Adieu Paris

Il a neigé à Paris! And it wasn’t piddily little snow either, it’s legit. We probably got about a half inch of thick, wet snow. Of course, it was beautiful when it was coming down and when it was fresh but it got pretty gross very quickly. The sidewalks were covered in slush and my shoes and socks were soaked by the time I got home but it was snow so it was completely worth it. Despite the weather, Parisians are still riding their vélos (bikes) and their motos (motorcycles). Ils sont foux!

Today is le 18 décembre, I’m going home in two days. I know I should be feeling sadder about leaving than I currently am but I’m really excited to be going home. Maybe it hasn’t hit me yet, that I’m actually leaving Paris. Still, I can’t say that I’m not ready to go home. I even had a going home dream last night. I dreamed that I was studying abroad but I was only across the street at my neighbor’s house. I could see my house, but I couldn’t go home. If that’s not a plea to send me home I don’t know what is.

Although all I’ve been thinking about home this last week, I’m trying to soak up as much of Paris as I can. I went for one last wandering stroll around the city today, even though it is only about 32 degrees and snowy outside. Today I found “81 Roo de Loo”, Julia and Paul Child’s apartment at 81 Rue de L’Université. I will definitely miss the luxury of being able to just wander through the streets of Paris, not sure where I’m going but not being too worried about it either. This was by far my favorite pastime in Paris, coupled with a nice afternoon in a café with my book. Sure, not everything was perfect about this experience. Academically, my classes were fairly disappointing and I never got to know my host family very well. Still, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. For me, this whole adventure really started seven months ago. In my mind, DC and Paris were always linked. After so many months of anticipation and imaging of what these experiences would be like, it is strange to know that they have come to an end. Right now it’s hard for me to judge the impact that all this has had on me. I know that these experiences have had a huge impact on my life but I’m still not quite sure how they will affect me when I get home. I know that this past year will probably be one of the most memorable of my life but I realize now that I’m just getting started. These past months have been great but they are really just a springboard for the rest of my life.

To all of you out there in blogger world, thank you for keeping tabs on me and allowing me to self-indulge for an hour or two every week. I hope you enjoyed reading the blog as much as I had writing it. Merci, mes amis.

I will very soon no longer be living in an old house in Paris so it is only fitting that I leave you all with one last phrase from Mr. Ludwig Bemelmans:

And she tuned out the light-
And closed the door-
And that’s all there is-
there isn’t any more.

Les Grèves

Well, I did it. I broke one of the cardinal rules of my program: I walked towards a grève (strike). Yup, I saw a blocked street, police presence, and smoke but I kept on walkin’ right towards la manifestation. More on this very vie parisienne experience in a minute….

Last night I hung out my rugby team as a final farewell get together. They played a tournoi without me yesterday afternoon (I had class, boo) and they lost both games. We were planning on going out to dinner but we ended up hanging out at their school’s bar/café place. For all the Hamiltonians, it’s kind of a mix between Opus and the VT, if you can imagine that. It was really fun to hangout with all the girls one last time and get to know them a bit better off the rugby field. I wish we could have done it more often during the season! One of my teammates is actually coming to Cambridge next summer for a stage (internship). Small world, eh?

The rugby farewell was the second in what will be a week of farewells in Paris. Besides homework (I’m almost done!) I am trying to soak up all the Paris I can in the next week. One of those things includes getting to see some of the famous French grèves. Like I mentioned at the beginning of my post, our program was on the more cautious side in telling us how to deal with grèves. Even though I knew I wasn’t in any danger whatsoever (and not the only person standing around watching the grève parade, as I like to call it) I still was coming up with crazy responses in my head in case someone came up to me, yelling at me for taking pictures and making a mockery of their serious fight protecting their retraite (retirement) or whatever they want. “Vive les ouvriers!” (Long live the workers!) was the best I could come up with. Luckily, I didn’t have to use it.

Unfortunately, Sarkozy was right when he said « Quand il y a une grève en France personne ne s'en aperçoit » “When there is a strike in France nobody notices anything.” There are so many little grèves here and there in Paris that they’re not really a big deal. Everybody knows when they are going to happen and the city knows how to deal with it accordingly. I would have been really mad though if this strike had been taking place when my family came to visit though. As it turns out, they left right in time. The Musée D’Orsay, le Louvre, and le Chateau de Versailles have all either closed entirely or closed partially due to the strike. The Centre Pompidou has all these little signs in the window that saw “En grève!” It reminds me of when Leah (ma soeur cadette) was little and used to tape a sign to a yardstick and march around the house on strike for some reason or another. The best part of the grève parade I watched this week: the food truck! Along with all the marchers and the van with the guy with the blow horn, there was a truck driving along with the crowd selling food and drinks (including alcohol, what a fantastic idea……). Hey, even les grévistes need refreshments, right?

The only way the grève is affecting me is that it makes the metro more crowded. Right now, the RER A line is on strike. That’s right, only one line. At least they’re nice about the strikes, and still operating during rush hour in the morning and evening. I took RER A to class the other day and I didn’t have to wait any longer than I normally wait for the train in the morning even though signs everywhere said that “Trafic très perturbé” (No, it’s a faux ami, traffic is just disrupted, not perturbed…...)

Nine days until I fly home!

Bon après-midi!

La Fin Approche!

The end is coming!

In proper French, the title of this post should be presque la fin du semestre or something like that. If I said “La fin approche” to a random person on the street they would think I was talking about the end of the world, like “2012 the world is going to self combust, join our cult.” I’m certainly not saying that, c’est ridicule.

Now that it’s December, my days in Paris are numbered. I have just over two weeks left in France. Unfortunately, I think will be spending most of them doing homework but that’s ok. The reason I haven’t done much work on these final projects during the semester is because I’ve been out and about seeing Paris and visiting museums and going on lovely flâneurs around the city(strolls,fancy new vocab I learned in class this week ;).Of course I haven’t done everything there is to do in Paris (that couldn’t even be accomplished if I stayed for a whole year) but I am really satisfied with the amount of stuff I’ve seen and done over the course of the semester. I am ready to go home.

Next Monday I have my last stage (internship) and my last entrainment de rugby. I don’t think I’ve talked about my stage yet. I’m not doing an internship but instead volunteering (most kids on my program are). On Monday evenings I tutor English at la Goutte d’Or, an afterschool learning center for kids in the 18ieme arrondissement. The center is supposed to help build study skills for kids in the quartier. The 18th is a heavily immigrant neighborhood, lots of Algerians and Africans. When I get off the metro, I don’t hear French on the street. It can be a little sketchy but I’ve never had a problem. I tutor one girl, Sarah (supposed to have two but Myriam hasn’t come in a while). We mostly work on verb conjugations or exercises that Sarah wants to work on in preparation for her English class at school. She hasn’t taken a lot of English and doesn’t understand a lot of what I say to her, even really simple questions. La dernier séance next week should be fun. We are going to listen to songs from High School Musical on my I-pod and fill in the blanks in the lyrics. She really liked Hannah Montana and HSM easy reader books that my mom brought from home so listening to the songs should be a fun last session. I am going to leave the books at the center because they don’t have any English books. I didn’t think that Sarah liked our sessions all that much but after I told her I was leaving soon she did seem a little sad and asked me for my email address so we can email each other.

As for rugby, after next Monday I’ll be hanging up my maillot. I don’t really have any desire to pick it up when I get back to Hamilton. I don’t really like the tackling all that much. My big annoyance is the fact that by the time I get my arms around a girl for the tackle, she other usually just passes the ball anyways and I end up out of the play. It seems pointless. We might be getting socks and shorts though next week so I can have a little souvenir of my time with les Gorettes (besides my many bruises). I am really happy I got to play this semester though. It was interesting to see how sports are organized over here and it was quite a different experience from any other team I have been on.

I’m going to track and knock of a couple last Parisian sites this weekend: La Grande Arche de la Défense and le Basilique Saint-Denis, where all the French kings and queens are buried. I’m not sure if they still thereare or not. I read that during the Revolution the place was ransacked and all the dead monarchs were thrown in a mass grave. Gross. These lovely little tidbits about the French Revolution never seem to end, do they?

Bonne soirée à tous!

