Reflections...

In the time leading up to this trip, I was feeling somewhat ill-at-ease.  I was having a hard time justifying my reasons for spending the money to go abroad over the summer.  After all, I am not a French major, and I felt like taking a trip just to fulfill one of my academic hobbies was a little self-indulgent in the face of the economic crisis.  Traveling instead of working made me feel a little guilty.  Even though I will actually be graduating from music education on time, which is saving a nice bundle of money, I just didn't feel like my own interest in the French language and culture was a legitimate reason to take the trip.

All of this has changed since I've been here, and I think that this trip has been completely worth it.  There are some great people in the program, and I love my host mom.  I'm excited to have made some new friends here.  On the academic side, I've actually learned a lot in French phonetics that I think could have some interesting crossovers with the way I think about music and flute.  It has also improved my pronunciation and understanding of the French language.  I have also had a chance to explore some of the sights of Provence and use my French in utilitarian and expressive ways.  

I guess my problem with my French student identity was that I felt that music and French are mutually exclusive, that I would have to choose one or the other.  I kind of blame the University for this because it is not easy to schedule courses in both music and French.  I also feel like so much of my world has been musical in the last three years that people don't really know this whole other side of me (that I even forget about sometimes).  In the past few days though, I've realized that French really does just bring me joy, and I want to keep it up and find ways to use my French to connect with people, especially through music.  Over the weekend, I was talking to Jenny, our program director about a job she'd found at a French immersion school in St Louis.  For the first time, it occurred to me that such schools must have music programs, and I could totally teach music to kids in a French immersion setting!  Yesterday, I visited the Conservatoire de Musique in Avignon to talk to the people there, and I may be able to observe some music classes in French in France later this week if I get lucky.  I'm beginning to see a niche opening up to me that I had previously believed didn't exist.

While all of these experiences have assuaged my previous worries, I just received an e-mail that completely solidifies my justification.  I recently sent an e-mail, on Jenny's recommendation, about gaining an endorsement in French on my teaching certificate.  To be endorsed to teach high school French, you need to pass the French content test through ICTS and have 20 hours of coursework.  Before this trip, I had 19 hours of French credit, and I couldn't fit any of the French I wanted to take into my schedule.  By studying abroad, I gained enough credit hours to fulfill the requirement for the endorsement without even knowing it!  Now, I'll just have to pass the French certification test, and I'll be certified to teach music and French.  I really couldn't be happier about my decision to go abroad, and if any of you all are considering studying abroad, I absolutely encourage you to do it!

Photos and Adventures

So my time here is rapidly drawing to a close, and I realized that in all of my jetsetting, I haven't taken the time to adequately explore Avignon, which is an amazing city in its own right!  So, yesterday I took a two hour solo walk around Avignon.  Here's where I walked:

It looks pretty far on the map, but really it's less than 2 miles.  First, I walked along the ramparts, and looked at all the cool places to hide and shoot from.  If I weren't wearing a skirt, I would've climbed all over the them, but I may have to save such mischief for another day... Some photos:

I also saw this van in my walk along the ramparts.  Yes, it has a Playboy bunny logo, and yes those are window shades.  There are no back seats.  It's totally a shaggin' wagon.  (If this van's a-rockin', for the love of Dieu don't come a-knockin'!)

Also took some photos of the Pont d'Avignon/Rocher des Doms.  I think Rocher des Doms/Jardin des Doms is my favorite thing in all of Avignon (yup, better than the bridge).  So gorgeous... and it's so cool how the ramparts just meld into the natural landscape in this structure.

After that, my camera batteries ran out though.  Today, armed with fresh batteries, a bottle of wine, and all sorts of picnic goodies, Anna and I climbed up the stairs to the Rocher des Doms for more exploring.  We climbed up the tower in the photo above, and got all the way to the highest point on the Rocher des Doms (a place we lovingly called "the truc."  You know, we should go climb like... the thing... the truc!  the TRUC!!")  There's a phenomenal panoramic view of the surrounding area, and we took some awesome pictures.  We also had a great picnic with 4 kinds of cheese and split a twist-off bottle of rosé between us.  Lovely day!

