My Holy Week (which wasn't only filled with holy things)

Well, my week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday was definitely an interesting one. To begin, I only ate dinner at the same time as my host family twice the whole week.

To elaborate. The weekend of March 31st/April 1st was the all-program Germany trip, but I elected not to go. As I had more desire to go to Rome than Stuttgart and Tubingen, I switched my lessons at the Conservatoire around so I had my lessons that weekend, and then couldn’t go to Germany. So, it was a bit of a lonely weekend with all the Syracuse folks out of town, but I treated myself to nice dinners and desserts, so it wasn’t all bad. Palm Sunday, I went to the service at my church here, and we had palms and started the service outside, just like I’m used to. I’ve found it very interesting how close the Anglican service is to the Episcopal service, which makes sense as Episcopalianism is simply the American version of Anglicanism, but at the same time, it’s interesting and comforting.

Monday night, I again got a “free” ticket to the opera with the opera class at Syracuse. “Free” because I didn’t have to work for it (and I’m not in the class), but I do have to pay for my ticket still. It was two operas, both by Stravinsky – The Nightingale, and Oedipus Rex. They were both very interesting, and very enjoyable. Both had a strong dance presence, which is uncommon for operas. Just as there is generally a chorus, a group of singers who basically narrate the plot, there was the chorus equivalent of a group of dancers. The Nightingale had a story and lots of virtuosic singing, as is common for opera, but Oedipus Rex was more of an oratorio – less staging, no scene changes. The chorus for Oedipus Rex was all male, which was extremely powerful, especially as most of the time the citizens of Thebes were pretty angry and the low voices really drove that angriness home. The main characters of the plot – Oedipus, Jocasta (who was the only female voice in the whole opera), Creon (Jocasta’s brother, if I remember correctly), and a few others, were raised out of pillars when it was their time to sing, and were dressed and make-uped all in white, as if they were Ancient Greek statues. It was really quite amazing. Oh, and the other awesomely interesting part of Oedipus Rex is that the entire opera is written in Latin!!!! So, though my oral Latin is failing a little after my year of German and year of French, I was able to get almost everything between the spoken Latin and the French subtitles. And, this is a further proof that yes, the Latin language is still alive!! Even 20th-century composer Igor Stravinsky wrote in Latin!! (Yes, Erika, you can make fun of me now :) )

Tuesday and Wednesday were normal days, with two little exceptions. Tuesday was my third not-so-fabulous mallet lesson of the semester, and got another lecture from my professor, culminating in him not telling me to act like an ostrich and hide, but basically to get my bum in gear and practice. And last Wednesday, it finally hit me that finals are quickly approaching, and I have a lot to do before April 20th. So, instead of taking an easy day, I worked all day long on my finals-type projects, and within this past week, have accomplished a fair amount. So, yes, I may have procrastinated some, as I’m pretty good at, but I should be finished with papers and things of that sort by the end of the weekend, and then it’s only studying.

Thursday night was my second rehearsal with the brass ensemble, but I didn’t get home until after 21:00. The other interesting part about Thursday was the exams I heard at the Conservatoire. This week and last week, the students at the Conservatoire who are hoping to pass their 4th or 5th cycle (the 4th and 5th levels of instruction at the Conservatoire, with 5th as the highest, where you’re either on the pre-professional track or the perfection track) are having their exams. These exams are open to the public, and are an awesome free entertainment. Tuesday, actually, I had heard two percussion ensembles perform their exams, and Thursday I heard two of the other percussionists’ 4th cycle solo exams. I’m afraid I can’t remember too many specifics, just that I was floored by how good they were, and the realization that, if I wanted to (and had the time to practice 7 or 8 hours a day), I really think I could play those pieces as well. Hmph. Tomorrow, the 12th, and Friday, the 13th, I’m hoping to hear the final percussion exams, and then they will all be done. I’m also looking forward to the exams being finished, as the Conservatoire has had a semi-stressful environment this past month or so as people were preparing for their exams…

Friday, after sleeping in and doing some work, I went to a picnic lunch with some friends in Orangerie, the biggest park in Strasbourg, as Friday (and most of the days lately) was absolutely gorgeous. I meant to go to the Good Friday service at my church, but simply couldn’t turn down the invitation to have lunch in the beautiful sun. After our picnic, my friends continued on a little tour of Strasbourg (one of them had a friend visiting), and I went to hear St. Matthew’s Passion by J. S. Bach. A lot of my friends were in the choir that performed the passion, and as Bach isn’t such a bad composer, I thought I’d go to the concert. The performance was amazing, though really long – it lasted nearly 3 hours, with only a short break between the two parts. Everything was together, though – the orchestra played extremely well, the tenor who sang the part of the Evangelist (the narrator, I think – it was in German and I didn’t have a translation, English or French) was a fabulous singer, and the other soloists were also very, very good. It was a little hard to sit there for three hours, though, especially without a way of following what the choir was singing. I still enjoyed it, though, and met up with my friends for a little time afterwards and could tell them how wonderfully they had sung. After St. Matthew’s Passion, I went straight to the apartment of the man who organizes the music at my church to rehearse for Easter Sunday. Fortunately, he had a few percussion instruments, so I was able to drum and tambourine along to the songs. But, again, this meant I ate late on Friday. Friday night, my friend Claire and I went out salsa dancing, which was quite fun. We weren’t asked to dance much, sadly, but it was fun just to people watch, especially as I’m not the world’s best salsa-er. (I haven’t seen anything about swing dancing in Strasbourg, unfortunately.) And, we both realized that we were completely clueless as to what the social dancing custom was in France – is it OK if a girl asks a guy to dance? Is the girl just supposed to stand there and wait for someone to ask her? We decided on the latter, and as neither of us are especially good at leading salsa, we were stuck until someone decided to ask us to dance. But, again, we still had fun, and it was a night out, which I don’t do very often. :)

Saturday was a pretty down day. I ran a few errands, and then when I came home, my host-mother invited me to lunch on Saturday. What I expected just to be a normal lunch turned out to be the whole shebang – my host-family ate their Easter meal Saturday lunch time, as Timothé, the second oldest son, was leaving to return to India (he lives in Bombay) on Sunday. The meal was magnificent – an elegant salad of white asparaghus, mushrooms, and some other veggies, followed by duck cooked with orange, and a homemade chocolate cake served with strawberries for dessert. This wasn’t any chocolate cake, though. It’s what’s called a souffle cake, and if you know what molten chocolate cake is, think of the warm, gooey middle of a molten chocolate cake, only a teensy bit more cakelike. It was amazing, and it was Alix’s first time to make this cake. Yummmm…… Later on in the evening, Claire and I met for a movie and dinner (in that order). We saw Cinderella and the Not-So-Charming Prince, and though I think my French was still suffering from a food coma after my amazing lunch, I was able to understand most of the movie (which was, of course, dubbed in French). For dinner, we went to a tartine restaurant, which has a specific name in French that I’ve currently forgotten. A tartine is literally a slice of bread, but when served, has things with it – for example, my dinner was a tartine of goat cheese and thyme (quite scrumptious), and Claire had a tartine with turkey salad. Though I already knew what a tartine was, this was my first trip to a tartine restaurant, and it was quite satisfying and not very expensive – definite plus.

Easter Sunday, I got up at 7 when my alarm went off, put chocolate out for each member of my host family, and went back to bed. My surprise worked, and when I really woke up, they were excited to have their little surprises, and I was happy I could surprise them. Timothé left for India just as I was waking up, and so was able to thank him for the Indian scarf he had given me as a present. Then, it was off to church for Easter Sunday, and the Dominicans (whose church we, the Anglican Communion of Strasbourg, use) had put lots and lots of beautiful flowers all over the church for the occasion. The Easter music went pretty well (no major disasters, anyways), and we received many complements afterwards from members of the congregation, which always makes one feel better. Evidently, the last time a percussionist had performed for this church, he didn’t impress them much, but I think I successfully convinced the congregation that there is such a thing as a good percussionist. After church, I traveled out to Keinheim (a small Alsacien village outside Strasbourg) for the church lunch, which was also enjoyable. Again, I’m the only American in this congregation, but I spoke with many an Englishman (or woman), Nigerian, and a few French. I also discovered that one of the mothers in the congregation might want me to befriend (hook up with?) her son, especially after she told me that I’m “a very successful young woman,” and insisted on having my address so we could meet up in the future. When I tried talking to her son, though, he was kind of shy, which made it difficult. Interesting. Can’t say I expected that. I ate Easter dinner out, with my friend Jessa, and we went to a very scrumptious Italian restaurant and ate pasta. Maybe not your traditional Easter dinner, but at least it was yummy. After dinner, we went out to a bar (also unlike my usual weekend), and at the end of the night when we left, the waiter forgot to charge me for my kir. Bummer – a free drink. :) (And, for a side note, if and when you come to France or anywhere else that sells a kir, I recommend trying it. It tasted quite nice, and is one of the few alcoholic drinks I like. But don’t worry, Mo and Da, kir-drinking will not become any sort of habit for me. :) )

This past Monday was supposed to be my work day, and I would make flying progress with my projects, but sadly I woke up sick. It got worse as the day went on, and ended up spending the afternoon in bed, eating soup for dinner, and then sleeping for almost 11 hours Monday night. The upside of that, however, was that I was completely better yesterday, and am now ready to conquer the end of the semester (class-wise).

I’ve received a few confused comments from family and friends as to what the next six weeks or so hold, so I thought I’d clarify. Next week, the 16th – 20th, are my final exams. Come Friday afternoon, I will be done with my Syracuse classes. Friday night is the farewell dinner with the Syracuse program, and then Saturday morning the 21st, we seven music students will take off on our music traveling seminar. As we missed the traveling seminar way back in January, this is the program making it up to us. We will return to Strasbourg on the 28th, I’ll celebrate my birthday with those that are still here on the 29th, and then there’s only the month of May. During said month, all I will have to do is practice at the Conservatoire, go to my lessons, perform with the brass ensemble (the 6th, again), and travel as much as I feel like (balancing with practicing). On the 26th, after Pam has graduated from Johns Hopkins SAIS and Beth has graduated from Baylor Medical School, my parents will fly to Strasbourg, where we’ll spend a few days or so. Then, I will move out of my host-family’s house, and travel with my parents for a little. First, we’ll spend about four days in Paris and vicinity, and then my dad and I will travel in the Belgium/Netherlands area for another week, returning to the States on June 9th. So, that’s my plan for the full end of my semester. It’s really hard to believe that I’m already talking about the end of my semester – I’m still not ready to leave France, and still don’t really want to think about leaving. Fortunately, I still have about eight weeks until I’m back in the States, so I don’t have to come to terms with it quite yet.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter vacation, and for those in Boston, cheer on those marathon runners for me! Maybe you’ll even get a nice, sweaty, sloppy marathon-runner kiss. :)