Sara's Stuff

The Crowden Tour is a funny thing: I have been on four of them now. They see me in my PJs and we enjoy everyday life together. (including water fights--Tori!) It is a great musical experience for the students. At the same time, it has a strange quality. We are moving as one, in a bubble, away from home, lacking much news or awareness of the greater events. This was definitely the most peaceful and easy of all the tours that I have been on: partly because of the music being so great and partly because it was a great group that had a wonderful social cohesion. There was no conflict or trouble. Additionally, there was an amazing group of willing parents who came with us and helped at every turn--carrying violas, urging reluctant boys to bather, foraging for food in Boston and New York, doing laundry, tending to poorly kids, and sleeeping less that the rest. Special thanks to Linda Shay and Keith Copenhagen. It was great getting to know Mary Lynn Miller, Ray Meister, Mark Alternberg (who created this amazing blog!), and Alex DeVigal. It was also strange that we could transmit the minutest details of our day to y'all back home.

Each day Teale took a group jogging at 7am. There was a core group and some visitors each day: Megan, Genny, Nick and Tori, Mary Lynn and Lisa. The cool morning air provided a great insight to the cities' parks and beaches. In Central Park we saw two red tail hawks, one of which had caught a rodent on the grass. It was a great nature lesson for all of us.
In Boston we saw a very sleepy raccoon in a tree. Too bloody hot for him to hide in a sewer!


Kaufman Centre
This was a great concert. The students there are K-8 and play a full range o instruments. They played an amazing contemporary piece which was really intense and 20 minutes long. Mary Lynn Miller leaned over to me and said, "There would be alot of wine consumed if Crowden had 2 hour concerts with this type of repertoire."

We went for an early dinner at a restaurant close to Times Square. The waiters sing along with a soundtrack and entertain the guests was serenading the guests and dancing in the aisles. Can we say hokey? . The kids loved it! Get down Linda Shay! We have photos!
The day continued with swing dancing! At the Lincoln center across from Julliard, there is outside dancing on summer nights. We went over and mingled with people going to the Opera, the New York City Ballet and other riff-raff. There was a large exhibition stage over the fountain and people were dancing all around. Mary Lynn, Linda Shay and Lynda Bartie (our tour leader) gave lessons to the willing kids who were not horrified that adults-that-they-knew could have fun.

Saturday--A huge day.
The church performance at Saint Paul's church was beautiful. There were many friends and family of TCS students, as well as Angela Archie (current board member) and her son, (TCS alumni) and grandson.
Larry Rosenthal was there with his wife Diana and TCS alumni Jonathan. They are on an East coast college tour as Jono is going to be a senior at Head Royce this year. Stephen's mum and relatives joined us, Alia's mum and dad too!
Ground Zero proved a variety of responses from our group: My experience was that it looked like a huge construction site and therefore did not make me sad. It was the Fire Department Memorial that was moving. Additionally, the de facto memorial that is in Saint Paul's Church was much more moving. It contained a mountain of badges from fire and police dpartments from around theworld, who had particpated in the rescue effort. Hard to take.


Shop-ping!
Off we went to lighter things in Little Italy and Chinatown. The traffic! I cannot imagine driving in this city.
But the most exciting part of this day was the discovery of the North African men who sell knock off designer handbags on the street: Prada, D&G, Coach, Louis Vuitton--the girls went wild. I have never seen such a swift exchange of money. (I bought a Kate Spade purse for $20 in about 20 seconds which diminished the impact of my discussion on the morality of buying such illegal copies).
The kids also picked up the designer sunglasses and the inevitable "I love New York" t-shirts. So much fun! After gelato and Godfather t-shirts we went to the Lower East side tenement museum which was wonderful. This museum was constructed around a tenement that was occupied by a family called Confino, who are Sephardic Jews from Salonica, Greece. Larry Confino is one of my oldest friends. It was very cool to see where his grandma had settled when she came to America. But it was especially great for the kids to see the history of immigration that we study in 8th grade. The students always look skeptical when I tell them how other people lived. It is amazing that 10 people would have crammed into that tiny space. No wonder the streets were so busy!
We were separated into three 'families'. They put an introductory video. Unfortunately, this was missed by most because as soon as they lowered the lights in that dark room we nodded off! My brain was conflicted with trying to set a good example and swooning at the thought of a pillow.Fortunatley they put on a fabulous thought-provoking discussion about American citizenship, as well as an interactive theatrical prodcution which kept us riveted.

