les cours des herbs, de francais, de musique

Have you ever taken classes in infusion, conversation or improvisation?

Well, we have...In the last 24 hours, we took all three.

Here are the class descriptions.

Infusion

My 3rd herb class was on fennel -- or "fenouille," in french. Fennel is mainly used to cleanse your mouth and help digestion. I told my family a bit about its history, like the fact that in the XVIIth century in Florence, Marie de Medici ate fennel pills after meals (she sugar coated fennel seeds) to clean her mouth. We tasted pinches of dried fennel seeds dipped in a bowl of sugar.

We also ripped the stocks off the bulb and tasted little bits and smelled.

It is such a strong but fruity smell. Try it! Then, using the seeds, we made an infusion: 1 coffee spoon full of seeds, 1 cup of cold water, let boil for 2 minutes, then infuse for 10 minutes, then filter.

From now on, we drink one cup after dinner...well, really, because we didn't make enough, we only drink about 1/4 of a cup.


Conversation

Alice is our new french teacher.

She is our music teacher's daughter. She's 15 and is very cool. And when I say cool, I mean, she used to have different colored dreds (but she cut them yesterday) and she wears big thick skate style shoes with three different laces. She just got 3rd place in a regional writing contest. She is shy and nice.

We sat at our kitchen table and went over some words and told her some phrases and words we wanted to learn and then we went out with her and bought some post cards for friends.

(My mom met us at the store and took a photo when were about to come back home)

Here are some words and phrases we learned:

Je ne comprends pas = I don't understand

Qu'est-ce que c'est = What is this?

Comment dit on? = How do you say...?

un verre = a glass

eau = water

Quel est ton nom? = What is your name?

Quel age as tu? = How old are you?

Mon nom est Eleanore = My name is Eleanore

J'ai dix ans = I am 10 years old (directly translated: I HAVE 10 years)

Lit= Bed

Chaise = Chair

A few more are: coussin, couverture, fleur, fontaine, pantalon, jupe, singe, pinguin, girafe, dauphin, taura, vache, lavande.

Improvisation

On our way to music, we ate a sandwich of lettuce, salami and good baguette.

We were quite tired after language classes; we could hardly make it to music.

But we finally got out of our drowsiness...

...just in time to dodge the 100mph car whizzing along the skinny road...After it went by, I practiced being hit by one.

...and earlier today, Frances practiced being Backwards Lady.

So back to improvisation.

Marc, our music teacher, calls improvisation "invention." Improvising is difficult, but Marc says it will become easy. I kind of believe him. It's hard because you can't just go all over the violin; you have to stay within a key. There's more to it, but it'll take forever for me to explain.

It was so cool. Marc disconnected the horse hairs from the bow and swung it around like a horse's tail. My mom says, "This is classic Marc. He wanted to explain why it was good to loosen the bow after playing. He didn't just say it was important; he showed us what the hairs are like loose, tight, too tight, and said that the bow is working too hard too long if you don't loosen it. He wants the girls to connect to music and their instruments; he wants them to know music--and not think it's a mystery."

This is me tuning my violin--nothing too exciting

This is Frances playing some chords. My mom says, "she's learning chords, their connection to each other; and how to play fluidly and softly. As Marc says, the low hand is the 'band' and the upper hand is the singer. The band cannot overpower the singer! He's very gentle with both girls and wants them to love their time with him. Frances leaves lessons saying, 'He's just so GREAT!'"

My mom says, "The following video clip is so interesting. What Marc is saying is music is made of tension--the question and the answer. You can't leave your music in a question--too much tension! We need to feel complete. Kind of like life, huh? Too many questions give us some serious tension. Every once in a while we need an answer, an exhale. In this clip, he's also reminding the girls if they can explain what they're thinking or what they remember, then they really have it in their heads.


Here's my teacher. He always starts out in French and then he knows we can't understand a word he's saying...so he's nice enough to go into English.
Watch the video for proof:




Finally, my mom, Frances and I got home at 8PM after being very thirsty. Frances drank out of a glass; I drank out of the bottle; and my mom drank some wine out of a little yogurt glass.

Enough talking. We've got to go to bed. This graffiti will say the rest: