London, A-Z

Okay, why hasn't Amy posted recently? (ie not every other day like she was oh-so-good at?) Because, dear reader, she went to London! And now has a very quick turn around...I need to be at the train station at a lovely 7:30am tomorrow morning, to head off to the Côte d'Azur with the rest of my program, which will account for another 5 days of not hearing about my adventures. And I've got to pack, so this may be short (well, that may also be a lie. I can't really sum up anything succinctly. If you read the whole thing, congrats).

London was:

(a) very very rainy. I finally gave in and bought an umbrella (my raincoat fell off my chair when I was packing and hid, so it didn't end up in my backpack. good work raincoat. but it wasn't too bad. It just rained A LOT. but that's London for you.

(b) lots and lots and lots of walking. So the US dollar isn't doing so hot. Which meant 2 dollars to every pound. And the tube was pretty expensive. So we walked everywhere. Cheaper, took a little longer, but we got to see the city. It was pretty neat. Also, pedestrians and cars are crazy. I almost got hit on several occaisions.
(c) lots of free museums/famous London locations: Tate Britain, National Gallery, British Museum, Platform 9 and 3/4 (so we like Harry Potter), Hyde Park, Green Park, St. Jame's Park, Picadilly Circus, The Mall, The Science Museum (which was sooo confusing. The layout was weird), Harod's (apparently the most famous department store in London. I'd never heard of it before. It was pretty crazy though), Trafalgar Square, Soho, Walking past where lots of Broadway shows were (Hairspray, Chicago, Cabaret, Les Miserables, etc.), Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Buckingham Palace...

(d) The changing of the guards, which didn't happen the first day. So we had to go back. It was a little ridiculous. Their outfits, and just the whole ceremony. It's pretty much just for tourists.
(e) Carleton Students on the London Program. So the three girls I went to London with knew a girl on the London Program, so we hung out a bit with her, which was a lot of fun. We also saw some other random Carleton students, because they're all staying in this one hostel. Even though I didn't really know any of them, it was kind of refreshing to see other Carleton students who weren't the same 22 others with me in Paris.

(f) Quality time with Becky, Monica and Rachel, who I knew before going to London, but now know much better. I'm really glad I discovered they were going to London, and I didn't have to go on my vacation alone.

(g) Vantage Point. So, this is an American movie, and while we waited 20 minutes before we could check into our hostel, we saw the first 20 minutes. And then the next day, went back and finished it, because it was pretty intriguing. Except tiresome--you have to watch the same incident way too many times. But it was good.

(h) The Astor Museum Hostel. It was pretty nice. I'd never stayed in a hostel before. I was in a 10 bed room, but didn't spend any time there...most of the time I was upstairs in the 6 bed room the rest of our group stayed. Well, that is when we weren't out in the streets of London.

(i) Aussie, aka roommate number 1. So in the 6 person room, it was a lot more friendly/open to meeting people. So we talked to this Australian, though we never got his name. He'd just spent 2 months in the US-New York, and skiing. He was pretty nice, and had an accent which made him much cooler. But he just stayed for a night.

(j) Liverpool, aka David. This was the second roommate. We hung out a bit more with him--went to a pub one night. He was friendly, and there from Liverpool for some interviews. He had a portfolio for graphic design, but also worked as a chef. He was there for 2 nights, before being relocated within the hostel.

(k) Then there was Spain aka the 34 year old who was traveling after a difficult break up, apparently. She mostly kept to herself, though we may have passed her in the street once, which was strange. The last night was Russian and 8 (?) year old son. That was weird, because you were supposed to be between 18 and 35 to stay at the hostel. Oh well.

(l) Turns out it was Ben and Jerry's 30th birthday. It also turns out that there are 2 Ben and Jerry's very close to eachother near Leicester Square. You can guess what awesomeness ensued.

(m) Accents. Though there were not enough. There were tons of tourists, and not enough english people talking loud enough for me to just listen. Rubbish.

(n) English. Wow. It was both refreshing and unnerving to be where there was no language barrier. Refreshing for probably obvious reasons. Unnerving because I wasn't used to it-I would still say "pardon" instead of "sorry" when I bumped into someone. And I would still formulate questions in my head in French. Plus, every now and then British accents are hard to understand. Take the time Liverpool asked if we were here on holiday, and Monica thought he asked how old we were.

(o) Also, the first night we went to this restaurant, which turned out to be American--we all got burgers. I haven't had a burger in ages, but I was super hungry, and it tasted fantastic.
(p) We ate in a pub one night (picture above), and of course got beer. Because it seemed like something we needed to do in London.

(q) the most complete breakfasts in a while. They had breakfast at the hostel, which was great. Less food we had to buy. (We mostly ate the food we bought at Monoprix before leaving paris, so we wouldn't have to buy expensive London food. Stupid dollar and it's weakness). And normally I just have toast and tea in Paris. But this was cereal and toast and coffee. It was pretty exciting.

(r) Funny signs. British English. For example, on some curbs where there were signs for no somethingorother between certain times, it would be 8am-M'night. Or exits=Ways Out. Also, curb=kerb. Who would have guessed?

(s) Being able to buy alcohol legally. Yes, it's legal in Paris, but I haven't really taking advantage of that, though I'm enjoying drinking wine with my host family at dinner. However, one night we bought dinner at a grocery store, and bought a bottle of white wine (which turned out to be the right kind of wine to drink with the pasta we had for dinner. Good for us. Because we didn't know anything about wine.) It was kind of funny that the wine came from Modesto, California. So much for cultural experiences.

(t) Museum Gift shops. are the best. Though in the Queen's Gallery (was that what it was? It was in the side of Buckinham Palace) gift shop you couldn't take pictures. Ooops. We found out after taking one.

(u) Oh, touristy places I forgot: The parliament building, Westminster Abbey (picture below), The little church right next to it (I forget what it was called, but we ate lunch outside under its shelter, and cold actually go inside without paying), Big Ben (but only from afar, like the London Eye).
(v) Did I mention it rained? All the time? I wouldn't really want to live in London. It is pretty cool, and I do love rain. But I also love sunshine.

(w) Did I mention we walked a lot? A LOT. My cellphone pedometer, which could be wrong, says that on our two full days we walked 16 and 20 miles. Which I believe.

