journey to Montecatini Terme, Tuscany where our hotel, Hotel Belvedere, is located. I really love the hotel because of the surrouding. Very country style, i like (: Dinner was great. Had pasta, then the meat course and ice cream i think for dessert. Very sweet! hahaha. Briefing and then, it was light off! Ohh. My roomates are Daphne Teo and Sophia Tinger.

Day 2: Rehearsal at the Hotel, Lucca

Roomates while waiting to rent bicycles (:

Sophia, Min Yen, Daniel and Wei Ken on their bikes!

A fail shot of jump shot. Oh, that’s Daniel, the pro jumper. HAHA.

Editted picture i took of Daniel on the street of Lucca.

Nope. I didn’t use photoshop to edit the picture that enables the background to be bright. I took it with settings on the camera of course. I used Aperture mode to get this setting i wanted.

I took double bike with ah ma! And i’m damn pro, not. HAHA. Thanks Bernard for the shot!
Because we were bored and was waiting for the people who “ditch” us to go down the slope and bought ice cream. Background super nice!

So day 2, woke up at freaking 4am because the sunrises that early during summer! Then slept again and woke up around 7 to bathe and get ready for breakfast. Breakfast was nice and it was the same through the whole trip. Sorry Boss, no photo of the food. Had rehearsal at the very not romantic area near the swimming pool. That’s the start of the “bad” mood i had during the trip. Did my best and the section did their best too. After which was lunch. Pasta, the meat course and desert! Desert is always the best best best (: I like! And off we go to Lucca for sight seeing. I think Lucca is my favourite place during the trip. It’s a small town surrounded by this wall and you can never get lost there. Just find the wall that surround the town to get to entrance of the town where the main information place is. Pretty small town. And cycling there is a must! (: And you can see pretty views of the mountains, forest or whatever you call that there! And ahem, me and my dear ah ma, Min Yen, achieved something at Lucca. That is HOW TO HANDLE THE DOUBLE BIKE! (:

Okay. The story is that Ah ma don’t know how to cycle, so i volunteer to double with her and having ZERO experience being the rider sitting in front to control the ride, we pretty much use Daniel as our bumper/stopper. All we did was screamed his name and he will help us stop the bike. And trust me, Daniel and the rest did try to help/teach us how to sit, control and stop the bike for like an hour or so and we still can’t get it. At one pit stop, there’s this slope down to the nearest shop to get drinks and of course me and ah ma didn’t go la coz slope le, you want us to crash ah? CHOY! Then while waiting for them, they took pretty long because they bought ice cream!!!!, me and ah ma tried to sit on the bike ourselves which we failed terribly until these 2 Italian men, grandad that kind, came and taught us, in ITALIAN. And really, we tried our best to understand and somehow, we got it! hahaha. So happy. Grazie (: At that point we didn’t know how to stop, so cycled and cycled and decided to try to stop the bike. Deaccelerate and slowly stop and somehow, it happen. It’s like mission accomplish for the day! You should see Ah Ma’s face. So happy! hahaha. I was happy too! Then we did again and again. 3 hours ride was almost up and we returned the bike and walked to explore Lucca. Small and friendly town. (: It was love at first sight! Head back to hotel for dinner and slack and i can’t remember what.

Day 3: Florence

The dome behind the Cathedral.

Another shot.

The road in Florence.

Outside Vettori Workshop walking to some where.

Ignore Jiarong! That’s the cute Italian guy who is a violin maker! hahaha. But must thank Jia Rong for the picture eh? (:

Say, PRETTY. (:

Yet another sight seeing day. This time, is at Firenze or known as Florence. One word. BREATHTAKING. Okay. I think that’s two words becoming one. Haha. Anyway my camera just had to die and took it’s last breath today. The systems fail due to the motherboard something something according to the canon when i went to send for repair after coming back in Singapore. Nevertheless, i had my 3.2mp phone to take random pictures and of course, asking friends to take pictures (: Back to Florence. Beautiful city. I wish SP BE school would use other buildings from the world as case study and add it history of buildings as one of their modules and probably, the student will love the course more. Beautiful beautiful city. Not too modern, not too historical. Just a little bit of both and you have Florence. I can’t describe the beauty of the city. At night, it’s just perfect. Really. (: Head back to hotel for dinner. Slackeedddddd!

