Today is the twenty-fifth day I've been stateside, and I realized that I never got around to writing that "last blog entry" about Paris. So I'm doing that now. This way, I'll have written 30 times, which sounds much more impressive than 29, and I'll also write lots of introspective, intelligent sounding things that I've pondered over the past few weeks.
First of all, I'm 21 as of yesterday. Which means I can legally drink, (again.) Which is nice, because being legal in France and then not legal for 3 weeks was really just a pain. And back to France...
I don't necessarily miss it. I was definitely ready to come back, and I'm glad I'm here. Though I've found that when I start talking to people who are going to Paris soon on vacation (like Jessica at work, or my friend Bobby at school), and they ask for suggestions, I get sad because I think I really should just be there to give them the grand tour myself. But alas, I no longer live a ten minute walk from Trocadero or Charles deGaulle-Etoile. I am a ten minute walk away from Coldstone, however. And the Millbrook Pool. Which is to say, my life remains glamorous.
Giving suggestions to Jessica and Bobby made me realize that I should really do what Maryse did on her Paris blog, which is write lots of thing that are good to do in Paris, and list them on my blog for all to read. That way, when people want suggestions, I can send them a link! My laziness is escalating to new levels.
Here we go. In no real order whatsoever....
things to do in paris:
-chill in luxembourg gardens. get amorino gelato nearby.
-picnic lots: Parc Monceau, Bois de Boulogne, Parc de la Villete, Buttes-Chaumount are all excellent.
-climb the arc de triomph at sunset
-explore la defense. its the opposite of paris
-go to the 20th. Metro Menilmontant. Coolest. Area. Ever.
-go to a jazz club
-have a party on a boat in the seine (thanks, sweet briar)
-velib across the city. go through scary traffic circles. generally live life on the edge.
-trocadero at night for eiffel tower light show
-see the pompidou center, the orangerie
-louvre on wednesday or friday nights (free on friday if you are under 26)
-get into, then over, the club scene
-train to Giverny, rent bikes, see monet's gardens
-eat baguettes as meals
...on that note, places to eat at/things to eat:
- A La Biche au Bois, 42 ave ledru-rollin (m: ledru-rollin)
- Cafe Dulcet, near Luxembourg Gardens (m: rennes)
- Macarons. LaDuree, Pierre Herme. Vanilla is so good. (m for laduree: st germain de pres-- m for pierre herme: concorde)
- Savory Crepes at Au P'tit Grec; Rue Mouffetard, 5th a. (m: place monge)
- Sweet Crepes at the creperie next to the Moulin Rouge (m: pigalle)
- Falafal at L'As du Falafal, Rue de Rosiers, in the Marais (m: st paul)
- Les 4 Freres, cheap algerian deliciousness (m: belleville)
- Pho or Thai in chinatown (m: tolbiac)
- The Wall, Rue Mouffetard for cheap drinks (m: place monge)
- Dix Bar for cheap sangria (m: odeon)
- Chez Elham for Persian food, near Centre Pompidou (m: Chatelet)
- Overpriced ice cream at Bertillon, anywhere on Ile St. Louis
- Almond Croissants, my favorite were at the lime green boulangerie across from metro censier-daubenton
Hm. I really do miss almond croissants. I had a croissant yesterday from Kayak's and it was a tragedy. Also, is it telling about me that my "things to eat" list is longer than my "things to do" list? All my money went to food....and that is sort of okay with me. I only wish I had taken pictures of more of my food, to commemorate the deliciousness. Let this be a lesson: take pictures of delicious food when the majority of your student loan is going towards it.
And on that uplifting note, I think it is time to bid adieu to this blog about Paris. I miss its delicious food, fashionable characters, haussmanian streets (& oodles of history!!), and obscenely efficient metro system. And life in one language lacks a certain degree of excitement and challenge that life in franglish provided. The good news is that I'm taking two 400 level french courses next year on 18th century literature and writing-intensive in french.
That's sure to bring back the good memories, right?
25 June 2010
24 May 2010
Twilight Takes Forever
I'm realizing this about Paris as I sit at my desk and look out my window, and realize its still rather light outside at 9:47 pm. I guess that is what you get from living this far north-- in the winter, the sun was only up til 4pm, now it doesn't get dark until after 10.
And if I want to be really deep and literary-like and introspective, I could start talking about how this time of day(night?) parallels my experience in Paris, and how I'm leaving in five days, et cetera, et cetera.
However, I'm really not good at being deep, literary-like, and introspective, or at least on this blog. Alas. So instead, I'll just fill you in on what I've been up to lately as the clock is ticking down to ze end.
I've seen a lot of modern things in Paris. Which is weird, because I've spent the past five months hanging around Haussman's grands boulevards and living in about as traditional of a french apartment as you can find (complete with Virgin Mary statue, not figurine, but legit was-formerly-in-a-cathedral-or-something statue). But I've found that the end of my time in Paris has been filled with the opposite: lots of adventures to modern art museums and hanging around/running to La Defense.
After my many modern adventures through Paris, Natalie Roman came to visit, and we frolicked and explored Paris together for the weekend. She was en route to Prague, which is super exciting. It is also cheaper than Paris. *Jealous...* Anywho, we did lots of touristy things, plus we went to a jazz club (it was alright, but not great) and an end-of-the-year-party my school hosted on a boat across from the Seine. The boat did not move, but it was a good time nonetheless, and Natalie met most of my program on day one that way. Overall, it was a great visit!
I also had a really adorable day yesterday when I went to the horse races at Longchamp with Jenny. We bet 2 whole euros on the "elite" race of the day- she bet on a horse named Sarafina because the name was pretty, I bet on a horse named Deluxe because it was from the US. In the end, Sarafina won, Deluxe got second, and Jenny won a whopping 40 centimes, which, when you convert it, will get her around what, 50 US cents? She can buy a whole gumball!
After our race track adventure, we meandered over to Bagatelle, this garden my host mom has been glorifying for the past five months as a place that I "absolutely must go to!" It was blah. Super french. Lots of roses. And irises. I took a nap, though, which was thoroughly enjoyable.
And now I have finals. Boo. I'm so over doing work, as you may have noticed from my various blog posts while I've been procrastinating throughout the semester (oops.). But I only have three exams, and will be done on Thursday! Then I'll be heading back stateside on Sunday.
It's very bizarre knowing I only have 5 days left here. Part of me wants to do alllllllll the things I wanted to throughout the semester that I never managed to do, but at the same time, I don't want to spend my last week just checking items off a list. So we shall see. I plan on enjoying myself, spending time with my friends, seeing the city, and occasionally considering studying. Wish me luck!
17 May 2010
La Semaine Derniere...
Okay, its been a busy past week, so I figure its time to update you/the world of my goings-ons. For starters, last Sunday I went and saw my first (only...) show in Paris-- LCD Soundsy
stem!! It was an amazing show, they played all my favorite songs minus one (sound of silver...alas...), and I was 2nd row. Always a good situation. I went with my friend TJ, who is a super-hipster, and was jotting down the set-list as the show went on and rocking out in his plaid shirt (he claimed it was gingham...apparently plaid is too mainstream now.). In any event, it seemed like a relatively normal show, minus the fact that some french girl brought a stuffed Kermit the Frog and handed him onstage during the encore. Everyone in the audience got suppper excited and was like "Kermiiiiiiiiiiit!" (note: the "i"'s convey their french accent.) Ah French people. What weirdos.
Moving onwards. I then had a busy week filled with homework and projects. I turned in a lit paper Tuesday, then gave a 25 minute speech on facism and a 5 minute speech on this building called the Castel Beranger on Wednesday. All of the above were unpleasant experiences, and my professor ridiculed me in front of my class after my facism speech for 30
minutes on all the things I did wrong. Good times.
Then my crazy week was over, and Rachel was in town! We did super touristy things, like the Louvre and the d'Orsay and the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe...but we ALSO went to the Pompidou Center, which I had yet to do. I discovered that I'm not so into modern art. I find it slightly ridiculous. In any event, it was good to explore something new in Paris!
We also made new french friends (!) when we were out at dinner at a jazz bar/restaurant in Menilmontant. It was a very trendy, young area I had never been to before, and two guys a table over from us started chatting with us. Their names were Brice and Vincent, and they are art students at Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Very nice and rather trendy characters. They came out with us after and when we met up with Christina and Jasmine on Mouffetard. All in all, it resulted in me and Rachel making fools of ourselves trying to speak french, which is always a fun time. I think they thought we were weird. Ah well. C'est la vie.
One other random moment of my weekend with Rachel is that I saw the drunken orange-clad teen brass band again! They were playing at Opera this time. Their real name is Les Plaies Mobiles. I feel like I am officially their fan now that I've seen them twice. Success!
Other than that, it's the final countdown of my last two weeks in Paris. I have 13 days left, as of today, and I'm definitely ready to head home. I have a lot of packing to do before then, though, and many things left to see. Plus, Natalie comes to town this weekend! And more adventures will ensue. I also only have two finals, and one more paper. Which is due...tomorrow. Excellent.