(x) An odd lack of rubbish bins/trash cans in the train station. it made no sense.

(y) A two hour train ride, a one hour difference from Paris, and the chunnel.

(z) Probably more, but good times had by all.
(at Trafalgar Square)

Yay! The Zoo!

I really am a little kid at heart. Zoos are so cool!
(First, dessert the other night was amazing. It was mousse au chocolat on the inside of these cookies soaked in coffee. And it was probably my favorite thing I've eaten so far. mmm)
(That's my house. I live on the third floor, but on the other side)

But yesterday was great. I met some friends at a metro stop only 3 away from my home, and really, I could have walked. It was a gorgeous day, and I ended up not needing a sweatshirt, which was awesome! And we went to the zoo in the Bois de Vincennes. I also got a banana nutella crepe. those things are fantastic. But the zoo was tons of fun, and the weather helped A LOT. There were 6 of us, and we wandered around and took pictures and had a lot of fun. It wasn't a very big zoo, and there wasn't anything exceptional or different about it. But it was a zoo, and it was sunny, and I was with friends, and I had a blast.
(This happened a lot. There's probably a lot of the same picture. I was amused. That's Kristine, Davey and Jess)

Then we had to go to the Centre Pompidou for a museum visit with Jerome, our professor. Let's just say I'm really glad that I already visited the museum there, because with Jerome, we only see one or two rooms, because we just stand there and talk. Forever. Sometimes it's really interesting. But it's tiring, and it would be more interesting if we could see more. Still, I guess it beat sitting in a classroom. And the musée national de l'art moderne is pretty cool.
(This zebra was chasing the ducks. It was pretty hilarious).

Today I had classes as usual. Nothing special. I recited the 6 lines I'd memorised from the Misanthrope, and we had a written quiz in my second class. That kind of thing reminds me this isn't just an extended vacation. Then I went home. I walked to the post office and bought a couple of stamps, and it was super nice out. So after going back to my room for a little bit, I decided I needed to take a walk. So I did, but it was shorter than I probably would have gone, because my host mom told me to be back in an hour-we were going out to dinner. I was going to look for this hill with an awesome view that I'd found while running to take a picture, but I ran out of time). This is the first time I've gone out to dinner with my host parents. And I really enjoyed it.

Maxcence and Calixte were at my host father's parent's for the night, so me and my host mom with baby Louis went to meet my host father at the restaurant. We got there way early, so we walked around the area, which had a lot of restaurants and shops. Then we went to Club Med World for drinks. My host mom doesn't drink alcohol, but I tried a sex on the beach. (I chose this because I'd tried it at Carleton, and wanted to see how it was when real bartenders made it, as opposed to college students. Also, when we were at the bar with that one French guy Vincent, the translation was sex and beach. and I thought that was funny. Club Med got it right though). My host mom then discovered that in the US, I'm underage when it comes to drinking, but I can still vote and such. My host father joined us, and got a pina colada.
(Above is a picture of a path that leads to the Château de Vincennes, which I passed on my walk today).

Then we went over to a restaurant called Nicolas. (The area we were in is where the wines of Paris are from, and where, in the old days, the wine would come on the river, and they'd bottle it there). I got this mashed fish potato dish (I'm pretty sure that's what it was) and it was really tasty. And came with a salad (I think everything did). My host parents both got macaroni. no joke. Then we ordered dessert. It took forever, because there was some mix up. Which turned out in our favor, because our waitor then brought us free glasses of champagne. (We had red wine with dinner.) So that was kind of funny. And that was my day, in a nutshell. And I also really like my host parents. They sometimes make fun of me, which I find hilarious. They're great. I promise I'll have pictures at some point.

Science! or, Photo Opportunities Disguised as a Science Museum

Yesterday was classes, as usual, and then I went on a run. It was really nice out-I wore shorts and a tshirt running, and it was awesome! It's kind of warming up, so that's promising. This time I didn't get lost, and found this random hill, and at the top was a sweet lookout where you could see the Château de Vincennes. I'll have to look for it again. I was also probably Kim and Ezra's only listener for their radio show, so, next week at 7pm my time, meaning 12 for midwesters and 10 for west coasters, you should tune into KRLX (http://www.krlx.org) and listen to Kim make a fool of herself. And speaking of KRLX, I like randomly, if I'm at home doing homework, to see if I know the DJs on KRLX (which is Carleton's radio station) and if I do, to listen and send messages online. It makes me feel a little more connected, and makes me miss them a little less. Or, rather, remind me how much I miss Carleton. Oh well. Good feelings are involved at any rate.
Today I had class in the morning, and then I tried out the Wokbar, which is this restaurant that's like 2 doors down from CUPA. It was super good. They have italian (with is just pasta) and thai (with different sauces, and noodles or rice) and it's super good. We ate in the Jardin de Luxembourg, and some random art student came up and took portraits of those of us who were willing. That was fun. Then we ventured to the far north east I think, of Paris, for the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie. Awesomeness ensued. (Except the part about taking pictures with my cellphone, because my camera batteries-and my backups!-were completely dead. sadface.)
This museum was giant. We started with this car exhibit, and then...gosh, I'm just going to list some stuff, because I can't quite remember everything, and in order. There was a lot of car stuff, crash test dummies, interactive computer things, a space ship, a fighter plane, a sort of greenhouse, a room full of light tricks/optical illusions, a room about evolution and genes, the history of earth, stars, physics/laws of the universe, space, and a history from 1961-2003 (I think) relating to our voyages into space, energy, sounds (where there was this crazy surround/3-D sound room), and lots lots more. It was a lot of fun, and I went with 9 other people, though most of the time I spend it with Anna, Jessie and Prakriti, and we for the most part, didn't learn too much, but found fun things to take pictures of, mainly in reflective surfaces. It was tons of fun!
Then we went back towards CUPA, sat in the Jardin de Luxembourg and stopped by a post office because we had time, and then ended at CUPA where we had a wine and cheese tasting with our group. Which was short and sweet. Plus, the bread was amazingly tasty. And I love cheese. And the wine was pretty good. (And I relearned about the shape of wine bottles...they're Bordeaux if they have "shoulders" and if not, they're Borgogne. Or that's what I understood. I may have mixed them up. Anyways, the shape of wine bottles indicates where they're from (region and such) and my host father had explained that before to me.) Then, on the way home, me and Anna listened to Guys and Dolls and then Hairspray on the metro, and bonded over loving musicals, and those movies. It was a good day. Though now I'm super super tired. Luckily I don't have anything until 12:30 tomorrow.

