Right now I'm in between flights in Detroit. You may be wondering why I am back in the States... Well, my big brother Dan is getting married on Sunday. So, I took a little detour from London to come celebrate. Finding Gatwick Airport outside of London was a bit intimidating. I packed my backpack then walked to the nearest underground which cost me 4 pounds ($8)! I got off at Victoria to board a train to the airport which cost me another 9.50 pounds! I spent about $30 just to get to the airport. That would sound reasonable to me if I took a taxi or a nice coach or something... but I wandered around London to find my way. At least it was an adventure and I feel accomplished for having succeeded on my own!
My connecting flight to San Diego takes off in a few minutes and then I will spend two days in US. Just enough time to go to the rehearsal and the wedding before I turn around and join up with my group again in London. Please pray that I recover quickly from jet-lag! Thanks!
Two nights ago, we were in Stratford, the birthplace of Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway. We visited her home and charming garden and had class at Holy Trinity Church where their remains are. We saw Taming of the Shrew and enjoyed dinner at the Black Swan (AKA the Dirty Duck).
Apparently, some say that Shakespeare intended for there to be an induction for some of his plays that consisted of actors tricking a drunkard into believing that he is a lord. They then put on a play for this "lord" and try to trick into thinking he actually is royalty. The version that we saw had such an induction that was set in modern times, bookending the original. The show was enjoyable most of the time but by the end wore on us. The general sentiment is that it was really chauvinistic and crude. Percutio's main purpose was to break Caterina's spirit and make her submit to his every whim. He succeeds and turns a free-spirited woman into a slave. The storyline of "10 Things I Hate About You" is loosely based off this work, so you may know the premise. However, it is a bit different. When I return to London, we will be seeing 3 more plays on consecutive evenings. I have never before spent so much time at the theater!
Well, I'm about to board the plane... more to come later.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
More Fringing at the Fringe
As a part of the Fringe Festival, some friends and I went to Balé de Rua, which means “street ballet” in Portuguese. It was an incredible production from Brazil with capoeira, samba, percussion, and hip hop. We were wide-eyed and mystified for the entire show. The dancers first came out in modern looking Brazilian suits dancing and doing fun tricks with their hats. Those samba moves sure looked fast. The setting reversed to the time when the tribes in Africa were untouched by European powers. Through dance and few props, they were able to portray the long and painful voyages below the decks of ships to Brazil. They were greatly mistreated as slaves, forced to row in horrible conditions. The performers portrayed beatings by spiting paint on one of the slaves. With pure body movements, they clearly portrayed a slave being beaten in shackles and even alluded to Christ on the cross. The sounds created by the percussionists were so strong that we were entirely enthralled in the action and the feats performed showed the dancers’ athleticism. It was amazing to see the narrative of distant Africans taken as slaves in the New World and how capoeira and samba grew out of the slave/mulato culture. At the end of the show, the performers came down into the aisles and danced with audience members. At that point, we were really regretting sitting on the tier above! Balé de Rua was truly a beautiful and exciting way to relate the experiences of many Brazilians.
On Saturday, we attended the Budapest Orchestra which was a very polished group of musicians. In this performance, they incorporated gypsy style music and even included an instrument that gypsies use. The soloist violinists were beyond impressive! One special guest was so amazing that he had the audience on the edge of their seats. He somehow made us laugh at certain points. I am still wondering how orchestral music can be comical and yet so stunning… I sat next to some very nice Scotsmen who gave me tips on restaurants in Rome that I am looking forward to trying out.
On Sunday morning, we attended worship at St. Giles Presbyterian Cathedral which was as aesthetically pleasing as music the night before. It was a beautiful building made out of primarily stone and designed with pointed arches and numerous stained glass windows.
