Ugh

I can't concentrate on anything! I'm really homesick, and nervous about my trip, catching trains on time/not getting lost in countries where I don't speak the language etc. Less than twelve weeks til I see my parents! Have I really not seen you in almost three months? Have you two gotten your passports yet?!
I have SO much to do and I can't concentrate on any of it. Due by 4pm tomorrow is my DSC report, then by my tutorial on Wednesday I should have done my Schenkerian analysis and two essays to make sure I'm on the right track, haven't started those. Due Thursday is my only assignment/grade for anthropology, 2000 word critical essay, I have 400 words. Next Wednesday I should have my Schoenbergian analysis and essay done for my tutorial. Then Friday I should have my orchestration project done for that tutorial. (Note that my analizations and orchestration should just be done so I can be told how bad they are and revise them.) I absolutely despise my romanticism and musical structures class, I don't even know where to begin. Best part is everyone on the departmental board knows he's an absolutely horrendous teacher, gee I wonder why the grade for teaching in the music department on the national student survey is so low. They know he's crap and they don't bother to do anything about it, because it's not their problem. Way to care about your students.
Before I left home I was really stressed because the British consulate was holding my passport ransom, so stressed that I was worn out all the time and just slept my last days at home away. Now I'm so stressed about these assignments and my trip and I'm really homesick so I'm always tired. I went to one of my classes Friday, and went out later that night, but otherwise all I've been doing the past three days is sleeping. I got up at 3pm today, tried to get work done but accomplished nothing, fell asleep on my papers at 7, was woken up by my neighbor at 10, I want to go back to bed but I should get something done today, ugh. Have to at least do my DSC report. You know, I wouldn't be so stressed if it weren't for that one class, I freakin hate that class, I have more to do for that than for everything else combined, and I've learned more in ten minutes of an anthropology lecture than I have in every single lecture combined for that class.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

OK, so it was yesterday, but happy Thanksgiving nonetheless. It was a pretty good one, I'm really glad I had dinner with friends otherwise I would have been really homesick. Chloe cooked most of it, we had her, me, Sam, Max, and Stuart, who all live here, plus Max's girlfriend Alex, and my American friend Lydia. Afterwards we went to the SU for Simon Says (popular music student open mic) since Max & Alex were playing there, they were def one of the best. Charlie (nother flat mate) couldn't make dinner because of choir practice, but we saved him a plate, then he met us at the SU, so did another friend who couldn't make it to dinner (Iona, we fed her leftovers after the show). My other flat mate Anna had gone home the night before, and Aisling had already left for Belgium for the weekend. I saved one box of cornbread mix so we can have it with them another night. I skyped with family after the show (which most people reading this will know), then hung out in the kitchen for awhile. I was really tired and all I wanted was sleep, but I was also really homesick so the second I got alone in my room it hit me really hard. So I stayed up in the kitchen until about 2am, then tried to sleep but couldn't. I was supposed to go to a 9:30am class today, where I was gonna play my sax, but I just couldn't wake up for it. I would still be in bed but I can't miss Orchestration, which starts in 20 minutes.
I had a tutorial for anthropology yesterday, we talked about an essay I wrote and handed in even though I didn't need to, wondering if she'll give me a grade anyway even though it doesn't count for anything. Then we talked about my final essay, due next week, that I'm still stumped on. She only wants 2000 words not 3000, so that helps I little, I only have 400 at the moment. Then I was supposed to have practice with a wind quartet that I'm performing with on Tuesday, but they broke up early and by the time I got there they were all gone. If I can get a tenor and a bari we'll also be performing my sax trio on Tuesday.
Should be going out with some friends from home tonight.
Sleeping all day tomorrow, maybe getting some work done.
Unfortunately now I have to go to orchestration class!

What?!

