In-between day - 6/28

Unlike yesterday, today was very good. I thoroughly enjoyed almost all of it. I'll explain that "almost" soon enough.

Let me also explain why I am calling this the "in-between" day. Since I am a half-time co-site director, I teach only one class. The rest of my time is available to assist the full-time site director with any issues that may come up - like escorting that student yesterday through the medical quandry that was required to get the necessary treatment. Let me also add that the student is doing well. There was nothing too serious, especially since it (an infection) was caught in time. Today is the day that morning classes went on their field trips. Since I only teach an afternoon class, the field trip day for my class is Thursday. Consequently, I had a day relatively free from academic duties.

I did man the office in the morning in case there were any needs to arise with students. Here's a picture of the office. And one of me in the office (you know, I look kind of like that monster that showed up at Hampton Court Palace).

Odd little hair-do there, Brian.

Anyway, after office hours, I headed across London to Waterloo train station to purchase the tickets for my class's first field trip to Winchester, on Thursday. That will be a fun time. I'll be sure to bring back a lot of pictures of that one!

When I left for the train station, it started to rain. It started off as a fairly easy rain, but that wasn't going to last! At the station, purchasing the tickets was a snap (it took me less than 25 minutes to get them - including standing in line - or "queuing" as the British say). Since I had more time on my hands than I expected, I wanted to go see something. I thought the British Museum would be a good afternoon diversion. Well, when I got off the subway (the "Tube"), it was raining quite heavily. In fact it was a downpour. At one point, a thunderclap sounded so loudly and so close, that I thought it had struck the building I was walking next to on Tottenham Court Road! Instead of going to the museum while soaking wet (I had an umbrella, but it didn't help much) I decided to head back to the dorm to finish my grading and work on class preparations for Wednesday's class. On the way back to the dorm, I stopped in to a pub for a bite of lunch. It was a pretty big bite, but it was oh, so good.

This is the way Fish & Chips should look! By the way, the green stuff at the back is "mushy peas," very nice. Once I drenched it all in malt vinegar, it didn't stand a chance. It was gone very quickly.

Later in the evening, I attended a concert at St. Paul's Cathedral. It was marvelous. Regrettably, photos are not allowed to be taken inside St. Paul's, so I can't share any with you. The concert was a part of the City of London Celebration of the Arts. It featured a new version of J.S. Bach's Partita #2 (for solo violin). It was new in that a choir was added to the performance. They sang Bach chorales in between the movements of the Partita and were involved in the final movement as well. The arranger of this version believed that Bach probably wrote this final movement as a requiem for his first wife. I must admit, that this version was beautiful, and the whole performance was very much like a requiem. I was moved to tears at one point. The emotional impact of the music was truly powerful - especially hearing it in the wonderful acoustics of St. Paul's Cathedral. The second featured work was Faure's Requiem. That is the requiem that the ABAC Chamber Choir sang when it was invited to sing at Lincoln Center last month. It was wonderfully performed. The soloists were excellent, and the choral parts were inspired. I can't say enough about it. However, I was moved, while sitting in that great cathedral listening to that great music, to appreciate what talented people have done to glorify God. The musicians, the composers, the arranger, the architect, the craftsman who contributed to the construction of the building all delivered a gift to me last night. It was truly awe inspiring.

Now, it is late here, and I need to get to sleep so I can be ready for class tomorrow.