bonne semaine.

Things have been great.

So after institute last Thursday, I was invited to go on a last minute temple trip to Frankfurt. I guess someone had bailed out leaving an empty seat in one of the cars. The deciding conversation could best be translated as follows:
"Hey, what was your name again?"
"Jeff. And you are...?"
"Cecile. We're planning a temple trip and there's an extra spot in one of the cars--want to come?"
"When?"
"Tomorrow night."
"When are we coming back?"
"The next day."
"TOTALLY."
And so the next evening I found myself road-tripping to a temple in Germany with these wonderful people:

We got there around 3am, slept in the car for a few hours then went to the distribution center, and made it to the temple for the 8am session. Which was auf Deutsch. Which was awesome because I was always kind of jealous of the people that got to where those remote headsets. It was great. Then I sort of kind of fell asleep in the Celestial room but woke up in time for the next session. Which was in English. And was also great.
Afterwards we had to head back pretty quickly, so what I did see of Germany was basically the passing countryside. Which was beautiful. It was fun however to be with the German temple workers. I was reminded how incredible different they really are from the French. It's amazing to me that these people have lived next to each other for centuries without either 1. completely annihilating each other or 2. gelatinizing into one. They hold fiercely to their vastly differing cultures and identities, along with the rest of Europe, which produces an incredible diversity that is furthered by the massive influx of immigrants from all over the globe. And all of them are crammed into a couple peninsulas that hang off of Asia. Fascinating. And man, do they know their chocolate. From Scandinavia to Sardinia, these Europeans work magic with the cacao bean.

We got back to Paris around 10pm and I drove the last leg. Which was fun. It's always good to remind myself that Paris does not equate France.
This week has really been great. So many good times, but I will skip to the big events.

Wednesday night I hung out with these guys:
here:

(neither of those photos are mine, obviously--I left my camera at home...)

Yes ladies and gentlemen, I went to my first big football game. It was awesome. I knew it would be cool to be there in that huge stadium, but I had no idea how into it I was going to be. I loved it. And while we beat Austria 3-1, it doesn't really matter because Serbia already has the direct ticket to the World Cup. But come November, France will have a second chance at getting in. And there will be blood. And while I might not be a die hard, I am now a fan and I will be watching.

I am also a fan of classical opera being accompanied by marimbas and African drums, underscored by genuine African choral harmonies. Yeah, you heard me. The day after going to the match, I went to see this:

Mozart's Magic Flute performed by the South African Opera Company in English and Xosa. It was incredible. Not only could they sing traditional opera with the best of them, the entire company also took turns filling in on the instruments and dancing. In a deeply African vein, it was a communal effort. And when I say underscored by African choral harmonies--well, if I was a musician I could explain it better, but it was haunting. And beautiful. And moving. I loved it.
Man, I gotta get back to Africa.

Amidst all of this, I promise I have been going to school. And it has actually been really busy. I had to break down a play into ten minutes and find people to play the other characters for my next project. And also start learning parts for the projects of other students. But the more we get into it, the more I enjoy it. I promise I will give more information about class and living conditions and the like, but this post is long enough. And I have some camembert in the fridge calling my name...à la prochaine.