Sydney Opera House Detail
Sydney Opera House Detail
Originally uploaded by PeterJosef
Sydney Opera House Detail
Sydney Opera House Detail
Originally uploaded by PeterJosef
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Originally uploaded by PeterJosef
DSC_0397
DSC_0397
Originally uploaded by PeterJosef
The crop on the bottom bothers me…feedback please?
I NEED Your Input!
Alright, so, I need your input. This blog is free for you guys, obviously, as it should be, but for that last post, and others like it, it takes me about an hour to put together. What I’m trying to say is that I put a lot into it, and it takes a lot of my time…I’m just asking for a little input here and there, may take a minute out of your day.
Alright, here it is. I need to figure out something to cook for Vasya, Jenya and Heat for next weekend. Two weekends ago Heat cooked us a kind of Japanese soup, today we had a Russian meal (described in the previous post), and next week is my week! I HAVE NO IDEA! I thought about hamburgers, but Vasya rarely eats meat (but would eat it if I cooked it), and Jenya NEVER does, except for fish. I would like it to be American, but I really have no idea what food is American. Apparently burgers are German, as well as hot dogs. And we don’t have a barbecue. So my question is this…What is relatively easy to cook and isn’t terrible for Jenya if she eats it without meat. This is huge, guys. This isn’t just me, this is all of us. I’m representing America here! Please let me know! Just the name of a meal, an idea. A full meal would be nice.
Alright, let’s hear em! Oh, and the person with the winning idea gets an Australian prize…
Oh, and just for a thank you, I ran across this the other day. At this point it is my favorite ultimate highlight vid, by one Luke Johnson, former CHS coach. It’s of Rhino, the Oregon club team, which includes the likes of Collin Smith, Daniel Force, Eli Janin, Jacob Janin and Johnny Bloch. Check it out.
CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW FOR MUCH BETTER QUALITY. AND I MEAN MUCH BETTER!
Better Quality Video HERE! from luke johnson on Vimeo.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream-Sydney Opera House
Well, yesterday was another groundbreaking day for me here in AUS. The day was pretty chill and lax, woke up late, didn’t do much. I did skype the family at a family party, however, and that was heaps of fun! (Heaps- a word they use a LOT here. Instead of the phrase ‘a lot’, they say ‘heaps’.) At about 4:30 or so I ironed my shirt and got into my nice clothes. Took a few pictures with Vasya and Jenya, and headed into town with them. We were headed to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream, performed by the Sydney Symphony, at the Sydney Opera House. !!!!!!!!!
We headed down to the new Macquarie Uni Train Station (nobody says university here, its all ‘uni’. Oh, and a ‘college’ is a university residence hall/complex) and took the train to Chatswood, where we changed trains and headed into the city. I got a sandwich on the wharf/Circular Quay area, which was FANTASTIC, while Vasya and Jenya had ice cream. We took a few pictures, then headed inside to the Opera House. It’s almost as amazing inside as it is out. Incredible exposed rafters, bare concrete, which was beautiful, and glass all the way around the edges, giving you a view of the harbor and the city.
Vasya and I. BROTHERS!
One of the entrances to the Opera House.
First thing we did was get sparkling wine. I asked if it was champagne, and they said, ‘kinda’. They explained to me that by international agreement only wine from the Champagne region of France can be labeled as Champagne, and as this wine was Australian, it was instead labeled sparking wine. Whatever. Apparently its common sense, I’m not all that educated on alcohol and all. It was the best wine I had ever had…very smooth, very fruity. $10 AUD a glass. It was somewhat comical because I sipped the wine very slowly, but while I had about 3/4 of a glass left the bells rang for us to go into the concert hall! I had to drink the wine quickly, and boy, I felt it a little bit afterwards! I was WAAAY sleepy for the first half, and I could feel it in my head a bit.
My flatmates, Vasya and Jenya. Jenya would be very frustrated I put this pic up. She looks MUCH more beautiful in real life.
Vasya and I with our sparkling wine. I had on the shirt first!
The concert hall was absolutely incredible, once again, almost as beautiful as the outside. Wonderfully rich wood tones, exposed rafters, and a humongous organ. I bought a Toblerone, so we had some of that, then the lights dimmed and it started. It was so wonderful! I loved the intensity of the music and the richness of it. Symphonies have so many musical layers, its just fantastic. Watching the conductor was so interesting, how he would get into it and point to different sections, and hearing them chime in when called upon.
Concert Hall with the Syndey Symphony warming up.
