German Orchestra

You haven't heard anything until you've been completely surrounded by a bunch of germans counting to ten in whispers.

They had to do it during a long pause in an orchestral piece, otherwise everyone would have lost their place. People do it in English orchestras all the time, but it's just not the same.

My new stand partner is doing it along with them, but for the rest of the practice, she's muttering to me in Italian because I told her that it was close enough to Spanish that I could understand her, (turns out that doesn't extend very far beyond the simplest sentences), and she doesn't want to speak loudly over the conductor. Whenever our violins go down, she starts. I have absolutely no idea what she's saying, but it is obviously hilarious, because she's laughing pretty hard most of the time.

I really need to learn German.