June in Pictures

Howdy!

Sorry Brandon and I have not been doing blog posts lately.  Seems like every free moment we have is spent writing our dissertations.  Thankfully I am now sitting with around 9,000 words (out of the 12,000 required) so I feel comfortable enough to spend a bit of time writing a post for you all!  Brandon is at 10,700 (out of 15,000)

Since we have missed several updates the past week, I thought I'd just post a bunch of pictures so you can see what we have been up to the past month.  Because, let's face it, a majority of you probably just scan these posts and look at the pictures anyway, so I'll keep the words to a minimum this time ;)

We visited the Sherlock Holmes museum back in May when the Stover Seniors were in town.  Here is our attempt at being Dr. Watson and the great detective.

Another remnant from May with the Stovers - Enjoying a pint on the stage before seeing the musical "Once"

The following pictures are sights from Kew Gardens - a large botanical garden in South West London.  Brandon and I made the trip out there one bright and sunny day to enjoy a picnic lunch!

The Kew Palm House - a giant green house with plants from all over the world

At Kew Palace - a formal royal residence of King George III

The Japanese garden at Kew

A modern tunnel built to look ancient

In front of the tunnel

On the five story high tree top canopy walk at Kew 

Kayla, a lovely friend of mine from Millikin stopped in London for one day as part of her month long backpacking trip through Europe, here are a few of the things we did that day!

On my way to Hogwarts!

An a visit to the Doctor was a must...

Brandon and I took a day trip to Oxford to visit the city, but mostly to enjoy an afternoon at The Thirsty Meeple - the UK's only board game cafe.  Several from the Goldsmiths tabletop gaming society went as well.  Now Brandon and I are making plans to someday run our own board game cafe...

One of the many colleges in Oxford

One of the college accommodations in Oxford - seriously looks like a castle...

The Radcliffe Camera - a round building which is one of the University of Oxford libraries

Another University of Oxford building

The board game cafe!

Lately, we have enjoyed many cultural offerings in London, including an orchestra concert in a car park, a stage version of Orwell's 1984, and Bizet's The Peal Fishers at the English National Opera.

The view of London from the car park after hearing Sibelius Symphony No. 5

The London Coliseum - home to the English National Opera

We celebrated our fourth anniversary on June 25th by going on an impromptu Thames River Cruise (okay, not really a cruise, more of a river taxi...but it was still awesome!)

View of the Tower Bridge from the Thames Boat Taxi

Most people get the "London Bridge" and "The Tower Bridge" confused, but as you can see here, the London Bridge  is actually quite boring...

Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge from the Thames

And finally, we spent yesterday morning with a friend we met through a geocaching event.  He wanted to climb to the top of St Pauls, since there is a virtual cache up there, so we made it up the 528 to the top of dome and got rewarded with some spectacular views of London!

Almost to the top, here we took a short breather about 3/4 of the way up on a wider outcropping

At the top!

A view of the scary stairs you have to climb in the actual dome

Hope you all had a lovely June!!  July will be taking us to Italy and Greece, before August brings us back to the US, so we still have lots to look forward to this summer!

Pirates, Dinosaurs, and Internships...Oh My!

Pirates
Last week Brandon and I saw Pirates of the Caribbean Live, at the Royal Albert Hall (he found half-off tickets thanks to Groupon!). This is where the movie is played on a large screen while a live orchestra performs the background music.  It was a very cool experience, totally different than a regular orchestra concert.

The Stovers at Royal Albert Hall

Pirates and the Orchestra

Dinosaurs
Earlier this week Paige, a friend of mine from college, visited London with one of her friends, so I got to spend a day with them at the Natural History Museum.  While Brandon and I have been to this museum before, we totally missed out on the best part - the Dinosaurs! 

Rawr!

Paige and I

Interships 
Last Friday was my final internship day.  For the past three months I have been working three days a week for the Communications/Marketing Team at the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE).  This has been a great internship for me to gain hands-on experience working in an arts administration position.  Throughout my time I have:  written and sent-out press releases, promoted OAE concerts and events, contributed to OAE's social media and blog, and other various administrative tasks.  To see some of my blog posts for the OAE click here.

