7/21/13 -- Scotland Trip, Day 2

Itinerary

Hilton Glasgow Grosvenor

            We had absolutely nothing that we had to do today! And thank goodness for that, too, because we were very tired. I had to sleep on the floor on a duvet (pronounced "doovie" here) last night, but it was no trouble at all; I fell asleep straightaway.

            We all got up around 10:30, and got downstairs to eat breakfast just in time -- breakfast ended at 11:00. It was a delicious breakfast which included Nutella. I had forgotten about how popular Nutella is in Europe.

            After breakfast we went back up to our room and I wound up sleeping some more. Sadly, I snored quite a bit, which I know because I kept waking myself up. I tried to sleep while pinching my nose so I didn't snore so much, but that didn't work at all.

            Eventually, around 3:00, we went around the corner to the Botanic Garden, which was basically a park except with greenhouses. They were so cool. I took a ton of pictures and generally had a great time. After roaming around for a while, we went to a place that had "tea" which was basically breakfast, lunch, and dessert. We got there at a point when all the tables were full, and we ended up sitting with a woman who offered to have us at her table. She was a little strange, and might have been schizophrenic. She was pretty nice, though, and recommended a few places to go shopping and stuff. We probably won't, because (a) we don't really shop, and (b) we're leaving tomorrow afternoon. The woman left before we did, and we thought that she might not have paid, but apparently she did so that was reassuring.

            As we left the Botanic Garden, we noticed signs for a program called "The Bard in the Botanics." We were excited for a bit, until we noticed that it wasn't showing Sundays and Mondays. Shoot. However, it looks awesome, and is another reason that I'd really like to study in Glasgow. Their website is www.bardinthebotanics.co.uk if you want to look it up.

            After that, we went to our room again, and Mom and I played our instruments a bit, then we went and ate a bit of food, then came back to our room again. Soooo exciting. It was a good day, though. Relaxing, fun, enjoyable. I really do like Glasgow so far.

7/20/13 -- Scotland Trip, Day 1 Pictures

The shuttle bus van thingy was rather large.

Boston bridge is falling down!... Oh, wait. It isn't.

I found a pretty thing in Boson, of all places. So I thought, why not share it with the world?

Obligatory from-the-airport picture!

I just love the sun and the clouds over the wing.

It looks like a bullet-hole, but all the windows had them. Anybody know what they're for?

View of England from above. Pretty patchwork! 

Newcastle upon Tyne happens to be one of the places we're visiting. Note the absence of Edinburgh or Glasgow; they know what's really important.

7/20/13 -- Scotland Trip, Day 1

Itinerary

Pick up -- 6:00 p.m.

Drop off -- Logan Airport

Leave Boston Logan Airport -- 9:30 p.m.

Arrive London Heathrow Airport -- 8:45 a.m.

Leave London Heathrow Airport -- 9:55 a.m.

Arrive Glasgow Int'l Airport -- 11:20 a.m.

Arrive Hilton Glasgow Grosvenor Hotel

            Even though I've known this trip was coming for a long time, it didn't really sink in until we were in the air, turning away from the shrinking lights of Boston. Most things about getting on the airplane had been a little hectic, from the terrifying drive on a shuttle to scrambling to get a bite to eat before boarding. And once we finally made it aboard, I was more wrapped up in the fact that I was finally sitting down than pondering our imminent journey.

            Once we got to our cruising altitude, though, I looked out the window. I saw one flash of light, then another: lighting illuminating the clouds from above. I tried and tried to get a picture, but alas, my poor iPhone doesn't quite focus as well as I do.  I'll try to describe it to you, though. The clouds had the same translucency as parchment paper, and spots of light would intermittently blink in and out, so that the yellow light glowed through. It was beautiful.

