The Blue Man Group - by Robin

Everyone sits down in their chairs, calm, waiting, unsure whats going to happen. The lights fade away, the room is silent. Even the chatter from us students stopped. Everyone is expecting something to happen. We dont know what, or how.

Then, suddenly, a noise. And light. Through tissue, we spot the silhouette of a bald man, playing the drums. His light then fades away, and the one next to him starts shining, revealing another man, bald, playing the drums, but another melody. Light fades again, revealing yet another bald man, playing drums. Then it fades quicker, revealing them all faster, over and over again, and all their basic melodies morph together, creating a beautiful and complex crescendo. They all go faster, louder, stronger, the crescendo increases, and then, suddenly, a final boom, and all three stop their movement, turn towards the crowd. We cant see their faces through the tissue, but everyone knows they are staring right at us. One hell of a reveal. Strong, creepy, fascinating and funny.

This can be said about the entire show. At its core, the blue man group is a comedic act of three bald, blue men. They cant talk, all they have at their disposal are their acting skills, and some tools. A wise man once said, that some gestures mean more than a thousand words. This show proves it. 

Underlined by great musical scores, the three men discover things of our human world, simple things. Think of young children discovering their new toys, how they experiment with them, not necesearly in the way they are supposed to. An example, they discover how to use colors, but instead of painting with brushes, the throw them into each others mouth and spit them on paintings. What may sound cheesy and old is however massivly improved with the great acting, the three man absolutly nail their characters, and once again the musical and lightning work. The show could be seen as a high quality modern circus, just better. 

Because it has even more qualitys to it. First, it is quite over the top, and always surprising. The front lines all had to wear rain-protection shirts, as they had a great tendency of throwing stuff into the public. Lots of stuff. Sometimes very unexpected, an example: they were sitting on a table, focussed on each other, and suddenly, out of nowhere, they catapulted a random cake in the middle of the audience. Seriously. No one saw that coming. 

Another awesome quality is interaction with the audience. As I mentioned before, they have a tendency of throwing stuff at us.

we had to wear ponchos just in case...

But thats far from everything. First, they went into public quite often. Or, climbed over our seats. They also gave some of their stuff to the viewers, like self made paintings. Not sure if anyone really wanted them, but whatever...

At some point, they were in the middle of a performance, but all the sudden, red lights started flashing, sirens went on, the three stopped their movements, grabbed the live feed cam and filmed a bunch of late arrivals, calling them out for beeing late. Everyone laughed pretty damn hard. 

The best part was propably a lady the grabbed from the audience, and taken on stage. And I cant tell whetever she was involved with them or not, because if she was not, it was some of the best impro I have ever seen. Serioulsy, awesome job.

Towards the end, they brought the big guns and started shooting giant balloons and kilometers of toiletpaper in the crowd, the crazy finale to a crazy show.

We were not allowed to take pictures during the show, only during the finale..this is us covered in toilet paper and wearing ponchos to avoid being covered in paint! But we were able to take pictures with the artists afterwards...They stayed in character and did not utter a word, just like the show.

Overall, the blue man group is an awesome specatcle. Great acting, comedy, music, interaction, even some social critique, it is a must visit in Boston, and I only have one question, why are you reading this? Do it like us, go get some tickets! Like right now!

If you're back from ordering (or already did it in the first place), here is some background stuff about them:

The group was founded 1991, by three close friends, Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton on Manhattens lower east side. They quickly grew to a bigger and stronger organisation, getting national media attention aswell as overwhelming positive critical acclaim, including Emmy and Grammy awarded shows. Today, they have theatrical installations in Boston, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, Orlando and Berlin, aswell as a tour in South/North America and a show on a norwegian cruise line ship, and their organisation includes over 4000 employees and about 40 "blue men". 

When the three students created the blue man character back in 1991, and started investing lots of ressources into their project, they received lots of sceptical feedback. They however decided to stick to their plan, and presented their work for the first time at the Astor Place Theatre, NYC. The overall reception was so overwhelmingly positive, it lead to their massivly ascending career. Today, the group is mostly acclaimed for their innovative on scene productions, interactions with the audience, and musical work. In fact, the group has been on multiple tours excluivly focussing on their rock music, has a discopraphy including 5 albums, and has been awarded with Grammys.

