Dins v. The World

Adam in the blogosphere

2007-01-07T03:06:00.000-05:00

Take a moment to visit Adam's other blog, Gadfly, which takes an irreverent approach to examining Harvard and world news.

www.thisisgadfly.com

San Francisco, Last Stop!

2006-08-24T10:36:00.000-04:00

The Harvard Din & Tonics World Tour 2006 is officially over. Many tears of bittersweet joy, nostalgia and appreciation have been collectively shed in the Brondfield residence, the home base for our final tour stop back in the USA. I have never felt so loved, happy, proud and honored to be a Din and particularly one of the Dins of 2006. These guys really have become my best friends in the world, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Thank you to the many parents, tour contacts, Dins and others who have made this unbelievable experience possible. And more than just possible - incredible.

It's been an incredible journey. How will we ever recover?

--

Three hours till I head back to Singapore. Yay jetlag and trans-Pacific flights!

This is the end...

2006-08-23T16:05:00.000-04:00

Created at world66.com, here's a map of the countries we visited on World Tour 2006. We just gave our last concert to a completely full house of family, friends, and alums at Town School here in San Francisco. Today is the last official day of tour, and tomorrow we all fly home. I, for one, am in a state of total shock. Did we really just go all the way around the world??

In Dindom,
165

Australia

2006-08-20T12:51:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! Sorry for not having posted so long. I poured a great deal of effort into a prodigiously long and detailed entry in Kyoto, and was happy to have a nice record of what was quite possibly my favorite tour stop. However, being rather compulsive, I noticed a comma in front of a "however" rather than a semi-colon, or something equally unremarkable, and could not proceed until I had changed it. However, the computer was entirely in Japanese, and while I thought I had pressed the button corresponding to "edit", I had in fact hit the button corresponding to "delete." Despite my best recovery efforts, this testament to my time in Kyoto has vanished into cyber-oblivion. I was so devastated that it has taken me until now to regain the motivation and spiritual fortitude to write an entry.
Anyway, now we're in Sydney, and are unfortunately leaving for the airport in about eight hours. Other Dins have written about the other tour stops, so I'll just briefly recount some experiences from down under. Some Dins and myself spent a couple of nights hanging out in various parts of the city. The first night, we went to the Harbor, saw the Opera House, wandered around the Rocks (a historic area; apparently the first settled area and hence the site of the oldest buildings), and even went to a Belgian Beer cafe. And I must confess, their selection of Belgian beers was more extensive than anything we had seen in Belgium. The prices, however, were similarly magnified. The next evening was a dinner party for the Harvard Club, during which we all met some very interesting and friendly people, and sang for our supper. I spent one day at Bondi Beach, where I walked along the cliffs to Bronte Beach, and was treated with an endless and breathtaking view of the coastline. It brought to mind the Hill of Howthe overlooking Dublin Bay, which some of us experienced what seems like ages ago during our first tour stop, and seemed an appropriate bookend in a long series of beautiful landscapes around the globe.
The following day, I took off on a train to the Blue Mountains, to a tiny village called Wentworth Falls. Two hours later, I disembarked and set off to find the trailhead. After cutting through some parking lots and walking along some highways, I found the Blue Mountains National Park. I planned my route, and swiftly deviated from it (unintentionally) as I am wont to do. The scenery was gorgeous, with sweeping views of the Blue Mountains, waterfalls, rainforest, cliffs, and a wide variety of colorful birds. I returned to Sydney that evening exhausted, and promptly fell asleep. The next morning, the mountains called irresistably, and I hopped aboard a much earlier train, intent on exploring more of Wentworth Falls. I took the Valley of the Waters trail (which snakes downward through a series of gorgeous waterfalls) to the National Pass (which is a narrow path cut into the rock along the side of the cliffs), and took Slacks Steps (a large series of ladders which descends from the top of the cliffs down into the valley) to Wentworth Pass (which is a more rugged trail through the rainforested valley beneath the cliffs and waterfalls). Upon reaching the end of the Wentworth Pass, I decided to veer to the left and try my luck at finding Vera Falls. The sign and various guidebooks said the following: "Expert. High level of fitness and navigational skills required. Minimum of three in a group. Do not proceed unless accompanied by an experienced navigator. Inform police of destination and approximate arrival times." Let's see...I'm certainly no expert. My "navigational skills" render me virtually incapable of finding my way down the street to my own house. There was only one in my group, and there was a noted lack of an experienced navigator. And only two hours of daylight remaining. But hey, you only live once. So on I went. It ended up being a lovely trail, rugged but not impassable, and easy enough to follow with the little arrows I carved for myself in the questionable spots. Previous bushwalkers had also left a fairly well-blazed trail in addition to various markers, so I had a wonderful time in a very tranquil area of rainforest and waterfalls. I even saw a brilliantly-colored pair of what looked like parrots, nibbling on some seeds a mere yard away from me, in addition to the swarms of cockatoos and colorful little birds flitting about the branches and ferns. On the train-ride home, I had a long conversation with an elderly Australian man wearing various military medals who was returning from a commemoration of the Battle of Long Tan in Vietnam, in which a number of Australian soldiers were killed. His opinion of LBJ, as well as of that of Dubyah, were of course rather low. He was very friendly, though, and ended up describing his dog, who was going to be waiting in the car at the train station with his wife. "Her name is Lily. L-I-L-Y. She's about this big. Boy, do I love that dog." Nice guy.
Upon returning, the Greiners (our wonderful hosts whom Ricardo described briefly) had left a note saying to meet them at a nearby Chinese restaurant. I threw on a sweater and a blazer, and dashed off to a lovely dinner. Sydney may not have been the most eventful tour stop, or the most exotic, but the scenery and the city are beautiful, and we have met some truly wonderful people.
So, that'll do it for my entry on Australia. I hope you're all doing well, and have a great rest of your summer!

Bali and Australia

2006-08-18T03:45:00.000-04:00

The last two weeks of tour have been my favorite because it's a nice way to unwind from the craziness that was Singapore. I mean...singing for 4 hours a day for 3 days in a row was nice and all, and getting great food from Mrs. Yeo and the Singapore Hilton was a nice perk, I'd much rather sit on a beach all day and tan/burn...in fact, that is just what I did in Bali.
When we arrived in Bali, we were welcomed by two signs. The first was located just inside the airport and read: "WELCOME TO BALI, mandatory DEATH PENALTY for drug smugglers." The second one, though not as straightforward, greeted us at the Swiss Grand Bali, and read: "Welcome Harvard University Students." Obviously, I preferred the latter of the two as it held no mention of death...or drugs. The hotel we stayed at was incredible, and reminded me of the open-air hotels of Mexico. Shortly after arriving to the hotel, Evan and I were bussed to the hotel's beach, where we walked along the beach and tried to swim a little (due to the low tide, the water was extremely far away). In Bali, I roomed with Mr. Wise, which is not the greatest idea. This is not because we disagree or argue or anything...it's because out of all of the dins...we are the ones who love sleeping the most. I think at all times in Bali, one of us was in the room sleeping. The next day, we all (except for Wise who was sleeping) went to the beach to lie out in the sun. Some people got massages for something like $5 an hour, while the rest of us got sunburns for FREE! I, having learned my lesson (kinda) from Athens, took the sun in moderation and only got slightly burned, but Jeff Barnett wasn't so lucky. Having no gigs in Bali was a plus, allowing all of us to stay up late, wake up late, and go out late. The more adventurous dins tried some street food for an incredible price of $.50...however they paid for it later...if you know what I mean...ahem ahem...nudge nudge... (these people were Wise and Yeo btw). We also went to Kuta where there was a shopping district where we tried our skills at haggling. Several of us bought movies, video games, belts, and other last second gifts for friends and relatives at these shops and justified the purchases by saying "had we bought it in the US...it would have been 10x more expensive." All in all...Bali was the most relaxing tour stop ever...except for Garuda. As we stood in line at the airport to leave Bali, Garuda (the airline) kindly informed us that the luggage limit for all passengers was 20kg, and that the overweight charge was $5 per kg. Now, that may not seem so outlandish, however, I last weighed my bags in at 44kg (the size of a small whale) and was not about to be charged close to $100. After fruitlessly arguing with them about how other airlines had made exceptions and this and that, I unloaded one entire suitcase into a carry on (which is able to expand to the size of a suitcase) and weighed the bags again...35kg. I took it and went and paid my fee of $75 only to be informed that they had just raised the limit to 30kg, so I had to void the receipt, and pay again. My troubles might have been over, but when I went through customs, the garment bag that I had unceremoniously forced 1 overcoat, 3 suit jackets, and my tails into, exploded, so I had to shove that into a backpack and get on the plain.

well...now that I’ve vented, I can talk about Australia. We arrived in Australia (having traveled since 9AM Australia time) at 6AM. We flew Singapore Airlines though, so we were all extremely comfortable and were kept entertained by 80 different movie channels as well as personal Nintendo players. Evan and I taxi'd to our homestay, where we met our hosts...the former premier of South Whales (husband), and the former governor of Sydney (wife), affirming my suspicious that I have incredible luck with home stays. After taking a brisk walk around centennial park to gather our bearings (though we were both incredibly tired) we fell asleep and succumbed to jet lag. In the afternoon, our host father invited us on a walk, and not wanting to be rude, we accepted. the walk turned into a mini marathon around 2.5 miles...luckily Evan was able to maintain conversation as I was to busy focusing on not dying. That night we made ourselves some sandwiches and pasta and just relaxed in the most familiar stop thus far on tour (however I still get the urge to speak to people very slowly and only in 3 word phrases). The next day I walked to Sydney and back (big mistake...it was like a 4 mile walk) and rested my feet for the rest of the day.

All for now, We all can't wait to get back home to the US!
Ricardo

Bali, stop 21

2006-08-14T09:06:00.000-04:00

Time for another rapid-fire travelogue summary!

--

Hong Kong, stop 17: Wayne Fu was a lovely, congenial host, I was lucky to stay with him. The city was as exciting and vibrant as I recall, and I was glad to see Fiona again. Jon and I went to Disneyland, which means I've now been to all 4 Disney locations worldwide :) The Fringe Club performances were really fun. I didn't get to do much shopping, although I did make it to the Landmark Tower :D

Guangzhou, stop 18: The Pearl River was beautiful. I actually really liked the city. Too bad there wasn't very much time for sight-seeing. The concert was a lot of fun, and people really seemed to enjoy it. We definitely got the rock-star treatment from fans after the show, which was fun for me. The long journey from Guangzhou to Singapore was particularly memorable.

Singapore, stop 19: Home!! Such a busy tour stop, but people generally seemed to like it. We did much press, sang many gigs and sold loads of CDs. Plus we sold out our two Esplanade concerts. That made me very, very happy. That, and seeing so many of my family and friends, even if it was for just a few minutes here and there. And Jon very graciously let me sing a lot for them too. Yay!

Jakarta, stop 20: We sang a very chi-chi poolside soiree, the kind where there are floating candles and fabric-swathed chairs everywhere. Great buffet meals at the boutique hotel. FTV!! Dragonfly was a fantastic club, huge and beautifully-appointed/-populated. It was especially nice that our contact had a reserved table in the best spot in the club.

