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!

Jolly Good

Typical.

For those who don't know: From L to R:
Dr. Isbell, Omar, Me (duh), Meghan, Seth, Andrew, Mike

Dinner (lamb burgers!) and drinks with Dr. Isbell. He's in town for a conference. We went to this great pub by Andrew, Omar, and Mike's place. We spent about three hours hanging out and talking. Afterwards, it was roommate bonding time with our French roommates. We had found this French phrase book in the hall closet a few days ago and Manu (short for Emmanuel) got a hold of it and we were having fun translating. For the record, the Lonely Planet phrase book is only useful should you need to go to the gynecologist or let someone know that you are addicted to any number of drugs.

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.

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!

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!

A. Jimi Hendrix! The society that owns the Handel House bought Jimi's flat. There's a little plaque outside the flat.

Cheers!

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!

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.