Romance in France*

*So the title of this post was a bit trickier than the other two, because very little rhymes with "Paris."  But since we traveled to France with three couples, I thought this title would still work!

Anyway, our last stop on the trip around Europe was in Paris, France.  This is a city I have been anxiously waiting to visit for a very long time!! I took French classes in high school and have collected Eiffel Tower and Paris themed decorations since college.  So, needless to say, I was really looking forward to this part of the trip.

La Famille à La Tour Eiffel

Highlights of Paris:
The Eiffel Tower - Obviously, this is a must-see in Paris.  Many people have actually told me that the tower is ugly in person.  However, I thought it was absolutely beautiful!  It is much more intricate than I expected when you see it up close.  We were able to take an elevator ride to the top of the tower, but only after waiting in line for over an hour.  But it was so worth it, just check out the pics...
 

Intricate designs on the Tower

The Family at the second level of the tower, with views of Paris

The large building in the top right corner is the Sacré Cœur

View of the Arc de Triompe from the top of the Eiffel Tower

Conversations in French - As I mentioned earlier, I took a bit of French lessons in high school and I spent the past year reviewing my skills using the Rosetta Stone program.  However, I am nowhere near being able to speak fluently, I just know enough to get by.  I actually managed to have a decent conversation with a man sitting near us at a cafe one day.  He saw us looking at the menu slightly confused (this place only had a French menu) and made a suggestion that we try the "Filet de Boeuf avec pommes de terre" which I understood to mean "Filet of Beef with potatoes"  So then he started just talking to me in French!  He was kind enough to speak slowly and only use simple words, so I was able to have a small conversation with him!

Flirty Frenchmen - So, everyone says "Oh, the French are so rude!" and while we ran across a few rude people...the majority of the people we came in contact with were soo nice!  They graciously spoke English with us and were very helpful.  Some were even very humorous, like the man who helped us at the tourist info booth, who was extremely flirtatious with me!

The Louvre - Of course, we had to go to the most famous museum in the world!  Although, it was full of people and, just like the Eiffel Tower, we had to wait in a long line to even get inside.  The wait was worth it, though because we got to see famous works of art such as the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and the Code of Hammurabi.  Just beware if you ever visit...it is a giant museum and impossible to do in only one day!

Outside the Louvre

The craziness that is the Mona Lisa room

Other adventures included: the Musee D'Orsay (which I actually preferred over the Louvre - just as many beautiful works of arts and way less people!) the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Élysées, where we ran into a New Years Parade!  We also saw the tomb of Napoleon and the armory museum.  And we walked through Notre Dame and climbed to the top of the dome in the Sacré Cœur.  Phew, it was a busy few days!

Musee D'Orsay which is converted train station

Arc de Triomphe

View from the Dome of the Sacré Cœur

The Sacré Cœur

Tomb of Napoleon

Notre Dame

Another unexpected highlight of our trip to Paris was running into an old high school friend, Kelli, who was in Paris with her new fiance!  I have not seen her since 2005 when we graduated.  Such a nice surprise to realize how small the world can be and run into people you know in a foreign country! 

Friend from high school - Kelli

Au revoir et à bientôt!

Amsterdam with the Fam

After Christmas in London, our adventures headed over the channel and to The Netherlands.  Our journey to get there was a lovely one.  We sat in a train station for a while, then got on a train, then sat in another train station for a longer while, then boarded a ferry.  This was not your typical ferry, however, it was like a mini cruise ship.  Emily and I decided it counted as our cruise for 2013 and we have now been on a cruise every year we have been married (and yes, we are planning one for 2014, and maybe 2015 already).  We slept on the ferry/mini cruise ship and arrived in The Netherlands the next morning.

The city slogan

However, when we arrived we were still about 50 miles from Amsterdam so that meant taking the train through the Dutch countryside and seeing everything fly by the windows. 

When we arrived in the city, our host was not ready, as he runs a bar and is up very late each night.  We went to lunch, trying to find a cafe.  With our luck, Emily and her mother stumbled into a 'coffee shop,' which we learned very quickly is a term for a special store in Amsterdam where you can buy and smoke marijuana.  Needless to say, we moved on and ate at a cafe down the road, lesson learned.

