Thursday, December 11, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Last week of Undergrad
Senioritis is so much worse when you are spending your last week of your college career in a foreign city.
I only have my massive Brit Pop journal and teaching journals left to finish and then I am officially done with my undergraduate education.
I get a break from work on Thursday night with the end of term party at school and then the people from Lambeth are taking Omar, Andrew, and I out to a jazz club for food and music. I will be done with everything by that point on Thursday so that I have three full days to pack and play in London before I head back home.
Monday is coming very quickly.
I only have my massive Brit Pop journal and teaching journals left to finish and then I am officially done with my undergraduate education.
I get a break from work on Thursday night with the end of term party at school and then the people from Lambeth are taking Omar, Andrew, and I out to a jazz club for food and music. I will be done with everything by that point on Thursday so that I have three full days to pack and play in London before I head back home.
Monday is coming very quickly.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Thanksgiving
I had some trepidations about trying to pull off Thanksgiving in London. None of us are with our families, and we had decided to do a potluck traditional Thanksgiving for 11. Most everyone started making their contributions the night before, so as to not take up valuable kitchen space and time at the boys apartment on Thursday. Unfortunately, we all had class on Thursday, so we planned for the eating to begin at 7:30. I'm used to a more afternoon Thanksgiving, as was everyone else, but there was no choice.
To my surprise, the meal actually worked out. The food was all ready to go by 7: 30 and it was all really good. Eric and Andrew were in charge of the turkey- all 18 pounds of it - and I thought the moment when everything was going to fail was when Eric started to carve the turkey and found the giblets (whose absence had puzzled Andrew earlier in the afternoon when his arm was up to the elbow in raw turkey) in the neck, complete in their plastic bag. Neither of the boys had thought to stuff the neck as well as the bottom of the turkey, but it ended up being alright in the end.
We definitely had way too much food, but it was all so good. I had two helpings of entirely different food. We had the 18 lb turkey, gravy, french stuffing, traditional stuffing, cranberry chutney, cranberry relish, salad, macaroni and cheese, rolls, green bean cassarole, broccoli, company carrots, zucchini bread, stuffed mushrooms, roasted chestnuts, and twice baked potatoes. For dessert there were chocolate peanut butter cookies, fruit salad, peach cobbler, low-fat pumpkin pie, and traditional apple pie. Of course, we also had all the wine you could want, cider, and a traditional British drink of Pimm's and apple juice mixed together and heated up, which was really good- a little like mulled cider. All of the food was homemade and excellent. I haven't been that full in a long time. It took me a couple of hours to work up the energy to get on the bus to go home. All in all it was a great Thanksgiving and I'm really proud of all of us for pulling together to pull it off.
Our turkey, George, that Eric and Andrew made. Check out the golden brown perfection.
To my surprise, the meal actually worked out. The food was all ready to go by 7: 30 and it was all really good. Eric and Andrew were in charge of the turkey- all 18 pounds of it - and I thought the moment when everything was going to fail was when Eric started to carve the turkey and found the giblets (whose absence had puzzled Andrew earlier in the afternoon when his arm was up to the elbow in raw turkey) in the neck, complete in their plastic bag. Neither of the boys had thought to stuff the neck as well as the bottom of the turkey, but it ended up being alright in the end.
We definitely had way too much food, but it was all so good. I had two helpings of entirely different food. We had the 18 lb turkey, gravy, french stuffing, traditional stuffing, cranberry chutney, cranberry relish, salad, macaroni and cheese, rolls, green bean cassarole, broccoli, company carrots, zucchini bread, stuffed mushrooms, roasted chestnuts, and twice baked potatoes. For dessert there were chocolate peanut butter cookies, fruit salad, peach cobbler, low-fat pumpkin pie, and traditional apple pie. Of course, we also had all the wine you could want, cider, and a traditional British drink of Pimm's and apple juice mixed together and heated up, which was really good- a little like mulled cider. All of the food was homemade and excellent. I haven't been that full in a long time. It took me a couple of hours to work up the energy to get on the bus to go home. All in all it was a great Thanksgiving and I'm really proud of all of us for pulling together to pull it off.
Our turkey, George, that Eric and Andrew made. Check out the golden brown perfection.
Two tables worth of food...
...and the third table. Note the Firebird wine that I contributed for drinks.
Turkey legs on an 18 lb turkey are huge. Mike really enjoyed it, as you can tell. Seth ate the other one, I believe.
The square apple pie complete with homemade crust that I made. : )
I hope everyone's thanksgivings were good!
Cheers!
Cheers!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Edinburgh- Email Style
So, since I have a paper to write instead of writing another blog entry, here's a copy of an email I just sent to my parents:
Hello!!!
So, I'm on the train on the way home from Scotland. We just passed over the border into England. As I write this, we're passing along the coast- craggy cliffs drop off to the ocean on the left and on the right, the sky is settling into sunset. The trip was a ton of fun. Edinburgh is located right on the western coast of Edinburgh and our hostel was on the outskirts of town, but it was on a hill overlooking the bay, the the property ran right to the beach. I took two really nice morning walks along the water before anyone else was really up. On Friday evening, after we got the hostel sorted, we went for a walk around town with Bill to get ourselves situated. Luckily, Edinburgh is a pretty small city, so you don't really need public transport, and the main drag, called the Royal Mile, has enough stuff to occupy all of us for the evening. We saw the cafe turned Chinese Buffet where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book. I went to a pub for dinner, and split an appetizer of haggis to try with two friends, Sarah and Ally. It is pretty good- it tastes kind of like roast beef hash, but it's creamy and a little spicy. They serve it with neeps and tatties- turnips (which are also pretty good!) and mashed potatoes. For my main course, I got corned beef hash with a sweet onion sauce and no egg (yuck). It was really good, but I prefer my hash a little crispier from the electric frying pan. I split a dessert of treacle tart (Harry Potter's favorite dessert!) with Sarah. It was really good. I was expecting it to be the consistency of pecan pie except tasting of molasses, but it was kind of spongy and not too sweet at all. That night we went on a ghost tour. Edinburgh is supposed to be one of the most haunted cities in the UK. We went to a graveyard known as Greyfriars. Greyfriars is famous for Greyfriars Bobby- a dog who, after his owner was buried in the cemetery, wouldn't leave the premises. Bobby was 2 when his owner died and spent the rest of his life until he was 17 being fed and hanging out in the graveyard. The graveyard is this big hill and on the ghost tour we learned that it used to be a valley. The town ran out of room in the 15th century for all of the dead, so they just started turning the graveyard into a layer cake. There are 500 headstones and approximately 40,000 people buried there. We went into the prison where the clergymen of the church belonging to the graveyard were imprisoned and tortured when Scotland was changing religions. It was creepy, but not really terrifying in any way. They did have a guy waiting to jump out at us, and of course I jumped and screamed, but really, that was to be expected.
On Saturday we spent the morning at Edinburgh castle, which has a long and storied military history. The Scottish Crown Jewels, called the Scottish Honors, are kept there. We were allowed in to see them. Part of the Honors includes this sword that has to be 3 1/2- 4 feet long! After the castle, it was time for a quick lunch on the run to the Parliament. Scotland got their own parliament in the late 90s and the building is very new. The outside doesn't blend in with the historic part of town it sits in, but the inside is really quite pretty. After the tour of Parliament, Bill decided that we had not had enough exercise in our life so we climbed an 850 foot craggy hill called Arthur's Seat. The view from the top was spectacular. We could see out over all of Edinburgh and the ocean. Scotland has some of the most spectacular natural beauty that I have ever seen. The top was incredibly windy - I legitimately would not have been surprised if someone had gotten blown off the top. Kite flying in Scotland is more like involuntary-landsurfing, as we've dubbed it. Last night we went to a ceilidh. The music was good- just three violins and a keyboard and one bagpipe solo by a traditional player. The dance was part of the University of Edinburgh's Folk Music Society's 50th anniversary celebrations. We all danced with strangers, and I danced with Bill for the first dance- he dragged me onto the floor. It was a ton of fun, but exhausting, especially after climbing up the 850 ft hill.
Today was spent touring Holyrood Palace, the Queen's official residence in Scotland. Since its a working palace, we only got to see like 10 rooms, but it was still really impressive. The back of the palace has a ruined abbey, which is always eerily interesting because it generally signifies a large-scale change of religion across the country, which in general is a bad time for everyone. The rest of the day was spent window shopping, and a stop in the morning at this amazing place called Chocolate Soup. It's a cafe that focuses on hot chocolate instead of coffee. I got a hot chocolate sundae and a muffin and it was glorious.
There was just almost a scene on the train. There are these women around 50 years of age talking and laughing at the top of their lungs and being really disrespectful to the rest of the train carriage. One of our students went up to them to nicely ask that they be a little more quiet and one of them responded "Hell no, we won't." So then, of course, because apparently no one can behave like an adult, another student went up and piped in with the fact that there are 36 students and 5 of these women. Now, these women are really annoying- I can hear them with my headphones turned up, but this is also not a reason for a bunch of students to start a fight with these women who may or may not be a little inebriated. One of the women responded to the second prompt of majority rules with "If we were in your country we'd expect you all to act like us and we wouldn't have a problem with it." Which is again, not really mature either. So, then someone went off to fetch a staff member on the train. We've been told they're going to get off at the next stop, but now they've starting singing songs . They're getting off the train now, and one of them came up to one of the students and told them that "When she goes to America, she hopes that we make her feel as welcome there as she was here today" now the woman is up by us talking about how we're all a disgrace, even though she was the one that came up to us and started instigating with us. For the record, they are UK citizens. I'm not surprised by the immaturity shown by the IC students- most of them are 19 and 20, but the adults' behavior startled me a little. Whatever, they're almost off the train. I'm glad the three people I'm sitting with are more adult than everyone else in this car.
Cheers!
P.S. Pictures tomorrow or the day after!
Hello!!!
So, I'm on the train on the way home from Scotland. We just passed over the border into England. As I write this, we're passing along the coast- craggy cliffs drop off to the ocean on the left and on the right, the sky is settling into sunset. The trip was a ton of fun. Edinburgh is located right on the western coast of Edinburgh and our hostel was on the outskirts of town, but it was on a hill overlooking the bay, the the property ran right to the beach. I took two really nice morning walks along the water before anyone else was really up. On Friday evening, after we got the hostel sorted, we went for a walk around town with Bill to get ourselves situated. Luckily, Edinburgh is a pretty small city, so you don't really need public transport, and the main drag, called the Royal Mile, has enough stuff to occupy all of us for the evening. We saw the cafe turned Chinese Buffet where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book. I went to a pub for dinner, and split an appetizer of haggis to try with two friends, Sarah and Ally. It is pretty good- it tastes kind of like roast beef hash, but it's creamy and a little spicy. They serve it with neeps and tatties- turnips (which are also pretty good!) and mashed potatoes. For my main course, I got corned beef hash with a sweet onion sauce and no egg (yuck). It was really good, but I prefer my hash a little crispier from the electric frying pan. I split a dessert of treacle tart (Harry Potter's favorite dessert!) with Sarah. It was really good. I was expecting it to be the consistency of pecan pie except tasting of molasses, but it was kind of spongy and not too sweet at all. That night we went on a ghost tour. Edinburgh is supposed to be one of the most haunted cities in the UK. We went to a graveyard known as Greyfriars. Greyfriars is famous for Greyfriars Bobby- a dog who, after his owner was buried in the cemetery, wouldn't leave the premises. Bobby was 2 when his owner died and spent the rest of his life until he was 17 being fed and hanging out in the graveyard. The graveyard is this big hill and on the ghost tour we learned that it used to be a valley. The town ran out of room in the 15th century for all of the dead, so they just started turning the graveyard into a layer cake. There are 500 headstones and approximately 40,000 people buried there. We went into the prison where the clergymen of the church belonging to the graveyard were imprisoned and tortured when Scotland was changing religions. It was creepy, but not really terrifying in any way. They did have a guy waiting to jump out at us, and of course I jumped and screamed, but really, that was to be expected.
