A good weekend, good beginning to the week

My weekend turned out to be enjoyable even without a stay in Paris. On Saturday, I played with the chamber orchestra for the departmental exams of the music department for four piano students. All got mention: tres bien, which means they will be advancing from their "amateur studies" into a more professional "formation." Whatever that's supposed to mean... Anyway, the concert was good. We played some Bach and Vivaldi, pretty easy as far as accompaniment goes, but also enjoyable. For the rest of Saturday, I did pretty much nothing whatever. Did some relaxing and walking through Mayenne. The sun shone through the weekend.

As for Sunday, I had the privilege of attending the Jewish Easter celebration in which we had a community gathering of the Protestant churches of the Mayenne (quite a number of people). Afterwards, we had a Jewish meal, which was much more ceremonial than it was Jewish. Yes, we had lamb, yes we had Matzah. But we had to sit and listen to a nearly two hour breakdown of the meaning of every single part of the meal. Yes, it was boring and tiring. I had heard most of this before in English. It wasn't quite as authentic as the Jewish meal I once had at the synagogue near Brainerd Road several years ago. It was all worth it, however, to see friends from the Pentecostal church that I had not seen in several months.

I got to see Philip. I asked him when he thought we would be able to do something together. And he asked me if I wanted to go see a movie at the cinema. So, I accepted and went along with him. We went to see "Suckerpunch," an overbearingly action/comicbook drama that was original and creative. But they overdid the action sequences to make it seem like the Matrix. To be honest the entire plot could have been done in about twenty minutes but it was drawn out to an hour and a half. It was pretty entertaining, nonetheless. I was glad to have spent some time with Philip after the three month hiatus. We will plan on getting together sometime in the near future. Then, I'll play violin for his family.

As for the week, it's the middle of the road. I've had some good lessons with the Terminales. We're actually going to throw a karaoke party next week with food and drink. It's a good way of celebrating the end. Looking forward to that. It's definitely a good way to end the assistantship. Just have to get through those days with the middle school and I'll be golden, just like when I have a cup of strong, black coffee.