Joshua Tree

Last weekend, Will, 3 of his friends and I took a trip down to Joshua Tree for some camping and hiking. I have never been to this National Park and I must say...for being in the desert, it was pretty awesome. The views were phenomenal. We got to the campsite pretty late due to horrible traffic getting out of LA. It took us hours and hours to get there. By the time we arrived, it was already completely dark out and we couldn't find a ranger station to double check our site number. We ended up just grabbing a campsite that seemed vacant and setting everything up in the dark. I am so glad that both Will and I know how to set up my tent in our sleep since we could barely see what we were doing. After tent set-up, I started the fire and we all enjoyed a lovely campfire talk and drink.

The next morning, we met up with 5 other people and hiked the trail called "Hidden Valley" in Joshua Tree. This was intended to be an easy hike with minimal effort. We ended up deciding to climb rocks and climb rocks we did. We actually scaled a mini-mountain. I hope this picture gives you some idea of how we climbed and how far we went.

This trip was definitely one of the highlights of coming back to LA so far. I love the diversity of this area (desert, ocean, all within easy driving distance).

More posts to come as rehearsals have finally started (as of yesterday) and we are slowly but surely getting ready for the big push to finish before we leave on June 10th for our first weekend performance in Boston, MA. This week should be pretty easy as we are still in the discovery phase of the show but as we progress, things will fall into place pretty quickly. I am so excited to see how we are going to develop the performance in such a short time period.

The return to Los Angeles

So, as previously mentioned, I returned to LA about 7 weeks before I had originally intended. My flight was pretty uneventful. I flew from Marseille to London and changed airports in London. That was my biggest fear since I had so much luggage. How was I possibly going to get my luggage (which is always stressful for me since it generally gets lost) from one place to the next. Thankfully, it was really easy with luggage carts and helpful bus drivers. There is a direct airport to aiport transfer bus in London which minimized my total travel distance with all the luggage. Going through customs in London was a bit surprising since they asked me a ton of questions even though I was only in the city for like 5 hours. I guess that raised a flag with them though. Upon arriving in Heathrow, I was attempting to check in when the curt woman at the check-in desk told me that I didn't have a ticket and that I needed to contact my travel agent. I was a bit shocked since I had changed my original plane ticket and KNEW that my change was effective. I had called British Airways and confirmed my flight and had checked my flight status online multiple times. After unsuccessfully reaching my travel agent that I had used for this portion of the trip, I tried to remain calm. I went to the reservations desk (not the check-ins desk) for British Airways and basically told them to find my ticket. I am not sure what happened exactly but the nicer woman found my reservation and checked me in. British Airways (besides the rude woman at the check-in desk) is an AWESOME airline to fly. The food was pretty decent, all of the drinks were free (including alcohol) and there was a bunch of on-demand video and music to entertain me the entire 8 hour flight.

I flew into Chicago where Chris met me and YES! all of my luggage did arrive. We drove halfway to Whitehall to meet up with my mom who would take me the remainder of the way home. I spent about 48 hours in Whitehall. Most of that time was spent meeting my nephews for the first time. I can't believe how small yet how large they both are. I was smitten.
(Liam is on the left and Aiden is on the right)

I spent the remainder of my time, unpacking, repacking and deciding what was going back to LA with me on this trip and what I would get on the 2nd trip. It was a little like Christmas when I got home because I got to see clothes and things that never made it to France that I had planned on having there. After packing up my car, I was off. I met Will (who had flown into Chicago to meet me for the trip) that night (Thursday) and we drove about 2 hours before stopping somewhere near the Illinois border. At first I was a little nervous about not really having hotel reservations but that fear quickly vanished as I saw so many hotels with vacancy.

Friday was the beginning of the huge push to get across the country. On Friday, I had the unfortunate opportunity to once again drive through Iowa and Nebraska on the infamous I-80 highway. I can't tell you how much I despise driving through these wasteland states. There is NOTHING to see. The corn wasn't even up yet so it was just rows and rows of ungrown nothingness. Anyway, the plan was to stop right over the Colorado border in Julesburg, CO. Unfortunately, Julesburg was pretty much empty and devoid of anything that resembled a city worth staying in. Since we weren't super exhausted yet, we made it to Sterling, CO.

