an interesting week

This week my host parents' son and daughter (and their children) were visiting during the two week February vacation that young students get here. It wasn't bad, though we didn't interact with each other much. The little girl (Berthilde) loved the stuffed kitty that James gave to me and would always stop whatever she was doing and stare at me with a cute little smile on her face when I was near her. I don't think Pierre (grandson) was a big fan of me, but Timothe (other grandson) and I got along pretty well. The son and daughter were civil though not particularly friendly or inviting. The biggest problem was trying to share one bathroom with 6 other people.

Thursday the students were holding a strike due to a new program for teenage students to find work called the CPE. I figured a student strike just meant they wouldn't show up, but instead it meant they would barracade all the entrances and prevent anyone from entering. Eventually I found the small one person at a time pathway they allowed for at the main entrance, but you had to pass by a line of the protestors yelling things and shoving papers in your hands. Not a big deal, but a world away from the political apathy of American students.

Friday was the tour of "haut couture" - high fashion. It started with a little history of fashion accompanied by coffee and croissants at the cafe frequented by the fashion elite. We then went to see the original (flag ship) boutiques for Dior, Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Channel. It was definitely an area of life I'm not used to and I was suprised that the stores were dominated by American and Asian clientel rather than French. One American girl was walking around with her (I'm guessing) rich boyfriend in Channel like it was a Target. She announced to him in a ho-hum tone that she needed some sunglasses and started browsing through them - all of which where at least a few hundred euros. A few of us then went to La Duree tea house which Dr. Edwards had suggested for good reason. Their hot chocolate was so amazingly rich - like a bar of dark chocolate in liquid form. All of their desserts were divine, I especially loved the rose flavored whipped cream. I'm hoping to go back every now and then to pick up some macaroons and maybe a hot chocolate while I'm at it.

I started The Da Vinci Code Friday (in English, the cheater way) and finished it Saturday night - needless to say it was pretty much all I did in my free time those days. Saturday night we went out for fondue and decided dinner and desert fondue was too much so we opted for crepes for dinner and fondue for dessert which apparently isn't allowed here - you have to get both. Camilla and I were determined to get chocolate fondue though and decided to go to Haagen Daz for their fondue - several balls of Haagen Daz ice cream plus fruit, cookies and nuts to dip into a dark chocolate fondue. I'll post pictures later, but it was great.

Sunday I went to the Modern Art museum of the city of Paris (not the one in the Centre Pompidou) to do my art project. After waiting in a line that I didn't need to be in I get inside only to find out that I'm not allowed to bring my laptop with me to type up the report so I grudgingly leave it at the vestiare (it was safe Mom and Dad). I do my thing and go back home to type up the paper and my laptop decides that a little over a month of working is enough and refuses to boot up. Now I get to try to get tech support from Gateway while here in Paris, we'll see how that goes. I'm still waiting to hear back from my email...

Chartres Cathedral altar statue 

Chartres Cathedral stained glass (later period) 

Chartres Cathedral South portal (with fire damage) 

North side portal 

Chartres Cathedral "Black Virigin" 

Chartres Cathedral stained glass 

Chartres Cathedral choir screen 

Chartres Cathedral North facade windows 

Chartres Cathedral West facade windows with sun 

Chartres Cathedral interior 

Chartres Cathedral South facade windows 

Chartres Cathedral West facade windows 

Chartres Cathedral (front) 

Chartres Cathedral Royal Portal 

modern stained glass from the stained glass museum in Chartres  

Chartres Cathedral 

Week in review

Wednesday night we went to see the play that we had read for our Theater class. It was good, honestly better than the written version. The lead actress wasn't very good but I felt bad for saying so after discussing it with my theater teacher. She said she had gone back stage to talk to the actors and actresses and lead actress was bawling her eyes out - apparently the director had agreed with me that she hadn't done a very good job. Overall, good play.

Thursday was ethnic food night and the plan was to do Indian food, but upon seeing the prices of the Indian restaurant we decided Mexican was a better choice for that night. It was interesting how incredibly different the Mexican food is here compared to the U.S. They had a burrito on the menu, but even that wasn't your typical beef filled, cheese smothered burrito with a side of rice and beans. My meal was a semi spicy chicken kabob sort of thing. Good, but different and much more expensive than American style Mexican food.

Friday we had a tea party and watched The Usual Suspects, though I kind of ruined the tea part of the tea party when I brought to everyone's attention that either the cup or the tea had a hint of fish odor. I drank it anyway. We also found a store that was basically a large vending machine that had a mechanic arm that got whatever you ordered. I shared a coca blak with someone - a combination of coca cola and coffee - and really like it. It is a ridiculous hit of caffeine though, so I'm not going to be drinking it too much.

