Ay-aye-aye

Well, the first day of classes is done for me. I had my piano lesson at 9:30. My teacher is wonderful and, oy vay, she assigned a lot of pieces:
Tango by Albanez
Papillion by Grieg
Haydn Sonata in C Maj (all 3 movements)
Mendelssohn Song without Words in E-flat Maj
Bach 2-part invention in D min
We only had a half-hour but she worked with me on posture, wrist movement, pedaling, eye focus (yes), relaxed shoulders, individual note emphasis within a chord and octave scales. (The rumor is that she was an Olympic competitor in rhythmic dance.)
Next class was a biggie – solfege/music theory. 10:30-12:50 (I have it for 5 hours every week) The teacher is very nice, very demanding and wins the award for the most homework I’ve ever been assigned for one class. For Thursday’s class I have a huge laundry list of things I have to learn, practice and review. We sang solfege (do, re, mi…) some Bach examples, a madrigal, a 3-part Mozart and an Italian art song. We did two dictation pieces and we did a bunch of diatonic theory (triads, scale degrees…). One fun thing we did that I’ve never done was solfege-repeating a cannon. My teacher, Klara, played a melody on the piano. We had to repeat back the first two measures on solfege while she continued on to the next two measures and on and on through the cannon. It was really a lot of fun. My brain was working on two almost completely different tasks simultaneously – singing/solfeging and listening/memorizing. My homework includes several pieces that I have to solfege one part and play on the piano the other two parts – ee, gads.
Next, I accompanied a singer’s lesson. She was doing Faure’s Pie Jesu so that was nothing new; I could zone out a bit.
Then it was one of my scheduled practice times so I went and played through my new piano pieces and worked on my solfege.
I’m back in my room listening to the Gypsy Kings and chilling out. If I work up the energy again I’ll make dinner and do some more homework and practicing. More tomorrow!

Movie Time!

Here are a few movies from my trip....

The first is of an Irish castle with the tower bells ringing....



The second is from a wine tasting.....



The third shows our very "musical" walking tour guide.

The Beautiful Blue Danube, paprika, salami and St. Stephen

This past week, Sept 3 – Sept 7, we’ve had orientation. It’s been a week of traveling around Hungary by way of introducing us to our new country. Here’s the run-down:



Mon – Budapest. Opera House, St. Stephen’s Basilica (we’ve heard about a million-trillion times this week that St. Stephen was the first king of Hungary. We saw his right hand in the basilica!), lunch in Central Kavehaz & Etterem, castle district and general sightseeing






Tue – North-Western Part of Hungary. Archabbey of Pannonhalma, Eszterhazy Castle, Szechenyi Castle, Herend Porcelanium factory and museum including a cup of tea in their famous porcelain, stay the night in a hotel in Sopron.

Wed – North-Western Part of Hungary. Sopron sightseeing, Lake Balaton (nicknamed the Hungarian Sea. It was so cold, windy and rainy! Apparently a lot of the lake is really shallow so it’s fun for the kids), dinner in a csarda (fish soup – a bit too fishy even for me- & traditional music)

Thur – Southern Part of Hungary at the River Tisza. Opusztaszer National Historical Memorial Park (horse show. Hmm, I don’t know the appropriate historical terms but it was like a barbarian Hun jousting show. There were 4 people in their nomadic-looking attire and they were shooting arrows and waving swords while riding horses; bit insane really – kind of like the Renaissance reinactors who really get into their roles. The main guy, let’s call him Atilla, picked me to come up and learn to shoot an arrow [I had not volunteered byt]) I turned my camera to take a picture of Atilla and that's him aiming his arrow at me...scary especially since I saw him shoot a stray dog with an arrow before the show started, sightseeing in Szeged, Szeged synagogue (second largest in Hungary – considered the most beautiful by the Hungarians and me), salami museum ☺, paprika museum

Fri – Southern Part of Hungary. Visit to traditional Hungarian home & embroidery exhibition, sightseeing in the archbishopric town of Kalocsa, mini organ concert in the church (Liszt was the first to play the organ), the church treasury (including one of the three copies of the Hungarian crown. The pope has another one of the three and the third is also in Kalocsa.), library of Kalocsa (including one of Martin Luther’s personal bibles with his handwritten notes in it and a 30 year old model of the city church made of sugar), another paprika museum, wine tasting afternoon in Hajos.





