asteroid B612

I just haven't been in the mood to blog lately. Summer malaise, I suppose, is the victim. It's been wretchedly hot lately. I feel like we're just in survival mode...just get us to October and then breathing will be bearable again.

I'm pretty much recovered from jet lag and cold. Chris and I have been keeping a pretty low activity level. Yesterday we did go to Baton Rouge so I could sort out my reimbursement for the trip. Today I worked on preparing for the class I'm teaching in the fall and reading for a paper I need to write before the semester. Tomorrow we go to Atlanta for Chris's friend's wedding.

Watched the Clintons last night on the Democratic Convention. That Bill, he really knows how to work a crowd...What a speaker! I don't think I've enjoyed hearing him as much as I did last night. Contrast does wonders.

That's all.

More pics of Europe...including my visit with Alison and Nicolas and their 10 mo old William.

This is the third morning in a row that I have woken up completely awake at 4 am. My body thinks it's the middle of the day. I keep telling it "Ok, so take a middle of the day nap!" but it doesn't listen. I even force myself to stay up all day and into the evening!

I've given up trying to go back to sleep. As I lay there I mulled around in my head the seminar in Dozza, different vignettes, conversations, tunes, emotions, people.

Academically what I loved most about it was how interdisciplinary it was. The whole seminar was based on Guillaume de Machaut, a 14th c Fr poet-composer. (He's really significant...sort of like the French Dante, but a century later and he wrote music, too.) There were three musicologists, a literature person, an art historian, and a historian. It was so exciting to have a musicologist and a literary critic both there commenting back and forth over Machaut's musical settings of his poetry, to have the art historian explain iconography and illuminations and then have the musicologist or literary critic be able to make connections right there. The historian offered new biographical information which had implications for everything. The result of the whole week was an incredibly stimulating and scintillating intellectual experience. We basically got a semester's worth of information in one week, so it was incredibly taxing as well.

The setting for all this was in the borga of Dozza, a small medieval town outside of Bologna, Italy (which is about 100 miles southwest of Venice). We met in a room in the fortress and stayed in local hotels. There was no internet, one pay phone at the end of the town. The whole week was spent in relative isolation from the rest of the world (at least for those of us who couldn't use our cell phones!). But even though I had no clue what was going on outside Dozza (nor really had time to worry about it), it was as if a whole new world was opening up, sort of a cross between Italy and the 14th century, and the citizens of this world were my fellow classmates and faculty members, and I felt a special bond with them for that week.

My days followed a similar pattern: waking up as late as possible, scooting down to the terrace for breakfast with my bleary-eyed classmates, and ordering cafe (espresso) con latte (with milk) from the hotel owner's wife who grudgingly obliged. Sessions were from 9 am to 12.30 pm and from 3 pm to about 6.30pm with a break in between both. I usually used the lunch 2hours for a nap. We had optional singing from facsimiles at 7.45 pm followed by dinner (or as one faculty member put it "forced fun"...it was optional, but if you happened to show up for dinner and we were still singing, you got handed a part.)

Dinner usually started around 9 or so. The first night I really had no idea what was coming. I knew it would be big, but as they brought out a SECOND pasta even before the main course, I knew that later nights defensive eating would be in order. Every night the food was fantastic: antipasta, 2 pastas, main course, dessert. There was always a bottle of red and white wine on the table. I don't even know what i was eating each night, but it was so good. And it was possible to eat that much because it was served over the course of hours. By about midnight things may be starting to wrap up a bit. But for some reason, I was always wide awake, so there were always a few of us who continued to stay, talking and laughing, finishing the wine, taking a walk, downing some grappa. I don't think I went to bed before 2 am, usually around 3 am every night. Even if I did try to go to bed, my mind was racing with languages and ideas.

There were about 20-25 students comprised of about 8 nationalities/languages. The seminar was conducted in English, but in the evening there were more languages flying between tables. More often than once, French turned out to be the dominantly understood/spoken language at my table. And I tried to speak Italian after listening to my "learn how to speak Italian" tapes in the car. But most of my efforts were very stuttering and usually cause for laughter.