The night bus! It's like Harry Potter!

Going back to the night I may or may not have been going to a club...I ended up going to a club, but not with the people I had anticipated. I wasn't going to go out at first-we got done with dinner at 10:30 and I was going to call/text Davey or someone to say, sorry, I didn't make it (everyone was meeting at 10). But just then Prakriti called me, and said, hey, the club didn't open until 11 so I should totally come. So I decided, hey, why not? I've yet to really go out at night, and I might as well see what this club is all about. I got there, and found I wasn't the only one who came late, so that was good. We walk towards the club, and it was going to be 13 euros, and most of the group was going to leave in time for the last metro around 1am. So me, Katie and Becky decided not to spend 13 euros for about an hour (when the club wouldn't be that busy anyways, because apparently the way nightlife works in France, is that people go out with the last metro, and stay up until the metro opens again in the morning at 5 or so am.)

Katie knew of a free club, so we went in search of that. We found it, and it wasn't too big-upstairs was a crazy crowded bar, and downstairs was slightly less crowded, had a small bar, and had dancing, so we danced for a bit. It was kind of crazy, because pretty much every song was american. But they weren't current-we heard Destiny's Child (Lady Marmalade, which was kind of funny because that's the one with the one french line "Voulez vous couchez avec moi ce soir") And, this one was random: The Blues Brothers' song Everybody Needs Somebody To Love. I found that hilarious. And a lot of the French people knew the words. Crazy. When we went home, it was after 1am, so we had to take the night buses, which are a little complicated and confusing, but all turned out fine, and we all made it home safely.

Yesterday I slept in a little bit. It looks like Sundays, we'll often have guests. We had lapin (rabbit) with this tasty mustard sauce, and this potato purée. Then we had a tart citron, which was one of my favorite desserts so far. There was a crust, lemon filling, and this whipped topping. And it was amazing. Then I tried to get some homework done, because I actually have a bit to get done, but ended up falling asleep after wasting some time. It's hard to get motivated to do homework, but I always manage to finish it. I guess not much happened yesterday, because then we had dinner. Which was this sort-of pizza, that was alsacienne (okay, that might be the wrong word) but it had this really thin, almost pastry like crust, and onion and some sort of meat and maybe a sauce. Either way, it was super good. And dessert was a coffee éclair, where the inside was like amazing soft serve coffee ice cream. All in all, a good day for desserts.

Today I met Becky and Anna and we went to the library at the Centre Pompidou. We got there 20 minutes before it opened at noon, and still had to wait well over an hour in line to get in. Libraries here are a little ridiculous. Especially this one. While we were in line, this guy (who, I might add, cut in front of us at some point, because he definitely wasn't there when we got there. By the time we got in, I really wanted to punch all the people who cut. jerks). Anyways, he turns to us and asks in English (cause he heard us all talking in English) if we were looking to go to the museum. Like we were some stupid Americans waiting in the wrong line. And we were like, um, we know what's going down. We're going to the library. So that was kind of funny.

Then we got sandwiches at a random stand (The first two pictures were what we were looking at when we ate. I love how, in the midst of this random modern artsy fountain, and modern buildings, there's this ancient church. All of Paris is like that, it seems.) Anna and I then went to the Musée du Quai Branly, which had lots of ancient artifacts from Oceania, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. It was really cool, even though kind of overwhelming with how much stuff was there. It was also designed by the architect who built the Guthrie in Minneapolis (though I've never been). I wasn't really a fan of the layout...it was annoying to navigate, and if there were a lot of people, even worse. Oh well. It was still pretty cool. I really liked, while walking up to where the collections were, there were these random videos projected on the ground...like jelly fish, or waves.

And now I'm home, and need to finish my homework. (When I first came home, there were two crying children. Man, they can be loud! And right now, they've been put to bed, or maybe they're playing quietly in their room. Quietly is the wrong word, because the two year old was just screaming "mama" down the stairs. He's stopped now. But it happens a lot. It's also funny, because after they're put to bed, the four year old will often call down the stairs to his mom, and say he has something to tell her, or a secret to tell her, and I have a feeling it's usually really trivial, but it's just so he can go downstairs. Or get attention. It's kind of funny.

Artsy Shmartsy

Yesterday's lunch was a lot of bread. And a lot of fantasticness. I got a sandwhich (as usual) and then a viennoise chocolate. Which is like this sweet bread with little chocolate chips in it, but it's like the chocolate is melted, even though it's not warm. I'm not sure if that's a good way of describing it, but either way, it was amazingly tasty.

Then Kay and I went to the Centre Pompidou to go to the Musée Nationale d'Art Moderne, but we got there 15 minutes before closing, so instead we went into the Bibliothèque (library) there, which was open later, and had no line (which apparently, when other people on my program have gone, the line was crazy). It was one of the craziest libraries ever, just because it's huge and has escalators and such. We did a little bit of research for our artist projects. They had two books on my artist. Then we had to go meet with a couple other people on our program, and some guy who our professor knows. (Okay, what it is, is that Cathy, our professor, knows some young people closer to our age...around 21ish I think through friends who were willing to take out a few of us Americans to see a certain area of Paris, and get dinner and in general meet some other young french people, especially if we don't have anyone in our host families close to our age).

