Travellers 1, 2, 3

 

One of the least charming aspects of doing the European tour is actually getting to Europe itself.  A four hour bus ride takes us from the campground to the Detroit airport, where we wait four and a half hours for the plane to leave, which then takes another eight or nine hours to fly into Paris.  THEN we are picked up by our tour bus for an immediate seven and a half hour journey into Germany to our first stop.  Needless to say, it’s a tedious amount of travel after such an exhausting week.

A bit of bus boredom selfie-ness with the maestro hanging out in the background

In years past, the soloists have traveled with the choir and flown out of Chicago; however, this year we were cordoned off with the orchestra group and got to fly out of Detroit … an airport with which I am much for familiar (and quite frankly prefer much more over the Windy City’s).

Arrivals at any stop can be a bit calamitous, especially ones which require an organized yet hasty unloading of three buses of campers, instruments and luggage.  You’ve never received such looks of disdain as when traveling with 80+ high schoolers.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, I share in their eye-rollituted, but there ain’t nothin’ I can do about it.

Mid luggage unloading.  This is about a third of the total in case you need a bit of scale, not to mention the myriad of instruments

 

Historically, Blue Lake has used Air France as their preferred travel provider, and this year was no different.  I must say, though, that the folks at DTW have definitely got a leg up on their ORD counterparts.  I mean… FRESH FLOWERS for goodness’ sake! 

Let’s just pretend those yellow roses were specifically placed there for this dear Texan, shall we?

 

Having gone to the University of Michigan in nearby Ann Arbor, the Detroit airport was my go-to departure point whenever flying anywhere of import, and I must say it was a pleasure to once again spend a bit of time in the psychedelically enhanced walkway between terminals.  Even DTW’s light tunnel has a leg up on ORD’s!

 

Colors, man… just look at those colors

 

The schedule being what it is, one tends to have to grab any amount of sleep whenever possible.  We hadn’t even taken off before Sabrina managed to knock back a couple of z’s on the plane.

JEALOUS!

 

Super classy as always, Air France (and later the orchestra bus in Europe) were kind enough to provide the soloists with our own cough drop holders.  That’s what’s happening here, right?

 

Cough drops aren’t the only thing that can be mentholated

 

With the exception of one of the bass instruments getting broken during transit, every leg of the trip went very smoothly for all involved, and we arrived into our first stop, Landau, right on time.  One never knows exactly what the internet situation will be at each host stay, but I’ll try to update as soon (and as much) as possible!

 

Artist: Meredith Monk / Album: Book of Days

You’d Think a Person Could Travel Lighter Than This

 

We departed from Dillingen on Thursday, July 14th at around 4:00 pm Paris bound for a flight the next morning.  Before leaving, however, I was able to get a picture with Carole and our lovely host family:

I MISS Y’ALL!!!!

 

Even though he wasn’t able to join us for the farewell I feel it necessary to represent our host brother, Leopold:

No really, don’t bother getting up to say goodbye!

 

The bus ride to Paris took twelve hours (!) and as we were crossing the border from Germany to France we were able to see some final fireworks in the French countryside in celebration of Bastille Day (yes, that’s how far behind I am on the blog…) In fact, we got into the City of Lights around 4:00 am, and as we didn’t need to be at the airport until 7:30 we did a bit of sightseeing.  No, seriously though… with 70 children at the break of dawn the day after a huge national celebration in the capitol city we decided to visit the Eiffel Tower.  To be more succinct, the campers got to sightsee while all of the staff were on drunken, skeevy French guy patrol.  I took one picture in the whole process:

That’s all you get!

 

The whole endeavor went off basically without a hitch.  Well, except for the fact that when leaving the tower I heard a loud bang followed by some mild yelling from our driver, Peter.  I looked forward and saw an extremely inebriated reveler swaying in front of the bus and a large hand print on the windshield.  So… maybe he walked in front of the bus and maybe Peter maybe maybe hit him with said bus.  Maybe.  He just kinda stood there stunned and stumbled off after a couple of seconds.  I couldn’t help but laugh because the hand print stayed there for the remainder of our trip to the airport, reminiscent of that scene in Titanic when Jack and Rose get it on in the old timey car.

Get it little Frenchy!