On Saturday we spent the morning at Edinburgh castle, which has a long and storied military history. The Scottish Crown Jewels, called the Scottish Honors, are kept there. We were allowed in to see them. Part of the Honors includes this sword that has to be 3 1/2- 4 feet long! After the castle, it was time for a quick lunch on the run to the Parliament. Scotland got their own parliament in the late 90s and the building is very new. The outside doesn't blend in with the historic part of town it sits in, but the inside is really quite pretty. After the tour of Parliament, Bill decided that we had not had enough exercise in our life so we climbed an 850 foot craggy hill called Arthur's Seat. The view from the top was spectacular. We could see out over all of Edinburgh and the ocean. Scotland has some of the most spectacular natural beauty that I have ever seen. The top was incredibly windy - I legitimately would not have been surprised if someone had gotten blown off the top. Kite flying in Scotland is more like involuntary-landsurfing, as we've dubbed it. Last night we went to a ceilidh. The music was good- just three violins and a keyboard and one bagpipe solo by a traditional player. The dance was part of the University of Edinburgh's Folk Music Society's 50th anniversary celebrations. We all danced with strangers, and I danced with Bill for the first dance- he dragged me onto the floor. It was a ton of fun, but exhausting, especially after climbing up the 850 ft hill.
Today was spent touring Holyrood Palace, the Queen's official residence in Scotland. Since its a working palace, we only got to see like 10 rooms, but it was still really impressive. The back of the palace has a ruined abbey, which is always eerily interesting because it generally signifies a large-scale change of religion across the country, which in general is a bad time for everyone. The rest of the day was spent window shopping, and a stop in the morning at this amazing place called Chocolate Soup. It's a cafe that focuses on hot chocolate instead of coffee. I got a hot chocolate sundae and a muffin and it was glorious.
There was just almost a scene on the train. There are these women around 50 years of age talking and laughing at the top of their lungs and being really disrespectful to the rest of the train carriage. One of our students went up to them to nicely ask that they be a little more quiet and one of them responded "Hell no, we won't." So then, of course, because apparently no one can behave like an adult, another student went up and piped in with the fact that there are 36 students and 5 of these women. Now, these women are really annoying- I can hear them with my headphones turned up, but this is also not a reason for a bunch of students to start a fight with these women who may or may not be a little inebriated. One of the women responded to the second prompt of majority rules with "If we were in your country we'd expect you all to act like us and we wouldn't have a problem with it." Which is again, not really mature either. So, then someone went off to fetch a staff member on the train. We've been told they're going to get off at the next stop, but now they've starting singing songs . They're getting off the train now, and one of them came up to one of the students and told them that "When she goes to America, she hopes that we make her feel as welcome there as she was here today" now the woman is up by us talking about how we're all a disgrace, even though she was the one that came up to us and started instigating with us. For the record, they are UK citizens. I'm not surprised by the immaturity shown by the IC students- most of them are 19 and 20, but the adults' behavior startled me a little. Whatever, they're almost off the train. I'm glad the three people I'm sitting with are more adult than everyone else in this car.
Cheers!
P.S. Pictures tomorrow or the day after!
Friday, November 14, 2008
A little of many things
So I haven't updated in a bit, largely due to illness. Last week I had my annual autumnal cold of doom. I spent a week with no energy, a wicked cough, pounding headache, and no sleep despite medication. Naturally, I did almost nothing besides class. A week later, I feel much better but am left with the cough.
I was pretty sick the night of the election, so I didn't stay up to watch any of the coverage. There were viewing parties in pubs across London, and if I had been feeling better I would have definitely gone to one. Heather was nice enough to call me though, when Obama won. Granted, she did wake me up in the middle of the night here, but it was worth it to know right as it happened. I wish I could have seen his speech live, but I've read the transcript and watched it on the BBC. The reaction in London was electric. Everyone was so happy and relieved. I've never had that many people take an interest in talking to me about American politics since I've been here. There was an Irishman in a cafe that I stopped in for a cup of tea (a cuppa) who heard my accent and stopped me to ask if I was happy with the outcome and if I was going to have a party. One of the headlines from the Thursday after the election read "The Day America Became a Little Bit Cool Again." I love the Brits haha.
This past weekend was the school trip to Liverpool. It's a 4 hour coach ride from London, which isn't so bad considering that Ithaca is 4.5 to 5 hours from my house, but riding on coaches always makes me feel slightly sick. I did manage to get two seats to myself, since this was a smaller trip, so I got to stretch out a bit and sleep. We got to Liverpool a little after lunch time, and checked in to the YHA.
Liverpool is an industrial city and back in the day was a vital stop on the slave trade triangle. The town has the look of a combination of Danbury and the docks in Bridgeport (for those of you from Connecticut). Liverpool is also the European City of Culture 2008. They have a ton of museums that are not Beatles-themed and the docks are full of neat little stores and restaurants. The European MTV awards had been held in Liverpool the night before we got there.
Friday afternoon was taken up by a quick trip to the docks and we saw where the ferry leaves to cross to Ireland and we stopped by the lobby of the Tate Liverpool Museum. We then loaded back on the coach and set off on the Magical Mystery Tour. We were taken around town and shown where each of the four Beatles were born. We also stopped at Penny Lane and saw a few of the places mentioned in the song. Strawberry Fields was another stop on the tour. It was interesting to see where all of the Beatles were born and went to school. George and Ringo really grew up in a pretty poor area. John on the other hand, had a pretty middle class upbringing. The last stop on the tour was the Cavern Club, where the Beatles played over 200 gigs and got discovered by their manager, Brian Epstein. We had a traditional dinner of scouse, a type of meat stew, at the hostel. Afterwards, most people went back to the Cavern Club, but as I was still sick, I went to bed by 8 pm. Super lame, but whatever.
The next morning, we went to The Beatles' Story, which is the original Beatles museum. It was fantastic. We each got our own audio guide and wandered through rooms that were recreations of different places from the Beatles' lives. They had original instruments from John Lennon's skiffle band. The museum ended with a really touching room with John's white piano and "Imagine" pumped through the speakers. We found the children's room and immediately proceeded to color and glue confetti for about 20 minutes at the end of the tour.
After Robin, Erin, Meghan, and I were done with the museum, we hit up this creperie that Meghan was super excited about for lunch. I got the vegetable soup and a banana and chocolate crepe for dessert. It was excellent. After that we went back to the Tate gift shop and then hit up the Slavery Museum. That museum was hard to walk through. They had original shackles and recreations of conditions in the ship along with video recreations. It is so hard to believe that white men and women ever believed that they could treat other human beings that way solely based on the color of their skin. There are no words to describe the feelings of horror and shame I felt walking through there. There was a wall in the entryway of the museum where people could write on note cards about their reactions to the museum. It was touching to see so many people had written about Obama being elected and the hope he brings to the world.
On our way out of Liverpool we stopped at Cromwell Beach to see an art installation by an artist named Antony Gormley. He is most famous for a sculpture called the Angel of the North, installed near Durham (in North England, duh). It is, obviously, an Angel and the wing span is wider than the statue of Liberty is tall. The installation we saw is called Another Place and it 100 casts of Gormley's naked body spread out over the beach and into the water. The tide came in while we where there, and some of the statues had water up to their heads. It was very interesting and visually captivating. Bill, our center director, got a kick out of having Robin, Meghan, Erin, and I pose with one statue who had his "willy" painted green. He took a picture of us looking out over the horizon, a shot from the front, and for the last shot, he gave me his baseball cap and had me cover the willy so he could "send a picture back to the music school to let them know you're not getting into trouble." Oh, Bill.
This week was hellish in it's intensity and workload. I have my last ever paper due for my British Art and Architecture class on Tuesday, and I couldn't be less interested in writing it if I tried. I went to the exhibit in the Queen's Gallery in Buckingham Palace on Sunday. Monday, I started teaching year 7 Jazz Band, and if that is how all 12 year olds behave, I never want to teach middle school. Tuesday night, I went to an Arsenal football game. They are a premiere league team and they won 3-0. It was a great game: 60,000 screaming fans make for a fun atmosphere. Wednesday I continued working with my 16 year old composition students, which is a bit of a challenge because they know nothing about music and are using sequencing software to write a piece. Wednesday night, we went to see Billy Elliot the musical with my Brit Pop class. It was absolutely amazing. The lead is a 13 year old from Nebraska of all places. He had a great northern England accent and his dancing and singing were both superb. I have no words for how good the show was, but I would love to go and see it again (perhaps in NYC??). Thursday was spent in class and at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the National Art Library, researching for this paper I don't want to write.
I write this post on the train on the way to Edinburgh for the weekend. It is our last school trip and I'm super excited to spend the weekend in Scotland. The train left from King's Cross station. Before we left, I detoured to Platform 9 3/4 for my photo-op. The train has free wifi, so I've been getting work done on this hellish paper and checking my email. We should arrive in Edinburgh around 2 pm and we have a full weekend lined up. Tonight there is a performance of traditional music and dance called a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee), but we had to buy tickets in advance using pay pal. I didn't want to set up an account, so we're going to go and try to get tickets at the door. If we can't get in tonight, there is another show tomorrow night. There is a ghost tour we're going to go on on whichever night we can't get into the ceilidh.
Train travel is so lovely. Northern England is absolutely idyllic. It's all gentle rolling hills, sheep, cows, and emerald green fields flanked by trees decked out in autumnal colors. The weather is only slightly overcast and the towns that we've passed so far have been very quaint looking. I did notice some peculiar looking animals earlier: they were either small horses or mules, but they looked like cows. They had the mottled white with black blotches coat that is, what I had thought up until this point, unique to cows. We also passed by the Angel of the North (mentioned earlier), and the town of Durham- the set of Billy Elliot and home of the famous (to Art and Architecture students) Durham Cathedral.
Cheers!
I was pretty sick the night of the election, so I didn't stay up to watch any of the coverage. There were viewing parties in pubs across London, and if I had been feeling better I would have definitely gone to one. Heather was nice enough to call me though, when Obama won. Granted, she did wake me up in the middle of the night here, but it was worth it to know right as it happened. I wish I could have seen his speech live, but I've read the transcript and watched it on the BBC. The reaction in London was electric. Everyone was so happy and relieved. I've never had that many people take an interest in talking to me about American politics since I've been here. There was an Irishman in a cafe that I stopped in for a cup of tea (a cuppa) who heard my accent and stopped me to ask if I was happy with the outcome and if I was going to have a party. One of the headlines from the Thursday after the election read "The Day America Became a Little Bit Cool Again." I love the Brits haha.
This past weekend was the school trip to Liverpool. It's a 4 hour coach ride from London, which isn't so bad considering that Ithaca is 4.5 to 5 hours from my house, but riding on coaches always makes me feel slightly sick. I did manage to get two seats to myself, since this was a smaller trip, so I got to stretch out a bit and sleep. We got to Liverpool a little after lunch time, and checked in to the YHA.
Liverpool is an industrial city and back in the day was a vital stop on the slave trade triangle. The town has the look of a combination of Danbury and the docks in Bridgeport (for those of you from Connecticut). Liverpool is also the European City of Culture 2008. They have a ton of museums that are not Beatles-themed and the docks are full of neat little stores and restaurants. The European MTV awards had been held in Liverpool the night before we got there.
Friday afternoon was taken up by a quick trip to the docks and we saw where the ferry leaves to cross to Ireland and we stopped by the lobby of the Tate Liverpool Museum. We then loaded back on the coach and set off on the Magical Mystery Tour. We were taken around town and shown where each of the four Beatles were born. We also stopped at Penny Lane and saw a few of the places mentioned in the song. Strawberry Fields was another stop on the tour. It was interesting to see where all of the Beatles were born and went to school. George and Ringo really grew up in a pretty poor area. John on the other hand, had a pretty middle class upbringing. The last stop on the tour was the Cavern Club, where the Beatles played over 200 gigs and got discovered by their manager, Brian Epstein. We had a traditional dinner of scouse, a type of meat stew, at the hostel. Afterwards, most people went back to the Cavern Club, but as I was still sick, I went to bed by 8 pm. Super lame, but whatever.
