In the Edmonds School District we have a very cool program called Summer Music School.  I think that Nicole went once in elementary school but Suzie and I never did. It was one of the summer camp things that we never got to do because we couldn't afford it.  And like other missed opportunities growing up we made  up for it by getting to work the camps later.  My high school band director got me on staff as a college volunteer the summer after graduation.  It was that year at camp that I decided that I loved singing jazz and switched schools and focus from band to choir.  Kind of a big deal.

The following year Nicole and Suzie were on staff and we sang Ooo Shoo Be Do Be in a quartet with Joe DeMiero called Joe and the Reese's Pieces. The following year I missed out on due to a family reunion but I was back in 2000 when we moved from Terrace to Meadowdale and I first got to work with Kathy Moore. We still hang out, she is awesome. 2001 I was on my mission and then I was right back in 2002.

The for a few summers I didn't hear from them, or I was taking summer classes at UW. Then in 2007 the summer after my first year teaching they asked me to be the camp choir director.  I freaked.  That's a big job. Of course I did it but I felt horribly insecure the whole time as though I was on trial in front of all these other teachers I had known my whole life. But actually it's great networking, working with other teachers and it's really great to see the campers grow up and become staffers.  My first year teaching I took my junior high jazz choir to do a gig at UW and the drummer for the ringer college rhythm section had been one of my campers as a 5th grader.  Whoa.

Let me pause here for a moment to outline the layout of the camp.  Camp runs from 8-1 for three weeks.  It's primarily designed for students in grades 5-9 with high school and college counselors assisting the teachers.  The first hour everyone is in camp choir.  This means the bulk of my job is motivating about 100 students, more than 50% boys and 99% instrumentalists to sing their hearts out, first thing in the morning for potentially the first time in their lives. Don't they just look enthralled?

 [Later one of my high school students said that he had his first singing experience with me at SMS.  He was one of the leads in our musical last year.  nbd.]

The campers then get to choose three electives from jazz band, jazz choir, steel drums, congas/marimba, harp, blues band, songwriting, guitar, chamber ensembles, lab band (learning a new instrument), piano and musical theater. How fun is that? Then at the end of the day they rehearse in their large groups band or orchestra.

The first or second weekend we take all the kids to march in the Edmonds 4th of July Parade. The march to one song and one cadence. The orchestra and vocal students perform a flag routine.  The fact that we pull it off every year is a minor miracle seeing as a good portion of these students have only played their instruments for a year.  

The last few years we've added a trip to Kennelly Keys where the kids go through a rotation of  a masterclass on their instrument, an improv workshop and snack/story time. Then we have the marathon day.  Back at Meadowdale it was a 12 hour day, but we've wised up since then and now it's only 8.  We had rehearsal take all the kids somewhere: EMP, bowling, roller skating etc and then bring them back for pizza and a staff concert.  

We have a final evening concert the Thursday before camp is over 

and then Friday we take all the kids down to Edmonds City Park and do another performance and BBQ.

So back to the first year that I was in charge.  Not only was I doing the Camp Choir but I was also doing jazz choir and class piano.  One of the greatest challenges has been picking the right music for such a large group with such a wide range of abilities and well ranges.  And while jazz is my specialty it took me a few years to find just the right level of jazz chart for such a young, albeit will and sophisticated group. And class piano, well I just found that horribly dull to teach.  I mean here you've got kids who have just concentrated through 3-4 hours of classes, in the summer, and now I expect them to be self motivated on the piano for 45 minutes?  Good luck with that.  The final challenge was that last hour and forty five minutes. There was a group of students who didn't fit into band or orchestra and they were all given to me.  This could included students who were vocalists who don't play an instrument, pianists, guitarists, students who were too young to have started an instrument or not ready for the big group. And it fell to me to do something with them for over an hour, everyday.  And being me I wanted it to be productive and meaningful.  After suffering through that first year I got a little more assertive and made sure that young instrumentalists got farmed out to counselors who played the right instruments so they could get some attention.  I kept the pianists.  Once I had an 8th grade boy who played drums but also wanted to work on singing.  Unfortunately I had to talk him out of it since, at the moment, he had a three note range, if that. One year I did end up with four girl singers or varying abilities and interests.  I desperately tried to find them something to sing.  I ended up teaching them Good Morning Baltimore from Hairspray complete with some very limited choreography simply to get them to sing out and get into character.  We performed our little song for the camp director who thought it was brilliant and decided that the next year I would be teaching a musical theater elective.