So me and three others (Kay, Rachel and Prakriti) met Vincent and his friend (not quite positive how to spell his name/what exactly it was). They took us through the quatier chinois-Paris' China Town. Which was kind of amusing, because San Francisco's china town wins, hands down. This one was kind of small and mostly restaurants--not all chinese either. there were thai, vietnamese, japonese and such. So we walked around, got rained on and ended up at this bar that's apparently Vincent's "second home." We were there for a while, and Vincent knew pretty much everyone there. We ate at a chinese restaurant right next door, but had to wait for a table--it was pretty small. So while we waited, I tried a monaco, which I guess is a "young people's drink" because there's not much alcohol in it-it's lemonade, grenadine and beer. It's sweet, and tasty. Then we ate at the Chinese restaurant, which was tasty...I tried lots of different things. There was this really tasty garlic eggplant dish. And I liked the duck too. Then, we moved back to the bar, but I started having a really bad stomach ache (I don't think it was the food, cause it was just me, and I didn't throw up. ahh well.) And Prakriti was super tired (I mean, it was just after midnight) so we took off. It was a fun night, despite the stomach ache.

Today we visited the Musée Picasso with our class in the morning. It was interesting...I didn't know that much about Picasso before this visit, and I guess this museum is special because it has the work that Picasso never sold--he kept it in his own collection until his death. It included stuff from all throughout his life-like a piece he did when he was 12. So that was impressive.

Then I had lunch and went to the Centre Pompidou again, this time for the modern art museum with a group of people. It was pretty neat. Even though there's a lot of modern art I just plain don't get. And I guess you could say just don't appreciate. Oh well. I also saw two of my artist's pieces that they have there. And let's just say they're not the art I would normally stop to look at. I stop to look at things like the two pictures above.

And this is what my artist does:


Good times. So that was my day. I came home, and may or may not go to a club tonight with a group of friends (in honor of Davey and Kenny's birthdays. They're a set of twins on my program).

France's military history in its entirety.

Yesterday we had class in the morning. Not too much to talk about. We had a couple of presentations and did some pronunciation work with vowels. Then, we had the day. Lunch was super tasty; cheese and lettuce sandwhich and a chocolate eclair. And a coca cola, which was kind of an accident. I hadn't actually decided what I wanted to drink, and when the lady asked me I freaked out and said the first thing I thought of. Oh well.
Then I went with Anna and Rachel to the Army Museum, where they had a lot of armor, and swords, and helmets, and crossbows and daggers and horse armor, and cannons. A lot of cannons. So that was pretty exciting. Then we walked through the WWI and II museum, which took a while, as it was very extensive. It was rather exhausting, but pretty interesting, and kind of a good refresher on that aspect of history.

Then we went over and saw Napoleon's tomb, which in the end, wasn't too exciting, or at least that's what I though. It was in a pretty spectacular building, but I feel like every building here is spectacular.
It was a gorgeous day out-and it really felt like spring. So we decided to walk from where the museums were to a metro stop that was across the Seine and a ways down. I'm not sure how far down, all I know is that yesterday my pedometer on my phone said I walked 8 and a half miles for the entire day. It was really nice walking along the Seine. Then, we ended up in a sort of shopping district which could be fun to go back to. We also got pastries at a little boulanger, and that was really tasty. (I got an apple tart thing).

Then we went home. I was exhausted, so I took a two and a half hour nap, and then, I'm not sure what I did until dinner. Although, I wasn't feeling too great. Dinner was tasty, as usual; some kind of meat (that was cooked pretty rarely, for me at least, but still tasted fine) over sauteed eggplant and mushrooms, bread and cheese as usual, and strawberries and chocolate cake.
Last night, I didn't sleep too well. I couldn't fall asleep easily, and had a stomach ache, so this morning was really slow. I stayed in my pajamas until probably 1ish and read Claude Geux by Victor Hugo for class tomorrow. Then I took a shower, which made me feel marginally better. I was going to try to go to a library today to do some research for my paper on this contemporary artist (which means I have to find a library that actually has information on him, because he's a current, living artist), but I just couldn't get myself to leave my room. I also memorised my 6 lines from Le Misanthrope for my class tomorrow morning, which was surprisingly easy, considering how bad I am at memorsing things. But other than that, I wasn't too productive. I just took an hour nap, after lying down on my bed to shut my eyes for a minute. I kind of just wish I would throw up or something, in order to validate not doing anything today, and feeling crappy, and I feel like that might make me feel better. Hopefully I'll sleep well tonight and be fine for classes tomorrow, and be able to get my research done this weekend. (Oh, also, I didn't have class today, because it was moved to Saturday for a museum visit. So that was probably a good thing, considering how I felt today).

Well, sorry this post is kind of a downer. Hopefully my next one will be a lot happier, and a bit more interesting. (To be fair, yesterday was really good until my nap.)

Doves, Dancing, Devoirs*

Yesterday was half full of not too much-slept in, got some homework done and had a short meeting with Cathy, making sure everything is going ok. (Which it is).

The actual exciting part of yesterday was after dinner. But first, we went to this place called Patata Café, which was all about baked potatoes. So that was my first restaurant experience here. A baked potato and a salad, which was quite tasty.
Then, Spectacle de l'Ecole de Danse! It was in the Opera house, which was like Phantom of the Opera. So the building was amazing! And our seats. I was in this booth, right next to the stage, and I could look over and see the orchestra. Behind us we had extra seats and couches and a mirror and a place to hang coats. And inside the theater was spectacular! I can't really do it justice by explaining, so I've posted a couple of pictures I got during intermission/before the show.
I really liked the ballet, too. (Although they were so skinny. Which I guess is the nature of ballerinas, but we were so close, you could really see it. Also, they were all probably around 16) There were 3 parts. The first one was more classic ballet, on pointe and more traditional costumes. The 2nd was more telling a story. They were a poor travelling circus. I liked this one because there was a lot of variety, and there were a couple of acrobats who didn't do near enough, I thought.

Although, they had live doves, and I swear one died onstage. The magician threw them into the air at the end of the act, and one just fell down and stayed in place. When one of the dancers tried to pick it up, it flapped around a bit, and another had to pick it up and get it off stage. It was funny and sad at the same time. And at the end a girl carried two doves in a cage offstage, and on her way, a dove fell out of the cage and she almost tripped over it. It was a bad day for doves.

The third part might have been my favorite. It was more modern, but not too modern. Which is important (i think) to point out, because some modern dance is, well, just weird. But this was really neat, and had pretty much everyone in the group in it. And I think in terms of male and female dancers, it was pretty even. When it was just guys dancing, it reminded me a little bit of the awesome dance scenes in Newsies. Even though it wasn't like that at all. Even though one guy had a hairstyle that was totally that style.
Today, I almost woke up too late, because I kept hitting my snooze alarm, but I was actually early, because I didn't have time to make and drink tea, which then gave me more time. I did get my backpack stuck in the metro doors because I jumped on at the last moment. That was a touch embarassing, because the metro was crowded, and some man had to help me open the doors a touch to get my backpack through. Oh well.

