After sending my mom some beautiful pictures of Paris in the spring and many persuasive emails, I convinced her to come visit me for the second time! Being a great tennis player and fan, she came back in May just before the French Open. We visited Roland Garros, which was completely empty and closed off as they prepared for the arrival of thousands of fans and the best tennis players in the world but still very exciting to see! We stayed at the same lovely apartment, which kind of became my home away from home (host family) away from home (Denver) away from home (Saint Paul)! We visited the same boulangerie and had our favorite ham and cheese sandwiches on baguettes at Luxembourg Gardens, and my mom discovered the amazingness of berthillon, the original French ice cream made on Ile-Saint-Louis in the middle of Paris.
We were lucky because my Aunt Marie and Uncle Don were in Paris at the same time, and we got to have dinner with them at their lovely hotel right by the Opera. It was just one of many examples I had seen during the year of the spacious, extravagant places you would never know are inside the tiny doorways of Paris. We had a wonderful dinner together even though we were not ambitious enough to try the very tall seafood tower we saw at a nearby table! I also got to ride in my one and only taxi in Paris, which I had tried to avoid until then in favor of the less expensive and very entertaining metro and night buses! My only car ride in Paris showed even another beautiful side of the city that one could never see all of in a lifetime!
As springtime came to Paris, the city got even more beautiful. After a long, gray winter of rainy days, I spent a lot more time outside in the spring and discovered even more of Paris by walking around for hours at a time and usually getting lost. One of my favorite things to do was to go down by the Seine River at night, have picnics there, see many of my French and American friends, and meet people from all over the world. Any night of the week, there were people talking, laughing, playing guitar, and dancing all along the river until the sun set or, in my case, until a few minutes before 2 am when we would run to the metro to get on before it closed for the night! If we missed the last metro, we could always stay out until 6 am when the metro started up again!
Before I knew it, my friends at school were leaving to go back to the states and to their home countries all over the world. Depending on their study abroad programs or personal schedules, people were leaving from the beginning of May through June. I left the day after my classes ended, and spent my last hours in Paris doing last-minute packing and staying up the whole night because I had to go to the airport very early the next morning and because I did not want the year to end. I miss all of the friends I have made in Paris, France, Morocco, and beyond, but it helps to know that many of them are still returning home and getting used to life in the states just like I am. It is hard to think that the best year ever is over, but I am excited to go back to classes at DU and continue to experience moments of reverse culture shock and things that I love about America.
For example, the day I got home to Minnesota from Paris, my uncle asked if I could use his office's Twins tickets for that night. I was exhausted from nine hours on a plane, sooo not excited to be in America for the most part, and very far behind on my baseball news after being in a land of soccer, tennis, and rugby fans for nine months. Nevertheless, I went to the game and had a great time! A few days later, I went to the Barbary Fig, a Mediterranean restaurant a few blocks from my house to have couscous like in Morocco. I was anxious to try it because one of my last nights on the Seine, I met the son of the Algerian owner, who couldn't believe I was from Saint Paul and lived a few streets away from the restaurant! So besides having a good dinner, I met the owner and even spoke a little French with him!
I miss speaking French every day, and it's amazing how fast it goes away when you don't practice! That is why I am excited for all of my friends to come back to Denver and for the ones who were in Paris with me to speak French with me! I also had the chance to go back to my favorite French bakery in Denver and speak French with the woman who is still there even though I hadn't been back for almost a year. I am looking forward to my last year at DU and figuring out where I will go from there. If I had one guess, I would say back to France as soon as possible!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
STUDYING abroad
During this second semester of my year in Paris, I have been taking classes believe it or not. They are all very interesting, and I can't believe I have learned so much during a year when I have only had to buy one book, and that was only because my really cool French business professor wrote it! All of my classes are three or four hours long and completely in French. It sounds long and scary, but they all seem to go by so quickly, even faster than my two-hour classes in English at home!
My first class for the second semester is Langue Francaise, which is a general French language and grammar class. It is helpful for reviewing tenses, talking about current events in France and the world, and learning lots of new vocabulary just from speaking a lot. The only bad part is that I miss my first semester Langue Francaise class with the yoga-doing/lunging professor and all of the people in it who became some of my best friends of this year. Also, no boys learn French. There was one boy in my first semester class and none in this one, which is fine except that I had enough of that for six years at the convent! The professor of this class spoke very little English, so we were sure to speak only French! Sometimes we had to try to explain English words or concepts to her that don't really exist in French, and it was a challenge!
Then I took two French cinema classes. One was all about contemporary French cinema, and the other was about the New Wave of French cinema. They were both taught by a very smart, very French professor who knows more about films than I think I know about anything. He speaks French, English, and more languages than I will probably ever learn too. Unfortunately, one of these classes had only English-speaking students in it. So on the first day of class, the professor said that we were only allowed to speak French in the classroom. We forgot this rule a lot. Then he would come in the room and yell at us very loudly--in English. These classes were four hours long so we had time to watch a whole film each week and discuss it. In the contemporary cinema class, we watched Bienvenue chez les ch'tis, basically the most popular French film OF ALL TIME, and I highly recommend it. In the New Wave (nouvelle vague) class, we watched all of the films ever made by two réalisateurs (one of those words that can't really be translated into English but pretty much means director/filmmaker/creator of everything in a film!). They are Jacques Demy and Agnès Varda (actually a réalisatrice!), who were married but never worked together on films and had very different styles. I have never learned so much about films or been so interested in how and why they are made. And on the last day of the second semester, as I decided to walk a different way home through a very close but very different part of Paris, I walked by a square called Place Jacques Demy!
