Trio, sunbath, meetings, homework

My mom is a lifelong violin teacher. She likes to organize musical events and being in France doesn't stop her. She's only been here for 10 days and already she organized a performance this morning at church (violin, bassoon, piano) with her, me, and a friend of ours who is a amateur bassoonist and ENT surgeon enjoying his retirement here in Menton. Wo be unto anyone who says no to her!

Most of us went out after lunch to sunbathe and read at the beach. Dio stayed home to work on homework, though. We got some lovely vitamin D therapy. Ahhhh...

Inga is looking less like death warmed over today. I think she's finally starting to get better rather than worse. She's still sleeping in the living room just in case she coughs a lot at night.

I had 2 breech meetings tonight. As soon as I got done, I was in demand for homework help. Zari has to learn hundreds of dates in the next 2 weeks in preparation for her "bac blanc" in Geopolitics. Inga is trying to catch up on the homework she missed while she was sick (Spanish, music). Dio was working on an essay for his French class about the play "Rhinoceros" by Eugène Ionesco.

I now know a lot about Zoë Saldaña (for Inga's Spanish presentation), taught Inga a whole bunch about homophony vs polyphony and about melisma (cue me singing Gregorian chants and the neighborhood call to prayer that I memorized when I was living in Jerusalem). I also know a lot more about European history now, from the 1555 Treaty of Augsbourg to the 1947 UN plan to divide Palestine and many dates in between. I also learned that Ionesco's play was a metaphor for how people succumbed to Nazism and totalitarianism; in the play, everyone but the main character gradually turn into rhinoceruses. The one who remains a human represents La Resistance, while the rest end up following the path of least resistance and going with the group, literally turning into a herd. (Ok, technically it would be a "crash" of rhinos, not a herd!)

Eric had a meeting tonight as well, with the Maison Baldwin foundation.

It's been quite the day!