The Royal Palace in Dam Square

We then had a wonderful guided tour thanks to our friend from university.  She used to be a bike tour guide in Amsterdam so she knew the city well and she make sure we stayed clear of the cycle paths, which when said quickly, sounds like psychopaths, quite scary in Amsterdam :) If you ever visit Amsterdam, one word of warning... watch out when walking.  There are half a million bikes riding around, cars, and an above ground tram network that goes right across the road.  Look twice each direction before walking, and you will inevitably still be in someone's way. 

So many bikes!

We woke up early the next morning to stand in line.  Every place had lines (unlike most in London) because you had to buy tickets and that took time.  We stood in line on a back road, next to a canal, by a building which would not have been noticed if it were not for the 300+ people standing out in front of it every day.  It was the Anne Frank house.  It was a great museum telling the story of Nazi occupation in Amsterdam and one man's attempt to tell this daughter's story.  Otto Frank (Anne's father) was the only member of the family to survive the war and was the one who published her diary.  It was very interesting and touching to see the actual spaces where they hid, and how prolific of a writer she was at her young age. We even got to see her real diary, along with many of her other journals that she filled with her thoughts and dreams.

The best way to see the city is by canal cruise because there are so many canals!!  It's amazing how those big boats go down some tiny little canals, but there are so many you get to see the whole city.  We took a glass topped boat tour while there and saw the Christmas lights (although it was after Christmas day but still the official "Christmas" season according to the church).

The top of our boat and Amsterdam Central Station

One of our final stops was at the Heineken Experience.  Here you saw lots of adds and information about the company and drank lots of beer (or soda, in my case).  It was interesting if you are into beer and such but it did feel like a big tourist trap type of place. 

Dave and Kathy (Emily's parents)

Our final day in Amsterdam was rather short as we boarded on train to head to Paris!  But until our Paris update gets posted, check out some more pics of beautiful Amsterdam!

Our flat, which was above a bar

Amsterdam Canals

The famous flower market

~Brandon

London with the Sundins

Since the Christmas holidays have come and gone, and we are starting up lectures again tomorrow, we thought we would do a little blog update about the exciting things that happened over our break.

First, many of you know that my (Emily's) family came over to celebrate with us.  My mom, dad, brother (Andy) and his girlfriend (Macey) all made the long trip across the pond to see us, as well as travel a bit around Europe.

The Sundins in Trafalgar Square

The first week we spent in London, with Brandon and I as the official tour guides.  We took them to all the well-known sites, as well as a few of our favorite spots.

Some highlights of our week in London:
Edge Bar - On the first afternoon the Sundins were in town, we first took them Oxford Circus and Soho.  They were pretty much starving since they had been on a flight all night and spent over a hour on the tube getting to their flat.  So we walked into the first decent looking pub we found.  After being seated and ordering our food from a well-dressed, well-groomed waiter, we began to notice the signage and noticing the interesting videos playing on the big screens.  Then my dad mentioned, "Is this a gay bar!?!?" And yes, the first pub experience for my family was at a gay bar.  However, the food was good and decently priced and the waiters were friendly, so overall we had a nice experience.

"Andy is Out, Macey is In" - When we took the family to St. Catherine's for their Christmas Carols service, Macey got confused as being my sister, apparently we look more alike than Andy and I do! So we decided that she is now in the family and Andy is out. Also at the service, Brandon and I performed a jazzy version of The Holly and the Ivy for saxophone and piano.

Christmas Eve at Westminster -  Beautiful church, beautiful service, a great way to spend Christmas eve!  Even though pictures are not allowed, Dad was sneaky and took this great one of us with the candles!

Carols and Candlelight at Westminster

Boris Bikes on Christmas Day - Since all public transport in London shuts down on Christmas day, we had no way of getting around town.  So we decided to rent a few bikes from the nearby bike stand and rode bikes around the Hackney area on Christmas day.  We also had tacos for Christmas dinner, not the traditional, but still very tasty!

