Today I'll talk about the famous village of Castine, Maine. Well, famous among people who are crazy about miniatures, of course... lol... Actually, it's a small town at the tip of a peninsula in the Northeast of the USA, near Canada. People usually get there by car, as I did (took a ride with friends). Most people going to Guild School fly to Bangor, a city about 1 hour drive from there. If you are going there next year, it's good to know you'll be able to hire the drive back & forth to Bangor in advance.
O grande lance do vilarejo é que ele é sede da Academia Marítma (do estado) do Maine. No verão os alunos da academia partem no navio-escola e o campus é alugado para organizações que desejam sediar eventos lá. E a IGMA é uma delas...
The huge thing about the town is that The Maritime Academy of Maine is located there. During summer, when the regular students are away on the school ship, the empty campus is rented to organizations that wish to hold their special events there. IGMA is one of them...
A cidade é pequena mesmo, com dois restaurantes, duas agências bancárias, duas pousadas, uma 'lanchonete' onde se pode tomar café da manhã, uma loja de conveniência e alguns outros lugares e lojinhas que não tive tempo de explorar. O pessoal da cidade é muito simpático e adora a 'gente miúda', como carinhosamente chamam os alunos e equipe da Guild School. Ouvi dizer que somos os favoritos deles dentre os que comparecem lá no verão! :)
It's a very small town, with two restaurants, two banks, two inns, one dinner, one convenience store, and some other places and stores I did not have time to visit. The locals are very nice and hospitable, and they love us, the 'little people', as they lovingly call Guild School students and staff. I heard we are their favorites among the regulars in the Academy during summer! :)
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| A rua principal (Main Street) Main Street |
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| A igreja The church |
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| Uma das hospedarias One of the inns |
Though small, it's a very cute town! Maine is one of the states in the area called "New England". They are the earliest states in the US, and there's a lot of History all around. In Castine you can see boards telling the history of some buildings all around. In one of my early morning walks, before breakfast (it's bright daylight by 5 am!) I came across the lady responsible for the Historical Society there, walking her dog. He is adorable and she is so friendly and nice! She admitted that those boards aren't completely accurate in terms of History, lol... , but as they now are kind of historical too, they are left as they are.
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| Olhem só que gracinha que eu encontrei lá, bem cedinho! Look how cute! We met briefly early in the morning... :) |
In this area (New England), we feel as if we shrank to 1/12th and we are living in a dollhouse world! That's probably where the inspiration for most dollhouses came from... It's so hard to pick a favorite!
Os prédios da Academia são todos de tijolos/concreto, e as casas em sua maioria são de madeira. Lá tem um dormitório enorme, onde fica hospedada a maioria dos alunos da Guild School. A hospedagem lá faz parte do custo da semana de aulas. A hospedagem convencional é em um quarto compartilhado com outro(a) aluno(a), e cada dois quartos compartilham um banheiro. Não tem luxo, mas é tudo bem limpinho. Bem, tem um certo cheirinho de pés no carpete, mas é compreensível, rsrs.... Nada que um bom-ar não resolva! ;) O único problema que tive lá foi em relação ao aquecimento central. Alguma coisa nele não combinou com meu sistema imunológico. Precisei tomar anti-alérgico, porque fiquei com dificuldade de respirar. E olha que eu não costumo ter alergias! Acho que meus pulmões tropicais não estavam acostumados com algum esporo ou fungo típico de regiões frias, porque acho que só eu tive essa reação... Espero não ter esse probleminha na próxima vez! ;)
The Academy builtings are brick & mortar, but most houses are all wood. There is a huge dorm (Curtis Hall) where most Guild School students stay for the week. The lodging is part of the tuition for GS week. Usually one shares a room with another student and two adjacent rooms share one bathroom. Everything is simple, but clean. The only problem I had there was something in the heating system did not agree with my immune system. At some point I couldn't breath! I had to take allergy pills. Which is weird, because I hardly ever have allergies at all. Probably some spores or fungus, normally present in cold places, but my tropical lungs were not used to, because I think I was the only one with such reaction... I hope I won't have the same problem next time! ;)
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| Pátio interno do prédio do dormitório Inner yard for the dorm (Curtis Hall) |
O preço normal da semana de aulas também inclui alimentação completa (café da manhã, almoço e jantar) de sábado à noite até o outro sábado de manhã. E é comida boa, farta, saudável, gostosa e de qualidade! A Academia já ganhou vários prêmios pela sua cozinha! Passam bem esses cadetes... :) As refeições são todas servidas no grande salão do prédio central. É lindo, mas tem uma acústica péssima. Mal se consegue ouvir quem está do lado!!! Tem um jantar especial na 3ª feira que servem uma lagosta inteira (pescadas na região) para cada um. Como sou vegetariana, não foi meu caso, hehe... mas este jantar é aguardado com ansiedade pela maioria dos alunos! :)
The tuition also includes the meal plan (breakfast, lunck and dinner) from the first Saturday dinner to the following Saturday breakfast. And the food is good, varied, generous quantities, healthy and tasty! The Academy kitchen staff has been awarded several times for their food. Lucky cadets... :) All the meals are served in the cafeteria, in one of the main buildings. It's a nice room, but lousy acoustics. You can barely hear what the person next to you is saying!!! There is a special dinner on Tuesday where they serve one lobster per person. I didn't eat one, as I'm vegetarian... :) but this dinner is dreamed by most students!
