Chaque Jour- Une Nouvelle Aventure!

Each day a new adventure!

I made it my secret goal a while back to have a different adventure every day in Aix. By now, I can confirm that I have pretty much met this goal. This past week is a blur though.

Monday- It was my roommate, Lindsay's, 20th birthday! Sweet Savannah went out a bought her a cake and flowers with which we all surprised her monday night! It was hilarious because Lindsay was working out in our room when we all came upstairs and barged into the room to surprise her! haha, poor girl still had ipod earphones in as we sang happy birthday. :D here we are, having moved into the kitchen:

Tuesday- Had my internship like usual. I wasn't planning on conducting that night, but when I arrived, the director explained that he had to go conduct another rehearsal and would be there only for the first 30 minutes- could I take over for the rest of the time? haha.. ahhh. I wasn't quite prepared musically or mentally, but we pushed through it. He told me later that he was going to have me conduct Rhapsody in Blue at the orchestra concert in november. I'm SO excited :D I love that piece, and it's perhaps a bit cheesy, but cool that the little american girl is conducting one of the most famous american pieces.

Wednesday- whhhaat a day. We awoke to the blasting and whipping mistral winds and lashing cold rain. And what was worse was that the entire group had to all take a big trip to Marseilles to have a mandatory (according to our student visa) health exam. As we unboarded the bus we all popped out our umbrellas, most of which were instantly inverted by the wind. It was quite a scene- all of us walking down the grey streets holding our umbrellas sideways, since that was the direction in which the rain was falling. To our surprise, the first thing on the health exam was a chest exam! Definitely top adventure of the week. Then they told us to keep our x-rays.. hahah- so we were all sitting out in the lobby comparing spines and rib cages. Oh, France.

here's my chest:

Thursday- last day of classes before our Fall Vacation week. I gave a presentation in class that I was really excited about.. but it ended up being way too long and I couldn't finish. :( I was sad, but it was my own dang fault. It was a presentation about Stravinsky's Ballet, Sacre du Printemps. I just got a bit too excited about it I suppose.

Thursday night I had dinner with the director of the conservatory and his wife. They're so great and kind. They took me out to a nice restaurant and treated me. I had delicious pasta and had lots left over, but didn't want to waste it, so I did the most american thing ever- asked for a take-out box. Every one sort of laughs at me when I do that here, but then they explain how they support it! The couple at the table next to us even jumped in on the conversation and were saying how good it was not to waste and what not. Haha, all the same, I still get curious glances. I'm startin' the revolution in France, I tell you what!

Friday... weekend... what happened? I did tons and tons of work. I have way too much work for this dang vacation. Had to read 100 pages of a french book, outline a paper about a poem which therefore involved really analyzing the poem, do some art history reading, aaannd I still have to write a 10 page paper in French all about my internship. Its part of the internship credit requirements. blah.

All of my roommates had left for vacation by friday- I leave for vienna tomorrow [tuesday] *yay!* So I had the place to myself for the weekend. It has its good and bad sides. I definitely sang and blasted music, I cleaned up the apartment and it stayed clean :) But I was sorta bored during the evenings.

Friday, my friend Patrick, who was still here, and I went to a mexican restaurant! I was soo excited to have black beans! Patrick told me that the owner had explained to him that they have to import the black beans.. they really don't have them in this country!!

Saturday Patrick and I tried to go to the Alps for the day. This was by far the biggest fail of the week (haha!). We took the bus to the Aix train station where there was supposed to be another bus to take us to the city Digne, at the base of the Alps. We could not find this bus.... so we missed it. It was very sad. Here we are... waiting for the bus.

so we laughed, split a chocolate bar, and explored the trainstation like it was a tourist site. Then we took the bus back and I had a productive saturday.

Here's patrick taking photos of the train station :D

Our silhouettes, waiting for the dang bus that never showed.

Sunday the time changed in France and I didn't know.. so it was a confusing morning. M. Camatte (conservatory director) invited me to mass at the cathedral right next to my apartment. Not just to attend, but to sing with the choir! haha. Because of the time change, I'll just say that I didn't think I had made it in time to sing, but in fact I really had. I'm going to try to sing with them next sunday that I'm home. What a hilarious experience! But I did get to meet the organist and piddle around on the beautiful organ there after the service. Here are photos:

Tomorrow I leave for Vienna! I'm going to visit some of my dear Blair friends. Can't wait. Many photos will appear soon.

