Autumn - Where I live.

Ok I had a big blog going about my intentions within the mpls/st paul arts community, and how I was going to try to focus on something, and it just... Well - I'm not going to do that, because I never published it. So here's the random version.

I live in Lauderdale! Its a small sectioning of of the Twin Cities north of Saint Paul, and west of Falcon Heights. About at the intersection of 280 and Larpenteur.

This is me and my bike, Grey Goose.


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Ok a bit about work:
I work at CommunityTix which is a ticketing service which provides full box office support, ticket printing, phone sales, web sales, conference registrations, door sales, etc. We work with theatres, choral groups, bands, a couple universities, and others to cover many different types of events.
I am the account executive. So I've analyzed my job to be sort of the liaison between clients and our office. (It is important to note the difference between clients - those who produce a performance/event, and customers - those who attend an event) I am involved with the initial set up of online and phone orders. This is new software for me! But I'm getting more and more comfortable with it. With questions about the event setup, it is generally my responsibility to contact the appropriate person.
I'm helping with the gate/door sales for a few events. We go to all these different sites which is so fun- A bit overwhelming at times though, I must say.
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Me and Tessa after Rocky Horror Picture Show. Last weekend was a slower weekend. I only attended this one show. This coming weekend is loaded up. We're seeing YoYo Ma on Friday, The Electric Arc Radio Show on Saturday, The Deception at the Jeune Lune on Sunday, and somewhere in the middle checking out a weekend expo.


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Ok now is the part I'm really excited about! These are some pictures of my swamp! Its not a swamp at all- rather a nature preserve maintained by the U of M- but it is my backyard, and I have a lovely patio from which to watch my birds and squirrels.

Check back for a full biography on my unfortunate little pumpkin. He had quite a horrific demise.

Oh as far as birds- thats a chickadee. There are also bluejays, cardinals, juncos, nuthatches, and woodpeckers. And so far I've only seen the one albino squirrel. There are dozens of regular grey ones, a little noisy red one, and a chipmunk who runs under my feet, cheeks loaded to the max. Oh and see my ducks?! I'm going to go feed them my dried out bread tonight and make some friends.

First weekend in La Rochelle

So I'm in La Rochelle now, I'm sitting at the school. We have class from 8:30 to 12:30 M-F. My class is wonderful! My teacher is great and very good at what she does. The class is focused on real french (like slang, idiomatic phrases, and converasion) and culture. I thought before that I was reaching a bit of a plateau, but I really do feel like my french is getting stronger. We eat lunch in a cafeteria which is a bit of a walk away (my house is closer!) but despite the massive amount of food I'm eating, I think I might even be losing weight. My host mom is named Sergine, and she's super cool too, I wish I could have better conversations with her. It sucks not having the same personality you usually do, because you can't express yourself in the same ways. But its been reported back to me that she thinks my french is pretty good, so that makes me happy. I'm tired all the time. I could sleep for a week right now. Acutally my arm is twitching right now and its making me CRAZY, and I think I really could do with a nap.

Here's a snap of one of the chateaus on the Loire river valley. The gardens were the main item here and they were huge and so geometeric.

So since I don't have internet at home, I'm going to do some retrospective blogging.

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Friday 6 Juillet

So tonight I went to a bbq at one of dominiques friends' and oh my gosh. I ate more than I ever have at one time, and I know that i'm probably saying that right now cuz I'm so stuffed, but its been a couple hours since the last course, and I still feel like I'm gonna explode. I just have to jot down a couple of the things I ate. Muenster avec cumin, homemade icecream in a plethora of "parfumees" including mango, creme brulee, jamaican rum, raspberry and almond which togeather make a flavor which has a name that I do not remember, carrot, and clove. The last two together were amazing. Ive never had either, and oh lala. Incroyable. mmm... some quiche thing, ham, salad, potatoes, veggies, apple tart, brownies, and on and on and on and on.... And wine. Oh the wine. This must have been a special occasion, and the wine was SO SO good. I am really not a picky wine drinker, in general, I like it. if its crap, thats ok, I still like it. This was NOT crap. It was good. and they told me all the reasons why it was good and I 1) understood by words and 2) understood by taste. Such a great experience . Not to mention the fact that it was atable of 20 50-75 year old french academics having a lovely time with their friends and entertaining the foreign kid who "speaks very well"!!! yayyyyy. Ok. Off to the Loire Valley at 7am tommorow morning. yelch. but i can sleep on the bus.