Bali, stop 21: Just another day in paradise. The beaches are spectacular, and I'm in love with the elegant, finely crafted, tranquil Swiss Grand Bali where we're staying. And the private beach club with masseuses on hand for hour-long massages under palm trees on the white sand beach.

Jakarta at the international school

2006-08-09T21:37:00.000-04:00

Why is it that just because a place has the money, they put it all into air conditioning in these tropical countries? We're in Jakarta, Indonesia right now, and I'm writing from a computer in a music classroom, where the A/C is cranked to full blast - I'm in my tails in a ridiculously hot and humid country, and I'm freezing my tush off! Life is so hard.

Things are pretty sweet here. We're getting three meals a day at the hotel, and our contact, Erza, is a producer with amazing contacts in this city and is a lot of fun. He's taking us to his partner's restaurant tomorrow evening (his b-day evening) and then to the happening club in Jakarta, called Dragonfly. Sounds like it will be a great time.

Singapore was truly amazing. Jason did an outstanding job in organizing everything for us, and it was a lot of fun seeing J's hometown and meeting his family (speaking of which, the hospitality is incredible - a bunch of the Dins went to J's church on Sunday, and we were continually driven places by the Yeo's, and fed more food than we could handle. If any of the Yeo's are reading this - a hearty and great thank you!!!).

It's a bit sad that tour is winding down. We have Bali, Sydney and San Francisco left. 14 days=2 weeks, which is a full and long vacation for most people, and yet it feels like nothing to us, since we have spent 2 months and a day so far on this trip. Life is so hard :)

Okay, it's time to step away from the computer and be social. Have fun all - see you soon!

jeff

Indonesia!

2006-08-09T11:12:00.000-04:00

This might make me the last Din to post on the blog. Here I am in an internet cafe across the street from our ultra-modern, not-quite-complete hotel. Today marks the two month point of tour! Several of us are eager to get home after spending two months living out of suitcases and duffel bags, and some of us can't believe that we've put two months of tour behind us. I'm going to wake up in my bed in San Francisco the morning after the Dins leave and feel like I dreamed the whole thing. I keep asking myself questions like "Wasn't I just in Munich/Dublin/Shanghai/Tokyo a few weeks ago?" I'm glad I've kept a journal even though writing in it got old very fast.

We celebrated my birthday last week in Hong Kong. Since I have a summer birthday and no one is usually around, this was the first time in about five years that I had a big group of friends with me to celebrate my birthday. And what a random celebration it was: a Russian restaurant in Hong Kong followed by Salsa dancing. "Salsa dancing" belongs in quotation marks because my salsa dancing is not a recognizable dance form.

A catch phrase of tour is "Life is so hard," which we use when we really have no right to complain about anything. A recent example is: "Life is so hard! Why does the delicious buffet breakfast in this 5-star hotel only go until 10:30 instead of 11?" Can't remember who said that one. Anyway, life is so hard. We have to wake up at 6 am to sing two short songs, be fed breakfast, and be adored by many young Indonesian fans. Speaking of concerts at schools, we had an amazing concert at a girls' school in Singapore. Picture more than 1000 girls screaming from start to finish! Most fun concert of the whole tour, in my opinion.

I would write more, but Jeff wants to use the computer, and I need to get to sleep. Jakarta, Bali, Sydney, San Francisco...is that really all that's left of tour??

Bangkok: Living the Thai life

2006-07-30T22:36:00.000-04:00

This update is long overdue; I last posted from Zurich or something. With a handful of tour stops past since then, I haven't an iceberg's chance in Asia of getting through everything. That, however, won't prevent me from trying.

Zurich was a calm tour stop for most of the Dins. While some of our group managed to go the entire time without sleeping (and had an incredible experience, I'm told) the rest of us enjoyed an experience that was more subdued, centred on strolling through lakeside parks choked with scores of sunbathers, and being thrown out of super-private Swiss banks.

From Zurich we travelled to Athens, a city so full of things to see that I abandoned any hope of doing it justice almost immediately upon arrival. Three days of sightseeing at breakneck speed, taking breaks only for dolmedakia and gyros,left me completely exhausted and just a little sunburned. The feelings of intense, emotional satisfaction at seeing the Parthenon for the first time will stay with me forever: I nearly broke down in tears right there on the Acropolis.

A long bus ride (with, strangely, loud Greek pop music playing through the vehicle's loudspeakers the whole time) took us to Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest urban centre (I think). Our one-night stay at the beautiful and historic American Farm School, with its sweeping views of Mount Olympus, was enjoyable. After a performance for the American Consulate's Fourth of July banquet, held on the School's expansive terrace overlooking the city, during which we somehow managed to pull off the McDonald's Girl arch while standing on a steep flight of stairs (terrifying), we retired to the brand new, mercifully air conditioned residence hall for a night of group revelry.

Rome ranks prominently among my favourite stops on tour. After our arrival, we gave an after-dinner concert at Circolo della Caccia, a men's club in a beautiful palace-like building in the centre of the city. We then moved our things to our accomodations, in apartments owned by John Cabot University, an American school where we performed the following night for an extremely enthusiastic capacity crowd. We also performed in Rome for the US Embassy to the Holy See, in the mission's garden with a view of the Palatine Hill. Talk about an intimidating backdrop!

Sightseeing in Rome was every bit as intimidating as that same week's attempts to see the whole of Athens. Because of a rigorous performance schedule, we had just a few days to try to fit in all in, which was impossible. I managed to see the Vatican Museums (which took me a whole day on their own, and put even the British Museum to shame with their impossibly extensive collections, assembled over centuries of Catholic conquest and expansion) and St. Peter's Basilica, as well as the ancient Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and a host of buildings and artworks that I'd last encountered in my high school art history textbook. The overwhelming sensation in Rome was mystery, brewed by omnipresent reminders of the Papacy's centuries of influence, as well as by the silent testimony of the ancient Rome's remains. I left the city secretly wishing that I'd chosen to study Classics, Art History, or both.

While we spent our days scrambling about, working our way through the long sightseeing checklists we'd composed, our evenings, after our performances, were equally adventuresome. As Italy's appearance in the FIFA World Cup final neared, we spent our nights in the revelrous Campo di Fiori, enjoying the company of Romans, American expatriates and summer visitors, assorted friends from Harvard, and our eboullient Roman hosts. At some point, we made our way on to not one, but two Italian television programs, our white tie and tails marking us as prime targets for the nigth-crawling camera crews.

Our last day was spent at our host's country home, in the swimming pool and on the soccer field. It was a great way to end an incredible tour stop.

Perhaps the most frustrating experience of tour came in Prague, when we watched Italy win the World Cup just hours after leaving Rome. Talk about bad timing! From that less-than-ideal beginning, Prague didn't disappoint. An evening of Vivaldi's Four Seasons at the city's main concert hall, days touring the beautiful medieval centre of the city, a concert at the daunting and magnificent Prague castle, and one night spent crawling the streets until sunrise made this a fitting end to the European part of our tour. After fete-ing Sam, our soon-to-be former European Tour Manager, on our final night, we left for Shanghai.

(I need to get on a plane from Bangkok to Hong Kong in ten minutes, so things are going to get quicker from here. I apologize for the lack of juicy details!)

Shanghai was an impressive tour stop, indeed. Our six-star hotel was a comfortable home base for days of noodle soup, dumplings on street corners, fabric markets, and scenes of incredible poverty, just metres from the main tourist sites. Getting lost (on purpose) in Shanghai's back alleys, and meeting the people who live there, was one of the most eye-opening and heartbreaking experiences of tour.

Kyoto was a welcome respite, right in the chronological centre of tour. Lots of sleep, days spent in the serenity of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines around this ancient Japanese capital, and evening performances at our hotel were a recipe for fun and relaxation. The latter was unfortunately undone by our last night, spent out on the town with a fantastic group of American exchange students, which left us returning to our hotel, bleary-eyed, at sunrise. Seeing Kyoto by night, and experiencing the joy of cheap noodle-counter food at sunrise, made the loss of sleep totally worthwhile.

We spent our time in Tokyo with Shaan Hathiramani, a Din who's working there for the summer. He knew where to take us for great karaoke and clubbing, and left us even more exhausted and fulfilled as we headed to Choshi, a small seaside town two hours away, where we'd end our Japanese adventure with two nights of song, sushi, and sake with our hosts, incredible families who treated us far better than we deserved and who filled the town's performance hall for our performance. As they sent us on our way to Bangkok, all of us immediately began to miss Japan, where we'd been treated with such incredible hospitality by so many.

Bangkok, where I'm about to leave (in 5 minutes...) has been the best stop of tour. Here's the recap: sold-out performances, incredible shopping, tailored clothing, and nights spent with Din Alums Austin Brentley (who lives here) and Ryan Davies (who's visiting). Hong Kong will have a hard time topping this last stop, but from what I'm told, it's up to the challenge.

OK, final call for Mr. Adam Goldenberg. Time to head to the gate.

Bangkok, stop 16

2006-07-29T13:09:00.000-04:00

Sorry, but it's just me again... hee

Anyhow, Internet access has been fairly sparse since Kyoto. After a mostly wonderful stay in Japan we're now in Bangkok, Thailand, one of my favorite urban haunts in Southeast Asia.

Mini recap:

Tokyo, stop 14: very cool hyper-urban metropolis. Amazing club scene that keeps going even at 5am on a Monday night. Tokyo Disney Sea was a blast. Shopping was good, but pricey.

Choshi City, stop 15: hilarious, lovely homestays, mostly with little English. Constantly overfed with delicious Japanese cuisine. Big public concert with appreciative audience. Presented with many gifts. Visited soy sauce factory, local university and lighthouse.

Bangkok, stop 16: Fabulous hotel stay with top rate buffet dinners (definitely contending for top spot). Sold-out performances with super-appreciative audiences. Tailoring for nearly everyone :)

That's it for now. (Shibuya! ;))

Kyoto, stop 13

2006-07-22T16:31:00.000-04:00

Very brief, because it is half past five in the morning and we are travelling today to Tokyo, stop 14, in under two hours.

I really love Japan, which is cool in so many ways. While today was a blazing, steamy exception, it's been rainy for most of our five days here, and I ended up spending most of my time in the very nice hotel (the Takaragaike Prince Hotel) working on confirming the concerts we will sing at the Esplanade Recital Studio in Singapore on 8 Aug (tickets will be available next Wednesday on www.sistic.com.sg). I did spend a couple of days sightseeing though - I especially enjoyed Nijo Castle and the Shimogamo shrine (when I went they were holding a fascinating local festival which involves wading through a icy natural spring with a lit candle).

This stop felt like a real vacation for many of us, filled with late mornings, sluggish days and low key nights. Except for the fun night about half of us just had which a bunch of American/Japanese-American college students doing study abroad here in Kyoto (yay clubbing!).

And that's it for this blog.

Too much rice? No problem...

