Archive for the ‘UCDP’ Category.
Poland – Part 3: Our Day in Warsaw
Note: Like my last few posts, I’m not yet done processing my photos, and so these posts will probably have more and more photos attached to them over time.
We had arrived in Warsaw around noon, and only had this day to really do any sight-seeing. So, while some of us may have wanted to clock out and sleep our way into jet-lagged paradise, instead, we made a quick clean-up stop at the hostel, and then hit the pavement and started walking around.
 The streets of Warsaw16-Jun-2009 09:08, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 64 |
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Random palm tree in one of the roundabout thingers in Warsaw16-Jun-2009 09:12, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.68, 17.2mm, 0.006 sec, ISO 64 |
It's raining. Linn is pumped. Alexi is drained.16-Jun-2009 10:41, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.013 sec, ISO 64 |
Can't sleep yet – have to explore Warsaw…16-Jun-2009 10:53, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 64 |
3:55PM Local
One of the first things we saw was a statue of Copernicus outside of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
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Good ol' Nick.16-Jun-2009 11:03, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.7, 17.4mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 64 |
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According to Tamara, there’s a copy of this statue in Montreal as well. Neat.
Learning about Warsaw from Tamara, while we try to stay conscious16-Jun-2009 11:06, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 64 |
Embedded into a pedestal was also a copy of Bernardo Bellotto (known here as Canaletto)’s painting, entitled “The Church of the Holy Cross“.
Here’s the painting:
Not a bad likeness of current Warsaw, either. Just remove the horse and buggies, add some pavement, and update the clothing. Smack a coat of paint, and boom: present day Warsaw.
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I love the colours of the buildings here.16-Jun-2009 11:39, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 64 |
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The Info Boxes
Walking down the streets of Warsaw, we kept running into these boxes on the sidewalk. Not small, dinky boxes – but large boxes for walking into. We’d go inside, and they’d be like small museum exhibits.
Info-boxes, teaching us about worker uprisings16-Jun-2009 11:17, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.007 sec, ISO 64 |
All you Poland history buffs out there, feel free to correct the next few paragraphs if I’m wrong – I’m going on what I read, and haven’t done any independent research on this stuff.
Poland seems to be celebrating 20 years since the fall of communist rule, and that’s what these info boxes seemed to talk about. They’d talk about significant events, like the Lenin Shipyard strike of 1980 in Gdansk, which seemed to birth/galvanize the Solidarity movement.
Other info boxes had titles/themes, like “Imposing Martial Law” (happened in 1981, thanks to one communist General Wojciech Jaruzelski, which squashed the Solidarity movement).
These boxes were followed by “Help From the West”, and “Giving Back Power”, but we didn’t stay too long to read into them. We had lots of other things to see on this day.
Embedded in The History of Poland
One thing that Poland seems to have a lot of, is history. You don’t even have to open a book, or Google it to know that. Just land in the city, and take a look around: some of the buildings are pretty ancient, and reek history. Warsaw was devestated during bombing and raids by the Germans during WWII, but the city has done a pretty good job of bringing itself back together.
Typical Polish church16-Jun-2009 11:05, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.71, 5.8mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 64 |
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What else to say about Warsaw…. the style of the buildings, according to Una Ruud, is “Neo-Classical”. There are also a plethora of churches in the city – every time we’d turn a corner, there’d be another big church. Lots of devotional history here.
Poland is very devout.16-Jun-2009 11:37, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 8.0, 17.4mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 64 |
PJP is a pretty popular guy here in Poland. Probably because he was Polish.16-Jun-2009 11:33, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.71, 5.8mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 64 |
Lots of monuments and statues in Poland. They're everywhere – I eventually stopped taking pictures of them.16-Jun-2009 11:19, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.7, 17.4mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100 |
We also saw a monument for Adam Mickiewicz, a Polish Romantic-era poet/playwrite. According to Tamara, he was a pioneer of Polish Romantic-Nationalism. You can read up about him here.
Adam Mickiewicz!16-Jun-2009 11:26, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 3.34, 8.1mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 64 |
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Every now and then, while walking along some wall or another, we’d see these white signs, covered in Polish scrawl. Tamara told us that these signs are indicators that some tragic event took place on that spot. For example, one of the signs we stopped at was apparently on a site where some huge shooting took place in WWII. I didn’t really catch much of that particular history lesson – I was dragging behind at that point snapping photos.
Here’s a shot of the sign:
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Other Impressions of Warsaw (5:35PM Local)
The whole day, the rain had been on and off. It’s like it couldn’t decide. It’d spritz a little here, and then back off…and then spritz a little there, etc. There were some storm clouds threatening us the entire time we were out, but we didn’t get caught in any torrential downpour. It was humid out, and the sun would come out of the clouds sporadically.