It's hard to paint in broad strokes what the seminar meant to me in detailed strokes. But I can't do justice to the details. Often I feel kind of isolated out at LSU. There's...uh...not many other musicology students. (Erica, music theory, being my saving factor.) And this seminar helped me begin to connect with the rest of the world in a way that being in Baton Rouge doesn't. I will also say that in one week my understanding of the 14th c and courtly life has deepend exponentially and has enhanced some of my understanding for areas I'm interested in possibly pursuing for dissertation. So school-wise it was worth every ounce of effort to get there.

Yesterday I got to Atlanta airport, filed my passport in its little spot for the last time, and fished out my drivers' licensce from behind the last Paris metro ticket I used. I got on the last plane (the 4th in 2 days), had a 12 oz can of Coke, and came home. After over 40 hours of traveling, I'm crashing today. I picked up a cold, so I'm sniffling and feeling drugged in addition to jet lag. But I'm back. Expect fuller reports later.

Well, I'm in Paris in the summer, but it really isn't sizzling. It's nice and cool actually. Not freezing like at my brother's, but a pleasant cool.

I do love Paris. It is one of the few places I fell in love with at first sight (I know, it's cliche to love Paris...but there's truth in cliche). Five years ago I traveled all night from hot, crowded southern Europe (Italy and s. France), I heaved myself out of the night train, boarded a quiet early morning metro, ascended the metro stairs out of the sortie, and ascended into cool, clear, wonderful, refreshing Paris. The first person I met was warm, friendly, and helpful. And Paris has never disappointed me since.

The Metro is like Candyland...choose your color, move your spaces. Winding through the spiderweb of the underground rail system. Dropping a few centim in the instrument case of the Ukrainian band, as they serenade the tunnels surging with Parisians and tourists.

Yesterday I went to the Louvre again. There was a special exhibit on Paris 1400, which included many illuminated manuscripts. It was absolutely delightful!! I was thrilled to be there, esp. after my seminar on Machaut last week. After spending several hours taking in every ounce of the exhibit, I wandered through the Flemish/Dutch part of the Louvre, but I was too museumed out by that time. I left the Louvre on the Seine side, and ambled along the river watching people enjoy the sunny evening. I walked down to the bridge after the Pont Neuf and crossed into the Ile de St. Louis. I was making my way towards Notre Dame and guided myself by the spires of the great cathedral. When I got there the place was swarming with people. I went inside and realized there was a Vespers service going on. I stood in the back quietly and watched for a bit. Then I went outside to wait for Alison.

She came by shortly with William in the pack on her back. We dove into the streets of the Latin Quarter and enjoyed a fabulous menu of steak frites at a restaurant on the side of Ste. Chapelle. The city was swarming last night and dove further in, taking the Metro down to the Tour Eiffel where we and the rest of Paris thought we'd see feu d'artifice. (for 14 Juillet, known in America as Bastille Day) We sat down on a curb right by the metro stop thinking we'd get an early getaway with William (her 10 month old). He was very good all evening esp. during the long wait for it get dark. We were actualy behind the Tour Eiffel, so the Tour was on our right and the fireworks were on our left, so we didn't realy the whole effect of seeing the fireworks behind the Tour. Well, when we went to make our early getaway, we realized to our dismay that the Metro was closed until it was over (probably for security?). And it was starting to get a little scary as the crowd was denser and denser and people started to push a bit towards the Metro. I don't think either Alison or I had been in such a crowd. We thought it would be crowded, but we didn't realize it would be so impenetrable. She was holding William and I was holding all the stuff. Eventually, the policeman noticed her, and took us into the Metro early before the crowds, and told us exactly where to stand to avoid the crowd. He was a HUGE blessing! We got home perfectly fine. So it turned out to be a bit of an adventure. It was fun seeing the fireworks, though, and William was transfixed by them. He just had a rather too exciting first fireworks experience.

