Qqq--uuu--aaa-kkkk-e!

All right, so it wasn't as bad as my title suggests. But I was still quite scared last night when Leeds felt a tremor as a result of the 5.3 earthquake in Lincolnshire. People felt it as far away as Northern Ireland! Wow. The tremor lasted about 3 seconds...I was awake at the time but it was still such an odd feeling. For a split second I thought it was the ridiculous wind we'd had all day (we're talking skinny-girls-getting-blown-away-by-the-wind wind) but realized what it must have been. We don't get them at home, do we? I honestly don't know.

Immediately following the mini-quake, there was a raucous discussion with half our floormates in the hallway about what had just transpired, punctuated by yelling and furious texting to friends and family. The consensus was that we were somehow safest on the top floor and to just go back to bed. I was very worriedly asking Emily (who's from Shropshire, nearby) if there would be more tremors, as I'd had no previous experience with them, at all. She reassured me that they get them every 5 years or so, and never too strongly.

Who knew England got earthquakes? It's not one of the things you consider when going on exchange, I guess. And apparently this one is the biggest in 30 years. Well, England-- I consider it an honour to have participated.

A Week-End in the Country? Capital, I Say!

Johanna got back today from a weekend spent in Salzburg with some family friends, whom she's never met before. She had a great time, and told me about the rather fascinating lifestyle her friends lead...and with her permission, I'm going to share a (paraphrased) excerpt from our conversation with you!

JOHANNA: "So, it was a fantastic weekend, and I absolutely LOVE this family. They were so cute. The kids, the parents, and especially the grandparents! I just wanted to squeeze them, cutest family ever. But I have to say, they live a different life-- they have a main house, a holiday house, a house in Vienna, a house in France, and a castle. I mean, who has a castle? That's insane. It had a dungeon thing too...the kids and I played table tennis in it. The castle's a thousand years old, and their house is 600. And in the morning for breakfast, their breakfast set was silver and from the 1600s. Crazy! Some of their furniture, they were like, 'That's from the 1400s, that's from 17th century...'. They have a horse named Welly, after the Duke of Wellington, too. I got to ride him but was a bit nervous because he was huge. The dad had ten million books, too. His mind's like an encyclopedia. And at night, we sat in this upstairs room filled with books, with like one lamp and a candelabra, and read to each other.

ME: Whoa. That's like...you were back in Victorian times.

JOHANNA: Yeah, it did feel like we were in Victorian times. Weird. And when we were in the castle, like in this weird medieval/feudal period. Which was cool, but strange. Oh, and the mom painted a picture of me and her daughter--she's an artist--and it was awesome but I looked about 50 years old. Oh well, maybe it was the light from the candelabra."

...And so on. I didn't interrupt Johanna's description too much because it sounded amazing. The family sounds about the closest to gentility I've ever heard of!

To complete this Johanna Post, here's an absolutely lovely poem by Johanna about our trip to the Aran Islands that describes the experience much better than I ever could :). Enjoy!


The Aran Islands

On the corner of Europe, riding along
amid a myriad of short walls made of stone
cutting the land and thrown in a piled line
up and down hills, only stopping at brine,

wondering, thinking and peddling surely,
with bright and glinting light warming palely.
Booming and thundering and shooting mist,
white waves beat at the quiet abyss
of Dun Aonghasa and Inis Mor's lonely existence.

Yuki pants beside spinning wheels,
dropping a rock and leaping walls with the feel
that the day is alive, fun and carefree,
digging in sand and exploring the beauty
of old, salt-crusted boats and ropes
that tie colourful buoys dangling merrily.

Enchanted and kept, the lighthouse stands
at the top of a hill leaving bikes to lean
unlocked at the bottom, but safe
against the gate. Trekking up into the glow,
an offering at the threshold, humbled then content
to let pass the explorers only touching for a moment
the blue sky and cool, uneven stone,
and flash memory onto memory and soul.

Brrr!

I forgot to post the link to the rest of my Amsterdam pictures, so here they are! Oh, and it snowed here yesterday, and it was still here this morning... The trees around Bodington look really pretty-- almost like Canada. ;)

"Baby went to Amsterdam..."

When you tell your friends that you’re visiting Amsterdam, you’re inevitably greeted with a knowing look and a snicker. The mere mention of the city conjures up images of indelicate activities and rampant hedonism, and of packs of fun-seeking tourists wandering amidst a perpetually stoned population. Tentative remarks about Amsterdam’s rich cultural history and beautiful landmarks tend to fall on deaf ears.

Happily, the real Amsterdam (not the idealized oasis of debauchery constructed by North American frat boys) is a breath of fresh, stereotype-free air. Proud of its trading history, its monumental Golden Age of art and culture, and its modern-day social tolerance, the city welcomes you with open arms. It’s the friendliest city I’ve been to yet.