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| Barbara Davis, a diretora da Guild School Barbara Davis, Guild School director |
For the first dinner on the first day (Saturday), the scholarship students, like me, sit at a special table with the scholarship committee and some instructors. This year there were 3 scholarship students: Elisabet from Sweden, Jo-Ann from Canada and myself from Brazil. After dinner there is a special ceremony in the auditorium and after that a small party at the students lounge. There is a small party almost every evening, if you can keep up with that... lol
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| Jo-Ann, do Canadá Jo-Ann, from Canada. |
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| Convidado e Elisabet tentando ouvir alguém... :) Guest and Elisabet trying to hear someone next... :) |
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| Bob Hurd, instrutor, e ela é membro do comitê Instructor Bob Hurd and a member of the committee |
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| Instutores Instructors |
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| Minhas companheiras de viagem My traveling buddies |
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| Cerimônia inaugural Opening ceremony |
The Campus also has a store/bookstore, a football field, and a gym, where a special miniature show takes place on Wednesday. Only the instructors can sell there - an they are Artisans and Fellows. I'll talk more about this show in another post.
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| Tirada no último sábado, o tempo virou... Taken on the last Saturday, the weather changed... |
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| Tirada no último sábado, o tempo virou... Taken on the last Saturday, the weather changed... |
As aulas são espalhadas pelos diversos prédios. Um bem simpático é a "Casa do Presidente", onde aconteceram as aulas de micro-miniaturas da Nell Corkin, minha 'ídala' :) e também presidente atual da IGMA (olha que coincidência, a presidente dava aulas na casa do presidente, rsrs...)
The classes are spread over several buildings. A very nice one is the 'President House', where Nell Corkin teached her micro-miniature classes. She's my 'hero' :) and also current IGMA president (what a coincidence, the president taught in the president house, lol) |
| A "Casa do Presidente" The "President House" |
Well, I cannot tell you more about the village because, instead of the regular 36 hours of classes in the week - standard tuition, and which I was entitled to by the scholarship, I paid for extra 12 hours to have 48 hours classes - full time! And I also took 3 extra seminars. As you can imagine, I barely had time to go from one building to another or brush my teeth after meals, lol...
Mas quem faz o básico de 36 horas, sem seminários, ou quem só está lá acompanhando o/a cônjuge louco(a) por miniaturas, sempre sobra um tempinho livre e há várias opções de lazer na cidade: museus, esportes como caiaque, golfe, tênis, natação, trilhas, visitar um farol, passear de barco, etc. Eu fui lá para aprender a fazer miniaturas com os melhores do mundo, então foi o que fiz! :)
But usually, students who take the standard 36 hours class schedule, no extra seminars, or those who are just 'guests' (going with 'crazy-for-miniature' spouses/family), are lucky enough to have some spare time and there are several extra activities in town: museums, sports like kayaking, golf, tennis, swimming, hiking, visiting the lighthouse, yachting, etc. I went there to learn how to make perfect miniatures with the best of the best, so... that's all I did! :)
Só para mencionar mais algumas opções de alojamento/refeições, a IGMA oferece opções de pagar só as aulas, e a pessoa arruma outro lugar para se hospedar e comer, pode pagar as refeições individualmente, comprar só os dois jantares especiais, ou hospedar-se fora da academia e comprar o pacote de refeições lá. Tem gente que prefere se hospedar em uma das duas hospedarias da cidade, tem quem vai de trailer, e tem até quem aluga uma casa mobiliada na vila por uma semana, pois vai com a família. Tem para todo gosto e bolso! :)
Just to mention some other lodging/food options, IGMA offers choices like paying only for the classes and staying and eating off-campus; buying each meal individually, buying only the special dinners pack, or staying off-campus but buying the whole meal pack. There are those who prefer to stay at one of the inns, or go with their own RV, and there are even those who rent a house for the week, like when they take the whole family with them. There is an option for every need, preference and pocket depth! :)
Quem vai de bolsa, como eu fui, tem direito a hospedagem completa no dormitório com quarto compartilhado, todas as refeições e 36 horas de aulas. Na próxima postagem explico como funcionam essas horas. E também no final da série vou explicar em detalhes como se matricular ou se candidatar a uma bolsa.
The scholarship includes tuition for the 36 hours class, the shared room in the dorm, and full meal plan. Next time I'll explain how those hours work. Also, by the end of this series of posts, I'll explain better how to register for the GS and even how to apply for a scholarship.
Tenho sonhado todas as noites em voltar lá em 2015. É bom demais!!! :)
I've been dreaming every night of being there in 2015. It's so good!!! :)
Na próxima postagem vou falar das aulas que fiz...
In my next post I'll talk about the classes I took...
Abaixo, um vídeo feito pela própria IGMA mostrando um pouco de Castine e os eventos do primeiro dia e cerimônia de abertura:
Below you can watch a video made by IGMA showing a little bit about the town Castine and also some of the first day events and opening ceremony (of a previous year).
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