I think I might suffer from just a teeny bit of FOMO, which I’m working on curing (and which might be why when I really should be going to sleep I head out to salsa, because when will I next be living in the south of Spain where there are salsa parties seemingly every day of the week?! When will I next live right next to Portugal?! Or have access to 19€ flights to Paris?! You see my dilemma?). I love being busy, but I’m sure you all know how it is when your lack of sleep catches up with you — now I get to whine about a sore throat and a stuffy nose; it will be an early night tonight. Today has been one of those days that have me daydreaming about the next time I can possibly fit in a siesta (pronto, por favor!), preferably with this gentle melody as my soundtrack.
This is a beautiful song that stuck with me from the Argentinian film ‘Infancia clandestina’. There was a film festival in Huelva last November, and despite not being able to understand 89% of the dialogue, I was completely drawn into the movie (based on a true story) and have had the song on repeat ever since.
There really is no “hump day” this week. This week is awesome. After a wonderful weekend in Paris, I had a long day of work today, and am heading to Berlin tomorrow to meet my mum! Our plan is to sightsee and go from Christmas market to Christmas market… I am so excited. I love the holiday season, and with all that has been going on this autumn winter has practically crept up on me — I can’t believe there are only twenty days until Christmas! Christmas time is here!
Despite my bedroom having become fairly chilly and damp in this Spanish “winter”, it’s still pretty hard to leave my little bed and head to work some mornings, damp plaster walls and all. But I have a lot to look forward to — including a trip to Paris this weekend — so I crawl out of bed with Édith Piaf set as my alarm. I have been to Paris once before, but that was almost ten years ago, so I feel like this trip will be quite different. If you have any suggestions for a Parisian weekend, please send them my way!
Sure, this might be a clichéd choice for a song when talking of Paris, but I don’t care– I’ve got la ville-lumière on my mind, and that definitely brightens any hump day. This is one of my absolute favourite renditions of the classic song ; quirky, talented, and oh so lovely, Pamplemoose puts a great spin on this one….it has a certain je ne sais quoi?? Alright, I’ll stop. À bientôt!
I’m currently sitting in the French department office, waiting to teach my last class for the day, run home to do an hour of English conversation, and counting down the hours until I can take a quick nap. I’m only working four days a week over here, and only three of those days are kind of long, so I don’t have a paticularly difficult job, or a terribly busy work schedule, and certainly not much to complain about! (Except for run on sentences!?) Being tired as the result of weekend travels, salsa classes, fun with my roommates, and runs through our Spanish town is a nice, happy kind of tired. Nevertheless, by the time Wednesday rolls around I find myself struggling a little bit to keep my energy up through the day and lesson planning is even trickier. My remedy? Good music. Let’s call it ‘Hump Day Harmonies’ and here’s the first instalment of our new series!
The Good Lovelies are a truly lovely Canadian trio whose melodies and harmonies always get me singing along, no matter the fatigue. Their flirty folksy tunes are some of my favourites to listen to in the kitchen or the car and these talented ladies are even better live (I say this after having seen them perform three times — good times, Mum!). I’m not sure if it gets much better than three part harmonies; happy hump day!
Meet my friend Dylan. Aside from being an all around awesome gal, she also happens to have very cool taste in music and makes THE best mix tapes ever.
So if you’re like me and can’t study without tunes in the background, or if you just want to chill to some great music I would highly recommend giving Dylan’s mixes a listen.
P.S.
That gorgeous picture of Dylan was taken by another great friend of mine, Kylie. Goodness, I have such talented friends.
Canada rocks. (Terrible pun, but seriously!) This weekend the Juno Awards were in Ottawa (for those of you who don’t know, it’s our version of the Grammy’s…but a tad smaller) and it was awesome. There was music all over the city: baby grand pianos were scattered around town, concerts on downtown corners, almost every bar, pub and club had awesome live acts all weekend long, and then the big awards show on Sunday night.
Deadmau5 at the Juno Awards
My friend and I volunteered as “seat fillers” for the Junos, which meant we got to see the awards show for free — awesome! We were told we’d be sitting in areas that were going to be on TV during the live broadcast and that meant we might not get a great view of the stage…well they ended up putting us on the floor RIGHT beside the presenters’ stage, it was pretty cool! (Only downside, had we known we would be standing for such a long time, we wouldn’t have worn our killer heels!)
After seeing more bands than I can actually remember in one weekend, and artists like Feist, Dallas Green, Hey Rosetta!, Blue Rodeo, Sarah McLachlan, Deadmau5, Lights, Dragonette, Oh Susanna, Jenn Grant, The Beauties, Simple Plan, The Good Lovelies and more, we were happy campers!
There's a little something for everyone at the Junos!
So I’ve been on a Canadiana music kick for a bit now — there really is an enormous amount of talent and it was amazing to see so much of it in town! Who are your favourites?
