Okay here are a few more video post cards - Edmonton (didn't upload last time), one in the observation car of the VIA train going across the west, two in  Jasper, Alberta, Blue River BC, and then two in Japan - one in Matsumoto at Shinichi Suzuki's house!!!! and then near Kyoto at the largest lake in Japan

Vancouver and onto Japan and the forbidden fruit!

Just finished a whistle stop at Vancouver. Stayed with our good friends Curtis and Anu in a beautiful neighborhood off commercial.  The great thing was that my friend Francisco and his gf Jen literally live 2 blocks away and Andrew Draskoy was also in town and just a 5 min bike ride away.

We hung out with our friends, walked around, re-grouped for our next leg to Japan and  saw lots of cats around the neighborhood (including "scareface" who was the most intense cat I ever saw she stared right through your soul in an unfriendly way and had an almost human face!). 

I went to the Vancouver School of Music and observed an afternoon of Suzuki violin and viola classes - they were great - I always learn so much by watching other teachers. I now have some new ideas (and reminded ideas) of ear training games.  Also saw a fantastic example one- point teaching with a teacher named Mark and practicing new technique across the repertoire. More on this later!

At the airport now - funniest US customs story ever! I *hate* avocados but Peter loves them so he brought a nice ripe one along for lunch.  He declared the avocado and we both got shuttled into a secondary check area where all our carry-on got rechecked and his avocado was declared "prohibited"!!! lol!!! This is still making me chuckle.  I always knew avocados were evil! possibly the axis of evil goes right through the pit!(he's never living this down!!! :-p)

Gotta go get our flight to LA and onto Tokyo!!!
Evelyn

Video Postcards- Hornpayne to BC

So I've decided to record my students favorite pieces along my travels and send them video postcards.  So, starting in Hornpayne, Ontario I jumped out at various short stops and recorded videos which I will post here.  Please keep in mind that some of these places were quite cold and the train only stopped for 10 minutes which meant that the videos were done very quickly (ie. Minuet 2 with no repeats as the train was threatening to leave without me!)

Okay Kids!! Here is a Suzuki geography lesson! Get out your maps .... we have Hornpayne, Ontario; Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Melville Sask

Fraser Valley, BC

Monday May 7

One of the great things about the train is that you can go to sleep and wake up in a whole new world! Last night I feel asleep in the mountains and woke up in the lush, green Fraser Valley  - hey look! there are rows of what look like tiny apple trees and another small field of grapes – what a fertile valley with the gorgeous coastal mountains in the background.. passing by rivers surrounded by tall greens and willows... through forest that almost looks rain forest like... The train stopped in Chilliwack with no time to get off.

Just a few hours to Vancouver!!! Yay!!!

Jasper National Park (and tales of getting here)

Sunday May 6

 

On the Via Train and we just crossed over the continental divide and are going along the still frozen Moose Lake (a bottomless lake)!  Jasper National Park is needless to say breathtakingly beautiful!

                Leaving home on Tuesday was bittersweet as I was so excited to be traveling but miss my home and my cats. On the flip side of that I’m off to meet Peter in Vancouver!  I love train travel and to go across Canada is one of the great train rides of the world.  After five days on the train I’m still amazed with all the different types of scenery Canada has. 

I was so welcomed in Halifax it was like I was still home. Zoie met me at the airport and her and Gaetan and the boys (Levi and Ira) made me feel right at home! I got to see my old friends Neil and Andrea just after their great news that they are moving back to Toronto! How exciting!

From Halifax to Montreal there was the Bay of Fundy with its incredible mud flats and pretty Maritime views (something I’m used to).  Going into Montreal for even one hour made me miss that city terribly and I wanted to stay! (hugs to Lindsay and Ed for taking the time to come meet me. Ed good luck with your interview! And Lindsay – you are inspiring!  I am traveling in economy aka coach aka “comfort class” and the Ocean train (Halifax to Montreal) was very nice but quite packed. It was pretty noisy at times but out west it has been sooo quiet and pleasant and spacious – it’s sleeper that is packed! On the Ocean we stopped in over 20 stops.  Unfortunately, I lost all my pictures from this leg of the trip L The people were nice but as it was just overnight and most people were traveling with someone I didn’t make too many friends, but people were friendly.

