Day 65: Pau, France

The reason I didn't write this blog post yesterday is because of this stupid test:

Hell.

This is the hardest test I have ever taken.  I basically used the last 12 hours of the SEVENTEEN days I had to do it to complete this test.  I am an idiot.


I woke up this morning and did some homework and played a little.  After class, I went home and started working on this idiot test.  I worked on it for a long time.  Like all night.  So basically that was my day.  I played trumpet for like 15 min. 

This was my favorite day since I got to Pau.

Day 64: Pau, France

So today is a major milestone in my trip.  I have been here for 64 days, and in 64 more days, I am going to be in Texas.  It is pretty hard to believe I have been here that long, and that I only have that long left.

Today started out pretty unassuming, and turned into a really great day.  I woke up around 10 and took a shower, and then I did an hour or so of warm up.  My face felt ok, but not great.  At around 12h 30, I left for the final performance of the opera.  The buses weren't running yet, so I had to walk.

The chateau looks nice with the changing leaves.

I had my rain gear on, so I stayed pretty much dry.  For lunch, I went to Le Chabada (French for: the Chabada), where I have been once before.  I got a cassoulet, and then some lemon sorbet and a coffee for dessert.  It was very, very good.

The decor inside is just as nice. :)

Cassoulet is a local dish made in the south-west region of France.  It is made with white beans, ham, sausage and duck. It is really heavy, and very delicious.

The opera this evening went really well, and was a lot of fun.  Things were very relaxed and there was a great energy.  I think people were feeling very comfortable after several good shows, AND it was the last performance.  I think this is something that a professional company can just never achieve.  The actors were very over the top and it was a lot of fun.  I also found out that Bernard Salles, the conductor, whom I thought was too good for the likes of this orchestra is, in fact, too good for the likes of this orchestra.  He has all sorts of honors and accolades.  He has worked with LORIN MAAZEL and PIERRE BOULEZ.  He just really has a passion for working with amateur musicians, and does a great job.  It was very cool getting to work with him.

During the second intermission, I went into the audience side of the theater to have a look around.  It is a pretty cool old building.

This is the lobby of theater.  The roof is a giant glass pyramid.  It is neat.

Staircase leading to upper levels.

This makes me a professional musician.

After the show, there was a party for the cast and crew.  I got a ride from Tammy, the British flute player.  This whole thing was absolutely wild, and a lot of fun! I am really glad I went.  The evening started with some recognitions, and then there were some appetizers and a dinner.  The bass soloist, Florian Westphall, was bring appetizer trays around to everybody during the recognitions.  All of the soloists were very humble and down to earth.  There was then lots of dancing and singing and drinking.  It was very cool to be a part of it.

Here's everybody eating dinner.  That is Tammy standing up, in the black. 

This is a "dance" that is only done in the Southwest of France.  Basically, you sit like this and wave your arms back and forth.  Then, a person, lying horizontally, will be passed down the line, over the peoples' heads.  During parties and festivals, these lines of people could be 100 or 200 meters long.

This is me with Gerard.  I was at his house for appetizers last night.  He is a very nice man.  He lived in Houston for five years because he worked for Total, which is an oil company that I have never heard of, but I'm sure Dad has.

Here's me with Bernard.  He has conductor hair.

Special wine bottles.

The DJ was pretty bad, so people started singing their own songs.  Mostly local or regional songs.  I think Andre Alba, the tenor, is from the region, because he knew all of these songs. There was A LOT of this going on:

I have more videos, but I bet this one takes forever to upload.  Maybe I'll add more later.

Today was a really great day.  I am a little bummed the opera is over, but it will be nice to have a lot of my free time back.  SO I CAN PRACTICE IN IT!!

Day 63: Pau-Lescar, France

Before you get excited, I didn't really go anywhere.  Lescar is just a suburb of Pau.  I just wanted to make it look like I was in a different place.

I have been really tired all week, and I guess I needed sleep, because I slept in pretty late, despite wanting to get up early.  AND when I did finally wake up, I was a worthless little turd for like 2 hours.  I did basically nothing all morning.  I did eventually start practicing, right when my family told me it was lunch time.  I ate roast chicken with potatoes, onions and carrots, as well as radishes and bread.  It was a good lunch.

