Travels, SXSW, an Internship

March has been kind.  
I took a trip to Lower Normandy and Brittany, music has been way above par, I've had more time and better weather for running, and I found a summer internship.
Here it goes

Travels
At the beginning of the month was our first spring break, and I was lucky enough to spend a few days seeing Mont St. Michel, Cancale, Dinard, St. Malo, and Dinan.  The architecture was very different from the rest of France, and the landscapes reminded me of Ireland.  It was cold, but great.  
I also got to stuff my face with crepes.

Inside Mont St. Michel

Along the coast of Brittany

Dinan

Music
NPR Music's The Austin 100                   74095405 lovely cheese pizzas just for me (or you)
Just before the festival last week, NPR decided to spoil its Internet nerds with a mix of 100 songs from artists featured in South by Southwest. Do yourself a favor:
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/01/147637518/the-austin-100-a-sxsw-mix

Dormarion by Telekinesis                                                                     439347 Ethiopian coffees                                                             
Dreamy but edgy.  The first song blew me away.  I found myself earbuds stuffed-in, beat-nodding in the middle of the library.  The stares indicated that I gained a few fans with the performance.  And Telekinesis gained at least one in me.
You can stream the whole album on First Listen.  This should be done immediately.

Mala by Devendra Banhart                                                         87 wheels of Tomme de Savoie
This guy is a weirdo, but a very talented weirdo.

The Next Day by David Bowie                              366 Bowies (there are no comparable units)
It's like Bowie never left.


Running
So, I read on Life Hacker that scientists had found the tippity-top, most fastest ever way to mega burn calories.  I am not a scientist, but I've been doing interval work along these lines lately, and I've noticed more of a burn at the end.  (I think my long distance runs have gotten a bit faster too).

Summer
I've managed to dig up a pretty cool internship here in France for the summer.  I'll be working at a 3-star camping facility, not too far from my university.  3-star means all of the amenities, but also wine and cheese tastings, bike trails, canoes, and mini-festivals.  It's also pretty eco-conscious with zero pesticide, solar panels, composting, etc.  And: I'm not going to be shackled to a desk in a sad Paris banlieu. WIN!

Learning?
It's nearing the end of the semester, so I'm trying to prepare for finals.  I've decided to try to make my French practice more enjoyable by writing about things I care about, rather than just academic crap.  I plan to translate some of these posts onto my foreign language blog. If you feel like paining yourself along with me, you may do so here: ÉtrangèrErica.


À suivre ...

Back again

I've been a shame of a shame as bloggers go.  I blame wanting to be the best-est of graduate students and pure laziness the rest of the time.  At any rate, my effort seems to have paid off well enough in my GPA, and now I'm hoping to scale back some of the frenzy and take time for something I actually enjoy.  It's hard to know where to pick up again--so I guess I'll move in wide circles.

1. Physical activity:
My Christmas break taught me that skiing is mega hard when you're a 25 year old beginner, but that doesn't preclude its being super fun.  (Ski food also makes it well worth the effort.)
Any sunshine in Région Centre means pack up whatever you're doing and go outside for a run.  Unfortunately, the rest of the time I've had to work on moving around the apartment.  
I realized I was developing noodle arms, so I started a self-initated weenie push-up routine, and now I've moved on to "The One Hundred Pushups Training Program".  The creator spells out how to increase endurance by small increments, and when one week's a bit shaky, I just redo it until I'm feeling ready to move on.  It's slow going, but I went from not being able to do one full pushup, to being able to do several sets at a time.  My arm also ceased "keeping the greeting going" for so long after I'd stopped waving.  
I also just started this "Daily Workouts" App.  I don't think it's a revelation, but it's good to have a timer and a little motivation when you're doing repetitive stuff.

2. Movies
The big stuff: Django actually brought tears to these eyes of mine. The Hobbit was awe inspiring.
Weirdo movies: The Master was a real work, and it was good to see Joaquin back.  The Celebration, a Dutch movie from 1998.  It was made according to "Dogme 95"'s principles.  Very, very moving.  I don't want to say much more because I think it really needs to be watched.
French fluff: Le Corniaud.  It's a 60s classic comedy.  A "sucker" gets conned into driving a Cadillac stuffed with drugs and stolen gems through Southern Europe.  Road trip antics.
Le Vilain.  Real silliness in the French style.  A prodigal son returns to his mother's house, fleeing a long history of crime.  The mother discovers his wrongdoing and seeks to right his evil deeds...
Astérix et Obélix was a really fun film based on the comics. 
Populaire was another light little entertainment well worth the time.  
8 Femmes is another noteworthy one.  As much as I hate musicals, each character has a tiny song that shows a bit of her personality, and it really works.  (Like I said, the songs are so short you're not left nauseated.)

3. Music
Jake Bugg's a young little twerp who knows his stuff.  
Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Foxygen are exciting (JagJaguar).  
Check out Tame Impala too.
NPR's been winning lately with their "First Listen" album streams and 5 Heavy Rotation songs.  New stuff from Jimi Hendrix is actually sitting over there at the moment.
I found a streaming service called Deezer to use outside of the US.  It's still growing so it's not as well crafted with 'Likes' and 'Thumbs downs' and whatever else, but it has a pretty broad catalogue, and it introduced me to French rap, which in itself is intriguing.  

4. Books
I know every literature teacher, and probably every well-educated English speaker, will gasp when I say this, but: Paradise Lost is crap.  Read the summaries and save yourself time and grief.  I'm not linking it.
The Count of Monte Cristo was long, but a fun distraction.  (It was one of the audiobooks that kept me company on public transit this semester.)  The site's also good for teachers because it has texts sorted by reading levels.
Life of Pi was a super good read, now I've just got to get around to watching the movie.
I finished The Hunger Games series.  Overall, it was a decent work.
I found something else on the edge of teen lit, but it's way better than the usual stuff.  (It's simple enough grammatically that I can read it in French, but the action and themes are really cool.)  It's the Tales of the Otori series, a sort of coming of age saga set in feudal Japan.  

5. Now for some photographic highlights from my absence:

Villandry

Chenonceau

Super Sauze