Hampton Court Palace

1/12/10

Hampton Court Palace was the summer home of King Henry VIII. Everything about the architecture and decor was incredible, down to the tapestries in the Great Hall.
Overall, the most impressive aspect of the palace was its historical re-enactors. There were five actors, playing Kateryn Parr, Kateryn’s sister, Sir Thomas Seymour, Clark Brooks, and the magisterial King Henry VIII. Their ability to improvise all of their knowledge of the 16th century into an interesting theatrical performance was flawless. One day, I hope to have an opportunity to perform in that aspect of theatre. History and performance are two of my favorite things, and the opportunity to synthesize them into a cohesive union is one I would jump at.

1984

1/9/10

Last night we saw 1984 at the Battersea Arts Center. The play was directly based on the Orwell novel about dystopian life in a totalitarian society. However, it is performed as if it is the members of the “Party” retelling the horrible story of Winston Smith. The play was performed very minimalistically, with the set consisting of six movable black wall sections and a few tables and chairs. Minimalistic theatre is, in my opinion, the best. It provokes the imagination and the brain to think and create, rather than relying on spectacle to illustrate every aspect of the play. Theatre that is most memorable is that which provokes the mind to think. In my mind, theatre is not just to entertain, but to provoke thought.

Travel Alone

1/8/10

Traveling alone is one of the most liberating sensations in the world. Something about being alone in a sea of strangers; the solitude it brings is so comforting. This was the first time in four days I’ve even been alone, and boy, did I need it. I am currently on the way to see 1984 now, traveling on the train outside greater London to the Battersea Arts Center. I didn’t realize how much I value my solitude until this trip, and hopefully the two weeks will bring more opportunities to get out on my own.

Westminster Abbey

1/6/10

It is an overwhelming feeling, being inside Westminster Abbey. Passing the tomb of Elizabeth I, my breath was taken away. This woman is the reason I am able to do what I do today. Her advancement of English theatre is what shaped the art form into what it is in the 21st century. We as performers, designers, technicians, and theatre lovers owe her everything. I felt strength and warmth, and a final affirmation that THIS, theatre, is how I want to live the rest of my life. I just experienced a rare epiphanous moment in my life. All that was before Poet’s Corner. I’ve seen photographs, but experiencing the permeable energy of the area overwhelmed me. Even though Shakespeare is not buried here, the ghosts and spirits of such visionaries as Laurence Olivier, David Garrick, Lewis Carrol, Alfred Tennyson, and Oscar Wilde among many, many others are something I will never forget. I have been changed today.

Finally have a functioning kitchen.

For a good two weeks I was surviving off the breakfast provided, a small sandwich for lunch, and going out to eat.  It was not easy on the wallet, but it was good for my tummy.  For the most part, I’m o.k. with it.  Part of the reason I came the CZ was to explore the food and beverage.  Sunday was my last food adventure I am going to allow myself for a while.  Although, The Fat Koala had delicious food and pints, but the Czech Republic was the last place I expected to eat kangaroo for the first time.

All of that was good and fun but thanks to Zuzana, the dorm mother (one of the sweetest women I’ve ever met), I finally got some pots and pans to get back into the cooking habit.  I am use to a gas stove whilst I cook, but the hot plates in the kitchenette are quite difficult to prepare rice on.  There are two settings: off and dangerous, so there is no way to “simmer” a pot for 20 minutes.  Zuzanna also showed us a great gallery at the DOX over the weekend (pictures will come soon).

The process of settling in

I arrived in Perth five days ago, already, and I am enjoying every minute of it. The people are great and the weather is fantastic! I have found so much to do, and have been involved in so many activities with my flat mates, so far, that I have not had much time to post some blogs…not to mention that I did not have access to a computer until yesterday. However, when classes begin, roughly a week and a half from today, I will be in Curtin’s library more regularly (my main access to computers and the internet), and will be postings blogs much more frequently as well. Hopefully by that time, I will have transitioned from the unknowing newcomer to Perth and CU, into the more familiarized and savvy inhabitant and student of my temporary home and life. With much more to say and only moments before the library closes, I am forced to end this blog with much less than I planned to include; however, one way or another my blogs will tell the story of my adventure abroad here in sunny Perth!

Apologies

Hey folks! Sorry for the lack of posting recently. I have, believe it or not, been super busy with essays. I have four papers due within in the next week. The last one is due on the 24th.

Why am I doing them now, you ask? Simple answer: PARIS!!!!!

That’s right, I’m going to Paris….in two days!! Yesterday started reading week, which, for those unfamiliar, is a whole week off of class devoted to catching up on work and reading. It is also a whole week off to devote to these damned papers we have to write. However, for us study abroad students, this week off screams, “Travel time!”

