Wednesday, October 12, 2011
France 2012
I am excited to start my 6th year of touring with Blue Lake and my 4th time in Figeac! How wonderful.
I am hoping that I can, perhaps, arrange to stay one day in Paris so I can visit the Louvre and Notre Dame.
More info as I receive it!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Delta pays up
I ended up writing a letter to delta after I got past security. I heard from them today and they are offering me a $100 voucher to be used in the next year. While this doesn't really help, I was happy to get an email from their head people saying sorry.
I'm kind of bummed because so much of this could have been avoided with just a little kindness, understanding and care from the agent at delta. I remember a gentleman in London last year saying something very nice:
We were standing in line and having to purchase 20 one-week ride passes for the subway. Due to the computer system, they cannot just punch in 20 and be done - each had to be paid for and activated separately and it was taking a fair bit of time. The people waiting in line behind us starting to complain that we were taking too much time - they actually starting using fairly bad language and then walked away. I felt bad that we were holding up the line and apologized to the ticket agent.
He said, " you have nothing to apologize for. We are trained that our line is only one customer long. We take care of who is in front of us and don't worry about anyone else until you are satisfied."
I thought that was nice.
Sent from my iPhone
Monday, July 4, 2011
My plane
I've never ridden on a double decker plane before. It was massive with lots of space. There were three seats on each side and then four in the middle. I was on an aisle seat in the middle and the other aisle seat was occupied by a man. He said something about getting the two seats between us "blocked out" - I dont really understand, but those two seats were empty the whole trip. It was nice to stretch out on an eight hour flight!!
Hotel in Paris
I had a good dinner at the hotel, called family and then watched Finding Nemo in French on the television. I understood some of it!
Sent from my iPhone
Finally back in the USA
I have a long layover in NY and then I fly to Burlington. Yay! I am excited to be going home.
Back to the USA!
Pictures are probably out of order on the blog because gmail was having trouble connecting, but you get the point!!
Happy summer!
Sent from my iPhone
Military at the airport
I will never forget a student two years ago complaining to me ( as we were waiting to check in) that the guards were "too close" and could I "talk to them about putting their weapons away?" Uh. No. Airport security doesn't like to be spoken to!! :)
Sent from my iPhone
Sunday, July 3, 2011
All is well and the hotel is nice. I watching finding Nemo last night in French. I thought it was funny that in the volcano scene, they still kept the "Wannahackalugie" but in a French accent. Lol.
Time for le petite de jeune (breakfast!)
Vineyards!
About the concert
The concert started at 9pm - quite late by American standards, but apprently common for French. We had to wait for the representative from the American consulate to arrive and he was a bit late, so we actually started closer to 915 at night.
The concert started with a ridiculous number of long speeches - mostly in French which meant that most of us on stage could not understand. It was easily closer to 10pm before the actual music began. The group played well. My French friend, Manon, played a clarinet solo (Rossini theme and variations, for my friends who know music). It was good. We had an intermission and then played again.
At the end of the concert, it came time to give gifts - Blue Lake honors all who help with hosting students by bestowing gifts of mugs, plaques and plates. This meant more speeches. We then played our last piece. The audience stood and clapped in unison - this basically means "one more, one more!"... So we played an encore (Stars and Stripes Forever) and they stood and clapped AGAIN, so we played a second encore. It was MIDNIGHT!!
After, the stage had to be cleaned, music collected and instruments put away. This involves getting all instruments, equipment and luggage into the trailer that the bus pulls behind it.
We also had to load boxes and boxes of food for the kids to eat on the bus - they would eat both breakfast and dinner while on the road.
We all said good bye and the bus left at around 1am.
Sent from my iPhone
Beluga planes
This was at the Toulouse airport.
Dropping off the rental
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Street concert
This is totally chaotic and you have to be very flexible - it's rare to run on time and there is a market day going on around us. Shoppers pass by and it's great marketing for the concert tonight!
Friday, July 1, 2011
The chapel
Rocamadour
The chapel is built into the cliff. Very cool.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
The dorm
Les Chats!! (the cats!)
They yowl at night and keep me up.
Beautiful things
Rosetta stone
Figeac does not have the Rosetta Stone anymore - it lives at the British museum in London. Figeac DOES have the largest Rosetta Stone - which can be found in "le place de ecrites" (place of writing)
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Figeac est chaud!!
