Let's see... after the weekend of Cambridge, Bath, and Stonehenge, we had a busy week. Aunt Carol and Uncle David were here, and it was really nice to share some meals with them, and see an African version of Mozart's The Magic Flute. That week we also went to the ballet, as well as the opera where we saw Salome. We've seen a show literally every night for the past couple of weeks but Mondays (because of bell ringing), Tuesdays (because of a class) and Sundays (because we've been traveling). That's a lot of shows! They've all been amazing, too. There was only one that I thought was pretty typical and boring, but the set was so incredible that it made up for it.
We went for a weekend to St Ives, which is in Cornwall in the Southwest tip of England. It was an adorable seaside town full of cute shops, beautiful artwork, and friendly dogs playing in the water. I stupidly left my purse on the train, so we had to go to Penzance to retrieve it, and it was an equally cute seaside town (and I got my purse back just fine). Tom and I walked along the beach in the morning and found an adorable cafe for breakfast overlooking the bay. We went to the Tate art museum there, which was minuscule compared to the Tate Britain and Tate Modern in London, but nice all the same. It featured mostly local artists. We took the train back to London, getting a head start on homework on the way.
I spent the next week doing homework. We had lots of free time at the beginning of our trip without any homework, and we're certainly making up for it now with all the work we have to do.
Spring break is here! We were incredibly lucky and were able to stay with a friend from bell ringing in his cottage in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It was wonderful. Rolling green hills, stone walls, a beautiful cathedral from the 13th century, a windy (windy is such an understatement- the wind never stopped blowing) but sunny beach, umpteen delicious cups of tea, a happy dog named Paddy- it was everything we needed on a break from London. Our host, Michael, drove us everywhere, and showed us various castles (Norman castles are all over Pembrokeshire) and made us dinner. There is no way to thank him!
We took the ferry over to Ireland, and took the bus to Cork, which was a nice town. We went to Blarney Castle and kissed the Blarney Stone, so I hope I'm more eloquent- I should be! It was such a funny experience. We stood in a long cue of tourists, and when it's your turn, you sit down and lean way over backwards to reach it! It was wet- how gross is that. But hey, Discovery Channel listed it as one of the top 99 things to do in a lifetime, so we had to do it. There were really pretty gardens/forest around the castle, so we wandered around there for a while. That night back in Cork, we found a pub with a guitarist/folk singer playing and sat and listened for a while. He was very good and the atmosphere of the pub was fun. It felt very traditional. Tom's been trying the local brews- Beamish, Murphys, and Guiness- and I had a Bailey's and I think it tastes better in Ireland.
Today we made it to Killarney, a cute town on the edge of Killarney National Park. It rained most of the day, but we managed to make it a little ways into the park before the sun went away. The park is so big it's hard to get much of anywhere on foot, so I think we're going to rent bikes tomorrow morning and bike out to a castle and the lake. Tonight we're going to a pub across the street that also has live music. It's my goal to spend each night here in a pub listening to Irish music- and I don't think it'll be hard to do!
After biking we're headed to Galway tomorrow, then on to Dublin, then back to London. We only have two more weeks once we get back, then Tom and I are going to Barcelona with his parents, then on to the rest of Europe (itinerary to be determined). I'll be home in a blink of an eye!
Cheers!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Hello all,
As it's easier to post pictures on Shutterfly, I'm going to post the majority of them there.
Just go to
jdoehne.shutterfly.com
to view them! Keep checking it, too, as I will update it regularly. Right now I have only the first few weeks of pictures up.
I promise to update this soon- I have a paper due Wednesday as well as a "creative project" flute piece to prepare and perform on the same Wednesday, so I'm a little swamped for the moment.
Cheers
As it's easier to post pictures on Shutterfly, I'm going to post the majority of them there.
Just go to
jdoehne.shutterfly.com
to view them! Keep checking it, too, as I will update it regularly. Right now I have only the first few weeks of pictures up.
I promise to update this soon- I have a paper due Wednesday as well as a "creative project" flute piece to prepare and perform on the same Wednesday, so I'm a little swamped for the moment.