            After a while, clouds covered everything. I slept fitfully for two hours, and woke up to find that it was daylight, and we were above the clouds. A quote from a book (I can't remember what book) kept going through my head, a quote about a "false horizon" that pilots encounter when flying through clouds. The quote was: "You'd be surprised how many [new pilots] emerged flying completely upside-down." I decided that we weren't upside-down because we probably would have noticed all of our things dropping to the ceiling.

            We finally got to Heathrow Airport and made our way to Customs, only to get bad news: we were too late to board our flight to Glasgow. And the next flight (at 12:10) was booked to the brim. If everybody showed up, there would be people left behind. The only other option was 6:00 p.m., meaning a wait at the airport for approximately nine hours. We talked to a couple of customer support people, and eventually came to the conclusion that, if we wanted our luggage this evening, we should just stick with the 6:00 flight. So, we settled ourselves in for a long wait: me typing on my computer, and Mom and Grossmutti reading.

            At one point, there was a group of people waiting where we were waiting, including a family with a little boy. This little boy was running around in circles, pretending to be a plane, and then he ran straight into the glass divider that separated us from where we could board. Everybody went, "Ohhh!" And the boy fell over and wailed a little, but he was really fine. It was rather amusing though.

            At last, we boarded the plane to Glasgow, got there, got our luggage, and got our rental car. (It's huge and it's all backwards and so it's kind of scary to ride in when Mom is driving.) We got a little lost on the way to our hotel, but everything worked out OK. We checked in to the hotel and relaxed. No more airports for another 10 days!

Life as usual.

WARNING: ALL OF MY POSTS WILL NOW BE IN AN APPROXIMATION OF AP STYLE

     I'm taking a journalism class at my school. It's pretty awesome. I like the teacher and I have a few friends in the class. Also, I enjoy interviewing people. The one problem is that I don't know anybody really. Except people in drama club.

     Where, by the way, we're putting on a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." We had a pretty big setback before vacation: half the cast got sick with norovirus.

     You see, we got Olive Garden food catered the night before the show. Actually, the father of a cast member got it catered, at pretty big expense. About a half-hour after eating, the puking began. This was right before we started rehearsing Act I. At the end of Act I, five people had fallen ill.

     Our director learned of this, and the green room stunk a lot (I almost threw up from the smell), so he canceled the rehearsal and told all of us to go home and get better.

     We went home, but we didn't get better.

     The next morning, we had school off in order to put a show on for the elementary school kids. Only half the cast showed up, and a few people who did show up were still throwing up. The director sent the sick kids home again, and the rest of us went to class, hoping that we'd be able to do that night's show.

     It was canceled. Maybe Friday and Saturday, then?

     Kids were still sick Friday and Saturday.

     We took vacation off, except for one rehearsal on Monday, and did some major work figuring out when people would be free to do a show. The only three days that were free until it would be too late were Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

     So those are the shows we are doing.

     Now a more personal scheduling problem is becoming apparent for me.

     Friday night is the last show, so after that show we will have a cast party. That historically goes pretty late. Saturday morning I'm taking the SATs, and Saturday evening is prom. Sunday morning my AP Spanish class is taking a practice AP test, and Sunday afternoon I may be rehearsing with my band.

     There goes my weekend.

     Not that I'm doing anything against my will; not at all! I'm really excited for the end of the shows; it's always a really fun and bittersweet time. I'm also happy that I'm finally taking the SATs again, and I'm looking forward to prom. The AP test I agreed to, and the rehearsal is necessary.

     I'm going to be operating on not a whole lot of sleep.

     Here goes nothing!

Learning and Accomplishment

     Right now, I have a grade of 101 in Honors US History.  That's really good; I've apparently worked hard and learned a lot and studied more than adequately.  Except I haven't, really.  I know what hard work learning can be, and I've worked hard at learning.  Usually, it's with music, especially with playing the piano.  Memorizing and expressing music just right is really hard and something is learned other than just that particular piece.  So I know what that feels like, that hard work at a specific goal, learned just right and with a special something that makes it worthwhile to you.  But I don't feel that with History.

NaNoWriMo...