Ma Famille

My family left early, early yesterday morning after spending the week in Paris with me. Hamilton has a ten day Thanksgiving break so my fam arrived Sunday morning and left yesterday morning. I was kind of sad without them yesterday. This past week was jam packed, visiting the sites of Paris and spending time with my family. It’s a good thing I get to go home in a few weeks. Yesterday I just sat in my room and tried to do homework all day (limited success). Today at least I went out around 11 and sat doing homework in a café for a couple hours. I pretty much didn’t see my host family for a week so it is kind of awkward to be going back to eating with them and acting like I didn’t just disappear for a week.

So last Sunday morning, I got up and went to Aeroport Charles de Gaulle to greet the fam. We got into Paris, found the hotel no problem, and we were off. We had to deal with some lousy weather during the week but overall it wasn’t a big deal. It was funny to go back to being a tourist in Paris all over again. I definitely haven’t been blasé about everything in Paris but it was refreshing to experience everything my family who haven’t seen it all before. Plus, we got to do a couple things I haven’t done yet either (go up Notre Dame to see the gargoyles, Chateau de Versailles) so I got to join in on some of the newbie revelry too. Plus, I got to spend Thanksgiving with my fam. We found a resturant that was advertising le dinde as its lunch special so we had a French style turkey Thanksgiving before going to my little rugby tournament. Turkey for lunch and rugby in the afternoon, almost just like home!

Mom, Dad, and Leah all did very well getting used to the French and not really speaking the language. My mom understood a lot of the signs and what people were saying from her college French classes. Leah took French in high school and has been to Paris on two different school trips, but only spent a day or two in Paris on each trip. She now takes intro Spanish at Hamilton but her French isn’t completely gone. She has to make a presentation in her Spanish class on Monday so I hope being surrounded by French for a week didn’t mess her up too much. Daddy was pretty funny throughout the week. It took him about two days to be comfortable saying merci instead of thank you but he got by just fine. There is so much English in France that even if nobody in my family spoke French we wouldn't have had any problems.

Ok, well I should get back to doing some homework. December is practically here so that means so are the due dates for my final papers. I wish it wasn’t so cold though in my room. It hard to focus and do work when I’m all bundled up in like four layers of clothing.

Good luck to my team who’s playing Trinity today! Bon courage les filles!

Bretagne...well, sort of

Ouch, Patriots. I’m almost glad I wasn’t home to watch that catastrophe. Not news that I like waking up to :(

This past weekend I had a nice, relaxing weekend in Bretagne. Well, almost Bretagne. I am only now realizing that I wasn’t in Bretagne but in the next department over, Le Pays de la Loire!

My friend’s host family invited us to stay at their beach house in Le Pouliguen, a small beach town on the west coast of France for the weekend. Yes, my final research paper due dates are quickly approaching but I definitely couldn’t pass up a trip to the French coast! I specifically remember one of my Hamilton professors telling me to blow off work in order to travel around and see more of France, so I’m really just following orders.

Like all my trips thus far in France, this one of course started out with another chance rencontre at La Gare Montparnasse. I get to la gare wicked early, pick up my tickets from the ticket window (the automatic ticket machines do not accept American credit cards) and am waiting for my friend while she does the same when I see an American couple at the window picking up their own tickets. I thought, “That’s weird, that guy kind of looks like Bob Ryan.” Well, of course, the guy turns around and it was actually Bob Ryan! What are the chances that I run into a Globe sports writer at 8:30 in the morning at a train station in Paris? I have had so many chance rencontres lately. I ran into the Patriots in London, my old high school French teacher on the metro, and now Bob Ryan and his wife at the train station. C’est marrant.

After starting my morning on that strange note, I hopped on the 9am train for La Baule Escoublac. The trip was about 3 hours, with a couple stops towards the end of the trip. Édouard, my friend’s host father met us at the train station and gave us a little tour of the town before bringing us to the house. As it turns out, the house used to belong to Édouard’s grandparents so he spend many summers in the house and has a lot of close friends who still come back to Le Pouligruen with their families. He has a lot of childhood memories in the house and I can tell that he really loves going there. He ended up being the only member of Meredith’s host family there for the weekend. His wife is in the process of starting her own business so she stayed in Paris to work and their fourteen year old daughter wanted to have friends over so she stayed behind too.

Pouliguen is a summer beach town, so everything was pretty quiet this weekend (which I see now is why the rest of the family chose to stay back in Paris this weekend). There are three small towns along the beach, which happens to be the largest sand beach in Europe. Like all the seasonal beach towns back home, a lot of the little stores and restaurants were closed for the winter and a lot of the houses were boarded up. Nevertheless, there were still a good number of people out and about and plenty of surfers, kite surfers, and people just walking along the beach so it definitely still had the beach-y atmosphere.

Meredith and I spent the weekend walking along the beach, visiting another beach town down the road with Édouard and enjoying authentic crêpes, galettes and cidre. Now, I’ve had some tasty crêpes in Paris but they are nothing compared to the crêpes Meredith and I ate this weekend. In Paris, crêpes can be either sucrée (sweet, sugary and delicious) or salée (salty, savory and delicious) but in Bretagne (and obviously Pays de la Loire), crêpes are typically strictly sucrée and galettes are sallée(There isn’t much difference between the two, just different flour used in the batter).They were hot and crispy and delicious and a perfect treat after our long bike ride along the beach (which included a bit of rain).

I may not have actually been in Bretagne, but it sure felt like an authentic Breton weekend.

J’ai gagné le match!

I won the game!

I am sorry to report the Hamilton field hockey team did not have as much luck as I did today. The Continentals fell in overtime to Skidmore 3-2 in OT in the Liberty League Championship. I followed the game on Skidmore’s website using their little game tracker and as far as I can tell the Continentals played a great second half to get out of a 2-0 hole but lost on a heartbreaker in OT. Quel dommage.

I had my second petit tournoi de rugby today and although it was cold and windy, it was great! Practices have been getting a little boring lately so I’m glad we finally had another match. It isn’t very fun to plaquer your own teammates over and over again week after week. I am trying to be friends with these girls after all…..Although we only had six girls today, it wasn’t a problem. We play 7v7 rugby (the kind that was just added to the Olympics) but the other teams were short on players too so we just played 6v6 instead. A lot of our players were either gone for the weekend or still on vacation. I’m not sure if the girls on my team live in Paris full time or if they go home on weekends. One of my host brothers goes to school during the week in Rouen but comes back to Paris on weekends. That sounds really bizarre from an American point of view but it’s fairly common over here. I found out today that our team captain lives in Toulouse, which is kind of far for going home every weekend. She wasn’t here today so I wonder if she was gone because it was the weekend or because it is their vacation week. The tournament today was small, only four girls teams and a four boys teams (including Le Porcelets, our corresponding guys team) but boy was it festive. There were mascots and even les pom-poms (cheerleaders). Le météo called for low 40s and rain so I bundled up and was prepared for the worst but luckily the rain held off and I had my underarmour long sleeve shirt so I was set. I couldn’t take a lot of pictures but I hope the one attached to this post gives you an idea of what the field looked like. Le terrain was in the 13ieme arrondissement, Stade Carpentier, just barely in Paris (la péripherique was right next to the complex, behind me in the picture). The boys in pink are Les Porcs.

So, now for the play by play recap of le final. After winning our first match easily, it was time for le final. The first team we played were beginners and hadn’t played a match yet so we scored every time we touched the ball so it wasn’t much of a game. The second team on the other hand was fierce. They had black jerseys and their supporters were yelling for them to beat les salopes (our team, in not so polite language) and yelling for them to be méchante (mean). Because of field time restriction, we only played a 5 minute match but with only six girls and the cold weather, c’était pas grave (not a big deal). The five minutes sure made the match exciting though! Les Gorettes (my team) played stellar defense and made some key stops when the other team (not sure who they were, didn’t play long enough to figure it out) was on our half of the field. In the last minute of play, my teammate Maud was still on her feet with le ballon around midfield but several opposing players were quickly descending, two girls were already trying to bring her down (she’s a toughy). I knew what I had to do. Maud saw me and read the play brilliantly. I went barreling up the middle through a hole and Maud was able to get me the ball when I was already mid stride and gaining momentum. They couldn’t stop me. I protected le ballon and did the whole Heisman pose and I was home free. It felt good. After the game, the team sang a little song with my name in it (no idea what they were saying, but Bay-ki was in it somehow) and les mecs (the guys) serenaded us with a victory song after our triumph. Pretty good for only playing 5 minutes, eh? We probably would have lost if the match was any longer. That was really the basis of our bonheur, the fact that we were able to squeak out a win. Despite the fact that I only played two really short matches, I am still wiped and am expecting to be a little sore when I wake up tomorrow.Today will probably turn out to be le point culminant (the highlight) of my very short rugby career so I'll take it.