My fourth and final class of the semester was called Communication Professionnelle. It was taught by a professor who has written lots of textbooks on the subject and though he always looked like he was dressed to go camping, he was pictured in our textbook looking all business-y and professional. I saw his picture fairly early in the semester, and it was funny to see everyone realize that it was him one by one! In this class, we learned how to write professional emails for many situations, make speeches at meetings, and introduce people in professional settings, among many other lessons. The professor even video-taped us speaking sometimes and then we would watch the tape together and discuss what we did well and not so well. It was intimidating but a good learning experience! We learned how to write many important documents like a CV, which is like a résumé only not. It's what I'll need if I ever want to work in France!
During probably my favorite year of school ever, which felt the least like school of any year of my life, I probably learned the most!
My first class for the second semester is Langue Francaise, which is a general French language and grammar class. It is helpful for reviewing tenses, talking about current events in France and the world, and learning lots of new vocabulary just from speaking a lot. The only bad part is that I miss my first semester Langue Francaise class with the yoga-doing/lunging professor and all of the people in it who became some of my best friends of this year. Also, no boys learn French. There was one boy in my first semester class and none in this one, which is fine except that I had enough of that for six years at the convent! The professor of this class spoke very little English, so we were sure to speak only French! Sometimes we had to try to explain English words or concepts to her that don't really exist in French, and it was a challenge!
Then I took two French cinema classes. One was all about contemporary French cinema, and the other was about the New Wave of French cinema. They were both taught by a very smart, very French professor who knows more about films than I think I know about anything. He speaks French, English, and more languages than I will probably ever learn too. Unfortunately, one of these classes had only English-speaking students in it. So on the first day of class, the professor said that we were only allowed to speak French in the classroom. We forgot this rule a lot. Then he would come in the room and yell at us very loudly--in English. These classes were four hours long so we had time to watch a whole film each week and discuss it. In the contemporary cinema class, we watched Bienvenue chez les ch'tis, basically the most popular French film OF ALL TIME, and I highly recommend it. In the New Wave (nouvelle vague) class, we watched all of the films ever made by two réalisateurs (one of those words that can't really be translated into English but pretty much means director/filmmaker/creator of everything in a film!). They are Jacques Demy and Agnès Varda (actually a réalisatrice!), who were married but never worked together on films and had very different styles. I have never learned so much about films or been so interested in how and why they are made. And on the last day of the second semester, as I decided to walk a different way home through a very close but very different part of Paris, I walked by a square called Place Jacques Demy!
My fourth and final class of the semester was called Communication Professionnelle. It was taught by a professor who has written lots of textbooks on the subject and though he always looked like he was dressed to go camping, he was pictured in our textbook looking all business-y and professional. I saw his picture fairly early in the semester, and it was funny to see everyone realize that it was him one by one! In this class, we learned how to write professional emails for many situations, make speeches at meetings, and introduce people in professional settings, among many other lessons. The professor even video-taped us speaking sometimes and then we would watch the tape together and discuss what we did well and not so well. It was intimidating but a good learning experience! We learned how to write many important documents like a CV, which is like a résumé only not. It's what I'll need if I ever want to work in France!
During probably my favorite year of school ever, which felt the least like school of any year of my life, I probably learned the most!
Saturday, April 30, 2011
spain #2, 3, and 4 and morocco #2
I recently woke up in my own bed in Paris after not sleeping very well because I couldn't lie on my right side because of my huge, riding-in-a-jeep-driven-by-a-crazy-Moroccan-guy-through-the-Sahara bruise and I couldn't lie on my left side because of my Barceloneta sunburn. This combination pretty much sums up the last two weeks of vacation. During almost two months of no blogging, I have been to Segovia, Sevilla, and Barcelona (again!) in Spain and many cities in Morocco (again!).
I'm just finishing my spring break, but during American spring break, my friend Matt from home came to visit! We went to Segovia, a small city really close to Madrid, so he could speak Spanish and see a bunch of people from his school at home who were studying there. It's an adorable place where everyone is really friendly, speaks Spanish, and doesn't switch to English when they know you're American like in Paris! It has mountains, a castle, and an aqueduct that you can see from almost anywhere in the city! We had tapas and stayed at a hotel that had just opened and got the whole tour--in Spanish! I think this was the first time I noticed how similar French and Spanish really are. I can usually understand most of what people are saying in Spanish, but I can't answer them--anything I try to say comes out in French! Each time I've gone to Spain, it has taken me a few days to stop saying merci, so it comes out as m-gracias! I guess those five or six years of Spanish when I was little didn't stick. After getting from Segovia back to Madrid to catch our flight back to Paris, Matt and I saw on the departure screens that our flight was leaving an hour earlier than we thought and we had half an hour to run through the metro station, into the airport, through security, and all the way to the gate. We were the last people on the plane before the security guy, and we made it back to Paris in time for Matt to make his flight back to Minnesota the next morning.
About a month later, during my spring break, I went to Sevilla, Spain, on the way to Morocco! I loved Morocco so much the first time I went in the fall with ISA that I had to go back! I was lucky to have my friend Liz from home studying in Barcelona with ISA and going on the trip too. I met her and a few other people in her group in Sevilla so we could leave from there with all of the ISA Spain people to go to Africa! We arrived during Semana Santa, the week before Easter. We saw a very solemn parade at night with candles, a huge float with a crucifix on it, and lots of people with the traditional, Klu Klux Klan-like-looking hats and robes. Then it was time to get up at 5 in the morning and find the bus that would take us about 3 hours south to the Strait of Gibraltar and then on about 40 hours of Morocco's roads during the next 6 days.