Alright, I'm game.  Sounds like more fun than class piano.  So last year we attempted the elementary version of Pirates of Penzance. It was of course WAY too much but we managed to present two large group scenes and I came away with a much better understanding of where to start the following year.

Teaching Summer Music is hard work.  Lol.  It's more concentrated teaching then I do during the school year.  I teach all morning and then usually head straight home and crash into an afternoon nap followed by a walk or bike ride then usually reading a whole book and watching movies with the fam.  Not bad, not bad at all.

25-26 June

After packing so much in to the previous days today was all about travel.  I was up early and checked out and headed out to Heathrow.  Heathrow is so big that it has three tube stops of it's own. Once checked in I had a few hours in the terminal to wander through shops, charge my laptop and upload pics to facebook.  After a super healthy lunch from eat I took a bus out to my plane. 

I was delighted to find that no one was sitting the seat next to me.  After sleeping for about a half an hour after take off I was rather uncomfortable with crazy swollen ankles for the rest of the flight but I distracted myself by watching movies: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Alice in Wonderland, something else that was clearly not memorable and most of The Blind Side.  Individual movies in seats are the best thing ever.  I didn't even have to resort to any of my other default activities.

Nicole and Mom picked me up at the airport.  After the heat and sunshine on London it was a little surreal to drive through an overcast grey Seattle.  We headed straight home where we hung out for the rest of the evening.  Not seeing anyone else besides family made everything feel isolated and quiet which just added to the surrealism.  

My hair had grown out so much over the past 10 months that I insisted that Nicole do something about it right away.  She had to color it all first before cutting it and let me tell you my hair is think and uses A LOT of color.  After a thorough rinse Nicole got to the cut and styling.  Suzie showed up and we all delighted in each others company and laughed too loud at things that were only moderately silly.  I was bordering on 24 hours up and feeling a bit punchy.

After a good night sleep I went about the tasks of resetting my American life: lots of email tag about getting my car insured again, to cell phone or not to cell phone, trying on all those clothes that used to be to big and sending away those that I'm really not going to wear.  Later I went online to find the Doctor Who Finale while my parents watched their favorite crime shows.  I can't handle real crime dramas.  Suzie made french toast and peanut butter chip peanut butter cookies.  She will be the death of me...well at least the fattening of me.

The first stop this morning was Holland Park.  I grabbed breakfast to go and wandered down High Street Kensington where I passed an iphone 4 queue. 

I didn't get as deep in the park as I would have liked as I was really sore from all the previous walking, but I did have quite the breakfast view.

From there I walked through a lovely neighborhood

to the Leighton House Museum. The museum is in the former home of Fredric, Lord Leighton who painted my favorite painting The Painter's Honeymoon [which is on display in Boston.]

I also like this one

and you might recognize this one

It doesn't look like much from the outside

but the inside is amazing.  I couldn't take pictures inside but you can take a virtual tour here.

At the end of the house is the Arab Hall, decorated with middle eastern tiles that Leighton collected.  A short scene from Nicholas Nickleby was filmed here- start at 8:05.

As I approached my next tube station Louise called to give me my recital marks.  She had been one of the examiners and so I wasn't able to talk to her after the performance because they were consulting. Next stop was the Lambeth Tube station, south of the Thames and a walk to the Imperial War Museum. It was huge. One of their new exhibitions was on children during wartime.  Can you imagine having to send you children out into the country, or two another country for who knows how long?