As a final verdict, I think we can all agree that these people are awesome, and that the Blue man group is with no doubt a must see in Boston, or anywhere else on the globe.

Random pictures 3

 We were all exhausted yesterday

f

Rowing on the Charles River...

Rowing is just as quintessential to Boston as baseball as Harvard was based on Cambridge University

 in the UK. Cambridge and Oxford have been competing for centuries, and rowing is still one of their favourite battlefields.

Shops and malls in Boston - by Thaïs

Boston offers a large choice of shops and malls. You can find them everywhere in the city but we noticed some of the best and most popular places in the city. In Back Bay you can find a lot of clothes and big brands. In this neighborhood there is Newbury Street, one of the most famous shopping streets in Massachusetts. 

There you can find can find chic shops like Tiffany's, Dior or this kind of brands but also cheaper ones, like the popular Forever 21, Brandy Melville or Urban Outfitters. Between all this clothing shops you can also see coffee shops to take a little break, like the popular Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts, where you can find all the different kinds of American donuts and munchkins. You can find them at each corner and they are very attractive to the French students because of their authenticity. The street also offers choice for little shops. 


Another famous place is Faneuil Hall, also know as Quincy Market, where you can go shopping in the very known Abercrombie and Fitch, it is very popular for the French students because the price is much lower and we had the chance to have sales (-40% on the hole shop). About everybody came out with a piece of clothing. American Eagles is also a similar brand.
Because of the many sport teams, like the Red Sox or the Celtics and the very known university of Harvard there are many sellers (in the street, souvenir shops or even supermarkets) of sweaters, caps, t-shirts and other stuff with the team's or university's symbol(s).
We visited one of the multiple shopping malls: the Prudential, also named named the Pru by the American students. It was at the bottom of a tower. The shops were very diversified too. A very interesting thing to see in America are the supermarket: they are so different! Often they are much bigger and the products are not all to find in France. It was funny to see the birthday cake department, the cakes were the big cliché of the American cake, full of cream and color! We found a lot of products: the famous peanut butter, Canadian maple syrup or cheddar cheese! 

Quincy Market is a big food court surrounded by many shops

In general the prices are lower than in France and the quantity is bigger. Boston offers so many different things, everybody finds something for his taste!

One afternoon with JFKennedy - by Hélène

Today, after we had lunch at the «tasty burger» (sooo good !!)

, we went to the JFK library, which is the presidential library but also museum of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (president of the USA from 1961 to 1963). The building, built in 1977, was designed by the famous architect Ieoh Ming Pei.

When we arrived there, we first watched a movie about Kennedy's life, from his little childhood to his election, in 1961. Then, we went through many rooms, built just like the inside of the white house. Each of them was dedicated to one important side or subject of Kennedy's life. For example, one of the rooms was about the Cuban Crisis, another one was about Freedom 7, the first American rocket which brought a man into the universe. The mission was charted by Kennedy, so that he really got involved in it. A piece of the rocket was even seeable in the museum !  We were also able to see the dress that his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, wore at the gala given for André Malraux, and a copy of his famous desk... and so much more !

 Jaqueline Kennedy and Charles de Gaulle

 we saw reconstitutions of his campaign headquarters...

 a reconstitution of the Oval Office at the White House as it was at the time

Interview (with an American museum visitor) :
Me : «What do you think about John F. Kennedy, do you think he was a good president ?
Visitor : To my opinion, he was the best president America has ever had.
Me : Interesting ! Why do you think so ?
Visitor : I think so because he got involved in a lot projects, and when he was interested in something, he would always give 100% of himself to make it led.
Me : Do you have a concrete example of one of those projects you are talking about ?
Visitor : Yes. He was the first president to fight for desegregation. He supported its victims and tried to make the people change their mentality about coloured citizens.
Me : Yes, that's true, he was really combative for equal rights. Maybe you have another example ?
Visitor : Sure. Kennedy created the «Peace Corps Projects». Those projects were meant to help poor people all over the world. For the third one, the president sent 300 men to the Philippines, for example.
Me : Thank you ! A last question : what is your opinion on such places like the JFK library ?
Visitor : I think they are very important, very helpful to know a little more about such a famous man, because we can't get to his private life and reach his thoughts better than in a place like that one.»