Through Normandy

So its been a few days.
The last day in Paris was about the end of most peoples' attention spans, including my own, and we saw Victor Hugo's house, the museum of Paris, a Picasso museum, another church, etc. But Ezra wanted to go to a Games Workshop store and it was like a time machine. Super cool. They're way into Warhammer here. He was pretty pumped. My one nerdy friend isn't staying for the La Rochelle program though. :( I'm in la Rochelle now, we spent the last few days through Normandy. Our drizzly weather continued, which didn't seem so inappropriate for northern France. We started in Giverny with Monet's gardens, and I know I've raved about these in the past, because they are like stepping into one of his paintings. They are incredible. Many of the flowers were not blooming yet because it has been so cold, but plenty were, and this place has my itch for a garden going like crazy.
Giverny the town itself is quaint and beautiful. Everyone has the little stucco tan house with the perfectly trimmed hedges and window boxes with gorgeous flowers everywhere. There are horses and cows and everythings very pastoral. Acutally this is most of Normandy. Much of it resembles the midwest acutally, lots of farmland and pasture and things, everythings just a bit smaller and a bit flowerier.
We saw the tapisserie de bayeux, which is a ... 70 meter? long tapestry embroidered in the middle ages to recount the battle of Hastings. Its very interesting and quite impressive.
PS- we've got the Richmond groups with us at this point, so our group tripled in size. Yuck. Now we're a tour group on a bus beside all the other big annoying tour groups in buses. And we don't know these kids well yet, so we don't like them. Many of them now have names and faces, so things are improving. One of them crapped on the bus and now we can't use the bathroom. Not impressed about that.
Anyway! So then we went to another church. and another church and another church. they were huge and beautiful and are all starting to run together a bit. Oh I should comment on the Basilica of St Theresa though. It was built in the 50s in a town called Liseaux, and its HUGE and the archetecture is different than all the rest. and the art is all mosaic tiles. All around and up and down and under and everywhere in this place. It is BEAUTIFUL. And Jesus was about to chuck some fireballs at us.
The bus rides aren't too uncomfortable. I'm so into the books I'm reading and my naps that I don't even want to get off to see the sites we're visiting. Its tough though, 2 hour nap, museum. 2 hour nap, garden. etc.
We stayed in Liseaux at a little hotel that was tres cher ($$$) and was so old and cute. We were fed a catered meal of Beef Bourgion, quiche, and chocolate mousse. The waitress dumped my red wine on my lap. So that was kind of a bummer, but noone was hurt. The group went across the street to a small brasserie for drinks, and I was so full that I just stayed for one, but they remained and got pretty roudy with the locals. "High Five" doesn't translate real well.
The next day we went to the beaches at Arromanches. Dreary day again, but definatly aided in the atmosphere of the town. And finally the ocean! Arromanches is right on the edge of Gold beach, and did not see any major action in terms of disembarkment, but was surrounded by it. Omaha is straight south. We went to a museum and got a nice rundown of the building of the artificial port that was the backbone of d-day. --- Oh I had the best pizza in my life- cream, goat cheese, and some prochutto type meat. Strange, but amazing. Anyway, then we wandered a bit within this place that would feel a lot more nostalgic and things if it weren't for all the CRAP people sell. I'm sick of souvenirs. I'm buying post cards (Of course), but gah. All this memoribilia takes over the acutal purpose of the site you're visiting. We also saw some of the german coastal defense guns (super creepy), and the American cemetary.
We stayed in this little bungalows that night, I called them "huts" and got scolded. They were really cute and comfortable. This was at the base of Mont St Michel, a stronghold built on an island mountain surrounded by the most unreal tidal activity. The tide comes in at the speed of "galloping horses", and maybe thats an exaggeration, but apparently some bus driver went for a cup of coffee once and found his bus afloat. So the stronghold is basically impossible to siege. A monestary was the first thing up there, and it became sort of a place of pilgrimmage. The town feels very medieval with narrow streets and little shops and churches everywhere. Its in a Celtic area too so the mysticism isn't just from the church. I took the French tour, and though my french is ok, I would so rather get the whole history down rather than every other word for language sake.
I just ate way too much. Its too good though, and the meals are in courses, so its easy to pace yourself for more food. Its STILL raining, and I'm basically unfamiliar, but I intend to do some jogging. We'll see how my knees feel about that.

