After an another abortive attempt to go climbing yesterday (the place was completely full) I was talking with Ruth and Mirva in a bar when the conversation turned to imperial measurements. I think I mentioned the sad lack of the extra 68ml advantage a pint has over a half litre or something... Anyway, although I guess it was to be expected, noone had any idea about imperial measurements. Well, I have have no idea about imperial measurements either, in terms of how many 12s, 16s or 8s make a whatever. But my main point is, it was quite embarrassing to explain the UKs strange mixture of units. Is it only me that thinks it is odd you drive at 30mph to go to the shop, buy 2kg of apples and a pound of sugar? Perhaps.
Yesterday I had my exam, and it was super easy! This does not count as boasting as I am certain it was not super easy due to me being somehow incredibly well prepared, just because it was easy for everyone. It turned out you were even allowed a sheet of A4 with notes written on it! If I had known that, I would have got way more marks than I in fact probably did. Still, something to ask about next time. I have gone from possibly having 3 exams next week to none, assuming I decide to do one exam on the second date I will have one on the 1st Feb, one on the 26th and one on the 5th March. Still surreal to be discussing when to have our exams, and the informal, in house feel of the exam room. People weren't even made to sit with space separating them, talking was not punishable by death (or WORSE, expulsion from UCL, or at least I think thats how UCL see themselves) and at no point did I have to place my phone in a plastic bag beneath my feet. Not sure what the other exams will be like.
If you can't be bothered to read all this, the summary is that foreign people are still acting differently to people from the UK. Crazy times.
Friday 22 January 2010
Tuesday 19 January 2010
Still 2010
In great news for all fans of saying 'twenty-ten', it still is! Things won't get cooler till twenty-eleven folks! Maybe I should stop blogging now and just post daily 'Still 2010' updates for the rest of the year. Oooor I could just not do that. There follows a pretty loosely connected, semi stream of consciousness sort of thing. Blog blog blog blog.
I have spent a lot of time crafting beauteous A3 colour representations of knowledge out of my lecture notes, or distracting myself from said task with internet television. The new episodes of 30 Rock are the best in some while, Dollhouse is still exciting but rather obviously rushed I feel. I know when SOME of my exams are now, which is nice. one on Thursday, and then either one or two on the Thursday after, depending on when they agree to have it and if I decide to turn up. Still not sure about the amount of uncertainty involved here!
I am excited about my trip to Tel Aviv too, though I have no idea what I'll do there, or even how much stuff to take. Can't decide whether to trust German organisational powers with transferring hold baggage from one flight to another with only 45 minute changeover time. I've been looking at other travel things to do, I think I'll make it to Munich sometime in February, beyond that we shall have to see. Am hoping to get at least one field trip in next semester.
I have a hankering for an unnecessarily long train journey at some point, I even took the time to figure out how to get from Vienna to Finland by train. Turns out it takes about 3 and a half days, but if you book in advance would onlybe about 250 euros one way. I almost certainly won't do it, but I am puzzled why the thought still tempts me. I mean, it isn't like I love the trains themselves in a James May sort of way, more that I love staring out the window.
Speaking of Jameses, the awesome Postcard Jim sent me a postcard or two! They are both super cool, and as soon as I can go out to the antiques market after exam time I will try and get something for him.
I am longing for a really long book to read too. I decided while visiting my excellent friend Rob that my German book should be Parfum by Patrick Susskind, but I also want a looong English book to read as well. I read all of Fight Club on the delayed flight back here, it was great, but the film is so burned into my mind it takes a superhuman effort to think about anything else...
Have I done ANYTHING, you ask, apart from think stuff? Well, I did go and watch Mirva play in a Harpsichord and wooden 18th Century flute concert on Saturday. Frankly, Bach and your 4 harpsichord music composing sons, I don't undestand your music at all. There's just no bit of structure familiar to me to grab on to, and the intruments work in a very different way. With a harpsichord and 18th C flute, you really don't get quite the variation in loudness and notes that I'm used to. My favourite pieces were thus the really frivolous ones by his populist son, because they are simpler and easier to appreciate as just 'ooo, pretty!' I did think about the poor normal person's lot while the nobles were pissing around on Harpsichords too. Music to be filed under:needs more work, I reckon.
