Ouai, un peu mal du pays

Yeah, a little homesickness.

I think that's how I will title this blog, though it has been a very exciting week indeed. Lets begin with sunday when my friends and I had our first weekly Sunday Soiree- its like a supper club where we each bring a part of the meal and eat together. It was such a beautiful evening and such good food and company. Two of our friends hosted it at their apartment because they have an awesome backyard!

 

Here we all are wining and dining together. yumm. And I'm proud to say that my mother's tomato salad recipie was a huge hit! 

That night though I was hit by my first feeling of homesickness. I missed musicians and people who were working for nonprofits- I missed my friends at vanderbilt and the comforts of the familiar. 

Monday I met with the organ teacher and played for her a bit. We decided on a time to have lesson each Monday. It's a pretty decent organ, but I can't really figure it out quite yet. I've practiced on it for a couple days now. It was quite nice to have something familiar under my fingertips and in my ears again. 

Tuesday- some of you know the ordeal of tuesday. To VERY briefly summarize a very stressfulday, I went to have what I thought was a meeting with the conducting professor at the conservatoire. I discovered upon ariving that he was in fact in the annex of the conservatory-- I had to try to find it down the road in the rain. There were no signs for a conservatory, but suddenly from the street I heard a french horn practicing from a building and I followed the sound to find the conservatory. I got very lost, but I had to laugh- it was such a funny situation. Then when I found the conductor, I discovered that it was not a meeting, but in fact the conducting class... and that it lasts for 4 hours every tuesday. That's a lot of intense french + music.

Tuesday night I was beginning my internship with the orchestra in Marseille. Again, to sumarize a very long story- I thought I was going to only be watching and working with [possibly conducting] the orchestra but when I arrived they handed me music and introduced me to the other flute player..... I discovered that I am supposed to be playing in the orchestra. I hadn't even bothered to bring my flute to the rehearsal. I'm not even sure how I missed that detail. Again, it was a bit overwhelming, but at the same time, the sounds of the orchestra were very comforting. Its wonderful that I speak the language of music that is so international. 

The orchestra is made up of professional and nonprofessional adult musicians and they practice in a big cathedral with pretty good acoustics! It was all very funny and intersting to me. Here's the venue:

Tuesday was a very rainy day and with me being so overwhelmed from the choral conducting class and internship, I felt very very homesick. 

Wednesday was a bit better and productive. I ran with a group of my friends instead of by myself and it felt good to run with others. I had my art history class and felt overwhelmed again- its a tough class. It was still rainy and gray in the morning so I was a bit depressed. After my class though, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining! what a difference it made in every one's mood. I went and practiced organ and as I was sitting there, feeling overwhelmed and nervous about everything in life, I suddenly remembered that I had the power to make everything positive again. I said to myself:

Dani- when the going get's tough the tough get going. 

I just have to suck it up and look at this wonderful opportunity that is my being here. I sat at the organ and decided that the next day would be different and beautiful and happy. I smiled to myself, knowing that it was going to be a good day. Indeed it was. (the organ at the conservatory:)

So today- thursday- was indeed much better. Plus, I didnt' have any classes today. I woke up to another bright beautiful day in aix. Went to pick up some music from the conservatory, then went for a run, then practiced music and had a good session at the organ. Oh- and this morning I got a call from a french mother that contacted the vanderbilt-in-france center needing someone to work with their children on English and babysit. I told her I definitely could babysit today- so I got myself a little job! 

From 5-7:30 I babysat 3 children [boy 6, girl 8, boy 11] which is the most number of children I've babysat.. um.. ever! haha. It was a lot of fun and we spoke mostly in English, which they spoke very well, but also practiced some french. It's so cool that they can switch back and forth so quickly. I'm jealous. The 6 year old boy was a bit of handful, but I feel like I handled him climbing on walls and jumping off furniture with good dicipline. [did I jump off of walls when I was 6?? what did my parents do?? haha] The woman payed me well and wants me to work with the kids a couple hours each week on their english- 15 euro an hour! that's like 20 bucks an hour which I am very very excited about making. Money coming in?! Haven't seen that in forever.

So I need to be preparing for classes tomorrow now. Not long ago one of my roommates made hotcocoa and invited every one to have some. It was so cozy and nice to have. 

[that's me hugging the hotcocoa-mix box. haha we're cheap.]

Tomorrow will be an even better day though! 

I miss you all though. With love.