Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Day 18: La Chorale d'Avignon / The Avignon Chorus

Today started out as a normal Wednesday. I woke up at 8h30, leaving in time for my 9h30 class (L'Histoire de l'Art) after successfully telling Claudie and Michel that I would be returning late this evening because of Choir rehearsal.

Wednesday's are definitely my "hump day" if you know that expression. Once I've climbed over the mountain of a day that Wednesday is, my week is not hard. After Art History, I went and bought all the food I needed for the rest of the week to eat for lunches. I feel like little by little I am becoming more of an Avignonnais (an "Avignon-er" ... I think that's how you spell it!) I even have my own reusable grocery bag for the Carrefour grocery store!

I returned, ate lunch, went to History class, then to Political Science. It is helpful having those two classes in that order. There is a lot of overlap between the two classes. The history class kind of acts like a background class for the Political Science course. That is very helpful, because right now without that background I would be even more confused in the Political Science course than I already am! :-)

After that class, I packed up my belongings and left with Lauren to pick up Bus #1 from Place Pie. We missed the first Bus #1, which had come 10 minutes before we got there and the next bus didn't come until 10 minutes later (basically, we arrived right in the middle of when the 2 buses arrived). We made sure to ask the driver if the bus was going to the right place. The bus ride took less than 10 minutes.

The choir is about 20 people of all ages...I'd say from age 10 up to mid 40s. Three males, the male director, and all the rest females. We sing a mix of songs in English and French. We sang a Maroon 5 Medley (This Love, She will be loved, and Sunday Morning), a Mariah Carey song, a Stevie Wonder song, and other songs in both french and english. This link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcadgkDdJu0 is to the song in French called, "Diangue, Diangue, Diangue" (pronounced almost like "Dang" but not quite) that we practiced tonight. The song basically is saying "I'm crazy/enamoured about/with you, I'm shouting it from the roofs, I'll chase you, it's never too late for us." It's a fantastic song. It's so much fun and so upbeat.

The choir was so much fun. Everyone was willing to help us - get us some of the music, teach us the notes and rhythm, share music, and even give us a ride back to the Centreville (inside the walls, because the practice space is outside the walls). Needless to say, it was worth eating dinner 40 minutes late to go to choir rehearsal! I can't wait for next week! I'm glad I pursued it. We sing a bunch of contemporary songs and everyone is really nice. There is even a concert in March that I will participate in! I hope there will be CD recording so I can share it with everyone and have a little memento!

Choir was definitely a great way to relax and put a smile on my face after the busy day of three classes. This bodes well for the weeks to come!

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