On the continent again

We are traveling across Europe now, criss-crossing the countries to visit the students.  Taking the Eurostar like a streak from London to Paris was direct and easy.  Back in Paris we stayed in an apartment of a french sociology researcher in the China town of Paris.  We rented the bedroom of her son away at boarding school and had good interactions with her during our stay and felt very at home. It was nice to be back to great bread and amazing cheese.

Megan is investigating Gypsy jazz and the guitarist Django Reinhardt.  I met with Megan and chatted about her project so far in a park in Paris used in the past by the rich and now a public park with some curiosities like a small pyramid and Greek colonnade. She is renting a room in a town outside Paris but comes in frequently to work on her research at the library, explore and find more music and musicians to investigate. We joined her at a concert in a small Jazz club by Reinhardt's grandson who is also a jazz guitarist. Megan had a chance to interview him before the concert in French. She is really making some good contacts for her project and is relishing her time in France!

We traveled on to Frankfort and found it a very pleasant surprise. First we bought  food for the journey and never touched it  because in first class they gave us drinks and then a meal!  The surprise was that it was a "Menu Rose":," Rosa Menu"or "Pink Menu" depending on whether you speak French, German or English. It came in a slick box with compartments that open to reveal different components of the meal: the starter-Pink radishes with hazelnut oil and pink pepper berries; the main dish -Salmon Tartare with crunchy pink rice ; and dessert- chocolate fondant with raspberry heart.  I kid you not!  Not surprising was having a room, once again, on the top floor or "attic" as the cheerful proprietor told us.  She must have been at least in her seventies if not eighties and answered the gate about 9:30 Pm when we arrived, sprinted up the multiple flights of steps , calling down for us to :take our time" as we marched up luggage in hand.It was a great place and the provided breakfast of rye bread and spreads was a delight as she chatted about a range of topics and stories. She was very intelligent with an engaging personality.

After London and Paris where one is in constant streams of people down numerous stairs through tunnels and onto subway cars, Frankfort felt open and uncrowded.  I met Breanna at the Museum of Communication since she is working on a social networking project comparing the practices of American and German college students. II was absolutely delighted to find the installation of sheep my friend Curt had found on the Internet. The flock is made up entirely of old dial phones and is absolutely wonderful!  For a small museum it had some fabulous examples of art related to communication, even a wrapped public phone by Christo and Beuys "Communication" piece of two cans and a string. I enjoyed the selection of examples of TV's , radios, etc from the past.  Very interesting and a helpful timeline for Breanna's paper.  Our walk around town, dinner and finally apple strudel as the sun set was a delight.

On to Berlin where an apartment of three of our SAE students had just swelled to four with the arrival of a UWRF grad to visit- Jason. And our son Zero appeared to make it a five -some in Berlin.