We decided not to leave on Monday, or even the weekend before, because weekdays are the cheapest to travel. Some of our group are leaving on Wednesday evening, while the rest of us are leaving on Thursday evening. We’re all going back on the following Tuesday. It works out perfectly for me (and most of us) because I only have one class on Monday, and nothing on Tuesday. That way, I’m not missing too much class. So this past week has been chock full of writing papers and preparing for my trip. At this point, I am down to my last paper, and sadly, my longest. I’m confident that I’ll get it done tonight, that way all I’ll do tomorrow is proofread, print, and pack!

Anywho, I won’t be around for the next week or so, but once I get back expect a long-winded description of the beautiful Paris (complete with dozens of pictures, I’m sure).

Bye all!

xx

Tales from Italy! ch.1- THE BEGINNING

I got to Italy on Saturday February 13th. For me, it still felt like Friday, February 12th since my night consisted of about 4 hours. I had left my house at 11am, got to the airport at 1pm, took off a little late by 430, arrived in Frankfurt, Germany around 520am (1120pm to me with jet lag), and caught a flight to Bologna, Italy at 820am (120am to me). While at the gate in Germany, I sat down next to a window and got on the internet to write home. From my seat I was able to watch the sunrise. My night had virtually disappeared since by the time I would have normally gone to bed back home, I was witnessing daybreak.
After arriving in Bologna, I met with Frederica, the New Paltz-Urbino liason and it was about a 2 hour drive to school. On the way here, we passed by what seemed to be a gazillion groves. We’d pass a house and next to it was maybe an apple grove, some stores then maybe an olive grove, some open space and then another grove! It was so pretty.
When we pulled up to the school, I got a good look at it. La Universita DI Urbino “Carlo Bo” sits on a hill and looks so enchanting from afar (and at night when it gets lit up)- the big buildings look like castles (I still have to look to verify this). It’s very believable since Urbino is a really old medieval city (for instance, Alex, the other student from New Paltz, and I walked through an entry way yesterday that dated from the 14th century!). The whole campus is scattered in buildings across the city, with the dormitories just outside the city walls.

After quickly settling in, Alex and I headed back outside to the bus stop so we could get into the city center. I had to pick up a few things and we both needed cell phones. When we got off we realized that just about every direction was either up or down a steep hill. At least I know I’ll be getting some exercise 🙂
In an attempt to find a supermarket, we got lost a few times. Yet one of the great things about getting lost is you really learn your way around. I’ve been here just 2 and a half days and recognize the main areas of the city now and roughly know where to get what I’m looking for. After we had found the supermarket, we asked a lady for directions to find a store that sold towels. Turned out she was from Puerto Rico and knew English very well. She showed us a store but said it was a little expensive. Unfortunately they were the only store we’d seen all day and that she knew of that sold towels until the flea market next Saturday morning. I didn’t have much choice- it was either buy now or don’t shower for a week. I disgustingly paid 20 euro (about $25-27) for 2 thankfully very large hot pink towels.
After that, we went in search of a store that sold Voda phones (Voda is pretty much the equivalent of Verizon in the states). It was a little difficult communicating our cell phone plan with the store owner, but in the end we got what we wanted: 2 of the cheapest cell phones and the cheap pay-as-you-go plan… perfect.

We eventually made it back to the bus station where I decided to call my parents and let them know I was alive since I didn’t have internet access yet, and hadn’t contacted them since the airport in Germany. Of the 5 euros my phone came with, I used up 3 in my 3-minute international call home.
While at the station, we learned that buses don’t pull up to the curb; you have to walk up to them while they sit parked in parking spots at the station. We learned this as our shivering selves watched our bus pull away without us after we thought it had just turned on. We ended up having to wait another 10 minutes for the next one. Lesson learned.

When I got back, I learned a few handy things:
1: you need to supply your own toilet paper and bring it with you to the stall every time;
2: there are 2 outlets in our rooms and they are 3-prong outlets, not 2-prong like the rest of Italy;
3: the fuse box is across the hall in the next blocco for when you blow the fuse out in your room (I spent the first night without power before discovering this; note to self: adapter+ American 3 to 2 prong converter+ American powerstrip+ appliance(s) =BAD);
4: my room door does not lock upon closing like I thought, so I don’t have to worry about being locked out, but I still must remember my keys ALWAYS;
5: the door knobs do not spin- they have a black button on the top;
6: When the door won’t open, don’t fear that this is the end and you’re locked in a bathroom stall forever- just push the black button harder;
7: I have my own bathroom cabinet! I decided to make the journey to the other end of the bathroom and discovered that the extra room was just extra sinks and extra cabinets (including mine- yay!), not a doorway to another blocco (suite) like I thought.