But what I've enjoyed most (and will miss the most) are the people who worked in the office with me!  They have been so helpful and friendly and wonderful.  For my last day they brought me lovely flowers, champagne, and a precious silver necklace.  Overall it has been a great experience and I will miss everyone dearly!

Me with the some of the office staff

Carrot Cake Cupcakes that Brandon and I made to bring on my last day

My final day presents, flowers, champagne and a necklace

Close-up of the necklace

Oh My!
Although I am sad to be ending my internship with the OAE, I am looking forward to having a bit of free time again. While I plan on spending most of it writing and researching for my final dissertation, I am also looking forward to more London explorations, now that the weather is brightening up!  London in the spring is so lovely and I plan on enjoying it as much as I can before leaving in August.

Much Love,
Emily

Academics

So, Barb Miller (the secretary at St. Matthews...) mentioned recently on facebook: "Are you sure you are studying enough? You look like you are having way too much fun!!"  So to answer Barb's question, I thought I'd write a post about the classes we are taking and let her know that, "yes, we are studying enough!"  :)

So here is my weekly class schedule -

Monday: Cultural Policy and Practice, lunch break, Intro to Arts Marketing
Tuesday: Guest lectures (from arts adminstrators in and around London), lunch break, Intro to Fundraising, Chamber Orchestra
Wednesday: More guest lectures, lunch break, Goldsmiths Sinfonia orchestra
Thursday: Contemporary Ethnomusicology
Friday:  No Class!

My classes are currently focusing on UK and European cultural policy (how the government influences and funds arts organizations), how to build and market to an audience within the cultural sector and how to fund-raise for arts organizations.  I have heard lectures from arts administrators who work in dance venues, performing arts venues, visual arts galleries, outreach and education programs focused on arts, etc.  I have also visited several arts organizations in London to see how they are run.  The music course that I chose for this term is 'contemporary ethnomuisology' where we look at current issues regarding the field, such as globalization, gender, race, identity, etc.  We compare how these issues affect musical consumption and participation (are you bored yet...???).

I have also started working on my end of term papers for my current class load.  I have two 5,000 word essays due mid-January, but they are both on interesting topics (at least I think so!).

For my cultural policy classes I am writing a paper about the public value of the arts and how that relates to the accessibility of different art forms.  For ethnomusicology, I am writing about how music is used to manipulate consumers while shopping in public areas.  So here is a stack of books that I will be diving into the next two months in order to complete these essays....

Arts accessibility books on the bottom, with music & manipulation books on the top

Brandon's class schedule is a bit lighter...
Monday: No Class
Tuesday: Ethnographic Film & Music Research, lunch break, Sound Agendas
Wednesday: Goldsmiths Chamber Choir
Thursday: Contemporary Ethnomusicology (yes we are taking that class together!)
Friday: Goldsmiths Big Band (but they seem to cancel rehearsal alot...)

He is studying about various types of music and cultures.  In his film class he is learning how to make an ethnographic film, basically a documentary on a musical subject.  In sound agendas he is looking at different aspects of sound and how it affects people psychologically.  And I mentioned a bit about ethnomusicology already...

He also has two papers due in January, one on the cognitive neuroscience of music and audio illusions and the other on how western music uses and adapts the music of the "Other".  He has also started researching for his final thesis paper due in August, and he will be studying Japanese immigrant music in the UK.  Here is his massive stack of books...at one point he actually hit the limit of the amount of books you are allowed to take out of the library (15 at one time), so he better get to reading!

Music and the mind, lots of ethno books, etc.

So hopefully I have enlightened you about our studies here in London.  No, it is not all fun and games, we are getting a master's degree.  But between the lectures and papers we are enjoying all the fine things London has to offer and making the most of our time here.  (I can't believe we are almost 1/3 of the way done already!)

Well, better get back to studying!  (or napping)
Emily (& Brandon :))