Bonne nuit

George? C'est vous?

George? Is that you?

Just got back from a disappointing trip to the bibliothèque. I brought my computer with me to class this morning with the plan to go to the bibliothèque after class and set up shop. First, I get there and I see that the small room with all the desks is completely packed with students, not a single chair was left. Then, I find the books that I looked up but as it turns out they don’t really apply to my research paper. Very frustrating. The bibliothèques can be like that sometimes. They are open weird hours and none of them are open on Mondays, which is not convenient with my schedule because I don’t have class on Mondays so it would be a perfect day to work in a library. Now that is November, I have to actually start thinking about my schoolwork…..

Yesterday (Monday) I didn’t have any classes so I went to Cite de l’architecture et du patriomoine, a museum about architecture and the heritage of Paris at Palais Chaillot. I don’t know why they couldn’t just call it the architecture museum because that is what it was but I have found that the French always love an excuse to celebrate patrimoine français. The special exhibit I saw was called Le Grand Pari(s) and it was an exhibition of ten plans for revitalizing the greater Paris area, making it more accessible and more environmentally sustainable. It was a pretty cool exhibit even though all the displays were a little difficult for me to read. All the info was using fancy architect language so it was a little tough for me to read the French but I got the gist of it all. It was organized by the French government as a sort of contest, (un pari is a wager or a bet, conviently leads to a play on words with the word Paris…) but I don’t think they are actually picking a winner and implementing the plan or anything. It was really cool because I could imagine Paris changing over the course of the next fifty to one-hundred years and looking like some of the proposed designs. The most important concept in the contest was opening up Paris to the surrounding area (le grand Paris) and les banlieues (the suburbs, low income areas). This included improving roads and metro lines and in one case eliminating la périférique, the road that rings around Paris and separates the city from the outer banlieues. The only downside of the visit was an annoying, smelly security guard guy who kept hitting on me and telling me how this security job is only a temporary thing that he does three days a week and he’s looking for an architecture job….sure you are dude, sure you are……Trust me, he was not the architect type. When I was in his little section he kept moving into the next exhibit ahead of me so he could talk to me. It would have been a lot creepier if he didn’t appear to be a little on the simple side. I moved as quickly as possible through his section until I obviously reached the end and he had to retreat back to his little post.

After the musée, I took one of my usual wandering walks around the area with my little red Paris par arrondissement book and I stumbled upon Place d’Iéna and the statue of George Washington. The statue struck me as kind of odd. Anybody else get this feeling when looking at the picture? To me, the face looked very harsh and a little menacing, not the GW I am used to seeing. At home, we usually don’t see images or statues of George Washington in such a fighting pose. Of course we have images of him on horseback, leading the troops, but this statue struck me differently. I didn’t read the inscription on the base of the statue because I didn’t want to dodge traffic trying to get to the middle of the square, but I am guessing that the statue was erected more as a tribute to his victory over the British than to his leadership qualities both during and after the war. To me, it comes across as a very European interpretation of our man George. I’m not really a fan. I’m sure not everybody gets this vibe, but you will all have to tell me your opinion after your own visits to Paris :)

London Pictures

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=328162&id=567995098&l=c5b3df558a

The pictures aren't all that exciting but there are a couple good ones.

“To London, to London, where everything is fine!”

Sorry it took me so long to post about my trip, I needed a day of recovery….

First off: thank you NFL, thank you, thank you, thank you! I am seriously the luckiest girl on the planet. It was a given that the Patriots would eventually play a game in London when the NFL started its "International Series" three years ago but for the Pats to come the same semester that I am studying abroad in Paris is just awesome. My first NFL game and it's in London at Wembley Stadium….so cool.

I had a wonderful weekend trip to London but boy am I glad to be back in Paris. Part of it I'm sure is just getting back to a city I'm familiar with but Paris is so much prettier than London. Sure London has its pretty parts (Saint James Park was particularly lovely this weekend) but on the whole Paris is beaucoup plus belle que Londres. Going to London for the weekend sure made me appreciate Paris a whole lot more than before my little weekend séjour.

This week is vacances de la Toussant in France so I have a week off from my Reid Hall classes. Most French students have either this week or next week off. In terms of my schedule, it was absolutely the perfect weekend for the Patriots to come to Europe. I left early Friday morning on a 7h13 train from Paris Gare du Nord to London St. Pancras International. I ran into some of the other girls on my program who were going to London this weekend at the train station because they had missed their earlier train. It ended up being the only point in the trip where I saw them. I'll call it a lack of communication and leave it at that….

The train ride through the Chunnel was not as dramatic as I had hoped. Not gonna lie, but I was really looking forward to going through the famous Chunnel. I was half expecting some sort of sign or signal, anything really, along the lines of "We are now entering the Chunnel! You are under the ocean!" From the French side, the only indication that you are in the actual Chunnel is that it stays dark for around 25 minutes instead of 2 minutes like the other couple tunnels we went through (on the British side you can see the highway and border control so you know the tunnel is coming). Yeah, I know…in Boston we go through underwater tunnels all the time but my apologies to Teddy Ballgame, the Chunnel is way cooler.

After arriving in London, I made the required stop at Platform 9 ¾ in King's Cross Station with the other VWPP girls (it's the domestic station attached to St. Pancras International), bought my Oyster Card, and hoped on the Tube to my hostel in Pimlico. My hostel was really easy to find and turned out to be really nice. It was my first hostel experience and I was staying by myself in a 10 bed dorm style room so I was a little nervous beforehand but I didn't have any problems all weekend. The hostel was clean, the staff was really friendly and welcoming, and the other girls in my room were fun to talk to. I didn't spend all that much time there but it made the weekend a lot more comfortable not having to worry about staying at the hostel by myself for three days.

After checking in, I was off! That first day (Friday) I saw Westminster Cathedral, Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, 10 Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, and the London Eye. Oh, I also ran into some Patriots outside Big Ben......!!!!!!!!! Around 8 o'clock I was walking towards the London Eye when I saw a group of big black guys who looked kind of familiar. I went up to them and told them I was from Boston and studying abroad in Paris and that I had come to London to see the game on Sunday. They were friendly enough and happily took a picture with me (Jerod Mayo is the one not smiling. He was a little whiney, even before I went up to talk to them he had a pouty look on his face). Adalius Thomas may have been scratched last week but he was so nice! That definitely made walking around by myself doing my own thing totally worth it.

On Saturday, I got up and saw the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square and then went to the British Museum (talk about imperialism on parade….) where I had my second chance encounter of the weekend (no, it was not more Patriots). When I was admiring the Rosetta Stone (yup, no joke….) I spotted another friend from my program. As it turns out, Elise was also in London for the weekend, visiting a friend who is studying abroad at the London School of Economics. I didn't even know she was in London but it was a welcome surprise. I ended up spending the rest of the day with Elise, including a fabulous fish and chips lunch at an English pub, The Tower of London and London Bridge, and Hairspray in the theater district that evening. Needless to say I was having a great weekend even before my main event on Sunday!

Sunday was the first day of daylight savings time in Europe so I was able to wake up early (8am) no problem. That gave me a whole half day to walk around and see more of London before heading over to Wembley. I saw the Tate Modern (contemporary art museum), the Millennium Bridge (the one the Death Eaters destroy in HBP movie), grabbed a snack at a Farmers Market I stumbled upon near Waterloo, and then hopped on the Tube for Wembley Park. As soon as I got to Wembley, I saw Steve Burton filming a couple bits for Patriots All Access. (I was going to stick around and try to get in a shot but they weren't going to him live for a while.) It was certainly very bizarre to suddenly see tons of people from home and Steve Burton of all people after three months of European living. It is hard for me to judge how many people came from Boston to see the game. There were so many people in Patriots jersey's but a lot of them were Brits! I had no idea so many English people cared about American football. If you watched the game, the national anthem says it all. I was hoping for a loud singing of The Star Spangled Banner but the crowd really was mostly English. I guess that is what the NFL was hoping for so good for them. It was super annoying that the Bucs were the home team. Me and the other Pats fans in my section were annoyed when we found Bucs flags under our seats. There weren't that many Bucs fans in the stands. It may have looked like it on TV but they were just being festive. I saw people in Tom Brady jerseys waving Buc flags. It was painful.

