I went to Israel! Instead of writing absolutely everything about it, I am going to try and be a bit briefer and allow you to flesh out your impressions with the myriad of delicious photos which I took during the week, which include semi informative captions. Oh, who am I kidding. This will be loooooooooooooooonnnnnggg. A gift of procrastination fuel for you students out there!
I arose at the horrific hour of 4am to get my plane, which left at 6.30. Check in at small airports like Vienna is amazing, so much easier and more relaxing. If only I could always fly from small airports in the very early morning I think I might find the whole process around flying a bit more enjoyable. Changeover in Berlin (yes I know that's the wrong direction but it was cheaper!) was hectic to say the least however, as there were only 20 mins between our landing and the connecting flight. Luckily I wasn't changing airlines so they waited and everyone made it, although our bags didn't. I was prepared for this however (spare clothes in my hand luggage) due to the scheduled 45min transfer time which i KNEW would clearly be less than that. I don't think I've ever got on a flight which left perfectly on time? This isn't a big rant, as I'm usually not silly enough to be relying on time margins like that, it is just an observation. On the flight I was disconcerted by the free drinks, muffins and bagels, a sign of my frequent easyjet trips. But when you're paying way too much (or perhaps the correct amount, actually, environmentally speaking) it turns out you get free bagels and sweets!
My first taste of Israel was a discussion on landing with the israeli arab guy who was sitting next to me. He had missed his first outbound flight due to a 3 hour detention by israeli security for being arabic... Welcome to Israel, thought I. I was a little perturbed by the questions they ask you at the border, too. I tend to act all weird and guilty when I'm questioned as to what I'm actually doing in the country, it appears. If I were to travel to 'interesting' parts of the world (or America), I would have to work on this first!
I took the train into town and met Jacques at the exit. Jacques, for those of you who aren't him, is my excellent friend from scouting times past, who I see on average once every 6 months due to his education having encompassed at this point 3 countries that aren't the UK and at least 6 languages in the last 5 years. He is the best free tourguide anyone could ask for due to his mad hebrew speakin' skills, Middle Eastern Studies knowledge and appreciation of the vast importance of tea in fostering a healthy life. (Dear Jacques, you are also my friend and not just a tea dispensing tourguide, honest!)
That evening we wandered around the nearby market/shouk, I ate a massive and delicious lamb shwarma (hebrew for kebab), and I admired the beach, the warm night air and the view of a car park from the balcony of the flat. I went to sleep pretty early, and my delayed bag arrived before I even woke up!
After tea and breakfast we set out for a wander round the city. Tel Aviv is only 100 years old, so it has a very different feel from Vienna. Not only does it have no anchoring oldness, it also doesn't really have a centre as such, and it is a mix of more modern architectural styles in various states of repair and not repair, often directly opposite each other. It is saved from a Milton Keynes-esque feeling of soullessness (sp?) by being unplanned and busy. It has its labyrinthine malls and massive towers which block out the sun but overall it still manages an eclectic mix of buildings and shops, and you get to see people living everywhere rather than them being boxed off behind a roundabout and a screen of trees. Plus it helps having 25 degree sunny weather even in February and hardly a cloud! Israel in general does not subscribe to the Northern European convention of not speaking to people in the street, which is also good.
We headed south into the old town and the old city of Jaffa (Cake) or Yafo, where I ate an amazing pasty full of several different cream cheeses after we had explored the old houses, antiques/random stuff markets and gazed out across the mediterranean. The pictures give you a pretty good impression really.
Saturday is Shabbat, which means that everything is closed to a rather high degree. We (Jacques, boyfriend-Sean and flatmate-James) went on a leisurely stroll around the city after a delicious breakfast of shakshuka. I learnt many intriguing facts about Judaism and Shabbat from Jacques' flatmate James, who did his undergraduate degree in Religious Studies among other things, and is an absolute fountain of obscure yet fun religious facts.
Sunday I went to Jerusalem. Check those photos kids. Jerusalem is ODD. It is not really possible to comprehend exactly the amount of history that is sort of floating around and occasionally getting in the way of everyone's comings and goings. Of special mention are the major religious sites I saw, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, The Western Wall, mosques from a distance. Standing around at one of the most holy places for someone's religion gives you a strange feeling, like you'll be discovred and thrown out at any moment. It is weirdly voyeuristic when people start kissing stones and stuff, although there are lots of tourists too. In slightly less religious news there was also the citadel, with a brilliant view over old Jerusalem and an extremely handy exhibition which really allowed me to get my head round the chronology of the place, and what all the dynasties and names meant on the ruins and not-so-ruins that are everywhere.
