Love Never Dies and Macbeth

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The last couple of days have been filled with theatre. As usual, I enjoyed myself immensely.

On Monday, I attended another showing of Love Never Dies, and I enjoyed myself. It wasn’t as good as the first time, but that’s to be expected. The roles of Christine and the Phantom were played by some of the understudies, and they were ok. I wasn’t as impressed with their performances as I was with the main people. Besides that, everything else was really good. As I said in my last post, I was going to see this show one more time to see if I could catch any changes, and I did. The first noticeable change was the prologue to the show. This was shortened a bit, and one of the songs for it was cut. That was good because I feel like it didn’t fit all. The second change was with some of the lyrics. There were times when I liked the changes, and there were times when I wish they stuck with the original. Yet, overall, it didn’t affect the show too much. The last change I noticed was the end. It was definitely shorter than when I saw it last, and that made me happy. When I saw it the first time, I felt like it dragged on and just wanted it to be over. This time I was fully engaged with it and never got bored. Overall, the changes were definitely good for the show. I can’t wait for it to come to Broadway.

Today/Tonight, my theatre class went to the Globe to see Macbeth. Macbeth is one of my favorite Shakespeare shows, and it was really cool to see it live. The acting was terrific, the comedy was spot on, and the drama was dramatic enough. Yes, there were low points of the show, but that happens with all Shakespeare shows. The coolest part though was seeing a Shakespeare play in the Globe. It’s something that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Besides the theatre, not much else has really happened. Classes are winding down and last minute assignments are being finished. Next week is final exam week and that means there is going to be a lot of studying this weekend. In between all that studying, there will definitely be some fun in between. That’s it for now. Standing at the Globe for three hours as wiped me out so bed time is soon.
Until Next Time,
Jefe

Two Musicals and Two Reviews

Sunday, April 25, 2010

This past week I was able to see two more musicals on my list of ones to see, and they were Wicked and Phantom of the Opera. Both were really good, and they didn’t disappoint. Per usual, I will give my opinion on both.



So, let’s start with Wicked. Going in, I was a little bit nervous that I wasn’t going to like it because I wasn’t the hugest fan of the soundtrack, but I was blown away. The first thing that helped change my mind was the set. It was one of the coolest sets I’ve seen in awhile. In the book with the same name, the Dragon Clock is a major object, and the producers of the musical saw that. The whole musical takes place within this clock. At the very top of the stage, there is a mechanical dragon that is controlled by one of the tech people when something bad happened. The rest of the stage had gears intertwined with metal, and it looked like the inside of a clock. To get a better picture, here’s a picture of the stage.



The other thing that made it awesome was the acting. It was superb and did justice to the material. The music was also very good. It was just nice to hear both the singing and orchestrations live. Soundtracks do a good job, but live is so much better. If I had to rate this musical one to five, I would give it a four. I would definitely recommend it to my friends, and I may even see it again.



After Wicked, I saw Phantom. Phantom is my favorite musical of all time, and it was one of my life goals to see it in its original theatre, Her Majesty’s. When I found out I was going to London, I swore to myself that if I was only going to see one musical it had to be Phantom, and it was awesome. For me, there could be somewhat terrible actors and Phantom would still be awesome. Because of that, my review will focus on the acting and some particular stuff in the production. The first thing I will focus on is the Phantom. My all-time favorite Phantom is Michael Crawford. I’ve only heard him on recording, but I firmly believe that he had the best interpretation of the part. I have seen Phantom live three times, and the one I saw here is my second favorite. David Shannon did a very good interpretation of the Phantom. He decided to underplay a lot of the emotions, which I thought was good. This kind of helped show how tortured the Phantom was and how demented he was. He also did very good on all the key songs that I judge the Phantom on. The one I judge most on is Music of the Night, and he did an excellent. It was refreshing to hear a not so vibrato tenor do it.

The next person I’m going to look at is Christine. The night we went, we saw Tabitha Webb, the alternate Christine. She blew my socks off and is officially my favorite Christine. She gave the character some backbone when needed and played the innocent card when needed. She had the perfect voice and the perfect emotion throughout. I could see Christine kind of grow throughout, which is important. As for songs, she did perfectly on both Think of Me and Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again. If I had to rate her, I would give her a five out of five.

The last two I’m going to look at are Meg Giry and Raoul. There’s not much to say about these two characters, except the actors gave portrayals that I liked. The actress who played Meg gave her some spunk and sassiness that I haven’t heard/seen with Meg. Meg is usually played as a very innocent ballet girl, and I do like that. Yet, this interpretation was the best. It gave more character to Meg. The actor who played Raoul also gave more character to Raoul. The other times I have seen Phantom, Raoul is played as the cookie-cutter hero, or very two dimensional. The Raoul here gave him some backbone and some realness to the part. In short, he gave Raoul emotion where Raoul should have emotion. In the end, these two interpretations are my all-time favorite.

Before I end this review, I would like to say one thing about the show in particular and that was the Wandering Child scene. It is one of my favorite scenes in Phantom, and it was done really well here. The last two times I saw it, the scene only had a duet between the Phantom and Christine. I like this, but I really love the trio between the Phantom, Christine, and Raoul. When the trio is done, you get the feeling of both reality and fantasy. The duet between the Phantom and Christine give you the fantasy while Raoul gives you the reality. Going into Phantom here, I wasn’t expecting to see the scene. When the scene came on, I saw Raoul and I was wondering why he was there. Then, it hit me that they were going to do the trio. Shivers went down my spine and I was in complete awe by the awesomeness of the scene. Three perfect actors singing a perfect scene. What else would one want. I was in paradise for those short minutes. In the end, I would give this production a 5/5 just like the Broadway one.



After these two musicals, I have one more to go to, and it is a revisit to Love Never Dies. I’ve been hearing that things are changing with it and that it is a little different every night. So, I’m going to go to see if this is true. A review will definitely follow.


Until Next Time,
Jefe

A Really Big Post

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Sorry I haven’t updated in awhile, but I’ve pretty busy. I went without internet for a week, and I have also had a lot of school work. We’ve approached our last month here in London, and it seems the work is piling on. I have a couple more essays for my Beatles class, an essay for my theatre class, an essay for my EDU class, and a project for my Art class. The good thing though is that I’m getting a lot done and should be down to only a couple of essays in the next week. Because of my progress, I have some downtime and that means I can finally give an update. Again, I apologize for the length.
So, the best place to start this is the week that I lost internet. It was two weekends ago, and it was very frustrating. It all started two Wednesdays ago. Our internet started to not work at around 11 pm and no one thought anything about it because that tended to happen in the past. The internet would not work and would come back on later. So, we waited until morning. Our wait was fruitless because we still had no internet. This was frustrating so people decided to talk to our advisor about it. He called the place and was told that the internet would be down until next week. This made things even more frustrating because the internet is our only source of contact. To help eliminate some frustration, we found places that had free wi-fi and tried to get back to normalcy. This was helpful but still somewhat frustrating. When the internet finally came back, there was a big sigh of relief and things went back to normal. Even though there was normalcy, I still kind of wanted to go back to not having internet. This whole experienced showed me how much we depend on the internet and how plugged in we are. When we didn’t have internet, I felt like there was so much more interaction between everyone. I really liked this because I got much closer to some of the people on this trip. The good thing though is that we haven’t really lost those days when we become closer. I guess it just seemed like it happened a lot more.




