La vie est belle!

Mardi le 13 février

Tuesday was my first day of classes at the Sorbonne. In the morning I had my TD, which is the French equivalent of a conference/section component of a lecture class in the US. I ran into another girl from Sweet Briar in the park by the Centre Michelet (the Art/Archeology Center for Paris I and Paris IV), so we walked in together. The classroom was huge, but there were only 15 people in the class. The class was actually pretty boring. The prof talked extremely fast (even the French students got lost and missed dates and names), but she was nice. Still, it was a 2 hour-long class (and you’re not even allowed to have water, so you get really thirsty), and she just talked about one painting, Courbet’s Burial at Ornans. The set-up of the class is also really strange, because this is the TD for 5 lecture classes – Renaissance Art, Impressionism to Expressionism, Indian Art, Modern Iconography, and Chinese Art – and yet in our weekly TD we focus on only one work of art, and they are all either Impressionist or Renaissance. That’s fine for me, since I’m taking the Renaissance & Impressionism classes, but it seems pretty pointless for the people taking Indian Art…

After TD, I went back to Sweet Briar for my Atelier d’Ecriture class, where we learned about “de” for forme negative, rendre vs. faire (“je pars, tu ne peux même pas me rendre heureuse”), discuter de qch/qqn, and “avoir lieu.”

I rushed home from TD, grabbed my viola, and headed over to the Ecole Normale for my viola lesson. I was afraid I was going to be late, but that didn’t matter, since my teacher was running 2 lessons behind. I sat and listened to the two lessons--the first was with a prospective student from Argentina, the second was with his friend who has been here for the year. From a “musical” standpoint, the lessons weren’t too interesting, since the students weren’t very advanced, and my teacher just talked a lot about adjusting the chin rest. From a…linguistics perspective…it was fascinating to observe the lessons, and see how he used a mix of English and French to talk to native-Spanish speakers who spoke some English and French…Then I had my lesson, which went really well, and he told me lots of crazy stories about his career, and about going to Paul Hindemith’s house and finding a recording of him playing with a famous pianist, and realizing how awful it was…hah apparently Hindemith didn’t practice much.

Came home, dinner w/host fam plus Constance (after the kids went to bed), bed.

Mercredi le 14 février

Woke up and went running in the rain, then headed over to Sweet Briar for my Monuments class. In the morning we learned about the Marais, and then we had an hour long lunch break, before meeting in the Marais. I went to L’As du Falafel (famous and amazing falafel place) with some other Sweet Briar people before going to Pont Marie to begin the walking tour. It was freezing, and pouring rain, so the visit was not too fun. We saw lots of old Hôtels, the remnants of the first enceinte (wall) around Paris, the Church St-Paul St-Louis, and a medieval street…but after walking around outside for 45 minutes, Monsieur realized that everyone was too busy being miserable to pay any attention, so we went to the Musée Carnavalet, a museum of Paris’ history. The museum was actually pretty cool—we only had time to go to a few rooms, but I definitely plan to go back. We saw models of ancient Paris, and a girl gave an éxposé on the Bastille in front of a model of the Bastille, built from stones taken from it during the Revolution.

I went back to Sweet Briar with some of the girls in the class, because there was supposed to be a Valentine’s Day party…which turned out to not exist. So I went back to the 15^th with a girl who lives two blocks away, and we went to a café/boulangerie to meet her friend who teaches English in Paris through the French Consulate.

Came home, had dinner with the fam, and then went out to Aussie Bar with Claire, Kate, Jen, Sam, and Sara. They were having this ridiculous Valentine’s Day party where they give you stickers with numbers on them, and then these cards where you could send messages to other people in the bar ("accepteriez-vous un verre?" "voulez-vous danser?" "une discussion s'impose" "j'ai croisé votre regard" "je suis prêt(e) pour l'aventure" "je brûle de désir...répondez moi" "rejoignez moi", and my personal favorite, "je vous écris...")…so yea we had a lot of fun sending ridiculous messages to the tables around us, or to just random numbers.

Jeudi le 15 février

Had Atelier d’Ecriture in the morning, where we learned about rapide vs. vite, the construction “comme + le” – “Comme tu peux le supposer, je suis très fâchée,” and “Comme le disait mon grand-père, la vie est belle,” and tellement/tant/si.

After Atelier I went home planning to go for a quick run before class at 4, but the quartier had a water problem, so the water was off until 4…I decided that I didn’t want to stink up the Sorbonne, and instead grabbed a sandwich and met Sammy, Darcy, and Sara in this really quiet and beautiful park by Darcy’s apartment. It was about 55 degrees and sunny, so we just sat around and talked in the park until about 3:30, when I left for class.

