Patrick Abroad

First day in Hong Kong

2010-09-09T10:56:00.001-05:00

Some quick thoughts before sleep overtakes me:

- Hong Kong smells like Brazil. more on this later
- the views from both my apartment and my company's offices are spectacular. Overall, the building in which IMC's Hong Kong offices are in looks like it came out of some spy movie.
- I planned this morning to walk in what I thought was the general direction of the office until I attracted the attention of a cabbie. By the time I found an available cab, he pointed me to the office a block away.
- Based on one day, reports of Hong Kong's crowdedness are greatly exaggerated. Many people and things are vertical, yes, but I was envisioning packed packed sidewalks, and I haven't seen that yet. (disclaimer: sample size = 1 day.)
- the pedestrian escalators are quite interesting
- I went to McDonalds for dinner. Double cheeseburgers here are almost indistinguishable from their American counterparts.
- I still need to get used to the fact that the Hong Kong dollar is worth about 10-12 cents. Most other foreign currencies I have dealt with (euro, pound, Brazilian real) have much closer value to the dollar. But here a double cheeseburger is listed as $30, which really is just $3-4 US.
- Smoked chicken with noodles for lunch. If you had ordered pulled chicken nachos in an American restaurant, the chicken on my order would not have been out of place.
- The streets smell richly of different generically-Asian spices, among other things. The only one I isolated today was ginger.

Pics and more narrative style comments later. I'm going to bed.

Going to Hong Kong (eventually)

2010-09-07T15:51:00.001-05:00

I am currently waiting in the United Red Carpet Club in the C Concourse of Chicago's lovely O'Hare International Airport, hoping that soon I may board a flight to Hong Kong. My flight was scheduled to depart at 12:40, but now the estimate is 6pm.

I will be working for a month in the Hong Kong office of my employer, IMC financial markets. I have fielded multiple requests to document my trip, and I plan to do so here. Fortunately this blog is named broadly enough to cover any trip to anywhere. If I ever happen to take a trip to Mars, rest assured it will be logged in this space.

Now I will return to eating chilled cheese cubes and yogurt-covered raisins, waiting for this flight.

Cargo bikes

2010-06-26T23:53:00.002-05:00

I came across a post about the rising use of 'cargo bikes' across the Pacific Northwest, specifically Portland. The variety of bikes pictured is quite interesting. While in Amsterdam last year, I saw many similar models on the streets.

In which much smoke is produced indoors, a heating device is used improperly, and labels are ambiguous

2009-08-05T16:57:00.006-05:00

On Saturday, I bought a baguette at the store. In a moment of inattention, I actually thought it was an unbaked baguette dough, ready to be popped into the oven and baked. Upon opening the package, I realized it was actually a complete baked baguette, ready to be eaten. Still, on the label there was a little glyph I perceived to indicate 'microwave' and the words '6-8 minuten'.

Now, we have a funky combo oven/other heating options appliance. I'm sure it's super useful for urban European living, which usually puts a premium on space. Here in our apartments, however, we could easily dedicate half of our living room to an elaborate shrine for this combined cooking appliance (CCA) without negatively affecting the livability of the place.

My roommate and I have made liberal use of the CCA for our delicious one-euro frozen pizzas, albeit only on one setting, which we empirically determined to most closely match a standard American definition of oven. That setting has this symbol on it:

In attempting to find a microwave setting, I fiddled around with the dial and found one setting that roomie and I thought made suitably microwave-like lights and noises. The LED display let me set a time. I split the difference indicated on the package and put it on for 7 minutes. I then went to take a quick shower and roomie went to his computer in the other room. About halfway through the shower, I noted that the bread was smelling quite good.

Less than a minute later, I heard the smoke alarm go off and quickly ended the shower to see what was up. I opened the bathroom door and emerged into a completely smoke-filled room.

Three days later, our room still smells like burnt material. Amoong other options, our CCA apparently has the equivalent of 'oven', 'microwave', and 'two GIANT lasers and the sun,' as indicated by this helpful symbol:

When we opened the CCA to inspect the damage, this is what we found:

The baguette was completely black through and through. Maybe I'm just ignorant about cooking, but I'm reasonably sure that neither microwaves nor ovens go from lickable-without-repercussions to fill-the-room-with-smoke in seven minutes.

