Great, Elise. Well done. In front of all these important people. Sheesh. But I was the only grad student presenting, and after the long day we all went out to a large (grant-funded!) dinner, at which I ate roast duck, we all drank goodly amounts of wine and I made them laugh... so I figure they'd either (i) have forgotten my talk by Sunday morning, or (ii) decided to look upon me mercifully, saying to themselves "I was that young and precocious once. Plus, she said some very clever things about politics and water sports during dinner."
Yesterday afternoon Guido went through my paper with me...line by line. And let me tell you folks, it was so much more than just eating humble pie. It was like eating humble pie when you already know you need to eat humble pie (which really means you don't need any more humble pie because you only ever need humble pie if you don't realize you need humble pie. Isn't that how the 'humble pie' thing is supposed to go?).
But this? This was like being force-fed humble pie by a chimp dressed in women's clothing (I'm thinking circa 1950s, with the big blond wig and the apron and the lipstick), while you are wearing naught but your under-roos (and not the fancy kind either...the old, scary under-roos you keep for hiking trips or other secretive/wildernessy occasions). And you're on a large, empty stage (except for the chimp and the pie), under a white hot spotlight, in front of a crowd of ridiculously handsome people who are all fully, and nicely, dressed, and they all have those little opera-glasses... and cameras with telephoto lenses... and there's even a guy there doing sketches like they do in a courtroom. And all of these people are going to see you every day for the rest of your life. Like THAT.
After about an hour and a half Guido stopped and said, "Eeh, this is good-a, yes-a? This is how you learn-a!"
I nodded, utterly spent and beaten. In my mind I had already crawled into a deep, dark, dank hole . Of course he's right though. I'm learning. SO much. Though I do feel in over my head, trying desperately to uphold the undeserved title of "collaborator" in the company of people who've had their doctorates since before I was potty-trained. I know I don't belong here, yet here I am. But that's the story of my life, I guess. I always take bigger bites than I can chew, and though it works out in the end somehow, I always have jelly dribbling down my face and a really sore jaw (like after eating an entire giant jawbreaker without stopping). I remember in high school I tried to perform Chopin's B-flat minor Scherzo for solo-ensemble contest, even though I had just finished memorizing it the day before. And you know with a piece like Chopin's B-flat minor Scherzo you need to live with it for a good while-- it has to be in your hands and in your blood before you can really perform it. But I wanted to push myself, so I did it-- and crashed and burned, though not fatally. I guess I'd rather be challenged to the point of madness than be bored to the point of tears. (Isn't there a nice, middle- ground somewhere?)
Anywho, I took Tuesday and today rather easy after all that stress. Tonight I cooked a large Italian meal for the Baalbergens, but finished off with strawberry shortcake (an American dessert they'd never heard of), and I must say I'm pretty amazing at pastries (now I need some humble...pie?). A normal-sized tub of strawberries here cost $6.49 AUD. Which is almost six American bucks. Ouchie ouch. It is winter, though...and most of this island is not too berry-friendly. These particular berries came from California, I believe.
I can hardly believe it, but I leave for New Zealand in less than six days-- this time next week I will be riding the TranzAlpine train through Arthur's Pass, stopping overnight in Greymouth before heading to the north part of the south island for four days of hiking on beaches and through mountains. I plan to hit 6 national parks in my time there. It will be wildly adventurous. I've been planning and researching like mad. I'm not taking anything but my small backpack (which, by airline stipulations, must weigh under 10 kilos. That's 22 lbs.). I'm obviously not going to lug Bo (my computer) along, but I'm not sure how I'll cram 5 days of New Zealand onto my camera...maybe I'll have to find an internet cafe and give ya'll a mid-adventure update, and upload pictures online? Help me out here, tech-savvy friends. Perhaps it'd be easier to get another memory card?
For now, here are a few pictures form the symphony on Friday night. Jodie and Edwin came with me to have a glass of wine beforehand, and then I went to the concert. They performed Mozart's 41st Symphony in C Major (Jupiter), which was very nice, although I prefer Mozart's piano and vocal works. The second half was wonderful-- it was R. Strauss' Alpine Symphony, and it called for a 110-piece orchestra. 6 French horns! Six! And a slew of other brass. The horns were great. At one point near the beginning all six of them went backstage and played an echo (hunting horns from afar) that sent chills down my spine. But their brass still can't top the CSO. They had extraordinary winds though, including one of the best oboists I've ever heard.
It was really hard to get a good picture in front of the Opera House at night. But you can imagine it, right? The hall was gorgeous, and the rear lobby had glass walls probably 30 feet high, right on the water-- overlooking the Harbor and the lights surrounding it on all sides... It was all so terribly romantic.
(You can't exactly tell, but the bottom photo is in front of the main entrance to the Opera House, and the middle one is with the Harbor Bridge in the background...which you can't exactly see. Oh well. The picture on top is, of course, the concert hall.)
Well, I've got some more research to do for New Zealand! Heeeheeheeehee! Haha! Teehee!
-Elise
P.S. OBAMA, WOOOOOOO!!!!! It's strange to watch all the excitement from so far away...
