1) Paris for my birthday with Katie (and Kate)
2) Went to the States
a. First stop New York/Pennsylvania where I was surprised with a trip to the city. We had a delicious dinner at McCormick and Schmicks followed by a concert at Carnegie Hall!! He got us tickets for the New York Pops Orchestra with the King’s Singers and Marilyn Horne. They were incredible. It was an amazing Christmas present :-)
b. Back to Madison. Mom saved the tree decorating for me! So I listened to my favorite Christmas record and we decorated the tree. Matt, Mom, and I played/sang for both Christmas services and it turned out pretty well considering our prep time. Lots of down time and relaxing took place while at home. It was much needed…
c. Drove up to Door County to visit my Dad’s folks. Went for a hike through the knee-deep snow! Got my fill of snow while I was home.
d. Returned to PA for New Years with Derek.
We went to Philly – did some sight-seeing during the day and then had dinner and played board games etc with Derek’s friends, Gordon and Jenine. We tried to play Music Catch Phrase but that didn’t last long as they quickly discovered that I know NOTHING about popular music…3) Returned to France
a. I can’t begin to explain how difficult it was to leave the states again. I was a complete mess at the airport and throughout my long, long day back to Brest.
b. Supervised exams and am now in the process of grading them all.
c. Found a great, cute café on Rue de Siam that I plan to frequent often J Actually, graded some exams there yesterday with Katie.
I’ve made some goals (call them resolutions if you like) for the rest of my semester here. I am taking an active approach to improving my French. First I am jotting down words I see and here throughout the day that I don’t know and then looking them up and adding them to my pile of vocab notecards. Second Katie and I have made a pact to try to be more social and meet French people. Third I hope to go to more French films and do more reading of French newspapers and books.
I’m also going keep up my continuous music education. For starters I found a book that was recommended to me about music and the brain. I’m looking forward to starting that just as soon as I finish the David Sedaris book that I’m in the middle of reading!
Happy New Year!