Today was a bit overcast. Nicolas babysat William, and Alison and I went out to walk around a bit. We went to the Victor Hugo house, which was cool, and walked around the Place des Voges and the Marais district. This used to be an aristocratic part of town so it had a sophisticated, historic feel. We enjoyed the relaxed pace, window shopping and chatting in the park. This is a part of Paris I hadn't been to, so it was fun to glimpse at another part.

Tonight I'm babysitting William (who is already asleep) while Alison and Nicolas go out for their anniversay. A few remnant firecrackers are being exhausted by the hooligan kids outside, and I've just down my favorite yogurt drink that you can only get in France (Yop) and baguette and camembert.

"OOoh! Beautiful. Wish you were here."

View pics of Europe so far

Hello! I'm alive! I'm in Germany now. Arrived quite easily and was greeted pleasantly by my brother at the airport. We came back to his place and grilled steaks and baked potatoes. He has such a cute place! It's FREEZING!!! We could see our breath out on the patio!!

Far cry from sunny Italy. I'm pretty tired. I will say for now, though, (defintiely more details later) the seminar was worth every ounce of effort to get there. The town was amazing. Dozza is very small, basically two streets. No internet, obviously. Beautiful murals on the borga walls. I'll post pictures.

Very tired. I love Italy. More later.

I'm in Gatwick Airport at an internet station with an awful keyboard. Translatlantic flight went fine, but I really wasn't able to sleep, so now I feel awful. :-( My fave part of the flight is watching the little airplane on the screen fly across the map.

I need a cuppa. My flight to Venice leaves in about 5 hrs.

Yes, I finally got my new passport. Well, that the requisite stamp. I went to the passport agency three times this week, and finally got it the last time. The holdup was due to the Theft, so I had trouble paying at first. Then when I finally was able to, I had to come back the next day. And all it was was one stinkin' stamp in my original passport with my name change. I don't know why they just couldn't have done that right there!!! Anyway. It was kind of funny. When I got to the passport agency AGAIN for the last time, I went through the security thing, and the security guard said, "line 7, again," and smiled. And I laughed and said "you recognize me?!" I guess they would after my being there every day this week.

Well, Joanna's wedding weekend has been really nice. My friend Grace and I are staying with my very cool first-cousin-once-removed Charysse, and having a great time reliving roommate days (we were roomies at Cov). We were up until 2 am talking!! A lot of pals from our old hall are here. So fun to see them all, now that half are married, some expecting children (not even their first anymore!). And of course, it's great to see Joanna, who is just fab! Well, time to go get ready for the wedding!

I leave today for the Big One.

Today I'm going to Atlanta. My friend Joanna is getting married on Saturday. I leave from the wedding to go to the airport where I catch a plane to London.
I have a 7 hour layover in London at just enough of an awkward time such that i can't go to church in London. Bummer. Guess I'll sit in the airport and read a sermon.
In the afternoon I'll go from London to Venice (all part of the same Brit Air flight). From where I'll take a shuttle from the airport to the main train station. I may stop and have gelato while I'm there, before hopping on the train to Bologna.
After spending the night (at last!) there, I'll hop on the train to the nearby town of Dozza. Actually, a train doesn't go to Dozza, so I'll have to take it to Imola and take a taxi to Dozza. My seminar is all week.
On Saturday, I hope to visit Ferrara where Josquin worked in the early 16th c. Then I'll go to Germany to visit my brother for a couple of days. (Can't remember the name of his town).
The following Tues. I'm off to Paris to visit Alison and Nicolas. I'll stay there until the following Monday, at which time I'll catch a flight back to Venice, where my trans-Atlantic flight starts. I have an 11 hr layover in London, starting at the convenient time of 11.30 pm. :S And arrive back in Atlanta sometime on Tues, where I'll catch a separate AirTran flight back to New Orleans.

So that's the plan.

I'm not packed. I can't find my favorite brown pants. How do you lose pants!! I don't have my passport yet. Still dealing with the whole Theft problem. I finally did find the marriage certificate after I ordered the new one. The seminar people are JUST NOW sending assignments to read beforehand! Why am I still in my pajamas!?!?!

I'll try to blog when I can while I'm mad traveling, but if I'm not and you're wondering where I am, I refer you to above itinerary.

Ciao!