Men in Tights
That same night, the 8th grade girls had an amazing treat courtesy of Lisa Grodin and her friend Laura Corcos. While the rest of the group went to an outdoor Fisherman's Wharf type set up, Lisa, Annika, Maya, Miga, Asuka, Lyly, Zoe, Nina, and I were treated to the New York City Ballet! We dressed up as best we could and met Laura at the stage door. We were in 5th row seats!!!!!!!!!! As went to meet the orchestra. a violist exchanged chat with the girls about instruments. When showed an 18th century viola, one student remarked, "that's hecka old"

The ballet was a George Ballanchine production of Jewels. The music was Faure, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky. I have to say that the sets drew gasps from the audience whenever the curtain was raised. Although I wanted to offer food to some of the ballerinas, it was stunning! ohmygod it was so lovely!
At the third curtain call, one girl leaned over to another and said," you have to watch your diet to do that"
We all went home to do sit ups.

Sunday at St. Paul's Lutheran.
Quickly forgetting the ballerina diet, we went to Balducci's food emporium for lunch on Sunday. It was one of the first places that I visited when I first went to New York. Amazing foods and salads. mmmmmm
It was awesome to practice in Julliard practice rooms. I even did a little strecthing on the ballet barres..
We then went to play a concert at the Lutheran church in Chelsea. Joan Balter's mum (The Balter Room) came to listen. She was thrilled. It was a lovely sound, as you can tell from Mark's blog.
After the concert we went for a river cruise around the Hudson and East Rivers. It was so cool! The skyline! The moon! The sights! Hundreds of photos were taken. We were all refreshed in the evening breeze. The Statue of Liberty was as wonderful as ever. (The next day a prankster put a doughnut on it--did you hear?) I think that this was one of the highlights. and this was when I really felt the absence of the Twin Towers...

On to Boston.
As we left New York the heat started. Michel T gave a great tourist guide presentation as we drove through Harlem, South Bronx and Connecticut. We were pretty lucky with the trafffic, but Boston was 92 degrees when we arrived. The dorms are a different set up from Julliard, (no AC!) however, the highlight of NorthEastern was the all-you-can-eat-buffet cafeteria. I don't think that it would take a year to gain the freshman 15 here! They have waffle machines, Italian, Vegan, desserts, roasts, sandwiches, ice cream, cereals, juices. etc, It sent the kids into a frenzy of anxiety at the choices! For the adults it was great to find a salad bar after all the fried, salty stuff of tourist restaurants. Mary Lynn is afraid that her husband won't recognize her when he arrives tonight as her face is so puffy.

We went to the Boston Pops! Very cool to be in such a hip crowd.

Did Mark metion that it was hot?
The dorms are not fun. It is so hot that we are not sleeping well. No AC or fans and little cross breeze. It is seriously hot and we are all sleeping with our doors open to catch any air that might waft through.
Kids are taking mid night showers and adults are soaking their heads under taps. It proved an interesting discussion on global warming/air conditioning; How lucky we are as Californians; How we need to consider how other people live and be less judgmental; And how we really, really would do anything to get AC right now......

Those Bloody English!
I love Boston for the history! It is great that the Californian kids can see it all and really get the geography and sense of space. They are quite patriotic here in Boston and there are a lot of slurs against English people. I am trying to hold up. I keep reminding them that the English won Bunker Hill, but they won't listen. Even 18th century English hygiene is dissed.
As we went from Paul Revere's house to Lexington and then Concord, we heard the battle story 4 times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The students should be able to pass AP history at this point. I picked up great books and Revolution souvenirs for the library.