And with that, I'm off to be productive! Last assignment of the semester!!!
stem!! It was an amazing show, they played all my favorite songs minus one (sound of silver...alas...), and I was 2nd row. Always a good situation. I went with my friend TJ, who is a super-hipster, and was jotting down the set-list as the show went on and rocking out in his plaid shirt (he claimed it was gingham...apparently plaid is too mainstream now.). In any event, it seemed like a relatively normal show, minus the fact that some french girl brought a stuffed Kermit the Frog and handed him onstage during the encore. Everyone in the audience got suppper excited and was like "Kermiiiiiiiiiiit!" (note: the "i"'s convey their french accent.) Ah French people. What weirdos.Moving onwards. I then had a busy week filled with homework and projects. I turned in a lit paper Tuesday, then gave a 25 minute speech on facism and a 5 minute speech on this building called the Castel Beranger on Wednesday. All of the above were unpleasant experiences, and my professor ridiculed me in front of my class after my facism speech for 30
minutes on all the things I did wrong. Good times.Then my crazy week was over, and Rachel was in town! We did super touristy things, like the Louvre and the d'Orsay and the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe...but we ALSO went to the Pompidou Center, which I had yet to do. I discovered that I'm not so into modern art. I find it slightly ridiculous. In any event, it was good to explore something new in Paris!
We also made new french friends (!) when we were out at dinner at a jazz bar/restaurant in Menilmontant. It was a very trendy, young area I had never been to before, and two guys a table over from us started chatting with us. Their names were Brice and Vincent, and they are art students at Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Very nice and rather trendy characters. They came out with us after and when we met up with Christina and Jasmine on Mouffetard. All in all, it resulted in me and Rachel making fools of ourselves trying to speak french, which is always a fun time. I think they thought we were weird. Ah well. C'est la vie.
One other random moment of my weekend with Rachel is that I saw the drunken orange-clad teen brass band again! They were playing at Opera this time. Their real name is Les Plaies Mobiles. I feel like I am officially their fan now that I've seen them twice. Success!
Other than that, it's the final countdown of my last two weeks in Paris. I have 13 days left, as of today, and I'm definitely ready to head home. I have a lot of packing to do before then, though, and many things left to see. Plus, Natalie comes to town this weekend! And more adventures will ensue. I also only have two finals, and one more paper. Which is due...tomorrow. Excellent.
And with that, I'm off to be productive! Last assignment of the semester!!!
08 May 2010
"Craig, do I look like a prostitute??"
Last night I took a much-needed break from paper writing (kinda like I'm doing right now), and went out to a jazz club in the latin quarter with Craig, Abbie, and Christie. We were meeting at Metro Saint Michel at 10:30, and I got there like five minutes early, so I figured I'd just hang out near the fountain and get a crepe or something, because its a really busy, student-filled area that is normally populated by american study abroad kids and tourists.
I must have missed the memo that if you are alone at Place St. Michel on a Friday night, ever skeezy twenty-something there will try to hit on you. Or pick you up. Or solicit sex. Or something. I'm not quite sure what the deal was, but there was something afoot, and I continue to have no idea what it was.
So first this kid comes and asks if Place St. Michel was around there, or on the other side of the bridge, and I'm like "nope, your standing in it." He notices my accent, asks where I'm from. I say the states. He commences a solid three minute rant about how terrible the US is and how everyone just cares about money and work, yadayadayada. He exults the Italian lifestyle (he's sicilian), talking about how great it is that everyone in Italy is lazy. Weirdo. He then proceeded to talk about how he is an art student, and how I should go to his gallery show in a month, and how I could bring friends. I started saying how I had to go find my boyfriend, and he said I could bring my boyfriend too. Anyways, I escape the situation, chalking it up to a random weirdo/italian art student in Paris.
...And then, as I wait to cross the street, I hear an "Excusez-moi?". I turn and am like "oui?" And the guy is like "Ohhhh you aren't from around here! You have an accent!!" And in my mind I saw the whole situation with the creepy italian art student replaying itself. The new plan: escape as fast as possible. My response in french: "Yep, so I'm told. Good bye," and marching off across the street.
At this point, I've had quite enough of interacting with this weirdos at Place St. Michel so I decide I'll go walk briskly around the block to avoid staying in one place for long. And guess what? Yep, some random guy stops me to ask a question! I don't know why at this point I didn't just ignore him entirely. I think I was in a mild state of shock that such a thing was happening again for the third time in five minutes. So anyways, this kid introduces himself and is like "well, i'm about to go on a boat cruise of the seine with some friends, but i'd love to get a drink with you!" and all sorts of strange and obnoxious things such as this. And I once again say that I can't, that I'm meeting my boyfriend and that I really have to go. Nevertheless, he keeps talking. He says all sorts of really flattering things like "Your face looks funny when you talk, your nose moves" and "You don't seem to know a lot about French culture, do you know the secret handshake of provence?" (side note: what a suave character). So anyways, I have no idea what the heck the secret handshake of Provence is, so this rando decides he will teach it to me. After about three and a half seconds of him attempting to do this and hold my hand, I'd had more than enough. I semi-yelled at him that I didn't care about the Provence handshake, I didn't have the time, and that I really had to go. Au Revoir, Weirdo #3.
I continued to walk around briskly and tried to look as stand-offish and mean as possible. I may have succeeded because I was not approached again. My friend Craig FINALLY showed up, and I was in a semi-state of shock. I ran up to him and demanded "Craig, do I look like a prostitute???" (answer: no? why?). Story-telling ensued and I informed him of my eventful past five minutes.
I recounted this tale to my host mom today, and she laughed and said it was because I was alone and didn't have an ipod or a cigarette. I'll keep that in mind for the future. So I guess the moral of this story is to not speak to anyone in public places, to not give anyone directions, and to smoke lots of cigarettes?
Ah France. Only you would have such a moral to your stories.
I must have missed the memo that if you are alone at Place St. Michel on a Friday night, ever skeezy twenty-something there will try to hit on you. Or pick you up. Or solicit sex. Or something. I'm not quite sure what the deal was, but there was something afoot, and I continue to have no idea what it was.
So first this kid comes and asks if Place St. Michel was around there, or on the other side of the bridge, and I'm like "nope, your standing in it." He notices my accent, asks where I'm from. I say the states. He commences a solid three minute rant about how terrible the US is and how everyone just cares about money and work, yadayadayada. He exults the Italian lifestyle (he's sicilian), talking about how great it is that everyone in Italy is lazy. Weirdo. He then proceeded to talk about how he is an art student, and how I should go to his gallery show in a month, and how I could bring friends. I started saying how I had to go find my boyfriend, and he said I could bring my boyfriend too. Anyways, I escape the situation, chalking it up to a random weirdo/italian art student in Paris.
...And then, as I wait to cross the street, I hear an "Excusez-moi?". I turn and am like "oui?" And the guy is like "Ohhhh you aren't from around here! You have an accent!!" And in my mind I saw the whole situation with the creepy italian art student replaying itself. The new plan: escape as fast as possible. My response in french: "Yep, so I'm told. Good bye," and marching off across the street.
At this point, I've had quite enough of interacting with this weirdos at Place St. Michel so I decide I'll go walk briskly around the block to avoid staying in one place for long. And guess what? Yep, some random guy stops me to ask a question! I don't know why at this point I didn't just ignore him entirely. I think I was in a mild state of shock that such a thing was happening again for the third time in five minutes. So anyways, this kid introduces himself and is like "well, i'm about to go on a boat cruise of the seine with some friends, but i'd love to get a drink with you!" and all sorts of strange and obnoxious things such as this. And I once again say that I can't, that I'm meeting my boyfriend and that I really have to go. Nevertheless, he keeps talking. He says all sorts of really flattering things like "Your face looks funny when you talk, your nose moves" and "You don't seem to know a lot about French culture, do you know the secret handshake of provence?" (side note: what a suave character). So anyways, I have no idea what the heck the secret handshake of Provence is, so this rando decides he will teach it to me. After about three and a half seconds of him attempting to do this and hold my hand, I'd had more than enough. I semi-yelled at him that I didn't care about the Provence handshake, I didn't have the time, and that I really had to go. Au Revoir, Weirdo #3.
I continued to walk around briskly and tried to look as stand-offish and mean as possible. I may have succeeded because I was not approached again. My friend Craig FINALLY showed up, and I was in a semi-state of shock. I ran up to him and demanded "Craig, do I look like a prostitute???" (answer: no? why?). Story-telling ensued and I informed him of my eventful past five minutes.
I recounted this tale to my host mom today, and she laughed and said it was because I was alone and didn't have an ipod or a cigarette. I'll keep that in mind for the future. So I guess the moral of this story is to not speak to anyone in public places, to not give anyone directions, and to smoke lots of cigarettes?
Ah France. Only you would have such a moral to your stories.
06 May 2010
Procrastination...
Should I be writing the intro to my "Pie XI face aux regimes totalitaires" paper right now? Why yes I should. However, I decided that writing in my blog would be much more fun.
First of all, you know how I was like "good thing I got out of Greece, who knows what would have happened next!". Um yes. See here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/world/europe/07greece.html?ref=europe. So glad not to be in Athens anymore!
Second of all, the weather this week has ranged from being 40-55 degrees outside. Why, Paris, why, are you so confused? It is May. It is time to be warm. I've seen people wearing gloves the past few days. That is simply unacceptable. Fix that soon.
In other news, I'm currently trying to write two papers that are both due next Tuesday and Wednesday for my two classes at Paris III. One will be a 20-25 minute speech, and the other will be a 5-10 page paper. Glorious. I'm pretty sure I will not have a social life this weekend...alas. I AM going to see LCD Soundsystem, however, this...Sunday night I want to say? Or maybe Saturday? I'm really quite confused over when it is all happening, but in any event, it should be a good time. I'm most intrigued to see if concert-going in France is the same/different than concert-going in the US (Speaking of which-- got my tickets for Passion Pit June 23! If you happen to be in St. Louis, and like Passion Pit, you should come too!!)
