march on!

An overcast morning doesn't prevent the Flemish from enjoying the day on cafe terraces, and after an hour the weather had turned quite fine, as it tends to do despite chilling mornings. To my amazed delight, I heard German spoken for the first time in Belgium and understood it well, at least in comparison to my everyday comprehension of people here. As part of the Salzburger Bauernherbst, an Austrian men's brass band called Trachtenmusikkapelle Filzmoos was performing on the Grote Markt during the weekly outdoor market--speaking/broadcasting German over a loudspeaker (typisch) to a giant crowd of Flemish people and playing American band music for/at them. Imagine: Jetzt spielen wir Sousa! This country never exhausts its store of bizarre new sights. I tried an eclair and found it disappointing. Maybe there's something special about the ones people recommended to me in Brussels.

So sad to miss mountain biking with Jeffrey... why does it have to rain tomorrow??? I know I have to work my ass off for the rest of this month if I'm going to make this Fulbright thing happen... but, alack! Anyway, I need someone to take my mind off my increasing obsessions, which I think are growing from my frequent internal dialogues (in lieu of having other human beings to talk with). I'm perfectly sane, I swear.

Q.E.D.

Final proof that Europeans are unabashed about any type of imagery, regardless of its purpose. To quote Tom: "Sweet mother of all that is holy and/or good."

vaporiZORED!

I arrived home at almost 3 am and found, to my great dismay, a mosquito perched on the wall by my door. As usual, it escaped my makeshift fly swatter (which consists of a Hogeschool Antwerpen info booklet construction-taped to a Swiffer duster handle), so I turned on the pesticide vaporizer. A while later, the mosquito reappeared, writhing across the far wall and occasionally falling off. I observed warily for a while until it disappeared again. Hopefully this time it's dead--for good. VAPORIZORED!

I honestly do have more interesting stories to recount, but I suppose this blog does double duty as my outlet for stressful situations at home. It's definitely either the vaporizer or 30% DEET that makes me lightheaded and sends my heart racing, because half an hour after activating them, I'm starting to feel precisely those symptoms. I suppose, in a way, that I know how the mosquito feels. However, this knowledge inspires no sympathy in me whatsoever.

Tom and I tried a Spanish restaurant across from the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw over de Dijle church, on which renovations are now complete (as an outside observer, I can only comment that no work was done on the exterior, which looks as worn and ancient and grimy as ever). We were planning to celebrate the arrival of his October fellowship 'allowance' at Vivaldi's, but of course, Vivaldi's is open every night until 1 am, except when it's closed on Thursdays.

from the other side of the fence

I'm now a Yale admissions interviewer, although it remains to be seen whether anyone in Belgium actually applies to Yale. Consider the front-page headline I picked up in Brussel-Centraal on Sunday: "VERGEET HARVARD" (i.e. "FORGET HARVARD"). The article cited how incredibly expensive private universities are in the US (students here think that 7000 EUR per year is a burden), how competitive they are, etc.

To my surprise, I enjoyed reading the orientation material, which stressed again and again that we should talk only about Yale. A literal quote: "NO HARVARD BASHING!"

disrupted sleep

After some late-night carillonning, tonight will be the first night I'll have slept in my own bed (in fact, in any bed at all) in three days. I danced the entire Friday night away at an kickass annual party in Leuven, silenced, which featured more women djs than I had ever seen in total in my life. I spent the next day showing one of the djs, Tropik, a bit of Mechelen (namely, the carillon). Another evening in Leuven was followed by running into Tom at the train station and realizing that we had missed the last train home... so we returned to our new friends, wandered to another bar, and then back to the apartment of the fascinating and very hospitable organizer of silenced, Wouter, who let us crash for the night. I was supposed to meet up with a girl who'd messaged me on MySpace at Brussel-Centraal, but she apparently wasn't able to make it. Nevertheless, I made more friends this weekend than I have perhaps in the entire month since I've moved to Belgium. If going 50 hours on 3 hours of sleep is the price of making friends, I can only imagine how sleep deprived and well-socialized I'll soon be.

the impossible

"When did you start learning this piece? Don't tell me last week... Last week? Okay, you really know how to impress me."

Geert's words are still ringing in my head. I never, ever imagined that I would impress him, certainly not to this degree. He's no Jeff in his sparingness of praise, but he certainly is economical with it, and thinks nothing of laughing at my mishaps. Hearing praise from a carillonneur whom I could never equal was surreally exhilarating. He even asked if I've been spending all of my time practicing, to which I readily replied "absolutely not," and was impressed that I'm applying for another round of fellowships. Now I've set a ridiculous standard for myself to keep up for the rest of year. And he told me that I should find him at the school on Saturday if I have questions, that I should play in Sint-Romboutstoren as often as possible, that I could even play in Antwerpen and Lier to practice for my exam once I've built up a repertoire of five or so pieces. Thank goodness he doesn't have other carillon students going for the diploma this year. It's time to get cracking.