Besides the fact that it was a Buccaneer home game, the game was really fun. The first half was high scoring and big plays by the Patriots so I had a lot to cheer for. My seat was sick. I was row 22, directly up from the corner of the Patriots end zone. I had a blue card during the anthems and was part of the Union Jack. Wes Welker scored his touchdown on my side. The second half was a little boring and Tom Brady got taken out but it was still really cool to be in Wembley Stadium . I read Dan Shaughnessy's column and he seemed pretty cynical about the whole thing but I had a fabulous time.

Although I had a wonderful weekend in London, I was very happy to get back on the train and head back to Paris. It was great to be in an English speaking country (a bit of a culture shock actually, I had to stop myself saying merci a couple times) but I was very happy to step off the train in Paris and expertly navigate my way through the train station past all the tourists on my way to the Metro and my quick train ride home.

Figaro et Fromage

I went for a walk in the Bois de Boulogne this morning, a park in western Paris that is 2.5 times the size of Central Park. I obviously did not see the entire park but I saw most of it. It is an absolutely beautiful day and there were tons out people out running and little kids riding bikes. Me and all the Parisians going for a Sunday morning walk in le bois (woods).

Yesterday I was like a ten year old in Paris. I went to Salon du Chocolat in the afternoon with friends and then we went to see the Petit Nicolas movie. The Salon du Chocolat was a huge chocolate expo in Paris’s big convention center complex. It was a little pricey to get in (12 euro) but every booth had free sample and taste tastings that it was definitely worth it. It also gave me an opportunity to bring back a little chocolate present for my host family. Lame and pathetic, yes, bribing my host family to like me better but I think it worked. It’s not that they don’t like me (as far as I can tell anyways…) but things are still a little awkward. I feel like I don’t know anything about them and they don’t know much about me. I got to know the Marlier’s a lot better in the two weeks I stayed with them than I have so far in the month and a half I have been with the D’Ussel’s. Chocolate is always a helpful step in the right direction….

Anyways, as the title of the post indicates, my two big events this week were my trip to the opéra and a dégustation de fromage (cheese tasting)! On Wednesday, I saw Le Barbier de Seville at L’Opéra de la Bastille. It was actually inaugurated on the 200th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille and is supposed to be the people’s opera house. Luckily, nobody did any storming and I had a great time at my first opera. We didn’t have to get super dressed up but I still felt very fancy and sophisticated putting on ma robe (dress) and going to the Opera. We saw le Barbier de Seville and it was in Italian but there were subtitles in French projected above the stage so it was easy enough to follow what was going on. It was kind of cool actually to be listening to the Italian but reading in French. They are really similar languages and I felt like I could understand the Italian better because I was reading in French. I definitely wouldn’t have had the same experience if I was reading the dialogue in English.

I am obviously an opera novice and I did not know the story of le Barbier de Seville before seeing the play but it was really good! I recognized the music (everybody would have) and I was very happy to get to hear “Figaro, Figaro, Figarooo.” As it turns out, Figaro, the barber of Seville, sings the famous line because he is lamenting the fact that everybody always wants something from him, saying Figaro this and Figaro that, always “Figaro, Figaro, Figarrooo.” So great.

After my swanky night at the opera, I got to go to une fromagerie for a dégustation de fromage the following night. Now I know why everybody makes fun of smelly French cheese. I was hoping to go out afterwards and meet up with friends but that did not happen. I smelled like le fromage…. tasty and wonderfully delicious fromage….. but still fromage….

Not only was the cheese very delicious, I learned so much! I tried to write everything down when I got home but I am going to have to look up a lot of the stuff again online. We got to taste all different types of regional French specialties (with du pain et du vin of course). I also got my most pressing French cheese questions answered by le fromageur himself (when do we eat la croûte, the crust/outside of the cheese, red or white wine…very important stuff) The most bizarre part of the evening was when right after Monsieur le fromageur told us how rosé isn’t real wine and shouldn’t be drank with good cheese, a man walked into the store and seeing a group of jeunes femmes, proceeded to buy us a bottle of rosé. The guy was trying to be flashy and act like he was wealthy (ie. making his purchase with cash that he pulled out of an envelope) and talking about how he had a great rosé one weekend in Switzerland. We saw right through him. Rosé…ptchhhh.

After my École du Vin in Bordeaux and now my dégustation de fromage here in Paris, my French education is pretty much complete!

Bonne soirée!

Qu’est-ce qui s’est passé?

What just happened ?

Well, last night was absolutely terrible, wouldn't you say? I had to listen to that turd of a ninth inning over here all by my lonesome myself in my little chambre à coucher (bedroom). It was quite the kick in the gut, Even when I am 3,441.5 miles away they still get me (yes, that is the exact distance from Fenway park to my apartment here in the 17ième arrondissement of Paris, I used Google Earth). Cue the music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saalGKY7ifU And then having to get up this morning and read that the Pats lost in OT to Josh McDaniels and the Broncos….very disappointing.

Besides the terrible Sunday evening, I had a pretty good weekend. On Saturday, I met up with a friend and we went to Centre Georges Pompidou and the Musée National d’Art Moderne. Two floors of the Centre Pompidou are dedicated to the musee, the 4ième et 5ième niveaux . The 4ième niveau was the contemporary art floor, with a special exhibition right now called elles@ centripompidou. It was so bizarre. I was reading the English explanations of all the different artwork and I still didn’t understand what they were trying to say. The fifth floor was much better, lots of cubism, Picassos, much nicer to walk through. Plus, it didn't have rooms with giant video projections of naked woman standing on random boxes and flailing around trying to fly....like I said, it was a bizarre exhibition.

It was kind of my weekend for absurd art. On Friday, I visited Milly-la-Forêt (town about an hour from Paris) and saw Le Cyclop with my contemporary art class. It was strange to say the least, un fou furieux (a furious madness) my teacher rightly called it. It was pretty much a big tree house that a bunch of artists built in the middle of the forest. It was really fun to walk through, with the big tree growing in the middle and it had all kinds of moving parts but it was really bizarre to think how someone could be motivated to build something like that. Trop beaucoup du vin, peut-etre? I was required to go because I am taking the installations art class at Reid Hall but I am glad I went. We also visited Barbizon, the tiny village where many French painters lived and worked. It’s too bad nobody outside our class signed up to come on the trip but maybe that had something to do with our leaving at 8:45 on a Friday morning....

Back to this past weekend, after doing the Centre Pompidou, Meredith and I grabbed a little lunch and hopped on the Metro to get to Montmartre for la fête des Vendanges (Grape Harvest Festival), a yearly festival in the 18ième that celebrates the Parisian grape harvest. Before coming to Paris, I had no idea that there were even les vignobles in the city! As it turns out, there are actually small vineyards in Montmartre, the 18ième arrondissement of Paris. Right next to Sacré Coeur was le Parcours de Goût featuring small stands with specialties from all the regions of France. I bought une flûte de champagne (actually allowed to be called champagne because it comes from the Champagne-Ardenne region of France) and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around looking at all the amazing specialty foods for sale. On our way back to the Metro, Meredith and I walked alongside a parade featuring peoples dressed in traditional French costumes, each representing a different wine region. I was even poured a small cup of wine by one of the guys walking in the parade. He was carrying a bottle and small cups to give the spectators a taste of his company's wine. Is that even allowed in the US? C’est la France!