Overall, it was a learning experience: don't experiment with hot things, don't trust labels, and if I were ever to make a CCA, think very hard before adding a giant laser option, and if you absolutely must, label it unambiguously.

Or, maybe the real lesson is:don't put baguettes in the oven ;)

America vs Amsterdam

2009-08-02T15:26:00.005-05:00

So, the trader-trainees finished their training last week and headed back to America today. There was a farewell-trainees party at a faux beach bar in the middle of town. It was a nice place, but the beach was mostly an excuse for oversized outdoor furniture, boardwalks, and bars. Still, the food was good and the drink was plentiful.

Anyway, keeping in mind that the traders get to go back to America today, and we get to experience another week of wonderful Amsterdam, I thought I'd put up a couple things I miss, or will miss, about each place.

Things I will miss about Amsterdam:

Public, outdoor urinals
I'll try to get a picture of these. Really, they're a great idea, I promise. Especially since most public restrooms aren't free. Maybe in the US women's rights groups would sue for discrimination (not making that up... it's actually happened concerning sports stadiums). I just hope they don't empty straight into the canals, like the houseboats do.

Bicycles as a primary, casual means of transport and commuting
As I've mentioned, many many people here cycle to work, in suits and stuffy corporatewear. Its different than in the US, though; the bikes are primarily made for comfort and easy transportation. They are heavy, and many come standard with lights and racks for transporting things. You'll also see weird bikes with large wagon-sized buckets in the front for children, and children's seats up between the handlebars. The typical Dutch bike is a Clydesdale, while typical American commuting bikes are more like thoroughbreds. My bike is very similar to the blue bike in the picture, while the bikes that could carry a sandbox are in the foreground.

FEBO... in principle, mostly
FEBO is a fastfood chain seen all over the place in downtown Amsterdam which primarily consists of a large wall of food in heatlamps behind coin-op doors. You put coins in, and the door unlocks. While that may seem yucky, the food is really hot and usually hasn't been sitting there that long... and if you're walking around downtown Amsterdam looking for munchies late at night, chances are you aren't going to taste the difference anyway. Also, the Burger Kings here can take forever if you're unlucky, but you're pretty much guaranteed to be in and out of a FEBO in under 30 seconds. Some people don't like Dutch-style burgers, which taste a bit meatloaf-y to Americans, but I don't mind them.

Dutch fries with their frite-sauce
Dutch French fries are made good, hot, and tasty, and they're served on the street and in nice restaurants. What's more, they come with a tangy mayonnaise-like sauce that actually tastes good, unlike the bland mayo of the states. Win-win-win.

Not the smell of weed
There was a novelty factor of just getting a giant whiff of weed hitting you and being like "haha! weed is legal here!" in the middle of an otherwise pleasant walk around downtown, but now it's just annoying. And its not just downtown, either. You can be walking along calm canals and just get punched in the face with the smell.

Being able to order "beer" and be satisfied with whatever comes back
Heineken is definitely not my favorite of beers. In fact, I probably prefer Miller Lite over Heineken. Regardless, when I'm in Europe I can simply order "beer" and have no qualms or worries about the quality of the product I will be served. Also, it helps that I just have to know one word, and beer is pretty much understood in any language.

Having justification to feel slightly out of my element
85% of Dutch people speak English, so it really isn't any problem to approach any proprietor and start speaking in English. That being said, much of Dutch is unintelligible in writing, and there are cultural differences as well: I still wouldn't feel confident navigating the European train system. It was like this the first couple days in Chicago too; knowing which train to take, how much to pay for the train, where to find a meal, etc. Here I can just stammer and speak English slowly, and people will understand that I'm not a dullard and just a clueless tourist. In Chicago I won't have any such recourse and will have to just look silly til I get the hang of things.

Things I miss about the US:

Trashbags and trashcans all over
Europe is not big on trash; their trash bags and trash cans are smaller. In America, we like everything big, including our trash cans. I'm not sure if they're bigger because we throw more things away, or we throw more things away because its so easy and convenient. Either way, the end result is that for Americans in Europe, throwing things away is NOT easy. Whereas in American public places, trash cans are all over the place, they are few and far between in Amsterdam. Being the conscientious non-litterer that I am, this results in me carrying a FEBO wrapper, an empty water bottle, and napkin most of the way home before I cross paths with a trash can.

