My first week in Strasbourg

1/27/09

Oh la la! I can’t believe I have been in France for almost a month. Life has been such a whirlwind of activities, orientations, getting lost, and finding myself again.

1/8/09: The next morning my host mom showed me how to make my way to the Syracuse Center. It is about a 30 minute commute in total, which includes a lovely Tram ride across town, then a 10 min. walk along the river to the center, disguised as an old house.
Upon arriving, everyone immediately began sharing stories of their first night with their new French families. Exclamations such as “Mine is really nice.” “They don’t really speak English.” Or “We had AMAZING food.” Popped up from one side of the room to the other, like popcorn cooking in a kettle.

The morning consisted of a general orientation about the center guidelines, and general SU abroad information. We were gifted a handbook, filled with all kinds of useful and versatile information. It was mind boggling to be reading about the access code to the building then turn a page and magically information about grocery stores, doctors, and public transportation would appear. These new “bibles” were, and continue to be a useful reference tool, since it is slightly difficult to memorize all the random bits of information of a foreign city. After the general orientation, Professor Stinson (cello professor at Syracuse, and fellow Interlochen grad) interviewed each of us about our chamber music past, present, future and aspirations in France.

Lunchtime arrived, and we were instructed to disperse into the streets, in search of French cuisine. Juliet, a Strasbourgian native, and exchange student in Syracuse this year, met a small group of us to get lunch. With her was a violinist at the Conservatoire named Livia, It was fun to chat with both of them about their experiences, and walk around the city with some “natives”. Livia and I began chatting in French, and after hearing that I was allergic to Gluten and Dairy, showed me where a natural foods store was in the center of town! I was literally like a kid in a candy store. Excitedly looking around and seeing the possibilities unfold right before my eyes. I had a quinoa salad, and some chip-like things. I then giddily skipped along with the group, munching my quinoa, while they munching their baguettes. Livia and Juliet escorted us to the Cathedral for our walking tour of Strasbourg. We walked all over the city, with Madame Hardenberg as our guide. We saw the famous cathedral, the place Mozart played when he came to Strasbourg, petite France (the oldest part of town), and downtown. It was absolutely frigid, my hands and feet completely numb by the end, but very helpful nonetheless to have an orientation of the city. One of my favorite parts was petite France, which used to the leather tanner center in town. It is picturesque, with little Alsatian houses lining the river and tiny corner Brasserie’s and Café’s. It is apparently the most photographed part of Strasbourg.

Saturday night we attended a concert by the Philharmonique de Strasbourg. They played Beethoven Symphony No.1, Shostakovich 11 poems, and Nielsen Symphony No. 4. The program was a great one, diverse and dynamic. The sound of the orchestra was beautiful, especially the wind section. When the oboe first emerged, I heard a surprisingly sweet tone. The French style of oboe playing is rather bright, and European double reeds in general have a stereotype of having almost a nasty pointed sound. It was in fact quite the opposite. The oboist blended beautifully rising in and out of the texture with ease, playing both as a soloist and a chamber musician. The Beethoven was a triumphant way to start and the Shostakovich was a haunting and poignant work, elusively describing life under soviet rule. As soon as intermission started, a woman next to me started exclaiming how much she liked the oboe playing. Delighted, I engaged in a musical and energetic conversation. She used to be a saxophone player and still enjoyed concerts. It was a fun and heartwarming way to be introduced to the symphonic side of the city.

The next morning, we attended another concert. Stravinsky’s “L’Histoire de Soldat” (A solders tale) is a unique piece, about an hour long, written for violin, bassoon, bass, trombone, trumpet, and actor. It is a story of a solder who meets a devil and then is convinced to trade his violin for a book. (Even though he can’t read, which apparently didn’t matter with this “special” book.) It was of course a long and arduous journey for the solder to get his violin back, which is somewhat expected when you make a deal with a creature with horns. The musicians were great- Stravinsky’s rhythms are far from easy. However the actor stole the spotlight in this performance. Although it was performed in French, his expression and superb acting made the language barrier seem relatively non-existent. He marched around the stage, going between the devil, the solder and the narrator. I found out later he was only an acting student at the “Academie de Theatre a Strasbourg”. The performance was again a great addition to my first weekend in Strasbourg.

I returned to my house after the concert, had a quick lunch, then left for a little excursion in the Vosges. My host family has a little cottage in the Vosges Mountains, which they like to use as a "weekend get away". They took me to a little park, to walk around a little and to get a taste of the Vosges. The lookout was an old stone church on the side of a mountain. It was surrounded by trees but cleared to a gorgeous above the tree line view of the Vosges. In one direction, Strasbourg looked like a toy town, and in the other direction untouched mountains rose out of the mist at the tree line. It was a calming and enchanting, and surprising that this new world existed only 40 minutes from the city of Strasbourg.

The next few days were filled with mostly conservatory orientations, and the beginning of our music classes. On Monday, we met at the conservatory, got our ID’s, a tour, and a general information session. As all of us sat around a table, as if in a business meeting Professor Waggoner and Stinson translated the general policies and procedures of the Conservatory. Since the conservatory “cycles” don’t match up with our semesters, and the French are slightly less organized, it was a little confusing to try to figure out our schedules. However, we received our studio assignments and I found out that I would be studying with the Principle oboist of the Strasbourg Philharmonique! I immediately thought of the concert, and how much I was impressed by the oboist’s musicality. My insides bubbled with excitement, as my mind raced with thoughts of practice to do’s, future repertoire and speculation on what I could learn this semester.