First Week

Bonjour from Paris (again)!

This week has been going by quickly, and every day becomes easier, and better.

On Monday, Darcy and I walked around the 15th and 7th (where we live), and met up with some Sweet Briar students for lunch at a tabac/brasserie near the Alliance Francaise (where Sweet Briar classes are). We had our first meeting from 1:30-4 that afternoon, and the directors just talked about living with host families, and the French university system (which is pretty crazy). Afterwards, I bought my French cell phone, which was quite an adventure. I was glad I read this book "Talk to the Snail: 10 Commandments for Understanding the French," because it was definitely useful in dealing with this cranky sales girl. I had dinner with my family, and the middle-sister, Constance. After dinner I watched this very odd French comedy show - a little like something you'd see on VH1 or E! - it was a tribute to a few deceased French comedians...and it confirmed my belief that the French have a strange sense of humor.

Because Paris IV (Paris-Sorbonne) classes start so late (February 12), I don't have any "methodology" classes with Sweet Briar until next week. About 1/2 the students are in the same situation, so we have just been exploring parts of the city. On Tuesday I met up with 3 other girls from Sweet Briar, and we had lunch at Cafe de Flores, where Hemingway used to write...it was very expensive, and I don't think any of us will ever visit a famous cafe again...Then we walked around St. Germaine and the Latin Quarter for almost 5 hours. It was really fun to explore the city. We had a large family dinner - Constance, Caroline, Caroline's husband (Arnault?), and their two daughters, Izore et Celine (I'm really bad at spelling...) came over. Mme was very sweet, and invited me to have aperitifs with them, so that I could meet everyone. We had a very fancy dinner, with oysters, salmon, pasta, cheese, and prune tart. It was pretty overwhelming to hear everyone speak so quickly, but I found that if I listened to one conversation (since at any time there were at least 3 going on), I could generally follow it. Afterwards I met up with 2 girls from Sweet Briar who live in an apartment a block away, and we went to a bar called "le dix" in St. Germaine.

Yesterday, Wednesday, was the beginning of a month-long state-mandated sale ("soldes"). I went shopping a little in the morning on Rue de Rennes, but didn't get anything. Some of the students who are at Sweet Briar for the whole year took a group of us on a walk through the Jardin de Luxembourg and the Latin Quarter, to show us where to buy books, cheap falafel, etc. We had lunch, and then went on a tour of St. Chapelle (perhaps the most beautiful building/church in Paris, if not in the world!) with a Sweet Briar professor. The tour ended at around 3:30, and 5 of us decided to go shopping again, but it was absolutely out-of-control, and we left pretty quickly. My host parents invited me to a concert at their church, so we had an early dinner last night, to get to the concert early. We were at the church 45 minutes before the concert started, and it's a good thing we got there early, because it was completely packed, and people ended up sitting in the aisles (and this is a huge church).

The concert was...very odd. It was written by an eveque (bishop). It was called: "Wolfgang Mozart: Une traversee d'ombre et de lumiere." It began with a quartet playing Petite musique de nuit. Then, all the lights were extinguished, save for one: the light on the cross at the altar. A disembodied voice read the prologue, about "la mysterieuse et permanente alliance entre la fin et la commencement" de la vie. A choir sang the beginning of Mozart's requiem, then the first act, "La Naissance," was read by the same disembodied voice. A little sampler of the text: "Celui qui repond au premier nom de Johannes-Chrysostomus-Wolfgang-Theophilus n'en gardera, finalement, que celui de Wolfgang Gottlieb. Gottlieb ou Amadeus: qui aime Dieu ou qui est aime de Dieu..." After this introduction, two violins played a transcription of part of the Magic Flute. Then, two relatively famous actors, Brigitte Fossey et Michael Lonsdale read this overly-dramatic text that I guess was trying to be Mozart's thoughts about life, death, God, and music. This pattern of music-introduction-music-actors-music continued for 6 acts: "La Naissance, La Parole, Le Don, La Priere, Les Liens, et Le Passage." "Le Passage" was definitely my favorite/the most insane. It was about the death of Mozart, and this modern dancer walked/strutted/danced down the main aisle of the church in a very ridiculous and self-conscious fashion, trying to physically represent the passage between life and death, and naturally, from earthly life to divine life (it was in a church, after all). After this very dramatic ending, the bishop came and talked for about 25 minutes, thanking every single person he possibly could.

While the concert was totally insane, I'm really glad I went. My host parents adored it, and of course I said that I did, too. It was really nice to see their huge church - the sense of community in the parish (la paroisse) was really astonishing. My host father was explaining how most people's parents and families live very close to them, and that they know most everyone at the Church, and consequently in the neighborhood. On the walk back I had a "breakthrough" of sorts with the father. We had never really had a conversation before, because although he seems so nice, he is very quiet. Since I am shy, especially when it comes to French, I end up talking a lot to the mom, who is very outgoing. However, on the walk back, Madame was talking animatedly with another church-goer, and Monsieur told me all about his childhood, born in Morocco, living in this arrondisement, but then moving to Germany, Japan, Morocco, and Senegal, with his father, who was in the army. It was also really sweet, because the woman we were walking home asked if I was their daughter, he said "no," and then turned to me and said, "but in a few months we will think of you as our daughter!"

So, all in all, things are getting better and better. I am beginning to feel comfortable with my family, and more comfortable with speaking French. It hasn't even been a week, but I feel like my French is improving exponentially. I can understand pretty much everything people say, and I am becoming much more outgoing in terms of my willingness to make mistakes & learn to speak. My host family is very encouraging - they keep telling me that I speak very well, and that they can always understand me. I asked my host mom to correct me more, and she said that the reason she doesn't often correct me is that I don't make many mistakes. However, she said she would help me learn more expressions and phrases, because I told her that I never learned conversational French.

Anyway, after this long post, I am off to meet some friends for lunch before a visit to Sacre Coeur with Sweet Briar. Au revoir!