It's almost December, I can't believe it, all the other Americans are leaving in three weeks. I don't even know where to begin, I guess I need to purchase my Eurail pass, I think I'll end up staying in hostels, since I can't really say when I'll be where, just gotta get to Vienna in time for Christmas, if I can find a free couch on the way, even better. I have to write an essay tonight, just a rough draft so I can take it to a tutorial tomorrow and see what she has to say. Final draft due next week, but I haven't even started it yet. I also have to orchestrate a piano piece for full orchestra, that shouldn't be too hard, but unbelievably time consuming. I don't think that's due until after break, but I dunno when I'll be back in London and I'm not bringing a computer, so I need to get it done before I leave. The big one that has me real stressed is for my romanticism & musical structures class. Which consists of "a diagram and prose" (?) explaining Schubert's "Krieger's Ahnung", a Schenkerian analysis with 1000 word essay of the piece, and a Schoenbergian analysis with 1000 word essay. It's all very vague and theoretical, and I'm a very literal person so I struggle with it. I think I have a concept of what he wants for the Shenkerian one, but we had a total of two lectures on Schoenberg, with one very brief example this morning of how to analyze something. We get two tutorials though, so I will try to have my Schenkerian analysis done for next week, and hopefully my "diagram and prose" and get some feedback on that, then the Schoenbergian analysis for the week after. Ugh, gotta buckle down and get to work, been saying that for weeks, still haven't done it. I told a friend to put something really heavy in front of my door so I can't get out for two days, but that still leaves the distraction of the internet.
Oh and did I mention I'm cooking Thanksgiving dinner for at least 10 people? Yea...I have help though, we're going food shopping today. I'm skipping wind band tomorrow, gotta cook.
Couldn't sleep last night so I wrote what I think is a pretty funny song, I really need to learn guitar though. I also wrote a sax trio last week that I'm going to see if people will perform on Dec. 1st.

Oo also found out one of my b-ball coaches is a Pats fan, he was wearing a New England shirt last night, heck yea go Pats!

Parade!

2 Months

I've been here over two months now!
The week of not going out was a success, I'm trying not to go out as much, mostly because of all the money I just spent on Christmas presents, yes, Christmas presents. I have to mail them soon so I can be sure that they get there in time. With the postal strike and the rush of Christmas season, you can never be too sure.
Still haven't played in an actual basketball game! The last one was canceled last minute by the other team (via text), and I was pumped to go to one today, then found out I have a compulsory meeting for my job. I'd been looking forward to this meeting, but now that it's keeping me from playing I'm not so excited about it. I went to the departmental board meeting for the music department yesterday. There's not much point in me being there, I just sat and listened, there were some interesting statistics from the NSS (National Student Survey, taken by graduating students) though, comparing the departments in the school. No surprise that the music department has a couple low scores, and the anthropology department has one of the highest, they know what they're doing over there. The meeting today is the student staff forum, no idea how it works, I think I'm practically running it though, so we'll see what happens. I have tons of issues I want to bring up, but I need to gauge whether the students agree or not, not quite sure how to do that without looking like a fool.
Oh I didn't mention that I stumbled across a parade the other day! I went to St. Paul's Cathedral and there happened to be a little carnival and a parade outside! I think it was for the Mayor, but I had absolutely no idea at the time, and I'm not too sure anyone else did either, haha.