Two things that suprised a few of us about Warsaw: the low density (I expected more cramped quarters), and consequently, the massive spaces. There was a really huge square hidden away in the recesses of Warsaw where we stopped for some coffee/tea. I tried capturing the size of it with my camera, but no luck. Peter, a more experienced traveller, told me that he had seen even bigger squares throughout Europe. I can tell you I haven’t really seen anything like that in Toronto.
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My first Polish square!16-Jun-2009 11:51, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 64 |
Warsaw’s square seemed oriented around this mermaid statue:
The Mermaid – symbol of Warsaw, I believe.16-Jun-2009 11:53, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.7, 17.4mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 64 |
According to Tamara, the mermaid is Warsaw’s symbol.
Jiv’s Massive Cat, and Ryan Leaves a Bad Impression
Eventually, we found ourselves at what I believe was the outer wall of the old city.
Outer wall of old city.16-Jun-2009 12:46, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.7, 5.8mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 64 |
Patrolling the wall…16-Jun-2009 12:46, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 64 |
Jiv swears that the cat he saw was massive…16-Jun-2009 12:46, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.7, 5.8mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 64 |
The wall had various ports for viewing, and perhaps aiming a weapon through. While glancing through one of these posts, a cat caught Jiv’s eye.
“That cat is MASSIVE. It’s huge! It’s like the size of a tiger! Get a load of this!”
We all gathered into the small alcove to see what Jiv had spotted.
“Jiv…that’s just a normal sized house cat.”
“Are you kidding me? No way. That thing is OUT OF CONTROL!”
“Jiv…I could carry that thing in my arms.”
“You guys must be blind. Look at that thing!”
I didn’t happen to take any photos of the cat, but the general consensus was that this was without a doubt a normal house cat, and Jiv may have started hallucinating. I don’t blame him. I think he’d been awake for something like 30 hours at this point.
Still, it was good for a laugh.
Also, while walking past a wall, some lady banged a stick against her window, and pointed at Ryan. Maybe she was a Degrassi fan. Or maybe she didn’t like the gait of his walk. Either way, she seemed upset.
Here’s a video of Alex describing the incident immediately after:
We hurried along.
6:12PM Local Time
The exhaustion was really starting to get to me.
Half-dazed, I followed the group into an absolutely massive theatre in Warsaw (it’s called Teatr Narodowy).
Massive Polish Theater.16-Jun-2009 13:09, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.71, 5.8mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 64 |
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This is a state theatre, and hosts shows from groups like the National Opera and National Ballet companies. We didn’t get much farther than the lobby (I believe there was a show that night, which we didn’t have tickets for), but I snapped some photos of the interior.
They even have a red carpet!16-Jun-2009 13:15, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.4 sec, ISO 100 |
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The Monument of Warsaw’s Ghetto Uprising (6:58PM Local Time)
Poland was in bad shape for WWII. I’m no buff on WWII/Polish history, but it seems pretty clear that things here were really rough back then. This monument was for an uprising in a ghetto in Warsaw – and eventually I figured out that we were more or less in the location where the ghetto had originally been.
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising monument16-Jun-2009 14:00, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 78 |
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The other side of the monument16-Jun-2009 14:02, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.047 sec, ISO 100 |
According to Tamara, 500,000 Jews in Poland were forced into this ghetto, and routed here or there – some sent to death camps, some kept here to govern over other Jews, etc.
Here’s a Wikipedia article on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
It was a pretty somber moment, anyhow. Alex, who is proudly Jewish, took it particularly close to the heart, and lit a candle at the monument while the rain started to pour.
The Rainbow
After seeing the Ghetto Monument, we started heading back to the hostel. We took a subway ride on the Polish metro (which was, to me, very similar to the TTC).
Hitching the metro back to the hostel16-Jun-2009 14:30, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.167 sec, ISO 100 |
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Waiting for our metro…16-Jun-2009 14:32, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.476 sec, ISO 100 |
Chatter had been stifled since our stop at the Ghetto Monument, but was starting to pick up again. By the time we got out of the metro system, we were back in high (yet exhausted) spirits.
And wouldn’t you know it, a pair of huge rainbows came out to greet us when we emerged:
A rainbow was waiting for us!16-Jun-2009 14:38, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.18, 12.8mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 64 |
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Two rainbows!16-Jun-2009 14:40, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 3.57, 9.3mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 64 |
Along with a pretty cool brass band:
And some brass-playing buskers!16-Jun-2009 14:38, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.26, 13.3mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 64 |
Not a bad end to our only day for touring around Warsaw.
