Dijon

Large absence again - sorry!

First and foremost, I remember now what I did last Sunday. I went to the Opera! I was a little disappointed in the Opera Bastille building itself, but I suppose it was unique among the Opera Houses I have seen (that doesn't include many, unfortunately). It was very modern, to be sure.
I went with a few classmates on an assigned trip to see 'The Barber of Seville,' a very Sweeney-Toddish story. The problem with the opera was that it was Italian with French subtitles. I really wish it was in French, I mean hey, come on. Yet the entire experience was a test for me, and I went back and forth trying to listen to the lyrics themselves and see if I could understand some of them with my Spanish background while also reading the subtitles and see how much I knew. While most people complained they didn't understand anything, I don't think they really tried all that hard, because I was able to understand a good number of things!

As for a theater piece, I was not a big fan at all. The director decided to go the overplayed/overtheaterical route, and although it times this was very funny and very pretty to look at, it also stopped me from divulging myself in the story and music. The group movements were choreographed, at the end one of the guys took off his costume to display his soccer uniform and then kicked around a soccer ball while the rest of the cast waved French flags (something to do with the French being in the soccer finals or something - completely unnecessary, to hell with national pride in an opera, and it's an Italian opera for goodness sakes!), and general silliness. It's an opera for goodness sake, not a Disney musical!

However, this opera had either the best set construction I have yet to see in an opera, or the second best (with the Lyric's performance of 'Carmen' - my first opera). They had really cool sand dunes, a beautiful palace, a rug/pillow lined gigantic room, and a balcony and gazebo. At the end the lovers ran away into the sand dunes and a bunch of trees sprung up from nowhere. I guess that was kind of cool, the crowd loved it, but I found it completely unnecessary, once again. The costumes were pretty good though.

Singing wise I was not as impressed as I have been in the past. In fact, I have been even more impressed with the professional singers at my school than those at this opera. The girl and her love were pretty good...and yeah. Overall it was quite good, and I'm glad I went, but I do wish I could have understood it better!

Okay, so now I left off my last post all the way back on Tuesday! Time to catch up.

On Wednesday I basically just had class and then came home to study for my final, and I even hosted a small study group in my room. Study, study, study!

On Thursday the final didn't go too bad. We had to define some things and then write two in-class essays, and it all went okay except the last essay didn't go that well...but I'm not going to think about it right now. It didn't go bad, so that's acceptable.

I came back home on Thursday, made some pasta, and then went to the cheaper grocery store here (yay, I found one!) and bought some couscous, olive oil, curry powder, pasta, and frozen green beans. I'm excited to be able to cook with olive oil now...except I need to get some actual vegetables, like some yummy garlic and eggplant.

Thursday night I stayed up late getting caught up with my tv shows, and then packed for Dijon, and finally went to bed.

On Friday morning we all met up in the lobby and headed toward the Bercy train station to catch our train to Dijon. Since we got a cheaper train the ride was pretty long, almost three hours. I did a little work and tried to sleep, but it was very cold so I wasn't too productive.
As we exited the train at the Dijon train station we were met with mass chaos, smoke filled tunnels, and people frantically trying to see where to go. We did not know what was going on. A fire? Bulldozer? Smoke bomb? It was scary. We try to walk quickly towards the exit, smoke and depris everywhere, and see that a number of people are in one of the tunnels burning hay.
We finally exit amidst a huge crowd of protesters, all beeping the horns on the tractors, waving flags, carrying hay, and firing flare guns or some other really loud things amidst other pyrotechnic things. Not really sure.

I'm still trying to figure out why everything was happening, but apparently a similar thing was happening in Paris at the time and they had to close down the Champs-Elsyees. Anyways, we walked through the boisterous crowd and tried to find where we wanted to go.

