I went out for Chinese food this evening with a bunch of low brass players. It was fun. We decided to create a funk band, but I don't know if we're going to follow through with that idea. It sounds like fun though! **What is hip? Tell me, tell me! . . . **

I'm going to be extremely busy until my recital is over. It's finally scheduled for good: 4:30PM on March 9th. Putting it together will be fun, but for the next two weeks I'll have rehearsals and coachings back to back. For example, I just got back to my room at 11:30 PM and I haven't been back since my first class at 10AM. eeeeep! Everything is going well though. My music history class is going well. We just finished a unit on big bands and bebop, and now we're moving on to Stravinsky! It's a nicely varied class. Sociology is really cool! Today we talked about memes and how they transfer to the internet. And we discuss questions like: Are personal computer documents considered your property even though they're just bits of electronic code? And math is totally awesome - duh. Yay probabilities!!

Sad news - all my fish died. But Theo the one-eyed froggy lives on. I think he is happy to have the whole tank to himself. Although I'm not sure if he's happy - I've deduced that frogs are not very emotive. Andrew's fish is still alive and seems to be very good at shimmying. We're not sure why.

Other than that, Oberlin seems pretty freaking cool. It should snow a bunch tomorrow, but I won't notice much since I'll be in the conservatory until late again tomorrow. haha. Fun times!

Fishmartflowers

Andrew got me flowers for Valentine's Day and I got myself fish from Walmart! Hooray!

Back in Ohio

I'm back in Oberlin! It is cold and rainy, soon to be cold and snowy. I'm taking three cool classes:
1) Music History from 1914
2) Cyberspace and Social Relations
3) Graphical Models
I'm also in Chamber Orchestra, Brass Ensemble, Trumpet Ensemble, and a brass quintet so it'll be a fun semester. I've been running into friends around campus, which never ceases to amaze me since I am used to the ambiguity of London existence. But it's great to see so many familiar faces and get back into campus life. Here are some pictures of my dorm and a couple pictures documenting the unpacking process inside my dorm room.

ANDREW AND I HAD SO MUCH FUN IN LONDON TOGETHER

HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY

Here are some things we did:

• ate at Borough Market
• went inside some old churches
  
• walked on the Millenium Bridge
• saw a lot of surrealist art at the Tate Modern. There was also an exhibit on the main floor that was literally a giant crack in the floor.
  
• ate Indian food on Brick Lane
• saw the London Symphony play Mahler's 4th Symphony
• went to Amsterdam on a plane!
• explored Hampstead Heath and a lot of London's other green spaces
• went to the places where I interned
• saw some weird body parts on display at the Royal School for Surgeons
  
• went to pubs!
• celebrated new years on The Strand
• saw the Mayor's Parade on New Year's Day which was full of American marching bands and American cheerleaders
• went to a lot of cool museums
• made friends with waterfowl in St. James' Park
  
• SMILED:

Mom in London and Santa in the radiator

My mom came to visit me in London and we had so much fun! She worked through her jet lag with great tenacity. On her first day in this time zone, we saw the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum, and she got to meet my coworkers at the Livesey Museum. The next day we headed to Edinburgh (pronounced something like Eh-din-bur-uh) on a train called The Flying Scotsman. We stayed in a room above a cool pub called the Bank Hotel They gave us free breakfast which included HAGGIS!! Haggis isn't so bad if you don't think about the ingredients. It just tastes kind of livery and has a slimy texture . . . but it's great! We learned about Scotch Whiskey, saw multiple Christmas Markets, took a walking tour of the city, shopped around, and ate at a good vegetarian restaurant!
When we got back to London, we did some more touring around and soon enough, Christmas arrived along with presents from SANTA CLAUS for both me and my mom!!

NUTS roasting, on an open fire.

That subject is a Lawyer family inside joke. I'm sorry if you're not on the inside, but it's really funny. You're missing out.

I was a block away from the Queen today! It is Remembrance Sunday, so many many proud people attended the solemn ceremony on Whitehall Street. Patriotism is interesting in a country that has been involved in such a long history of wars and service. The ceremony was obviously well rehearsed probably because it's been an annual tradition for 87 years. I'm guessing that the metal detectors at the entrance to Whitehall are a more recent addition to the ceremony. The Queen was the first of many to lay a wreath in memory of troops on the Centograph. There was a long moment of silence sandwiched in the middle of great live British band music and some occasional bagpipes.

It's beginning to look a little bit like Christmas in London! Oxford Street is decorated and everyone is strongly urged to be a busy Christmas shopper. The window displays are particularly festive. The multiple ice rinks are popular and well zambonied. And most importantly, I bought roasted chestnuts from a street vendor guy outside the British Museum! And while we're preemptively celebrating things, let me inform you that there's only 44 days until the new year!! Happy Easter!!

Internship - day 1

Although I had to say goodbye to dad this morning, I had a pretty great time at my internship. My supervisor took me on an art delivery mission. We packed up his car with bubble wrapped art and drove to a children's museum on Old Kent Road. Then we collected some more art for the same museum at a special art storage facility. I stayed at the children's art museum for the rest of the day. The people at this museum are very young and friendly. They are busy putting together an exhibit called "X marks the spot" which will explore the idea of maps. First, they put me to work documenting the art pieces that we delivered into a table which reminded me a lot of my TSG summer job. Other than that, I drank a lot of tea, got to know my coworkers, and eventually I got involved in the exhibit construction! I made a palm leaf out of green tissue paper and twigs. So far, they haven't noticed how dreadful my artistic skills are.

I'm looking forward to the rest of my week at the children's museum, then I'll head back to my original supervisor at the Cuming Museum for more adventures in artgalleryland.