Bits and Bobbles

So I thought I would share some highlights from this week.  It's a little of this and some of that, bits and bobbles...

Monday evenings I have 2 hour choir rehearsals for the SuPhil choir.  March 5th we will be singing Opera choruses and should be a fun concert.  We have 6 different pieces 2 in Italian, 2 in French, 1 in German and 1 in Russian.  It becomes a mental workout to change between the different languages and try to remember the different pronunciations.  We have a gal in the choir from a Russian speaking country and she has been working with us on the Russian...... Lots of consonant sounds and vowel placements in parts of the mouth I've never tried to make a vowel sound with.... let alone sing it. One of my favorites was the woman in the choir who was helping with the French.  She told us to put your mouth in egg laying shape and then say 'e'.  Come again?  I've never laid an egg, and definitely not with my mouth.....

Grades came out this week.  My PAT (personal academic tutor) seems to think I should be able to get an 80 (high distinction) on my dissertation..... I just need to figure out what that will be exactly, by tomorrow, no pressure. 

I attended a paper lantern gala put on by the confusion center and the MA chinese students to celebrate Chinese New Year. (It's the year of the monkey) It was fun.  Learned about talents some of my classmates have that I didn't know.  :) 

The highlight of the week however was my son visiting me for a day and a half.  He is working in Zurich for 2 weeks so since he was this close, flew over for the weekend. Having limited time and wanting him to get a feel for England, we went up to Winchester (thanks to some lovely friends who offered to drive so we didn't have to spend hours on a bus...) and walked the lower city by the river, the castle ruins however were closed :( but we took in Winchester Cathedral and the Castle Winchester where King Arthur's round table is.  It is real. It dates back to 1252, was painted in 1590.  It hangs on the wall where it has been since about then.  It has only been on public display for about 30 years, the hall has been used as a court and many other things.  It was really cool.  

We went from there for a country drive up to Chawton so that he could see English countryside.  We walked to the manor house and admired the thatch roof cottages.  Then had a lovely dinner in the Greyfriar pub.  I also took him to walk the Southampton walls, down to the docks, and back up to the bargate as well as my Uni.  My friends also fed him a lovely British roast lamb dinner.  I hated to put him back on the bus, it was so nice to share with family a small piece of my life here. 

So nothing big this week just random things in the everyday life of a Uni student. Just a few bits and bobbles. 

Here are random things from my journeyings this week: 

King Arthur's round table. :)