The next big thing that happened to me was a day of adventures on the tube. This past week I have done a lot of traveling around London by myself. That adventuring meant some tube adventures. Basically, I tried some different ways to get places, and it was really fun. The best adventure was on a class day. I was on my way to my edu class when I missed my stop to make a line transfer. I freaked out for a moment, but then I realized that there was another way to get there. I did that way and made it successfully to class. This was the best adventure because it showed me that I knew the tube system fairly well. For the rest of the week, nothing really big happened.

On Thursday, I was able to see Les Miserables. This was actually a split second decision on my part. I had gone to the discount theatre booth with one of my friends to see about prices for tickets for Phantom. We asked and got our answer. Then, I decided to ask about tickets for Les Mis. The guy told me and I was sold. I bought one ticket for 36 pounds for a seat that would normally be 62 pounds. It was a really good deal. I went that night, and it was amazing. The performance overall was extremely good, but I did have some problems. The first was the actor who played Jean Valjean. I liked him overall, but there were moments where I did not like his choices. Also, he didn’t do well on one of the songs that I believe is a crucial song for Valjean, “Who am I.” My other problem was with the interaction between Valjean and Javert. Their interactions are crucial throughout the show, and I thought it was lacking. There really was no chemistry between them, and a lot of their scenes seemed very forced. As the show went on, the chemistry began to show and things became better. My favorite part from this performance was Marius. He nailed the part and made it very believable. In other words, he embodied Marius. The interesting thing is this show was his West End debut, and that astounded me. I had a really good night and can’t wait for my theatre filled next week.
That’s it for now. Next week will probably be a long one also because I get to see both Wicked and Phantom, along with my plays for theatre. The sad thing though is it might be one of my last ones until I leave. I can’t believe I leave in one month, but I’m ready to go. London’s been great, but I really miss home.
Until Next Time,
Jefe

Spring Break: Study Abroad Edition

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Today is my last day of spring break here in London, and I thought it would be a good idea to blog about what I did. Before I do, I would just like to mention that my spring break was ten days.



Anyway, I started my spring break with a trip to the Adelphi Theatre to see Love Never Dies, the sequel to the Phantom of the Opera. I really enjoyed it, and it was the perfect start to my spring break. For the next couple of days, I really didn’t do anything that fun. I just stayed around the flat and relaxed. The weekend was a little bit better because I got the whole flat to myself. This allowed me to do some cleaning up of my room and some of the flat itself. I also got many chances to have my Broadway Jam Sessions. Basically, these sessions include me singing along with a set playlist of songs that I like. I really like doing this because it relieves a lot of stress and is just really fun. I don’t know how good of a singer I am, and because of this, I try not to sing to loudly. Yet, there are just some songs that I have to sing loud because it is the only way to convey the emotions of the song. Along with that, I had the TV to myself which meant I could watch what I wanted. I don’t watch a lot of TV, but there are specific shows that I like to watch every once in awhile. I also got a chance to watch a couple of movies too. Yet, the highlight of my weekend was the walk that I went on last Friday. I was kind of itching to get out of the flat to do something, but I had no idea what I wanted to do. So, I went straight to my City Walks, a box of preset walks given to me by a friend, and picked on out. The one that I picked out was a walk along the canals that are here to Regents Park. The walk itself was about 2 hours total, and it was really beautiful. It was just cool to walk along the canals and see everything that was along them. There was an area near the park that had all these elaborate houses, which were pretty to look out. Towards the end of the walk, I decided to spend some time in the park and read a book. That was really fun, and it gave my legs a bit of a rest. Overall, it was a very beautiful, energizing, and refreshing walk.



Though the weekend was fairly good, the highlight of my spring break was my three day trip to Paris. When I came to London, I made up my mind that I wanted to go to either Rome or Paris. I did some research and found that Paris was a bit cheaper. So, I decided that I was going to do a trip to Paris. I also decided that it would be cheapest for me to go for a couple of days instead of the whole week that we had off. Plus, I didn’t really speak the language, and I really just wanted to see the sights. I made the plans and started asking around for people who wanted to go. Mary, a fellow Teaching Fellow, agreed to go and booked the tickets for the train and the hotel.



Overall, the trip was fantastic. The train ride was really smooth and enjoyable. It was my first high speed train ride, and I was surprised how fast the time went by. Granted, I did sleep most of the trip, but it was still surprisingly fast. After we got there, we wandered around the train station trying to find our metro platform. We found it on the map, but could not figure out how to get there. After about five minutes, we asked someone, and they told us how to get there. Once on the platform, we were in familiar territory. Being temporarily from London, we knew how to travel the metro and adapted pretty well to the Parisian system. We got on and eventually got off at our hotel’s stop. We found our hotel and unpacked. After unpacking, we got lunch at a really good Italian restaurant near our hotel. It was a little awkward eating lunch there because they spoke French and we spoke English so the language barrier made things tough. We got through it and had a spectacular time. After lunch, we decided to go to the Opera Garnier, the haunting ground of the Phantom of the Opera, via walking. The walk there was really cool because we got to see a lot of the city, and we even saw a protest of educators. Once we got to the opera house, we went inside and walked around. I was geeking out because I am a huge phan of the Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was just really cool to be in the opera house that the musical’s opera house is based on. The highlight of it was I got a picture in front of Box 5, the Phantom’s box. I also got pictures of the infamous staircase and the auditorium. It was such a beautiful place. After the opera house, we ended up going to the Lafayette Galleries, which was a really big department store. We just walked around to see what the store had, and we eventually had dinner there. The coolest part of that store is that you can go to the roof and get a really good view of the city. After all of that, we went back to the hotel and crashed.



The next day, Mary and I decided to spend most this day at the Louvre. For those who don’t know, the Louvre is Paris’ famous art museum. According to a source, it would take 32 days to see all the works in the Louvre. That includes no breaks and 30 seconds at each piece. Overall, the Louvre was awesome. I have never seen so much art in my life, and it was just really cool to see everything from the ancients to the art of the 20th century. The highlight of the trip was definitely the Mona Lisa. Going in, I knew that the piece was small, but it was just a little smaller than I thought. I also think it is kind of overrated, but it was still cool to see it. After the Louvre, we made our way down the Champs Elyse. This road is really famous and has really expensive shopping on it. At the end of the road is the Arc. We made our way along the road, and as we did, we both got crepes with nutella. Mine was excellent, and I found a new topping for my crepes back home. After taking pictures of the Arc, Mary and I went into the shops on the road and looked for souvenirs. As it was getting dark, we went back to our hotel and crashed.





The last day of our trip in Paris was dominated by a free tour of the city. The tour was done by a group called New Europe tours. The tours are free and done by graduate students who are living in the city. Like most tours, we saw many of the sights, but we never really got up close to them. Luckily for us, Mary and I had already been to most of them so it wasn’t a problem. The best part of the tour was learning the history of Paris. I knew a little of Paris when I arrived, but I know some more since that tour. After the tour was done, Mary and I took pictures of the Eiffel Tower and made our way to the train station. We eventually got home at around 9 pm London time and parted ways at the main door to our flats.



Since my Paris trip, I really haven’t done anything exciting. The last couple of days have been getting ready for the restart of classes and practicum. Sadly, I have become to realize that I have a little more than a month left in London. I still have so much to do and see. I hope I can’t get all of it in before exams.