Cheers
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
5 more weeks- one of which is spring break- until we leave! That's crazy! Where did the time go?
We went to Cambridge a few Saturdays ago, which was a fun college town about 2 hours north of London. Upon arrival, we had a short walking tour by a forgetful elderly British gentleman that took us by the Mathematical Bridge (where all the bars are tangent to the arc of the bridge- pretty nifty), and into a pretty chapel, then up the main drag of town to Kings College Chapel, which is just huge. It’s beautiful structurally from the outside and gorgeous with its stained glass windows on the inside, and there are lots of facts that I have forgotten about it being the tallest ceiling in England to be supported with buttresses, or something. A very powerful place, indeed.
After our tour, we wandered the town, which was very adorable. We found several street markets with the usual stuff- bulk candy of all sorts, fresh fruit, lots of flower, strange t-shirt, etc. Made me miss the Saturday Market in Portland, though. Nothing can compare to that. After wandering around some more, looking into cute shops, and buying some delicious homemade fudge, Tom and Liz and I found ourselves by the river which flows behind many of the colleges. A popular thing to do there is called punting, which is similar to the gondolas in Venice. You sit in a very shallow boat, and somebody stands on the back and “punts,” or steers the boat with a very long, heavy wooden pole. It apparently is not to be missed on a day to Cambridge, so we did it! Albert, the husband of our trip leader, came too, which was good fun. We all took a turn at punting, which proved to be trickier than it looks. Tom and Albert were the best, and they steered us home all in one dry piece.
We stopped off for some much-needed tea because we were freezing from punting, then stood in the long cue for Evensong at Kings College Chapel. The line was totally worth it- the sound that the boys/mens choir made in that huge space was incredible. Evensong is such a nice tradition- what a beautiful relaxing way to end the day. We stayed after that to hear a Messiaen organ recital, which was very strange music (it sounded like a soundtrack to outer space), but it was fun to hear the organ at work. It was a nice trip, although I wish we had spent a little more time there!
The next day we were up and going to Bath and Stonehenge. We had a very nice tour guide named Victoria who chatted to us about everything. We went to Stonehenge first, which was very impressive, although a little bit smaller than I had imagined in my mind. They hauled the stones all the way from Wales (think about the incredible task of doing this without any of today’s conveniences) then arranged them perfectly, with some very heavy slabs lying on top of others. It’s mystifying why they are there in the first place, why the Romans didn’t note their presence, and why crop circles appear in the fields around it. It is full of fascinating questions that will probably never be answered.
On to Bath- what a cool place. It’s very beautiful and old-looking, as even the newest buildings have been built using the local sand-colored stone. We had a walking tour, then were let loose to explore for a few hours before leaving again. We ate lunch in a cute pub, then walked around the city a bit, found a bridge with shops lined all the way across (like London Bridge used to be), then went to tour the Roman Baths. The baths are the reason that the town is there at all (hence the name). There is a spring that bubbles up directly underneath due to some geological phenomenon, and the Romans were able to harness and control the hot water and the steam it gave off into a very technically advanced bathhouse. It became a holiday spot to relax and heal for the Romans. A good portion of the original Roman baths are preserved, and there was a fascinating museum there about it. On the audio guide, they had Bill Bryson doing some commentary, which was very interesting to listen to. It wasn’t funny like his books at all, but it was thoughtful and insightful. We ended the tour of the baths by tasting the spring water, which supposedly is very good for you. The Romans drank it to heal themselves, and some other guy made a lot of money in the 1800s by advertising it as a cure-all. It was absolutely disgusting. Hot spring water, of course, is full of sulfur, so it tasted of rotten eggs with an added iron flavor. Yuck.
Let's see, other than that fun weekend, things in London are going fine. I've written two papers with two more to go, plus some theatre reviews to write, plus two large projects. Much less work than at LC though, that's for sure, so I can't complain.