There's not much to say about classes. Except the last one, Théâtre. That one was fun. We started out with meditation again, did some more vowel pronunciation and a tongue twister. Then we worked with space again, keeping in mind the locations of other people, and walking and talking with different moods or situations. So that was fun. Then we did a mirror activity-where we took turns being another's mirror. Then we did improv- telling stories as the others acted them out, and creating stories when given a theme. So we had the kids who lost their toys in a mean neighbor's yard, and a princess who had to find a husband but had an evil sorceress mom, graduation, a marriage, and a javelin accident. It was fun, and pretty entertaining.

And now I have to do work. I have a bit to do for tomorrow, but it doesn't look too bad. And I shouldn't complain, because I probably could have gotten more done this weekend. As always.
*Devoirs=homework

Awkward.

Yesterday I went to the Comédie Française with my class and we saw Le Misanthrope by Molière (a play we'd just read) performed. The theater was great. It was kind of small, but with balconies, and old seats, huge chandelier and all that jazz. The play was...intense. Rather melodramatic, I thought. Lots of shouting, running around, falling on the ground, being overly dramatic for a play where there wasn't much action, just conversation, and all in all about a guy who insults another guy's poem, and they're also both in love with the same woman. Of course, there's a lot more to the play, social commentary and all that. But wow. I mean, I could tell that it was very well performed-the actors were really great. But it was a little much for me. Also, with the makeup, they seriously ugly-fied the actors. And two guys had the craziest hair and whitest faces ever. And there was a lot of laughing where I didn't expect. And sometimes things were performed with emotion, or stage direction that I did not imagine while reading the play. And then when it ended...they had to go on bowing FOREVER.
Then I went home, helped out a little to prepare for my host dad's surprise birthday party and then tried to get some homework done. I ended up going down to the party, which was probably the most awkward event in my life. I mean, I'm not that great in social situations where there are a bunch of people I sort of know who are my age who speak english, but this was a bunch of people 10 years older than me, speaking french, and I didn't know anyone. And I'm not really sure what's polite or not to ask, so I didn't really know how to start conversations. So I ate some, and drank a little, and stood around awkwardly occaisionally talking to people.

These three guys were in the kitchen and they all tried a dessert before they were supposed to. Then there was this chocolate cake they wanted to try, but the way it was cut, there needed to be an even number of pieces taken to keep the cake looking full, so I got a piece of the cake. Then, and they thought this was HILARIOUS, they stuck toothpicks in the cake to connect the pieces, so they would stick together when someone tried to take a piece. They were laughing really hard. They probably had also had a bit of wine. Because it was kinda funny, but not THAT funny. Finally, I snuck back upstairs. I really didn't know what to do with myself, and whenever I saw my host mom or her sister I asked if I could help with something but they were always like, no! no! (Oh and one guy confused California with Florida when I told him where I was from, and asked if I was near Miami. So that was funny). Also, I think every guest was part of a couple, and most of the women were pregnant. No joke.

Today, a little after I got up, my host mom came in with a tray with tea, OJ, some small crepes and nutella, and apologized for not attending to me last night. That was surprising. But really nice. I said it wasn't a problem (I mean, she had enough to deal with besides awkward american). Then I went on a walk in the Bois de Vincennes, and discovered just how bad my sense of direction was. We had to do this half hour observation/reflection writing for my professor, so I wanted to go sit by the lake. I went the wrong direction-but found my pegasus crossing sign! And finally found the lake. (You'd think it'd be easy to keep track of a lake, but I couldn't find it for the life of me).
When I returned, my family was having lunch (with leftovers from the party) with a couple of guests, so I joined them. After that, I took a walk with the family down to this flea market, which was nice. A little stressful, because Calixte would sort of wander off, or not follow directions. Also, Maxcence had to go to the bathroom, so he ended up peeing in the gutter. As we were waiting, my host mom turns to me and says that that's the benefit of having little boys. And then we returned, and now I need to get homework done. We actually have quite a bit of work now, which I'm not too keen on doing. Oh well. I suppose technically I am in school, even though at times it doesn't feel like it.

Pegasus Crossing?

Okay, I'm going to apologize in advance for having no pictures today.

So let's see, what have I been doing?

Yesterday was another Musée d'Orsay visit, where I gave a short presentation about the Galerie de Photographie, which went well. We also had these crazy headsets to help us hear our professor. We learned about impressionist paintings (Like Monet, mainly, and some Van Gogh, Degas and a couple of others). Afterwards I went to the Orangerie, which is another museum and looked at some giant Monets that were pretty sweet, but I didn't have my camera with me. And that was kind of all I really did. For dinner we had Raclette, which is usually what people eat after skiing. It's this crazy grill thing with these little dishes you put cheese in, which then melts and you pour over potatoes. And then we had some super tasty meat, little pickles, and salad. For dessert was cookies and pinneapple. Apparently pinneapple helps cancel out a greasy meal, so that was interesting.

Today we had two classes, one where most of what we did was do some grammar corrections, and then started this movie, that was hard to understand, and will probably end up sad. Then lunch was pretty sweet. We found this panini stand, where you could get a panini, drink, and sugar crepe for 5 euros, which is pretty good for the area. Plus, it was super tasty, and the guy didn't skimp on the sugar. And the panini's were pretty big. We sat and ate in the Jardin de Luxembourg, which was really nice. Then was another class, where we found out we actually do have quite a bit of work to do. Oh well.

So then I came home, and decided it was pretty nice out, and pretty early, so I wend on a run, which makes it the second run in Paris, but this one totally makes up for all of the not running I've done. (To be fair, I walk A LOT. I found a pedometer on my phone, and I'm not really sure how it works, but I walked like 4 and a half miles yesterday. whatever that means). Anyways, my run. I started my run outside the gate, and when I stopped my watch when I came back to the gate, it read 1 hour, 50 minutes. Why? I got horribly lost in the Bois de Vincennes.

