So I'm in Taiwan. What a strange place to spend Christmas! It's worth it, though, to have my family again.
Christmas was both incredibly different and completely familiar at the same time. Our tree was different - a tiny potted cedar that we brought into the living room and decorated with paper cranes and mini lights - but the presents underneath were the same, from all our beloved friends back home. The weather was different, but since we stayed inside most of the day, we felt the same. We had the familiar tradition of getting Nana's presents on Christmas Eve night, but the presents were different - fuzzy blankets instead of the customary pajamas. And although Christmas morning and early afternoon were the same - opening stockings, eating breakfast, opening presents, then spending the next couple of hours reading our new books - Christmas evening was not: we went to a hot spring instead of the Meeting House and our Christmas dinner consisted of Chinese take-out noodles. Oh well, at least it was memorable.
New Years was likewise very different: we performed Handel's Messiah, which went wonderfully. Mama and Papa sang in the choir and I played in the orchestra. I'd only played the piece 4-5 times before performing, and I hadn't been able to practice it, but I think I pulled it off well. The sound of the choir and orchestra together were awe-some, though. Truly inspiring. Then we went home afterwards and watched fireworks from the roof. It was great, they were popping all around us, and whenever one set stopped, another started. We put up the tent on the roof and slept out there that night, and woke up the next morning to a new and wonderful (though cloudy) day, in which we went to the beach and got rained on and had a lot of fun. A great set of holidays, all around.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Winter Break
I'm really sorry for not having written for so long, the beginning of December seemed relatively mundane (relatively) with little time. And then I went on the Street Performing trip and didn't have internet for 10 days.
But oh, what a 10 days they were!!
The General Premise: Elliot, a Hong Kongese second year, organized a trip for the choir (and other interested people) to go to Vienna, Bratislava (Slovakia), Prague, and Budapest and sing on the streets and in concerts, promoting UWC and getting money for the earthquake in Pakistan. I was a part of the choir, and we had a fantabulous time. We started out as 40 people but by the end we were only around 20, because people dropped off in various cities, some people couldn't get visas to Czech Republic and Hungary and some people lived in the places we went and just stayed there when we left.
Vienna is officially my favorite city now.
Perhaps it's because of the glorious (and so un-Italian! Not that Italian is bad, far from it) architecture - everything in that city breathes grandeur, from the shop fronts to the Christmas decorations (think: huge chandeliers of Christmas lights suspended between the buildings of the main pedestrian avenue with stars and bells and banners of light everywhere) to the opera house (gilded and filled with statues and wide, velvet covered stairs) to the museums to the cathedrals. Stefansdome, in the center of the city, is the most magnificent, awe-inspiring, and I'd almost say terrifying, cathedral I've ever seen. You enter and suddenly you feel so small in the face of whatever it was that created or inspired this. I'm assuming that's the intended effect of all gothic cathedrals, but I've never felt it more keenly.
Perhaps it's that, or perhaps it's the music. We stayed there for three nights, and each night I went to a concert. You would think this would have put a strain on my little blue wallet, but no, the most I paid for a ticket was 4 euros. 4 euros to see Tibor Kovak play (on Kreistler's violin) Paganini and Bach and Bartok in a small but ornately carved and painted and gilded music hall. Sure, our seats were above the stage so we couldn't see a thing, but once we moved down the balcony to stand behind a Viennese man's chair (for which he paid 36 euros, I saw his ticket) we had a perfect view.
That was the second night. The first night we (Yusaku(Japan), Sara(Italy), Juan Chi(Argentina), Nidhi(India), Julia(Slovakia) and I) went to see "La Nozze di Figaro" at the Vienna Opera House. To get standing tickets, we
had to get there at 4:00 and stand (or rather sit) in line until 5:30 when they let us buy the tickets (2.50) and then we stood in line to get good standing places (which we did) we tied our scarves around the bar and went out to get dinner (ridiculously expensive! I got a mediocre hot dog for 3 euros, and that was the cheapest thing around.) When we'd finished, we went back in and stood through the opera: Amazing! We had a perfect view, we were eye-level with the performers (though a ways back) and because we were standing there were no heads in the way. And the opera itself was incredibly well done. What voices! Such power, such beauty. The orchestra was wonderful as well, and of course, the music they were working wasn't half bad.