I'm getting quite sick of academics here in France. It's weird seeing WashU people's statuses saying "One week left!!" I want to only have one week left of doing work! But alas, I have like three weeks left of things to do. It's really a good thing, because this way I get to have more time to see Paris and spend time in the city....but with the amount of work that I have this last month, its just so difficult to get out and do things other than homework. Harumph. The good news is that after my papers are turned in and my presentations are completed next week, I will have visitors coming in town that will keep me occupied and semi-force me to get out and see the city! Rachel is coming on Thursday and staying the weekend, and Natalie is coming the weekend after! It should be oodles of fun. I made a list of everything that I still want to do in Paris before I leave yesterday that is like 30 items long and will try to integrate these things into both Rachel and Natalie's visits. For example, me and Rachel are going to the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit at the Petite Palais (reserved our tickets and everything so that we don't have to wait in line for 4 hours!) Huzzah!
Anyways, writing about all the work I have to do and how I only have 5 days to do it reminded me that I should probbbbbably be doing some of that right now. So back to work! Only 5 more days until relative freedom, after which I will only have finals left!
First of all, you know how I was like "good thing I got out of Greece, who knows what would have happened next!". Um yes. See here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/world/europe/07greece.html?ref=europe. So glad not to be in Athens anymore!
Second of all, the weather this week has ranged from being 40-55 degrees outside. Why, Paris, why, are you so confused? It is May. It is time to be warm. I've seen people wearing gloves the past few days. That is simply unacceptable. Fix that soon.
In other news, I'm currently trying to write two papers that are both due next Tuesday and Wednesday for my two classes at Paris III. One will be a 20-25 minute speech, and the other will be a 5-10 page paper. Glorious. I'm pretty sure I will not have a social life this weekend...alas. I AM going to see LCD Soundsystem, however, this...Sunday night I want to say? Or maybe Saturday? I'm really quite confused over when it is all happening, but in any event, it should be a good time. I'm most intrigued to see if concert-going in France is the same/different than concert-going in the US (Speaking of which-- got my tickets for Passion Pit June 23! If you happen to be in St. Louis, and like Passion Pit, you should come too!!)
I'm getting quite sick of academics here in France. It's weird seeing WashU people's statuses saying "One week left!!" I want to only have one week left of doing work! But alas, I have like three weeks left of things to do. It's really a good thing, because this way I get to have more time to see Paris and spend time in the city....but with the amount of work that I have this last month, its just so difficult to get out and do things other than homework. Harumph. The good news is that after my papers are turned in and my presentations are completed next week, I will have visitors coming in town that will keep me occupied and semi-force me to get out and see the city! Rachel is coming on Thursday and staying the weekend, and Natalie is coming the weekend after! It should be oodles of fun. I made a list of everything that I still want to do in Paris before I leave yesterday that is like 30 items long and will try to integrate these things into both Rachel and Natalie's visits. For example, me and Rachel are going to the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit at the Petite Palais (reserved our tickets and everything so that we don't have to wait in line for 4 hours!) Huzzah!
Anyways, writing about all the work I have to do and how I only have 5 days to do it reminded me that I should probbbbbably be doing some of that right now. So back to work! Only 5 more days until relative freedom, after which I will only have finals left!
03 May 2010
Not So Smoot Sailing on Louis Cruises-- My Many Mishaps in Greece
I'm not sure why, but I can't seem to load my photos from Greece to my blog. I wanted to have photographic evidence of the terrible array of events that, when strewn together, comprised my vacation in Greece. Alas, no luck. You will have to make do with my stories. And oh the stories I have...
After all the drama concerning my flight and whether it would be canceled, I flew out of Paris without any problems last Sunday morning for Athens. I had a realization when I got to the airport that was basically the same one that I had when arriving in Italy, which was "Wait a second. I don't speak Greek. I can barely even read Greek." Nevertheless, I navigated my way through the train, to a metro, to my hotel, and met up with my friends (who had arrived the day before) for lunch. Athens was pleasant enough, besides the fact that our hotel was in the ghetto, there were strippers literally lining our street, and we heard women screaming in the middle of the night out the window. Excellent.
We woke up the next morning and headed off to the metro to get to Port Pireaus for the cruise. We realized we were running a bit late, but it would be okay, as long as the metro didn't take too long....screach. The metro stopped abruptly two stations away from Pireaus. Athenians all filed out of the train, and explained to us that the metro was under construction, and we had to wait for a bus, then take the bus to the next metro station, then get back on the metro. We didn't have that kind of time. We frantically searched for cabs, hopped in the first two we saw, and sped off to the Port.
Or we would have sped off, if we actually weren't caught in basically standstill traffic for ten minutes. We got to the port at 10:40, our cruise set to ship out at 11:00. We were freaking out. To compound the problem, our taxi dropped us at a completely different place than the other group's taxi. We jumped out, only to learn we were in the wrong place, then jumped back in a taxi for another half mile or so along the port, and sprint into the port's departures terminal.
Great sigh of relief. The other group was there, with Carol of Louis Cruises and Some Other Guy of Louis Cruises, who informed us that because of a violent port strike scheduled to arrive at our very location in about five minutes, the cruise's embarkment had been changed from Athens to a town called Lavrio. They hurried us into cabs to get us to "safety." I thought they were being ridiculous, until as we drove off on our hour ride to Lavrio, I saw a huge mob wielding banners and yelling a lot rushing towards the departures terminal. Anyways, after an hour in the taxi, we arrived at Lavrio and rushed onto the boat-- the last passengers to board. We went up to the buffet hall to eat underwhelming food and collapse into chairs, relieved that we finally made it. We noticed out the window a little tug boat that was pulling out ship out to see. It was having a hard time. We said it was cute and made references to the little tug boat that could.
The little tug boat couldn't. Obscenely strong winds prevented it from pulling us out to see for the next THIRTY SIX HOURS.....so we sat in Lavrio, and enjoyed our scenic view of an empty parking lot. We went to the Moonlight Disco that night onboard, which was frequented by Burlington, Vermont's High School Band. From the guest lists of Cab and the BC to the Moonlight Disco. Oh my, how far we'd fallen.
We finally made it out to see at 3pm the next day, but due to the crazy wind, the ship was rocking back and forth at an apparently unprecedented rate. Lots of green looking fat tourists and queasiness. No Moonlight Disco for us that night. Alas.
I won't go into details of the ongoing inefficiencies of Louis Cruises, but basically, they only compensated us 70 euro in boat credit for missing half the cruise, had rather terrible, bad-university-dorm-dining-hall-food, and managed to not have enough buses or boats for us to quickly leave the boat for excursions to the islands half the time. So our times on the were often short. In any event, while Louis Cruises sucked, the places we visited were fairly cool.We managed to pack four islands into the next two days-- Kusadasi, Turkey (not an actual island), and then Patmos, Santorini, and Mykonos.
Kusadasi is the site of Ephesis, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, and is the ruins of an ancient greek civilization. Quite cool. Patmos....I'm not sure why we went there. Patmos was sort of a joke. The brochure the cruise gave us described it as "A rocky, barren hillscape" and said "There's not much to see in Patmos." Then why did we go there? Oh well, we did, and we went to the "most popular beach" in Patmos, which turned out to be completely unpopulated and next to a goat farm. Private beach on the Aegean? Check.
The next day we went to Santorini. The cruise brochure described the options we would have to get to the top of the mountain: "You can take a cable car for 4euro, a donkey for 5euro, or walk by foot for 45 minutes on a strenuous uphill path you will share with the mules." I thought oh Louis Cruises, trying to scare the fat american tourists out of walking......and then we walked uphill for thirty minutes up a mountain, on a path we shared not only with the donkeys, but also with the donkeys poop, which was absolutely everywhere. And occasionally fat american tourists on donkeys would ride by, and we'd have to dodge donkeys and fat americans. Oh the joy. I'm told by others that spent a few days on Santorini that it has some great black sand beaches. I didn't see that part. Only the donkey poop.
We rounded out our cruise with an evening trip to Mykonos, which was the best island ever. We had an amazing dinner there, saw all of its cute shops and streets, and its famous windmills. We also arrived just in time to watch the sunset. Le sigh. Why couldn't the whole week have been like this again?
My last day in athens went splendidly, and I did lots of shopping, museum-going, and acropolis-seeing. A violent transportation strike semi-ruined my train plans to get to the airport the next day, but in the end it all worked out and I got there via bus. Oh Athens, you and your strikes.
Ps, those seem to have turned really problematic over the past few days. Glad I got out of there! Who knows what would have gone awry next??
After all the drama concerning my flight and whether it would be canceled, I flew out of Paris without any problems last Sunday morning for Athens. I had a realization when I got to the airport that was basically the same one that I had when arriving in Italy, which was "Wait a second. I don't speak Greek. I can barely even read Greek." Nevertheless, I navigated my way through the train, to a metro, to my hotel, and met up with my friends (who had arrived the day before) for lunch. Athens was pleasant enough, besides the fact that our hotel was in the ghetto, there were strippers literally lining our street, and we heard women screaming in the middle of the night out the window. Excellent.
We woke up the next morning and headed off to the metro to get to Port Pireaus for the cruise. We realized we were running a bit late, but it would be okay, as long as the metro didn't take too long....screach. The metro stopped abruptly two stations away from Pireaus. Athenians all filed out of the train, and explained to us that the metro was under construction, and we had to wait for a bus, then take the bus to the next metro station, then get back on the metro. We didn't have that kind of time. We frantically searched for cabs, hopped in the first two we saw, and sped off to the Port.
