Endings

Wow, yesterday was a long day.
(the flowers I gave my host mom)

But, before that was dinner with my host parents one last time. They brought out some champagne and my host mom made what I believe is a more traditional French dinner...it was rabbit in mustard sauce, salad, red wine, a variety of good cheese, baguette of course, and then crepes for dessert. Very tasty. Then I had to say goodbye, because I was leaving before anyone would be awake in the morning. That was a little weird, and sad. I'm going to miss them.
Then, I didn't get too much sleep...and I woke up a little bit before my alarm was going to go off at 4:40am, left the house at 5:20, and took the metro to meet Becky and Kay. Wow, having a giant heavy bag in the metro and another duffel sucks. I'm pretty sure every random stranger who offered to help and helped me down or up stairs regretted it the second they picked up one end of my bag because it was crazy heavy. Still, we made it to the airport all in one piece. So that was nice. Waited around at the airport, took my flight to Toronto (It was a really long somewhat boring flight and I couldn't sleep that much.) Then went through customs and took my flight into Minneapolis where it was stormy so we had to circle above Minneapolis for a while.
(Some building near Notre Dame)

And now I'm at Carleton. It's wonderful to see everyone again, but really bizarre as well. It should be a fun few days, and I don't think missing Paris will really hit me until I get home to Davis. It was really weird taking the metro that morning, and realizing it was the last time I would take it for a very long time. It was so familiar, and I am going to miss all the little things that to most people are so boring and day-to-day, but I love. It's going to be bizarre not having the language barrier...I'll still probably formulate questions and things in French before going to order something or talk to strangers, which will be funny. And I'm sure phrases will come out in French. It's just all a sort of odd situation. And to top that off, I don't feel that jetlagged at all. Weird.
(last time in the Jardin de Luxembourg.)

All in all, I think that my speaking skills didn't improve as much as I would have liked (I did improve, of course), but my comprehension skills got a million times better. So that's neat. I would love to stay in contact with my host parents, and some day go back, see how the kids grew up, and see my host parents again.

Allez les bleus!

I had to write my artist paper and prepare my presentation on Monday, which is all I really did until dinner time, where we had a group dinner at a restaurant with all of the professors. It was a lot of fun, and the last time the entirety of the group was together. That night I also saw Katie's host family's home (who were out of town) and I ended up missing the last metro so I stayed the night and we made crepes. The next morning I came home, finished up and emailed my paper, practiced my presentation, took a shower, and met Anna and then wandered around for a while until class. Both classes were all presentations. I had trouble concentrating throughout all the presentations...Before I had to give mine I was super nervous, and then afterwards (it turned out well) I just sort of checked out, and was just relieved to be absolutely done with work.
That evening I went to a football game!!!! (soccer, that is). It was France vs. Columbia and WAY exciting. We ended up sitting in a high concentration of Columbian fans, but it was all good. France won, one-zero. I also felt pretty good about being able to sing along with the French national anthem when it played before the game. Everyone was so high energy, and it was just amazing to be there. I'm not sure I can really express how cool it was. Cool in two ways actually. It was cold and I was wearing shorts. whoops. Oh well.
Today we technically had class. We were out in the Jardin de Luxmbourg (where it got really cold) and a comedian came and answered questions and told us a couple of jokes. He was pretty good. And pretty provocative/not politically correct. Plus, he was really willing to answer our questions, and gave good, thoughtful answers. So that was neat. Then we had a "picnic" at Cathy's apartment where it was bread and cheese and cookies and juice and we just chilled. That's when we did most of our goodbyes. It doesn't seem real that I'm leaving. It was so strange to realize that we all were leaving, and saying goodbye.
Then me and Becky wandered around for quite a while. She found something for her dad, and then we went in search of a flower shop so I could bring flowers home to my host family as a last day sort of thanks thing. Well, flower shops are hard to come by, but I finally found one and got sunflowers. And now I need to pack pack pack. And then I'll be leaving at like 5:30am tomorrow to meet Kay and Becky at a metro station and then we're going to the airport together. And then on to Carleton. I can't believe it. This term was great, but passed by way too fast! But I can't really think about that right now...I haven't started packing yet, so I'm going to get on that right now. (And the picture below is the doorway to CUPA. it's right in between a kids clothing shop called Lapin Bleu and a store called Jeans Paradis. It's kind of a random location...some food places and clothing stores. and then this nondescript door.)