Tom and I have just planned out our spring break plans for a trip through Wales to Ireland. I'm so excited! We're going to Pembrokeshire, Wales, which is on the beautiful coast (apparently it's a popular summer holiday place), and we're hoping to stay at a cottage owned by one of the bellringing guys. Then we'll take the ferry across to Rosslare Harbour, then the bus to Cork where we'll stay 2 nights. We'll visit Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney stone, of course! Then on to Killarney, a small town on the border of a beautiful national park, for a night, then on to Galway for 2 nights. Then, finally, on to Dublin for 2 more nights, then back via the ferry to Wales and a train back to London. It will be a whirlwind adventure! I just hope the logistics work out okay.... We've booked all our hostels, though, so at least housing will be okay, and we're going to buy a bus pass tonight. I'm really looking forward to the trip to get out of England and see something hopefully a little different. Oh and to try some Irish whiskey as well, to see how it compares to the Scotch. =)
I was planning to post some pictures of the weekend, but the internet, as usual, is SO INCREDIBLY TURTLE-Y slow, so I've given up, and I will post them as soon as I can.
Cheers for now!
We went to Cambridge a few Saturdays ago, which was a fun college town about 2 hours north of London. Upon arrival, we had a short walking tour by a forgetful elderly British gentleman that took us by the Mathematical Bridge (where all the bars are tangent to the arc of the bridge- pretty nifty), and into a pretty chapel, then up the main drag of town to Kings College Chapel, which is just huge. It’s beautiful structurally from the outside and gorgeous with its stained glass windows on the inside, and there are lots of facts that I have forgotten about it being the tallest ceiling in England to be supported with buttresses, or something. A very powerful place, indeed.
After our tour, we wandered the town, which was very adorable. We found several street markets with the usual stuff- bulk candy of all sorts, fresh fruit, lots of flower, strange t-shirt, etc. Made me miss the Saturday Market in Portland, though. Nothing can compare to that. After wandering around some more, looking into cute shops, and buying some delicious homemade fudge, Tom and Liz and I found ourselves by the river which flows behind many of the colleges. A popular thing to do there is called punting, which is similar to the gondolas in Venice. You sit in a very shallow boat, and somebody stands on the back and “punts,” or steers the boat with a very long, heavy wooden pole. It apparently is not to be missed on a day to Cambridge, so we did it! Albert, the husband of our trip leader, came too, which was good fun. We all took a turn at punting, which proved to be trickier than it looks. Tom and Albert were the best, and they steered us home all in one dry piece.
We stopped off for some much-needed tea because we were freezing from punting, then stood in the long cue for Evensong at Kings College Chapel. The line was totally worth it- the sound that the boys/mens choir made in that huge space was incredible. Evensong is such a nice tradition- what a beautiful relaxing way to end the day. We stayed after that to hear a Messiaen organ recital, which was very strange music (it sounded like a soundtrack to outer space), but it was fun to hear the organ at work. It was a nice trip, although I wish we had spent a little more time there!
The next day we were up and going to Bath and Stonehenge. We had a very nice tour guide named Victoria who chatted to us about everything. We went to Stonehenge first, which was very impressive, although a little bit smaller than I had imagined in my mind. They hauled the stones all the way from Wales (think about the incredible task of doing this without any of today’s conveniences) then arranged them perfectly, with some very heavy slabs lying on top of others. It’s mystifying why they are there in the first place, why the Romans didn’t note their presence, and why crop circles appear in the fields around it. It is full of fascinating questions that will probably never be answered.
On to Bath- what a cool place. It’s very beautiful and old-looking, as even the newest buildings have been built using the local sand-colored stone. We had a walking tour, then were let loose to explore for a few hours before leaving again. We ate lunch in a cute pub, then walked around the city a bit, found a bridge with shops lined all the way across (like London Bridge used to be), then went to tour the Roman Baths. The baths are the reason that the town is there at all (hence the name). There is a spring that bubbles up directly underneath due to some geological phenomenon, and the Romans were able to harness and control the hot water and the steam it gave off into a very technically advanced bathhouse. It became a holiday spot to relax and heal for the Romans. A good portion of the original Roman baths are preserved, and there was a fascinating museum there about it. On the audio guide, they had Bill Bryson doing some commentary, which was very interesting to listen to. It wasn’t funny like his books at all, but it was thoughtful and insightful. We ended the tour of the baths by tasting the spring water, which supposedly is very good for you. The Romans drank it to heal themselves, and some other guy made a lot of money in the 1800s by advertising it as a cure-all. It was absolutely disgusting. Hot spring water, of course, is full of sulfur, so it tasted of rotten eggs with an added iron flavor. Yuck.
