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Published: September 25th 2006
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Statues
Musee des Beaux-Arts I just started my second week of classes, and I have been very busy since my last blog. Last weekend France celebrated a weekend of
patriomoine (patriotisme). A few years ago, one of the high elected officials came up with the idea to open up all the museums and historical landmarks for the public to view, and most of them are free. I saw the first floor of the Musee des Beaux Arts, which was classical sculpture in white marble. Some friends and I also walked around the Jardin des Plantes; I've never seen a public park with such careful and ornate landscaping. We finished out the day with a trip to Theatre Graslin, the historic opera house. Instead of offering tours of the building, they were giving artistic and historical presentations. Inside the theatre, there aren't very many seats (when compared with the Music Hall), but every seat has an incredible view. The first part of the presentation was given by a member of a touring ensemble that begins their concert series next week. He brought out two violins, one original Stradivarius, and an exact duplicate. He talked about the instruments, and then talked about the style of music that
Public Park
The view from the entrance at the Jardin des Plantes would have been played back when the opera house was in its heyday (around 1810). The audience really responded to his presentation and his performance of some examples; but alas, he was followed by a 45 minute techincal lecture presented by a historian with a very monotone voice.
I've started most of my classes, though I start another one today. The teaching style is very different than in the US. In the universities, the teachers' job is to present an informative and relevant lecture; it is not in their job discription to look after students. They don't hold office hours and rarely assign homework. No one asks questions during class, although teachers are usually happy to answer questions during breaks or just after class. It is consdidered the students' responsibility to study and read on their own. At IES, classes are much more like US classes, though still distinctly European. For each course, I have a syllabus with all the books that the teacher used to create the lecture, which are all Recommended Reading. There are also some additional Required Reading books for each course. This adds up to a lot of books. For instance, for my course The
Theatre Graslin
The facade of the city's opera house Palestinian Question, there are 2 Required Books, but there are about 20 Recommended Books. So you have to learn what's important and what's not, but the teachers are very helpful about explaining course requirements.
Last Monday, I went to a rehearsal for the University Orchestra. It probably has about 50 members, and they are definitly not going to cut an album anytime soon, but they try. Its a great way to meet French people that are interested in music. It also keeps me on my toes, because I don't really have a big music vocabulary yet. However, my stand parter, Estelle, is very helpful and she keeps me on the right page. One thing that is extrememly different from LSO rehearsals is that there seems to be no big rush to start on time, even on the part of the director. People filtered in around the start time, someone decided to go looking for chairs and stands, and the director finally got things rolling about 20 minutes late.
Last night, a huge group from IES (the institute I study with) went to a football match. The team at Nantes doesn't have an official mascot, though most people use
Theatre Graslin Interieur
The tiered balconies inside the theatre. This was taken during the boring lecture, so everyone is falling asleep. a canary. The colors are yellow and green, and the most popular accessory is a embroidered scarf that fans hold up or wave around. There were about 60 of us at the game, and our section had a great view: we were the first three rows right behind one of the goals. Behind the other goal was the big Nantes cheering section; I would have liked to be closer to that section (to hear the chants and songs), but it worked out really well because we could get a good view of them. Beside every seat was a rolled up yellow or green flag; our section didn't really use them. But the other side all grabbed theirs and held them up to spell out FCN (football club Nantes), and on the sides they unfurled two large football flags. Directly to our left, flanked by tons of security officers, was the Marseille cheering section. They are one of the best teams of the league (and we are one of the worst), and their fans are famous for getting crazy during games. They sat and stood on the fence that surrounded their section, waved huge banners, played drums and bugles, and sang
Marseille Fans
Here is the Marseille section, with tons of banners and colors. They had about 3 songs that they repeated for 2 hours. during the entire game. At one time there were even red flameworks with dark red smoke. They were much more interesting than the game (though I'm not much of a football person). The stadium was very loud and very reactive. No matter whose fault it was, the stadium would erupt with whistle and boos when a Nantais was penalized or hurt by the other team. At one point, the Marseille goalie ran into one of Nantes' players. For the rest of the game, the entire stadium (minus the Marseille corner) would vehemently boo and whistle whenever the goalie had the ball. It was a very close game, but the Nantais won it 2-1!
After the game was over, we were all wondering how we were going to get home. We had taken an incredibly crowded tram to get to the stadium, which is on the outskirts of the city. However, now the entire stadium of people would be competing for the limited tram space. Additionally, during the night, tram service is less frequent; whereas during the morning rush hour there is a tram every 3 minutes, after 10:00PM there is a tram every 30 minutes. However, Nantes knows how
Friends at the game
Me, Katie, Ally, Andrew, and Amy to handle football traffic. They had trams lined up waiting for the game to end. Once one tram filled up, another pulled up right behind it. We only had to wait 30 seconds for our own tram to take us to the center of town. In order to make things run even more smoothly, tram rides to and from the stadium are free for anyone with a game ticket.
My French is getting much better, and getting to know the city. Even though it is feeling more and more like home, I still love hearing news from the states, so let me know what's happening over there. Thank you as well for all the personal emails and notes!
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Aunt Nancy
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Hi Honeybun!
Wow-awesome stuff. Well, life is pretty much the same back here. The whole fam is coming over on Sunday to celebrate Grandma's birthday, your Daddy's birthday and Kristoher's birthday. We are grilling baby back ribs and will have a few chicken breasts. I think I will go get a birthday cake at DQ just for fun. It is rainy today and Brian didn't work so he spent the day looking for an apartment in L.S. Kris has gotten another call on a good job. He seems focused on finishing his degree but sometimes money talks. We haven't heard much from Cara lately. She is busy working. Grandma and I are going to Nashville with the First Cousins Club (10 of us this time) for a wild weekend. Of course we will be seeing the Grand Ole Opry and taking a riverboat cruise. We are leaving 10/20. The dress code theme is denim and diamonds(or sparklie stuff). I love the pics and it is good to see your face. I have already decided Dennis is getting me a digital camera for Christmas so I can move into the 21st century with respect to photography. I need to go. I love you! byby