looks like update time ...
Last weekend was somewhat eventful, and this week has flown by in blink. Spent most of Saturday out at Oxford, which was fun because it was matriculation and all the kids were wearing goofy robes and such. There were some neat churches I think, though at this point all of the churches in Europe are kinda blurring together. We also saw the college where parts of Harry Potter were filmed (which I didn't appreciate), it happens to have been the same college where Lewis Carroll was a Mathematics tutor (which I did appreciate).
This week though, geeez .. it's Thursday already. I feel like this whole thing is going to be over before I get a chance to sit down and breathe. Sunday I had a lot of work for analysis (which, by the way, I'm actually really *loving*), and Monday and Tuesday are my big class days here. But I still managed to get down to Ronnie Scott's on Tuesday night to hear the great Cedar Walton play. There was a great, young saxophonist completing Walton's quartet--Devon Jackson, I should look into some of his stuff. Also alternating sets with them was some British group, the Theo Travis quartet. Hmm, I liked the bassist's sideburns? They were good musicians, just maybe not my taste.
Last night was pretty good. I stayed in, drank tea, listened to music, and read math. Haven't had one of those nights in a while, so I was really craving it. Of course, I'm here to be having "different" experiences, I suppose, but what can I say, gotta have my down time.
So this weekend: either Saturday or Sunday is a trip to Stonehenge, and so that, of course, means there will be a screening of This is Spinal Tap tonight.
In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, lived a strange race of people -- the druids. No one knows who they were, or what they were doing, but their legacy remains, hewn into the living rock -- of Stonehenge.
Stonehenge, where the demons dwell,
Where the banshees live and they do live well.
Stonehenge,
When a man is a man and the children dance
To the pipes of pan.
Stonehenge,
'Tis a magic place where the moon doth rise
With a dragon's face,
Stonehenge,
Where the virgin's lie
And the prayers of devils fill the midnight sky.
And you my love, won't you take my hand.
We'll go back in time to that mystic land
Where the dew-drops cry and the cats meow,
I will take you there,
I will show you how.
And oh how they danced, the little children of Stonehenge, beneath the haunted moon, for fear that the daybreak might come too soon ...
... And where are they now, the little people of Stonehenge? And what would they say to us, if we were here ... tonight.
Hah, okay, I'm over it. So back to some point I was may have been making earlier ... it feels like this whole things is just flying by. December is looking to be completely taken up by trips. On the weekend of the 4th I might be going back to Budapest, to take the Putnam (it's a math competition). For some reason, Budapest is the only place in Europe it's offered. I don't really like the idea of math competitions, but two of the others from Tech want to do it, and it should be a fun trip. Then later in that next week actually, I'm going to Stockholm. David Pollitzer, a Caltech professor, won the physics Nobel this year, and had room for 10 of us from the study abroad program to come. I've also got the entire 2nd week of November off for "reading week", starting on my birthday, actually. Since I can read math and econmics pretty well anywhere, there's no reason to spend the whole time here. Right now I've narrowed trip possibilities down to Greece, Croatia, Spain, and Egypt (and/or somewhere else in North Africa). This all has to be planned soon though, to get cheap airfares, I should really get to work.
It's getting difficult to write in this thing. I guess I've been in a soaking-things-up mood for a while. I'll try to continue writing some mindless blather on occasion though.
This week though, geeez .. it's Thursday already. I feel like this whole thing is going to be over before I get a chance to sit down and breathe. Sunday I had a lot of work for analysis (which, by the way, I'm actually really *loving*), and Monday and Tuesday are my big class days here. But I still managed to get down to Ronnie Scott's on Tuesday night to hear the great Cedar Walton play. There was a great, young saxophonist completing Walton's quartet--Devon Jackson, I should look into some of his stuff. Also alternating sets with them was some British group, the Theo Travis quartet. Hmm, I liked the bassist's sideburns? They were good musicians, just maybe not my taste.
Last night was pretty good. I stayed in, drank tea, listened to music, and read math. Haven't had one of those nights in a while, so I was really craving it. Of course, I'm here to be having "different" experiences, I suppose, but what can I say, gotta have my down time.
So this weekend: either Saturday or Sunday is a trip to Stonehenge, and so that, of course, means there will be a screening of This is Spinal Tap tonight.
In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, lived a strange race of people -- the druids. No one knows who they were, or what they were doing, but their legacy remains, hewn into the living rock -- of Stonehenge.
Stonehenge, where the demons dwell,
Where the banshees live and they do live well.
Stonehenge,
When a man is a man and the children dance
To the pipes of pan.
Stonehenge,
'Tis a magic place where the moon doth rise
With a dragon's face,
Stonehenge,
Where the virgin's lie
And the prayers of devils fill the midnight sky.
And you my love, won't you take my hand.
We'll go back in time to that mystic land
Where the dew-drops cry and the cats meow,
I will take you there,
I will show you how.
And oh how they danced, the little children of Stonehenge, beneath the haunted moon, for fear that the daybreak might come too soon ...
... And where are they now, the little people of Stonehenge? And what would they say to us, if we were here ... tonight.
Hah, okay, I'm over it. So back to some point I was may have been making earlier ... it feels like this whole things is just flying by. December is looking to be completely taken up by trips. On the weekend of the 4th I might be going back to Budapest, to take the Putnam (it's a math competition). For some reason, Budapest is the only place in Europe it's offered. I don't really like the idea of math competitions, but two of the others from Tech want to do it, and it should be a fun trip. Then later in that next week actually, I'm going to Stockholm. David Pollitzer, a Caltech professor, won the physics Nobel this year, and had room for 10 of us from the study abroad program to come. I've also got the entire 2nd week of November off for "reading week", starting on my birthday, actually. Since I can read math and econmics pretty well anywhere, there's no reason to spend the whole time here. Right now I've narrowed trip possibilities down to Greece, Croatia, Spain, and Egypt (and/or somewhere else in North Africa). This all has to be planned soon though, to get cheap airfares, I should really get to work.
It's getting difficult to write in this thing. I guess I've been in a soaking-things-up mood for a while. I'll try to continue writing some mindless blather on occasion though.