| Merry Christmas from London! |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|11:00 am] |
Merry green, grey, warm and damp Christmas, y'all! Seriously, there are flowers blooming.
Christmas Day in London is also apparently stay-in-unless-you're-walking-to-church/maybe-the-pub? day. Public transit is all stopped for the day. There isn't a bus, train, tube line or boat running.
Some other observations:
my bed feels like a board, lol
they all have real Christmas trees!
there are wild cockatiels in the garden next door
the gardens look like something out of The Secret Garden
unlike Oslo, there is not a fashion for smurf-like wool hats here, or knitted or wool hats at all, so my fuchsia cap is distinctly odd
it doesn't so much rain all the time as randomly and without warning
prices here are only cheap compared to Norway, I think, but I'm not entirely sure because I'm too used to Norwegian prices
the tube is seriously tube-shaped. I wasn't actually expecting that
There are "mind the gap" "stand clear of the doors" "a train is arriving, please stand back of the yellow line" "mind your belongings, there are pickpockets" type messages all the time in the underground, and it feels almost parental, kinda like I'm 4. In Oslo, they didn't even warn you when the t-bane doors were closing, and if you tried to run in between, they wouldn't stop closing and you'd get caught and have to pull them apart a bit to get yourself free
I try to imagine ladies in dresses and men in greatcoats and horses and carriages and such when I'm walking around... sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I still can't quite get my head around where I am. The accents are really strange to me. I heard some guy speaking what I guess is cockney, and couldn't quite believe he wasn't pretending. I had no idea that all these different accents coexisted right next to each other, in the same neighbourhoods; I thought they were more geographically spread out, that they'd be less strong and mixed together more. I feel like I'm inside a TV program sometimes.
Sometime while on holiday I'd like to finally get around to writing about Iceland and then take on Oldenburg and the rest of my exchange. No promises though. |
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| 30 Days of Sharing - Thirteen & Fourteen |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|12:03 am] |
I got into the fiction writing course!
I got an email yesterday from the English department, just to let me know that an override had been placed on the course code, so it won't prevent me from registering when I try to do that. But I still have no idea what the prof thought of my portfolio, or how many other people are in the class or how many applied or anything. Guess we'll see in a few weeks!
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
I really had no idea what I was going to do for either of these, considering that my "favourite book" post a few weeks ago basically encapsulated much of what I would have written about here. And I didn't want to write about whatever books I was reading at the moment, because that would slightly defeat the purpose of my gigantic end-of-the-year book post that I'm planning for (probably) New Years Day.
BUT. I do still have last year's gigantic end-of-the-year book post to write up, finally. I can't remember why I didn't just do it at the time!
First, a list of all the books I read, and then my Top 10, which you should all read! Here goes:
( Read more... )
And the rest:
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy |
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| 30 Days of Sharing - Twelve |
[Dec. 20th, 2009|01:31 am] |
I went to the Sens game tonight! Mom and I went early and had dinner at one of the restaurants there. It was my first game of the year, and it was actually an extremely belated birthday present from my parents. I had told them at the time that all I wanted this year was tickets to a game, and gave them a list of the ones I was most interested in seeing - and this game was top of the list!
It was against Minnesota, who I kind of like, but I wasn't too worried about the price or about there being copious amounts of Minnesota fans in the crowd to annoy me. But the real reason I wanted to see this game is because Martin Havlat plays for the Wild now, and he was always one of my favourites when he played for us. So the fact that we won, but he got the Wild's only goal, made this just about the perfect night!
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
The concert that I was at last night was one of the best I've ever seen, right up there with both Great Big Sea concerts I've been to.
We sang at the NAC Family Christmas concert last night, which we've done before, but I don't really feel like I can put this in the same category as the other times we've done it. We were only onstage for two songs, and one of them just involved us leading the audience in a bunch of Christmas carols. So it didn't really feel like much of a concert on our part. Basically for the rest of the evening, we were treated to a free performance by the Leahy family.
