overview

After two weeks here, it's interesting to see how much I've already been influenced by French culture - I've started to accept things as truth that would have driven me NUTS at home. With Ben and his mom here, we got to eat meals at a lot of delicious places. They were shocked by the amount of time it took for each course to get there, as well as the check. I've learned to accept it. There's something I love about the long meals - or long afternoon coffees. It places an importance on spending time with those you're with instead of rushing through eating just to nourish yourself. I love this concept (though it may be me romanticizing bad service). My host mother loves to have little fetes (parties) with her friends all the time. A couple of times a week they all get together for one of these long dinners and many, many bottles of wine.
In more concrete details, I've been going out a lot and have gotten the opportunity to see a lot of Paris. Thursday, a bunch of friends and I went to our first discotheque - lots of fun dancing and loud music! Friday night we went to a concert of "yeahyeah", which was 60's inspired music. Totally different scene from Thursday, but definitely a fun experience. I'm trying to soak everything in. Saturday afternoon Alison, Mike and I got wonderfully lost after going to the catacombs which were cool but truthfully a little creepy. We walked around and saw some quieter Paris and sat at a cafe and drank tea/coffee and chatted for a long time. I said goodbye to Ben at dinner Saturday night, which was DELICIOUS.
Classes start tomorrow officially, so I'm about to hit French overdrive. Hopefully I'll be able to understand a lot of it...time will tell!

less talking more showing.

I feel a little david after dentist when I say: "is this real life?"

la vie en rose

Whew - time for a quick update (many photos to come, I promise). Ben, my best friend from home, is here to visit this week with his mom. I've been accompanying them on many of the popular tourist excursions. Tuesday, I met them at the Musee d'Orsay, which is a huge impressionist museum with all kinds of famous Monet/Manet/Van Gogh. Very beautiful and amazing to see all these paintings that you've seen your whole life in real life, as opposed to in a flat print. I remembered some of Van Gogh's work from when my family and I went to Amsterdam, but I sure appreciate it more now. Most of what I remember from before was losing a tooth on a very crusty sandwich.
Wednesday evening we went up the Eiffel Tower, which was also breathtaking (I feel like words are falling flat as I'm trying to describe all of these things). I got off the subway stop and started walking to meet them - very confused because I didn't see any large, metal object recognizable by most of the world - and then I turned a corner, and there it was. It was lit up and I could not stop smiling - as cheesy as that seems. Meanwhile, the street vendors were trying to bask in the glow of the tower's beauty by trying to sell me cheap baby versions. I warded off a lot of "Ciao, bella"'s with this new blank "do-not-try-to-talk-to-me" Paris stare I've acquired. I'm practicing it a lot. French girls provide a lot of inspiration. Anyway, the Eiffel Tower is incredible. I can't wait until it gets warm and we can picnic in front of it (oh, what a life I'm living). We then went to dinner and I got my first taste of a prix-fixe menu in Paris. Most restaurants have them - you get an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert for one price. They range from reasonable to excessively expensive, ours was very cute. There was a man outside the front door accosting people walking down the street and we got reeled in.
Today, I went with my school to the Centre Pompidou. It was, to say the least, the most bizarre museum I have ever seen. Their consistent collection was pretty normal - IES arranged a tour for 15 of us, which was very nice. I definitely learned to appreciate some modern art (yes, I now even understand the background behind the bicycle on top of the chair as "art"). Their current installation, however, was very odd. Very, very, VERY "modern". It was an all women's collection. Some of it was thought provoking, some of it was fun to look at it, and some was beyond my comprehension. Ben and his mom happened to be there at the same time, so we browsed together for a bit too. Overall these last few days have been a sweeping overview of what Paris is famous for. I can't wait to delve deeper and see what's hidden behind the masses of tourists. A bien tot!