Saturday some friends and I got up bright and early to go to Chartres, home of a rather famous cathedral. I'm sure you'll notice the pictures - tons of stained glass, a beautiful choir screen, and 9 portals (which is apparently unique). It's been damaged by fire or lightning several times, as I tried to demonstrate in one of my photos. Overall the Cathedral was really beautiful and not done justice since I couldn't use a flash. We had a nice lunch and I tried tartare de boeuf for the first time (beef tartar - rare beef mixed with spices and a raw egg). It was good though I have to admit I didn't feel too great after eating it. After the Cathedral we had some time to kill before our train left so we found a chocolaterie and it was there that I discovered the wonderful world of macaroons. This place had about 20 different flavors including rose and violet and they were amazing. I think macaroons might replace nutella and banana crepes as my new food from Paris.

Sunday I awoke to hear running down the hallway. I thought, "no big deal, it's probably upstairs, I know they have kids". Then about 2 minutes later a 6 year old boy burst into my room carrying the cat and it was then that I remembered that the family was coming to visit. I spent most of the day trying to do homework while kids were yelling and screaming (playfully) in the background. I looked forward to meeting the other son and daughter of my host parents, but I'm not so sure that the sentiment was equal. They were nice, but throughout dinner they chose conversation that I couldn't possibly participate in (past family vacations, some political scandal in France in the 80s, French movies I hadn't seen, etc). It was somewhat nice to not have to support the entire dinner conversation but it was weird not being involved in it whatsoever. All I know is that this week with them is going to be interesting if nothing else.

Hooka Bar 2 (Rhea, Megan, Danielle, Amreen, Genevieve) 

Hooka Bar (Danielle and Amreen) 

coolest shoe ever (the platform yellow thing) 

Tiger at the Circus 

frozen fountain at Jardin de Luxembourg 

Birthdays and the Circus

Thursday was Bethany's birthday, so Megan decided to bake a cake for her and I went to help. Megan's host mom rocks and made me realize how I got screwed in the host family department, but I'm getting used to it at least. We tried to spell out "Happy Birthday Bethany" with nutella on the top (using the ziplock bag with a hole technique) but after the first two lines of the "H" the bag burst and we were only able to spell out H A P - P Y (the P and Y were below the rest since we ran out of room). It looked terrible but at least it was funny. Even though the food here is awesome I loved having an old fashioned burger and fries for dinner (we went to a place called "The Canadian Bar") and then after searching for a karyoke bar we ended up at the American Bar once again.

Bethany wanted a pirate themed birthday party, so Thursday night we all wore eye-patches that she had made and Friday we did a scavenger hunt. I ended up, appropriately, on Team Eh - so named because we didn't give a damn about doing the hunt really, at least not that day. I went to a movie Friday night and as I was walking out of the metro I heard tons of yelling and cars honking their horns. It was absolute chaos - cops all around and a ton of soccer hooligans since Egypt's team had just won. This celebrating went on for hours, it was nuts. Walking around that night after the movie there were still cars of Egyptian soccer supporters honking and yelling, and there was also a bicycle gang - they were on bikes that were made to look like choppers and one of the guys was towing a huge speaker that was blaring music from the back of his bicycle. It was pretty freakin amusing.

Today was the circus. I almost didn't go, but it was free since EDUCO was paying for it so I figured why not. We were definitely the only non-kid non-parent people there, but it was a good show. We weren't supposed to take pictures, but I felt I had to take a picture of the tiger (post pictures of that later). At the end of the show they announced that a week ago their trapeze artist had a fatal fall which explained why a clown did the trapeze instead - sad stuff. Now I'm chilling in a Haagen Daz that has free wi-fi and is open until 1 am - finally internet outside of EDUCO!

Paris 7 strikes again

I needed to change to a Monday night section of a class so I show up at the Psychology building (30 minutes away) and decide to look for the library that's supposed to be there. After searching the entire building for it I ask the receptionist, who tells me it's not actually there and gives me the correct address. It's only open 2 hours a day Monday-Thursday, so it was already too late to go that day. It comes class time and the class in the room I'm supposed to be in doesn't leave. I go back to check the class list and there's no indication that the time or room changed, but after waiting 30 minutes I decide it must have gone somewhere else because that class never left. Just when I thought that Paris 7 had gotten things straight they had to remind me how much they suck.

After 6 hours of class on Tuesday I was not ready to go to another 5 hours of class Wednesday but I did. The philosophy class could not hold my attention. Apparently there's a theme to doing classes here: Choose one big name in the field off of which to base the entire class. For psychology it's Freud, and for my philosophy of society class it was Marx. The combination of that and of classes consisting largely of the professor reading the text out to you is really starting to annoy me.

adding to the list of new things I've learned here:
making out in public and picking your nose (and eating it) in public is completely acceptable.

I really couldn't believe it when I saw an adult picking his nose on the metro then eating it. I thought this guy must just be weird. Since then I've seen about 3 other people do it, which leads me to conclude that it's just more acceptable to do things like that in public here, especially on the metro. I still thought that was something that kids do and eventually grow out of, but apparently not here.

adding to the list of stereotypes that are true:
everyone smokes

Chain smoking too. I've seen the same people smoking before a class and then again one hour later during the break, and then again one hour later after the class is over. It's the way to be social here, so I guess I'm just not going to find too many French friends. Either that or constantly be in the presence of smoke. I always end up smelling like it at the end of the day anyway so I guess I'm going to have to get used to it.