What you've been waiting for

Well, Friday was half boring (just classes as usual, where we got our tests back and I gave a 5 minute presentation on my 10 page paper. It started off a little rocky, because I really hadn't prepared at all, but then got better). Then I went home, relaxed a bit and that night was a Jazz Concert. Well, Cathy had told us it was an MC Solaar (famous French rapper who's kind of older now, or a has-been according to my host parents) concert. But it was a jazz concert featuring MC Solaar. But I thought it was really good. There was this amazing bassist. Also, the lyrics were pretty funny to this one song..."Your love is two for one, it's sweet and kind of fun, it's like staying up past midnight when you're still a kid"...and in english too. Which meant all of us started laughing and most of the audience didn't get it. The other good line was "I've got the munchies for your love". There was also this crazy part where the guy would just make some noises (ie singing without actual words) and the audience would repeat it back. It was really strange and entertaining. All in all a good concert.
But, before the concert we got dinner at this supermarket. And some crazy drunk/high guy walked in, shouted something, got a beer and tried to cut in line. So the manager came out and tried to get him to either wait in line or leave. I was in the line he was trying to cut, and it was a little scary when I was paying for my stuff and he spit almost on my shoe. And kept shouting something about "on his mother's life" only it was in french, so I wasn't quite sure what he was getting at. But, it gets better. We go out and wait across the street for the rest of our group. And some guy comes outside yelling at the crazy guy. So the crazy guy punches him! (I'd never really seen anyone actually punch someone like that in real life) and then the other guy kicks him, and someone came and broke them up and the crazy guy wandered away. It was kind of exciting and scary at the same time.
(this bar had weird signs out front, and this is one of them dis'nae? what?)

Saturday wasn't all too exciting. I went running in the morning with Becky and almost got us lost in the Bois de Vincennes. However, because I'd gotten lost before, I had a much better sense of where we were and got us out alright. So then I chilled in my room trying to get homework done until I met Becky for dinner. After dinner we went to a bar with a bunch of other people on the program for the night as a sort of last weekend in France shindig/it had been Masha's 21st birthday last week. So that was a lot of fun, and I caught the dead last metro home. If I'd left just 2 minutes later, I would have missed it. So I lucked out.

Today I had the longest brunch ever with my host parents and Lorraine's sister and her husband. We had a barbecue, which we would have had a month ago, had the weather permitted. I found our aperitif kind of random-white rum and pineapple juice. And then I worked on homework until dinner. And here's what you've been waiting for: me and the family! (Calixte wouldn't look at the camera)

Movies, Photos, and "Art"

Wednesday morning I took our final exam for the conversation and composition class. It was a little ridiculous, because that class wasn't very well organized to begin with, and there wasn't a lot I could have done to study better. Still, I did alright. Then, after lunch I went with a bunch of other people to watch the Sex in the City movie. I've never actually watched the show, but practically everyone on the program was excited about it, and after that test, I didn't really have to energy to do anything else for a little bit. The movie itself wasn't that great, and rather corny. What was funny though, was reading the french subtitles along with the movie. Because there is a lot that gets lost in translation. The french probably saw a very different movie than I did.

After that I went to the Maison Européene de la Photographie, and what a great find that was. There were two expositions, and one of them was way amazing. His name is Georges Rousse. His photos look like they've been altered, because they're sort of optical illusions, when in fact he created each space to look like they do, and then took a picture. It's so hard to describe. So here's a picture of one of the prints I saw. (Small pictures on the internet just don't do them justice. They're kind of mind boggling.) So that was fantastic.
Thursday I got up and met a few people to see Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis. It's a french movie by Dany Boon, and has been out for ages--it's had record success in France. But, because it was 10:40am on a thursday, and the movie had been out for so long, we were the only one's in the theater besides one older woman. The movie itself was really good. Also, I understood pretty much everything-I think it was good I waited until this point in the program to see it (I'd been meaning to go for a while), because my comprehension is good enough to appreciate the movie. I will be interested to see if it comes to the US (I hope it does), but it will be more of just a cute romantic comedy than the play on stereotypes that is a central part of the movie. There is some language/accents jokes that won't be translated, and the understanding of the stereotypes of the North of France won't be quite as strong. Still, it's a good movie, and I'd be interested to see what they might do with it in the US.

Then after grabbing a bite to eat, we went to the Musée Marmottan Monet. We couldn't stay for too long because we had to get to our last museum visit class with Jérôme, but it was a pretty neat museum. It had a lot of Monet, as you could guess from the name, along with other impressionists. Upstairs was also some more modern/abstract art. (Also, can we talk about how cool France is? In a monoprix--a grocery/clothes/everything store--there was an escalator. And then a little one just for grocery carts. crazy).