Or we would have sped off, if we actually weren't caught in basically standstill traffic for ten minutes. We got to the port at 10:40, our cruise set to ship out at 11:00. We were freaking out. To compound the problem, our taxi dropped us at a completely different place than the other group's taxi. We jumped out, only to learn we were in the wrong place, then jumped back in a taxi for another half mile or so along the port, and sprint into the port's departures terminal.
Great sigh of relief. The other group was there, with Carol of Louis Cruises and Some Other Guy of Louis Cruises, who informed us that because of a violent port strike scheduled to arrive at our very location in about five minutes, the cruise's embarkment had been changed from Athens to a town called Lavrio. They hurried us into cabs to get us to "safety." I thought they were being ridiculous, until as we drove off on our hour ride to Lavrio, I saw a huge mob wielding banners and yelling a lot rushing towards the departures terminal. Anyways, after an hour in the taxi, we arrived at Lavrio and rushed onto the boat-- the last passengers to board. We went up to the buffet hall to eat underwhelming food and collapse into chairs, relieved that we finally made it. We noticed out the window a little tug boat that was pulling out ship out to see. It was having a hard time. We said it was cute and made references to the little tug boat that could.
The little tug boat couldn't. Obscenely strong winds prevented it from pulling us out to see for the next THIRTY SIX HOURS.....so we sat in Lavrio, and enjoyed our scenic view of an empty parking lot. We went to the Moonlight Disco that night onboard, which was frequented by Burlington, Vermont's High School Band. From the guest lists of Cab and the BC to the Moonlight Disco. Oh my, how far we'd fallen.
We finally made it out to see at 3pm the next day, but due to the crazy wind, the ship was rocking back and forth at an apparently unprecedented rate. Lots of green looking fat tourists and queasiness. No Moonlight Disco for us that night. Alas.
I won't go into details of the ongoing inefficiencies of Louis Cruises, but basically, they only compensated us 70 euro in boat credit for missing half the cruise, had rather terrible, bad-university-dorm-dining-hall-food, and managed to not have enough buses or boats for us to quickly leave the boat for excursions to the islands half the time. So our times on the were often short. In any event, while Louis Cruises sucked, the places we visited were fairly cool.We managed to pack four islands into the next two days-- Kusadasi, Turkey (not an actual island), and then Patmos, Santorini, and Mykonos.
Kusadasi is the site of Ephesis, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, and is the ruins of an ancient greek civilization. Quite cool. Patmos....I'm not sure why we went there. Patmos was sort of a joke. The brochure the cruise gave us described it as "A rocky, barren hillscape" and said "There's not much to see in Patmos." Then why did we go there? Oh well, we did, and we went to the "most popular beach" in Patmos, which turned out to be completely unpopulated and next to a goat farm. Private beach on the Aegean? Check.
The next day we went to Santorini. The cruise brochure described the options we would have to get to the top of the mountain: "You can take a cable car for 4euro, a donkey for 5euro, or walk by foot for 45 minutes on a strenuous uphill path you will share with the mules." I thought oh Louis Cruises, trying to scare the fat american tourists out of walking......and then we walked uphill for thirty minutes up a mountain, on a path we shared not only with the donkeys, but also with the donkeys poop, which was absolutely everywhere. And occasionally fat american tourists on donkeys would ride by, and we'd have to dodge donkeys and fat americans. Oh the joy. I'm told by others that spent a few days on Santorini that it has some great black sand beaches. I didn't see that part. Only the donkey poop.
We rounded out our cruise with an evening trip to Mykonos, which was the best island ever. We had an amazing dinner there, saw all of its cute shops and streets, and its famous windmills. We also arrived just in time to watch the sunset. Le sigh. Why couldn't the whole week have been like this again?
My last day in athens went splendidly, and I did lots of shopping, museum-going, and acropolis-seeing. A violent transportation strike semi-ruined my train plans to get to the airport the next day, but in the end it all worked out and I got there via bus. Oh Athens, you and your strikes.
Ps, those seem to have turned really problematic over the past few days. Glad I got out of there! Who knows what would have gone awry next??
23 April 2010
Spring Break Week 1: Stranded in Paris
Dear Volcano,
You have tried to ruin my spring break. You shut down European air travel, and stranded Alec in Dublin, and thus put an end to my Switzerland plans. But aside from my occasionally freaking out when reading up on the latest flight information, YOU, dear Volcano, have not managed to ruin my Spring Break. I went to lots and lots of parks, and had innumerable picnics, and went to cafes, and enjoyed spring time in Paris. So THERE! I bet you are jealous, because you are stuck in Iceland, and I get to be here. Muahaha.
Love/Hate Relationship,
Colleen
(Pictured: Rodin Museum gardens; the girls stranded in Paris picnicking in the Bois de Boulogne; classy Thursday Tea Time at Two)
You have tried to ruin my spring break. You shut down European air travel, and stranded Alec in Dublin, and thus put an end to my Switzerland plans. But aside from my occasionally freaking out when reading up on the latest flight information, YOU, dear Volcano, have not managed to ruin my Spring Break. I went to lots and lots of parks, and had innumerable picnics, and went to cafes, and enjoyed spring time in Paris. So THERE! I bet you are jealous, because you are stuck in Iceland, and I get to be here. Muahaha.
Love/Hate Relationship,
Colleen
(Pictured: Rodin Museum gardens; the girls stranded in Paris picnicking in the Bois de Boulogne; classy Thursday Tea Time at Two)
18 April 2010
Eyjafjallajokull!!!
No, not jiberish. That is actually the name of the volcano that is raining on my spring break parade with lots and lots of volcanic ash. Europe is a no-fly zone, and airlines are losing $200mil a day due to the lack of business. All French airports were closed through today; now all Paris airports stay closed through the weekend while a few others in France open up tomorrow. I believe that the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, and much of Eastern Europe are still no-fly zones through Monday. My friend Alec is still stranded in Dublin, and will be at least through Tuesday. I think I may have to end up scrapping Switzerland plans (even though they are by train) because I may have to find an alternative way to get myself to Athens other than flight (like night train to Italy, then ferry to Greece), and this would take several days. Hoping that the airports open ASAP so that all will be back to semi-normal for my flight next Sunday, so that this doesn't need to happen. Basically, I'm currently really stressed out and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it....just wait, and see. In the meantime, I've been watching this drunken scottish man say e
xactly what i've been thinking:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/tweetmeme/youtube-sky-news-i-hate-iceland
Trying to keep myself busy in the meantime, though, which isn't too hard. I went to Giverny, and it was a lovely lovely day-- Brit, Briana and I rented bikes and biked the three miles from Vernon to Giverny. We explored Monet's gardens and house, then meandered down the road to the old Hotel Baudy, which is where a lot of the american artists stayed when they went to Giverny to paint with Monet for a bit. It was a very lovely day in the country-- it was so strange to have complete strangers sa
y "bonjour" to you as you passed on the bike path, or have a super friendly waitress who jokes with you have the time! Today, I did some research then went to Pere Lachaise with Brit. It was really quite overwhelmingly large, and we didn't have a map, so we basically just struggled to find famous people tombs for a few hours and only succeeded in finding Oscar Wilde's and Delacroix's. Then we went and met up with other friends in the Luxembourg Garden to enjoy the sunshine and rant of our hatred for Iceland for a while. Tomorrow, we are planning a picnic in the Bois de Boulogne, where we will rent canoes and explore! I guess life could be worse.
Speaking of, my host mom was so cute-- she told me that I could invite some friends up to the Chateau for the weekend, so that we aren't "stuck with nothing to do in Paris." I actually started laughing when she said that, and responded "Yes, because Paris is sooooo boring. Life is sooooo difficult being here!!" So I guess that if worse comes to worst, being stuck in Paris wouldn't be the most atrocious way to spend my spring break. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed because Greece would just be soooo amazing! Wish me luck!!!
xactly what i've been thinking:http://www.buzzfeed.com/tweetmeme/youtub
Trying to keep myself busy in the meantime, though, which isn't too hard. I went to Giverny, and it was a lovely lovely day-- Brit, Briana and I rented bikes and biked the three miles from Vernon to Giverny. We explored Monet's gardens and house, then meandered down the road to the old Hotel Baudy, which is where a lot of the american artists stayed when they went to Giverny to paint with Monet for a bit. It was a very lovely day in the country-- it was so strange to have complete strangers sa
y "bonjour" to you as you passed on the bike path, or have a super friendly waitress who jokes with you have the time! Today, I did some research then went to Pere Lachaise with Brit. It was really quite overwhelmingly large, and we didn't have a map, so we basically just struggled to find famous people tombs for a few hours and only succeeded in finding Oscar Wilde's and Delacroix's. Then we went and met up with other friends in the Luxembourg Garden to enjoy the sunshine and rant of our hatred for Iceland for a while. Tomorrow, we are planning a picnic in the Bois de Boulogne, where we will rent canoes and explore! I guess life could be worse.Speaking of, my host mom was so cute-- she told me that I could invite some friends up to the Chateau for the weekend, so that we aren't "stuck with nothing to do in Paris." I actually started laughing when she said that, and responded "Yes, because Paris is sooooo boring. Life is sooooo difficult being here!!" So I guess that if worse comes to worst, being stuck in Paris wouldn't be the most atrocious way to spend my spring break. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed because Greece would just be soooo amazing! Wish me luck!!!
