My father suggested I make some kind of wrap-up post about my adventure, and I realized that time was kind of slipping away for that.
To be perfectly honest, I'm really not a very good blogger- I hardly ever remember to update, and I hold myself to very strange rules. So I hope anybody who has been reading this blog has enjoyed it at least a little.
Obviously I had a great time, and other than the extremely obvious "I learned about other cultures!!!", I mostly gained self-confidence.
Because you know what? I can book a vacation across the UK involving trains, hostels, and connecting busses. I can enjoy Paris while knowing less than 20 words in French. AND, I can make big, scary decisions on my own.
I also learned that I really really love city life. I'm obsessed with the idea that I can walk out my front door and go see a play, or get a cup of coffee, or go to a museum.
London isn't my new favorite city, I'll give you that. It's not a bad city, it just doesn't necessarily sing to me. Decent people, decent entertainment, but it's nothing I couldn't find in NY, where they don't shut down the subway and the people come in a few more colors.
Should you desire to continue following my little life, you can watch my other blog: www.sisa365.blogspot.com , where I'll probably be doing a post soon on my travel necessities. You can also follow me on Twitter- my username is BefWithAnF, or you can just click on the link in the sidebar.
Thanks again, you guys, for keeping up with me, and I hope to see you all really soon!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Barcelona
My last stop, and what a wonderful trip it was!
I stayed with the family of a girl I was once a camp counselor for, Mirna, (keep up those foreign contacts, kids!!), and they live in a beautiful house outside the city, just a 30 minute train ride away. The mother is Valencian, and all of the food she served me was so fresh and delicious I thought I was going to faint. It made me very excited to get food from the Farmer´s Market in NY.
I was here from Thursday until Monday (I fly out today), and I was getting over a cold for the first few days, so I tried to take it easy on myself. I still saw plenty, and I took a ton of pictures. I even got to exericse my Spanish skillz a little bit, when Mirna´s boyfriend gave me a tour of the city center entirely in Spanish.
It´s a place I would reccomend visiting, but make sure you do some research or buy a good guidebook before you get here- my guide would have been okay for a shorter stay, but I was walking around feeling like I had no idea of the context for what I was seeing aroun me.
And here´s a little video I took yesterday, before my rockin´ sunburn showed up on my neck-
And as always, if you want to see more pictures, just click on the photo in the post.
I stayed with the family of a girl I was once a camp counselor for, Mirna, (keep up those foreign contacts, kids!!), and they live in a beautiful house outside the city, just a 30 minute train ride away. The mother is Valencian, and all of the food she served me was so fresh and delicious I thought I was going to faint. It made me very excited to get food from the Farmer´s Market in NY.
I was here from Thursday until Monday (I fly out today), and I was getting over a cold for the first few days, so I tried to take it easy on myself. I still saw plenty, and I took a ton of pictures. I even got to exericse my Spanish skillz a little bit, when Mirna´s boyfriend gave me a tour of the city center entirely in Spanish.
It´s a place I would reccomend visiting, but make sure you do some research or buy a good guidebook before you get here- my guide would have been okay for a shorter stay, but I was walking around feeling like I had no idea of the context for what I was seeing aroun me.
And here´s a little video I took yesterday, before my rockin´ sunburn showed up on my neck-
And as always, if you want to see more pictures, just click on the photo in the post.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Words I have had to teach my computer:
Altoids, Arty,
Benadryil, Binghamtonian, Birkenstock, Brutalism
Chainstore, Chib, Chillin
dinnering, drinked, dystopian
flickr, Flouncy, Fuffing,
Grungy, grunging
Hampstead, Hellz
Improv
Mahopac, Mori
Newburgh,
Paperchase,
Shearling, Skype, Skyped, Sainsburys, Sleepovers, Southbank, Southwark
Tate, Telly
Vinny
Wah
Yay!
Benadryil, Binghamtonian, Birkenstock, Brutalism
Chainstore, Chib, Chillin
dinnering, drinked, dystopian
flickr, Flouncy, Fuffing,
Grungy, grunging
Hampstead, Hellz
Improv
Mahopac, Mori
Newburgh,
Paperchase,
Shearling, Skype, Skyped, Sainsburys, Sleepovers, Southbank, Southwark
Tate, Telly
Vinny
Wah
Yay!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Sorry!
Sorry I haven't been updating much- ever since my camera broke, it has been very difficult for me to upload photos (I have a mac, but the camera is only formatted for a PC, which means that I have to use the computers in the library downstairs, which is only open certain hours, blah blah blah...).