I liked Warsaw. I wish we had more time here. But it was time to go back to the hostel, get some food, clean up, and go to sleep.
8:43PM Local
The showers in the hostel were clean, but the temperature was really random. Alex and I were in separate adjacent stalls, and the whole hostel got to hear us alternately wail, scream, laugh, and curse at the water. It was apparently pretty funny. It was also the shortest shower of my life.
The shower got my travel grime off, and also woke me up. At this point, I began to feel somewhat adjusted to being in that time zone.
We also met Yev back at the hostel, who had gotten chills during the walking tour, and headed back by herself. Some of us started worrying about getting sick.
10:52PM Local
You’d think we would have gone to bed.
Instead, we went out to a local pizzeria.
At first, we had some difficulty getting in – we’re a large group, with a variety of dietary preferences, and I think we freak out restaurants when we show up all together.
Eventually (thanks to some no-nonsense British lady who translated for us), we were able to squeeze ourselves into a restaurant and order some pizza.
We clinked our glasses together: first night in Poland. Pretty good. The effect of the shower had begun to wear off though, and exhaustion was starting to creep back. After paying the cheque, we got out of there, and headed back to the hostel.
And conked out. Hard. Falling asleep was easy.
June 17 – 4:30AM Local
They told me this would happen.
4AM rolled around, and for some reason, I woke up. Fully rested. Bleh.
Luckily, the hostel had free internet access and a PC. I checked my email. I wrote some email. I wrote a blog post.
Then I went back to bed.
It’s a familiar feeling…as I write this, it’s June 20 at 5:25AM, and I’m wide awake.
Oh well. Something to pass the time.
Poland – Part 2: Dazed in Warsaw
Note: More photos will be added to this post over time, so keep checking back.
June 16 – 6:51AMEST, 12:51PM Local
We had just arrived in Poland (Warsaw, to be exact) from our connecting flight from Frankfurt. After we landed, we walked out of the plane onto the tarmac, and caught a bus to the airport terminal.
We're really tired. And Alex needs a smoke.16-Jun-2009 06:11, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 88 |
Peter is diggin' Poland16-Jun-2009 06:11, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.068 sec, ISO 100 |
Poland! Sooo tired…16-Jun-2009 06:18, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.357 sec, ISO 100 |
Once we got inside, we had to somehow find our checked luggage. There was some concern that our luggage may have been lost in the shuffle when our original flight from Frankfurt was moved forward, so we were a bit worried. If all of our luggage magically showed up, with no fuss, or missing bits, then we were in business.
So we went down to the carousel…and waited…and waited…nothing was moving, no luggage had arrived. We waited…and then, finally, the wheels started moving. Bags started pouring out of a chute built into the floor.
Would any of our bags be on the carousel?
It took a few rounds, and some people lost hope – but then the first bag was sighted. After that, one after another they poured onto the carousel. There was much rejoicing.
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Now that we had our luggage, we had to find Tamara. And here was the tricky part: as far as I know, nobody had contacted her to tell us that we had taken a later flight. So, she may have been waiting around for an hour, and then left when we didn’t arrive. So, we started patrolling the arrivals area…
I love these things…16-Jun-2009 06:53, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 4.7, 17.4mm, 0.051 sec, ISO 100 |
And immediately found Tamara. Bless her heart, she hadn’t left, and had been waiting there the whole time for us. She’d even brought a big green bus with her to take us to our first hostel.
It’s amazing how weary us travellers can get – especially since we don’t do much, physically, while we’re being transported. All it is, is an exercise in sitting still. Still, somehow it’s exhausting. Also factor in that at this point, I’d probably been up for almost 24 hours.
While we were riding the bus, Tamara informed us that the original train trips that had been scheduled into our itinerary had been too difficult to set up, and that she had arranged for the green bus to transport us to where we needed to go. We officially had a tour bus! Awesome!
We flew down the streets of Warsaw. My first impression? The license plates sure look different. And most of the advertisements were, understandably, in Polish. The Stop signs were still in English though, which I found interesting.
It was rainy and gray out. Traffic flew by. We were all exhausted. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t paying too much attention to the road. I was really tired.
When we got to the hostel, we all piled out of the bus and unloaded our luggage. Tamara apologized because we had to walk up 3 flights of stairs with our luggage – but it wasn’t that bad. At first, the smell of the stairwell discouraged me…it smelled funky and musty. I was prepared for the worst.
I was pleasantly surprised.
The hostel was awesome. Freakin’ awesome. If you’re about my age, think about your ideal apartment. Now add lots of free food just lying around. Now add the awesome reunions with Una Ruud and Linn Farley, two other UCDP students that had come from elsewhere around Europe to meet us. Like I said: awesome.