I will take and post pictures around figeac for you!!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
C'est la vie!!
If I don't show up for the first day of school, chances are I'm still right here. LOL.
Arrived in Figeac!!!
i have arrived in Figeac minus my suitcase which is somewhere between here and NYC. oh well.
I am using a French computer and the keys are all in different places. Excuse the typos. All those years learning to touch type go to waste as soon as you enter a foreign country!
Ok here is the latest :
On the skywalk to get on the plane to Toulouse, i met a woman who makes cheese.... in CRAFTSBURY VERMONT!! how crazy is that! The flight was fine but my luggage did not arrive. i am hopeful that there is no huge problem because abuot twenty others were told the same. Oh well.
About ten years ago i traveled to Mexico and they lost my luggage - i learned then that you always should pack a change of clothes, spare socks and underwear, a toothbrush and medications in carryon luggage (which i did!!) so while i have no blue lake uniforms, i do have two sets of clothes. my biggest disappointment is that my bathing suit is in my suitcase and its supposed to hit 100 today - my host has a lovely pool i cannot use!!
my rental car is a fancy Mercedes (oohlala) and i drove to Figeac with little trouble. people drive very fast here and i am a slow poke. The road signs are all in French and i cant always tell what the speed limit is.
when i got to figeac, i did nt know where to go. i have only ever walked in this town. through some lucky guessing and finding of a poster, i discovered that the blue lake jazz band was in town and performing - i knew how to get to the performance space and met my hosts there.
Today i relax in the French countryside! we have a big lunch planned and then a reception dinner for the jazz band tonight. Tomorrow the Southern Winds will arrive and the real fun begins! another thing about lost luggage - my clarinet reeds were in there... now i have a clarinet; but cant play it!!!
Friday, June 24, 2011
So pretty!
My question: how could they have guessed what it looked like ABOVE the clouds when planes weren't invented and no one could go this high?
And the delay continues!!
Waiting waiting waiting!
Getting on the plane!!
So... About 2 hours on this itty bitty plane and then I'll be in NYC!
Cancellations and delays!!
So this is what a busy, Burlington airport looks like full of cranky people who have been sitting here for a long time:
Uniforms!
White are for concerts. Blue are everyday wear.
The Adventure Begins Today!
I am going to fly from Burlington to New York City:
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Musical YouTube video (family friendly!)
Visit to Ausable Chasm!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Nautilus
This the nautilus at th submarine museum in Groton, CT. I took a weekend trip to Connecticut to visit my grandmother - my sister was there too so I took my nieces to the museum. My youngest niece didn't want to be in this pic!
Friday, June 17, 2011
This is a pic test
This is my new niece kady - trying watermelon!
A little bit about Figeac, France...
And here's my summary... :)
Figeac is a little town of about 10,000 people. While it has larger "main" roads, most of the roads are very tiny and wind about through lots of houses. The streets are very narrow and yet people still manage to pass two cars through. (I'm not sure how, but I guess I'll find out since I'll have a car this year...)
The house look old. They don't look like houses here. In the town center, they are crammed close to each with no space in between and many have these little alleyways that lead into a courtyard that is hidden from the view of the road. There are tons of tiny little shops filled with lots of goodies - from crepes (a thin pancake) to candy to jewelry.
There are also churches with beautiful stained glass windows. On Saturday, there is a HUGE outdoor market - like a farmer's market, but much, much bigger. It stretches on forever and you find things like food, clothing, housewares and even kittens for sale. On market day, the performing group I am working with will perform in the streets. (More about that later....)
Thursday, June 16, 2011
One Week Til Liftoff!!
I will be traveling to Figeac, France on June 24th and wanted to give my students, friends, family and colleagues an easy way to keep up with my travels.
A bit of introduction:
I work with Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. There are a HUGE arts camp that sends about 6000 students through their camp each summer. In addition, they have a wonderful international program that sends about 600 students to Europe to perform and stay with host families. It's an amazing experience.
Last year, I was asked to be the Camp Director for Blue Lake's French program, Blue Lake en France. This is a week long camp that the International Southern Winds attends in the middle of their month long tour.
I can't wait to share the experiences with you! I fly out next week - once I get to France, I will post often, so check in regularly!
Best wishes for a happy, happy summer.