Until Next Time,
Jefe

Love Never Dies

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Last night, I had the privilege to see Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom: Love Never Dies, and it was really amazing. Since I heard that Webber was making a sequel to Phantom, I was a little apprehensive and thought he was extremely crazy. That all changed when I heard Till I Hear You Sing from the Press Launch on youtube, and I instantly wanted to go. I was really excited that I was going to be in London when it premiered, and I straight away made plans to go see it. I first tried getting a group together to go, but that failed epically. So, on Tuesday after class, I went to the Adelphi Theatre and got my ticket. I left the theatre and was extremely excited.




The basic plot of this musical is that the Phantom has escaped Paris and gone to Coney Island. He opens a new attraction called Phantasma and invites Christine to sing there. Christine, along with Raoul and their son Gustave, accept the invitation and travel to America. For the rest of the musical, old friends are reunited, old flames are reignited, secrets are told, and tragedy happens at the end. I wish I could tell more, but I don’t want to give anything away.

As I said, the musical was amazing. The acting was spot on. Sierra Boggess and Ramin Karimloo, Christine and Phantom respectively, outshined everyone in the cast. They both got enthusiastic applause during their solos and even during their duets. They displayed so much emotion that I was extremely attached to both of them. This surprised me because I was not close to the stage at all. Granted, the Adelphi is quite small, but my seat was somewhat far back. By the end of the show, I was on the verge of tears.



The music was also really good. It was happier than Phantom, but it still had that haunting quality. The thing I liked most about the music is that there were little themes here and there from Phantom. The themes were not overused and were strategically placed throughout the show. There were also themes from Webber’s previous work. They were very slight, but would be recognizable by anyone who had listened to all his works. Surprisingly, this didn’t distract from anything. It actually enhanced the musical a bit for me because it is rumored that this is his last big musical.

Along with all of this, the set was probably the most amazing I have seen in awhile. Much of the perspective was a little skewed, but it just for some reason fit. The coolest thing about the set was the projector. Before I went to the show, I heard that they were going to use a projector as part of the set. This kind of bothered me because I thought it would be the dominate player. Yet, I was completely wrong. The projector was used quite wisely and strategically. The most ingenous use was in the overture. Like in Phantom, the overture is used for resurrection. Instead of the Opera House, it is now Phantasma. Also, it is Madame Giry’s recollection of Phantasma, which means she is in the middle of everything. For this part, the projector is used as Madame Giry’s memories swirl around her. It is very hard to describe, but it is basically a resurrection of the park. The projector was definitely the way to go with this.



The best scene for me in the whole show was the scene with the song Love Never Dies. In this scene, Christine is on stage and almost ready to sing. As the introduction to the song goes, the set revolves with Christine in the middle and the Phantom and Raoul on the sides. Before this scene, both the Phantom and Raoul try to convince Christine. The Phantom wants Christine to sing and Raoul wants Christine not to sing. As the set revolves, Christine is torn between the two and has no idea what to do. Then, she suddenly starts to sing, and you can hear the she is conflicted to continue. She continues and all her emotions come out. It was such an emotional scene and one that I will not forget.

As a fan of the original production, I was very pleased with the sequel. There were so many nuances in it that I was in Phantom nerd paradise. The only thing that I have a complaint about is the lyrics. They are just way too simple and straightforward for me. The ones in the original were at many times poetic and metaphorical, and that combination made many of the songs unforgettable. These lyrics pale in comparison, but they at least work most of the times. There are times when they don’t, and it is not hard to tell. Good thing is that it doesn’t distract from the actual show.



So, the question is would I recommend this musical? I would. I had a fantastic time and I was glad I went with an open mind. That is my one recommendation. If you are a fan of the original, go in with an open mind. This musical is definitely a stand-alone and should not be compared to the original one.
Besides Last Night, there is not much to report on. I had another fantastic day at practicum, and I mean that with much seriousness. I got to help out a lot of kids, and they are starting to open up a lot more.
My plan for today is to relax and just enjoy an empty flat. I’m also planning on going to the National Gallery for an hour or two to look at some art. I enjoyed it when I went with my art class, but I want to be able to walk around without any time limit.
Until Next Time,
Jefe

PS I stage doored last night and got pictures with the leads. Those pictures are on here and on Facebook.

A Weekend in Liverpool

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Sorry it’s been so long since I had last written, but I had a very busy weekend and week. Because of that, I yet again have a lot to write about. The good thing this time is I have pictures for you to look at as you read. Plus, they’ll help break up the text. So, let’s get started.



This last weekend was the best weekend I have had here in London so far. The reason for this is the fact that I got to Liverpool. For those who don’t know what Liverpool is, it is a city in northern United Kingdom and the home of the Beatles. The trip was fantastic, and I learned so much about the Beatles.
Our trip started out Friday morning with a 4.5 hour bus ride from our flats to our hotel in Liverpool. During the ride, I got to see the lovely UK countryside and the UK version of rest areas. Rest areas in the UK are kind of like the ones that occur on the New Jersey Turnpikes. They are a combination of restaurants, bathrooms, and small shops, and they occur every so often on the highway. So, it wasn’t much different for me. The weirdest thing that I saw on the bus ride was the fact that the highway signs displayed the distance to places in miles and not kilometers. That just kind of threw me off. Besides that, I enjoyed the trip up.



We arrived to our hotel in the afternoon and got a thirty minute break to unpack and settle down. Then, we did a small walking tour of Liverpool. The tour was just to give a sense of what was around us and what was in the rest of the city. At the end of the tour, we got to go inside a building that was a part of the Beatles Story, a history of the Beatles thing. Inside, we got to see a whole section devoted to the story of John Lennon. That helped give some perspective on him and on some of the Beatles’ songs. After that, we went to a little movie thing called “The Fab 4D.” It was a 3D movie that had a compilation of Beatles’ songs and a crazy story. It was a little trippy, which I think was the point.

When we were done with the Beatles’ Story, we did another walking tour of Liverpool. This one was basically of places related to the Beatles. We went to Matthew Street, and this was the place where most of the clubs and pubs were. On this street was the Cavern Club. This place is where the Beatles played a lot of their gigs in Liverpool, and sadly, I never got a chance to go in. That was fine with me. It was just cool to be outside the club. After this tour, some my fellow TFs and I went to a really good Italian restaurant, which had great food. For the rest of the night, we walked around Liverpool.



The next day was yet another Beatles filled day. At the start of the day, I had my first English breakfast. It consisted of an egg, sausage, bacon, baked beans, mushrooms, and tomatoes. Personally, it was ok, but it is definitely not something that I am going to order any time in the near future. Luckily, there were pastries and other things around to eat. After breakfast, some of us went to do another part of the Beatles story while others went to see the childhood homes of Paul McCartney and John Lennon. I was luckily in the second group and had a fantastic time seeing the homes. The cool thing is that there are actual people in the homes, and they are paid to live there. Also, the homes were decorated to be like they were when the Beatles were growing up. These visits put a lot of perspective on both Lennon and McCartney and again the music of the Beatles.




After all the tours were done, we had some free time to go out on the town. I got to see an exhibit at the art museum that related to stuff I had been studying in my art class. I had extremely good fish and chips, which was accompanied by an excellent glass of pinot grigio. For dessert, I had a really cheap, but really good piece of chocolate cake. After all of that, I just hung out with some of the people on the trip.

