Miss us?

Come see me, Kristin, and the rest of us at the CROPS meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) night to hear what everyone thought about the trip.  Please keep the french fries far away from A-1!

Sorry I got the date wrong in my email seeking feedback!  It's definitely tomorrow, May 4th at 7:30!

The Eagle Has Landed

The orchestra's plane touched down a few minutes ago!!!! Yay!!! The kids deserve a hero's welcome!

Home Sweet Home

Home, Sweet Home

The parents have landed safe and sound at JFK.  Hopefully, our bus driver will answer our call and our luggage will be waiting for us!  The parents will then be off on our way on the long ride home.  The kids hopefully got off on time (couldn't track this in the plane) and will get to South a couple of hours after us. Really wish we were on the same flight.  Who did we fly with??  Another school's orchestra and French Club.  Not fair!  We'll all breathe easier when our kids are home.

Thanks to all who kept up with our trip from home.  FYI...The farewell dinner included many speeches that acknowledged how awesome and supportive we are, so you may be appreciated by your teenager when they get home for at least until you ask them to gather their laundry!!

Parents who were on the trip, most of you haven't seen this blog and will see why I was constantly on my cell phone typing away.  Hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as I did and, of course, it was a pleasure traveling and counting off with you!

Jasmin asked me to send her a link to this blog and to the pictures, so anyone wanting to leave her a note feel free and I'm sure she'll check it out!

Going home

Parents just boarded 2nd plane to JFK. It's crowded!

There's No Place Like Home

We leave today to come back home.  The plane ride will give me plenty of time to write up the happenings of yesterday and other things I may have missed.  Yesterday was a good day and last night was very special.  Today, on the ride to the airport, I plan on giving out CROPS Awards and hope they will be received in the spirit they are given!  I'll write up the list to share with you soon.

Thanks for following our travels and pray for our safe return today!
Lisa <3

Our Final France Performance

We're waiting in the lobby of the Auditorium Rainer III. We took a tour of the palace in Monoco and walked through the Napoleon museum where we saw his hat among other things. We were then taken to the port where we were let loose to eat our final lunch. Kristin, Cindy and our families ate at Cafe de Paris next to the Casino Monte Carlo. After the best lunch of the week (for me, anyway), we went into the casino. Let me be the first to tell you we have Monte Carlo's newest hundredaire, Bill Mylchreest!!! Our kids just took the stage. Be back soon! We have our smallest audience, but nicest venue.

The Second Concert Scoop

The Nice Conservatory was a nice place to play and it was great seeing our kids playing with their French counterparts. The auditorium was very hot and stuffy and our guys did not wear their tux jackets. This was kind of embarrassing to me since I bought my son's second shirt very large since he still has 2 years in the orchestra and I figured, "Who's going to see it under his jacket anyway!". Whoops! Anyway, the stage allowed for a quick piano roll onto the stage so our kids didn't have the controlled chaos we usually have. Michael Bruschi one again sounded amazing and got a Nice nice standing ovation. Hopefully the kids weren't missing anything!!
Lisa

Encore

Again, we play an encore and the kids look surprised at the selection. Don't know why yet. The kids sounded great, but look tired after a day in Cannes. The encore is the Duke Ellington selection we know, but the Nice Conservatory will sight read!!

Concert #2

We got to the concert a bit late, but the other group was playing so we didn't miss our group. I won't be taking many photos tonight for a couple reasons. First, my camera is sicker than Kristin and will be admitted to Nikon Hospital upon our return to the states. Second, this isn't the type of venue I can run around in like your used to seeing me do at home! Our kids are taking the stage!!!!!!!

Poor Kristin

Send good thoughts Kristin's way. She's worked so hard for over a year to help plan fundraising events, performing general treasurer duties, paying our invoices for the trip, etc. and what happens now that we're here? She gets sick and is feeling rotten! All the parents are offering whatever medications we've brought with us and we'll get her through this! Poor baby!

Comedy Corner with Roger Newman

"Did you use the Louvre- tory?"
-referring to the facilities at the Louvre

"I hear it stinks!"
-referring to the Perfume museum

Thanks for keeping us laughing, Roger!

Nice is nice!

