Week 20&21: February holidays, Fécamp and French

In the first week of vacation, I had the opportunity to teach a course in music education at the Ecole holisée in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, west of Paris. I worked with three boys, aged 5, 7, and 11, every morning from 09:15 to 10:45. Time-wise, it wasn't really worth it because I also needed 1.5 hours each way. But the hourly wage was high enough that it wasn't too bad. Besides, I was on vacation and therefore had nothing to do, and finally another musical project, which of course I couldn't miss.
On Monday morning, I met Ilyès, Jassim (brothers), and Antonin, and we learned a greeting and introduction song in French (J’ai un nom). I played the guitar for that because the piano in the room is unfortunately so out of tune that it is unusable :D Then we went outside to listen to the different sounds. In addition to a siren, birds, and wind in the trees, we could also hear the rain on the roof and even the crunch of walking in the snow. We tried to imitate these sounds in school using our body, the available instruments, or everyday objects. Afterwards, we listened to the elephant and the birds from the Carnival of the Animals, painted and danced to them, and learned a German song for the farewell (Guten Tag sagen alle Kinder). That was a lot of fun!

In the afternoon, I taught my students as usual, and in the evening, there was an important meeting with Bubs.: We are planning to record an EP next year, for which different female songwriters will write songs for us, and this project will be planned more precisely in the near future. On Monday, we met with Sophia Wahnschaffe and CassMae to clarify a few questions and brainstorm together. The dream is to make this a purely female project, and the theme will be "Labels." Let's see what happens soon! :)

On Tuesday, I started with the boys again with J’ai un nom and Guten Tag, and then tried a bit of call-recall with different clapping rhythms. Afterwards, I read a story in which all the sounds we discovered yesterday appeared, and the children had to illustrate the story with those sounds. Then we danced a choreography that I had already done for the "Movement and Dance" course at university, to "Im Fluge" by Strauss. After some free movement like in a circus, we had a lot of fun learning this choreo. And then it was already over, and we said goodbye with "Guten Tag." By the way, Saint-Germain-en-Laye is beautiful and offers a fantastic view of Paris, if it weren't as cloudy as it has been this week.

On Tuesday afternoon, I had an appointment at the police station to complete my report for the stolen phone, which I had already filled out online. I was there for about an hour, and it was very entertaining. The police officer, who drank scented chestnut tea from his unicorn mug, asked me about German specialties, told me about his dream of a house in the countryside in Austria, occasionally said "shit," inserted funny anecdotes about the self-description of prosecutors, and explained in detail at the end how and where to store valuables when moving around Paris. It was very nice!

Florence suggested on Monday evening that I could exchange rooms with Gloria. The living situation is such that Florence, Victoria, and I have our rooms on the upper floor next to each other, and then stairs lead to the living room. Through a door, you enter the hallway on the lower floor, from which the kitchen, bathroom, toilet, and Gloria's room lead off. By no longer having our rooms directly next to each other, I would no longer have to make phone calls in the living room or kitchen in the evening, but in my own room. Of course, I agreed and cleared out my entire room on Tuesday evening. The idea of finding a new flatshare is off the table now.

A new ritual that I started with the children during the music week is tuning the guitar (they found it so great that we did it together yesterday). This way, they learn the names of the strings, how to use the tuner, and listen a bit to how the string changes when you turn the "wheel" at the top. We also learned the song 'Petit Escargot', which I have been stuck in my head ever since. We learned the three verses by heart and then accompanied them with glockenspiel, boomwhackers, and bells. That was more difficult than expected and very exciting for the children.

In the afternoon, the room exchange took place: bring down all suitcases and bags, mattress, bed, then bring Gloria's things up, remove the mattress, raise the bed, clean the floor, and move in. Let's see if it's worth it.

And totally unreal: I already had to plan my schedule for the summer semester because the deadline for registering for university courses is already expiring now. Strange, but I always enjoy planning ahead. Moreover, I will probably take a course with Lea, which has been a joke between us for 5 years. Too cool if that finally comes true!

On Thursday, in addition to tuning the guitar, singing (J'ai un nom, Guten Tag), a rhythm game, and continuing with 'Petit Escargot', we also learned a dance to 'Aquarium' from the Carnival of the Animals. Tomorrow, on the last day, we will have the opportunity to play a little concert for Marie, the woman who takes care of the children between and during the individual lessons and works at the school in general. She is 27 and we get along really well. She also studied teaching, but then did not pass the concours here in France, which is comparable to the legal clerkship. She then decided to focus on alternative school methods and is very happy here.

In the afternoon, I went to Versailles with Rémi, which was only 20 minutes further from St. Germain en Laye. Unfortunately, it is currently not possible to visit the palace or the palace gardens, but there is a large area where you can take a long walk and get a small impression of the dimensions from the outside. A few numbers: During the 26 years that Louis XIV lived there, he only bathed 4 times. We also briefly walked around the town, but unfortunately, it was raining a bit all day, so it was a bit uncomfortable and cold. But since I want to return to Paris anyway to get to know the city properly when it's alive, I will also have the chance to visit Versailles again.

Friday morning was already the last session of early musical education with the three boys, and I was a little sad about that. We practiced a new song with a dance, it's called 'Macotue tu nanana' and it's just fun! In the end, we had a 20-minute concert program for Marie, where we sang, danced, and made music. Antonin accompanied Petit Escargot on the piano, Jassim on the guitar, and I sang together with Ilyès. I have the impression that all three (and me) had a lot of fun during the week!

For lunch, I cooked Kneidl with Maggi and cherries and felt true nostalgia.

On the weekend, I went to the park with Luca in bright sunshine and comfortably read by the canal. So I actually used the holidays as holidays.

The second week continued just as relaxed: Anja, my colleague from the high school, has a house in Fécamp in Normandy. I spent the second week there with Rémi, Anja was also there half of the time, and it was really a great vacation. We slept a lot, ate delicious food (I tried mussels!), went to the beach every day. Played a bit of guitar, went to Etretat and Veules-les-roses, played chess and Yahtzee, and of course spoke French all day long! I hardly used my phone and really enjoyed the time. In these two weeks of vacation, I spoke as much French as never before in my time here. That was really great.

The last day of vacation was a very strange one. In the morning, as usual, I talked to my mom and dad, and they gave me the sad news that our kitten Halloween had died. It was probably hit by a car in the last week and simply didn't recover from it. I was very sad because my mom and dad were also very sad. To get my mind off things, I went out for a walk and at the same time withdrew the money for my rent (yes, I pay in cash). Next to the ATM, there was a homeless woman who was talking to me in French. I didn't understand her but was also annoyed, so I said that I don't understand French. Then she continued speaking in English, but I still didn't understand anything and just shook my head and tried to ignore her. And all of a sudden, she punched me in the upper arm! Really hard, and kept shouting 'But why?' I was totally perplexed, asked her not to touch me, and quickly pressed cancel on the ATM to get out of her way, but it took a while for my card to come out again, and she punched me hard again. Then I quickly walked away and was just really confused. Super weird!!

Fortunately, the day ended well, because I was invited to Mathilde's place. We drank beer, ate something, showed each other music, and watched "Amélie." We had a nice last evening of the holidays, which also happened to be the last day of February.