The end. F'real this time.

So when I saw several family members this past weekend, I received more than one complaint about how I don't update this blog anymore.

Seriously, guys? You still come here? My Parisian adventures are over! (for the time being, at least.)

I could talk about my Independent Study at Wooster... (I'm translating the Québécois film C.R.A.Z.Y. from French into English, and so far I find it to be challenging but still kind of fun... although that doesn't mean that I don't procrastinate like every other Wooster student does.)

Or I could tell you about how my friend Lindsay and I are in denial about the fact that we're not in France anymore (she studied in Nantes for the year, and we greet each other with Bisous- that is to say, kisses on the cheek- and talk in French as much as our Anglophone friends can stand.)

I still talk to the friends that I made in Paris- sometimes in French, but mostly in English- and my walls are littered with reminders of Paris- a map of the metro, movie posters that are in French (Il était une fois... croyez-vous encore aux contes de fées?), postcards and such.


So yeah. Seriously, that's it. I'll let you guys know if I ever go back. I probably will... one day.

the end

I absolutely can't believe that I'm leaving Paris on Sunday. I have no idea where this semester went.

My classes are obviously done now (the only grade I know is Spanish though... 16/20- which translates to an "A" because the French grading system is really strange. Nobody gets a 20, and only God is capable of getting a 19. A 10 is still passing.)

Yesterday Rujuta (the other American girl who lives upstairs) called me in a panic because she couldn't see how she could possibly get all her stuff in her suitcases. Somehow it got in, but I'm not quite sure how.

I really am going to miss a lot of things about Paris. The pastries, the walking, watching dubbed American movies with my host-siblings, the crepes (actually it's pretty remarkable that I haven't grown to be enormous while I was here, considering all the crepes, chocolate, cheese, and baguettes I've had... I guess the immense amount of walking I've done balanced that out...), friends... ok, I'll miss lots and lots of things...
Buuut not gonna lie, I'm a little bit excited about being home, too.

So my stuff is mostly packed up, I've been trying to be out in Paris as much as possible these last few days, and trying to see people before they take off (quite a few have already left).

Basically it's been the most amazing semester ever, and I'm really pretty sad that it's already over, but happy that I was even able to do it!
See you all soon!

Kathy's visit

The lack of updates is a direct result of end-of-the-semester busy-ness and a plethora of end-of-the-semester papers. Sorry, guys.

So May 14-20 Kathy, a girl I've been friends with since elementary school (hooray for Girl Scouts!) was visiting! She slept on my floor and got to talk with my host family which was interesting because she knows hardly any French. So I got to practice translating. Everyone in a while I would mess up and start talking to Kathy in French, and she would just start laughing at me.

Wednesday after she got here, I took her to Parc Monceau for a picnic lunch, and then she explored the Luxembourg Gardens while I had a consultation for one of my music history papers at Sweet Briar. After that she took a short nap before coming with me to the Louvre.
Thursday I had class all morning, so I went early to show her where the Cluny is, and she went there and did some shopping while I was at class. That afternoon I took her to Notre Dame, and outside there was a bread festival going on! So we got to watch some bakers bake some delicious french bread. After that we went to Centre Pompidou and Spaghetti Bar for happy hour and to meet other Sweet Briar people.
Friday we spent all morning in the Musee d'Orsay, and then in the afternoon we took a break before going to the Champs-Elysees and the Louvre (she's an art major, so two trips to the Louvre were necessary).
Saturday we spent the day at Versailles, and then on the way back we saw Sarah Lube on the metro, so we kidnapped her and I made them dinner in the tiny apartment kitchen. That night we went to the Aquarium because it was free.
Sunday morning I took her to the market at the Bastille (my favorite market) and then we went to Père Lachaise to see some famous dead people. It also rained alot, so we took a break in a cafe for some hot chocolate. Then we went to the Catacombs (so apparently the theme for the day was death...) to see creepy bones, and then I had to study for my monday Atelier d'Ecriture exam, so we went back and I studied while she watched Ratatouille on my computer.
Monday was her last day, so in the morning I took her to Havre-Caumartin to look in Printemps and the other stores down there. I also took her down to the Madeleine.
That afternoon I took my Atelier Exam, and then Kathy met me at Sweet Briar so that we could go to Montmartre (obligatory) to see Sacre Coeur, the famed Moulin Rouge, Artist's Square, and all the fun nooks and crannies up there. And then that night we went out to dinner.