A shot heard around the world
There was a wonderful film re-enacting the American Revolution (or so I heard), but the AC had broken down and once we were stuffed into a dark room to watch it. It was lights out time again. The adults were only jerked awake by the sound of musket fire. The we went back to sleep. I have never been so hot in my life. It is unrelenting. We would have paid $10 for a lemonade or Frappacino, but there was nothing in sight.

Unfortunately, I spent the night with poor, poor Ashley in the hospital. So brave! I was very glad to have Mary Lynn with me. However, we both felt guilty about the others back in the dorms because the waiting room was air conditioned. We arrived back at the dorm at 7.50am --another police car ride--and off we went for the next leg of the journey.

600 thread count sheets matter.
After a two hour ferry ride across the North Atlantic to Nantucket, I was asked, "Do they drive on the left here?" I knew that I shouldn't have mentioned the Atlantic! Where do they think we are? County Cork? So much for my geography lessons.
The houses that we stayed in are so beautiful that it is a sensual delight, Every angle is a postcard. The flowers smell so lovely as you walk down the lanes-geraniums, roses and privet hedge all assault your senses as it is so clean and clear. Everything is Ralph Lauren and J. Crew. "Why is everyone wearing cable knit sweaters tied around their shoulders?" We look like savages marching through town.
We spent the next two days looking for a t-shirt that cost less than $20.....hmmmm
The concert was sooooo wonderful, and a lot people came to this beautiful 17th century church. However, it was a little stressful because of forgotten concert dress, (ever tried to buy black tights in Nantucket in June?) Ask Peter about his trousers!
Staying here was the treat of treats. Seriously. I cannot tell you how fantastic it is of Sara and Betsy to have put us up. We had a wonderful barbeque and the adults stayed up until midnight after the concert. My head hit the pillow and I was gone.
I awoke to a picture perfect view of the sandy beach, with rolling waves. My room looked like a photo from Pottery Barn Catalogue. Pure luxury.
Oh the beach! The shells! The reeds! The waves! Sandcastles and mosaics!

The next day, it actually felt cool. Boston seemed a distant memory and we all went to buy Nantucket sweatshirts. Ray Meister was alarmed that his wife jeopardized their annual family budget by buying two sweatshirts.
Many of us visited The Whaling Museum presentation was wonderful: Mark had a good nap (surprise!) and I bought even more library books.....Now you kow why the history section is so disapportionate!

After a great morning and lunch we left with lighter backpacks (unloaded wine and gifts) and lighter wallets. We took the fast ferry back Cape Cod and rejoined the bus (did you know that the driver has stayed at a motel near the Nantucket airport which was the cheapest place and had cost $350.00 a night--eeeek!!!!!!).

We were treated to the tour of the Mayflower, which was again great to really show the kids how cramped everything was. Then an amazing last concert by the Crowden School. We had a good audience, including Tori's uncle and Annika's family friends. Fiddle Faddle for the last time. Go 9th grade! =-(

After our concert at the Mayflower we went for our final dinner and then the awards. This is when we really have fun celebrating the social observations. All positive.

Best Water Fighter...Tori

Most Uncomplaining....Alia

Best Morning Jogger....Nick

Miss Congeniality......Susana

Best Shell Artist.....Jenna

Best Dresser Gangster in Nantucket....Oliver

Most Improved Eye Contatc ...Genny

Toughest Student...Ashley

Smoothest Video Game withdrawal.....Angelo

Most Enthusiastic Shopper...Asuka

Soundest Sleeper.....Camellia

Most Improved Bassist...Annika

Pool Shark Award....Tyler

Most Independent.....Megan

Best Immigrant Father...Stephen

Best at Overcoming Homesickness...Ariana

Most Expressive ......eeeeewwww....Zoe Shay

Most Resourceful Dresser .....Peter

Most Enthiusiastic Handbag Shopper.......Miga

Most Influential Trip Coordinator...Gideon

Most Dedicated Musician...Lyly

Most Photogenic......Zoe A.

Best Beachcomber...Nina

Most Empathetic...Rachel

Longest Shower Award (cleanest?) ...Alex

Most Notes Played....Maya


You were all wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations.