Last Week!

I officially have one week left in England.

It's going to be a pretty good week :) Tomorrow I'm going out to dinner with lots of people, including Olga, our AMAZING institute teacher. Wednesday is THE DEEP, the only thing in Hull that's remotely cool. Thursday morning leaving for London to see the LSO, my life will be complete! Friday come back, finish packing and go to institute graduation. Saturday go to Manchester to stay with Marianne (woot) and maybe see Pemberley (double woot). Sunday go to church in Manchester, Monday go HOME. Feeling pretty good about everything, now I just need to fit everything into my suitcases....

At home? Look for a job! I have now been turned down an additional two or three times, won't be going to Arizona so you don't have to worry Charlie. I've also decided to take up cooking.

Also, my birthday is on Thursday and because my dad is SO amazing he sent me a birthday present..... new camera! And it's an amazing camera too! It's red and little and beautiful. It also has this "smart portrait" where it will automatically take a picture when you smile which rocks. I have all ready put it to good use but I'm extremely happy to have some pictures in London. Yay!

Slightly Bored....

So, I basically have nothing to do from now until the time I leave in three weeks. Really. I have a flute lesson, I'm playing my piece in front of people (a whole five minutes worth) and I'm conducting a song. That's IT! In the meantime, I have no idea what to do. I know, it's SUPER lame. I am in England.... I should do something! Unfortunately everyone's going home, they don't have money, yada yada yada.

I started reading a book but it's taking an awful long time to get going. I've read 70 pages and nothing has happened, really nothing. I've seen the movie and basically it's gotten past the first minute. It has to pick up sometime though.

Since I have nothing to do, it makes me think more which may not be the best thing. I have come to the conclusion that I have no idea what I'm doing. I was feeling pretty good about the looking for a job thing but not a whole lot has come up. Plus, do I want to teach elementary? Middle school? High School? Private? Public? Mainly theory and history? Just band? Whatever I can get? I'm not sure how much I really want to teach elementary... The only prospect at the moment is the one in Arizona which definitely sounds like an adventure. It is in Arizona though and I won't be teaching band. I'd have to REALLY want to do it. I do though, it sounds more appealing every time I think about it.

Then again, there's always the mission option. I have come to the conclusion that right now, however, I'm broke. I want to be able to pay for my mission if I go. I feel good about that.

There is also the going back to school option, which my friend Brandon so kindly pointed out. He's probably right, that would probably be the smartest thing to do. Plus, he's always right. I don't really want to though, I'm tired of school. Not to mention I'd have to decide which school I'd want to go to, and most of them had auditions and things in February and stuff.

So we're going with the job thing. Something will work out and it will rock.

I also wanted to point out one more thing. Here they don't have generals and they don't register for classes because everyone in your major (they just say what you're studying, not major) takes all the same classes. They do have one "free elective" however, but most people do something in the same department. You know... if they're in physics maybe they'll take an astronomy class, still in physics but not a required class.

I asked someone if they ever wanted to do anything else and they said something to the effect like no because if you really loved what you did, then that's all that you would do. If you want to do something else then that means you don't "love" it enough. I was quite sad to hear that. Here they start focusing much earlier on, they only study three subjects in high school (their college). Really. Sad.

So, maybe you have had more classes on one subject, but I seriously doubt that they are any better off. I could keep up in math class, and I've only taken one semester of math since my sophomore year of high school. I also think that it's kind of dumb that you should know so much about one subject and nothing about anything else. Maybe you can do a differential equation, but you have no idea why Louis XIV was amazing. I am definitely one to believe that you love something even more by doing different things. My math class made me love music all the more.... I wouldn't be surprised if it made me a better player. I heard this thing on the radio once about a musician who didn't think that you could make music unless you had lived, not just practiced your whole life. I'm sure it's like that for other things too.

That's my spiel about why some people are dumb, but it's probably not their fault. They haven't experienced the amazingness of being able to take kayaking and ballroom dancing. They're stuck in maths all day long.

Any ideas of what I should be doing, I'm totally up for them. I have thought about going to the London Symphony and maybe go to "Pemberley," it's by Manchester. Maybe I'll cook something. And maybe I'll make some more root beer.

Food Miracles

Two amazing things happened this week that involves food.