ob-la-di ob-la-da life goes on

Just when you're starting to get down on your French skills, convince yourself that you cannot actually speak the language that you've been taking for oh, 7 years now, you have a delicious dinner in which you manage to communicate more than "oui" "merci" and "s'il vous plait". We had a delicious dinner of "raclette" - which is essentially melted cheese on potatoes. Our host mom, who seems to know what Americans will and will not like, tells us that "tous les Americans l'adorent [all the americans love it]." It's very snacktivity - you melt the cheese at the table on a funny little grill looking thing and put it on top of your potatoes. Also at dinner tonight was Mimi's ami Andre, who is hilarious and seems to have done everything imaginable - including sailing across the Atlantic. Good company, good people, and good music (The Beatles and The Rolling Stones). It was nice that my brain stopped translating everything into English and let me just understand it in French. The rest of today was pretty mundane. Class, course meeting, homework, etc.
Yesterday was a day of walking around. I met a couple IES people at L'Hotel de Ville and we stumbled upon not only great street crepes, but also awesome modern art juxtaposed with old churches and buildings all around it.

We then walked through La Marais, Hotel de Sully, a bunch of parks (all of which seem to have statues), down along the Seine and we went into Notre Dame. Notre Dame is absolutely amazing. Then again, most of the architecture in Paris seems to be that way.


Then I went to "un fete" with my friend Alison at her host family's (famille d'acceuil) house. We had la galette, which is a French tradition. The tradition usually happens around Christmas, but it seems to extend far into January due to popularity. The delish cake is baked with something in it (ours had little animals) and whoever finds it in their slice is the king or queen of the party. Alison was the queen twice. Overall, two good days.

the last few days

Though I've been here almost a week (weird), I'm still on a bizarre time zone. I'm sure once classes start / I'm on some sort of regular schedule, it will be better, but I constantly feel tired no matter how much I sleep. Friday and Saturday nights we went out to some hoppin French scenes and hung out with some new IES kids. We also got our first taste of pushy French men. Whew, good thing I've acquired friends who help me thwart their ever continuing advances. Thrilling as this is, it's more amusing to think about the mistakes I've made since coming here.

1. Preservatifs DOES NOT EQUAL preservatives. It's condoms. I wish someone had told me that.

2. Je suis chaud DOES NOT MEAN I am hot, it means come to my bedroom, I am hot for you (words of seduction).

(Luckily I made the previous two mistakes at our dinner table where Mimi was very forgiving. She finds me amusing and American like. In one case, I said that French food has less condoms than American food. In the other I basically said I was "hot" at night. Go figure.)

3. Just because you can get off a subway stop does not mean you can make your way back to that subway stop. However, getting lost in Paris is nothing to laugh at. Last night, we were walking back to our subway stop, got lost, ended up at the Louvre. This cannot be complained about because it was GORGEOUS. I want to do all my sight seeing at night.

4. Putting your hands under the table while you eat is not acceptable. The French view it as sketchy, because who knows what you're doing with them.

5. Smiling at strangers is not allowed. It just makes the sketchy French men think you're coming on to them. (With the first two mistakes, it would seem like I am...)

un peu.

des petites reflections on paris, part one:

1. the cost of living is exorbitant. though my mom says (don't worry, i bbm her all day every day) that it is because they consume less - and definitely less conspiculously, absolutely everything i buy is much more expensive here. including lotion, which has to be disposable because sometimes you run out.

2. previous statement excludes cheese, bread, and wine - all of which are available for less than 3 euro.

3. the only person who has been rude to me was we were walking down the street, our first 24 hours in paris, totally lost, and laughing about it, an american (or at least perfect, unaccented english) said "girls [which boils my grits to begin with.], if you want to fit in, you better talk quieter." which leads to...

4. people are very nice and impressed (for the most part) if you try to speak french. this includes: waiters at restaurants, homestay families, people that sell you french cell phones, and people on the street. does not include professors in our program, who think we speak too much english.

Some Problems.

The first night I arrived, we were discussing food/our meals (I get three dinners a week with my homestay mother), and it came up that on my form I was a vegetarian. When we were at the group dinner, the other homestay mom said, essentially, she was glad that her homestay student didn't have "that problem". Now, in Scottsdale and in Boston there are not only thousands of pseudo vegetarian options (I do eat chicken, turkey, and fish), but also many of my friends share the same eating habits as I do. Today at lunch they had the hardest time figuring out who the "vegetarians" were- some are like me and some are full fledged veggies - and couldn't figure out what to serve us. Our food came like 10 minutes after everyone else's. It was interesting to see the French servers balk at the word "vegetarien", like it was some sort of taboo. They're big on ham here.