And the last night Juan Chi and I went to see the Vienna Philharmonic. Wow. I have never seen such perfection live. I kept having to remind myself that I wasn't listening to a CD, that this was real, because everything about it was precise and exactly what the conductor motioned for. Of course the surroundings reflected the music glory - the hall was covered in paintings and sculptures of angels and down the stairs were depictions of the nine muses. In the lobby there were statues of great composers and flowers and chandeliers...Wow.
So, yeah. I like Vienna. We had fun there as well, the choir sang in the street and we made 40 euros in half an hour. (I wanted so much to play my violin - I would have made a killing - but it was too cold. Maybe in the spring I'll take a trip north.) We sang in the UN lobby as well, which was cool, underneath all those flags spread out in a circle, and the others talked to some of the people who came to listen.
Then there was Bratislava. That was fun as well, but not as beautiful. We did presentations in an IB school (I did one on American Foreign Policy. Ableaghydug. (a word that pretty much sums it up. It went ok, I guess, but oy, what a subject.)) then sang for them, then went out and toured the town. I went with a Slovak student who showed me (and Marina and Julia) around and took us to a pub to have the "national food" (some sort of mashed and fried potatoes in cheese sauce with bacon on top. Really fatty, but sort of good). That night (at 12:00, we were all really tired) our hosts set up a game for us, in which we had to run around the school in the dark with candles, trying to find scraps of paper ("lost souls") and return them to our bases before the other team caught us and stole our souls. It was fun, but it would have been more fun if we hadn't been dead tired.
The next day we went to Prague.
If Vienna was grand, Prague was mystical. Tall, dark statues of saints and martyrs line the main bridge, one I wouldn't want to cross alone at night. They seem to be watching you as you go, though the effect is somewhat diminished by the souvenir shops and tourists taking pictures (yes, I was one of them. Oh well). The main cathedral is also awe-inspiring, especially as you approach it from a small street: normal houses, normal shops, then ...!?! It rises into the darkness of the night, illuminated from below to fully show its glory. One has to merely stand there for a minute, shocked into silence.
The inside's not too bad, either. It's not as frightening as Stefansdome because it's illuminated by myriad stained glass windows in all different styles. Beautiful, all of them.
Prague's transportation system was the best I've ever seen. It was redone 2 years ago, and there were lots of punctual, frequent, clean metros, busses, trams, you name it. And the metro stations were even nicely decorated (with Narnia posters! I want to see that sooo much, but none of the cinemas showed it in English). Unfortunately, the weather was awful there, so we couldn't really street sing. But we did some nice wandering, and generally had a great time.
We took the night train to Budapest. Big, Big mistake. It was easily the worst night I've spent in years, if not ever. First of all, the compartments were crammed (6 to a room) and the they were little more than padded benches - we didn't even get our own seats. And they didn't recline like the ones to Florence. There was lots of baggage, so we were all really crammed and uncomfortable. That would have been bad enough, but then the heater started going full blast. Now I know what hell's like, I'll start saying my prayers.
Strangely enough, I wasn't actually that tired the next day. Which was a good thing, because we were booked to the gills that day. Budapest was the most organized stop of the trip - we had street performance, a scheduled lunch (that I didn't appreciate, because we'd been fending for ourselves and I'd been doing a lot better than the mildly overpriced mildly tasteless food we got there), a concert, a tour (spectacular, of course. I love Europe), and a Christmas party. The party was for all Hungarian UWC students, past and present, and they had great food, a trivia game (which my group won. Booyah. Cake for everyone!) I had fun talking to an ex-UWC-USA student and we compared campuses and alcohol policies (basically nothing allowed vs. Everything fine and even almost encouraged. Guess which country hosts which policy?)