16 April 2010
so, Iceland exploded....
Iceland decided to have a ginormous volcanic eruption yesterday. This is all well and good, but the natural powers that be could not have chosen a worse day to send thousands of tons of volcanic ash into the sky-- it was the first day of SPRING BREAK! So basically, everyone is trying to leave their part of Europe to visit another part of Europe, and anyone who was planning to do this by way of plane is royally screwed over. My host sister, Chloe's flight was cancelled to Scotland, so now she's trying to find trains to London then to Edinburgh that don't cost five thousand euros (which they all do at this point). Meanwhile, my friend Alec, who was supposed to fly into Paris today, is stuck in Dublin at least another day or two, though rumor has it that Dublin's airport will be completely shut down for five days. This would be bad, since in five days Alec and I have train tickets to Switzerland in four days. Eek!! If anyone has a small boat they would like to shuttle people between Ireland and Paris with, lemme know. We may be in need of such a thing.
Meanwhile, I've had a great week in Paris and plan on having an even more exciting weekend. I went with Sweet Briar to Matignon on Monday, which is where the Prime Minister lives! We saw him in the window, and we saw his small children playing in the yard (speaking of, quite a nice backyard they have, no? <-- ). It was soooooooooo cool. We sat in the conference room where all the foreign dignitaries (sp?) sit, and my friend Craig sat in the chair of the PM himself!! Cool, no? I thought yes.
And then today, seeing as I won't be playing tourguide for Alec, I'm going to Giverny with Brit and Brianna. We're training there, renting bikes, biking to Monet's house, and spending the day exploring the gardens and picnicking there. Should be absolutely lovely! Pictures to be posted soon! I'm also going to try to see tourist sites that I haven't made it to yet while in Paris this weekend. The goals are: Rodin Museum, Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, and Cimitiere Pere Lachaise. I can't wait!
Meanwhile, I've had a great week in Paris and plan on having an even more exciting weekend. I went with Sweet Briar to Matignon on Monday, which is where the Prime Minister lives! We saw him in the window, and we saw his small children playing in the yard (speaking of, quite a nice backyard they have, no? <-- ). It was soooooooooo cool. We sat in the conference room where all the foreign dignitaries (sp?) sit, and my friend Craig sat in the chair of the PM himself!! Cool, no? I thought yes.
And then today, seeing as I won't be playing tourguide for Alec, I'm going to Giverny with Brit and Brianna. We're training there, renting bikes, biking to Monet's house, and spending the day exploring the gardens and picnicking there. Should be absolutely lovely! Pictures to be posted soon! I'm also going to try to see tourist sites that I haven't made it to yet while in Paris this weekend. The goals are: Rodin Museum, Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, and Cimitiere Pere Lachaise. I can't wait!
13 April 2010
procrastination
I should be writing my paper on fascism in Italy right now. I should. But i am procrastinating. I really don't know why I am doing this, because the paper is due tomorrow, and I still need to write another page and a half, 1.5 spaced, and its midnight. But then I felt bad, because I haven't posted a blog in over a WEEK (because I've been writing papers on fascism and colonialisation, oh boy). Anyways, few updates for you for now, and more stories to come.... mostly, its semi-nice out! Hoorah! I went adventuring through the Jardin des Plantes for the first time like a week ago, and little did I know that it has a zoo with several thousand animals. It's 8Euro, but good to know that there is a zoo in the 5th arrondissement, no? Sidenote: there is also a FREE aquarium at Cite de l'Histoire de l'Immigration, which is out in the boonies at Metro Porte-Doree. 
THEN last week I had many a visitor! Joel Cohen was in town, staying with his uncle for the week, and we shopped and ate lots of food and all these things one days in Paris. During the weekend, there was a GENEVA REUNION in Paris, aka Caroline and Joey came to Paris to hang out for three days (51 hours, to be exact). It was absolutely amazing to chat with people from home and to reminisce about Geneva, Sue Khaleaiff and Alfies together. Furthermore, the weather was about as lovely as its ever been here, and we frolicked through parks for most of the weekend. It was most enjoyable.
My final comment for now is that I have tried to channel this upsetting "vampire diaries" addiction into something intellectual-- so I went out and bought Dracula at Shakespeare and Company, a bookstore along the Seine (right x from Notre Dame, rive gauche) that sells books in English. The store was AMAZING. It is really cute and small, and has tiny rooms packed floor to ceiling with shelves upon shelves of any book you can imagine. I just learned today that it was one of Ernest Hemingway's favorite places to hang out, and I can see why. Anyways, I need to get back to this paper writing thing, because when I'm done writing, I can read more Dracula! Hoorah!!
05 April 2010
Another Weekend in Paris
This weekend was the epitome of laziness. I did not do enough work. I did not go to the library. i did not run every day. I did not have too many cultural adventures. Instead, I was lazy. I ate lots of delicious food, I watched lots of Vampire Diaries (I know, I'm still upset by this...), and I went out to lots of swanky places.
But despite the fact that I became basically noctornal this weekend, staying out til 5am, albeit by accident, and waking up at 2pm because my host family wasn't here to judge, I still had a very french weekend I think. So here we go...
On Friday, we celebrated Kristin and Jasmine's birthdays at Kong. Kong is Carrie Bradshaw's (Sex and the City) "favorite" bar in Paris. It was...expensive. And tiny. But it was indeed swanky. We witnessed the employees (who were dressed in tuxes or cute dresses and heels, and occasionally danced on tables and couches with patrons) change the leather covers of all the couches from the "dinner" leather to the "nightclub/bar" leather. Sillyness.
From there, it was off to "THE" most exclusive nightclub in Paris, called The BC (pictured). I should explain what the BC is. It is a small, dark, pulsating box, filled with wealthy, attractive young Parisians, who are all spending far far farrrrrrrrrrr too much money on drinks. Christina and I tagged along with her French friends, thus got in for free, didn't have to spend a centime, and basically just danced all night. But this adventure to the BC got me thinking. It is tiny, and it is expensive, thus it is exclusive. I have come up with a new business venture. I shall paint a large cardboard box black, put in on the Champs Elysees, allow only 1-3 people in at a time, and charge 100Euro a drink. Then IIIII shall own the most exclusive nightclub in Paris. What now, BC??
Saturday night was a relaxing evening with friends, then Sunday night it was time for another grand soiree (we have Monday off of school for easter). After waiting in line outside (which was quite cold) for 2 hours, we discovered that we would not be able to get into Club Neo, (which we had already bought tickets for, mind you), because the Prince of Saudi Arabia had spent 22,000 Euro on Champagne, and basically bought out the club. Whaaaaaaaat a jerk. So instead, we had an American moment and literally ran up the Champs Elysees to get fried deliciousness from McDo before it closed at 2am. It very, very much reminded me of weekends at BD on the South 40 back in the freshman day.
Today I woke up to reality, and realized I had to do some form of work. So Christina and I peer edited our lit papers in the Trocadero gardens, overlooking the Eiffel Tower, and then I went off to research for another paper by scoping out memorials across the city. All in all, good day. And a good weekend. But alas, now the 4 day weekend is over, and it's back to class...
But despite the fact that I became basically noctornal this weekend, staying out til 5am, albeit by accident, and waking up at 2pm because my host family wasn't here to judge, I still had a very french weekend I think. So here we go...
On Friday, we celebrated Kristin and Jasmine's birthdays at Kong. Kong is Carrie Bradshaw's (Sex and the City) "favorite" bar in Paris. It was...expensive. And tiny. But it was indeed swanky. We witnessed the employees (who were dressed in tuxes or cute dresses and heels, and occasionally danced on tables and couches with patrons) change the leather covers of all the couches from the "dinner" leather to the "nightclub/bar" leather. Sillyness.
From there, it was off to "THE" most exclusive nightclub in Paris, called The BC (pictured). I should explain what the BC is. It is a small, dark, pulsating box, filled with wealthy, attractive young Parisians, who are all spending far far farrrrrrrrrrr too much money on drinks. Christina and I tagged along with her French friends, thus got in for free, didn't have to spend a centime, and basically just danced all night. But this adventure to the BC got me thinking. It is tiny, and it is expensive, thus it is exclusive. I have come up with a new business venture. I shall paint a large cardboard box black, put in on the Champs Elysees, allow only 1-3 people in at a time, and charge 100Euro a drink. Then IIIII shall own the most exclusive nightclub in Paris. What now, BC??Saturday night was a relaxing evening with friends, then Sunday night it was time for another grand soiree (we have Monday off of school for easter). After waiting in line outside (which was quite cold) for 2 hours, we discovered that we would not be able to get into Club Neo, (which we had already bought tickets for, mind you), because the Prince of Saudi Arabia had spent 22,000 Euro on Champagne, and basically bought out the club. Whaaaaaaaat a jerk. So instead, we had an American moment and literally ran up the Champs Elysees to get fried deliciousness from McDo before it closed at 2am. It very, very much reminded me of weekends at BD on the South 40 back in the freshman day.
Today I woke up to reality, and realized I had to do some form of work. So Christina and I peer edited our lit papers in the Trocadero gardens, overlooking the Eiffel Tower, and then I went off to research for another paper by scoping out memorials across the city. All in all, good day. And a good weekend. But alas, now the 4 day weekend is over, and it's back to class...
01 April 2010
Eduardo Tales Continued, and some street riots...