The next morning, we went to The Beatles' Story, which is the original Beatles museum. It was fantastic. We each got our own audio guide and wandered through rooms that were recreations of different places from the Beatles' lives. They had original instruments from John Lennon's skiffle band. The museum ended with a really touching room with John's white piano and "Imagine" pumped through the speakers. We found the children's room and immediately proceeded to color and glue confetti for about 20 minutes at the end of the tour.
After Robin, Erin, Meghan, and I were done with the museum, we hit up this creperie that Meghan was super excited about for lunch. I got the vegetable soup and a banana and chocolate crepe for dessert. It was excellent. After that we went back to the Tate gift shop and then hit up the Slavery Museum. That museum was hard to walk through. They had original shackles and recreations of conditions in the ship along with video recreations. It is so hard to believe that white men and women ever believed that they could treat other human beings that way solely based on the color of their skin. There are no words to describe the feelings of horror and shame I felt walking through there. There was a wall in the entryway of the museum where people could write on note cards about their reactions to the museum. It was touching to see so many people had written about Obama being elected and the hope he brings to the world.
On our way out of Liverpool we stopped at Cromwell Beach to see an art installation by an artist named Antony Gormley. He is most famous for a sculpture called the Angel of the North, installed near Durham (in North England, duh). It is, obviously, an Angel and the wing span is wider than the statue of Liberty is tall. The installation we saw is called Another Place and it 100 casts of Gormley's naked body spread out over the beach and into the water. The tide came in while we where there, and some of the statues had water up to their heads. It was very interesting and visually captivating. Bill, our center director, got a kick out of having Robin, Meghan, Erin, and I pose with one statue who had his "willy" painted green. He took a picture of us looking out over the horizon, a shot from the front, and for the last shot, he gave me his baseball cap and had me cover the willy so he could "send a picture back to the music school to let them know you're not getting into trouble." Oh, Bill.
This week was hellish in it's intensity and workload. I have my last ever paper due for my British Art and Architecture class on Tuesday, and I couldn't be less interested in writing it if I tried. I went to the exhibit in the Queen's Gallery in Buckingham Palace on Sunday. Monday, I started teaching year 7 Jazz Band, and if that is how all 12 year olds behave, I never want to teach middle school. Tuesday night, I went to an Arsenal football game. They are a premiere league team and they won 3-0. It was a great game: 60,000 screaming fans make for a fun atmosphere. Wednesday I continued working with my 16 year old composition students, which is a bit of a challenge because they know nothing about music and are using sequencing software to write a piece. Wednesday night, we went to see Billy Elliot the musical with my Brit Pop class. It was absolutely amazing. The lead is a 13 year old from Nebraska of all places. He had a great northern England accent and his dancing and singing were both superb. I have no words for how good the show was, but I would love to go and see it again (perhaps in NYC??). Thursday was spent in class and at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the National Art Library, researching for this paper I don't want to write.
I write this post on the train on the way to Edinburgh for the weekend. It is our last school trip and I'm super excited to spend the weekend in Scotland. The train left from King's Cross station. Before we left, I detoured to Platform 9 3/4 for my photo-op. The train has free wifi, so I've been getting work done on this hellish paper and checking my email. We should arrive in Edinburgh around 2 pm and we have a full weekend lined up. Tonight there is a performance of traditional music and dance called a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee), but we had to buy tickets in advance using pay pal. I didn't want to set up an account, so we're going to go and try to get tickets at the door. If we can't get in tonight, there is another show tomorrow night. There is a ghost tour we're going to go on on whichever night we can't get into the ceilidh.
Train travel is so lovely. Northern England is absolutely idyllic. It's all gentle rolling hills, sheep, cows, and emerald green fields flanked by trees decked out in autumnal colors. The weather is only slightly overcast and the towns that we've passed so far have been very quaint looking. I did notice some peculiar looking animals earlier: they were either small horses or mules, but they looked like cows. They had the mottled white with black blotches coat that is, what I had thought up until this point, unique to cows. We also passed by the Angel of the North (mentioned earlier), and the town of Durham- the set of Billy Elliot and home of the famous (to Art and Architecture students) Durham Cathedral.
Cheers!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
All the King's Horses
I love London for all of the bizzare things you can see on a daily basis. For example, this morning I was waiting at the bus stop this morning and all of a sudden I heard horse hooves. I turn to the left, and this is what I saw:
Ten minutes later, the procession finished passing. They were followed by a horse trailer that read The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery. I got to the London Center and googled it right away. Turns out the guard is made of 111 horses plus riders and trumpeters. You can read about them here if you like: http://www2.army.mod.uk/kingstprha/index.html.
So I guess you can say I started my morning by seeing all the King's horses haha
Cheers!
Ten minutes later, the procession finished passing. They were followed by a horse trailer that read The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery. I got to the London Center and googled it right away. Turns out the guard is made of 111 horses plus riders and trumpeters. You can read about them here if you like: http://www2.army.mod.uk/kingstprha/index.html.
So I guess you can say I started my morning by seeing all the King's horses haha
Cheers!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Pictures Part 3
I think this is going to be it for pictures today... more tomorrow!
Gondolas!
San Marco
Venice!
Dusk
The picture everyone takes of the Colosseum
The Swiss Guard. Their costumes may be funny, but don't mess with them.
more pictures!
Closeup
Sculpture of the River Nile
Trevi Fountain by Night
Sunset from Anacapri
Swimming in the Mediterranean
The Blue Grotto
Capri as the ferry is pulling into port
Italy Pictures
Mt. Vesuvius! On the ferry to Capri!
On the sleeper train to Naples
Church? we found while wandering around Palermo
Greek vase in the Palermo museum.
She looks so happy to be playing the aulos.
He looks happier to be listening.
She looks so happy to be playing the aulos.
He looks happier to be listening.
Fish stall in the markets in Palermo
The picture the woman from IA took of us in the botanical gardens
The view from the coast at Palermo
Old Clarinets and weather happenings
Last night was a lecture on classical clarinet by Colin Lawson. Those of you who are clarinetists will no doubt recognize the name from rep class projects assignments. He is also the head of the RCM. The lecture was very good. He talked about and played the chalemeau, 2 keyed clarinet, 5 keyed clarinet, a french 13 keyed clarinet, and a simple system clarinet, along with a few others. He had two originals! It was interesting to hear the differences in each chromatic note. The boehm system clarinet is all about smoothness and evenness of tone over the range of the instruments. The classical clarinets were prized for the individual tone color of each note. He also played recordings of some really interesting pieces including a period performance of the first Weber concerto. I was surprised by how different the string part sounded- it was much more interesting, especially in the second movement. I really want to get that recording; we'll see if I can't hunt it down. The lecture was held in the RCM's instrument museum. They have so many instruments down there! They have a solid ivory 2 keyed clarinet and some really interesting basset horns. At the end of the lecture Colin Lawson let us play his clarinets! I played the 5 key, the 13 key, and the simple system clarinet. On the simple system, the speaker key is moved to the front of the clarinet- the throat Bb is so much better! I actually really everything about the tone and the way the simple system sounds. The throat G# is played with the second finger on the right hand, which is really weird though.
Also, last night it snowed in London!!!! It was the first time in 70 years that snow has fallen in October in this city. I pulled out my winter hat mom knit me and discovered that I've packed no gloves, so that is on my to-do list for tomorrow. : )
Cheers!
Also, last night it snowed in London!!!! It was the first time in 70 years that snow has fallen in October in this city. I pulled out my winter hat mom knit me and discovered that I've packed no gloves, so that is on my to-do list for tomorrow. : )
Cheers!
Better Late than Never
So I know it's two weeks after the fact, but here is the recap of my half-term trip to Italy.
Mike, Omar, Andrew and I had the distinct pleasure of catching a 3:10 am bus to the airport for our 6 am flight to Palermo, Sicily. Despite the hellishly little amount of sleep we were all running on, by 10 am we were in gorgeous Sicily where it was sunny and around 70 degrees. Using our extremely limited Italian skills we managed to get a bus from the airport (the driver of which I spoke to in French... I had a hard time transitioning from the French roommates mindset to Italian) to the main train station and from there to our hostel. Our hostel was really nice and down this cute little side alley. We dropped off our bags and set off to explore the city.
Palermo is not really a touristy town, but there was plenty to keep us occupied. We went in search of food and found this great little pizza place that was probably a fast food joint, but the food was amazing and lunch was under 2 euro. Next, we wandered down to the water and hung out on the Mediterranean coast. We scrambled over some cement blocks to the waters edge and took some pictures. We met who may have been the only other tourist in Palermo besides us at the botanical gardens. She was a very nice woman from Iowa who took our picture. The gardens were absolutely beautiful- tons of flowers and tropical trees with busts and fountains interspersed. Naptime at the hotel was refreshing and much needed. We got a recommendation from the receptionist at the hostel for dinner. The restaurant was down this little alley and the food was absolutely the best we had in all of Italy. I had a traditional antipasta (salami and cheese) appetizer, followed by a pasta second course, and grilled swordfish with a raisin and pine nut stuffing for my last course, plus wine for under 20 euro. The atmosphere (flower sellers aside) was wonderful. An accordian player came in and we gave him a tip and he played our table a little serenade. Feeling pleased with ourselves, the boys got another bottle of wine on the way home and we hung out on the balcony before passing out for the night.
The next day we checked out of the hostel and stopped by the train station to get our tickets to Naples. We wandered around Palermo some more, including some side markets that had pretty much every animal you can imagine skinned and hanging at butcher's stalls and what had to be half of a swordfish posed on ice at the fish stall. Wandering the crowded markets was made more difficult by all of the people trying to ride their Vespas through the whole thing. We also hit up the local archeological museum, which was really neat. There was all kinds of ancient pottery and cave drawings from nearby caves. After another trip to the shore (and more views of insane amounts of PDA) we grabbed a quick bite for dinner and headed to the train station.
Our train journey to Naples consisted of two trains. Our first train was from Palermo to Messina, which is the eastern most city on Sicily. To get to the mainland, we transferred trains at Messina, and they loaded our train onto a ferry to get across the water. The train was split into three sections and loaded on the boat- so surreal. The train was a sleeper train, so I got a few hours of sleep and the distinct feeling of taking the train to Hogwarts.
Morning in Naples was not a good one. The city is so disgustingly dirty. Every step was spent avoiding stepping in excrement or on a homeless man. Even the beautiful sunrise couldn't take away from the post-apocolyptic/Mad Max feel of the place. We dropped our bags at our hostel and made for the ferry station to get our tickets to Capri. Unfortunately, the earliest ferry to Capri wasn't until 1 pm, so we had to try and amuse ourselves in the city until then. The side streets of Naples were almost as quaint and charming as those in Sicily, but the main roads really took away from any charm the city has. Luckily, we spent the better part of the day at Capri. It was really nice to return there 6 years after my first trip. It is such a beautiful place, even though it is full of tourists. It was nice to recognize the rocky cliffs and the blueness of the water. We got tickets for the last trip to the Blue Grotto for the day. It's so hard to describe how beautiful it is in there- the pictures really can't do it justice. We took a speedboat halfway around the island and then loaded into smaller row boats to be taken in the grotto. Our guide and all of the others were trying to have an Italian tenor singing contest while guiding us through. The boys all went swimming in the Mediterranean, which was Andrew's big goal for the day, while I waded in the water. We ate some dinner, which was overprices (naturally) and only alright, before taking a bus to Anacapri. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the chairlift, but we did get a nice view for sunset, and wandered around the little shops up at the top of the island. We caught the last ferry of the night home and crashed at our hostel in Naples.
The next day, Monday, we caught a train into Rome. From the train station we learned that public transport is "free" in Rome. We didn't know that you had to buy tickets for the tram before you got on, but when we offered the driver money, he waved us off. So we took a tram to our hostel before dropping our bags and meeting up with Eric, the boys' roommate, and Ilyse, his girlfriend. They were on their way to the airport, but stopped to give us some tips. We met them outside Vatican City and then headed into St. Mark's square. After more photo-ops, we headed out to get some dinner. We walked to a lot of the touristy sites by night including the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and Piazza Navona. We caught another tram back to the hostel and got some much needed rest.