All together, there were about 60 of us going to Morocco, and I was the only one studying in France. I met people studying Spanish in Barcelona, Sevilla, Madrid, Bilbao, Salamanca, and Valencia, to name a few places. After the first bus ride, we got our passports checked and, along with the two buses, boarded a ferry that would take us across the Strait of Gibraltar. On the hour-long voyage, I couldn't see land except the Rock of Gibraltar, which is just a really big rock. I couldn't even spot any of the famous monkeys. I took pictures on the way back but was too scared on the way there because no pictures are allowed at the border and the border police will take your camera or make you delete your pictures right then and there.
Then we got back on the bus and went to Fes where we stayed for two nights and visited the ancient medina again like the first time I was in Morocco. We visited the spice shop, the carpet shop, the tannery, and the same restaurant for lunch. I almost got run over by a few donkeys, and I got asked, "You with Obama?" a lot. We had more of the amazing mint tea that I need to learn how to make when I get home! That night, we went to another traditional folk show like the first time too. This time, I was not allowed to sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. I was picked randomly out of the audience with a few other people and taken upstairs to a room where Moroccan ladies dressed me up in a traditional robe complete with a headpiece that looked like the top of a nun's habit and must have weighed twenty pounds! Then they took me back downstairs to the tables full of people watching and put me in a seat that they lifted up above their heads and spun around a few times. I also might have gotten married. No one knows.
The next day, we went to the desert! We left the bus and got into the jeeps driven by the Moroccan guys again. If you think driving across the road-less, sign-less desert is hard, try texting while driving like our driver! Who knew they even got cell phone service out there? The ride was just as bumpy and unpredictable, and this time I got a huge bruise on my shoulder when I slammed into the side of the jeep. Worth it. The first night in the desert, everyone slept in the tents. It was cloudy and we couldn't see any stars at night, but it was still my favorite part of the trip. We got up early to see the sunrise, which was amazing again. Then we climbed the dunes and rode camels all day. The second night, it was really (and I mean really!) windy. If you leaned into the wind, it could almost hold you up. We were experiencing a Moroccan sandstorm! I think it would have been cool to sleep in the little tents, but almost everyone else decided to drag their mattresses and blankets into the big tent, which was less likely to blow over I guess. It was like the world's biggest sleepover! It also kind of looked like we were in a refugee camp, but it was fun!
The next morning, it was already time to leave the Sahara behind and drive to Erfoud and then to Meknes. We stopped to have a picnic lunch and met a boy riding a donkey. We tried to talk to him, but he didn't answer when we spoke to him in Spanish, French, Arabic, or English. We gave him some food and a bag of clothing--our good deed for the day! Then we got back on the bus and back on the ferry and back on the bus again to drive to Sevilla and say goodbye to all of our new friends from all over Spain. Liz and I stayed at a gorgeous hostel that had just opened a week before so I took lots of hostel-y pictures and got made fun of as usual. We only stayed there for a few hours to sleep because we had to get up early the next morning to fly back to Barcelona, Liz's home and my vacation for the next week.
It was my second time in Barcelona because I loved it so much the first time. I went back to my favorite places like Parc Guell and the beach at Barceloneta where I got sunburned but only on one shoulder. I was there for a holiday called St. George's Day, which is kind of like Valentine's Day only guys give girls roses and girls give guys books...to make them smarter I guess. I stayed at a residencia (I was a resident of Barcelona!) where they only spoke Spanish, so thank goodness Liz came with me to translate! Then just as I was getting used to living in Barcelona and saying gracias instead of merci, among other language faux pas, it was time to go back to Paris, go to Disneyland Paris at the end of my break, and get ready for my mom's second visit of the year!
I'm just finishing my spring break, but during American spring break, my friend Matt from home came to visit! We went to Segovia, a small city really close to Madrid, so he could speak Spanish and see a bunch of people from his school at home who were studying there. It's an adorable place where everyone is really friendly, speaks Spanish, and doesn't switch to English when they know you're American like in Paris! It has mountains, a castle, and an aqueduct that you can see from almost anywhere in the city! We had tapas and stayed at a hotel that had just opened and got the whole tour--in Spanish! I think this was the first time I noticed how similar French and Spanish really are. I can usually understand most of what people are saying in Spanish, but I can't answer them--anything I try to say comes out in French! Each time I've gone to Spain, it has taken me a few days to stop saying merci, so it comes out as m-gracias! I guess those five or six years of Spanish when I was little didn't stick. After getting from Segovia back to Madrid to catch our flight back to Paris, Matt and I saw on the departure screens that our flight was leaving an hour earlier than we thought and we had half an hour to run through the metro station, into the airport, through security, and all the way to the gate. We were the last people on the plane before the security guy, and we made it back to Paris in time for Matt to make his flight back to Minnesota the next morning.