Afterwards we went for a walk in the bloody cold but supremely beautiful Vienna, if only my visitors had seen this! Took photos of the Beethoven statue w/ Mirva for a concert flyer. The Beethoven statue is literally the Beethoveniest statue you'll ever see, he is SO moody looking. To finish we headed for the Naschmarkt, I am now stocked up with more mountain cheese,and 2 new additiions to my growing tea collection.
For the forseeable future it is all revision and occasional classical music concerts, which is not such a bad life really, not when one is learning about rocks...
Adieu!
Thursday 14 January 2010
Twenty-Ten. I will never get tired of saying it!
Well by rights I ought to be talking about Christmas and Scotland. However, I am going to use the name of this blog as a pretext and mostly ignore them, because I am nothing if not lazy. Christmas was great, I got to see the family and the much vaunted SNOW OF DOOM, and I even got some presents (Farscape! Gloves! I am a simple child). Plus, English Christmas dinner! And at no point did I have to jump into a pool of ice (I'm looking at you, Finland). Scotland for new years was predictably great, how could you go wrong with the combination of snow, mountains, great friends, ShitDave (TM), and pantomime antics? I played a zombie esque possessed scout who was controlled by the evil Baron of Buckinghamshire by means of the stolen shorts of Baden Powell. My pal and consummate panto writer James (have I linked to him before? His blog is brilliant! http://postcardjim.wordpress.com/) did a great job with the script, ably helped by Matt Goodwin of http://www.facebook.com/pages/You-Are-Invited/194764005947 fame. My plane was cancelled three times in total (once on the way home, twice on the way back), but this IS the worst snow in 50 years, so i can't be super annoyed. Plus I got to see my friends in an excellent production of the Quest for Beauty.
All this did mean that I only reached Vienna ahead of Ed and Ash due to the fact tht their flight had also been cancelled. We had very little time together, but we did the obligatory wander around town in the most horrible weather possible, plus visited Cafe Alt Wien (a must!) and had some delicious Austrian food. Austrian food is really growing on me, it is such a great mix of all the places conquered by the Empire of the years. On that occasion I had an amazing creamy cheese sauce, chicken, veg and noodle mixture all served in a skillet thing. mmmm. Afterwards we went and got standing tickets for the Ballet, der Nussknacker/ The Nutcracker. THREE EUROS YOU GUYS! I really need to go and see more things at the Opera. Ash was there as he is in his last year at the Royal Ballet School and is doing auditions. His Audition was on the Sunday, so this was an excellent chance to check out the company. However, Ash was not particularly impressed and I see where he was coming from, there was a lack of actual ballet dancing going on, plus it was an odd modern production with a barbie and a toy robot. Still, this being Vienna, the music was top notch. So weird to realise that I have heard every bit of the score before in the background of things but never noticed till now!
Sunday Ed and I didn't do much, I persuaded him to go with me to the Albertina and I freaked out over the awesome Impressionist exhibition (see post on the Night of the Museums), then we wandered around looking at things in the windows of the antique district and waited for Ash in a proper Austrian Cafe. A very nice day indeed. And Ash got a job! He was one of only 5 selected from 60 male dancers, so bloody well done. He was selected by the new director, who is somewhat of a famous dancer and is apparently poised to turn the company into something very impressive, so I shall look out for that, whether Ash decides to go there or not. Team Taylor then went with me to the Siebenstern Braeu once again. I had the old Viennese potato goulasch, and it was PRETTY GREAT. Ash's meal came in an entire frying pan on a fetching stand. Ahhh Austria.
Apart from that all is pretty OK, back at University and all that. I had my first lecture in English for like 9 months the other day, it was weird how much easier it was to pay attention, I hadn't realised quite how much of an extra strain on your brain it is listening in German. I could also write notes way faster.