2006-07-17T11:11:00.000-04:00

[N.B.: I've decided that to fully exploit my prodigious literary talents (read, borderline illiteracy that I developed after four days of furious code-switching in Shanghai), I will forego long blog posts in favor of short, hopefully entertaining, impressions.]

They sell carbonated metamucil on the street. They call it Fibe-Mini. I'm not kidding. It's orange, syrupy, and tastes a bit like starchy, gooey Fanta. It's not quite as bad as it sounds (how could I not try it?), and I suppose it serves a useful purpose in a land with few salads and $80 bamboo-box melon. I love this country.

As the "Premium Fantasy Woman" (the unforgettable Nao Asuka) in Lost in Translation put it so memorably, "Lip my stocking!"

The Dins have arrived in Japan. Let the lipping begin.

Out of the wok and into the frying (ja)pan

2006-07-17T10:35:00.000-04:00

Here we are! In Kyoto no less, living it up. We're staying at a hotel that has housed Dins for three tours now! Shanghai was an incredible city - it was probably the stop that I was most excited about on tour, and it did not fail in meeting all my expectations and more. Besides the incredible nature of our hotel (read Jason's blog post below), the people of Shanghai were just incredibly nice in every respect. People would come up to us and say "hello" just for the sake of talking to the "big nose." It was quite interesting for most of us to be ethnic minorities for the first time in our lives. I think Adam was considered somewhat of a marvel due to his extreme height. And, of course, this was the first tour stop where all but 2 of us had no idea how to read a single character in the native language. However, "ni hao" and "xie xie" (pronounced in various ways) can get you far. . .

At the moment, I am so overwhelmed and so tired that I do not know what else to say. Travel to Kyoto today was very long for the relative distance travelled (met at 8 am in the hotel in Shanghai and arrived at 9'ish in the Prince hotel in Kyoto having lost only 1 hour to time zones! 12 hours of travel for what was a 2 hour flight), but all is good - except for the food issue. . .I could probably start a whole new blog regarding my travels as a vegetarian. Suffice it to say Japan was not cut out for vegetarians who can't speak the language. Both Evan Siegel (who is kosher style and doesn't eat fish) and I have lamented the fact that we might spend the next 11 days in Japan on the brink of starvation eating noodles and green salads and things that I can only hope are bean curd.

Anyhoo, enough complaints. I'm in Japan! Tomorrow will be full of castles, palaces, and temples galore.

Life is so hard ;^)

-jeff

Shanghai, stop 12

2006-07-14T03:30:00.000-04:00

It's outrageous that noone else has posted from/about Shanghai yet, especially since we have free wireless Internet in the incredible hotel that we're staying at. The St Regis Hotel is arguably one of the finest hotels I have ever seen, anywhere. It truly deserves the six-star rating that it has. The attention to detail here is really noticeable - Valrhona courtesy chocolates, adapter plugs everywhere, fresh flowers in every room of every suite, Bose CD-players, custom mattresses and sheets, 24-hour butler service (who're all unceasingly attentive, fantastically polite and charmingly warm too).... and we somehow have complimentary buffet lunch and dinner at the lobby restaurant that serves an unending supply of gourmet food including sashimi and caviar that we've been enjoying at tables that have monogrammed linen coasters. But enough gushing about the fantastic hotel with the heated indoor pool (24C), hot tub (32C) and 24-hour professionally-equipped gym (with complimentary chilled mineral water and fresh fruit available in a self-service fridge).

This city is really someplace that has to be seen and experienced to be believed. Pretty much the fastest rates of population and economic growth in the world have seen the city blossom (or explode) within a decade into a densely-packed, shiny metropolis of over 20 million that buzzes with the excitement of optimism and unbounded opportunity. Just before lunch we got a special tour of the up-and-coming Shanghai World Financial Center, which will be the tallest building in the world when it's completed in early 2008. Already, construction has reached the 53rd story (out of 104). The Harvard '06 intern who was our contact told me that the developers are not at all worried about finding tenants because office-space is now at about 95% occupancy in Shanghai, which is unusually high for any city. We were all very impressed with the presentations and the scale models of the city region that were so detailed we spotted our hotel and also got a quick tourist overview of all of central Shanghai (Pu-Dong and Pu-Xi).

Right now most people have gone out to explore the older parts of the city (the famed Bund), while I must get back to work with confirming the ticket sales and marketing for the two concerts we will be singing at 7pm and 8pm at the Esplanade Recital Studio in Singapore on Aug 8th. *I'm excited*

Asia, here we come! (Prague, stop 11)

2006-07-11T20:32:00.000-04:00

Our last night in Europe. Everyone else has spent it fete-ing Sam for the excellent job he's done. I stayed in and worked on confirming more tour-details for our stop in Singapore. That stop is going to be very full with performances. At present we already have three engagments, two concerts, and the Hilton wants us to sing for them three times per night, every night. That's quite a lot.

I love Prague. It's very pretty, and very romantic all round. The city is almost indescribeably charming. The gig we sang for the Harvard club in the largest castle in the world was cool. Colby wants his laptop back so this post will have to end.

Tomorrow we leave for Shanghai.

Moving forward I think I'm going to be posting less to this blog and more to my own blog elsewhere. People who would like to email me for any reason, including sending me postal addresses so that I can send postcards (which I love to do - Lexi, this includes you), please send emails to jyeo "at" fas.harvard.edu

Enjoy the pictures!

Singing at the Agora (2 Jul 2006)

2006-07-11T20:23:00.000-04:00

Singing at the Agora (2 Jul 2006)
Originally uploaded by J Y.

This very old church (11th century? I should check...) had amazing acoustics. Here, a group of us spontaneously break into 5-part harmony.

First day in Athens (1 Jul 2006)

2006-07-11T20:22:00.000-04:00

First day in Athens (1 Jul 2006)
Originally uploaded by J Y.

Here we are enroute to finding some authentic Greek food. I enjoyed that dinner a lot.

Harvard Club of Munich performance (27 Jun 2006)

2006-07-11T20:21:00.000-04:00

Harvard Club of Munich performance (27 Jun 2006)
Originally uploaded by J Y.

Our performance preceeded a lecture by the director of this gem of a museum showcasing ancient Greek art. Apparently one of the top six collections in the world. Thanks to Becky for taking this and many other pictures.

Luxembourg-Strasbourg (23 Jun 2006)

2006-07-11T20:20:00.000-04:00

Luxembourg-Strasbourg (23 Jun 2006)
Originally uploaded by J Y.

The morning after the Luxembourg national day party, we had to catch an early morning bus and train to Strasbourg. Here we are waiting at the train station - among the most alert were the dins who had slept the least, including Adam and myself.

Dublin City University (12 Jun 2006)

2006-07-11T20:19:00.001-04:00

Dublin City University (12 Jun 2006)
Originally uploaded by J Y.

With the DCU president and the US Ambassador's wife after our performance for guests of the US embassy in Dublin.

Setting out at Logan Airport (9 Jun 2006)

2006-07-11T20:19:00.000-04:00

Setting out at Logan Airport (9 Jun 2006)
Originally uploaded by J Y.

Day 0, at Logan airport. Look out world!

Having fun is our Prague-ative...

2006-07-09T19:25:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone!
Sorry I haven't posted in so long. Tour has been unbelievable so far, and major props to the Dins who have found the time, energy, and attention span to keep everyone updated. How is this happening to us? I mean, we're travelling around the world with 11 of our best friends, meeting all sorts of amazing people, eating delicious cuisine from across the globe, singing almost every day in gorgeous venues for appreciative audiences, and having experiences we would never otherwise have. We are so lucky. And a huge thanks to Samuel Craig Brondfield for pulling Europe together and doing such an amazing job, dealing with transportation, with gigs, with clients, with call times, with the chaos that is the Dins, and for always doing so with patience and a smile. He's the man. We're ten or eleven stops in now (one month today!), and I couldn't possibly hope to do them all justice, so I think the best course of action is to just mention a few little highlights thus far as they tumble into my head. Here it goes...

1. Brussels: Flying around Antwerp in my host Herman's Aston Marton convertible racecar, and listening to David Bromberg and Leo Kottke (two of my Dad's favorites) late into the night. Singing, then eating-drinking-carousing-gambling (with "Harvard Club of Belgium dollars")-schmoozing, in a castle. A real one.

2. Strasbourg: Colby and I had two of the most extraordinary meals ever. Gilbert, our contact, had made reservations for us at two of the oldest and finest restaurants in Strasbourg: Maison Kammerzels, and Maison des Tanneurs. Coq au Reisling, Backoeffe, Reisling wine, homemade spaetzel noodles, and other local specialties were just ridiculous. I miss France.
One night, Colby wanted to return to our apartment (smack in the middle of Petite France, the really old and pretty section of Strasbourg, right on the river), and I wanted to stay out. So we decided I'd ring the doorbell, and he'd let me in. I return at 4:00 in the morning, and Colby does not answer the door (we later realized the doorbell didn't work, or was not activated). So I went to the bridge over the river on the other side of the apartment and screamed COLBY!!!! COLBY!!! over and over again. Then I would return to ring the doorbell in vain. I repeated this cycle until well after sunrise, at which time I decided to sleep on the bridge in the hopes that, when Colby woke up, he would look out the window to enjoy the view, see me sleeping on the bridge, and let me into the apartment. I roused myself to make one last desparate attempt, at which time I returned to the door, where I ran into the paper delivery woman as she was opening the apartment to deliver the papers. A fortunate coincidence indeed.

3. Munich was ridiculous. Rowan and I spent a night at a German sword-fighting fraternity. Scary and wild, but ultimately really cool. A few of us went to the Englisher Garden, where we jumped into a raging river that carried us (naked) all through the park, as well as over a little waterfall that we didn't know about, and sorta seemed like one of those whirlpools until the current carried us through it. Pretty sweet. Then we sunbathed (naked) and had a big footrace (also naked). There is a large "naturalist" section at the park, and it really was quite liberating. A little awkward when women would walk by with strollers, but I guess that's how they do it here in Europe.

4. Athens: Acropolis, gorgeous hotel, ferry Aegina Island with Jeff. Our swimming pool overlooked the Parthenon.

5. Rome: What an amazing city! As Jason wrote, we saw a ton of St. Peter's and the Vatican. The next day, we went to the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican museum. Breathtaking. The next day, I woke up at 7 and walked past the Vatican to Piazza Navona, then the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, and the Colloseum. It was a lot of walking, but it was totally worth it. Especially because Piazza Navona contains the fourth marker on the Illuminati Path of Illumination (according to Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, a book with which I am obsessed), Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers. We had a gig at the hunting club in the palace, as someone mentioned, and also had a gig at the US Embassy to the Holy See, overlooking Circus Maximus. Our contact, this amazing dude named Marco, took us out to Campo de Fiori after a different performance, where we remained in tails, drank, and serenaded the people for hours. We were also filmed for Italian national television, though few of us remember. One of the best days, though, was spent at Marco's beautiful villa, complete with swimming pool, orchard, soccer field, housekeeping/cooking staff, a gigantic outdoor pizza oven/barbecue, and some of the coolest people I've ever met. What a day.