Let's see, other than that fun weekend, things in London are going fine. I've written two papers with two more to go, plus some theatre reviews to write, plus two large projects. Much less work than at LC though, that's for sure, so I can't complain.
Tom and I have just planned out our spring break plans for a trip through Wales to Ireland. I'm so excited! We're going to Pembrokeshire, Wales, which is on the beautiful coast (apparently it's a popular summer holiday place), and we're hoping to stay at a cottage owned by one of the bellringing guys. Then we'll take the ferry across to Rosslare Harbour, then the bus to Cork where we'll stay 2 nights. We'll visit Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney stone, of course! Then on to Killarney, a small town on the border of a beautiful national park, for a night, then on to Galway for 2 nights. Then, finally, on to Dublin for 2 more nights, then back via the ferry to Wales and a train back to London. It will be a whirlwind adventure! I just hope the logistics work out okay.... We've booked all our hostels, though, so at least housing will be okay, and we're going to buy a bus pass tonight. I'm really looking forward to the trip to get out of England and see something hopefully a little different. Oh and to try some Irish whiskey as well, to see how it compares to the Scotch. =)
I was planning to post some pictures of the weekend, but the internet, as usual, is SO INCREDIBLY TURTLE-Y slow, so I've given up, and I will post them as soon as I can.
Cheers for now!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Time has just flown by here. I think we're a little more than half way through our semester. I can't keep up!
We went to Scotland this past weekend as a group, which was great fun and gave a nice contrast to the noise and smog of London. Tom and I went up early on Friday morning, leaving on the 7:30am train to Newcastle. Our goal was to hike around Hadrian's Wall, an old Roman wall built by Emperor Hadrian to keep the Scots out, but we never made it there. We got off at a train station that was literally in the middle of nowhere- there was the town post office, and that was it. Beautiful countryside, though, with lots of sheep and horses. After an hour's hike uphill along a strange public footpath that took us through people's backyards and pastures, we found a museum called Vindolanda that was built next to the ruins of a huge Roman fort/town built to house the soldiers who were building Hadrian's Wall. The museum was very interesting- they've discovered so many things there. Their prize artifacts, though, are Roman writing tablets that are very well preserved, as they were discovered in a layer of clay that kept out the oxygen. They were translated into letters between slaves, birthday invitations, and storekeeper's lists, including the only known Roman woman's handwriting. When we went up on the hill to look at the ruins, the weather was beautiful until we got the furthest away from the museum, then it HAILED and POURED. We were on a hill, so the wind was incredibly strong, too. Both of us were completely soaked, so the thought of walking another mile to the wall, then another 5 miles to the next town where we needed to catch the train just sounded awful. We got a taxi, which I think was the best idea.
Here's a few pictures from this day:
L: A really adorable little house we walked by on our hike
R: Happy hikers!
Top: A view of the Vindolanda Museum and ground- it was a relief to find it, as it felt like we were hiking to the middle of nowhere
bottom: The ruins of the fort
We caught the train to Glasgow, where we got in just in time to enjoy a delicious Italian dinner at a restaurant near the train station, then make it to our Hostel, where we spent a relaxing evening reading on a comfy couch.
The next day, Tom and I went to the Science Centre for couple of hours before we had to meet the group at the train station. It was pretty typical, and geared mostly towards small children, but we had fun anyway. It was a long walk back to the train station, and it took us right through the middle of the city, which to me felt just like San Francisco. It was very hilly, and cold, and historically an industrial city. We all went to our Guest House to check in, and it was very very nice- I didn't have to sleep on the top bunk of a bunk bed for once!!!
We all took a tour of the Glasgow School of Art, which is the best art school in the country, and is housed in a building designed by Charles Renee Mackintosh, a famous Glasgow architect. He really liked to joke around about his designs- the top floor felt like you were in a dungeon basement! Some of us also went to the Willow Tea Room for afternoon tea, which is also designed by Mackintosh, and the tea and scones were delicious. I am learning to really appreciate a nice cup of tea here.
