yeah, so I just had the best birthday anyone could possibly ask for. Saturday consisted of coming back from my make-up IS class at 11, napping till 3, going to the Rendezvous, seeing Carmina Burana at the Cannon Center, eating fabulous cheesecake at the Cheesecake Corner, swinging by Dr. Harter's for a bit of music nerddom, and heading to Kokouvi's for a nice, quaint gathering with some other U of M internationals.

I experienced a full rack (of ribs) at the Rendezvous (mmmm), and when I ordered some red wine, the server didn't card me! My friends and I were offended, so when he delivered the glass, I asked, "Aren't you gonna card me??" He subsequently took my license, put it in his pocket, and promptly returned with another glass, for which he payed. Me not really being a drinker, I gave Terese the 2nd glass, followed by much teasing for drinking less than the amount that JoBeth drank from Terese's glass. haha

Carmina was amazing. There is just no other way to put it. It was presque parfait (as the French would say). The tenor soloist truly blew me away. It's so great to have about 200 choir members blasting Latin libretto about springtime, goddesses, and taverns while you listen from the third row. hmmm :)

Cheesecake Corner: now that was funness. After I pointed out to Jimmy and Rene that there was a piano, they got up and played (their version of)chopsticks for everyone in the place....followed by Rene's should-have-won-the-competition Chopin concerto. Everyone applauded their amazing skillz, and I felt better for Rene when the other customers praised her talent. I'm glad I got to spend time with the music nerds. :)

And then, Kokouvi's. Sidy, Koko, Natani (shoot me if I misspelled), Alpha, and I ate fantastic African food cooked by Kokouvi, and great international chat ensued, as usual. No details....just lots of fun hangin' with the boy. ;)

Yesterday, my family had a gathering for me after church too. From my mother, I received the following items: a cookie sheet, a baking pan, a cutting board, 3 wooden spoons, dish rags (oh, joy), and a kick-ass electric mixer with 3 different attachments and a bin to put it all in. That made me happy. I am now an apartment-inhabiting intern. Kinda scary.

I'm oooooooooold....or, as I like to put it, I'm at the old end of the young spectrum...but it feels good so far. :)

why does this not surprise me?

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

oh, lordy. Here we go again. My poor heart is aching for the mothership, aka la France. I got an email from Laurence today, and I got her much belated Chritsmas present in the mail, so that got me wanting to go back. This is sorta silly, but you know how they say that smell is the sense that brings back the most memories the easiest? Well, there was this shower gel that I bought when I was in France that I loooooved the smell of, and every time I used it over the summer, I almost felt like I was back at the Caillibottes'. I ran out just recently, and so when I got it today, I made the mistake of smelling it. France oozes from the bottle. mmmmmmmm I can't wait till July 30th!

In other news, the EV housing selection revealed that Catherine, Amy Noelle, Sally, and I will be living in 107 next year. Holla!

In other other news, I currently have in my possession 2 flutes valued at about $5000 each. They are gorgeous, and I wish I could keep one or both, but never in fifty lifetimes will I be able to afford them.  Why, then, do I have them? I went to the flute festival Saturday afternoon to try out new flutes since mine is about to die, and of course, I had to hit up the Miyazawa booth. For those among you who are not flautists, that is the top brand, Japanese-made, gaw-jus mother of flutes. They let you borrow flutes for a week and send them back afterwards, so I took 2 for a trial. The ones I have are solid silver, and the one I'm in love with has a platinum riser (mouthpiece) and a heavy wall (double thickness on the middle joint). Did I mention I'm in love with it? Did I mention that I can't afford it? I'm willing to take up collections if you guys want to contribute to the Leigh-is-Poor-and-Needs-a-Flute-that-Actually-Works fund (the LPNFAW fund).

ok that's all for now.

peace

ok so everything is reeeeeeeeally happy in the lemur's life right now, except for one thing. let's start with the bad news.