The day after it was on to Akko/ the Crusader city of Acre. The old town there is very nice, not as claustrophobic as the markets of Jerusalem I would say. Also, good hummus. The castle was pretty interesting, especially as it has been excavated only relatively recently. Hard to imagine all the pilgrims sitting in the halls, preparing to head off into the unknown holy land.
Tuesday we made it to Caesarea/Qesariyya, where Herod (yes, THE Herod) built a huge temple, harbour and massive palace, to please his patrons and himself respectively. The original harbour was huge, and you can still see the walls lurking just under the waves. The hipppodrome which in its heyday could hold 10000 people was especially memorable, most of the ones in the UK don't really stick up as imposingly from the ground anymore. Also notable was the way that after a mere (geologically) 2000 years Herod's Palace was largely worn away by the see. Not quite an Ozymandias moment, but getting close. On top of all the Herodian things are layer upon layer of later history, building up into an impressive mound of oldness. Afterwards we headed further up the coast to Haifa. Not a place I'd have thought to visit if I'd been alone, but it features a rather nice hill, stretching down which are the absolutely beautiful gardens of the Baha'i temple. Very well designed, perfectly balanced geometrically, and also by colour. A real surprise!
On my last proper day in Israel Jacques and I boarded a 3 hour bus to the Sea of Galilee (upon whose water Jesus once walked, if you remember correctly). I was happy to note that there was lots of wildlife and geology, which nicely balanced all the cities from the previous days. We decided to walk from the main town to the Churches further round the lake. This ended up taking nearly 2 and a half hours, but it was definitely better than taking the bus. The scenery was amazing, there was a strong haze, (which I was grateful for as it stopped me dying of heatstroke), that made the lake look veeery mysterious and peaceful. Seeing the piece of rock on which Jesus laid he bread and fishes was strange too. In fact, knowing that the basic shape of the landscape hadn't changed since some nobody called Jesus wandered around it nigh 2000 years ago was the oddest. Rocks can be faked, mistaken or lost, but its dead certain where the mount that Jesus gave his sermon on was and which lake he fished on.
So, Israel! Really enjoyable, and pleasantly cheap (after getting there). As is usual with visiting places I now know how much I didn't see, and I am quite interested in going back to see the proper desert and the proper mountains at some point. I think I will keep any political musings to another post, because this one is already longer than I would ever read if someone else posted it, despite me leaving out vast swathes of things. Oh well.
Chiao,
Der Tom
Monday, 22 February 2010
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
More classical music than you can shake a baton at.
Right.
So the day after Don Giovanni we had purchased tickets to see apparently ridiculously famous pianist/conductor Andras Schiff. I am so lucky Mirva was around to tell me to go to this! I wonder how annoyed proper classical music afficionados would be if they heard me being all 'oh I saw some bloke called Andras Schiff the other day' so casually, but what can I say, I am uneducated to the extreme. It is very fun to learn though.
The Musikverein is predictably a stupidly impressive building, and it is I think a mark of the length of time I have now spent here that I was able to walk in without actually gasping...
Puzzlingly, for what was basically a simple cuboid, the acoustics were such that you could everything going on at the front perfectly, even though we were even further back than this picture was taken, up in the gallery.
In the extremely brief time I have been listening to live classical music on any kind of regular basis, I have noticed the difficulty in evaluating it. Basically, a lot of rock (and/or roll!) music is enjoyable if you are in the same room as it, you don't have to be paying attention, and if the music is crap you can easily blame the band for writing a bad song in your opinion. But now suddenly with classical music you have other things to consider, like did these guys play it well, is it a good piece of music in the first place, does it mean something to you, did you actually listen or were you thinking about your holidays? (this last usually is connected to the first three). I can't just tap my foot while standing eerily still like a london indie kid now...
I mention that first because of how that definitely did NOT apply to this particular performance.When Mr Schiff stepped out and started conducting, standing behind his grand piano, I could tell that the music was being played very well, and I was quite enjoying it. But then when he actually sat down behind the piano and began playing (while still conducting I might add), well... Once he started to play, there was no hard thinking; not about whether this was a good/bad interpretation of a piece, not about whether I just did/didn't like it, and not about whether or not I could guess what the music was written about.