It has been really funny to me that the Scottish accent is so had for us to understand. Whenever I talk with “Scotsmen” I find myself asking them to repeat what they said quite often. I was getting directions and told by a couple Scottish men to look for “Dick and Brody’s” as far as I could tell but it turned out to be “Deacon Brodie’s.” Prince’s Street is pronounced like “princess” and Rose Street sounds something like “roostry.” We also enjoy all the Scottish words we see and hear, not to mention the culinary delight that is the one and only haggis- sheep entrails! Yes, I tried it. What do you think I came to Europe for but to try all the regional cuisine? As the Scotts would say, we’ve been making sure to bin our litter and stand in the queue for the toilet. Apparently, making the peace-sign with your fingers is offensive here. It means something like “up yer kilt!” Thank goodness we didn’t encounter any problems when we ignorantly held up the peace-sign for a snapshot!
Edinburgh has been a sweet city to wander around and breathe in the art-saturated air. The architecture is gorgeous every where we turn and the cafes and pubs (“public houses”) are not lacking here. We are moving on to York, England for one night then to Stratford-on-Avon where we will see The Taming of the Shrew by some guy named Will. I hear he’s alright.
On Saturday, we attended the Budapest Orchestra which was a very polished group of musicians. In this performance, they incorporated gypsy style music and even included an instrument that gypsies use. The soloist violinists were beyond impressive! One special guest was so amazing that he had the audience on the edge of their seats. He somehow made us laugh at certain points. I am still wondering how orchestral music can be comical and yet so stunning… I sat next to some very nice Scotsmen who gave me tips on restaurants in Rome that I am looking forward to trying out.
On Sunday morning, we attended worship at St. Giles Presbyterian Cathedral which was as aesthetically pleasing as music the night before. It was a beautiful building made out of primarily stone and designed with pointed arches and numerous stained glass windows.
It has been really funny to me that the Scottish accent is so had for us to understand. Whenever I talk with “Scotsmen” I find myself asking them to repeat what they said quite often. I was getting directions and told by a couple Scottish men to look for “Dick and Brody’s” as far as I could tell but it turned out to be “Deacon Brodie’s.” Prince’s Street is pronounced like “princess” and Rose Street sounds something like “roostry.” We also enjoy all the Scottish words we see and hear, not to mention the culinary delight that is the one and only haggis- sheep entrails! Yes, I tried it. What do you think I came to Europe for but to try all the regional cuisine? As the Scotts would say, we’ve been making sure to bin our litter and stand in the queue for the toilet. Apparently, making the peace-sign with your fingers is offensive here. It means something like “up yer kilt!” Thank goodness we didn’t encounter any problems when we ignorantly held up the peace-sign for a snapshot!
Edinburgh has been a sweet city to wander around and breathe in the art-saturated air. The architecture is gorgeous every where we turn and the cafes and pubs (“public houses”) are not lacking here. We are moving on to York, England for one night then to Stratford-on-Avon where we will see The Taming of the Shrew by some guy named Will. I hear he’s alright.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Cheers!
I’m in Edinburgh! My first flight started off very well because I was seated next to an Italian woman, Maria, who speaks four languages. We chatted in Spanish for over two hours about traveling, culture and languages. The downside of the flight was that it was 10 hours and I couldn’t sleep at all and it was delayed causing us to almost miss our connection at Heathrow. Luckily, we are a group of about 45 people, so they held the plane for us. Prof. Kilstrom told us to look on the “bright side” when we found out that our luggage wasn’t on our last flight, because then we wouldn’t have to load in on the coach and someone would deliver it to us… but… it didn’t come all day… it actually didn’t come until the next morning at 10am. We all just slept in our clothes and learned how to deal without some basic things and we survived believe it or not!
Yesterday and today have been free days to wander around the city in the rain- Scotland is not exactly experiencing the same drought we are back home. The center of Edinburgh is quite picturesque with old buildings (the “new” part of town was built in the 1800’s) and pubs everywhere. The Fringe Festival is going on right now, so the streets are teeming with street performers and artists. The city doubles in size during the festival which means that there are one million people here right now. The Fringe Festival is so huge that there are 376 venues throughout the city with 10-30 performances per day of different productions. That’s a lot of theatre, comedy, music, dance, physical theatre and so on.
I’m continuing this blog a day later… now it’s Thursday in Scotland.
