adventures

LIFE. Yikes. You know that expression, "When it rains, it pours?" It's raining. Metaphorically.

Concert: actually, it wasn't bad. The church wasn't as far away as I had thought. We couldn't hear each other at all, but the acoustics were amazing. The concert itself was in honor of Jean Langlais' centennial (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Langlais), so we did his Messe en Style Ancien (which I very reluctantly admitted I liked by the end) and Duruflé's four motets.

Last night K took me to a wine tasting at the Ecole National Superieur. Apparently last night's dégust was a pretty big deal; K told me that two of the panelists were a legendary wine guy and the EIC of France's best-regarded wine magazine. The wines were from Mas de Daumas Gassac. We had four reds and three whites; my favorites were the 2005 red and a dark, exotic white. Everyone else sounded like they knew what they were talking about when they discussed wines, but I'm pretty sure some of the kids were faking it. Regardless, I had a really good time. Afterwards (11pm, yikes) we headed down to Alysia to hang out with some kids K had met on Birthright. Meeting Jews here is a really interesting experience. Like in Lyon, we talked about how France has mostly Sephardic Jews, while the States' Jewish population is mostly Ashkenazic. I've always told people that I study Christianity because I can be objective about it, but I've never actually tried to be anything but subjective about my Judaism. It's hard! Before last night, I had been pretty disenchanted about meeting "real French people," but I had a blast.

So spring in Paris is pretty whack. It was sunny and high 50s on Tuesday, yesterday was cold and rainy, and today is brilliantly bright again. I'm totally confused. When it's nice, though, the city is stunning. I actually walked through the Luxembourg Gardens today instead of around them, and envied all the carefree people lunching on the benches. It's 6pm, though, and it's still light out, so I don't care how confused the weather gets tomorrow.

That's a lie - I do care. My medieval art class is taking a field trip to Bourgogne tomorrow - we're staying through Saturday afternoon. I'm siked; we're going to see some incredible buildings. Plus, Laura's in my class and we haven't had much time to hang out lately. I have tons of work that I should be doing instead of going, but the bus ride is a couple hours each way, so I'll be abble to get some reading done.

You won't hear from me again until Sunday at the earliest because of the trip. I may not be able to post again till Wedesday or Thursday, though, because Dad and Granma are coming to visit on Sunday and I'll be busy
a) being filial
b) writing a grammar paper (Monday)
c) studying for my Itinéraires midterm (Tuesday)
d) studying for my medieval art midterm (Tuesday)
e) writing the rough draft of my Belle Epoque exposé (Thursday)

It's pouring. Metaphorically.