the little town of weston is very picturesque. here we have the village green with a little gazebo in the middle.......

tiger lillies grow EVERYWHERE here....

the library....

the village playhouse.....

one of the churches.....


it is still nice and hot here. hopefully not too humid today. after we finish with our morning email we are going to the farmers market over in londonderry. apparently there is really cool stuff there. i figure i should check it out before we leave.
only one week left! eek! i can't believe it has gone by so fast. it's been really fun - and i definitely do NOT want to go back to real life. >:|

we had the annual regatta this week - there is a big water balloon toss. vernon and i did quite well but i look like a moron in the picture of me so i'm not posting it. :)

there are a variety of boat races - the kids make these really sketchy "rafts" out of wood and the empty milk bags from the milk machine in the dining hall (as flotation). no boats sunk this year....

this is vernon, mimi, and adrienne getting all psyched up pre-game time....


alright - time for me to go back to work....

still hot and now i have a cough

i'm whining today. i have a hacking cough that won't go away. well, it gets quite a bit better with robitussin. but it still sucks. i slept for 2 hours before lunch today. that's how crappy it is. anyhoo. i'll stop whining for a minute and post a shwack of photos.

so last weekend was a celebration for our bosses, nancy and jerry bidlack - the couple who runs the school. a tree was planted in their honour with a stone at the base. the words on the stone are lyrics from one of the madrigals that every here sings. it was nice; they were surprised.





here are two more pics of the campus (really this is because i'm sure mom and dad would like to see more pics). the first one is the barn which has dorms for the youngest boys, the library, practice rooms, and a bunch of other things. the second is the main house. a few of the staff live here, my office is upstairs, the staff kitchen is here and so is the kids main common room. i feel like i work at hogwart's. seriously.




two days ago we went golfing. or rather vernon, tony and tony's friend mike went golfing. i went for a 5 hour ride in a golf cart. it was really nice to be off campus in the QUIET and just enjoy the sun and conversation. the course (Okemo) is really beautiful and there is a big ski hill there. oh wait - there are big ski hills EVERYWHERE here. i want to come back in the winter one year and go boarding. just look at all the runs behind vernon!


here i am in the cart


there was a lagoon in the middle....


with canada geese! (our fellow canadians!)


and yes this is a view from the t-box on the second last hole to the green - there is no fairway, it's just from the box to the green, over the lagoon.



this was a really boring post. i don't care because i need to find a cough drop.
:)

hot

it is hot here. really really hot. already. it's 9am and it feels like 30 degrees. apparently it's only 24 but it's going to get to 34. and with the humidity you can add a bunch on to that. yikes.

http://www.weathernetwork.com/weather/cities/usa/Pages/USVT0128.htm
(ok i tried to make that a link, but the stupid blogger thing wouldn't work. it kept showing up blank. anyhoo.)

yesterday during the 3 hour student concert (yes that's right, 3 hours....actually it was more like 2 hours and 45 minutes) i couldn't stand to be in the concert hall (with no air conditioning and sweating bodies) so i lay on a blanket on the grass in the shade sipping cool water and reading my book. i was not the only one out there.

there is nothing new happening here today. the kids had movie night last night so they got to stay up late, which means that they got to sleep in this morning and no one has anything until 10:30. which is nice, but we still got up early so we could come to the coffee shop and get some good coffee. :)

more pictures

this is a shot of the area right around weston. nice and rolling. lots of little farms. a lot of cheese is made here. and maple syrup (yum!).



this is taken from the top of the sitting hill, which is where people go to just sit. it's out back of the main house and the barn, on the way to the dining hall and concert hall.



here's a map of the campus so you have some idea what i'm blathering on about....
we live in the area called "staff parking" under the arrow pointing to the dushkin memorial. there are actually 3 cabins there. we are thinking up a name for ours right now but keep getting stuck on "poop town 3" due to our plumbing misfortune of earlier this summer....


we have to wear all white to the student concerts. so do the kids. it's some sort of new england tradition. anyhoo. here are vernon and i in our whites hanging out in the staff kitchen (one of the only places on campus where the kids are not allowed). it was about 90 degrees and humid yesterday. fun times. my skirt was totally stuck to me. at least everyone is in the same boat. or rather, we wish we were in the same boat out on a lake somewhere..... :)

a turtle and a graveyard

yesterday we decided to go to echo lake. echo lake is a lake with a park. it's nice, but not as nice as we thought it would be. anyway, who cares about that part - that was just the reason we were in the car. so we're driving down the highway just past ludlow (i'm talking like you know where the heck i am) and we see some debris on the side of the road. quite sizable, but whatever. the big suburban in front of us moved aside slightly so as not to hit it. and that's when i saw it move. the debris that is. and holy crap if it wasn't debris but a turtle. a really big turtle. now, i was thinking that the frog we saw the other night that was as big as my hand (or bigger actually) was big. but this thing was huge. i didn't know they had turtle's that big actually. i mean, here that is. so here are some pics to entertain. maybe someone knows something about them?? and for everyone who doesn't know, if you just click on the pictures below they will open up bigger so you can see them better.





so if that wasn't cool enough when we were at the lake, once the flies drove me too insane to read anymore, we went for a walk and found this really neat little graveyard. there are little graveyards all over the place, just plots on the side of the road about 4 stones deep sometimes. anyway - the oldest gravestone we found was from 1817. they were actually mostly from the 1800's - some from the later half of the century but a lot from earlier on. there was one for a 24 year old, Charles Colby (why do i remember the name?) who "drowned in the lake" on june 12 1896. that's 110 years ago the day before we were there. isn't that weird? it was sort of eerie. anyway, it's on a hill overlooking the lake (the lake is obscured now by trees) but it's really really beautiful.