I was really moved by some propoganda posters that they had called for women in the country to take in these evacuee children.  I thought of some of the sister at church I know who would take wonderful care of these children.

Inside the museum they had an entire war era home reconstructed that you could walk through.

The lower floor of the museum was a huge maze of displays on wars, primarily WW1 to the present. My brain just couldn't take it all in.

I will say though that the cafe at the museum had the best food I have had on this trip.  They had a fantastic courgette paramsean soup. Next I took the tube to Canary Wharf where I managed to find the light rail station out to Greenwich. Canary Wharf is right in the heart of active business London.  It feels very different from the historic and tourist spots I've been hanging out in.

I didn't have a whole lot of time in Greenwich and so after a cursory walk through of the Queen's House I headed straight for the Royal Observatory on the top of the hill. After all the walking I'd already done, that last hike up to the top nearly did me in.

There was quite the queue for taking pictures on the prime meridian and so I opted instead to take pictures of the queue on the prime meridian.

At the observatory they have a planetarium that had a new show narrated by Patrick Stewart.  While this sounded like a brilliant idea, sitting in a reclining chair in a darkened room at 3:30 in the afternoon after the day that I had had ended up being a pricy nap ;)

After that it was back down the hill, no time for the National Maritime Museum, back to Westminster where I had dinner overlooking the Thames and Big Ben...and the tourists and the souvenir carts and the traffic and the pigeons. Then down the river to the Globe. We studied MacBeth junior year but that was a long time ago and reading is not the same as seeing.  I probably should have taken then hint when there were signs coming in notifying the audience that this was a ' graphic production of a brutal play.' One of the first things that I noticed was fabric stretching out from the stage across the groundlings, complete with hole through which audience members heads popped through.

Needless to say that while the acting was superb the production was far bloodier and bawdier than I was prepared for. I did however buy the DVD of the production of As You Like It that Michelle and I saw last September.

It was a bit of a trip back to the hotel and I was thankful for the 24 hour Tescos up the street for providing a much needed late night snack.

In going back through my journal I found that I didn't write a whole lot about the actual recital. I was nervous because the recitals are such a big part of the grade, each one is worth more and they mark hard. But after yesterdays rehearsal I was fairly confident that it would go as well as I was prepared for. I was third which meant that I got to sit through John's and Wei Li's before mine. I had invited a lot of people but only my coursemates and Heidi from church came. It went really well, I was pleased. My improvised solos went really well, Wei Li approved and he's a tough cookie. Man I love singing. In getting my marks later from Louise I was scored well but not as high as she thought I should have been. I was just so relieved to be done and be able to think about going home for a little while. I headed home and packed up. Felicity, one of the other masters students has to be out of the dorm housing by this weekend but hasn't found a new place. I offered that she could stay in my flat while I was gone which meant that I had to clean up a little more than if I were just leaving and coming back. It turned out that she found another place.

Before I knew that I would be going to the workshop in London last weekend I planned to squeeze in a few days before heading home.  So I was on the way to London this morning and then back to Seattle on Friday. I was up early, excited and too nervous to eat well as I crammed in the last of my packing and cleaning.  I caught a later bus that I would have liked which made me anxious about catching the train but I made it.  I was a little sad to leave my little flat.  I’m going to miss England. It’s a little weird that I’m going to be in London for a few days before leaving. It’s not as though I’m just leaving the flat and going straight home.I spent the whole train ride typing away catching up on journalling.

From Kings Cross I took the tube to Victoria Station where I waited twenty minutes to stow my stuff for the day before hotel check in. I grabbed a sandwich and paid 30p to use the loo.  Can I just say, that every time that I've had to pay to pee here it's been totally worth it and always accompanied by a song. Next was the tube to Plimco and a walk Tate Britain. I was so glad to be able to ditch my backpack at the cloak room before enjoying seeing some of my favorite paintings live and in person.

