Category: 2017 Summer

2017 Summer

Griffin Salyer: Post 4

Griffin  Salyer Virginia Program at Oxford Oxford, England Summer 2017 How was your experience different from what you expected?  In what ways was it the same? My experience was more enlightening than I truly expected. I came back wide-eyed and ready to take on a new world. It is weird how you might even expect this change, yet it still occurs so dramatically. I think about different ideas, in different ways, and about different perspectives than I had previously. I know more about myself, and I know more about others around me. I expected to come back with “wisdom” but […]

2017 Summer

Griffin Salyer: Post 3

Griffin Salyer Virginia Program at Oxford Oxford, England Summer 2017 What’s your favorite food you’ve tried so far? My favorite food is by far any of the pub foods that are abundantly available in the U.K. Within the subsection of pub foods, nearly every item on any pub menu is restaurant or higher quality, and it is great for a growing young man like myself. Within the delicious pub food realm, I must say that my favorite so far is a panini, filled with tuna and mayonnaise and delivered to transcendence with melted cheese, appearing upon a golden platter and […]

2017 Summer

Quinn Sipes: Post 6

Quinn Sipes NOH Theatre Tokyo, Japan Summer 2017 When I last wrote, I had just finished my class and had an awful performance and I was so ashamed that I wanted to commit ritual suicide on stage to make up for how terribly I had performed. Well safe to say, I am still alive and I woke up the next day after my evening escapades with my classmates and teachers. I decided that after such an intensive class that I would take a one-day breather, so I really didn’t do anything except watch YouTube all day that Saturday. On the […]

2017 Summer

Quinn Sipes: Post 5

Quinn Sipes NOH Theatre Tokyo, Japan Summer 2017 I just finished my class here in Tokyo and I couldn’t be more upset. Before I get into the performance I had yesterday I want to look back at the days leading up to the performance. Every day we chanted Gekkyuden and danced our respective shimais for hours. We practiced the shoulder drum until our hands went numb and sat seiza until our legs couldn’t support our body weight anymore. Oshima sensei told me the day before the performance that I have good energy for Takasago and that I was timing my […]

2017 Summer

Griffin Salyer: Post 1

Griffin Salyer Virginia Program at Oxford Oxford, England Summer 2017 Hello! I’m Griff. You may or may not have known or heard of me at H-SC, but in any case, I am here to detail my story, perspective, and feelings about studying abroad in Oxford, England at – you guessed it – The University of Oxford. I want this blog to be more of my voice rather than an official and enthusiastically professional writing – and so in making it my voice I hope you’ll feel a lot of personality coming at you. The informal structure of each one of […]

2017 Summer

Quinn Sipes: Blog 4

Quinn Sipes NOH Theatre Tokyo, Japan Summer 2017 I apologize for waiting a week to write one of these blogs but to be perfectly honest; I have been extremely tired after class to do anything, much less be witty on the web and write about the bad decisions I make while abroad. So, the past week has been a tough one. The pair of hakama that I bought turned out to be too small for me and I was out 40 dollars until someone in the class who did fit into them bought them off of me. My sensei also […]

2017 Summer

Quinn Sipes: Post 3

Quinn Sipes NOH Theatre Tokyo, Japan Summer 2017 Sorry for not blogging about my Japan adventure but I have been very busy with my Noh Training. For those of you who don’t know why I am here in Tokyo, I am studying the traditional Japanese theatre form known as Noh theatre. The theatre form was created by Zeami in the 1300’s and became big when the first Shogun was created. Most of the noh plays revolve around the Tales of Genji and many of the plays focus around a main character that is otherworldly like ghosts, demons, and gods. This […]

2017 Summer

Quinn Sipes: Post 2

Quinn Sipes NOH Theatre Tokyo, Japan Summer 2017 It has been two days since my last blog post and already so much has happened! First off, I would like to say that the crazy and overwhelming city of Tokyo is now easier to navigate after I wised up. Now, before I leave, I look up the address of the places I want to go while I have Wi-Fi and then screenshot the map and the directions to get to that place. I also have decided to just let the whirlwind that is Tokyo, take me to where I need to […]

2017 Summer

Quinn Sipes: Post 1

Quinn Sipes NOH Theatre Tokyo, Japan Summer 2017 I arrived in Japan extremely jet lagged and confused. My flights went over without many problems. It was a 13 hour flight from Toronto to Tokyo and I ended up staying awake the whole flight because the guy behind me decided to knee me in the back every few minutes. Luckily I was able to power through and saw that by staying up the whole flight would help me get onto Tokyo time. I travelled to the heart of Tokyo in Shinjuku to sign over my life to Sakura House and receive […]