SDF's en France

So, being from the suburbs, I would like to begin by noting that my experience with homeless people in the states is very limited.  Deerfield had only one homeless person when I was growing up.  He was so unique in this aspect that I decided to give him a name (Copernicus) and report sightings to my friends.  I've seen a lot more homeless people here than at home.  In France, not only are homeless people seemingly all over the place, but SDFs (sans domicile fixe) are much more active in asking for handouts or just making your acquaintance.  I have never talked to a homeless person in the United States, but I have talked to numerous SDFs and beggars in France.  I have been approached on the street, in restaurants, near the beach, and at tourist attractions for change.  Interestingly, though, there are also some wayfaring wanderers in Avignon who just want to tell you their story.  Today, my friend Sam and I ran into one.  It's funny, Sam's had a couple really crazy things happen to him in Europe (including being deported from Spain to France by the Spanish Policia for forgetting his passport), and I have my own stories, but this nutjob totally blew our stories out of the water!

We were sitting on a bench at the foot of the Palais des Papes studying for our phonetics quiz when a tanned, bearded French guy sat down next to us.  He had a purple sparkly backpack, and he reeked of booze.  He pulled a mug out of his backpack and filled it with some red wine.  He then proceeded to dunk a baguette into the wine and listen quietly as Sam and I wrestled with the infamous "e caduc" of the French language and tried to understand the rules of French syllabation.  After we finished, this guy started talking to Sam.  He began by asking if Sam spoke French, and then mentioned that he had lived in Wyoming for two years and that his grandfather was Scottish, so he spoke some English.  Then, he told us this story about how he became a member of the Cheyenne tribe (the details of the following fantastic story can in no way be verified or confirmed, haha).   Apparently, he was a blacksmith, and one of his clients was a Native American tribe.  He had horse's foot between his knees to shoe it.  As he was working, the horse stood up, but he managed to keep the horse's foot between his knees and finish working.  The chief was so impressed that he declared that this guy must be special.  In an intense ceremony, they cut our friend's hand, and the chief cut his hand, and they exchanged blood in order to become "blood brothers."  They gave him the name "Cheval Debout," or "Standing Horse."  So yeah, apparently we were chilling with a French member of the Cheyenne tribe, haha.

After that, he informed us of his deportation from the United States after gaining citizenship.  Apparently, his sister was a member of the French communist party, so by association, he was too suspicious to stay in the US.  He was given a week to leave the country, and he has never been back since.  He has hope to return now because of Obama, haha, and the improving relationship between Americans and the French.  At about that time, Sam and I made our exit.  As we were walking away, Sam and I agreed that his deportation story might be even better than Sam's... and we couldn't believe that we spent about 15-20 minutes talking to a drunk guy with a little kiddie backpack.  Oh, France :-P

Mes Aventures Artistiques à Paris!

So, now that I've been back in Avignon a few days, I suppose it's about time I blogged about my trip to Paris over the long weekend!  See my Facebook albums here, here, and here!  (in chronological order)

I got all of my packing done on Thursday night, and I managed to fit everything I needed into my one shoulder bag.  Incredibly, I seem to have finally learned the art of packing light! 

We left Friday morning at the absolute crack of dawn.  I was up at 4:30, and I was a little worried about my walk to the train station because right around the time I was getting ready to leave, I heard a crazy homeless person screaming to himself.  Luckily, he disappeared by the time I left (I looked out my 3rd story window first to be sure!).  At the train station, I met up with most of the Paris crew: Derek, Michelle, Martha, Qin, and Katie.  We waited a little while for our taxis to the TGV station.  As we started to wonder how many people in Avignon could possibly need a taxi at 5:30 am, we discovered that Kristen had stolen one of our taxis!  No harm done though, as French taxis actually drive at the speed of light!  We had quite a taxi ride to the TGV station.  It might just be that I am not used to speedometers in kilometers per hour, but we were really cruising through these narrow little alleyways and roundabouts.  To make things even better/more dramatic, William Tell was playing on the radio.  It was so perfect.  I felt like I was on a steeple chase around Avignon.