In addition, we toured the Tower of London in the rain, ate at lots and lots of pubs and sort-of saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham (which it is not really worth seeing and was rather disappointing...).  We also walked across the famous Abbey Road and enjoyed cheese, bread, chocolates and mulled cider at Borough Market.

The fam at the Tower of London, with Tower Bridge in the background

Abbey Road

Check back soon to hear about our adventures in Amsterdam!

Em and B

The Stovers Christmas Letter

In the tradition of our writing a letter each December, we will be posting a blog post instead.  It is simply too expensive to send everyone a letter this time of year from 4,000 miles away.

As many of you know 2013 has brought many changes to the Stover Jr. household.  We say "Stover Jr." because Jean and Jeff Stover (Brandon's Parents) already sent out their letter claiming the Stover household name.

Here's a 2013 list of firsts:

1. This year was the first time we will have seen Emily's parents 4 times in one year.  That sets a new record since we have been a couple. We saw them in May after the death of Emily's grandmother, We saw them in July when we visited north Georgia, we saw them in September when we went to Michigan again to visit Emily's extended family one last time, and they just got to London to come and see us.

2. This year was the first time we have both been to London (an obvious big change in our household, but still a first).  The first time we had ever stepped foot on the island was after we had paid lots of money to travel here and go to school.  It was a big leap of faith not knowing what to expect.  We only had accommodations lined up for 9 days after arrival.
 
3. This year was the first time Brandon won Best in Show at the Bureau County Fair for a photograph he entered.  It was a lovely picture of a frog asleep on a metal pole.

4. This year was the first time we hosted two boys at our house during the summer for the Festival 56 summer season.  They were nice guys and it was great to get to know them.  Emily gave up her room to house the second guy and Brandon put up with all her make up and clothes in the bedroom.

5. This year was the first time Brandon has officially auditioned and sung in a choir.  Despite having been trained in music education and teaching choir for two years, Brandon was never in an official choir.  This year he sang an entire concert in Russian with the Goldsmiths Concert Choir.

6.  This year was the first time we took an overnight trip with school children.  We went to Branson, MO in the spring and performed.  It was a scary endeavor but it sounds like the kids had lots of fun.
 
7. This year was the first time Emily was on Group Workcamps Redshirt Staff.  (Brandon has been on staff at 12 camps and attended 20.) She was the worship leader and lead the camp each morning and evening in song.

8.  This year was the first time we washed our clothes without a dryer.  You learn to make a lot of changes when you live in a small studio flat.  Everything is small and we have to do without a lot of conveniences we got used to in the US.

9. This year was the first time we 'freecycled'.  It's a website where people give away their stuff, for free!  We got a mirror, a cheese grater and a hair straightener.

10. This year was the first time we watched fireworks in November.  Everything seems so strange here... they have fireworks in November and a fair (like a county fair) in December. 

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Brandon & Emily

Orchestral Notes

Royal Festival Hall decorated for Christmas with the Eye in the background

The past few weeks for Brandon and I have been filled with lovely sounds of orchestral music!  I have really missed orchestra music in the past few years, being surrounded by band music in Princeton.  There is just something so much more expressive and intimate with orchestra music, that a wind ensemble just cannot replicate.  Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy band music too, directing the 5th grade band in Princeton is still one of my most precious memories!  But nothing compares to a beautiful symphony orchestra!

Last week we went to the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE for short...).  They are not your typical orchestra.  They perform on period instruments (so trumpets and horns without valves...wooden flutes...baroque oboes, etc.) and they offer performances in many different settings.  We went to one of their "The Night Shift" concerts.  It is aimed for students and young professionals, and those who don't enjoy the 'stuffiness' often associated with orchestral music....