Day 4: Pisa, Performance at Terme Tettuccio

yesyes, the leaning tower of Pisa! 😀 It’s really leaning and i can’t believe i’ve actually seen it there! there! Pretty tower with pretty surrounding. Too bad we didn’t go up. 15Euros for it and and we didn’t have much time to do so.

Me and Ah Ma (: At Pisa. In front of the Cathedral and some wedding car. OHH. There’s this couple who was like having their wedding photo taken and all. So romantic la! They are Asians and i can’t remember where they are from.

Random group photos at Pisa.
Left: Me with the Rongs (Wen Rong and Jia Rong)
Right: Daphne, Jia Rong, Wen Rong, Sophia, Min Yen ah ma and Me

Me and the horse. There’s this horse carriage ridding thing at Pisa. In fact, in Italy, they have it. And the only reason there’s a gap between me and the horse is because i was scared. Shut up. I know.

This is what we called family picture perfect (if only there wasn’t random people behind). HAHa. Ah ma adopted us 😀

PICTURE OF THE DAY! Okay. Me and Chris were trying to do the STARE WHAT STARE pose but Bernard gave that weird face look and we didn’t know until the picture was taken. Look super retarded. I know. BUT IT’S FUNNY LA!

Normal routine. Woke up, bathe, breakfast. And seeing to, PISA! Yes yes yes! The leaning tower of Pisa! Yes, i saw it leaning to an angle of 10degrees. YES! I saw one of the wonders of the world! YES! haha. Was pretty excited. Nono, i was SUPER EXCITED! haha. Spent quite a lot there too. haha. Happy! Was a short sight seeing trip though. Head back to hotel for lunch and had free time. The horn section decided to use the free time to a good use and had sectionals. Mr Lim came and help us too. Thank you (: After sectionals, went back to our room and got ready for dinner and then concert at Terme Tettuccio. Was pissed off! Not so much because of stand only. But it was solved at a fast rate. Everything was okay except for the 2 solos which i had trouble getting it right ): Super sad plus angry plus disappointed i’m telling you! Anyway, talked to Daphne and i cheered a little. Bathe and had the night.

Day 5: Siena, San Gimigniano & AJO Concert

Meet my Ah ma Min Yen! 😀 She’s the best best best caretaker during the trip, before the trip, after the trip! woohoo. Hello ah ma! 😀
The roomiesss without Sohpia at somewhere in San Gimigniano.
Random group picture at Siena.
Buildings found in San Gimigniano. Check out the clear blue sky!
that’s the wishing well. yes, i throw a coin in it and make a wish. and i won’t tell you what i wished for *winks
Scenery we get to see on the high high place at San Gimigniano.
My future house. Welcome (:

The whole day was spent sight-seeing. After breakfast and briefing and everything else, we made our way to Siena. I think it was like ehhh. 2 hours plus ride? I can’t remember la because i was sleeping. Either that ore i was watching Definitely Maybe on Sophia’s Ipod. Can’t remember. So long already. So we reached Sienna and had a guided tour. It was okay, and I can tell that Italians are very proud of their very rich history. We don’t have free time because of the guided tour. Saw nice places and all. Annually Siena have this horse racing thing at the main central of their town. It’s like they have different districts (like Dragon and other names) and each of the districts will send their best horseman or whatever. Something like that. Bought a fridge magnet or whatever you call that for my mummy’s fridge. Had packed lunch for the day and they gave me a better choices of sandwiches. Tomatoes with yummy cheessseee 😀 And some weird egg thing. LALALA. Head to the bus and we proceed to San Gimigniano. It’s about an hour ride from Siena. There wasn’t any tour guide and we were to roam around. Got a couple of things for my parents, cousin and I and i’m pretty happy with my buying. We even went to supermarket (very auntie, i know) there and i bought like 2 tomoto something for pasta thing for my mum (she was very pleased) and it only cost like S$1 can? It’s about 500ml if i remember correctly. WORTH THE BUY! Regretted not buying the bag though. LOL. Head back to the hotel after that. Wash up and dinner and proceed back to Terme

Day 6: Florence, Performance at Santo Stefano Church

Terme Tettuccio, the exterior/the front view of the place where we performed our first concert in Italy.

