La Vie Parisienne

Update on life in Paris...

Vendredi, le 19 janvier:
I went with Sweet Briar to see "un spectacle," Corazon Loco, at the Theatre National de Chaillot. It was an hour-and-a-half ballet/operaish thing. It was very "avant-garde," but well-done, and the production was beautiful. Sara, Darcy, and I were planning on going out afterwards, but we were way too tired, so we ended up going to a bar/cafe in Trocadero to have "milk shakes." Turns out that French milk shakes are rather odd, and expensive - basically chocolate milk, but a little thicker. We hung out for a while, until we saw a mouse scamper across the floor of the restaurant...and we decided to leave, and go to bed.

Samedi, le 20 janvier:
I woke up late and went for a run, as usual, in the Champs de Mars. Afterwards I decided to go to the outdoor marche right near my house, to get some fresh fruit. It was completely packed, and I had no idea what to do (whether to get the fruit myself and hand it to the vendor, or to tell the vendor what I wanted)...so I ended up asking for the fruit, but then thought the woman told me to get it myself, but she was actually just saying that she was going to get it -- one of the funny things about life here is how much harder you have to work at every social interaction, especially with people you don't know. Things that are so easy in the US (going grocery shopping, going to a restaurant, etc) are much harder here, because there are different rules of "politeness," and different things you are supposed to say. Basically it can make me terrified to go out and get things done, but at the same time it makes me very proud of myself when I am able to get what I want.

After the marche, I went to a cafe in the 7th to write postcards and meet up with Darcy. It started pouring rain, so we stayed there most of the afternoon. That night we went out to the Latin Quarter for dinner, at a tiny fondu restaurant on a side street. We decided to return to Le Cristal, our favorite bar, but it was "Bacardi Night," which apparently means hordes of French teenagers and bad American music...so we decided to make it an early night.

Dimanche, le 21 janvier:
Woke up and went for a wonderful run - on Sundays, all the roads by the Seine are closed down for pedestrians/runners/bikers/rollerbladers (lots of people rollerblade here...it is very strange), so I ran to the Eiffel tower, and then ran right next to the Seine. It was a beautiful day, so I met Sara & Darcy in front of Notre Dame for a picnic. We thought it was really warm, but the temperature dropped about 20 degrees, so we ate very quickly. We decided to walk around Ile St. Louis for a bit, which is such an atmospheric part of Paris. You can stroll down the streets and listen to street musicians, shop in little (over-priced) boutiques, and grab a delicious crepe (though you could spot out the tourists, bc they were the ones eating the famous Berthillon ice cream despite the freezing temperature).

I came home and talked to my host family, and my host mom asked me about the viola I rented, and why I wasn't playing it. I told her that I didn't want to disturb anyone, and the whole family freaked out, and told me "this is your house! play! play!" Which was SO sweet.

Lundi, le 22 janvier:
After going for a run in the Champs de Mars, I met Sara and Darcy for lunch in a little secluded garden by Sweet Briar (in the 6th). Afterwards we went to SNCF (the train company) to try to book train tickets to Prague, but they turned out to be unbelievably expensive (180 euro each way). We walked over to a movie theatre in the Latin Quarter, and watched "Hors de Prix," a so-so French romantic comedy. We were really proud of ourselves, however, because we understood the entire movie :o).

I came home, and had a mini-"breakthrough" with Pauline, my 21 year old host sister. She's always really sweet and friendly, but the past few weeks I've felt that she's been very distant (aka Parisian). However, something happened on Monday night (I have no idea what), and now we are 10 times more friendly and comfortable with each other. Again, I have no idea what happened. My theory is it has something to do with my viola, but I really don't know. When I figure out what happened, I'll let you know..!

Mardi, le 23 janvier:
In the morning I had my viola audition, which I've already posted about. I came home and met one of Pauline's friends from med school, and Pauline asked me to show them my viola, so I took it out, and they were friendly and kept asking me questions about it. After a quick lunch, I had my first class at Sweet Briar - Atelier d'Ecriture - which is the best class of all time. It is taught by this extraordinarly charismatic French woman, and it basically addresses all the things you never understood abouot French. She focuses on 3 things - grammar, Anglicisms, and expressions, and structures the course around our mistakes. So every 2-3 weeks we write a short paper, then she corrects them all, and notes down all the "interesting" mistakes people make, so that she can explain them to the class. In class on Tuesday she gave us phrases in English and had us translate them into French (she says that she tries to give us romantic phrases, so that we will remember them better) - we learned that you always say "en meme temps," unlike in English, and then the construction "plus je le vois, plus je l'aime," "loin des yeux, loin du coeur," etc.

After Atelier, I went shopping with Sara and Darcy, and bought boots! Every woman in Paris wears knee-high boots (I'm not exaggerating - I usually wear walking/gym shoes, and every time I get on the metro, there is always a woman who stares pointedly at my feet). So now I can wear my boots and feel a little less conspicuous...