The TGV ride was great.  I watched the sunrise over some mountains out my window, and then slept most of the way.  Once we arrived in Paris, we bought a carnet of Metro tickets (10 tickets) and made our way out to Montmartre to find our hotel.  Derek emerged as the Metro man.  He strode purposely through the metro stations guiding his gaggle of giggling girlies like a mother goose, haha (I couldn't resist the alliteration).  The Paris metro is really easier than it looks however.  We never had to wait more than 5 or 10 minutes for a train.  

We couldn't check into our hotel for about 5 hours, so we had to kill some time in Montmartre.  We started by visiting Sacre Cœur, which sits high on a hill in Montmartre.  At the foot of the hill, where we were, there are tons of guys hawking their wares, everything from Eiffel tower keychains to sunglasses to fake designer purses.  The most amusing tourist trappers, and the most wiley, however, was this roving band of Senegalese guys, one of whom managed to ensnare Derek... literally.  He approached Derek as the girls all scurried up the hill in a chorus of "non merci"s.  He asked Derek to stick out his finger so he could tie a knot.  Before he knew it, Derek was trapped!  The guy started crafting a bracelet for Derek then and there.  As he made it, he asked Derek where he was from and had a nice little chat.  When he had finished, he made Derek pay for the bracelet.  Derek gave him 1,50€.  Live and learn!

After visiting Sacre Cœur, (and managing to evade the bracelet hostage-takers on our descent), we still had time to kill, so we decided to visit the infamous Moulin Rouge (when in Montmartre...).  Some people seemed disappointed that it wasn't quite as glitzy as Nicole Kidman's digs in the movie, but it was still kinda neat to see it in person.  We also found it funny/ironic that there is now a Starbucks directly across from the Moulin Rouge (tourist trap much?).  Of course, the area where the Moulin Rouge is located is pretty seedy.  The line-up of the shops pretty much goes as follows: kebabs, sex shop, street crêpes, live show, café, lingerie shop, etc. etc.  Food and sex... and some odd fabric stores.  On this little jaunt, we happened upon the Musée de l'Erotisme.  Seeing as it boasted 7 stories of erotic art and and entry fee of a mere 5€ for students, it seemed like an attraction not to miss.  The group split off at this point.  Michelle, Derek, and I all went into the museum.  I think it was fittingly sketchy that we all paid the admission fee entirely in change!  

The museum was actually pretty interesting, and not as smutty as one would think.  It explored the way sex is viewed in different cultures and had a lot of depictions of erotic symbolism in history.  Most amusingly, for those of you who are Dolemite fans, I got to see the vinyl album cover for the Rudy Ray Moore Christmas album!  (Merry Christmas, Baby).  Fittingly, it's Rudy around the Christmas tree with a bunch of naked women, may he rest in peace.  We had a lot of good laughs and saw some goofy stuff that isn't entirely blog-appropriate, but ask me about it sometime!

Humorously, while the eroticism museum cost 5€, the Louvre was free to students!  Clearly, aesthetic value cannot be represented through currency, haha!  (Poll: Who would win in a fight: DaVinci or Rudy Ray Moore?).  In any case, I managed to visit just about everything I had hoped to in the Louvre, including la Joconde herself (the Mona Lisa), Winged Victory, Psyche and Cupid (my favorite), Venus de Milo, and Hammurabi's Code.  While I had seen all of these things at the Louvre before, you always notice something different about a work of art each time you see it in person.  For instance, this time, when I went to see Venus de Milo, I walked around to the back, and I noticed for the first time that she has her hair pulled back in a ponytail with a ribbon.  I had always thought that she had short hair!  So that was interesting. 