Instead, it was just obviously, fantastically, emotionally GOOD. I didn't feel like some sort of uneducated outsider, missing the entire point of the piece because I didn't recognise the poignant, sad significance of that last minor third echoing the previous main theme (or whatever...). I just sat there, spellbound, marvelling at how amazing it was. Every person in the room was completely focussed on the music, it seemed like they waited for the gaps between sections to even move.
There where two sections, the first a group of pieces by Beethoven, the second by Mozart. While Mozart was very pretty, he did seem pretty to the extent that he didn't have much to say. Listening to lovely, happy, Constable-countryside-pretty music is great, but it isn't going to be the best. The best piece was Beethoven's Piano Concert No. 3. I can't really say why other than 'you had to be there man'. It was just undisputably good, really.
Here is a recording of Mr Schiff playing but not conducting the Concerto. If you are strapped for time and just want a quick example of some quite impressive piano playing, head to about the 3 minute mark onwards. Mirva said after the concert that it was among the best piano playing she had ever heard. This is of course good, although it is difficult to start at such a high level without going downhill from there!
Also during last week we went to 2 piano recital evenings at the University for Music and the performing arts. These are free, and they are a cool way to expose me to as many different composers as possible. Icouldn't possibly go into detail about everything we saw... I am making an effort to download versions of the pieces I thought were any good, as this is I think the only way to build up a collection of classical music without choosing stuff totally at random, and things always sound better (and I listen to them more closely) live anyway.
These concerts were notable in that it was my first exposure to 'modern' piano music, which is not really music for the piano at all, but another instrument absolutely identical in appearance and mechanical workings, but played completely differently. Despite my well known affection for weird discordant noise on the live stage, I have only really been impressed by a single modern piece so far. I believe I likened it to hearing music by aliens, and I believe that is a pretty fair description.
Der Tom
So the day after Don Giovanni we had purchased tickets to see apparently ridiculously famous pianist/conductor Andras Schiff. I am so lucky Mirva was around to tell me to go to this! I wonder how annoyed proper classical music afficionados would be if they heard me being all 'oh I saw some bloke called Andras Schiff the other day' so casually, but what can I say, I am uneducated to the extreme. It is very fun to learn though.
The Musikverein is predictably a stupidly impressive building, and it is I think a mark of the length of time I have now spent here that I was able to walk in without actually gasping...
Puzzlingly, for what was basically a simple cuboid, the acoustics were such that you could everything going on at the front perfectly, even though we were even further back than this picture was taken, up in the gallery.In the extremely brief time I have been listening to live classical music on any kind of regular basis, I have noticed the difficulty in evaluating it. Basically, a lot of rock (and/or roll!) music is enjoyable if you are in the same room as it, you don't have to be paying attention, and if the music is crap you can easily blame the band for writing a bad song in your opinion. But now suddenly with classical music you have other things to consider, like did these guys play it well, is it a good piece of music in the first place, does it mean something to you, did you actually listen or were you thinking about your holidays? (this last usually is connected to the first three). I can't just tap my foot while standing eerily still like a london indie kid now...
I mention that first because of how that definitely did NOT apply to this particular performance.When Mr Schiff stepped out and started conducting, standing behind his grand piano, I could tell that the music was being played very well, and I was quite enjoying it. But then when he actually sat down behind the piano and began playing (while still conducting I might add), well... Once he started to play, there was no hard thinking; not about whether this was a good/bad interpretation of a piece, not about whether I just did/didn't like it, and not about whether or not I could guess what the music was written about.
Instead, it was just obviously, fantastically, emotionally GOOD. I didn't feel like some sort of uneducated outsider, missing the entire point of the piece because I didn't recognise the poignant, sad significance of that last minor third echoing the previous main theme (or whatever...). I just sat there, spellbound, marvelling at how amazing it was. Every person in the room was completely focussed on the music, it seemed like they waited for the gaps between sections to even move.
There where two sections, the first a group of pieces by Beethoven, the second by Mozart. While Mozart was very pretty, he did seem pretty to the extent that he didn't have much to say. Listening to lovely, happy, Constable-countryside-pretty music is great, but it isn't going to be the best. The best piece was Beethoven's Piano Concert No. 3. I can't really say why other than 'you had to be there man'. It was just undisputably good, really.