Exams are coming up soon. I think. Austria has a WEIRD exam system, or at least my (very small, if no smaller than UCL) department does. There are three possible exam dates, and you can pick which one to attend (one soonish, one in the middle of next semester, one near the end). But the weirdest part is that the lecturers and the students discusss together when the first exam should be held! I feel strange about this, becuase it means all the exam dates are up in the air till about 2 weeks before the first exam appointment, and I feel a lot better with a fixed point to aim towards! Today was a good day in Uni though, I spoke lots of German and managed to look knowledgeable a lot, which was very nice. People were surprised I was staying for 2 semesters, it is odd but every other European country has exchanges lasting only one semester. i don't know the real reason, though I have a hunch that it is because mainland Europeans spend extended periods in other countries so much more often that it isn't novel and they have had enough after about 4 months. At least, when I asked a flatmate if he was sad to leave so son, he said (in german, so i paraphrase) nope, it's enough for me. The more I am here, the more little but seemingl;y logically unexplainable differences I see. Like, why is it that in all of Euro using Europe you can pay for a 4 euro purchase with a 100 euro note and it is totally normal? I've done it before, people do it all the time, but I think about the annoyance I would cause with a 50 pound note in Britain and I just can't see why there should even be a difference. Are we British just more fond of complaining? I mean, 108 Euros in 100 pounds now. Ho hum....
Ciao, der Tom (lots of germans say Ciao, Tschuess is a little rarer than I expected from german class!)
All this did mean that I only reached Vienna ahead of Ed and Ash due to the fact tht their flight had also been cancelled. We had very little time together, but we did the obligatory wander around town in the most horrible weather possible, plus visited Cafe Alt Wien (a must!) and had some delicious Austrian food. Austrian food is really growing on me, it is such a great mix of all the places conquered by the Empire of the years. On that occasion I had an amazing creamy cheese sauce, chicken, veg and noodle mixture all served in a skillet thing. mmmm. Afterwards we went and got standing tickets for the Ballet, der Nussknacker/ The Nutcracker. THREE EUROS YOU GUYS! I really need to go and see more things at the Opera. Ash was there as he is in his last year at the Royal Ballet School and is doing auditions. His Audition was on the Sunday, so this was an excellent chance to check out the company. However, Ash was not particularly impressed and I see where he was coming from, there was a lack of actual ballet dancing going on, plus it was an odd modern production with a barbie and a toy robot. Still, this being Vienna, the music was top notch. So weird to realise that I have heard every bit of the score before in the background of things but never noticed till now!
Sunday Ed and I didn't do much, I persuaded him to go with me to the Albertina and I freaked out over the awesome Impressionist exhibition (see post on the Night of the Museums), then we wandered around looking at things in the windows of the antique district and waited for Ash in a proper Austrian Cafe. A very nice day indeed. And Ash got a job! He was one of only 5 selected from 60 male dancers, so bloody well done. He was selected by the new director, who is somewhat of a famous dancer and is apparently poised to turn the company into something very impressive, so I shall look out for that, whether Ash decides to go there or not. Team Taylor then went with me to the Siebenstern Braeu once again. I had the old Viennese potato goulasch, and it was PRETTY GREAT. Ash's meal came in an entire frying pan on a fetching stand. Ahhh Austria.
Apart from that all is pretty OK, back at University and all that. I had my first lecture in English for like 9 months the other day, it was weird how much easier it was to pay attention, I hadn't realised quite how much of an extra strain on your brain it is listening in German. I could also write notes way faster.
Exams are coming up soon. I think. Austria has a WEIRD exam system, or at least my (very small, if no smaller than UCL) department does. There are three possible exam dates, and you can pick which one to attend (one soonish, one in the middle of next semester, one near the end). But the weirdest part is that the lecturers and the students discusss together when the first exam should be held! I feel strange about this, becuase it means all the exam dates are up in the air till about 2 weeks before the first exam appointment, and I feel a lot better with a fixed point to aim towards! Today was a good day in Uni though, I spoke lots of German and managed to look knowledgeable a lot, which was very nice. People were surprised I was staying for 2 semesters, it is odd but every other European country has exchanges lasting only one semester. i don't know the real reason, though I have a hunch that it is because mainland Europeans spend extended periods in other countries so much more often that it isn't novel and they have had enough after about 4 months. At least, when I asked a flatmate if he was sad to leave so son, he said (in german, so i paraphrase) nope, it's enough for me. The more I am here, the more little but seemingl;y logically unexplainable differences I see. Like, why is it that in all of Euro using Europe you can pay for a 4 euro purchase with a 100 euro note and it is totally normal? I've done it before, people do it all the time, but I think about the annoyance I would cause with a 50 pound note in Britain and I just can't see why there should even be a difference. Are we British just more fond of complaining? I mean, 108 Euros in 100 pounds now. Ho hum....
Ciao, der Tom (lots of germans say Ciao, Tschuess is a little rarer than I expected from german class!)
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