So she left Tuesday morning, so I started writing papers like whoa, I finished my exams at Sweet Briar, and now I just have my classes at the Sorbonne to worry about.

Oh, and I think this is cute- my host mom is trying to teach herself English, so a couple nights ago I was going over fruits with her. She got frustrated when I told her that Peach is spelled P-e-a-c-h and not p-e-e-c-h, and then again when I told her that Pear is p-e-a-r but no, it doesn't rhyme with Peach. Also, she couldn't remember the word "strawberry", but when I told her she was like, "Oh of course! Like the song 'Strawberry Fields Forever!'" XD
I kind of feel sorry for people that have to learn English as their second language.

le singe est son oncle?

Last night my friend Sarah S. and I went to see Le Roi Lion (The Lion King) on stage! We got the cheap tickets, so we were pretty high up, but it was so cool! The puppets/costumes were all so cool and creative, and I loved all the songs they added that weren't in the movie.

Le Roi Lion:


My friend Kathy comes tomorrow!

les vacances!

Sorry for the lack of recent posts! I got back from a two week break in Ireland and The Netherlands a couple days ago, and now I'm back in Paris after almost two weeks of a break from speaking French.

Friday evening (April 18) I met up with Sarah so that we could take the bus to Paris-Beauvais airport. Our plane to Dublin was pretty delayed, and didn’t take off until probably about midnight. It was also filled with Irish high school kids, so not only was it late, it was also noisy. When we landed we took a taxi to our hotel, got there at about 1:30 or 2, and went to bed.

Day one consisted of going to the office of tourism to see about seeing some countryside, and a lot of walking. We saw St. Patrick’s and visited the Irish Museum of Modern Art, which is in a cool building that used to be the military hospital. That night we went to a cute little Italian restaurant for dinner, and then found a pub where Sarah drank her first ever beer.

The next day was Sunday, and we got a pretty late start to the day. We spent some time shopping/exploring and took a tour of Dublin Castle, which was pretty interesting. That night we found a small pub that had a group of people just sitting around and playing their instruments. It was really cool. It was a group of people that seemed to know each other, and people kept coming and going, joining in the music. It was fun to watch.

Monday was our tour of Glendalough and Wicklow! We took a tour with a small group of 12 people plus the guide. There was a Spanish couple, two Belgians, two Finnish people, two Swiss people, two other Americans and us. They were all really nice and fun people. The morning was really foggy, and not much could be seen. We supposedly saw the fields where Braveheart was filmed, as well as Excalibur and King Arthur. After stopping for a cup of tea, the fog started to clear and we could see more of the countryside. We stopped for lunch in a little Irish village, and then were off to Glendalough, which is a 6th century monastery. It was soo pretty there, and by that time it was really nice outside. So we walked around the actual ruins while the guide talked, and then got to walk around and see the lakes and mountains for a bit before heading back towards Dublin.
That night after dinner we went to a hotel pub where we had heard they had Irish dancing shows. The dancers were REALLY impressive.

Tuesday we did the Guinness Brewery tour which was pretty neat. At the very end you get a pint of Guinness up in this bar at the top where you could see all of Dublin. We also looked at Trinity College and the Irish National Gallery that day, and that evening went to one last Dublin pub which had more live music. The music is my favorite part.

Wednesday we flew into Amsterdam! Once we got to the airport we took a train to Weesp where Aunt Nancy picked us up. We had a pretty relaxing afternoon- went with to take Andy to football (soccer) practice and to go to the grocery, and relaxed at the house that evening.

The next morning we went and saw Andy and other classes at his school in a dance recital. It was really adorable, all the classes had prepared a dance and had costumes and everything. Andy’s class did a hip-hop/break-dance routine. Afterwards we went with Aunt Nancy into Bussum to go to the market and to shop for birthday gifts (she had four people to get gifts for). That night Uncle Allan and Aunt Nancy took us to dinner, which was really nice and really yummy.

Friday Sarah and I took the train into Amsterdam. We saw the Anne Frank house, which was crowded, but never-the-less worth seeing. After that depressing morning, we went to a place called the Pancake Bakery for lunch, which Aunt Nancy had recommended, and had delicious pancakes. We also stopped by the Poezenboot (catboat), which is a cat-shelter in a boathouse. Some of the cats were friendly, but most of them were so scared of everyone. It was so neat though. After we got our fill of playing with the cats, we went down by the Van Gogh museum, where Sarah got her fill of Van Gogh’s paintings and I explored Vondelpark and the swanky stores nearby. After that we were tired from all the walking around, so we took the train back to Naarden.