Saturday, we began the journey across the entire beautiful state of Colorado and arrived in Beaver, UT for the night. What can I say about Beaver, UT? Well, there's not much to comment on except that there's a correctional facility there and NOTHING is open after 11:00pm. We arrived right before 11pm but weren't worried about finding something to eat. If all else fails we said, we can go to fast food. Well, apparently in Utah, the sidewalks roll up at 11pm (including McDonald's drive thru!). We had to settle on snacks from the gas station across the street from our hotel. They did have cheese curds though! That was awesome. I had definitely missed those. Apparently, Beaver, UT is home to a cheese curd emporium that we really wanted to check out but they were closed on Sundays. :(

Sunday was definitely the hardest day of driving we had. We drove through Utah, Nevada, Arizona (though it's just a tiny part of Arizona) before arriving in the desert of California. The views on the Saturday portion of the trip was amazing. Colorado and Utah are quite beautiful to drive through. Nevada and California desert are less desirable. Lacking air conditioning became a serious issue by the time we passed Las Vegas. We were stuck in a long traffic jam after we passed Vegas and my car started to get a bit overheated and the braking response was strange. We decided to pull over as soon as we could into a shady gas station area and let it cool down for awhile. I did push my car pretty hard since she hadn't been driven in 8 months and her first drive is across the country. Anyway, the car was fine after about a half hour of cooling down. We finally arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday, May 17 evening after 2,291 miles.

I think I will probably post here more about what I am doing now and how my show is going for those interested. I don't think I have much more to post about France though I will probably have at least one more item on France to write about my first week here and what culture shock I have experienced.

Nice/Monaco

My apologies for the lateness in this post. I have been rather busy if you didn't notice from previous posts. For my final weekend in France, Cathy, Dawn and I went to Nice, France with a side day trip to Monaco. We left on Saturday, May 9 and stayed overnight. Cathy had already been to Nice which was rather convenient since she already had an idea of what we should see and where we should go. The train ride to Nice was nothing short of breathtaking. There were some really incredible views in the 4 hour train ride. We had a great time playing Mille Borne (card game) on the train and eating endless jellybeans. After arriving, we went to check into our hotel only to learn that we were too early. So we left our bags at the hotel for the time being and headed straight over to the beach for some sightseeing. Our hotel was really conveniently located near the beach. This is the Nice beach view from above:
Much of the beach is rock, not sand. This was actually a conscious choice of the city. With the rock, the water is much clearer as you can probably tell even by this picture. After walking along the boardwalk, we walked up this huge hill which gave us the view of Nice that you see in the above picture. There were some amazing panoramic views from this vantage point. We could also see the Nice harbor and the ruins of a 13th century cathedral.

After climbing the high hill, we headed over to the flower market which was sweet smelling and beautiful. After this little walk, we headed back to the hotel to finally check in and decide on dinner. We went to what we thought would be a promising restaurant with a nice 10 Euro menu deal. 3 courses for 10 Euros seemed to be a really good deal. While the food was ok, it certainly wasn't amazing. Dawn's main course was a disappointing fish which was semi-cold and very bland. Cathy had lasagna and I had steak and fries. The dessert, tiramisu, was pretty good and Dawn's pineapple seemed fresh. Oh well, for that price on the Promenade des Anglais (the main street with the boardwalk along the waterfront), we were still really lucky.

Before dinner, Cathy and I stopped at a local grocery store to get a couple snacks and I saw this:
That's right my friends. Wine in Juice box form. I knew it existed and now you all have proof.

Anyway, after dinner, Cathy and I left Dawn to relax in the hotel room while we went exploring to try and see the Cathedrale Russe (Russian cathedral). Unfortunately, the gates were all closed and locked up tight for the evening. That didn't stop us from walking the entire perimeter trying to get in for a better view. We saw someone in the grounds taking a jog so we were sure we could get in. Unfortunately, after about an hour of trying to get in and walking all the way around the gates, we were unsuccessful. It was fun anyway though. :)

Our hotel, which I would highly recommend for anyone, was really clean and spacious for a 3 person room. We even had a kitchenette which was rather surprising. Having a fridge in our room was really helpful and convenient.