Class was my first lecture at the Sorbonne – Impressionism through Expressionism. It was also pretty boring…It was a two-hour lecture, but the prof couldn’t get the slide projector to work for the first 30 minutes. Then for the next hour and a half he talked (painfully slowly) about salons and World Expositions…needless to say, it was hard to stay awake. The French students also seemed to have problems concentrating…after the first 15 minutes of lecture, there was a dull murmur, as the students carried on their own conversations. After class, this French girl asked me if I had passed my exams to get into the course, because she had had a hard time with it. I explained that I was an exchange student, so I didn’t need to pass the exams, and she said “oh, PHEW.” I really wanted to say something like “well, I’m sure that if you paid attention in class it wouldn’t be too hard to pass the test,” but I restrained myself…

Came home from class, had dinner, then met up with Jen and Sara at le Cristal. After there, we went to Le Mix, a club where every Thursday they have this huge party for International students. It’s technically associated with Erasmus, an exchange program for all countries except the US (I think) – it’s the program that the people in L’Auberge Espagnol are on – but it was free for all International students. It was a lot of fun, and really cool to meet not just French people, but people from lots of other countries – Germany, Italy, Switzerland, England, Morocco, Tunisia, Argentina, etc.

Vendredi, le 16 février

Woke up at 8am, very tired from the discotheque, and got to the Sorbonne at 9:45 for my 10am lecture class. A class was going on in the amphitheatre I waited with 2 other Sweet Briar students, and about 20 other French students until 10:20…when we realized that this class was not going to end any time soon. We went up to the office of the Sorbonne, and found out that they had changed the time of the class from 10-12 to 9-11 without telling anyone…so that was cool. We figured it was pointless to go to the lecture after missing the first 45 minutes, so everyone left.

I went home and napped until 1, went running, and then went to the Louvre to meet Jen and Darcy. We saw the Napoleon Apartments, and then went to the French Sculpture garden. We ended up just sitting and talking there. There were 3 French guards standing and talking to each other, and we got really annoyed at them, because there was a group of 7 or 8 French guys who were literally caressing the sculptures, and the guards were too busy talking to each other to notice...so yea apparently it’s OK to touch the sculpture at the Louvre. We left the Louvre around 7:30 (it’s open until 9:30 on Fridays), and went home.

Had dinner, then went to Sara’s house for our traditional Friday night Grey’s Anatomy, which was nice & relaxing as always. Came home around 12:30, and went to bed.

Samedi, le 17 février

Woke up late, went running, and then went to the Marais to meet Darcy, Jen, and Sara. Darcy has this book of “Calm Places” in Paris, so we have been trying out different places listed in it for lunch, and today was Square Georges Cain. It’s this small, quiet, and beautiful garden/square, with faux-ancient stone sculptures and friezes, and lots of benches. Lots of families were there with their children, there was also a group of French girls who were sketching the sculptures in the garden, and there were two guys playing guitar. It was 60 degrees and sunny, so we just sat there and talked, read, and drew sculptures for the afternoon.

I started to feel really sick, so I left early and came home. When I got there, half the family was over, and FaFou started talking to me about life in the States, so I came in and explained about Ivy League colleges and about Princeton (where he lives). After that, I went to my room and napped a little.

Woke up, and got ready to go to a Franco-American “pot” (party) at Mme Hervier’s house (basically a mixer between Sweet Briar people and her son Peter and his friends). I got there late because the metro was running very slowly, but that didn’t really matter since I already know Peter and his friends (he’s friends with Sammy from Williams, so we’ve been to dinner and a few bars with them).

After the party Darcy and I met up with Sammy and Lisa at an Italian restaurant nearby, La Comédia, which is my new favorite restaurant – cheap and delicious, and if you come visit me, I’ll take you there :o). We walked around Rue Mouffetard after dinner, then went to the Pont des Arts and wandered around. Ended up back in St. Germain, and then just decided to go home…a pretty uneventful evening.

Dimanche, le 18 février

Another late morning, and another run in the Champ de Mars. Then I went to the Jardin des Plantes in the 5^th to meet Sara and Darcy (another 60 degree & sunny day!). It’s a little like a botanical garden – it’s huge, has a zoo, a museum of natural history, a museum of evolution, and is next to the Paris Mosque (another “calm spot”). Like most other gardens in Paris, it was filled with families “promenading.” We were planning to work, but ended up just talking, and reading through Paris guidebooks for the afternoon. Around 4 we left, and went to the Arènes de Lutèce, an old Roman amphitheatre where people come to play soccer and pétanque, and picnic. We met up with Kate & Claire, and talked while watching a group of old guys playing pétanque next to a group of elementary-school boys playing soccer.

Walked around the 5^th a little, went up to the Pantheon, and then walked to the Metro. Came home, practiced, had dinner with the fam, and went to bed early.