Anyway, that'll do it for now. Thanks to anyone who actually made it this far. These are just a few smatterings that have popped into my head at 2am in Prague. Anyway, I hope you all are doing well, and best wishes for a fantastic summer!

a few things because I'm in an internet cafe

2006-07-08T05:35:00.000-04:00

1. I got called il Diablo (the devil) the other day on the bus when I bumped into a woman accidentally. I'm glad the Italians finally get me.

2. Travelling on your own every now and then is huge! I spent yesterday on my own exploring Rome by foot, and going to various places in the city that randomly came upon me without realizing it. P. Navona, Pantheon, Parliament, etc.

3. Instead of having to spend time doing laundry and attempting to find coins for the laundry machine, buying new pairs of underwear is so much more time efficient, even if not economically efficient. . .

4. Whoa, just realized I'm in Rome. Craziness.

5. I will be in Asia in less than a week. That probably won't hit me until I reach our 5th tour stop there.

6. The words I use most frequently in foreign languages when I'm visiting are Thank you and I apologize. I wonder if that says anything about me as a tourist. . .I'm currently learning to say these two phrases in Mandarin, thanks to Jason Yeo.

And fin (is that french or italian?)

Eureka!!

2006-07-07T08:40:00.000-04:00

Well, after finally remembering my Username (which turned out to be my first and last name) i was able to sign into this blog for the first time since June. A lot has happened since then, some fun, some not so fun, and some that i cannot remember at all.

Hmm...since you all seem to be pretty much up to date except for last nights festivities, i will enlighten you all about yesterday, from my perspective, take it or leave it.

So, since i've already been to Rome, i decided not to sightsee yesterday, and instead, spent my time with Alan and Sam. We went to an internet cafe to check E-mails and facebook for the incredible price of 1 Euro an hour. Normally, i would not spend so much on internet, but after having found 110 Euros on the airport floor and diving for it before Mr. Colby Brown could step on it, i was feeling pretty good. After Alan checked his email for like 2 hours we went to an authentic italian place, where we were seated by an Indian man and then served by a man from China. The food was good though and we all splurged by buying crazy expensive water. After hearing interesting stories from Sam and Alan about hotdogs, tour, and life in general, we went back to the room to prepare for the gig. On the incredibly cramped busride to the gig, i got yelled at by some lady because apparently my shoes, which were hanging out of my backpack, were apparently too close to her. After telling her that i was unable to do anything about it she promptly cursed me out. When we arrived at John Cabot University to perform, the staff there were the nicest people ever. They even ordered us some pizza so that we could eat a little before the concert and reception. We warmed up a little and tempers flared a lot with typical din drama, but it all went well until we started dressing for the gig, when i realized that i had forgotten my tails jacket...oopsie. So, 3 minutes before the gig, i told carpsy the news and he had a minor breakdown, but recovered with complete grace, assigning to other dins my parts. The show did go on, and it was incredible to watch the Dins from the 3rd person perspective. I cried from laughter quite a few times from word flops, carpsy's personal intro, Din impressions, and Copa Cabana. After the concert, we went up to the rooftop reception where many of the dins were promptly greeted by several adoring fans, great food, and good wine. Marco, our contact, was eager to take us out, so after an hour of schmoozing (an activity which i hate) he took us all out to the 'Drunken something or another' where he created a free tab for the dins, distinguishable by their bowtie. Since i wasnt wearing my tails, i had to force other dins to get me a drink here and there. All in all it was a fun and inexpensive night (except for when Jason Yeo wanted to watch a fashion show in another bar and i accompanied him and we got suckered into buying drinks for 20 euros and we only stayed for a few minutes because Jasons fashion show quickly turned into an explicit television show and we were unsure of the 'integrity' of the bar we were in). Marco drove me, jason, and colbizzle back to the hotel where we unloaded all of our stuff and i literally fell onto my bed asleep.

Sorry for the crazy long post, but it was time to unload. Hope it wasn't too horrible

Ricardo Doriott

It is about time I get back in the swing of things

2006-07-06T10:29:00.000-04:00

Well, #133 has noticed the rest of us haven't been blogging enough, and thus here I am to fill in the gaps that Jon, Jason and Adam have left for the rest of us. . .

We had an excellent time in Greece - Athens was beautiful and amazing, and the 5'star hotel we were staying at (Divani Caravale, if anyone wants to do a little research) was outstanding. Dare I say the breakfast buffet outperformed even that of the Southampton Princess? And, every evening they placed a towel on the ground with complimentary slippers on the side of our beds, just in case our feet were to get cold in the extremely air conditioned rooms that were provided by the embassy. I had some fun with an Athenian friend from school as well (shout out to Eudokia), and learned of the amazing stray dog culture here in Athens (as a group, we got to know a dog named Pericles who guided us to the city center our first day in Athens, and later I fed Heracles in the downtown area - he disliked french fries but really enjoyed my bread roll when I buttered it for him).

Thessaloniki, after a torturous 7 hour bus ride, was also lots of fun. We stayed at the American Farm School, sang for a 4th of July party (our third fourth of july party with a consulate-embassy, yet our only one actually on July 4th), and then spent the night in dormitory apartments where we acted about the age of 12 year olds for the rest of the evening. . .a fun if unusual experience with the Harvard Din and Tonics. Enough said.

We got into Rome last evening and sang at a fox hunting club (an interesting experience for a vegetarian like me, but not too much of an issue seeing as few of its members actually are hunters). Every single person was, and I say this with the most sincerity that may come in blog form, absolutely charming. I sat next to our host's wife and a wine expert named Leigh, and after what was an excellent dinner with delicious wines outside on an Italian terrace overlooking a piazza-looking square, we had a mini-concert. Although we attempted many jokes and the like, one of the biggest laughs of the evening, aside from Adam's always funny Lola, came when Sam introduced Tramp by saying "Thank you. This next song is called The Lady is a Tramp." Oy. Language barriers can be difficult.

Today for me was spent at the Vatican with the notorious rabblerouser Colby Brown. Absolutely beautiful, although I must admit that St. Peter's was nothing like what I have imagined. It was incredible though, and amazingly well kept. Very very hot though. Very. Can't wait till our contact's pool party in a couple of days. . .

Sorry for the absence of Jeff on the blog. We'll attempt to remedy that for the future. . .

Rome, stop 10 (?)

2006-07-06T10:18:00.000-04:00

I'm actually not sure which stop this is anymore, especially since I fell off the regular-blogging bandwagon after Munich, stop 6. Let's recap:

Zurich, stop 7: We hang out with the it girls of the city, who happened to be working at the Harvard club dinner party we sang at (where the hosts owned so much top-grade modern art it was like being in the Saatchi Gallery), we sing boisterous karaoke at a smoky bar, we go dancing at the best club in Zurich, we sit and oogle the gorgeous people around Lake Zurich, we watch the extraordinary Italy-Ukraine world cup game with thousands of Italia fans (Italy wins, 3-0), we sleep very little in 48 hours. We = Evan, Rowan, Alan, Jon Wise and myself.

Athens, stop 8: We sing on a stairwell at the US ambassador's residence as 3,000 diginitaries file through the receiving line, we're randomly housed in a five-star hotel (the Divani Caravel) which is very nice and has a lovely rooftop pool, Rowan, Steve, Becky and I take a daytrip to the Temple of Poseidon at Sunios where we go skinny-dipping sans Becky, we visit the (fascinating but slightly disorganised) National Archaelogical Museum, we visit the (shoddily-restored) Acropolis and the Agora, we eat Greek food like moussaka, stuffed vine leaves, souvlaki etc. There were not nearly enough other tourists in sight, the weather was often stiflingly hot and most of us got yelled at for attempting to take pictures with statues in the museums. The natural scenery, however, is gorgeous.

Thessaloniki, stop 9: We stay at the American Farm School, we sing at a 4th of July party (this time it's actually the 4th of July), we have a good time amusing ourselves in the generally deserted dorms.

And that brings us to Rome. Last night we dined and sang for the Harvard Club of Rome at a very old (oldest one, apparently) men's hunting club in Rome, housed in the Palazzo Borghese (sp.) before being driven to our residence apartments near the Vatican past midnight. Today Evan got me up at about 8am and we explored just about every inch of St Peter's Basilica that's open to the public. I took a nap in one of the chapels meant for prayer.... I was praying, it was just interspersed with being asleep. The view from the cupola (dome) of the basilica was breathtaking. I'm excited to see the pictures :)

We apparently have four more performances in Rome.

I really, really need to do laundry.

See you soon!

Doner Kebaps and other ways to clog your arteries...

2006-06-30T15:32:00.000-04:00

Ah, Zurich. A tour stop where I was totally bored for 5 days straight last tour. As I use the free internet at Martahaus, our hotel and the stuff of Din infamy, I am happy to report that this year`s visit has been much, much better. After absolute chaos in the Munich airport (because of some public transportation issues, we weren`t able to check in until 10:30 for our 11:05 flight...we barely made it to the gate in time, but miraculously we all did make it), we arrived in Zurich and quickly checked into our hotel. After a doner kebap (think gyros with even more grease), I took a quick nap before our gig for the Harvard Club. I wasn`t too enthused about it at first, feeling tired and hungry, but the house where we performed was amazing with its ubiquitous modern art and its unbelievable views of the lake of Zurich and the audience was really enthusiastic and seemed to enjoy our performance a lot. Copacabana continues to get more and more ridiculous with each performance as Adam gyrates more and more, Ricardo throws me higher and higher behind the conga line, and I occasionally come back to life as Tony, only to be smacked by Adam and killed again. Outdoor performances of that song are FUN.

Today, I slept in late and then went to the lake with Jeff in search of a beach/somewhere to swim. On a whim, we rented a paddleboat for two hours. After an hour of intermittently going around in circles and sunbathing on the boat`s raised deck (which we originally thought was a trampoline), we figured out that we didn`t have enough weight to submerge the rudder fully. We took turns paddling and sitting on the back of the boat to submerge the rudder. It was amazing...so peaceful and relaxing, a welcome break during this crazy and often exhausting tour.

Tomorrow it`s off to Athens. Greece. I`ve been learning about Greece since the Greek myth unit in fourth grade...ahh, I can`t wait.

Mit the bing, mit the bang...

2006-06-27T10:37:00.000-04:00

Munich is great! We found ourselves in a biergarten within just a few hours of arriving...with our Harvard Club hosts, no less. Any country where your host's first priority is getting you beer and sausages is a good country in my book.

Unfortunately, I'm almost out of time (already!)...this German keyboard layout isn't helping my typing speed. Will write more soon, hopefully, about my excursion to the Deutches Museum and this big open air market where I had a great lunch of even more Bavarian sausages. Oh weißwurst. How I love thee.

Till next time,
Jon

Munich, stop 6

2006-06-27T07:18:00.000-04:00

Another day, another city, another keyboard layout... bah!

