Music! With Anya, and from Peru

Today has been absolutely fantastic.
Last night I got together with my bandmate from Minneapolis, Anya, who had her violin with her. We played some tunes and it was just wonderful to reminesce about Old Man Orville days and hear those songs again and to play with her. She's been in Paris for a few days (she's on break from studying in Italy for the year) and has been playing her violin on the street, earning between 12 and 19 euros an hour! I don't know if she plays longer than an hour at a time, but that's darn good money!

We were supposed to meet up today near the Louvre and play together so between two of my classes I went to the Louvre to try to find her but couldn't... we played text-message tag and agreed to meet tomorrow instead. It seemed pointless to go back to school without even trying to play and make some money, especially after hauling my guitar all around Paris, so I set up in a archway to the Louvre where the acoustics are quite wonderful for amplifying sound. I had seen/heard a flute player in there a few weeks ago. I played the 7 or 8 Old Man Orville and self-written songs that I knew and managed to have a large enough repitoire to not have to repeat them too often- I'm pretty sure no one heard the same song twice since they were just passing through.

At first no one was interested in stopping and sparing me some change- after about 4 songs a man stopped and emptied his coin purse- 70 centimes. That's a whole US dollar! After a few more songs someone gave me a euro. I played in the archway for about 35 minutes and then had to go back to class but in 35 minutes I collected 7.75 euros! Amazing! I was absolutely blissful when I packed up and headed home on the Metro.

When I got to Chatelet, the station where I had to transfer trains, I was walking through the tunnels and I heard an amazing flute band playing somewhere... I kept walking in my predetermined direction and came across a 5 piece flute and string band from Peru!!! What's more, one of the musicians I had seen playing at Gare du Nord just yesterday and had stopped to talk with his friend who was selling his CDs!

A sidenote: I've been dying to hear Peruvian music since I've arrived in France. It's not that I heard much when I was in Minneapolis either, but at least I had a real stereo that I could turn it up on and dance around my bedroom. Here, I only have my headphones.

I stopped and listened to this 5 piece band and almost cried with happiness. I was running late for class but figured that this moment was much more important than whatever my sociology teacher was presenting that day. (Turns out there was a very interesting guest speaker, but I only missed 15 minutes of class.) I talked with the band's CD seller for a while and he told me a CD cost 15 euros, but he would give me a deal if I bought two... I talked with him a little about the music they were playing and asked him if he knew a certain song that's been my favorite for a long time; he didn't know it but recognized it when I played it for him on my iPod. (Bless technology!) He asked the band to play it next and althought it wasn't my song exactly, El Comerciante, it was pretty close and I was in floored. I yipped and clapped and rolled my tongue and the musicians laughed but everyone else in the crowded Metro looked kind of alarmed.

I decided to buy a CD and gave the man a 20 euro bill and he gave me both of the CDs! No complaints there! I suppose I got each CD for 15 dollars instead of 15 euros! He asked me if I liked music (it was kind of obvious, as I was so ridiculously excited AND carrying around my guitar) and gave me a flier for a concert that's happening tonight. A somewhat well-known band from Venezuela is playing at a Cultural Center just nearby and I have decided to go to that instead of going to drawing tonight. Hands down. No question.

I am feeling quite overwhelmed by music at the moment; I hope I can retain my interest in my IES classes for the rest of the semester! It's been a good one so far.

That's all for now!
-Rebecca

Brittany and Normandy

Here's an outline of my excellent voyage to the west coast of France this past weekend:

Thursday:
-skipped Literature and Drawing class to meet Charlotte and Parents
-took Orlybus to Orly airport to pick up rental car
-drove to St. Malo, stopped at a very clean rest area and bought chocolate milk
-arrived in St. Malo, found centre-ville
-St. Malo = walled city right on the coast of the Atlantic
-found a one star (*) hotel with a room for four people for only 52 euros a night (bunk beds!)
-walked around deserted tourist trap, window shopping
-went to a bar decorated with dolls, puppets, and an albatross (Photos to come)

Friday:
-breakfast in the pub area of the hotel we stayed at- croissants and coffee
-walked around the wall of St. Malo, walked out to some islands off shore during low tide
-drove to Le Mont St. Michel, stopped at a cider gift shop on the way
-Le Mont St. Michel = an island with a town / cathedral / fortress built on it, acceseble at low tide, surrounded by water at high tide (Photo to come)
-walked around Mont St. Michel, only had 2 hours to walk around before the parking lot would be under water
-grocery store lunch of clementines, bread, and cheese
-drove to Cherbourg, followed signs to centre-ville but didn't really find it
-fount a two star (**) hotel with a room for four people for only 55 euros a night (two double beds, one in a separate room!)
-ate at a wonderful creperie for dinner, Charlotte and I shared 2 crepes
-le Popeye = crepe with cheese, spinach, garlic, tomatoes, and an egg = my favorite
-found several bars serving Stella Artois (a favorite beer of Charlotte's mom) which were too busy to visit