The last day in Liverpool was full of more Beatles’ and beautiful skies. For most of the morning, we explored the city and saw some more places related to the Beatles. The one I liked the most was the Casbah Club. This was another place that attributes itself to the birth of the Beatles since they played there a lot. It was/is located in the basement of a house, and it is really small. The cool thing about it is that the Beatles helped decorate the inside. After that visit, we went to the highest point in Liverpool and got to a panoramic view of the city. We took a group picture and went back to seeing the city. That afternoon, I got to do the Beatles Story audio tour. The tour basically went through the history of the Beatles, and it was very informative. At the end of that, we had some free time in the city and left that afternoon.



If I had the money, I would definitely go back to Liverpool. It was very fun, and there is so much more that I want to do there. At the end of the trip, I decided that if I had the chance, I would live in Liverpool for some time. The people there are really friendly and it is so much more relaxed than London. I enjoy being in London, but I think Liverpool would be a much better experience for me.

With the weekend done, I guess it’s time to move to my week so far. There is not much to report. Monday was another school day. It seemed that the students overall were much better behaved than the last two Mondays, but there were still issues. The good thing though is I got to help out a couple of students out during the day. For my next three Mondays, I’m going to balance my “research” with my helping out in the classroom. I’m definitely not going to teach a lesson, but I am going to help out whenever I can. That night we saw another play called London Assurance. I really enjoyed it. I was surprised by that because I had to read it beforehand and that was extremely boring.

There’s not much to report on Tuesday, except I signed up for housing.
Wednesday was an interesting day. I had no class that day and that night we had another play called Money. This was a site specific play and it was very weird. I’m still trying to figure it out, and I will get back to it when I can.
Not much happened today. I got all my essays done that are due tomorrow, and we watched Help! the movie in the Beatles class.

Highlight of the Week: My step mom came to London for some work stuff and she had time to visit me.

That’s it for now.

Until Next Time,
Jefe

A Month and Two Days

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

It has officially been a month since I arrived here in London, and what a fantastic month it has been. I mean there have been a couple downs, homesickness and some issues with the mates in my flat, but overall, it has been good. The tube and I are best friends now. I know how to navigate it like a pro and figure out which stations are good to do connections and what not. I’m starting to do well with the whole “excuse me I need to get out” aspect of the tube. I still have some trouble saying “excuse me” in a way that means “I need to get out so move.” Most of the time, I just push my way through or have had people notice that I need to get out. Along with the tube, I’m doing well with getting to places like school, class, and stuff like that. I attribute a lot of that with being able to read a map, which I have with me all the time. Overall, I’m doing well with this whole being on my own thing. The only problem I’m still dealing with is groceries. I’m good with buying them, but I’m still trying to figure out what’s most economical: buying large or buying the basics and buying stuff for dinner when I need to. I know how much money I have so I’m going to start budgeting and see.
With that out of the way, I have some updating to do. Monday was my second day in the schools, and it was very hectic. Almost every single class that I was in had a lot of misbehaving kids. A lot of them were off task and talking over the teacher while he was trying to teach. They were hyper, unfocused, and very distracting. The worst part was none of the teachers could get these kids focused on the lessons. I had three that day, and only one of them tried. The rest ignored those that were off task and focused on those that were. What I saw was something that really annoyed me. The behavior of the class is something that promotes or detracts from the learning. It is essential in the classroom to get kids on task because it is important for them to learn. Plus their behavior would be distracting to those that want to learn. The worst thing is that I even tried to get the students who were off task on task but it didn’t work. I just felt like that the teacher had no authority in the classroom, which was bad. It was a good learning day for me because I definitely learning what things I should do and shouldn’t do to get my class to behave. If this keeps on, I don’t think I’ll be able to do what I want to do while I’m there.
Phew, I’m off my teacher soap box for now until I write my journal. You’ve been spared a lot of my ranting that I will be doing in my journal. Anyway, back to Monday. After school, I had class, and we had a speaker to come talk to us about Every Child Matters. It is basically legislation that was passed concerning the health and safety of the children here in the UK. The session was really informative and really interesting. At the end of class, I went back to my flat, ate dinner, did work, and passed out. It was an extremely long and exhausting day.
Today, there is not much to report. Classes went fine. We had a quiz today in my Theatre, and I thankfully did not get called on about the play we had to read. Why am I thankful? The answer is I was not able to finish the play, it was very boring, and I had not retained any of the details. It’s a really bad sign when that happens because I am usually interested in reading plays. Yet, when I can’t finish one, there is little to no hope that I am going to like it. But, we’ll see.
For the rest of the night, I have a Beatles essay to finish, an EDU journal to write, Art notes to write up, a reading for Art, and pizza with some of my TFs and flat mates.
Achievement for the weekend: I decided to not clean up the kitchen the last couple of days. It was more of an experiment than annoyance that I’ve been the only one doing it. It worked because yesterday the dishes were out of the sink and washed. The counters were still dirty, but that’s to be expected. I was informed by one of my TFs that my flatmates noticed that I stopped cleaning. One of the mates thought that I was annoyed with them and just left the kitchen the way it was. He also stated that it would get done, but I was only doing it because of my compulsiveness. I do have a slight compulsiveness when it comes to cleanliness and organization, but I can control it. I really only do it if I am stressed or bored. I have been stressing out lately so I did it. It really only annoys me when that happens. Otherwise it would be fine. Also, I tend to start cleaning more when I clean up my messes. I get into the zone and just clean until I’m finished. So, that’s really what it all entails. Also, I’m done with my moaning about it too. It just surprised me that people could be that lazy and dirty. It was just a new thing to me and very interesting thing to me. I’ve gotten used to it and might have to give these guys some lessons in cleanliness. Anyway, I’m done with my ranting here.
Until Next Time,
Jefe

A Play, A Phone Call, and A Market

Saturday, February 27, 2010

I know it’s been awhile since I blogged, but I just haven’t been up to writing the last couple of days. Today just felt like a good day to get everything down, and do I have a lot to get down.
Where to start…where to start…ah…Wednesday. So, on Wednesday, I had another play for my theatre class. It was my fourth, and it was called Disconnect. The show, in a nutshell, took place in a call center in India and explored the lives of the call center employees. It was really good and did a good job capturing some of the issues surrounding American and Indian call centers. I talked with a couple of people afterwards, and a couple of them said it was their favorite show. I liked it, but my favorite so far has to be Six Degrees of Separation. After the play, I went back to hang out with some of my Teaching Fellows Friends.
Luckily for me, I had no class on Thursday. I usually have the Beatles class, but there was a field trip to an art museum. Since our class is so big, our teacher split us up, and half the class went to the museum. With no class, I just had a day to sleep in and catch up on stuff. It was what girl Taylor called a logistics day. This basically meant that I stayed in and did work. I ended up working some, which was just reading, but a lot of it was just lounging around. I watched some tv, slept, and played around on the computer. That night, I finally finished the fourth chapter of my book. I started typing at 11:30 pm and finished around 1:30/2 in the morning. I was really excited because I had been working on it for about seven months. It just felt good getting it done.
On Friday, I ended up having another day of logistics. I slept in and just lounged around a bit. In the afternoon, I did a lot of cleaning up and organizing. Most of my flat went to Dublin for the weekend, and I and another person were left in our flat. He was gone for most of the day which meant I had the flat to myself. I basically cleaned the kitchen, straightened up the common room, and did laundry. I also went grocery shopping and bought some more food. I ended up making some of the food into some really good dishes. I combined tomatoes, olive oil, mozzarella cheese, and spices into a container. I also made fruit salad out of grapes and cherries. I felt really accomplished making some good side dishes.