Weekend

Since I burned up my dad's battery charger I went to a FNAC (like a Best Buy) here to find one. I looked around on my own for awhile and then asked a very official looking guy where to find it. He told me to go downstairs, which is not at all where it was. I saw him later in a clothing store and realized then that he wasn't actually an employee. I went back upstairs and found the right guy to ask, and they didn't have any in stock so I'm waiting on an order which is going to cost me 40 euros, blah. At least I'll finally be able to charge my camera battery. Friday night I went to a Hooka Bar in a nicely decorated Indian restaurant. It was a nice experience though I doubt I'll do it again soon.

Saturday I did a lot of walking around and visited the Musee Picasso and the Musee de l'Homme. After the last museum I chilled around there (since it was across from the Eiffel Tower) and watched the lights go off. I asked my host mom if I could bring some friends over to watch Snatch (I brought it with me) and after some discussion she said it was ok. I later show up with my friends to watch the movie and she seems incredibly surprised that I brought friends with me. Maybe my French was bad but I'm sure I said they were coming. Whatever, we watched it anyway.

I slept in Sunday then went on search of an open Tabac (since everything is closed on Sunday). I found one and a McDonald's so I decided to try to use the internet there - most McDonald's here have free wi-fi. I found an unprotected wi-fi instead and used that, which was great until "the couple" came in. They sat in the corner and made out, loudly. I mean, loudly, like the noises people make to make fun of people making out - they were making those noises. This went on for AN HOUR. I couldn't deal with it after that so I moved and then I couldn't find the signal again. I just wish I could find a place that will always have internet for free since I can't have it at home. I will be so thankful for it when I get back to the U.S., that's for sure.

story tapestry in Reenchantement room (the letters spell out a story) 

swing in the "hybrid" room (surprisingly not part of the sex room) 

two pieces in the Deconstruction room 

sculpture of floating city with view of the white room 

Construction - Le corps d�senchant�

 

another view from the 6th floor of Centre Pompidou (Genevieve) 

view from the 6th floor of Centre Pompidou (Genevieve, me) Notre Dame is to the left 

Escalator in Centre Pompidou 

a look down the hill from Basilique Vezelay 

Basilique Vezelay 5 

view from the grounds of Basilique Vezelay 

Basilique Vezelay 4 

Basilique Vezelay 3 

Basilique Vezelay 2 

Basilique Vezelay 

Abbaye de Fontaney 10 (Bethany warming up by the heater) 

Abbaye de Fontaney 9 (Genevieve) 

Abbaye de Fontaney 8 (Becca, Stephanie, Allison, me) 

Abbaye de Fontaney 7 

Abbaye de Fontaney 5 

Abbaye de Fontaney 4 

Abbaye de Fontaney 6 

Abbaye de Fontaney 3 

Abbaye de Fontenay 2 

Abbaye de Fontaney 

youth hostel 3 (Megan) 

cheers! (left to right: Rhea, Danielle, Amreen, Megan, Genevieve) 

youth hostel in Dijon 

youth hostel 2 

wine tasting (in front, left to right: Becca, Danielle, Stephanie) 

Wine cave outside of Beaune 

stained glass from Hotel Dieu 

Polyptych in Hotel Dieu 

frozen fountain in Place de l'Estrapade 

Hotel Dieu in Beaune (Jessica, Christopher and Danielle) 

The American Bar (left to right: Genevieve, Megan, Amreen, Allison, Danielle, me, Stephanie)

Palais Royal metro entrance/exit (Jessica)

Madeleine 

Hotel des Invalides 2 

Hotel des Invalides (me)

Jardin de Luxembourg 2 (Pantheon in background) 

Pompidou Center tapestry 

host family's cat 

Jardin de Luxembourg 

bored...

I had class yesterday morning from 9-12, and 3 hours of class is rough even with a break. It was an ok class though and I loved only having 15 people in it. I tried in vain to find the library at Jussieu and decided I would go to Paris 1 to check on classes there and also find it's library. The library was on the 5th floor, and there was someone at the front desk who did not want to talk to me. I found a sign that said to go to the 6th floor to get a membership card, so I get back in the elevator only to discover that you can't go to the 6th floor. Honestly, the buttons go 4,5,7,8,etc. So I go the 7th and eventually find a staircase. I get to the 6th floor and try to the open the door and it's locked. At this point I'm tired of trying to get to the 6th floor so I continue down the stairs to the first floor and then notice that on the door it says it's an emergency exit only. I try every door on the way back up and the only one that opens is the 7th. I was just glad to find a way to leave so I get out there and take the elevator back down. I guess I won't be using the library at Paris 1.

I'm having a hard time entertaining myself here at night because it's too cold to go out but I don't have internet back home any more so I can't spend my time talking online either. I walked around last night but that only took 30 minutes. I've discovered spider solitare and played for 3 hours Monday night. At least I have tentative plans tonight after another 3 hour class. I'm hoping that it either gets a little warmer or that I get the internet or else I see quite a few nights of minesweeper and spider solitare ahead. I'm wishing now that my laptop was cool enough to support WoW...