Weekend in New England - (II)

Today was quite an eventful day (good). We started off fairly early in the morning and drove to Stowe, the home of the Von Trapp family after they Climbed the Mountain. (Just feel like singing those Sound of Music Numbers.) Apparently it reminded them of their native Austria and I guess you do get a little bit of that feeling. There were other signs that other migrants from the alpine region settled in Stowe - the Swiss cafe would be a give away for a start. Think that this house depicted here has a slightly European feel? Also saw a Catholic church. We drove a little further around the area but did not really get many great views thanks to the lousy weather.

After that, we visited Vermont's finest - Ben and Jerry's. There was unfortunately no ice cream production (factory closes on weekends) but we did go for the tour and the B&J video show. The founders have actually sold off the company to Unilever and are now doing the more "social mission" aspects of the B&J organisation. There was also a free ice cream sample of "American Pie" - turned out to be apple pie ice cream.

We then drove back to Montpelier for lunch. The interesting thing I noticed about Montpelier this time was that there seemed to be a concentration of 3-4 churches in one particular area - all different denominations. Seemed to be a certain amount of, ahem, friendly competition? Could not find the Catholic church though.

We then drove down to St Johnsbury - but there was nothing much to see. Except that on the main street, again the "battle of the churches" was going on again with 4 churches on the same short stretch. This time, I spotted the Catholic church of St John the Evangelist - very appropriate for a place called St Johnsbury (apparently the "bury" was added because they thought "St John's" was too common a name.

We then proceeded to New Hampshire, to go through the Franconia area in the White Mountain region. At this point, the weather amazingly improved. Instead of clouds, we started getting sunshine! We drove down to see Echo Lake and take the Tramway up Cannon Mountain. The ride up the mountain was wonderful - the photo shows Echo Lake (its a glacial lake) at the bottom of the mountain, with the trees changing colour around it and I believe Vermont is in the distance. We didn't stay too long at the top of the mountain as we had to rush over to our last stop - Flume Gorge.

Flume Gorge is an absolutely gorgeous, hidden valley. Someone literally stumbled across it sometime in the 1800s. It was formed through glacial action but sometime before that there was apparently some volcanic action so there are orange lava strips embedded in the black granite. After walking through the gorge, we end up at the waterfall. Unfortunately we were unable to walk further around the region as we had to head back to Boston. And that's the end of this post!

p.s. To see more New Hampshire photos click here.

Weekend in New England - (I)

So last weekend we rented two cars and drove off to New England. Our first road trip!!! The plan was to go through Vermont, spend the night in Montpelier (the state capital of Vermont) and then drive back to Boston via New Hampshire. We were hoping to see fall foliage and great scenery. But the weather forecast was not too good (showers on Sat, thunderstorms! on Sun). So we were not expecting too much.

The first day was indeed a little wet. Not too bad, just a little drizzle or so. We drove for about an hour and a half before stopping for some coffee at quaint little one street village with probably just the one cafe in the middle of the street. We then proceeded to Quechee Gorge which is in Vermont. The Gorge was quite ok but there were just no nice photos because of the cloudy weather. There is a small little Quechee Village Shopping Centre (CK) which has a large antique market, with tonnes of stuff. Not all can be called antiques though - I saw a row of the old metal lunchboxes which I used to take to school and Nancy Drew hardcover books of the type which used to be in our school library. (Or is the sale of these as antiques is a sign of age now!!) I also saw these two little cats:

We then went down to Woodstock to take a look at the town. This was when I started driving! We stopped at a covered bridge along the way. Apparently, New England is supposed to be famous for its covered bridges, which are quite quaint (I suppose) but not really that picturesque. Woodstock has its own covered bridge, its own little quaint row of shops etc.

From Woodstock, I turned the wheel back over to my classmate. We then drove to Berlin, where we would be spending the night. However, whilst we navigated the highways quite easily, we overshot the junction leading to the hotel because, simply, it was not well signposted! We ended up in Barre (not that far away actually) and had to turn back. Our hotel was easier to find coming from the other direction - at least the sign was more visible.

After checking in, we drove over to Montpelier to check out the State Capital of Vermont. It is a pretty small little town but has a rather large and impressive State House (see photo). Anyway, we drove down two of the three main streets and then drove back to our hotel.

