Bonjour tout le monde! I am trying this whole blog thing out. I want to find a successful way to let people know what it going on with me over here in Europe. As many of you know, I am ridiculously bad about emailing. And even my aunt has her own webpage!! So I thought I could try it out. (By the way, my aunt is the best author EVER. You should seriously check out www.suzannewoodsfisher.com or www.suzannewoodsfisher.blogspot.com. She was on Amazon's best seller list this summer if you need more convincing.)

Anyway, I will be slowing adding to this page as the days and weeks go by. This is a fun, but busy time of year in Aix right now. No worries- i LOVE being busy =) For those of you who are curious, here's the quick run down of what my week usually looks like...

*I'm the choir director again for the English Christmas Carol Service in the Cathedral. There are rehearsals for the adult choir, and the two children's choirs. Fun facts: Andrea Booth, my friend from Westmont college & from the days of working at Firestone Winery & my current roommate in Aix, is the pianist in the orchestra. My other roommate, Kerri Cole, is one of the people in charge of the entire Christmas Carol Service! (She is on staff with Dom) Kerri is also a Westmont alum and we were in gospel choir together. Who knew the 3 of us would end up living together in the south of France someday! God rocks!

*I'm singing blues, rock, Christmas carols, etc. around town with Dominic and two other friends at local restaurants. SO FUN!

*Every Wednesday morning I am teaching English to a group of French 5 year olds. I am blessed to be in community with these amazing families. I took the group to the zoo last week. We had a lot of fun, but it was a little ridiculous that they didn't end up learning a lot of new animal vocabulary since giraffe is girafe, elephant is elephant, rhineoceros is rhineoceros, lion is lion...you get the gist (and sorry, I haven't figured out the French accents on the keyboard yet).

*I am giving private piano and voice lessons to a few different people- ages ranging from high school on down to 5 years old.

*I'm the musical director for an international bilingual school (IBS= International Bilingual School of Provence). That's sounds intense, huh?! Well, I only work there one day a week. In France, the school system is very different from the states. It's extremely rare to find music, theater, dance, or any other arts offered. This is the first year that IBS has had a music program, so it's exciting and I have a lot of flexibility, which is really nice.

***WINE IN PROVENCE update...Just last night, chez moi, Brian and I led a tasting with 30 students in Aix! There were mainly Americans, some Australians, and a few French people. We went through 6 French wines (white, red, and rose). We talked about how to buy wine in the store, what foods pair well with the wines, etc. AND earlier this week Brian and I met with a German lawyer who is living and working in France. He's one of the many people we are talking with regarding 'getting legal' over here.
If this is the first time you are hearing about Wine in Provence, basically, last year my friend Brian and I started leading some tastings/wine education classes for students. They were a huge hit. Last spring, we tried a few with tourists, as well. It started out as just a word of mouth thing. Now we're working on a website and we've gotten hooked up with a few student organizations here in Aix that are asking us to put on tastings for them. We've had a lot of fun doing it and hope to see this business grow into a MAJOR Provence experience for Anglophones.
Brian is from Portland. He has also worked with a winery, has marketing experience, and is good with website stuff...because I definitely could not handle that aspect of the business. Last year Brian was an English teaching assistant at a French high school. This year he is going to Law school at a French University, is starting this business with me, along with another business endeavor of his own, and is an English tutor on the side.

*I am becoming a chef! Well, not quite yet...but I have been cooking a lot lately. Our apt. has a fully equipped kitchen (hard to find in France) which is great for entertaining. I have found that unless I invite people over for a meal, I won't try new dishes for just myself. So for my cooking debut I made tartiflette for 10 people (yes, I know I'm extreme- of course I invite 10 people over for dinner instead of just one or two!). It was a success...but I learned that you have to offer more than just one thing to eat when you invite people for a meal (I had literally made tartiflette, and that was it). So for Dom's birthday lunch last month, I had many different options. And I cooked for 23 people! Also, Andrea and Kerri and I have roommate dinners every Tuesday night. We rotate who cooks.
-I cooked for a group of Americans visiting from North Carolina.
-I have baked treats for the group of 5 year olds I teach english to on Wednesdays.
-Dom and I have made duck together, breaded fish, tried apricot chicken, pastas with our own French cheese sauce, etc.
-I have even made my own salad dressing!
(And when I first began cooking it would take me hours because I would do one thing at a time =) Now I've figured out how to have a few things going at once so I don't keep guests waiting so long to eat!)