Then we went to the Palais Tokyo, which is a modern art museum. It was some giant opening so there were a lot of people. There was also free champagne and yogurt. (I had a thé vert à la menthe-mint green tea, and a white chocolate one. Yogurt in France is amazing. And I like champagne, so that was neat). In terms of the art, it was rather bizarre. There was a giant elephant balancing on its trunk, a giant gun thing that shot beer bottles crazy fast at a wall, and they'd shatter and it was way loud and kind of smoky, some random little things and a room with a bunch of Darth Vader masks all hooked up to a computer, with creepy music. Modern art is way weird. I don't get a lot. Oh! and there was this TV that was playing Back to the Future. And a DJ just jamming, but you couldn't actually hear the music. It was all rather odd and random.
Also, there was this guy going around with this giant video camera. As we were looking at the elephant, he got up real close to this one guy and videoed his face as he looked at the elephant. I turned to Anna and commented on how awkward that much be. So then the guy turns around and comes over and videos me that close and awkwardly. I just stayed staring at the elephant. I don't know what they were videoing for, but I'm in it. Also, me and Monica found a Georges Rousse book (they were out at the photo museum) but it was 65 euros. So I didn't get it, even though I really wanted it-this guy is way cool).
(also, that's the camera guy)

un match d'impro

Yesterday was half full of not much-ran around the lake with Anna, and wrote some journal entries. Then, I went to dinner with Jess and had a tasty kebab sandwich and green tea à la menthe (i'm so going to make this tea when i get home...green tea with mint leaves and sweetened with sugar. mmmmm). Then we met up with our theater class to see an improv comedy match. Apparently this goes down in th states, but I'd never seen anything like it. It was great, even though I understood, well, not much.
(Jess at the match, holding the slipper she threw. You can see some jerseys like the one's the teams (of 4) wore behind her).

It was France versus Quebec. Each member of the audience got a slipper to throw at the ref if we disagreed with his call. Also, after the announcement of how long each sketch was to be the audience repeated the amount of time (in between one minute and six, at least last night) followed by "oh la la!" Also, the DJ sang "we will rock you" and we sang along and he got the lyrics wrong. good times.

The actual match was pretty hilarious, even though I didn't often have any idea what was going on. They warmed up beforehand, and the France team played this game that I've played before as an icebreaker, so that was fun to see. Also, one of the sketches was in the style of shakespeare with the theme (picked by an audience member) of "carnival of asparaguses." And my favorite part was when one guy handed his lover something (a knife, presumably) and told her to go stab her father. She took the object (invisible props, obviously) and said, "it's an asparagus, but I'll try all the same". haha.
(the metro at 4am. this is from that night i stayed out all night. i felt like this post needed another picture, so there you are)

I can't really get over how ridiculous it was. it was in this area, with a ring in the middle (like a boxing match or something) and they wore hockey-like jerseys. The other thing I couldn't get over is how, on my way there I saw someone who looked exactly like Julian Whitney-Fawcett. No joke. It wasn't just like, at a glance he looked like him but then not really when you actually looked, which happens all the time, but this guy dressed the same and had a really similar face and until I got a really good look at his face, even though I know Julian's not in Paris, I was almost convinced it could be him. Weirdest thing ever. He looked so much like him! ahhhh!
(Calixte is wearing my shoes. So is Maxcence in the background, who also pulled down his pants. Don't ask me why. Crazy kids.)

Then, today, was just classes, and an attempt at the Louvre, but me and Becky forgot that museums generally aren't open tuesday. So then I went home, fretted about classes for next term (registration is tonight), and studied the best I could for this test tomorrow. Oh, and Maxcence and Calixte came in and bothered me some more. Always entertaining. I started a video chat with Kim, and I think they were confused as to how that even worked.

Fish, Musicals & Walking

Friday night I helped my host mom decorate Maxcence's cake for his birthday party on saturday, which I missed because I'd already arranged to go to a play. It was a neat cake, and made me wish I were turning four again and could have a castle themed birthday party with a sweet cake like his.(the cake!)

I went to a pretty small aquarium on saturday. It was neat though. Piranhas are pretty crazy. They just sit there and don't move. And they had them in this darkish corner. There were also a lot of pretty tropical fish, and some bizarre ones. Like razor fish, who are these little vertical crazy looking fish. And cowfish are pretty funny. Or catfish mouths.
(piranhas!)