We had dinner at Applebee's, which is this American restaurant chain with a branch just next to our hotel. Sampled New England beer - Ottercreek beer - here. I'd earlier seen bottles of local brew in one general store in Woodstock and was quite amused to see the interesting names of the beers, eg "Scarecrow", "Monty Python", "Hobgoblin" etc. But the best part of the dinner was dessert! We had a Blondie (sister of Brownie) with vanilla ice cream and maple sugar syrup, with toasted walnuts, and a yummy apple pie with ice cream on top. (I have since checked on-line and find that Applebee's has a branch in Boston! Excellent!).

So ends day one .... hold on for Part 2 of this story. (And check out photos of Vermont here).

Shopping - Part 2

So last Friday we went outlet shopping at Wrentham. This is a large discount outlet with lots of brands represented - Ralph Lauren, Bebe, Ann Taylor, Coach, Gap, Liz Claiborne, Nine West, Banana Republic etc etc etc. So we spent a long and happy day there. Of course, some people were happier than others. Some of the chaps were (I must admit it) quite bored at the end of the day.

But I had a pretty good time. My classmate's wife, niece, daughter and I trooped off and went to the shops together (bulk purchases get higher discounts). If someone finishes first, then that person moves on to the next stop and then the other person will catch up. Overall, it sort of evens out. We were pretty slow starting off (leading to sarcastic comments from some of the male shoppers) but managed to rush through most of the shops we wanted to go to at the end.

Anyway, managed to make quite a few purchases (and actually showed a lot of restraint as well). The trick to discount shopping is that you must know your prices so you know what is a good deal or not. Looking back, I could probably have done a little better on a few items but overall, I'm quite happy :-)

Ethics Class - Public and Private

One of my classes in KSG is this "compulsory" course for LKY Fellows, "Ethics in Public Life". One theme of the course is the tensions which arise between different types of moral and ethical obligations.

One particular class focused on the difficulty of reconciling personal morality with public life. The class read a speech by former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, who is a Catholic. Cuomo gave a speech which essentially defended his public position on abortion - why he would not move to make legislation illegal (which he cannot anyway because of the Roe vs Wade ruling) and why he even provided funds for low income women to have abortions. We have to post responses to the readings each week and here is an extract of mine:

"An interesting argument he made was that the church is interested in "principles or ends", ie the ideals rather than determining which technical solution is best suited to achieving a certain end. Whilst this is, in some sense, a convenient rationalisation (which also leaves a lot of room to manoeuvre), Governor Cuomo has also usefully highlighted the need to address problems at their root causes rather than at the symptomatic level. In the case of abortion, for example, he calls to Catholics to set a personal example by respecting the right to life and thus moving others to this point of view, rather than seeking to change the law. He has also noted that it is always
possible to work on areas of common agreement, for example programmes which help pregnant women have a "real choice" by assisting them to give birth to healthy babies, in subsidising pre-natal and in-patient care. In NY City, Governor Cuomo also introduced a programme to help teenage mothers continue with their education and acquire job-relevant skills."

Whilst I do think that this argument is, in a sense, Cuomo's rationalisation of his actions, it is also in a way a response to the many criticisms of the Church's position on AIDS prevention in Africa. The Church is not about means, but ends. The Church's solution to AIDS (abstinence) may be too idealistic, and not practical in the eyes of many. But ideals are surely expected of a religious organisation! God's ways, unfortunately, are not always man's.

Museum of Fine Arts

I went to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) on Thurs 21 September. The MFA was holding a special exhibition, "Americans in Paris" which showcased the work of a group of American painters such as John Singer Sargent, James McNeil Whistler (of Whistler's Mother fame) etc. It was a bit of a rush because I didn't realise that the exhibition would be ending on 24 Sep (when I would be in Vermont). So I rushed over after my ethics class and rushed back before the afternoon class.

Unfortunately the ticket counter did not accept my Harvard card because it is a staff not student card (it is one of the peculiarities of our stay here) and so I only got a student discount of $2.

The exhibition itself was good. It did not just present the artworks but also gave a sense of the life of the artists in Paris and of their subjects. The painters were very much influenced by the work of the Impressionists (in particular Monet) and also by the life of the Parisians. Some of them lacked commissions and so ended up painting each other - as Bohemians, or as "flaneurs" which are these young men about town types (sort of French Bertie Woosters, I imagine). Better known ones (such as Sargent) got commissions from Americans in Paris.