Take your favorite shore town and multiply it by a trillion and that's how beautiful Nice is.  If I ever win the lottery and nobody can find me, I'll be in Nice.  We've been really, really lucky with the weather and it is just gorgeous here.  We're on the bus going into Cannes. Maybe we'll see some stars!  Oh, that's right, we'll see them tonight at our second concert!

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Well, 120ish Americans!  What do you feed them when they travel to France?  How about chicken, BBQ ribs and French fries?  The parents haven't been impressed with the food provided for dinner, but try to remind ourselves why we're here.  Lunch has become our most important meal of the day because it's only then that we can have good French food.  I do have to tell you that last night after our chicken and fries they handed out Dixie cups for dessert.  We felt like we were at a four-year-old's birthday party, so we proceeded to have a birthday party for a very unexpecting parent who's birthday was several months ago!  We kind of expected to play pin-the-tail on Chagall's Donkey and get some game tokens, but no such luck!  With that being said, we're still having a great time and had a good laugh last night watching Helen trying to eat her Dixie cup through the lid.  Still very glad we're here and get to share it with all of you!  (or both of you- since I don't know if anyone's reading this!)

Overheard Quotes

"This is MUCH better than Google Earth!"
-Bill Procz at the Eiffel Tower

"She's like a gummy bear that talks!"
-Eric Morris on everyone's shared affection for Madame Kohl

"Eau de Sniff"
-Billchreest's name for the perfume museum

"I'm so tired, but I can't close my eyes because I'm in Paris"
-Lauren Procz who has wanted to visit Paris her whole life!

Update on Theft

As I mentioned the other night, some of the girls lost some euros in an incident that happened during our concert in Paris (see other post).  Kristin and I pulled funds from the CROPS account and distributed it among those affected.  Although it's a bit much for CROPS at this time, it is MUCH more important that this trip isn't ruined for these girls.  There were 13 girls and we gave them each up to 50 euros for lunches and spending money.  I don't know exactly how this will be handled later, but we felt that as a parent group it was the right thing to do and we'd deal with it at home.  We will not ask anybody to do this, but think it's so amazing that two dads today asked if they could help by contributing towards this reimbursement (and they both have sons who didn't lose anything) that I wanted to share that with you.  We really have some great families in our orchestra and I'm enjoying getting to know them all a little bit better!
~Lisa

For all of you...

On the Move!

Well, we're on the train to Nice. By the time we gathered at the Louvre, we were a bit worried we were going to be late for our train. Turned out our train was running much later than us and we waited for two hours. The train has two levels and we are on the top. It's nice for the view, but all our luggage had to come with us, so we had to get it up the narrow staircase. We forget how dependent we are on those wheels! The dads on our car did an amazing job fitting luggage under seats, between seats, filling up the much too small rack, and fitting what we could on the overhead shelf. My guess is that Nishant's dad and Zack's dad could be Tetris champs! They made quite a team and I was grateful they were sitting nearby! The kids are in the next car and have the top and bottom. I don't know if they are catching up on sleep. We will be arriving in Nice late tonight. Looks like a midnight dinner for a party of 120 (+/-).

On another note, I am trying to get all your messages to your kids, so feel free to leave me a message here or on FB if you need to.
Lisa

Day 2 Pictures (not all) on the CROPS Facebook Page

I'll get the rest up soon!

An Unfortunate Ending to a Great Day

While our musicians were WOW-ing the audience, something very unfortunate was going on backstage.  There was a theft in the lady's changing room and euros went missing.  Although there will be an investigation, the chaperones are determining how to handle this.  We are looking how to make sure these girls have euros to get through their trip through some kind of loan.  Although we were told the room would be secured, this still happened.  During future concerts I will suggest that a paid chaperone keeps all passport holders and cell phones with them.  So sad that tonight ended in tears for some.  By the way, Mr. Simon also was a victim of this unfortunate event.
Lisa

Very Chris Simon!

No, just one, but we were so well received it's ridiculous. Wow! Chris Simon was more Chris Simon than I've ever seen him!

Encore! Encore!

We just did our first encore and the crowd is going wild. I feel another on the way!

Day One Pictures on the CROPS Facebook Page - Check 'em out!

Pictures from Day 1 are being uploaded to our CROPS page right now! I'll post some here also. I'll also fill you in on our activities from yesterday real soon so check back.