La Maitresse de la Tour Eiffel

La Nuit Blanche

Paris never ceases to amaze me. Last night was La Nuit Blanche (literally ‘white night’ but means ‘all-nighter’ in French), a once a year event that showcases contemporary art in three big neighborhoods in Paris. (After a little Google search, I just learned that there are ‘White Nights’ all over the world, in one form or another). There were les installations, les films, and even les installations sonores (sound installations) all over the city. I am taking a class at Reid Hall on les installations so it was really cool for me to see all this crazy stuff all over the city. The closest thing that I can compare it to is New Year’s Eve and First Night in Boston. There were so many people out and about and it was such a festive atmosphere in the city. Plus, it was a little chilly in Paris so it finally felt like l’automne!

I was a little early for meeting up with my friends at the Jardin de Luxembourg so I hopped in the security line by myself. I had my little Nuit Blanche program book that I picked up the other day in a library but very few people seemed to have them. As a result, people kept coming up to me to see if they could look at it for a second. It wasn’t a big deal really and it gave me a chance to speak a little French but it was weird. It is so funny to be asked questions about Paris when I’ve only been here three weeks! It’s happened to me on the metro a couple times too, when I’m reading my book (that’s in french). I’m glad I understood everybody who came up to me though. If I suddenly get asked a question when I’m not expecting it, I sometimes end up missing everything the person says (= I’ve always got to be on my toes). Luckily, I wasn’t zoning out too much so I didn’t have any trouble last night.

I saw three big displays last night and I can’t decide which was my favorite, so I’ll start with third place: Les Cristaux in Notre Dame. Inside the cathedral there were these light up crystal thingys. I thought that it was going to be a lot cooler, like Superman’s Fortress of Solitude or something right smack in the middle of Notre Dame. It wasn’t quite this extensive but it was still neat.

Tied for first place:

La Maitresse de la Tour Eiffel in the Jardin du Luxembourg: a huge, rotating boule à facettes (disco ball) suspended by a crane with several huge spotlights, creating the effect of dancing light all over the garden. It was so amazing that I laughed out loud when I first saw it…..by myself.

The Forty-Part Motet in L’Eglise Saint-Séverin: Forty speakers set up in the church, each playing a single voice part of an English choir. The acoustics in the church were amazing, it sounded like you were standing in the middle of the choir. Plus, the individual speakers made it sound like there was an actual person standing behind you. I can’t decide if that was part of the artist’s message or not, that people can be replaced by boxes…..whatever, c’était trop cool.

No, I did not actually faire une nuit blanche, I wanted to get the last metro home, and boy did I ever. Since I was traveling by myself, I had no problem squeezing myself into the first train that came. We were packed like a box of sardines but whatever, I got home.

Now, in the spirit of Le Stade Français, Paris’ rugby team who I saw play Friday night:

Allez….Allez… Allez les Pat-ri-ots!

Le Désespoir et le Bonheur

I am still recovering from yesterday, both physically and mentally….really, I’m serious, I am….. Once again, yesterday was a day of extreme highs and extreme lows. My life had evened out to a happy medium now that I am more settled in Paris but today was just one of those days… It started out in complete désespor (despair) but happily ended in le bonheur (happiness).
The day started out with le désespoir, caused by what else, my class at Paris 12. I knew taking a L3 (license 3 = third year) philosophy class would be difficult but what I endured today was miserable. Even for an introduction class, where we went over the syllabus (or lack thereof) pretty much sent me off the deep end.

The day started out well enough, I got to Paris 12 for my first philosophy class no problem and found the room right away. The teacher began talking about the course and right off the bat he says that he has changed the course description from what he wrote in June for the livret etudiant (student book, has info about each department and classes offered every semester). Uh oh, bad sign, right there. I only took the class based on the course description because it included a bit of political philosophy that I need for my government major at Hamilton. I was still calm at this point, I thought “Ok, whatever. I’ll give it a try.” Plus, I still had another hour and a half to sit through so I couldn’t get all stressed out so early. Well, that lasted about two seconds because the final exam is a four hour dissertation. As in TALKING, in French, for FOUR HOURS. Now, as a foreign student, I would not be expected to do this same assignment, the teachers here have lots of exchange students and are usually pretty good about giving written assignments or alternative assignments that are do-able for foreign kids. However, I do not want to deal with a guy who makes his student talk for four hours in an undergraduate class! Also, he didn’t really have a syllabus. While this is typical for French universities, he kept talking about more books he was thinking about giving us. He finished off the class by saying that because he is teaching his thesis research topic, a class like this has never been taught before. Well, that was it for me. If I am going to take a philosophy class in French, I want a topic that has been discussed over and over and there are lots of books on the subject. As soon as class ended, I tried to talk to the professor and explain that I probably won’t be back but it was terrible. I was all nervous and didn’t really know what I wanted to say. Well, I made the conversation as short as possible and then I ran. Well, not literally, I speed walked but boy did I book it out of Paris 12. The whole time I was walking back to the metro, I couldn’t get a particular song out of my head….. “I rannnn, I ran so far away.” Right now, I believe that I have to find another class at Paris 12. Our program only has so many spots in each university each semester and the other universities are filled. “Couldn’t get away….” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUjIA3Rt7gk

Thank goodness I had rugby in afternoon. After the fiasco in the morning, I really needed to plaquer (tackle) something. It was a only a little scrimmage tournament but it was pretty fun. I still don’t really know what I am doing out there but the team and the coach have such high expectations! I got put right in the middle and I am was supposed to get in the middle and pouse, pousse, pousse (push,push,push). After the first play where I touched the ball I saw that my knee that was bleeding. Does that make me a real rugby player now? The coach even drew up a little give and go play that was supposed to get me the ball but we never got it to work. We still have so much to learn and work on at practice. We have another game on Thursday so bring it on ‘em.

Tomorrow night is Nuit Blanche (white night = all nighter) so all the museums will be free (they're always free for me) but there are also lots of contemporary art installations all over the city. I have to go, its my homework! J'adore Paris.

Le Métro

Today is le 30 septembre, the last day of the month, so everybody in Paris has to recharge their metro cards, including me! I am getting around using a PassNavigo, a monthly card that I can use for the metro, buses, and the RER (Réseau Express Regional, Paris’s other metro system that goes outside of Paris). My PassNavigo costs 56E per month which is kind of expensive but I am finding that it is well worth the price. Since today and tomorrow are important metro days for Parisians, I figured I would tell you a bit about le métro! Plus, I had a classic Parisian metro ride this week on my way home from rugby Monday night. One part normal big city craziness and one part me not understanding exactly what was going on….

Even though I am at heart a country mouse, I am starting to feel très métropolitienne, especially during my daily commute on le métro. I now confidently lift the lever to open the doors (not all the trains have automatic doors) and don’t just go to the door where there are other people (like I did my first week). I now even open the door before the train comes to a complete stop and hop out while the train is still moving. Je suis trés parisienne, non?

Also, all of you should know that not all the Paris metro stops have the swirly, artsy signs that everyone associates with Paris. Most stations have signs you would see in any other city around the world. I am thinking that the more touristy areas have the classic Metropolitain signs but I haven’t quite figured it out yet.

Although some days I certainly feel like a chic city metro rider, I routinely have my fille de la campagne moments. I once got so caught up in the hustle and bustle of rush hour that I walked in the complete wrong direction in Charles de Gaulle Étoile. Most of the Paris metro stations are huge and have several exits that all put you on a different street. You really have to read the sign carefully and look at the map to make sure you go out the correct sortie. Well, I was tired and hungry and just wanted to get home but everybody around me was practicially running up the stairs and through the metro station. I got so caught up trying to keep pace that I walked in the completely wrong direction and ended up having to reswipe my pass into the station and walk back out the exit. I was embarrassed but whatever, I blamed it on lack of sleep.

So, on Monday night I’m on my way home from rugby (first scrimmage tomorrow, yikes!) and after switching lines I get on the train that will take me to Charles de Gaulle Étoile, my stop. I had my headphones on but when I sat down I saw that a woman was talking so I turned off my music. The woman looked like she was probably homeless but I think she was performing la poesie (poetry). Either that or she was just crazy….