Ah, the bateaux-mouche. I survived. So did Christina. We survived. Which is always good. I guess overall it could be described as slightly boring, slightly awkward, and quite chilly. In this picture, you can see Christina, and the infamous Eduardo himself. Ah, Eduardo. I think it was about this time of the bateaux-mouche he asked us if we had found any french boys as of yet in Paris...at which point, we both tried to make it alllll too clear that we are not in any way interested in making french friends of that sort. Friends only, Eduardo!!! Nothing More!!!!!!
And then the week began, and I had visitors! The Rasich's were visiting Paris, and I showed them around the 5th a bit. I think they resented me because I made them walk more, after they had already walked a good 2 hours that day (oops....) But it wasn't my fault that we had to walk so far, because there was a DEMONSTRATION of sorts in front of the Senate, which is the way we were walking. Apparently, it was artists demanding more money. We'll get to that later.
That evening, SARAH COHEN and the cohort of cohens (and amy heard!) arrived in Paris, and it 'twas a GRAND adventure. We saw the Eiffel Tower light show, and seeing them be really excited about it made me appreciate it more-- normally, its just what I pass on the metro twice a day :-) We met up again on Tuesday, and ventured to Montmartre. The only bad thing about this is that we were then caught in a rainstorm, and got completely and entirely soaked. I then had to dash of to class and bid the cohort of cohens (and amy heard!) farewell, as they were off to Normandy the next day....Alas, my soaked jeans and soaked shoes and soaked soaks did not bode well for me. I then got very sick, which is no fun. What good DID come out of this was that I spent the next day in bed, far to exhausted to contemplate doing work, and mindlessly watching tv online. I caught up on this season of Project Runway...and...I am ashamed to admit...started to watch the Vampire Diaries. In fact, I may be waiting for episode 10 to load right now. Oh dear, this is bad news. *Face of shame*
ANYWAYS, my only other updates are:
1- I got a french haircut! And it was terrifying! I dont know how to say haircut-y things in French! My hairdresser thought I was an idiot!! Like really! And while my haircut turned out great, the color......scares me right now. It's not so auburn and more so...red. And the color keeps coming out in the shower. I don't think thats supposed to happen. I have strange and terrifying visions of my hair turning candy apple red. Eeeeeeeek. I shall keep you updated.
2- There are a lot of riots/demonstrations going on as of late, and all right around the vacinity of my school. I've seen two this week- the first was the artists demanding more money, and the second was the communist party and the illegal workers protesting...something? The moral of the story is that France really likes to protest things, but its not at all what I expected them to be protesting. More details to come on this thought process, but as for now, I'm fairly disappointed with France and the causes it demonstrates for. What happened to Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite? Hrmph.
And with that....back to Vampire Diaries. Don't worry, I realize how ridiculous I am....
28 March 2010
Springtime in Paris, and the Eduardo Saga
1- It is officially springtime in Paris! It is almost always warm, occasionally rainy, and perpetually pleasant. (Exhibit A: me and the thursday-afternoon atelier crew in Luxembourg Gardens, watching the boys make fools of themselves playing basketball). I'm enjoying it tremendously, especially since I can go running in shorts and t-shirts now! My run yesterday actually reminded me of a gvxc river run-- I ran down hill to the river bank, along the river for a while, crossed a footbridge, and came back on the other side through a park. It was a whole lot like "stevens to fox river to footbridge to wheeler park," except instead of seeing the smelly fox river, i saw the Seine, and instead of crossing a footbridge by a water treatment plant, i crossed one by Napoleon's Tomb. So yes, i suppose they were semi-similar.
2-SPRING CLOTHES. I bought some. They are very Parisian. I also realized that some things here that are stylish might not be in the states. Dear reader, do people wear the following in the USA?: -navy horizontally striped sweaters or t's; -striped sweaters with bedazzled epaulettes, -jean shorts, black tights, black leather boots; -white, oversized t's with black graphic print and an oversized cardigan. Merci for your input!
3-The Eduardo Saga.
Okay, so Eduardo. On St. Patrick's day, me and my friend Christina went to an Irish pub called Corcroran's to meet up with her french friends. They were really cool and nice, but there was this one not cool, obnoxious, fat friend with them that I suspect they keep around to make themselves feel better about themselves. This friend is named Eduardo. He's portuguese and living in Paris. He's also old (24), and awkward. Anyways, Christina goes off to chat with her friend Luc for a while, leaving ME with Eduardo, who then tried to get me to dance with him (no thank you). He asks me what I've been doing in Paris so far, I list the long list of churches, monuments, and museums I've been to, and ask what he suggests....
Do you know what this guy who lives in Paris permanently suggests? The Eiffel Tower and a Seine boat cruise. No kidding, genius.
...Discovering that I have not been on a bateaux-mouche (boat cruise) in five years, Eduardo decides that he will take me on one. Oh great. I decide Christina's coming with me so that it isn't a date. After two weeks of "being busy" (which we actually were most of the time!!), we realized we finally have to suck it up and go on the bateaux-mouche with him. And so we shall. Today. GAH.
Wish me luck, dear readers. I shall be posting soon with updates on how me and Christina survive.
22 March 2010
Provence, Je T'aime...and then back to Parisian Reality
This past weekend was glorious indeed-- it was a grand Sweet Briar excursion to the countryside of southern France (Provence), and the group consisted of around 25 girls, Madame Gree (our lovely academic advisor), and a grand total of two males: Giles, our tour guide/historian, and Jonathan, who lamented his lack of Versace suit for most of the trip. Erego, it was pretty much a relaxing girl's weekend in the country.It was a curious adventure, and we saw a whole lot of ancient Roman ruins and ancient Medieval ruins, plus a wide array of farm animals. Like sheep, and horses, and bulls. Arles is one of the places in France where bullfighting is still allowed, and we saw the arena and many a toro in the field. The famous lavender fields of Provence were not in bloom, however, so we missed out on that.
My favorite site we visited was Baux-de-Provence. I do not know what that means, but what it IS is ruins from a medieval fortress-town-built-into-a-rockface. It was really cool to explore. It reminded me strangely of Anasazi cliff dwellings (can you see the resemblance in this picture? Eh, eh?), but the french edition. It also made me really want to go rock climbing. We climbed about and explored for a while, and it was absolutely lovely.
However, then it was time to come back to reality in Paris. It's started to get warmer, and sunnier, thus hanging out in the park by school with some gelato (Jardin du Luxembourg) has become the thing to do. For example, my afternoon consisted of: 1- Library, 2-Walk through garden, 3-Class, 4-Get Gelato, 5-Eat gelato in garden. A delightful afternoon indeed.
However, I'm beginning to worry about tomorrow, because it will be the first transportation GREVE (strike!) that I will have witnessed in France. The internet informs me that due to this strike, 2 of every 3 metro trains will be running, and buses will run at a "quasi normal" rate. I'm not sure what quasi normal implies, but I suppose I will find out!
16 March 2010
a brief literary exercise
Reading way to much Charles Baudelaire does crazy things to you. For example, I have written a Haiku to the Bibliotheque St. Genvieve, and I dont even write haikus:
Dear French Library,
Lets study together please.
Oh. Youre closed again.
In conclusion, I keep trying to go to this library and read this one book, but everytime I do, its either legit closed for the day, or the reading room is completely full and its closed for the rest of the afternoon. Boo, Bibliotheque St. Genvieve fail. Wish me better luck tomorrow at this!!
Dear French Library,
Lets study together please.
Oh. Youre closed again.
In conclusion, I keep trying to go to this library and read this one book, but everytime I do, its either legit closed for the day, or the reading room is completely full and its closed for the rest of the afternoon. Boo, Bibliotheque St. Genvieve fail. Wish me better luck tomorrow at this!!
15 March 2010
Found: Spontaneous Orange Jazz Concert
After getting cocoa with Brianna in a lovely cafe in the 5th, we
meandered towards the 1 Line so I could head home. En route, we discovered a spontaneous array of orange-clad teens, rather drunk, playin' some jazz. Got to love France, public drunkenness, and musically inclined teens. There were also adorable french four year olds dancing like mad to the music. I felt like it would be slightly creepy to photograph them, too, so i restrained myself.
In other news, Dayne just visited for the week and I had a most lovely time showing him around. He was my first visitor from home/WashU, and hanging out in Paris seemed curiously out of context. I'm used to us hanging out in Whispers or the DUC, not so much the Eiffel Tower or Montmartre! I switched in to tour guide mode, and we saw many a thing. In list form, our sight-seeing included:
Arc de Triomph, Champs Elysees, Place de la Concorde, Tuileries, L'Orangerie, Angelinas, Jardin de Luxembourg, CREPES! on Rue Mouffetard, Montmartre, Moulin Rouge, L'Opera, Food from the Former Colonies: Thai, Algerian, Pho, the Marais, Bastille, Montparnasse, Versailles (note emo mirror pic in Hall of Mirrors), the Seine, Invalides, Tour Eiffel!
Thus, it was a busy and adventure filled week and oh-so-much-fun! But now it is back to reality, after two weeks of vacations and visiting, and time to do some work. Like that literature paper thats due in a few weeks. Or the 45 minute speech on the Pope and Totalitarianism between the wars. Or that ten page paper on Paris and the Colonial Exhibition. I tried to go to the library today to research-- but alas, it was closed on Sunday. Darnit, overwhelmingly Catholic nation. You are messing up my study schedule!!
14 March 2010
Mi Piacci l'Italia!