Lundi, le 19 février

Woke up at 9, went running in the Champ de Mars, cleaned my room, and headed over to the Marais. Grabbed lunch at l’As du Falafel, waited in line for an hour at the Centre Pompidou library, where I spent the afternoon researching my exposé on Église Saint-Sulpice. After spending 5 hours in the library, I decided it was time for an epic walk…so I walked from Centre Pompidou to my house (which took a good hour and a half). It was dark, so all the buildings were lit up, but still pretty warm. I went a way I had never gone before, which was nice – it was through the 7^th, on Rue du Four/Rue de Sèvres/Rue de Babylone. I discovered what might be the world’s most “chi-chi” grocery store, La Grande Epicerie de Paris (part of Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche). They organize food by countries, and I think I stumbled upon every ex-pat in Paris in the “Tex-Mex” (aka pretzels and guacamole) aisle.

Now I’m back home, about to watch the news with my host dad, have dinner, and either meet up with a few friends at a bar, or go to bed (10:30am TD tomorrow!).

Au Revoir!

Finally Up-to-Date!!!

Samedi, le 3 février

Day trip to Chartres! I woke up early and went running in the Champ de Mars, then met Jen, Sam, and Darcy at Gare Montparnasse to catch a train to Chartres. The train ride was only an hour and twenty minutes, and we were lucky enough to sit in the booth next to about 15 drunk French guys (yes, at noon).

We arrived in the station around 1:30, and walked to the cathedral, which was absolutely beautiful (see pictures on my website – e-mail me if you don’t have the link). We went inside to see the beautiful stained glass, choir, etc. Afterwards we walked outside and saw all the beautiful portals to the cathedral (I was being quite the art history dork, and was very excited about the early gothic vs. high gothic portals that we learned about in 101). It was a beautiful day, so we decided to walk around the town for a bit, and discovered that it is actually much larger than it looks like on the map. We went to a wine store and met a woman who had been an au pair in Boston a few years ago, and she talked us into buying some cheap red wine.

We took the train back around 4:30, and returned to Paris by 6. It was really nice to get away from Paris for the day, and be in a more peaceful setting. That night Darcy and I went out to dinner with our friend Sam from Williams, and some of her friends (some French, some from her program). We went to this Japanese restaurant that her friend wanted to go to, and the dinner was extraordinarily awkward. Everyone was really tired, and the French guys who no one knew very well (they were friends w/one of her friends there) didn’t talk much. After dinner we went to the apartment of one of the guys who lived “nearby” (aka 15 blocks away, and up 6 flights of stairs). We sat around for an hour, until we could finally make a graceful exit (pretending to be texted by friends). Darcy & I ended up meeting up w/some Sweet Briar girls in the 5^th, but everyone was tired from the trip to Chartres, so we went home pretty early.

Dimanche, le 4 février

On Sunday I went to the Marais to meet up with Marcy and Rob, 2 friends of my dad’s from Detroit. We went to the Memorial de la Shoah, the new Holocaust museum. It was a pretty impressive museum that I definitely plan to visit again – they had lots of “primary source” documents/materials including letters, photographs, Jewish stars that Jews wore on their coats, etc. While I already knew most of the history included in the wall text, it was interesting to see how the French presented the material.

Afterwards we walked around the Village St. Paul and ate lunch in a really cute café. Then we went over to Rue des Rosiers in the Marais – part of the Jewish quarter – which was amazing. Most things in Paris are closed on Sundays, but obviously not the Jewish quarter, so the streets were packed with people, and there were lots of street musicians, including a Klezmer band.

It was a gorgeous sunny day, so around 3 I walked over to Notre Dame to meet Darcy. On the first Sunday of every month all national museums and monuments are free, so we wanted to climb the towers of the cathedral…but I think the rest of Paris got the memo that it was free, and the line to climb up went past the back of Notre Dame…so we decided to cough up the 4 euros another time when we wouldn’t have to wait in line for 2 hours.

On Sundays the mayor of Paris closes down the streets that run by the Seine, so Darcy & I decided to go on an epic walk. We walked from Notre Dame to the 7^th, where we had kirs at Café Flores, one of our favorite spots. Afterwards I came home, and we had crepes for dinner! February 2^nd was apparently some holiday celebrating candles and light, and the tradition is to make crepes…but my host parents had dinner with friends on Friday, so we made crepes on Sunday instead. It was really fun – they had this hot-plate that made 4 mini-crepes, so they put it on the table, and you would pour the batter in, flip the crepe, eat it, and while you were eating it you’d start making your next crepe. So you had to work for your meal…and it was worth it! At dinner we had a pretty priceless conversation about the Superbowl – my host father, the soccer & rugby fan, asked me “is that the thing where Janice Joplin…Janice Jackson…Janet Jackson had her ouverture/couverture?” and after figuring out that “ouverture/couverture” means “wardrobe malfunction,” they all started laughing and he said “Oh you Americans, you are such puritans.”