Then I went to a comédie musicale. Most hilarious amazing horrible musical comedy I have ever seen. It was called Les aventures de la diva et du toreador. It was 2 actors, who were really good singers, singing songs from various operas/musicals (including West Side Story, so they were singing in English, but with French accents, and that song from cats where the entirety of the lyrics consist of meows) in this semi plotless storyline. And there was a pianist who sometimes took part in the action. It was ridiculous beyond ridiculous and very entertaining. The other funny thing was that the majority of the audience were much much older than us, and they were totally into it. Especially the guy who sat in front of us.
(the cat fish and his crazy mouth)

After that we ate at this indian restaurant, which was pretty tasty, and a nice little change from all the french food i've been eating. Then we went to a café and had coffee, which was tasty, and not horribly tiny like they often are. After that we went to this bar where this guy whose aunt is Cathy (our professor's) friend had invited us to hang out. I had a pina colada and just hung out for a while before heading home and going to bed.
(the razor fish)

Today wasn't quite as eventful. I was still asleep at 9:30 and my host brother's came in and made a lot of noise and went through my things again and brought in some toys and played in my room until their mom came up, got mad and made them leave me be. So then I slept a little more. My host family went to Lorraine's mom's for the day (it's France's mother's day), and I went walking in the Marais and then in another area with Becky for a while (we walked A LOT), before heading back here and trying to get some homework done. After finishing my research paper, I haven't had much motivation to do much other homework, but hopefully this evening/tomorrow will be productive.

A Night On The Town

Thursday got off to a slow start. I submitted my essay after proofreading it and exchanging it with someone else in my class and we proofread eachother's. Then we had Jérôme's class, where we visited a church-St. Eustache. There was an organ concert for kids, so we ended up watching that for most of our class period, and then Jérôme talked a little bit about contemporary art in the church. We were pretty much out of time, but walked over to the Marais, and past this restaurant where everything is in the dark, so the servers lead you to your table and I think what you eat is a surprise. Plus you can't see it. Jérôme said also that the servers were blind. I guess it wouldn't matter if they were or not, but I don't know if I believe him. After that we walked over to see the oldest house in Paris. Who's house was it? Harry Potter fans, I'm not lying. It's Nicolas Flamel's house.
Not too much else went on....My host brothers discovered my small collection of Kinder Surprise Egg toys, and Calixte threw a pencil out the window and also put a penny in his mouth that I had to take out. And then I was in for a very long night. A couple of friends had six hours to spend in Paris while on their way back to Maastricht from Madrid by way of train. So me, Becky and Jess went and me up with Judy, Peter and Derek (I'm pretty good friends with Judy, Becky is really good friends with Peter, Jess was along for the ride, and none of us knew Derek before last night) when their train came in at 11:30. We stored their suitcases at Becky's host family's apartment and took the last métro out to Ménilmontant. There we chilled, got crêpes or paninis and had some wine.We then walked over to this bar/club, and there was no one there. It was like 1:45am, and a guy outside said to come back at 2am. So we walked around some more. (It's how the french party...they go out with the last metro and go home with the first, or a night bus. Things don't start happening until 2am. Of course, it was also a thursday night, so nothing was going to be too busy, and when me and Becky were researching places to go, it took a while to find one open late on a thursday night. Most, when they are open super late, it's just the weekends.) So we went back, and sat by the dance floor-only there was no one dancing. It was kind of funny, because we were a large enough group, and it seemed like when the 6 of us were dancing, other people would too, but when we stopped there were no one. In other words, we were the party.
We then walked back to Becky's apartment (I think it took maybe an hour) and got their suitcases and went and waited for the first metro at 5:30. They headed to the train station, and I headed home. And because I had class at 11:30 today, I only got 3 and a half hours of sleep. Still, it was worth it, because it was a lot of fun, especially to see other Carleton people again who weren't on our program.
Today was uneventful...in my first class, we'd pretty much finished everything we needed to do, so we talked about the film we'd watched and rewatched the end. Then after lunch we had our second class which was just a discussion of this philosophy reading none of us understood and Cathy got kind of annoyed at us. Then I came home, and took a nap. Again, very uneventful.

Je suis très fatiguée.

So this is the first time I've finished a paper before late the night before it was due. My ten page paper is due tomorrow at 7pm, but I finished it monday night. Well, tuesday morning. Which meant I didn't get much sleep, so getting up yesterday morning was rough. And tuesday is my longest day of classes. Which weren't all that eventful anyway, except in my théâtre atelier when we learned some slang and some "gros mots" ie curse words. It was pretty entertaining. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.
(Sacré Coeur/Montmartre/The park from the film Amélie)

I did have a nice conversation with my host mom at dinner, where I explained room draw, housing at carleton and having a cat named kim. It was a little confusing, but I think she understood me. It would probably be hilarious to hear myself from their perspective. Because sometimes I'll say a word and my host parents won't understand because I can't say it properly.
(Part of the Mosque)
Today I had a short presentation in my class, which went fine. Mine was pretty short and easy, and I was worried I didn't have enough. Turns out I had really done all I could have. Then Anna Becky and I, after lunch, went to Montmartre and wandered the super tourist-y stores. As much as I pride myself on not being a horrible tourist, do I ever enjoy tourist shops.
(Inside the Mosque)
Then we met the rest of the group and had a little tour of the major mosque of Paris. It was pretty cool, and afterwards we had mint tea and pastries in the salon de thé. The mint tea was amazing! I guess it's green tea, mint tea, and sugar. It was pretty amazing. And the pastries we had were almondy or pistachio-y...various kinds of nuts, sugar, coconut, flour...they were tasty.
(In the Salon de Thé...there are a bunch of little birds on the table eating the crumbs from the pastries of the people next to us. The little birds were all over, along with some pigeons)
And that's the last couple of days. I think I'm going to take a nap before dinner now, because I was about ready to pass out at the end of the mosque visit. I am so tired!