If you’re ever interested in staying in Warsaw, I recommend the place that we stayed at: New World St. Hostel. Very clean, friendly staff, great bunks, great location. Here is the hostel’s website.
And here are a few photos:
Our first hostel! Loved it.16-Jun-2009 07:44, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.192 sec, ISO 100 |
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We were spoiled at our hostel.16-Jun-2009 08:01, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.278 sec, ISO 100 |
Tom, Linn and Una make their first appearance on my camera!16-Jun-2009 08:01, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.25 sec, ISO 100 |
We didn’t have access to the rooms at first – we had to wait about half an hour. But that was OK, seeing as how there was awesome free food just lying around for us to eat: cakes, freshly picked strawberries (very common at this time of year here, apparently), crackers, bread, etc. After our long trip, it was heavenly.
While we were chowing down, Tara Gerami and Tom Davis walked through the door, which whipped us into another hyper frenzy. Tom and Tara are two other UCDP students who had been in Berlin, and were meeting up with us like Linn and Una. We were exhausted, hyper, dazed, and kinda grungy. I won’t lie – even though I hadn’t done anything physical, I really needed a shower. I wasn’t alone.
Ever played Monopoly? Sure you have. You know how when you pass GO, you get $200? That’s basically what happened to us. By coming to this hostel, we had apparently passed GO, and so Tamara dished out 200 z (zloty, Polish currency) for each of us. Nothing wrong with that.
Finally, our rooms were ready. I looked inside our rooms – grey bunk beds, foot lockers for personal storage, and nice big windows. The bunk beds were nice, and were the exact same type that I have at my own apartment. A very comfortable room.
Where we slept in the first hostel. Really nice room – very clean. Familiar bed.16-Jun-2009 15:54, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.192 sec, ISO 100 |
2:52PM Local
After we had settled, we realized that (despite all of the free food) we were hungry for a full-sized meal. We all trooped out of the hostel, and went to a restaurant just down the street.
Good food. I had a macaroni, chicken, broccoli, and cheese casarole. I also took this opportunity to send very short emails to my parents and my girlfriend Em with Una’s iPhone (the restaurant, despite looking like the Three Bears’ cottage, had wi-fi).
Eating at our first Polish restaurant. Very rustic…Three-Bears-ish.16-Jun-2009 09:16, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 400 |
My first traditional Polish meal. Brocolli, chicken, cheese, macaroni cassarole. Nice.16-Jun-2009 10:16, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100 |
The effects of sleep deprevation were really taking their toll. The jokes were non-sensical. I couldn’t tell if I was hungry, but I ate anyways. In my opinion, we were all (understandably) burnt out.
While it would have been nice to just curl up and go to bed (awake for over 24 hours at this point), Tamara advised us that it would be wisest for us to stay up as late as possible so as to not completely screw over our sleep cycle.
So, instead of going back to the hostel, the lot of us hit the pavement, and we started checking out Warsaw.
Poland – Part 1: Departures and Arrivals
Note: As I’m writing this, I’m sitting in a hostel in Warsaw. It’s 5AM, and the cable to connect my camera to a computer is buried at the bottom of my backpack. So, while there are photos to go along with this story, they’re going to have to be added later.
June 15 – 2:45PM EST
I’ve been to Pearson Airport in Toronto a few times before, but only ever to pick up some passenger after they’ve come back from a trip.
I’ve never been one of those “departure” people.
Well, today was my day. And man, it was confusing.
It started off smoothly enough. My Dad, girlfriend Emily, and her sister Cassie, had brought me to Pearson to see me off. I was able to get my boarding pass from a machine (which was nice and easy), after finding fellow passengers Reid, Anj, and Olya. What a relief to see those three, because I honestly had no idea where I was in the airport, and had no idea what was going on. Pearson is huge, and I was only in Terminal 1.
After our goodbyes, I stood in a line to get my carry-on bags scanned.
That was my first mistake. Wasted 20 minutes getting to the front of that line, only to find out that I had to go to another line somewhere else in the airport to check my stowed luggage. So there was some momentary panic while I raced around the airport, trying to find the right place.
So, lesson one: it’s always OK to ask when you’re way out of your element, and it usually makes things go faster. I knew this already, but this was a clear-cut example.
3:20PM EST
After some more running around, and a trip along a few moving sidewalks, I made it to our departure gate, where Olya, Reid, and Anj were already waiting.