Tom and I walked around a bit, looking at the shops, and trying to understand people's accents (which was near impossible sometimes), then went to a pub for dinner before going to a play as a group called She Stoops to Conquer at the Royal Theatre. After the first 20 minutes, the play turned out to be pretty funny, and was all about mistaken identity and love. After the play some of us went with out professor to a pub that had 400 different kinds of Scotch, and since we were in Scotland, we decided we had to sample some scotch. I wasn't really a big fan, but it was fun to taste the difference in flavors.
I wish we had stayed there longer, as we missed out on some really cool museums and other things. A day is not enough to see that entire city!
Here's some pictures from that day:
L: Tom having fun at the Science Museum
R: Lights hung above a street in Glasgow
Bottom: The Glasgow School of Art
On Sunday, we took the train to Edinburgh- what a cool, old city! Most of the buildings look like old castles. There is Edinburgh Castle right in the middle of the city on a craggy hill, and we got to go there and walk around. We went to the rooftop garden of a museum to get a good view of the city layout. You could see the ocean! It was by far my favorite thing about the weekend, but we were there for a few hours. I wish I could go back- I don't think I can fit it into our busy schedule. We don't really have any more free weekends.
On the way back to London, we stopped at Berwick-upon-Tweed, which was a cute walled city on the coast. Nothing was open, as it was a Sunday afternoon, but we walked around the huge wall to the coast, then back on top of the wall to the only open pub for dinner. The town was very cute. Then we took the exhausting train ride home to London and got home around midnight. A long but good weekend.
Pictures from that day:
L: The Royal Mile in Edinburgh
R: Edinburgh- notice the bridge in the distance? The city is layered, some is up and some is underneath
L: Edinburgh Castle
R: A bad attempt at a picture of the wall around Berwick-upon-Tweed
So, all in all, it was a great weekend. Meanwhile, there's so much going on here in London, too! I'll save that for later though.
Cheers!
We went to Scotland this past weekend as a group, which was great fun and gave a nice contrast to the noise and smog of London. Tom and I went up early on Friday morning, leaving on the 7:30am train to Newcastle. Our goal was to hike around Hadrian's Wall, an old Roman wall built by Emperor Hadrian to keep the Scots out, but we never made it there. We got off at a train station that was literally in the middle of nowhere- there was the town post office, and that was it. Beautiful countryside, though, with lots of sheep and horses. After an hour's hike uphill along a strange public footpath that took us through people's backyards and pastures, we found a museum called Vindolanda that was built next to the ruins of a huge Roman fort/town built to house the soldiers who were building Hadrian's Wall. The museum was very interesting- they've discovered so many things there. Their prize artifacts, though, are Roman writing tablets that are very well preserved, as they were discovered in a layer of clay that kept out the oxygen. They were translated into letters between slaves, birthday invitations, and storekeeper's lists, including the only known Roman woman's handwriting. When we went up on the hill to look at the ruins, the weather was beautiful until we got the furthest away from the museum, then it HAILED and POURED. We were on a hill, so the wind was incredibly strong, too. Both of us were completely soaked, so the thought of walking another mile to the wall, then another 5 miles to the next town where we needed to catch the train just sounded awful. We got a taxi, which I think was the best idea.
Here's a few pictures from this day:
L: A really adorable little house we walked by on our hike
R: Happy hikers!
Top: A view of the Vindolanda Museum and ground- it was a relief to find it, as it felt like we were hiking to the middle of nowhere
bottom: The ruins of the fort
We caught the train to Glasgow, where we got in just in time to enjoy a delicious Italian dinner at a restaurant near the train station, then make it to our Hostel, where we spent a relaxing evening reading on a comfy couch.
The next day, Tom and I went to the Science Centre for couple of hours before we had to meet the group at the train station. It was pretty typical, and geared mostly towards small children, but we had fun anyway. It was a long walk back to the train station, and it took us right through the middle of the city, which to me felt just like San Francisco. It was very hilly, and cold, and historically an industrial city. We all went to our Guest House to check in, and it was very very nice- I didn't have to sleep on the top bunk of a bunk bed for once!!!