and here we are hiking through the woods....



and because randy made such a BIG deal about his birthday....here you go, for all the world to see (because i know all the world is reading my blog dammit).

going postal

every day, monday through saturday, i go to the post office to get the mail. the post master in this town is named Lee and he is a really nice guy. AND he totally knows his usps shit and can answer all sorts of stupid and weird questions from me. and by stupid and weird i mean "how much will it cost to mail this" and "can you tell me when this will arrive". unfortunately Lee is taking vacations and days off during the summer months (what the hell?) so what is left is his helper monkey. she is really really sweet and super nice. however.

and this is a big however.

she doesn't really know much about the postal industry. when i asked today, if i could send a package COD she looked at me and said "you could...but i don't know how to do that. i've never done that before." and then stared blankly at me. um.... k. so. i'm thinking - gee, what do we do now? do i suggest that you start researching that? she actually pulled out a giant book and started leafing through it but couldn't figure it out. i just paid for it. i figure $5 US is worth it just to keep my sanity. a couple of days ago i had to send two packages to asia. one to china and one to hong kong. now, the trick here is that i had to ensure they would reach the kids over there within one week. now of course she had NO idea how to figure this one out. the book that she had to go through (which was about 4 inches thick) actually was completely useless (in her defense). so i pulled out my laptop and right there in the post office had to research what service would be best. then she spent about 15 minutes deciding which envelope would be appropriate with which mailing label....... i just wanted to throw money at her and walk away.

and is that so wrong?

there are times when i am tired of being in rural vermont. i think this morning was one of them. and then there are times when i love the slowness. times when it is so relaxing. maybe i only love the slowness when i am not trying to get anything done. a couple of days ago, while shopping in manchester (for shoes!) i had to run a couple errands for the school. trying to actually get normal day to day stuff done in that town is impossible. totally impossible. no one knows where things are located, things like barber shops and radio shacks. however they all know where the armani outlet is. this is a good test of my patience. a warm up to what is coming next. st john's will be markedly slower than vancouver, of that i'm sure. hopefully though - it is faster than weston vermont. faster as in "light speed".....

mail

hey - here's an idea! send me mail!
for the next 4 weeks (until august 6th) you can send me presents (ok fine, postcards would be fine) to:

jen cheramy
c/o kinhaven music school
po box 68
weston vt
05161
usa.

:)

mmmm.....coffee......

every morning that we can, vernon and i pile into the car and drive into town (town being Weston, VT). we go to a little coffee shop/photo gallery where they have free wireless and drink good coffee and surf the web. he looks so happy with a good coffee in his hand, doesn't he? the photos in this gallery are really beautiful, mainly vermont landscapes. they have smaller art card versions that i think i will take home with me. anyhoo.



we aren't the only ones who come into town to check email and get contact with the outside world (the world outside the kinhaven bubble). we generally end up with a crew of faculty in the shop. i'm sure the owners love us!



the town of weston is very picturesque - i'm planning on strolling around and taking some photos of the little church's and shops. they have a big green in the centre of town with a beautiful gazebo. it is so stereotypical. you know that show "gilmore girls"? i know that you all watch it even if you say you don't. anyway, this town reminds of the place where they live. there are these waterfalls everywhere too.



this is a couple of towns over in Chester. we went over just to see it and wander around. it was pretty touristy and not as nice as Weston. although Weston is pretty touristy too i think - i figure you must be touristy if you have a year round christmas shop. it's the nicest of these little towns though.



here are some photos of the campus that i took. these are our cabins - there are three faculty cabins which are "new" although still somewhat shitty. ours is the one on the furthest left in the photo. there are three bedrooms - 1 double and 2 singles. we share with peter (one of the violin teachers), volkan (the bass teacher) and jo-jo (peter's cat).



this is part of the campus - the concert hall is on the left and the dining hall is on the right. you can see one of the cooks out there getting the bbq's going.




and this is a shot of the main house from the road. that's the building that i work in - but i will send better pictures later. that tree is beautiful, but it obscures how giant the house really is. anyhoo - it gives you a little bit of an idea of where i work (because i know that mom was curious!).

anyway, other than my cold (i'm taking sudafed daily) i'm doing well. it's hot here and sunny and humid. i love it!

i need people to email me. paula - send me pictures of your garden or the cats or something. randy - send me pictures of wherever you are now.

:)

the cold virus strikes again

well, i don't know if it's a cold that we all have, but it's something nasty. it's going through the camp at a fast rate and i am one of the latest victims. starts with a wickedly sore throat and then moves into your chest. right now i'm between sore throat and bad cough....just blowing my nose a lot and hacking pathetically. vernon has avoided it so far which is good. he has more to do than i do. although his chances of surviving unscathed are slim.

i'm still really liking being at band camp. there was a student concert yesterday which was 2 hours long and boring but it was kind of nice to hear them play (some of them are good and some of them are having fun and this is important too....). tonight is a faculty concert which will be better. hopefully i won't pass out during it and miss vernon's part. hahahahaa. i laugh but i'm actually serious. the piece he is playing in is 40 minutes long. how am i supposed to pay attention for that long?

ok here is a photo of vernon playing student/staff baseball. i haven't taken many pics during the past week. i'll try to take some shots of the campus this week so you guys can all see where i'm living and working.

i miss you!
:)

ps - elga: two nights ago it was super clear and i was getting sick and i actually wore my sweat-ah. (and my fleece!)