Our second day in Italy was taken up by the Vatican and the Colosseum. The Vatican is another place I'm glad I went back to with some perspective. We went through a lot of the museum on our way to the Sistine Chapel. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of wealth the Catholic Church has and just how many priceless items from antiquity they have in their collection. The highlight of the museum for me was a statue of the River Nile reclining with 13 babies and various animals that live in the river. It was stunning, and apparently restored by a company from good old Pennsylvania!
The Sistine Chapel is so breathtaking. The scale is unimaginable, even when you're standing in the center. I can't imagine how taxing physically and mentally it must have been to paint that. Every figure is portrayed with such lifelike detail and the stories depicted are so dramatic. My favorite part is not the famous scene that everyone knows, but rather the depiction starting at the ceiling and curling down onto the far wall of heaven and hell. The depiction of hell is gruesome, but the contrast with heaven is startling and beautiful.
After the Sistine Chapel, we headed into St. Peter's Basilica. I love La Pieta, and I got significantly closer to the sculpture than I did last time. St. Peter's will always be beautiful and grand and a testament to the power of religion and the wealth of the Vatican, but I have some sentimental attachment to it after singing (albeit not with any kind of finess or talent) there. I found the little side chapel where we sang and got to point it out to the others.
Next up was the Colosseum. We paid for a guided tour, and it was entirely worth the money. Sometimes it's just nicer to have the information spoken to you instead of having to read it or research it yourself. The kind of technology that the Romans were capable of is amazing. The Colosseum had a retractable ceiling to shade the audience from the harsh sun and the building could be filled with water for mock sea battles. The life of a Gladiator was certainly a hard one with very little reward for most other than staying alive for the next fight. Over 700,000 people were killed there in the first year of the public games.
We had a bit of an adventure to our second hostel in Rome. We booked a hostel closer to the Ciampino airport because our flight to Venice was early in the morning and we thought we would save ourselves some trouble. Well, we got to the train station, bought our tickets, and carefully checked the time table and the platform information. Ciampino was supposed to be the first stop. Unfortunately, we somehow missed that the train we had gotten on was an express train, so it didn't stop at Ciampino. Three stops after our target, the train stopped and we got off along with some girls from Amsterdam who had the same problem as us. While we watched Italian commuters walk unconcernedly across the train tracks to get to the other platforms, the girls from Amsterdam told us how they were on a 2 week school trip to Rome, Florence, Lyon, France, and Paris for an art history class. A train back to Rome came, and we were able to get off at the right stop.
We felt relief at knowing we were only a bus ride away from our hostel. Our relief was short lived. At first nothing seemed amiss. We were safely loaded on the bus with our bags and were waiting for the trip to start. The driver was going a little fast, but nothing more outrageous than we had seen from other drivers on our trip. I started to feel uneasy when a local man got on the bus, sat down, and started crossing himself. All of a sudden the bus drive is going at least 60 mph down crowded city streets. We were the last stop on the bus route and we were all super relieved to have survived to the end. Our hostel was literally in the middle of nowhere- there was a small airplane in the parking lot! After checking in, we asked the man at the front desk about dinner since it was now 9 pm and we hadn't eaten. He said there was a restaurant about 300 m. down the road. We set off on the poorly lit street and while walking by the nunnery/airline hangar our sense of unease began to grow. We finally got to the main road, and the steakhouse, about 1 mile later. The food was superb and our waiter was lovely. He didn't speak too much English, but it was more than all of the other waiters. He found out we were musicians and promptly told us that his favorite musicians were Cream, Led Zepplin, and Jimi Hendrix; such a nice man.
We made it back to our hostel unscathed and crashed for a few hours until our 5 am taxi road 10 minutes down the road to the airport. After an uneventful flight, we were in Venice! Venice was by far my favorite city. There are no cars, for one thing. We stayed at this little bed and breakfast behind what was the Jewish Ghetto during WWII. We had to walk right through where the ghetto used to be to get to our hostel. You pass under a little wooden archway where there were these square shaped holes cut in the brick work. We found out that those holes were for the bars that they used to lock the Jews in at night with. It was a sobering thought every time we passed by.
Venice is full of brightly colored buildings, bridges, and a nice mixture of tourists and locals. We went to San Marco square on our first day in town. It's a beautiful church but the piazza is so filled with tourists and pigeons that you can barely move. The Rialto Bridge is grande, but there are other more scenic bridges in less touristy areas. Our first night in Venice, we decided to take advantage of the kitchen factilities in our hostel and cook dinner. Italian grocery stores are much like the rest of the country- strangely crowded and insanely busy. We ended up making homemade Al Fredo with Italian sausage, peppers, and squash. That night we went to the Venice Jazz Club to see a Brazilian bossa nova trio. 20 euro reserved us a table and bought us our first drink. The music was fantastic and we ended up getting a bottle of house wine after our first drinks were finished. It was a nice relaxing night towards the end of our trip.
We didn't want to shell out the money for the ridiculously overpriced gondola rides or the water taxis, so we walked all of Venice. There are water taxis for a good reason: Venice is quite large and the roads are quite confusing and your calves quickly tire of going over bridge after bridge, but if we had stuck to the grand canal we would have never stumbled upon what we dubbed the leaning tower of Venice or this great exhibit of historical instruments in a church. We also hit up the Peggy Guggenheim museum. They converted her house on the Grand Canal into a museum by basically taking the furniture out. She was a huge patron of modern art. I have a new favorite Picasso thanks to the visit. We ate at a little restaurant close to our hostel (aka, out of the tourist area) for dinner.
Milan was not what I was expecting. As the fashion capital of the world, it was definitely cosmopolitan, but I wasn't expecting to like the city as much as I did. We stayed at this great hostel called Bed&Bed Milan. It was fantastic, despite the misgivings we had because of the name. We headed straight for the Duomo which will probably remain the definition of gothic architecture in my mind. It is all peaks and sculpture and butresses and is absolutely beautiful. We decided to come back the next day for an audio tour. We were looking for some cheap dinner, so we were wandering around looking for menus with no English translations. The more authentic, the cheaper the meals tend to be in Italy. We found this great little place a few blocks down the road from our hostel. It had the red checked table cloth and everything. My first course was home made pesto which was absolutely delicious. I decided to be adventerous for my second course and order the carne cruddo. I knew that carne meant meat and decided that even though I had no idea what Cruddo was to go for it. Well, out come the second courses and in front of me, the waiter puts down a plate of at least a pound of raw hamburger meat with lemon juice and some parsley. I immediately start giggling and the waiter comes back and of course, he speaks no english and we don't speak enough Italian to tell him that I can't eat raw beef. Omar tries to help by saying "caliente" and eventually the waiter understands that I want it cooked. It ended up being pretty good and I left the waiter a nice tip for not making me eat raw hamburger. We got gelato as a dessert from the gelateria down the road from our hostel.
We went back to the Duomo on our last day in Milan for the audio tour. The church is so beautiful on the inside: 52 columns, 1 for each week, and the most beautiful stained glass windows I have every seen. The organ has 120 stops and 1500 pipes. Andrew went to a service that evening and said that the organ had a full 10 second reverb. Insane! After the Duomo we went in search of La Scala. It is one of the most famous opera houses in the world. Mike spotted the poster for a concert that night that was selling 5 euro tickets. We went to the ticket office and were told to show up 2 hours before the concert to get the tickets. While killing time, we went to this park that has a castle in it and ate lunch. It was at this park that I had the most amazing hot chocolate of my life. The drink was so thick that my spoon stood straight up until I was almost done! It was basically a melted hershey bar. Amazing. We got the tickets to the concert without any problems. The Theatro La Scala Orchestra was playing Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 and Also Sprach Zarathustra (better known as the music from 2001: A Space Odyssey). The concert was so amazing good. The clarinet section on the Strauss was absolutely spot on. It was a great end to our trip to Italy.
Mike, Omar, Andrew and I had the distinct pleasure of catching a 3:10 am bus to the airport for our 6 am flight to Palermo, Sicily. Despite the hellishly little amount of sleep we were all running on, by 10 am we were in gorgeous Sicily where it was sunny and around 70 degrees. Using our extremely limited Italian skills we managed to get a bus from the airport (the driver of which I spoke to in French... I had a hard time transitioning from the French roommates mindset to Italian) to the main train station and from there to our hostel. Our hostel was really nice and down this cute little side alley. We dropped off our bags and set off to explore the city.
Palermo is not really a touristy town, but there was plenty to keep us occupied. We went in search of food and found this great little pizza place that was probably a fast food joint, but the food was amazing and lunch was under 2 euro. Next, we wandered down to the water and hung out on the Mediterranean coast. We scrambled over some cement blocks to the waters edge and took some pictures. We met who may have been the only other tourist in Palermo besides us at the botanical gardens. She was a very nice woman from Iowa who took our picture. The gardens were absolutely beautiful- tons of flowers and tropical trees with busts and fountains interspersed. Naptime at the hotel was refreshing and much needed. We got a recommendation from the receptionist at the hostel for dinner. The restaurant was down this little alley and the food was absolutely the best we had in all of Italy. I had a traditional antipasta (salami and cheese) appetizer, followed by a pasta second course, and grilled swordfish with a raisin and pine nut stuffing for my last course, plus wine for under 20 euro. The atmosphere (flower sellers aside) was wonderful. An accordian player came in and we gave him a tip and he played our table a little serenade. Feeling pleased with ourselves, the boys got another bottle of wine on the way home and we hung out on the balcony before passing out for the night.
The next day we checked out of the hostel and stopped by the train station to get our tickets to Naples. We wandered around Palermo some more, including some side markets that had pretty much every animal you can imagine skinned and hanging at butcher's stalls and what had to be half of a swordfish posed on ice at the fish stall. Wandering the crowded markets was made more difficult by all of the people trying to ride their Vespas through the whole thing. We also hit up the local archeological museum, which was really neat. There was all kinds of ancient pottery and cave drawings from nearby caves. After another trip to the shore (and more views of insane amounts of PDA) we grabbed a quick bite for dinner and headed to the train station.
Our train journey to Naples consisted of two trains. Our first train was from Palermo to Messina, which is the eastern most city on Sicily. To get to the mainland, we transferred trains at Messina, and they loaded our train onto a ferry to get across the water. The train was split into three sections and loaded on the boat- so surreal. The train was a sleeper train, so I got a few hours of sleep and the distinct feeling of taking the train to Hogwarts.
Morning in Naples was not a good one. The city is so disgustingly dirty. Every step was spent avoiding stepping in excrement or on a homeless man. Even the beautiful sunrise couldn't take away from the post-apocolyptic/Mad Max feel of the place. We dropped our bags at our hostel and made for the ferry station to get our tickets to Capri. Unfortunately, the earliest ferry to Capri wasn't until 1 pm, so we had to try and amuse ourselves in the city until then. The side streets of Naples were almost as quaint and charming as those in Sicily, but the main roads really took away from any charm the city has. Luckily, we spent the better part of the day at Capri. It was really nice to return there 6 years after my first trip. It is such a beautiful place, even though it is full of tourists. It was nice to recognize the rocky cliffs and the blueness of the water. We got tickets for the last trip to the Blue Grotto for the day. It's so hard to describe how beautiful it is in there- the pictures really can't do it justice. We took a speedboat halfway around the island and then loaded into smaller row boats to be taken in the grotto. Our guide and all of the others were trying to have an Italian tenor singing contest while guiding us through. The boys all went swimming in the Mediterranean, which was Andrew's big goal for the day, while I waded in the water. We ate some dinner, which was overprices (naturally) and only alright, before taking a bus to Anacapri. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the chairlift, but we did get a nice view for sunset, and wandered around the little shops up at the top of the island. We caught the last ferry of the night home and crashed at our hostel in Naples.
The next day, Monday, we caught a train into Rome. From the train station we learned that public transport is "free" in Rome. We didn't know that you had to buy tickets for the tram before you got on, but when we offered the driver money, he waved us off. So we took a tram to our hostel before dropping our bags and meeting up with Eric, the boys' roommate, and Ilyse, his girlfriend. They were on their way to the airport, but stopped to give us some tips. We met them outside Vatican City and then headed into St. Mark's square. After more photo-ops, we headed out to get some dinner. We walked to a lot of the touristy sites by night including the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and Piazza Navona. We caught another tram back to the hostel and got some much needed rest.