About a month later, during my spring break, I went to Sevilla, Spain, on the way to Morocco! I loved Morocco so much the first time I went in the fall with ISA that I had to go back! I was lucky to have my friend Liz from home studying in Barcelona with ISA and going on the trip too. I met her and a few other people in her group in Sevilla so we could leave from there with all of the ISA Spain people to go to Africa! We arrived during Semana Santa, the week before Easter. We saw a very solemn parade at night with candles, a huge float with a crucifix on it, and lots of people with the traditional, Klu Klux Klan-like-looking hats and robes. Then it was time to get up at 5 in the morning and find the bus that would take us about 3 hours south to the Strait of Gibraltar and then on about 40 hours of Morocco's roads during the next 6 days.
All together, there were about 60 of us going to Morocco, and I was the only one studying in France. I met people studying Spanish in Barcelona, Sevilla, Madrid, Bilbao, Salamanca, and Valencia, to name a few places. After the first bus ride, we got our passports checked and, along with the two buses, boarded a ferry that would take us across the Strait of Gibraltar. On the hour-long voyage, I couldn't see land except the Rock of Gibraltar, which is just a really big rock. I couldn't even spot any of the famous monkeys. I took pictures on the way back but was too scared on the way there because no pictures are allowed at the border and the border police will take your camera or make you delete your pictures right then and there.
Then we got back on the bus and went to Fes where we stayed for two nights and visited the ancient medina again like the first time I was in Morocco. We visited the spice shop, the carpet shop, the tannery, and the same restaurant for lunch. I almost got run over by a few donkeys, and I got asked, "You with Obama?" a lot. We had more of the amazing mint tea that I need to learn how to make when I get home! That night, we went to another traditional folk show like the first time too. This time, I was not allowed to sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. I was picked randomly out of the audience with a few other people and taken upstairs to a room where Moroccan ladies dressed me up in a traditional robe complete with a headpiece that looked like the top of a nun's habit and must have weighed twenty pounds! Then they took me back downstairs to the tables full of people watching and put me in a seat that they lifted up above their heads and spun around a few times. I also might have gotten married. No one knows.
The next day, we went to the desert! We left the bus and got into the jeeps driven by the Moroccan guys again. If you think driving across the road-less, sign-less desert is hard, try texting while driving like our driver! Who knew they even got cell phone service out there? The ride was just as bumpy and unpredictable, and this time I got a huge bruise on my shoulder when I slammed into the side of the jeep. Worth it. The first night in the desert, everyone slept in the tents. It was cloudy and we couldn't see any stars at night, but it was still my favorite part of the trip. We got up early to see the sunrise, which was amazing again. Then we climbed the dunes and rode camels all day. The second night, it was really (and I mean really!) windy. If you leaned into the wind, it could almost hold you up. We were experiencing a Moroccan sandstorm! I think it would have been cool to sleep in the little tents, but almost everyone else decided to drag their mattresses and blankets into the big tent, which was less likely to blow over I guess. It was like the world's biggest sleepover! It also kind of looked like we were in a refugee camp, but it was fun!
The next morning, it was already time to leave the Sahara behind and drive to Erfoud and then to Meknes. We stopped to have a picnic lunch and met a boy riding a donkey. We tried to talk to him, but he didn't answer when we spoke to him in Spanish, French, Arabic, or English. We gave him some food and a bag of clothing--our good deed for the day! Then we got back on the bus and back on the ferry and back on the bus again to drive to Sevilla and say goodbye to all of our new friends from all over Spain. Liz and I stayed at a gorgeous hostel that had just opened a week before so I took lots of hostel-y pictures and got made fun of as usual. We only stayed there for a few hours to sleep because we had to get up early the next morning to fly back to Barcelona, Liz's home and my vacation for the next week.
It was my second time in Barcelona because I loved it so much the first time. I went back to my favorite places like Parc Guell and the beach at Barceloneta where I got sunburned but only on one shoulder. I was there for a holiday called St. George's Day, which is kind of like Valentine's Day only guys give girls roses and girls give guys books...to make them smarter I guess. I stayed at a residencia (I was a resident of Barcelona!) where they only spoke Spanish, so thank goodness Liz came with me to translate! Then just as I was getting used to living in Barcelona and saying gracias instead of merci, among other language faux pas, it was time to go back to Paris, go to Disneyland Paris at the end of my break, and get ready for my mom's second visit of the year!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
no paolo nutini sightings, but...
I went to Scotland where he (my favorite singer ever) lives! And London and Barcelona! I just finished three weeks of vacation between my two semesters, and I traveled a lot!...for me. I learned a lot about hostels, flights, and packing light from my traveling companions, Chelsea and Katie. And I got to see my best friend Liz from home who I only seem to hang out with in foreign countries!
First, I went to Barcelona for four days. We arrived at night and went straight to a flamenco show with a dinner of paëlla and sangria. We figured out Barcelona's metro system, which is a lot like the one in Paris...and also could be where I lost my cell phone. The next day, we went to Park Güell, which is a huge park designed by Antoni Gaudi who created many of the most famous sights in Barcelona. It has palm trees, caves, and sculptures all around it. We walked around, had a picnic, and observed the many pigeons (just like Paris!). Then we went to the beach! It was a beautiful, sunny day and much warmer than Paris, and it really felt like vacation. I found Liz on the beach after many text messages and confused phone calls, but after a few weeks in Barcelona, Liz learned how to find the beach! It was so great to see her, and she spoke Spanish for us and invited us to an American bar to watch the Super Bowl that night. I did not expect to watch the Super Bowl in Spain and I wouldn't have been sad to miss it (except the commercials!), but it was very different to watch it in Spanish and great to meet some more people studying in Barcelona for the semester! Then we had another day at the beach, dinner with Liz, and visits to the Temple de la Sagrada Familia and Las Ramblas, the main walking street with lots of shops and things to see. Then it was already time to go back to cold, cloudy, beautiful Paris.
