It's the time of year to turn on the Christmas station on Pandora, bundle up in your favorite blanket, watch those animated filmed with Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph, and relax with some peppermint cocoa. It also means Judi's annual Hanukkah party, which are always filled with delicious latkes and music making. Ahhhh I do like winter.
Unfortunately Pandora is not available outside the US, my favorite blanket is in Rio Dell, I don't have a TV, and peppermint isn't really Christmas-y thing over here (I never really thought about the fact that certain food signifies a certain season, and it is NOT universal!)
In these situations, you must adapt. So to fill my small void, I've found Christmas playlists on Grooveshark, worn my Humboldt sweatshirt, and have been drinking lots of English tea. (I think I'm getting the hang of making it properly!) There is no replacement for the Hanukkah party though. Which sucks.
Other than Hanukkah, the one thing that I can't really do is relax. Though lectures have ended, I still have a paper due in January. I don't like this. I think I would rather have loads and loads of stress over and get everything done with during finals week than be let out of school for the holidays, only to have this paper looming over my head... (I also have a large annotated bibliography due in January, but I feel pretty snazzy because I already have it done. BOOYAH.)
Speaking of paper - I got my marks back on my first essay! I received a 67, which sounds really awful, but with the way they do things in this department, it is roughly equal to a B+. This is good simply because that's what I would've given it. I had NO idea how they were going to mark anything - I did not know the standards or what they were expecting from me. And the things they marked me down for? They were all things that I knew I needed to craft a little further. Overall, I am happy with my mark because I feel it's what I deserved. Now I know exactly what I have to do for my next essay to be even better.
I also gave a presentation last week on music education in the US. I think that it went really well - I was not nervous at all, I was within reason with regards to the time limit, I didn't falter at all, and I think that my peers were actually interested in what I had to say. But again, we'll have to see!
=====================================================================
Picking up where I left off in this blogging saga, is Thanksgiving dinner!!
For my flatmates, I made: baked turkey breast w/lemon, thyme, black pepper, and rosemary, roasted garlic and cheddar mashed potatoes, honey cashew green beans, roasted brussel sprouts tossed in Larrupin, veggie gravy, rolls, and my mom's super-awesome-super-secret best-in-the-whole-world pumpkin pie!!!
 |
| They don't usually call this whipped cream - if it's from a canister, they call it SQUIRTY CREAM ! |
The next day was the Leicestershire contest - many of you will have seen the photo on facebook of myself and the trophy we won. The coach ride was probably 2.5-3 hours up there, and then another 3 hours after the contest. It was good though - I got to see some of the countryside, which was all flooded 'cos of the rain, and I had a good conversation with Steve about music education in the UK, brass bands, all kinds of stuff.
The coach ride back was a lot more interesting though! The were some really good bands in the contest we played at. City of Bristol is a 2nd section band, and there were bands there who had just been promoted to the 1st section, and there was a band that came in 2nd place at the National Finals as well. We were definitely not perfect - but the piece we played was quite difficult and we did a really good job of it. We celebrated on the coach, and they all drank cider out of the trophy and we sang dumb songs. It was GREAT!
 |
| Warmin up! |
To celebrate, a majority of us went out for curry a few days later. Just to be clear - curry here does not necessarily mean that you all eat curry - it basically means Indian food. It'd be like saying "Let's have tacos!" and then going to a Mexican restaurant and getting tostadas or something. But this is beside the point. What I am getting at, is that it was really effing delicious. The curry here is loads better than I've ever had in the States. I need to learn how to make it, because it's phenomenal...and wow, I need to stop thinking about this because I could really go for some palak paneer and sag aloo right now.
I've been caroling with the brass groups I'm in, which is really fun! Wednesday night, the UOB brass ensemble played for the Territorial Army's Christmas dinner. From my incredibly limited knowledge, the T.A. is like the UK's last line of defense if there were to be a war. After we played a few carols, they treated us to a free Christmas dinner! (Anything free is good, right?!) Traditional Christmas dinner in the UK is a lot like Thanksgiving dinner in the US - roasted turkey, cranberry sauce, brussels sprouts, ROASTED potatoes (not mashed!). The main difference is the dessert afters, which consists of mince pies and/or Christmas cake or pudding.
I must clarify the difference in the US and UK usage of the word 'pudding'. In the US, pudding means, like, Jello pudding or Snack Packs. A custard-like concoction made with milk. That is pudding for us, plain and simple. But here, as most of the rest of the world I believe, pudding is a "rich, fairly homogeneous starch- or dairy-based dessert." (At least, that is according to Wikipedia!) The dessert at this Christmas dinner was a warm mince pie, covered in warm custard. I must admit, I wasn't really a fan of the custard, but the mince pie was reallyyy nice! I am converted.
But I had been curious about the Christmas pudding for some time. As you can tell, the Wikipedia definition is quite vague. I had been asking many of my brass band buddies about traditional English food, and one of the other tuba players surprised me one day by giving me a single serving Christmas pudding! So, on taco night, I split my Christmas pudding with Dianna. And, although it looked a tad grotty, it was alright. It was good, but I don't know if it was anything to write home about (wait, by writing about this, am I writing home about it?!?!? oops!)
I don't know what it is, but it feels more Christmas-y here. I tried to explain it to some band members, but I don't really understand it myself. There seems to be just as much Christmas music, lights, trees, Santas etc., but I don't know what it is that makes it feel....warmer? Not literally warmer - it's freakin freezing here!
 |
| The fountain in front of the Vic Rooms has been frozen for a week! |
It's just the vibes, y'know?
==================================================================
Last week, I received a wonderful message from Derrick, who is a McCartney friend of mine from Boston. He was in the UK, and was wondering if I was going to the Quarreymen gig in Bristol! I hadn't known, but for Derrick, I was totally going to go!
 |
| Duff Lowe, Len Garry, Colin Hanton, Rod Davies |
 |
| Colin Hanton on drums, Len Garry on tea chest bass |
They aren't great musicians by any means, but it was great to hear their stories! They kept asking people to come play washboard or tea chest bass - so I went up and played with them. So, now I can say that I've jammed with people who've played with John, Paul, and George. Awesome. It was a fun gig, but the best part was getting to see one of my Paul friends - I miss them all so much!
========================================================================
Other than that, I've been wandering around Bristol.
 |
| Salvation Army brass band, busking in The Galleries |
 |
| German Christmas Market! |
 |
| One of my favorites pieces of graffiti! |
 |
| I must say, this is never NOT breathtaking! |
 |
| Physics department aka the Royal Fort |
 |
| Sculpture-maze-thing. |
=====================
I went into Bristol Cathedral, and uh, yeah. It's awesome.
 |
| MOLLY come and play this organ!!!!! :) |
 |
| Front of the organ |
 |
| Silent Bells |
To celebrate the end of the semester, I'm headed to London tomorrow for a few days.
You know why?
Because I CAN! Ha! Hahaha! That is so WEIRD.
No comments:
Post a Comment