<< Back to all Blogs
Login or Create your own free blog
Layout:
Home > A Very Civilized Evening

A Very Civilized Evening

February 27th, 2015 at 12:20 pm

Thursday is not a teaching day for me here, but I did have a series of meetings, including a meeting to discuss internships with students. About half my students are doing internships while here, working unpaid for under 20 hours a week. They must obtain a Tier 4 visa to do this which sets them back about $500.

As one might expect, it's a mixed bag. Lots of them absolutely love their internships, but I've got two this term who are less than happy. It's difficult to sort out how much of this is their unrealistic expectations of work, trouble balancing travel, classes, and work, or whether the internships are really as bad as they say. After about 90 minutes of headache-inducing complaining, I was happy to hide out in the faculty office.

I'm considering going to Stockholm next weekend, if I can figure out how to do it cheaply. Lots of options, but I have to work it around my already packed schedule.

The best part of the day was the "After Hours" event at the National Portrait Gallery where they're having a special exhibition of John Singer Sargent. It was free! And you could purchase wine, soft drinks, gin and tonics, etc, and stroll some of the galleries with them. Amazing. So with a lovely glass of wine, I enjoyed an exhibit on the photography of Lord Snowden and for the second time, the Grayson Perry pieces, What I came for was a lecture on a group portrait of WWI generals done by Sargent. While I'm not sure I agreed with the lecturer on everything, it was very interesting--and particularly lovely to walk out after the evening into Trafalgar Square.

Total spending was sort of minimal: 4pds for wine, six for groceries on the way home.

Now to go out into the sunshine!

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

6 Responses to “A Very Civilized Evening”

  1. CB in the City Says:
    February 27th, 2015 at 01:27 pm 1425043622
    1425043622

    Lovely!

  2. TD Says:
    February 27th, 2015 at 01:53 pm 1425045211
    1425045211

    That sounds like a great time!

  3. VS_ozgirl Says:
    February 27th, 2015 at 08:43 pm 1425069812
    1425069812

    Sounds like a lovely evening Smile

  4. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    February 28th, 2015 at 12:03 am 1425081822
    1425081822

    What a nice way to spend an evening. Smile

  5. snafu Says:
    February 28th, 2015 at 05:46 am 1425102419
    1425102419

    Sounds like a lovely evening and I suspect the difference between American and European views on WW I. I sometimes wonder if students think it's their duty to whine and complain. If they've never worked or had responsibility at home they're totally unprepared for the 'real' world.

    What's the weather like in Stockholm? Will you need warmer garb to layer?

  6. My English Castle Says:
    March 2nd, 2015 at 09:20 pm 1425331222
    1425331222

    I did bring my winter coat from the great white Midwest. I think I'll be fine. I'm not sure my differences with the speaker were American/British, but several of listeners got into yet another discussion on the merits/demerits of Douglas Haig. I think my differences had to do with his view of the merits of the painting itself. Sometimes I love JS Sargent, but no one will ever convince me that the one we were discussing was a masterpiece.

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]