Buy one Concert, get two free!

March 13-14th was our 'week-end de travail,' aka the weekend that immediately precedes a concert and books you into 12 hours of rehearsal (three hour rehearsals both mornings and afternoons).

These pictures were taken by photographers that came while we rehearsed Saturday morning in the Grand Amphithéâtre de la Sorbonne. Need to steal pictures from concert night from my friend Elodie still ... You can see me on the right-hand edge of this one, in grey.

Here's a shot of the whole orchestra, plus the smaller chorus, mid-Sea Symphony.

On March 16th we had the public concert of Ralph Vaughn-Williams' Sea Symphony, on March 23rd we had a private performance of the same thing (for our sponsors, my first private concert?) and then on March 25th we had a different concert aux Invalides.

For the concert aux Invalides we played the overture and airs from Mozart's Clemenzo de Tito or something like that (with a soprano), as well as a Haydn cello concerto, and a concerto for violin and viola.

Phew, I'm concerted out. The next one isn't until the end of May :)

My mommy comes to Paris!

It was so fun to have my Mommy come visit me in Paris again :) She even got to come to my concert on March 16th! More on that later though.

One day we spent wandering around the Marais, where we found a 13 à Table, which is a kitchen supply store. Toasters with WINDOWS! The best part is that for a project engineering students do in the classes I TA'ed for, the students have to propose modifications -- and a window was one of the things the toaster group suggested.

The Little Shop ... of Horrors?! Found this in the Marais too.

Another day, after the Marché aux Puces and errands we stopped for a while to listen to the same fun jazz band, La Planche à Dixie.

We were really lucky that my penpal from years ago, Emma, was having her housewarming party ... we took the train out to Melun, and my mom went to dinner with her parents while I celebrated at Emma's with her other friends. Then Emma's parents brought me back to Les Ecrennes with them and we all got to talk for a bit. I'm so glad that my mom finally got to meet Emma's parents, they've heard so much about each other :)

I think it was Sunday night that we made chili! Mmmmmm, I've been meaning to do it forever, but instead I got Mommy's expertise :)

Mommy left on Tuesday morning. On top of the usual bummer, it was a super bummer because my schools all decided to go have grèves (strikes), so I actually could have spent the day with her :( Extra bummer because the trains were on strike too, and so it was a bit more of a pain than usual to get the B out to Charles de Gaulle.

So happy she was here :D !

Spring is in the air ...

At orchestra rehearsal last night, the girls I'm friends with brought me birthday flowers :)

Reasons I love my job (part II)

1. It wasn't a question so much as a verification of fact:
"You're Michael Jackson's mom?!" (First grade/CE1) There are so many problems with that statement that I can't say that I know where to begin. I might have said yes, just because I was too dumbfounded to form a sentence. When asked why she thought so, she informed me that my hair was the reason (note to self --- NEVER straighten hair, ever again).

2A. We practiced opposites. The kids get skinny/fat mixed up with sneaky, a word I didn't teach them. Thus:
Me: What's the opposite of fat?
Kids, in unison: SNEAKY

2B. Also a result of learning opposites, they confuse fat and happy. Don't ask, I have no idea why. So I'll get a stupid grin going, and ask "What am I?!" To which a chorus of small French voices screams in reply "FAT!" It's beginning to take a toll on my ego, but I still can't stop laughing.

3. Due to the absence of a critical comma, one little girl, in listing things she liked, referred to me as "Sister Molly." I think I died a little.

4. In making their own restaurant menus, some important questions arose: How do you say 'Halal?' How do you say 'game room?' How do you say 'This restaurant accepts checks?' Among others. The food lesson tests the parameters of my French vocabulary sometimes. In eight or so years of French classes, never once had I learned that a pastèque is a watermelon. Fail.

5. One time, when I brought my violin, the kids saw the picture of Hebes (who I count among my honorary grandparents!) in my case and asked if he were my husband. Words fail me here.

6. The constant effort of switching between English and French makes it such that sometimes I catch myself pronouncing French words with an English accent, and English words with a French accident. This could prove problematic in a course which purports itself to be the teaching of ENGLISH.