Apologies to those who may have been worried by my last post which referred to trivial scrapes, which were precisely that: very trivial, and by now forgotten. Everyone is peachy-keen (minus Alan who patiently awaits hayfever medicine), and feeling on top of the world after an extremely restful and fun-filled stop in Strasbourg, where most of us had fantastic hjomestays and enjoyed the gastronomic delights of the Alsace region of France almost to excess (tarte flambée, Riesling, koughlouf sp? etc. etc.).

But now it's time to skip on to Germany, where we arrived after a five hour train ride that took us through Baden-Baden, Stuttgart and other German-sounding cities. Our first meal in Munich was at a very traditional (save for the plasma screens showing the World Cup match) and very Bavarian Biergarten or beer garden, where they served us with such hearty Bavarian delicacies like saurkraut, sausages, roast suckling pig, pork knuckle, roast duck, venison and so on. It was exactly what I needed at that point, which found me a little faint from hunger and quite thirsty too.

Whoops, it's time for me to leave for the city with Jon Wise and our host, so that's all for now. Bye!

Strasbourg, stop 5

2006-06-23T10:57:00.000-04:00

The keyboards are still antagonizingly French.

My second time round at Luxembourgs's Fete Nationale all-night party was definitely better than my first time last year. After our last rounds of providing musical interludes at Cercle Munster (and fighting the increasingly insistent booming stereo bass from outside), we all hurried back to the hostel, got dressed and headed out to see the fireworks. I am particularly pleased that I found the time to shower and condition my hair in that time too. Getting into position to admire the impressive fireworks from Roosevelt Ave involved some invigorating sprinting through the thronging streets with Colby, Adam and Jeff, but I say it was worth it. In my mind last year's music was better, but the effect was still magical. I especially liked the strings of fireworks which glided slowly about on their own individual little parachutes, and when showering fields of gold lit up the entire night sky.

The rest of the night was spent dancing to whichever DJs or bands struck our fancy across the city, and after Colby and Jeff retired at about 2am, Adam and I continued to party the night away. The highlight for me was definitely the party on the bridge right outside of Cercle Munster. Metal scaffolding had been errected around the broad stone bridge to mount disco lights while a DJ stand had been set up in the middle of the river, which I found incredibly cool. The music was a remarkable mix of everything from the classic rock and roll that was playing when we arrived (Johnny Be Good, 12 o' Clock Rock) to Robbie Williams, Bob Marley, techno and latin music. Along with the rest of the insatiable crowd we danced and cheered at the live, free-stylin' saxaphonist who started playing around 4 am and finally left for the hostel just after 5am, post-sunrise....

...at which point I packed, slept for about an hour then woke up to check out and catch the earliest train to Strasbourg, where the Dins are now variously recuperating or exploring the city while we wait for our various homestays to get us at 6pm from the Holiday Inn, our temporary holding location. Strasbourg has very good public transport and a gorgeous cathedral. The Internet cafés leave much to be desired; Best so far was in Luxembourg, although that was expensive like the rest of the country. Gilbert, the main Strasbourg contact has been very nice and seems to have thought of everything (e.g. we were fed a hearty meal of burgers and fries almost immediately upon arrival) and has made us excited for the big concert we'll be singing tomorrow; estimated audience: 800!

My feet hurt a lot from the last couple of days of exertion; and my knees and ankles are sore. But at least I'm not variously bruised and bleeding like Ricardo, Rowan and Steve who've been in various (trivial) scrapes.

Till next time.

The Lap of Luxembourg

2006-06-22T11:51:00.000-04:00

Luxembourg is built on high, imposing bluffs, overlooking a serpentine river whose name escapes me. Actually, the river is basically a glorified stream that is rarely more than a few feet wide and a few feet deep. In spite of the deep gorges that flank the old city and the layers of fortifications built to protect centuries of Luxembourgers, the place has passed through more than its fair share of owners in the last ten centuries. It's been French, it's been Spanish, it's been Austrian and even Prussian. The touristy timelines posted in the impressive underground archeological exhibits don't mention a mid-twentieth century German interlude, but I'm sure they had one of those as well. Each conquerer seems to have taken the impressive fortifications that they'd just overrun and added to them, only to be spoon-fed their own medicine a few centuries later.

It is, however an impressive and beautiful bite-sized city. After a few hours of wandering, we'd pretty much seen it all. But what Luxembourg lacks in quantity it makes up in quality - historical buildings are everywhere and the whole place is like an interactive time exposure, with each stage in its development revealed for all to plainly see. Medieval fortifications are traversed by nineteenth-century railroad bridges, while a few miles away the world's largest banks do their work in pungently modern office blocks.

We arrived here by train from Brussels, Belgium, another magnificent old city that, while lacking the kind of excitement that kept us entertained in London and Dublin, still presented us with incredible opportunities to cut loose and explore.

On our first evening, we were hosted at a concert in a spectacular chateau called Westerlo, which has been owned by the same noble family since the 12th century. Our hosts that evening were the Harvard Club of Belgium, whose members were also our homestays in Belgium, and Prince Simon de Merode, the scion of the family whose castle was the evening's venue. The 25 year-old prince was a gracious host, and carried off his ceremonial role with remarkable ease during the evening, as if doing so were his job. Which, of course, it is. I found out later that Simon had only just left his job at the Swiss finance consortium UBS to manage the property full-time. And a full-time job it seems to be. In addition to hosting Harvard Club functions (the prince himself isn't an alumnus, but many of Belgium's professional upper-crust seems to be) the prince and his abode will welcome former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a few months, and the plan is to make the place the default location, in Belgium, for visiting dignitaries to sleep and take their ceremonial meals. (The names that I heard dropped included US President George W. Bush.) Surrounded by high walls and a moat (to keep out the peasants, of course), Kasteel de Merode seems very well-suited to the purpose.

The following morning, the Dins struck out in various directions to see Brussels' environs. Some went to Amsterdam, to partake of that country's, well, legislation. I went to Bruges, a small-ish town to the south-west of the capital that was once one of the centerpieces of the Flemish trading superpower. It was charming, quaint, and offered more than enough fodder for pictures, canal-side walks (Bruges is called the "Venice of the North" by the people who live there - the ones who sell souvenirs, anyway) and sightseeing to last an entire day. After a day of walking and a formidable lunch outdoors in the central square, we boarded an over-crowded, over-heated (air conditioning? In Belgium? You foolish Americans!) train back to Brussels. With all the seats occupied by middle-aged locals, their shirts removed and their sagging bodies exposed to whatever fresh air was available, which wasn't much, we proceeded to sit on the floor between cars, playing blackjack half-deleriously as the train wound through the Belgian countryside.

That evening, I got a good night's sleep for the first time on tour. I passed out before midnight, and only woke up after noon the following day. I spent that afternoon reading and relaxing before our evening performance, at the residence of the US Deputy Chief-of-Mission.

The guest list was impressive - the best and brightest of young Belgium was invited for the concert and the canapés. And even though, in the oppressive, air-conditioning-free heat, the Dins were even more a sweaty, staggering mess than usual, our performance was satisfyingy crisp (I'm still not sure how) and the audience was refreshingly appreciative. That said, I nearly collapsed after the three minutes of suggestive gyrations that I put in as Lola (she was a showgirl...) in Copacabana, our encore. After losing my youth and my Tony, I'd certainly lost my mind. I also came dangerously close to losing my party sandwiches. But if there's one thing I've learned during these performances, it's that a post-concert glass of champagne (or two) can made rehydration - however desperate - a breeze.

The following day, we said goodbe to our generous Harvard Club hosts and boarded a train for Luxembourg. We arrived mid-afternoon and settled into our accomodations, at Luxembourg's youth hostel. I confess that I'd been dreading the place since I first heard where we were staying. A hostel? Isn't that one of those places where you sleep in close quarters with complete strangers and contract strange diseases?

In fact, the place is fantastic. We're sleeping in rooms of six Dins each, next door to one another. It's the closest we've been to staying as an intact group, and it's been really positive. Spending time with the Dins is a lot of fun, and our late-night games of ping-pong and day-long wanderings around Luxembourg have been a highlight of the trip for me. The nights are warm beyond compare, and trying to keep cool is the real challenge, but I have absolutely no complaints. Except about my ping-pong game, which is abysmal. Whatever.

Today we had lunch together at the same private club that we sang at last night and where we're singing again tonight. It was by far the best meal I've had on tour - beef carpaccio and grilled salmon with rice and steamed vegetables. No college student deserves to eat this way when travelling in Europe during the summer. The feeling of guilt that comes with taking advantage of the incredible opportunities that the Dins have as a group still hasn't abated, even after two years of travel and fine dining. I can reconcile it to myself because we are working for our keep, singing more than an hour each evening for our clients in exchange for our suppers, but it still hardly seems fair. That aside, I'm sure going to miss the star treatment after I leave the Dins next year.

Tonight we'll sing and sup again before heading out on the town for Luxembourg's national day celebrations, which begin at sundown and last until sunrise tomorrow. (I'm not kidding.) When last the Dins were here, the festivites caught them off-guard, but this time we aren't just prepared; we've all been anticipating the night for months. I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories to tell 24 hours from now. Whether or not I'll remember them all is quite another story.

I'm a bad, bad blogger

2006-06-22T09:27:00.000-04:00

It's hard to get to these type of things, especially since internet cafes are random and few and far between. Anyways, we luckily stumbled across a free one in Luxembourg - odd, isn't it? A free internet cafe here is quite the find. . .

To recap since last I wrote, Belgium was ridiculously fun - I wasn't expecting much of a tour stop there, but it ended up being my favorite one thus far, I do believe. You can read about the castle adventures in Jason's blog below. . .suffice it to say that the only thing personal I have to add to that amazing event is that it's hard to be a vegetarian in countries when you don't speak the language - when you are being served food at a party, how do you tell what has meat in it, and what doesn't? Je suis vegetarian doesn't always cut it.

My other french phrase that I know of is Je ne compra pais le francis (spelling was obviously not learned). Along with a few merci's and "le grey poupon, seafoo play" I seem to be getting around just fine. In Belgium, luckily, almost everyone spoke a little English. My homestay was with Charles and Bernadette Beauduin, a Belgian couple, both very intelligent, with four kids and two homes. We stayed at the home on the edge of the city, right next to the national forest. They were EXQUISITE hosts, and we had a lot of fun with them. Charles on our last night with him took us to the center of the city, gave us a little history and cultural tour of the Grand Plac and other parts of the city, and took us for Belgian beer tasting. Belgian beer is outstanding, by the way. Did you ever know that Chimay beer is brewed by monks who take a vow of silence? (She may, or she may not, but with Chimay she may!).

We got to Luxembourg a couple of days ago by train, and this is quite the relaxing fun tour stop as well! Walking around the city is great - fortresses and residences collide into a beautiful landscape full of hills and ravines. Very neat. We sang at a private dinner club, Cercle Meunster, and they ate us up. It was a lot of fun. Alan introduced the song "Sam you made the pants too long" as "Sam, the trousers dragon." About two of us could sing the song the whole way through. Sam nor Alan were one of them.