*quick pronunciation guide regarding the “s”
an ‘s’ by itself is pronounced like ‘sh’ as in ‘sheep’. For example: Budape-sh-t and Sh-opron.
‘sz’ sounds like a plain ‘s’ as in ‘say’. For example: Szechenyi is pronounced [say-chain-ey].

*quick historical note
By the way, Mr. Szechenyi is a huge hero in Hungary. He was responsible for humungous works projects like the highway system, engineering the path of the rivers through Hungary, the uniting of Buda and Pest, the racing horse-breeding industry and the introduction of the flush toilet into Hungary (thanks for that!). The oldest and most famous bridge across the Danube at Budapest is the Szechenyi Bridge commonly known as the “Chain Bridge”.

Blah, bloo, blah...

I’ve made it to Hungary. Yesterday was my travel day and it was a bit crazy. Gatwick to Budapest was uneventful which is always good when it comes to airline travel. I was supposed to have a car meet me at the airport to drive me to the institute but it never showed. He actually told me today that he was there but there was definitely no one with a sign with my name on it. After a bit of confusion and one futile trip out to the train platform, I bought my ticket (in the airport), walked back out to the dark platform and caught the train to Kecskemet. It was like the Hogwarts Express minus the beautifulness. I half expected someone to come down the aisle selling every-flavor beans and chocolate frogs. I got into a compartment with two Hungarian girls about my age. One of them was going to Kecskemet and she and her mom ended up walking me from the train station to my school. It was a good thing too because it was a short walk but it was overgrown and there were no lights for the first bit and I think it even went through a cemetery – nice for my first night in Hungary…blah, bloo, blah (Mike’s favorite Dracula quote).

Well, I’m sharing a room with Lisa, a nice girl who is a junior undergrad trumpeter at Capitol College in Ohio. The Institute is beautiful – I’ll post pictures.

Today we went sightseeing in Budapest as a group. I think there will be between 30-40 students studying here this semester; lots of undergrad. There seems to be a real difference between the undergrad students who are here for a semester and the grad students who will be here for a year. We have our placement tests/auditions and start classes next week.

Tomorrow we’re off on a two-day excursion through Hungary. I’ll check in when I can!

Groundlings in the Wooden O

I'll start at the end of the evening first, the highlight of our day. Wendy and I got cheap tickets (5GBP) to The Merchant of Venice at Shakespeare's Globe theater. We enjoyed the Elizabethean experience of being "groundlings" a.k.a. tickets so cheap that you don't even get to sit down. The Globe, as you probably know, is a circular building around an open-air courtyard - "the wooden o". 700 people pay to stand in the yard during the show although it was 1,000 in Shakespeare's time and they only paid a penny each back then. Wendy and I queued up early and were nearly the beginning of the line so we had our choice of where to stand when the house opened. We leaned on the stage for the show and had a fabulous 3 hours! I'll never go back to seats again :)

We started the day by running some errands - post office, drug store... Then we walked the few blocks to Harrod's and spend some time among the pets, pianos, perfume, pomegranates and pantyhose that were for sale. We got the tube from Knightsbridge to Chancery Lane and walked the rest of the way to one of my favorite pubs, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. After our panini sandwiches and beverages we crossed the Millenium Bridge to the Tate Modern. We wandered through the art for a bit then settled on a porch overlooking the Thames for lattes and tiramisu. We went next to wait in line outside The Globe and you know the rest.

I'm sure our feet will recover from the abuse...eventually.

Elementary my dear Watson...

oops, too long hanging around Baker Street I guess.

So, after breakfast at the hostel Wendy and I got on the Picadilly line to Holborn. We walked to Lincoln's Inn Fields and visited the Sir John Soane's Museum. Wow, it was manic! Sir Soane was a famous architect and a collector of just about anything it seems. The museum was his home and it is covered in treasures absolutely from floor to ceiling including a 3,000 year old sarcophagus. He must have been a bit of a nutter because the house is insane. It has not been changed - nothing added, nothing removed - since it was made a museum by an act of parliament on the occasion of his death. Apparently he had it protected as a museum so his disinherited son could not get it. They did not allow photography so you'll have to take my word for it that it is amazing and probably a claustrophobic's nightmare. I found a picture online though:













Next, we walked through Bloomsbury and checked out Russell Square on our way to the British Museum. We had lunch in "The Great Court", the beautiful glass-ceilinged area. We saw the Rosetta stone and a bunch of mummies on our way back out to the street.