I’m enjoying seeing the name Robertson around town. I took a picture next to an alley named “Robertson’s Close” and also next to a bar by the name of Robertson. Last night we went to Plague! The Musical by Bubonic Productions. It was really well done with some talented actors and singers whose spit we could see and almost feel from our second row seats. It was almost two hours long and it started at 9:30pm… we were pretty tired by the end since we are still getting used to the time change. Yesterday we took full advantage of the bus system with our day pass for 2.5 pounds. Bus route 33 goes from near the University of Edinburgh to the center and is complete with double-decker buses.
We had our first classes this morning and were reminded, to our disappointment, that this trip is for school and we don’t get to play all day everyday… only some days. Now we are heading off to the center to get lunch and see about more productions in the Fringe.
Yesterday and today have been free days to wander around the city in the rain- Scotland is not exactly experiencing the same drought we are back home. The center of Edinburgh is quite picturesque with old buildings (the “new” part of town was built in the 1800’s) and pubs everywhere. The Fringe Festival is going on right now, so the streets are teeming with street performers and artists. The city doubles in size during the festival which means that there are one million people here right now. The Fringe Festival is so huge that there are 376 venues throughout the city with 10-30 performances per day of different productions. That’s a lot of theatre, comedy, music, dance, physical theatre and so on.
I’m continuing this blog a day later… now it’s Thursday in Scotland.
I’m enjoying seeing the name Robertson around town. I took a picture next to an alley named “Robertson’s Close” and also next to a bar by the name of Robertson. Last night we went to Plague! The Musical by Bubonic Productions. It was really well done with some talented actors and singers whose spit we could see and almost feel from our second row seats. It was almost two hours long and it started at 9:30pm… we were pretty tired by the end since we are still getting used to the time change. Yesterday we took full advantage of the bus system with our day pass for 2.5 pounds. Bus route 33 goes from near the University of Edinburgh to the center and is complete with double-decker buses.
We had our first classes this morning and were reminded, to our disappointment, that this trip is for school and we don’t get to play all day everyday… only some days. Now we are heading off to the center to get lunch and see about more productions in the Fringe.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Delta 7766 SMF to LAX
God is so good! I get to go to Europe today! Right now I'm sitting in Sacramento airport waiting for my flight to LA where I will meet my group to head to Scotland! I can't believe I'm actually leaving right now. I'm so excited I didn't even sleep last night... My bag weighs exactly 45 lbs which is the limit for European airlines... close one! I spent my last couple days with my family in Pilot Hill and playing Taboo with friends which is the best way to spend the last weekend in the country :)
The rest of my time in Hawaii was amazing. My mom and I went to a gorgeous sunrise at Kailua beach and another day we drove my stepdad's convertible along the coast from the south shore to North Shore for sunset (Waimea Bay!). We made sure to eat some yummy shave ice at Matsumoto's in Haleiwa. My last day, I took Riley to Kailua beach for a jog and some boogy boarding- he just barked the whole time. I was hoping to see Obama jogging on the beach too but we had no such luck.
I just signed up for a service called iPass (thanks Shane!) that costs $45/month and allows you to connect to any wifi signal around the world. That means I'll have internet access in my hotels and cafes without paying 10 euros/hr! I'll be on Skype more, so add my name: katherine.sara and we can talk.
After completing a long to do list and months of anticipation, it is more than surreal to be sitting, waiting, wishing for my European expedition. Keep it real USA!
The rest of my time in Hawaii was amazing. My mom and I went to a gorgeous sunrise at Kailua beach and another day we drove my stepdad's convertible along the coast from the south shore to North Shore for sunset (Waimea Bay!). We made sure to eat some yummy shave ice at Matsumoto's in Haleiwa. My last day, I took Riley to Kailua beach for a jog and some boogy boarding- he just barked the whole time. I was hoping to see Obama jogging on the beach too but we had no such luck.
I just signed up for a service called iPass (thanks Shane!) that costs $45/month and allows you to connect to any wifi signal around the world. That means I'll have internet access in my hotels and cafes without paying 10 euros/hr! I'll be on Skype more, so add my name: katherine.sara and we can talk.