When I finished, I went to the University bus stop, near Leclerc and met some friends, and we went to Emmaüs. Emmaüs is a sustainable living community near Pau.  Basically, if you are homeless, you can live there, IF you work there.  They have a farm, a garden, a restaurant, and a giant freaking store.  

Here are(L to R) Angela, Forrest, Alex and Susanne walking to Emmaüs.

In case you want to cisit, here are their hours.

In the giant freaking store, they have everything you could ever want to buy, ever.  EVERYTHING.  Clothes. Shoes. Pots. Pans. Plates. Pillows. Billows.  Books. Motor homes. Bath tubs.  Windows.  Blumbing fixtures.  Ties.  You name it, these guys sell it.

The clothes section.

Pots & Pans

Vegetarians! Don't look!!!

I bought nice dress shirt, two ties, and a cycling jersey that is my sice for 2.50 Euros! Great bargain!

Cool mural on the side of the warehouse. 

After Emmaus, I cam home and didn't do much before opera.   The show this evening was really great.  Every part of it was even better than last night.  Because things were going so well, things got really loose, and the soloists started to have some fun with it.  It was very fun to hear.  I played really well after some rest time.  Hopefully I can get some practice time in tomorrow.

Most of the scene for Acte II.

After the opera, I was invited to this guys house.  He is probably almost 70, and he is in the chorus.  He lived in Houston for several years and speaks English very well.  We had appetizers and champagne.  It was a really nice evening. (There is a picture of that pending.)

Day 62: Pau, France

I don't know if I have ever been so glad for a Friday.  Ever.  I think I was in class for about 32997 hours today.  I did have little spurts of "ok! let's learn some french!", so hopefully by Monday, I am back in the swing of things.

This is us during our fire drill in the morning.  Neither Breanna(L) or Kate were interested in participating in this photograph taking activity.

Class was not too hard in the afternoon, and we spent the last 20 min talking about what we thought about what we had learned so far.  I think she knew she was losing us.  She is a very good teacher.  She gave us candy today, too.   Haha obviously knew she was losing us....

Tonight's opera performance was ridiculously better.  Not that this is a big shock, but it was nice to have it go so well.  The first act was great, and and the second, things really started to feel good by the end.  The third act was not quite as good as the first two, but it was still much better than last night's.  The audience reaction was probably about the same tonight.  I think mostly because on Thursday, they still liked us because there were a lot of friends and family in the audience because that was the show where we got free tickets. 

Here is a close up of the chandelier.

I felt really tired tonight, and at one point was very worried about making it through the show.  However, I played pretty well, but I made some really dumb mistakes.  At one point, I was playing, and it was going really well, and I just stopped playing.  Like, no more air, more valves.  I just stopped.  For no reason.  WHY DID I DO THAT??

This was the show that was recorded.  It wasn't perfect, but overall, it was pretty good.  This has been a lot of fun, and a really cool experience.

Day 61: Pau, France

Today was pretty cool, and almost exactly like yesterday.  I woke up and showered, and then did an hour of trumpet.  It was an ok warm up, but things did not feel so great.  Class today was really, really boring.  Everybody was just dragging.  I think we are having a tough time getting into the routine again.  We all had really cool breaks.  I know people that were in Ireland, Prague, London, Greece, Italy, Germany, Amsterdam, and Spain.  Now we're in class...

Anyway, it went fine, but nothing special happened.  It was very dreary today.  A little chilly and rainy, so I think that also kept things pretty subdued.

This is near the edge of campus.  On right is our library and in the center and on the left is law buildings.  There is a roof peeking up in the very back, just to the left of the library.  That is the building where most of my classes are.

After class, I went home and practice for a little bit before I had to get ready for opera.  I made sure to leave early enough so I had time to stop and get pizza.  It was gourmet.  I even got a cup for my Orangina.

This is the Sud-Ouest Supreme.  I got the petit because I was in hurry.  It has cheese(obvi), mushrooms, duck and some green stuff.  It is pretty good. (This pic is crooked because I was in a hurry because I didn't want anybody to see me taking a picture of pizza.)

So the opening night of the opera was tonight.  It was pretty cool.  I had a lot of fun, and it is cool being a part of it.  I get to go in the big door that says "Artist Entrance".  Lol. Artist. Right...