One of the "big" paintings of the exhibition was "Madame X" by Sargent. I was pretty pleased to see this one because I was looking for it at the Metropolitan Museum in NY and it was not there! Apparently there is a scandalous story associated with the portrait. The sitter, Madame Pierre Gautreau, was originally portrayed with the strap of her dress falling down her shoulder. However, the Paris Establishment thought it was shocking (even though L'Art du Nu was still very much on display at the time) and Sargent's reputation as a portraitist suffered. Mdme Gautreau was actually an American and so the story is that the Parisians were attacking the painting because they didn't like this American out-Frenching the French.

Leaving the exhibition, I took a peek at the MFA main collections - specifically the Impressionists! I must say that the collection displayed was quite small but pretty select. There was one Renoir of a couple dancing - "Dance at Bougival" and a few Monets (including some waterlillies, and a portrait of his wife dressed in a kimono).

Anyway, the exhibition ticket does allow me free re-entry within 10 days but to be honest, not sure whether I want to trek all the way back so soon. It is quite a long journey from Cambridge. Partly, because I have to take the Green Line train - this is a short little train with only two carriages and which are few and far apart so the train gets crowded quickly. The Museum is also free Wednesdays after 4pm so there is really no need to rush down. Essentially, would like to see more of the American painters and the US is the best place to see them. (Just like France is the best place to see French painters and the Tate is the best for Turners!).

A Week at KSG

This has been a pretty busy week. Not sure if it is typical of all weeks at KSG, but let me try to give a sense of the intensity of work now.

First of all, we have to take 4 courses each (say A-D) and each course has 2 classes per week. In my case, one of my courses has a single class but I sat in on another class as well so that made a total of 8 classes. Classes for each course meets Mon/Wed or Tues/Thurs; I have 2 classes per day. Each class has something like 50-70 pages to read and some classes have more. So most of my time is spent reading and reading, and most of this is deep stuff which takes time. Let me give an illustration:

Monday: Course A, 1 class (+1 class sitting in): 1 case study, total of 2 + 3 readings for a total of some 100 pages worth of readings. Submit: 150 word response to the reading for the first class, half-page summary and response to readings for second class on Tuesday.

Tuesday, Courses B and C, so 2 classes : 1 + 3 readings, some 100 pages again

Wednesday, Course A and D, so 2 classes (this includes the class which meets only once a week): 4+6 readings, totalling what must be an astounding 250 pages or so. Got cold called for second class on Wednesday. Submitted para on self to lecturer for the first Wednesday class.

Thursday, Courses B and C so 2 classes: 2+ 4 readings, total of some 150 pages of which some 40 is John Rawls' Theory of Justice which is heavy going and of which I can read only 10 pages at a time.... Must submit response and summary of readings for second class.

Friday: deadline for submission of 2-page memorandum for Tues class.

Then it all starts again. How to find time for blogging!

St Francis' Chapel, Boston

Went yesterday to St Francis' Chapel, Boston, which is run by the Oblates of the Virgin Mary. It is a small chapel in Prudential Tower, Boston and reminds me of the Gower St chaplaincy chapel.

The crucifix is a replica of the San Damiano crucifix which has a special meaning for St Francis (check this site for the story, click here to see my photo of the crucifix in St Francis'). To the left is a rondo of the Madonna and child, statues of St Francis, St Joseph and St Jude are around the walls and (electric) candles burn beneath. The US is more into candles and veneration of Saints than is Singapore. It is peaceful and quite still; strong sense of prayer. The choir was just two people- the cantor and the organist who sang the second part. But I thought the simplicity of the singing suited the chapel well.

The sermon was interesting. The priest quoted (extensively) from Bishop Fulton Sheen - that Peter sought to separate Christ from his cross, i.e. the glory without the sacrifice without realising that the two were one. He then likened the cross-less Christ to western societies in which greater laxity had crept into society on the grounds of self-fulfilment; the Christ-less cross was likened to the former communist countries where rules were harsh and compassion limited. I liked these points but did think that the extensive references suggested the sermon was put together in a hurry!

Anyway, after mass we went shopping in Prudential Tower. It is very convenient with everything we need in one spot. So it looks as though (aside from its other virtues) we will be coming back to St Francis fairly frequently :-)