School's Out!

Hello again,
I've been rediculously busy these past weeks, getting things wrapped up from school - grading 300 pages of student essays and writing final reports.

Looking forward to a week in Switzerland and a week in Scotland this summer.

Saw the Radiohead concert in Paris on June 9th, and it was everything and more.

Trying to enjoy a day off before the rush continues, doing laundry and trying out the new facebook - it's a phenomenon.

Enjoy the following - Best of Radiohead - with Best of Shakespeare cinema

Cheers

Why I love American Idol

Summer of Travel and Concerts - parts 2

Back home in Rambouillet after jet-setting for a few weeks. Didn't deserve all the vacation time, but since I wouldn't have been working anyway, might as well spend the time visiting people!

Acapulco:
Had a fun week with Mom and K. at the beach. Mom won the trip at a charity auction, so we made up for the price difference by shopping and charging everything to the room! Shared lots of laughs and good food, and refined the art of tanning, reading Harry Potter and sipping Coronas :)

So glad I got to just sit and fry in the hot sun! I miss summer when it just chooses to not visit northern Europe...

Flew straight back to Paris, and planned to leave after a day of rest for a road trip to tour northern Italy with C. but when he backed up the car to load our stuff...
a rock flung from a nearby lawnmower cancelled our plans.
So after a day of grumbling and looking at prices of last minute flights and road distances, we settled on a road trip closer to home. Only 5 hours by car instead of 9, and do-able in a 4-day visit, we decided to visit the low countries instead of Italy

Although the weather wasn't quite as warm or sunny, at least it didn't rain. We stayed in a cute inn and saw really old windmills...

...toured the Rijksmuseum and Rembrandt's house, rented bikes and saw a bit of Amsterdam.

Then it was off to Belgium for Pukkelpop!
This 3-day concert festival was the biggest I'd ever seen, and the best organized as well. We camped in a field of thousands, and saw concerts by Basement Jaxx, Laurent Garnier, UNKLE, DJ Jazzy Jeff, LCD Sound System, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails and Tool! The music was pretty great, but the crowd was lackluster and not dancing or getting into it enough at all. Oh well.

And last put not least, Rock en Seine, the last concert festival of the season, in Paris:
Saw Biffy Clyro from Scotland, the Hives, 2 Many DJ's, UNKLE again (which was way better this time), (could have seen Tool again too but we had to go to a wedding on Saturday), a little bit of Mark Ronson, Kings of Leon, and Faithless, and........ BJORK! Sigh.

So it's back to work now, getting ready for full time teaching again and very happy about it. I need to make a little money to pay for all these vacations!!!

Summer Concerts

So grateful to be near a world capitol where the big names pass through on their concert tours...

First up: Daft Punk



An awsome set up with the two DJ's in their robot suits. I didn't expect much from the show, but I knew quite a few tracks like "One more time" and "Around the world" - those poppy house remixes... But the lights and effects were too good and they rocked the whole stadium.

Second up: The Beastie Boys!!!!!

A dream to see them from 50 feet away, even though they're fighting the gray hair and were a bit lackluster, they hit the big ones like "No sleep till Brooklyn" and "Brass Monkey" and of course "Sabotage" - and yes, I was in the pit!
MixMaster Mike also litterally broke the needle he was scratching so fast. Awsome.


Next Up: Solidays, Rock en Seine (Bjork, Tool, Erik Truffaz, possibly Lauryn Hill)