Edinburghdabaugh

04:16 pm

My two hardest exams are over!

I'm still a little in shock, at one point I thought they would just go on forever. So I have all these printed off slides and books that I need to dispose off.

I thought, since I'm leaving so soon, I would make a list of "Things I will miss, Things I will not miss."

( Read more... )

01:24 pm - Dance

I just took a free master class at DanceBase.

One of the guys, who lives in Edinburgh, I believe, and took a modern class with me through out this semester is very friendly and a little bit older. I was sort of put off at first when he said hello and made small talk but today he introduced me to Gerald before class started.

It turns out Gerald was teaching the master class. He also teaches at NYU Tisch and has his own dance company in New York City. I had tried, earlier this year, to transfer to the Tisch School, instead of finishing Vassar next year. After thinking more about it and talking to quite a few people, I decided against the transfer in order to get my degree.

But I think this shows a little bit how small the dance community is. Whether it's in New York City, or the world. In a lot of programs which are handed out before performances, you'll see dance bios which name several other people they have danced for or danced with. At first I couldn't recognize any of them and it seemed odd that they would just put random people's names in the program. But the more performances I saw and programs I read and companies profiles I checked out the more the same names popped up. I think it's fascinating how you can see which choreographers got their inspiration or training from older choreographers and then how they have passed on that technique to their dancers. You can see where the influences are in the different dances if you know enough about where they came from, which is why dance history is so important, and probably why the two books I've been reading on the history of Modern dance begin with Loie Fuller who was more about moving curtains in light than about any sort of technique.

I think what's even more fascinating and important is that when you take a class somewhere you never know who the person is dancing next to you or who the teacher is (at first) and you might be getting your training from a professor at the Tisch School for Dance in NYC. You should always try to start a relationship with these people because you never know where it will take you or what connections you can make about dance in order to have a better understanding of it.

NYC really opened my eyes to the world of dance, and its community and the intimacy of it just blows my mind.

02:39 am - Exams

I have my first exam tomorrow.



After doing some math, I have calmed my anxieties considerably:

1. I need a 40% on the exam to pass. (I know, I don't get it either, at all)
2. There are two sections on the exam. Part A: 20 multiple choice questions. Part B: Choose 2 out of 3 long answer multi-part questions.
3. What I hadn't realized before is that Part A is worth 50% and Part B is worth 25% for each question.
4. Thus, in order to pass, I have to answer 16 out of 20 multiple choice questions correctly.
5. If I did this I wouldn't even have to do the long answer.
6. In the practice test I answered 13 out of the 20 questions correctly which had me at 32.5%.
7. I'm so relieved.

I went to an exam review today and the people who cared most about the class were there, and were even more clueless than me. So I'm pretty sure I win in this instance.

Wish me luck.

(If you're confused by the image, just think of it as Country 0 sending an "S -> NP VP." Nuclear Bomb to Country 4. Then it should all piece together. ... No seriously that's all I could figure out for the first few hours.)

01:57 am - It's been a while

So about a month ago I went to Dublin but I didn't take any pictures. But I did steal a bunch from a friend. We were only there for about 12 hours after getting £25.00 round trip ticket. We visited the Guinness Museum, Trinity College, that one street where you buy stuff that I think "Once" was filmed at, then a touristy corridor with tons of expensive restaurants.

It was a little sad, in the way that we didn't really see Dublin as much as we saw the tourist stops, though the bus tour was nice. I got a glimpse of Oscar Wilde's old stomping grounds. Though there's something terrifying in the way authenticity, history and life can be crammed into little snow globes sold at tourist shops. It was a bit like visiting NYC and walking around Time Square for a few hours.

On the bright, side however, it was a beautiful city with all the character you would expect from Europe and had I spent more time there I probably could have not been in shock the whole time haha.

Here are some kewte pictures:

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05:27 pm

The holiday season is gearing up:

( Read more... )

01:29 am - Where I am at any given moment

( map )

This is a map showing how I pretty much live in the center of the city, or at least within a 10 minute walking distance of anything notable. That I know about anyway.