The grand cathedral of Budapest was very different from the other cathedrals I'd seen. It was warm and beautiful and inviting, all pink and white marble and gold and glass windows placed so that it was filled with natural light that, in once case, streamed in from the window in such a way as to illuminate a sweet little statue of two angels in the corner. I think I like it best, it's so comfortable. I prefer a religion that makes loveliness rather than grandeur, as I prefer a god that welcomes and accepts to one that condemns and judges. Don't get me wrong, I loved those gothic giants, and would gladly return to them, I would merely prefer to worship in the cathedral in Budapest.
The other thing I liked best about Budapest (closely followed by Prague) was its Christmas Market. If anyone's been to Europe around Christmas you'll know hat I'm talking about, they're everywhere, these piazzas (or whatever) filled to bursting with stalls covered in wreathes and selling everything from hats to crepes to candles to glass ornaments to hot dogs to cups to jewelry, you name it. And all around it is music of one kind or another (sometimes performed by us) and people warming their hands on mugs of hot punch and huge Christmas trees covered in lights. Everywhere has at least one (even Venice, as I saw while I was there connecting to Taiwan) and most cities have two or three or five. Budapest's market was the most original - it had brightly colored felt hats and booties and beautifully glazed ceramics and glass candle holders. But they were all beautiful, and each had its trademark - the candles of Vienna, the wood-working of Bratislava, the little painted mugs of Prague, and the pottery of Budapest.
My last night on the trip I went to a concert at the National Concert Hall. Beautiful space, that, very modern, but very tasteful. And the music was great. We saw a Tchaikovsky violin concerto and Mahler Symphony #1, I was sooo happy. Unfortunately, my camera didn't seem to like it as much. We were on the 5th floor (having paid 80 cents to get in) and my bag was hanging over the edge of the balcony. I thought that was a little unsafe, and was moving it back behind the bar and the camera jumped. All I saw was a flash of movement, wasn't sure what it was, and then heard a clunk! far, far below. I thought, "oh, something must have happened down there, I wonder what..." And looked down to see a man waving something black at me. Needless to say, my next word was not particularly suited to the surroundings. This is the last picture of the ill-fated camera.
Fortunately, it was the end of the trip, and the card was saved.
And Finally, that's the end of this post. Eru's song, that took a long time. I hope it's worth it.
But oh, what a 10 days they were!!
The General Premise: Elliot, a Hong Kongese second year, organized a trip for the choir (and other interested people) to go to Vienna, Bratislava (Slovakia), Prague, and Budapest and sing on the streets and in concerts, promoting UWC and getting money for the earthquake in Pakistan. I was a part of the choir, and we had a fantabulous time. We started out as 40 people but by the end we were only around 20, because people dropped off in various cities, some people couldn't get visas to Czech Republic and Hungary and some people lived in the places we went and just stayed there when we left.
Vienna is officially my favorite city now.
Perhaps it's because of the glorious (and so un-Italian! Not that Italian is bad, far from it) architecture - everything in that city breathes grandeur, from the shop fronts to the Christmas decorations (think: huge chandeliers of Christmas lights suspended between the buildings of the main pedestrian avenue with stars and bells and banners of light everywhere) to the opera house (gilded and filled with statues and wide, velvet covered stairs) to the museums to the cathedrals. Stefansdome, in the center of the city, is the most magnificent, awe-inspiring, and I'd almost say terrifying, cathedral I've ever seen. You enter and suddenly you feel so small in the face of whatever it was that created or inspired this. I'm assuming that's the intended effect of all gothic cathedrals, but I've never felt it more keenly.