Today, I spent some of my day at Portobello Road. In London, there are many places that have outside markets. Portobello Road is one of the famous ones and is known for its antique markets. I knew of the road before I came to London because of Bedknobs and Broomsticks. In that movie, there is a musical number on that road. I didn’t buy anything, but it was fun that I was able to go. After we got back, I took a nap and did some homework.
So that was the rest of my week. The highlight of my week was being able to talk to some of my family. One of my TFs has a magic jack, and I never really thought about using it. Yet, on Tuesday, I was getting frustrated with the email communication with my parents and I decided I was going to call them. Well, I called and no one answered. So, I decided to call my grandma. It was nice to catch up with her, and I think she enjoyed it too. On Wednesday and Thursday, I called my sisters and gave them long updates on everything. I also ended up calling my dad and getting confirmation on some of the things. It was really comforting talking to everyone.

Until Next Time,
Jefe

Practicum and Naked Men

Monday, February 22, 2010

Before I start off, I just want to say that today was a really good day.


My day started with me waking up at 6:30 am for my first day of practicum. It was somewhat easy to get up this morning, but it took me awhile to get ready. After I got ready, I met Morgan down in the lobby so we could head out to our practicum. It took us one tube transition and a 20 minute walk to get to our practicum. The commute isn’t that bad, but the rain kind of made uncomfortable. Interesting story: On the way to the tube station near our flats, Morgan and I were walking with another TF when we got splashed on by a car going through a puddle. It was exactly like in the movies, but in a smaller version. The whole right side of my khakis became soaked, along with some of my shirt. The cold didn’t really help the situation at all. The whole combination did not make a great start to the day.
Once we got to our school, everything started getting better. In other words, my whole first day was really good. I was placed in a Numbers Class (Algebra II equivalent class), an Algebra Class (Year 8), a geometry class, and an economics class. Overall, I enjoyed my classes, but I did have a couple of issues. The first one was that the algebra class, which was made up of 11 year olds, was extremely disorganized and the teachers had trouble controlling the kids. Granted, they are 11 year olds and tend to be really energetic, but the lack of control was very distracting and frustrating. Second, the teaching method in the school is not effective in my eyes. In the three math classes, I noticed that the teachers kind of just tell the kids the stuff they need to know and don’t really get the gears working in the students’ heads. For example, my first class, the algebra II equivalent class, the teacher was doing trigonometric ratios. The basic lesson was using the trig ratios to find angles and sides of right triangles. When he got to a harder set of problems, he assigned the class to do the example. So, I went around to help some of the kids who were struggling. There was one particular girl who was having trouble, and I decided to lend her some help. The problem consisted of finding the hypotenuse of the triangle (She was given the angle and the opposite side). This meant that she had the following problem: sin(30)= 10/h. I encountered this problem frequently in my tutoring so I knew how to explain it. I started off with the usual question of what she needed to do. She answered it correctly. Then, I asked her what her thoughts were on how to get to the answer. She really didn’t know, and I decided to help her out a little with leading questions. These didn’t help, and I ended up having to give her the answer. After I was done with that, the teacher went over the question. He just went through the answer and didn’t really give the students the chance to try. It was kind of upsetting. The last thing I had difficulties with was just the math system itself. This will probably go away once I know what all the levels are, but for now it is a constant annoyance.
After practicum and class that followed, I went to my second play for my theatre class. The play was called Six Degrees of Separation, and it revolves around a strange man named Paul and his interactions with the other characters. Overall, I really liked the play. It was extremely funny and very intriguing. It really helped that I read it beforehand because we had a lot of advance warnings on things. I can’t wait for the discussion tomorrow.

My whole day ended on the most perfect note. I found out that I don’t have class tomorrow until 12:45 and I don’t have class on Thursday. I also had a delicious twix bar, some really good pasta, some toast and olive oil, and really good ice cream. It was just a fantastic day today.
Until Next Time,
Jefe

Rugby and A Chinese New Year

Sunday, February 21, 2010

I am happy to say that I am not going to do another huge blog posting like the last one that I wrote. It’s just way too much for those who have decided to read, and it is way too much information for me to type out. This is supposed to be fun for me and not some tedious thing like a ridiculously long essay. To make it a little easier, I’ve decided to write every day or every other day. I’ll be doing a lot of cools tuff with my classes, and that fact means a lot of good blogging. So, let’s get on with what happened this weekend.
It seems like the weekend has flown by. I can hardly believe that I have to get up tomorrow for school stuff tomorrow. It looks like time is starting to speed up, and this is making me slightly nervous. I have a lot I want to do, and I feel like that it’s not going to get done. Yet, this is not that time to go into that. It is time to talk about weekend.
This weekend was once again full of some amazing times. Yesterday, I went to Regent’s Park with some of my fellow fellows. It was the biggest, most beautiful park I have ever been to, and the beauty is hard to put into words. We came to this park to watch one of our fellow Elonians play in a rugby match. The fellow Elonian was Taylor, who is my flat-mate, and he invited everyone to come watch the match. It was really cool even though I had no idea what was going on. A lot of other people in our program were there, and it was just really fun to watch and talk to people.
After the rugby game was over, my fellow TF Taylor (I call her girl Taylor when I have to talk about both Taylors) and I parted ways with our other TFs and went to Trafalgar Square. Taylor wanted to go so she could walk around and I figured it would be nice to get out the flat and explore London. It was a really good idea. I got to actually take in everything that was around the square. I also got a chance to go inside the Adelphi Theatre again. If I haven’t mentioned it, the Adelphi Theatre is home to Love Never Dies, the sequel to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. When I went the first time, much of the lobby was closed because of rehearsals, but this time it wasn’t.



The real reason we went was Taylor wanted to find a particular theatre, and I knew there were maps near the box office. So we went in, and the lobby was n getting ready mode for the previews of the show. Speaking of previews, the first public preview for the show is tomorrow and I’m kind of bummed I can’t go. I am eagerly waiting for the reviews, for the soundtrack, and a personal ticket. Two of three can be done by me, but the third will hopefully happen this week. Anyway, as I was saying. The lobby was open, and it was just cool to be standing in the full lobby. There was a rope barrier separating me from the theatre, and I wanted desperately to jump it so I could see what was going on. I knew that was never going to happen so I just soaked in the lobby.
After getting the map and finding the theatre, we left the theatre and walked. After a few minutes, we found the theatre, and I had another episode of delight. Right across from the theatre we were at was Her Majesty’s, the home of Phantom. I was in a state of pure joy at this moment. I really wanted to go inside the theatre, but sadly, it was locked. That didn’t destroy my joy because it was just so cool to be that close to such a magnificent place. We left the area and went home.
For the rest of the afternoon, I hung out at my flat and made myself dinner. I ate the most wonderful packaged Tikki Masala. Chicken Tikki Masala is my favorite type of Indian Food, and I always have to deal with the frozen kind from the grocery store. Those are usually ok and get me by until I can have the real thing. So, I decided to do that here, and it was a really good idea. The stuff I got was so good and tasted so close to the stuff I would get in an Indian restaurant. It was extremely satisfying and was a good start to my night. After I finished dinner, I went and hung out some of my TFs. While hanging out, we ended up watching some movies. The first was Across the Universe and the second was A Series of Unfortunate Events. I really enjoyed both of them, and they were a good end to the night.
Today, I really didn’t do that much during the day. I just hung out in the flat mostly. I did clean up my computer a bit and cleaned/organized my room. I found out that I missing a couple of things, but I know that I will find them.
Tonight was so much fun. I went out with some of my TFs to Trafalgar Square to take part in the Chinese New Year celebrations. Last weekend was the real Chinese New Year, but the celebrations were a week later. The whole experience was interesting. We started off in the square where there were performances. The ones that I got to see were pretty cool, and the best one was a lady who did acrobatics while balancing cups on a plate. After the performances, we went to China Town to watch fireworks. On the way, we got a little lost, but we had Helon as our navigator. She got us to the place we needed to be. The place itself was extremely crowded so I wasn’t able to see the fireworks. Instead, we hung out in a Burger King until it was a little less crowded. Once we deemed it less crowded, we left.