Of course I didn’t understand a word of what she was saying. She was at the other end of the train and had a sweaky, high pitched voice. Plus, she was swinging here body and moving her arms above her head as if she were a great theatrical actress, which made the situation all the more amusing. The other passengers didn’t look too annoyed, which was what made me think that she was reciting a bit of of.... original.... poetry. After she finished her performance, she started another whole rant about giving simply les pièces (coins). The whole thing lasted only two stops but it added a little more excitement to my trip. Using I do my best to ignore les fous (crazy’s) on the metro but this one was oddly fascinating. Everything from her bizarre wardrobe to her funny voice made it so I couldn’t look away. Thank goodness I had my headphones. Earbuds are perfect for this type of metro situation. I can turn off my music and listen to everything going on around me everybody thinks I’m still listening to my music ...ohhh I’m sneaky.

I have another big day tomorrow so I should really get to bed. I have my first philosophy class at Paris 12 and then I have a rugby scrimmage in the afternoon! I will have to rush from class to rugby, which is kind of far outside the city and requires me to buy a special RER ticket, in an hour. I told la responsible that I will be late but I hope I’m not too late!

Bonne soirée

Les photes des chateaux

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=314849&id=567995098&l=19f1c8761b

Il était une fois….

(Once upon a time...)

I am finally back at home in Paris but I feel like I just got back from far, far away. I visited châteaux de la Loire this weekend with CIJP and it was fantastique. Only five of us from WVPP decided to go and I definitely made the right decision. I got to see more of the French paysage and four très beaux châteaux, plus Leonardo Da Vinci’s house. I was truly living in a conte de fée.

Some highlights from mon week-end au Val de Loire:

- Alaa, our CIJP chaperone, gave all our instructions in both Français and English (making everything take twice as long as it needed to mais c’était pas grave). Along with these instructions, he also carried around une horologe (clock) to show us the rendez-vous times. Now I get that he wanted to be absolutely clear about meeting times and not everybody is at the same niveau (level) in terms of language but seriously, the guy looked like Flava Flav. It was hilarious. I kept waiting for him to bust out “yeah, boooooyyyyyyy!”

- People still live in one of the chateaux we saw! Le Château de Cheverny has belonged to the same family for over six siècles (six centuries) and they still live there today. The family (two parents, two youngish kids) live in one wing of the house and on the troisième étage (third floor) which isn’t open to the public. I now get Pride & Prejudice though! You know when Elizabeth goes to visit Pemberley with her aunt and uncle and it gets all awkward because Mr. Darcy's home and she didn’t know it? I always thought it was weird to tour somebody’s house like that but I did the same thing today! (Minus the whole tall, dark and handsome, though proud gentleman unfortunately. Zût!)

- Unlike Cheverny, Blois, Amboise, and Chenonceau felt and looked like legit castles. Alaa kept translating châteaux as castle and it didn’t sound right. We use chateau in English but now I know why he kept using ‘castle.’ Chenonceau even had a moat! Like I said, legit castles…..

- At Amboise, we saw le Château Royal and le Château du Clos Lucé, Leonardo Da Vinci’s house where he spend the last three years of his life. In Clos Lucé, I was walking in front of a Japanese tour group that was led by a French tour guide speaking English and a Japanese tour guide translating the English into Japanese for the group. As neither woman was a native English speaker, their conversations were amusing but also painful at the same time to listen to, especially the enthusiasm of the Japanese tourguide. The French woman mentioned that the house was originally acquired by Charles VIII as a royal residence for the French monarchs. “Ooohh , Charles VIII, the Lionhearted?” I even winced when I heard that one…..All the Frenchwoman could do was say “No, don’t say that” and keep moving. The whole tour just seemed painfully awkward for all parties involved but it was quite entertaining for me.

I am going to lunch today at Lycée Hôtelier (hotel management school) where I have been instructed to speak to the student servers in English (so they can practice) but talk to their teachers at the table in French. It should be tasty! Plus, c’est gratuit!

Since I'm posting in the morning, bonne journée!

Mes Cours

I have been so busy dealing with stuff for my classes that I haven’t had a chance to tell you about them yet! Yes, I am taking classes over here, despite the fact that most of my posts suggest that I am on an extended European vacances.

The reason that I haven’t been so enthusiastic to write about my classes is that they have been giving me a lot of frustration over the past two weeks. As it turns out, finding classes and registering for school have been the most difficult aspects of adjusting to life in France. Living with the host families was difficult at first but at least I have been able to fall into a routine and develop some sense of normalcy. So not the case with my classes so far…. Thinking about it, this has proved to be the worst culture shock I’ve experienced so far in France.

Unfortunately, it is not even the classes themselves that are giving me trouble. The whole process of picking classes, signing up for classes, and registering in the French university is really starting to wear me down. I didn’t think it was going to be this hard. Plus it doesn’t help when I show up to get my student ID card at Paris 12 and I am told, along with another student from my program : “Mais vous n’existez pas!” (“But you don’t exist!”). Thankfully, I think I made some progress yesterday. I turned in a big packet of information so hopefully j’existe maitenant!

I still have the feeling that I am waiting for everything to fall into place and get going, forgetting that this is my second week of classes already at Reid Hall. I have two classes at Reid Hall with other students in my program. The best part of the classes: field trips! For my class Installation: Lieux et espaces dans l’art contemporain, we have to go to an assigned museum every week and write reflections in a little journal (papers come later in the semester). For my other Reid Hall class, Lieux de mémoire: Paris et la littérature, we have walking tours every other week along with regular class sessions. My third class is a cours mixte, a regular French university course with once a month sessions at Reid Hall with the professor, making it easier for us American students to know what is going on! My fourth class is at Paris 12 (outside of Paris, about an hour commute from my house by metro) and I will be all by myself. I was hoping to take a political geography course but it didn’t start until October 19. So instead, I will be taking an L3 (third year) philosophy course….in French….by myself…….oh god.

Pourquoi la philo? Well, plain and simple, it works for my major back at Hamilton. For my government major, I need a political theory course and this French university course fills that requirement. I had a hard time finding classes that will count towards my major over here and this is the only government credit I will be getting from my semester abroad. I bought a magnétophone so that I can enregistrer (record) all my classes. At least it will give me an excuse to talk to the other kids in my class. I’m going to need a study group…pronto.

Alors, I must get to bed. I have a rendez-vous at 6h30 au matin for a weekend excursion aux Chateaux de la Loire!

Bonne nuit

Photos de Giverny et Rouen et Journee du Patrimoine

Probably the most beautiful pictures I will ever take in my life and they all happened in a span of one weekend....

Giverny et Rouen: http://www.facebook.com/album.phpaid=311454&id=567995098&l=d7aeda6e81

Journee du Patrimoine a Paris aujourd'hui:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=311538&id=567995098&l=7be21a8fbc

Où est le Monet cathédrale?

Mon Dieu, je suis fatiguée….It takes a lot out of a girl gallivanting around France visiting medieval cathédrales and the home of a certain famous French painter. Maybe it had something to do with staying up until 1h30 last night at a soirée dansante (dance party!) on a boat that was supposed to croisière sur la Seine (cruise on the Seine)but never actually left the dock because there were 200 people too many on board…super planning by Le River’s King company. It was an event sponsored by Club International des Jeunes à Paris (CIJP), a group for les jeunes (young people) that our program recommended we join. I had fun with my friends but I was ready to leave by 1h30 so I could conveniently grab the last metro home. I’m still a little nervous to take the Noctilien (night bus). I’ve been told it can be a little sketchy….

(Note for all future visitors to the Paris night scene: Middle school French teachers LIE. Nobody calls clubs les discothèques anymore. I have received strict instructions to call it a boîte de nuit. Nobody wants to be unhip, right?! )

Today was our Monet day! We visited Giverny and continued on to Rouen for the afternoon. We had a very interesting start to the day, to say the least. It started with me yelling into my phone “run, run!” to a friend who was late for the bus but standing on the sidewalk less than 500ft behind us as we were moving (but she didn’t see our tiny bus). Long story short, it was very amusing to watch as our bus driver got off the bus and tried to chase down our friend (she was walking in the wrong direction), who, when seeing a strange man chasing her and telling her to “Viens!” (Come!) began walking even faster away from him. She finally made it onto the bus and we were on our way!

Giverny was absolutely wonderful. Even though it is mid September, les fleurs and les jardins were still spectacular. Le jardin d’eau (the water garden) was actually smaller than I expected. In my head, I imagined that there would be pond after pond filled with les nymphéas (water lilies), Monet having to search for hours to find the perfect spot to paint his next chef d’oeuvre (masterpiece). It wasn’t nearly quite this big but I can’t say that I was at all disappointed.

