IrishOboe

Since both my sister and my mother have posted about their Sunday adventures I figured I’d add mine to the bunch.

My beloved nerdy family subscribes to A Word of the Day.  One would hope that would make me more articulate, but the part of the daily mailing that I enjoy the most is the quote.  I save ones I like and today I thought I'd share it with the world.  It expresses a sentement that I've had since at least high school.

The older I grow, the more I listen to people who don't talk much. -Germain
G. Glien

I think I feel this way because I'm always talking and always have something to say and always think it's important, so I'll interrupted, talk on end, not really listen then when I finally shut up, feel the fool.

Here's to learning to shut my mouth and open my ears.

Forgive me.  Has it been more than a week since I wrote?!  Given that it is 12:45am and I haven’t been getting much sleep now doesn’t seem like a good time either, but I just bought a new CD and have to listen to it and I’m wired, so it seemed like a good time to blab about my life.  Let’s hope the typos don’t make it unintelligible.

My faithful readers deserve better attention that I'm giving.  Things are busy in a very good way but that stills makes them busy.  I apologize and offer with it a bit of Swiss advertising for your internal exercise.  I've been thinking about making a post on how appallingly sexual and inappropriate the Swiss advertisements are (namely the ones on AIDS), but this is less depressing.

Every day is beautiful and every day I rejoice in the Lord, but some days the sun shines down and happy praises are easy to voice, and it’s all in the little things.  Perhaps the most precious of little joys was the running hug I got from two-year-old Tamino when I came home today.  That’s the first time I’ve gotten a spontaneous hug from him, and it’s a far cry from his demands that I leave the room when I first invaded his world.  Kids are such a delight when you open your mind and give it time.  For me, the hardest thing about living away from family is living without hugs.  I believe physical, human contact is as necessary to life as exercise.  It’s one of those things that if you don’t do it, you might not noticed, but as soon as you do again you realize just how much you’ve been needing it all along.  Of course I filled up on hugs when Mom and Dad were here, but I’ll take them however they come.  Okay, so maybe not from the nuts on the street . . .

I know it is too early to be thinking of next lent, but I saw a painting in the Orsay Museum that really spoke to me.  The painting is by Jean-Léon Gérôme and is titled Jérusalem.  I think since my blog is for personal use only I am allowed to reproduce the painting, but to be safe I won’t. [My sis check up on it so now I've postd it.  I'll take it down if someone knows I should] They have the whole collection online so please follow this link to their website to see it at a decent size.  Of course the full effect can only be experienced in person, but I still think you might get something out of it.  Here is some information on it, also from the museum’s website.  Before I tell you my thoughts I will give you the chance to look at the painting and tell me what you see.  BTW, a poster of said work would be a welcomed belated birthday present . . . ;)  It was fun for me to fall in love with a painting that isn’t famous (well, I’d never heard of it).  I suppose one day I will shed the need to always shrink from the popular, but currently it still gives me pleasure, much as I enjoyed seeing the major works.  Of course the pleasure is increased since the work received much criticism at the time.  Oh how sophisticated I am!  (Don’t be fooled.  What I failed to mention is that I’d never heard of Gerome before.  In fact, that goes for most of the artists in the Louvre and the Orsay. . .)

On this beautiful second Sunday of Easter I guided my parents to the airport and we said our goodbyes.  We managed to make it despite the sudden disappearance of the bus stop and bus they came in on!  Apparently it wasn’t profitable enough, so we had to take the tram into town to catch another bus.  Talk about bad timing.  It was also bad timing that they weren’t able to go to Basel Christian Fellowship with me at all during their stay, but it was good timing that I was able to get to church right after dropping them off.  It’s been a beautiful day of rest and reflection giving me a much needed pause between two weeks of nonstop family fun and the beginning of an intense two months of work at the Schola, this time with my eye on the auditions on June.  Folks, my time in Switzerland has officially past the half-way mark.

Mom set me up with a new way to upload pictures and I'm trying it out on a random picture.  I found this poem at the Paper Museum in Basel and liked it despite not agreeing with it 100%.  I hope you can read it.  Remember, this is just a test.

I have only enough time to announce that we made it safely back to Basel after an enchanting week in France.  I had the mostly lovely birthday and we enjoyed a splendid Easter Day in lovely weather at the Châteaux.  I can’t wait to post pictures and tell you all about it.  Thanks to everyone who send birthday or Easter greetings.  We were blissfully without contact with modern civilization for the week.  I’m enjoying the last few days with my folks then I will write all about our adventures.  Thanks for your prayers and your love.

What I mean by that is that tomorrow we leave for France for six days then we will again be back in Switzerland for the last three days of my parent’s visit.  This is the part of the trip where I get to relax and let my Mom take over the tour guide position.  I plan to be flexible and accommodating.  Mistakes are just adventures in the making.

I continue to push Mom and Dad to their limit as we fill the days with fun activities.  Today to the surprise of everyone they slept in until after nine, and I had the morning to do some planning.  We made it out the door around 10:30 and headed to the Kunstmuseum.

We got off to a leisurely start because we all needed the rest and I was shocked to find I’d slept until 9.  Shortly after we got a call from the airport saying Dad’s suitcase would be delivered between 10 and 11.  Sure enough, at 10:30 it was delivered to our door.  We then were free to enjoy a day on the town.

The best birthday present I get for the big 25 is a visit from two of the most lovely people in my life: Mom and Dad!  The only thing foolish on this April 1^st was that one suitcase got stuck in Miami due to delays and short connections.  Hopefully we’ll recover it tomorrow.  In the meantime, I worked them hard in an attempt to adjust their body clocks to Swiss time.  We had a light lunch of cheese, bread, fruit, and Baseler Läckerli, then walked around the old city and went to the history museum in Barfüsser Church.  It was really lovely and we didn’t get to finish everything.  Dad was very happy with their coin collection, and I even enjoyed it as well.  There were lots of really interesting items, and I’m glad I finally had time to relax and enjoy them.  It’s much more fun to explore the city and be a tourist when you have someone with you.  When I’m alone its easier to think only of all the work I want to get done.