A couple of days ago we decided to go on a pub crawl through Luxembourg - it was a spur of the moment thing, and we ended up starting in a very non-touristy part of town - very little English was spoken. Our first bar was one in which a local teacher named Pete, who had his picture on the pub wall (I kid you not!) decided that he should buy us all Chinese beers with sake (we later realized the owner was Chinese, and even though we were in Luxembourg, he insisted on non-Luxembourgian drinks). The sake was served in little glasses that, when full, had pictures of individuals in little/no state of dress at the bottom, whereas when drunk, the pictures could no longer be seen. Suffice it to say that night started at about 5:30 pm, and by 8 we were ready to have dinner and call it a night.

I'm having trouble considering what else there is to report, except that life is excellent and National day here in Luxembourg starts tonight - I'm getting quite excited for the festivities, as well as singing in Cercle Meunster again tonight. Free food, albeit for me that just means steamed vegetables and a sauce if I'm lucky. Perhaps tonight I will sing Blah to the deerhead on the wall again.

Love to all -

Jeff

Playing Catch Up

2006-06-22T09:26:00.000-04:00

I feel bad...I'm pretty far behind in keeping records of this trip- everything from my journal to this blog to my tour book, which has extensive notes on Ireland and just about nothing else. Since Oxford (which I'm realizing more and more how much I enjoyed), we had our second gig with Elle Cappella (so many memories of tour two years ago), travelled to Belgium where I had a great homestay in the center of city, took a slightly scary trip to Amsterdam, sang in a castle, sang at an ambassador's home, travelled to Luxembourg, and sang at Club Cercle Munster where we were fed INCREDIBLY twice. We go back for dinner at Cercle Munster tonight, and my mouth is already watering. Let's hope it's steak. The past two meals have been fish. Very good fish, but I'm waiting for my steak.

Things have been going well. I think people are starting to relax and enjoy themselves a bit more in all respects. Staying all together in two rooms in Luxembourg has been good for group bonding. Though not having towels has definitely been a bit of a bummer. This country's a little boring, but very pretty, which has made for lots of good walking/wandering around.

Tonight is the eve of Luxembourg's National Day. Let's hope things pick up. (They will.)

french keyboards

2006-06-21T07:26:00.000-04:00

i hate them (french keyboards, that is). that last sentence took about 25 seconds to type, fyi. anyhow tour is sweet- belgiu, was amazing. the highlight was probably our gig in a 1000 year old castle. also my homestay had a projection screen the size of most peoples backyard swimming pools. and 12 cars, including multiple ferraris and porsches.

i took a daytrip to amsterdam with jon c and ricardo. i would actually describe things except i hate this keyboard so much. soo much.

I heart Belgium!!

2006-06-19T18:01:00.000-04:00

This has been an outstanding tour stop. Typing with the Belgian keyboard has taken a little bit of getting used to but I'm beginning to get the hang of it.

I've eaten thousands and thousands of calories worth of Belgian chocolate, pastries, waffles, ice cream, mussels, fries... and drunk a half dozen different pints of wonderful Belgian beer too. And of course they constantly ply us with wine food and drink everywhere that we sing. Yum! Unfortunately my running shoes remain utterly neglected and unused in my overflowing luggage.

The gigs have been fantastic. The first one two nights ago was at the amazing castle at Westerlo currently inhabited by the 25 year old Prince Simon de Merode who hosted a Harvard club of Belgium casino night. I managed to work the roulette table quite to my advantage, which later helped my homestay (Professor Paul Verlin) to successfully bid on a bottle of wine from the Prince's family vineyard in France. Tonight's concert was at the sprawling official residence of the Deputy Head of Mission and hosted by the American Embassy in Brussels. The audience was a very interesting mix of artists, diplomats, students and business people and the (sweltering) space that we sang in was quite lovely as well. Oh, and the guesthouse which we used as our dressing room was apparently where Kissinger often stayed while he was doing his shuttle diplomacy.

Sam and I have just wrapped a lovely evening in the historic university town of Leuven with Paul, our host and his two charming daughters Charlotte and Emily. With the help of the Verlins we finally found the ice cream we'd been looking for for days and also got a great little nocturnal walking tour of the old part of town, including the magical beguinage, a fascinating women's walled commune dating back to the 12th century. Seeing this UNESCO world heritage site by night made the medieval setting quite surreal, romantic, otherworldy and potentially creepy, all at once.

I shall leave out a more extensive description of the day Sam, Alan, Adam, Rowan and I spent in Bruge (known as the Venice of the North) yesterday, except to mention that I ate many, many mussels and exauisite scampi. The walks were great too. Actually, I'm hoping the tens of kilometers we must have walked over the past couple of days have countered somewhat the regular overeating from farmers' markets and patisseries.

Time to pack again. It's slightly tragic that every time we start to make connections with people and feel comfortable in a neighborhood it's just as we have to leave for somplace new. Tomorrow we head for Luxembourg by train.

I *heart* Belgium, I really do.

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Selections of the publicity pictures we had taken in London are available online for your viewing pleasure at: http://www.kennethkohphoto.co.uk/features/dins/

Off to Brussels... off to bed?

2006-06-16T23:13:00.000-04:00

It's (yipes!) 4.10am and we leave London in a mere couple of hours. Everyone else at the homestay is asleep but I really want to get all packed up before I turn in.

The last few days have been not nearly enough of London for me. I sadly only got round to about half of the things I had planned to do. I saw Avenue Q with Evan and Colby last night, battling with the practically non-existent Central Line which was closed due to various electrical-sounding problems. I ended up having to pay for several costly cab rides. It was also particularly nice to spend time with Evan's parents afterward having last met them in Albany just... a fortnight ago (seems like forever ago). Thank you for the tea and dessert!

More random updates: Two days ago was the Queen's birthday, which explains all the flags and decorations around Buckingham. Many of the other Dins did their sightseeing today after or morning gig at our homestay's son's school. I hear various Dins went to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham, to the Tower of London and so on... Tangentially related to that, Jeff snapped a shot of Prince Charles getting off a helicopter in Kensington Gardens today.

Tonight's concert at Christ Church in Chelsea was with "Ellecapella" (sp?), a very good five-woman group with really enjoyable arrangements of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and Feelin' Groovy. The audience was mainly there for the other group, but I daresay they enjoyed us at least equally as much. And I had a couple of friends in the audience, which is nice since I've hardly ever had the chance to have anyone from home see me sing in the Dins... just wait till we get to Singapore! In other interesting news, we unexpectedly had a Din Alum in the audience - Din #109 ('96-'97), Oliver H___, who's currently studying coparative politics at LSE. Later, after getting evicted from the local pub at closing time (and having sung through much of our repertoire a number of times), most of the Dins, Oliver and his French friend Jonathan (I'm not sure I caught his name) headed to Chinatown for a lovely meal of crispy duck and other yummy Chinese food (Adam and I split a Singapore noodles and a scrambled egg/beef/rice plate which were both very satisfying).

Ok, off to the shower and back to packing... and it's already about 4.30am!

England, Dreaming Spires

2006-06-16T11:56:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday morning we travelled here from Dublin, Ireland. Our time in Dublin had ended splendidly, with an evening performance on Monday at the Helix, a beautiful new performance hall—and the largest in Ireland—at Dublin City University. In attendance were the University's president and various American dignitaries, including the Ambassador's wife. (The Ambassador himself was called away by a last-minute diplomatic issue. No word on just what exactly this was, although based on my experience in Dublin I suspect that some combination of alcohol and the River Liffey was involved.)

Our first hours in England were frenetic. From Heathrow Airport we sprinted to our respective homestays (generous Harvard alumni who had agreed to host us for our stay), dropped our luggage, and raced to Victoria Station to catch a train to Shoreham-by-Sea, home to Lancing College, the boarding school whose breathtaking campus (including the largest school chapel on earth, an enormous Gothic cathedral) was to play host to the evening's performance with the Polysonics, an all-male group from Lancing. The Polysonics have been around since 2002, when they were begun as an entry in the school's intramural music contest. Why all-male a cappella? Turns out that one of the group's founders (now, alas, at Yale) had a mother who was posted to the US Embassy in Brussels. She'd hired the Dins during their 2002 world tour, and was sufficiently impressed by them that she bought a CD and passed it along to her son. Apparently amazed at what he heard, the boy and some of his friends decided to start their own group in imitation of the Dins, and transcribed some of our songs by ear from the recording, including "McDonald's Girl." The rest, as they say, is history. We've performed with them for our last two tours, and they treated us (completely unjustifiably) like rock stars. Their CD, which they gave to us as a token of thanks, mentions "As Performed by The Harvard Din & Tonics" next to their original transcriptions.

Oh, and they're really very good, too!

Aside from a few mishaps along the way (including a lost box of CDs and a misplaced tuxedo), the evening was a great success. We were warmly received and it was great to sing with a group of such energetic kids.

On Wednesday, I spent the morning at the British Museum (!!!) with a couple of Dins and then got on a bus for Oxford, where we spent the night. We performed with Out of the Blue, Oxford's only all-male a cappella group, which was started by a Harvard alum-turned-Oxford-grad-student about five years ago. They were really great and the audience was fantastic. We performed in the chapel of Mansfield College, which was both visually and aurally an incredible setting. We've rarely sounded better. And it had very little to do with us.

After the performance, we went out on an impromptu pub-crawl with our hosts (apparently some bars close down at 11 in Oxford, and I thought Cambridge was unnecessarily puritanical!) before crashing on assorted floors and sofas. It was a great night—nice to be around new people our own age, with whom we could share experiences with a cappella and with university. It was somewhat bittersweet for me. Oxford was every bit as magical as I'd expected it to be, and I loved every moment that I was there. Even after stopping to ask for directions at Christ Church College, the very college that denied me admission almost three years ago. I made it to Oxford after all, but it took getting into Harvard and then getting into the Dins to get there. At the end of the day, however, here I am now, on an eleven week, all-expenses-paid world tour with my a cappella group, no complaints to speak of. Fair Harvard, indeed!

I spent the night on an air mattress in Corpus Christi College, where I was hosted by an Out of the Blues-man named Ben, who was a music student and the College's organ scholar. (That means he plays the organ every week and directs the College's choir, in exchange for nicer-than-usual accommodation—there was a harpsichord in his room and next year he gets a harpsichord and two pianos.) He showed me around briefly in the morning, and after we had sandwiches at Oxford's covered market, he took off for a gig and left me to explore.

(As an aside, I'll never understand the British fascination with sandwiches. They're lovely and I've some some of the best of my life in the last few days, but the profusion of sandwich shops is rather staggering.)

I spent the next few hours wandering the streets, swept up in more people than I expected. Some were clearly tourists. Others, in their suits, pressed white shirts, white bow ties, and short academic gowns, were Oxford students on their way to and from final exams. (Oxford has maintained its strict examination dress code, even as lesser institutions like Cambridge have given up the ghost on the subject.) It's probably both inaccurate and mildly offensive to describe Oxford, England as Mecca and Cambridge, Massachusetts as Medina. But that's never stopped me before.

