Crazy Germans, Immigration and Stravinsky - February 23, 2010

Alright, haven't written in a while so I thought I'd catch you guys up. On January 12th I flew back to France with my Visa finally in hand. This was the next step to obtaining a Carte de Sejour which is like a residence permit. I applied at the immigration office upon my return and had to wait a month for my appointment but I went the other day and I am now in posession of the Carte de Sejour. Finally! I have to attend two more day long classes. One on "Life in France" and one on the "Government in France" and also I will begin to attend free French lessons on a path towards obtaining a French Language Diploma. This is good because I'm not all that good about doing my Rosetta Stone. I've come a long way though and I think they will assess me at a higher level than absolute beginner. In the meantime, Steph and I took a trip to the Black Forest in Germany. It's actually right over the border into Germany. It took us five hours and we crossed the Rhein river. Which was nothing to write about, at least where we crossed it. I booked our hotel online in a city called Furtwangen. A small mountain city in the Southern middle of the forest. It was a pretty scary drive for me because the roads were high and covered in snow. Anyone who has ever driven in a car with me in those conditions will know just how annoying that must have been for Steph. But alas, despite my constant whining we made it safely to our hotel in Furtwangen. All of the traffic lights were out in the town but it didn't matter since we only saw about five cars driving in town. We made it inside and checked in. They told us that we had arrived in time for the Fastnacht festival, which they described as a Carnivale. We saw several very large German men, and a few German women dressed up and wandering the streets with instruments. While Stephane was parking the car, I watched them at one of the pubs down the street and they were playing "Tequila". Funny shit to hear Germans singing Tequila. Anyway, we checked in and found that there was a parade being shown on TV in our room. Apparently, since this was such a small town, it didn't have too much going on. But on the TV they were in a much larger city and we watched several Germans in lots of costumes: cows, penguins, dogs, cats, tigers, bears, pigs, bees and other "court" type outfits. I eventually looked it up online and found it was the celebration (similar to mardi gras) where the townspeople chased the Winter spirits from the town and brought in the coming of Spring. Directly translated "Fastnacht" is something like Fast Night. The time before lent when you eat all the fat, because you'll be fasting or something. Well, here in this town though, it was merely another reason to get drunk and party. In the hotel lobby that night they hosted a party for the people. We went down for a drink and found several large German men (and one manly looking German woman) singing and drinking in the restaurant. This is an old school hotel. Something you can imagine being in a story about travelling through the forest, in need of lodging , and finding a warm, dimly lit hotel/restaurant to eat, drink and sleep. Very cool. Well, they were very loud, as you can imagine (see video) and eventually we retired back to the room. I had packed us enough food so we had a dinner in the hotel room while watching the Olympics in German and eating at the window (in our underwear) overlooking the town and forest. We also had picked up some "Kirschtorte" which you know better as Black forest Cake. Yum! In the morning, we had a breakfast in the hotel of various charcuterie, including Black Forest ham, cheeses and really excellent coffee. Then we headed out on a mission to the see what is called the tallest waterfall in Germany (not true, BTW, because I googled it). Anyway, Triberg Falls. We found an entrance to the falls that was unfortunately blocked off. And since my paranoid ass didn't want to take the hill marked 12% grade, down to the other entrance, we did not see the Falls. We took two different short hikes though, through the forest and enjoyed the rest of our time in there. I took a couple videos, you can check them out and also a few shots in the Albums. Not too many though because you can only take so many pictures of the snowy forest before it gets downright boring. We returned home that day but it took considerably longer because we decided to cut off part of the highway driving (toll roads) and hit the countryside. Ugh, I think it took seven hours. But finally we arrived home tired from the car ride and the hikes through the forest.

This past Thursday we attended a concert, which was a gift from Steph's parents for Christmas. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra playing some selections from Bruckner and Stravinsky. First part was Stravinsky's " Le Sacre du Printemps" or the "Consecration of Spring".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rite_of_Spring

Stephane read the program to me (it was in French) and he told me that this particular selection of his, was like an ode to Nature (pagans all over) and was meant to be the antithesis of normal orchestral music format. It was meant to have less design and more of the feel of nature. Well apparently, when it was first performed in Paris , people called the police because people in the audience rioted. It was crazy.

Next part was Anton Bruckner's "Wagner Symphony"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._3_(Bruckner)

Much more normal musical composition and style.

Since the concert I've been focused on choosing a guitar, buying a guitar and learning the guitar. I have not yet received my guitar in the post, but Steph showed me some stuff on the bass and I've been mentally learning online, while I wait, rather impatiently for mine to come. I'm also awaiting my letter from immigration which will direct me to a school for French language.

Hope you enjoyed this update.