After a few days and after unpacking and repacking my little, kind of Ryanair- and Easyjet-approved carry-on, I went to London! Chelsea and I arrived on Valentine's Day, which is also Chelsea's birthday! We found Katie who is studying there and went out for cider. I think it ruined me for beer forever. It's that good. Then we visited the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, and Piccadilly Circus. We went on a day trip to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath where the Roman baths are. Stonehenge was my favorite part even though we weren't allowed to get very close to it. I think I need to go back for the summer solstice, which is the one day of the year when you can go inside the stone circle. Still, it's the closest thing to the seven wonders of the world that I've visited (it almost made the list!), and it was really cool! Then it was back to London for cooking in Katie's apartment, Covent Garden, and Camden Town. Then we flew from London to Edinburgh/Edimbourg, which I still don't know how to pronounce in French or English. We visited Edinburgh Castle and climbed the mountain/volcano called King's Seat or Arthur's Seat. From the top, we had great views of Edinburgh and the mountains in the distance and a chance to sing, "The hiiillls are aliiive with the sound of muuusic!" The next day, we took a train to Glasgow. In just a few hours, we saw St. George's Square, St. Mungo's Church and the cemetery, Buchanan Street, and a lot of the city, which was a lot like Edinburgh but had its own river running through it like Paris and London!
After taking the train back to Edinburgh and waking up reeeally early the next morning, Chelsea and I flew back to Paris. After a week of speaking English, hearing British and Scottish people all around me, and being called "lovie" all the time which is adorable, I had completely forgotten how to speak French! It was the strangest feeling to hear myself say "Merci" to people at the airport instead of "Thank you" and "Pardon" instead of "Excuse me." And I almost cried when the voice over the metro speakers spoke French and didn't politely tell me to "Mind the gap between the platform and the train." But I got over it, and after about one day of being in Paris and going to a three-hour-long class in French, I think it all came back to me!
Keeping with the title of this blog, I had another not-so-intelligent-while-involving-my-host-family moment after my three weeks of vacation, which overlapped with Victor and Laurene's vacation from school and Madame's vacation from work. While I was in the UK, they went to Barcelona for a cousin's wedding. I had a few lovely days at home alone before they got back late at night. The next morning, I went upstairs to say hello and happy birthday to Madame because it was her birthday. She gave me a strange look and told me that her birthday is March 26th, not February 26th! Paris, je t'aime.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
half way there
I'm half way through my year in France. I can't believe it. I still can't believe I live here. I haven't been doing many things that I can't wait to blog about because I LIVE HERE! I walk around sometimes with a destination in mind and sometimes not, get lost, get distracted, find cool places, forget what time it is and walk around for usually about five hours at a time, realize i'm exhausted, find the metro, and go home. Recently, I was out as it was getting dark and saw a searchlight that I thought might be the Eiffel Tower. I followed it for a while, and sure enough, it was the Eiffel Tower! That made it the third night in a row that I ended up at the Trocadéro, the big flat thing in front of the Eiffel Tower where people always take pictures of each other leaning on it or holding it in the palm of their hand. It never gets old. I didn't know i could walk from my house to the Eiffel Tower, but now it's been done and it can be done again!...just maybe not in the daytime when i actually have to look at maps instead of sparkly lights to find it. I don't like maps. I like winging it.
Another day, I was trying to find the coiffure by my house where my friend had gotten a haircut. I still cannot believe how many coiffures (hair salons/places) there are in Paris and I don't understand how people pick which one to go to! On the way there, I took a wrong turn, didn't care, saw Tour Montparnasse (the tallest building in Paris after the Eiffel Tower and right by my school), and decided to walk to my school. I still haven't ever walked there when I actually need to go to class or figured out how long that would take if I stayed on track, but I'm working on it...maybe when it's warmer. I cannot wait for Paris in the spring! I mean, it snowed in Paris this year! Actually enough snow to count! It wouldn't have felt right without it, but now that it happened, it can be spring now please!
So now I'm perfectly happy to say I live here and I'm not a tourist...but i can still be persuaded to do touristy things when people who don't get to live here all year come here and want to do that! For example, my friend Chelsea came back after Christmas break and brought her friend Gary who stayed for two and a half weeks. We did touristy things like going to Parc des Buttes Chaumont, Montmartre, the Louvre, the ferris wheel at the end of the Champs--Elysées, the catacombs, and an absinthe bar. To summarize absinthe, it smells good like licorice but tastes disgusting!
In the last few weeks, I've tried many French foods that I would never try if I wasn't here. I had foie gras for the second time (still not that great), escargot (slimy and garlicky), fondue (If I ever learn to like rare meat, it will be this year!), and eating kiwi out of the skin with a spoon (maybe not particularly French, but new and different!). I also had rabbit (lapin) with my French family on February 3rd since it's the Chinese New Year and 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit (tastes like chicken--really!). On February 2nd, we made crepes for La Chandeleur, which is kind of like Groundhog Day. The tradition goes that you hold a coin in one hand and try to flip a crepe in a pan with the other hand. If it lands perfectly, you will have a lucky year. If not, better luck next time. Also, after some research, I learned this rhyme: "Quand la Chandeleur est claire, l'hiver est par derriere. Chandeleur couverte, quarante jours de perte!" (If February 2nd is clear, no more winter to fear. If the Chandeleur is overcast, forty days winter to last). I'm pretty sure it was cloudy.