After getting home, I made myself dinner. It consisted of gnocchi with a cream tomato sauce and a small salad. The gnocchi was extremely good. The sauce was semi-homemade, meaning I used cream and a sauce that I had already bought, and it was excellent. I used no measuring cups and poured the cream until I felt like the sauce tasted right, which worked out. I have some leftover and I can’t wait to have it.




For the rest of the night, I just lounged around the flat. I ended up cleaning the kitchen once again. I told myself this morning that I wasn’t going to do it anymore and just deal with my messes. Well, that worked for most of the day, but it got to me once I was done with dinner. I cleaned it up and was satisfied. This has actually been a problem since we got here, and I’ve somewhat talked about it with my flat-mates. What I really think the problem is that they were not raised to clean up after themselves. I am extremely thankful that I was, and in reality, I don’t mind cleaning up. It relieves some stress and boosts my confidence if I’m feeling down.


That’s it for today. Tomorrow is yet another eventful day. I have my first day of practicum and my second play. I will try to get a blog out, but I may be extremely exhausted. We’ll see.
Until Next Time,
Jefe

A Play, An Art Gallery, A Church, and A School

Friday, February 19, 2010

I’m starting to realize that my blogging everyday has kind of failed. The last couple of posts have been chunks of days put together. I don’t mind, but chunks for some reason don’t seem right. Anyway, I am not here to rant about myself. Instead, I am here to rant about London. I’m going to change things a bit and blog about the big things. I started a personal journal today so all the little stuff will go there. This blog is here for interest and not for my stuff. So, I guess it is time to start.
On Monday, I went to my first play for my theatre class that I am taking here. The play was titled 11 or 12. In a nutshell, the play focused on the events that surrounded both French occupation and the wondering of whether a prayer should be done 11 or 12 times. When I came out of the theatre, I really did not know how I felt about the play. Part of me felt that it was a good show while the other part of me just felt that the show was lacking somewhat. After that night and a discussion in class, I felt like it was something that I could really like. A lot of things helped make me like it, but there are two that stood out the most. The first was the staging. It was a very simple stage: a big red-orange blanket, sand, some simple trees, a couple of tree branches, and some little pillars. During the play, all the stuff was used creatively. For example, the blanket became a blanket during one part of the play and then a cliff during another part. The other thing that made me like the play was some of the themes. My favorite was about the existence of God. The play asserted that God was the embarrassment of the Human Mind. From what I understood was that as humans we like to have a logical and fact-based reason or things. Yet, it is impossible to do this for God because he is beyond all definition. There is no logical, scientific, or mathematical reason why God exists. He just does, and his existence is proven by our faith. This was really powerful for me because I know a lot of people struggle with whether or not God exists, and this kind of helped me understand my own struggle. Even though I did like it, there were some things that I did not like about the play. They just dealt mainly with the acting and the choices some of the actors made for some of the scenes. Overall, it was a good start to my theatre class.
On Wednesday, I had my first field trip for my Art Class that I am taking here in London. We went to the National Gallery and the National portrait Gallery. At the national gallery, we did an introductory tour through the major art periods. It was really cool to see real art pieces of famous painters up close and personal. Actually, it was a little more a couple of feet away from the painting up close and personal, but it was still really cool. The most interesting thing was it was a lecture tour, meaning we our teacher was making us learn. I really like this kind of tour because I got so much information that I probably would not have gotten from a typical audio tour. It was really cool to hear and learn about how techniques like 3-dimensional features in a 2D plane developed. The unfortunate thing was I didn’t have anything to take notes with so I need to borrow notes. The highlights of the tour were the following: Seeing paintings that I want for my future place of living, seeing an art exhibit on prostitution, and a head of a famous person made out of his blood. Pictures of paintings and the head portrait will come soon. I just need to get the sheet with all the painting names.
The museum tour took up most of my morning, and I spent most of my afternoon sleeping and writing an essay. During the evening, I made the decision that I was going to the Ash Wednesday service at the church near the flats. I did research earlier in the week to find a place to go because I really like Ash Wednesday services, and the one near the flats happened to be part of the Church of England and Anglican. I made my plans, but the only problem I had was I didn’t want to go alone. Luckily, I convinced someone to go with me at the last second so everything was ok.
So, I guess it is time to talk about the church and service. The church itself is pretty small and somewhat weird in its arrangement. The inside of the church was in the shape of a triangle crossed with a rectangle, but I really don’t know. Whatever the shape was, it caused the altar to be in a corner, which I thought was weird. The pews still managed to face the altar, and the cool thing about them is that each row was one continuous pew that was bent at various points. Overall, the inside was very cozy.
Now, the service itself was pretty interesting. Before the service began, I read the bulleting and found that the church was in “the catholic tradition of the Church of England.” I had no idea what that meant, and I thought it was just a Lenten thing. It was a very logical thought because there are various times in the Episcopal calendar that the words change from regular English to Old English. Anyway, there was nothing really unusual or new to me when it came to the liturgy. It was very similar to the one that my church uses with some more words and phrases. There were three things that I noticed that were definitely different. The first was the fact that they were using incense. Basically, the incense was used to bless almost everything from the congregation to the bread and wine. I didn’t think much of this because my childhood church did this when we got a new priest. The second difference was the fact that there was I guess a high priest. From what I remember, there were three people on the platform with the altar: a priest, another priest with a more elaborate dress, and a person who was dressed like a Deacon. The third difference was the fact that they prayed for the Pope. I thought this was extremely weird because I thought that the Anglican Church did not pray to the Pope. The whole break from the Catholic Church was the fact that King Henry VIII could not get a divorce from the Pope. Anyway, I heard that and I knew it had to be Catholic or very Catholic related. Besides those things, everything else was ok. After the service was done, we left, and I said I wasn’t going to go back. I just didn’t feel like it was the right atmosphere for me, and I am now wanting to explore other churches. I learned today that there are many variations of Anglican Churches. Apparently, the one I went to was a high Anglo-Catholic Church. I didn’t even know that existed, and it was really cool to learn that. I can’t wait for my next church.
There is not much to report on for Thursday. The highlight of that day was basically the fact that we watched A Hard Days Night in the Beatles Class. Apparently, it was one of several movies that the Beatles starred in and that used their music. It was a really cool movie, but slightly weird too. It was a good weird because it kind of made the movie even more entertaining. Even if I watched the movie again, I would not be able to give any kind of summary, but I would recommend it to be watched. Besides that, I took a nice nap and worked on my essay
Today was a really productive day for me. I got up somewhat early for my day off and lounged around the suite for a bit. Then, at around noon, I left the flat to make the journey to my practicum school. The journey was pretty interesting. It started out with a tube ride that I did by myself. That part was fine, and I got to see some really nice stations. I had to take the Jubilee line to get to the station that was near my school, and the stations on that line seem somewhat new. They are very plain and have glass doors that separate the platform from the track. One of my fellow fellows believe that this is to prevent suicides, and I kind of agree. Anyway, after getting to the appropriate station, I got off and made my walk to the school. It was a twenty minute walk through a part of London that I am happy I get to see. It’s a definite stark contrast to the area I am living in. The streets were very small, and there were various stages of construction going on. It was definitely a poorer side of London. It was a very uneventful walk for the most part, but there was one slight event. In a nutshell, I crossed a street before the crosswalk light turned green and had a close call with a car. I walked away, and the man in the car yelled at me. I shrugged it off because a lot of London drivers do that or honk their horns. Yet, the interesting thing is one of the cars that was waiting at the light honked at me, and the guy did the little “I’m watching you” gesture. That was slightly disturbing, but I luckily never saw him again. I also doubt that I will see the guy again anyway since I will only be in the area for six Mondays. From that crosswalk on, I was extra careful. I still don’t know why I did that. Since being here, I usually wait for the green light unless I am in a big group and we cross all at once. I do know now that the intersection is busy so I will be careful from now on. Besides that, the rest of the walk was fine, and I found my school. I also found out that I can take a bus from the tube station to a bus stop that is right by the school. I may end up trying that on Monday, but who knows.
After my little adventure, I went straight back to my flat and had lunch. It was after 2 when I got back so I was hungry. I ate lunch and just lounged around a little. At around 4 pm, I started working on my essay, and I finished at around 11:30. Why did it take so long? The answer is I write a chunk and take a break. I can’t sit down and just write out an essay. It’s just not appealing to me. I do better writing in chunks and coming back. Usually, it’s in days and not hours, but I wanted to get done with it in one day. I got it done and can move onto the other essay that I have to. That’s it for the update.