Saturday:
-breakfast in the breakfast room of the hotel- croissants and coffee again, but better jam than the day before
-drove to find Normandy beaches, visited Utah Beach, Omaha Beach, the American Cemetary
-(video of the American Cemetary)
-warm weather, not too windy
-drove to Le Havre, found it to be a lot busier than we had expected
-got lost in Le Havre driving up and down the bluffs, centre-ville, ville-haut, ville-basse, eventually had to stop to buy a map
-found a two star (**) hotel with a room for four people for only 55 euros a night (double bed, pullout couch for Charlotte and me)
-walked around a restaurant quarter and decided to eat pizza instead of seafood. Excellent choice.
-Charlotte and I found a youthful bar and had a very intense moment with some cross dressers, but a relief to be away from her parents for a while

Sunday:
-breakfast on the go, croissants from a bakery and some more clementines
-visited le Musée Malraux, which contained an impressive amount of paintings that were made in the Normandy region
-on the road again, driving back to Paris
-I think I took a nap for a while
-arrived at Orly at 3pm, in time to return the rental car
-took the Orlybus back to Paris

It's good to be home!

To Normandy!

Hello all friends and family (and whoever else might happen to read this blog),

I apologize for the long delay, and I don't actually have that much time to write, but I would like to relay the message that I am leaving for Normandy for the weekend in a matter of minutes. I promise I will give a detailed account of the trip upon my return on Sunday night.

All of my love,
Rebecca

Critical Mass, Panamalleycat IV, Midterms

Yet another interesting weekend of biking... On Saturday I experienced two new forms of cycling in Paris- Critical Mass and the Alleycat race that I previously mentioned. Both turned out to be something of a surprise, in their own regard, but quite enjoyable.

I met up with Annie (of the Paris Rando Vélo ride a few weeks ago) on Saturday afternoon in front of the Hotel de Ville and we rode over to the starting point of the Paris Critical Mass. Cyclists gather at the Place du Chatelet on the first Saturday of every month to demonstrate cyclists rights to the road and solidarity among cyclists, as they do in many cities around the world, but the mass this month was quite a small one. Compared to previous Critical Masses that I have participated in in Minneapolis which have sometimes reached over 300 people, the 30 people we rode with this Saturday was quite a different experience. The riders were just as enthusiastic about showing their support for the presence of bicycles on the road and once during the ride we stopped at an intersection where a cyclist had been killed by a motorist just two weeks previous. We shared a moment of bell-ringing in respect for the fallen cyclist and then continued on our tour around Paris. Many riders carried large flags with the name of the organization who arranges Critical Mass- vélorution- the same organization whose workshop I visited a few weeks ago. I wasn't able to get any good pictures of the event, but I had a very good time riding with fellow commuters and bicycle supporters.

Later that evening I met Annie again and we rode to the start of the Alleycat race- Panamalleycat IV (I still think it should have been called Panamalleyquatre...) It was somewhat difficult to locate the start of the race as it was in the middle of a large roundabout park sort of thing at the end of the Champs Elysées, past the Arc de Triomphe (Porte Maillot). Annie and I rode around in circles for a while trying to find the start and eventually spotted the group of 30 bikes in the middle of the traffic circle. Annie had decided not to race and instead was going to "document" me while I road (and help me with directions) so I registered for 5 euros, received my commemorative spokecard and nervously stood around talking with people for the next hour. I met some nice Dutchmen (with goofy Boston accents, which they claim to have acquired from watching MTV) and did a tour of all of the bikes parked around the garden.

When it was time to depart, the organizers of the race had us separate our bikes (Parisiens on one side of the park, out-of-towners on the other side) and go stand on the far side of the park while they distributed the maps and manifests (Manifest: a list of places you need to visit to complete the race, the clue sheet for the scavenger-hunt style race). When they shouted, "GO!" everyone ran to their bikes and took off in various directions. Annie and I chased after a group of people who looked like they knew where they were going and made it to the first location at the base of the Eiffel Tower along with most of the rest of the racers. From there, Annie and I split off from the group and tried our best to navigate our way around Paris, but we got kind of lost in Montmartre trying to find a clue that wasn't in Montmartre at all, and also lost some time in the Opera district.

One-way streets and lots of traffic proved to be the biggest problem of the race, along with wearing too many layers. I rode my road bike (instead of the tikit that I had ridden during Critical Mass) and was able to keep up with Annie, but I had a hard time riding as fast as some of the other racers. Using some of the techniques that Phillipe has taught me over the past few weeks (controlling my breathing, cornering) I think I did a little better than I may have if I had tried the same event in early September.