The Night Shift logo on the wall, with Val's hand shadow

Our group at The Night Shift concert, Val, Brandon, Sarah, Manuela and me

The concert began at 9:00 in the bar area of the performance hall with an acoustic set.  He performed some singer-songwriter type stuff for a hour while everyone chilled and enjoyed some drinks.  We then moved into the auditorium to see the orchestra at 10:00.  The orchestra was already on stage, they were chatting with each other and warming-up.  We were greeted by the 'announcer' who introduced the orchestra and the first piece.  It was a Mendelssohn Concerto for 2 Piano-fortes, played on actual piano-fortes rather than the usual grand piano.  They then played Beethoven's 8th Symphony (one of his lesser known symphonies).  The entire time they performed without a traditional conductor.  In between each movement (which is usually a time of uncomfortable silence...) they allowed the audience to clap, and they had different members of the orchestra discuss what we were about to hear from the next movement.  While that can sometimes be patronizing (i.e. for little kids..."This is what the clarinet sounds like...") it was informative and interesting.  Following the performance, a DJ was set up to play in the bar area for another hour or so.  However by this point Brandon and I were ready to go home, as it was already 11:00 and on a "school night."  But overall, it was such a cool experience to see an orchestra in a new performance setting.  I love what the OAE was trying to accomplish with this performance and I hope to attend many more of their performances in the future.

The OAE with the piano-fortes in the front

Bus ride home after a great concert

Last night, I got to perform in the Goldsmiths Sinfonia Orchestra.  For the first time in four years I played principal oboe in one of the pieces!  It was Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliette Suite.  It's such an amazing feeling to perform again with an orchestra.  Thankfully, I have another chance to perform on Tuesday with the Goldsmiths Chamber Orchestra.  I will try and get a picture of that one, since we forgot to bring the camera to last night's performance.

And tonight, we will be seeing the London Philharmonic Orchestra performing some more contemporary pieces.  Their feature soloist tonight is Evelynn Glennie, who is a deaf percussionist.  I am super excited to see her perform, as she has incredible talent, despite the fact she cannot even hear what she is playing.  She uses the vibrations of the instruments to hear in her own way.  So cool!

I am very blessed to have all these orchestral sounds around me.  Stay tuned for our next blog post where Brandon will tell you all about his adventures with the shakuhachi flute!

Em

First Thanksgiving not in the US

So, Brandon and I spent Thanksgiving day working and going to class.  I even had a job interview on Thanksgiving morning!  I applied for a job as a student blogger at Goldsmiths working on a brand new project they are starting called "Inside Goldsmiths."  I am supposed to hear back from them next week if I got a spot on the team.  It sounds like a cool job, I would get to attend events at Goldsmiths and around London (which I'm pretty much doing already...) and then blog about them!  On top of that they mentioned they would train the students in photography, video editing and creative writing.  Sounds like an amazing job, but I'll have to wait and hear the results from them later this week.

Anyway, after attending Ethnomusicology class, we worked as Student Ambassadors for a post-graduate open house.  This was for prospective post-graduate students to learn more about Goldsmiths.  I had the best job of the night - stand by the free chocolate/coffee/tea table and give people goodies and talk to them about life at Goldsmiths.  It was great to meet new people and tell them about studying here as a post-graduate student.

Even though Thanksgiving day was kind-of a bust, we did manage to have two wonderful Thanksgiving meals with people we have met.  The first was on Wednesday, with another American girl we met in the first week on campus named Bri.  She invited us to her dorm kitchen where we ate a festive meal with other post-grads.

Thanksgiving number one

 On Friday we had an amazing 'around the world' meal with the fellow Ethnomusicologists!  (It was also to celebrate a birthday of one of them).  We had dishes from the UK, Portugal, Colombia, Italy, Belgium and Finland (along with the "famous" Sundin family corn casserole!!). The meal was then followed by hours of music jam sessions and sharing our favorite songs with each other.  It was such a great end to the week!

A dinner from around the world!

I wish I had a picture of our whole group, but I am waiting for my friend to send them to me (I did not take any...oops!)

We are so blessed to have gotten to know all these brilliant people.  I am so thankful to have this opportunity to study in London and be surrounded by so much culture!  I was also glad to share the tradition of Thanksgiving with people who have never celebrated before! I hope everyone in the States had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Stay tuned for the next blog post, where we will share our recent experience at the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment concert....let's just say I've never been to an orchestra concert quite like this one, and Brandon's venture into playing Shakuhachi.

Emily (ed. Brandon)

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 :))