The meeting today was, well, interesting. It was some of the board from yesterdays meeting, and the student reps. So it's not actually a forum for the students to attend, just me and the reps. The vibe from a couple of the board members was that they were just going through the motions and that what the students had to say was silly (granted, a couple things were). One topic that was debated for at least a half an hour before I could get a word in was about how teachers should be evaluated. I explained how it's done at UMD, they liked the idea, we made a motion that will most likely be passed at the next board meeting. So far so good. Of course, the one thing most important to me was just written off, doubt the practice rooms will ever be open later. The other thing was making the facilities more available to students outside the department, to which they said "that's not our problem", I was completely shut down. Are you freakin kidding me? I even said, the last thing you want to do as a music teacher is make someone stop playing music forever, ex. drumsets weren't made available to me at UMD and I don't play anymore. They don't care at all. But, I do know that if a non-music student joins an ensemble they get access to rooms and equipment, so, I suggested better advertising for the ensembles. And noted that I've met at least five violinists who want to play but don't know how to go about joining or who to get in touch with, which completely shocked all of them (loved the looks on some of their faces) because apparently there's a shortage of violinists. So, that will hopefully be taken care of. Another suggestion I made was a performance from the tutors at the beginning of spring term, which they all laughed at and found quite a silly proposal. One just thought it was too much work, really? I explained that all I'm saying is one song by any teacher who feels like getting involved. Sorry, but if you don't have at least one song ready for performance then you're not a professional musican and shouldn't be teaching. But she did make note of that proposal, so we'll see. And at the end I requested the help of the student reps in gathering recordings of songs written by Goldsmiths students, so that one day every week all music played in the Student Union Shop will be by Goldsmiths students, and if all goes well with that I'll be producing a CD for sale with the label "Made in Goldsmiths", I don't know if that impressed the staff but it seemed to excite the reps.
Anyway, it's an ok start (minus the face that my face goes red every time I speak in public).

pub?

On the train back to London I said without thinking that I was not going to go out or eat out all week to make up for all the money spent and calories consumed this past week, I was just fooling around, but, why not? So, that's what I'm doing, and it's a heck of a lot easier said than done. So far I've turned down pub, pub, movies, and pub, and it's only Wednesday! But, I also haven't gone to the convenience store across the street, or Amir's (the fast food place open almost 24/7), which are both basically right outside my front door. I haven't really saved that much money, but countless calories most definitely. The other point to not going out was to get some work done, since I didn't do any during reading week. I wrote an essay, which it turns out I didn't even have to do, and I did a bit of reading for Anthropology, otherwise I haven't accomplished that much. Travelling is tiring though, it took me awhile to recover. I have this insane assignment for romanticism & musical structures, I don't understand theory at all, I don't even know where to begin. Theory just completely blows my mind, for some reason I just can't comprehend it, add to the fact that I think this level of study is completely stupid and utterly useless and should not by any means be required, and I see no feasable argument as to why it should be studied, there's just no reason for it unless it's something you choose to do. The assignment isn't due until January 13th, but I don't want to have it hanging over me for my whole winter break trip (I say that now, but I know myself, I'll finish it January 12th).
We have a new coach in basketball, he's pretty intense, I think I'll be in pretty good shape once he's done with me. At one point during practice I just wanted to quit and get my money back because it's not fun at all. But we finally got to actually play at the end of practice and I forgot all about hating it. I made at least one basket during the game, so that was nice. I think we'll really benefit from this coach, doing layups for a half an hour may be boring, but it's neccessary, and he had some drills for getting everyone comfortable with the ball that I liked. Some other drills that I found completely useless. We had shoot offs where we were put into two teams and the losing team had to do suicides, I was in the winning team every time. We still had to do star jumps, but I'd choose that over suicides any day.
I had my second lesson today, it went well, but there's SO much I need to do. I've always known I needed to do it, but never really buckled down, or had anyone explain it to me for that matter. It's hard to buckle down when I only get 4 lessons each semester, but I'm going to try, I need to do it if I ever want to go anywhere with my playing.
Busy day tomorrow, Introduction to Social Anthropology 10-11, seminar 11-12, windband 2:30-4, Orchestration 4:30-6 (it's usually Friday but was changed). Probably dinner when I get back, then go practice, then do some reading then bed!
Oh, so my last day in Scotland (Sunday) I got up early to find the graves of characters from Harry Potter (that inspired the characters names anyway), and my cell phone mysteriously shut off and changed the date while I was in the graveyard, and it's shut itself off twice since then, full battery, I'm haunted!