( Read more... )
The others:
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy |
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| 30 Days of Sharing - Eleven |
[Dec. 18th, 2009|01:07 pm] |
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
As much as I kind of despise the vast majority of photos taken of me for much of my childhood, it's possible that I like recent pictures of me even less. Especially when I'm posing for a picture I know is being taken ... I've become really self-conscious about the way I smile in photos, and how I apparently cannot stop tilting my head, no matter what I do.
The pictures taken of me from my graduation last month are particularly bad - I wasn't tired, exactly, but my eyes felt really heavy, and apparently I was overcompensating, because in just about all of them I have this awkward deer-in-headlights expression. Anyway, this is one of the only ones that is not painful to look at.
November 14. Me with some of the other girls from my Shakespeare class. This was at the reception in Raven's Nest after the ceremony.
And the rest:
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy |
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| 30 Days of Sharing - Ten |
[Dec. 16th, 2009|07:40 pm] |
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Alright, back to this, finally. I was hoping to post this a couple days ago, but I had trouble deciding on a picture at first - from about grades 2 to 8 I'm not fond of most of the pictures of me. But I didn't want to go back much farther than that either, since my last entry for this meme already included a really old picture. So I resorted to combing through all the shoeboxes full of old pictures that I keep under my bed. I hadn't looked at them for a long time, so there were a lot of interesting discoveries on my part. I toyed with posting a picture from my very first Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph(and therefore very first Central Choir performance), but when I stumbled upon this one, there really was no other choice.
Spring, 1997, so I was 11. Wade Redden was 19, at the end of his first year as an Ottawa Senator. I had been lucky enough earlier that year to attend a game at the Corel Centre, in the box suite that he had purchased for kids at CHEO. My Dad took me to the game, which was against Vancouver (and we won). They gave all of us pizza and hot dogs and things, and then at the end of the game we got signed player cards - I remember specifically wanting one from whoever got the game-winning goal.
Then, at the end of the season, we were all invited to a lunch party at CHEO, which my grandfather took me to. Partway through the party, Wade arrived. This was the first time that we would get to meet Wade face-to-face, and to thank him for the wonderful opportunity. Clearly, I got my picture taken with him, and I got his autograph, which I still have somewhere.
It was hard for me in the years since then, when he faced a lot of criticism in Ottawa, and even harder when he was traded, because all I can think of is how my interest in hockey at all dates back to this guy. Even then, I think I was conscious that a lot of other 19-year olds would not be so generous, but the older I get, the more I realize how remarkable this was.
Coming up:
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy |
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| "There's a light that shines in our land. There's a torch we hold in our hand..." |
[Dec. 13th, 2009|10:18 pm] |
I know I've been MIA for the 30 days of Sharing, but I hope to get back into it tomorrow.
It's been kind of a hectic week, and I thought this stuff deserved its own post before I get back into things.
So, I bet you thought I wouldn't get that portfolio in, didn't you? You would be wrong! I was up kind of late on Wednesday night getting it finished, but I did hand it in on Thursday. I'm supposed to hear in the next couple days whether I got in or not.
The bigger story of the last few days occupied the greater part of my weekend. We were invited to sing on Parliament Hill when the Olympic flame came to town! We were joined by Gregory Charles and two other choirs. We've been rehearsing the music for a while now, and then on *Monday* we were given this impossible new O Canada to learn - the one time we have actual words to sing, they're in Cree! Ironically, that was the easiest part of the song to learn. The rest of the time was all "hey ha" and "way ya hey". Eep.
We had to be on the hill for much of Friday afternoon/evening for a sound check and rehearsal with the cameras. We were waiting around behind the stage *forever* before they would let us on, because they were running late. I can't even begin to tell you how cold that was - I may never be warm again. And it wasn't any better once we were on the stage, despite their reassurances about the lights and lack of wind and everything. Only part of the choir was there at that point, so the only thing we did was O Canada, but it did give us the chance to hear it with Asani for the first time. I really wasn't sure about the song at first, but it did grow on me, especially when we realized we were also going to be doing a 'normal' version of the song at the end of the show. Still, it was kind of impossible to learn, and they wanted us to have all of our music memorized. Not that having our folders would have helped much, since turning pages with mittens on doesn't work so well.