Random view that i pretty like while walking back to the hotel. See the blue blue sky? So clear blue sky.

While walking back, part of the route. An Italian lady having her morning walk i supposed.

Day 6 was spent with the AJO in the morning after breakfast. Woke up pretty late and skipped breakfast because i was just too tired. Anyway, we walked to the AJO’s hotel, it was relatively a walking distance, say about 15mins worth of walking which was pretty cool because we get see our hotel neighbourhood. There’s this park and it was beautiful and i wish i could stay here in Italy because they have such a beautiful place and beautiful weather. Rehearsal was okay, met up with the section and exchange of gifts and all. After which, head back to the hotel for lunch. And then get our stuff ready and to proceed to Florence where we had our 3rd performance at Santa Stefano Church. Upon arriving there, very the dramamama i’m telling you. Because of an incident and everything turn dramamama. I was too angry till i cried. But things settled in somehow. After putting our stuff at the chruch, we went to the Academia Gallery (another art gallery) to see DAVID, the famous poet or whatsoever, i can’t remember. There’s also the instrument gallery room where old old old super old instrument are being displayed. Uber cool. I saw a natural horn that’s like dated back to the early 1700s. Walked around the gallery and see the famous David (it’s a statue fyi) and went to other places for shopping/food searching before going back to the church for rehearsal. Rehearsal, blablabla and it was concert. Was a little distracted and all. Performance was great, the sound was awesome but butbut we rushed like mad ): AHH. I wasn’t too happy with the performance though. Oh well. Packed up and went back to the hotel.

Day 7: Florence, Performance at Santa Stefano church

inside the church. the stage or whatever you call it, AJO rehearsing their pieces when we arrived around 3pm.
secondary school frieeenndddss: me, hazizi and kelly (:
random pictures taken during our so called break time where some of us did shopping, lazing around or just find some place to indulge ourselves with the ultimate gelato/pizza/sandwiches.
an attempt of emo shot and of course a nice shot taken before the emo one.
random group picture with Mr Lim and the officials, Ms Wang and Mr Ng.

With Mr Lim. Kelly said i looked prettyyy happy.

Group pictures! 😀 happy shalalallalala~ before performance. And the time was about 8pm? yeah, that bright.

think this was taken during rehearsal. i’m not sure =X Chris’ expression is funnnneeyy.

during the performance. AJO on stage.

the night scenery at Florence the river which i can’t remember the name. were waiting for the buses to pick us up. time was around 1130? yeah. i miss the cold breeze ):

Woke up pretty late, say around 8 am because we had free time till noon but breakfast was like till 9plus? Got ready and stuff. Had breakfast, blablabla and then we had sectionals as in the horn section with Mr Tan at 10am till lunch. A fruitful one, i shall say. Thank you Mr Tan (: Can’t remember much, but was not in a good mood because of the things that i still can’t play. Anyway, lunch was good. I had the vegetarian choices and for the “meat” course, they serve me a fried cheese which super super delicious with some vegetable. Sat with the Double Bass section and Mr Lim. Talked about stuff and all. Then, prepared to leave for Florence (again) for combined concert with AJO at S Santo Stefano Church. Reached, and AJO was having their rehearsal. Were given about an hour plus after rehearsal to wander to some place and have dinner. Me and Daphne wander around by ourselves, got something for my dad and stuff, had tuna sandwich which taste pretty good. And went back and got ready for concert! And oh, i was pretty high during rehearsal and during concert and after concert. I even ask Mr Lim to rehearse the front part again because I wasn’t happy with my part and i literally tell him “Mr Lim, do again. I not happy” haha. I don’t know why! But it was okay. The performace was great. ROSSINI WAS GREAT! muahahaha. I didn’t miss any notes in that one bar solo! happy la! but i wish i could have done better. But oh well! It’s over. The combined pieces with AJO was great too! lalala. I can’t remember their names though. HAHA. I only remembered Hanks because he played the first part too. Took pictures and stuff. I enjoyed the walking back to the bus part because Florence is just beautiful especially at the river where you can see the reflection of the building lights and street lights and it was full moon too. The breeze was just amazing. Reached hotel around 1pm and packed stuff for the next day. Transfering to Milano.

