La Semaine des Arts (The Week of Arts)

Jackie deemed this week (starting yesterday) the week of arts because of all of the artsy things we seem to have been doing/will do.

Yesterday was full of sightseeing and attempting to check things off of my list of things to see in Paris. Jackie and I went to the Cité de la Musique (a museum on music) for a saxophone concert in the morning. The saxophone player, Dave Liebman, is a pretty famous jazz saxophone player. He has played with big names like John Coltrane. I was excited to go see him because my sister plays saxophone and I thought she would like it if I went. The concert was meant to be a little bit of a lesson on jazz as well as showing off his talent. He played with the in-house orchestra that was fantastic. The style of jazz wasn’t my favorite (very, very free form) but he was remarkable! It was also very much a cultural experience for us because he spoke very little French so the director of the orchestra translated for the French speakers in the audience. It was interesting to hear how she translated what he said into French. The concert hall itself was nice and I’m excited to see the actual museum exhibits at some point while I’m here.

After the concert we met some friends at the Musée de la Mode (Fashion Museum) and saw an exhibition on the famous Parisian designer Sonia Rykiel. Later on in the day we went to another concert. There is a small magazine here called Pariscope that is put out every Wednesday. Pariscope has all of the movie times of every movie at every theater as well as listings on concerts, performances and museum exhibits. I had read about this free brass band concert where they were going to be playing music by John Williams. We went to the auditorium not really knowing what we were getting into. We saw a bunch of kids outside and thought we might have ended up at a high school concert but decided to go in anyway. Luckily for us, it was an adult brass band that was pretty good.

After experiencing two concerts yesterday, I have a confession to make. My high school band was lucky enough to take a trip to Germany and Austria the summer after I graduated. Our director, Mr. Leach, proudly told all of us after one of our concerts that if Europeans applaud in unison it means they really really liked you and wanted an encore. We all thought he had no idea what he was talking about and still kind of joke about it today. Well everyone, I hate to admit it, but it is true. At both concerts I went to yesterday the crowd clapped in unison at the end wanting an encore. I literally laughed out loud when I heard this (as I’m sure all of my friends from band will laugh when they read this). Mr. Leach was right…

I’ve seen two American films at movie theaters in the past 24 hours. Last night my friends and I saw Slumdog Millionaire (which if it is still in theaters in the States and you haven’t seen it, go.) at a theater that was only 3,90 euro for young adult ticket! How incredible! That is less than a movie in the U.S.! Most theaters here are pretty expensive except for on weekend mornings. My host mom invited me to go see Gran Torino with her this morning. I had been planning on catching up on sleep but thought it would be good to spend some time with my host mom. It was so nice of her; she paid for my movie and everything! We had a good time and took a little walk around the huge park by my apartment afterwards.

While on our walk, my host mom pointed out one of the prostitute’s vans I have seen. This particular van is always decked out in something new (today it was rainbow colored umbrellas). It was a little awkward to talk about, considering the subject, but I learned something interesting. Apparently in France it is illegal to have prostitution in houses. Therefore these women have to work out of these vans. That answered some questions I had…

I realized I haven’t talked much about my home life. I normally only interact with my host parents during dinner; we are all busy at other times of the day. Dinner is so different than dinner in the U.S. though. It lasts an hour and always consists of 5 courses. First, we have soup (my host dad is in love with soup). Second, is a salad course. Sometimes this is actually salad, other times we have avocados with a creamy white sauce on top and one time we even had a grapefruit carved out with avocado, walnuts and salmon (weird, very weird, but good). Our main course can be pasta, fish, and these cheese croquets she makes for me and always consists of vegetables (usually carrots, peas, onions, green beans and potatoes). Next, we have cheese and finish up the remaining salad. My host mom explained to me that the French normally eat salad after their main course to help with digestion. However, I think the cheese afterwards counteracts that… Anyway, we don’t eat very much cheese, usually just a few slivers with half a piece of bread. Finally, dessert. Dessert can be the most interesting part of the meal for me… My host family loves baked apples in any form. Anyone who knows my picky eating habits knows that is one of the things I dislike most. Unfortunately, I can’t bring myself to tell them because there are already so many things they have discovered I don’t like and I know it is one of their favorite desserts. But sometimes, we literally have apples from her garden that have been zapped in the microwave with a little bit of sugar on them (peel and all). It’s healthy for me so I just suck it up and eat them but chocolate mousse night and cake night are always better!

This week should be interesting… there is a planned, large general strike on Thursday where transportation is practically going to be shut down. I don’t totally comprehend the purpose for the strike but it has to do with people’s reactions towards some of the recent radical changes Sarkosy has been making in France, as well as the changes to the University system that the students and professors have been protesting for over a month now. I’m not sure if I have to go to grammar class or not but it could potentially be a really far walk. Look for a blog post on the strike; it could be an interesting day! Thursday night is also the ballet we are going to. And Friday I leave for Amsterdam!