The music was by Felix Mendelssohn, and it was conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. If you don’t know Mendelssohn, you are wrong. Listen to the video below, he freakin’ composed this song. The Wedding March.
To hear them play that, live, was so powerful. And to see Vladimir Ashkenazy conduct them, so intensely and with such passion, WOW. For those of you who don’t know, (and I’m guessing that is most) Vladimir Ashkenazy is a VERY famous conductor. He is a Grammy-award winning pianist, and is known as somewhat of a piano prodigy (began playing piano at age six, was accepted into the Central Music School at age 8.) In the past 20 years of his career he has gotten into conducting, and has been the Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, Director of the Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, Music Director of the European Union Youth Orchestra, Conductor Laureate of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and was Chief Conductor and Musical Director of the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin. He’s legit. This concert weekend was his first as the Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the Sydney Symphony. To hear Mendelssohn conducted by Ashkenazy was amazing. And for it to be his first set of concerts in his new position was pretty cool!
It wasn’t strictly a symphony, however. It was a play as well. Between some of the music, and probably for a half of the show or a little more, actors would come out and perform the play of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I was under the impression, as were Vasya and Jenya, I believe, that it would be just the music that Mendelssohn composed for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. But the actors spoke in Shakespearean Old English, acted out the story and interacted with the conductor and some of the musicians. It was quite interesting. And funny. I didn’t catch a lot of it because of accents (I think the actors had both Australian and English accents) but I felt bad for Vasya and Jenya, I don’t think they caught much of it at all. I did kinda wish that it was all music, a strict symphony, but it was cool to see the acting aspect as well. Maybe we’ll go back and see a strict symphony.
At intermission I went outside, out onto the balcony-type area that overlooked the city and harbor. So amazing. Everything all lit up, cruise ships circling, the weather at about 70 degrees, it was just perfect. PERFECT.
Outside at Intermission
View from the balcony at intermission.
I was more awake for the second half of the show, as some of the wine had worn off, and I enjoyed the show immensely. Clapped a lot at the end (they came back for three bows!) To experience that show, with music composed by that legend, conducted by that prodigy, in that world-renown building…its hard to explain what it was like. But its not something I will forget.
- A bar/club/cafe on the harbour, directly next to the Opera House.
- Opera House at night
Afterwards we headed back to the train station and I ran into my American friends! In the freakin city of Sydney! It was crazy. They were headed out for Caroline’s 21st birthday. I would have gone along, but it was 11:00, I was tired and my contacts had made my eyes tired…so I said goodnite to them.
Took a train to Chatswood, then a taxi from Chatswood home (buses stopped running…) What a great time with great people!
Today was chill as well. I was actually gonna go into the city and get coffee with Dulce, but I remembered that Vasya and Jenya were gonna cook a Russian meal for Heat and I tonite, and it was too late, so I had to cancel. Instead I went for a run when I woke up and explored some new areas of my home (and tried to get my pale hide a little more brown). Did a little bit of reading for school, then had dinner. They made a soup that had dill as well as salmon in it, then a fried-potato with dill and mushroom sauce dish, and an avocado with tuna salad to put on bread. It was great! We had some white wine with it, which was enjoyable.
Afterwards Heat broke out the Sake. When he came back from Japan he also brought some drinking snacks…which were VERY good. It was this whole package with individually packaged snacks, specifically for eating while drinking alcohol. Stuff like peanuts, dried fish, fish and chili-pepper jerky, little rice treats that were dipped in soy sauce and were a bit spicy, and these weird little nuts. Man I love that stuff. At first I dug the sake, but then it started to kinda taste like motor oil or rubbing alcohol or something. But you can’t disrespect a Japanese man by leaving sake in the wine glass! It was interesting, because I could kinda taste how it came from rice…interesting.
Jenya kept saying that I was drunk, but I wasn’t. Just a little tipsy.
After that I showed Heat and Jenya the Daily Show, and Heat was insistent that we watch an episode of Miami Vice. He said something about how it kinda reflected justice in America, or the idealism of justice in America. I don’t know…he also thought it would be good for Vasya to hear the English. We only got through 11 minutes of it…ha.
Now it’s time for me to do some reading. I feel like I should apologize for such a HUGE post, but I guess you can take it or leave it, eh? Or just look at the pictures!
Concert Hall-Opera House
Here’s a quick little vid of the Concert Hall inside the Sydney Opera House. I’ll write about it later…enjoy!
Go here for pics.
