On Friday night we saw this fantastic ballet at the opera (don't I sound so sophisticated saying that??? I love repeating that: "oh, you know, just going to the opera to watch a Russian ballet"). I’m actually probably the least sophisticated person ever. the whole time I was really distracted and envious that I didn’t have opera glasses like the people in front of us, and I flat out fell-asleep (like, passed out in the chair!) during the third act (can you blame me, it was 2 and a half hours long!) It was really cool though; I had never really seen a professional ballet before. The first act was a love story (of course) and they did all this elaborate dancing with these stools. The second act was my favorite-it was like something out of Cirque du Soleil. The whole company wore these bright orange track suits and did all these complex rigid movements with their hand, arms, and feet (they were all entangled, like that exotic many-armed goddess) while they live-filmed it and showed it on this big screen. But, the big screen had a bunch of little video screens repeating but reversing some of the pictures, so it turned out to be this huge human kaleidoscope. And I couldn’t tell you a thing about the third act because I was asleep, but I do remember one of the main dancers twirling around in stilettos, which was impressive.
Saturday was every girl’s French dream…shopping!!! I live right smack in the middle of the downtown area (which is nice during the day, questionable at night…like on Friday, after Toulouse won the rugby match, people downtown went CRAZY. They lined the streets honking their horns and flashing their lights, and someone had gotten a hold of some fireworks and was setting them off over the river right outside my bedroom window. I thought there were canons going off) Anyways, shopping. The stores here are fairly expensive, and I’m holding out for some of the cheaper, local outdoor markets. But it was funny to go into Galleries Lafayette (akin to a higher-end Macy’s) and try on all of the ridiculous French hats and scarves. Again, I’m probably the least sophisticated person you’ll ever meet :)
(Side tangent) Speaking of markets, there are local markets all over the city every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday morning. I ran by one on Saturday, and it was HUGE. It took up a whole block, and was packed with locals, bargaining over every single type of French food imaginable. It smelled incredible! There were stands upon stands of fresh fruit, a whole rainbow of vegetables, homemade jams and honey, spices, hocks of raw meat and shelves of fish, huge wheels of cheeses, displays of hot pies and pastries, baskets overflowing with breads, stands surrounded by fresh flowers, and lots of chocolate. In addition to food, markets normally sell everything from purses to clothing to jewelry. I’ve seen stands for shoes, luggage, watches, belts, even mattresses. Normally I’m working during the market time, but I definitely can’t wait to go visit.
Yesterday I went to Catholic Mass at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg. As far as Catholic masses go, it was fairly short (about 50 mins) and I was happy to be able to understand all the scripture readings in French! We also were able to climb to the top of the cathedral tower, where we were afforded a magnificent view of the entire city (not to mention a bit dizzying). In the afternoon, we traveled by car (I rode shotgun in a super nice BMW, woot woot) into “la banlieue” (the suburbs/ gorgeous country side of Strasbourg) where we had lunch at our INSA professor’s lavish house. French meals are typically many courses (we had a small salad, followed by the main dish of chicken, fresh vegetables, and pasta, then three different kinds of home-grown fruit pies, then homemade icecream, then coffee) and it took upwards of 3 hours. It was SO interesting to share such a huge meal with my professor and his entire family, who all had very intellectual things to say about the European economy, the E. Coli outbreak, the history of France (had to rack my brain for this one in order to keep up with his references to Charlemagne, thanks Madame!), and scientific innovations (I had to listen veeeery carefully to understand his project about electromagnetic collection of dust particles/debris that comes as a negative consequence of demolition). I was so pleasantly surprised to learn that this is fairly common, at least in this part of France, for a professor to invite his students back to his home to share a meal with his family. All in all, a great experience.
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