Also, with the release of Angels and Demons, I was in a Dan Brown mood, so I took this photo with the pyramids filmed in the DaVinci Code movie, which are supposed to be an example of the union of the symbols for female and male:

In that same Dan Brown vein, it occurred to me that this famous sculpture has a similar form to it.  Granted, his books are full of historical inaccuracies and warped portrayals of Christianity, but they're a fun read anyway.  Not sure if this sculpture was intended to be a union of masculine and feminine as Dan Brown describes, but it's a fun thought to entertain (see the "V" created by cupid's wings and the point created by his leg and her body?).  It's a beautiful depiction of romantic love, and definitely my favorite work of art at the Louvre:

Saturday was filled with even more art!  We visited the Musée d'Orsay, which I actually like better than the Louvre.  It is a lot more manageable in terms of size, for one thing, and I love impressionism.  Plus, it's a very pleasant museum with lots of natural light:

At the Musée d'Orsay, I got to see some less familiar works by famous artists, as well as a lot of really famous ones.  So, while I saw one of Monet's haystacks:

I also got to see this painting... Impressionist Turkeys!!!  (also by Monet).  Awesome, who knew?  Definitely not one of those things you see in a textbook.  I got such a kick out of this, mostly because turkeys are not an animal I see commonly depicted outside of Thanksgiving in the U.S.  Love it, though:

We also went to the Centre Pompidou to get a truly well-rounded art museum experience!  The Centre Georges Pompidou is a really modern building with a really inventive design scheme.  All the pipes, ducts, and plumbing, are visible on the outside of the building instead of being encased.  The Centre Pompidou is also home to the Musée National d'Art Moderne.  I was determined to visit this museum because friends had recommended it to me.  Plus, I had just had a big heart-to-heart with my cousin Evan about modern art before leaving Chicagoland, so I felt like I had an homage to pay.  No one else was too keen on the idea, but they followed me into the line anyway.  I asked a nice couple from Lille (in French) if the visit would be worth the wait.  I ended up finding out that they had a son in Houston working for a gas company, and they told me all about the museum.  Talking to strangers always pays off, haha.  As it turned out, everyone but me hated the museum.  At the very least, they got a great panoramic view of Paris, though (see Sacre Cœur?!):

I saw a great exposition of wire sculptures by Calder.  I didn't take any pictures of the art there because modern art seems like something you have to experience in person, somehow.  I also had a really cool experience in the Kandinksy exposition that really changed my perspective on modern art.  I think I've had a habit of examining most art at face value for its aesthetic qualities: craftsmanship, technique, line, color, etc.  With some art, that works, but with some modern art, it doesn't really jive.  Anyway, I happened upon a guy who was explicating some of the paintings in French, and I listened in to see how much I could understand.  The painting seemed abstract and haphazard to me, just splashes of color.  After his explanation, however, the symbolism and flow of the painting came into focus for me.  It was meant to depict the cycle of life and an interchange between humanity and spirituality.  It symbolized reincarnation.  It definitely gave me pause and made me wonder how much art out there I just totally don't get yet.  It was such a cool experience.  

Anyway, to complete my artsy Parisian experience, I created a little art myself.  I sketched the Neptune fountain in Versaille, and started a sketch of the Rose Window at Notre Dame.  If you think you have an appreciation for the minute details in gothic architecture now, wait until you try drawing it!  Holy cow, it is SO time-consuming!  I'm still working on that sketch.  I'll have to scan my sketches later to add to this post.  

On the whole, it was a very art-filled and culturally enriching trip!  I still can't get over the fact that I payed more for modern art and a goofy erotic museum than I paid to see the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre!  I can't decide what that means about our society... either old art is for everyone but new art is only for an elite few, or I just got lucky!  Who knows.  In any case, thanks for reading!  Hopefully I'll have more stories soon!