Firstly, my dad (bless him) spent $43.45 to send me a box full of donuts, home-made cookies, Wheaties and root beer flavoring. It took a while to get here, but these eleven-day-old donuts were better than anything that I've had while I've been here! Oh, I love Dunford donuts. Lucky for me, I'm from Sandy!

The cookies were amazing, no one really makes chocolate chip cookies here. You can't even really buy chocolate chips at the store.... well you can, but it's this tiny little pack that would make like four cookies. I don't know how people live, they just make ginger cookies. Definitely NOT as good. Wheaties are my favorite cereal and breakfast was basically like heaven this morning. I only like one cereal here, Special K. They have a lot of the "same" cereals but they put nasty stuff in them like barley so it just has less flavor and is nasty.

Root beer flavoring is also delightful. The past month I have been craving root beer but there is none to be found. Plus, if you did find it, it'd be nasty or really expensive for like 100 mL, not ideal. If you wanted to make root beer floats (especially with more than one person) it'd be a large ordeal. This way, I can make as much root beer as I want for almost nothing. All I need is sugar, water and carbonated water. Lucky for me, Europe is really big on "sparkling water." Super cheap. Love it. No root beer floats yet but the time will soon come.

The second food miracle happened yesterday. I was sitting at home and all my housemates were gone. The doorbell rings, it's the pizza man. Apparently some guy that I had never heard of ordered pizza for 101 Cranbrook (that's my flat) and it was pre-paid. I told the pizza guy I didn't order any pizza and I didn't know who the guy was and he says, "Hey, then you get free food." I took the pizza and waited awhile, maybe in case some guy showed up asking for his pizza. Melanie came home and we decided that we didn't want to waste it! Along with the pizza, there was also cookies with toffee and chocolate dipping sauce, chicken wings and coke (I don't drink it but Ina was excited for it). We had a lovely dinner and it was very delicious.

Job Hunting

I am officially in the process of looking for a job, exciting. My new career: music education.

Although I am quite excited about being able to teach, looking for a job is not the most fun thing I have ever done.... Most places I apply for I don't even land an interview, I guess that's what I get for being a first year teacher. I am starting to feel slightly frustrated at the whole situation, as I'm sure many of my fellow graduates can relate to.

The thing that bothers me the most though is that the whole thing feels like one giant game. It's not a question of whether or not you know what you're talking about or if you are a good teacher, it's a question of whether or not you know what five things should be on a lesson plan and give examples of good classroom management. I know that the schools hiring are only doing their best and the only thing that they know how to do, but I don't think an interview gives any indication of whether or not I can teach music. Sorry, just not happening.

I have started to broaden my horizons, however, and have been introduced into the world of boarding schools. It would be like camp all the time! Most of these programs are just looking for someone to teach kind of general music or theory, which is lame. I MISS GOOD BANDS! Almost to the point of screaming at times when all I hear are not-good bands.....

I have hope though, I just need to figure out the "right answers" and how I can really convince them that I am the best :) Or not, but at least make them think that. I was talking to one of my friends yesterday and he said, "Well, you can always get married." Ha. Ha ha. Even if that were an option at the moment, I would hope that I would be working with kids anyways. I miss them.

I also wish I were going to camp this summer. No Michigan..... or Idaho.... or Washington. I guess I have England :) Kid-less England though.

Who could ever tire of Bath?

Maybe my favorite place I've been in England has been Bath. It was extremely picturesque and what England should look like. The trip was kind of a spur of the moment decision.... we took the bus there which took about three hours. There was the Roman Bath there which is a natural hot spring that the Romans built a spa around. We drank the water which was completely disgusting but they told us that it's healthy for you. We even drank the whole glass.

We walked around a lot and it rained a lot (surprise, surprise). There were a lot of shops and lots of little streets. We went to the Assembly Room which are really big and have huge chandeliers in them and then we made one of the biggest mistakes of our trip by going to the Jane Austen Center. It was extremely funny and the lady giving us the little spiel was crazy! They told us about her life and it was in a flat down the street to the one that Jane Austen lived in. Basically the whole thing was "This was a dress that was used around the time Jane Austen was here in Bath," and "This is when she mentions Bath in her books Northanger Abbey and Persuasion." It was kind of fun as there was a poster of the "language of the fan" and we watched a horrible movie about Jane in Bath with a news anchor person that was extremely full of herself.

Definitely the highlight of our little daytrip was going on the Crescent which is the street that Anne Elliot chases Captain Wentworth at the end of the BBC version of Persuasion. Yes I know, amazing. This only happens in the movie though, not in the book. Still..... In the movie she also has this really awkward kiss that takes thirty seconds for her to finally kiss him (we timed it). Really awkward. Apparently there's a tear in her eye though so the director wanted to keep it. Makes me laugh.

Annemarie and I re-enacted the whole thing, without a Captain Wentworth of course. Annemarie recorded it on her camera and you can watch it! It's hilarious. My favorite is watching the other people watch us... ha ha. I couldn't stop laughing. At the end I was holding the camera for Annemarie for the awkward kiss but I couldn't handle it. I stopped recording and she said that it wasn't long enough so she just held the camera. I was laughing too hard.

We ate at a lovely little cafe where I had créme brulée, mmmm. Then we went to an organ concert in Bath Abbey that I loved. It was a pretty organ and we don't have enough abbeys in the states, I am completely convinced.

Food, Glorious Food

As promised to Charlie, I am going to update blogs. It seems like a very large task though as I just went on the longest holiday of my life and I LOVED it. I have decided to start on the food, as it was perhaps my favorite part.

Disclaimer is that I did lose my camera in Rome. Hopefully someone found it and is somehow converted because of our pictures in front of the chapel in France. I had hope right up til the end that we may find it but I've given up now. I am really sad not to have the pictures but, lucky for me, I can steal pictures.

The glorious food really started in France. England has good chocolate, but not a whole lot else. Yorkshire pudding is quite delightful, but none was partaken of in London. Plus, I totally forgot to find a Ben's Cookies so I didn't get any of that goodness either.

French food was delicious! The first day we were there we found this place that had the most delicious crepes I have ever eaten in my life coated with Nutella. Watching him make them made them even more delicious.

After obtaining our Nutella crepes, we went and ate them by the riverside where Gene Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant have been. Sigh.

No joke at all, we honestly lived off of baguettes and nutella for the majority of our meals. It never got old though, mmmm, baguettes. Not to mention they are super cheap! Nutella really has to be the best invention ever, it makes everything taste better. Baguettes and nutella is basically heaven.

We did eat out one night which was lovely. A little café that played "It's Raining Men" so we felt right at home. We had meat for the first time on our trip and authentic French onion soup, in France. I know.

Another delight in Paris was a little pastry shop by our hostel. They really had the best pastries I've ever had. We only discovered it our last day so I didn't get to partake as much as I would have liked but it was still glorious. They put chocolate on everything, chocolate on croissants is especially good.

Italian food was amazing. Every day we had gelato and spaghetti and pizza. Pizza is really thin there and one order is one pizza but oh so good. The gelato was exquisite, my favorites being mango, chocolate and caramel. I probably miss that the most about Italy.... there were so many gelato places too! We went to a different one every day. The best one was one in Venice that took us like an hour to find. The pasta was very good too. This is a picture of the first dinner we had (the place I lost my camera). Mmmmm.... pizza.

The best meal was the last one, it was the best spaghetti of my life. We also went to this amazing place in Venice that delicious. I don't know what I ate but John had lasagna.

To finish things off, I traveled on Swiss Air and they gave me free chocolate. Yay for Swiss chocolate!

St. Patrick's Day

So St. Patty's Day wasn't quite what I expected here, so close to Ireland. I was expecting some remark of wishing me a happy day or at least some green.... no no.

Here there is no pinching (which I learned after having pinched sadly enough), there are no leprechaun tales, no dying rivers green, no shamrocks, no potatoes (that's Irish), no nothing. The only thing different about today then every other day is a more reason to drink. What a shame. I happen to like St Patrick's Day!

I'm sure I will live, but most holidays here seem to be rather on the lame side. The holiday that sounds like a lot of fun though is bonfire day! It's sometime in the summer. Apparently once upon a time hundreds of years ago someone tried to bomb parliament but he got caught first and they burned him in a bonfire. They celebrate bonfire day every year as "the day parliament didn't get blown up." Isn't that every day? Oh well. It includes a big bonfire and bonfire candy and fireworks! Not quite the fourth of July and no corn but still joyous.