I don't really have time for this...

But I'm going to update anyway.

So yesterday was pretty uneventful: ran with Anna, worked on my paper all day. Had dinner while video chatting with Kim, went back to work, then went on a walk with Becky, worked a little more and went to bed. Though, I suppose there was an hour there where I wasn't working.
(Calixte, 2 is on the left hitting my water bottle against the floor, and Maxcence, 4 is on the right. Yes, he's wearing suspenders. He doesn't usually. I think it's his Sunday outfit.)

My two host brothers came in my room and asked me what various things were and why I had them, like some gum, mints, earrings, pocket knife, four different chapsticks (whcih I then had to put on. all four), Maxcence tried to tell me that "les yeux" was hair, which is actually eyes, so that was funny. Then they were looking at my water bottles, and Calixte made a ton of noise hitting my metal Sigg bottle against the floor. Then Maxcence poured water from one bottle into the other and got water all over the floor and tried to blame it on Calixte. That was funny. Then he took some of my stuff and was about to take it away when Lorraine came in, made them give me back my stuff and told me to leave me in peace to do my work. It was all very entertaining, and a nice study break, I suppose.Today I got up, had some breakfast and worked on my essay some more. Until just before 4. Then my day became a lot more fun and a lot less paper writing (of which I still have more of, which is why I don't have time for this). Anyway, I met Becky and we went over to the Tour Eiffel where we met a bunch of others from our program and had fancy tasty cake from Monica. Then we had an hour long cruise on the Seine where we got to taste three kinds of champagne. It was super fun, and I really like champagne.
Then we got dinner at this random restaurant. It wasn't too expensive and I had a GIANT salad. Now I'm full, and have to get back to writing my paper. (It's 10 pages on the role of the president/French government in culture and the arts, and I'm talking about the history/historical precedent and what's going on today with Sarkozy. I have 6 pages right now.)

Cathedral Climbing

Thursday morning I went on a run with Anna, which was the first time I went running with someone else in Paris, in a place not the Bois de Vincennes, went on the metro/through town feeling horribly underdressed-sweats and a tshirt, and the first time I'd seen someone else's host family's house. It was fun.
Then was a "museum" visit, which was more talking about metro station art and contemporary art near Palais Royal. It was interesting enough, but what was hilarious were these two little girls in this courtyard area who joined our class for a while. Neither of them had pants on, and just wandered up to us. Our professor, Jérôme, talked to them, and they said something along the lines of "we're researching adolescents" (in french of course). And then they just sat with us. It was super random.
That evening was a reception at CUPA with the most amazing little fancy sandwich appetizer sorts of food, and mini desserts, juice and champagne. It was for all of us and our host families to come and meet eachother and whatnot. I didn't really meet that many people...except a few host siblings. I think the students outnumbered the parents though, and a lot of our families couldn't make it, mine included. It was still a good time though.
Friday we had class all day, and then had to stay later for a lecture from a Carleton professor who was in Paris with the Maastricht program. He taught us about the European Union, which was interesting, especially because I knew pretty much nothing. He also talked in English, which was bizarre, because I'm not used to listening to that much English at once. After that I went to the Centre Pompidou library and did some research before heading home for dinner and sleep.
Today we went to Chartres, which was a lot of fun. The weather was a little weird. It got a little cold, got nicer, and then was pouring on our train ride home. First we had about an hour for lunch. There was this market, and on one end were random farm animals. It was kind of bizarre, especially because it didn't seem like anyone was actually in charge of them. They were just there in these enclosures. Then I had this amazing goat cheese and bread-ish pocket thing. It was called a fouée I think. Whatever it was, it was amazing! Becky, Brad and I also tasted some local beer and ended up each getting a glass to go with our lunch. So that was fun.
Then we visited the cathedral, which is pretty much why anyone goes to Chartres. We kind of had to rush our visit (we had this English guy as our guide) because it was the first communion ceremony, so there were all these people coming, and lots of children in white robes. We learned about the history of the cathedral, and some of the stories in some of the stained glass. Our tour guide also kind of got in a fight with some random french guy who had staked out seats for the ceremony and got annoyed when we sat around him for maybe 10 minutes and our tour guide told us about some more stained glass and history and things. He was pretty entertaining.
The best part though (and luckily the weather was nice for this part) was getting to climb to the top. Apparently Carleton was the last group to climb up--I guess we have a 30 year history with them, and now they can't say no. It was pretty great to see all the views and architecture and whatnot. It's hard to describe, so hopefully my pictures help illustrate how great it was.

