La Fête des familles!

Last night was the Fête des familles! The Fête des familles is a show that the program puts on for the families that are participating in the program and it is something that the stagiaires have been working on since the first day of classes. The show had a mix of both music (chorus performances and individual/small group performances) and plays/sketches. Valeria's host father M. Talarmain happened to have filmed some of them and passed them on to me. I would like to thank him for his help!

The evening began with a short play called Au comptoir de l'hôtel by Marie-Line's group. I do not have a video of this performance but I do have a photo or two:



Below, you can see Keith preforming the song A la faveur de l'automne by Tété:



Keith is extremely talented! He worked really hard on his music.

Kelly's chorus sang the song Vois sur ton chemin, it is a song from the French movie Les Choristes:



We were priveledged to hear Hanna K's version of the Comme des enfants by Coeur de Pirate, she did an incredible job even though that she was expecting to perform:



Wow!

My theater group did a sketch that was first done by a French comedy group called Les inconnus. Here is our version of the sketch:



Olga's group performed a short play by Ann Rocard called Le château, here is a video of one of the scenes:



My group took the stage once again to perform an improvisation sketch called Taxi. The students pulled characters randomly from a bag and had to act out that specific character. It was then up to the driver of the taxi to guess who or what that person was. We had a volunteer come up from the audience to assist us and we would like to thank her for her participation. Here is the sketch:



Keith and Hanna K. combined the musical talent and sang a song written by Keith called La chanson du stage. They put a lot of effort into their music:



Kelsie and Anna S. then followed by performing the Sarcasme skit by Eric et Ramzi. :)



The show ended with music by the chorus. Here is their version of J'ai demandé à la lune by Indochine:



The show was a wonderful way to thank the host families and we hope that they very much enjoyed their performances. What a nice way to end the program in Brest!

Today is the last day for the students to be with their host families in Brest. Tomorrow morning, we will be leaving at 6:30 and we will have a 6 hour or so bus ride to Versailles, followed by Paris. We will be in Paris until their early morning flight on Saturday. If I manage to have an internet connection, I will do my best to post photos for you in Paris.

I hope that you enjoyed the videos!

Joyeux Anniversaire à Matt!

Joyeux Anniversaire à Matt!

Last week of classes !

Today marks our 6th week in Brest and it is also our last week of classes.

Yesterday, the students had the 14th of July off. The 14th of July for France is similar to our 4th of July festivities. Many of the students watched the fireworks at the Place de la Liberté the night before.

As for other after school activities, students have been working hard in learning their lines for the upcoming family show, la Fête des familles, which will be on Monday night. Students will have their last full day of classes tomorrow and on Friday morning they will take the final exam and evaluations. On Friday afternoon, students will be rehearsing for the Fête des familles.

Promenade en bateau

Last week, the city of Brest offered the group a boat tour around the Rade de Brest. It lasted for more than an hour. For more photos, please check out my Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/bmurray34

4th of July Celebration! ....on July 3rd.

This year, we celebrated the 4th of July on Friday, July 3rd. Our celebration was not the typical American celebration of the holiday: instead of fireworks, we had a military ceremony... instead of seeing relatives and family, the students spoke with French veterans and heard their tales... instead of hot dogs, hamburgers, and macaroni and cheese, we had pâté, crevettes, and taboulé. Needless to say, it was not their typical celebration but nonetheless, it was certainly a memorable one.



The ceremony began at 5:30 in the afternoon. During the ceremony, some students (Molly, Kate, and Sam) participated in the placing of the flowers. The other students sang “La Marseillaise” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” We should all be proud of them, random comments from the spectators said that they did a great job!




After the ceremony was our Fourth of July dinner party. All of the families and students enjoyed a tasty meal and then hit the dance floor. :)






What a great group!

Danse Bretonne (July 2, 2009)

Thursday evening was La Danse Bretonne! All of the students along with their host families hooked pinkies and gathered in a huge circle to learn how to dance Breton style. We were guided by two experienced teachers, Fabienne and Jean-Paul.

Packed in a small room, students had the chance to experience first hand the lack of air conditioning in France. Every few dances, the students would run outside to get a couple breaths of fresh air then would run back in to learn another. We danced for a little over two hours! It was clear that everyone had a great time!

I hope that you will enjoy the videos below as much as I did filming them. The videos are a mix of the lessons that we were given and students attempting the new dance.