Birthday, Break, Booyah

Yesterday was my 21st birthday. All in all, it was a good birthday. Obviously the traditional "rite of passage" aspects of the 21st birthday so common in America are somewhat muted in England, with the legal drinking age of 18. But it was a good day. I had class at 11, which focused on the international economy between the two world wars. Skipping baseball, I attended what I thought was a brass clinic given by the trombonist I went and saw in the evening, Dennis Rollins. In reality, it was more of a glorified rehearsal for one of the campus jazz groups. They said I could just sit in and play, but they had no trombone parts. So I ended up reading through trumpet and tenor sax parts, testing my ability to read in B flat treble clef. Bottom line, it was a waste of 2 hours.

Anyways, after dinner which featured an amazing mocha-chocolate birthday cake, complete with frosted trombone, Emily and I made our way to the Lakeside Arts Centre at university to catch Dennis Rollins and Badbone & Co (pictured above). The concert was amazing. He's a British trombonist of Jamaican descent, and it was a great show. A lot of funk and music I would classify as "urban inspired" jazz. He played a Michael Rath trombone, and he had this microphone and receiver connected to it, which fed into a wireless distortion machine. He had (I counted) 23 pedals for various distortion things. I'm not usually into electronic stuff like that, but it was really cool. So yeah, the concert was a great success.

Following that, we headed downtown and met the remaining 6 flatmates (Kate was returning from France) for a few drinks. Kevin and Hilary have already discussed this phenomenon in their respective blogs, but the group of us has really bonded over the course of the year. It's not hard to remember the extreme awkward silences and nervous looks that met most of our trips downtown earlier in the year. It's quite amazing how time can bring together such a diverse group of people. In a normal year at Luther, I would never see myself ever associating with a large majority of the folks here. And to be sure, I was definitely nervous about the social dynamics when I left in the fall. But time has proven those fears unfounded. It's been good. Check out Kevin and Hilary for more insightful analysis.



The topic on everyone's minds as of late has been the looming specter of SPRING BREAK. Mass freak out has begun officially. I have to admit, it's quite intimidating. I mean, a month seems like a long time to be on the road, and it is. But on the other hand, it is not nearly enough time to see Europe. Maybe enough time to see a lot of one country, but the goal among most of us is to see as much of Europe as we can, without the burn out that accompanied Christmas break. It's challenging, to be sure. Anyways, here's a revised idea of what I might be doing, in order of visitation.

1. Paris
2. Loire Valley/Orléans
3. Nice/French Riviera
4. City in Italy to be named later
5. Rome
6. Sorrento/Naples/Pompeii
7. Athens/Greek island?
8. Turkish beach?
9. Istanbul

I am quite set on finishing my trip in Istanbul and I think it's fair to say that it is looking to be the highlight of my trip thus far. I'm just having problems trying to figure out transportation to said city/country without flying out of Switzerland or something. Lame. But where there's a will there's a way, and I'm going to find my way to Turkey. We'll see who I can drag along with me. I know Kate and possibly Ryan are up for Istanbul. Still working on the lady. It's going to be an adventure, whatever happens, that's to be sure. The weekend features the first real baseball game against Manchester on Sunday. Tomorrow night sees the English reincarnation of the infamous Luther high class party, complete with lounge music, hors d'oeuvres, black and white attire, and cocktails. All to be held in the comfortable confines of the church hall directly underneath me. Plus the little issue of spring break planning. Life is full of small challenges.