I came home, and the two grandkids were over (they come over every Tuesday night, and spend Wednesday here, because French kids don't have school on Wednesdays). They ran around the house dressed up as Scarlett O'Hara. They are recovering from the chicken pox, so this was even more adorable because they had big red dots all over their faces.

Mercredi, le 24 janvier:
I had my first History of Paris Through its Monuments Class, which looks to be really fun. We have an hour and a half lecture in the morning, then a break for lunch, and then we go to the part of Paris that we've been learning about. For our first class, we went to Ile de la cite, and talked about the early history of Paris (the parisii, etc), and went to Notre Dame. It was absolutely freezing, and by the end of the 2 hour session, everyone was frozen! Darcy and I went to a cafe for chocolat chaud, but after an hour-and-a-half, we were still shivering! The class is more work than the Atelier - we have to do a 10 minute oral expose (mine is abou St. Sulpice), and also a research paper, but I think it should be interesting.

I came home, feeling a little under-the-weather, and my host mom flipped out. She made me go to my room and lie down, and then brought me lots of French movies to watch on my computer! I ended up watching l'Auberge Espagnole, which I loved, especially since it resonates a lot with my current experience - it's about a Parisian guy who goes to live in Barcelona for a year through the Erasmus study abroad program.

At dinner we had our first political conversation, which was very interesting. They explained a lot about French politics to me, and the upcoming election, and I told them how our elections work, and about Barack Obama, and Hilary Clinton - my host dad tried to say "Hilary" to me about 10 times before I could figure out what he was talking about (the French don't pronounce the H...so it was "eelarry"). Then my host dad insisted that I drink grog to feel better - grog is a mix of hot water, honey, lemon, and rum, and as my host dad says, "put a hat in front of you, drink your grog, and once you see 2 hats you've had enough grog, and you will feel better in the morning." So I did what he said, and went to bed!

Jeudi, le 25 janvier:
I woke up really early (6:45!) for my viola lesson at the Ecole Normale. I got there at 8:40, afraid I'd be late, but my teacher didn't show up until 9:45 (very French, also). I played for him a little, and he was absolutely wonderful. He told me he's going to find me a new viola because the rental I'm playing on now is really bad, and then he also gave me the phone number of his friend who runs a really good chamber music program in Issy (a suburb). Also, he invited me to play at this "session de perfectionnement" in Perigueux (somewhat near Bordeaux) in 2 weeks. I haven't decided whether or not to play in it, but it sounds like it could be pretty cool, and I'd love to see some of the French countryside!

I came home to drop off my viola, and my host mom was having her weekly Thursday tea with all the other "ladies of leisure" in the quartier (my host mom is one of the most social people you will ever meet). I then ran off to Sweet Briar for my second Atelier d'Ecriture, where I learned a lot about personal pronouns, and the construction "avoir hate que".

After Atelier, Sara, Darcy, and I had lunch at our favorite cafe near SB, and then we metro-ed to the Museum of Decorative Arts, for a show about Balenciaga's dresses. It was cool to see dresses from the 1930s to 2006, but the organization of the show made absolutely no sense, so we were often just pretty confused. Upstairs they also had a show about commercial photography in France, which was also very interesting - photos from Man Ray to the present.

I came home, had dinner, and went to Le Cristal (as usual). We had an AMAZING time (as usual). We met more new French friends, who were all hilarious. At first, we were kind of sketched out, because this guy Antoine just came up to me and said "me and my friends are drinking over in that corner, and you should come prendre un verre with us"...so yea, seems sketchy, right? well Sara & I told our friends we were going over there, and if we weren't back in 10 minutes to go find us...but it turns out that he, and his friends, are just really friendly. So we had a really good time, and most of them live in the 15th, so they told us about another bar nearby that is even better (less smokey!), where we're going on Saturday. We also met this guy who is half-American, half-French, and used to be an (American) football player in France, and he invited us to watch the Superbowl with them at a bar in the 6th! Go Bears!



Random things:
-everyone is late. at least 15 minutes late, but often more than that. and no one runs anywhere. no matter the time of day, people just coolly stroll places. this is very difficult for me, since i always need to be on time!
-people use the word "truc" constantly. it can mean anything.
-people really do say "oh la la." not the way Americans imagine it (aka not in a romantic sense), but it's still so funny to hear it constantly.
-things are really good here, and every day I feel better and more at home. However, it is much more difficult to live here than you would think. Coming here, I thought that it would be very easy to adjust to life in Paris, since it is a cosmopolitan city. While there are a few big differences between France and America (notably different languages), there are also lots of little differences between French and American culture which are less visible or apparent. It's really difficult to pinpoint what separates you from the Parisians, but there is something there. Well, maybe I'll figure out some of it eventually...