Saturday Sarah and I got off the train before Amsterdam to explore Dappermarkt, where we got some French fries with mayonnaise, warm stroopwafel, and cheap but snazzy-looking sunglasses. Then we got back on the train and went into Amsterdam to explore some of the parts of Amsterdam we hadn’t seen the previous day. We walked around the red-light district and walked to Dam square where there was a big carnival going on. About the middle of the afternoon we went back to Naarden, where a couple of Uncle Allan and Aunt Nancy’s neighbors were hosting birthday parties that day. The first one we were taken to was hosted by their Indian neighbors. They were the nicest people and fed us the most delicious Indian food. It was really nice that day, if a little hot, so sitting out in the backyard was really pleasant. After a short break, we went to a party at a different neighbor’s house, where there was less English and more Dutch, but still plenty of delicious food. A couple of people talked to Sarah and I in English, and one woman spoke to us in French. Sarah and I didn’t stay very late (10:30 or 11??) before going back to Uncle Allan and Aunt Nancy’s house.

Sunday morning Sarah left to meet up with her dad in Barcelona
Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I pretty much hung out around Naarden with Aunt Nancy and Andy, which was relaxing and nice for me.

Wednesday morning Uncle Allan took me into Amsterdam for Queen’s day! It was really neat. There were lots of people and lots of orange. We walked to Vondelpark first, where there were lots of adorable kids playing their instruments, people who had set up games and who were selling their old junk or their homemade food. After Vondelpark we went by the museums were there was a radio-show concert packed with people and as we walked around there were just masses of people streaming in. We stood along side the canals some to watch the boats, which were so neat. There were huge boats with big parties (and speakers to make you go deaf), small motorboats with just a few people, medium boats, and most of them were decked out in orange and supplied with food and drinks. In the afternoon we headed back into Naarden for a short break, and then biked into town for the Naarden Queen’s day. It was like a mini-version of Queen’s Day in Amsterdam, but without the huge party boats on the canal, and people knew each other. Andy came too, but got kind of bored and biked back home before Uncle Allan and I did.
Overall it was a cool and unique thing to see.

Thursday was my bus ride back to Paris. That was pretty boring. It was neat to drive through the country, and there was a stop in Brussels so now I can kind of say I saw Brussels.

So that’s a cliff notes version of my break! I don’t have any real big events planned for the rest of the semester, which is probably good because I have papers to write now.

The past couple days in Paris have been sunny and kind of hot. It feels like summer.

Upper lake at Glendalough, Ireland:


Partyyyy:

say "fromage"!

Springtime in Paris=more picnics:

teaching bluegrass to the french

Last night at Dinner, Pauline started talking about something she saw that she thought was really neat. As she was describing it, I realized that she had seen someone playing the spoons! (Like how they do a lot in bluegrass music). And she got a little confused and was like, "They had a fork and a spoon... or was it two spoons?" and I was like, "Oh yeah, you take two spoons and put them back to back..."
So she got all excited that I knew what she was talking about, and was like, "Wow, you've seen this done before?? Do you know how to do it??" So Raymond (host-dad) got excited too, and he got out a bunch of spoons so that I could show them... and it was really funny, because they'd never seen anyone play the spoons before, and they were all sitting around the table trying to make these rhythms.. it was like my Recreational Music class all over again..
And that's the night I taught the Maillard family how to play the spoons. I wish I could play the spoons better.. or that I had a set of those cheater spoons (ok, not really cheating, but they make spoons that are already attached so that you don't have to worry so much about how you hold them.)

paris marathon

This morning I got up early to watch the Paris Marathon. I met Rujuta downstairs at about 7:45 and we went to the metro- but when it came it was PACKED, mostly with runners, and the people on board were saying, "pas de place!" (no room!). I've managed to squeeze onto some pretty crowded metros before, but even I could see it would be practically impossible for Ruju and I to fit. So we decided to walk.

Um. I should take more early sunday morning walks. Because Paris is really wonderful that time of day. Practically no cars, the sun was out, it was cold but tolerable, and really peaceful.