Our second day in Italy was taken up by the Vatican and the Colosseum. The Vatican is another place I'm glad I went back to with some perspective. We went through a lot of the museum on our way to the Sistine Chapel. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of wealth the Catholic Church has and just how many priceless items from antiquity they have in their collection. The highlight of the museum for me was a statue of the River Nile reclining with 13 babies and various animals that live in the river. It was stunning, and apparently restored by a company from good old Pennsylvania!
The Sistine Chapel is so breathtaking. The scale is unimaginable, even when you're standing in the center. I can't imagine how taxing physically and mentally it must have been to paint that. Every figure is portrayed with such lifelike detail and the stories depicted are so dramatic. My favorite part is not the famous scene that everyone knows, but rather the depiction starting at the ceiling and curling down onto the far wall of heaven and hell. The depiction of hell is gruesome, but the contrast with heaven is startling and beautiful.
After the Sistine Chapel, we headed into St. Peter's Basilica. I love La Pieta, and I got significantly closer to the sculpture than I did last time. St. Peter's will always be beautiful and grand and a testament to the power of religion and the wealth of the Vatican, but I have some sentimental attachment to it after singing (albeit not with any kind of finess or talent) there. I found the little side chapel where we sang and got to point it out to the others.
Next up was the Colosseum. We paid for a guided tour, and it was entirely worth the money. Sometimes it's just nicer to have the information spoken to you instead of having to read it or research it yourself. The kind of technology that the Romans were capable of is amazing. The Colosseum had a retractable ceiling to shade the audience from the harsh sun and the building could be filled with water for mock sea battles. The life of a Gladiator was certainly a hard one with very little reward for most other than staying alive for the next fight. Over 700,000 people were killed there in the first year of the public games.
We had a bit of an adventure to our second hostel in Rome. We booked a hostel closer to the Ciampino airport because our flight to Venice was early in the morning and we thought we would save ourselves some trouble. Well, we got to the train station, bought our tickets, and carefully checked the time table and the platform information. Ciampino was supposed to be the first stop. Unfortunately, we somehow missed that the train we had gotten on was an express train, so it didn't stop at Ciampino. Three stops after our target, the train stopped and we got off along with some girls from Amsterdam who had the same problem as us. While we watched Italian commuters walk unconcernedly across the train tracks to get to the other platforms, the girls from Amsterdam told us how they were on a 2 week school trip to Rome, Florence, Lyon, France, and Paris for an art history class. A train back to Rome came, and we were able to get off at the right stop.
We felt relief at knowing we were only a bus ride away from our hostel. Our relief was short lived. At first nothing seemed amiss. We were safely loaded on the bus with our bags and were waiting for the trip to start. The driver was going a little fast, but nothing more outrageous than we had seen from other drivers on our trip. I started to feel uneasy when a local man got on the bus, sat down, and started crossing himself. All of a sudden the bus drive is going at least 60 mph down crowded city streets. We were the last stop on the bus route and we were all super relieved to have survived to the end. Our hostel was literally in the middle of nowhere- there was a small airplane in the parking lot! After checking in, we asked the man at the front desk about dinner since it was now 9 pm and we hadn't eaten. He said there was a restaurant about 300 m. down the road. We set off on the poorly lit street and while walking by the nunnery/airline hangar our sense of unease began to grow. We finally got to the main road, and the steakhouse, about 1 mile later. The food was superb and our waiter was lovely. He didn't speak too much English, but it was more than all of the other waiters. He found out we were musicians and promptly told us that his favorite musicians were Cream, Led Zepplin, and Jimi Hendrix; such a nice man.
We made it back to our hostel unscathed and crashed for a few hours until our 5 am taxi road 10 minutes down the road to the airport. After an uneventful flight, we were in Venice! Venice was by far my favorite city. There are no cars, for one thing. We stayed at this little bed and breakfast behind what was the Jewish Ghetto during WWII. We had to walk right through where the ghetto used to be to get to our hostel. You pass under a little wooden archway where there were these square shaped holes cut in the brick work. We found out that those holes were for the bars that they used to lock the Jews in at night with. It was a sobering thought every time we passed by.
Venice is full of brightly colored buildings, bridges, and a nice mixture of tourists and locals. We went to San Marco square on our first day in town. It's a beautiful church but the piazza is so filled with tourists and pigeons that you can barely move. The Rialto Bridge is grande, but there are other more scenic bridges in less touristy areas. Our first night in Venice, we decided to take advantage of the kitchen factilities in our hostel and cook dinner. Italian grocery stores are much like the rest of the country- strangely crowded and insanely busy. We ended up making homemade Al Fredo with Italian sausage, peppers, and squash. That night we went to the Venice Jazz Club to see a Brazilian bossa nova trio. 20 euro reserved us a table and bought us our first drink. The music was fantastic and we ended up getting a bottle of house wine after our first drinks were finished. It was a nice relaxing night towards the end of our trip.
We didn't want to shell out the money for the ridiculously overpriced gondola rides or the water taxis, so we walked all of Venice. There are water taxis for a good reason: Venice is quite large and the roads are quite confusing and your calves quickly tire of going over bridge after bridge, but if we had stuck to the grand canal we would have never stumbled upon what we dubbed the leaning tower of Venice or this great exhibit of historical instruments in a church. We also hit up the Peggy Guggenheim museum. They converted her house on the Grand Canal into a museum by basically taking the furniture out. She was a huge patron of modern art. I have a new favorite Picasso thanks to the visit. We ate at a little restaurant close to our hostel (aka, out of the tourist area) for dinner.
Milan was not what I was expecting. As the fashion capital of the world, it was definitely cosmopolitan, but I wasn't expecting to like the city as much as I did. We stayed at this great hostel called Bed&Bed Milan. It was fantastic, despite the misgivings we had because of the name. We headed straight for the Duomo which will probably remain the definition of gothic architecture in my mind. It is all peaks and sculpture and butresses and is absolutely beautiful. We decided to come back the next day for an audio tour. We were looking for some cheap dinner, so we were wandering around looking for menus with no English translations. The more authentic, the cheaper the meals tend to be in Italy. We found this great little place a few blocks down the road from our hostel. It had the red checked table cloth and everything. My first course was home made pesto which was absolutely delicious. I decided to be adventerous for my second course and order the carne cruddo. I knew that carne meant meat and decided that even though I had no idea what Cruddo was to go for it. Well, out come the second courses and in front of me, the waiter puts down a plate of at least a pound of raw hamburger meat with lemon juice and some parsley. I immediately start giggling and the waiter comes back and of course, he speaks no english and we don't speak enough Italian to tell him that I can't eat raw beef. Omar tries to help by saying "caliente" and eventually the waiter understands that I want it cooked. It ended up being pretty good and I left the waiter a nice tip for not making me eat raw hamburger. We got gelato as a dessert from the gelateria down the road from our hostel.
We went back to the Duomo on our last day in Milan for the audio tour. The church is so beautiful on the inside: 52 columns, 1 for each week, and the most beautiful stained glass windows I have every seen. The organ has 120 stops and 1500 pipes. Andrew went to a service that evening and said that the organ had a full 10 second reverb. Insane! After the Duomo we went in search of La Scala. It is one of the most famous opera houses in the world. Mike spotted the poster for a concert that night that was selling 5 euro tickets. We went to the ticket office and were told to show up 2 hours before the concert to get the tickets. While killing time, we went to this park that has a castle in it and ate lunch. It was at this park that I had the most amazing hot chocolate of my life. The drink was so thick that my spoon stood straight up until I was almost done! It was basically a melted hershey bar. Amazing. We got the tickets to the concert without any problems. The Theatro La Scala Orchestra was playing Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 and Also Sprach Zarathustra (better known as the music from 2001: A Space Odyssey). The concert was so amazing good. The clarinet section on the Strauss was absolutely spot on. It was a great end to our trip to Italy.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Weekend
Short post because I have to get on the tube soon and go home. However, a brief recap of my weekend:
Friday:
Visit to Hampton Court (aka 1 of Henry VIII's 50 homes) with Art and Architecture. Our professor had a friend there to lecture with her and was very giggly.
Shannon and Ernest got to London tonight!! After I got stuck on public transport FOREVER, I made it to the pub for dinner (bangers and mash!) and a tour by night of famous London sites.
Saturday:
Took Shannon and Ernest to Borough market with Omar and Mike. It was awesome- I got a cup of very good apple cider (since I had to miss Applefest in Ithaca), 2 lamb spring rolls, and some dessert. After we went to Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace. Took a break for naptime, then attempted to go to dinner at a Thai place that was recommended to us. Instead everyone learned the textbook definition of "dodgy" at our fine dining establishment, Little India, that wanted to "wellcome" us to their restaurant below Britain's version of KFC, Chicken Village. Expect a longer post on our dinner experience. After that we went to a friend's apartment in Hammersmith for what was supposed to be a party, but since we showed up 4 hours late, we kind of missed it.
Sunday:
Slept until 11:30 because we had gotten home at 4 am and then went to Cafe Forum for lunch. Shannon and Ernest adventured off on their own to the Natural History Museum while Omar, Mike, and I practiced. Then we stopped back to their apartment before heading back to Westminster Abbey for an organ recital. It was really good- all music of Ralph Vaughn Williams, mostly the Folk Song Suite that any band person will know. It was free and only like 40 minutes long. Andrew made chicken noodle soup for dinner, and I was going to make clam chowder, but all the grocery stores were closed so that was a no go. Instead we went to the small Halal grocers and got stuff to make bananas foster and Andrews concoction that was basically bananas foster on a pita baked in the oven. Everything was delicious.
The highlight of the weekend was getting to see Chris and Corinne via Alicia's skype. It was so good to see all of them! I need to work harder at figuring out how to get to chat with them (and Amanda).
Cheers!
Friday:
Visit to Hampton Court (aka 1 of Henry VIII's 50 homes) with Art and Architecture. Our professor had a friend there to lecture with her and was very giggly.
Shannon and Ernest got to London tonight!! After I got stuck on public transport FOREVER, I made it to the pub for dinner (bangers and mash!) and a tour by night of famous London sites.
Saturday:
Took Shannon and Ernest to Borough market with Omar and Mike. It was awesome- I got a cup of very good apple cider (since I had to miss Applefest in Ithaca), 2 lamb spring rolls, and some dessert. After we went to Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace. Took a break for naptime, then attempted to go to dinner at a Thai place that was recommended to us. Instead everyone learned the textbook definition of "dodgy" at our fine dining establishment, Little India, that wanted to "wellcome" us to their restaurant below Britain's version of KFC, Chicken Village. Expect a longer post on our dinner experience. After that we went to a friend's apartment in Hammersmith for what was supposed to be a party, but since we showed up 4 hours late, we kind of missed it.
Sunday:
Slept until 11:30 because we had gotten home at 4 am and then went to Cafe Forum for lunch. Shannon and Ernest adventured off on their own to the Natural History Museum while Omar, Mike, and I practiced. Then we stopped back to their apartment before heading back to Westminster Abbey for an organ recital. It was really good- all music of Ralph Vaughn Williams, mostly the Folk Song Suite that any band person will know. It was free and only like 40 minutes long. Andrew made chicken noodle soup for dinner, and I was going to make clam chowder, but all the grocery stores were closed so that was a no go. Instead we went to the small Halal grocers and got stuff to make bananas foster and Andrews concoction that was basically bananas foster on a pita baked in the oven. Everything was delicious.
The highlight of the weekend was getting to see Chris and Corinne via Alicia's skype. It was so good to see all of them! I need to work harder at figuring out how to get to chat with them (and Amanda).
Cheers!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Musings on Education
So, for those of you who are familiar with it, you'll be happy (or maybe not?) to know that The Pizza Song is spreading like wildfire through the Lambeth school district. In one of my schools last week, we had to quickly reorganize our lesson because recorders hadn't come for the 8 year olds. We had been working on call and response, so I said that I knew a song. The Pizza Song happens to be almost the same as another song in the Lambeth Songbook, so the kids picked it up really quickly. I came back from teaching and told Omar, who taught it on Monday at his schools. Andrew came back yesterday and told me that the Olly, the teacher who was leading the class that I had initially taught the song in, was teaching it at the school that Andrew works at on Tuesday. All of my kids asked me if we could sing it again today, but unfortunately there was no time- maybe it will be a good song to reward good behavior?
