A Lille Adventure

Music’all… behind the scenes

here are some pictures of what we do when we aren’t on stage

For one of my last weekends in France I was invited to the beach by my french friend Mava. She has a gorgeous little cabin right on the beach, and I spent a couple days there with her and her friends. It was very fun to relax, walk on the beach, play board games and watch TV with some really goofy and silly french people. They were all very fun. It was nice to hang out with some people who had obviously been friends for a long time and were very comfortable with each other, and I felt perfectly accepted. We cooked a lot of traditional french food and got crepes (delicious crepes!) a couple times.  A week or two later I gave an english presentation to the eighth grade english class that Mava teaches. Fun people, fun times. I’m really glad I got to spend a couple days in another new town in northern France. And, en plus, it was at the beach!

Wow, so much has been going on lately that I’ve hardly had time to catch my breath! My last days in France were a flurry of packing, saying goodbye to friends of all nationalities, and mentally preparing to return home. The flight and travel was long but interesting, as I had good conversation with a lot of people. Even met someone who had just graduated from JMU and was teaching politics in France! As well as the ex-CEO of the Swiss branch of Hewlett Packard, who is now a photographer. Who knew?

Once I got back I spent some time with the family and Nate and then Nate, Myrl and I were off to Colorado for Myriah’s wedding! The road trip was amazing and I’m so glad I was able to spend time with all my Juniata friends before we reunite this August.

And now I’ve started full-swing with the Obama campaign. It really is a lot of work, more than i realized. I’ve called 147 people in two nights and found about 40 willing to volunteer, and I now have meetings scheduled every week (if not every day!) for the next two weeks. plus I’m working a couple hours every week at a local call center to try and get back a little of the money I’ve lost with all my travel.

This summer I’m looking forward to traveling to Richmond VA to meet with my old Richmond buddies and celebrate my 21st birthday, and then in July I’ll be (hopefully!) going up to Boston to spend Nate’s birthday weekend with him. Exciting times. 

I’ll try to get some photos up soon of the music’all in France and my trip out to Colorado. If I ever get the time! 

The musical was amazing! I will post about it soon with some of my pictures, but I am in the midst of finals right now. I also succeeded in filming the production, and I’m in the process of loading it on youtube. Expect more updates later this week! For now, you can check out pictures of the entire show, taken by the father of one of the soloists, at this link:

 https://picasaweb.google.com/117059883711200336712/WoslovLEtoffeDUnFils040512?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJrgq8ztgK3XzgE&feat=directlink#5738879506313131618

Rouen!

Jessica, Ingrid and I went to Rouen for a day last Friday. Well, they went for the weekend but I had to come back on Friday night so that I would be ready for musical practice at 9am on Saturday. But I still got a nice view of a different part of France over in Normany. We took covoiturage, a carpooling system, out and back. It was cool to see more of the country side, and both of my rides were very nice and talkative. On the way back I had some really interesting conversation about politics and life in France vs. life in the US.

We lucked out on the weather during our time in Rouen. It had been raining steady for two weeks, but it stopped for one day to give us some sun :) The cathedral was just gorgeous, one of the most striking cathedrals I’ve seen. It is enormous, each tower reflects a different architectural period, and it is visible from almost every point in the city.

Rouen is also the city where Joan of Arc was burned. There is a picture of the exact place where she was burned at the stake, and a church has been built next to it. It is actually just to the side the still-functioning market place. And the large clock in the pictures is really famous. It is a working clock, huge and really gorgeous, right in the middle of all of the old fashioned houses. 

I have to say that I think Lille is prettier (much prettier!) but it is amazing how different this town is, just two hours away. The buildings in the old part of the city had gaullic/normand influence, with the exposed boards on the outside, which gave it a cute little charm. 

Oh the things you see in Lille…

- good cheese

- baguettes

- being able to buy a coffee or a beer and sit in a bar for hours just talking 

- eating McDonalds (I eat it so much more here than at home!)

- Kebabs and fries and samurai sauce

- walking everywhere, be it 5 minutes or 50 minutes away

- wearing tights with all dresses, skirts, and shorts

- having a very easy work load and lots of free time

- vacations every month 

- movie nights and tea breaks with my housemates

- seeing my friends in the musical once a week

- being able to drive 30 minutes and be in a different country

- taking the train

- everything being closed on Sundays and weekdays after 7 o clock

- using a 24 hour time system

- frequent crêpe soirées

- yogurt, fruit, and cheese counting as dessert 

- nutella

- cooking for myself

- having my own room

- speaking, hearing, and understanding french (I can now say that I am actually fluent!)

- standing up for the US (it’s not so bad as all that…)


Going home is going to be weird. Just 16 days.

This is what powdered sugar looks like in France. Each bottle has a different face!

Jessica and I are using our afternoon to make a chocolate strawberry ganache cake for our friend Ingrid. It is her birthday tonight and we are going to her party, so we thought we’d bring her a cake :)

Sometimes this happens…

hundreds of roller-bladders passing by my house in the middle of a blocked off street.

La Piscine, Roubaix

Last Friday we took the tram to the town of Roubaix, the very end of the tram ride about 40 minutes away. The art museum La Piscine (housed in an old olympic swimming pool) was holding an exhibit on Picasso, with a lot of pictures of his life in california and a couple of his lesser-known pieces. It was pretty cool (free entry!) and the standing exhibit at the museum was extensive, and really good quality. It was a nice little jaunt, cool that there are such things so close to lille.