7. Given my reputation as the ultimate spelling nazi, I find it incredibly difficult to accept the decline of my proficiency in English. The worst is finding yourself in front of 25 small children with a severe memory block. Recently, I had trouble spelling 'twelfth' and 'fuchsia,' which I find insulting. Also, rampant problems with homophones and doubled letters.
"Hold on kids, the Maitresse is having a serious brain fart, please wait while she attempts to retrieve her SANITY."

8. I discovered that screaming at children in English is effective long ago, but what I learned more recently is that screaming nonsense at children is not only effective, but highly amusing. I now scream such quality nonsense that it's all I can do to keep a straight face, for effect. PURPLEELEPHANTMONKEY HOUSEFACETOOLDWARF!


Right and I still dance around in front of my classes and grunt at them in exasperation. Grunts are universal.

Don't judge me.

Third Annual Twenty-first Birthday (reprise)

Saturday morning, after months of volleying emails, I met up with the grandson of Dr. Rosefsky, Doug. For those of you that didn't know, I won a scholarship to study abroad (two years ago) that Dr. Rosefsky founded. Doug now lives and works in Paris, and it was great to get to meet him! He showed me some other paintings that his grandfather had done (I really liked them) and also some great quotes that his grandfather had on a sheet -- My favorite was 'To me, old age is always fifteen years older than I am.'

Because I was afraid of the hard time I'd be given on Saturday if I did nothing to celebrate on the actual day of my birthday, I arranged a hasty gathering. I insisted that it had to begin on the very tip of Ile de la Cité (not the Notre Dame end, the other end which literally forms a point). I wanted to make bazookas in the middle of the Seine, in March, SO WE DID!

I'd had picnics there with friends in the past, and it's a really neat location because you're literally in the middle of the Seine, with boats going by on both sides and everything.

Except I probably almost killed us all with frostbite, because the WIND was unbelievable. We lasted for quite awhile (including my cousin, Melissa, who had just arrived in Paris, from Virginia). Right when we decided death was imminent and got up to go find a bar, my friend Justine showed up with her friend that I'd never met, and we ended up being invited back to her friend's house. Awesome! So she invited her friends, and a group of ten of my friends and I all celebrated until the wee hours of the morning! Lots of fun :)

This, however, is the only picture that I took the entire night. I, of course, brought jars for bazooka making, and you can just see the edge of Ile de la Cité with some of the lights on the water beyond it. I clearly missed my calling in artsy photography ...

Then Monday was the first day back to school. When we were making our passports, I had told all of my students my birthday, but the kicker is that a few of them actually remembered! One little girl in Aurélie's class brought me this vase, which I intend to make the focal point of my future home decorating.

It was so sweet of her, especially since I only see each class of these kids for 45 minutes per week!

Then yesterday another little girl, in the school I like considerably less than the others, who sees me even less because I'm not even in her class every week (long story), got me this, and a box of chocolates! I was so flattered and touched that these little second graders had gotten me birthday presents, it was adorable.

I had the self-discipline, at least, to leave the box of chocolates out to share in the teachers' room of the school where I work after-school, because I knew that bringing it home meant I would eat the whole thing singlehandedly.

This little fairy girl accompanied the box of chocolates, although it weighs like 12 lbs and I think it might be made out of lead, so if I end up with lead poisoning please tell the doctors what happened.

Then last night, as had been planned, Guillaume and I held a joint birthday party (he turned 24 of the 4th, and I of course 23 on the 6th). He has spent his whole life in Paris, so I let him do the location hunting, and he succeeded brilliantly with a pub called Saint Patrick's in the 11e. It's huge, particularly by Parisian standards, and very comfortable and chill (although there were matches on, and it was particularly empty I'm told). At any rate we had a pretty sizable group of people going on, and it was great to see everyone.

Also funny because it was more or less a 50/50 split between Americans and Français, so I sat in the middle and tried not to let the language switching blow my mind :) At least school has put me in the habit of going back and forth at the drop of a hat.

Non-sequitur.

When Anna and I had teatime at her place the other day, I noticed this in the pantry/kitchen closet.

For those of you who have not spent considerable time in my house, let's just say that this was my mom's mug of choice (from Brueggers Bagels) for the duration of my childhood, and many memories of car trips revolve around guarding her specific white, plastic cup holder (because the mug's base is not standard size) in our old, red Explorer.

Priceless, this thing should be sold on vintage Ebay.

Twenty-three, schmenty-three.

Rang in midnight with friends and chocolate fondue. A perfect start :)