After leaving Giverny, we drove to Rouen. I think it took around 40 minutes but I’m not exactly sure; I was too busy staring out the window at le paysage français (the countryside) to pay attention to my watch. So, we get off the bus in Rouen in front of a beautiful Gothic cathedral, so of course, I assumed that it was the Rouen Cathedral, the cathedral in the famous Monet series. There I was, snapping away with my little camera, bugging my friends to take my picture in front of the cathedral…..later in the day we figured out that Rouen has not one, not two, but three cathedrals! The Rouen Cathedral in the Monet series is actually le Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen, the third cathedral we found during our exploration of the town. Good thing we kept treking instead of plopping down in a cafe! I know, I know…. I probably should have known this beforehand but wouldn’t you assume too that if you get off a bus in Rouen in front of a cathedral next to the Office de Tourisme that it’s the Monet cathedral?! Well, I have certainly learned my European cathedral lesson: Never assume that the first cathedral you see is the only cathedral in town!

Ok, I must get to bed. This weekend is Journée du Patrimoine (heritage weekend) so there are tons of free tours tomorrow that aren't available at any other point in the year. No rest for the weary when you are in Paris!

À bientôt

Mes Photos

Here are the links to the two photo albums I have so far. If you are on Facebook but not my friend, you might not be able to see them. I'm not really sure how it works....

Bordeaux: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=302592&id=567995098&l=67c16e3c5c

Paris (so far):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=309120&id=567995098&l=d5cee70b96

If you can't see them either a) sign out of your Facebook account and try again or b) friend me (I'm nice!).

Le Rugby!

(actually late Tuesday night)

I was so happy to wake up this morning to happy Patriots news! I didn’t buy the NFL radio package this year because it will be too difficult for me to listen to the Pats games with the time difference here in France. I liked the throw-back unis more than I thought I would. Plus, it was so great to see Tom Brady back in action :)

On the subject of violent, contact sports, I had rugby practice last night! One of the goals of my program is to find activities that allow us to hang out with French students and have some fun. Of course, I wanted to join un équipe. For me, that is one of the easiest ways to make friends. I now realize that in my athletic career, sure the actual games and practices are fun, and of course I care about winning, but it’s my teammates that I remember most. Here in France, it doesn’t really matter what sport I play, just that I get to have a team. I wanted to play rugby because I have never tried it before and it looks really fun! Plus I get a little exercise and some normalcy in going to practice le lundi à 18h au Stade Max Roussié. Not gonna lie, I am a bit sore today. I felt it as soon as I woke up this morning.

It was a bit of a challenge to find un équipe féminine de rugby. In France, sports are organized very differently from back home. Here, everything is what we consider to be club teams. Teams are usually organized by school but they are not officially sponsored by the school. Ténimba, the Vassar-Wesleyan Program Assistante, helped me find Les Gorettes, the girls rugby team from École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles (ESPCI, not to be confused with a rival school/rugby team ESCPI or Paris Tech, booo). Most teams are affiliated with La Fédération Francaise de Rugby, the national body that oversees all the rugby clubs. However, non-French citoyens aren’t allowed to play unless there is an equal exchange of players with a foreign team (very complicated = I can’t play for an FFR team). I had pretty much given up all hope of finding a team when Ténimba got an email back from the captain of Les Gorettes. They were very happy to welcome me to their team even though I will most certainly not be taking classes at the Superior School of Physics and Industrial Chemistry. It is very random that I am playing with them but whatever, I have a team!

Practice was pretty fun, even though it was really basic rugby. We did a couple drills and even got to scrimmage a big. The first time I lined up to practice hitting, I was a little nervous. In hockey, we have so much padding that you barely feel a thing when you use your body. I didn’t think I would be that nervous for rugby! Once I did it a couple times I got it down but it is still a little scary.

I didn’t have too much trouble understanding everything the coach said during practice. Obviously, I didn’t understand every word but since it was practice, the verbal directions were followed by a demonstration. It is hard for me to judge how much I learned from the coach’s instructions and how much I just learned by watching him show us how to do everything. I have always learned by watching coaches/teammates demonstrate so it really wasn’t all that different for me. I am learning some fun new vocab though. Je te plaque (I tackle you!) Tu est la plaqueuse! (You are the girl being tackled!). At the end of practice we also did les pompes (push-ups) and les abdos (abs). The other girls seem really nice so far and I hope that I can get to know them better during the semester. Although, now that I think about it, in the immediate future I will probably being doing more tackling than talking!

Bonne nuit!

Les Épiphanies

Well, it finally hit me…… I am on my study abroad. Silly, I know. I’ve been in France for almost three weeks and I’m only just coming to this realization now. It hit me in the Musée D’Orsay yesterday. I was wandering around the museum by myself (arrived with the girls then we all split up to see the museum at our own individual paces) and I was suddenly overcome with the realization that I am in France on my study abroad. I was looking at all the gorgeous impressionist paintings and I was just overcome by the fact that there is nowhere else in the world where I could have this same experience. Plus, Facebook just asked me if I want to change my language settings to French so I must be here!

School is right around the corner so the French vacation that has been these last three weeks is quickly coming to an end. I am still so, so confused about pretty much everything concerning my program. A lot of the other kids are starting to panic but I am trying to stay calm and cool. Even normal French students have trouble with the French university system so I am trying to tell myself that what seems unorganized to me is just the French way, ie posting things at the last minute. Maybe this is too generous of me, too much cultural relativism or something, but it is keeping me more relaxed so I am going with it. Tomorrow (Friday) is a big day. The class assignments for Reid Hall (my classes with other Americans, en francias, bien sûr) will be posted and I should be able to find the days/times for the classes I am interested in taking at Université de Paris 12. Unfortunately, class times for Paris 12 are not posted online but only posted on the bulletin board outside of the secretariat of the geography department. I’ve already been out to Paris 12 once this week and it takes an hour by metro from my house so the schedule had better be up as promised tomorrow.

Things are pretty good here with the D’Ussel’s but I still have a lot of questions. The family is pretty much in fall mode already and my room is at the end of the hall so I don’t get to talk to them all that much. Dinner is when I see them and get to talk but I don’t talk that much at dinner. I can usually only understand half of their conversation so I rarely get to pipe in. We were given a little contract sheet to sign with our host families so that will be a good excuse to ask all my questions. My biggest concern is eating dinner with my family. Our program only pays for three meals a week (later only two meals per week) but Caroline never mentioned anything about giving me space in the fridge or cabinets for me to put food that I will eventually buy to make lunches/ cook my own dinners. Also, won’t it be awkward for me to be trying to cook a little dinner for myself if my host mother is in the middle of cooking dinner for the family? Once I get my schedule finalized, it should be easier to figure this all out but it is kind of stressing me out right now. I just need to buck up the courage and ask my host mother about all the little things we haven’t talked about. I still feel like the awkward American kid, a feeling that I never really got with the Marliers. I was warned that I am more like a renter than an exchange student in Paris but I don’t want to be the random girl down the hall that eats with the family occasionally. I want to get to know these people, I am staying in their home after all.

Looking at this post, as I’m writing, it pretty much epitomizes the ups and down of being abroad. My experience is complicated by the fact that I am living with a family and not in dorm style housing but I know everybody must be experiencing this to some degree. I can have an épiphanie one minute about how wonderful it is to be here and then have a really difficult time with something as simple as a conversation about where to put my groceries the next. I am trying to take everything that comes at me in stride. I have noticed that I am able to handle a lot more now than I ever could have handled a year ago. Whenever I am in unfamiliar, uncomfortable, or just flat out intimidating situations, I just tell myself “Suck it up, you’re twenty years old, Mom and Dad aren’t here to help you right now.” I really have no choice, as I see it. I either do what I gotta do or have a miserable time. Between Washington and Paris, my one chance at being twenty is shaping up to be pretty epic. I can’t afford be to be scared so I’ve just got to prendre mon courage à deux mains!

Ok, that’s enough introspective mumbo jumbo for one evening. In a city as beautiful as Paris, I can’t help myself!