Not paying for restrooms
In Europe, many public restrooms are 50 Euro cents or more for access. This would never fly in America. And they're not any cleaner for being not free.

Decently sized drinking glasses and not paying for water at restaurants
American people have healthy thirst levels. Apparently, Europeans are camels in disguise, accustomed to going long periods without drinking much water, and conditioned to only drink water in half-ounce increments. Truth be told, for our 2 person apartment, we have 13 sets of 6 drinking receptacles... margarita glasses, whiskey glasses, janever glasses, drinking glasses, 4-5 different types of wine glasses, etc., but not a one is actually a decent water size. (For those of you who were counting... yes, our apartment actually has 78 glasses for two people)

Also, if you order water at a restaurant, much of the time you'll get a bottled-water 1-liter bottle made of glass. For all the eco-aware posturing of Europe, transporting individual liters of water in ridiculously thick glass bottles seems a tad wasteful. And they probably charge 13 euros for the water too.

Residential air conditioning
Truth be told, residences in the Netherlands probably need air conditioning maybe 2-3 days out of the year. However, we happened to arrive on exactly those two days, and trying to sleep off jetlag when its really hot doesn't help. In any case, sleeping in A/C is something to which I'm looking forward upon my arrival to the states.

Not having a weird, semi-euro accent
As long as I can remember, I've tended to mirror and reflect the speech patterns of those with whom I'm conversing. In this trip to Amsterdam I've understandably been conversing with many non-English speakers. Because of this, I've adopted an odd speech cadence where I pause in the middle of my sentences and then finish it quickly, mirroring the non-English speakers who pause to find the right words for the rest of the sentence. Also, I'll end many sentences with an slight elevation of tone, mirroring the English of those who are implicitly seeking validation for the correctness of their sentences.

Stores with friendly closing hours
Shops here close early. Almost everything is closed before we leave work, and usually not open yet by the time we leave. Conveniently, the grocery store is open til 8pm or so. Except on Sundays, when it doesn't open at all.

So, that's a short version of my observations of day-to-day differences between Amsterdam and the US. As much as I like it, I'm excited to get back to the States soon.

Belgium, Cooking, Oudekerk, and more photos I found.

2009-07-27T17:17:00.004-05:00

Going through the pictures on my camera, I realized I had totally forgotten I had taken a (very few) pictures during the bike tour and ensuing whiskey-tasting. They can be seen here. One of those is a historical drawbridge, and another a dome of some historical import that escapes me.

Also, I put up some pictures of my attempts at cooking stir fry. The first time, I could only find pre-cooked rice. It was yellow and flavorful enough, but lacked real... rice-ness. The second time, I started the chicken, added veggies, stirred in a coconut curry sauce, added some water, and let some of it simmer off for awhile. Meanwhile, I made jasmine rice, which turned out decently, if a tad smushy. For most of the simmer time I was afraid I had burnt the sauce, as the concoction started smelling slightly acrid. I would've taken it off, but I had added too much water initially and needed it to simmer off. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded, and the meal turned out deliciously. Now, here's to hoping coconut curry sauces are widely available in the US...

Also, out of pure laziness, I posted the entirety of my pictures from Belgium, as well as pictures I took at the Oudekerk this past weekend. My roommate and I visited the Oudekerk and took a tower tour as well. The church is one of the oldest in Amsterdam, very bare inside, and the floor is composed entirely of tombstones, some of which featured large seals in bas-relief. Not exactly the most accessibility-minded flooring choice :)

Disclaimer: I'm guessing most of these pictures are largely boring, since they have few people and mostly just things and places.

Pictures of Belgium

Pictures of the Oudekerk

Pictures from the bike tour

Pictures of cooking attempts

Company outings

2009-07-19T16:37:00.002-05:00

So, since I've been so lazy about posting to this blog, I'm about two weeks behind on noteworthy events to share. So, I'll start with somewhere around two weeks ago.

In order to blend in seamlessly with the local Amsterdam-ians, my company issued all trainees bicycles, a standard mode of transportation here for all demographics. We're working at the World Trade Center in Amsterdam, and every day we see countless businesspeople cycling to work in corporatewear. Incidentally, bikes tend to be somewhat expensive, and therefore have a tendency to be stolen by junkies to be resold. And that is what happened to my bike two days after I was issued it.