Scotland

I went to Edinburgh, Scotland with CIEE (the study abroad agency I'm here with) for the weekend. It was beautiful and amazing, but really cold! We left from King's Cross Station (no sign of platform 9 3/4 btw), it was about a 3 1/2hr train ride. We arrived in Edinburgh mid Friday, checked into our hostel, and were pretty much left to our own devices. I went out to dinner with the girls in my room and the boys from Westminster, then we went on a "haunted" tour of Edinburgh, it was pretty cheesy but fun, the guide was very enigmatic. We went down to the pub in the hostel briefly, but most of us went to bed fairly early. Next morning we caught a bus tour, which was absolutely freezing, then met with our guides and the whole group for a tour of Edinburgh castle. It wasn't unbelievably awe inspiring, maybe because I've seen German castles. It was nice though, exactly what you would expect of a Scottish castle, and I got to see the crown jewels and the birthplace of King James VI of Scotland/King James I of England. It was a self guided tour with audio devices, and unfortunately I lost everyone from the group and was completely on my own. I wandered around the shops for a bit, didn't buy too much. I wanted to find the cafe where Harry Potter was written, but couldn't remember where it was. My ankle was killing me, must have messed it up in Greece. I was in a pretty dismal mood and found my way back to the hostel. I ran into some girls from the group as they were leaving to go hike the crags and asked if they'd wait for me to go up and take some painkillers, they did, rather reluctantly I think. Of course once we got to the crags I immediately lost them. I hadn't gotten very far before I debated whether I should go on or not, but I am SO glad I did, it ended up being the highlight of my whole trip. I hadn't been out of the city for almost two months! I have no idea how long I wandered, hours. There weren't that many people there, but enough to feel that you're safe and not alone. I climbed as the sun was setting with Edinburgh spread out below me and couldn't have been more happy. I took the path less chosen, winding through the crags to the top, called Arthur's Seat. I sat for awhile overlooking Edinburgh, then raced the fading daylight down. Somehow I had lost all sense of direction, but luckily had paid attention to where I'd ascended and realized it before I'd gone too far astray. By then time I reached the bottom, it was completely dark out. I made my way back to Parliament then realized that the tour buses I had intended on catching had stopped running. Luckily Edinburgh is small (called the Athens of the north according to the DJ at the hostel pub), and I continued on walking all the way back to the hostel. I got in the room and all the girls were there, and worried about me because they lost me and didn't have my phone number. We went out to dinner with the boys, then went back up to get ready to go out. Of course if you know me I don't take much getting ready, so I just rested from the hike while they got ready. I just wanted to go to a local pub, preferably with a fiddle player, but we had been invited to a house party at Edinburgh University. I was tired and that was the complete opposite of what I had been looking for, so I stayed in and read some Dickens then went to bed. Next morning one of the girls and I got up really early to get pictures of the graveyard that inspired Harry Potter, and the graves that inspired some characters. We also wanted to go to the cafe where it was written, but it was Sunday and didn't open until 9, I at least got a picture though (CIEE does the same exact trip next semester, so I'll go then). It turns out it was remembrance day and there was a parade, but we had to catch a train and couldn't stay, very sad. I did have time to take a walk around the park by the Scotch monument right before we left though, it was very beutiful, especially this time of year.
A 3 1/2hr train ride back to London, then I had to do laundry and write a short essay for Anthropology. And of course listen to the Pats game (couldn't find anywhere that was playing it), definitely a nail biter, wish I could have seen it! Now I am completely wiped and finally done with my essay I can sleep!