We've landed!!!!!!
Our plane left JFK late which pushed back our arrival. The kids had a great time on the flight. Some played cards until the wee hours of the morning. All moved around changing seats to spend time with their friends. If you got up to stretch your legs you were sure to find an unconscious musician sprawled out in your seat - ask Jerry Donahue! Gracie slept on Cindy Mylchreest's shoulder-very cute.

Other airline guests had a look of fear when encountering our group, but our kids were so friendly, polite, smart and funny you would and should be proud. I am! They practiced their French pronunciation and asked about their culture. Evan made friends with every air steward. The kids are great.

Btw, those.Bose noise-canceling headphones are worth every penny! We had a choice of a chicken dish and a salmon shepard's pie. Gracie raved so much about the salmon, she convinced me to get it and she was right!

Still at the airport!

Kids are scurrying around getting food and drinks for the flight. I better do the same. Everyone is doing great and I'm sitting here with Billy, Meredith, and Ellie(?). I see kids taking their Airbourne (Jon) and making their way to the bathrooms. Will update when we arrive!

Packing List?

Make sure to check the packing list given out at the France meeting for what is being checked in the morning.  Pack with this luggage check in mind so you don't have to pull everything out to show the teachers you've got it all!  Is everybody excited??  Back to packing...

The Northampton Patch Video from the Farewell Concert

For those of you who don't follow the Northampton Patch, I urge you to check it out.  The Patch has supported our orchestra and CR South in general.  Check out their video from last night...

http://northampton.patch.com/articles/cr-south-orchestra-plays-final-show-before-france#video-5614722

If you subscribe to their RSS feed, you won't miss anything going on in our neighborhood.  I swear I'm not getting paid for this endorsement!

The Farewell Concert

Congratulations to the South Orchestra for an amazing performance at last night's Farewell Concert.  Check out the pictures on the CROPS Facebook page.

Thank you to John B. Kelly III for attending and representing the Prince Albert II Foundation.

John B. Kelly III and CROPS Co-President Kristin Newman

John B Kelly III

John B. Kelly III, President of The Prince Albert Foundation, and cousin to Prince Albert, is planning on attending our Farewell Concert. Half of all funds collected for tickets and the 50/50 will be contributed to this foundation as will funds made during our 3rd concert on our trip.

Thank you, Nancy Sauers, for all your hard work.

Advice close to my heart...well, ear.

Check out the traveling advice from AT&T for those that have an iPhone.   I'm sure some of this can apply to other phones.  Thought I'd share...

http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/iphone-travel-tips.jsp

WiFi

In our efforts to keep everyone updated, Kristin checked to make sure we'd have internet access at the hotels and we were very pleased to find out there is free wifi at both.  This was for the two hotels where the parents/sibs are staying.  I see the students' second hotel has wifi in their guest rooms, but I'm unsure if it's free.  Great news and makes emailing back home a good alternative to those expensive phone calls and texts.  Not that it's worth bringing something valuable like a computer, but certain cell phones, iPods, and iPads can utilize wifi to email (or update Facebook!).  Keeping this in mind, our updates to this blog will usually be made from the hotel unless something happens I NEED to share with you.

For when you gotta go...

I just found this online and it reminded me of something we ran into in Italy... many places it cost money to use the bathroom.  On the flipside, those were usually the cleanest (although sometimes it was just a clean hole in the ground). 


"In many train stations it costs money to use the bathroom. For instance, at Paris Gare du Nord, you will need a one euro coin. Make sure to have some coins available for restrooms stops ahead of time!" -eHow.com

Delaware Valley Side-by-Side Pictures

I just posted 20-something pictures from the DVPO Side-by-Side pictures on our CROPS page.  Check them out.  You all sounded wonderful and made us proud, as usual!

Publicity

Okay, so I'm going to test publishing photos in a blog so here it goes.  Today, I took a few photos of some of the orchestra members that will be mentioned in upcoming publicity.

and one more...

I think I like the close-up the best.  What do you think?

So, I guess this site resizes the pictures for you because these are from the original files.  This means this is the size that my France pictures will be published when I'm posting from France.

Welcome to the CROPS France Blog Page!

Check in frequently during our France trip to keep up with blog posts and view pictures taken through our journey.  Feel free to comment.  Knowing someone was reading this would certainly help motivate me to keep updating during the trip!

Check out the Orchestra Officer's blog at www.crsofrance.com .