So we got to the Champs-Elysees, which was packed... I think someone said around 10,000 people participate? That seems like a lot, but when it started (8:45) the Champs-Elysees had people running by us for several minutes... we watched for a few minutes, then managed to find the other Sweet Briar was there, talked to them while people were still taking off from the Arc de Triomphe, and then Matt, Annie, Clare, and Marisa decided to join in for a bit. So they took off, and people were still running by, and Molly, Rujuta and I decided to go down to the Louvre and wait there for the runners to return from Bois de Vincennes.
It took us about an hour to get to Place de la Concorde because of all the people and blocked off areas, and then we had to wait a long time for the first group of runners to come by (we calculated that in miles it was about 17.5). Once the leaders (a huge group of Kenyans- go figure) ran by, we realized that we were freezing cold. It was about 10:30 at this point, so we decided to go home and warm up.
Overall though, I thought it was really neat to see, and worth getting up for. I don't think my description is very good though...

Map:

Sorry if it's hard to see, I just took it from the marathon website to give you an idea of the route.

Provence: on y danse!

Saturday morning I got up at freaking 5:15am so that I could shower and leave for the train station by 6. We didn't have to be there until 6:45, but my host-mom had said I should leave at 6, so Rujuta and I were 15 minutes early. Wahooo.
So we had a fun 3-hour train ride where we got to see a lot of French country side and experience the TVG.

The first stop for our adventures was Arles. It was sunny and really warm!!
Arles was a Roman city, and we saw the ruins for the old Amphitheatre and Theater. It was so neat. I think ruins are so cool, I dunno why. After the ruins we had some free time, so I went to the market with Jessica, Willa, and Sarah J. It was torture to go before lunch, because there was so much food and so many spices, and it all smelled delightful. We all got a few provence gifts for people, along the lines of lavender and kitchen-y stuff. :)
Lunch was provided by Sweet Briar, we went to a restaurant and they served us chicken with vegetables. Then more free-time, which meant more walking around in the now hot sunshine and more shopping. And sitting outside with ice cream people watching. And we saw the old church.

After Arles was Pont du Gard, which is an old roman aqueduct. And since it was over a river, there were people outside swimming! A few people waded in the water, one person accidentally got her jeans soaked, and another person swam.

That night we got to stay in an Abbey, l'Abbaye Saint-Michel de Frigolet, which was SWEET. It was up in the hills and there was nothing really nearby. There were hiking paths though, so Jess and I went on a hike before dinner, and it was GORGEOUS. We got to the top of this one hill, and we were talking kind of loudly, when I was like, "Hey.. listen!" So we did. And it was silent. Like, you could faintly hear a bird chirp, or an insect once in a while but otherwise... just quiet. So we just stood there listening to the nothingness and watching the sun go down, and it was amazing. And it reminded me just how noisy my life really is. Jeez.

At dinner we had pasta and gross wine, and we learned french drinking songs. Haha. It got a little obnoxious after awhile though. After dinner, Willa, Sarah J., Jess and I played egyptian rat screw and stayed up late. Aaaaand that night was the time change.

The next day we had an early breakfast of croissants, yogurt, and hot drinks. Then we departed for Les Baux, which is my new favorite location in France. Seriously, I thought it was sooo gorgeous. It was really windy, and up in the sort-of mountains, so it was really rocky. But the village of Les Baux was about half-way up the mountain, and it was so neat! And we got to see some 11th century ruins. But seriously, that town/area of Provence was my favorite.

Our last location was Avignon, which I didn't find as exciting as Les Baux, even though it was soooooo much bigger (it was actually a city, not a little village). We saw the Palais des Papes (Popes), and the PONT D'AVIGNON! So of course there was a dance party. Yesss. We (Willa, Jess, Sarah and I) got a little lost finding the bridge though, so we didn't have a lot of time for our dance party and had to RUN back to the bus haha. Then our lightning-fast trip to Provence was pretty much over and we went to the train.

The train ride back was really fun. And it was neat watching the weather get worse and worse until we were in Paris and had to go back in the pouring rain. Hahaha.

I'd move to Provence. It's so pretty.



If you're confused about why we had to dance on Pont d'Avignon:

So there's this french song called Sur le pont d'Avignon (On the Avignon Bridge) and it goes like this:

Chorus:
Sur le pont d’Avignon
On y danse, on y danse
Sur le pont d’Avignon
On y danse tout en rond
(on the Avignon bridge/ we dance there, we dance there/ on the Avignon bridge/ we all dance there in a ring)

1:
Les belles dames font comm’ ça
Et puis encore comm’ ça.