Perhaps it's that, or perhaps it's the music. We stayed there for three nights, and each night I went to a concert. You would think this would have put a strain on my little blue wallet, but no, the most I paid for a ticket was 4 euros. 4 euros to see Tibor Kovak play (on Kreistler's violin) Paganini and Bach and Bartok in a small but ornately carved and painted and gilded music hall. Sure, our seats were above the stage so we couldn't see a thing, but once we moved down the balcony to stand behind a Viennese man's chair (for which he paid 36 euros, I saw his ticket) we had a perfect view.
That was the second night. The first night we (Yusaku(Japan), Sara(Italy), Juan Chi(Argentina), Nidhi(India), Julia(Slovakia) and I) went to see "La Nozze di Figaro" at the Vienna Opera House. To get standing tickets, we
had to get there at 4:00 and stand (or rather sit) in line until 5:30 when they let us buy the tickets (2.50) and then we stood in line to get good standing places (which we did) we tied our scarves around the bar and went out to get dinner (ridiculously expensive! I got a mediocre hot dog for 3 euros, and that was the cheapest thing around.) When we'd finished, we went back in and stood through the opera: Amazing! We had a perfect view, we were eye-level with the performers (though a ways back) and because we were standing there were no heads in the way. And the opera itself was incredibly well done. What voices! Such power, such beauty. The orchestra was wonderful as well, and of course, the music they were working wasn't half bad.And the last night Juan Chi and I went to see the Vienna Philharmonic. Wow. I have never seen such perfection live. I kept having to remind myself that I wasn't listening to a CD, that this was real, because everything about it was precise and exactly what the conductor motioned for. Of course the surroundings reflected the music glory - the hall was covered in paintings and sculptures of angels and down the stairs were depictions of the nine muses. In the lobby there were statues of great composers and flowers and chandeliers...Wow.
So, yeah. I like Vienna. We had fun there as well, the choir sang in the street and we made 40 euros in half an hour. (I wanted so much to play my violin - I would have made a killing - but it was too cold. Maybe in the spring I'll take a trip north.) We sang in the UN lobby as well, which was cool, underneath all those flags spread out in a circle, and the others talked to some of the people who came to listen.
Then there was Bratislava. That was fun as well, but not as beautiful. We did presentations in an IB school (I did one on American Foreign Policy. Ableaghydug. (a word that pretty much sums it up. It went ok, I guess, but oy, what a subject.)) then sang for them, then went out and toured the town. I went with a Slovak student who showed me (and Marina and Julia) around and took us to a pub to have the "national food" (some sort of mashed and fried potatoes in cheese sauce with bacon on top. Really fatty, but sort of good). That night (at 12:00, we were all really tired) our hosts set up a game for us, in which we had to run around the school in the dark with candles, trying to find scraps of paper ("lost souls") and return them to our bases before the other team caught us and stole our souls. It was fun, but it would have been more fun if we hadn't been dead tired.
The next day we went to Prague.
If Vienna was grand, Prague was mystical. Tall, dark statues of saints and martyrs line the main bridge, one I wouldn't want to cross alone at night. They seem to be watching you as you go, though the effect is somewhat diminished by the souvenir shops and tourists taking pictures (yes, I was one of them. Oh well). The main cathedral is also awe-inspiring, especially as you approach it from a small street: normal houses, normal shops, then ...!?! It rises into the darkness of the night, illuminated from below to fully show its glory. One has to merely stand there for a minute, shocked into silence.
The inside's not too bad, either. It's not as frightening as Stefansdome because it's illuminated by myriad stained glass windows in all different styles. Beautiful, all of them.
Prague's transportation system was the best I've ever seen. It was redone 2 years ago, and there were lots of punctual, frequent, clean metros, busses, trams, you name it. And the metro stations were even nicely decorated (with Narnia posters! I want to see that sooo much, but none of the cinemas showed it in English). Unfortunately, the weather was awful there, so we couldn't really street sing. But we did some nice wandering, and generally had a great time.
