si le temps le permet (weather permitting)

Hello all! I hope you're having a lovely June so far. Personally I've got mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, the weather in Bordeaux has been fantastic over the past few days, and we've actually been able to leave the house without wearing coats. On the other hand, Iowa City is experiencing some flooding that could possibly reach our ground-floor apartment. The good news is that things appear to be drying up. Soon I should be able to stop worrying about what I will do if Brenda's bean bag chair gets ruined.

Brenda and I plan on taking advantage of the good weather by going to the beach tomorrow. Specifically, we'll be going to Arcachon, a town about an hour away from Bordeaux on the western coast of France. Oddly enough, the University of Iowa has a month-long program in Arcachon for law students who want to study abroad. That program is happening right now, and I would like to track down my fellow law students who are there and rub it in that I'm on vacation while they have to study. I think Brenda would rather just go to the beach, so that's probably what we'll do. 

Brenda and I took a walk one sunny day to the public garden. 

We found palm trees!

And speaking of Brenda, she's at work right now doing her third performance of The Magic Flute. Her premiere last Wednesday was great, and she was greeted with hearty applause at the end of the night. I would say that the show went off without a hitch but the audience was quite distracted for about ten minutes during the second act. While Brenda was singing her second aria, a woman a few rows ahead of me apparently started to feel ill. Several people stood up to tend to her while others hurried in and out of the theater presumably in search of a doctor. In spite of the commotion, the show did not stop. Brenda later told me that she had no idea anything was going on in the audience because of how dark it was, and the conductor also appeared not to know even though it was happening only a few feet behind him. Eventually the ill woman was escorted out of the theater. By that time, Brenda's aria had ended and we were well into the next scene. I'm afraid I have no idea what became of the women who wasn't feeling well, but I'm almost positive that her episode had nothing to do with Brenda's singing. 

Brenda and I have a week left in France. We will miss the baguettes, but we're both eager to get to Santa Fe. We have some bouncing around to do before we land in New Mexico, but I can tell you more about that next week. I hope you all have a great week, and I'll talk to you next Tuesday!