2:
Les beaux messieurs font comm’ ça
Et puis encore comm’ ça.

3:
Les militaires font comm’ ça
Et puis encore comm’ ça

4:
Les musiciens font comm’ ça
Et puis encore comm’ ça.


And it's just all these people dancing on the bridge. Wahoo! It's a folk song, so there might be slight variations in the lyrics, but the idea is the same.

Sitting in Arles:


Les Baux!

easter

Joyeuse Pâques! (Happy Easter!)

The host-fam had friends over for breakfast, and I'm going to messe (mass) tonight with two of my friends.
This is the church that I go to when I go to mass:
http://www.st-andre-europe.org/
It's right around the corner from my metro stop (Europe, line 3) so it only takes me about 7 minutes to walk.

I hope you all have a fun day!

visite

It's been a tiring week. Rachel arrived on Saturday with Meggie, one of her friends from high school, so I've spent the entire week either in class or taking them around Paris! It was so much fun to see her again! Unfortunately the weather wasn't as kind this week as it has been for practically the rest of the semester- it was cold and windy for most of the week. I managed to see alot with them though.
-Saturday they arrived at about 7 that morning, but by the time they took the RER into Paris and I met them at Gare du Nord, it was probably a little before 10. I took them back to my appt. because it was too early to check-in to their hotel, and they pretty much crashed on my bed for most of the afternoon. Once they were awake, I took them to the latin quarter to check into their hotel (which I had already found when she told me where they were staying), and then we went out to dinner and I took them around the latin quarter.
-Sunday we saw the Eiffel Tower, Centre Pompidou, the Bastille, and Place des Vosges, and did a lot of walking in between.
-Monday morning I went with them to explore the Champs-Elysees, and then I had to go to class while they met up with another friend of Rachel's, Emma. (Emma is abroad in London for the year and was visiting Paris on break). That evening I met up with the three of them and took them to Spaghetti bar for happy hour, and then we went back to the Eiffel Tower to see how pretty it is at night.
-Tuesday I had class most of the day, and in the evening I hung out with just Rachel, but we didn't really do anything special or touristy.
-Wednesday I had class in the morning, but in the afternoon I took them (Rachel, Meggie, and Emma) to Père Lachaise. After that we went to Jardin de Luxembourg, where we people-watched (one of my favorite Paris activities) and then had to say goodbye to Emma.
-Today I couldn't do anything with them, but in-between my two classes (at about noon) I met up with them at Jardin de Luxembourg to say goodbye. Then they went off to go to the airport.

It went sooo quick! It was too bad I had classes to go to, but that's part of the reason why Rachel decided to come with a friend, so that she wouldn't be alone for large chunks of the day. And I think they managed to see a lot while I was at class.

Next big adventure= a weekend in Provence. Mmmm I hope I come back smelling like Lavender.

england and spain

London!!!



The bus ride: The bus ride was actually really fun! The bus was kind of full, so Jessica and I had to split up, but I sat next to an English girl who's studying abroad in Paris for the year, and was going home for winter break. She was super nice and really fun to talk to. She also used the following words: "dodgy", "rubish", "holiday", "crisps" (instead of chips), and more that I'm not thinking of, but it made me kind of happy hahahhaa. Her accent was adorable. The Chunnel part of the journey actually wasn't very exciting. Basically the bus drove into a train, so it was like sitting in a box for 40 minutes. But then when you finally get out, everyone is driving on the other side of the road.
The bus let us off at Victoria station, where Jess and I promptly found an ATM, got some pounds, and took the Tube to Kensel Green, where our hostel was. We were in a 4 person, all-female room, and the hostel included breakfast, so for only 9 pounds a night it was really nice! I was really pleased with it, at least.

Our first full day included a lot of walking. We started out in Hyde Park because it was just such a gorgeous day. We also went to Buckingham palace to see the Changing of the Guards, by the river to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the Eye of London, we saw Covent Garden (theater district), London Bridge (hey, it's still up!!), the Globe Theater, St. Paul's Cathedral, and then we went back to Covent Garden and shared a pizza before going to see Lord of the Rings, the Musical. YES we totally did see it.