On our first Saturday here, our company arranged a social event which involved a bike tour of Amsterdam, followed by a whiskey-tasting session at a small local whiskey bar.

It is clear from observing traffic patterns in Amsterdam that the Dutch expect you to know what you're doing. Between the commonplace sidewalk and road, there is almost always a bicycle lane. In addition, many roads also have tram tracks in the middle. In addition, Vespas and other scooter-like devices can travel either on bicycle lanes or the road, and cars can travel on the tram tracks when the trams aren't. Overall, it is much more complex than most American roads I've encountered, and cycling along is fun, although it can be unclear when you should cross the road.

We saw some interesting sights along the bike tour, including the Rijksmuseum, the Anne Frank House, and the red light district, among other things.

After the bike tour we went to the whiskey bar, which serves more than 1300 different whiskies. We tried six different whiskies, among them Glenfiddich, Balvenie, Isla, and ending with a LaPhroaig 40% and a LaPhroaig 58%. Along the way, the proprietor and owner explained the history of whiskey, how it was made, and what determined the flavor. He burnt a piece of peat for us and told us stories of him explaining to Scottish customs officials that the 13 bottles of whiskey he was carrying back with him were for personal use only. He passed around a sample of 77% newspirit, which is the whiskey straight after the distillation process and before it ages in the casks--awful stuff. Overall, it was great to learn more about whiskey and get a lesson in the variations that exist between the different brands.

After the bike tour and whiskey-tasting, we went to a nearby sports-cafe and, this being July 4, ordered American-inspired food. Burger for me, ribs for the guy next to me, and Buds for some. After that was a pub, after which was a club, and in between biking between those places, I locked it up in Rembrandtplein, from whence it was stolen and very decidely not-where-I-left-it when I got back. This resulted in me running quite a bit the next week, sometimes to keep up with guys on bikes, other times to compensate for waking up a little too late.

Fast-forward two weeks to last saturday: we had another company-sponsored social event: bicycle boats on the canals of Amsterdam. We piled into eight four-person boats and proceeded to clumsily avoid speeding tourist boats by paddling furiously and bouncing off the canal walls. Mix in some blind canal intersections, lousy steering capabilities, anemic acceleration, and a light rain, and you've got a fun time :).

We all made it out alive, although one boat took a wrong turn and took quite a bit longer than the rest. We stopped for a bite to eat at a local place famous for its croquets, off of Rembrandtplein. It was called something like... Van Dobbels. Good food.

After the boat-biking, we went 'lazergamen' or something like that, which translated into laser-tag in the murky basement of a Brazilian bar. Fun stuff, and I got first place.

After lazergamen, some of us went with one of the Amsterdam traders to a place which served traditional Dutch liqeurs and brandy wines. I tried a blackberry brandy wine, which was very very, VERY sweet. I liked the whiskey better.

This morning around noon, my roommate and I hosted a pancake and breakfast sandwich brunch for anyone in the flats who wanted to stop by. We had a turnout of maybe 10-12 people. I manned the pancakes, which mostly turned out like pancakes, although a few ended up more suspiciously tortilla- or crepe-like. Very enjoyable, the food was great, and we now have a good supply of eggs leftoever for breakfast next week.

In the weekend intervening, I went to Belgium, but this post is too long already.

Amsterdam

2009-07-01T06:46:00.004-05:00

My last post was right after I returned from my semester abroad in London in Fall 2007. Since I last wrote, I completed the last three semesters of college, found a job, and moved to Chicago. Last Monday I started work as a software developer for the trading firm IMC-Chicago and the first thing they did was send me to Amsterdam for five weeks of training! Rough life, I know :)

The direct Chicago-Schipol flight was uneventful, and I think it is the first time I've actually been in a 747. Amsterdam is 7 hours ahead of US Central Time and we got out of the airport around 7am. We were met at the airport and taken to our executive apartments, which are very European, very accommodating, and huge. The shower here is about as large as my entire bathroom in Chicago, and the kitchen here is about the size of my living room. It's almost a pain walking around the place because everything is so spread out.