We all took a tour of the Glasgow School of Art, which is the best art school in the country, and is housed in a building designed by Charles Renee Mackintosh, a famous Glasgow architect. He really liked to joke around about his designs- the top floor felt like you were in a dungeon basement! Some of us also went to the Willow Tea Room for afternoon tea, which is also designed by Mackintosh, and the tea and scones were delicious. I am learning to really appreciate a nice cup of tea here.
Tom and I walked around a bit, looking at the shops, and trying to understand people's accents (which was near impossible sometimes), then went to a pub for dinner before going to a play as a group called She Stoops to Conquer at the Royal Theatre. After the first 20 minutes, the play turned out to be pretty funny, and was all about mistaken identity and love. After the play some of us went with out professor to a pub that had 400 different kinds of Scotch, and since we were in Scotland, we decided we had to sample some scotch. I wasn't really a big fan, but it was fun to taste the difference in flavors.
I wish we had stayed there longer, as we missed out on some really cool museums and other things. A day is not enough to see that entire city!
Here's some pictures from that day:
L: Tom having fun at the Science Museum
R: Lights hung above a street in Glasgow
Bottom: The Glasgow School of Art
On Sunday, we took the train to Edinburgh- what a cool, old city! Most of the buildings look like old castles. There is Edinburgh Castle right in the middle of the city on a craggy hill, and we got to go there and walk around. We went to the rooftop garden of a museum to get a good view of the city layout. You could see the ocean! It was by far my favorite thing about the weekend, but we were there for a few hours. I wish I could go back- I don't think I can fit it into our busy schedule. We don't really have any more free weekends.
On the way back to London, we stopped at Berwick-upon-Tweed, which was a cute walled city on the coast. Nothing was open, as it was a Sunday afternoon, but we walked around the huge wall to the coast, then back on top of the wall to the only open pub for dinner. The town was very cute. Then we took the exhausting train ride home to London and got home around midnight. A long but good weekend.
Pictures from that day:
L: The Royal Mile in Edinburgh
R: Edinburgh- notice the bridge in the distance? The city is layered, some is up and some is underneath
L: Edinburgh Castle
R: A bad attempt at a picture of the wall around Berwick-upon-Tweed
So, all in all, it was a great weekend. Meanwhile, there's so much going on here in London, too! I'll save that for later though.
Cheers!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Sorry for the lack of updates, I just can't seem to keep up! We're doing so much! I'll try to condense it a little:
For my independent project I am working on Mondays and Fridays with a company called Music Platform, which is the combination of two companies called Children's Music Workshop and English Pocket Opera. They provide music/opera workshops to schools in East London (the poorer side of London), so I am fortunate enough to be able to shadow these workshop leaders for several different programs throughout my stay here. The first is a program for an area of East London called Tower Hamlets and it is based on The Tudors and the Tower of London, as they live in the town that historically would have serviced the Tower. They begin the unit by going to the Tower of London as a class, then with help they write a song about the Tudors, then workshop leaders come in to help the kids learn their songs and eventually perform them for the school. It's a little bit like my California history focus in 4th grade.
Anyway, all that being said, the experience has been really great so far. Tyrone, the workshop leader, is fantastic, and I'm getting ideas for all sorts of good musical exercises for kids. He even has me playing my flute! He had the kids guess what country I was from, and they all thought Australia, Germany, Iceland, but not the US. The kids are great- they're in year 3 (the English school system is quite different from that in the States) which is about 8 years old, and most if not all of them are ESL (English as a Second Language) students. Their developing English accents are adorable.
