Boston! Rent, museums, and other craziness

So yesterday I got back from a whirlwind tour of (read: two day trip to) Boston, where I saw Rent, went to the Museum of Fine Arts, bought an awesome coat at Patagonia, and RAN INTO MS. EMMERICH AND MS. BAKER!

I will give the entire narrative for your reading pleasure. On Friday we (as in me and my family) left for Boston in the morning, and we got to the city around... two-ish. Once we got into the city it was a little bit confusing, because the navigation system in our car was a little bit confused and it was generally stressful trying to navigate around, but we got to our destination (which was the Museum of Fine Arts) eventually. I was afraid my brother (Michael) would be bored and therefore insufferable when we were in there, but it seems that he doesn't hate museums so much anymore, now that he has reached the ripe old age of 12.

I was a little bit disappointed because I have two favorite things to see in museums; the Impressionists and Japanese woodblock prints. The latter were being moved, I think, so we didn't get to see them. The Impressionist pieces were fantastic, though. I got into that room and saw one thing I recognized immediately; Renoir's Dance at Bougival. Two of my sending school's English teachers, Ms. Moriarty and Mr. McLean, had posters of that painting in their rooms. In 9th grade English, Ms. Moriarty would talk about that painting every other class, connecting it to our conversation somehow. I think I found it annoying at the time, because I didn't... appreciate how brilliant and fantastic she was, and also because the print of the painting looks ok, but not wonderful. In person it's a fantastic painting; the woman's dress is a lot... pinker, and you can see the colors in it (to create what you see as a white dress. :D) and it's really great.

I actually bought a poster of that painting, so I can hang it in my room at school and weep every time I see it because I have crappy English classes now. I kid, kind of, but I really do miss English at Orono. Not only was it less work, I learned a LOT more. I learned to love learning and making connections, and I learned how to really read and think about what I'm reading. None of that at MSSM. Just analysis, which seems similar on the surface, but is really... quite different. At MSSM, it's more like the teacher has some specific meaning figured out for the text we read, and we have to try to figure it out, whereas in 9th grade, we just wrote down what we noticed, or connections we made, as we read, and then had authentic discussions in class. Every class ended up having the same(-ish) discussions, getting to the heart of what we were reading and the meaning that the author intended, just like in MSSM English, but the conversations weren't contrived, and so in addition to the necessary information about the reading, we got all these wonderful tangents and information that was connected to the text in unexpected ways. I learned how to connect and think. In AP Comp I learned how to clockwatch. But I digress, I got the poster of Dance at Bougival to emulate Ms. Moriarty and Mr. McLean. Maybe one day I can be brilliant like them.

Anyway. The next day we wandered around Newbury Street a little bit, going into shops and whatnot. I bought a kickass trenchcoat at Patagonia, and went into Anthropologie... I wish I was incredibly, filthy rich so I could buy tons of things from that store. It is such a cool place and they have so much cool stuff. The store in person is even better than the website! I mean, obviously, but still, it was great.

After shopping a bit and eating lunch, we saw Rent, which was SO, SO GOOD. I love Anthony Rapp so, so, so much now, it was incredibly cool to see him in person on stage, especially because he looked and sounded exactly like he did in the movie. The stage production of Rent was a lot better than the movie, too, I think. The movie seems very plotless to me, almost like they made a movie around the songs. The songs definitely help tell the story, too, but there's too little story in the movie for my taste, or at least, it doesn't come through as much as in the play. Maybe it was that I already kind of knew the story for Rent before seeing the play, but the stage production seemed to have a much more cohesive story than the movie. The characters were better balanced, too. In the movie, I hated Mimi, especially her relationship with Roger (I thought it was kind of forced, or.. something), but in the play it was good and made sense. I also thought Maureen was really annoying in the movie, but in the play, again, though her character was the same, somehow everything was more balanced and I liked her a lot more. In fact, I liked almost all the characters more in the play, just because it was better balanced. I kind of want to get the DVD of the last Broadway production, now.

Of course, I loved Mark in the movie of Rent and I loved him in the play. My favorite character in both places, but in the play... he is so good. Have I mentioned I love Anthony Rapp?

After Rent I was pretty excited, but also looking forward to going home. It was very hot outside and we were walking back to the parking lot, down Boylston Street, when I hear a familiar voice...

"Elizabeth Coyne?!"
"MISS EMMERICH?!?!"

She was with Ms. Baker, they were in the Boston area for Mr. McCartney's wedding, and we just happened to run into them. We chatted for a little bit, I told Ms. Baker I got a 4 on the AP exam (which I was rather happy about), and we went on our merry ways. One of the most bizarre experiences of my life.

All in all, it was a SUPER SPECIAL AWESOME trip.

Harry Potter + too many classes next year.

So! I saw the midnight showing of HBP last night, and I thought it was pretty good. I haven't read the book for a while, but the way they did the movie seemed pretty good and fairly cohesive, so all in all... good deal. Luna was as adorable as ever, I love that girl. Malfoy was fantastic as well. I think I ought to listen to that book again, I've been meaning to re-listen to the audiobook versions of Harry Potter for a while. Those things are so wonderful.

In other news, next year is going to be lovely learning-wise but terrible work-wise. There are a couple of classes I'd like to take, but they're all kind of tentative and I'm not really sure which ones will work out well, what I'll be able to take, whatever.

For my own benefit, I think I'm going to write down what classes I definitely have and what classes I'd like to take... just to organize my head better. I'm definitely taking Calc BC, AP Chem, AP Bio, and American Lit. I really, really, really want to take Mathematical Modeling, and if they offer Spanish IV... that's a possibility, too. There's also the Theater construction class, which would be fun, Astronomy, which I definitely want to take at some point, and I'll certainly take drawing/watercolors again, but that's non-academic so it doesn't really count.

I should limit myself to six classes, especially with three APs. Or, rather... I will be limited to six classes at most, if they'll even let me take that many. I think Astronomy will be for senior year, but if it's a toss-up between Spanish and Theater... man, I would so rather take the Theater one. Spanish would look better, though... here's to hoping that they don't offer pre-AP. DX

So, can I handle two maths, two sciences, English, and theater, plus drawing and my literary magazine project? Only time will tell.

...But y'know, I'm pretty sure it won't be bad.