So you get a picture of me with my notebook! Aren't you excited?! You may remember my "too many Moleskines" post a while back- well, I tore the 2008 section out of my planner, + taped the tabbed section from the "London" city notebook into it. The green book on top is another tabbed section I am creating for myself, for the summer.
A summary of recent events:
-the Lakes District (pictures are going up as soon as I can make it to the library at a time when it is open)
-"Blood Brothers", a musical
-"Dimettos", a play
-Tour of Parilament today, where I fainted
You can also follow me on my Twitter ( http://twitter.com/chlorinebeach ), but be careful! Sometimes I say rude things there. :)
PS, Mr.Karas, I am not an alcoholic, okay?! okay.
So you get a picture of me with my notebook! Aren't you excited?! You may remember my "too many Moleskines" post a while back- well, I tore the 2008 section out of my planner, + taped the tabbed section from the "London" city notebook into it. The green book on top is another tabbed section I am creating for myself, for the summer.
A summary of recent events:
-the Lakes District (pictures are going up as soon as I can make it to the library at a time when it is open)
-"Blood Brothers", a musical
-"Dimettos", a play
-Tour of Parilament today, where I fainted
You can also follow me on my Twitter ( http://twitter.com/chlorinebeach ), but be careful! Sometimes I say rude things there. :)
PS, Mr.Karas, I am not an alcoholic, okay?! okay.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
April in Paris
No, I left just before April, but any excuse to dance around the living room listening to Count Basie is a good one, don't you think?
So, Paris was basically amazing. I was only there for three days + I took 400 pictures. I've only uploaded 1/4 of them, but for now here is a list of what I did:
-Mount Martre
-The Louvre
-Notre Dame
-Sante Chapelle
-The Royal Opera
-Arcade Shopping
-Versailles
-Delicious Amazing Dinner
-Eiffel Tower
-Arms Museum
-Le Grande et le Petit Palais
So I still managed to accomplish an awful lot. When I called my dad up to tell him about it, I went through about an hour long narration on what I did, + while I won't inflict that on you, I will tell you my favorite story from my weekend:
I decided I wanted to see the inside of the Royal Opera house, because it looked very fancy from the outside + it was pouring, so that would give me something to do inside. However, when I went inside there was a sign hanging up saying that there was a performance at 2:30, so the tours would not be operating. I looked down at my watch, and it was 2:30 exactly.
So I picked up my handy dandy pocket guide to see what else was in the area that I might want to see, and the doorman came up + told me that if I bought one of the cheapest tickets (seven pounds!), I could see the show and the opera house.
So I buy my ticket, and I sort of wander around the lobby, and then an usher (in a fancy suit and bowtie, mind you) stuffs me into this fancy elevator + takes me up to the third floor, where he passes me off to another usher. She leads me around the corner and unlocks (!) the door to a booth, and asks me if I speak French. When I tell her that I don't, she takes me in, opens a second door, and leads me into pitch darkness by the hand.
Once I sat down, I realized I had no idea what kind of a show I had come in for- it was a ballet. I could only see 1/3 of the stage, so it wasn't particularly interesting, but it was a selection of classic French ballets- Le Papillion was first, and the lady was wearing the excessive glittery head-thing, and had little wings on the back of her costume. The two dancers were smiling at the audience the whole time, like "ooh, look at me, I'm the greatest thing ever." Kind of hilarious.
The opera house itself was lovely- totally opulent and bizarre. I had been in a little booth- six chairs arranged two by two, with a couch and a coat hook behind them. It was really much fancier than anything I had ever seen before.
___
The food in Paris, and the weather on the last day are what really got me, though. It seems like New York, but flatter and older. I would love to go back some day, and when I do I'll do research so I can do what I want to, rather than the main touristy things. I would also allocate a whole day to the Louvre, take a cruise down the river, and search out better restaurants.
So, Paris was basically amazing. I was only there for three days + I took 400 pictures. I've only uploaded 1/4 of them, but for now here is a list of what I did:
-Mount Martre
-The Louvre
-Notre Dame
-Sante Chapelle
-The Royal Opera
-Arcade Shopping
-Versailles
-Delicious Amazing Dinner
-Eiffel Tower
-Arms Museum
-Le Grande et le Petit Palais
So I still managed to accomplish an awful lot. When I called my dad up to tell him about it, I went through about an hour long narration on what I did, + while I won't inflict that on you, I will tell you my favorite story from my weekend:
I decided I wanted to see the inside of the Royal Opera house, because it looked very fancy from the outside + it was pouring, so that would give me something to do inside. However, when I went inside there was a sign hanging up saying that there was a performance at 2:30, so the tours would not be operating. I looked down at my watch, and it was 2:30 exactly.
