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!