After dinner I went to watch the Superbowl at an Anglophone bar, The Frog and Princess. We met up with this guy Eric who we met a few weeks ago at the Cristal – he’s half-American and half-French, and used to play football for a French team, so he was pretty set on putting together a Superbowl party. We met a lot of his friends, and it was pretty hilarious, bc most of them knew next to nothing about football. He had explained the rules to them earlier that week, and had given them jerseys to wear for the game. So they were decked out in either Bears or Colts clothes, but then they would just root for whichever team was winning (and they made fun of me a lot for rooting for the Bears even as they lost). We were also sitting next to these weird middle-aged guys who work for the US Department of Defense, and they reminded me of why French people “don’t like” Americans – they were loud and obnoxious, made fun of all the French people in the bar, and told Eric he wasn’t “American” because he didn’t grow up in the US.

We took a taxi home after the game (4:30 am…gahhh), and I went to bed right away.

Lundi, le 5 février

I woke up at noon, completely exhausted from the night before. I went running, and that was definitely the end of my productivity for the day. Sara & Darcy came over, we made sandwiches, planned our upcoming trip to Prague, and watched 4 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy (which I am now completely obsessed with…I have bought the first season off of itunes, but refuse to buy more…so I’m not sure how I’ll survive the next few months).

At dinner my host parents made fun of me for coming home so late, and about the Bears losing...it was kind of sad, but also sweet. They always make fun of Pauline because she comes home at 5am on Fridays and Saturdays, so it was nice to be treated in the same way.

Mardi, le 6 février

Woke up early and went for a run in the Champ de Mars, as usual. Also had a super-awkward conversation with my host mom. Tuesday nights the grandkids come over, so we eat dinner an hour later, and depending on who comes to dinner, it can last a long time. Last week it lasted till 11, and she told me that if I ever wanted to go out with friends after dinner on Tuesdays, I should tell her ahead of time and she would prepare dinner for me at 8:30, like a normal night. Well, I asked her if I could eat before 9:30 because I wanted to meet up with friends later, but she thought I was asking her to make me dinner at 10, etc etc. Anyway she finally understood me and everything was fine. But it was awkward, quand même. Then went to Sweet Briar for my Atelier class, where we learned about peut-etre: “Elle Est peut-être à Paris; Peut-être qu’elle est à Paris; Peut-être est-elle à Paris…” and then lots about indefinite & partitive articles.

After Atelier, I went with Darcy and Sara to the 8^th to find weights for them (because gyms are super-expensive). Outside the store we saw this guy chase after his friend and start to beat him up, but 2 policemen were inside the store with us and they ran out and ended the fight. I now have a little more faith in the French policemen. A little.

I came home and my host mom knocked on my door at 8:10 and told me dinner was ready, so I came out a few minutes later to have dinner. Well there were about 8 people having aperitifs in the living room, so I figured that they would all be staying for dinner. I went into the kitchen and thought “that’s odd, she really didn’t make much food for 8 people…well whatever.” So I had a little tortellini and a little salad, and went back to my room to get ready to go out. At 9:15 my host mom comes to my door freaking out that I didn’t eat enough, and then explaining that she had made dinner just for Monsieur, Constance (2^nd oldest sister), me, and her, and not for all 8 people…and then she explained that usually on Tuesdays it is just us 3 for dinner, and that the past month has been “exceptional.” Anyway she made me eat a second dinner, which was sweet and kind of hilarious. We were all laughing about the misunderstanding, which was good, and made me feel a lot less awkward about asking to eat dinner early, etc.

I went out to meet up with Sam, Jen, Kate, Claire, and Darcy at this bar called the Moosehead, which was supposed to be really fun…and it was actually awful. So I learned my lesson – don’t go out on Tuesday nights, and don’t ask Mme to cook dinner early, or you’ll have to eat 2 dinners.

Mercredi, le 7 février

Had my History of Paris through its Monuments class, where we learned more about medieval Paris in the morning, and took a trip to the Musée Nationale du Moyen Âge (Musée de Cluny) in the afternoon. It’s a really amazing museum, with lots of well-preserved medieval art, including the original statues from Notre Dame, some of the original stained glass from the Ste Chapelle, and also the famous Unicorn Tapestries.

After class Darcy and I were both feeling pretty sick, so we went to a student café for a chocolat chaud, and then went to see the new film Molière near Odéon. My host mom adored the movie, and in fact most people who have seen it loved it, but I thought it was so-so. It was funny and clever – the premise was that Molière went to prison, and then got out bc this powerful/rich/old (married) guy wanted Molière to help him write a play to win the heart of some young noblewoman. He stays with the guy but pretends to be a priest named Tartuffe so that the wife doesn’t figure out what he’s really doing there. The story that then unfolds then serves as the inspiration for his play Tartuffe. One of the nice things about seeing movies here is that even if they end up being bad or so-so, at least you got to practice your French. Molière was especially challenging in this respect, since you had to pay very close attention to understand all the plays on words, etc.

