I am arisen...

I wrote this great long blog entry on my pda, hoping to sync it later and it's gone. Poof! So demoralizing that I didn't bother rewriting for 4 days! Anyhow, things are nicer here this time around, despite all of our worsened attitudes. It's raining constantly, so no pictures of anything because we're not really going anywhere in our free time. However, the temperature is better, so it's a mixed bag.

The weather reports are now saying that the rain is headed out, so hopefully I'll get to see some more of these cities. Also, I really think that I'm borderline over the picture-taking thing. I might have cumulative touristitis. I've seen so much of France and was so amazingly zealous with my discoveries that maybe I've used it all up! I say that, but I don't really believe it. It's a phase. I went through it last tour and there were a couple of cities that I just didn't feel motivated enough to tramp around and scour for photo opps. I think I'll get my zest back when I 1)go to a city where it's not raining 2)go to a city where we are close to the actual city and not in a suburb that's a 30euro cab ride away 3)in a city I've never seen before (so far we've done Paris and I've already seen and photographed a lot of it, Orleans which was a 33euro cab ride away and Nantes where it's been raining violently and intermittently).

Also, I cheaped out and didn't upgrade to a digital SLR camera before I left, and now I'm regretting it, especially seeing that I can't buy one here because it's about a $300 to $400 price difference. So I think I might be pouting/on strike a bit about having to point and shoot when I'm ready to do something a little more challenging. But if I really am tired of picture taking, maybe it's good that I didn't buy it just yet. I've been wanting one for years. I sold my 35mm SLR when when we downsized to move to LA, and I promised myself then I'd replace the camera, but I've yet to get around to it.

Our social climate has changed immensely. Everyone is so bored that we're mixing it up more, except for the one guy who got branded as social pariah last trip. Very unfortunate, very political, not that fair or Christian either. I am one of the only people who'll hang out with him ever. Most are afraid they'll catch the cooties so it's turned into junior high school for real here. I'm a seasoned tour person now. I'm really more comfortable and know what to expect, but somehow I think that's actually making me more bored! It wasn't fun to be off-balance every second before, but there was an element of surprise and excitement in that. Right now, it's turning into Groundhog Day, the movie, where there are really only 2 days in my week: the one where we work, and the one where we don't. Okay, I'm not being accurate. There are three days in my week, the third being the day where we travel for 3-6 hours in a bus and then land in an unknown city late in the day, near dark with no working brains and no concept of what's open and where we are!

I can't wait until Bordeaux, our next city, even though we are once again going to be a good 30 miles outside of Bordeaux. Thus, I might not get pics of Bordeaux proper, but I will be staying in a really posh-looking resort on the actual coast! There's some kind of convention that has all the rooms booked. And unlike Geneva, where the same thing happened and we got put in the woods of nowhere across the border, this convention seems to have worked to our advantage where this resort hotel is an upgrade to the desired original.

I'm still alive, wanted to let y'all know since I sort of dropped off the face of the earth. As we speak, I'm writing you from a smoke-filled lobby of a Holiday Inn where the internet is 22uro for 24 consecutive hours, or free in the lobby - a rarity in France. I guess since it's Holiday Inn and Americans expect some free internet somewhere, they've made a compromise here. The interne is so expensive in these hotels that I spend more of my per diem on internet than food. I'm trying not to do that this leg, so I've been updating less frequently, but maybe we'll get a string of really good hotels that offer something free or not astranomical.

My french is progressing at an exponential pace. I learned the phrases for number 1 and number 2 this week, after someone's guest aboard our tour bus didn't know you couldn't do number 2 in the bus and broke the potty, stunk up the bus and horrified herself with the shame of being trapped on a bus full of groaning, snickering, giggling people for another 10-15 minutes on the way to the venue. I didn't know you couldn't do number 2 on the bus until then either, but it's not something you'd want to try with our group anyhow. The bathroom was broken for a little bit afterwards, so when I questioned the bus driver, who only speaks french, as to whether it was working, I then asked him what it was equipped to handle, number 1, 2 or both. He had no idea of what I was speaking of, so I told him that in the States, number 1 is 'faire pipi' and he caught on and said in french that you couldn't do number 2 (caca). Later I thought it useful to teach our dressmaker since he learned our words and she told me the french slang equivalents which are petite commission and gros commission, roughly translated as small deposit and large deposit.

We are all amazingly juvenile and greatly enjoy teaching each other the most base elements and vocabulary of each our corresponding cultures. But it's a good sign that my french is on the rise now that the teaching is going both ways. Last tour, it was everyone giving me phrases and now I'm sharing french for kindergarten with the crew. Last night in the lobby after the gig, we impressed each other with our knowledge of foreign GROS-MOTS or bad words. I can apparently curse like a sailor in french which is a fun parlor trick, but not that useful because it's such a polite culture, there's not any need to actually use them, other than showing your french friends what you've learned out in the world lately. I could've used some of my curse words in England however, on the trains with the soccer blokes. But then again, would that really have been a good idea? :)