I'm not really sure where I went. I ended up finding the Hippodrome (horse racing), a bunch of football (read: soccer) fields, a small fishing lake, the Château de Vincennes, a floral parc, saw tons of bikers, quite a few runners, a bunch of walkers, and dogs, some horses, a lot of trees, a few maps, and my favorite, a pegasus crossing sign. Really, it was a horse with wings. weird.

So I ended up finding my way back, but not until after I found a map, chose the wrong direction (when I say I have no sense of direction, I'm not kidding), made a GIANT circle, went around the entire Hippodrome and then some, got rained on a little (but I love running in the rain) and found myself back at the map. I made a better plan this time, and found another map that let me know I was going in the right direction, and found my street pretty fast. Good times. And, I really didn't walk much at all. A touch when I decided my feet hurt a little, but then the going was too slow so I started running again. But for the most part I was running continuously, and must have found the perfect pace, because I barely looked at my watch. The first time I looked, I'd been running for 55 minutes. Sweet.

I'm going to go take a shower now. I'm glad I went on the run though. I'm not sure if I've already said this, but I know why I'm a pentathlete in track. Because I kind of have a short attention span, so distance is hard for me. That is, unless the area I'm running in is totally awesome, and changing, and new. Which is why I didn't run around the Lake again. I'd done that. Today I got to see a castle! So much cooler. (I might go visit it with my host family on Sunday, so that should be fun).

EDIT: Okay, so here's a map of what I kind of think I did on my run. It probably doesn't make too much sense, with all the crossing over and such. Then again, neither did my run.

Ah Euh Eee Oo Ew

Yesterday was probably the longest day, class-wise, I've had. It wasn't a bad thing though. We had our usual Art history class, which I really liked because most of it was about the history of photography. For all of the photography I've done, I've never actually studied its history. That was really neat. For my "journal des arts" I had to go to the galerie de photographie in the musée d'orsay (where I went today). Then we had our super long lunch. Pretty much we walked to the trusty boulangerie/patisserie on the corner and got sandwiches. Then returned to CUPA and played cards. I explained "idiot" to Anna in french (you're not allowed to speak english at CUPA). It was super difficult, but I managed. And we also played crazy 8s. I also learned a hilarious. (okay, not so hilarious) joke from Jess: I kicked a french chicken in the stomach. it said oeuf. (it's very much a play on words. oeuf is french for egg, and when you say it it sounds like oof). Shall I tell another, or have you had en-oeuf? (enough).
Okay. Then we had another class where we talked about our visits to Versailles and Le Misanthrope. Right after that was my first class with the guy named Pierre, and it's a little elective class (there are 6 of us in it). And it's pretty sweet. We started with introductions, then did this sort of meditation circle. (when you hold hands in a circle, your right hand should be on top, and the left on the bottom. We learned that, but I learned that when I was in Hawaii at Miss Akiko's Bed and Breakfast. I guess it's good for energy flow). That was to relax us. Then we worked on vowel prononciation. That's why the title of my blog looks strange. It's roughly the French vowels A E I O U, but how you sort of pronounce them. We made music too! It was sweet...everyone had a different vowel, and you were all on the same beat, just different...hmmm. i'm not sure the words I'm using. Tempo maybe? Anyways, it sounded cool. We did a few random activities, like spacial awareness walking around desks not being able to see, and improv television. It should be a fun class, even though I kind of suck at improv, much less in french.

Then I went home, did some homework, and helped my host mom make dinner. (I didn't actually do too much, but it was fun talking to her, and I learned roughly how to make tasty salad dressing. (They don't buy pre made salad dressing. Instead we have super awesome homemade stuff.) We made this tasty pasta with sausages. That night my host father's father and sister came, so it was kind of exciting to have guests. My host father's father is very nostalgic, and talked a lot about the past. They also told some jokes, that I could follow until the punchline, and then they were kind of lost on me. I think it was both the speed they were talking and the subtlety of the jokes.

Today I had my conversation and composition class where we didn't atually do anything, because today's presentations took the entire time. Next week we'll get to watch a video of a comedian, so that's exciting. We then went in search for this gyro place with french fries that monica wanted to try, but most of us just got paninis at a nearby stand. Then the musée d'orsay where I took notes on the photography gallery for my presentation tomorrow. Then we looked through a few other rooms, stopped in the gift shop (where I brought a small print of this painting, which I really liked for some reason. It's "Raboteurs de parquet" by Gustave Caillebotte):
And now I'm at home. It's weird. It's only 4, but it feels so much later. I made it home just in time to listen to Abby, Lynsey and Chuck's radio show at 3, so that was sweet. I hadn't thought I'd be home then. But it'll be nice to be able to get some work done, because tonight I'm going to go out with a couple of friends to get some cake in celebration of one of their birthdays, and it'll be nice to be done with my homework when I leave. Also, sorry for the lack of pictures.

Je voudrais être un gendarme.

Yesterday I didn't leave my house, and it kind of seems like everything I did was eat. I woke up and had tea and toast. Then my family went to church but I stayed home to take a shower and try to type up an assignment for class (but it didn't really happen).

Then we had a super extended brunch, starting with champagne and appetizers. It was my host mom's mother's birthday, and she and my host mom's grandmother were visiting. (The other day I made an interesting observation. I am closer in age to my host parents (about 10 years) than to my host brothers (about 15 years). So we had presents-one for my host mom's mom, and a couple from the mother and grandmother to Calixte, whose birthday it was last week. So after all of that, we moved to the table, where we had several courses of fabulous food-white asparagus, filet mignon with green beans and these potato(?) ball things. And of course bread and cheese (goat cheese with this gray stuff around it--my host mom's mom said it was ashes). And then chocolate tart, followed by café.

I really liked my host mom's mom. She would randomly quiz me/tell me new vocab. We were out in the garden and I learned the words for shovel, rake, mole, mole-hill, hoe, and some others. And unlike my host parents, she would correct me when I'd mess up grammar. She was really nice, and spoke some english too, like my host father. They left at around 5:30, when I was able to go back upstairs, do my homework that I'd tried to do earlier, and submitted it about two hours late online. Oh well, I don't think it should be a problem, and I was downstairs being social and learning from my host mom's mom. (Who also told me to read to Maxcence, the 4 year old, and ask him to explain words I didn't know. Which could be useful for basic vocab, but I don't think she realizes I'm reading Molière in the original French.)