After the movie I came home, and around 7pm I heard people coming to the apartment for cocktails. I sat in my room, dreading another huge and awkward family dinner, but I was pleasantly surprised! Bernard (Monsieur)’s mother who is 93, and his brother and the brother’s wife came over for dinner. Instead of being typically exclusive, they were really sweet and kept talking to me, and asking me questions. Mme and Monsieur told them that I “speak French very well, and play the viola very well.” Mme was really cute, and said that every time I practice in my room, she goes to the office (which is attached to my room) to type e-mails and listen to me. The sister-in-law told me that she just got itunes, and loves classical music, so throughout dinner she kept trying to get me to play for her. We had a really good dinner, and I finally felt at ease, which was sooo nice. Afterwards the sister-in-law tried again to get me to play for her, saying “Alexandraaaa you can’t escape me!!!” but I got out of it by saying that I didn’t want to disturb the neighbors, and by promising to play for her next time.

Jeudi, le 8 février

Had Atelier in the morning, where we learned some masculine and feminine suffixes, adjectives, and “tel” and “aussi” (more romantic phrases: “Comment peux-tu sortir avec un tel garçon? Commen peux-tu sortir avec un garçon aussi stupide?”).

After Atelier, Darcy and I walked through the Jardin du Luxembourg and into Saint-Germaine-des-Près in search of lunch. And we found an amazing lunch place – it was this really cute Traiteur Italien, where you could buy a huge box of pasta à emporter for 5 euro. We walked in, and the woman who worked there was really friendly and talkative. Everyone else who came in were regulars, and she knew them by name, which is really unusual here. We took our (delicious and cheesy) pasta and ate in the Jardin, while doing some people-watching.

After lunch I came home and went for a really long run, and returned home as it started to pour rain. I practiced for a while, caught up on some organizational things, and had dinner with the fam. I talked a lot at dinner – I’ve noticed this week that my French has begun to really improve. I felt so comfortable talking to my family, and making conversation. It was a really cool feeling to have my French just sort of kick into high-gear. All week I’ve felt so much more willing to talk to people in stores and talk to my family.

After dinner, since it was Thursday, we went to Le Cristal. An entire club soccer team was there, so we met lots of crazy guys. One of them actually works with Darcy’s host mom, so that was…interesting. Other than the soccer players, Le Cristal was pretty quiet, and we decided to call it an early night.

Vendredi, le 9 février

I had a viola lesson at the Ecole Normale at 10h15, so I had to wake up pretty early. The lesson was actually with Prof Xuereb’s assistant, who I actually might like better. We worked on Bach and Clarke, but she was really helpful with more general ideas about producing sound, and how to hold the viola.

After my lesson I decided to be “creative” and take a different metro home…this backfired, and I ended up walking past about 4 stations before realizing I was walking in the wrong direction. I finally got on the right metro, and headed home for lunch.

At 14h, I went to Sweet Briar, because Mme Grée was giving a tour of the Sorbonne Art History campus. She showed us how to get to the building, where our classes will be, and the library.

After the Sorbonne visit I decided to make my weekly visit to the Louvre, where I saw lots of European sculpture from the middle ages and the Renaissance. It was 5:30, but really nice out, so I went on what turned out to be an epic walk from the Louvre to my house…it didn’t seem that far in principle, but it was, and took over an hour of speed-walking!

I had dinner with my family, and then metro-ed over to Sara’s apartment to watch Grey’s. We were thinking about going to Amiens the next day, so figured we should have a chill night. The metro was kind of ridiculous – first at Segur, I was literally chased by this crazy guy. He followed me around for 10 minutes, and everyone was just staring at this, and not saying anything or making any sort of facial expression (very French). Then at Saint-Lazare, ANOTHER guy started following me, and then walking in circles around me while I waited for line 3. So yea it was a great night for the metro and me.

Samedi, le 10 février

Woke up early, planning to go to Amiens, but Darcy wanted to cancel the trip bc it looked like rain. We were all tired, and ended up sleeping til noon…which was probably better for me than going on a day trip. When I woke up, Mme and Monsieur’s son, FaFou (Francois-Xavier), who works in the US had already arrived. I went out in my running clothes and met him, which was slightly awkward…but whatever. I went running, and then Sara, Darcy, and I met near the Musée d’Orsay, to meet up with some other friends. While the museum usually closes at 18h, it closed at 16h, because the workers were “sort-of on strike” (also very French). Apparently the museum was free, and there were some guards, but I guess not enough, or they just wanted to close early to show their power. Either way, we got there at 15h30, at which point they had stopped admitting visitors.

We ended up going to the Petit Palais (free!) and just looking at their permanent collection for a while. Afterwards we walked over to les Invalides and hung out in the park, doing more people watching. I went home and changed for dinner, and met Sara, Darcy, Jen, Claire, and Kate for dinner in the 13^th (we had heard that restaurants and bars are cheap there, and decided to give it a try). It’s actually a really cool area – it was basically all students, and there were lots of restaurants with 3 course prix-fixe menus for 10-12 euro. It was still pretty early after dinner, so we went to a bar nearby for a drink, but it was kind of lame, and we decided to head back to the 15^th.