All in all, I've really enjoyed teaching so far. I spend almost all of my Wednesdays with one particular teacher, so we spend a lot of time talking as we're doing all of our traveling. This teacher has gone to school in the US for a bit so he knows about the American way of doing things to a certain extent- certainly more in terms of performance than education, but it makes for interesting conversations.
One of the administrators at my afternoon school today was asking me about American education and if the system set up in Lambeth would work in America and I had to try and explain why it wouldn't work. The simplest explanation is that each school should have general music K-8 and instrumental/vocal programs starting in the 4/5th grade. I didn't get in to how that doesn't always happen, but there really is no need for a service like the one I'm working for. Their goal is to teach general musical concepts like high- low and short-long (as the most basic examples) using instruments as the vehicle. These programs are not aimed at creating high quality ensembles for the children, but rather as a kind of high-level substitute for general music programs which don't exist.
Some of the problems with the system are obvious: there is no comprehensive progressive curriculum from grade to grade. Many of the classes I work with are the only class in the school that does whatever we're doing with them. No one else in the school gets music. Also, for children who come through the band and string programs, in most cases there is no way for them to carry on with their instruments should they have the skill or desire. There are some afternoon programs that are tuition-free, and students can pay (with scholarships) for weekend lessons and ensembles, but the parents have to escort them there and I know that many children do not participate because their parents can't spare the time. I teach in very working class neighborhoods. I wouldn't want to wander around in the neighborhood that my afternoon school is situated in by myself after dusk.
It's an interesting work study and I'm glad I chose to participate. Omar, Andrew, and I are guinea pigs in many ways, but it is very informative to view a completely different educational system and compare what I know and the ways I would teach certain concepts to what (and how) material gets taught in England.
All in all, I've really enjoyed teaching so far. I spend almost all of my Wednesdays with one particular teacher, so we spend a lot of time talking as we're doing all of our traveling. This teacher has gone to school in the US for a bit so he knows about the American way of doing things to a certain extent- certainly more in terms of performance than education, but it makes for interesting conversations.
One of the administrators at my afternoon school today was asking me about American education and if the system set up in Lambeth would work in America and I had to try and explain why it wouldn't work. The simplest explanation is that each school should have general music K-8 and instrumental/vocal programs starting in the 4/5th grade. I didn't get in to how that doesn't always happen, but there really is no need for a service like the one I'm working for. Their goal is to teach general musical concepts like high- low and short-long (as the most basic examples) using instruments as the vehicle. These programs are not aimed at creating high quality ensembles for the children, but rather as a kind of high-level substitute for general music programs which don't exist.
Some of the problems with the system are obvious: there is no comprehensive progressive curriculum from grade to grade. Many of the classes I work with are the only class in the school that does whatever we're doing with them. No one else in the school gets music. Also, for children who come through the band and string programs, in most cases there is no way for them to carry on with their instruments should they have the skill or desire. There are some afternoon programs that are tuition-free, and students can pay (with scholarships) for weekend lessons and ensembles, but the parents have to escort them there and I know that many children do not participate because their parents can't spare the time. I teach in very working class neighborhoods. I wouldn't want to wander around in the neighborhood that my afternoon school is situated in by myself after dusk.
It's an interesting work study and I'm glad I chose to participate. Omar, Andrew, and I are guinea pigs in many ways, but it is very informative to view a completely different educational system and compare what I know and the ways I would teach certain concepts to what (and how) material gets taught in England.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
From the Lambeth Music Service:
Song excerpt from the Lambeth Music Service Songbook:
(appropriate for years 2-5)
to the tune of Frere Jacques:
Harry Potter, Harry Potter
Where's he gone? Where's he gone?
Run of with Hermione, Run off with Hermione,
Poor old Ron, Poor old Ron.
(appropriate for years 2-5)
to the tune of Frere Jacques:
Harry Potter, Harry Potter
Where's he gone? Where's he gone?
Run of with Hermione, Run off with Hermione,
Poor old Ron, Poor old Ron.
So yeah, welcome to British music education.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Pictures!
Avesbury (note the sheep)
Glastonbury Abbey
The view of the Tor when we were close
Super Senior Music Majors at the top of the Tor
(l-r: Erin, Robin, Mike, Omar, Me, Andrew)
(l-r: Erin, Robin, Mike, Omar, Me, Andrew)
Illegal picture from inside Wells Cathedral (oops)
Bath Abbey by night
Roman Baths
Stonehenge
Avesbury- Glastonbury- Wells- Bath- Stonehenge
As the subject would suggest, it was a busy weekend.
We left earlier than I would have liked Friday morning for Avesbury. I don't think many of us (if any) had heard of the town, but it is the site of a large monolithic structure like Stonehenge. It is much larger than it's more famous counter part but it the stones didn't travel as far as a distance and they were never carved into their shapes. It was still very impressive and beautiful. There were also sheep roaming all over Avesbury, so avoiding stepping in anything unpleasant was quite a task. The nice thing about Avesbury is that you can actually touch the stone (or sit on the one known as the Devil's Seat). When it was built the stones were said to aid in fertility- women would rub against the stones to encourage pregnancy.
Next we headed off to Glastonbury. The town is famous for several things, the first of which being the ruined abbey. Thanks to Henry VIII and his need for a male heir and money, Protestantism became the new national religion and many Catholic churches and abbeys were damaged or destroyed. The abbey at Glastonbury is one of the most famous examples.
Glastonbury is also supposed to be the burial place of the Holy Grail. Joseph of Arimethia is said to have visited and may have brought along his nephew, Jesus. There is a fountain where the grail is supposedly hiding, but I didn't want to shell out the cash to see it. Glastonbury as a town reminds me a lot of Ithaca- I saw my first hippies of England here and there were plenty of "grow shops" around, including a Lord of the Rings inspired one.
Lastly, Glastonbury is steeped in Arthurian legend. There is a tower called the Tor on top of a natural hill- all in all the whole thing is 512 feet tall. Guinevere was supposedly trapped in the tower and Arthur was unable to rescue her, mainly because at the time all of the land surrounding the Tor was swamplands. On Friday, however, the sun was shining and we (and about 30 cows) had no problem climbing up the hill to the Tor. The view from up there was absolutely gorgeous- you could see the country side for miles. We stopped by a pub for a refreshing drink after the hike and ended up getting warm beer and cider- silly Brits.
We had a quick stop at Wells Cathedral, which I actually recognized- thank you British Art and Architecture. It is a stunning building and the town of Wells itself is pretty scenic. Robin, Erin, and I visited the oldest continually inhabited street in England. It was swamped with uniformed school children when we were there, but whatever. We strolled around town for a bit and stopped off for some gelato before getting back on the bus to Bath.
We got to Bath right around dinner time, so after dropping our stuff off at the YMCA (yes, people do actually stay in them here!) we wandered around and found a pub that was serving 2 dinners for £6.95. The food was great, but the service was pretty awful. Omar and I did end up getting free desserts of belgian waffles with rasberry syrup and ice cream though. Omar also got carded at the bar because "he just looked younger" than the rest of us. The bartender let him buy one beer with dinner, and then I got the rest of his drinks for him. Omar, Robin, Erin, and I decided that we didn't want to wait 2 hours for Andrew to finish his Guiness after eating 2 bacon cheeseburgers (he though the 2 for 1 deal was for one person), so we strolled around Bath at night. It's got a really great atmosphere- very friendly and a bit like American college towns.
The next morning was a trip to the Roman Baths. It's amazing to think that you can still see a structure in England where the Romans walked and lived. The baths are the only natural hot spring on the whole island. The water is over 110 degrees F! The museum was really interesting and we had little audio guides narrated by Bill Bryson (if you haven't read anything by him, I highly recommend it!). After seeing some middle aged male street performers wearing nothing but thongs entertain the crowds using a combination of acrobatics, fire, and sparklers held by their bums, we went for a slightly more dignified walk around Bath guided by Bill. The Georgian architecture is visually stunning, but I quite prefer my quaint little British cottages.
After Bath we stopped at Stonehenge. It's a bit less impressive than Avesbury in a few ways- it's right next to a major roadway, which takes away from some of the magic of the rural setting, and it's quite a small structure comparitively. Avesbury took 45 minutes to walk around and you can walk around Stonehenge in about 20, and that's with a large barrier around you and the monument. You can't touch the stones here, which is kind of a bummer, but it does have it's redeeming points. The stones were hauled over a much longer distance and they were shaped and smoothed. The whole thing is built with tongue and groove technology, which is a bit difficult to do in the hard rock with primitive tools. The ditches around the structure were dug with a cow's shoulder bone- pretty time and labour intensive. All in all, it was a great end to the trip.
We left earlier than I would have liked Friday morning for Avesbury. I don't think many of us (if any) had heard of the town, but it is the site of a large monolithic structure like Stonehenge. It is much larger than it's more famous counter part but it the stones didn't travel as far as a distance and they were never carved into their shapes. It was still very impressive and beautiful. There were also sheep roaming all over Avesbury, so avoiding stepping in anything unpleasant was quite a task. The nice thing about Avesbury is that you can actually touch the stone (or sit on the one known as the Devil's Seat). When it was built the stones were said to aid in fertility- women would rub against the stones to encourage pregnancy.
Next we headed off to Glastonbury. The town is famous for several things, the first of which being the ruined abbey. Thanks to Henry VIII and his need for a male heir and money, Protestantism became the new national religion and many Catholic churches and abbeys were damaged or destroyed. The abbey at Glastonbury is one of the most famous examples.
Glastonbury is also supposed to be the burial place of the Holy Grail. Joseph of Arimethia is said to have visited and may have brought along his nephew, Jesus. There is a fountain where the grail is supposedly hiding, but I didn't want to shell out the cash to see it. Glastonbury as a town reminds me a lot of Ithaca- I saw my first hippies of England here and there were plenty of "grow shops" around, including a Lord of the Rings inspired one.
Lastly, Glastonbury is steeped in Arthurian legend. There is a tower called the Tor on top of a natural hill- all in all the whole thing is 512 feet tall. Guinevere was supposedly trapped in the tower and Arthur was unable to rescue her, mainly because at the time all of the land surrounding the Tor was swamplands. On Friday, however, the sun was shining and we (and about 30 cows) had no problem climbing up the hill to the Tor. The view from up there was absolutely gorgeous- you could see the country side for miles. We stopped by a pub for a refreshing drink after the hike and ended up getting warm beer and cider- silly Brits.
We had a quick stop at Wells Cathedral, which I actually recognized- thank you British Art and Architecture. It is a stunning building and the town of Wells itself is pretty scenic. Robin, Erin, and I visited the oldest continually inhabited street in England. It was swamped with uniformed school children when we were there, but whatever. We strolled around town for a bit and stopped off for some gelato before getting back on the bus to Bath.
We got to Bath right around dinner time, so after dropping our stuff off at the YMCA (yes, people do actually stay in them here!) we wandered around and found a pub that was serving 2 dinners for £6.95. The food was great, but the service was pretty awful. Omar and I did end up getting free desserts of belgian waffles with rasberry syrup and ice cream though. Omar also got carded at the bar because "he just looked younger" than the rest of us. The bartender let him buy one beer with dinner, and then I got the rest of his drinks for him. Omar, Robin, Erin, and I decided that we didn't want to wait 2 hours for Andrew to finish his Guiness after eating 2 bacon cheeseburgers (he though the 2 for 1 deal was for one person), so we strolled around Bath at night. It's got a really great atmosphere- very friendly and a bit like American college towns.
The next morning was a trip to the Roman Baths. It's amazing to think that you can still see a structure in England where the Romans walked and lived. The baths are the only natural hot spring on the whole island. The water is over 110 degrees F! The museum was really interesting and we had little audio guides narrated by Bill Bryson (if you haven't read anything by him, I highly recommend it!). After seeing some middle aged male street performers wearing nothing but thongs entertain the crowds using a combination of acrobatics, fire, and sparklers held by their bums, we went for a slightly more dignified walk around Bath guided by Bill. The Georgian architecture is visually stunning, but I quite prefer my quaint little British cottages.