See pictures of the apartment here

Some of our first tasks were getting Dutch pre-pay phones and groceries. Despite the odd layout of the store, the latter was not very difficult as most Dutch nouns seem to consist of a common root as their English counterparts and a liberal sprinkling of -ij, -met, -uik, etc. The frozen pizza was cheap at ~1.5 Euros, but not bad nonetheless. We noticed that almost all the food in the store was prepackaged; there were fewer bulk options for vegetables and the like. I picked up some spinach, field greens mix, potato salad-ish stuff, some Heineken, sliced pineapple, and frozen pizzas.

I'm here with two other new hire recent college graduates and a couple other new hires not straight out of college. The former group and I were trying to stay awake through the whole day and get onto Amsterdam time, but then I dozed off on the couch and when I woke up they were gone. Although they were all sleeping, I had no idea where they went, and the paranoid part of my brain was telling me they were already partying at some bar.

The days are very long here; when I woke up after dozing on the couch I estimated it to be about six or seven, but it was actually nine-thirty. Similarly, the sun rose at about 4, and my roommate and I were both awake. Suffice to say, we aren't on Amsterdam time yet.

Anyway, I plan to post about some of the sights and events I encounter in my five weeks here, so we'll see how well that goes.

Later!

St. Peter's Basilica and Square

2007-12-24T19:32:00.000-06:00

I loved St. Peter's Basilica. But pictures are worth 1000 words, so here's the best of my pics from St. Peter's.

And here's a video I recorded while standing on one of the foci of the ellipse of St. Peter's Square. All the chairs were set up for the Wednesday audience (we were there on Tuesday), and John and I had to hop the fence to get to the focus, at which point all the columns on one side of the square line up.

Home! In South Dakota!

2007-12-21T17:55:00.001-06:00

After traversing Europe, I am back in the wide open spaces of South Dakota! After a hectic finals week combined with moving out of our flats in London, the trip across the Atlantic was long.

Many of us did not sleep the night before we left, having to finish packing, clean our flats, eat leftover food, and be ready to leave by 5:45am. After spending about 5 hours in Heathrow, our flight left at noon-ish and followed the sun on a 9-hour flight, thus arriving in Chicago at 3pm local time, exhausted.

I picked up a connection to Sioux Falls without much hassle. My baggage, however, decided to hook up with a hot pink tote from Atlanta and spent the night in O'Hare, only to stumble through the door this morning, shamefacedly averting my gaze. I am happy to report, however, that after a preliminary physical, it didn't appear to have contracted any diseases or suffered any physical damage from its wild night away from home.

All is well in South Dakota and I'm having a good time relaxing and spending time with the siblings. I will be catching up on posting pictures and blogging about some of my trips during the second half of the semester. Here's hoping a happy holidays to all!

The Isle of Wight smells like Brazil

2007-12-04T06:10:00.001-06:00

I attended a retreat this weekend on the Isle of Wight, which is a 4-hour bus + ferry ride from central London. We stayed at a retreat house in the middle of the island, situated in 'Paradise Valley.' The place was quaint, and the bathrooms, kitchen, and scenery reminded me of Brazil. Gently rolling peaceful green hills were a welcome respite from London's regular rectangular tyranny. Although it rained quite a bit, we were still able to explore the nearby areas during the brief spells of sunlight. We walked to a nearby castle and took a trip to 'The Needles,' a geological formation off the tip of the western end of the island. It was incredibly windy at the outcropping, and we all got soaked on the walk back to the bus, but we also saw a glassblower at work making vases and basked in the warmth of the hot glass, which ameliorated the situation somewhat.

Anyway, this next coming week entails lots of work for me as classes are wrapping up before finals. Pretty soon I'll be home in South Dakota, and we're all feeling the pressure to see more of London as our days here draw to an end.

Update: Here's a rough map showing the locations of different places we visited on the Isle.

View Larger Map

Dublin today

2007-11-09T03:27:00.000-06:00

I'm heading to Dublin for the weekend right after class today. Going to go see the sights and some good friends who are studying abroad in Notre Dame's Dublin program. Should be wonderful.

Incidentally, since Fall Break I rotated into a new and different Arts class. 'Intro to London Theatre' was replaced by 'English Composers'. The first class last week was wonderful; we listened to some Gregorian Chant/Jazz by Jan Garbarek, 'Spem in Alium' by Thomas Tallis, and the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar. My favorite piece was 'Spem In Alium', but I enjoyed all the pieces enough to borrow the CDs from the professors and put them all on my iPod.