Day 8 & 9

Paris is slowing down for me. Or rather, I'm slowing down on Paris. I've seen what I want and I'm ready for La Rochelle. Normandy is first, and I really can't complain, because it is so beautiful, and I get to sit on a bus and read my books, but the schools from Richmond are joining us for that, and they sort of invade our space.

Yesterday we went to Eparnay in Champagne to visit a ... champagnerie? Anyway, its called Castellane, and they give us a great tour of the process of making champagne. Which isn't much different than the process for sparkling wine, but we seemed to wander into the right neighborhood for champagne itself. ;)

We took a regular train out there, and picnic-ed in a park and met some very friendly provincial ducks. We picnic a lot, which keeps food costs down cuz we're eating sandwiches n things. I has some frites (french fries) and a sandwich called a croque madame, which is a rendition of a croque monsieur, which is a grilled ham and cheese sandwich kind of. Mine had a sunny side up egg on it, which is what distinguished the two. There are eggs on many strange-ish things here...like pizza. Its really good though.

Ok so then we went to the ballet, which was terribly disappointing, and I'm glad I'm blogging about it now rather than last night, cuz I would been quite a grump. The ballet was nice, kind of a provincial theme here too; a peasant girl frolicked around with the village to back her up. But our seats were horrible. Noone sat together, and everyone had folding seats in an isle behind a pillar, or the wings so far up and over that the stage is completely out of view. I cannot believe they sell those seats. They weren't even the cheapest ones. Dr Janc did NOT tell us they were obstructed view seats. Lesson learned about that though, NEVER AGAIN. I am considering trying to find tickets to an opera when we return through Paris.
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Ok and today was Verseilles. Which is so enormous, I can't even begin to describe. It was very cold and windy and rainy though, so that really afflicted the visit. The sun came out a bit as we were released into the gardens. They are also unbelievably huge, and are kind of a labyrinth. I eventually split from the group and had a really nice walk around, and then took the train back to town by myself. Which is so easy. The metro system in Paris is extremely user friendly, and we've been trucking around enough that I almost felt like I fit in today.

But my reason for bolting was really that I wanted to go to the Catacombes, and I did. And they reminded me of the maze at Verseille, except in ancient tunnels beneath Paris, and instead of shrubbery, there were bones. For a MILE. There are hundreds of miles of quarries beneath Paris, which have been used for a variety of purposes throughout the centuries, including aqueducts, war shelter, even sneaking around in Les Miserables. But anyway, at one point in the 18th century, many of the cemetaries in Paris were disposing of bodies unsanitarily and some crypts broke, and there were some problems. So the city decided to move everybody in several graveyards into the catacombs. And I'm not positive, but it looks to me like there are millions of peoples' remains. It was the creepiest place I have ever been in my entire life.

Day 7

I'm a day behind. I'm scrapping the attempt to post something daily, cuz I get all stressed out and behind. But I will continue to post when I can and tell fun stories. So things aren't going to be so chronological right now.