We met up with Eric and his friends for a while at the Cristal, but ended up going to the Breguet to see Vincent and his friends. Sara and Darcy wanted to catch the metro home, but I decided to stay since I live so nearby. We ended up going to one of their friend’s apartments, where they were just hanging out playing video games (whattt I thought that was just an American thing). Anyway it was a very French-filled night, and by 4am I was so exhausted that I could not understand another word that any of them said. I went home, expecting to be the last one in, but no. Pauline and FaFou came back at around 6am…hah. Apparently people stay out pretty late in France.

Dimanche, le 11 février

Woke up late (duh), and went running. Met up with Darcy for lunch in the park by her apt, and then went over to Opera to meet Sara. We walked around a bit, but the weather has been absolutely awful (a mix of sun and rain, and constant huge gusts of wind), so we saw a movie called Mon Frère Se Marie…which was sort of like Little Miss Sunshine, except awful. It was one of those movies that I think was sort of hard to understand anyway, but it was really slow, really angsty/sarcastic, and I was exhausted…so it was a bad mix.

After the movie we all needed a pick-me-up, so we went to a Sara’s favorite café near her apt in the 8^th, and had amazing chocolat chaud, while being served by the rudest French waiter yet – think mimicking everything we said, asking if our friend (Darcy) was lost downstairs in the bathroom and proceeding to yell down the stairs, etc. (Darcy’s host mom says that when they’re that rude they’re just trying to be funny…I’m not so sure about that…).

Came home, and had dinner with Mme and Monsieur, FaFou and the son of one of Mme’s sisters. FaFou talked a lot about the US, and it was kind of funny to hear his complaints – things like “bad sandwiches” and “bad cheese.” It’s funny because they make fun of Americans being fat and eating a lot, but then when asked about what constitutes an “American sandwich,” Faf answered that it’s half the size of a French one, and not much bread. Completely true! I’m not complaining, but it’s pretty unbelievable how much white bread people eat here. Faf also kept asking me how he could find “fromage blanc” in the US…apparently the dictionary translates it as “cottage cheese,” and he was very disappointed when he tried cottage cheese.

Lundi, le 12 février (FINALLY UP-TO-DATE!!!!)

Woke up this morning, and went into the kitchen, and Pauline told me that Caroline, the oldest sister, finally gave birth to her baby!!! It’s a boy, his name is Eloi, and he is huge. They called here last night at 2am, Mme came over to their apt, Caro’s water broke at 3, and she had given birth by 5!

Usually Madame does chores on Monday, but since she was busy chez Caro, Pauline was doing all the chores, so I helped her out for a while. I went running, and when I came back, Madame was home, with the two little girls, Selene and Izore (I have no idea how to spell their names. None.), and Arnault. I congratulated them, and then got ready to head out.

Met up with Sara and Darcy at the Centre Pompidou, because we wanted to check out the “library scene” in Paris. We waited in line for 10 minutes, and then got into the library, which was 3 floors, and pretty big. I started researching my oral exposé for my History class, which is in 3 weeks (no big deal, but nice to start early since it’s in French).

After the libes we went over to Sweet Briar to check the room and time for our TDs tomorrow (tomorrow is my first course at the Sorbonne!! It’s the TD (Travaux Dirigée) for my 2 CMs (Cours Magistrale). From there I went to the flower shop to get flowers for Mme, and then I came home. I practiced, wrote this monster-blog, had dinner, and am now here, FINALLY finishing my updating, and getting ready to go to bed. I solemnly swear to never wait this long before updating my blog again, because I never want to write this much in one sitting ever again.

Au Revoir!

Long-Overdue Update...Part 1

Vendredi, le 26 janvier:

I woke up late, and went for my run in the Champ de Mars. Afterwards, I met up with Sara by my metro station and walked over to a café Darcy had found near her apartment. The café was kind of crazy—it was trying to be an outdoor-Italian-style restaurant (I think). It had fake grass floors, lawn furniture, and a big TV playing MTV. We tried to order paninis for lunch, and ended up with nutella paninis…a French specialty none of us knew existed. The café did, however, have free WIFI (“wee-fee” in French), so we were able to plan our upcoming trip to Prague, and book our hostels. Around 3:30 lots of French high school students came in, so we decided to relocate to a new café. We wandered for a while, found a really cute hole-in-the wall bookstore, and ended up at Café Flores, one of our new favorites for cheap (and good) kirs.

I came home and had dinner by myself, because my host parents were meeting up with friends for dinner. Then I metro-ed over to the 5^th, and met up with some friends from Sweet Briar to go to their favorite Aussie Bar…which was extraordinarily sketchy and filled with 30-year-old French policemen…so I came home.