We walked through the lovely Fitzroy Square, saw the spacey-looking BT tower and headed down Euston Road for Regent's Park. The Park is so refreshing. The plantings were dripping with flowers and the grass was cool and green. Queen Mary's Rose Garden was covered in roses and smelled like it too. I can't believe that in my many trips to London I've never been to this beautiful park. Oh, in the open air theatre we could hear the musical going on, "The Boyfriend". Mike, you'll be pleased to know that it sounded to me like a Jeeves and Wooster production with the 1920's English musichall music. I could almost hear Jeeves saying "I'm sure that your cool head and undoubted thespian powers will see you through the day, Sir."

We walked out of the park, down Baker Street, past Sherlock Holmes' place and down into the Baker Street tube. We're resting up at the hostel now in anticipation of our evening walking tour - Apparitions, Alleyways and Ales. ta-ta for now. (pictures to come)

George and Harry (or Dinner and a Movie)

A beautiful day in London and the weather couldn't be better. My friend Wendy arrived in the morning. She flew in to Gatwick and I met her at the Gloucester Road tube station (well, actually, the Starbucks across the street) when she got into the city. We went back to the hostel to claim a bed for her then we were back out in the fine weather. We took the Underground to the Embankment station, crossed the Thames and ambled along Bankside. We went to Shakespeare's Globe and did the walking tour and a special educational presentation about costuming. They were doing tech rehearsals for a show that's opening next weekend about the writing of the American Constitution called We The People. Next we walked to the George Inn, London's only surviving galleried coaching inn. We both had steak pie with mashed potatoes and peas - yumm. I tried the George Inn Ale - I don't recommend it. We sat there and chatted for a good while before walking back to the Globe and crossing the Thames on the Millennium Bridge. We walked up Fleet Street and turned right into Aldwych and up into the theatreland. We slowed down at Leicester Square long enough to decide to see the new Harry Potter movie in the theatre there (where the HP movies have premiered). The screen was huge, the seats were nice and big, the sound was excellent and the movie was great. After the movie we shuffled like sardines through the Leicester Square tube station and made our way back here. No specific plans for tomorrow but we've got "groundling" tickets to Merchant of Venice on Friday night! More later.

Londontown

I enjoyed my day here in London at 2 museums that are literally in the next block down from my hostel: the Natural History Museum (underwhelming) and the Victoria & Albert (overwhelming).

The Natural History Museum was not as good as it's counterpart at the Smithsonian in DC. The dinosaur exhibit was pretty extensive and pretty well packed with kids. (I'm glad they had a good time!) The architecture of the place was clever and fascinating though. There were carvings of animals in all the walls and columns. In the main hall, which looks like a Victorian train station, there were monkeys carved into the stone pillars so that they looked like they were climbing all over. It made me think of Kathy.


The minerals & meteors exhibit was closed for renovation. There was a cross-section of a giant sequoia on display with a few plaques of information - that was right up my alley. Too bad everything else was just a big display of taxodermy - mammals, fish, snakes, horses, bats, reptiles... I'll borrow the nickname Dubliners use for their natural history museum: the dead zoo. I pushed my way through the crowds of youngsters and headed for the Victoria & Albert.

The V & A was amazing! I'd heard about it for years (and maybe even went in on one of those whirlwind tours in high school) but I really saw it today. I literally explored the exhibits until my feet were aching and forced me to end the day as the museum was closing at 5:30. They had a fantastic collection of modernism and 20th century stuff. They seemed to have nearly every modernist icon right there (except some notable American ommisions - no Eames lounge chair, no Frank Lloyd Wright). They had included as a modern icon worthy of note a Nike running shoe; way to go Oregonians!

The musical instrument collection was fascinating, the textile collection was surprisingly captivating, all the exhibits were engaging and stunning in their completeness (again, except for the lack of American 20th cent. icons).