April Love by Arthur Hughes

and Mariana by John Everett Millais
 There was also a fantastic room of huge portraits by Lawrence and Sargent.  The small room was dark with the paintings lit up.  It was very striking.

I took the tube to South Kensington and collapsed on the lawn of the Natural History Musem and ate a snack.

I went in and walked through the dinosaur exhibit but the whole place was just so noisy and crowded with students that I took a few pictures and moved on.

I headed across the street to the V&A and although Michelle and I spent hours there last September I was able to find an entire wing that we hadn't gotten to.  Did you know there are seven miles of galleries in the V&A? 

In the centre of the gallery complex there's a great courtyard with a pool for paddling, so I grabbed a gelato and rested my feet.

 It was around closing time so I headed back to Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square and did a little reconnaissance souvenir shopping.  After grabbing some dinner and picking up my luggage and dragging it across town again I checked into my hotel and was delighted to find that my room was slightly larger then last time. I flopped onto the bed totally exhausted.  Today was really hot and muggy and traveling in the tube just exacerbates that.  I walked nearly 9 miles today and only racked up 9 aerobic minutes.  I must have just been dragging myself everywhere.

21 June

My student all term bus pass expired on Saturday and so I knew that to get to school today I would have to pay for the bus. I didn’t know exactly how much it would be but I knew that I would need cash. So I walked out to the bank on the corner and got £10, the smallest denomination I could get, only to find that the bus driver couldn’t/wouldn’t make change. So I walked nearly another mile along the bus route until I could make change. I got a blueberry muffin at Gregg’s to break it up and it add insult to injury the muffin was dry and lame.

Once set up in the Venue I was a little dismayed to find that there was no sound system up and so I got the galaxy [mini PA] and it actually worked really well. Everyone showed up- not exactly on time, but we were able to get everything done that I wanted to. We ran all the tunes and Louise came later to listen and offer advice. It was sounding really good which is a real relief and Louise really helped tweak some rhythm section things to get a different feel and help get the tunes out of the box. So exciting! Then the band took a break before coming back to rehease with Wei Li and I sang thorugh You Are There for Louise. I still have to think so hard about the chords and when I finished Louise suggested that I save it for the final recital because it’s not at the same standard as the other pieces in the set. That’s a load off too. Great. So I left feeling like tomorrow might actually be fun.

I was planning on attending the recital of Lisa, one of my masters students in York this evening and so instead of going home I wandered through some shops in town before catching the train. I picked up some lunch at Sainsbury’s and sat outside the library and ate.

 Unfortunately I had gotten some over ripe watermelon which gave me a bit of a belly ache and I nearly called off the evening. I headed into the library to look for some more books by the author that Sarah had recommended but they didn’t have any. I also took a little wander through the adjacent art gallery 

where I was delighted to find a Tissot and Waterhouse on display. 

I walked to the station and got on a train to York. Then wandered from that station into town to take more pictures and actually made it all the way the to great York Minster this time. It’s a bit shocking of little of the town I’ve actually seen, seeing that I go there every week. But every week I go to the same places the same way. The Minster is HUGE. The bells were ringing and I had a bit of sit down in the Minster gardens, ate a snack, took some pictures and then carried on. 

I caught a bus to campus in time for Lisa’s recital. I was a little bit shocked at how lack luster it was. A group had been rehearsing in the hall and then cut their rehearsal short at 6 and moved somewhere else so she could get set up. She then only had 15 minutes to sound check and set up. The hall, with built in organ is great for acoustic music and horrible for amplified.  She was singing through a mic plugged into an amp and the sound was dismal. There was no clarity. I wasn’t overly impressed with her band either. Apparently they play a lot of gigs together. The pianist sounded a little more classical than jazz, the drummer had a cute traveling kit and had some solid ideas but seemed out of sync with everyone else, not time wise but just banging away in spite of everyone else. The bass player was electric instead of upright, which is not preferable and the guitar player was situated off to the side a little away from the group. I’m not an expert but I don’t think that the piano and guitar were coordinating their comping. it was a little hard to hear because the piano wasn’t miked. Lisa was clearly worried about the band following the arrangements and so she spend most of her time half facing them which was lame. I wanted her to really take charge. Also she had a stand and was singing off of music. What? [Bang head against seat in front of me.] 