 

Everything at the airport went smoothly and I took the opportunity to get a final group shot of the choir staff before we got back to the States.  Even though we still have a couple of more concerts together one of the counselors, Seth, won’t be joining us… he’s being all selfish and moving to South Korea to teach English.  Pfffft, whatever.

Zack, Jessie, Ed, Carole, Seth, Joseph, Kate, Sabrina, Josh, Zach!

 

If you would have passed me in the aisle on the plane you would have seen the following view.  I was a bit paranoid about dropping my glasses or putting them somewhere where they might get crushed so I found what I would consider an elegant solution to the problem:

 

It’s always a bit nerve-wracking when taking a large group of inexperienced international travelers through customs and security but there were no problems to speak of.  It wasn’t until catching my flight from Chicago to Dallas that I personally had a bit of a snafu.   I mentioned previously in my birthday post about the glory that is Speculoos spread and how I received a jar of “crunchy” from Sabrina and purchased some “creamy” for Mallory.  Now, being classy and European they were kept in glass jars; as such I decided to pack them into one of my carry-ons so they didn’t break in transit.  Stupid me, apparently… sure, it got through French security and American customs, but they were not having it when I went through security for the domestic flight. 

TSA Agent: I’m sorry, sir, but this liquid is over the allotted number of ounces.

Me: Wait, this counts as a liquid… it’s like peanut butter.

TSA Agent: Yes, sir, it’s considered a liquid.

Me: But you can only get this in Europe.  Did I mention it was my birthday present?

TSA Agent: You are either going to have to exit security, check it and re-enter security or throw it away right now.

Sabrina: Wait, since one of them is crunchy and has a higher ratio of cookie chunks can we just count that one as a solid?

TSA Agent: *not amused by Sabrina’s logic*… … … Sir, you are either going to have to exit security, check it and re-enter security or throw it away right now.

 

So… I took the former option and did some major re-vamping of my other carry-on bag and checked the spread.  Yes, that’s how delicious it is and how determined I was to get it back to the States for myself and Mallory.  I made sure that they knew it was special property when I went back the second time as is evident below:

 

After about 36 hours of travel I arrived in Dallas and was picked up by my brother, Matt.  That weekend was my granddaddy Dan’s 85th birthday party and then it was back to Michigan for the Blue Lake homecoming portion of our tour!!  Obviously more on that later…

 

Artist: Dominick Argento/ Album: Postcards from Morocco

Like a Rolling Stone

Well Happy Summer Solstice everyone!!! In order to celebrate I thought I would do a bit of back-blogging and share some pictures from my trip to Stonehenge from about seven years ago. But first I wanted to feature a picture of the sacred grounds by Thomas Kellner, a photographer whose work the John Cleary Gallery represents.

Take THAT Woodhenge! For more information about the photographer check out his section on the gallery website here.

When my grandmother Joyce and granddaddy Dan celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary they decided to take our family and my aunt Brynda, uncle John and cousins, Katy and John William to London and Paris for a vacation.  When talking about what day trips out of the city we might want to take I immediately suggested Stonehenge and was just as quickly shot down (being that I was the only one who really wanted to go.  We ended up going to Stratford upon Avon so it was equally as nerdy and exciting!)
A couple of years later, before I started my semester abroad in Florence, I had the chance to stay with my friend Kelley, whom I had known from our church in Crockett but had since moved with her husband to Salisbury.  Seeing how the city was in very close proximity to the famous monument it was a no-brainer that we would visit. So here it is!! My first view of Stonehenge:

UGH, KELLEY!!!! STOP UPSTAGING STONEHENGE!

  

Just remember folks, it’s all downhill from here (sunlight wise, that is) so get out and soak up some Vitamin D!



Artist: Bob Dylan/ Album: Before the Flood
BONUS!!! Just for the heck of it I thought I would include a brief bit from Dressed to Kill by Eddie Izzard about Stonehenge.  Those of you unfamiliar with his work should probably note he doesn’t exactly shy away from the saltier language.