After settling in, I met Alex for dinner in the mensa which is like a cafeteria. Fortunately for me, the mensa is in my dorm and I don’t have to walk far (YAY!!!). Food there is served on a line like the middle schools and high schools do back home- complete with tray. First you grab a roll (apparently Italians like their rolls stale/ hard because they leave the bags perforated), then you get pasta or soup, then a meat and/or cheese with a side of vegetables, then a fruit, juice, or yogurt, then a little plastic cup for water. To get water, students go to a cabinet full of empty glass bottles and fill them with water from a sink with filtered water. It took me 3 meals before I could get through the whole process without messing up and mixing up or missing out on part of my meal. For example, yesterday I asked for grilled potatoes and a side of what I thought was pineapple. Turned out the pineapple was just more potatoes cooked differently- I had a whole plate filled of just potatoes.

When dinner was over, I came back to my blocco in desperate need of a shower (since Friday-Saturday was really like ONE day to me). Before I got in, I heard one of my suitemates speaking perfect American English on the phone. I waited till she was done and asked where she was from. Her name is Maura and she got here last semester from California. Unfortunately she leaves Friday since she’s not staying for the rest of the year, but she introduced me later that night to her English-speaking friends Luke, Katie, and another girl who I can’t remember the name of. Luke and Katie are staying the rest of the year and speaking with all of them that night made me feel more comfortable about what I was in for over the next few months. Luke gave me some advice about learning the language: make friends with both Italians and English-speakers. Speaking with Italians really helps with fluency, but it can get frustrating after a while and at the end of the day, it’s nice to have English-speakers to return to. They also gave Alex and me a temporary internet sign-in name from a former student so we could get online until we got our own login and passwords. Getting back online and contacting friends was lovely 🙂
Around midnight I went to bed. It was then, when I was alone and in the dark (a- because it was night and b- because I blew out my fuse) that everything really hit me. I had a lot to look forward to, but homesickness really began to take over. I missed home and my family, I missed my boyfriend and getting to speak to him before bed like I usually did, I missed all my friends, I missed simple communication, I missed what I was used to, and most of all I missed English. The physical distance between my friends and family, and time before we could be together again, was so overwhelming and I had a rough night.

I slept in till noon the next day (oh, Jet lag go away!) before going in to meet Alex, Luke, Maura, Katie, the girl who’s name I can’t remember, and a student from Spain -with a name I’ll never be able to pronounce correctly- for lunch. It was nice to have made some friends. After lunch, Alex and I went back into town to get some more things we had forgotten the day before. Unfortunately for us, we picked the worst time ever to go. Not only was it Sunday and a lot of stores were closed, but between the afternoon hours of 2 and 4, just about everything is closed (and that goes for every day, not just Sundays) so we weren’t able to complete our shopping. Instead, we meandered about learning ways around. On the way we passed a cinema that’s playing Paranormal Activity. Since I already know the plot and that would make understanding the Italian dubbing easier, and since I never got to experience it in a theater, I am debating on going to see it some time this week.
My favorite part about the day was the discovery of Italian hot chocolate. About halfway through our day, with Alex sick and both of us freezing, we went into a cafe named Romana and ordered hot chocolates. To put it briefly: OMG ITALY HAS THE BEST HOT CHOCOLATE EVER AND IT PUTS OURS TO SHAME. You know when you make pudding on the stove top and you have to stir it till it thickens? Well, only stir it until its cooked about halfway. That is their hot chocolate- thick yet liquid, rich and not watery. HEAVEN. And it tastes like pudding too!!! Romana also had a beautiful gelato selection that made my mouth water, but with the freezing temperature, I had to resist my temptation. I look forward to trying their Nutella gelato in the spring 🙂

Today (Monday) Alex and I finished all of our shopping (I finally have a hair dryer!!), picked up our Tesserino (student cards), and learned what it was like to be considered incompetent foreigners. Once we had gotten our cards, we went next door to a machine where we could put money on it. The machine was very simple and you only had to press 3 buttons. We paused briefly to see how much money we each had on us to put on the card and we spoke in English to each other. This was apparently gave the lady who was watching us from behind the counter the impression that we were incapable because she started telling us we had to press “continua” (“continue”). We were both like, “uh, duh” (obviously to ourselves) and told her that we understood, but she wouldn’t stop so she came over and did it for us. Her lack of faith in our ability to understand 3 simple buttons (of which ‘continua’ is a COGNATE of ‘continue’ in English) made us start to second guess ourselves when we were going to do it right all along. It was very frustrating.

Afterwards, we went to a different grocery store that’s much closer than the first one we went to (it’s location is so wonderful now that we know it exists!) and I got a box of toilet paper (yay! I can stop using tissues!), more tissues (since mine vastly depleted in the substitution of toilet paper), and water. All together it was only 5.03 euro! This made me happy since all I had on me was a 5 euro bill. I still have over $40 that needs to be exchanged, not to mention a significant portion of the remainder of euros that I had on me went to my student card to pay for meals.