I gave up on NaNoWriMo.  When Hell Week was over (that would be the week leading up to the musical), I had lost my momentum and I didn't love the story I was working on anymore.  I had lost my train of thought, which is very important for me to have during NaNo.  Since I never plan my characters, storyline, sub-plots, or anything, once the idea was gone, the novel was gone.  Maybe I can resuscitate it in the future and work on it bit by bit.  For now, though, I have not and will not win NaNoWriMo this year.  Perhaps next year I will learn a lesson from this and plan out characters and plots and all of that.  Maybe I'll start soon.  Probably not.  I'm just going to have to steal my friends' WriMo novels and read them, and celebrate their wins with them.  It will be fun.  And maybe I'll succeed next year...

NaNoWriMo '12

     Anybody who has been reading my blog for a year (which must have been a mightily boring endeavor, so thank you) knows about NaNoWriMo.  This is an event that occupies many aspiring writers during November.  This is National Novel Writing Month, when you must write 50,000 words (or more, or less; whatever you put as your goal) in one month.  That's 1,667 words a day.  That's a lot.
     Last year, it didn't work.  I ended up putting up a whole load of nonsense about aliens (sasquatches) that looked like centaurs, except with squids instead of human torsos.  I liked it because it was so goofy, but it never really got off the ground.

Another Day at School

Today is Monday.  Mondays are the beginning of a new week, which is usually marked by dread.  The dread of having to go to school for another five days, the dread of messing up in more rehearsals for the musical, the dread of quizzes and tests and homework.  There's also hope for the coming week, and anticipation of something fun.  Fridays are usually the most anticipated day, because it's the end of the week and because I get to work with the leads for the musical on Fridays, which is always a treat.
Today was pretty good, as far as Mondays go.  I was surprisingly awake for most of the day.  Really,  I was.  I have no clue where all those yawns came from.

Comic!

So here's a little comic thing I did while listening to Wait, Wait... don't Tell Me! (the NPR news quiz. I'm Carl Cassel, and...) and I thought it was funny. So here it is:

Also, hah, I spelled "terrorists" right...

An Update and a Poem

Hello!  I'm still here!

I've been very busy recently; I started going to public school (as opposed to being homeschooled) and I'm finding it... interesting... juggling school, homework, music, and free time.  Hahaha.  Free time.  What was that again?

...Anyway, I am taking English.  Which means that I am writing stuff.  And I wrote a poem! It is a short thing, but I like it quite a lot.  It is written about a deserted town called Landaff.  When I hear "deserted town," I usually think of something in the Midwest that was deserted and is now full of sand and tumbleweed.  However, this is in New England.  In my opinion, this deserted town was much more beautiful than any of those other deserted towns.  Hopefully, my poem will give you a sense of what it was like.

My Hypothetical Adventure in Guatemala

Just a minute ago, I was talking to my friend as our group wandered through the Guatemalan mercado.  The maze of rows was filled with vendors selling everything from clothing to wood carvings to jewelry.  Each item was brilliantly colored; bright reds, emerald greens, deep blues and sunny yellows caught our eyes from every stall.  Gradually, our conversation petered out as we looked more closely at the carefully crafted items.  Enthralled by the artistry, I wandered from stall to stall.  I must have gone in a different direction than my friends, because when I looked up, I was all alone.  Frantically, I looked around to find a familiar face, but I saw only strangers.

Not knowing what else to do, I called out: “Fiona!  Lois!  Where are you?”

My voice seemed to disappear into the crowd, and I started to feel panicked.  I’ve got to calm down, I thought, but there are too many people here!  I can’t think…  After a few panicked moments, I remembered having gone through a calmer garden area.  I remembered where I had been, more or less, so I started to head in that direction.