Last but not least, Mom came to visit! We spent a lovely week in a lovely apartment right by school! I picked her up from the airport and taught her how to use the metro. She brought American things that I'd been missing and taught me how to sit outside cafes and drink coffee (er, still chocolat chaud for me!) and not be a poor college student, at least for a week. We went to the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, and the Luxembourg Gardens. At my still-favorite museum. Musee d'Orsay, she found her favorite painting, a Van Gogh, even though she doesn't even like Van Gogh! See Paris is so educational! Then real mom met French mom. We had galette des rois (cake that has a roi/king/angel/blue teddy bear in our case hidden in it and whoever finds it gets to wear the crown) at my French house. I translated, but my mom's high school french is better than I thought and my French mom's English is way better than I thought(!). But I actually kind of appreciate that she doesn't speak English with me so I can get better at French. Then Mom left very early in the morning, I said goodbye to her and the apartment, and I went to class to finish the semester. Now I have three weeks off between semesters, and I'm going to Spain, London, and Scotland...so international! Like the other day when I scratched off an iTunes gift card sent from Minnesota with a 10 dirham coin from Morocco in Paris, France!...woah.
Another day, I was trying to find the coiffure by my house where my friend had gotten a haircut. I still cannot believe how many coiffures (hair salons/places) there are in Paris and I don't understand how people pick which one to go to! On the way there, I took a wrong turn, didn't care, saw Tour Montparnasse (the tallest building in Paris after the Eiffel Tower and right by my school), and decided to walk to my school. I still haven't ever walked there when I actually need to go to class or figured out how long that would take if I stayed on track, but I'm working on it...maybe when it's warmer. I cannot wait for Paris in the spring! I mean, it snowed in Paris this year! Actually enough snow to count! It wouldn't have felt right without it, but now that it happened, it can be spring now please!
So now I'm perfectly happy to say I live here and I'm not a tourist...but i can still be persuaded to do touristy things when people who don't get to live here all year come here and want to do that! For example, my friend Chelsea came back after Christmas break and brought her friend Gary who stayed for two and a half weeks. We did touristy things like going to Parc des Buttes Chaumont, Montmartre, the Louvre, the ferris wheel at the end of the Champs--Elysées, the catacombs, and an absinthe bar. To summarize absinthe, it smells good like licorice but tastes disgusting!
In the last few weeks, I've tried many French foods that I would never try if I wasn't here. I had foie gras for the second time (still not that great), escargot (slimy and garlicky), fondue (If I ever learn to like rare meat, it will be this year!), and eating kiwi out of the skin with a spoon (maybe not particularly French, but new and different!). I also had rabbit (lapin) with my French family on February 3rd since it's the Chinese New Year and 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit (tastes like chicken--really!). On February 2nd, we made crepes for La Chandeleur, which is kind of like Groundhog Day. The tradition goes that you hold a coin in one hand and try to flip a crepe in a pan with the other hand. If it lands perfectly, you will have a lucky year. If not, better luck next time. Also, after some research, I learned this rhyme: "Quand la Chandeleur est claire, l'hiver est par derriere. Chandeleur couverte, quarante jours de perte!" (If February 2nd is clear, no more winter to fear. If the Chandeleur is overcast, forty days winter to last). I'm pretty sure it was cloudy.
Last but not least, Mom came to visit! We spent a lovely week in a lovely apartment right by school! I picked her up from the airport and taught her how to use the metro. She brought American things that I'd been missing and taught me how to sit outside cafes and drink coffee (er, still chocolat chaud for me!) and not be a poor college student, at least for a week. We went to the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, and the Luxembourg Gardens. At my still-favorite museum. Musee d'Orsay, she found her favorite painting, a Van Gogh, even though she doesn't even like Van Gogh! See Paris is so educational! Then real mom met French mom. We had galette des rois (cake that has a roi/king/angel/blue teddy bear in our case hidden in it and whoever finds it gets to wear the crown) at my French house. I translated, but my mom's high school french is better than I thought and my French mom's English is way better than I thought(!). But I actually kind of appreciate that she doesn't speak English with me so I can get better at French. Then Mom left very early in the morning, I said goodbye to her and the apartment, and I went to class to finish the semester. Now I have three weeks off between semesters, and I'm going to Spain, London, and Scotland...so international! Like the other day when I scratched off an iTunes gift card sent from Minnesota with a 10 dirham coin from Morocco in Paris, France!...woah.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
bonne année!
Translation: Happy New Year! That is what people say in France until the end of January I'm told...and the reason why it's ok that this blog didn't come until January! I came back to my host family's house today after two weeks of break, and that's the first thing all of them said to me. It's also what everyone in every shop, boulangerie, and ticket window says whenever I talk to them. I like how New Year's is continuing past midnight on New Year's Eve here. However, I don't think deux-mille-onze (2011) is as fun to say as deux-mille-dix (2010)!