Athens

Here's an attempt at summing up my entire trip in one blog, should be very long....I did keep a journal while I was there, so I'll just copy that down here.
10/31
It started out pretty comical, as things usually do with me. I decided not to buy another train ticket, you buy one to London Bridge, then you have to leave the platforms, get another ticket, then go back in, which I didn't do, I just went right to the next train. Apparently they actually check your ticket at the airport, so I got charged 20 quid. I'm going to do my share of sneaking on buses and trains until I've made up that 20 quid. I found the airport easy enough, but when I got there I realized I hadn't written down what bus to take where after I landed. So, of course I accosted some poor defenseless stranger for use of her laptop. For some reason her internet wasn't working though. She was going to Ireland to go horseback riding. I actually slept most of the flight (about 3 1/2hrs), I had only gotten four hours of sleep the night before and had a 9:30 lecture (I had to skip my other lecture to make the flight). I had texted my host (Akis) for the bus number earlier, and found it no problem. But they don't display what stop you're at, and it was night and the signs weren't illuminated, so I had no idea where I was. I ended up squishing into an empty seat so I could see out the window, but that didn't help. Eventually I asked the guy in front of me (by pointing to the text on my phone), who asked the driver, who told me when to get off. My host met me at the bus stop, then fed me Greek salad, very appropriate. He is very nice, he's cooking dinner at the moment, and his brother is making dessert.
Greece isn't exactly what I expected, but I still like it so far. I think if I had come straight from the States to here I would have been disappointed, but coming from New Cross is much different, I guess it's "hardened" me, haha. It is and it isn't what I expected, but then again, I didn't come here with many expectations. I'm here on a whim, and hoping the city will unfold itself to me in a unique way.
Oh and it's freakin cold here, colder than London!
11/2
Yesterday we went to Acropoli and wandered around central Athens. It still hasn't really set in that I'm here and I've seen the Parthenon. We went to a couchsurfers meeting last night, I really enjoyed that. I met people from Athens, Turkey, Russia, France, Italy, and India. Kind of sad though that I'll never see any of them again (actually since I wrote this two of them have found me on couchsurfing). There was one French guy my age who had finished Uni and had just started his world tour, he's going everywhere! Soon we'll head off to the National Archaeological Museum. If I have time I'd like to go shopping, we'll see what happens. Frankie is out of class at 5:15, so I'll be meeting up with him around 5:30 in front of the first modern Olympic stadium.
We got to the museum around 2 and stayed until 5, I met with Frankie around 6 (was supposed to be 5:30, we were late). Went back to Frankie's place to drop off my stuff, then got some food. I was starving because all I had all day was toast, Greeks don't eat! We hung out with some of Frankie's friends, all American. Tomorrow I'm going off exploring on my own, hopefully the temple of Zeus and then some shopping. I'm really looking forward to getting food in the morning, still hungry. Now I'm going to try to sleep on a tiny couch, more of a loveseat, fun times traveling!
11/3
Today was a great day! By the time I got up, Frankie was already back from his first class, he made me fried eggs for breakfast. I borrowed his map and went off exploring. I was a little nervous at first, but somehow I always ended up in a familiar place and it all worked out. First I went to the Byzantine museum, which was really interesting. Then I found Parliament, but it was raining so hard there was no point in trying to get pictures. I knew where I was because of previous wanderings with Akis, so I found all the back road and touristy shops and spent a ton of money (well spent though). I got myself a shirt, a hand painted vase with Poseidon on it, and an original painting by a local artist. (I did get other things, but they're presents and I can't mention them on here!) I need to figure out how/where to mail postcards, I keep getting postcards then realizing I need more. The lady where I got the painting was SO nice, she loved my hair and proceeded to talk to the shop owner about me in Greek, I love Greeks, haha. She asked where I was from then said she's a journalist and wants to go to New York. She explained the painting to me, of course I can't remember the story. But it was a love story and she told me that she hopes I will meet the perfect romantic man and have a similar love story, haha. The owner of a music shop said he wished I'd come earlier and he would have given me a tour of the city (it was absolutely down pouring by then), he said come back in May or September and he would. Another shop owner let me try on about fifty shirts before I chose one, he said "you make beautiful". I then went to take refuge from the downpour at McDonald's and got a happy meal. It was still pouring when I finished, and I got absolutely soaked to the skin from the walk back. I was going to go to the war museum but it was closed. I have never seen streets so flooded in my entire life, I don't think my boots will dry for a week. I still had about an hour to kill before Frankie got back so I couldn't get inside. I found a pub and wandered in drenched, tired, and with only 4 euros on me. I looked rather pathetic and the 3 or 4 guys at the bar found it pretty funny. The bartender took pity on me and gave me an Amstel for 4 euro. I took a picture of him before I left and we chatted a bit, he said beautiful girl in Greek but I don't remember how to say it. Good times, good stories, great day.
