A Very, Very Happy Havanah

featuring daytime drinking, talk of deadlines, and good news!

As I type I am curled up in my fluffiest dressing gown nursing a cup of tea. Yes, I have multiple dressing gowns and I save this one, as the newest and the cuddliest, for the specialist of occasions. Okay, now I've hyped things up a bit too much but there we go, I couldn't resist.

In town today: Dania chooses to take selfies the
second I put a spoon of ice-cream in my mouth

So, over the last few months I've been trying to find a volunteer project/internship that I can work on in order to fulfill one of my graduation requirements. It's been really difficult because, ideally, it should link with my major and finding a placement that is English and relates to literature in the Netherlands is tricky. Finding a placement in the UK that will take you for just a month but full time, even harder. Volunteer work is more flexible because it doesn't have to fit in with your major but rather benefit the local and global community. The problem is, I didn't want to do something that I wasn't passionate about. I don't want to volunteer for a cause I don't agree, more likely, with or with a charity that I feel doesn't really prioritise the needs of its target group.

Anyway, you might recall me saying that I thought I had something up my sleeve in the last few posts and, I'll be quite honest with you right away, it came to nothing. The placement would have been great and would have fitted my degree perfectly. The organisation, however, was awful. Having asked me to fill in loads of different application forms (because they asked for the wrong ones to start with), spoken with me on the phone, collected references from me etc, and after weeks of waiting on a reply... they told me the role wasn't actually a real role - the website was wrong. They wanted me to go back to square one so they could "start to process my application". We're talking about two months on from when they should have started. Anyway, I gave up on that. It's not worth the stress.

A little disheartened, I trawled the internet for something else and, while I didn't really find anything promising, I did find something.

Visits to Hard Rock Café's are more
than justified in these situations.

To cut a very long story short, I applied for a teacher training program and for a scholarship too and, much to my surprise, I actually got offered it the other day. So, as of a couple of days ago, alongside my degree, I have been starting the process of language teacher training. I will also spend a lot of the summer in various observed placements in central Europe where I will teach children between the age of 12 and 19. I have to fund my own travel to the placements (so there are a few flights to book) but other than that all training and accommodation/board is funded. I'm completely overwhelmed and completely over the moon too. I feel like this is a real opportunity to get some practical qualification alongside my, lets face it, academic to the useless degree but fascinating nevertheless degree. I'm terrified but so excited.

The only person, other than my parents, who knew that I was applying for this was Dania. Each time I mentioned it to her she kept saying: "You should do this!" Even when I was in the process of applying and had no control over whether I was going to be accepted or not, she acted like it was my indecisiveness that was stopping it from being a certainty!! Her faith in me made me feel so confident and valued though <3

Naturally, Dania and I decided that we had to go out and celebrate today so, for the second time in my life it was gin cocktails for lunch. In all fairness, it was also a rather large meal and, several hours later, I am still completely full. The ice-cream on the way back was probably not so sensible either!

Anyway, I have already rambled on long enough and I have a delightful (note sarcasm) deadline for my academic writing course tonight so I should probably go and attack it! I'm actually done but that final proof read has to be thorough!

Celtic Woman: Destiny World Tour

To say that I was looking forward to this evening is a bit of an understatement.  I've listened to Celtic Woman for some time now and have tried to see them live a few times. However, as you may be aware, I seem to be jinxed with regard to certain bands and never get to see them. One day I will manage to see Dikanda live but I digress! The point is, it's not all that surprising that my string of bad luck continued as I woke up this morning with the cold that had been pretty annoying all weekend much worse... seriously, how are sinuses capable of causing so much pain?

But nothing was going to stop Wendy and me from getting to the centre of town to see Celtic Woman perform in the rather stunning Carré!

Celtic Woman is an Irish music group who play a kind of fusion folk music. Their style really seems to change from album to album, the latest album Destiny, seems rather poppy compared to some of the earlier recordings and this transferred to the stage. They also have a rotating line up of vocalists who, despite being all female, don't really have anything in common with each other vocally meaning that you get quite a different sound depending on the current line up.

At the moment, the group consists of vocalists Máiréad Carlin, Susan McFadden and Éabha McMahon as well as fiddle player Máiréad Nesbitt who is the only one who has, I think, been with the group since it formed. They are, of course, joined on stage by a group of wonderful musicians, who I am unable to name, as well as, for this tour, a four voice male choir.

From what I've seen, admittedly only on DVD, Celtic Woman concerts are always a bit theatrical. In this case we had a projection screen which was used quite nicely with images of countryside or subtle effects. The staging was quite simple with multiple levels which was also quite nice. That said, I do have to question some of the choreography and there were moments, quite a few moment, when the dancing reminded me of a cheesy boy band or when the movements seemed completely random, without purpose or effect.

But the important bit was the music, of course. As I said, the album Destiny breaks from some of the more folk led albums and this did translate into the show. That's not a bad thing at all but was quite interesting. While there were a few songs off of different albums (Amazing Grace, Danny Boy etc.) these were the minority.