We took the night train to Budapest. Big, Big mistake. It was easily the worst night I've spent in years, if not ever. First of all, the compartments were crammed (6 to a room) and the they were little more than padded benches - we didn't even get our own seats. And they didn't recline like the ones to Florence. There was lots of baggage, so we were all really crammed and uncomfortable. That would have been bad enough, but then the heater started going full blast. Now I know what hell's like, I'll start saying my prayers.
Strangely enough, I wasn't actually that tired the next day. Which was a good thing, because we were booked to the gills that day. Budapest was the most organized stop of the trip - we had street performance, a scheduled lunch (that I didn't appreciate, because we'd been fending for ourselves and I'd been doing a lot better than the mildly overpriced mildly tasteless food we got there), a concert, a tour (spectacular, of course. I love Europe), and a Christmas party. The party was for all Hungarian UWC students, past and present, and they had great food, a trivia game (which my group won. Booyah. Cake for everyone!) I had fun talking to an ex-UWC-USA student and we compared campuses and alcohol policies (basically nothing allowed vs. Everything fine and even almost encouraged. Guess which country hosts which policy?)
The grand cathedral of Budapest was very different from the other cathedrals I'd seen. It was warm and beautiful and inviting, all pink and white marble and gold and glass windows placed so that it was filled with natural light that, in once case, streamed in from the window in such a way as to illuminate a sweet little statue of two angels in the corner. I think I like it best, it's so comfortable. I prefer a religion that makes loveliness rather than grandeur, as I prefer a god that welcomes and accepts to one that condemns and judges. Don't get me wrong, I loved those gothic giants, and would gladly return to them, I would merely prefer to worship in the cathedral in Budapest.
The other thing I liked best about Budapest (closely followed by Prague) was its Christmas Market. If anyone's been to Europe around Christmas you'll know hat I'm talking about, they're everywhere, these piazzas (or whatever) filled to bursting with stalls covered in wreathes and selling everything from hats to crepes to candles to glass ornaments to hot dogs to cups to jewelry, you name it. And all around it is music of one kind or another (sometimes performed by us) and people warming their hands on mugs of hot punch and huge Christmas trees covered in lights. Everywhere has at least one (even Venice, as I saw while I was there connecting to Taiwan) and most cities have two or three or five. Budapest's market was the most original - it had brightly colored felt hats and booties and beautifully glazed ceramics and glass candle holders. But they were all beautiful, and each had its trademark - the candles of Vienna, the wood-working of Bratislava, the little painted mugs of Prague, and the pottery of Budapest.
My last night on the trip I went to a concert at the National Concert Hall. Beautiful space, that, very modern, but very tasteful. And the music was great. We saw a Tchaikovsky violin concerto and Mahler Symphony #1, I was sooo happy. Unfortunately, my camera didn't seem to like it as much. We were on the 5th floor (having paid 80 cents to get in) and my bag was hanging over the edge of the balcony. I thought that was a little unsafe, and was moving it back behind the bar and the camera jumped. All I saw was a flash of movement, wasn't sure what it was, and then heard a clunk! far, far below. I thought, "oh, something must have happened down there, I wonder what..." And looked down to see a man waving something black at me. Needless to say, my next word was not particularly suited to the surroundings. This is the last picture of the ill-fated camera.
Fortunately, it was the end of the trip, and the card was saved.
And Finally, that's the end of this post. Eru's song, that took a long time. I hope it's worth it.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Good Bye UWC
And here comes Christmas break. So much to do, so little time, packing and arranging travel and presents...And tomorrow I leave for my grand tour of Eastern Europe: Vienna, Bratislava, Prague, Budapest.
More on that when I've actually been there.
And after that? Family!! Christmas! Yay!
So here I am leaving UWC for the first time. only two more goodbyes and I'll be going for good. Strange, how quickly it passes.
Ciao, Duino!
More on that when I've actually been there.
And after that? Family!! Christmas! Yay!
So here I am leaving UWC for the first time. only two more goodbyes and I'll be going for good. Strange, how quickly it passes.
Ciao, Duino!