Today was pretty sweet. I woke up and I think it had snowed just a touch because there was some melty snow out my window. So that was a little odd. I met Anna and we went to buy our grammar workbooks, and then headed over to the Louvre. It took us a while to really get started, because we had to get these special ID cards that let us go into the Louvre for free, because we had our CUPA cards. But it was worth it. Then I ate the first thing here I didn't like, but it was from one of the Louvre food places, so I guess it's understandable. It could have been good, if it were actually all the way heated (it wasn't) and maybe made with quality food? (It was a croque monsieur, which has like cheese melted over this ham sandwich or something). So we went to find the Mona Lisa, saw that (they've given up on the no cameras rule that they had the last time I was here, in the Mona Lisa room). Then we went through some French paintings, which were cool, because some of them I actually knew about from our art class.

Then we went outside, because the olympic torch was going to pass by the Louvre! We got out way early though. We chilled on the street for a while, and then all of these Gendarmerie vans pulled up, so we got all ready. But it became apparent the the torch still wouldn't be here for a while. We spent a ton of time taking pictures of the Gendarmes (seriously, I want to be one. Or at least have their uniforme. It's freakin' sweet. Their vests have about a million pockets, and they have shin guards, and crazy arm things, and sweet hats.) I was super sketchy taking pictures of them, but it passed the time. Police cars and caravans would intermittently pass, raising our hopes. We probably waited for a good hour and then some for the torch, but it was worth it, and fun to see the gendarmes. I have something like over 50 pictures from waiting, and two of the actual torch. Oh well, a good time was had by all.

Then we went back in the Louvre, looked at some more paintings, and as we were leaving Anna saw someone she knew from back home, so that was a little crazy. And then I went home. Which I'm really glad of, because it's now raining a ton, and I'm glad I don't have to be walking back to my house from the Metro.

Sensory Overload

Yesterday, after class (where we went over a bunch of common grammar mistakes made by us students in our writing we did on wednesday), I walked along the Champs Elysée (pretty much the entire way) all the way to the Arc de Triomphe with a few people who hadn't been there. This time however, we climbed up. It meant even more stairs, but a great view of Paris (see picture above). And then we went on to Père Lachaise, a GIGANTIC cemetery, were we saw the graves of Molière, La Fontaine, Chopin, Delacroix, Bizet and a few other famous Frenchmen, among tons and tons of other super impressive tombs. Jim Morrison is buried there too, but we didn't have the time (or at that point the patience to find more famous graves.) The map that shows where the most famous graves are was off about a block of graves, so we would have to wander around the area a bit to find them, and often came upon the graves just as we had given up and were about to head on to another area. (This picture is from the top of this staircase looking over one area of Père Lachaise. It really is HUGE, as was the tomb we're walking next to on the left. No, it's not a wall, it's just the bottom of a giant grave.)
Today I went to Versailles with six others from my program. It was neat, but there were so many people! So that was exhausting. And there was so much-paintings, ornate doors, mirrors, chandeliers, beds, walls, ceilings, that it was really hard to appreciate anything, or stay too long in one room because of it. Still, it was cool to have been there. One of the things I liked the most was in Marie Antoinette's domain, which was the Queen's Theater. It was really pretty inside, and pretty much a little theater. And her garden was nice to walk around in. In fact, I think I liked the outside more than the inside of Versailles. (Also there was this little building in Marie Antoinette's domain (Belvedere) which inside looked just like the "I am sixteen going on seventeen" set from the Sound of Music, except there weren't benches all around. It was crazy. This next picture is in the Hall of Mirrors, and the one below that is looking over part of the gardens in Maria Antoinette's domain.
I guess the past few days haven't been too full of crazy stories, just some touristy visits, and lots of time on the metro. In terms of my family, I still don't spend too much time with the kids, but they continue to become super unruly when I'm around. Apparently they like me though...because my host mom told me that the other night when they were saying prayers before bed, and praying for their patron saints (I think, I'm not sure how that kind of prayer goes), but Maxcence, the 4 year old, added to the list "prière pour Saint Amy" even though there is probably no saint named Amy. So that was sweet.
Discussions at dinner also are sometimes entertaining. I spent probably 20 minutes trying to describe a fair/carnival that I saw in the Bois de Vincennes, but I didn't know any of the vocabulary in French, and my host mom didn't recognize any of the English words, so that was funny. Also, I really like when my host parents will tell me random information about Paris, or history, because it's often pretty interesting. My host father also pulled out some large books they have on Paris (with lots of pictures) for me to go through (on things like Castles in Paris, and a French art book). And even though they're not supposed to speak English with us if they know it, my host father likes saying various words or phrases in English, and sometimes tries to explain things or ask me things in English, and has me verify words. And speaking of dinners, the food continues to be great, and besides the bread and cheese course, there's quite a bit of variety-we had some sort of tasty fish dish last night, and quiche another, and lasagna another. Plus the salad is just a touch different in terms of ingredients each night, so that's nice.

Three Major Tourist Attractions, Two Carleton Students, One Day

The title is pretty much what I did yesterday after our first and only class of the day. We had five hours before a little reception at CUPA so me and Anna went first the the Tour Eiffel. We wandered around a little and then looked for lunch. We found a little grocery store where we bought a small baguette and some goat cheese, plus this crazy nutella snack and drink all in one sort of thing. Anything with nutella is fantastic, but it was a little weird to have juice connected to it. Still, it was tasty. I also hope I don't get sick of bread and cheese, because I sure eat a lot of it.

Then we took the metro to the L'Arc de Triomphe and wandered around there for a little bit, which was cool. All of these places I'd visited when I went to France with my high school exchange, but it was neat to be back. After that we headed over to Notre Dame, where I got to do something I'd never done: climb to the top. (It costs money, but we have CUPA ID cards that let us into a lot of things free, because it names us as L'étudiants de l'histoire d'art). Despite the wait and all of the stairs. (So many stairs!!! It was one long, never ending spiral staircase to the top). And despite being forced to spend 5 minutes (it was actually probably more) in the gift shop on the way up, the view was worth it. And the gargoyles? pretty awesome.