Right now we sort of have a free day. It is Sunday, and he had scheduled that we take ourselves to the Louvre. I am recovering. I think I'll go when we come back through from La Rochelle. I need a down day. I know I'm in Paris, but yikes was yesterday nuts.

We started with Dr Janc, and went up to the basilica of Saint Denis. Legend goes that he was beheaded somehow down at Montmartre, picked up his head, and walked up to this church. Now is is the Necropolis for all of the French monarchy. Seriously, all of it, except, like, 4 Merovingians. Hay, ima teach you some french history.

French Dynasties:

Merovingien

Carolingien

Capetiens

Valois
Bourbon

This all gets a bit shady with Gaul being all territories n things for a long time, and then with Napoleon mixing things up. But anyway, there are a LOT of tombs.

Then Amy and I went to the Orangerie, which has a lot of impressionism and a collection of Monet's Nimpheas (waterlilies) that are.... oh maybe 50 feet long. They're huge.

Then we had lunch and got sort of served by a very Parisian waitress (this indicates rude to the point of almost mean), but I had ratatouille for the first time, and its super good! And then we went to Centre Pompidou. This is modern art. Some standard Pollock, Dali, Rothko kinda stuff, but also much much more that is so beyond most people's conception of art, that the place turns into this sort of outer space sort of experience. The building itself has inside-out architechure, and includes a library, many stages and theatres, galleries, bookstores, etc etc. Acutally I think the Walker has a lot of the same characteristics- We sat in a media gallery (which looks like a computer lab) and listened to some ... sound art?

Then we went and tracked down the club we had found to attend. Its right beside the Moulin Rouge and we were pumped to go, but wiped out. So grocery store, nap, then go out was the plan, but it was 830 by this point and we had planned to go out at 10ish, so my nap didn't happen. But the club. OMG. Called La Locomotive, and it was fantastic. 3 levels with different music. 5 bars, couches, and people. it didn't open till 11 so we were right on time. And we danced and mingled and it was awesome. But the time came to figure out if we were taking the metro back, and it seemed ludicris to me to spend e10 for a single hour somewhere, so some left, and some stayed. So we danced some more, and there was some leopard lady and lots of glowsticks and it was great. But then noone really had any money, and we were pretty sure a cab would have ripped us off, so we walked. This morning I look back and can't believe it. Here I'm gonna google how far we walked. Keep in mind that this is post big day, post dance club, in heels. ok.

It's 5.5 km. Thats 3.4 miles.

Gah.

This is so nice today though. I've been itching for a space to take care of, and so I cleaned up, made some coffee, and scrap-booked. Our rooms have kitchenettes, tvs, a little desk with internet... ahhhhh.

Day 5

I'm going a day behind here so I'm gonna try to catch up tonight.

Yesterday was castle day! We saw Fontainbleau, in which the French royalty resided for many years, and Vaux-le-Vicomte, which is a private residence with a fun story.

Ok. Fontainbleau. Huge- royal- but all day there were these field trips of french and british 4th or 5th graders.

The rooms are all decorated differently, depending in which reign they were done. Some are classical, some renaissance. Tapestries are common, and incredible, considering they were all hand stiched! The walls are all painted and unbelievable, sculptures in wood and in stone, and carpets that are unbelievable.

Blah blah blah. The important thing to remember if you ever see this place is to bring a loaf of bread, because there are swans in the ponds in the garden. And they are not shy!!

Then Vaux-le-Vicomte.

This house was built by a man named Fouquet. He was the financial advisor to Louis XIV, and if you're at all familiar with this period in history, there was a lot of money flying around France at this point. So he had access to the royal treasury, and built himself a house. Sneaky huh? But then, to celebrate, he invites the king and queen to stay with him for a weekend. Now I don't see how he could possibly thought he could get away with this. This is not swiping a buck off someones dresser to buy a soda. Anyway the queen is furious, but the king tells her to chill out and have a good time for a few days, and the next week when they return home, Fouquet is immediately arrested, tried, and eventually exhiled.
This place also has some association with the legend of the Man in the Iron Mask, and much of the LeoD movie was filmed here.