Tom's independent project is doing bell ringing in a local church, and I've sorta joined in. It's wonderful, and much more tricky than I thought. It's hard to explain, but there are 8 bells (a complete octave tuned in F# major), and there is a rope attached to a wheel attached to each bell. The bell begins tilted up in a resting place, then you pull the rope to swing it to the other side, then pull the rope a different way to get it back to it's starting place. (I know this doesn't make much sense, I have pictures in a cute book they gave me that illustrate it much better.) Anyway, you begin by doing the different strokes separately, then put them together, which is what I did for the first time last week. The next step, which I did this past Monday, is to play in rounds, which is played on 6 or 8 of the bells- the top bell rings, then all in sequence down to the bottom bell. The bells have a great sound and they make the whole building shake with reverberations. The people that do it are great- we all go out to the pub afterward and chat about England, about their funny trip to Florida, about other churches' bells. One of the guys rings bells for Westminster Abby, which is the pinnacle of bell ringing achievement. It's really fun, and probably the best experience I've had here so far.
Whew. Besides that, we've had classes, which are going fine. Our Fine Arts class consists of visiting different galleries- we've been to the National Galley and the National Portrait Gallery so far. We have a Contemporary England class which is basically a funny, strange guy just talking about English society for three hours (interesting, but difficult to sit through). We'll be visiting Parliament next week. Our Music class is okay- mostly difficult conceptual things about music and the music industry. We went to a new music concert last night of very very strange, out there music composed a month ago. Our theatre class is great, I really like the professor.
We've seen an incredible amount of shows, and they just keep coming. Every week, basically until we leave, we have a show Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights. Last week we saw an interesting performance of Benjamin Britten's opera A Midsummer Night's Dream, which was a unique performance of a familiar story. The theme was neon lights and minimal sets and strange abstract movies in the background. Oberon, the main male role, is sung by a counter-tenor, which is incredibly high for a man. Puck is played by an acrobat who is constantly swinging from ropes and sliding down poles- his is a spoken role. Overall a very cool show.
The night after that we saw Dido Queen of Carthage in Kensington Palace, for which the audience followed the actors through the various rooms of the palace for different scenes. It was interesting, but hard to follow as I didn't really know the story line.
Today was exhausting, performance-wise. We saw a matinee of Cirque du Soleil's Varekai, staged in the fantastic Royal Albert Hall. It was my first "circus" I think, and it was amazing. We payed for standing room tickets, but as it was a matinee that not many people knew about, they reseated us to the second row of the circle (with a great view) to fill the auditorium. The costumes were beautifully strange and intricate, and the acrobats were phenomenal, although nerve-racking.
Then tonight we saw James Son of James, a play by Fabulous Beast, an Irish dance/music/theatre company. It was a beautiful story that turned very dark at the end, but it had very real, deep characters. The character's interactions were mostly in wonderfully choreographed dance routines, and much of their stories were expressed physically instead of out loud. I'm loving all these innovative performances that redefine what it means to "go to the theatre"- I don't think we've seen a traditional one yet.
The living situation is going great, except for sharing a kitchen a little smaller than mine at home with 19 people. Not a good situation. The food here is so much better than I was expecting- they don't use high fructose corn syrup, or hydrogenated oils, or preservatives in general, and what do you know, everything tastes better! Even Coke uses real sugar (which makes it taste so much better). Not only have the figured out things food-wise, but everybody seems to be much more "green" and eco-friendly here. I've been very impressed with the advertising and the public effort to be green.
Oh- I also had the most amazing flute lesson yesterday with Sarah Newbold at the Guildhall School of Music. She had some great ideas and good comments about my playing that will definitely help in the future. Now I just have to practice more!
Sorry for writing so much. Hope things are well at home despite a little election craziness!
For my independent project I am working on Mondays and Fridays with a company called Music Platform, which is the combination of two companies called Children's Music Workshop and English Pocket Opera. They provide music/opera workshops to schools in East London (the poorer side of London), so I am fortunate enough to be able to shadow these workshop leaders for several different programs throughout my stay here. The first is a program for an area of East London called Tower Hamlets and it is based on The Tudors and the Tower of London, as they live in the town that historically would have serviced the Tower. They begin the unit by going to the Tower of London as a class, then with help they write a song about the Tudors, then workshop leaders come in to help the kids learn their songs and eventually perform them for the school. It's a little bit like my California history focus in 4th grade.