Busy Busy Busy

I feel like I'm never "home" anymore. Kind of like at Carleton, when I never spend time in my room. Speaking of rooms, I know where I'm living next year at Carleton--in a house, and not a dorm. It's in a triple, and I'm excited. Plus, quite a few people from the Paris trip are living near me, so that's cool. Anway.

Yesterday was full of class: listened to artist presentations in the morning, spent a few hours eating lunch, and working on random homework/procrastinating/talking with people, had another class where we talked about L'étranger again, and then my Théâtre Atelier. Which, of course, was fun. We talked about body language, and certain french things. We also read part of this text that's something along the lines of 40 some odd variations on one story. It's all the same story, just written in different styles. Such as zoologic, where there's a bunch of animal metaphors. Or analytic/logic where it's a list of what went on. Or onomatopoeias with, well, lots of onomatopoeias, or present tense, or past tense. Or, the one that was funny was written phonetically how someone with a very british-english accent would say the story in french.
(in the mosaic room at the Louvre)

Then I went home, did some homework, and, I'm not really sure where the evening went, as usual. Dinner of course, was fantastic as usual. For the past couple nights we've had fruit or sorbet for dessert which is really nice.

Then today I had class in the morning, and then went to the Louvre with Monica and Rachel. That was neat. I'd seen most of the italien and french paintings the last time i'd visited, so while Monica and Rachel looked at those, I wandered through the greek and roman statues. I also got lost, like I always do, and found the medieval Louvre--the foundation from the old Louvre building. And found a room that was dimly lit, with old walls and no one in it. So I didn't go in. I was rather creeped out, and decided that was the last place i'd want to be if I got stuck in the Louvre at night.
(a sculpture at the Louvre)

Then we had to be back at CUPA because Azouz Begag, who was once a minster for opportunity (i forget the actual title of the position, but he works with immigrants) in France, and is a pretty well known author, came to speak to us. We'd just read excerpts from his book L'integration, and I thought that the reading we did was much more interesting than hearing him speak. He is a character, and pretty entertaining, and used lots of Franglais (ie a lot of english words) but I got the impression he thought we couldn't understand french very well, because it seemed like he was talking slowly. So I had mixed feelings about the talk.

I then went to a play about Camille Claudel, an artist/sculpture who was Rodin's lover. Monica is doing her research project on her, so I agreed to go to the play. (i've got to spend my cultural money somehow. we were given 200 euros to spend on cultural things, and have to keep the receipts and if we don't spend it, we have to give it back.) I think I would have understood more/appreciated it more if I'd actually done some research on Camille Claudel beforehand. I didn't have time to/all the sudden it was today. It seemed like it was well done, and I liked that it seemed like most of it was based off of real letter she wrote during her life. Interesting is probably a good word. It was kind of hard to follow (I mean, it was all in french)...
(cool reflections at the Louvre)

So that was today. I was going to try to do some homework, but I might just get some sleep and be productive in the morning before my museum visit. Sleep is not going to go too well in the next week, because of all the papers and things I have due. But I'll get them done, and get a little sleep. I always do.

So what did happen this weekend?

Saturday I went on the run during probably the hottest part of the day. It was crazy. And there were oh-so-many people walking around the lake that I ran around. I was one of the few people insane enough to actually be running. Then Anna and I had a monoprix picnic...ie when I get dinner for myself, it ends up being random...some yogurt, chips, strawberries and a kinder bueno. (kinder buenos are made by the same company who makes kinder egg surprises, and they have a lot of different chocolate products that are soooo tasty.)
(on my walk to the métro--I thought the sky looked really pretty)
Then we went to the opera. We saw Barber de Seville. It was pretty good. I had no idea what it was about going in, and it was in Italian. They had French subtitles of course, and I understood them fine. The set was elaborate--this moving house thing, mountains, and at the end, palm trees (fake of course, but I feel like they put a lot of work into them for only the last 30 seconds of the opera. Oh well.) All in all, I thought it was well done. However, I'm no expert on operas-I'd only ever seen one before in San Francisco (La Bohème).