Day 8: Milan, Performance at Auditorium di Milano

The poster outside the auditorium!

Singapore National Youth Orchestra on the stage at Auditorium di Milano during rehearsal!

Had like an hour to find a place in Milan for dinner and we are not that fimillar because we spent most of the concert days at Florence and we found this cool Pizza place (i kind of forget the shop name) and that’s ME with the HUGEEEEE personal pizza. Magherita pizza is uber delicious and i love love it very much. And yes yes, that pizza that i’m holding? The huge one? It’s ALL MINE 😀 Just MINE! SERIOUS! Boss, don’t jealous ah!

Friend of mine for like 7 years, same school, classmate for 2 years, band for 4 years, syo for like almost 3 years or so? a great, bubbly friend of mine (: hello kelly!

Can’t help it. We just love our signature pose 😀 Ramily = Rafidah + Emily!
Random pictures taken with random people (:
In the picture: Queenie, Min Yen Ah Ma, Wei Ken, Pamela, Kelly, Hao Wei, Jia Rong, Chien Teng and Daphne
Daphne quote this picture as “Fidah and Mr Tan…she seems soooo happy. Dunno why…o.O” and ya, i don’t know why i was super happy, super high. I think it’s the aftermath of the concert (:
3 out 5 people who sitted right at the back of bus A 😀 Sophia, Me and Benjamin Goh dramamamamama #1. Not in the picture Tedson dramamamamamama #2 and Daphne.

Woke up slightly earlier to pack last minute stuff and checked the whole room in case of anything that we might left behind other than our stinky socks. Had breakfast, the last one ever, at the Hotel and took photos here and there. Bored the bus and stuff, and the journey of 5 hours began from Montecatini Terme to Milano. Reached Grand Hotel Barone di Sassj and was assigned to our respective rooms. My roomate was Sophia! Room number 708 and the view was great! The hotel is the typical modern hotel you can find around the world. Classyyyy. Had lunch and bathe to freshen up and got ready to go to Auditoroum di Milano! had rehearsal and i don’t know la. Maybe the stress/pressure or what. Because i still can’t get that 2 bars right in the Dvorak Movt 4! It was funny because Mr Lim was rehearsing it and i still can’t play at that point of time. And he was like “tell me Siti. Is it me? You want me to smile?” something like that. Blur as i was, stress up as i was, i went “okay. Mr Lim, can you smile?” which resulting in a roar of laughters from the orchestra. And okay, i did play but a little funny. LALALa. I don’t know how explain laaaa. Had one hour of lunch and since we aren’t that familliar with Milan, we walked around a little to find a decent place to eat and we did! And the huge magherita pizza cost only like 4Euros which is like S$8! After dinner, went back to the auditorium and got ready for the concert! The concert was great. The best yet so far (: I’ve enjoyed every moment of the last concert we performed in Italy. After concert was great. Took like a lot of pictures. Had fun walking back to the bus. Laughed, talked, chatted. Everything was just so great. The weather was awesome. Cooling weather. I love it (; In the bus was great. We sang like no business. Loud, not in tune, random songs we just want to sing. Reached the hotel, went to respective room. Wash up, packed bag and slept and dreading the next day.

Day 9: Milan, Grand Hotel Barone di Sassj

Me and the pro jumper decided to take SELF jump shot and the first 3 pictures which obviously doesn’t show our faces in it were the attempts of SELF jump shot which obviously failed miserably and then we decided to take a decent one which is not a SELF jump shot and just a normal standing and smilling to the camera shot.