Museum of Fine Arts - by Célia

Monday, April 6th

Today the French students went to the Museum of Fine Arts, one of the biggest museums in the USA. It has opened in 1876 and is set in Huntington Avenue in Boston.

When we arrived, our teacher Mme Audhuy divided us in two groups for the guided tour and the activities.

The museum is split up into several sections. We visited the part of the Art of the Americas, the Art of Europe and the Art of Japan and China. Each section includes expositions of different artistic movements such as Abstract Expressionism for example. Our guide showed us different works of art such as "Rising Star" (Burhan Dogançay, 2009), "The great wave off Kanagawa" ( Hokusai, 1831) or "Red Disaster" ( Andy Warhol, 1963). She asked us what do we see on the different paintings. The purpose of these art works is to convey a message. 

After the guided tour every student made his own painting. We only had a piece of canvas, a pair of scissors and some tape to our disposal but we made great paintings and we had a lot of fun!

( photos to come)

Quack Quack! The Duck Tour - by Celia

Hi everyone! I'm going to write an article about the two main things we did on April the 1rst.

So first we went to Prudential  Center  to have lunch there and the teachers let us 50 minutes to walk around.

The Prudential Center is an International Style skyscraper. It stands as the 2nd tallest building in Boston. Completed in 1964, the building is 228 meters tall, with 52 floors. It contains many shops which are expensive. It’s spectacular to see from the outside.

Right after we did something really amazing! We went on a Duck Tour. A “Duck” is an amphibious vehicle. None of us had ever toured a city in anything that comes close to Boston Duck Tours. 

First, we were greeted by one of the tour conductors, who also narrated our sightseeing tour of Boston. We cruised by all the places that make Boston the birthplace of freedom and a city of firsts, from the golden-domed State House to Bunker Hill and the TD Banknorth Garden, Boston Common and Copley Square to the Big Dig, Government Center to fashionable Newbury Street, Quincy Market to the Prudential Tower, and more. In fact we were driven to 37 different places.

And just when we were thinking we had seen it all, it was time for "Splashdown" as the “Duck” splashed right into the Charles River for a breathtaking view of the Boston and Cambridge skylines. The river was still frozen in some parts but fortunately the bus/boat was able to sail through.

We loved it, it was so "wicked" awesome as the Bostonians say!

He even let some of us drive on the river!

I'm just going to tell you some more about the main places we saw.

The Bunker Hill Monument stands at Breed's Hill, the site of the first major battle of the American Revolution (June 17, 1775). The golden-domed State House is the state capitol and house of government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, located in the Beacon Hill. It is a masterpiece of architecture.

The TD Banknorth Garden is the arena home of the Celtics (national basketball league), Bruins (national hockey league), and many other sports and entertainment events. It is a huge building as well outside as inside.

Newbury Street is located in the Back Bay area of Boston. It runs from the Boston Public Garden also known as Commons to Massachusetts Avenue. This mile long street lined with brownstones crosses many major streets and contains hundreds of shops and restaurants.

The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library  founded in 1848 and is financed with state funding.

Hope you enjoyed reading and big hugs and kisses from Boston

American food - part 3 by Rachel

So after spending a few days in the US we start to understand what the american people are eating... Most of the time not healthy food...but they are exceptions. For example Nora and I went to the "Smoothie King" and we bought a healthy smoothie with fruits. There are also fancy restaurants like the "Cheese Cake Factory" were there are different kinds of food: pasta, burger, sea food, salads,... 
But most of the American food still stay unhealthy like Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Mac Donald's,... 
So compared to France, the food is not that healthy and the one that is, is food from other countries like Italy, Mexico, France,...

quite a challenge