I spent an hour doing injustice to the copious holdings of the Ashmolean Museum, one of the world's most impressive collections of artefacts and antiquities. Much of the place was being renovated, which was a blessing in disguise. The most significant objets d'art from the closed galleries had been assembled in a temporary "Treasures" exhibition, which was effectively a Reader's Digest version of the whole museum. I've never traversed three thousand years of human history quite so rapidly, not even in Harvard's spectacularly superficial introductory history courses. Okay, fine, that last comment was pejorative and uncalled-for. But that's never stopped me before, either.

What I've found most astonishing about Britain's museums isn't so much the remarkable things they contain, but the simple fact of them. In so many ways, they're the fossilized remains of a bygone imperial age, when precious things were (often flagrantly) looted from vanquished lands and brought back to the motherland for display as curiosities. They've always contained the educational, academic, scholarly dimension that has sustained the clichéd justification of their existence, but in Britain in particular I can't help but feel like I'm stepping back in time when I step into a museum, and not just because of the age of the objects on display. Despite the modernity of their structures, places like the British Museum (with its massive hall dedicated to the display of the ever-contended Elgin Marbles, plucked from the ruined Parthenon by Britain's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Lord Elgin, in the mid nineteenth century, and claimed by Greece as a vital part of its cultural heritage for at least the last fifty years) and the Ashmolean (with the largest collection of pre-dynastic Egyptian artefacts outside Cairo, stuffed into a number of inadequately-sized rooms that have the distinct appearance of a storehouse) feel anachronistic in a way that can sometimes overshadow the experience of seeing their holdings.

I left the Ashmolean and met up with a few of the guys from Out of the Blue, who had returned from their performance and who were having lunch at a small restaurant close to the museum. From there it was on to the bus and back to London, where I followed two Dins back to their homestay in Notting Hill. I was invited to stay for dinner, which was a very welcome surprise—a home-cooked meal was more than welcome after weeks of cafeteria food and cheap take-out, first at Harvard and then in Europe. I worked on some nagging tour-planning tasks with the tour managers, and then set out in search of entertainment in Leicester Square and the West End. We walked the place through, people-watching and sight-seeing—I now have a picture of myself literally stomping at the Savoy Hotel—before stopping in at a pub for a drink and heading home.

I can't believe that I haven't even been on tour for a full week at this point. So much has happened and I can't wait to wake up each morning and see what becomes of my day. That's something that one rarely feels in the stressful quagmire of the school-year, but I have a distinct feeling that it's going to be a going sensation for the next ten weeks. I'm also already feeling sad that tour is passing us
by. We're soon to leave London for Brussels, our third tour stop. We won't be back to Dublin or London and I can't help feeling like I've missed much more than I've seen. Which is, of course, precisely the case, but that has to be the expectation when time is so limited. At any rate, the company is good, the days are long and exciting, and the music is as great as it always has been. Tomorrow we perform at a
boy's school in London in the early morning and then at a public concert in Chelsea in the evening. On to the continent on Saturday.

A lesson and a thought

2006-06-16T06:39:00.000-04:00

The thought: There's something incredibly depressing when you walk into "New" College, Oxford, and then they tell you that it was established in 1379 (more than two and a half centuries before Harvard). Oh, and, by the way, there's a wisteria somewhere on campus that's older than America. I'm not making this stuff up. The whole place is just dripping in tradition. They do, however, know how to party...

The lesson: The "[Din] got dumped, but he's a chill guy, so let's sing to his tramp ex-girlfriend" introduction is much better than then "Mother's day is around the corner, so we'd like to dedicate this song to our mothers" introduction, especially when you're singing to a bunch of 10 year olds at a fancy English day school. The offending Din will remain unnamed, but, rest assured, he will remain in the penalty box for the near future.

Signing off,
Rozencrumpet

on lost keys, old friends, and other things. . .

2006-06-15T12:50:00.000-04:00

Let me preface this by saying things are going extraordinarily well and I'm having a great time here in London. A great homestay, lovely day trips (so far Lancing and Oxford, which you can read about by other Dins below), and tonight I'm seeing Billy Elliot with none other than Ricardo. Hoody-hoo!

Oy vey though - I was going to be the only Din coming back last night from Oxford, but I learned at the bus station that I lost my homestay's keys! EEEEEEEEEK!!! I ended up staying in Oxford the night and retracing my previous evening's steps - went to the changing room (which was in fact a laundry room) in Mansfield College, went to the chapel that served as our performance venue, and then went to the old tavern where we had drinks after the concert (it should be noted that my old high school/Harvard chum Stephanie Sherman came to see the concert last night all the way from Stone - super sweet). In the end, Ricardo and I went to the bus station to get back to London, when low and behold I found I misplaced my bus ticket as well, right after Ricky already got on the bus. Bye Ricky!

This afternoon was spent with the lovely Thelma Ruby Frye, who came to live in America, sponsored by my great-grandparents, during WWII. What a lady! I'm looking forward to having her come to our concert tomorrow at Christchurch in London.

Okay, off to dinner. Much love to all -

Jeff

Come on, England!

2006-06-15T07:01:00.000-04:00

Had a great day yesterday. Wise & I woke up around 11, had some food with our homestays (who are awesome, by the way- really, really nice) and did some emailing, and then walked from their house about 3 miles through Chelsea up to the Natural History Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum (we stopped into both for about 25 minutes each...the wonders of free admission) and then on to Hyde Park. We stopped at the Orangery in Hyde Park for a quick spot of tea (absolutely delicious- cream cheese & cucumber sandwiches, fruit scones with clotted cream and jam, and a piece of orange sponge cake). Then we hopped on the Oxford Tube and met the other Dins for a concert with Oxford's Out of The Blue. They were AWESOME. They were an all-male pop a cappella group (gasp!)...they were really damn good- good blend, good tuning, good vocal percussion, good stage presence & choreography. In short, we were all wowed, especially me, the resident a cappella nerd. Our concert was good...I think maybe a bit too long...but they told us to do 45 minutes! Oh well, they ate it all up, especially Copa.

After the show, we went out to The Turf pub with a bunch of guys from the group and Tim Robson, an Oxford student and Polysonic alum. Wise & I actually ended up staying with Tim and his roommate Oggy. Great guys- I was glad we ended up staying with them. We dropped our stuff off in their room and went across the street for another pint. Ok...3 more pints. One pint, three pints, no difference. At about 2, the bar finally closed and we stumbled back to Tim's dorm and slept like rocks. We may tour Oxford for a bit, and then we'll head back to London, drop our stuff at our homestay and then go do stuff in London for the night.

That's all for now. Cheers, everyone!
Jon

on unprofessionalism

2006-06-14T07:49:00.000-04:00

so i'm the only din who doesn't like to use capital letters when i blog, talk on aim, or write emails. i can assure you, dear reader, that in real life (ie at harvard) i'm quite literate, and can correctly use capital letters in more than one language. and besides, at least i have correct punc.tuation, spellling and my grammar is on.

sitting in an english garden

2006-06-14T07:37:00.000-04:00

i see that my colleague mister carpenter has already posted today. hmph. we're headed to oxford tonight to sing with "out of the blue," who should be pretty good if last night's performance with the high school-aged polysonics was any indication of england's acapella talent pool.

i'm lucky enough to be staying in a homestay with wireless internet right now. she even left us biscuits and tea for breakfast! how english, especially since she's argentinian. it's been rainy in england, and ireland was very green. it would appear that stereotypes, in fact, do predict these things. i'm not going to describe last night, but siffice it to say that the concert was fun, though i had an incredibly late night of travel afterwards. i got back to my homestay at 2:30am and had been travelling since about 10:30. yes, 4 hours to get from our gig to our homestay, even though it only took about 2 hours to get from our homestay to our gig earlier that evening. i was angry.

rowan and i are going to go explore london today, which should hopefully be pretty cool. i hope we don't get rained on but the skies don't look promising. i'm looking forward to oxford, as well.

But there's no place like London...

2006-06-14T07:14:00.000-04:00

Hellooooo everyone! Cheers from LONDON- our second stop on what I've started to call our "Eleven Week Whirlwind World Tour." I should really come up with better intros.

I'm a little confused about what to Din in London. This is my third time here, so I feel like I've hit all the major tourist attractions. But, I'm homestaying with Jon who's never been here before, so maybe I'll play tour guide. I'm thinking about the British Museum at some point, maybe a trip to the food halls at Harrod's, maybe a trip to the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels. Who knows...

Last night we went back to Lancing College to sing with the Polysonics. I love those guys. They're basically a high school a cappella group that have their roots in Din music. Joel Pattison, an American whose mother worked in the foreign service, saw the Dins on tour in 2002 and picked up Freshly Squeezed. He was so excited about the Dins that he and some friends actually transcribed a bunch of Din arrangements and started a group at their high school in England to sing them. They used songs like McDonald's Girl, Sam You Made The Pants Too Long, and Copacabana to gain fame and win a school-wide music competition. We sang with them on tour in 2004 and closed with a joint McDonald's Girl- I traded off solos with Joel, who was their McD Boy at the time. Last night, we closed with a joint My Lord, which sounded great.

The school itself is also pretty amazing. It's outside of London in a little town called Shoreham-By-Sea. The school has an actual cathedral. (A 400 PERSON SCHOOL!! WITH A CATHEDRAL!!) The grounds are absolutely beautiful. People started humming the Harry Potter theme...it did feel like being in the movie with the castle-like buildings.

The trip home from Lancing was a bit stressful...we didn't get back until after the Tube had closed, so we had to navigate the night buses...Yeah, not so much fun.

Gig at Oxford tonight with the all-male Out of The Blue. I'm excited...I think I may stay over and tour Oxford during the morning tomorrow. Then I will have been to both Oxford and Cambridge...pretty exciting.

I'll keep updating whenever I can. Miss you all,
Jon

London, possibly the coolest city ever.

2006-06-13T21:07:00.000-04:00

Hello World!

Colby and I are co-authoring this blog together at our lovely homestay in London (also with Alan and Ricardo). Oop, Colby's left for the bathroom.

Anyway, our last night in Ireland was well-marked by a concert hosted by Dublin City University and the American Embassy at the Helix arts center at DCU. The performance was pretty fun (especially with the Ambassador's wife's parody version of Let's Call), and even more fun was the impromptu renditions of Lonesome Road and Let's Call the Whole Thing Off that happened later when we went to visit the large concert hall in the same complex. Apparently Kiri Te Kawana has praised the space for its extraordinary acoustics. Some Dins had a lot of fun with the food and wine served at the reception that followed, while other Dins enjoyed the company.

Colby's back from the bathroom! Yay! ("Hi Mom!" says Colby)

This morning's call was at 9am for our BMI flight from Dublin to London; the flight was brief, pleasant and uneventful. The rest of the day, however, was long, tense and filled with unnecessary excitement. Like delayed arrivals, missing hosts, missing property and such. Fortunately, it all got sorted out in the end. And the gig we sang at Lancing College (gasp, what a stunning campus!!) with the Polysonics (who were good) was very fun, if a little hot. They're such fun guys that the not so full audience didn't even seem to matter. Also, they fed us a much-appreciated dinner. Yum.