Then we had the reception, which was pretty much drinking some juice, eating some super tasty pastries and sort of meeting a couple of students at CUPA (which is the center for about 50 students from various US colleges, who are in Paris for the semester, and are taking classes in Paris universities).

That night my "parents" had a babysitter, so I ate dinner with her after the kids had gone to bed. It was slightly awkward. Half the dinner was spent in awkward silences, and the other making small talk about school, family and so on. But I also had dinner an hour earlier than normal, so I could go to bed a bit earlier. I got to sleep in this morning though.

Today we had one class in the afternoon, and it was a museum visit. Me and Anna decided to meet for lunch and wander the museum (Musée d'Orsay) for a little bit, because we would only be looking at specific rooms for our class, and not the whole museum. Lunch was tasty. (I think everything here is). I had an orangina, and then a sandwich with goat cheese and salmon (I wasn't positive that's what it was going to be when I ordered it, but I panicked at the last moment because I wasn't sure what to order and it was my turn...and I saw it had goat cheese, so there you go.) The Musée d'Orsay is a pretty cool museum. It's an old train station, so the interior layout isn't like your normal museum. There are a lot of sculptures, as well as a lot of super famous pieces of art. It was a long day though, and it was a little tiring to go back in and stand and listen to our professor, but it was interesting to actually hear more information about some of the pieces. Because for the most part, when we weren't with the class, there wasn't really a way to find out more about each piece, or what was happening in a painting. We'll be back at the Musée d'Orsay next week, looking at a different set of paintings. (Today was mostly neo-classicism and romanticism paintings). I'll have to go back again too because I have a short oral report on the gallery of photography there (which I looked a today and is all one guys work, and it's older stuff. So that should be neat to look at more in depth).

And that's pretty much what I've been up to. It's weird to have hit three major Paris locations in one day, and see so much in my first week here, and then realize I still have two more months. Of course, there's always things to see in Paris.

Ma Chambre et les Premièrs Cours

So, as per request from my mom, here are a couple of pictures of my room. One is from my desk looking at my bed, one is from my bed looking at my desk, and the other one is out my window at night.


Yesterday I slept in until just about 1pm. I set my alarm for 11am, but didn't really have the motivation to get out of bed. I had woken up at around 6am and couldn't fall asleep until around 8am. The day before I'd woken up at about 8:30am and couldn't fall asleep until about 9:30am. And this morning, when I actually had to wake up early, I woke up at about 3:45am and couldn't fall asleep until 6am (in the meantime I'd gotten up and checked my email, just for something to do). So that's weird. And annoying.

Yesterday was the first time since Saturday afternoon we saw the other students on the program. Which was refreshing, because it's hard speaking and hearing French all the time. We met at our professor, Cathy's apartment. I've discovered I'm good at figuring out the Métro, but once I get to the streets, I'm lost. I walked in a bunch of circles and probably took the longest possible way to find the apartment. Then, I got to the building and I thought she'd said the door was unlocked, but apparently it wasn't. So I called up to her room and she said (in French of course, and over those little intercom things) that she was on the right on the second floor). I thought maybe she'd come down, because the door was locked. Well, 2 other girls from my program showed up (and tried the doors too) and then some random old ladies just walked in and opened the door. So we'd been standing there a while, when the door was unlocked. I felt pretty dumb. I swear I'd tried the door!

Then we had an introductory class with Jérôme, our professor of Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Art. (I keep almost typing random little things out in French. I guess that's a good sign). I also discovered that a couple of people on my program are decently nearby, so we take almost the same métro route home, and it's nice to have company. By the time I got home, the kids had gone to bed, and I ended up eating with just Lorraine because Xavier was late. I had a pretty large meal (fantastic lasagna, salad, bread and cheese as usual and mousse au chocolat) but it was also all I'd eaten that day, besides some cookies and juice at Cathy's apartment. (I slept in until 1 wasn't that hungry, and left to get to the apartment just before 2).

That's the other thing I have to get used to. Getting up extra early so I can make the 30 or so minute commute to CUPA. I really like taking the métro though, and haven't gotten lost on the métro. The streets, yeah, but the métro, nope. C'est hyper chouette. Which brings me to today, the first day I had to leave early. My first class was the Art class and we learned about the origins of art in France, and mainly the role of the Louvre and how the Louvre evolved. Then we talked about neo-classicism and romanticism. The other class was the one taught by our Carleton professor, Cathy, where we discussed the first act of Le Misanthrope and read a poem. Nothing too difficult yet. (But we will have to do actual work besides reading...a 10 minute oral presentation about a contemporary artist that we were assigned, among other things).
In between classes, we had three hours. I got lunch with Anna (one of 3, sort of. There are 2 Anna's on our program, but also a Hannah, which is pronounced th same as Anna). And then we went in search for a place to buy a notebook, because I didn't have one. You'd be amazed at how hard it is to find something that simple. We walked all over, for at least an hour and a half and finally found a store. We also sat in the Jardin du Luxembourg for a little bit (where I took the picture above), and the sun came out, which was great.

After class I went running for the first time, and I ran around the lake in the Bois de Vincennes. It was super pretty out, and I also ran some along some random trails, but I didn't really know where I was going, I just wandered until I felt like going home. And now I'm writing this. Maxcence and Calixte came in and said hello (sort of. They made some faces and showed me the candy they were eating. and Maxcence talked really fast, so I wasn't entirely sure what he said. but I made some faces back. Then Lorraine came back and told them not to bother me. They're pretty loud kids too. Especially when they wake up, but I think that's good, because it helps me wake up.

I'll leave you with one last picture...On our quest to find a notebook, we saw this, and thought it was rather funny. Well, we thought one was kinda funny to see in Paris, but then there were two. (Also, everyone here jaywalks all over the place. If it's clear, it's fair game. I almost got run over by a bus today. But really, it's pretty safe, and convenient. Because who really wants to wait for a traffic light? Especially when you have somewhere to be in 5 minutes and you have no idea where that somewhere is relative to you.)