Day 4

I was so wiped out yesterday. I've been napping here and there, and I was hellbent on not going out last night, but pre-game ended up in my room so my arm was more easily twisted. We had a wonderful time! A girl in our group had no problem talking with the guys in for an after work, so we mingled with the natives in a little hole in the wall of a place. I am feeling better as well, so no major consequences.

So yesterday was big. We started in Montmartre at Sacre Coeur, a giant church on the hill. The ground is unstable because they used to use a lot of rock from the hill, so one must walk to the top and dodge these horribly annoying dudes who try to tie a e15 friendship bracelet on your wrist as their buddies pick your pockets. Acutally we had a pretty pushy one give us a hard time when we told him to piss off, and that was the first bit of anti-american sentiment I've ever heard here. And he wasn't even French. haha. what a jerk.

So the church was beautiful. Then we went to la Place de Tertre, which is a little artist square where they sit and paint pictures or portraits or whatever. Its very quaint, and very touristy. Lots of americans. but lots of many nationalities, I heard quite a kaleidoscope of languages.

One more church here, this one had a couple roman pillars. Pretty cool.
If you have seen the movie Amelie, this is the neighborhood where she lived.

Then for my favorite. Pere Lachaise is a HUGE cemetary. It is just awesome. Europeans have a different view of death than we do, its just one more cultural difference, but what happened was your family rented a sepulcre for a certain number of years. You could renew it and things, but once you no longer had the rights to the space, they chucked you and your family into an ossuary and the space was changed over to a new family. This isn't done so much anymore, but graves are not the same as in the US. There's too much crowding. I have a good story about a different cemetary, but I'll tell that when I go to the catecombs.

We had missed the Opera house, so we went back there, and we were all bout done for the day by this point, but it was golden and fancy and so ornate.

Then came crabby wandering because Dr Janc left us and we didn't know what to do. We ended up in the neighborhood of the Moulin Rouge, which is not nearly as glamourous as we are led to believe. And from what I understand, its a ripoff meal with a Vegas show for Americans. But there was this museum down the street which was amazing! It was the Erotic museum, and only Taweh would go with me (I've never seen so many adults scared away by a penis), and it was crazy! You wouldn't believe the amount of art within all cultures and all periods of time that have to do with sex. Some of it was funny, some was very beautiful, some shocking, -- all in all, a super cool museum.

Day 3

Today seemed bigger and longer than it was! I'm getting tired. It is important for me to remember that it is just as important to keep rested as it is to see everything I possibly can. I feel guilty being at the hotel right now, but its storming, and I'm getting sick so I don't mind.

It was a beautiful day today! Hotter than its been, and we walked around quite a lot.

Churches are a major part of our itinarary, and learning the history and architecture and art associated with them is a part of the credits we recieve. So we will see a lot of them, and I'm not sick of them yet! We started at a place called La Madaleine which is a church named for Mary Magdalene. As far as I can recall, this is the most beautiful church we see. It is built in the form of a Roman temple and the grandeur of this place has a feeling of power. The murals along the ceilings, and chapels with pure white statues, and precise detail of every tile in the floor create a space that practically breathes.

and onward! We saw another church called La Trinite, and either choir practice or a mass was happening and the acoustics were unreal. These spaces just fill with energy.

Then we ran around and tried to see the Opera house but it was closed. But not the box office!!! Wooo hoooo we're going to see a ballet on monday! I'm so excited! Then we had lunch, more sandwiches, and we sat in a little park area and fed pigeons. Some of them got brave and would take the bread out of our hands and I played tug of war with a big one. Then we continued to la Place Vendome which is a square with a pillar of melted down canons from the battle of Austerlitz. Also the Ritz- where Lady Di dined for the last time.