When I arrived at the finish, or the place where they handed out the second manifest, I found about 20 people standing around- most of whom had already completed both manifests. I had only completed the first half. The organizer of the event told me that I only had 20 minutes to finish the second half and I was already quite exhausted... I decided not to bother getting any more lost and stayed at the finish line. I was pretty disappointed in myself knowing that I was only able to do half of the race in the same amount of time that some of the messengers who knew Paris were able to do the whole thing, but later I found out that some of the other riders had only completed 3 or 4 stops on the first manifest, whereas I had finished all 5. I suppose it's not too bad for my first Alleycat race.

They gave out prizes for the top three male finishers, the first non-messenger, the first out of towner, the last messenger, and despite the fact that I didn't technically finish the whole course, the first female finisher. They gave me a hat sporting the name of the messenger company that put on the race.

I'm unsure if I'll continue to pursue Alleycat races in the future, but it was really good to be around a youthful crowd of bikers, compared to the PCO gang that I've been spending time with for the past few months. Even if I don't try racing like that again, I'm glad that I have had this opportunity to compare my normal cycling to.

In the academic world, I got an extremely good grade on my Intro to Literature midterm, a fairly good grade on my sociology midterm, and I think I ran into a brick wall on my Architecture of Paris midterm that I took on Monday. I will find out about my Grammar midterm on Thursday, and maybe will see the results of the Architecture on next week. I am busy at the moment preparing a text analysis of a poem for my literature class, and surprisingly enough, the text we're analyzing is a song by Serge Gainsbourg. How appropriate.

Toussaint, Le Diner des Cons, Gainsbourg

This past week at IES was a shortened week due to the French holiday of Toussaint (All Saints Day) and on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we had our midterm exams. Like any exam, they were daunting and stressful to study for, but in comparison to other midterm exams they weren't really that difficult. For example, my midterm exam for Plant Propagation at the University of Minnesota last year had over 50 multiple choice questions and 5 to 10 short answers... my Intro to Literature class this semester had 14 short answer questions. The amount of work required for the IES courses is hardly comparable to that of at the U of M, but students here are also expected to deal with other things at the same time as studying and getting to class.

My hardest exam was grammar, but I'm not particularly surprised that it was difficult because all of the other mini-tests we've had thus far have been equally as difficult, only shorter. I still have one more midterm next Monday for Architecture in Paris that I think will probably give me some trouble, as we have to study all of our notes, choose one of four topics presented at the midterm, and write for an hour and half on one of the topics. I think the topics will be something like "absolute monarchies of 17th century France represented architecturally" or "Paris in the middle ages and its expansion" which are really open ended, making it easy to write generally for an hour and a half, but really hard to study for because there's so much to study. I hope all goes well.

A lot of my classmates left Paris for the weekend, as we have a four-day weekend for Toussaint. I decided to stay in Paris because I couldn't really decide where I wanted to go and I also thought it might be cool to see the alleycat race this Saturday, plus Critical Mass on Saturday too. (critical mass: manifestation of several hundred / thousand cyclists demonstrating their rights to the road, stopping traffic and making a scene)

Yesterday I went to the theater with Charlotte and her friend Celine and we saw a play called "Diner des Cons." It was made into a film in the '90's and is translated as "The Dinner Game." Brief synopsis- a group of friends organize weekly dinners where one friend brings the stupidest, most ignorant person- the "con" they can find so the friends can compare who has brought the best guest. Instead of making it to the dinner, one friend's "con" ends up at his house and the events of the main character's life unfold as to question who is the real "con." I remember seeing the movie in high school but couldn't remember any specific details about it. It was difficult at times to understand all of the jokes and dialogue (is this word in english or french?) but Charlotte and Celine and I were able to put it all together between the three of us. Charlotte lived in France for a year when she was in high school and Celine's mother is French and they both helped me out with expressions and word-games that I didn't catch.

Last weekend I began discover the music of Serge Gainsbourg, a French singer/songwriter/poet who made music from the 50's to the 80's. I have been getting mixed feelings from people on the topic of Serge Gainsbourg, such as the following:
-When asked about the "singer and poet" Serge Gainsbourg, Phillipe told me that he was no poet. That he drank and smoked and made horrible music. Phillipe's preferred musician: Barry White.
-Mme C agrees that Serge Gainsbourg can be considered a poet and seems to quite enjoy his music, although I've never seen any evidence of this.
-Some French friends of Charlotte offered to play for her a prime example of horrible French music, a Serge Gainsbourg album.

But don't tell me that this song isn't great:
(Do pardon the smoking; he's French)



I am excited to do Critical Mass à la Parisienne tomorrow. I wonder how many people will show up. I heard that last month's Minneapolis critical mass was close to 1000 people. And if there were close to 200 at the Rando Velo the other night, perhaps there will be quite a crowd. A few weeks ago I asked a few cyclists I met if "les flics" (slang for police, similar to cops) in Paris hassle the Critical Massers like they do in Minneapolis but they assured me that since Critical Mass has a permit to manifest, the police actually help direct traffic for the riders. I guess I will find out tomorrow what the actual ride turns out to be. Perhaps Celine and the girl I met at Rando Velo will join me.

C'est tout for now!