Tallis' 'Spem in Alium' is a 40-voice polyphonic piece from the 1500s, and it is haunting and amazing. After this weekend I'll find a clip to post and share.

Rome Pictures

2007-11-04T18:07:00.000-06:00

I've posted pictures from most of Rome, including the Vatican museum but not including St. Peter's Basilica or the Square.

Pictures from Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia

2007-11-04T16:54:00.000-06:00

UPDATE: Sagrada Familia is a cathedral in progress, also by Gaudi. My pictures are here, and embedded.

Parc Guell is an interesting park-on-a-hill in Barcelona by Gaudi. It has lots of organic-looking columns and structures.

Anyway, the album is here, and also embedded below.

Back Home in London

2007-10-29T06:26:00.000-05:00

After travelling Southern Europe for nine days, I arrived in London from Athens on Sunday night after 10 hours and 3 connections on Alitalia. We visited Barcelona, Rome, Florence, and Athens. s I'll soon be posting pictures from and accounts of the different cities we visited. I took more than 800 pictures on the trip, so I'll be spending sometime cutting that down to a more manageable size and posting the good ones.

In Roma

2007-10-22T11:28:00.000-05:00

We arrived in Roma yesterday and took naps, then went out for pasta and gelato. Today we hit up the Colosseum, Michelangelo's Moses, St. John Lateran, and the Roman Forum. Tomorrow is the Vatican, Trevi, Spanish Steps, and a sunrise breakfast on a hill overlooking Rome, though not necessarily in that order.

Barcelona was great. Visited Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia, a park and a church by Gaudi, a famous Spanish artist with very organic and somewhat droopy style. Reminded me of Dalì and Dr. Seuss. Pictures inside Sagrada were wonderful, even if it isn't finished and won't be for a long while.

FYI, Spanish is the second language of Barcelona, the first being Catalon (not sure on spelling), a regional dialect close to Spanish.

Well, I'm off to eat a pasta dinner!

Leaving for Fall Break Trip

2007-10-18T15:12:00.000-05:00

Well, I should be packed, seeing as friends and I are leaving for a 9 day traversal of southern Europe tomorrow. But no worries, I'll get around to it. Be prepared for plenty of pictures when I get back!

Tomorrow we're heading to Barcelona, Rome, Florence, and Athens. I'm excited!
But first I have to write a 1000 word review of two of the plays I attended for class.
W00t. Pack. Sleep. Alarm. Shower, Tea, Toast. Class. Fall Break!

In the meantime, here's an ominous picture of London's omnipresent CCTV system. London is the most CCTV'ed city in the world, thanks to IRA terrorism in the 80s. You see these little things all over the place.

Dinner and Vanilla Ice

2007-10-16T19:19:00.000-05:00

Last night two of my flatmates and I made a feastly meal consisting of pasta and sauce, rosemary chicken, rosemary fried potatos, sweet corn, and bread. Then we left to see Vanilla Ice in person at a club, which was great except for it being too crowded to be enjoyable at all. He did some newer stuff and then, of course, 'Ice Ice Baby' and the 'Ninja Rap' from the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie of the early 1990s. Enjoy the food pics!

Schoolwork!

2007-10-13T10:45:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted anything lately because I've been super-busy. I have two papers due within 4 days of each other, but come early next week I'm planning on catching up on a bunch of topics.
Thanks for your patience!
In the meantime, here are a couple pictures from our trip to Windsor a couple weeks ago.

Field trip to St. Martin's-in-the-Field

2007-10-04T19:11:00.001-05:00

For my 'Christianity in Britain' class today we went to the church of St. Martin's-in-the-Field, one of the first churches built expressly for Anglican worship, as opposed to being appropriated and modified from Roman Catholic roots. It is located on Trafalgar Square and is currently in the final phases of renovation.

Many elements of the Church of England's style of worship are evident in the design of the building. First, the building has excellent acoustics due to Anglicans' emphasis on sermons and 'the word'. Second, there are 'box seats' of sorts, balcony-level seats that face inwards where nobles paid annual rent for their seats. The main body of the church was for the plebiscite masses and had no pews. There is also the Monarch's Box and the Admiralty's Box, special seats for those two entities when they attend the church.

