Amani!

Peace!
Amani means peace in Kiswahili, Amani is also the name of a children's home located in Moshi, Tanzania. In January 2012 I'll be traveling to Tanzania to start a music program at Amani children's home.

Right now I'm in the fundraising/preparing stage. I got stuck by 5 needles yesterday! Meningitis vaccine, yellow fever, rabies, a TB test, and some blood work. I am a human pincushion! I also need to be fundraising, learning Kiswahili, and getting some ideas/lessons about teaching music!

As for fundraising, hopefully I will get a donation button up here soon. Also, I will be making bracelets! Peace bracelets, they are going to say peace on them in all different languages. I will definitely post when I have those sorted! I need money for a good CD player for the classroom, lots of percussion instruments, recorders, and sheet music.

Kiswahili is the language spoken in Tanzania, along with some English. And if you've seen the Lion King, then you know some already!
simba=lion
rafiki=friend
hakuna matata=no worries
asante sana=thank you very much

Some other words I really enjoy:
Jambo=hello
Mambo=what's up?
Na wewe?=and you?
Mchana mwema=Have a nice day.
Bomba!=Fantastic!

And as for teaching music, well, I've never taught it before! Right now I teach English as a second language, and I definitely believe that any experience teaching is helpful. I have observed once at the Kennedy elementary school in Billerica, and have gotten some ideas from the teacher there. But, I really could use all the advice I can get! I'm thinking lots of singing and dancing and chorus activities, if anyone could recommend any books with good music and back-up CDs that would be wonderful!

At this point I'm the usual, nervous and excited. It's going to be hard, and unbelievably rewarding. Six months really isn't that long, but I'm sure it will feel like it sometimes. I'm stopping in London for a week first, and am SO excited about being back there and seeing some great friends. I leave Boston on January 4th, then I leave London on January 11th, switching planes in Mombabsa, Kenya. Then to Kilimanjaro international airport, which is about 45mins from Moshi. Amani is right at the bottom of Mount Kilimanjaro! I definitely want to attempt a climb while there, who could resist? Moshi is the city that all climbers go through. I've also checked out couchsurfing and there are plenty of CSers in Moshi.

So, in summary, fundraising, preparing, learning Kiswahili, and getting stuck with lots of needles!

For more information on Amani, visit http://amanikids.org/

Sister's Visit

My sister got here Saturday night, there were line closures on the tube as usual so we took a bus all the way back, so we didn't get back until pretty late, but of course stayed up too late talking. Since yesterday was Sunday and there are line closures we walked to Greenwich. Went to the market, park, National Maritime Museum, and the Royal Observatory (where the prime meridian is, 0 longitude 0 latitude). We both got rings and cool change purses, and a present for Avery. We walked for about six hours and came back around 5:30/6 o'clock exhausted. We rested up a bit then went to the pub around 8:30 with some friends. Now we're about to head out to Westminster (Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, Downing Street), then Buckingham Palace, and probably Hamleys (biggest toy store in the world) and Primark, and I need to pick up a paper of mine so probably a quick tour of the campus.

Final Assessments!

Haven't been able to update for awhile because Firefox wasn't working and my internet explorer is really old and wouldn't update, so I couldn't view the page, but, all is well now.
For awhile I felt like I was in limbo, not much time left here, and a bit eager to get home. But that was just because not many people were home and if they were they had a lot of work to do, now that its coming towards the end of work everyone is back and I don't want to leave at all! I've gone into central a lot, doing the touristy things I've been meaning to do this whole time, but its quite expensive. Gotta save up, still haven't been paid by Goldsmiths!
I've got an assessment next week, which I'm not exactly prepared for, a bit lost actually. I have to play 'China Girl' by David Bowie, not too thrilled about that, I haven't played anything even remotely similar to that before and I just can't grasp the feel. I think my other song will be 'These Arms of Mine' by Otis Redding, which should be a good time. I'm playing on someone elses tune, we rehearsed today and it went well, sounds really good, and its nice to play with another horn rather than being by myself for once. I MIGHT have an essay to do. It took the international office/my tutor about a month to get back to me about what to do for the summer term, now they've finally decided that I do have an essay, and I'm waiting to hear what that essay is. Its absolutely insane, my sister arrives on the 22nd and I won't be able to do any work after that point, argh. My technical test went well, it was actually pretty funny. They'd ask for a mixolydian, I'd play aeolian then be like, wait, sorry, here's the mixolydian, and I did that for like, everything...so I'm curious to see how they mark me, haha.
Booked me and my sisters flight to Italy, we're flying to Naples and making our way by train back to London via Rome, Pisa, Lausanne, and Paris. I've booked the flight to Naples and the ferry from Calais to Dover, but otherwise we're just winging it in between, whatever happens happens. Gotta start contacting couchsurfers.

Update

I've been told I need to update my blog, which I guess is true.
Not a very eventful break, I've gone to the Victoria & Albert museum, science museum, natural history museum, and the dinosaur exhibit on Oxford street. I've been sick off and on this whole time, it will last a day or so, then go away and I'll think I'm fine, then come back with some new and exciting symptom. I finally went to the doctor today, who said I have "tonsillitis or strep or something", and put me on LOADS of medicine, 2 penicillin every 6 hours, 2 paracetamol every 6 hours, and 2 ibuprofen every 8 hours, yes, 22 pills a day. If this doesn't work I'm afraid there's no hope.
I have a couchsurfer staying here, he was only supposed to be here 4 nights but he's stuck because of the volcanic ash, it's already been 2 nights extra, we'll see if his flights leaves tomorrow.
I got a picture of the sunset after the eruption with tower bridge in the foreground, it was quite the expedition to get this shot. I went to London Bridge station, practically ran until tower bridge was behind me, realized it was a bad angle and I needed to be on the opposite bank of the Thames, gunned it back, across tower bridge, and ended up behind an apartment complex where no one else was JUST in time.
I've done a couple walks in the countryside I'll post some pictures from them as well, it's been beautiful. The next one is this Saturday by the seaside.
Essay due next Thursday, technical test on sax the following Friday.
I put an ad on craigslist for babysitting, only one response. I'm babysitting 3 year old Samuel and 6 year old Thomas next week. Their mum used to live in London and they're back visiting, but they live in Paris. I'm curious what accent they'll have, and if they'll speak to each other in French.
I've been here 7 months, my sister visits in less than 5 weeks, and I leave in 9.


Pictures don't seem to want to upload right now, I'll try again later.

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