MICHTA, CECCOLI, AND KALTENTHALER are leaving the IS department, and I'm crying....in my heart...These are the best IS profs ever, and they will be greatly missed by all the CIA fans, san marino fans, and German fans. :*( sadness.

On the upshot (as Catherine would say), spring break was a blast. This was my first spring break trip ever, and my first trip to the beach in 10 years, and my first trip to Florida in 13 years. Wow. So, yeah, I went to Amelia Island off the coast of Jacksonville with Sandy, Bethany, and Valerie, and everything, including the weather, was stellar. The sunrise over the Atlantic is truly amazing. If you don't believe in God after something like that, there's something wrong with you.

So yeah...Then, I got back this week, got back together with my boyfriend (for real this time), and then I found out that I got the $2500 scholarship to study music in France this August!! So, in case I haven't bounced off your wall yet, here's my summer schedule:

june 4-11: montreat small group leader, black mountain, north carolina
june 12-july 29: paid internship at buntyn and first pres, staying in EV apartments at Rhodes with the coolest service people ever
july 31-august 10: musicalta music academy in Rouffach, Alsace, France (research grant from rhodes)
august 10-20-something: basking on the riviera with laurence and charlotte

and my midterm grade in French? A!

Ok, so my bragging is over. I'll go back to normal life, and if I gloat too much, please slap me in the face. Humility is a good thing. I mean it. I don't want to become like I used to be again. Right. The end.

Peace!

P.S. I don't have malaria, for those of you who hear things from Courtney Frye and Kokouvi Danklou....

Currently Playing Imagine By John Lennon see related

wow...it's been a while. (since i've been this bored, that is)

not much is happening, except for the wonderful weekend at TN-CIL back on MLK weekend. the tennessee conference for international leadership was the name, and basically it was international students who have studied/currently are studying abroad in tennessee. to avoid putting words to an entirely amazing experience, here's a list of the countries people at the conference were from:

china
japan
singapore
thailand
korea
israel
palestine
sudan
togo
ghana
burundi
sénégal
south africa
u.s.
canada
mexico
puerto rico
haiti
bahamas
colombia
venezuela
spain
phillipines
france
turkey
bulgaria
ukraine
portugal
india
pakistan
saudi arabia
germany
armenia
indonesia
austrailia
new zeland

um....yeah...a lot of really different people. i guess a song that would sum up the weekend for me would be john lennon's "imagine." it really was a utopian weekend. everyone was soooo interested in each other's culture and country and language and experiences...totally amazing. no one offended anyone else, everyone was genuinely respectful of everyone else...geez.

what really brought tears to my eyes (literally) was when the armenian guy who lives in israel was giving his presentation on his country. he was talking about his country as "israel, or palestine..." for complete, genuine respect for fifi, the palestinian girl there. after he gave his presentation, fifi stood up in tears and thanked him for such a fair and honest presentation of what is really going on. she then went up to him, hugged him, and as simon the armenian started playing his music, everyone jumped up and started doing a palestinian dance around the room. cheesy, i know, but good lord. you have no idea how amazing it is to sit in the same room with an armenian and a turk, a greek and a chypriate, an israeli and a palestinian, several americans and indians and a pakistani....and have all of them love and respect one another as human beings...and to admit the wrongs of their people on others. total utopia.

i cannot describe how wonderful it was to meet people from all over the world, make friends with many of them, and gain such a HUGE additional understanding of the world all in one weekend. is this what the kingdom of God is really like? i think yes.

so this past saturday, i had the chance to go out with the people from the conference who go to the u of m. they're great people to chill with. we went to see "hotel rwanda", which, although i highly recommend, is a very heavy and soul-wrenching movie. it's a true story, so nothing is dramatized for popularity purposes. i saw much more graphic stuff in the documentaries i watched for my research paper last fall that i did on the genocide, but this movie is a must-see.

ok sorry for the long blog (like you care). peace, folks....i mean

peace.