The church is very plain: white with gold trim. The trim was a sort of low-key version of the kind in St. Paul's.

Today the church has a strong social outreach program which has its origins in WWI. British soldiers would leave for and return from the battlefront from Charing Cross station in Trafalgar Square, and so St. Martin's ministered to the soldiers while they were waiting for trains.

The church is also used almost daily as a concert hall for classical music, as a way to raise money for its £2m in annual maintenance costs. It also operates a restaurant on the premises.

Tour of the National Theatre

2007-09-29T19:09:00.001-05:00

On Friday I took a backstage tour of National Theatre with my class. It is a very interesting place. The idea for a national theatre, a focal point for the country's drama scene, had been kicking around since the 1840s, plans finally got rolling in the 1940s, and the building opened in the 1970s (and it shows! the architecture is nothing to call home about).
The theatre complex consists of three theatres: the Olivier, which is the main stage where we saw St. Joan the other day; the Lyttleton, a smaller theatre, and a studio theatre, whose name I forget.

The Olivier is named after Laurence Olivier, who was a driving force behind the idea of a national theatre and was the theatre's first artistic director. It is a circular theatre with 118 degrees of seating around the stage, which is one of only two revolving drum theatres in the world, the other being in Vienna.

The National Theatre is a repertory theatre, meaning that more than one show is shown in each venue at a time, which often requires daily set changes. The Lyttleton theatre was designed with this in mind. Entire sets can be constructed on casters on the right stage or rear stage and then wheeled into place and lowered so as to be flush to stage level. This can allow two sets to be swaped easily, and they often have a third set that is easily taken apart and moved around the other sets.

The studio theater is incredibly flexible. It is a rectangular room with two levels of balconies ringing three sides of the room and reconfigurable seating on the floor. Plays have been held on the long transverse of the room, the short transverse, and there have even been plays held in the balconies with the audience in the middle of the room.

The theatre makes most of their sets and props in-house. We went through the workshops and saw the giant canvas frame and three movable bridges they use to paint the backdrops, as well as some of the more interesting props they've made recently. We also saw in-progress models of the horse puppets they will be using for an upcoming production called 'War Horse', about WWI seen through the eyes of a horse. Some of the horses will have three people inside: one in back, one in front, and one for the head, which will have many points of articulation. Some models will have a saddle and rider on 'horse'-back.

It was interesting to go on this tour and see how much work goes into putting on these performances. The theatre has approximately 150-200 fulltime employees, and is funded through box-office sales, sponsorships, and government backing. I am considering returning there to catch another play in the near future.

UPDATE: the dear mother found virtual tours of the National Theatre. Enjoy!

Imperial War Museum

2007-09-29T07:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday some friends and I went to the Imperial War Museum. Its subject is mostly from WWI onwards, as far as I could tell. In the lobby there were some impressive pieces of military hardware, including an 80ft tall terrestrial periscope tower used by the Germans in WWI, and one of the first British tanks deployed in WWI in an attempt to cut the stalemate. Also of interest were the German and Italian one-man submarines used in WWII. The German variant could carry two torpedoes, one on either side, while the Italian variant had a detachable bomb that could be detached onto the hulls of targets.

I spent most of my time in the basement level, where there were exhibits on WWI, WWII, D-Day, and a 'Conflicts since 1945' section. There were also sections covering crimes against humanity and the Holocaust. There was a walk-in lifesize mockup of trenches to walk through, which was rather interesting. They piped in smells and it was much colder in that darkened room, effectively making a more eery and uncomfortable experience, which was further amplified by well-placed speakers and life-size figures of solders. Very well done.

There were also interesting displays about the 'secret agent' aspects of war, including covert weapons and a display on the SAS' role in the 1980 embassy hostage crisis in London in which hostages were taken in the Iranian embassy. The SAS stormed in after the hostages started getting shot.

It was an interesting museum to say the least.

Evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral

2007-09-28T13:12:00.000-05:00

Today I went to evening service, called 'Evensong', at St. Paul's Cathedral. Attending the evening prayer service (I think it's the equivalent to 'Vespers' in some Catholic circles) is a free way to get inside the cathedral and walk around a little, because otherwise you get charged £9, which is a bit pricey. The interior of St. Paul's is the most beautiful church I have ever visited.
Most historic churches/cathedrals/abbeys feature varying shades of gray and perhaps brown in the interior in modern times. At one time they were brightly painted and colorful, but the paint has been worn from hundreds of years of disrepair and lack of maintenance and restorative work. While the cathedrals are incredibly stately and majestic, they're still... gray.

The interior of St. Paul's, on the other hand, is set in a stunning black, white, and gold motif. The stonework is white marble, the floors resemble a diagonally-oriented chessboard with black and white squares. Tombs and statues are in black. The contrast is breathtaking, and we haven't even gotten to the golden crowning and dome yet.
Normally, when I've seen gold in churches, I tend to think it is a little overdone and gaudy, or at least that's what I will think now that I've seen St. Paul's. The Basilica of the Sacred Heart, on Notre Dame's campus, for example, has gold features that seem very heavy compared to its tasteful yet ornate use in St. Paul's. Add to this the dark wood in the quire and the large amount of light let in through the mostly unstained windows, and the view inside this massive cathedral is truly breathtaking.

I'll be heading back there sometime soon to actually pay the entrance fee and get up into the giant dome, as I've heard the view is amazing from up there. The good view isn't a coincidence: the City of London has strict zoning requirements restricting height anywhere near St. Paul's so that it remains a prominent part of the landscape, which is what drove all the skyscrapers to the Canary Wharf area. This happens to also create wonderful views from St. Paul's dome.
I've also heard that you have to see St. Paul's before you go see St. Peter's in Rome, otherwise it's anticlimactic. I'll be travelling to Rome in a couple of weeks, so I'm pumped!

St. Joan at the National Theatre

2007-09-26T19:24:00.000-05:00

Last night I went to see the classic English play 'St. Joan' by George Bernard Shaw at the Royal National Theatre. Shaw was inspired by the canonization of Joan in 1920. This was a big hit in the 20s and 30s, and apparently every actress would have died to play Joan in that time period.
While the play may be a classic, this adaptation was not classical. This was a modern, 'artsy' production, but not in a bad sense. From what I could tell, it was Shaw's play, but presented differently. Battle scenes were represented by banging chairs on the floor and sticks on corrugated aluminum, while the transitions were set to haunting eastern-inspired vocals.

The play itself was interesting, but a bit long-winded. One scene had three people debating at a table for at least 20 minutes, and there was at least one more scene with the same problem. Perhaps the British accent impeded my ability to follow the dialogue effectively, but the emotion behind the dialogue seemed forced and over-acted. The main actress, in addition, adopted a forced country accent which did not help her character, which was definitely played as more of a madwoman than one of strong conviction. Her acting, too, seemed over the top.

The production was interesting, but not riveting. The set was imaginative and the style was interesting, but the acting fell through on key parts. Also, the seats were uncomfortable.

Anyway, we're planning a trip to Cardiff in Wales for the weekend. Should be a good time!

Royal Residences

2007-09-23T15:07:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend we visited both Buckingham Palace in London and Windsor Castle in Windsor, probably the two most renowned residences of the English monarchy. Neither residence allowed pictures indoors, and both required steep admittance fees, even for students, but they were phenomenal. Buckingham Palace, much of which designed by the venerable John Nash, a famous English architect, possesses an ornate interior and a somewhat unassuming exterior, while Windsor Castle, originally built as a fortress on a high bluff overlooking the country, is remarkable for its formidable outward stance characterized by turrets, cannon, and imposing stone walls.

The walls of both residences are covered in beautiful paintings by famous artists. Buckingham's great room was fifty meters long and the walls were covered in paintings, mostly acquired by one king who apparently shared my appreciation for Canaletto, as almost every other painting in the room was by him. Windsor's collection mostly consisted of portraits of the royal family by notable, known artists such as Van Dyk. There were a few here and there with other subjects, especially in the King's Bedchamber.

The king never really slept in the room, but rather was used as the setting for the Levée, or formal waking ceremony of the king, a practice made notorious by the Sun King of France, Louis XIV. I didn't know the English had also practiced this ceremony, but I suppose the royalty had their cliques and shared best practices. According to Wikipedia, the court of Charles II adopted the practice in 1762.

I will link to pictures later.