After Bath we stopped at Stonehenge. It's a bit less impressive than Avesbury in a few ways- it's right next to a major roadway, which takes away from some of the magic of the rural setting, and it's quite a small structure comparitively. Avesbury took 45 minutes to walk around and you can walk around Stonehenge in about 20, and that's with a large barrier around you and the monument. You can't touch the stones here, which is kind of a bummer, but it does have it's redeeming points. The stones were hauled over a much longer distance and they were shaped and smoothed. The whole thing is built with tongue and groove technology, which is a bit difficult to do in the hard rock with primitive tools. The ditches around the structure were dug with a cow's shoulder bone- pretty time and labour intensive. All in all, it was a great end to the trip.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Good morning
Seeing a man wearing a business suit riding a mountain bike to work will never cease to make me smile.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Weekend Recap
It's been a crazy few days here in London (and around England):
Friday: Leave for Stratford!
Friday was the first day of our trip to Stratford. We all loaded up on the bus at 8:30 and before we were even out of London, Andrew had saved Allison's life by catching his laptop bag one-handed. After a brief pit stop where we learned that British travel stops are much classier than American (we're talking leather chairs here), Andrew solified his position as bus hero by killing a bee that was terrorizing Omar with his bare hand.
We stopped off at Warwick Castle which was a little touristy but beautiful. After going through the bit that was set up as if a Victorian party was going on (complete with creepy statues), we saw a demonstration of some medieval war equipment and an archery demonstration. Believe nothing that anyone says about me and the bowman. We climbed the tallest tower built by William the Conqueror and looked over the town. We meandered into town in search of the park but, of course, it started pouring as soon as we sat down. We hurried back through town and went to a quaint little tea shop and had our first real British tea.
Robin, Erin, the boys (minus Mike, who payed late), and I were in this awesome Bed and Breakfast (complete with dogs!). We went on a walk with Bill, who had forgotten his umbrella. Bill took particular delight in pointing out all the school boys roaming around. We stopped in at the Dirty Duck, the pub for the actors in the Royal Shakespeare Company, and had a pint (on Bill!) before dinner. Traditional fish and chips, complete with mushy peas, may be my new favorite meal. We saw Midsummer's Night Dream, and it was absolutely brilliant. The stage production and costuming was new and creative and we were all practically sitting on stage.
Saturday:
The next day we went to a talk on Shakespeare's life by Dr. Tim Kidd. Shakespeare's life is fascinating, especially when narrated while standing on the shores of the scenic Avon River. We got to tour Shakespeare's church where he and his family are buried and after that, we roamed around town a bit more. There was a really wonderful farmer's market and some nice bookshops. After Stratford, we stopped at Oxford on the way home. It's a really wonderful town with the different colleges scattered around. We saw a man playing a hurdy gurdy on the street corner too! The highlight of Oxford had to be the grounds of Christchurch college. It is one of the most beautiful buildings and grounds that I have ever seen.
Saturday night: Party with the French roommates!
So our French roommates- Manu, Laurence, and Auriele- are awesome. Auriele is really just friends with Manu and Laurence but the three of them want to live together so they got a new flat together and Saturday was their last night in the flat. We had made plans to have a party with them before they left. After Auriele and Manu's friend Ghislene tried (and failed miserably) to make crepes, Manu manned the stove. Meanwhile, the rest of us went to the corner wine and liquor store to pick up some drinks. We got a bottle of wine that the french roommates refused to drink, some cider (yum), and provisions to make screwdrivers. Saturday was the day we met our new French roommate as well and I still can't remember her name. After Manu finished making a pile of crepes at least 7 inches tall, we took everything outside and dug in. Mom's oreo's and M&M's that she sent me were a big hit. My new favorite food is probably crepes with nutella- so amazing!
Sunday:
First football match ever! We saw the Queen's Park Rangers (QPR) play Southhampton. QPR is our local team so everyone was decked out in blue and white. We were sitting almost on top of the field and very close to the Southhampton fans. It was great. The fans were insane yelling at each other and leading cheers. My favorite cheer was easily the simplest- "Sit down, shut up" - brilliant. In the end our team won 3-1 and I have a new favorite sporting even.
Monday:
My first day of teaching: to make a long story short, I was fifteen minutes late because no one found it pertinant to tell me that the school was down an access road (i.e. somewhere you wouldn't think to walk) and behind a car park. I could hear the kids out at recess and asked the locals, none of whom were aware there was a primary school in the area, and only got to the school when I called the office to tell them I had no clue where I was. We didn't actually do any teaching, but instead had a meeting with the classroom teacher to learn about the students and what behavioral methods he uses. Since we're short a percussion specialist at this school, I will be desperately trying to play drum set during our demonstration next week. The drum set consists of a snare drum, one half of a pair of crash cymbals acting as a ride cymbal, and a bass drum without a kick pedal. I think this will work in my favor since I'll at least have a bit of an excuse as to why I suck.
That's more than long enough for now, but I have a great post coming up about our flat's adventures in arc building thanks to our landlord.
Cheers!
Friday: Leave for Stratford!
Friday was the first day of our trip to Stratford. We all loaded up on the bus at 8:30 and before we were even out of London, Andrew had saved Allison's life by catching his laptop bag one-handed. After a brief pit stop where we learned that British travel stops are much classier than American (we're talking leather chairs here), Andrew solified his position as bus hero by killing a bee that was terrorizing Omar with his bare hand.
We stopped off at Warwick Castle which was a little touristy but beautiful. After going through the bit that was set up as if a Victorian party was going on (complete with creepy statues), we saw a demonstration of some medieval war equipment and an archery demonstration. Believe nothing that anyone says about me and the bowman. We climbed the tallest tower built by William the Conqueror and looked over the town. We meandered into town in search of the park but, of course, it started pouring as soon as we sat down. We hurried back through town and went to a quaint little tea shop and had our first real British tea.
Robin, Erin, the boys (minus Mike, who payed late), and I were in this awesome Bed and Breakfast (complete with dogs!). We went on a walk with Bill, who had forgotten his umbrella. Bill took particular delight in pointing out all the school boys roaming around. We stopped in at the Dirty Duck, the pub for the actors in the Royal Shakespeare Company, and had a pint (on Bill!) before dinner. Traditional fish and chips, complete with mushy peas, may be my new favorite meal. We saw Midsummer's Night Dream, and it was absolutely brilliant. The stage production and costuming was new and creative and we were all practically sitting on stage.
Saturday:
The next day we went to a talk on Shakespeare's life by Dr. Tim Kidd. Shakespeare's life is fascinating, especially when narrated while standing on the shores of the scenic Avon River. We got to tour Shakespeare's church where he and his family are buried and after that, we roamed around town a bit more. There was a really wonderful farmer's market and some nice bookshops. After Stratford, we stopped at Oxford on the way home. It's a really wonderful town with the different colleges scattered around. We saw a man playing a hurdy gurdy on the street corner too! The highlight of Oxford had to be the grounds of Christchurch college. It is one of the most beautiful buildings and grounds that I have ever seen.
Saturday night: Party with the French roommates!
So our French roommates- Manu, Laurence, and Auriele- are awesome. Auriele is really just friends with Manu and Laurence but the three of them want to live together so they got a new flat together and Saturday was their last night in the flat. We had made plans to have a party with them before they left. After Auriele and Manu's friend Ghislene tried (and failed miserably) to make crepes, Manu manned the stove. Meanwhile, the rest of us went to the corner wine and liquor store to pick up some drinks. We got a bottle of wine that the french roommates refused to drink, some cider (yum), and provisions to make screwdrivers. Saturday was the day we met our new French roommate as well and I still can't remember her name. After Manu finished making a pile of crepes at least 7 inches tall, we took everything outside and dug in. Mom's oreo's and M&M's that she sent me were a big hit. My new favorite food is probably crepes with nutella- so amazing!
Sunday:
First football match ever! We saw the Queen's Park Rangers (QPR) play Southhampton. QPR is our local team so everyone was decked out in blue and white. We were sitting almost on top of the field and very close to the Southhampton fans. It was great. The fans were insane yelling at each other and leading cheers. My favorite cheer was easily the simplest- "Sit down, shut up" - brilliant. In the end our team won 3-1 and I have a new favorite sporting even.
Monday:
My first day of teaching: to make a long story short, I was fifteen minutes late because no one found it pertinant to tell me that the school was down an access road (i.e. somewhere you wouldn't think to walk) and behind a car park. I could hear the kids out at recess and asked the locals, none of whom were aware there was a primary school in the area, and only got to the school when I called the office to tell them I had no clue where I was. We didn't actually do any teaching, but instead had a meeting with the classroom teacher to learn about the students and what behavioral methods he uses. Since we're short a percussion specialist at this school, I will be desperately trying to play drum set during our demonstration next week. The drum set consists of a snare drum, one half of a pair of crash cymbals acting as a ride cymbal, and a bass drum without a kick pedal. I think this will work in my favor since I'll at least have a bit of an excuse as to why I suck.
That's more than long enough for now, but I have a great post coming up about our flat's adventures in arc building thanks to our landlord.
Cheers!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Jolly Good
Typical.
For those who don't know: From L to R:
Dr. Isbell, Omar, Me (duh), Meghan, Seth, Andrew, Mike
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
My favorite statue at the Victoria and Albert Museum, despite the fact that Samson is beating that poor man to death with a jaw bone.
It's been a while since I've last update. Where to begin? On Thursday night, Omar, Erin, and I decided to go see Wicked- it was good, but Spamalot is more my type of Broadway. Friday afternoon a bunch of us went on a tour of Parliament. It was originally the Palace of Westminster, then it burned down and was rebuilt, and then it was almost completely destroyed and rebuilt (again). The oldest part of the building is the hall you sit in before your tour starts- its around 900 years old! They used to hold trials there. The one you all will be probably recognize is the trial that found William Wallace (Braveheart) guilty of treason. Our tour guide was very enthusiastic and encouraged us to imagine ourselves as the queen walking around the halls before addressing Parliament. The procedures there are very much antiquated, but they have yet to deal with hanging chads a la Florida, so I guess it's working just fine.
On Sunday, Andrew and I tried to go to the Portobello Market, which is pretty close to me, but we got there too early. We gave up and had lunch in what is quickly becoming my favorite coffee shop by school, Cafe Nero. (For Mom and Amanda: my waiter was named Stefano and shared all the best aspects of our bus drive in Italy haha, but was about 20 and presumably has no children). I was hanging out with Andrew in the London Center, when Steve Brown, walked in. (For Family and Amanda: Steve is the retired jazz prof. from IC). He's hanging around Europe with his wife for a bit, and is living in the flat on the top floor of the London Center this week. We've been hearing a lot more of the word "baby" around here- it's great. He is going to play in Brit Pop tomorrow with Andrew and Omar; it should be an interesting class to say the least.
Another IC prof is in town right now as well. Dan Isbell is here presenting his dissertation at Roehampton University and we're going to meet up with him tonight for drinks- we'll get to show him around town a bit and catch up. It should be a lot of fun.
Yesterday, my art history class toured Westminster Abbey. It's a beautiful building crammed full of tombs and monuments to what feels like everyone of mild fame or nobility that has ever lived in England. Highlights of the non-architectural variety include the flagstone tributes to Elgar and Vaughn Williams. Handel is buried there and has a really interesting statue of him without his wig on. Our professor was telling us that Handel was famous for throwing his wig at musicians who were playing out of tune during rehearsals and that he once threatened to throw a soprano out of a window for singing flat. awesome.
Things to look forward to: Friday and Saturday trip to Stratford upon Avon and Oxford.
Two weekends from now: trip to Bath and Stonehenge
Planning fall break trip: tour of Italy with Omar, Andrew, and Mike
Cheers!
P.S. The only thing I've found so far that I hate about London (and presumably other parts of England): instead of worms coming out when it rains, SLUGS come out here. gross.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Mind the Gap
So I had my second lesson today and it went well, but I was a little surprised by the language barrier. I know this is kind of stupid, but when she throws out words like quaver and semi-quaver first thing in the morning, I'm really slow to process the American equivalent. Whatever. Also, she kept telling me that I needed more pressure to get a note to speak clearly without the subtone. I was really confused because, you know, pressure is not usually a word one hears in lessons. Finally, after her telling me to use more pressure 3 times in a row, I realized she meant air support- she was right, it did help.