Love to you all,

Dani

Il sent comme l'hiver

It smells like winter.

Or at least winter is quickly approaching. Its starting to get dark earlier and tonight, I suppose because tonight's satrday night, the streets were bustling with people, lights, and cars- just like the christmas shopping season. I'm ready for it though. The air is crisp and when I jog its cold in my lungs, but it feels good. The other day I just stopped and breathed in that fresh, woodsy, smoky smell that reminds me so much of winter.

The mornings are lovely. I had to wake up early one day [7:30am] and was humbled to see a beautiful purple sunrise spread across the sky:

Really, the cold came in one day- the day with all of the winds last week. It got really cold that day, and just stuck!

So what has happened this week? On monday I had my organ lesson and my teacher gave me the key to the organ in the huge cathderal where I was supposed to meet her last week [see previous blog for photo of the organ]. She gave me the key!! So I can practice there whenever I want pretty much, but I always awkwardly have an audience of hordes of whispering tourists, all snapping photos or video of the organ, and therefore- me. haha.

I feel like I have a different adventure every day that I'm here. On the first day that I went to this organ on my own, I had to try to figure out a) how to get up to the organ b) how to turn on the organ c) how to escape from the organ.

My teacher warned me that once you were at the organ console [keyboards] often it was difficult for students to find the door to leave, as it is hidden in the decoration of the wall. Indeed, I did find myself in what felt like a nancy-drew mystery trying to press all parts of the wall to find the door when it was time to leave.

Here's my path:

1. find the door around behind the organ

2. Climb a stair case that's in the ancient wall. Of course, at the top of the stair case there is a painting of JS Bach- something that must be included in every organ entrance everywhere.

3. Here's from the top of the stairs looking down.

4. and then, when its time to leave the organ balcony, I have to try to find a door in the decorated wall. Can you tell that this is the exit here?

So that was my organ adventure for monday. Oh, on thursday I was in the balcony practicing when all of the sudden one of the tall lamps up in the balcony with me started sparking and caught on fire!! I had to escape through the wall and run and get someone. I was afraid that the whole beautiful organ was going to burst in flames!! haha. The fire disappeared though, and I just took it as a sign from God that I should stop practicing for the day. :D

So, moving on. I'm going to give the abridged version of this story: I love my parents. :) They both sent me unbelievable packages this week and they're so kind. On wednesday I had the most phenomenal lunch- grapes, salad, and PBJ. Thats right-- those things you take for granted, ho-ho! not here! In my salad were one of my most missed items- craisins... mmmm... and the PPJ... peanut butter is pretty much nonexistant here... weird right? I was so excited about my lunch this day, I had to document it. Thanks to mom and dad for making it happen. :D

Tuesday we had a wine-tasting dinner that was a lot of fun. I like rose and white.. not red... and not more than 2 glasses at any meal. :) I also now know how to swirl wine and look like I know what I'm doing.

Wednesday and thursday were blurs of school work and the usual. Lots of work here. I'm staying on top of it, though I really want to spend some time composing. I've been focusing more on french than music here, but I suppose thats understandable.

Friday [last night] was an epic adventure: Every one in the group decided a couple weeks ago that we would through a huge Around the World party- each apartment was a different country with different foods, games, decoration, and of course drinks! My apartment was the great U.S. of A!! We had frenchfries, a bunch of american candy that we were able to find here (M&Ms, Twix, etc), LOTS of Beer, and of course a bit of Whiskey. My roomate, Lindsay had this phenomenal idea for transporting all of these items that we had to buy. You see, we of course have no car here and the grocery can be up to a mile away. 2 small girls transporting tons of heavy bottles and food? She proposed that we actually bring a suitcase to the grocery and put all of the beer in it and then wheel it back home. It was the best idea ever. and what's even funnier- not a single person in the grocery gave us a second look as we loaded up our suitcase at the end of the checkout isle. :D Here we are trying to heave the suitcase up our 4 flights of stairs:

It was hilarious, that night the entire group [20 students] plus all of our french roommates [perhaps 12 frenchies], plus 4 parents that were visiting(!)-- were all walking, running, laughing through the streets of aix! We had a great time in the cool evening air!

Needless to say, every one's apartments were wrecks saturday. haha. We all slept in today, got up, and cleaned a lot. It was lots of fun :D

Classes are going well- I feel like I have much more time here to be much more prepared for my classes. Its a good feeling. In other news, I lost my boyfriend and then successfully made a delicious quiche for dinner tonight!!