(The picture was taken on the outside balcony at the Musée d'Orsay. Sacre Coeur is teeny tiny at the top of the hill behind me and the Louvre is on the far right.)

Ehh, où sont les draps de lit?

Translation: Uhh, where are the bed sheets?

I suffered my first really embarrassing lost in translation episode yesterday (Sunday). I guess it’s lucky that it never happened in Bordeaux but today I really felt like a fool. The D’Ussel’s thought it was drôle (funny, amusing) but I was très gênée (embarrassed).

The root of the confusion was the fact that I am not yet as comfortable speaking French with the D’Ussel’s here in Paris as I was with the Marlier’s in Bordeaux. My Paris family speaks faster so I feel like I have to speak quickly when I respond. I’m making a lot of nervous mistakes and forgetting my vocabulary. Hopefully as I get more comfortable with them and they get more accustomed to me, things will get easier.

So, back to the story…When Caroline (my host mother) was showing me around my room, she was pointing to the towels on my bed and asking if I had washcloths or if I needed more towels. I told her that I did have them and didn’t need any more. I wasn’t exactly sure at the time that she was saying exactly this but I thought I had the gist of it. So when I got home on Saturday night and was about to climb into bed, I realized that my bed didn’t have any sheets, only a pillow and a comforter. Maybe my host mother didn’t ask me about washcloths but instead about sheets! Did I accidentally tell my host mother that I didn’t need sheets because I brought them myself? It was too late to do anything about it and I was epuisée (exhausted) so I just climbed in and passed out. Sunday morning, at breakfast, Caroline asked me if I slept well, typical morning politesse. I replied that I did but that I misunderstood her question the day before when she asked if I had draps de lit. She looked at me like I was crazy. I repeated myself, thinking that she didn’t understand my terrible morning French accent (it’s hard to speak French after just waking up). Again, she looks at me like I’m a bit folle. She goes into my room, sees the comforter on the bed and says that there’s no problem. She showed me her daughter’s room and that’s how it is. I have had sheets my whole life and I had sheets on my bed in Bordeaux but I couldn’t even recognize a duvet cover when I saw one! On the positive side, if this is the most embarrassing thing that happens to me here, I’ll take it. Hey, at least I didn’t blow out the electricity this time!

Besides the embarrassing situation in the morning, I had a great Sunday. I wandered around mon quartier a bit in the morning, returned at 12:30 for a delicious lunch with the family (Sunday tradition peut-être?) and then wandered around some more in the afternoon. I did a ton of walking because it was such a beautiful day, only taking the metro a few stops to get home because I wasn’t exactly sure of my route back. I wandered with my little map, without any real purpose but I got to see some beautiful sites in Paris.

Today, I had a jam packed day of orientation stuff at Reid Hall, my program headquarters (also the headquarters of the Hamilton, Columbia, and a bunch of other American college/university programs in Paris). It was more securité , info about classes, and transportation info. I did make my favorite purchase so far in France though this afternoon! It’s called Paris par Arrondissement. It’s this cute little red book with everything I will need to get around Paris: a list of every single street with accompanying maps and metro directions! Apparently, every Parisian has one….oh la la. Je suis très chic. I can’t wait to go exploring with it!

Bonne nuit!

Je suis à Paris!

Wow, I am finally here. After months of anticipation (not to mention paperwork) I am actually settled in Paris. It is a little overwhelming but I am not freaking out too much. Today had the potential to be one of the most stressful days of my life but it has all worked out.

My last couple days with the Marlier’s were a little crazy. Patrick’s sister died unexpectedly on Wednesday and the family flew to Switzerland, where she was a teacher, for the funeral Thursday night. They came back late Friday night and Marie brought me to the Bordeaux airport this morning for my quick flight to Paris. From what I understood, which wasn’t a lot, it was a miserable trip. Patrick’s mother has Alzheimer’s and it is difficult to travel with her. Marie explained something terrible that had happened concerning her belle-mère but I had no idea what she was saying. I just nodded and made sad faces at seemingly appropriate times. They appreciated the little supermarket flowers I bought for the kitchen and Marie bade me a very fond farewell at the airport. I really enjoyed mon séjour à Bordeaux but boy, I am ready for Paris!

I am living in the 17ieme arrondissement, not all that far from the l’Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Élysées. It’s an old apartment building and although it’s not covered in vines, it is très chic. I’ve never lived in an apartment before but so I don’t have much to compare it to but I know it is very nice. My host family, the D’Ussel’s, have been very welcoming and I think we will get along well. The youngest daughter, age 18, took me on a little walk this afternoon to find the metro and see some of the quartier. They have four children, two boys and two girls all between the ages of 18 and 24. The boys do not live here during the week but make appearances on the weekends I have been told. I don’t know too much about the family yet. All I really know if from the sheet I was handed in my info packet when I arrived at the airport. I hope to do some more exploring tomorrow. I still feel like I don’t know a lot about the family’s living style yet. Marie Marlier explained everything upon my arrival but Caroline has not and I’m too shy to ask about random stuff. I’m sure I’ll figure it out as I go along….

Shout out to the Hamilton field hockey team and ma petite soeur who are opening the season today. Go get ‘em girls!

À bientôt

Le dîner de l’enfer

I am finally able to blog after a couple busy days here in Bordeaux. I have been trying to find info about my classes in Paris. It is very confusing and I am still in the process of figuring it all out. The French university system is quite different from our system in the US. I’ll explain it all later once I get to Paris and get a feel for it myself.

I got to Skype with my hockey team back at Hamilton early this morning (1:30 am my time)! It was so fun to see all the girls and I actually felt like I was in the meeting. Technology is so amazing. I haven’t said that a whole lot in my life because sweet gadgets and gizmos have always been a given for my generation but I love Skype. It is going to be really hard rejoining the team mid-season when I get back in January but I hope that I won’t feel too separated if I can Skype into an occasional meeting and maybe even one of coach’s famous pre-game speeches while I’m here in France. Like I said, technology is great.

This is my last week in Bordeaux with the Marlier’s, ma famille d’accueil. I am really enjoying staying in a French home and I now realize why my program insists on home stays. After a long day at school and speaking French out in the real world at cafés and stores, it is really nice to come home to a family and a nice dinner. I am definitely more comfortable speaking French at home with the Marlier’s than out in the real world. I have picked up little phrases here and there too that I wouldn’t have learned if I was staying in a dorm with other Americans. There really is no better way to learn the language and learn how to talk with real French people. It will probably be different in Paris, where I am considered to be more of a renter in a French family’s home than an exchange student, so I’m trying to enjoy this last week with the Marliers.

I have only had one incident where staying with a host family has been a problem. It was le dîner de l’enfer (the dinner from hell). My family was gone this weekend, visiting their oldest son Paul and friends in Paris. It was no big deal, I was gone all day Saturday at La Dune du Pyla (biggest dune in Europe, see picture of me!) and Arcachon, a beach near the dune that wasn’t nearly as fun as Le Porge. The Marlier’s only got home around 9 o’clock Sunday evening so by then I had already raided the kitchen and scrapped together a dinner of bread, yogurt and some random cheese. (It’s not as bad as it sounds, I had eaten around 3 o’clock in a café with friends so I was good for the evening.) However, when my family came home, I think they saw me as the hungry puppy they left alone for the weekend. Marie started getting out pasta and ingredients for sauce and asked me if I wanted to eat. I politely told her that I had already eaten but I would join them in the kitchen and eat a little bit (or at least that is what I wanted to say…). I assumed of course, that the family hadn’t eaten yet, given that as soon as they got home Marie started preparing food. Well, as it turns out, they had already eaten and Marie was preparing dinner just for me after I told her I had already eaten (I don’t have a problem with that part of the vocab)! Of course I couldn’t decline any further at this point, a plate of pasta and sauce with bread was sitting in front of me. I politely ate some of my pasta but did not force myself to finish it. I thought I was going to hurl. Je suis trop polie.…

Waiting until 8/8:30 to eat dinner without a snack after lunch (the French don’t snack): check
Eating my fruit with a knife and fork without looking like an idiot: check
Putting le pain (bread) on the table instead of on the plate (bizarre….): check
Politely declining a second diner: raté! (failed!)