After paying a whole 1 Euro, the next day, we checked out of the hotel and headed to Monaco. That's right. The 30-45 minute bus ride from Nice to Monaco is 1 whole Euro and includes beautiful sights along the way of the shoreline. Monaco (the 2nd smallest country in the world...Vatican City is the smallest) was pretty cute. We had a cafe when we first arrived and then began the ascent into the Prince's Palace area which is up a huge hill that overlooks the Monaco landscape. We got to see the changing of the guard with a small ceremony. It's a very touristic place so it got pretty crowded while we were in the palace area. We decided to take a little tourist train that took us all over Monaco and Monte Carlo. Monte Carlo was preparing for the Grand Prix (which was a couple weeks after we were there) so we got to see some of the racetracks. Of course, we saw the famous Monte Carlo casino but didn't go in due to a lack of time. After our tourist train, we went into the Monaco Cathedral also known as St. Nicolas Cathedral and saw Grace Kelly's tomb (among others). We took the train (instead of the bus) back from Monaco to Nice. The views were pretty great coming along a different way though we did have to pay 1.70 Euros so you know, I guess the bus is a better deal. :) Though traveling to another country for less than 2 Euros is pretty great in my book. The train ride home to Montpellier was very long but entertaining as we played more Mille Bornes and Uno. We made noise on the train which is always frowned upon in France but we had a blast, and that was what really matters.

I had an amazing time and am so happy that I was able to fit this last trip in before I left France for my next big adventure. Thus, I leave you with this funny sign. Good thing they tell you how close the freaking defibrillator is.


Here's a link to all the photos if you are interested:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jkimpfbeck/NiceAndMonaco#

Back in the States

Hi,
For those of you I may have neglected to contact, I am back in the US. I was offered a great job as a touring stage manager for a show and they needed me right away. I decided that it was the best idea and career move I could make so I have left France 7 weeks early to pursue my next big adventure. I will arrive in LA on Sunday at some point and we start rehearsal on Monday. We go on tour the first weekend of June, continuing on weekends throughout all of June. We have July off which is when I am actually going to spend more time with my family and friends that I haven't seen in 8 months and then go back out on tour in August. This, obviously, was all very last minute. I was offered the job last Sunday and 9 days later, I flew home. I have finally met my nephews, spent a day with my mom and am starting my cross country journey today.

I actually have another post I will do about my last week/weekend in France but that will probably have to wait a few days. Short version is that I said goodbye to all my schools, many kids cried, Cathy, Dawn and I went to Nice and Monaco and the next day I got on a plane.

I'm not sure what I am going to do with this blog now that I have left France... I'm happy to hear suggestions though. I could always write about my touring show if that interests people. I just don't know.

So look for a least one more post about my last week in France and then I guess I will decide what to do from there.

Coffee, rugby and the beach

This was in a shop window front. "Scotch makes people happy." What the hell?

Lately, we have spent a lot of time at the beach since the weather here has finally turned nice. I can't tell you how many times we have been now but it gets better every time. Yes, I have been swimming (twice now) even though the water is pretty chilly and numbing. It's still fun and salty goodness.

A lot of the assistants are starting to leave since the 7-month contract people are now finished. They ended their contract on April 30, while us 9-month contract people will be finished on June 30th. Dawn is now done and is staying in Montpellier for another month to just have a vacation and hang out. We went to a going away party on Friday (the first of many I am sure) and stayed super late while having a great time. A couple pictures from the party below:

(Dela, Sarah, Cathy and Monika)

(Cathy, me and Monika...another assistant)

On Sunday we spent the day watching rugby in the less than stellar conditions. We lost (22-8) but it was fun to watch no less. Leymi, Cathy and I enjoyed ourselves even with the drizzling weather.

(Cathy and Leymi)

We discovered a new coffee place (called Toast and Tea) that we have enjoyed twice now. Here are some artsy pics taken by myself and Cathy.

Yeah, that's right. My espresso was served in a shotglass.

(Church next to the cafe.)

So can you notice what the SPF is on this tanning lotion? What's the point?


When I was walking around Frontignan on Thursday, I happened upon this group of adults dressed like clowns dancing in a circle. No idea what they were doing or why but I had to get a picture. Enjoy.