Sunday was full of trying to write a paper for my art history class. I kept getting distracted by things like the internet. Oh well. (It was also mother's day, so I called my mom. also, I video chatted with Kim, which was fun). I had lunch with Lorraine and her sister outside in the yard, which was really nice. That evening no one was home, and I'm not entirely sure why. But, I ate dinner and then met up with my friend Jess to go to a café and had dessert (me and my dessert-blueberry and strawberry sorbets with whipped cream). It was a lot of fun, and it felt good to get out of the house, because I'd been there the entire day.
Today I finished my paper, and went to see another play. This one was L'école des femmes, another play by Molière that Jess needed to see for her research project. I'd read it back in high school, and thought it'd be fun to see a production of it. It was in a small theater near where Moulin Rouge is, and was fairly low budget. The costumes were kind of comical rag-doll-ish: I couldn't get over how many patterns-strips, floral, a different floral-they mixed. All in all, it was kind of entertaining, but probably wouldn't have been if I didn't already know the story. It wasn't anything spectacular, but again, had I not done that I would have hung around the house all day.

So that was this weekend. Nothing majorly exciting, though I suppose full of cultural activities.

"Home" Again

And now our first week back from vacation is over. It was both fun and stressful. Fun because, while nothing majorly exciting went down (wait, maybe that's a lie), every week I'm here is fun. We had classes as usual, and on this side of vacation all of my projects/papers look that much closer.

So Tuesday I slept in and had class, where we talked about L'étranger and it went by super fast. Then I had my Théâtre class, which is always fun. We did another tongue twister, some more relaxation meditation, a charades sort of improv game, learned french onomatopoeias and did this trust fall game where we fell from a table into the arms of the other 6 people. Which was slightly scary, but crazy fun. Then I had dinner with my host family for the first time since before London, which was nice. We had a guest who I guess stayed the night, because he was there again for breakfast. We had spaghetti for dinner, which I plan never to serve if I have guests. Even though my family is a million times more graceful and polite eating everything, including spaghetti, they still ended up with it falling out of their mouthes. You just can't eat it politely. Also, after dinner I tried this digestif called crème de cassis which was a sort of blackberry liquor that didn't have much actual alcohol in it and was super tasty.
(at the Musée Rodin)

Wednesday was class again, where we watched this comedian, Dany Boon who was also the director of Bienvenue chez les ch'tis which is a movie that I need to try to see because it's had record success here in France. In the clip of Dany Boon's stand up comedy, he made fun of his hometown in Northern France, and of Parisians. While the first part was funny, the second (about Paris) was funnier because we could relate to what he was talking about-how no one smiles on the metro, and drivers are CRAZY and stuff like that.

Then, I saw a friend from Carleton for lunch in the Latin Quarter. The Maastricht program (in the netherlands) which is a poli-sci/international relations study abroad program was visiting Paris. (They do a LOT of traveling). It was really great to hang out with someone I knew, who wasn't the 22 students I see every day. We had lunch at this greek/gyro place where I had this crazy tasty pita with lettuce, meat and french fries in it. Then we walked over to the patisserie near CUPA and got pastries and then I rode back to where their hotel was. After that I didn't feel like going home just yet, so I took the metro over to Sacré Coeur and sat in the grass and read. It was really nice. (The weather has been great since returning from Nice).

Thursday I had a meeting in the morning with a professor friend of Cathy's to talk about my research project, and then I went to try the library at the Centre Pompidou, but the line was way long so I just went home. I tried to get work done, but was failing, so I met Becky and we wandered the area near the Musée Rodin and got lunch before our museum visit with the class. The museum visit was a bit ridiculous because we looked at sculptures outside, and of course Jérôme, our professor, had to have us all standing in the hot, hot sun while he rambled on about what we were looking at. (Oh, and we really only talked about 3 sculptures in an hour and a half. Sometimes, Jérôme is ridiculous. Ok, maybe all the time).

Then we wandered over to the Eiffel Tower, got some soft serve while killing time before meeting up with our program and the Maastricht program for wine and cheese and baguettes and apples by the Eiffel Tower. It was wonderful to see a bunch of other Carleton students, and, not going to lie, refreshing to see other male Carleton students, because out of 23 students on the Paris program, 3 are male. (And two of them are a set of twins). So that was a lot of fun. I finally got to see the Eiffel Tower lit up in all its glory, because until then, I'd never been there at night. So that was great. I got home at midnight, which was kind of crazy, because the picnic started at 7. But it was worth it, even though I then stayed up writing some journal entries that were due today.
(too bad I just had my phone with me--still, I'm always surprised how good my pictures can be with it)

Today I had class in the morning, and then finished up my journal entries after class and submitted them before heading back to the library, where there wasn't a line this time. Work spaces at the tables were hard to come by though. So then I spent the next couple of hours doing research for my paper, before heading home. I had dinner alone tonight, because Xavier had work, and Lorraine ate early with Maxcence and watched the Jungle Book (in French of course) with him before he went to bed, which was not long after I got home. But they were finishing the movie and I could hear music upstairs and it took me a while to realize that the reason it was familiar was because it was the Jungle Book. And now I'm going to try to write some of my paper before going to bed. So not too exciting of a day. (I have a feeling this weekend is going to be a LOT of work).