In and Out in Paris and London

YAAAAAY HAPPY GEBURTSTAG TO ME!!!! Today I turn 26 years old and I am celebrating in beautiful Stockelsdorf, Germany!!!! Tonight is the choir concert and then (hopefully) I am going out out out on the town with some of the other counselors.  Tomorrow is a complete day off for the choir which translates into recovery time!!!! (My word there are a lot of exclaimation points in this paragraph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ten years ago to the day I spent my birthday arriving in London with my maternal grandparents, parents and brother, and aunt, uncle, and two cousins.We spent a fabulous week in London with a quick jaunt to Paris and had the chance to celebrate my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary.  Sweet 16 indeed!  I guess to celebrate my 36th birthday I'll have to plan some other trip to Europe.

In London with the fam!

Thanks everyone for your e-mail and Facebook birthday wishes!

My mom and dad were nice enough to scan some other pictures from birthdays past!!

Me at my goal weight

BURTDAY!

I'm pretty sure that was the last time anyone saw me with my shirt off

 

Get it little cake decoratin' birthday boy!

  

My friend Jan, whom you might remember from this earlier post!  PS... I am waiting for the Blue Bell to arrive in the mail today.  I'm just sure someone sent it to me in a cooler, right?

PS I get about 7 hot minutes of computer time at this house before I am asked to get off, so I don't think that I will be able to update until the next city, so sorry for the delay if there is one!

C'est si bon

Get ready for some touristy touristy photos!!!  These are actually divided up by different days, as you will notice two different outfits, but I thought it might be easier to combine them into one post for expediency's sake.  Because if you know Expediency like I do, she can be a fickle femme sometimes.

Once we landed in Paris and unloaded all of our luggage, both literal and emotional, we hopped on the tour bus with our German driver, Peter, and headed to La Ville-Lumière.  Obviously the first stop was the grande dame herself, the Eiffel Tower. Apparently one of the counselors saw a camper crying on the bus and went over to see what was wrong. Basically this was the conversation:

Ellen: Hey, is everything okay?

Camper: I just don't want to be like all those other stereotypical American tourist and embarass myself while in the French culture.

Ellen: Ummm, honey you're gonna have to get over that really quickly.  We are a group of seventy plus teenagers from Michigan wearing uniforms and traveling on a double decker bus. You're not going to blend in so just accept that for the next three weeks you are a tourist. Okay? Perfect.

So in embracing my inner obnoxious American... here are some hits from PARIS.

This ain't Vegas, baby

A view from the bridge. So maybe it's the wrong bridge, but I think Arthur Miller would be proud, nonetheless

Don't like the real one? How about one made of Louis Vuitton luggage! Sabrina and I were just meandering around the streets of Paris and somehow ended up in the ritzy shopping part of town.  And by meandering I mean sniffed it out. And by Sabrina I mean me.

That's MY name!!!

Look at me, Sabrina!

The good life. Well, except for Creepy McFrencherstien in the background.  (That's a French name, right?)

Paris trip Part Deux: Joseph Strikes Again occured on our day off from performances, and though the culture minister warned us that there were going to be strikes all day, a couple of us decided to risk taking the train and go anyway. Lucky for us there were absolutely no problems at all! Emily's (the mezzo soloist... keep up people, I don't want to have to keep explaining) host sister, Mathilde, acted as our guide and took us all over.

Mathilde right before we left Sucy. Why does no one look at the camera in France!?!?!

Croque madame, pomme frites and an espresso for lunch

                            

"Stop! Here is the empire of the dead."

The catacombs of Paris

Down down we go

I'm pretty sure I read that at it's lowest, one can go thirty stories below the streets of Paris. Don't believe me? Then look it up!! (Please don't, I completely made that fact up. Just call me Sarah Palin.)

Mqthilde told us that this graffiti and others like it are signs to lead people to secret parties that are held there... several of which she has attended

CREEPY!

And now the real thing

"Oh yes... I have a summer home in Paris"

Yup... that would be a cross made out of skulls. SLEEP WELL!

Quite a breath of fresh air: Notre Dame

SANTCUAAAAAAARY!!!!!!!!!!!

Oooh artsy

Myself, Mathilde, Jullian (another resident of Sucy), Emily, and Sabrina outside of Notre Dame

The reason one goes to Notre Dame on a Sunday

The Sacré Coeur

And finally.... a view of Paris from the steps of the Sacré Coeur