Drinking with my fellow BAEF fellows was awesome. It was, I believe, the first time I felt at home amongst a group of people in Belgium since I moved here. Sure, we were the drunken Americans at whom everyone else in the bars and restaurants were glancing disapprovingly, and I even went so far as to begin the evening by bringing an absurdly chocolate-and-walnut-slathered waffle into a classy bar 45 minutes after the appointed meeting time. Nevertheless, everyone was super friendly and interesting, and although I'm the baby amongst them, we never ran out of things to chat about. Complain as we may that the Fulbright organizes get-togethers for its scholars while the BAEF thinks it's a novel theoretical idea, we are lucky to be able to get along so well just by organizing our own little shindig.

I am so grateful for all I have here, and all the privileges I'm enjoying. The mosquito situation has improved, albeit at great chemical-exposure-expense to myself. More about that later--it will make great story-telling--perhaps not quite on the level of the Zandpoortvest debacle, but nevertheless, it cracked up plenty of people tonight.

bugging out

Today I received a slew of messages on Friendster from people who mostly had something to say to me. Utterly unprecedented (and nice, as I am still am not getting quite the amount of normal social interaction required to keep sane).

The mosquito problem is truly growing into a nightmare, however. I don't know how they get into my room, but they never let me alone. Even coating my body in 30% DEET didn't stop several new bites from appearing on my face, which I reluctantly slathered with DEET as well. My parents are shipping other supplies on request at enormous expense, but they probably still won't arrive soon due to customs. I'm just being foolish by crying, but it is discouraging to be helpless and far from home and environments in which I know how to address these problems. If last night I was alarmed by a hive outbreak, today wasn't any better, with one of the new bites growing to over 2 inches in diameter with significant vertical swelling. My arachnophobia has now unhelpfully extended itself to mosquitoes, so that trying to kill them is an increasingly terrifying experience. It sucks to be a wuss.

I got the jacket today, but passed out in an irresistable bout of sleepiness before I could go practice at the school... possibly due, I'm afraid, to depression. It's difficult to imagine another expanation. Anyway, I suppose I should close up and wrap my head in a scarf, as I managed to kill only two of the three mosquitoes I spotted in my room tonight.

orrrgel!

I have passed my entrance exam and am now a vrije student at the Koninklijk Vlaams Conservatorium Antwerpen, studying the organ with Joris Verdin! So at least for this semester's studies, the major building blocks are finally in place. Not only that, but I now have a fellow student and friend in Lier. Tomorrow I'll be coming home with a badass jacket from the Antwerp H&M (the big one--there are 3 or 4 H&M's on that one shopping block!!!) just as I promised myself I would if I passed. Furthermore, I have at long last found a fast, friendly sit-down Asian noodle bar. I cannot imagine that there even exists a niche for such a service, but perhaps people go there just for the "novelty" of the experience that I have missed so dearly since coming to this leisurely country.

However, tonight I burst into tears at my helplessness against my increasingly severe allergic reactions to mosquito bites (tonight I actually had a hive attack while practicing from 11 pm to 1 am), inability to find anything effective agianst mosquitos in Belgium--probably just because I'm a foreigner--and the problems with my shower. It's exhilarating and so difficult to be in a strange land. But at least now I have my decaf Earl Grey.

campanology thesis prospectus

The holdings of the carillon museum of the Royal Carillon School “Jef Denyn” range from a drilbu (Tibetan hand bell) to period European carillon consoles. However, casual visitors unversed in campanology can find little in the museum to teach them about these objects. I would like to create an informational brochure, general overview signs, descriptive object labels, and a complete exhibition catalog for the benefit of both the carillon students and the general public. Once these are available, I hope to organize and promote a day of public tours. I would also like to make photographs and, when relevant, audio files available with the above information on the school’s website. With the holdings of the museum readily accessible online, perhaps even in multiple languages, the website can serve as a valuable conduit for the international promotion of the carillon. My objective is thus in line with the motto emblazoned within the museum: UITSTRALING VAN ONZE BEIAARDKUNST.

My thesis will comprise the catalog as well as a section of research on bell exhibits. After traveling to bell and carillon museums in Belgium, The Netherlands, England, and France, I will write an overview of those exhibits. It may be possible to develop a general classification system for bell museums, and thereby develop broad guidelines for their development and recommendations for improvement. Finally, I will include a bibliography of books and exhibition catalogs to assist readers in writing descriptive labels for bells.

There occasionally exist collections of bells in art or musical instrument museums that remain neglected, for example at the Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments (YUCMI), because most curators have little knowledge of or interest in bells. I will attempt to track down significant collections of this type and list them in an appendix to increase the possibility that research will one day be done on them.

The Virtual Instrument Museum of Wesleyan University in Connecticut, USA may serve as a model for the online carillon museum. John Bordley has been kind enough to offer the use of his digital SLR camera, so high-resolution photographs can easily be made available to researchers worldwide. I am helping YUCMI develop a similar online bell exhibit via The Museum System database software. With two bell exhibits online, I hope to generate further international interest in campanology and the rich resources of the Royal Carillon School “Jef Denyn”.

what the devil

It still bewilders me how there can be so much music and art and outdoor events and everything in such a tiny little city and such a tiny little country. I would elaborate, but there's another concert coming up that I want to attend tonight!

How does one get to see Between the Devil and the Wide Blue Sea?