Midterms are NEXT WEEK. ahh! Then we get a vacation- I'll be in Vienna! :D Can't wait.

With love,

Dani

Here I am, thrilled to have heinz ketchup at a restaurant. the simple things we miss. :)

Une pensée sur la culture

A thought on the culture...

and what a cultural week its been! Spent the weekend seeing museums all around paris, tuesday conducted the orchestra, wed saw a ballet, thursday saw a french play... ahh!

But there are several things I just want to capture, remember, and convey about this lovely and warm city of aix. There are so many little things I notice throughout the day and I'm afraid I'll forget them or never share them with anyone else. Sorry if this is a bit lengthy.

• Les Parents (parents)- After having spent some time in 3rd world countries, I can't help but walk around and notice differences between cultures, particularly in the relationships between kids & parents. I have been pleasantly surprised here to see a great number of fathers watching and taking care of their kids- walking them to school, playing with them in the park, pushing the stroller. In other countries outside the US I'm so accustomed to only seeing the mothers with the kids, often the father no where to be found. It makes me smile to see it differently here.

• Les Arbres (trees)- With fall upon us, I'm noticing a change in the trees- not just color, but things falling from them. There are these weird sort of hazel-nut looking nuts or hard fruits that fall from the trees. As I walk down the the street to my apartment I hear the very loud THUD of these hard objects as they let go of their roots in the branches and come crashing down, only to hit and smash on the cars parked on the street. If a big breeze blows and I'm walking under these trees I sometimes have to cover my head to protect myself!

• Les Fenêtres (windows)- Everything is so old here in Aix, in France in general. The schools here are not recent constructions with optimal design to transport the ever-increasing student population like they are in the US, but instead they are 100 or 200 year old big sand-colored brick buildings with tall windows one can open out to feel the breeze. I love walking past the conservatories especially because people are practicing on different floors and all have the windows open so their music climbs out the window and mixes together with the other music from the other windows to form a melange of delicate and colorful sounds.

• Le Pain (bread)- I swear I have never known a culture to eat bread and cheese the way the French do! A common sight to see is a business man walking home from work with only briefcase and a baguette in hand- the bare necessities for life here- an income and bread! Also- I have learned that the word for a conductor's baton is Baguette, which essentially means 'stick'- I still imagine myself leading an orchestra with a long loaf of bread someday. :D

• L'espace silencieux (quiet space) - One thing we Americans absolutely take for granted is the amount of space we have- in our houses with yards, in our big personal cars, in our giant and diverse grocery markets, at our personal booths in restaurants, walking in the wide sidewalks. Everything is so much more compact here- A free-standing house is only for the most wealthy, and I really haven't seen any personal yards the way we have them in the US. Most people are stacked up in quaint apartments. The cars are so very small- I try to imagine someone bringing a hummer or SUV through here and it makes me laugh. The mini cooper cars that seem too small to take on the highway in the US look HUGE here compared to the majority of other cars. In restaurants, you have maybe a foot of space between you and the next table. And yet, one does not pick up on the conversations of the next table- it is an art, to talk in subtle and soft tones so only the person across or next to you can hear. We loud americans have had a tough time finding this sonority in our voices. There has only been once or twice when I wanted to just push every one out of my way when walking down the sidewalk- every pedestrian, and bicycles, and dogs, and cars trying to scoot through a 12ft wide space between big buildings!

I suppose thats enough of that for now. I'll spend the rest of the time entertaining you with photos from our trip to Paris this past weekend which was great! It was a little chilly there- I was happy to come back to the nice warm south of France after the weekend!

Upon arriving- we took a train from Marseille to Paris overnight and got in early saturday morning, just in time to see a beautiful sunrise over the Sein river!

I think we all look pretty fresh here! My friends- Lindsay, Chelsea, Elyse! It was a little chilly when we arrived, but we were all in great spirits and ready to find our hostel!

One of the first places we went (after having breakfast of course) was to Shakespeare Bookstore- an awesome jam-packed book store where great authors like Hemingway and Fitzgerald once wrote and hung out. Was a ton of fun to explore!

Here we are having crepes at 2am- just a quick stop! hehe

There's the bookstore from the outside.

Later that day we went to Tour Montparnasse to see an awesome view of all of paris- only, without the massive lines and crowds that you find at the Eiffel Tower! Here I am jumping around like a loony person- haha!

Can you see the little person sitting down on the left? That's me in front of the Paris Opera (my future office.. if all things go according to plan, haha!)