I actually really liked it. Things that impressed me were: the fact that they even decided to turn LOTR into a 3-hour musical, Shelob (the giant spider) which was a really cool giant puppet, the orcs (omg they were so cool), Galadriel, and Frodo singing the Cat and the Moon song (from the book) in the Prancing Pony with awesome choreography. Also, both Legolas and Gimli got to sing. And the stage was really cool. Disappointments were that they cut out all of Rohan and they cut out Faramir. They obviously had to cut a lot, but I was sad about the lack of Rohan.

The next day, we started the day in Green Park (beautiful day= must walk in parks!), then we went to Sunday morning mass in Westminster Abbey. Which was absolutely gorgeous (both the Abbey and the singing- it was a British boy choir that sang everything. So pretty!). After church we spent some time in the National Gallery to see some art, and then to the Tower of London! My favorite thing in the Tower of London gift shop was a kit to make your own chopping block model, complete with an executioner and victim. They had one all set up, and if you pushed a button you could watch the executioner chop of the head of some poor man over and over again. It was for kids. I was tempted to buy it.
That night we didn't have an awesome musical to see, so we walked around and ended up sitting up on Nelson's Column and talking for a long time, which was really nice.

For our last full day in London, it was once again gorgeous, so once again we started out in a park- Regent's park. Then we went to the British museum. Man those Brits really did steal things from all over hahaha. We saw the Rosetta Stone of course, and also the Room of Enlightenment (one of my favorites because of all the books), the stuff from the Parthenon, some of the egyptian exhibit and some of the roman-britain exhibit. So we barely even made a dent, but we spent so much time there! We ended the day by going to see Harrod's! Ahhh so much fun designer clothing. RACHEL- I saw a black and gold sequened dress that was actually pretty similar to the one I wore to Band Banquet- but for only about a few thousand pounds. HAHA. I am so fashionable.
We also went up to the kids floor (where the rich kids of London get their toys?). One of the guys working there was wearing these light-up wheels on his shoes. I thought they were super neat, so I looked to see how much they were (only 20 pounds!), and he came over to talk to us. And he liked our accents!! Haha. And he likes that we say "cool" instead of "wicked". :-D

The next day we flew to Barcelona. But before we left, I used my remaining pounds to buy tea and Cadbury eggs. I'm convinced that nobody does easter candy better than England.

Off with her head! (Tower of London):


Handy- a reminder that the Brits drive on the opposite side of the road. In case you forgot and look the wrong way.. :


Barcelona!


We didn't have as much time in Barcelona, so we didn't actually do as much as in London. We did walk around quite a bit. And Jessica doesn't speak a word of Spanish, so I got to try to speak a lot.

Our first night we checked into the hostel and then went to find Tapas, and to walk down by the water. The hostel=not as nice as in London. No breakfast, and the blankets were extra. And there were a lot more people in the room. Actually it was exactly what I expected a hostel to be like before I went to London. Haha.

Our only full day in Barcelona was spent at the History of Barcelona museum (which was really interesting. You got to see all the roman ruins which were cool.) Then we went to find the beach, and took a nap there. :-D We mostly spent the day walking around and exploring though. And we had more tapas for dinner. (squid, spanish tortilla, eggplant, olives, and tomato bread.) Oh, and we checked out the Sangrada Familia huge cathedral. Oh, and for breakfast the last morning, we went to a bakery, and Jess accidentally said "oui", so the lady at the counter totally thought we were French, and asked if we wanted something to drink in french. Haha.

Palm trees=joy:


Chocolate display of joy (similar displays found in several Barcelona display windows):

Tecktonik video

This is kind of embarrassing, but it had to be posted:



Yes, that is us during Tecktonik class. It's harder than it looks!

EDIT- Here is the link to the site. Both Mom and Dad seemed to have trouble watching the embedded version, so if you can't watch it, you can go to this link and maybe then it will work (just copy and paste):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSqLjaa0Hgg

dancing and traveling

Exciting things to look forward to:
-Sunday I'm taking a tecktonik class with a bunch of people from the Sweet Briar program, and we're all pretty excited about it.
Tecktonik is a type of dance that is a huge deal here... here is a fantastic example of what it is:



YES that is going to be me soon. Hahahaha.
(I love walking around the Eiffel Tower and seeing the people doing this by the Trocadero Theater. My friend Amanda keeps saying we need to go out shopping for our "Tecktonik clothes".)