After arriving late Thursday night, Johanna, Jean and I were excited to see our fantastic hostel. Although a bit far from the centre, it was right next to Museumplein and had an amazing, huge breakfast. As a backpacker, it was a rare event to have such a massive choice of food-- so much that we didn’t have to buy lunch! In addition to that, we were upgraded from an 8 person room to a 4 person one. It was pretty much bliss.

The next day we set out on the reliably wicked Free Tour and were not disappointed (also, can I point out that the only one I haven’t been on is the Paris one? Bryan, I’m looking at you!). We got to see the city’s highlights and heard some interesting stories, along with the Coles Notes version of the Netherlands’ drug and prostitution laws. Naturally, it interested most of the tour group.


We were also taken on our first foray into the Red Light District. I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting (drunken riots and menacing streetwalkers come to mind) but it was definitely tamer than I imagined. The area’s full of cheap, good restaurants, is chock-full of gaping tourists, and is basically just another part of the city. Seeing the girls in the windows, even on a Friday morning, was tougher to take though; however, if you get past the surreality of it and the ladies’ dead, dead eyes, I guess you accept it. After all, it’s good for trade, right? Right.


Friday afternoon we explored the Van Gogh Museum, a pretty and clever permanent exhibition of the artist’s works. I like Van Gogh. Probably not on a very deep level, it must be said, but I think his paintings are absolutely beautiful. Plus, he seemed to think he wasn’t born a genius-- it’s his drive to become a genius that’s incredibly admirable.

We ended up staying in the museum until after 9 because, amazingly, there was an exhibition of the works of John Everett Millais, one of the most famous artists of the 19th century. Does anyone (I’m looking at you, English grads) recognize Ophelia?


It was luckily on display, along with dozens of his other equally gorgeous works. His painting is so realistic, the figures seem to look you in the eye and jump off the canvas. There was also an interpretative dance performance that night that we got to see-- a bit confusing, but well done and cause for much debate on the way home.

Saturday was a full day as well, as we took a train to the pretty little town of Haarlem on Amsterdam’s outskirts. We took a tour through the Corrie Ten Boom Museum, a house where the owner hid Dutch Jews during the war. Although Corrie, her sister, and her father were tipped off to the Nazis and carted away to concentration camps, the hidden Jews weren't found, and Corrie survived and spent the rest of her life speaking about racial tolerance. The hiding spot, incidentally, made the Anne Frank House seem like Buckingham Palace; it was literally a foot and a half deep and maybe 10 feet long. Six people hid in there for three days until rescued.



From Haarlem we went on to Zandvoort aan Zee, a little seaside town with a sandy beach on the North Sea. We sat and had coffee and watched the wide assortment of dogs and their walkers enjoy the perfect weather. We didn’t see a cloud the entire weekend, actually.

Saturday afternoon was a tad sobering as we got back and visited the Anne Frank House. I’m currently re-reading her diary, and it’s shocking and witty and so, so tragic; the house just reminded me of the absolute waste of life. Such a talented girl with such a horrible story to tell. As you can see below, she's a beloved worldwide icon and revered in her adopted city.


Sunday we allotted for shopping. After gamely trying to follow a Lonely Planet suggested walking tour, we figured out that most of the shops were closed anyway, so we went back to Dam Square and parted ways with Johanna, who left to explore on her own. It was her birthday on Saturday, so she treated herself to some awesome shopping :).

Jean and I visited the Rijksmuseum, which is apparently the Louvre of the Netherlands. However, they’re undergoing renovations, so only 100 masterpieces are on display. Only 100. We felt that was ample, though. After at least 15 rooms full of priceless art, including some Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Bols, we got to see Rembrandt’s famous masterpiece The Night Watch. Well...it’s definitely big. I particularly enjoyed the characters’ faces, some surprised, some joyous, all convincing.

Whew. There’s a bit more… on Sunday night, we were set to meet Matt and Erin for dinner, but they ended up being delayed so the three of us had some yummy Greek food in honour of Johanna’s birthday. We were straight off to bed though, as we had to get up at 5:30 to make our flight back to Leeds!

So last night we made it out to The Library and then HiFi for Johanna’s big birthday night, and it was great fun. Johanna admirably made it through the whole evening despite being sleep-deprived and obligingly accepting congratulatory birthday drinks the whole time, but you do what you have to, right? ;) Happy birthday, Jo!!

Oh, and here’s the latest Gazette arrrrrticle (pg. 8), concerning the infamous NME show of last week.

Blerg, that’s a long post. If you’ve made it to the end, thanks so much for doing so! I didn't know until recently just how many people read my blog regularly. I want to sincerely thank everyone who’s been reading the blog-- it means so much to me that you’re interested and take the time to read about my experiences!

I’ll talk to you all soon!

Gennelle

p.s. Hi, John and Susanne! Hope everything’s going well in good ol’ London, ON :).

The Sound of ... What?

Oh, the transcendance of music!

Saturday night I had the pleasure of attending the 2008 NME Awards Tour at the good ol’ Refectory, and seeing live four very different up and coming British indie bands. The names in and of themselves are entertaining: The Ting Tings, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong, and the headliners, Yorkshire favourites The Cribs. But the music turned out to be pretty good, too.


The first three bands were enthusiastic (that's Joe Lean above), but The Cribs stole the show with their intense performance… the band is made up of three brothers, two of them twins, and they had the kids almost delirious with excitement. Myself, Crystal, and Jean managed to get right of up front and had an amazing view of Ryan Jarman, my favourite Jarman of all:


I got kicked in the head a couple of times by wayward crowd surfers and needed all weekend to get my hearing back, but it was all worth it. Most definitely. Especially since Johnny Marr from The Smiths showed up at the end! If any of you are music lovers, you know how exciting that is! :)

The day before, Jean and I went to Fruity to celebrate our friend Nick’s birthday, which was also great fun. I think after this, Fruity and I are going to take a break, though. You can have too much of a good thing, right? ;)

I was left a bit on my own all weekend as my hallmates took a trip to London together, but I made sure to keep busy while they were gone. Also, Johanna and I had a late Shrove Tuesday on Sunday night and cooked real, live pancakes for ourselves. We had to use that Jakeman’s syrup I brought back somehow! We also combined bananas, chocolate chips, and blueberries together in the pancakes, which was a thing of beauty.

Johanna, Jean and I leave for Amsterdam Thursday night, for which we are extremely excited, so I’ll have a massive post for you when I return on Monday morning-- although we’re cutting our recovery time short, as it’s Johanna’s birthday celebration that night and it’s gonna be a looonnng one! But we’re all looking forward to it, should be amazing. Oh, and Matt & Erin are going to Amsterdam this weekend as well, completely coincidentally, so we’ll make sure to spend time with them while we’re in the famous debauched city- although I can predict our excursions will be more of the Anne Frank Museum-visiting variety, rather than the Red Light District kind ;).

Talk to you soon!

p.s. Thank you for all of the kind comments about the video! We had great fun making it; here's hoping there's a sequel from our trip through Eastern Europe!

Get Out Your Dancin' Shoes

Here it is-- the hotly anticipated and much-delayed musically-inspired video chronicle of our backpacking trip through France and Italy!*




*And that's "Toulouse" with an 'e' ... ;)

Ice, ice, maybe?

You wouldn’t think that a Northern English city that’s mad for football with a mild climate and a penchant for Tetley beer would naturally take to ice and ice-related activities; but, oddly, that’s exactly what’s happened over the past few years here in Leeds.

Leeds rather proudly builds the largest outdoor skating rink in the UK every year, and predictably, this year’s turned out to be a massive success. Johanna and I got to try out the facilities on Monday afternoon, being the rabid hockey lovers we are, and it was quite interesting.


(I didn't take this picture, but you get the gist... incidentally, it's called the Ice Cube. Because it's square, and in the Town Square. You are now one trivia anecdote richer.)

Now, we make no bones about it-- we’ve played the game for years. And coming from Canada, we have an innate snarkiness about our national pastime: evaluating the rink’s blue plastic rental “skates” and reminiscing about that time we went to provincials in Grade 11 are part of the conceit. To put it bluntly, we didn’t expect much of the British way of ice skating, and frankly, didn’t appreciate that we had to call it “ice skating” either. The English on ice? Pleeeaassssse.

Well, the Loiners proved us wrong, as could be expected. They were pretty darn good, and our under-the-breath comments about the soft ice and short boards went unnoticed. Thank goodness too: after half an hour we’d gotten over our despicable Canadian uppitiness and had a great time with the other skaters, who were all gleefully gliding around us and trying out new moves. It just felt amazing to be back on skates, especially in such a different environment. A taste of home in a strange city.

The week’s been busy as we’ve started seminars in addition to lectures, but Tuesday night I headed to The Eldon pub for international student night with some newly arrived friends from Canada, the States, Australia, and New Zealand. The Eldon’s always good fun, so we had a great time with all the second semester-ers.

Wednesday I had lunch in the city centre with Donna from Toronto and Jenny and Emily from Chicago, who were all delighted to discover how much shopping Leeds has. I left them to it to go to a film screening for my Shakespeare on Film class… I know not everyone likes Kenneth Branagh but I happen to love him. So the prospect of seeing (and discussing) his films all semester frankly delights me. Henry V this week, and Hamlet very soon…love it.

On Friday Jean and I went to see a much-promoted student production of the play Mnemonic at Stage@Leeds, which was very well-done. Despite a technical hiccup, the actors pulled the show off. It was all about memory, and dealt with the idea by using parallel storylines and symbolism. Interesting!

After the play we went to Fruity and had a great time, and so far this weekend I’ve been recovering and reading, pretty much. We’re looking forward to Amsterdam on the 14th and perhaps Wales the next.

So, onto next week, which promises to be just as packed! Have a good one!

p.s. here’s my latest article :). It's page 6.