Anyway, things went really well.  In the first act.  Things kinda fell apart in the second, though.  Just tons of really weird things that I haven't ever heard before.  Quite a few mistakes from the soloists, which was very unexpected.  And for the record, I play like 8 notes in the second act.  Probably why it wasn't as good... Ha... Anyway, the third act started slowly, but ended pretty strongly.  Hopefully tomorrow goes a lot better.  I'm sure it will.  Also, it is approximately 98237598 degrees in that damn pit.  It reminds me of the one day I ever spend in Arizona, in August. 

I would also like to publicly(to all 8 of you) apologize to Gustav Mahler.  I guess your 5th Symphony isn't so bad.

Day 60: Pau, France

So today, in our opera rehearsal, the bassoonist was soaking his reed in sparkling mineral water.  I love the French.

Anyway, today was my first day back in class.  I could gone for another week or two of vacation, but I'll live.  I also, at this point, only have just about 6 weeks left in France.  That is weird to think about, since I have been here for 8.   Well past half way.  And I think in 5 days is half way on my entire trip.  How weird.

Class was pretty easy in the morning.  We mostly just talked about our vacations.  Everybody seemed interested in my teaching experience in Quiberon.  After lunch, I went to the library and stumbled across this book:

If you don't know what this relates to...

I'll tell you.  The Scouts show was based on this play (Not really, we took the title of it), in 2008.

Boy did we ever get the language wrong...

After class, I tried to practice, but I could really get going on it today, and I didn't have very much time, so I just played a bunch of arpeggios.  In the evening, from 20h to 00h, I had an opera rehearsal -- our last.  Tomorrow is opening night.  We'll see how it goes.  Today's rehearsal was not as good, but I think things will be fine tomorrow.  Will see.

Also, I still think I am getting sick.  On Tuesday, I had this weird vision of me being really sick during the performances.  I would really like that to be false.  Though, it would  be sweet to discover I have the ability of precognition.  I will tell you your fortune for $10.

Day 59: Pau, France

So, today was my last day of the Fall break--despite what any misleading Facebook posts may have led you to believe. I woke up at around 9h and it was raining, which is always nice here in the Attic, so I just slept for another hour, and then took my time getting up.  I started playing at about 11h 30, and had a pretty good first hour.  I took a break for a while, and kinda acted like I was working on my literature midterm, and relaxed.  At aroun 13h, I had a nice lunch with my family.  I told them about my break, and attempted, for probably the third time, to explain drum corps to them, and again, did not have much success.  After lunch, I did nothing for about an hour, and then I did a two hour practice session.  It is going ok.  I just have to keep reminding myself this is a process...

I left for opera at around 18h 20, so I could eat before rehearsal.  Because it was All Saints Day (AKA: Great reason to not work), not a lot was open.  I ended up at Quick Burger, right near the theater.  Decidedly NOT quick, as I have mentioned previously.  Liars.  I do like that their fries come without any salt, and if you want it, you have to add it yourself.  They are also basically without grease. 


I got to the theater a little early, and tried to take a few pictures.  The theater is Le Theatre St. Louis, and it was built in 1862.  It is not very big, only seating a little over 400, but it is really cool.  I really struggled to get some good pictures, but these were the best I could do.  It's not so big, so it is hard to get far enough away from any part of it to get it all in frame.  

This picture is from the conductors podium in the pit, so there is a floor full of seats about level with the camera.  There is seating in all three balconies.

Here is a look up at the chandelier and ceiling over the audience.

The ring at the top features the names of various French composers.

Lots of cool details in the ornamentation.  I sit down and to the right of where I was standing when I took this photo.

 All of the blue stuff on the walls that looks like that fancy carpet they put on concert hall seats and bannisters is actually blue carpet, so I'm sure the acoustics in the hall are just fantastic.

Here's a closer view of the decorations on the balconies.

Here is my view from the pit.  We aren't really playing.  Bernard saw me taking a photo, so he acted like he was conducting.

Rehearsal today went really, really well.  We made it through the first two acts and only stopped once, very briefly.  Things seem to be going much better, than they have been.  I think this will end up being pretty good.  I was also really happy with how I played, despite being so tired.  I only fracked a couple of notes in the entire rehearsal.  Granted, I was still far from perfect, but I am glad I am eliminating some playing errors.