So I picked up my handy dandy pocket guide to see what else was in the area that I might want to see, and the doorman came up + told me that if I bought one of the cheapest tickets (seven pounds!), I could see the show and the opera house.
So I buy my ticket, and I sort of wander around the lobby, and then an usher (in a fancy suit and bowtie, mind you) stuffs me into this fancy elevator + takes me up to the third floor, where he passes me off to another usher. She leads me around the corner and unlocks (!) the door to a booth, and asks me if I speak French. When I tell her that I don't, she takes me in, opens a second door, and leads me into pitch darkness by the hand.
Once I sat down, I realized I had no idea what kind of a show I had come in for- it was a ballet. I could only see 1/3 of the stage, so it wasn't particularly interesting, but it was a selection of classic French ballets- Le Papillion was first, and the lady was wearing the excessive glittery head-thing, and had little wings on the back of her costume. The two dancers were smiling at the audience the whole time, like "ooh, look at me, I'm the greatest thing ever." Kind of hilarious.
The opera house itself was lovely- totally opulent and bizarre. I had been in a little booth- six chairs arranged two by two, with a couch and a coat hook behind them. It was really much fancier than anything I had ever seen before.
___
The food in Paris, and the weather on the last day are what really got me, though. It seems like New York, but flatter and older. I would love to go back some day, and when I do I'll do research so I can do what I want to, rather than the main touristy things. I would also allocate a whole day to the Louvre, take a cruise down the river, and search out better restaurants.
Monday, March 23, 2009
The Pitmen Debaters
[I went to see this play with my program, + this is the review I had to write for my Modern Drama class]
The Pitmen Painters, now playing at the National Theatre, is the story of a few pitmen who accidentally take an art class and wind up with accidental success. An already interesting story known in the art world as that of the Ashington Group, the playwright Lee Hall pulls from it a number of debates on where money belongs in art. While not literally faithful to the original scale of the group, the play gives us a strong sense of the passionate dynamic of the artists.
Throughout the 2 hour and 40 minute production, the cast remains a solid company, even when the action lags, pushed to strong characterization by the director Max Roberts- unsurprising, as Roberts is a founding member of Live Theatre, Newcastle Upon Tyne. The group's tutor, Robert Lyon, is given an appropriately conflicted sensibility by the talents of Ian Kelley. Playing his foil Oliver, Christopher Connel is an occasionally over-loud bully, who none the less manages to reel it in during more sensitive scenes. The most commendable performance of all is that of Brian Lonsdale, who transforms himself from the unhappy unemployed miner into the acclaimed Ben Nicholson with such a marked transformation of posture and accent that the audience hardly knew he was the same actor.
In the National Theatre's hulking auditorium it would seem that it would be easy for the action to get lost, but Gary McCann's design gives us a succinctly communicative set which utilizes but does not strain the audience's imagination. Projections of the paintings appear over the actors heads when needed, and the sounds of the pit provided by Martin Hodgson which appear between scenes give us a constant reminder of where these men come from.
And where these men come from seems to be one of the central sticking points for their art throughout the play- Hall enters us into the debate about why art is made, and who it is for. For the pitmen, it is a personal expression of their world, and they feel that nobody but them could have created such works. For the art collectors, the pitmen are a quaint occurrence to be admired for their raw experiences, and possession of their paintings acts as a status symbol, a symbol of their 'with-it-ness'. But the pitmen don't really "get" the commodification of their art- to them it is something which would be absurd to put a price tag on. As Oliver says at one point in the play, "A funny thing, once you've painted a picture, you feel it’s part of your life.”
As the pitmen set to tearing each other to pieces over their ideals about their art, the audience is swept up and along, and one feels they would like to dive onto the stage and engage the actors as their characters. Though it tends to drag toward the end, The Pitmen Painters is a thought-provoking treatise on money’s place in art- just don’t spend too much of your own on it.
The Pitmen Painters, now playing at the National Theatre, is the story of a few pitmen who accidentally take an art class and wind up with accidental success. An already interesting story known in the art world as that of the Ashington Group, the playwright Lee Hall pulls from it a number of debates on where money belongs in art. While not literally faithful to the original scale of the group, the play gives us a strong sense of the passionate dynamic of the artists.