After rehearsal, we went across the street and they provided us dinner. We were supposed to have another rehearsal after that, but luckily they said we could go, once we had picked up our uniforms - green jackets, blue hats and scarves, and those AMAZING red Olympic mittens. I bought a pair of my own the very first day they came out, and those things are the warmest thing in the world - I went to the Santa Clause parade last weekend, and only after like an hour did my hands *start* to get cold! And we all get to keep everything!
Then, on Saturday we had to be downtown at about 9:00. Rehearsal didn't start for another hour after that, but they wanted to be sure there were no problems with us going through security, since we spent the entire day in Centre Block. Unfortunately, I had to be there even earlier than that, since we had to drive my brother to his exam for 8:00, and weren't going to go back home after that. We spent the time before everyone else got there taking pictures of some of the architecture near the rooms where we were rehearsing.
The morning rehearsal was kind of dreadful - Gregory Charles and College Vocale were fantastic, but they spent the majority of the time trying to teach us the choreography to the pieces we were doing, and reassuring us that it was not difficult and that we should not be nervous and just have fun. Except that I am supremely uncoordinated and can't clap and sing at the same time. Ugh. At least the music was beginning to sound good?
They provided us lunch, and then we had to go outside for another sound check, now with everybody present. It was the first time I really heard all the pieces of the song Gregory Charles wrote for this event come together. That's another one that's really grown on me - I keep getting it stuck in my head today! There were a lot of problems with us being unable to hear ourselves, each other and the track over him, but eventually we got everything sorted out. Still, in spite of our lovely, lovely mittens, we were freezing by the time we could go back inside.
We really wasted a lot of the time between then and the show - we looked over a few Christmas carols, some of which would be a part of the Christmas lights lighting ceremony thing, which coincided with the arrival of the torch. A couple of those were okay, but none of us knew the third one at all. Luckily, College Vocale was singing them, and we were just singing the choruses with them. Then we looked over a few others, to be sung in case the torch was delayed by protesters! I really wished we had spent more time looking over O Canada, but it didn't happen.
Finally, after an early dinner, we were outside. Walking down to the stage, it didn't seem like a huge crowd, but we were kept backstage for quite a while again, and it had really grown by the time we finally walked out - today I heard an estimate of about 15,000, which makes me ridiculously happy. There were all these red lights when we looked out into the crowd, and I couldn't figure out what they were at first, but people were holding little white through red cups, and it looked really cool from the stage. Someone told us that this was the biggest show they were putting on for the torch until it reaches Vancouver! In some ways that should be kind of a given, but I was really excited about that as well.
Predictably, we spent most of O Canada just pretending we knew what we were doing. I'm pretty sure the sopranos missed a good two pages in the middle somewhere. And then during this gospel medley, one of the cameras was in my face for a good ten seconds, which wasn't great, because I was attempting to sing, clap and smile at the same time. I haven't seen the video yet, so I don't know how successful I was!
The rest of the ceremony went pretty quickly after that. There were these cool native hoop dancers, and then speeches by John Furlong, Gordon Campbell, Stephen Harper ... maybe a couple others? And then the torch finally arrived, carried by Joé Juneau. It was really cute - as he was coming up the steps to the stage, there were these little Inuit kids lining his path, banging hockey sticks on the ground, and then before he lit the flame they came up on stage. One last O Canada, and then we were done! They rushed us off the stage pretty quickly after that, because of all the dignitaries, a few of whom did take the time to shake our hands before we disappeared.
But then that was it! I had been looking forward to that day for months, ever since we first found out about it, and now it's already behind us. And then we were right back downtown this morning, because Fanfair was at the NAC today. It wasn't one of the better years, I don't think - the guy conducting both of our pieces took them super fast - but the carols are always fun. And Sleigh Ride is really what makes this concert one of my favourites of the year. It's not until now that I really feel like Christmas is almost here.
One more concert (Family Christmas concert with the Leahy Family on Friday), and then we're done until January! |
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