As you can see, I also don't really walk more than 10 minutes away from my flat which is kind of bizarre considering that's about the length of the walk to the THs. Anyhow, some explanations:

I live on the Cowgate which was part of the old town which the new town was built over after the large body of germy water was drained? I'm not really sure but it's completely disorienting because the roads are literally built over buildings. As in, you look over a bridge to see a street and buildings underneath the bridge, and then the same buildings have front doors on the upper street. Very confusing.

The Fesitval Theatre is where I watched Rambert Dance Company and just last week Richard Alston Dance Company both of which were amazing and two of the best and well known (probably the best and the most well known) British dance companies to date.

Vodka Revolution is where I performed Thriller for Halloween and will perform this Wednesday with a hip hop routine... eh... it should be interesting.

Cabaret Voltaire is where I watched Lykke Li perform and another band last thursday. The cowgate contains a TON of bars and dance clubs including Rush, which is mostly abused for its student £2.00 double shots, and faith which is a converted church. Or... unconverted.

Princes Street and The Royal Mile are both famous streets in Edinburgh. The former is sort of a giant strip mall haha but with high end fashions from Top Shop to H&M to Ann Summers? The latter is a cobblestone stretch just below the castle that has a lot of little shops as well as statues and "old famous buildings" such as the parliament house and the place where they used to publicly hang people. Those might be the same place.

I take classes at Appleton Tower. Unfortunately I must go in there for 3 of my 3 classes and to work on all of my assignments so it's sort of that ugly bump in the ground that I cannot avoid. Though it does make it easy to wake up 20 minutes before classes begin. I'm a winner. I think the worst part about it is the New Informatics Forum with its nearly all glass design, futuristic colors and swipe card entry, is directly across the street. I tend to gaze at it longingly during tutorials and late night assignments. I mean, come on, they put reeds on the perimeter of the roof so that the wind won't be so harsh if you want to take an afternoon tea up there. Tis a shame.

DanceBase is where I take my dance classes when I can. I've also started going to their free preview show for ... emerging? artists. I would say experimental. They also have free masterclasses that I'm trying to get into but this whole education thing sort of gets in the way.

Arthur's seat is a giant hill/mountain thing. I keep meaning to climb it. I swear I will one of these days. Should be exhilarating.

Tesco is where I do all my grocery shopping. There's also a Lidl (pronounced liddle) but I try to avoid that one because what you make up in good prices you drastically lose in quality. I mean, the day I found tuna in freshwater instead of olive oil was pretty close to the day I called off supersavings.

And of course my Friends all happen to live across the meadows which is a little sad because I have to walk a good... 10 minutes... to get to them but it makes for more exciting encounters. I will also be going to Dublin with them on Saturday! Some Vassar friends actually live across the street... like... literally two seconds away but since I didn't go on the program (still kicking self) we didn't really hang out much at the beginning. Though I hope to see more of them.

So that's about it... there's more but just little things like my favorite... 4 places to get chips which are all within walking distance which makes it all that more depressing when all 4 of them are closed but you don't want to believe it till you see it. There's also... a pound saver... basically I don't walk too far from where I am and I don't really have to. There's plenty of sights to see.

Now... to go to bed.

10:40 pm

More pictures from Scotland:



Best Package Ever!
( moar )

04:57 am

I've been waiting to post this until this very day. I still can't believe it actually happened. It's going to be an interesting 4 years!!

01:36 am - OMG WHAT?

Okay so I had the most ridiculous past two days. In my standards anway.

After working on my MIPS assignment for four or so hours (and if anyone knows how to implement a stack in MIPS please let me know) I went home, ate, and prepared to go to a rehearsal for performing Thriller.

Little did I know, or rather read in the email, I was PERFORMING last night. haha. So I had my stuff with me, got dressed up in the torn shirt with dirt and blood, white, black and red face paint and headed over to Vodka Revolution, a bar, to dance! haha. It was actually very very fun. We were so good that they want us to perform again on Halloween after we perform for the school dance. And, they intend to give us a bit of a tab. WOOOOHOOO!