Note to self: when students have recitals go to their last band rehearsal to listen and offer advice, like Louise did for me. Because of the sound system her voice was just buried in the mix. Just Like A Melody started out with acoustic-electric guitar which set up a brilliant bossa groove but then the drummer came in with the super set Abersold bossa pattern and just killed the groove. I would much prefer her doing that song with just guitar, perhaps brushes on high hat. I was a bit frustrated and in chatting with her afterwards I could tell that she was too.

There were probably 10-12 people in audience. I don’t know if there was even an examiner there. If there were, I wonder how they mark these sort of things. It all just feels a little strange to me. 

From where I had flopped down in Regent's Park I walked to the nearest tube station that would get me back to King's Cross. The King’s Cross rail station is connected to St. Pancras rail station and they share a tube station. St. Pancras is the new and the terminal for the EuroStar high speed trains to the Continent. Since St. Pancras is new I decided to check out their shops in the terminal while waiting for my train. As I headed up the stairs something popped or snapped on my toe and all the sudden I couldn’t walk normally. This was about mile 9 or 10 of the day. I found a place to sit down where I could investigate and found that a blister on my second toe had popped. I limped into the station convenience stores and was disappointed to find that they didn’t sell plasters (bandaids) After wandering from KC back to StP I found a drug store and was able to take care of it. 

After a snack it was train time. I noticed on the board that it listed a train for Leeds at 20:00 and mine was supposed to be 19:55 (Red flag number one). But I always go into and out of KC, that’s where Leeds trains go. So the train came in and I got on and sat down. I was seated near a family- man, two women and a boy who were American, from the south perhaps. The little boy was have a great time trying out his English accent by constantly repeating “I would like a spot of tea.” Another family boarded and sat in front of me and apparently also had reserved my seat and the seat next to me. (Red flag number two). I checked my number and it was right, and there was an extra seat so we just settled in. The mom of the family sat next to me and we started chatting. “This is the train to Leeds, right?” I asked. “That’s not a Leeds accent.” “No it’s not.” We had a lovely time chatting, waiting for the train to leave. Just as they were annoucing, we’re going to leave, please check your tickets I did and realized that it said St. Pancras! What? How is that possible? How could I not read that plainly in front of my face? StP trains don’t go to Leeds! I’m so confused and now I’ve missed my train. I quickly grabbed my bag and jumped off the train and RAN to StP.  As I ran through the terminal I noticed that past the EuroStar platform they had a few platforms for East Midlands- but none of which that were headed for Leeds. The lady at the ticket counter wasn’t able to tell me if there had been a train to Leeds. I think it must have been part of a connection to another station. So to make a long story more expensive I had to buy a full price ticket and RUN back to KC to catch a train to Doncaster and make a connection to Leeds. 

Upon boarding I was a bit put out but relieved. I didn’t have a reserve seat and so I just had to settled for whatever I could get. I read my book and tried look out the window and appreciate the view. I updated my facebook status about missing my train and Aimee commented, “You may have missed the train but you’re still in England.” True true.

At Doncaster I switched to a train that was nearly empty and once again could hear from conversations around me that I was back in the North. The last bus home is at 23:18 and I was determined to catch it. We pulled into Leeds just after 23:00 and I hopped of the train and ran the half mile to my bus stop and was thereby able to avoid another taxi fare. It was 11pm on a Saturday night and so the town centre was filled with dressed up pub hoppers who I jogged by in my trainers with my backpack bouncing behind me.