 The ride to Toronto along the St. Lawrence reminded me how long it’s been since I’ve been to central Canada. Toronto, of course was so welcoming with friends and good food.  This trip has been full of seeing great friends (if only briefly!)  My friends are all so different from each other but all such great people! I miss you all! A huge thank you to Lynn for letting me dodge over to her place for a shower! Life saver! Congratulations to Neil and Diana getting married on September 1^st!!!!! Wish I could be there perhaps I’ll catch you in Ottawa? I started a tour of the McTaggart family seeing Neil in Halifax and Ev in Toronto.  It was great to see Kelly again and reconnect off island J and it’s always great to see my old friend Chris and have a good conversation.  Chris – can you believe we’ve known each other for 19 years! We’ll have to celebrate next year! I had such a good time in Toronto I forgot to take any pictures! There was a great thunderstorm while we were at Union station and I have this picture in my head of the windows lighting up. I heard later that the station flooded!  Toronto was interesting as it felt so big city after home – so many people in such a big hurry! Guess I’ll have to get used to that in Asia!

I’m writing this from the dome observation car and everyone is playing – which is the highest mountain? That one? No... that one! We’ve just passed Mount Robson the highest peak in the Rockies at 12,900 feet, well over 4000 meters.  The highest I’ve been is 4900 meters in Peru and the air was very thin! The train is not that high of course but we’ll go through the high pass soon!

Back to tales of the train...

Thursday – Day 3 was all about Northern Ontario. I was settling into the train I would be on for the next five days and getting comfortable. I met a railway engineer in the dome car who told me all about the signals and what all the bumps in the rail bed meant and how switches worked etc etc etc. It was great! I probably could’ve done without all the details of the frequency of derailments but those are mainly heavy freight trains, right?  Our crew was fantastic.  Claudette, Lloyd and Sunny. Lloyd has been working in the snack car for 45 years and has just extended his term by 2 years. As he says it’s not a job it’s a lifestyle and his hobby. He is away 7-9 days a month and home with the love of his life the rest of the time.  I’m so pleased that I was on his train!  The railway engineer and his friend got off in the middle of nowhere, unloaded their canoe and went off into the wilderness.

I also met some new friends on this leg of the journey from Toronto to Edmonton. Enrico, an Italian who lives in Olso and loves his proper espresso J; Ajay from Montreal going to Edmonton to do a wilderness survivalist course (his website is www.evolutionmovement.net);  John who was works with a company that makes the breathalyser devices; Linda from Victoria who was traveling around on a CanRail Pass; and a French-Canadian guy (didn’t get his name) who was going back out west to work again with the Shriners Circus on the concessions.

By Friday morning all the trees and rocks and bogs of Northern Ontario gave away to vast prairies. The train stopped for a couple of hours in Winnipeg and Enrico and Ajay and I wandered off into the city to see what we could find early on a Saturday morning – not much but it’s a nice looking city and we saw the mall.  We probably should have just gone to the Forks market but this way I saw a bit more of Winnipeg and went to the library for internet.   After Winnipeg there was a little bit of excitement.  We got on a double track and we were passing a freight train going in the opposite direction and just as we passed the end of it there was a bang! Not a bang I’d heard before! Suddenly the train screeches to a halt (it takes a while).  Turns out that a CN truck didn’t know we were coming and it darted out in front of us. FORTUNATELY they made it across and I think that the bang was the emergency brake.  Apparently those guys are very, very lucky! Thank goddess they made it across!  

The rest of the day was lots and lots of prairie which is incredible in its flatness!

Saturday we made it to Edmonton and my friends left and new people came on board.  Most of these people were going to Jasper. I have not met anyone else in coach going all the way across in one go. We’re not allowed to go up to the first class section except for the dining car (which is always booked up – so lots of Thai Kitchen noodles and Cliff bars for me and running to food stores at stops. I finally made it there today for brunch which was fantastic!). 

I have to say that although Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta are all pretty flat they are all so different! It’s hard to describe....

Today, Sunday we made into the mountains and to Jasper – what a nice little town with incredible mountains all around.  So here I am still in the Rockies.

Apparently soon we’ll come up on a big waterfall and go over the highest pass. Looking forward to it! All for now!

Tomorrow morning will be Vancouver! Can’t wait for the left west coast!

Video Postcards from VIA1

So I'll be posting my violin students favorite pieces as I travel. I've been hopping out at various random stations on the Toronto- Vancouver line to take videos. I often get a clap - even for Twinkle from the other passengers!

So here are some video postcards - get out your maps kids and figure out where these places are!

Sometimes it's been quite cold and my violin isn't completely in tune - please forgive me! also keep in mind that i've been sleeping and living on a train for many days at this point!