The shadows are us.. in front of some big landmark... haha. Weird photo, but there's the eiffel tower! We were out all night (till 4am) because it was Nuit Blanche- one night a year Paris opens up all of its museums for FREE all night! From 7pm to 7am any one and everyone goes to see the sights from a very different light! It was amazing to see Notre Dame and other museums by night with awesome lighting effects they set up!

Here we are having crepes at 2am- just a quick stop! hehe

The next day, in the metro. We were lucky because one of the girls, Elyse, had lived in paris for a month this summer so she knew her way alll around the city. We were lucky to have a great guide!

Here we are, dressed for fall in Jardin Luxembourg. We just sat here for a while on sunday telling old stories and laughing and enjoying the city.

SO... back in Aix! Just a couple quick photos I wanted to share from the week here:

I went to meet my organ teacher on wed. at a cathedral to have a intro lesson on what I heard was an awesome organ. I arrived and indeed was amazed at the organ there! But there was no teacher to be found!! I hate that things get lost in translation, but what can I do? Here's the organ I'll hopefully get to play on soon-

I also wanted to mention the little friend I have in the family of kids that I babysit- it's their doggy!! He's such a cute little guy, makes me miss my animals!

Haha- here he is wondering what the weird beeping sound coming from my camera is!

Thinking of you all, Dani

Le Quotidien

The Every Day Life!

So this blog is dedicated to all the little things that make up my normal life here in Aix, but that I may have completely ignored thus far in my blogs. First I'll summarize my week!

monday- organ lesson, went oookkk because I hadn't had access to the organ much to practice the week before. there's always someone in practicing on that organ!

tuesday- went and did my internship again. This time the director wasn't present at all and I was conducting all of the winds [brass + woodwinds, perhaps 17 people] for the full 3 hour rehearsal. It was very frustrating. I'm so happy to have these experiences and lessons- and boy I tell you what, I'm learning french words FAST when I'm up in front of the dang orchestra. haha

wednesday- took my first big test- art history. I think I did purty well on it. I had spent a whole lotta time preparing for it. I always misspell words though.. in french and english :P

thursday- thats today. today I had a french class where we had a field trip! The whole class of 5 people [hehe] went around the city with the professor. Turns out- the Sephora (makeup company) store here resides in what was a 14th century convent. Its so weird- its like a very modern store and then you look up and there are ancient roman stone arches and walls! crazy!

friday- let me predict the future for you. I have class, then babysitting, then 3 friends and I [lindsay, elyse, and chelsea] are taking a night train to paris for the weekend! Its Elyse's 21st birthday, so where else would we celebrate other than paris?! woo!

So now for the photo section. Hope you enjoy!

The sunset on the way to dinner one night. Beautiful evenings we have here!

Ok, this was on our "field trip" through historic points in the city today. Here is my teacher teaching us about the posts they have up to protect pedestrians on the sidewalk. She very brazenly explained to us that the word for this post in french is a "bite" and that it is the same word as "penis" in french. Very educational! haha

These are my house keys. All of our keys look weird like this.

Here I am in front of the big fountain. Sort of dark and such, I'll try to take a better one soon.

Here's where I buy most my groceries when not at the market. Its called Monoprix and its a department store on the main level, but you go downstairs and there's the grocery!

Here's what I do when I get bored score studying- new hairdo's with my conducting baton! haha. That was me waiting in the conservatory director's office.

So this is cool- All down the street on which I live there are these little brass stones in the sidewalk that say "Cezanne"- the name of the famous painter who lived right here in Aix! He's very celebrated here. Other Aixois- Darius Milhaud (composer), Emile Zola (writer).

Here you can see the stones leading down the path to my house :) They apparently trace the steps of cezanne!

This is me studying in the garden at the conservatory saturday morning. I'm waiting for someone to finish practicing on the organ so I can go practice.

This is the nutrition info on my cereal box- note it is Miel pops- not corn pops. What I love is that it's not calories here, guys, its Energy Value [see the top listing- "valeur energetique"]. Its such a more pleasant way to look at it! haha

Here is one of our glasses at the apartment. Nutella does in fact come in these little glass jars, then when we finish them off, they become handy cups! Yes, that's right ladies, we have a whole table setting of these.

Here's how we dry our clothes- the air. It sort of stinks cause all of our clothes dry in the shape that they're hanging. haha

So, hopefully that gives you a little picture de mon quotidien. :)