I ate my breakfast on the go and caught the tube out to Kew Gardens. The little Kew station empties out into a little square full of adorable shops. Then a walk down a street of nice houses with posh cars to the Victoria Gate of the gardens. I was a little early and sat down on a bench nearby and journaled.

I was really grateful that they had lockers and so I was able to ditch my backpack and wander about. I grabbed my map and headed in with about 2.5 hours to explore. First stop was the palm house. 

When I first stepped in I was immediately impressed by the heat, smell and quiet. It was delightful. I strolled through and took pictures.

I saw cocoa, henna, bananas, ebony etc.

They had these gorgeous wrought iron spiral staircases that take you up to a walk way at the top of the house.

Then I wander through the alpine house and butterfly exhibit. They had pieces of fruit set out. 

It was really fun to wander through and have all those butterflies just out about about. I was disappointed that it was the right time to see the azaleas, rhododendrons or magnolias- they were past bloom. So it was on to the tree top walkway which was fun

and the temperate and water lilly houses. 

In the far corner of the park was Queen Charlotte’s cottage. Of course I couldn’t miss out on that. 

Apparently it was build for the Queen to have picnic’s in the park so there wasn’t much too the house. You enter on the right where you see a small kitchen/preparation space then go up the stairs to a picnic/breakfast room then back down again to a sitting room. Maybe that’s it or maybe that’s all they have restored for display.

I didn’t make it to the corner of the gardens where the Kew Palace was. I didn’t want to have to pay another admission fee. In wandering back towards the gate I encountered some peacocks. Just lovely even if they do make a terrible racket.

On the way back to the station I picked up some lunch at Tesco’s and took the tube to Leicester Square. I had been debating about trying to fit another West End show into my travels but didn’t find a show at the right price to tempt me. What I did find was “West End Live”. This weekend they were having 10-20 minute live performances from West End shows in Leicester Square for free. Perfect! They had a giant stage set up in the square surrounded by sponsor booths. The square was thronged with people and so they trickled people in as people came out. As you stood in line to get in they had a big screen showing the action, which was actually a pretty good view. 

I got in but in the crush of people you couldn’t really see anything. I ended up backing out of the mele and finding a perch from which I could see a little better. 

I saw Jersey Boys, Sweet Charity, Mamma Mia, Grease and Thriller Live before deciding to move on.

I headed down the block to Trafalgar Square. Michelle and I didn’t get a proper view of Trafalgar Square the first time round. There were loads of people but it wasn’t overwhelming.

 As I approached I heard music, and as is my want I headed towards it. Someone had set up on the platform beneath Nelson’s Column. He had a PA system and big banner and he stood there and proclaimed the gospel to an oblivious audience. 

I took some pictures and then sat on the steps eating my pineapple and pondering upon the whether or not it was really effective to stand on the column and preach when no one was listening. Sounds like a few scriptural prophets I know.

Then it was time for a wander through the National Gallery. I was glad the had a cloak room so I could ditch my bag and carry on unhindered. I went wandering room to room without too much interest and until I arrived at the Bathers by Serat. 

It was huge and framed impressively as you came through the double doors into the room. I had a seat and then went up and got a look at it up close.  It reminded me of when I saw Sunday in the Park with George with Missi and Ryan.

In the same room they had some lovely Renoir. 

No trip to a gallery would be complete without a little wander through the shop. So many art things that I wanted to buy for Nicole. I restrained myself- even from getting copies of prints because I know that I could go home and print off whatever I want.

Next stop was Baker Street- home of the Sherlock Holmes museum and Beatles Shop. [Did I mention the Baker Street tube station is lined with tiles bearing a Holmes profile?]

I was seriously underwhelmed by the Beatles shop. By this time is was 5:30 and all the galleries and the like were closing so I wandered up the street to Regent’s Park. After a super long day on my feet I didn’t have the energy to do it properly but I made an effort. And as much as I would have liked to sit in the park and while away the evening it was getting cold and blustery and I went in search of shelter.