Meanwhile, I was amazed and furious all at the same time. I was furious because these protesters were protesting some type of government action (duh, the Sarkozy flags), but they were endangering not only us and other tourists, but their own people. What if someone had a breathing problem or something, and what about children and elderly people, all who were stuck in that underground train station with smoke and debris and a sense of panic? What the hell? Fine, burn hay outside. I don't care. But to cut off access and exits and...I have a serious problem with those people. I don't care what their cause is. They are ignorant and dangerous and I will not support people who do those kind of things. Infuriating!
As we attempt to walk towards the tourism office, we pass by groups upon groups of policemen. First we walk by a group of riot police with shields, waiting if anything goes too wrong. We then passed by other, smaller groups, and these guys had massive armor on. I had to admit that at this point in time I was not mad or anything. Instead I was awed and I really wanted to stay because they were starting a parade. It really wasn't a dangerous party of people, it's just they made a really bad decision at the train station. Outside of the train station was really just a boisterous crowd of farmers.
Anyways, we all wanted to stay and watch what happened, but Emily was freaked out so we all followed her to the tourism office, where we gathered some maps and tried to find a hotel.
Leaving the chaos behind we went into a cafe where I got a sandwich with tomatoes and goat's cheese. I've realized some of the cheese doesn't make my chest feel that good, so I think I have to stop eating some of it, especially their goat's cheese. Oh well.
After lunch we started looking for the hotels on our list and ended up at Le Jacquemart, where Emily, Melanie and I split a room while Lloyd and Benny shared another. After dropping our stuff off at our rooms we began our exploration of Dijon.

Dijon's major street is covered with flags with crests while some of the smaller streets have business signs that remind me of the taverns in Lord of the Rings and otherwise a general medievaly feel. I loved that.
Actually, I found Dijon far more charming and quaint than Paris. What I had hoped to find in Paris, the typical cute French homes with balconies with red flowers and the small streets with pretty street lamps I found in Dijon.
We basically just walked around a lot in the beginnings, sometimes following the owl signs guiding us toward landmarks and such, always viewing beautiful buildings and beautiful streets with very cute stores selling onto the street.
We then went into Dijon's Art museum, which mostly had medieval paintings...which are quite brutal, but really interesting. Their tombs were especially remarkable. Mostly though, the museum was a wonderful escape from the bitter cold! What was also interesting was watching a group of students sketching some of the paintings there. I found that even more interesting than the paintings themselves!
We then went into this very cozy cafe self-run by one woman. I had my first French hot chocolate, which was very delicious and had a lot of whipped cream.
The cafe itself was absolutely perfect and we stayed there for probably two or so hours. It was very quaint!
More walking and discovering until we decided to sit down at a restaurant and splurge for dinner. We got exactly what Dijon is famous for (except for the mustard): escargot and boeuf bourgignon. I also got a glass of Kir, which is cassis syrup and white wine, the drink of Dijon, which was pretty delicious.
The escargot were very good, and a lot cheaper here than in Paris. Although I probably wouldn't get them again due to the cost/amount of food ratio, they were very good and not ridiculously odd at all.
The boeuf bourgignon was also fantastic, and I was very happy to finally get some veggies here. The sauce was a lot richer and saucy and the meat less fatty than at the other place I had this dish. This also had pearl onions - yummy! Perhaps not as tender, but still simply delicious.
Emily and I couldn't decide what dessert to get with our prefix menu, so we decided to share the apple tart (ish okay) and a chocolate plate (decadent and perfect, except so rich that it was good we shared). Yum!
By then we were done with being cold, so we headed back to the hotel and slept for the night.

We slept a very long time and finally headed out the next morning around 11. Again it was really cold (I have to go buy a thicker coat soon!). It took us awhile to find somewhere we wanted to eat, and ended up at a really interesting place where you eat all of your meals out of glass bowls...it is already made, they just heat it up. That doesn't sound fantastic, but the food was pretty good.
The first dish was pumpkin soup, which was absolutely fabulous. Their table bread here was also fantastic. The prefix also came with veal stew (again, yay for veggies!), which was pretty good, and some creme caramel. Pretty yummy.
After lunch we went into some museum of Burgundy history, which had a lot of wax figures of random people, a lot of really cool 'shops' from the past, and some not-so interesting everything else.
After this we headed to the Museum of Sacred Art, which was very tiny, but interesting in the fact that it was in a church...

We then hit the other famous tea house in Dijon, where I had a decadent hot orange chocolate along with my macaroon I bought at a well-known macaroon store. It was a cassis macaroon and...interesting. I really wish for my first macaroon I had gotten chocolate, but since Dijon is famous for cassis I got cassis, and although ish-interesting, it was pretty darn yummy! Meanwhile, the hot chocolate was simply divine!
We walked along some more, going into really quaint and interesting shops. I bought a little jar of regular Dijon mustard, and a little one of cassis mustard. Each for less than a euros. It's hard to wait to open them, but I will bring them home after Paris. Yum yum!
After walking around we finally headed back to the train station (hay-less, debris-less, and not so chaotic), and then finally headed home...and then I slept!

But now I have to study for two tests...so I will upload the rest of the pictures later!