A (Late) Recap of My Adventures in Italy:I arrived in Milan on Monday, after a 7-hour-long train ride through the alps. I had realized mid-train ride that I do not speak Italian, and that this may be problematic. In the end, it wasnt problematic, but slightly scary/limiting. I don't like not knowing the language! I couldnt say "thank you for letting me stay in your lovely home!" to Fede's mom, or ask a guy at a store how much things cost. Well, he probably spoke english, but its not the same!
In the end, I became sick of not knowing Italian, so I had Fede give me a few short lessons during our train rides to and from Milan. I can conjugate verbs in the present tense now, and know how to say things like "I would like THIS please!" and "how much does this cost?" which proved useful in Venice, when I didn't have a native Italian to order things for me and help me buy tickets and such.
My trip was amazing overall-- I met Fede's family, ate a whole lot of homemade Italian food (nom nom nom), ventured to Bergamo and Milan, and saw a lot of churches and museums. Bergamo was an amazing city to visit. It was divided between the upper and lower cities, the upper is old and medieval, and the lower is new and commercial. It was very interesting to walk around, and probably my favorite place I visited in Italy!
We also went to Milan twice, and climbed to the top of the Duomo, ate a lot of panzerotti (like doughnut bread, with cheese and tomatoes and prosciutto inside!), went to the Palazzo Reale, the Castel, andddd the Blind Institute, where we did this really cool blind-simulation-thing. It was an hour and a half in complete darkness, guided by blind people, where we got walking stick things and had to explore different environments ("city", "forest", "boat") without being able to see them. It was a really interesting experience, but slightly terrifying considering it was all in Italian! I basically clung to Fede for dear life.
After five days at Fede's, I headed off to Venice to meet Sweet Briar friends. Venice looked a lot like a Disney facade, but then you realized that it's actually real, and people actually do live there (strange realization indeed). The #1 tourist activity in Venice is to get lost, and I was really good at that. En route to the hotel, I got lost twice. The first time, I was helped by nice old Russian ladies (how did they know where to go??), and the second time, a middle-aged Venetian man was like "oh, im walking that way, i can guide you for a bit". Thennnnn he asked "can i see you again?" Awkward....
After successfully arriving at the hotel, I met up with Sweet Briar kids, and proceeded to get lost more in Venice, see San Marco's, avoid pigeons (difficult task), eat lots and lots of pasta and pizza, and visit the Doge's Palace, which was amazing. It was a good way to learn about the history of Venice, after my super touristy days there!
When I hung out with Fede's friends, they made fun of France a lot, and pointed out that Italians were nicer and generally better. While I certainly agree that Italians were soooo nice, and that Italian food was sooo amazing, I am still glad to be back in Paris-- its starting to be more of a home base now that i've been traveling more!
25 February 2010
Obligatoire, Laique, Gratuit, et. Shady
Welcome to Paris III, fondly referred to by study abroad students and my host family as "the ghetto university." Cement exterior, neon-painted doors, and barely-functioning windows have never looked so good... If you are familiar with WashU, it is a lot like Elliot Hall, but on a more appalling, more grandiose scale. If you are not familiar with WashU, all you need to know to fully comprehend the degree to which Paris III is shady is that every day, I see multiple homeless people sleeping in the hallways upon entering school. Oh, bonjour.Being a "student" (I use quotations because foreign students are barely real students, since we don't take the final exams) at Paris III has made me realllllly appreciate WashU. Our professors are perpetually late (one is normally 20-30 minutes late, in fact), and oneeeee professor is particularly atrocious. Our first day of class, he spent the first 25 minutes (we timed it) ranting about how annoying American students are. Ah, thank you sir. I now feel so welcome.... He also likes to explain vocabulary that everyone (american students included) has known for years. Like what the verb "obseder" (obsessed) implies. Or what a contract is. Or a clause. Or what the cardinal directions are. I actually keep a list of unnecessarily explained vocab for that class. It keeps me entertained.
But once you get past these minor inconveniences of the Ghetto University, its overall not that bad of a place. My literature class is incredible and interesting and lovely, and the professor is a huge nerd who loves to talk about Baudelaire for three hours straight. I'm in another course called Europe et Ses Nations which is split in half-- half lecture (with the crazy old man that hates americans), and half presentations. I'm going to give a 45-minute-oral presentation on the Vatican's views on totalitarianism in front of my French classmates in a few months (oh boy!). And the french people in our classes are really nice, and I think that the professors are less mean when they critique us (study abroad kids) than regular students. Which is nice, I suppose.
And thus ends my informational segment on Paris III. Hope you've enjoyed learning about the deliggggggghtful place where I spend much of my time!
17 February 2010
Musings on Life, or "How I am similar to the family dog"
1. Parisian dogs are better behaved than their owners
Unrelated to the later part of my title, but a musing on Paris life nonetheless. The dogs in Paris are really well behaved. Most don't have leashes but stay right next to their owners anyway, never dashing off to chase a squirrel or runner (yay!). Sure they poop all over the sidewalks, but that isn't their fault. It is their OWNERS fault that their is dog poop all over the sidewalks. Little old ladies walking their small poodles around while wearing their fur coats and carrying their big Louis Vuitton bags do not carry pooper scoopers. Conclusion: Parisian dogs are better behaved than their owners.
2. Paris has lots and lots of decadent, over-priced dessert items
Hot cocoa at Angelina's, 7euro. Macaroons at Laduree, 8euro. Ice cream at Berthillon, 10euro. The experience of eating at all the exclusive dessert-related places in Paris? No, not priceless. It's expensive.
3. My host family tells me things about one another, because they figure I can't repeat it later.
In this sense, I am sort of like the family dog that everyone talks to and says things to, but figures it doesn't matter what they say, because it won't be repeated. So I learn things like "Martin is no good for Aurore," or "Alexia gained too much weight in Scotland," or "Chloe lacks standards when it comes to dating." There is family drama, but it is secretive, because they all gossip like preteens. I guess thats what happens in a house of three daughters, a mother, a female exchange student, and a female cat.
Unrelated to the later part of my title, but a musing on Paris life nonetheless. The dogs in Paris are really well behaved. Most don't have leashes but stay right next to their owners anyway, never dashing off to chase a squirrel or runner (yay!). Sure they poop all over the sidewalks, but that isn't their fault. It is their OWNERS fault that their is dog poop all over the sidewalks. Little old ladies walking their small poodles around while wearing their fur coats and carrying their big Louis Vuitton bags do not carry pooper scoopers. Conclusion: Parisian dogs are better behaved than their owners.
2. Paris has lots and lots of decadent, over-priced dessert items
Hot cocoa at Angelina's, 7euro. Macaroons at Laduree, 8euro. Ice cream at Berthillon, 10euro. The experience of eating at all the exclusive dessert-related places in Paris? No, not priceless. It's expensive.
3. My host family tells me things about one another, because they figure I can't repeat it later.
In this sense, I am sort of like the family dog that everyone talks to and says things to, but figures it doesn't matter what they say, because it won't be repeated. So I learn things like "Martin is no good for Aurore," or "Alexia gained too much weight in Scotland," or "Chloe lacks standards when it comes to dating." There is family drama, but it is secretive, because they all gossip like preteens. I guess thats what happens in a house of three daughters, a mother, a female exchange student, and a female cat.
08 February 2010
Well, it was only a little knife...
Today was my first day as an English Teaching Assistant at the nearby, ritzy, private catholic school St. Jean de Passy. Its a smarmy place that's the french equivalent of K-12 where the kids all wear designer things and the twelve year old girls have nicer boots than I do. (My ego continues to be on the decline).
I went early and met up with Monsieur Pelletier, the Surveillant for the 5th and 6th grade boys, which is basically like their guidance counselor and their dean combined. He explained to me that the class that I was in was the most notoriously "difficult" class in the entire school. Showing me a class portrait, he pointed out the two "really nice" boys that would be "my friends," and then about 8 that were "difficult." His finger rested for several moments on the photo of one young hooligan. This conversation followed:
M. Pelletier: If this one gives you even the slightest trouble, send him straight to me.
Me: Oh? Why?
M. Pelletier: He has been, how do you say? Ah, dangerous lately.
Me: * bewildered look *
M. Pelletier: Well, he brought a knife to school a month ago
Me: Seriously? In the States, he'd have been expelled for that!
M. Pelletier: Well, it was only a little knife...
Me: * incredulous face *
M. Pelletier: You see, he had a bit of a dispute with another classmate, but he was a lot shorter than the other boy. So he had to make up for the height difference in some way. He didn't really intend to use the knife or anything.
As I walked into the classroom ten minutes later, a frazzled-looking Math teacher was leaving. She looked at me and whispered "Bon Courage!" (rough translation: good luck/prepare yourself).
In the end, the class wasn't that bad. I just helped out today and watched as Mlle. Daphne Delfosse ran the class. She managed to retain control of the 10-year-olds. Next week, I start conducting english discussion sections on my own with half of the class at a time. Daphne tells me that last semester, they threw paper balls at the English Assistant, so to gain their respect, I should avoid smiling and make fun of them as much as possible. Gah. I can see an onslaught of paper balls and a knife-wielding ten year old in my future....
I went early and met up with Monsieur Pelletier, the Surveillant for the 5th and 6th grade boys, which is basically like their guidance counselor and their dean combined. He explained to me that the class that I was in was the most notoriously "difficult" class in the entire school. Showing me a class portrait, he pointed out the two "really nice" boys that would be "my friends," and then about 8 that were "difficult." His finger rested for several moments on the photo of one young hooligan. This conversation followed:
M. Pelletier: If this one gives you even the slightest trouble, send him straight to me.
Me: Oh? Why?