After completing a long to do list and months of anticipation, it is more than surreal to be sitting, waiting, wishing for my European expedition. Keep it real USA!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
O'ahu!
My time in Hawaii is flying by... I can't believe it's already been four days! On Thursday, I took our dog Riley to my favorite beach: Kailua Beach. He loves playing in the waves as they roll into shore. I was really impressed with Riley's good behavior so we went back the next morning for a jog and some sun-bathing. I met my mom and her co-worker Shar (Hi Shar- I know you're reading!) for their lunch break in Honolulu. Shar treated me to ahi tuna and poke while we listened to the Royal Hawaiian band in front of Iolani Palace.
Since Friday's date was 8-8-08, there was a big celebration in China Town because they consider the number 8 lucky. My mom and I went and wandered around the streets and into the quirky stores. At 8:08PM, we all went out into the street and blew bubbles for good luck and watched the dragons dancing among popping fire crackers.
Saturday morning, my stepdad, Rich, and I decided to give surfing a shot. We went down to Waikiki where we fit in with all the tourists renting surf boards. I suppose I'm not exactly a tourist... at least I'd like to think that. We picked out a couple of really long boards (too long for me) and paddled out. I lost Rich quickly because I paddled over to surf instructors and their students. That's one of the best tricks if you don't know what you are doing because they always go for strong waves and you can just follow what they tell their students. A girl named Catherine and I caught the same wave but not for too long. Unfortunately, that was my best one all day (all 45 minutes). That experince headed too quickly towards frustration. I'll have to try again when I have some moral support or a personal instructor.
I joined my mom and Rich for mass at St. Augustines By The Sea. The sermon was beautifully given by the priest. He spoke about God's quiet whisper when we expect to find Him in fire, earthquake or storm. The priest blessed me for my upcoming travels by my mother's request.
That's the first Hawaiian update- hopefully there will be more to come!
Since Friday's date was 8-8-08, there was a big celebration in China Town because they consider the number 8 lucky. My mom and I went and wandered around the streets and into the quirky stores. At 8:08PM, we all went out into the street and blew bubbles for good luck and watched the dragons dancing among popping fire crackers.
Saturday morning, my stepdad, Rich, and I decided to give surfing a shot. We went down to Waikiki where we fit in with all the tourists renting surf boards. I suppose I'm not exactly a tourist... at least I'd like to think that. We picked out a couple of really long boards (too long for me) and paddled out. I lost Rich quickly because I paddled over to surf instructors and their students. That's one of the best tricks if you don't know what you are doing because they always go for strong waves and you can just follow what they tell their students. A girl named Catherine and I caught the same wave but not for too long. Unfortunately, that was my best one all day (all 45 minutes). That experince headed too quickly towards frustration. I'll have to try again when I have some moral support or a personal instructor.
I joined my mom and Rich for mass at St. Augustines By The Sea. The sermon was beautifully given by the priest. He spoke about God's quiet whisper when we expect to find Him in fire, earthquake or storm. The priest blessed me for my upcoming travels by my mother's request.
That's the first Hawaiian update- hopefully there will be more to come!
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Vladmir and Svetlana
On Sunday night, I went to college group at FPC and we all went to "yuppie center" (AKA the Rocky Ridge Center) where a Ukrainian church also congregates after services. Two junior high boys came up to some friends and me and asked a fairly controversial question, trying to overcome their apparent boredom. Then one of the boys, we'll call him Vladmir, asked me, "Are your ancestors from the Soviet Union? 'Cause you look Slavic." First off, it was pretty funny that he still calls it the Soviet Union 17 years after the fact. Second, I get that question occasionally but I enjoyed the comment coming from a Slavic himself. To answer the question, I don't know of any Slavic heritage in my past. I have British, Irish and Scottish blood. Now that I know I could pass as Slavic I might try to go by the name Svetlana (thanks to Dryw's inspiration) while I'm in Poland and the Czech Republic. I'll let you know how that goes.
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