a few days in

So, things are going great so far. I know I'm only a few days into my actual research, but I'm having loads of fun. Generally I wake up around 8 am, shower, have some cereal and coffee, make my lunch, pack my bag, and then head into school. I've been getting in to the Con, (Conservatorium of Music), around 9 in the morning, at which point I usually meet up with Peter briefly to chat about some stuff. Then I'll head to the library where I spend most of my day browsing through books, journals, databases, etc. Once lunch time comes, I'll head out to the Botanical Gardens, take a stroll and eat my sandwich. (On a side note, there are tons of bats in the Gardens. I don't know how I missed them the past few day, but they are very noisy and fill many of the trees.) After lunch, I'll come back and practice either the didge or violin for a while, after which I'll head back to the library for the rest of the afternoon. I'll finish up around 5 pm, when I'll then head back to the apartment for the evening.
Of course my schedule will vary from day to day, depending. For example, yesterday (Tuesday) I took a stroll down to the main campus, (which is about a half hours walk away... maybe a little more). I walked through Chinatown, and some of the rougher parts of town to get there, but once I got there, the campus is lovely. I had to go get my library card made so that I can officially check things out of the library. It was very easy to do after I had all of the right signatures and what not... and now, according to the University databases... Luke Miller is 'Associated Academic Staff.' Awesome! I have a nice little ID card and everything. So after I got that I walked around the main campus a bit, getting a feel for the area. I walked through the Macleay Museum. This was a nice little museum on the main campus which had a little exhibit on Australian anthropologists. There was even a small section on the Aboriginals of Arnhem land, which is where I will be going in early August. After this short visit to the main campus, I headed back to the Con, where I spent the rest of the afternoon in the library.
Today held even more 'out of the ordinary' events for me... I guess I can't really say anything is 'ordinary' since I've only been here less than a week. Anyways, this morning I watched an introductory film on how to play the didgeridoo, which gave me some nice tips to start off with. There was a nice lunch time concert today put on by the Conservatorium High school. That's right, not only is this music program amazing in itself, but it also has a connected high school, whose students study with the same private lesson teachers, and the actual building is even connected. Anyways, this concert featured music by Mozart, Faure, and then finished with 'The Fountains of Rome' by Resphigi. Not only were they playing very challenging music, but they were playing it very well too... Plus, the orchestra had 5 French horn players, full string section (including 2 basses) and even three harp players! What kind of high school has those numbers? While at this concert I met this very nice local lady, Christine, who gave me some nice tips about seeing the city. In fact, she also told me about another concert I could see later tonight... more about that in a second.
Later today, I met the chair of the Music Education department, Kathryn Marsh. In case you didn't know, Peter is also on the music education faculty. That's right, even with all of his ethnomusicology involvement, the department he is connected to is music education. I guess that's because, unlike UNH, the music education department here realizes that it is important to include world music in the curriculum for the music education students... (I know that most of the UNH faculty feels strongly that we should include world musics in our curriculum... but it just does not show in what we are learning.) Anyways... Kathryn is a very nice little lady, who specializes in early childhood music education, very friendly.
Later this evening, I got to go to a Balinese Gamelan rehearsal. Every Wednesday night, the group that Peter plays in meets to rehearse. I sat in for a little bit, chatting with some of the players before the rehearsal began. I would have recorded some of the rehearsal to show you all, but I had to leave early, and they weren't playing much as a group by the time I left.
After the bit of rehearsal that I saw, I ran across town to get over to the St. Andrews Cathedral. There was a choral concert on tonight, (which is the concert Catherine told me about.) I walked into the Cathedral, and right into a healing service... oops. I was a bit confused, but decided to sit down anyways, figuring Catherine had been a bit confused about dates or something. After a few minutes, I got up and walked out the back door... and what is in front of me? but the Cathedral school, with big glass windows looking right on a choir singing! I found it. This was a farewell concert for the Cathedral singers who are leaving in a few weeks for a tour around England. They sang some really nice music, including 'Sing a song of Sixpence' by John Rutter... which if I'm not mistaken, the UNH Chamber singers sang last year. Anyways, it was a nice concert, followed by some refreshments... and who doesn't like a few free glasses of wine, really?
After the reception, Catherine took me out to Hyde Park, which is right near where I am living, and we fed some opossums together. They are very cute, but apparently they are quite the little pests, sort of like squirrels in the US. Often they can nest in the roofs of peoples houses, and then be nearly impossible to get out. Anyways, they are all over Hyde Park at night, and very cute at that.
Two little side notes before I sign off... Two different people today asked if I was from Canada. I guess it was something to do with my 'soft' American accent, that made them think I was from the north. Also, Peter talked to the conductor of the group that plays a lot of early string music on period instruments. It might be possible for me to sit in, and play with them in some of their rehearsals later on while I am here! I think they are playing some of the Brandenburg Concertos right now, what fun :)
So, tomorrow Peter and I are off to Canberra to visit the AIATSIS and a few other museums and galleries. I think it is about a 4 hour drive from here, so it will be a nice trip to get out of Sydney and see some more of Australia... plus, it is the capitol of Australia, so I suppose I should probably see it while I am here.















The main campus. Hogwarts anyone?















The Conservatorium High School. Notice: Three harp players on the left side, organ player in the back, etc.




















These are some of the bats in The Gardens.















Speaking of Hogwarts... haha. A few guys playing a huge chess board in Hyde Park during the day.















Feeding some opossums in Hyde Park.



Until next week.

Luke.