We got back early and I decided to try the Italian way of things- with an afternoon nap (part of the reason the stores are closed every day between 2 and 4). It was a wonderful idea. Why don’t we do this in America?

All in all, everything is getting better as I go. Just give everything time time time!

Hopefully my next post won’t be as long if I manage to update sooner- wish me luck!

CIAO 🙂

1st week of class

This week was the start of the manditory Czech language intensive class.  Fortunately for me, I require language courses to graduate this semester so, the 5 hours is not so grueling as would be for those who don’t.  The language is a little more difficult than I thought it would be, with 7 conjugations….for each sex, for a total of 14 in some cases!  Actually being able to use what you learned is a good source of motivation as well.  I remember when I was taking German last semester, I had little incentive to study / practice what I was learning.

When I wasn’t dragging knuckles in class this week, I was trying to explore the city more and find some things that I researched from home, one of them being a climbing gym.  This is still a mission yet to be accomplished, it is either hidden in gaggle of courtyards that are in every city block, it has shut down recently, or even moved.  Whatever, there are others and I will find one…..eventually.

Why Wales? Entry #3: Discovering and Appreciating Cardiff.

Today is February 11th, which means that I have been on this journey for  25 days. Almost a month! It is unreal for me to look back at all the paperwork and saving and see that not only am I here, but I have been here for some time now. Enough time now, to be comfortable in the city. Enough time now, for the large capital of Wales to seem not so large anymore, and in ways, not so exciting. That is a good thing, however, because it clarifies that Cardiff is becoming my home. I truly love it here. In the 25 days that I have been here, I have explored not only Cardiff, but also ventured out to Swansea and London. Those trips not only opened my eyes to the world around me, but also helped me appreciate Cardiff more. More about those trips later, I now present…. Cardiff.

At the orientation meeting when we first arrived, they didn’t tell us too much about Cardiff (or perhaps they did, and we were just too flustered with the new situations that some of the information didn’t seep through to my little gray cells). Anyway, we were told that it is the capital city of Wales, it is friendly, and it is safe.

Now, safeness (security) we have been warned is not true. Well, maybe according to statistics, but we still have to take the same precautions as we would anywhere.

Cardiff, is indeed the capitol city of Wales.

I must take a moment to remark on the friendly people of Cardiff. I don’t seem to notice it as much now, but the friendly people of Cardiff is what made my first experiences so stress free. I assume you read in the previous blog of my first day in Cardiff. Unlike the other study abroad programs, the New Paltz students studying abroad at Cardiff were not picked up at the airport; we had to find our own way to our place of living. Normally, this would have been a very daunting situation. Growing up so close to New York City, asking for help is more often than not discouraged. I had to remind myself that we were not in the U.S anymore, and that reactions may be different. I’m not sure if we would have ever made it to our halls if we did not stop and ask perfect strangers. Some people would even overhear our conversations and offer assistance.

I know, this can happen anywhere. The fact is that it happened in Cardiff, strengthening my positive first impression.

According to wikipedia.org…

Cardiff (pronounced /ˈkɑrdɪf/ ( listen), Welsh: Caerdydd (info)) is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales. The city is Wales’ chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for Wales. According to recent estimates, the population of the unitary authority area is 324,800.[2] Cardiff is a significant tourism centre and the most popular visitor destination in Wales with 11.7 million visitors in 2006.[3]

Accepting that, I have also been told that Cardiff thrives primarily due to Cardiff Univeristy. The man that discussed this with me was a Cardiff taxi driver, who said that Cardiff is not so busy when school is not in session. I found this surpirsing, because although Wales might not be first on everyone’s list of vacation spots to go to… Cardiff does have a lot to offer.

My favorite thing about Cardiff has a lot to do with the hall that I live in. My hall is the furthest from campus… 2 miles. Although we have buses which take us to and from campus, I usually opt to walk home. On these walks home (and sometimes to campus, if I’m not in a rush) I can leisurely discover Cardiff. My home is in Penylan, which I guess is comparable to a borough of Cardiff. I turn down Birchwood Lane onto Ty-Gwinn Road, and follow that to Albany Road, which is where there are tons of stores and whatnot…. but, if you go the opposite way down Birchwood Lane, you will find yourself at Roath Park. My hall, being so far outside of the city center is more like a small village, and Roath Park is where everyone gathers. There is a lake there, along with a path that goes around the lake’s perimeter. There are also many playgrounds and gardens. That is what I love most about Cardiff- the fact that I can sit by the lake watching the ducks, or I can go into the city center for some shopping and dining. The best of both worlds.

I am thankful to call Cardiff my home.

Cardiff Castle

view of the city including Cardiff Castle

the road I live on.

Roath Park Lake

 

 

View on my way home.