And then tonight I went to a dance performance for Rambert Dance:



It was amazing! AND THE BEST PART IS: I had tried to get into their masterclass at Dance Base back in the first weeks of October but they were sold out :-( so I was put on the waiting list. Then today around 5:15 I got a random phone call and it was Dance Base to tell me that there had been some cancellations! I'm so freaking excited to go to this masterclass you have no idea. No idea. I'm beaming.

I I'll also be going to Richard Alston Dance Company next tuesday, 11th. Only Scotland's finest here.

I hope to take some pictures both of being a zombie and next to the ridic dancers from last night.

Till then. Take care.

03:27 pm - Dinner, Work and Mary Poppins.

( Pictures )

07:08 pm - The Hellection!

One thing I had no idea about before coming to Scotland is that the rest of the world really really really does care about the United States. At first I thought it was just mild amusement to ask American's about their political views, however it clearly runs much deeper.

For example in the planner they handed out at the beginning of the year, just like how "Halloween" is printed about October 31st, "The U.S. Elections" are printed above November 4th. When was the last time any other country's election was printed on anyone's calendar? I suppose we don't really need to know... but really it seems that no one honestly cares. America isolates itself from other countries and takes pride in being in control of its own destiny. Where as in Europe, I feel that it is very different. They have the European Union, a greater sense of socialism and global community. The interest also probably stems from seeing America as a great country with a lot of opportunity as well as power and I think they want the best for America as well as the world. Regardless of why, I'm nearly positive the entire world will be sitting at their TV late into the night to see who the next president will be.

( An email from the University about elections week )

If I didn't know any better I'd think they were a little jealous... haha. much more receptive. America is the number one super power of the world, and no one can ignore it even if they wanted to. This is the conclusion I have come up with after walking a bit with a few British. I don't think they quite liked me.

11:58 am - EXIT

01:47 pm - Elevators

Give me the goods!

03:24 am

This is a video of the class I took earlier today. She's actually pretty entertaining. If you make it through the entire video you get home baked brownies mailed to your doorstep.

04:06 am - It is a place of openness and recieving

I have taken some time to think.

03:04 pm - Jeeves and Wooster

I've been watching a lot of Jeeves and Wooster since I got here:


Jeeves is were AskJeeves.com got it's name.

What you may not know is that Bertie Wooster is actually same person as:



Hugh Laurie from House!

Definitely go out and rent a season.

He also makes an appearance in this familiar music video.

12:22 am - Lykke Omg

( Lykke Li, lykke omg )

02:46 am - Performance Group

I had my first rehearsal for the Performance Group. Which is actually its name. Apparently they couldn't come up with a name that wasn't cheesy so they just pass the non-name down through the years. They said if I had any suggestions I should bring it to their attention. There's only 13 of us, so it's kind of small and bizarre. I don't know which ones are knew but I feel especially awkward as the only guy. Though our first party is this Friday (I think?) So hopefully we'll all best friends forever.

Our first performance is on halloween (which totally isn't-that-great because I can't dress up with friends) but then again... we're doing this original dance:



How could I pass up on this opportunity?

12:49 am - Pictures

( pixels )

03:36 pm - You should be danciiiiing... yeah!

I got in the dance group! I have no idea what that means. I might have already over-committed myself... but that's okay because it's bound to be incredibly fun!

One of the most interesting things about Scotland is it's seemingly endless "Charity Shops." They all have different names such as "Cancer Research UK," "Age Concern," or "Bridging the Gap." They are pretty much tiny Goodwills but there are hundreds of them. You can just go into one after the other on certain streets. So far I have bought:

A Harris Tweed jacket for £10.00 and a FCUK knit shirt for £6.00. Which is quite the bargain on both. And I'm sooooo fashionable now.

Also: Please Vote, just sealed my absentee ballot today.