Day trip through Alsace

Last Sunday, Syracuse University took the students on a day trip through Alsace so we could get to know the region in which we live. It was fun, but it also reminded me how I’m not really a fan of traveling in large groups…

The day started off at Place Republique, one of the tram/bus stops in Strasbourg (conveniently pretty close to my house), where we loaded our purple butterfly bus that accompanied Syracuse all through the traveling seminar in early January. From Place Republique, we went to Colmar, a cute Alsacian town that is the birthplace of the man who built the Statue of Liberty. We went to Musée d’Unterlinden, which houses the altar pieces of Grünewald, some famous altar piece painter. They were actually pretty cool, and worthy of the 15 minutes I spent studying them and listening to the audio guide. :)

After the museum, the group went to Winstub Flory for lunch. (Winstubs, originally wine restaurants, are also typical of Alsace.) We were all served typically Alsacian dishes – I ate chocroutte, which is steamed cabbage with potatoes and various kinds of meat to go with it. A very interesting taste, to be sure. One advantage to the Syracuse sponsored trips, though – it’s a free three-course meal, with salad, entrée, and dessert. Well, relatively free, as it’s covered by the “program fee” we had to pay to Syracuse…

After my scrumptious and filling lunch, I attempted to work it off by walking around Colmar with friends, to no avail. We then loaded the bus again for a smaller Alsacian town, Eguisheim, home to the Wolfberger winery. Naturally, a tour of one of France’s wine regions is incomplete without a trip to a local winery. One of the workers took us on a tour of the winery, and she explained the details of the process and the building as she showed us all the oak barrels, packaging machines, and various other items used in their wine production. After the tour, we had the chance to try three of their wines. We sampled the Cremant d’Alsace (similar to champagne), a Riesling, and a Gewurztraminer, which was by far the sweetest and probably my favorite. However, since I don’t know what kind of wine my host family likes, I didn’t buy any. I did enjoy feeling cultured and swirling the wine, checking the look and smell, and pretending I knew what I was doing. :)

After the winery, we made a quick trip up a mountain in the Vosges mountain range to a World War II memorial. Unfortunately it was too dark to really see anything at that point. If I understood M. Marxer’s French correctly, it was a memorial to all the allies who came to help liberate France, including the Algerians, Moroccans, and other troops who are frequently forgotten. Being on top of a mountain, however, offered a very good view of the surrounding area, and I managed to get a pretty good picture. And for a little clarification, Strasbourg is in a valley between the Vosges Mountains and the Black Forest. Monsieur Marxer is the Assistant Director of the Syracuse program in Strasbourg, and he and his wife (who takes care of the financial matters of Syracuse in Strasbourg) were the two adults with us for this trip.

Other interesting things about my life in France thus far…

Little by little, I’m getting used to life in France generally moving at a slower pace than my life in the States. I will think I’m used to it, and then something else happens (for example, there’s a possibility I can play in one of the Conservatoire’s orchestras, but I won’t know for another month if there’s need for me), and then it takes me a little bit before I am able step back and remember it’s just France.

I’m still getting fed quite well, and though dinner is always something new for me, I haven’t had anything I wasn’t able to finish. Last night, we had some sort of celery and cheese tarte, which was actually quite yummy. And my family is still very nice. Anytime I try to help with anything, past cleaning up my own place at dinner, I’m told “tu es gentille!” (you’re nice!), even if it’s something as simple as chopping onions for dinner. And because I figure I live, sleep, eat, and shower here, I should help with dinner or dishes or something, I’m told “tu es gentille” fairly often. It almost makes me wonder if their other host students weren’t as keen to help out so early, or if the Olagnes are just nice people, which is quite possible.

Tuesday night, I got a little taste of the arts in Strasbourg at a modern dance performance. Usually Madame and Alix go to the dance, but as they’re still on vacation and Cecile had class until late, Lionel and I went instead. It was very interesting… A little bizarre, actually. The sort of story was the conversation between two of the dancers that opened the performance. Then somehow, it evolved into lots of really fluid movements, as the three total dancers traded off movements, or copied each other, or just moved with each other. Two of the weirdest moments in my opinion were when they were tearing off pieces of paper one after the other and eating them (though it sounded cool), and when they were all attached to each other and sort of rolling over each other, and anytime their head was free, they would “eat” one of the dancers (though the connectedness looked cool too). Lionel and I were in agreement that it maybe wasn’t our most favorite performance we ever saw.

Classes are still trucking along, and I’m still trying to find time to get down to the Conservatoire to practice and work out lesson times with my professors. I also finally got my winter snow, but it only lasted about a week. The weather in Strasbourg is a little off this winter – it’ll be cold enough to snow one day, then really warm the next day. I’m hoping for a little more snow, as I didn’t have the chance to play in it, but we’ll see.

As I have set two of my lessons in stone, I now know when I’ll be able to travel and such. Snare is every other Friday, and Timpani is every other Saturday, fortunately the same week. This means half my weekends will be stationary in Strasbourg (unless I take Sunday day trips), and I can travel the other weekends. This coming weekend is a non-lesson weekend, which means I’m skipping Strasbourg and heading for Munich. Time for me to practice my German again!