12.02.2014

Visa application, bureaucracy and superpowers

At this point I realize that the blog of tenThing has been very, very quiet for a very, very long time. Last entry was in 2012. So this is my attempt to revive our blog a bit - so here goes: ........*drumroll*.......*trumpet fanfares*......*with a "hint" of blasting low brass chords*......:

Behold - tenThing blog resurrection! 


For those of you who have paid attention on our website and/or our Facebook page you would have noticed that we have an upcoming trip to Moscow. For us Norwegian Vikings is this quite exotic! It will be the first time I go there and also for the collective ensemble. And we are going to play in the Moscow International House of Music in the great hall - I can't wait!












Going to Russia doesn't happen without breaking a sweat - I'm just mentioning "Visa Application"..! 
...*sigh*... I didn't count the amount of emails going between us (and our contact in IMG) concerning the visa application, and I guess it ended up with something between 20-30 emails in a conversation talking about "how-to-organize-this-for-10girls,-without-everybody-freaking-out-and-cracking-under-the-bureaucracy-monster". It would have been fairly easy if we all had been living in Oslo and we all could go and do it ourselves. But since we are scattered all over Norway and yours truly are currently receding in The Netherlands - we had to do it the hard way. Spoiler alert: It seems everything will be fine, mostly thanks to our IMG contact - Jan - who made us a "Visa Application - step by step manual" (and for me a safe card for not getting eaten by the earlier mentioned bureaucracy-monster) and she was answering any kind of weird question we/I might have had, so now (also for me personally thanks to my father’s precious help) in theory we are on the homestretch. 






<--Bureaucracy-monster!






Currently (besides from winding down from the post-bureaucracy-monster encounter) I've spent the day updating the online tenThing-stuff to my best (dis)abilities. I called it an "administration-day", which is basically a nice cover-up for the annual February cold and the sniveling, coughing superhero I have become (I think my super power would be super slimy sneezes on the bad-guys). I can "proudly" announce that I have been practicing my superpower and I have vanquished 9 pocket-packs of tissues in 2 days - my superhero practicing is going swimmingly and the bad guys should fear me! ;) On the other side I think the none-bad-guy-people appreciate that I stayed at home and kept my musical practicing at home :)

Until next time!
-Astri, bass trombone