--

And just so it doesn't go completely unrecorded, Evan and I spent yesterday wandering through more charming Irish villages and towns along the coast to the south of Dublin. We got off the DART at Dalky, explored the very posh residential neighborhoods there with their cool architecture (faux castles galore, modernist cubes), ocean views and random amenities (benches on the road, an obelisk) and then headed through Sandy Cove to Dun Learghie (that's not quite how it's spelt, perhaps I'll correct it in the future).

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Ok, it's bedtime. Tomorrow we perform at Oxford University. See you...

Day two

2006-06-11T14:35:00.000-04:00

The past 24 hours in a 3 minute nutshell:

Last night after my post I wandered over to Temple Bar and found a great four-level megapub with no cover charge and a rooftop patio. I later learned the other Dins had been there before me. I had my first Guiness in Ireland (5€) and then headed to Spirits club to dance on the three levels of dance floors (cover: 8€, but technically 20€). I then took the night bus home and walked the last 3 miles after missing my stop. I got back to the DCU at about 6am.

Today: After sleeping till 10.0am I had breakfast and went with Evan and Steve on a great daytrip to see Malahide Castle (weird pre-recorded "tour") which has really nice grounds (250 acres of parkland) and then hopped on the DART over to Howth to look at the pretty village and cliffs. Glorious views, great pictures, very yummy pastry and fish and chips. And so much walking; my knees are sore.

Till next time!

4 minutes, no, 3

2006-06-11T14:27:00.000-04:00

3 minutes to write today.

this font looks similar to the font which becky uses to write her online journal. i drank a bunch of guinness last night and it was great. i loooove irish accents. our favorite game is to make real live irish people talk to us and we just listen. last night jon c, alan, jeff and i stumbled across a 'hen party' ireland's equivalent of a bachelorette party, and sang for them. they were a little (read: very) drunk and thought it was crazy- as if it weren't actually happening.

had a great time with evan and jason today- read their blogs if you want to know what they did. i'll probably stay in the dorms tonight and read or something- finally get on the euro time schedule. dammit only 1 minute left, blog over. if you're reading this, then i probably love you and might miss you. especially if your name's becky hammer.

Gorgeous

2006-06-11T14:26:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone!

So, here we are in Dublin. Ireland is so beautiful: the scenery, the buildings, and especially the accents. Today, Steve, Jason, and I took the train out to Malahide, where we visited a beautiful castle on 250 acres of park land by the sea. It was lovely, although the automated "tour guide" was rather creepy. We like to think that we were the life of the tour. The others probably thought we were noisy Americans. C'est la vie. Then, we took another bus to the fishing village of Howth, which was absolutely breathtaking. I actually sang a song earlier this year called "The Hill of Howth", so it was exciting to the see place for real. We walked around the village, went to a market, and then ascended the cliffs. The views were incredible: the ocean, boats, beautiful houses, mountains, really the quintessential Irish coastline. We took some rather precarious pictures, but I think we'll find the coolness of the shots outweighed the risk of standing at the edge of a steep cliff with the wind blowing our hats off. On our descent, Steve and I were attacked by killer plants ("Irish stinging nettles", as we affectionately called them), and rushed down to the ocean to wash off our legs. Not before tramping through someone's backyard to get there, however... Adventurous indeed.

The people here are incredibly friendly, and it still hasn't quite sunk in that we're travelling around the world. We've been in Dublin only a day, and it's tough to believe we've got another 20 or so cities to go. I hope you're all doing well!

...and that was just the first night!

2006-06-11T10:53:00.000-04:00

Tour is in full swing. Sometime around 1 AM last night it hit me full force, and everything just felt very comfortable, like we had settled into a groove already. Not a bad groove, like a routine, but a good grove. Things are going well.

Last night was great. Alan, Jeff, Steve, and I wandered around Dublin for a little bit, exploring O'Connell Street, walking around Trinity College, and eventually finding Temple Bar. (Alan: Excuse me, but can you tell me where Trinity College is? Tourist: (slightly baffled, points directly behind himself) Right there. Alan: Oh. And so Temple Bar is...? Tourist: (amused, points directly to his left) Over there. Alan: Of course.) Things were VERY crowded last night...lots of people in town for the 4 or 5 huge concerts that are in town. We had our first pint of Guinness at The Farrington, where our cute bartender spilled hot candle wax all over herself (by accident) while trying to show us her "signature move." We sang for a "Hen Party" (aka bachelorette party) in the street...and for some reason saw about 10 other Hen Parties walking around. We had amazing potato wedges with cheese at 11 PM...and Chinese food at about 2. After waiting in a queue for over half an hour, we finally got a taxi back to Dublin and slept until pretty late today (oh, jetlag). Now, Jeff and I are back in central Dublin on our way to the Guinness Storehouse/Factory. Woohoo! Complimentary pints!

Things are going great so far...Miss all of you back home though.

All the best from Ireland,
Jon

2006-06-10T19:48:00.000-04:00

Here I am in Dublin, and I'm going to try and make this quick so I can minimize the amount of time I spend sitting in this Internet cafe and go hit the streets to look around.

Things have been going fairly smoothly so far. I was completely knocked-out on the flight to Frankfurt, where we had a four hour layover; I'm a little annoyed at having slept through dinner on the flight, but I made up for it with many bags of Haribo candy :)

Earlier today we sang our first gig of the tour, at a very strange interfaith peace conference of some description, and between the jet lag, sore limbs (too much hand-carry luggage!!) and complete lack of warming-up, I think we sounded a little weak. On the way back to the Dublin university residences that we're staying at, I noted that so far the trip still feels like just another Din roadtrip to Connecticut or Maine... I was looking out the window at the Dublin suburb we were going through and thinking, "I can't wait to get back to Quincy; Is this Allston, MA?"

The Irish accent is both really pretty, and also often indecipherable :)

hello, i must be going bananas

2006-06-10T16:28:00.000-04:00

only 3 minutes to write- we're in dublin! horray. dublin looks cool so far, though i've only seen about 2 minutes of it. time to go drink guinness with alan, jeff, and jon c. i hope that this trip goes smoothly and people don't get too stressed out. also, i hope alan meets a pretty irish girl and forgets about katherine. that would be awesome- i'm gonna help him with that. i'm everybody's wingman for the summer. time over.

When Irish eyes are smiling...

2006-06-10T16:20:00.000-04:00

Steve, Jeff, Jon C and I are currently in an internet cafe, where I am scheming to squeeze as much money from the Indonesian archipelago as possible while trying very hard not to let my surroundings warp my non-area-specific American accent. Few things are sillier than an New Yorker with a half-baked Irish brogue.

Safe and sound in Dublin

2006-06-10T16:18:00.000-04:00

After a harrowing journey from Boston to Frankfurt, we are now in Dublin, writing in an internet cafe (carps, fiascone, rozen and I. . .) ready to go for a night on the town in the birthplace of my true love, Guinness.

Morning on Friday consisted of waking up after spending 3 hours on the girls' futon and heading to the T station more than teary eyed at 7 am (hey, it was the last day of my being at Harvard as an actual resident/student). We took a T to Reading, MA to sing for some really cute and well behaved middle schoolers, and upon our return to Boston, we had to stop due to a pregnant woman going into labor on our train. We considered singing the following songs due to the occassion:

Happy Birthday
Johnny Harvard
The Lady is a Tramp
What Child is This?

The journey was long (we all feel like we have been through one tremendously long day, although due to the wonders of time zones we actually lost more time than we care to say), but boy are we excited to be at our first tour stop, and now a day and a half without any gigs (our first one was this afternoon).

Land of Guinness - we look forward to your beer, football, and good conversations with even greater accents. Cheers!

Erin Go Brah!

2006-06-10T16:16:00.000-04:00

Greetings from Dublin! We just arrived this morning after being in transit for what seemed like an endless day of travel. It's hard to believe that we're in Europe-- tour came up on us so quickly.

We had a gig a few hours after we arrived at St. Bridget's Community Center to close out an Inter-Faith Peace Panel. Not a bad gig, but we were all exhausted. We didn't rush through our songs for one of the first times ever-- mostly because we were too tired. Sh'Booooooom, sh'boooooom, dyaaaa naaaa naaa naaa naaa...Afterwards, our clients fed us some really great Indian food. That perked most of us up-- except for Evan who was out cold on the cab ride home. (Expect to see some embarassing pictures of that at some point.)

I just came into the center of Dublin with Alan, Steve, and Jeff (my roommate for this tour stop). We're all checking our email and updating the blog. The city is really beautiful- the suburban area near our university apartments reminds me of Privet Drive from Harry Potter. I'm excited to explore the heart of Dublin a little bit more tonight and tomorrow when we have a completely free day.

Time's almost up, so I guess that's all for now! I'll check in again soon,
Jon

T minus four hours.

2006-06-09T01:54:00.000-04:00

Although I know I must, I'm not sure I'm going to be ready in time... The clock is ticking down to the early morning call, but my desktop is not packed away yet. I need to do laundry. And send boxes to Singapore. Plus I have to bike into Boston to retrieve my dayplanner, which I accidently left at someone's apartment earlier. Yipes!

Why do we have a gig calltime at 7am on the day tour starts?? :)

*excitement* (or is that just the adrenaline from the panic?)

We're off!

2006-06-09T00:22:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is it! Holy mother! Goodness gracious me and all of that stuff. It is incredibly frightening to think that I'm gonna be gone for two months with very little contact to the US. This is gonna be crazy...

Around the World in 80 Days

2006-05-30T16:41:00.000-04:00

Ladies and Gentlemen...here it is! The itinerary for The Harvard Din & Tonics' 9th World Tour:

June 9: Boston, USA
June 10-13: Dublin, Ireland*
June 13-17: London, England
June 17-20: Brussels, Belgium
June 20-23: Luxembourg, Luxembourg
June 23-26: Strasbourg, France
June 26-29: Munich, Germany
June 29-July 1: Zurich, Switzerland
July 1-4: Athens, Greece*
July 4-5: Thessaloniki, Greece*
July 5-9: Rome, Italy
July 9-12: Prague, Czech Republic
July 13-16: Shanghai, China
July 17-22: Kyoto, Japan
July 23-25: Tokyo, Japan
July 26-27: Choshi City, Japan*
July 28-30: Bangkok, Thailand
July 31-August 4: Hong Kong, China
August 5-8: Singapore, Singapore
August 9-11: Jakarta, Indonesia*
August 12-15: Bali, Indonesia*
August 16-21: Sydney, Australia
August 21-24: San Francisco, USA

*Indicates a new tour stop (i.e., not visited in 2004)

Un-be-lieve-able.

In Dindom,
165

Welcome!

2006-05-30T16:30:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to the Dins' World Tour Blog. This page will be updated periodically with stories, memories, musings, photographs, and who knows what else from the road. The Dins will visit some 25 cities in 20 countries across 4 continents this summer, and we hope you'll join us along the way. Check back regularly for the latest updates from Strasbourg to Sydney, Brussels to Bali, and Thessaloniki to Tokyo!

Lost in Dindom,
165