10.10.2004
queen's college and the red sox
I just got back from Queen's College, having sung my very first evensong service ever. It was a lot of fun: I had never even *been* to an Anglican evensong service, so fumbling through it was a bit dodgy: I've got 24 more like it this term, so I think I'll be remarkably comfortable by the end of the second week or so. Sang some Durufle, something by Ireland, and some very nice hymns. Queen's College is gorgeous: the chapel is a pleasant, cosy size, and the organ sounds FANTASTIC. It's really amazing. And as for the level of singing, it's wonderful: I can't believe the level at which we were expected to sing at the first rehearsal (and subsequent service, not two hours later). It's going to be a very busy year in terms of learning vocal music quickly: my sight reading skills are going to be insane after this.
Dinner was complementary at Queen's after the service: which means that I can actually eat there three times per week. I don't know if I want to though, considering that mealtime is generally when I get to see my friends at Keble. Speaking of whom, I haven't been seeing a whole lot of them, as they are very busy and I am very busy. I actually had to bail on my Keble Boat Club tank session (where we learn to row in a concrete boat cemented to the floor with tanks of water to either side; even those of us who have rowed before) because I was waiting on the Queen's College folks. I'll go tomorrow. Evidently, there are a few University of Georgia students doing a one-term exchange with Keble: I met two of them today at a breakfast thrown by the Keble Christian Union. Good croissants, sub-par coffee, excellent conversation. :)
Audition for the Oxford Music Society went quite well: I haven't heard from the University Orchestra itself, said to be the flagship orchestra of the university, but I have been offered a place in the Sinfonietta: self-described as the "university's premier ensemble." There's so much pretention that I'm having a very hard time figuring out how to judge these things on a real basis. For instance, St. John's College Choir and Queen's College Choir: until I talked with an organ scholar from a non-partisan institution, I could not get a straight answer regarding which was better. So I think I'm going to play in the sinfonetta as well. Sweet.
On a separate note, GO RED SOX. A gentleman was moved into the room across the hall from mine: we share a bathroom. Said student is from Manhattan and roots for a certain baseball team. Grr... It's a good thing that we are friends, or we might be even more insufferable to each other than we already plan to be.
Walking back from Queen's College, I passed a burly man in a Red Sox jacket. A sight for sore eyes, if I may say. So I did something very un-British, and I went up to him and asked him if he was indeed a fan. Well heavens, yes: he's a fan. In fact, he grinned ear to ear to learn that I was from Boston. He was born and raised in Oxford, but one trip to Fenway Park and he was hooked. And I, for one, was glad to meet him. We made such a ruckus (again, very un-British) that the other people at the bus station started to look at us funny. Behold: the power of sport to cross ethnic and cultural barriers. Bill is his name, and he's a born and raised Oxonian, yet he's a firm and solid supporter of the Red Sox (nevermind the fact that he pronounces Pedro so as to rhyme with "said no"). Totally made my night. That and the Patriots winning tonight: the 19th in what is decidedly NOT an s-word.
Hee... "s-words..." I'm thinking back to the SNL Celebrity Jeopardy! skits.
Dinner was complementary at Queen's after the service: which means that I can actually eat there three times per week. I don't know if I want to though, considering that mealtime is generally when I get to see my friends at Keble. Speaking of whom, I haven't been seeing a whole lot of them, as they are very busy and I am very busy. I actually had to bail on my Keble Boat Club tank session (where we learn to row in a concrete boat cemented to the floor with tanks of water to either side; even those of us who have rowed before) because I was waiting on the Queen's College folks. I'll go tomorrow. Evidently, there are a few University of Georgia students doing a one-term exchange with Keble: I met two of them today at a breakfast thrown by the Keble Christian Union. Good croissants, sub-par coffee, excellent conversation. :)
Audition for the Oxford Music Society went quite well: I haven't heard from the University Orchestra itself, said to be the flagship orchestra of the university, but I have been offered a place in the Sinfonietta: self-described as the "university's premier ensemble." There's so much pretention that I'm having a very hard time figuring out how to judge these things on a real basis. For instance, St. John's College Choir and Queen's College Choir: until I talked with an organ scholar from a non-partisan institution, I could not get a straight answer regarding which was better. So I think I'm going to play in the sinfonetta as well. Sweet.
On a separate note, GO RED SOX. A gentleman was moved into the room across the hall from mine: we share a bathroom. Said student is from Manhattan and roots for a certain baseball team. Grr... It's a good thing that we are friends, or we might be even more insufferable to each other than we already plan to be.
Walking back from Queen's College, I passed a burly man in a Red Sox jacket. A sight for sore eyes, if I may say. So I did something very un-British, and I went up to him and asked him if he was indeed a fan. Well heavens, yes: he's a fan. In fact, he grinned ear to ear to learn that I was from Boston. He was born and raised in Oxford, but one trip to Fenway Park and he was hooked. And I, for one, was glad to meet him. We made such a ruckus (again, very un-British) that the other people at the bus station started to look at us funny. Behold: the power of sport to cross ethnic and cultural barriers. Bill is his name, and he's a born and raised Oxonian, yet he's a firm and solid supporter of the Red Sox (nevermind the fact that he pronounces Pedro so as to rhyme with "said no"). Totally made my night. That and the Patriots winning tonight: the 19th in what is decidedly NOT an s-word.
Hee... "s-words..." I'm thinking back to the SNL Celebrity Jeopardy! skits.