Samedi, le 27 janvier:

After my run in the Champ de Mars, I met up with Sara and Darcy for lunch in Saint-Germain-des-Près. We ate outside near the fountain, and then wandered down Boulevard St. Germain, where we found a cool/creepy taxonomy store, complete with stuffed hippos, and also the worst patisserie in Paris. We finally reached our destination, the Institut du Monde Arabe, and after waiting in line for 30 mins, we saw the exposition “Venise et l’Orient.” It was definitely worth the wait – a really fascinating exhibit about the history of East-West interactions in medieval Venice.

Saturday night, Sara, Darcy, and I went to dinner in Montmartre. We were originally planning to go to some fondue restaurant where they give you wine in baby bottles (I really don’t know, it’s supposed to be great), but it was packed with Americans, including lots of Sweet Briar students, and we decided to try something else. We broke out Sara’s new “Dinners in Paris under 12 euro,” and picked an Italian restaurant just a block away. Afterwards, we metro-ed all the way back to the 15^th (a 45 minute ride), and met up with our friends Vincent, Antoine, Marco, Jean-Baptiste, Valentin, and others, at their favorite bar, Le Breguet. It was our first time there, but it was really fun (or “sympa” as they say in French)—it is just a neighborhood bar, but they had a live band, and it was a very fun atmosphere. My host mom was really excited that I went there because her son, FaFou used to go there all the time with his friends.

Dimanche, le 28 janvier:

Sara and I decided to spend this rainy morning at a flea market…we had 3 options, and went for the “less touristy” one, which is in Montreuil. After an hour-long metro ride across Paris, we found ourselves in what felt like a totally different world. Montreuil is in Western Paris, basically at the end of the city – the metro is actually “Porte de Montreuil,” which means it is one of the doors out of the city. There were lots of highways, and the area was just generally pretty impoverished and creepy. The flea market was not so much a collection of cool antiques, as an assortment of used hair-dryers, clothes, cigarette lighters, you name it. Sara actually bought a 6 euro hairdryer…which caught fire 5 days later. Needless to say, we had no desire to stay long, so we got back on the metro and went to the 6^th for lunch and a movie. We saw “Les Ambiteux,” a new French movie about a writer and an editor, etc etc...not the best, but good for practicing French.

I came home, and had the most insane dinner of my life. The last Sunday of every month is “family dinner.” That means that all of the family living anywhere near Paris (including 2^nd cousins) comes for dinner. This week that meant about 19 people, apparently next month it will be more like 30. From my room I heard people arriving, but I didn’t want to come out until someone invited me. About half an hour later (vers 20h) my host dad invited me out for aperitifs, so I came out, and saw about 10 French 23(ish) year-olds, who all clearly knew each other very well. So I sat down, and didn’t really know what to do. In the US, since you are the “new” person, usually someone will start talking to you, to ease the awkwardness. But that did not happen. People kept arriving, and I sat there for a good hour listening to at least 8 different conversations. Finally we sat down for dinner, which was also awkward – in France there are lots of rules about where to sit people during dinner (alternate boy/girl, age, and something about your “importance” relative to the other people at the table). So that took a good 5 minutes of sorting out (“Pauline is more important than Bertrand (her boyfriend)! Put her here! Oh no, there is one more girl than boy!”). Anyway dinner took forever, and then afterwards everyone helped clean up. But then the adults sat around the table looking at family pictures, while the younger people went into Pauline’s room. I had no idea what that was about…so I sat around in my room awkwardly for 5 minutes before deciding to go back out to the living room, where the young people were all smoking and talking about their mutual friends. Finally everyone left. Except for one guy who slept in the room next to mine, and stayed up until 1am and then woke up at 6am (after his alarm clock had gone off 3 times).

Anyway, it was the most awkward I have ever felt in my life. Just imagine the most awkward dinner-party experience you’ve ever had, where you know no one, and then add the fact that they are all speaking really quickly in a language you can only sort-of speak. My friend Darcy had had a similar experience that morning, however, and it was interesting to talk to her about it. Since this dinner I’ve had a few more of these family dinner experiences, and am realizing that I think that’s just the way things go in France. It’s definitely interesting to see the difference in “party manners” between the US and France.

Lundi, le 29 janvier:

Monday was a pretty unproductive day. I went for a run in the morning, as usual, then met up with friends in the afternoon. We went to BHV & the Hotel de Ville area to “profiter” (French people’s favorite word, I think) from the sales. After about 2 hours of browsing we were all exhausted, so we went to one of our favorite cafés in the Marais…to find out that it becomes a gay bar in the evenings. They gave us some flyer about getting our makeup done by a professional artist and then getting photographs taken…and we looked around and it was completely filled with men. Anyway we hung out for a little bit, then decided to rentrer. I had dinner with my family, and watched Amelie for a while before going to bed.

Mardi, le 30 janvier:

After going for a run, I walked over to Sweet Briar and had lunch at a student café with Darcy and Janice. Then I had my Atelier d’Ecriture class, where we learned our requisite romantic phrases/constructions (“Où que je sois, je pense toujours à toi; quoi que vous en pensiez, je sortirai avec lui,” “Je ne t’aime plus, c’est la raison pour laquelle je pars,” Je ne veux pas rester ici, il n’y a personne d’intelligent”).

