Week One

Week one of break, not completely alone, one other person in the flat, and not all the Americans are traveling. I'm still not sure what to do with myself this entire month, I watched back to the future around 1am, went to sleep, got up and watched back to the future II, had dinner, then back to the future III, it's been a very productive day. I recently discovered I had a sudoku book from this summer, I've completed all of those, finished reading 'Persuasion' as well. I finished 'Peter Pan' awhile back, but there's a part called 'Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens', so some time next week I'm going to go to Kensington Gardens and read it there, it seems like a walking tour of the gardens from a child's point of view, we'll see. I'm also reading 'David Copperfield', I want to finish it before break, but I'm a terribly slow reader so again, we'll see. I'm thinking of climbing the highest peak in England at some point, but that has proven to be a lot more planning than I anticipated. I'm going to go into central tomorrow to the dinosaur exhibit on Oxford street, and possibly the natural history museum, should be a fun and childish time. I want to see 'I love you Philip Morris' but I can't find anywhere playing it tomorrow.
I'm sure my constant struggle this holiday will be when to get out of bed, if I've got nothing planned, it's hard to see a reason, today it was 12:30, yesterday 1:30, again, Twain has all the answers....
'Rise early. It is the early bird that catches the worm. Don't be fooled by this absurd law; I once knew a man who tried it. He got up at sunrise and a horse bit him.'

Spring Break!

I have a break March 26th to April 26th! First the plan was to do a trip from Prague to Norway, then it was to hike in Norway, then discovered the trails aren't open until June, so I decided to go somewhere warm, the Azores, for two weeks, then realized I don't have the money so I'm staying here. I guess it's a good thing, I need to do some intense practicing. I might visit a couple friends to see where they come from, maybe go to Cambridge and/or Manchester, do some more walks out of my book, be a tourist in London more, since I still haven't done that many touristy things.
After break there isn't much going on, my Friday morning class continues along with private lessons, I have an essay due right when I get back, and a rudiments assessment on sax, then an ensembles performance assessment later on, and that's it for two months!

I thought this was a rather appropriate Twain quote for this entry, I had a meeting with the departmental board (for the music department) the other day and I was not impressed with them in the least...[there are a couple people on the board I really like, and some not so much]
"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made school boards."
- Following the Equator, Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar


And another (from Pudd'nhead), because his wisdom is infinite...
"Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but Cabbage with a College Education."

hi

Not much going on, the usual. Playing in a variety show tonight and tomorrow night. Lovin my Latin rhythm course, and private lessons, what do you know I actually improve when I'm allowed to do stuff I enjoy! Playing rock-ish music Friday mornings for a class, really weird, I'm not really sure how to approach it, pretty simply I guess, just blasting the root of the chord as loud as I can most of the time. I think the song we do next week will leave me a bit more room to fool around with though, hopefully.
I've come to the conclusion that I feed off other people musically, my improv really isn't bad in Latin rhythm class, but stick me in a tiny room with someone at a piano and I can tell you now that nothing decent is going to come out.
Going to see Harlequins vs. Worcester (rugby) tomorrow.
The weather has been amazing, I would take off this weekend if I weren't busy, maybe next weekend I'll find somewhere to go walking in the countryside. Haven't found how to go about hiking in Norway yet, gotta find out soon cause if I'm going hiking I gotta get in shape first.



'There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.' -Mark Twain