Pamela! (: the adorable girl i’ve met in this trip! Super sweet sweet girl! I miss her la. She always entertain me with her childish cute ways and we both love chocolates!

In the freaking long queue to check in our luggage! the airport with the super cool adverts hanging.

15.8 Kg. That’s how much i weigh now. (: DUH. of course not la! My luggage weight!

And you can’t leave Italy without having the Magheritta pizza man. I was supeer happppppppyyy with the pizza!

My plane buddy aka section mate! Hello Benjamin! 😀

Woke up at 7am to wash up and packed last minute stuff. Breakfast and Emily and i was in the search of toilet. Blablabla. Head to the bus, took some random photos and the journey from hotel to the airport began. Depressing i tell you. I don’t want to go! All of us were like i can’t believe the trip is ovverrrr. ): I wish i can tell you how beautiful Italy is. I enjoyed the bus ride all the time, because the scenery i get to see is simply amazin. Reached airport and took like almost an hour or so to check in because me, Pamela and Auntie Shauna cut queue! If not, 2hours le! buay tahan! Bought food and chocolate and blablabla, WE BOARD THE FREAKING PLANE. i don’t want to go homeeeee. And the 12 hours journey home began ):

End of the wonderful journey: Singapore

Just look how far Italy is from Singapore. The freaking 12 hours of flight home where i only slept for 15mins because i was busy watching movies after movies.

I was dreading every minute that went by, every centimetre that the plane went and dreading that Singapore was nearing. The 12 hours of flight were spent watching movies: The Bucket List, Ah Long Pte Ltd, How to Lose a Guy in 10 days , Step Up 2 (forward to the dancing scene), Alvin and the Chipmunks (forward to the singing scene), dramas/sitcoms/cartoons and random songs i can find in the system. I only slept like 15mins and that was like before touching down in Singapore. Ah, sadded. Reached Singapore and felt super sad. Arrived, talked to some of the members, took the stuff and said goodbye and went our seperate ways. Parents picked me up and had breakfast before heading home. And i can’t believe i went online straightway and went for SP band in the afternoon and went out after practice! I was awake since 7am (Milan timing, Singapore is like 1pm on 18th July) all the way till like 2am (Singapore timing, 19th July), for like freaking 37 hours or so! Record breaking i’m telling you. I was so sleepy that on the way back from Town, i slept and Jin Kun actually accompanied me in the bus till i reached my stop where he was supposed to alight first than me! Nice friend right? Thanks buddy!

END OF ITALY POST (:

Date started: 1st August 2008
Date ended: 26th August 2008

More pictures can be found here: #1 and at my facebook a/c!

This is just plainly on recalling the things that happened during the trip based on what I see, hear, and feel. Memories created during this trip are worthwhile. I’ve learnt more things not only about music, but also about myself. Something I didn’t know about me. This trip is kind of meaningful for me because it has my two favourite things in the world – Music and Travelling. Music is something that I really love and travelling is something that I truly enjoy. I’ve learnt of controlling self emotions and put up a strong front and having to learn to believe in oneself to do what we want to do. I’ve learnt that friendship can be created, anywhere and anytime and a simple hello and a smile will start a friendshup. I’ve learnt that to achieve results, one have to work hard to get it. I’ve learnt that without support from your friends and achieving something yourself is not as nice having their support and sharing the achievement.

I want to thank everyone who had made this trip possible including the officials and my parents. I have to say a huge thank you to my section for their understanding and faith in the section and when we fall, we fall as one and when we strive, we work hand in hand and achieve the section goal (: Thank you for the wonderful memories in Italy and in Singapore and thank you for the friednship created! And i hope this will last in each one of us forever. (: Once again, thank you, for the oppportunity to be part of this (:

Alright. I’m done with Italy post. Next up, SIBF and IBM. Stay tune!

I miss Italy ):

till then,
toodles

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