Waiting in Pearson to take off15-Jun-2009 16:15, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.026 sec, ISO 64 |
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Not our plane, but it was my first time seeing a double decker, so I thought I'd take a picture.15-Jun-2009 16:37, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 7.67, 16.0mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 64 |
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Eventually, the rest of our comrads showed up. And now, for your edification, here’s a list of the UCDP people who were flying with me that day:
- Anj Mulligan
- Reid Linforth
- Olya Ryabets
- Jiv Parasram
- Ryan Cooley
- Chantelle Hedden
- Alexi Marchel
- Yev Falkovich
- Peter Freund
- Alex Rubin
After a lot of sitting around and waiting, we board our flight. After even more waiting, the plane begins to move.
Take-off: 6:00PM EST
Our plane took off at exactly 6PM EST. We were half an hour behind schedule. Already, my companions were taking bets on whether or not we’d miss our connecting flight from Frankfurt (not Brussels, sorry!) to Warsaw. We only had 50 minutes once we had landed in Frankfurt, so it was going to be tight.
Anyhow, we’re in the air. And I’m excited, of course. I haven’t been in a plane since a flight to Toronto from Miami in 2004, and I sure as hell haven’t flown outside North America. This was going to be a new experience for me.
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My inflight entertainment console15-Jun-2009 18:35, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.385 sec, ISO 100 |
It didn’t take long for three minor disasters to happen:
- I had packed a bag of mixed nuts/cashews in my carry-on. To my dismay, when I opened my backpack, I found that the bag had exploded and that my carry-on was filled with loose nuts. A bunch spilled on the floor, and immediately I began worrying about other passengers who might have nut allergies…all it takes is a whiff, and bam – out like a light.
Trailmix disaster15-Jun-2009 19:30, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100
Anyhow, Ryan Cooley helped me clean/conceal the mess as much as possible, and I did my best to clean up the mess inside my bag. Reminded me a bit of this story I had written earlier in the year…
- The pen I’ve been keeping my notes with started leaking. Ink all over my hand, and some on my shirt. Yech. Luckily, I brought spares…
- The instructional safety video, which was supposed to be broadcast to the screens in front of each of us, did not work in my row. It looked like scrambled cable. Had to crane my neck to see it on someone else’s screen. Not too bad, but it’s a bit discouraging when the mandatory safety video doesn’t work.
The flight was mostly eventless. Besides some minor turbulence (which freaked out one of our more sensitive flyers), there wasn’t much to do. My Dad had let me borrow his noise-cancelling headphones, which were awesome. I listened to classical music on XM radio while I wrote my notes.
6:37PM EST
Food started making its way down the aisles, and it smelled pretty good…
But then we hit a patch of turbulence. One of my companions is really not into flying, and so we consoled them while the plane shook around us. The calming thing was that the flight attendants looked calm as ever, and kept handing out food.
I chose the pasta. And a Canada Dry ginger ale.
Dinner! Tasty.15-Jun-2009 19:44, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.5 sec, ISO 141 |
I hear a few of my comrads are already taking advantage of the free beer/wine/spirits on board. Hilarity ensues.
6:52PM EST
Great meal. Pasta in tomato sauce, a bun, some veggies in dressing, and chocolate mousse for dessert! Felt very pampered and content. Was reminded again of this Louis CK video.
And it’s even better knowing I haven’t paid a cent for it! Free always tastes better…
7:00PM EST
Around this time, I figured out that the in-flight mapping system wasn’t working, and I had no idea where we were.
I trusted our pilot knew where he was going.
Also around this time, Yev started saying that the shadows were getting longer…the sun was going down…the shortest night of my life was coming.
I’m reminded of a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey – the scene near the beginning (after the ape fights), where a character is flying to a space station. Our flight feels futuristic. Maybe it’s the lighting. Maybe it’s all of the video screens winking at me. Maybe I’m just over dramatizing it.
Night-time on the plane15-Jun-2009 21:38, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.5 sec, ISO 250 |
Or maybe it was that Phillip Glass music I was listening to…
At this point, I’ve decided that I’m bored, and that I’m going to watch an in-flight movie. After some deliberation, I choose The Watchmen, which I had already seen, but didn’t mind watching again.
8:10PM EST
It was pretty dark outside our windows at this point. Yev seemed to think that we were over Greenland, but how she could tell that through all the cloud cover, I have no idea.
I kept watching the movie.
9:15PM EST
At this point, I decided to get up and walk around a bit. I stretched. Our trip to Frankfurt is about half over. So is The Watchmen, for that matter, but I decided to try to sleep instead of finishing it.
11:00PM EST
I had no luck sleeping at all, despite amazing noise-cancelling headphone technology. I rolled about. I chatted with my travel mates. I listened to music.
It was starting to get light out outside. The sun was coming up.
I don’t think anyone slept that much during the flight. I saw a few people dosing, but that was it.