M. Pelletier: He has been, how do you say? Ah, dangerous lately.
Me: * bewildered look *
M. Pelletier: Well, he brought a knife to school a month ago
Me: Seriously? In the States, he'd have been expelled for that!
M. Pelletier: Well, it was only a little knife...
Me: * incredulous face *
M. Pelletier: You see, he had a bit of a dispute with another classmate, but he was a lot shorter than the other boy. So he had to make up for the height difference in some way. He didn't really intend to use the knife or anything.
As I walked into the classroom ten minutes later, a frazzled-looking Math teacher was leaving. She looked at me and whispered "Bon Courage!" (rough translation: good luck/prepare yourself).
In the end, the class wasn't that bad. I just helped out today and watched as Mlle. Daphne Delfosse ran the class. She managed to retain control of the 10-year-olds. Next week, I start conducting english discussion sections on my own with half of the class at a time. Daphne tells me that last semester, they threw paper balls at the English Assistant, so to gain their respect, I should avoid smiling and make fun of them as much as possible. Gah. I can see an onslaught of paper balls and a knife-wielding ten year old in my future....
05 February 2010
Bonjour, Soleil!!
Without a doubt, today was the most beautiful weather I have seen in Paris to date. It was sunny all day, did not rain once, and was so warm that you didn't even need a scarf! Of course, it's Paris, so everyone wore scarves anyways.
Today was also filled with random adventures, which can be summarized by the following photos:
A behind-the-scenes tour at L'Opera Bastille, which is the more modern of the two opera houses in Paris. It is also the largest in the world. (oooh.) This is the statues that was a gift to the government that no one wanted, but they had to put it somewhere, so now its at the Opera Bastille. Cute.
Operation move-abby-and-christie-out, and celebratory lunch at Breakfast in America. We ate cheeseburgers!!!!!! It was a delicious celebration indeed.
Climbing to the top of l'Arc de Triomph (all 294 stairs) and seeing my favorite landmark (Sacre-Coeur) on the horizon.
Today was also filled with random adventures, which can be summarized by the following photos:
A behind-the-scenes tour at L'Opera Bastille, which is the more modern of the two opera houses in Paris. It is also the largest in the world. (oooh.) This is the statues that was a gift to the government that no one wanted, but they had to put it somewhere, so now its at the Opera Bastille. Cute.
Operation move-abby-and-christie-out, and celebratory lunch at Breakfast in America. We ate cheeseburgers!!!!!! It was a delicious celebration indeed. 
Climbing to the top of l'Arc de Triomph (all 294 stairs) and seeing my favorite landmark (Sacre-Coeur) on the horizon.All in all, in was a fairly glorious day. I also meandered about lot and took photos of the small markets and floral shops I saw...so there you go. Everyday life in Paris!
03 February 2010
PEANUT BUTTER
I found it. Then I bought it. And it was overpriced. Like 4 euro for a very, very small container. But the most important thing is that I know own my very own jar of peanut butter.
Then for dessert, i had a pb&j on a baguette, but minus the j and plus nutella. My host mom stared, aghast, and pondered how many calories I was consuming in that moment (but like actually, she asked me how many calories I was consuming in that one moment). Answer: lots. Do I care: No! It is delicious.
In other news, I had a strange realization the other day that I felt like sharing with the world. What I realized is that if you are not fluent in a language, you lack a personality in said language. I had this realization after going to Madam Hervier's (program administrator's) evening soiree. Her poor son was stuck as bartender all night, and under normal circumstances, I would have asked "So, how did you get stuck as bartender" or asked her daughter if she was being paid for offering everyone sorbet and such, but then I realized that I don't know how to say these things in French. I could say them in a really structured, formal way, but thats not what I'm going for. I'm trying to be normal. Alas, I do not think I'm destined to have normal, flippant conversations while in France. Not for a while, at least.
I might get over it though. If not, I can always drown my sorrows in peanut butter.
Then for dessert, i had a pb&j on a baguette, but minus the j and plus nutella. My host mom stared, aghast, and pondered how many calories I was consuming in that moment (but like actually, she asked me how many calories I was consuming in that one moment). Answer: lots. Do I care: No! It is delicious.
In other news, I had a strange realization the other day that I felt like sharing with the world. What I realized is that if you are not fluent in a language, you lack a personality in said language. I had this realization after going to Madam Hervier's (program administrator's) evening soiree. Her poor son was stuck as bartender all night, and under normal circumstances, I would have asked "So, how did you get stuck as bartender" or asked her daughter if she was being paid for offering everyone sorbet and such, but then I realized that I don't know how to say these things in French. I could say them in a really structured, formal way, but thats not what I'm going for. I'm trying to be normal. Alas, I do not think I'm destined to have normal, flippant conversations while in France. Not for a while, at least.
I might get over it though. If not, I can always drown my sorrows in peanut butter.
27 January 2010
Enchantee?
It is an incontestable fact that life in Paris is wonderful. Walking down the streets, I'm tempted to take pictures of every building I see (then realize that would be a bit excessive). I stumble across monuments on my way to class or to hot cocoa. Aside: hot cocoa is amazing here. When I have a few free hours after class, I head over to the Louvre to check out the Sully wing (for free). Everyday, there are new people to meet, new places to go, new things to see. For all intents and purposes, this city + me = love.
So it was surprising when my lovely, idyllic Parisian life became slightly terrifying on an excursion to St. Denis today. St. Denis is north of the city, and, if wikipedia is to be trusted, has one of the most "infamous crime rates in the country." My professor failed to mention that before he said "meet at the st. denis basilica in an hour." So there we were, getting some sandwiches and crepes in this very public, very sunny, very normal plaza, when all of a sudden there was a RUCUS. And 6 guys were going after this girls' purse fifteen feet away. And then they got it, and ran! Then a vigiliante hero CHASED them, got the purse back, but then they started kicking him! In the end, the purse was recovered, the delinquent banlieusards fled, and the heroic man had a large gash across his forehead and mad karma points. I don't really know what to make of the whole debacle, but it was certainly eye-opening, and taught me to wikipedia search northern parisian suburbs before going there on class fieldtrips.
Afterwards, in an attempt to put our minds at ease, a group of us went to Angelina's in the 1st. Angelina's has some of the best hot chocolate in the city (clarification: it is basically pure, melted, chocolate), and the 1st is probably the safest place you'll ever be. After, we ventured over to St. Germaine-de-Pres, which was lovely, and overall had a very safe, serene, and calming afternoon.
So overall, Paris has been delightful, and up to today, sublime. The crazyness of St. Denis just knocked it down a level to being semi-real again.
So it was surprising when my lovely, idyllic Parisian life became slightly terrifying on an excursion to St. Denis today. St. Denis is north of the city, and, if wikipedia is to be trusted, has one of the most "infamous crime rates in the country." My professor failed to mention that before he said "meet at the st. denis basilica in an hour." So there we were, getting some sandwiches and crepes in this very public, very sunny, very normal plaza, when all of a sudden there was a RUCUS. And 6 guys were going after this girls' purse fifteen feet away. And then they got it, and ran! Then a vigiliante hero CHASED them, got the purse back, but then they started kicking him! In the end, the purse was recovered, the delinquent banlieusards fled, and the heroic man had a large gash across his forehead and mad karma points. I don't really know what to make of the whole debacle, but it was certainly eye-opening, and taught me to wikipedia search northern parisian suburbs before going there on class fieldtrips.
Afterwards, in an attempt to put our minds at ease, a group of us went to Angelina's in the 1st. Angelina's has some of the best hot chocolate in the city (clarification: it is basically pure, melted, chocolate), and the 1st is probably the safest place you'll ever be. After, we ventured over to St. Germaine-de-Pres, which was lovely, and overall had a very safe, serene, and calming afternoon.
So overall, Paris has been delightful, and up to today, sublime. The crazyness of St. Denis just knocked it down a level to being semi-real again.
19 January 2010
bonjour, paris
bonjour paris. and bonjour, blog. i've never made one of these blog things before. they are very strange to me. but i will do my best to write in it (occassionally) and make it look pretty (always).
right now, im in the mood to list things. and i suspect that in blogs, you are supposed to do whatever you feel like. so here go the lists:
things i thought i escaped in the us (but didnt):
-uggs
-starbucks (a block away)
-subway
-dominoes pizza (apparently popular here???)
places i've been over the past few days...
saturday: meandering through the 16th
sunday: eiffel tower, place de trocadero, 16th
monday: 7th, eiffel tower, les invalides, l'ecole militaire, sweet briar, l'institut catholique, le marais, the 5th
tuesday: sweet briar, latin quarter, jardin du luxembourg, l'institut du monde arabe
i apologize for this first-blog fail. perhaps i will improve in the future.
a bientot!
right now, im in the mood to list things. and i suspect that in blogs, you are supposed to do whatever you feel like. so here go the lists:
things i thought i escaped in the us (but didnt):
-uggs
-starbucks (a block away)
-subway
-dominoes pizza (apparently popular here???)
places i've been over the past few days...
saturday: meandering through the 16th
sunday: eiffel tower, place de trocadero, 16th
monday: 7th, eiffel tower, les invalides, l'ecole militaire, sweet briar, l'institut catholique, le marais, the 5th
tuesday: sweet briar, latin quarter, jardin du luxembourg, l'institut du monde arabe
i apologize for this first-blog fail. perhaps i will improve in the future.
a bientot!
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