11/4
Last night I went to kareoke night at an Irish pub in Athens with Frankie and his friends. There were two guys who kept doing traditional Greek music, which was really boring. It was hilarious when Greeks sang songs in English, there was one guy who kept pulling out classics. Frankie's friends went up a couple times, they were pretty hilarious. The bartender knows them and gave us all free shots a couple times.
I'm on the plane right now, too uncomfortable to sleep, still have over an hour to go! Today was another absolutely amazing day. First Frankie and I went to the temple of Zeus, which I actually found more impressive than the Parthenon, it's a lot less manicured by modern society. Then Frankie had class so I was on my own again. I got an ice cream and wandered around the National Gardens (finally got some nice weather). Then an old creeper named Rick tried to get me to go for a walk in the gardens with him, not threatening though. I saw a church I wanted to go in, but it was closed. I was wandering around and some guy started talking to me in Greek. Turns out he was a tourist too, but he thought I was Greek! (even though I was holding a camera and a map) That actually wasn't the first time that happened to me, haha. I decided I needed to go back to the Acropolis to take Fabio's picture (the purple globe trotting lobster). You can see it from practically everywhere, so I just wandered in the general direction. I ended up in these crazy winding strereotypical Greek neighborhoods right at the foot of the Acropolis, it was amazing. I think I got some great pictures. I have no idea how long I was back there, I only encountered people once, and just heard them, didn't even see them. Eventually I went to the main entrance of the Acropolis and climbed to the top. I just quickly took Fabio's picture and left, I hadn't planned on going back, so I definitely was not properly dressed. It's REALLY windy up there, and I was wearing a dress, very awkward. Next I went to the new Acropolis museum. It was built because the British Museum has columns from the Parthenon and they said they wouldn't give them back because the Greeks didn't have a proper place to put them. They still won't give them back, there's a big empty part in the museum. I took the metro back to Syntagma, hoping to catch the changing of the guard, but no such luck. I had time to kill so I got a sandwhich and fries and ate it as I slowly made my way back to Frankie's. The war museum wasn't open, but I checked out all the planes and guns outside, which were pretty cool. Then I decided to go ALLLL THE WAAYYY to a church at the top of the hill Frankie lives on, man, that was a workout. Poor Frankie, I think he rushed back from class to be able to let me in and I wasn't even there. But the view was worth it. Frankie walked with me to the bus, but there was this crazy protest going on, complete with mobs and tons of armed police, so I had to take the metro (they were marching up the street my bus would have taken). It was pretty simple, had to buy a special airport ticket for 6 euro though.

Overall, absoulutely amazing experience. If I ever get the chance to go back it will be to do some island hopping. Great thing about Athens is everything is free for students! I think it's only supposed to be free for EU students, but I just showed my University of London student ID card, and if I had to talk luckily they couldn't tell the different accents. Weird thing about Greece is that you can't flush toilet paper, you have to throw it away, weird, I guess they're plumbing systems pretty bad. I went in 6 different churches while I was there, I love churches. I love all of the bright colors in Greek Orthodox churches. I'm going to do a church tour of London soon definitely, I've only been in one here so far.
My flight landed in London a bit before 11, but it takes so long to get through customs in you're not British, not because they're strict but they just don't care for your time. Then there was a problem with the train, so I had to wait forever to get to London Bridge, by then it was too late for trains to be running to New Cross Gate, so I had to take the night bus. I finally made it back to my room around 2:30/3am. I can't just go right to bed, I had to unpack and check my emails or I wouldn't be able to sleep. So I went to bed pretty late, and slept pretty late today. Then went to the ATM and got some food and change to do laundry. I'm still doing laundry, and I need to write and essay and maybe do some reading, plus edit the 400 pictures I took in Greece. Then I'm packing and off to Scotland tomorrow!