Just a skip away from the sqare is the strip with The Louvre at one end, the Tuilerie Garden between, la Place de la concorde, the Seine, the Champs Elysee and the Arc de Triomphe to cap it all off. The gardens were lame! Trees and mud. A few flowers and a fountain with a seagull floating around thinking he was a swan. I was on the brink of allergic reaction at this point and was poppin benedryl so that might have contributed to my lack of impressed. I hope that doesn't happen again. Anyway, the place de la concorde has a real egyptian obelisk in the place where the guillotine (rasoir national - national razor!! haha!) sat during the Terror.

Oh I forgot! We strolled through the Lafayette Gallery- There are a couple around Paris and they are a global fashion and shopping hub. We went fast though, which made most of us pretty nuts.

Now I'm fighting with being sick and I'm going to bed!

Day 2

What to say. We went to the heart of the city- l'Ile de la Cite to be exact - it is the island in the Seine from which Paris grew outward. Notre Dame is huge- we whisked through. There were a lot of people tooling around. Sainte-Chapelle has the most incredible stained glass windows, and was constructed to house the Crown of Thorns and other relics. That is a thing among the churches, however they moved la Couronne d'Epines to Notre Dame. la Conciergerie is a huge building that has been used for a variety of administrative purposes throughout several centuries. It was a significant prison during the Revolution- big names too- Marie Antoinette and Robespierre hung around some creepy cells avant de la guillotine. Apparently she is rumored to have attempted to make a break for it called the Carnation Affair. I think that's funny. At that point, people were getting executed for wearing the wrong length pants, and she thinks she can a) break out of a cell b) not be recognized and c) survive revolutionary paris even long enough to get out of it? Anyway, maybe she didn't even try that, but they moved her to an even creepier cell because someone maybe had suspicions.

Ok so I had a glorious sandwich for lunch. The sandwiches in France are the best EVER- I am a sandwich hunter if you didn't know, and I caught a beautiful bit o' ham n gruyere. But our waitress was teasing us and told Taweh that he looked like her daughter and was very fun and... oh jolly. She was fantastic. But as she was talking with us, a pigeon zoomed into the restaurant, and I do mean zoom- buzzed and ruffled several people, and decided to spend the lunch hour with us. I didn't get a picture, but I've never seen so brave a bird.

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Ok so we went grocery shopping and then a few of us went exploring and we ended up all along the Seine, la Tour Eiffel, et the Champs-Elysees. I ate a crepe filled with chantilly (whipped cream) and then we horsed around taking pictures. I'm solidly into Beaujolais.

Flight and Day 1 in Paris

This will chronicle my stay in France these next 6 weeks- I will post pictures and tales of life, tourism, and my classes in this magical land of cheap wine and roundabouts. I bet all the wine's not so cheap. This bottle I just bought was though- about the same price as the $3 bottle of water. Sick huh? Any talk of sanitation issues regarding the reuse of my water bottle will go straight down the WC.

So I flew out of Minneapolis with my group, which was different than last time, because before I traveled alone.

The flight was unremarkable. Except that Iceland air served us reindeer meatballs for dinner.

Now that we are in Paris, I spent 10 euros at a mcdonalds-esque "restaurant", because I got salmon on my salad. We dubbed the screaming birthday party of 25 eight-year-olds the "barefoot banshees." It was entertaining to watch these kids take laps around the place while their parents sat around their philly melts and smoked cigarettes. BTW this was the ONLY place open since it is Sunday. Except the little epicerie where we bought e2 bottles of wine. That's right. cheaper than the water. I wasn't kidding about this. My bottle of Beaujolais was e5 and was a rip off. I'm sold on the stuff that says "rouge" and amounts to cheap. also, next time I'll scrap the culturalism and order the e2 "hot dog."

Anyway, basically I'm having fun and resolving to be cheaper!