There has been some serious Emilie-Paris bonding time in the last two weeks. I went to the Louvre twice, back to Musee d'Orsay, to Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, to La Defense, to Christmas markets, and to all of my favorite parks. Everything was decorated for Christmas, but it didn't really feel like Christmas. No one in Paris says "Joyeux Noel" as much as they say "Bonne Année!" I wasn't planning to go to mass until Christmas Day, but at about 10:00 on Christmas Eve night, I decided that mass was the only thing that would make it feel more Christmas-y. So I was lucky to find a little church really close to my friend Chelsea's apartment where I was staying that had a mass at 10:30. It was called Saint Georges, and it was a really short walk from the apartment in the 19th arrondissement. I walked there and sat down in time to get a good look around the church and hear some hymns. It was interesting to see the decor and notice the differences between this church and American masses. For example, there are no pews. There are rows of chairs stuck together with boards, and there aren't any kneelers. The mass is pretty much the same (but in French of course!), but there are many more hymns. Maybe that was just because it was Christmas, but it was also the reason why it was almost two and a half hours long! Everything was very serious, especially for Christmas, but I should have expected that since it's Paris! There was everything that made church feel like church at home to me--shaking hands and a crying baby specifically. The thing that surprised me the most was that there were a lot of single people there and almost no families. While it was strange, it made me feel kind of at home for my first Christmas away from my family.
On Christmas Day (a rare sunny winter day in Paris!), I went to walk around the Seine and ended up visiting Notre Dame. There was a huge Christmas tree outside, and it was all very photogenic. I walked around the inside many times on a "tour" which was free and self-guided. I wanted to go up to the top, but of course it was closed because of the huge amount of snow (an inch maybe) that was still on the ground. Oh those French! So I stood in the back and listened to an organ concert. I had a nice Christmas different than any Christmas I've had before!
On New Year's Eve, Chelsea and her friend Gary flew in from Chicago. We went to the Champs-Elysees before midnight to ring in the new year. It was completely filled with people and cars from one end to the other. We walked from the Place de la Concorde end almost to the Arc de Triomphe end and stood in the middle after the police closed it off to cars and waited for midnight. There was a lot of excitement but no countdown to midnight, no real fireworks, and almost no sparklers. We got out of there just as the cops finished lining up along all of the side streets preparing for whatever might happen after midnight. We made our way to the first metro stop we could find and got into the most packed metro car I've ever been in and hopefully ever will be in. It was free from 5:00 on New Year's Eve until noon on New Year's Day, and I guess everyone in Paris knew that! Finally, we celebrated the new year with our friend Mickaël who had just finished his shift at Disneyland Paris. I don't really know what the new year will bring, but I'm pretty sure it includes free tickets to Disneyland!
There has been some serious Emilie-Paris bonding time in the last two weeks. I went to the Louvre twice, back to Musee d'Orsay, to Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, to La Defense, to Christmas markets, and to all of my favorite parks. Everything was decorated for Christmas, but it didn't really feel like Christmas. No one in Paris says "Joyeux Noel" as much as they say "Bonne Année!" I wasn't planning to go to mass until Christmas Day, but at about 10:00 on Christmas Eve night, I decided that mass was the only thing that would make it feel more Christmas-y. So I was lucky to find a little church really close to my friend Chelsea's apartment where I was staying that had a mass at 10:30. It was called Saint Georges, and it was a really short walk from the apartment in the 19th arrondissement. I walked there and sat down in time to get a good look around the church and hear some hymns. It was interesting to see the decor and notice the differences between this church and American masses. For example, there are no pews. There are rows of chairs stuck together with boards, and there aren't any kneelers. The mass is pretty much the same (but in French of course!), but there are many more hymns. Maybe that was just because it was Christmas, but it was also the reason why it was almost two and a half hours long! Everything was very serious, especially for Christmas, but I should have expected that since it's Paris! There was everything that made church feel like church at home to me--shaking hands and a crying baby specifically. The thing that surprised me the most was that there were a lot of single people there and almost no families. While it was strange, it made me feel kind of at home for my first Christmas away from my family.
On Christmas Day (a rare sunny winter day in Paris!), I went to walk around the Seine and ended up visiting Notre Dame. There was a huge Christmas tree outside, and it was all very photogenic. I walked around the inside many times on a "tour" which was free and self-guided. I wanted to go up to the top, but of course it was closed because of the huge amount of snow (an inch maybe) that was still on the ground. Oh those French! So I stood in the back and listened to an organ concert. I had a nice Christmas different than any Christmas I've had before!
On New Year's Eve, Chelsea and her friend Gary flew in from Chicago. We went to the Champs-Elysees before midnight to ring in the new year. It was completely filled with people and cars from one end to the other. We walked from the Place de la Concorde end almost to the Arc de Triomphe end and stood in the middle after the police closed it off to cars and waited for midnight. There was a lot of excitement but no countdown to midnight, no real fireworks, and almost no sparklers. We got out of there just as the cops finished lining up along all of the side streets preparing for whatever might happen after midnight. We made our way to the first metro stop we could find and got into the most packed metro car I've ever been in and hopefully ever will be in. It was free from 5:00 on New Year's Eve until noon on New Year's Day, and I guess everyone in Paris knew that! Finally, we celebrated the new year with our friend Mickaël who had just finished his shift at Disneyland Paris. I don't really know what the new year will bring, but I'm pretty sure it includes free tickets to Disneyland!
Monday, December 27, 2010
aquariums and musicals and plays oh my!
In the month of December, I have gone to an aquarium, a musical, and a play. The aquarium was actually an aquarium, a movie theater, an art gallery, and a TV station (well a green screen!) all in one. The musical was Mozart l'Opéra Rock and reminded me a lot of Mamma Mia. The play was at school, put on by French students, and very entertaining. While I am still very entertained by Paris in general (the people, the métro, the Frenchness, realizing that I think in French a lot now), I'm realizing what else I could be missing here in the way of entertainment--especially now that it's cold out and I don't feel the need to walk around outside all day every day anymore!