NaNoWriMo! :)

This month is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.  The point of it is to write 50,000 words during the month of November.  Last year, I attempted this feat and failed miserably.  This year, I am well on my way to doing the same thing.  I do, however, have one chapter (4,869 words) so far, un-edited and just about as random and rough as it could be.  I wanna share it, but just keep in mind as you read it that I have not edited yet.  If I ever get around to editing, I will update this post, but in the meantime please just forgive the mistakes.  Thanks, and enjoy!

Adventures with Sasquatches

Chapter 1: Abducted

Common Ground Fair

No, I'm not continuing my story about Perugia yet.  Sorry... haven't had the time... but I wanted to post about the Common Ground Fair!

Firstly, I'll just get it out there: Common Ground Fair is awesome.  TOTALLY awesome.  It is way the heck up in Maine, about four or five hours from my home in the Concord area of New Hampshire.  It is on a lovely, big fairground with barns, gardens, and fields, surrounded by forests.  All food sold there must be organic, and it is strongly recommended that it can be grown in Maine.  Other vendors sell local and hand-grown or hand-made products, from yarn to hobbit-holes.  There are also workshops all weekend, and New England musicians play on several stages.  Many children's activities keep little ones happy, and there are lots of volunteer opportunities in all areas.

Morning Musings

It is eight o'clock.  Sunday morning.  Outside, the fog blankets everything; the sky is white.  If you look closely, the bright blue sky is waiting, and if there were no fog it would be a cloudless day.  The sun has been up for about two hours now, but still it has not broken through.  It is not dark, but it is not yet light enough to turn off the lamp.

Yesterday, it was hot and sweltering.  In mid-morning, August pushed September aside and made a comeback.  Last night, the fan was on, merely shifting the heat from one place to another.  Not a night for blankets.  But this morning I was cold; September quietly returned while August slept, tucking her in with this blanket of fog.  "Sleep; you have had your turn.  Now it is my time."

Piglets!!!

We have piglets!!  Our very own piglets, from our very own pig!  Late last night, or early this morning, Patience the pig had fifteen little pink piglets.  They are adorable.

Ode to an Apple Tree

There was a tree stood in our yard
Its gnarled branches gave us much:
Shade and apples, joy and laughs.
We climbed this tree and perched up high,
Nestled safe in cradling boughs
To read a book, or just to climb.

Scuola Maggiore

The rooms where we practiced (2 hours allotted to each person) were in a building called Scuola Maggiore.  This is also where most of the lessons were. It was about 15-20 minutes away, depending on how fast you walk.  And, of course, it was gorgeous.   I'll let the pictures speak for themselves; you can see the route I took to get there almost every day.

Some pictures of Scuola Maggiore, Inside and Out

Outside Scuola Maggiore

The trip to Perugia

The trip to Perugia was loooooooooong.  Really, really, really long.  Extremely long.  (Did you get that?  It was long.)  First, an hour and a half in the car from Epsom to Boston.  That was spiced up a bit by a HUGE rainstorm on the way there; the highway was more like a river.  Fortunately, by the time we got to the tunnel all the water had drained out, so it didn't matter that we forgot the submarine.  Some may think that a rainstorm was an ominous start to the trip, but I prefer to look on the bright side: there was a rainbow!  It was even a triple rainbow.  One doubly thick rainbow, and a faint extra one above.  (It is there, I swear it is.  Extra points if you can spot it.)

Preparing for Perugia

More about Italy!

I was in Italy for two weeks, from the 2nd to the 15th of August.  The reason?  To participate in a classical music festival for piano, voice, and strings called MusicFest Perugia.  The Director of Programs there is a piano teacher I know, and he invited me to attend after he heard me play in a competition.  I was so honored and excited!  He explained what it was all about, and one thing stuck out for me.  At this festival, anybody who wants to can play a concerto with a full orchestra.  There are not very many chances for young musicians to perform with an orchestra, and usually one has to audition in order to get that opportunity.  With MusicFest Perugia, if you were accepted or invited to go, you could play with the orchestra.

The Tomato Expedition

This is the Tomato Jungle.  The tomatoes just love the greenhouse and they grow, grow, grow...