Until Next Time,
Jefe

WWII and Stonehenge

Monday, February 15, 2010

I’ve been meaning to blog the last couple of days, but time had somehow slipped away from me. To make up for that, I’m going to have to cram a lot into this one for now. Well, it REALLY isn’t that much.
So, the best place to start this is the Thursday of last week. On that day, my Beatles class had a trip to the Imperial War Museum here in London. We went to this museum to do a little research on an essay we have to do about Britain during WWII. The research went fine, and it was a very cool museum. I started my research in the Holocaust exhibit of the place. For the size of the exhibit, it was really good. It had some really good information for both my paper and my general knowledge. Overall, I enjoyed the exhibit. After I was done with that exhibit, I spent the rest of the time exploring the WWII exhibit.
Of all my time at the museum, I spent the most in the WWII exhibit. Majority of the reason I did this was the fact that it had all the information I needed for my paper. The objective of the paper was to get a good grasp of the effect WWII had on British society during and after the war. Because of this, I made sure that I spent as much time as I could in the exhibit, and I got a lot of information doing this. Most of the exhibits were really good. We were also supplied an audio guide, which made taking notes somewhat easier. Yet, the best part of the museum was the Blitz Experience. Basically, this exhibit was a short story about what life during the Blitz was like. It was good, but the only complaint I have is that there really is no participation. All you do is walk around and listen to the story that is going on overhead. You get to see the places that are being talked about, but that’s about it. For a museum, the exhibit is good, but I would like to see be even better.
The museum took up most of my Thursday, and the only other thing I was able to do was stop by the Adelphi Theatre, the home of Love Never Dies, and ask about ticket prices. That stop was really cool because the musical was still in the middle of rehearsals, and I was able to see some of the crew outside. The bad thing about is I found out that there are no group discounts for the show. It’s new so I wasn’t that disappointed. Even with that, it was still cool just being there.
The next biggest day for me was Saturday. That day, I was able to go see Stonehenge and visit Salisbury with my study abroad group. At the start of the day, the bus was supposed to be outside our flats at 8:45 am. It wasn’t there, and we waited for a bit. At around 9, we were told to go back to our flats and wait for a call from the leaders when the bus came. The bus didn’t get to the flats until ten, which cut down our touring time. Once we were all on the bus, we left on our over one hour journey to Stonehenge.



Stonehenge itself was really cool. The good thing was that I hadn’t studied a lot about it so my expectations were not let down. Apparently, that was somewhat unusual because a lot of people go to Stonehenge and are disappointed by the size. I would think that no matter the size that Stonehenge would still be awesome. Anyway, we spent some time there and got some really good pictures.
After we were done with Stonehenge, we went to Salisbury. There, we toured a cathedral, which was extremely beautiful, and saw an original copy of the Magna Carta. After that, we toured the city itself. It was pretty cool, and I enjoyed myself a lot. This was a really good day and ended with a really good dinner out with my fellow Teaching Fellows.

It's Been a Week

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

It’s been a week since I came to London for study abroad, and it’s been a good experience so far. I really do like the city, but I’m starting to realize that it’s not really my cup of tea. I have enjoyed walking around the city and being able to see everything. I love the history and the vast amount of stuff that I can do, but the big city life that London has isn’t something that I like. I just don’t like the feeling of haste that there is in the air. When I’m at Elon and even at home, there’s just this feeling of calmness and a feeling that there is time to get to the place where you want to go. Here, the feeling isn’t really panic, but there is definitely a feeling that time isn’t on your side. I guess the contributing factor is the fact that the city is so big, but I just don’t like. It all stems back to the fact that I hate being rushed. I’ve never done well with that kind of feeling. Over the years, I’ve adapted, but there are times when the pressure of the rush has hit me hard. I’ve learned what I needed to do to prevent the pressure, and those things have worked. I’ve applied them here, and they’ve kind of worked. Yet, the feeling of the rush is still there. I really can’t figure out what the causes are, but when I do, things will possibly get better. At this moment, I can honestly say that the big city life is something that I will never be happy with.
With that off my chest, I can get to the more positive stuff about my last week. Yesterday was the start of classes. I am so happy that they have started because I can now be on some sort of a regular schedule. Orientation last week was killer because the schedule was all over the place. That was kind of frustrating, but I adapted well. I do well with chaotic schedules, but I really love having a set routine. Chaos amongst the coherency keeps life interesting so I try to enjoy when it comes. It does stress me out, but I see the positives at the end of the day.
Classes themselves seem really interesting. I am taking a whole class on the Beatles, an art history class, a theatre class, and a class that goes with my practicum. I’m really excited for all of these, but I am somewhat reserved too. The class that I have some worries about is the Beatles class. I know that I am going to enjoy this class, but the workload is somewhat intense. We have a couple of papers and an album essay. These are fine, but what worries me is some of the grading. Apparently, my professor has decided that he is going to go by the School of Communications and deduct 1/3 letter grade for every grammatical error. I am one for good grammar, but for a class made up of several majors, it is a bit harsh. Not all of us in that class constantly write. I’m a math major for two reasons: I like math and I hate to write papers. I love creative writing, but I absolutely abhor papers. Also, grammatical errors are different for every person. Someone may see something that is wrong that others do not. In other words, grammar is a hard thing to judge whether or not it is right. Even with these things, I am still looking forward to this class. I’m not really worried about any of my other classes because they all sound so interesting. I’m really psyched that my theatre class is going to open me up to theatre that I would normally not go to. Along with that, I’m psyched for my art class. The best thing about the class is that I am going to be able
Another good thing that has happened is I’m getting the hang of using the Tube. I have to thank Elon for housing us so far from everything because it has helped with familiarizing myself with the tube. The tube for is a necessary evil. I hate it so much. It stems from two places. The first is the feeling of haste. The tube just oozes haste. You have to be quick to get on it and quick to get off. There is no time to think and there is little time act. The good thing is that I am getting used to this and judging when it is a good time to get on the train. I am also getting good at figuring out what is the best route to get somewhere. Overall, the tube is a blessing in disguise that I know that I am going to miss when I come home.
In keeping with the positive side of things, Love Never Dies is almost here. For those who don’t know, Love Never Dies is the sequel to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s the Phantom of the Opera. It previews next week and then opens a week or two after that. I so far have eight people who are interested in going, and I am still awaiting news on whether Anglo, the program we are with, can get some discount tickets. Besides that, I also have people who want to go to both Les Mis and the original Phantom too. I’ve basically become the organizer for these three shows. These are the shows I really want to go to, and I figured others would too. Plus, it’s never a bad thing to try and save some money. I’m going to wait a little longer before I submit the actual numbers to Anglo, but I can’t wait to see these shows.
I think that’s it for now. I apologize for being slow on the pictures, but with the limited internet, it is hard to upload pictures. When I get my new minutes on Saturday, I will upload some more.
Until Next Time,
Jefe

