First rehearsal I entered enthusiastically and I left scared. The music was crazy from a first glance. One was a concerto, so we had loads of rests and random trills is awkward places and ways and on top of all of that it was insanely hot. I came out of that rehearsal wondering what it was actually suppose to sound like. It got hotter throughout the day and throughout the week, whilst the music became more playable, more exciting and nicer to listen to. In our sectional rehearsals we became increasingly bored of playing the same three pieces over and over, (despite the loveliness of them, any amount of crazy repetition eventually does get boring) so we played pieces that our tutors had composed themselves including abstract theatrical pieces where we had to move around the room, 'talk' to each other, improvise and walk out the room. I really enjoyed that.
Benenden school as a place is set in the most beautiful surroundings. Everywhere I went was pleasant despite the dead grass everywhere. Enhanced of course by the sheer amount of music you can hear upon entering the site. My room was so big that one night we all did cartwheels in the middle of the floor space without the fear of hitting our feet on anything and creating a duvet world at 2am in the morning. Every morning we would not get up at the right time, and every time at breakfast we would moan about how tired we were, blame ourselves, and promise ourselves and each other we would go to bed at a reasonable time that night. Of course we broke our promises.
The evenings were the best fun. Saturday evening everyone on the course participated in a massive game of rounders, where my hit was successful and I actually managed to get a rounder - a very proud moment. After that we were brimming with energy and decided to play bulldog, not the safest game and once we finished I am pretty sure almost everyone had a graze and a bruise or two. Human pyramids and piggy back races complete the list as the sun went down and from the first viewing of a star (also argued a bright Venus) in the sky we all decided to lie down and star -gaze. Only getting up when we had to leave to go to bed, and stopping on the way to teach the boys how to do cartwheels.
Everyday I wore sandals, and everyday I came back to the boarding house and my feet were filthy. So of course, we all decided to sit around a bath and clean our feet. This eventually turned into a daily thing before everyone sitting in a circle in our room almost dying from laughter. On Sunday I literally woke up laughing and genuinely had to leave half of my breakfast because I couldn't eat it as I was laughing too hard. It was the best.
The last day was sad, we all sat in our beds in silence not wanting to pack and strip our beds. I think I hugged just about everyone after the concert, some I'll probably never see again, others it was still be half a year before I can talk to them again.
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