The Aquarium de Paris is "bien plus qu'un aquarium" (much more than an aquarium!) and includes Cinéaqua, which is a movie theater. My friend Katie and I spent five hours maybe more inside the aquarium/movie theater on a cold December day. We saw Nemo-like fish and seahorses, petted koi, looked at many artists' interpretations of Disney princesses, watched the movie Christmas with the Kranks dubbed in French, and took pictures in the green screen room. The green screen was probably our favorite part because we got to run from a dinosaur, have a dance party, and do the weather! It reminded me of third grade (I think) when I visited Kare11 with the Girl Scouts of Troop 397 and we met Belinda Jensen and saw that the weather map was not actually on the screen behind her...blew my mind then and it still does!
I didn't know what I was getting myself into with the musical Mozart L'Opera Rock, but I went one night with ISA. It turned out to be the story of Mozart's life set against a modern, colorful background with very sparkly costumes. It was described to me as kind of like Mamma Mia and it lived up to that description except not too much because I actually liked it! Now that I think of it, it was kind of Cirque du Soleil-esque. There was very little dialogue in between the loud, excited, almost yelled songs. The songs were kind of hard to follow sometimes, but the story was about Mozart's life and loves and music. It was so fast-paced and exciting, what's not to like? No one in the group liked it except me.
Finally, I saw a play at the Catho done by French students and a Venezuelan student who's in one of my classes! It included many short scenes of Shakespeare, Molière, and other great playwrights. It even had "La Cigale et La Fourmi," a story by Jean de la Fontaine based on Aesop's fable, which we happened to be talking about in one of my classes. I am definitely une cigale because I don't plan my life ahead of time! I gotta work on that! My favorite part was probably when all of the characters in one of the stories started singing Hakuna Matata! I'm not really sure how it related to anything, but it's a good song to live by!
It has also been kind of a sad time because everyone is leaving Paris, not to mention everyone is going back to DU from all over the world. ISA had a farewell tea party where there was no tea just champagne! It was fun to see people who I hadn't seen in a while and to say goodbye to my friends who I might not have seen otherwise. I hadn't seen some people since Morocco. I even got a kind of normal, kind of good picture of my friend Casey and me. We were roommates in Morocco, and she thinks I'm really weird, and we live like a block away from each other in Paris (well except that Paris doesn't have blocks but you know) and I tried to visit her once but her house doesn't have a doorbell so long story short, I hadn't seen her in a long time! Hahaha I miss Morocco and Morocco people! Now almost everyone is back in the States safe and sound except me and I'm on break in Paris for two weeks! Ok so another blog including Christmas-y stuff and break stuff is coming before the month--and year!--is over!
The Aquarium de Paris is "bien plus qu'un aquarium" (much more than an aquarium!) and includes Cinéaqua, which is a movie theater. My friend Katie and I spent five hours maybe more inside the aquarium/movie theater on a cold December day. We saw Nemo-like fish and seahorses, petted koi, looked at many artists' interpretations of Disney princesses, watched the movie Christmas with the Kranks dubbed in French, and took pictures in the green screen room. The green screen was probably our favorite part because we got to run from a dinosaur, have a dance party, and do the weather! It reminded me of third grade (I think) when I visited Kare11 with the Girl Scouts of Troop 397 and we met Belinda Jensen and saw that the weather map was not actually on the screen behind her...blew my mind then and it still does!
I didn't know what I was getting myself into with the musical Mozart L'Opera Rock, but I went one night with ISA. It turned out to be the story of Mozart's life set against a modern, colorful background with very sparkly costumes. It was described to me as kind of like Mamma Mia and it lived up to that description except not too much because I actually liked it! Now that I think of it, it was kind of Cirque du Soleil-esque. There was very little dialogue in between the loud, excited, almost yelled songs. The songs were kind of hard to follow sometimes, but the story was about Mozart's life and loves and music. It was so fast-paced and exciting, what's not to like? No one in the group liked it except me.
Finally, I saw a play at the Catho done by French students and a Venezuelan student who's in one of my classes! It included many short scenes of Shakespeare, Molière, and other great playwrights. It even had "La Cigale et La Fourmi," a story by Jean de la Fontaine based on Aesop's fable, which we happened to be talking about in one of my classes. I am definitely une cigale because I don't plan my life ahead of time! I gotta work on that! My favorite part was probably when all of the characters in one of the stories started singing Hakuna Matata! I'm not really sure how it related to anything, but it's a good song to live by!
It has also been kind of a sad time because everyone is leaving Paris, not to mention everyone is going back to DU from all over the world. ISA had a farewell tea party where there was no tea just champagne! It was fun to see people who I hadn't seen in a while and to say goodbye to my friends who I might not have seen otherwise. I hadn't seen some people since Morocco. I even got a kind of normal, kind of good picture of my friend Casey and me. We were roommates in Morocco, and she thinks I'm really weird, and we live like a block away from each other in Paris (well except that Paris doesn't have blocks but you know) and I tried to visit her once but her house doesn't have a doorbell so long story short, I hadn't seen her in a long time! Hahaha I miss Morocco and Morocco people! Now almost everyone is back in the States safe and sound except me and I'm on break in Paris for two weeks! Ok so another blog including Christmas-y stuff and break stuff is coming before the month--and year!--is over!
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