Here is a recording of Mr Schiff playing but not conducting the Concerto. If you are strapped for time and just want a quick example of some quite impressive piano playing, head to about the 3 minute mark onwards. Mirva said after the concert that it was among the best piano playing she had ever heard. This is of course good, although it is difficult to start at such a high level without going downhill from there!
Also during last week we went to 2 piano recital evenings at the University for Music and the performing arts. These are free, and they are a cool way to expose me to as many different composers as possible. Icouldn't possibly go into detail about everything we saw... I am making an effort to download versions of the pieces I thought were any good, as this is I think the only way to build up a collection of classical music without choosing stuff totally at random, and things always sound better (and I listen to them more closely) live anyway.
These concerts were notable in that it was my first exposure to 'modern' piano music, which is not really music for the piano at all, but another instrument absolutely identical in appearance and mechanical workings, but played completely differently. Despite my well known affection for weird discordant noise on the live stage, I have only really been impressed by a single modern piece so far. I believe I likened it to hearing music by aliens, and I believe that is a pretty fair description.
Der Tom
Warning: Opera Spoilers...
Apart from the exam update, I haven't mentioned any of the stuff I've actually one over the last week and a half, and there was actually rather a lot. Mirva's last week in Vienna very conveniently coincided with the week before my Petrology exam, but we still fitted quite a few things in, so I think I will split this into a couple of posts.
First up was the Mozart opera, Don Giovanni. Due to Mirva's secret underground Finnish connections (an extremely nice man by the name of Ilkka), we got standing places for €1.60 each**! This did entail waiting from 5pm for an opera that started at 7, then standing up for most of the time until it ended at 10.30, but, seriously, €1.60! I thought Shakespeare's Globe was the peak of surprisingly cheap old fashioned popular entertainment! To be fair to the Globe though, although it sells out pretty quick, you can buy standing tickets way in advance, and not only are there 700 of them, they have the best view in the house. Standing in the Staatsoper meant the gallery, the bit that is right at the back at the top. Naturally, the sound is still very good, and I do like being able to see the orchestra and all the stage at once.
**The secret to getting tickets that cheap is to buy a book of 50 at once, which you then stand in line and redeem for proper tickets on the night. So only do this if you are opera crazy and/or have a reasonable number of willing people who want to accompany you throughout the year...
Don Giovanni is in Italian, but each place has a small screen that gives you subtitles in your language of choice, so this time I knew what was actually going on. This improved my enjoyment of the piece tremendously, I can tell you. The plot is a lot sillier than the mythological Zauberflote. Basically, Don Giovanni is an utter bastard who is addicted to women, and has seduced about 4000 or so (we know because there a song where his long suffering servant reads from the book he keeps of the conquests) to date using his wealth, and capacity to lie through his teeth repeatedly. Its level of sexism is somewhat on a par with a traditionalist performance of 'The Taming of the Shrew', I'd say. Don Giovanni wanders around trying to seduce women (he literally doesn't care what they look like or their age), getting into trouble and pursued by various wronged parties, including the daughter and fiance of a man he murders in the opening scene. He is slowly revealed to have been less than honest during many of his 'conquests' (pretty much rapes), and in the end falls foul of his arrogance when he invites the ghostly statue of the dead man to dinner. The statue arrives and drags him to hell(!).
This opera was truly enjoyable. The music was outstanding, as was the singing. The plot is stupid, but suitably mixes light heartedness and tragedy. I liked almost all of it, although it did lull about 3/4 of the way through (I think all operas may, tbh) the final climax with the statue condemning Don Giovanni to eternal damnation was rather impressive. If I had to compare this and the Magic Flute, I'd say this was better, but maybe partly because I could understand the plot. There were some stand out details in the Magic Flute that were genius (the famous arias, everything Papageno did ever) but there were also more boring bits.
I will never become a born again opera fan like I am a born again Shakespeare lover, but I certainly might be more disposed to opera in future. As with most things that people think are boring (classical music in general, operas in particular, shakespeare, long novels), if its boring the chances are you just need to find someone better at it and it won't be boring! I feel the fault is less often in the art form or piece as it is in the performance. Which makes separating the two rather hard for stuff as difficult to do well as Opera and live classical music...
To conclude, here is the Vorspiel/Ouverture/Intro to the opera, to give you a taste of the tasty Mozart skills on display:
First up was the Mozart opera, Don Giovanni. Due to Mirva's secret underground Finnish connections (an extremely nice man by the name of Ilkka), we got standing places for €1.60 each**! This did entail waiting from 5pm for an opera that started at 7, then standing up for most of the time until it ended at 10.30, but, seriously, €1.60! I thought Shakespeare's Globe was the peak of surprisingly cheap old fashioned popular entertainment! To be fair to the Globe though, although it sells out pretty quick, you can buy standing tickets way in advance, and not only are there 700 of them, they have the best view in the house. Standing in the Staatsoper meant the gallery, the bit that is right at the back at the top. Naturally, the sound is still very good, and I do like being able to see the orchestra and all the stage at once.
**The secret to getting tickets that cheap is to buy a book of 50 at once, which you then stand in line and redeem for proper tickets on the night. So only do this if you are opera crazy and/or have a reasonable number of willing people who want to accompany you throughout the year...
Don Giovanni is in Italian, but each place has a small screen that gives you subtitles in your language of choice, so this time I knew what was actually going on. This improved my enjoyment of the piece tremendously, I can tell you. The plot is a lot sillier than the mythological Zauberflote. Basically, Don Giovanni is an utter bastard who is addicted to women, and has seduced about 4000 or so (we know because there a song where his long suffering servant reads from the book he keeps of the conquests) to date using his wealth, and capacity to lie through his teeth repeatedly. Its level of sexism is somewhat on a par with a traditionalist performance of 'The Taming of the Shrew', I'd say. Don Giovanni wanders around trying to seduce women (he literally doesn't care what they look like or their age), getting into trouble and pursued by various wronged parties, including the daughter and fiance of a man he murders in the opening scene. He is slowly revealed to have been less than honest during many of his 'conquests' (pretty much rapes), and in the end falls foul of his arrogance when he invites the ghostly statue of the dead man to dinner. The statue arrives and drags him to hell(!).
This opera was truly enjoyable. The music was outstanding, as was the singing. The plot is stupid, but suitably mixes light heartedness and tragedy. I liked almost all of it, although it did lull about 3/4 of the way through (I think all operas may, tbh) the final climax with the statue condemning Don Giovanni to eternal damnation was rather impressive. If I had to compare this and the Magic Flute, I'd say this was better, but maybe partly because I could understand the plot. There were some stand out details in the Magic Flute that were genius (the famous arias, everything Papageno did ever) but there were also more boring bits.
I will never become a born again opera fan like I am a born again Shakespeare lover, but I certainly might be more disposed to opera in future. As with most things that people think are boring (classical music in general, operas in particular, shakespeare, long novels), if its boring the chances are you just need to find someone better at it and it won't be boring! I feel the fault is less often in the art form or piece as it is in the performance. Which makes separating the two rather hard for stuff as difficult to do well as Opera and live classical music...
To conclude, here is the Vorspiel/Ouverture/Intro to the opera, to give you a taste of the tasty Mozart skills on display:
Monday, 1 February 2010
Weird Exam experience 2
Ok maybe I'm going on about this a little bit but the exam practice here is definitely alien to me. Today I had an exam scheduled to start at 10am. It started a little bit late, that's fine I guess. We even sat apart from each other this time! I wasn't even that perturbed that I was the only person not to know how long the exam was before asking (apparently all exams are 1h30 mins, it is not necessary to write this down anywhere).
But the exam itself... I may not have spent a huge amount of time revising for this exam (I grant you, for many people circa one week is NOT their definition of a small amount of time) but I still learnt quite a lot, I think. There was certainly a lot of interesting stuff to learn. What somewhat wrongfooted me is that the exam consisted of a pretty small number of questions, all requiring non essay length answers, and that lots of the topics we mentioned just didn't turn up. I know the idea is you revise everything just in case (or leave stuff in the forlorn hope it won't appear) but I could have got a pretty high mark while ignoring a reasonably large amount of the course. 15 out of the 40 marks for one half of the exam came from stuff we were told in THE LAST LECTURE OF TERM. Which for the record was on Thursday last week! I shouldn't be complaining because even the paragraph length essays were hugely harder to write in German than in english, but it does feel a bit lax.