-A week from friday a friend and I are going to take a bus to the country of Shakespeare, Churchill, the Beatles, Sean Connery, Harry Potter and David Beckham's right foot. David Beckham's left foot, come to that.
In other words, we'll be in London for the first part of winter break! We'll be there four nights, and then we're flying to Barcelona (!) for two nights, and we'll be back in Paris for the weekend.
-After I get back from my exciting British and Spanish adventures, it will be almost time for Rachel (my Wooster roommate and fellow French major) to fly here for a visit!

Life is pretty good.

a note on french baking.

In terms of baking, the French do some things pretty darn well. Their baguettes are delicious, and their croissants and pain au chocolats are heavenly. And they're really good at just making things look pretty.
But when it cames to cookies... Americans soooooo win. Their [the French's] idea of a cookie is something like if you made a cracker a little bit sweeter and put a little bit of chocolate or jam on it. Which is tasty... but compared to a soft chocolate chip cookie or peanut butter cookie- it's a great big fail.

So basically, if I decide to live in Paris later in life, here is how I'm going to make my livelihood:
An American cookie shop. Giant chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, molasses cookies, sugar cookies- basically all the cookies that the French are severely lacking.

One last thing about French baking: they can make decent pies. (For example, my host mom made a delightful pie this evening, with caramelized banana and a chocolate sauce).
BUT I'm still convinced that there's nobody in the world who can make a pie crust as well as my own mother.

winter's on the wing

The last few days have been GORGEOUS here! It's been a perfect weekend for being outside. Friday for lunch two friends and I bought baguettes, cheese, and cookies at the grocery and had a picnic in Jardin des Plantes, and it was so lovely. All weekend I've been spending a lot of time outdoors, either in parks, walking around, or outside in cafes.

A Sweet Briar friend and I are about to buy tickets to see "Le Roi Lion" (The Lion King) on stage and I'm really excited about that! It's not until May, but we found out that you can get tickets for 25 euros. They're not prime seats, but it's still The Lion King on stage AND in French. So cool.

This evening Pauline (host sister) invited me into the other room to listen to the violin pieces that she's been working on. Her dad was there taking notes, and Gregoire (host brother) was recording everything, so it was pretty intense. She's really amazing.

Mmmmk I'm about to eat dinner, so I'll leave it at that for now.
A plus tard

metro adventure of the day

So today I had a 1:00, and I met Rujuta downstairs so that we could take the Metro to Sweet Briar together.
Usually I walk down to St. Lazare and take line 12, which means I walk a tad further to the metro station but I don't have to change lines. So today, Rujuta said, "Hey, we should take Europe (line 3) to line 4 and take that to Sweet Briar. It will be faster that way!"

Right. Famous last words.

We switched over to line 4 and didn't even get to the next stop before the lights in the Metro train went out, then the train stopped. Some emergency lights came on, and the intercom says something along the lines of, "we had to make a stop, thank you for your patience". It was static-y, so I didn't understand all of it. Anyway, we sat like that for about 15 minutes. Then the intercom comes on to tell us that we're evacuating the metro, starting with the back of the train. That's when I called Jessica to tell her I wouldn't make it to class on time that day, and to ask her to tell the Prof (See mom? Cell phones=useful!).

So I go to the back, and comment to Ruju about how this is kind of exciting, when this girl who's standing there goes, "OH you speak English! What's going on??" It was a girl about our age who's from Australia and was just touring all over. So I told her that I pretty much just knew that we were evacuating, so we exit the metro via a little ladder, and got to walk along the metro tunnel to the next station.
I'm still not entirely sure what happened, but there were paramedics so someone might have gotten hurt? :/

Anyway, after we exited we were still a tad too far to walk (although it would be do-able, we were still on the wrong side of the Seine) so we walked with the Australian girl (whose name was Mel) to Centre Pompidou and took a bus from there. Mel got off at Cite since she was heading to Notre Dame, and we got off at Jardin du Luxembourg which is right by Sweet Briar.
Whew. Well, we made it eventually.

It really is a small world after all.

So something really crazy happened on the Metro today.
I got on to go to Sweet Briar, and just after I sat down, I hear, "Hey. Don't you go to Wooster?"
So when I looked up there were two Wooster students sitting right across from me! Tim, the one who recognized me, comes into the athletic training room all the time, which is how I know who he is, and he was with a girl who I've only seen on campus but don't really know. They're going to study in Spain this semester and had just come to Paris to sight see for a few days.
It was totally bizarre.

with the roar of cars/and the lulling of the cafe bars/the sweetly sleeping sweeping of the Seine

Yesterday was my first class with Sweet Briar. It was Atelier d'Ecriture, which is a writing class focusing on improving grammar and vocabulary, and getting rid of the anglaisismes (Englishisms) in our french. The professor had us translate some English sentences into French, and most of us tried to translate word for word, which led to incorrect translations.
I feel like I'm going to learn a lot in this class.