Twinkle From Hornpayne, Ontario


Be on the look out on this blog for Twinkle from Hornpayne, Lightly Row from Winnipeg, Got Tell Aunt Rhody from Melville, Saskatchewan and Long Long Ago from Edmonton! and perhaps a few twinkle variations from the observation car!

Around the World by Train

I have a not-so-secret secret! I love trains! Ever since I first rode the Trinity Loop and my mother told me tales of taking the train to St. John’s from Princeton, Bonavista Bay I’ve been intrigued. The train used to pass within earshot of our house in Chamberlains, Conception Bay South and I loved to hear the whistle at night.  When the government sold out the Confederation agreement for substandard highways in the 1980s, I wept a tear as I waved at the conductor on the last caboose across the island. The last of the “Newfie Bullet”. 

I rode my first “real” train from Ottawa to Montreal in my early 20s and it was exciting.  Trains are just the best way to travel as far as I’m concerned. Buses and cars are cramped and you can’t move around. When you’re driving your attention is held to the road and you can’t look around much, besides highways are boring.  Rail tracks go through the “interesting” parts of town and you can see the backs of buildings and the secret life of cities you’d never see otherwise.  Since my first train ride I’ve ridden trains all over Australia and across the Nullaboor (the nothing) to the west coast, all over Northern India, in Malaysia, Thailand, China, Mongolia, Russia, Peru, the UK and France. 

So here is the start of my trip around the world by train!

For those of you who might not know me and just stumbled on this blog I live in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada – the furthest east you can get in North America.  If you could throw a rock across the Atlantic Ocean you would hit Ireland first – that’s where I am going but the long way around!

My husband Peter always told me that in June 2012 he was going to Northern BC to see the Venus transit – the rarest astronomical event (won’t happen again for  another 100 or 120 years).  Last year when he brought it up I pointed out that to fly from Newfoundland to BC and back and then to my conference in Northern Ireland was really expensive – wouldn’t it be more interesting to just keep going? We’ll see the Venus transit in Mongolia or Siberia where it’s not nearly as cloudy as BC adn then keep going to Europe to my conference!

So here’s our rough itinerary

Mid-April – Peter left and performed on the VIA rail train in exchange for passage out to Jasper. He then went to the Queen Charlotte Islands and down to Victoria and Vancouver. 

I left May 1 and flew to Halifax and stayed with Peter’s wonderful cousins Zoie and Gaetan! Thanks guys! Loved staying with the kids – they have soo much energy!

May 2 – I got on The Ocean – the Halifax to Montreal train. I’m going economy class so I sit up all the way.  Fundy was gorgeous but I have no pictures as my camera card broke! L

May 3 – arrived into Montreal where I met my good friends Lindsay and Ed! Great breakfast with you two J  (got a new camera card)

Travelled on to Toronto and had dinner with great friends Evelyn McTaggart, Christopher Guest, Diana Pugliese and Kelly Best!  I had such a good time reconnecting with you all that I forgot to take a picture!!

10pm that night I left Toronto on The Canadian (Toronto- Vancouver) and have been on it ever since! (I’m currently in Edmonton) I’ve met some great people Enrico, Ajay, Linda and the crew J

Tomorrow I arrive in Vancouver to see my love <3 and then on the 9^th we fly to Tokyo.

We spend about 10 days in Japan where we see our friends, Erin, Tomi and Ted, and meet new friends Megan and Evan.  I’ll be going to Matsumoto which is where the whole Suzuki violin movement started.

Then the plans get looser, we plan to take the ferry to South Korea and stay for a few days, then take the ferry across the Yellow Sea to Beijing and stay a week. Then the trans-Mongolian railway to St. Petersburg (with stops in Ulan Bataaor, Irkutsk, St. P and Moscow). Then high tail it to the UK (stops in Berlin and Paris – very quickly).  I have my conference in Derry Northern Ireland at the end of June.

Then we’ll stay in the UK for about a month before we part ways and Peter stays on to go to his conference in Stockholm.  I’ll go home for a bit (via a 2 day stop over in Iceland) and arrive home just in time for the folk festival.  Then we’ll meet up again on Sept. 1 in Ottawa for our friends Colleen and Eric’s wedding!

Wheee!

Along the way I’ll be posting video postcards for my violin students with their favourite pieces from interesting places.  Feel free to comment and keep in touch!

Happy Trails

Evelyn