Passport Trip: World Race Exposure, 2015

Hello, all of you wonderful people!

A huge opportunity has arisen me this summer. I have been accepted to join the Passport missions team through Adventures in Missions for the month of July. Basically, the passport team joins up with a group of young adults that are currently traveling 11 countries in 11 months on the World Race missions team. We will be joining them for the month of July in the country of Malaysia. I am SUPER pumped about this. I have spent the past 8 years dreaming of the day that I can live and work in Southeast Asia. Although I am not living there yet, I am excited to experience it for the first time!

I am so thankful to all of you that have contributed towards the cause. I pray that the Lord blesses you for your willingness to help fund my trip. The total cost of the trip is $4,000, and I have already raised $2,835! That's about 70% of my funds. I am selling T-shirts to raise money for my trip. Each t-shirt is $20, and they look like this:

If you would like one, you can order one through PayPal on the right hand side. I will need to know what size t-shirt you would like, so I will contact you to find out the details of size and quantity. I am ordering the super soft variety. :) If you are between sizes, you might want to order a size up, because they tend to run a little small.

If you would like to support me, but you do not want a t-shirt, you can donate through the PayPal button on the right. If you want tax credit, you can go to this website and choose the "Passport" option as the program, and type "Amy Melton" as the name of the participant.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Sincerely,
Amy Melton

Oslo, Day 3

Hello!

We've had a bit of a mishap-- the hair mousse exploded and got in the laptop. Now it won't turn on. Prayers would be appreciated! For that reason, I am blogging from Dad's phone. I'll try my best not to let the quality suffer!

Today was a day that I have looked forward to for 6 months: a lesson with Frøydis! For those of you who don't know who she is, Frøydis is the former principal horn player of the Oslo Philharmonic and former teacher at the Norwegian Academy of Music. She is extremely well known in the horn community and is a fantastic teacher.

Some highlights from my lesson: it is important to buzz all major intervals both ascending and descending (half step, whole step, major/minor thirds, perfect fourth, perfect fifth). Wow. I struggled through that in my lesson. It's so easy to just follow the diatonic scale! Also, she suggested that my breath not be so loud. This is an odd concept for me to reproduce, but I totally understand how this distracts an audience from your solo. Also, I learned that Europeans like to play on the B horn almost all of the time. I was convicted to learn all of the fingerings of both horns in order to make educated decisions about which ones to use while playing.

This is just a taste of everything I learned!  She even gave me her book, which I was already planning on buying.  Here's a picture of us together:

She didn't want to stand up because she didn't want to appear as if the teacher was "looking down" on the student! How considerate! :)

After this, we walked to the train station to ride to Sandefjord, one train stop  away from the airport. The hotel was only a three minute walk from the train station! (A lot better than the thirty minute walk to the music academy this morning).

The hotel is really nice! This is a whaling town right on the fjord, so the hotel has the whaling theme. They were serving complimentary Norwegian waffles, fruit, and tea before a complementary dinner served later at night. We actually had a pretty full meal for the first time in a while. (Budget traveling means  less food while staying in expensive countries.) I had a salad and the best bread I think I have ever had. Norwegians love their bread! They eat it all of the time. Normally, I try to be gluten free, but I have made some exceptions on this trip. I also ate some pineapple and watermelon. You can definitely tell that Norway has strict laws on agriculture- no GMOs!! That pineapple was amazing! It tasted more flavorful than the bland veggies and rice I had at the train station.

After dinner, we walked to the train station to buy train tickets for tomorrow. Afterwards, we walked around. It's such a quaint town! Very few people were out and about. We walked to the pier, which was beautiful. Check it out:

 Their sewer is a Viking ship! 

A really cool rope at the dock that seems to be made of recycled material. These Europeans love recycling!

Jellyfish!

We passed some beautiful sights on the way there and back:

A fountain honoring the whaling tradition. Notice the full rainbow. 

A really neat community garden surrounded by very imaginative wooden towers. 

You can't really tell, but this is a green space with tons of flowers and a statue honoring motherhood. 

Tomorrow we get up at 3:45 to eat breakfast and ride to the airport. From there we fly to Amsterdam for a layover to Tallinn, Estonia. (Don't ask me why we fly so far I. The opposite direction for a layover...). I cannot wait! The trip is flying by. I have been missing home a lot, even wishing I could go home, but as the trip is 2/3s done and drawing to an end, I don't think I want to leave!

You probably will not hear from me until Wednesday. I don't think there will be anything to write about tomorrow!

Until Wednesday!
Amy

Tallinn, Day 5

Tervist!

What a day this has been! Thankfully, the day didn't start too early. Dad and I ate a snack around noon and headed to one of the main roads in Tallinn. The Song and Dance Festival, called the laulupidu, officially starts in one hour with 3-4 hours of singing. 

Leading up to the festival, however, is a 5 kilometer processional consisting of over 35,000 song and dance participants marching from the center of town to the festival grounds. Even more spectators lined the entire route, and the parade was broadcasted live on television. 

The parade started today at 2. Dad and I got there about an hour and a half early because we wanted a good view. After a long period of waiting, it finally began! There were all types of folk costumes. Traditionally, Estonian dress consists of linen and pleats, often with vertical red, yellow, and blue stripes. Both men and women wear head coverings, and the women often wear broaches and jewelry. Here are some pics:

The official laulupidu Toyota. 

A cameraman on a Segway with no handles!

 The beginning of the parade.

Hirvo Surva, artistic director if the festival. 

A choir from California. 

The poor guy has no lyre...

Asian women watching the parade. 

There are many children's choirs here. 

Parading on a penny board! :)

I am currently waiting for the festival to start. I decided to go ahead and blog because I won't get back to the room until after midnight, and I have a press breakfast to attend in the morning. There are TONS of people here! Even more than Independence Day in Peachtree City. Here's what it looks like right now-- and not everyone is here yet!

Lady from Setu tribe. 

Many people eating at stand-up tables. 

Finding our seats. 

See all of those people on the hill? This pic was taken two and one half hours before the concert, and the hill (general admission and cheapest tickets) was not even full yet. We are in the fourth row. :) Here's our view:

Alright. I will catch you up later! Tomorrow is 7 hours of festival, so I might have to catch you up after the festivities are over. 

Until sometime soon!

Amy

Tallinn, Day 4

Happy Independence Day!

Though it's a little odd celebrating the 4 th of July while researching another culture, I am thankful for my roots in a nation free from political oppression. We are so blessed! While my calling will take me thousands of miles away from home, I will never forget my country. 

We began today by shopping for souvenirs-- again! Hey, don't give me that look; we want the best prices. It's amazing how much cheaper souvenirs are when you walk a few blocks off of the main street. We decided on some really nice embroidered silverware settings that have pockets for all 3 utensils and say Tallinn on the front. I also bought a linen dress and embroidered belt (an Estonian specialty). I plan on buying some CDs of folk music from the local music store. 

At this point, Dad and I split ways (we wanted to eat different food for lunch ;) ). I returned to Vegan Restoran and ate their famous chickpea burger and sweet potato fries. It was glorious and filling! The burger was smothered in a mayonnaise-esque sauce, but it was so much better than mayonnaise (I have never liked the taste of mayonnaise!). 

Sorry- the lighting is bad. 

I was supposed to meet Dad at the McDonalds, so I took a dessert to-go (or takeaway, as they say in Europe): a chocolate muffin with strawberry cream. In my travels to meet Dad, the poor muffin suffered some battle wounds to the pillow of cream:

It still tasted good, though! :)

Dad and I met up and used our Smartcard, a reloadable transportation card, to ride to Kalev Central Stadium for the dance festival. Here's how I describe the experience:

WOW!!

Multiple thousand folk dancers danced to live music, with even more thousands of spectators watching the celebration. I was thoroughly impressed: their lines were crisp, and they were very confident in their art, from the seven year-old all the way up to the man in his seventies. I know some marching bands that could take some lessons from them! Here are some pics:

After this, we chilled in the room and then returned to the song festival grounds for instrumental rehearsals. There was a huge wind band of international students and adults. I would guess that there were over 800 instrumentalists! They were playing arrangements of Estonian folk songs. 

Now that's a horn section!

Fun fact: Dad talked to this man about the piece he conducted, who directed him to the composer. The composer arranged the piece especially for the festival. Dad wants his band to play it, so the composer is connecting him with the Song Festival Foundation, who published the piece. Wow!

At this point, it was 10 o'clock pm, so we headed back to the hotel. 

Here are a few tidbits of info to share:

In Europe, most stores have revolving doors, and they are rather large!

Check out these "American" specialties found in grocery stores:

I opted for European dark chocolate with bits of orange instead...

Check out the parking stick at the Estonian Opera:

Love this!

We also found a memorial on the outskirts of town that is dedicated to the victims of a ferry accident:

Some pretty sights around town:

Giant concrete birds: the Estonian way of keeping cars off of pedestrian areas. 

The bus terminal.

Patriotic public transportation and drivers without uniforms. :)

And now, I have been waiting to show you pictures of our hotel room. Our hotel, the Gotthard Residence, is located in the heart of Old Town, and it was built in the 14th century and renovated in 2012. We are in the basement, but our window looks onto a neighbor's roof because of the slope of the city. The hotel throws you right into the middle of the Middle Ages. 

The climb to the basement. 

Doorway height in the basement! I guess I would fit in during the fourteenth century. :)

Our beds. 

Bathroom. 

Shower. 

Nook in the bathroom. 

The window in our bathroom. Hope there's not a fire!

Tomorrow, a processional starts off the official song festival, followed by 4 hours of singing. I hope to get a few more interviews and observations. It's going to be a long day! 

Until tomorrow!

Amy