After class, I went to the 8^th to buy new sheet music for the Bach Cello Suites…my viola teacher told me that the music store was “right across the street” from where I rented my viola…well that’s only true if “right across the street” actually means “in a different arrondissement, across one of the biggest train stations in Paris, and 4 more blocks away.” I eventually did find my music, and by that time it was too late to do anything more productive with my day. I went with Darcy to Rue de Clers, because her family friends had said it was a really nice shopping area, and it was pretty cute – we just stopped at a patisserie (our new goal is to try every kind of patisserie in France before we leave…it’s a good thing I run almost every day), and wandered around a little bit. I came home, wrote an essay for my Atelier class, watched the news with my host parents, had dinner, and went to bed.

Mercredi, le 31 janvier:

Wednesday was a pretty exhausting day. I had “une panne de réveil,” aka I slept through my alarm. I ran to my History of Paris through Its Monuments lecture, where we talked more about the development of Ile de la Cité, and the Seine. We had an hour to have lunch and get to St. Denis (wayyyy north, not even in Paris anymore), and that was interesting. I was with two other girls, and we waited for a sandwich for 15 minutes, then got on the metro to find that it was running slowly because of an accident, then finally got to St. Denis after 2 train-changes…we were 15 minutes late, but everyone else was, too, so it wasn’t a big deal. Class was really interesting – St. Denis is beautiful (see pics on my picasa website), it’s where all the French kings and queens are buried. It’s too bad that not many people go there – no one in my host family has been, and they’ve lived in Paris for over 20 years!

After class, I had a 45 minute metro ride home, grabbed my viola, and had an hour long metro ride to another edge of Paris for my viola lesson. My lesson was at my teacher’s apartment in Paris. It turns out that he has a job teaching in Paris, but also a job in Brussels, so he and his family live in Brussels, and each week he takes the TGV to Paris to stay in his studio for a few days and teach. My lesson was great – he’s a wonderful teacher, with lots of good insights, and is very encouraging. It’s also really nice because he speaks fluent English (he studied viola in NYC and Boston), so taking lessons isn’t much of a “French cultural experience,” it’s more something connecting me to life in the states.

I came home, and my host parents wanted me to tell them all about the lesson, as usual…they are really cute, and kind of obsessed with me and my viola. Every day that I don’t practice, the dad asks about it at dinner, and then the mom complains b/c she says that she likes to come listen to me when I practice… :o)

Jeudi, le 1 février

Woke up planning to go running, ended up sleeping in another hour before heading to Atelier. We learned about constructions of “façon” (“Ne me regardez pas de cette façon,” “Il explique les choses d’une façon claire,” “les jeunes veulent vivre à leur façon,” “Et maintenant, mesdames et messieurs, je vais chanter une chanson à la façon d’Elvis Presley”), quitter vs partir, plaire and manquer (“Je te manque, mon amour?” “Je suis desolée, mais tu ne me manques pas”), and passive voice (“Ils ont été vus ensemble”).

After class, we met up with Sara and had lunch at a boulangerie near SB. Then we did a little shopping at H&M in our constant endeavor to find cheap clothes that will somehow make us look more “French.” Afterwards I went to Gibert Jeune to get some more notebooks, and then I went home & practiced. As usual, after dinner we went to the Cristal, but after being hit on by 2 married guys, we weren’t really feeling it. We ended up going back to Le Brégeut with Vincent and his friends, which was more fun and chill.

I had been looking forward to February 1 for a long time. It was the day that smoking was banned in public spaces. On February 1 I found out, however, that “public spaces” do not include restaurants, cafés, bars, tabacs, or any other place that I would be. :o(

Vendredi, le 2 février

Fridays are great because I have no class. Unfortunately, that will change next week when Sorbonne starts. But this Friday was great. I woke up at noon, went running in the Champ de Mars, then met Darcy for a picnic at the Tuileries. It was cold and drizzly, but we have given up on buying lunch, because it is expensive, and have taken to buying a baguette, cheese, and fruit each day and eating it outside, whatever the weather.

After lunch we went to the Louvre to get our free student pass, and then decided to profiter, and check out some Greek Antiquities. I think my goal for the next four months is to go to the Louvre at least once a week, and spend quality time in a few rooms, so that by the end of the semester I’ll have a decent grasp of the museum.

After the Louvre, we went to the café with the grass floors, and wrote postcards while listening to the high school students gossip and smoke cigarettes. We got sick of the amount of 17 year olds, and relocated to a café nearby for aperitifs. I walked home, had dinner, and then went to Sara’s house to watch “Comme t’y es belle” (the French movie version of Sex and the City).

This has already been a journal entry of epic proportions, and I will hopefully finish up tomorrow…think of this as installment 1. Bonne nuit!