The Côte d'Azur!

It's weird coming home from vacation, when "home" is just another sort of vacation. (Actually, I do have a lot of work coming up...projects and papers are due a lot sooner from this side of vacation than before). At any rate, I didn't want to come back to Paris. The weather at the Côte d'Azur (which is in Southern France, right next to Italy), was amazing. Warm and sunny, and I finally could wear shorts. Plus, the whole atmosphere down there is so much more relaxed, casual, and friendly. So what exactly did we do? Let's see...

A 5 hour train ride that was probably longer because we stopped in the middle of a tunnel for "technical difficulties." We got to our hotel, and then wandered around Nice. We climbed up this long staircase for some awesome views. Also, as we were walking by the beach there were these guys roller blading and doing crazy weaving in and out of cone tricks that were pretty awesome. Then we had dinner as a group, in this awesome little restaurant. It was nice to eat as a group, because then I wasn't worrying about prices and whatnot so I actually got a full meal, ending with an amazing tarte citron. mmmm. And that night a few of us went to a bar called the Checkpoint, and just hung out and danced a little.
I slept really well on the trip. Even though I didn't get tons of sleep, I would fall asleep right away and be out until my alarm--and it wasn't horribly difficult to get up. So the next morning we had breakfast at the hotel (croissants, nutella, yogurt, cereal, hard boiled eggs, and other awesomeness. It was the first time in a while I had a breakfast more than tea and a piece of toast.) Then began museum visits. We went to a modern and contemporary art museum, where the coolest part was the terrace with amazing views. Pretty much everywhere we went had amazing views. Lunch was really nice-we sat in the grass at a park and just chilled. Then we went to the Matisse Museum, where we had an actual museum guide, which meant we saw the whole museum and not just a lot of one or two rooms (like it is with our Art History teacher). We also stopped by a church and a graveyard before walking back to our hotel. We had the night free, so we went to a restaurant where we got pizzas, and then just wandered around the old part of town (that's super touristy).
The next day we took a bus to see the Chapel that Matisse designed himself, and this other place which was an artist's studio, but now some sort of foundation. We also went to the Fondation Maeght which was just another museum. He had some neat work, and a lot of it (see picture above). Then we went to St. Paul de Vence, which was this fortress-esque village with lots of tourist shops and nice views and guys playing bocce ball. That night I had dinner with Becky, and we bought this wine called L'Amitié, which means friendship, and had that with dinner, so that was fun. We also watched some of this weird game show, where it seemed like you didn't actually have to do anything but spin a wheel to get money. The host was also kind of scary. We also watched some of this random countdown which had some funniest home video style clips, but also celebrity bloopers and commercials, so we weren't quite sure what the countdown was.

The next day we visited the Palais Lascaris, which was this palace, but kind of hidden in between a bunch of other buildings so it didn't really seem like one. Then we left our hotel for Menton. We went on this hike in the foothills of the Alps, which was a lot of fun. It was pretty warm out, and all uphill on the way up, but the views were gorgeous, and we got to be outside and had a good time. We were at Tourettes-sur-Loup, where we wandered the little tourist-y town there, and then went to our hotel in Menton. I watched handball on TV with Laura, and that is one crazy game. It seems kind of lame, until you see how high-contact, violent and intense it is. One guy had to be helped off the court due to a bloody nose. Then we went to a really nice restaurant with the group called Le Petit Prince. It was absolutely fantastic--I had this shrimp avocado salad for starters, this amazing ravioli and scallops dish and a chocolate dessert.
We stopped by la salle des mariages de Jean Cocteau. It was this marriage place (I'm not sure what the word is in English...but in France you have to be married by the state, and this was one place you could have the ceremony). Jean Cocteau is the guy who did Beauty and the Beast. The room was pretty cool....and not very traditional. Then we went to a Botanical Garden which had amazing views and a lot of cactus. Then we were left free to wander Monaco for a while. Like most other places (though it probably took the cake) it was super touristy. Pretty much all that was there was pretty views, restaurants, and tourist shops and a palace.
We then went back to Nice, bought food at Monoprix for dinner on the train, and then got on the train home. It was a fun train ride...we ate, sort of slept, and then played crazy 8s and hearts. One thing I really liked about this trip was that I felt like the program bonded more as a group, and I actually got to know more of the people on the trip better. I think one of the reasons is that we did a lot more activities all together, had a couple of dinners together, and were all staying at the same place...we had a common area to hang out, which is something we don't have in Paris. It will be interesting to see if the dynamics change from before the trip. But now it's back to classes and research papers.