But the events of today: Marissa and I got VERY lost on our way to the FIAP - an international center - this morning. We arrived very late, wet, and cold. It gets very frustrating not knowing where you are and constantly following other's directions, although already I know some simple things (like which direction to go on the 13, our Metro Line, and how to get home). Today was a placement test, cultural information, information on our classes / how to take classes outside of IES, and information on our trips. Yesterday we covered safety, how to get around, how to get a cell phone (I officially have a European number!), and hundreds of other details. It was a lot of talking at us rather than talking to us, lots of lectures in very rapid French. I'm mentally exhausted because it takes a lot of cognitive effort to understand even simple sentences. Our excursions - we get two included in our tuition - look very cool. Our options are Giverny, Reims, Chantilly, Normandie, Fontainbleau, and Vaux-le-Vicomte. I'm hoping to get Giverny and Normandie, but for Normandie there's a sort of an essay contest to see which 35 students get to go. It's a two day trip to a very popular location, so I think that's why it's very competitive. Today was a long day full of information (just like yesterday, and just like tomorrow), but I know it will get easier like when we settle into classes and some sort of routine.

EDIT: Amazing how a little alone time, a great meal, and a French person telling you you speak good French can drastically affect your mood. A little movie night tonight and I think I'll feel better!

The Real Deal

So...I'VE ARRIVED! Overall overwhelming. And extremely jetlagged. Heathrow was a NIGHTMARE, but I understand their concern for safety. I almost missed my connection to Paris because of delays, but luckily they let me go in the fast line. I think they though I was going to be a pushy American, but hey, I'm not going to complain about not having to reschedule.

Before I sleep (I took a nap this afternoon, too), let me tell you: the French know how to cook. Tonight for dinner we had soup (which I initially thought was the whole meal) and chicken and potatoes au gratin. Then, we had cheese and bread and apple tart. This was over the course of like, three hours. I've met so many people and probably spoken more French than I ever have in my life. I suppose it is good for me! My host mother is wonderful, very nice and relaxed. She speaks English well but is definitely forcing us (me and my host roommate) to speak French (though later in the evening she began to speak English...I think she could tell that we were getting tired). My house is adorable. Will post pictures once I regain my ability to think straight. Just letting you know that I'm safe, sheltered, and good gracious well fed.

The Beginning of the Beginning (and other B's)

Going abroad is not as easy as they made it sound when I first got to Tufts. There are applications, application fees, permission to study abroad forms, leave of absence forms, and transfer of credit forms to name a couple of the initial hurdles. But Tufts made it a cake walk compared to the French government. First CampusFrance, then the consulate...let's just say it wasn't easy. For those of you've spoken to me in the last couple weeks, getting my a visa was a process riddled with problems. Fortunately, it came in the mail on Monday. I got my host family and my host roommate, and IES (my study abroad program) has provided me with their "Welcome Packet." The real challenge now is in pack ing- no easy feat - and emotionally preparing - an even harder task (not to mention pick my boots up from the cobbler, call the bank, activate my phone service and a whole host of other "small" tasks). All together, I'm a both nervous and excited to get this show on the road! My flight leaves Sunday, so that's when the actual abroad portion will begin. It's very bizarre that the mythical study abroad is almost here. I've been talking about it for years now and well, here it is. I feel unprepared and overwhelmed (especially coming out of the best semester of college), but I understand this is normal.

I thought it might be nice for those of you in the US to read up on what I'm doing in Paris (I'm sure I'll be far too busy, important, and French to talk to any of you). In any event, it'll be good to at least have some sort of record of what I did for four months while I'm in Paris. Baguettes, Berets, and Bonjour are three of the time honored cliche versions about Paris - just as studying abroad in Paris is a cliche on it's own. All of this may be true, but I hope I'll get to know the city beyond just the cliches. Whatever ends up happening, I'm sure it will be a big adventure.

Au Revoir for now!