Finally, here is a picture of me on my bed in the hostel. Well, just my foot really. It's a bit of a challenge to get pictures of yourself when you're traveling alone so I've settled for pictures of my extremities (laws of common decency notwithstanding) :)

Molly "Braveheart" Khatcheressian

My first day driving on the left I was rewarded with the experience of encountering Loch Lomond. It was beautiful!

Well, here it is from the beginning.
5AM leave the hostel in Dublin to stand in the rain and wait for the city bus to take me to the airport
6ish wait around in the Ryanair waiting area (think Greyhound station) until my flight to Scotland
7:59 scheduled departure
8:10 in the air
9ish arrive at Glasgow-Prestwick Airport
shortly after 9ish pick up rental car
now it was about 45 minutes after this that I had the only semi-breakdown of the trip so far - here's the story:
My plan was to drive from Prestwick to Oban by way of Loch Lomond. I was a bit anxious of being swooped into Glasgow traffic. The driving on the left was a bit overwhelming at first. In an attempt to avoid the city traffic I diverted too soon and ended up wandering around the country roads and suburbs. Finally, worn-out, hungry and frustrated, I pulled off the road into a neighborhood. I inadvertantly pulled into a no-way-out street and a truck with a lawn mower on a trailer pulled behind me. We both had to back out so I could escape. (eee gads) I turned in to the next spot which was a gravel lot with some community trash dumpsters and a woman selling snacks out of a trailer. I sat in the car on the edge of tears trying to decide what to do. I finally got out and went to speak with the snack lady. She was a saint. Really, it's like one of those stories of a random stranger showing up out of nowhere to offer needed assistance. Long story shorter - she called her husband for directions, a friend stopped by the trailer and actually wrote the directions down for me, she made me a burger, gave me a candy bar and wished me well on my journey. Also, she was the first of several people to call me "braveheart", really. (Is it too pretentious to start using that as a nickname?)


I'll have to get into the story of my Loch Lomond adventure in another post.

Scotland Overview

I've travelled to many countries over the years and have now decided that the Scots are the nicest. I would definitely enjoy spending more time in Scotland.
Ways the Scots are cool:
*everyone you encounter verbally greets you
*the Scottish drivers are gracious and wave to other drivers a lot
*not a single Scot treated me like an outsider (even when they heard my American accent)
*it has to be a cool population that encourages something like the Edinburgh Festival (especially Fringe)
*teenage workers (gas stations, waiters...) were even polite
*I moved out of the way to allow 3 ruffian kids on bikes to careen by me and they all said "thank you" (I about passed out at that one)
*the audience all held hands and sang "Auld Lang Syne" at the Edinburgh Tatoo

I was really sorry to leave the land of the Scots and hope it's not long before I'm back.

(this is a beautiful ancient standing stone in Glamis)

Dublin's Fair City

Well, after several flight delays, I made it to Ireland. I took a city bus from the airport to O'Connell Street (the main drag). A very nice lady on the bus helped me figure out at which stop to get out and even gave me directions from the stop to my hostel. The hostel is great. The staff is very nice and helpful. My bed is an upper bunk and looks fine to me.

I rode the double-decker sightseeing bus all the way around the circuit and just got out at the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

I've spent very little on food today and had a good time doing it too. I went to a local bakery and the nice Irishman made me a ham sandwich - very homemade - like something one's mom would pack for a trip. I ate that for breakfast and lunch then I went to the local pub for dinner. I had a student special... bowl of onion soup, free bread and butter and a pint of cider. I sat up at the bar and everything!

I went on the Guiness tour. The tour is 7 floors of more info than you ever wanted about stout. At the end of the tour, you get a free pint of Guiness in the Gravity Bar. The Gravity Bar is on the top floor of the old beer factory and it is a glass room with 360 views of the city. There were these dorky Italian guys trying to take a picture of themselves. I told them I'd trade them and take their picture if they'd take mine. I really wanted a picture of me with my pint of Guiness. They just got my face. I had one of the guys get in the picture with me. They thought I was crazy.



Everyone I have encountered has been pleasant and affable - bus drivers, bus riders, hostel attendants, man in the deli... So, things are good so far.