Mardi! (Tuesday!)

This is the corner of my desk right now:

The card - well, that came from Mommy about a month ago along with stickers for my keyboard, so I can see where things are in the French layout. It's a pen sketch of Yellow Narcissus in her room. Every time Françoise comes in and straightens my room, I have to fish out of the little pile of papers on my desk and re-erect it in its place.

The lamb with the goofy smile - that's from Françoise. She found it at the market down the street on Saturday and gave it to me to remember Easter in France. I've decided to class him in the category of appealingly ridiculous. I'm thinking of naming him Stanley, but I'm open to suggestions!

Saturday was delightful - sunny, but not too hot or too cold. I went for a picnic in the park nearby with Amelia. Françoise lent us a blanket and a cloth hamper to carry stuff in and we stopped at the market first, buying plums, olives, cheese, bread, and a little meat. We had ice cream bars afterwards and then stayed there for about 5 hours altogether, including a little stroll at the end. To make up for being out all day Saturday, I was a hermit on Sunday, except for church and a little stroll with Sam. She had to take pictures with a paper cutout of a girl around Strasbourg for the school project of a girl back in PA. So I was the photographer. We celebrated with gelato afterwards. And no, I don't eat icecream or gelato every day.

Tonight is the first of two Strasbourg university orchestra performances. We're playing Copland - Billy the Kid, Dvorak - New World Symphony (mvts. 1 & 2), and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. We're not the best orchestra ever, but I'm beginning to get excited about these concerts. The rehearsal with the soloist went fairly well last night. It was somewhat amusing as he is German and doesn't speak French. So he would stand up behind the piano and talk energetically and passionately about something he wanted to happen, and then our conductor, Corinna - who is also German, but speaks French, would have to translate. The second one is tomorrow evening - 5 euro admission, if you want to come!

Bonne journée!