Opera, opera everywhere

(One of the 2 Montpellier Opera houses at night. This one is in the center of town. This is the Opera Comedie)

I realized that I have been lax on my posting of my recent opera goings. First is the King Arthur opera. That was an AWESOME show. It was really like a cartoon/farce on stage. I really enjoyed it and it was a huge change from traditional opera. They grilled hot dogs on stage, for real. We could smell them all the way up in the balcony where we were sitting. Our seats, by the way, were possibly the worse seats I have had in quite some time. We were in the house left balcony and could only see like half of the stage. Though, if we stood up, which we actually did all the time, we could see just fine. Thankfully no one was behind us and we still enjoyed the show though it was entertaining standing up, looking at the stage and then leaning down to read the super-titles. Anyway, there were a lot of random scenes that I found really entertaining. The show was very loosely based around King Arthur's rise to the throne. There was a scene with a polar bear coming out of a refrigerator and penguins ice skating around. There were some skiers skiing around the stage on plastic sheeting that they had laid out. The conductor was something else. The first act, he jumped up on stage in a kilt. There were a ton of entracts where he would jump up on stage and talk to the stagehand/actor. Since they changed the set a lot, they had a lot of filler. In addition to the kilt, the conductor was wearing some crazy pants, a yodeling outfit complete with knickers and finally a tux. Other entracts included yodeling between the conductor and the stagehand and even silent Mexican-style singing. The show was only an hour and 45 minutes with no real intermission to speak of. There were shooting stars at one point of the show which were achieved by throwing glow sticks back and forth across the back scrim. It was awesome! I don't think I have laughed more at an opera ever.

The second opera I just saw on Tuesday was actually 2 operas in one night. The first act, the first opera Sancta Susana was a 28 minute German piece about a nun who, right before she took her vows, slept with a guy behind the church. The piece was a bit lame and not super exciting EXCEPT for the FULL MALE NUDITY. That was pretty cool. There was full female nudity as well but that wasn't as impressive for me. In the opera, the nun was having a flashback and we got to see the dirty nun's memories of sleeping with the guy behind the church. One second there was a guy on stage in only pants, the next second the pants are GONE! The opera itself wasn't that good or particularly interesting but the nudity made it worth the time alone. There was a lot of collapsing onstage with great emotion, a minimal set with a cross and flame and really quite overly dramatic. At the end of the show, 16 nuns plus a mother superior came out to yell at the nun who was having this crisis of conscious. I thought that seemed a bit odd since the show only had 4 people on stage for the first 26 minutes (the nun, the nun she was telling her story to and the naked man and woman).

The third opera (or 2nd of the night if you are keeping track) was called Le château de Barbe-Bleue (Blue-Beard's Castle). This show was much more theatrical and relatively entertaining. The hour long show was in some sort of German-derived language but I couldn't tell you for sure. There were only 2 actors on stage and I don't know if I have seen 2 actors with less chemistry. The show is about Blue-Beard bringing his fiancee to his castle to start their life together and she insists on getting into the 7 locked doors that she's noticed in the very dark, gloomy, sad castle. The African American Blue-Beard,who was probably in his late 50's, had the oddest costume. He was wearing a black suit with no shirt underneath. The suit was shiny and a bit ill fitting in the chest area. We got to see his belly a couple times. The white woman was wearing a very poorly designed white shimmery dress that didn't allow for much movement. She was really stiff, yet was supposed to be sexy and alluring. She wasn't actually that old (probably in her 30's) but her hair and makeup made her look to be in her late 50's as well. I wasn't sure why they wanted her to look older since she would have been more attractive without the makeup and strange hair bun. She also probably would have been more alluring and sexy if she was more age appropriately costumed and madeup.

Anyway, the show, while the plot wasn't that great, was well staged. There were a bunch of archways that lit up. They flew, rotated, moved back and forth and were used as the 7 doorways that the fiancee begged to be opened. We find out that one door hid the arsenal that had weapons with dried blood on them, one door hid the torture chamber, another door hid a lake of tears, and on and on until we get to the final door where we find a room that hid the 3 bodies of his previous wives. They were actually portrayed by three women standing in the door ways. No dead bodies on stage, sorry to get your hopes up. I'm still enjoying all the operas I have had the pleasure of seeing. I can't wait for the next one.