Rubin clocks out. Jiv is not amused.15-Jun-2009 22:51, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 100 |
I knew that I’d have to stay awake for as much of the following day as possible, so it was a bit discouraging to be unable to sleep. I pretty much figured I’d spend most of the next day in a daze.
11:20PM EST
Breakfast arrived, and according to Yev, we were flying over land again!
It's getting late, and we're over land again. Greenland?15-Jun-2009 21:15, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.81, 5.8mm, 0.417 sec, ISO 100 |
Breakfast is a muffin, yogurt, and orange juice. Nice.
Breakfast – muffin, orange juice, and yogurt16-Jun-2009 00:26, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.5 sec, ISO 250 |
Muffin was good, but non-descript. No idea what flavour it was, but I liked it.
When they brought the food, I asked the flight attendant what land we were flying over. He said he had no idea, but that we would be landing in about an hour.
Maybe if I knew how fast we were going, I could figure out where we might be.
I found it strange that the captain never really addressed the passengers. Never told us the route, altitude, speed, etc. Things are changing, I guess.
11:45PM EST
It was almost midnight back home, and the sun was rising where we were.
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I had no idea what time it was. My body felt very confused and disoriented. I felt like I’d been up all night, and I guess I had been…all 3 hours of it.
June 16 – 12:25AM EST
We began our descent around here. Phase 1 of our journey was about to end.
Why do all pilots sound the same? Always with that croaky voice… or maybe it’s the microphones that they use.
Lots of turbulence going down, but it was a smooth landing.
June 16 – 3:15AM EST, 9:15AM Local
I still hadn’t adjusted my watch yet, and that was starting to freak me out.
So, the main event was that we missed our connecting flight from Frankfurt to Warsaw. We were about 20 minutes too late. 50 minutes is not even close to enough time to get processed at the Frankfurt airport.
Alex explains:
Missed our connecting flight? You bet!16-Jun-2009 03:02, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.182 sec, ISO 100 |
Yev is so meta16-Jun-2009 03:02, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.094 sec, ISO 100 |
So Frankfurt airport was my first taste of Europe. My impressions? Honestly? Not that different. I didn’t feel like I was in a foreign place, really – except I couldn’t read any of the advertisements. Everything else had English attached, so that was nice.
After some chit-chatting with Air Canada, we were booked on a later flight. There was a lot of running around, lots of in-between-destinations stress, and we almost missed that flight too. But we made it.
Getting our new flight16-Jun-2009 03:34, FUJIFILM FinePix A345, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.11 sec, ISO 100 |
A couple of casualties though:
- Ryan Cooley left his windbreaker on the plane that brought us from Toronto
- Reid Linforth lost his watch during the security check in Frankfurt. That really sucked for him.
At this point, I could really feel how tired I am. My body was buzzing. I had been awake since 9:30AM EST, and it was 3:22AM EST at that point.
The plane we took from Frankfurt was much, much smaller than the one from Toronto. It was only going to be flying for an hour, and it looked like a lot of the passengers took this trip every day. I tried to nap on the plane, but no luck.
4:08AM EST, 10:08AM Local
We were on route to Warsaw.
We were served some kind of cheese sandwich for our in-flight meal, which was good. Really wasn’t sure what was in it, and sure didn’t take a picture. Why? I was starving. Scarfed the thing right down. Hadn’t slept, hungry, grumpy.
There was lots of turbulence in the smaller airplane. Pretty shaky. Kinda scary.
I wiped my face with a lemon scented wet-nap to wake myself up, and had a cup of tea.
Eventually, I got into a conversation with the lady sitting next to me about theatre. She was a Bulgarian business-woman going to some sort of seminar. We talked about Poland, sight-seeing, and Bulgarian theatre.
And then we landed.
And we were in Poland.
Navigating School Life, One Day at a Time
Once, somewhere, someone said “live life one day at a time”.
That’s basically how I’m approaching my school life, seeing as how an onslaught of due dates and final presentations is rapidly approaching.
So, in stark contrast to my proposal to “live life one day at a time”, I’m now going to list what’s going on and coming up. You may have seen this list before, but there are updates now.
- Due tomorrow is my Movement class final project – a site-specific self-scripted work. I’m working with two excellent partners (both are phenomenal dancers, contact improv’ers, and collaborators). What we’ve come up with is a physical retelling of the Orpheus “descent into the underworld” myth, staged in a cramped, dusty old stairwell in the Playhouse. Hugely physical, and lots of fun/tricky movement stuff on stairs.