Anyway, all that being said, the experience has been really great so far. Tyrone, the workshop leader, is fantastic, and I'm getting ideas for all sorts of good musical exercises for kids. He even has me playing my flute! He had the kids guess what country I was from, and they all thought Australia, Germany, Iceland, but not the US. The kids are great- they're in year 3 (the English school system is quite different from that in the States) which is about 8 years old, and most if not all of them are ESL (English as a Second Language) students. Their developing English accents are adorable.
Tom's independent project is doing bell ringing in a local church, and I've sorta joined in. It's wonderful, and much more tricky than I thought. It's hard to explain, but there are 8 bells (a complete octave tuned in F# major), and there is a rope attached to a wheel attached to each bell. The bell begins tilted up in a resting place, then you pull the rope to swing it to the other side, then pull the rope a different way to get it back to it's starting place. (I know this doesn't make much sense, I have pictures in a cute book they gave me that illustrate it much better.) Anyway, you begin by doing the different strokes separately, then put them together, which is what I did for the first time last week. The next step, which I did this past Monday, is to play in rounds, which is played on 6 or 8 of the bells- the top bell rings, then all in sequence down to the bottom bell. The bells have a great sound and they make the whole building shake with reverberations. The people that do it are great- we all go out to the pub afterward and chat about England, about their funny trip to Florida, about other churches' bells. One of the guys rings bells for Westminster Abby, which is the pinnacle of bell ringing achievement. It's really fun, and probably the best experience I've had here so far.
Whew. Besides that, we've had classes, which are going fine. Our Fine Arts class consists of visiting different galleries- we've been to the National Galley and the National Portrait Gallery so far. We have a Contemporary England class which is basically a funny, strange guy just talking about English society for three hours (interesting, but difficult to sit through). We'll be visiting Parliament next week. Our Music class is okay- mostly difficult conceptual things about music and the music industry. We went to a new music concert last night of very very strange, out there music composed a month ago. Our theatre class is great, I really like the professor.
We've seen an incredible amount of shows, and they just keep coming. Every week, basically until we leave, we have a show Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights. Last week we saw an interesting performance of Benjamin Britten's opera A Midsummer Night's Dream, which was a unique performance of a familiar story. The theme was neon lights and minimal sets and strange abstract movies in the background. Oberon, the main male role, is sung by a counter-tenor, which is incredibly high for a man. Puck is played by an acrobat who is constantly swinging from ropes and sliding down poles- his is a spoken role. Overall a very cool show.
The night after that we saw Dido Queen of Carthage in Kensington Palace, for which the audience followed the actors through the various rooms of the palace for different scenes. It was interesting, but hard to follow as I didn't really know the story line.
Today was exhausting, performance-wise. We saw a matinee of Cirque du Soleil's Varekai, staged in the fantastic Royal Albert Hall. It was my first "circus" I think, and it was amazing. We payed for standing room tickets, but as it was a matinee that not many people knew about, they reseated us to the second row of the circle (with a great view) to fill the auditorium. The costumes were beautifully strange and intricate, and the acrobats were phenomenal, although nerve-racking.
Then tonight we saw James Son of James, a play by Fabulous Beast, an Irish dance/music/theatre company. It was a beautiful story that turned very dark at the end, but it had very real, deep characters. The character's interactions were mostly in wonderfully choreographed dance routines, and much of their stories were expressed physically instead of out loud. I'm loving all these innovative performances that redefine what it means to "go to the theatre"- I don't think we've seen a traditional one yet.
The living situation is going great, except for sharing a kitchen a little smaller than mine at home with 19 people. Not a good situation. The food here is so much better than I was expecting- they don't use high fructose corn syrup, or hydrogenated oils, or preservatives in general, and what do you know, everything tastes better! Even Coke uses real sugar (which makes it taste so much better). Not only have the figured out things food-wise, but everybody seems to be much more "green" and eco-friendly here. I've been very impressed with the advertising and the public effort to be green.
Oh- I also had the most amazing flute lesson yesterday with Sarah Newbold at the Guildhall School of Music. She had some great ideas and good comments about my playing that will definitely help in the future. Now I just have to practice more!
Sorry for writing so much. Hope things are well at home despite a little election craziness!
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