The three female vocalists have lovely voices and, they have been really carefully balanced so that each voice brings something different to the group (*). This leads to a great balance as well as a diversity of interesting tone. That said, I could write quite the tome about Éabha's voice, in particular. At times it was aspirate and gentle, certainly full of character. However, especially when she was singing solo pieces, we were treated to what may well be one of the most beautiful voices... I cannot find a way to describe it without using such clichés as "molten" and "haunting" but you know something's special when the cliché's are true!

And I really cannot forget the musicians who are not included in the "Celtic Woman" name... I always find it a bit strange that the name refers to the vocalists and Máiréad but not the others but anyway! The band in general are pretty awesome. Ray Fean deserves a special mention as a wonderful percussionist and a skilled showman as does Anthony Byrne for his bagpipe playing. Okay, I might be a bit partial to the sound of bagpipes!

So, after several years of attempting to see them I finally managed and, I think it's fair to say that it was worth the wait. Now hopefully I won't have as long a wait until next time!


(*) The male vocalists also had great voices and they sounded wonderful but as a backing choir they did get less chance to shine!

Welcome to your semesterly "this is what I'm doing" post!

Yes, yes, it's that time again. The second semester of my second year at university has just begun and I have had a week of my courses... time for me to write down what they are so that when I casually reference them later it doesn't cause such confusion.

First off is my compulsory course Advanced Research Writing or, as it used to be known and therefore how it's still called by basically everyone, Academic English II. Advanced Research Writing continues from my first semester course of Academic English I (now called Intro to Research Writing or something) and in this course we prepare to write our capstone (Bachelor's Thesis). Basically, in practice, we spend the next few months writing an article and, in groups, creating a journal in which to 'publish' the articles. Okay, it doesn't sound as soul-destroying as Academic English I and, you know, it might actually be useful this time.

I'll be honest, I felt that Academic English I was a complete waste of space so my hopes were really not high for Academic English II. I signed up for the teacher I thought would be best at teaching it and, turning up on the day, it turned out that the class was being taken by someone else. I resigned myself to months of frustration. And then I kicked myself for being so judgmental. I actually really like the teacher, probably aided by the fact that she's not simply teaching the dry course but giving it a personal spin and therefore making it feel interesting and worthwhile.

My second course is Literature and Science. As the title may well suggest, this course looks at the interaction between literature and science throughout history. Well, it starts in the early modern period but, you know, that's still a fair chunk. So far, we've mainly focused on the disciplinary conflict between the academic subjects but we should move on to look at how the two fields intermingled and inspired each other... perhaps limited too, who knows.

This course is taught by three of my favourite teachers and, as they said, with a class of around 15 (give or take as people join or drop out) what other university course would ever offer that kind of teacher student ratio! Each specialises in a different time period of literature, and I believe a different area within literary studies too, so there's a real breadth and depth of knowledge being offered. I think the reading load may be quite intense for this subject but I suppose that's one of the drawbacks of majoring in literature!

Then we have my accidental course History and Heritage of the Dutch Golden Age. I think the title of the course sums this one up. It's a study of the Dutch Golden Age (17th century) and the different things that were going on and related to it. The course covers aspects from the economy to literature, art to religion and, quite frankly, it looks fascinating. I love taking a period of time and a place and then attempting to learn about 'everything' - it's an exciting approach to history, I find.

However, I did not initially sign up for this course. One of my courses was cancelled due, I believe, to the teacher being ill and this was what replaced my art history course. So far, I feel it was a very happy mistake. The teacher of History and Heritage of the Dutch Golden Age - I really need to find a shorter title for that one - seems absolutely lovely. He's got a great sense of humour, is engaging, and seems to be genuinely interested in, and know, his stuff. He's also open to changing the course around in order to fit the desires and interests of the students and, I think, open to learning from his students. It's a wonderful attribute for a teacher to have. Oh, and another funny thing, at the moment I am the only non-exchange student in the class... not quite sure how that happened!

Finally, I am taking Political Shakespeare, something that won't be surprising to a lot of you. Again, this title is exceptionally self explanatory. The course mainly focuses on reading Shakespeare's works within the (political) context of their society. There is also an aspect of looking at how they have been used in later societies and the meanings that the works have been given or picked up and that should be interesting. It's taught by the wonderful Rebecca and, considering how much I have sung her praises in the past, I won't go into how awesome she is at teaching here but it's still the case.

Actually, I'm also taking three external modules through a distance learning program this semester. They are not counted towards my degree and I'm trying to keep it a bit quiet from the university but I'm really excited about them. Two of those are Shakespeare based and one is history based but I'll say more about those when they start, perhaps. Seriously, if I get through the next semester without wanting to chuck my Shakespeare books out of the window then I can be pretty sure I'm applying for the right courses post BA ;-)

I think including a picture of my nail art of this
week is pretty fitting at this point.

Add to this mix the fact that I've still not heard anything about my internship and this next semester is going to be a pivotal one, I think! Very, very excited!!