- Tonight, I have to memorize half of a monologue, based on a letter from a Mir astronaut to his son back home
- Friday is the start of the UCDP Theatre Festival. The Theatre Festival is essentially a showcase of final projects, works in process, etc. I’m in a few of these, and I’m certainly involved in the set up of the events as well. Here are the Facebook events:
- Friday Apr 3 @ 8PM-10PM: Opening night – Playwriting Showcase and Reception
- I’m playing a small part for a staged reading of a student play
- Saturday Apr 4 @ 2PM-5PM and 7PM-10PM – Recognition, Revenge, Renewal
- The DRM300 class show off their work on Greek plays – I love this stuff.
- Sunday Apr 5 @ 2PM – 6PM – Inscribe Yourself: Actions and reACTIONS
- Among some other awesome presentations, the DRM400 class (that’s my class) is presenting scenes from Twelfth Night!
- Monday Apr 6 @ 7:30PM – 10:30PM – Toronto Part 1: Home Grown Theatre
- More awesome presentations, and the DRM200 class delve into some Judith Thompson plays!
- Tuesday Apr 7 @ 7:30PM – 10:30PM – Toronto Part 2: Home Grown Theatre
- Great presentations, and more DRM200 scenes!
- Closing Night! Thursday Apr 9 @ 5PM – 8PM – Guerilla Theatre Showcase
- UCDP students show off what they’ve been doing outside of class!
- Friday Apr 3 @ 8PM-10PM: Opening night – Playwriting Showcase and Reception
- I’m helping the new UCDP ATD, Una, figure out what it is that I do before I leave!
- My INI304 paper, analyzing evidence that connects E. Howard Hunt with the JFK assassination in Dallas is due next Monday.
- There is an INI304 test on the same Monday as the essay is due
- Voice final project is coming up soon – not worrying about that just yet though
- My CSC301 final project is moving forward, but I need to keep plugging away at it.
- I still don’t know what I’m doing, work-wise, this summer. Still trying to work that out.
Am I freaking out? Not really – I think things are going to work out. Just have to take it one day at a time.
Memorizing My Lines
In all of my performance classes, without fail, I’ve had to memorize lines at some point or another.
This year, in Voice class, I had to memorize an edited version of JFK’s “We go to the moon” speech. I was the one who edited it, and it came down to about a little over a page of text.
And I memorized it, fluidly, in about 3 days. Not bad.
So, here’s how I normally go about memorizing my lines:
- If there is an original recording of the speech, or lines in question, avoid it at all costs. Do not taint your performance with someone else’s interpretation.
- Understand the text. This is the most important part. What am I saying? Why am I saying it? Who am I saying it to? Why do they care? Why do I care? What is causing me to speak?
- Examine the text for clues. What is the key word, or idea in each sentence? Look for rhetorical devices, like metaphor, repetition, etc.
- Break the text into “argument” sections. These are usually just paragraphs.
- Record myself speaking the lines, without any “acting” – just speaking them normally, and adding the appropriate pauses and breaks for punctuation.
- Break that recording up into the argument sections, and put the individual files on my MP3 player in speaking order
- While I’m walking in between classes, play the sections. Listen to myself, pretending I’m the audience. Ponder how to deliver what I’m hearing. Ponder how to deliver any rhetorical devices.
- Start to speak the lines with the recording. For me, this is the kinesthetic learning bit. My mouth and lips learn the “dance” of the speech, so that if I happen to forget a line, my mouth and lips know where to go for the next line, which may remind me what my next line is (understanding the logical structure of the argument also helps to pull out of forgotten lines – if I need to get from A to C, of course I need B…)
- Repeat repeat repeat. Keep playing the MP3 player, and speaking the lines to myself. Go section by section.
- Play the MP3 player even when I’m working on other things, so that it’s playing in the background.
- Sleep (without the MP3 player playing). It’s amazing how, in the morning, all the stuff that I’ve been repeating in my ears and with my mouth is still there, and comes faster and naturally.
- Now I’m ready to try to rehearse this thing. If I have scene partners, I get together with them and just give it a shot. If I’m doing a solo performance (like with the JFK speech), I try delivering it aloud to an audience of friends.
- Practice practice practice. Rehearse. Don’t get stuck in a delivery pattern. I try new things: I dance the speech, yell the speech, whisper the speech, seduce with the speech. I get playful. I put the story of the speech at higher priority than my performance; what is absolutely necessary is that the message/story gets across. The “acting” is secondary.
And that’s how I do it. Nothing special, and it works for me.
From GSS to UofT Drama (UCDP) – Part 4
Let’s talk about workload, and managing time.
Doubling in Computer Science and Drama is no picnic. Both departments demand a lot from me, and I’ve had to get used to quickly shifting mind-sets from one to the other. There have been days where I would get up, run to the Playhouse, go to a Nia warm-up class, take a shower, then run to the Bahan Centre to take an algorithms class, then run back to the Playhouse for a Yoga workshop in Movement class, and then run back to the Bahan Centre to take my Java class.