Apparently, I don't look like a tourist to other tourists here. I was walking out of the Royal College of Music, and some Spanish tourists stopped me to ask for directions. They didn't speak much English at all, and I speak no Spanish whatsoever. However, they were just looking for the science museum- one of the few tourist destinations that I can easily navigate myself to- so I was able to give them directions use a map and some hand signals.
You can also tell the tourists by how they cross streets here. The walk/don't walk lights here run a bit funny because they will tell you that you can't cross the street if you want to walk parallel with the cars that are moving through the intersection. In most cases you can, because the cars running perpendicular to you are at a red light so you only have to watch out for cars turning. Tourists will wait for the light to turn green no matter what. Locals will not. I have seen (presumably) locals wander out into the street and stand on the white line in the middle of an insanely busy 4 lane road at rush hour like it is no big deal. I haven't gotten quite that brave, but I don't necessarily wait for the light. This morning, when I got off the bus, after I had gone through a couple of intersections, I noticed that I had a small group of tourists following me through the intersection.
Tour of Parliament this afternoon!
Cheers!
Apparently, I don't look like a tourist to other tourists here. I was walking out of the Royal College of Music, and some Spanish tourists stopped me to ask for directions. They didn't speak much English at all, and I speak no Spanish whatsoever. However, they were just looking for the science museum- one of the few tourist destinations that I can easily navigate myself to- so I was able to give them directions use a map and some hand signals.
You can also tell the tourists by how they cross streets here. The walk/don't walk lights here run a bit funny because they will tell you that you can't cross the street if you want to walk parallel with the cars that are moving through the intersection. In most cases you can, because the cars running perpendicular to you are at a red light so you only have to watch out for cars turning. Tourists will wait for the light to turn green no matter what. Locals will not. I have seen (presumably) locals wander out into the street and stand on the white line in the middle of an insanely busy 4 lane road at rush hour like it is no big deal. I haven't gotten quite that brave, but I don't necessarily wait for the light. This morning, when I got off the bus, after I had gone through a couple of intersections, I noticed that I had a small group of tourists following me through the intersection.
Tour of Parliament this afternoon!
Cheers!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Teaching
Guess who will be teaching Strings!
Andrew, Omar, and I had a meeting down in Lambeth for our work-study. Each of us will be teaching at four schools in 2 days, so we should be fairly busy. I'll be teaching band, general music, and strings of course. Omar also has some string classes along with band and general music and Andrew just has band/general music.
I'm not too worried about the whole strings thing. Even though Class Strings was kind of a joke, I think I can handle this because the students only learn three notes, they call them by solfege, not note names, and they don't get to bowing until Christmas. I think I'll be ok.
Here's a little trivia I learned in my British Pop class:
Q. Like many other great composers around Europe, Handel's house has been preserved through the years by a historical society. Which famous rock star lived in the flat next door??
Hi George!
Andrew, Omar, and I had a meeting down in Lambeth for our work-study. Each of us will be teaching at four schools in 2 days, so we should be fairly busy. I'll be teaching band, general music, and strings of course. Omar also has some string classes along with band and general music and Andrew just has band/general music.
I'm not too worried about the whole strings thing. Even though Class Strings was kind of a joke, I think I can handle this because the students only learn three notes, they call them by solfege, not note names, and they don't get to bowing until Christmas. I think I'll be ok.
Here's a little trivia I learned in my British Pop class:
Q. Like many other great composers around Europe, Handel's house has been preserved through the years by a historical society. Which famous rock star lived in the flat next door??
Hi George!
A. Jimi Hendrix! The society that owns the Handel House bought Jimi's flat. There's a little plaque outside the flat.
Cheers!
Cheers!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Spamalot
So yesterday evening, Andrew and I decided to be spontaneous and try to get tickets to see Spamalot. We called the box office and they said they still had tickets left, so we got on the tube and headed over to the West End. After some consultation with my A-Z (pronounced A- Zed) to figure out which direction we needed to be walking in, we found the Palace Theatre where it was playing. We got in line behind some confused foreigners in Members Only jackets and waited for them to get their ticket situation sussed. We were going to try for the £15 nosebleed seats, but Andrew had the stroke of genius of asking if they had a student discount. We ended up getting the best available seats for £20. We ended up having great seats in the second row of the balcony- we could see the pit and were probably a maximum of 30 ft. away from the stage.
The show was amazing- just so funny. Andrew and I are still humming some of the tunes from the show.
Up for this week: tonight is Brahms 3 and Shostakovich 10 with the Berlin Phil. and Simon Rattle, potentially Thursday to see the Olso Phil play Tchaik. 6, Friday to see the London Phil. play Firebird and then after that Martin Frost is playing in Quartet for the end of time.
I think on Sunday we're going to go back to the markets over on the East End and taking Robin with us, since she was sick on Sunday.
Also, here's an email Bill sent us all today:
Dear students,
The ICLC has more or less been challenged to produce a team of fit, athletic, sober 'softballers' next SUNDAY morning for a game against the Hyde Park softballers.Can we get a group together? AS Hyde Park Softball is mostly male, mostly US expats, and mostly over-the-hill, we might have a chance of winning [which we have always failed to do in similar challenges in the past].
There is a sign-up sheet in the entry hall. Can we allow this challenge to go unanswered?
Cheers!
The show was amazing- just so funny. Andrew and I are still humming some of the tunes from the show.
Up for this week: tonight is Brahms 3 and Shostakovich 10 with the Berlin Phil. and Simon Rattle, potentially Thursday to see the Olso Phil play Tchaik. 6, Friday to see the London Phil. play Firebird and then after that Martin Frost is playing in Quartet for the end of time.
I think on Sunday we're going to go back to the markets over on the East End and taking Robin with us, since she was sick on Sunday.
Also, here's an email Bill sent us all today:
Dear students,
The ICLC has more or less been challenged to produce a team of fit, athletic, sober 'softballers' next SUNDAY morning for a game against the Hyde Park softballers.Can we get a group together? AS Hyde Park Softball is mostly male, mostly US expats, and mostly over-the-hill, we might have a chance of winning [which we have always failed to do in similar challenges in the past].
There is a sign-up sheet in the entry hall. Can we allow this challenge to go unanswered?
Cheers!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Adventures in Public Transport
There are many great things about living in a city like London: the museums (all free!), the history, the abundance of parks, and the culture. There are however some drawbacks, the most noticeable after yesterday being the public transport.
Since I didn't have a license for a long time, I have relied on others for rides to places I need to go. I got used to learning to time my schedule around when I could bum a ride to Wegmans. I only had to ride the Tcat two or three times I think, and each time it was a disaster. Since that is the only public transport I have really taken, I assumed that stepping onto a city bus meant signing your life over to the driver.
Then I got to London. The tube is very easy to navigate and so is the bus system. I think it speaks pretty well of the organization of Transport for London (and my trusty A to Z map) that I have not gotten lost yet. I have never had a real problem getting where I need to go before.
Yesterday was the exception. The morning started badly when I discovered my Oyster card was expired when I tried to get on the bus. Robin and I proceeded to the tube station, which was closed because a water main had broken and the three tube lines I could take to get to school were flooded out. Luckily, I was able to recharge my card there and Robin and I caught a different bus to school. Almost all of the students here live somehwere on the three lines that were closed and had to deal with delays and figuring out alternate routes.
After the London Center had closed Robin, Erin, and I got on the bus to go home. We were doing really well until we got close to our neighborhood- we were four stops away when the driver started taking a new course. There were some locals harrassing the driver (while he was driving, mind you) for about 5 minutes straight. Robin, Erin, and I were sitting in the back of the bus and could hear none of what is going on. We shrugged to ourselves and waited to see what would happen.
Lo and behold, the main road in town is closed. The bus driver for some reason, feels compelled to drive up part of it anyway and then needs to turn around. Let me tell you, a big red bus making a K turn is not something I want to experience on a closed road again. So, the bus continues on its merry way, skipping entirely the stops nearest to us. Everyone on the bus is confused at this point, a little old man and a little old lady continue to harrass the driver, and the driver continues on. We keep riding farther and farther into the night and the neighborhoods start to get a little bit dodgy.
Finally, the bus stops and the scrolling sign tells us that the route is terminated. The three of us go the front of the bus to ask the bus driver how exactly we're supposed to get home from where we are, i.e. the middle of nowhere. He tells us that we can go a bus stop just ahead, but it is set back from the road and not lit at all. He tells me I will have to make an effort to flag the driver down because it is hard to see people waiting there. I look at him dubiously and he proceeds to tell me that there is a much larger station back one block and to the right. We head off.
It is a rather large, well lit bus stop, with a scrolling sign telling us when we can expect our bus to arrive. At first glance it would seem great. That was until the two drunks started harrassing each other and threatening to call the police on each other. Needless to say, I was glad I hadn't taken Andrew and Mike up on their offer to come over to their place for a bottle of wine, since I would have been doing this trip alone. Finally, our bus comes along and we get back home. By the time we got home, Robin was singing The Wheels on the Bus. She had snapped.
For those of you planning to come to London or any other big city:
Public transport can be wonderful, and certainlycan be an easy way to travel.
Sometimes it is not.
Since I didn't have a license for a long time, I have relied on others for rides to places I need to go. I got used to learning to time my schedule around when I could bum a ride to Wegmans. I only had to ride the Tcat two or three times I think, and each time it was a disaster. Since that is the only public transport I have really taken, I assumed that stepping onto a city bus meant signing your life over to the driver.
Then I got to London. The tube is very easy to navigate and so is the bus system. I think it speaks pretty well of the organization of Transport for London (and my trusty A to Z map) that I have not gotten lost yet. I have never had a real problem getting where I need to go before.
Yesterday was the exception. The morning started badly when I discovered my Oyster card was expired when I tried to get on the bus. Robin and I proceeded to the tube station, which was closed because a water main had broken and the three tube lines I could take to get to school were flooded out. Luckily, I was able to recharge my card there and Robin and I caught a different bus to school. Almost all of the students here live somehwere on the three lines that were closed and had to deal with delays and figuring out alternate routes.
After the London Center had closed Robin, Erin, and I got on the bus to go home. We were doing really well until we got close to our neighborhood- we were four stops away when the driver started taking a new course. There were some locals harrassing the driver (while he was driving, mind you) for about 5 minutes straight. Robin, Erin, and I were sitting in the back of the bus and could hear none of what is going on. We shrugged to ourselves and waited to see what would happen.
Lo and behold, the main road in town is closed. The bus driver for some reason, feels compelled to drive up part of it anyway and then needs to turn around. Let me tell you, a big red bus making a K turn is not something I want to experience on a closed road again. So, the bus continues on its merry way, skipping entirely the stops nearest to us. Everyone on the bus is confused at this point, a little old man and a little old lady continue to harrass the driver, and the driver continues on. We keep riding farther and farther into the night and the neighborhoods start to get a little bit dodgy.
Finally, the bus stops and the scrolling sign tells us that the route is terminated. The three of us go the front of the bus to ask the bus driver how exactly we're supposed to get home from where we are, i.e. the middle of nowhere. He tells us that we can go a bus stop just ahead, but it is set back from the road and not lit at all. He tells me I will have to make an effort to flag the driver down because it is hard to see people waiting there. I look at him dubiously and he proceeds to tell me that there is a much larger station back one block and to the right. We head off.
It is a rather large, well lit bus stop, with a scrolling sign telling us when we can expect our bus to arrive. At first glance it would seem great. That was until the two drunks started harrassing each other and threatening to call the police on each other. Needless to say, I was glad I hadn't taken Andrew and Mike up on their offer to come over to their place for a bottle of wine, since I would have been doing this trip alone. Finally, our bus comes along and we get back home. By the time we got home, Robin was singing The Wheels on the Bus. She had snapped.
For those of you planning to come to London or any other big city:
Public transport can be wonderful, and certainlycan be an easy way to travel.
Sometimes it is not.
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