Throughout the 2 hour and 40 minute production, the cast remains a solid company, even when the action lags, pushed to strong characterization by the director Max Roberts- unsurprising, as Roberts is a founding member of Live Theatre, Newcastle Upon Tyne. The group's tutor, Robert Lyon, is given an appropriately conflicted sensibility by the talents of Ian Kelley. Playing his foil Oliver, Christopher Connel is an occasionally over-loud bully, who none the less manages to reel it in during more sensitive scenes. The most commendable performance of all is that of Brian Lonsdale, who transforms himself from the unhappy unemployed miner into the acclaimed Ben Nicholson with such a marked transformation of posture and accent that the audience hardly knew he was the same actor.
In the National Theatre's hulking auditorium it would seem that it would be easy for the action to get lost, but Gary McCann's design gives us a succinctly communicative set which utilizes but does not strain the audience's imagination. Projections of the paintings appear over the actors heads when needed, and the sounds of the pit provided by Martin Hodgson which appear between scenes give us a constant reminder of where these men come from.
And where these men come from seems to be one of the central sticking points for their art throughout the play- Hall enters us into the debate about why art is made, and who it is for. For the pitmen, it is a personal expression of their world, and they feel that nobody but them could have created such works. For the art collectors, the pitmen are a quaint occurrence to be admired for their raw experiences, and possession of their paintings acts as a status symbol, a symbol of their 'with-it-ness'. But the pitmen don't really "get" the commodification of their art- to them it is something which would be absurd to put a price tag on. As Oliver says at one point in the play, "A funny thing, once you've painted a picture, you feel it’s part of your life.”
As the pitmen set to tearing each other to pieces over their ideals about their art, the audience is swept up and along, and one feels they would like to dive onto the stage and engage the actors as their characters. Though it tends to drag toward the end, The Pitmen Painters is a thought-provoking treatise on money’s place in art- just don’t spend too much of your own on it.
Weekend starting 3/21
On Saturday, Sarah Jason + I got on the train down to Brighton (£20 round trip!). We walked past the Brighton Pavilion but didn't go inside because we didn't feel like spending the money on it. Most of the rest of the day was spent walking up + down the beach- we went to the Marina + walked along the seawall, got some really tasty fish + chips for lunch, + walked along the entertainment boardwalk. More photos can be found in my photostream.
Overall, it was just a nice relaxing experience- I haven't just chilled + enjoyed my surroundings for an extended period of time for a while, + it made me really excited to spend more time on the beach this summer.
***
Yesterday was a really nice day, so I didn't really want to stay inside doing work. Sarah + I walked down to the South Bank Centre (one of our favorite haunts for free entertainement), but we saw the strangest thing on our way, on Charing Cross.
Heading south, three horse buggies popped out of the intersection and headed up the street in the opposite direction- everybody on the street stopped and stared. A few moments later, about seven more buggies popped out of the same road going in the opposite direction, closely followed by a number of police vehicles.
At first we thought it was some kind of official event, but then one of the horses got turned in the wrong direction into traffic and one of the police officers started yelling at the man driving the buggy, and the general attitude of the officers toward the buggy drivers was one of open hostility. Was it some kind of protest? I don't think I'll ever know- a quick Google search merely tells me that 'Charing Cross' is cockney rhyming slang for horse.
Overall, it was just a nice relaxing experience- I haven't just chilled + enjoyed my surroundings for an extended period of time for a while, + it made me really excited to spend more time on the beach this summer.
Yesterday was a really nice day, so I didn't really want to stay inside doing work. Sarah + I walked down to the South Bank Centre (one of our favorite haunts for free entertainement), but we saw the strangest thing on our way, on Charing Cross.
Heading south, three horse buggies popped out of the intersection and headed up the street in the opposite direction- everybody on the street stopped and stared. A few moments later, about seven more buggies popped out of the same road going in the opposite direction, closely followed by a number of police vehicles.
At first we thought it was some kind of official event, but then one of the horses got turned in the wrong direction into traffic and one of the police officers started yelling at the man driving the buggy, and the general attitude of the officers toward the buggy drivers was one of open hostility. Was it some kind of protest? I don't think I'll ever know- a quick Google search merely tells me that 'Charing Cross' is cockney rhyming slang for horse.
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