The most confusing event of all is when the first guy to finish brought his paper up to the lecturer. The lecturer then glanced through it and loud enough so the whole room could hear, explained to the guy what he had left out of an answer to one of the questions! He proceeded to send back several people he didn't think had written the right thing for that question. Maybe it could be seen as him correcting an ambiguous question, but he probably should have just written it differently in the first place?
For the record I don't think there is anything too evil going on here, there isn't some conspiracy to defraud english students of hard earned degrees, and I'm not trying to imply that my 'vast london brain' or whatever makes a mockery of puny austrian education. I think we must just have very different opinions of how university works. An austrian course such as this is valued as 2/3 the work of the standard one term course we do at UCL so you might expect there to be less in it, but I really thought the quality and content in the lecures was close to the full UCL one, if perhaps with less assignments (homework, if you will). Perhaps they don't check up as much on your further reading here? That means any you do is well and truly for yourself, which in the UK means you wouldn't do it. Heck, maybe you don't do it here either! But there are a lot more individual courses, 12 different subjects in a year instead of UCL's 8, so I think this slightly more relaxed exam system might make it easier for students to prioritise the things they really want to study rather than being spread too widely. The actual amount of detailed knowledge at the end of the process might end up about the same.
Or maybe the austrian university system is just so underfunded and overcrowded this is the only way lecturers can do it, it must be worse for the degree programmes where people are literally unable even to sit down on the stpes of the lecture theatre because they are full!
2 more exams to go, I'll let you guys know if my opinion changes (I am expecting a giant Murphy's law exam of death after this)
Just so you know I'm not the only one confused, here is a link to a friend's poston the same subject:
http://williamnaylor.blogspot.com/2010/01/being-foreign-student.html
Now I have figured out how to do links too! Hurrah for me.
But the exam itself... I may not have spent a huge amount of time revising for this exam (I grant you, for many people circa one week is NOT their definition of a small amount of time) but I still learnt quite a lot, I think. There was certainly a lot of interesting stuff to learn. What somewhat wrongfooted me is that the exam consisted of a pretty small number of questions, all requiring non essay length answers, and that lots of the topics we mentioned just didn't turn up. I know the idea is you revise everything just in case (or leave stuff in the forlorn hope it won't appear) but I could have got a pretty high mark while ignoring a reasonably large amount of the course. 15 out of the 40 marks for one half of the exam came from stuff we were told in THE LAST LECTURE OF TERM. Which for the record was on Thursday last week! I shouldn't be complaining because even the paragraph length essays were hugely harder to write in German than in english, but it does feel a bit lax.
The most confusing event of all is when the first guy to finish brought his paper up to the lecturer. The lecturer then glanced through it and loud enough so the whole room could hear, explained to the guy what he had left out of an answer to one of the questions! He proceeded to send back several people he didn't think had written the right thing for that question. Maybe it could be seen as him correcting an ambiguous question, but he probably should have just written it differently in the first place?
For the record I don't think there is anything too evil going on here, there isn't some conspiracy to defraud english students of hard earned degrees, and I'm not trying to imply that my 'vast london brain' or whatever makes a mockery of puny austrian education. I think we must just have very different opinions of how university works. An austrian course such as this is valued as 2/3 the work of the standard one term course we do at UCL so you might expect there to be less in it, but I really thought the quality and content in the lecures was close to the full UCL one, if perhaps with less assignments (homework, if you will). Perhaps they don't check up as much on your further reading here? That means any you do is well and truly for yourself, which in the UK means you wouldn't do it. Heck, maybe you don't do it here either! But there are a lot more individual courses, 12 different subjects in a year instead of UCL's 8, so I think this slightly more relaxed exam system might make it easier for students to prioritise the things they really want to study rather than being spread too widely. The actual amount of detailed knowledge at the end of the process might end up about the same.
Or maybe the austrian university system is just so underfunded and overcrowded this is the only way lecturers can do it, it must be worse for the degree programmes where people are literally unable even to sit down on the stpes of the lecture theatre because they are full!
2 more exams to go, I'll let you guys know if my opinion changes (I am expecting a giant Murphy's law exam of death after this)
Just so you know I'm not the only one confused, here is a link to a friend's poston the same subject:
http://williamnaylor.blogspot.com/2010/01/being-foreign-student.html
Now I have figured out how to do links too! Hurrah for me.
Friday, 22 January 2010
7km, 13ft, 2kg and 3oz.
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.
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.
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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