P.S. I meant to add this, but forgot while I was writing. Yesterday, I cooked for ten people in our group. Last weekend, I decided that I wanted to do a dinner for my fellow Teaching Fellows, and I planned on making chicken cutlets and garlic/olive oil string beans. I did this, and it was very successful. I luckily had some help, which was a godsend. Everyone enjoyed the dinner and wanted some more today. The interesting thing is I learned two things from this: I don't want to cook for ten people unless it is easy and if I ever make chicken cutlets again, I need to find the actual cutlet cut.

A Snowy Day in London

Monday, February 8, 2010

Today was another relaxing day. I got up at around eleven after an intense night of doing laundry. I had decided yesterday afternoon that I really needed to do laundry. In reality, I probably could’ve waited, but when I think I need to do something, I will do it. Anyway, I started my first load, all colors, at 10:30 pm. It finished its first cycle at around midnight, and I put the dryer part (It’s a two in one machine) on 30 minutes. I checked it, and the clothes were not dry. I did this two more times, and after 1.5 hours , my clothes were finally dry. With my them in hand, I went to bed.
After waking up and getting ready, my flat-mate Taylor invited me along to some walking around London with some people. The first place we went to was Primark. Then, we decided to go to a market place that we saw on one of our tours. I don’t remember the name at the moment, but the walk there was interesting. We had gotten off at a tube station that was a long walk from the place. Apparently, one of the people saw some information on how to get there, and after about fifteen minutes of walking and looking at a map, we got there. We walked around the market for a bit, trying to find somewhere to eat. We checked a couple of places, but they were kind of expensive. Then, towards the exit of the place, we found a little café that had somewhat cheap food. There, I got an excellent hot chocolate and a delicious mozzarella/tomato Panini.
Towards the end of the day, my fellow teaching fellows and I had an orientation class concerning our practicum here in London. Basically, as part of our Teaching Fellows program, we have the opportunity to sit in a British classroom and observe the educational system here. Today, we just received the ins and outs of our practicum and the class that goes along with it. We also received our placements, and mine is at City of London Academy, which is on the other side of the city from me. I’m excited and I will definitely devote some of my blog to my practicum experience.
The best part of the day, besides getting my placement, was the fact that it snowed. It wasn’t a huge snow storm like some of the US has had, but there were just gentle flurries. It was a very beautiful sight to walk around London and see the snow. It’s supposed to happen a lot this week and I am excited. Along with the snow, I was also able to visit King's Cross station and take a picture at the entrance of platform 9 and 3/4. It does exist apparently. That’s it for now.
Until Next Time,
Jefe

A Bus Tour of London

Sunday, February 7, 2010

All of yesterday was dominated by a bus tour of London, followed by a walking tour. The bus tour was really cool. We went all around London and saw most of the touristy sites. We saw St. Paul's Chapel, Westminister Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, and other sites. The best part of the trip was the fact that we got to stay in the bus most of the time. It was nice to be able to relax and see the sites in a non-walking manner. I did like the walking tours, but it was a little much to have them in a succession of days. Plus, our tour guide was really nice and really informative. Overall, it was the best tour of all of them.



After the bus tour, we got a walking tour of the area around our flats. This was really cool because we got to see the stuff that was around us. The best site was the canal that goes through our little area. We are in an area called Little Venice in the City of Westminister, which is a borough of London. The main attraction of the area is the canal that runs through it. One can travel by this canal to various parts of the city including the zoo. There were also houseboats docked on the canal, which was cool. Basically, we live in a very interesting and cool part of London.
As for today, there isn't much to report on. I went to a couple of the sites that we saw yesterday, but that was about it. I also rode the tube by myself today, which was cool.

Until Next Time,
Jefe

"Cartoons are for kids and adults who are high"

Friday, February 5, 2010

Note: This blog is a combination of both yesterday and today. I just though it fitting since we had two tours on the same subject.

So, my second day, along with my third day in London was dominated by the first of two “Rock Walks” around London. My day started out with a trip to Primark with some of my fellow fellows. Since our walk wasn’t until 2:30 that afternoon, we thought it would be a good idea to do some shopping, clothes and all. Primark was basically the equivalent of a Wal-mart for clothes. This meant that everything was ridiculously cheap in terms of paying in pounds, the currency over here. For example, it was 3-4 pounds for a two pack of good looking ties. I know where to shop if I need any clothes while I’m here.
After Primark, we went back near the flats to shop at the Tesco, the local grocery store. This was good because I did need to get some food. I usually go to the grocery store with a list, but it was fun not going to one that time. We got our food and went back home to get ready for our Rock Walk later that Day.
The “Rock Walks” were tours around London and included places that were somehow related to the Beatles and the rock n’ roll movement in England. For the most part, they were pretty interesting and informing, but there were parts that were boring. It was cool to see buildings where the Beatles lived and worked. It was also cool to see buildings where the Beatles and other artists held concerts. The two best places for me were both Abbey Road and the Palladium theatre. Abbey Road was far by the best because of the fact the road was where the famous crosswalk photo was and it is the location of the recording studios. The Palladium was also cool because of the fact that it is considered the start of Beatle-mania and it is a musical theatre. Besides these, places it was cool to see the residences of some of the Beatles and where their Apple shop existed. The most interesting thing I learned from these tours was that the song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was inspired by a child’s picture and is not about LSD. I can’t wait to start my class.
Since these tours dominated the last two days, there is not much more to report. The only thing I can think of is I was successful at cooking dinner. It was delicious, but I did learn that I should cook half of the pack of tortellini and not the whole thing. Also, I did take some pictures and they will be up very soon I promise. They will definitely be out tomorrow after the London tour I have tomorrow.
Until Next Time,
Jefe