This might sound overwhelming, but I discovered something very interesting: these two opposites seem to fuel one another.
That Nia class in the morning would get oxygen flowing through my body, and would really wake me up. On the days I had Nia and went to Algorithms, my mind was noticeably sharper, and I was in a better mood.
It’s funny how a better mood can help propel you through work. It’s a bit like warming a knife before it goes through frozen butter.
Anyhow, the reason I’m writing this, is because someone asked me if it’s a good idea to take DRM100/DRM200/DRM201 while also trying to take Calculus and Bio, and a bunch of other courses.
Really, it’s a judgment call. It’s not going to be a cakewalk by any means, but if you’re willing to put in the hours, it’ll pay off. You’ll walk out of a school year and go, “Did I really just do all of that?! Awesome!”.
But for a more practical standpoint, here’s how I look at it:
A full course load is 5 courses per semester. 6 courses per semester is called “overloading”, and while it’s possible (I’ve done it), I don’t really recommend it. The only reason I did it was because I felt I needed to play catch-up, since first year ended up being mostly an exercise in futility.
So, DRM100, DRM200, and DRM201 are all full year courses. And DRM201 has the added feature of secretly being 2 courses, even though it looks like 1. So, with 3 slots taken up per semester, that leaves room for 2 more full year courses, or 4 half courses, or 1 full year and 2 half courses. You get it.
So that’s one way of looking at it – can you make it all add up to 5 credits?
Another note – while it’s certainly possible to drop courses if you’re overwhelmed, I do not recommend dropping any of your drama performance classes unless you’re really in trouble. In the performance classes, you’re almost always working in a group, and pulling out without warning can really damage a group. So don’t.
If any people auditioning for the UCDP have any more questions, post some comments, email me, or contact me on Facebook. You can find my contact info here.
Sound in Theatre
I’ve been doing sound work in theatres since high school, and I’ve run into some pretty interesting software over the years. I’ve used audio editing tools like Sound Forge, Audacity, Audition, SoundBooth, etc. I’ve composed music in Cubase, Sony ACID Pro, FruityLoops, Apple Logic Express. The list goes on.
But once the music is composed, and the sounds are all edited, how do you play them back during a performance?
The old way was to play them through a CD player; you’d burn all your sounds and music to disc, and then track through. God help you if you had to do a cross-fade on an actor cue though, because that would mean having two CD players, cuing them up simultaneously, and doing a manual cross-fade on the mixer.
There are better ways to do this.
In fact (and my boss, UCDP Tech Director Peter Freund would agree with me on this), there seems to be a trend nowadays to put more emphasis in programming and preparation, and to make playback mostly automated. It’s true for lights (lighting boards are pre-programmed with cues, and then the lighting operator just hits the ‘GO’ button to go through each transition), and it’s now true for sound.
Check out this piece of software. It’s called QLab. And it’s free! This is what we use at the UCDP.
But there’s a small problem: it’s only for Macs. Which blows.
Actually, it really blows. As a modern web-developer, I take cross-platform applications for granted. Sure, IE may quirk out, but we can usually work around that (thanks jQuery! Prototype!). QLab, however, is Mac software, and that’s all she wrote. It’s really kind of heartbreaking.
If I had the time, and if someone would pay me, I’d look into writing an open-source cross-platform QLab clone. In Java, maybe. There’s probably a ton of issues doing cross-platform sound work, but Audacity did it – why can’t I?
Just a thought.
Oh, and yes, there is a free piece of playback software for Windows called Multiplay that’s alright, but I find QLab a bit more flexible.
The Girl Next Door
So, if you didn’t already know, I worked on a show here at the UCDP called Attempts on Her Life, by Martin Crimp, directed by Dr. Michelle Newman. I was the sound designer for the show, and I had the opportunity to write some original music that the actors had to sing along with.
I’ve finally started recording and mixing the songs.
There are two of them, and I’ve got the first mix finished. I’m not sure if I’ll ever finish recording the second one (scheduling is a nightmare…busy busy busy), but I thought I’d post what I had.
So here it is: Scene 14 – The Girl Next Door (Right-click and choose Save As). Tara Gerami sings lead vocals, with Chantelle Hedden and Yev Falkovich on backups.
Hopefully this doesn’t stretch my bandwidth limit…
Attention GSS Students Auditioning for the UCDP!
Quick note here while I’m in between classes:
If you’re planning on auditioning for the University College Drama Program at UofT for next year, you must follow these instructions before March 13, 2009.
Tell everyone you know who is interested, because if you don’t get the forms in before that date, it gets a lot more complicated to be considered. A lot.