Tomorrow starts my Art History class, which I'm pretty excited about. We have a lecture class, and then in the evening we go to the Louvre (after closing hours!) for weekly "visites". And since we get a card to get into the Louvre free as art history students, we can get to a lot of other art museums free. Saturday I went to the Musée Rodin with a couple people and we got in free for being art history students. It's a pretty sweet deal.

ALSO on Saturday we discovered a spaghetti bar where you get free pizza with any drink you buy during happy hour. Since most of us don't get dinner with our families on Saturday night (we get 7 breakfasts and 6 dinners a week with the program), we decided to go there for dinner. Three euros for a glass of wine and then enough "free" pizza to fill us up. I love finding cheap ways to eat.

Today I went to Musée Marmottan Monet with some people. It was a really nice museum, and just the right size (not exhaustingly huge like the Louvre). After that three of us checked out Shakespeare and Company, which is the famous English bookstore and ex-pat hangout near Notre Dame. It was really neat, and luckily we are all people who can easily spend a lot of time in bookstores, so nobody got impatient for the others to finish looking. :)

Thinking with the Thinker at Musée Rodin:

"This is ridiculous." "This, Madame, is Versailles."

The trip to Versailles today was really fun.

During the morning we had a tour of the palace [in French] given by Sweet Briar's history prof here. Last time I was at Versailles [Spring of 2005] the Hall of Mirrors was only partially open, and now it's finished with it's renovation, so that was neat to finally see that.

After the tour we had a wonderful lunch at a restuarant in the Chateau's park, La Flottille, and then free time where we could wander around Versailles at our own pace and return to Paris whenever we felt like. A small group of us decided to visit Marie Antoinette's estate and the Grand Trianon, which I also hadn't seen on my last visit. We had a lot of fun just wandering around the grounds. It was amazing how huge the grounds were. They were really gorgeous, but so unnecessary.

Check out that backyard!:


A group of us after lunch:

D'accord then

So I've been in Paris for awhile now, but I decided to start this blog just now, to make it easier to tell people what's going on here.

So, here's a quick entry to get you guys up-to-date:

First of all, I'm living with a family in an appt in the 8th Arrondissement [district of Paris], which is the same one that has the Champs-Élysées and Arc de Triomphe, but I'm further up in the Arrondissment, by the Gare Saint-Lazare. My family is super nice, the dad is an amazing Cellist in an orchestra. I saw him perform once in a small concert, and it was really awesome. The mom doesn't speak English, but she loves to chat.

They have four children, but I've only met three. The youngest is Grégoire, he's 25 and a med student, so I never see him because he's either at the hospital or studying. Then there's Charlotte, who is 27 and I've only met her once. I don't know what she does, she doesn't live in the appt., but she's getting married soon (in March), so there are a lot of preparations going on for that. Pauline lives in her own appt in Paris, she's 30, but she's always here practicing the Violin, which she is super awesome at. And the oldest is Antoine, he's doing chemistry research somewhere, and I haven't met him.

As far as school goes, there are two weeks of orientation, and we're in our second week so I haven't even started classes yet. I'll let you know how those go when I do.
Orientation is ok. We have to take this methodologie classes where they tell us how the french universities work and how they're different from american ones. And there are a couple classes about contemporary France, like how our politics differ. And there are a bunch of outings around Paris. They've taken us to Notre Dame and the Palais de Justice, Montmartre, the Bibliothèque [Library] National, and on a boat tour. Tomorrow we're going to Versailles.

We also saw a ballet. It was at the Théâtre National de Chaillot, which is right by the Eiffel Tower. So a bunch of us went out to dinner before hand to this café where you could see it all lit up. The ballet itself was kind of modern, it was called Métamorphoses, and it was pretty strange. But it was still cool.

On free time I'm seeing stuff on my own with a few other students. On saturday I went to Père Lachaise with a few people to see the graves of Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and Jim Morrison. That was pretty cool. We also go out to cafés and bars.

So that's all I can really think of to put in here for right now.

My room in Paris:


Guardian of the Dead at Père Lachaise:


Typical: