So much has happened!

Sorry I haven't written in so long. I've been distracted by visits from the family and Taylor, as well as midterms.

Mom, Dad, Becky, and her boyfriend, Jake, arrived on Friday March 6th and were here until March 19th. A family friend, Cathie Smith, who's studying at St. Louis University in Madrid, joined us on March 7th and stayed until the 14th. My boyfriend, Taylor, arrived on the 13th and stayed until the 23rd. What a good two weeks (aside from not getting to see Annie:( )! They did the usual touristy things- Arc de Triomph, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, Notre Dame, Versailles, a Seine boat cruise (at sunset), etc., which my family had done before but Jake, Cathie, and Taylor had not. They also did some really cool extra things like the Paris Catacombs (all except for my Dad, who decided to skip that due to the fact that Rick Steves warned that it's not too comfortable for those over 6'2"), Cité des Sciences (a really cool science museum), Sacré Coeur, Les Invalides (the army museum and site of Napoleon's tomb), and Le Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.

While he was here, Jake fell in love with Danettes, which are little pudding-like cups made by Danon that come in a variety of flavors, my favorite being dark chocolate. Jake and Becky tried out the brownie and creme brulee flavors as well. We also tried some store-bought dark chocolate icecream, which was absolutely delicious. It was really fluffy, like mousse, and it had little chunks of gooey dark chocolate in it. Yum! Also, Jean-Pierre and Fanou gave my parents some of their favorite wines- Merseult white wine and a Cote du Rhone. I had originally asked Jean-Pierre to recommend to me what his favorite wines were so I could buy them for my mom as a late birthday present. Instead, he bought them for me, which was really really nice, but it put me out of a birthday present idea (anyone who knows my mom knows how hard she is to shop for!). I ended up buying an assortment of cheeses to go with the wines, which we tried the first night that my family stayed in the 17th arrondissement. I loved all of the cheeses (because I eat really strong cheeses with the Schumachers every dinner), and I know my parents and Taylor liked them with the wine, but Becky and Jake kinda wimped out. For all their talk about loving brie and good cheese, they just couldn't measure up.

We tried out restaurants, our favorite being La Varangue, which is near the Eiffel Tower and is run by Phillipe, an eccentric Parisian man who likes to be involved in everything going on in his tiny restaurant. The food there was pretty authentic French, even though Becky, Jake and Taylor got Italian plates. My host family also invited my family over for dinner one night, which was really fun but incredibly exhausting for me, the translator. The Nashes and Taylor can say "merci" and the Schumachers can say "Are you fine?", but both families love to talk, so I got to do a lot of work. But I think it went really well. My family brought a really beautiful photo book of Austin and bread pudding, while the Fanou made an Alsatian beef and potato stew and a pecan and apple tarte and Jean-Pierre provided everyone with good champagne and wine. Taylor looked over at me after awhile and realized that I was the only one with food still on my plate, because I was so busy translating. At one point, I even turned to my dad and said something to him completely in French! Needless to say, I slept well that night, and all of my dreams were in French.

My family brought me some necessities- Girl Scout Thin Mints and Peanut Butter Patties and some meds. Taylor brought me some Ghiradelli caramel chocolates and Sour Patch Kids. I'm trying to eat all of these things slowly to make them last as long as possible. I didn't even realize that I haven't seen caramel-filled chocolate here, but now that I have eaten (most of) the chocolates from Taylor, I'm going to have to find some more if possible. Also, while Taylor was here, we found Bonbons. Every year the Westwood High School French Club would sell these little packages of chewy sugary balls that I have never had any where else. Taylor and I both loved these Bonbons, so he was really excited to see some in a vending machine (but oddly enough, only in the RER vending machines). We had to go to several places to actually find them, and the first ones we found would not come out of the vending machine. At long last, we got some, and they were totally worth it. Has anyone heard of these things?

The second week that my family was here (which was also the week that Taylor was here) was absolutely gorgeous weather. The trees were beginning to bud and I actually went two days with a sweater instead of a coat (which was only a good idea until about 4:30, but I was so excited to not have to lug my coat around that I just suffered through it). After my parents and Becky and Jake left, Taylor and I spent a fair amount of time walking around outside. We walked through the Luxembourg Gardens, which were full of Parisians taking advantage of the warm day and at Versailles we walked over to Louis XIV's Pièce d'Eau des Suisses (Piece of Water of the Swiss People- basically a big man-made lake) and just sat for awhile taking in the scenery.

Taylor at Louis XIV's man-made lake at Versailles

Also at Versailles, Taylor and I made a huge mistake. As one of our favorite snacks to eat in Texas is chips and hot sauce or queso, we decided to give Versailles' "El Rancho Tex-Mex" a try. We got the worst queso, chips and pina colada in the world. The queso was worse than Taco Bell's Nacos Bell Grande queso, and the chips were like the worst pre-seasoned store bought chips you could buy.

Nastiest queso in the world

I'm not a huge fan of pina coladas in general, but there was some confusion between Taylor and I and I ended up ordering one. Most digusting thing ever. It tasted rotten. We tried to eat and drink as much of the stuff as we could stand, simply because we had to pay for it. But we left a lot of it there. Moral of the story: the French can't do Tex-Mex. Now, one of the waiters at Chez Nous in Austin did recommend a place called Taco Loco that's pretty close to me, so I'll give it a shot. But I don't have very high expectations.

Midterms actually went pretty well. I didn't study as much as I thought I was going to (whoops), but I got pretty good grades on them, so that's good. I mostly studied on the metro on the way to and from school, so I didn't take much time away from being with my family and Taylor.

Needless to say, I had a wonderful time with my family, Cathie and Taylor. It was really hard to see them go, but it was really nice to show them my life here. They came right in the middle of my semester here, so it was really the perfect time to see them.

Since they've all been gone (Taylor was the last to leave and he left about a week ago) I've been trying to stay as busy as possible. Monday and Tuesday I went to my two hour Funk Jazz Hip Hop class, which actually takes up about three hours of time including transportation. Monday evening I went to my friend Cathy's homestay for a little birthday celebration for our friend Erik that was thrown by her host mother. I got to eat chocolate cake-a rarity. Wednesday evening I went with my friend's school group to a one man show called Je me souviens (I remember), in which the actor/writer talks about his life by starting every phrase with "Je me souviens". It's based on a series by Georges Perec which was based on an autobiography by Joe Brainard. It was good, but there were definitely some parts that the French people in the audience found funny that none of the Americans laughed at. It's always interesting to see the differences between French and American humor. We're just funnier, in my opinion :) It turned out that there was a restaurant downstairs, so my friends Sarah, Devin and I stayed for dinner. I had an avocado and shrimp salad that was really good. Afterward we got crepes from a street vendor- always delicious. Thursday I spent the day applying for a scholarship, so I had no time to miss my family and Taylor.

Friday I went to the Châteaux de Fontainebleau and Vaux-le-Vicomte with IES. There were some extra spots on this excursion, so my friend Nikki and I didn't have to pay to go on it. These palaces were incredible. Fontainebleau has 800 years of history and housed a whole bunch of French kings as well as Napoleon and Napoleon III. Napoleon I bade his troops farewell there before being exiled to Elba (which turned out to be a failure). It was big and really incredible. Vaux-le-Vicomte was smaller but overall more impressive. Unlike Fontainebleau, which is now in the middle of a village, Vaux-le-Vicomte is more hidden in the country. Tony Parker and Eva Longoria got married there two years ago, and I understand why. It is absolutely beautiful. It was built by Nicolas Fouquet, the financial supervisor to Louis XIV. Fouquet employed the architect Le Vau, the landscape architect Le Nôtre, and the painter-decorator Le Brun to design the place. These three did such a good job, and Fouquet's parties there became so well-known for their lavishness, that Louix XIV had Fouquet arrested for being too lavish. Louix XIV subsequently took most of the furnishings of Vaux-le-Vicomte (including all of the orange trees) and got the three designers to work on Versailles. Talk about jealousy.

Friday night I went to my friend Cathy's homestay again for a soirée de talent thrown by her host mother, Agnès. Agnès' house is like a hotel- there are always people staying there and eating there. Her first son, Vincent, is dating Agnès' first exchange student, Andrea, who lived there two years ago and who now studies clarinet at the Ecole Normale de Musique, which is actually a few blocks away from me. Vincent's cousin, Timothé, who is from the Alps and paints the outsides of huge financial buildings, lives there, as well as Cathy, who's sister studied in Paris with Andrea. Complicated. But there are always people going in and out of that house, and Friday night was no exception. Agnès just makes a point to get to know all kinds of interesting and talented people. There were several good piano performances, as well as clarinet, drums, guitar and voice. The final singer and guitarist were really incredible-like they should be professionals. We ate lots of good french food and drank lots of good french wine. It was such a cultural evening!

I spent the night with Nikki, whose parents arrived from New Hampshire Saturday. Saturday during the day, Cathy and I went to the Galeries Lafayette to take advantage of their sales going on right now. I bought a really pretty turquoise scarf and a white linen shirt. I just love the inside of the Galeries, but they were jam-packed. It was also raining that day and I had my bag full of over-night things, so I was weighed down. But I still managed to enjoy myself. Cathy and I went all the way up to the top floor to the terrace, which faces the top of the Paris Opera House. I felt like I could practically see the Phantom of the Opera staring back at me from behind a huge horse statue up on the roof of the Opera House. Creepy!

Last night I met up again with Cathy and Andrea, and we went out to a bar in Châtelet called the Hideout, where we met Erik, Timothé, and another friend, Matt, from IES. They played good music but the place was pretty packed and the bathrooms were disgusting (typical for a bar, I know, but this was particularly gross, with the urinals just thrown out there next to the sink. I prefer not to watch guys zip up, thank you). Because I listened to my friends' advice, I missed the metro and ended up having to navigate the Noctilien night bus. Thankfully, Châtelet is a popular area and almost every Noctilien goes by there, and there were Noctilien authorities on hand to advise people where to go. The authorities, dressed in neon vests, were really nice, complimented me on my French, and correctly advised me where to go (which is more than I can say for some of the people in neon-vests at Charles de Gaulle, who almost caused Taylor to miss his flight with their bad directions!). I had to wait with a lot of other people for a bus to finally come, but once it did, it didn't take long to get to my stop. I am going to try to not miss the metro anymore, because it's faster and takes me closer to my homestay, but at least I know how the Noctilien works now.

Today I slept- a lot. It was great! I tried out a new pasta recipe (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/rotini-with-salsa-di-limone-recipe/index.html), read a lot of New York Times, watched some Office, and read some French newspapers. I think I managed to get past the homesickness period pretty well by forcing myself to go out and enjoy Paris. Hopefully I'll continue to get out just as much as I did this week. I'll let you know!

Here are links to my photo albums (unedited) from the last few weeks:

March 8, 2009

March 20, 2009

March 24, 2009

(Semi) Normal Life in Paris

I feel like I don't have that much to write about because I haven't been traveling. But I guess I am in Paris, which is exciting in itself! Let's see where my thoughts about the past week take us...

In addition to the first Funk Jazz Hip Hop class I took last Tuesday, I tried an African dance class on Saturday afternoon and a Tzigane (gypsy) dance class on Monday evening. The African dance class was really great and really exhausting. When I arrived, the instructor told me I should let my hair down, because it would make me get more into the whole swinging the head thing. I don't know if she realized how long my hair is, but it was all over the place during the class. It was pretty funny, at least to me. There were two African drummers and an African xylophone-thing player, and the instructor (who is white, but possibly has spent some time in Africa?) got really into the music, letting out random sing-song yells. Ha I don't really know how to describe it all, but the fact that she was so comfortable with getting into the dancing and rythms and music made it easier for me to get into it as well. There were people of all ages there- a little girl and a older boy, as well as a couple of older men and women. It was really fun, but the problem with enrolling in it is that it is not offered at the best times for me. I want classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons, but this is only offered midday or on Saturday (which could interfere with traveling). The Tzigane class was for all levels, and I found it a little too slow-paced for me. The instructor (also white, but has definitely spent time in Romania) also got really into the music and dancing, singing along and just all around a good dancer. Tzigane is offered at good hours for my schedule, but I realized half way through the class that I could hear and see the hip hop class going on across the courtyard and I really just wished I was there. I took that as a sign and returned to hip hip on Tuesday evening, and I felt like it was really the class for me. I was less intimidated the second time I went, and so I was able to retain the combinations better and get more into the movements. I talked to the teacher (who is American) afterward, and she told me that it will be 320 euros for three months of unlimited hip hop classes. I'm hoping IES will go for it. I think they will since I'm pretty sure that's less expensive than having me in an academic class. We'll see, but I'm pretty excited about it at the moment.

On Monday in my 10:45am class on the European Union (which I have decided is my favorite academic class) I had to give a ten minute presentation in which I compared two articles on Barack Obama- one from the New York Times and one from Le Monde (most widely-read French analytical paper). I chose to talk about Obama's announcement to withdraw troops from Iraq and to deploy more troops in Afghanistan. I won't get too specific, but basically France is a lot more concerned with Afghanistan than are the United States, because France has no troops in Iraq and it has been against the War in Iraq from the beginning, but France does have troops in Afghanistan. Also, the French article focused a lot more on the shift from a military approach to diplomacy than did the American one. At the end of my presentation, I ended with a simple enough question: "What are the consequences of the affairs of Barack Obama in France?" No one answered (this is a class that should have a lot of discussion but not many people like to participate, which bugs me so much). Our teacher has a habit of calling us "Jeunes Gens," which translates to "Young people." He says this to us when he asks us a question and we stare back at him blankly. "Jeunes Gens" might be followed by "Where are you this morning? Are you asleep?" or something like that. So when I found myself in this awkward position, where the entire class just stared back at me like I hadn't even asked a question, I decided to give the phrase a try.

Me: "Quelles sont les consequences des affaires de Barack Obama en France?"
Class: Silence
Me: I rephrased it some other way, hoping someone might respond.
Class: Silence
Me: "Jeunes gens?"
Class and Professor: Laughter!

But still not response from my peers. Instead, the professor answered for himself. After awhile a few people put their two cents in, but I just don't get why people can't just say something! I don't know if it's because they hate to seem like a goody goody or they're shy or they aren't confident with their French or what. It's just annoying. Today we had a better discussion, though, so it might get better.

Friday night I was around to eat dinner with my host family. Fanou made an endive-and-goat cheese tartin (pie type of thing). It was good, but probably not one of my absolute favorites. I find endives to be very bitter, so I think I prefer them in smaller quantities. But still pretty good. For dessert, Fanou gave us dark chocolate Danettes (Danon makes dark chocolate pudding over here!) that she had bought for one of her grandsons, who only ate one. Yum!

Sidenote: this grandson, Pierre, is the oldest grandchild of Fanou and Pierre, and I think he's around 8 or 9. As soon as he walked in the door that morning and saw me, he gave me a big "Bonjour!" and came right over to me and started showing me his magazine with some shark vs. dolphin thing. We talked about the vacation he was on and when our birthdays were. He is probably the most friendly person I've met in France! I love welcoming experiences like that.

After dinner on Friday, I asked Jean-Pierre when the France vs. Pays de Gaul (Wales) rugby match was supposed to begin, mostly out of curiosity. He responded that it started at 9pm and that if I wanted to watch it, we could all sit in the living room and watch it. He normally watches sports games in his office, but that night we all sat around and watched the rugby game together. Jean-Pierre told us all kinds of little tidbits about rugby, none of which I can really recall right now. Wales, up to this point, was known as the best team in the Tournoi de Six Nations (Six Nations Tournament, which compromises France, Wales, England, Ireland, Scotland, and Italy), and was heavily favored to win that night's game. It almost came down to the wire, with Wales trailing by only five points and almost scoring another try (five points, plus the goal at two points, would have put Wales over the top). But France won, 21-16! It was really exciting, and I decided that I could really get to be a rugby fan if I was here long enough.

This weekend I spent a lot of time with my friends, two of whom had friends in for the weekend. Nikki's friend, Chris, studied in the IES Business program here a year ago, so he knows all these cool places to go. He took us to this sangria cave that used to be a bomb shelter back in the day. It was small and intimate and not very loud, so I want to go back soon. He also took Nikki to a cafe called Angelina, on Rue de Rivoli right next to the Jardin des Tuileries, which is supposed to have some of the best chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) in Paris (they're proud of it, too, at 6.90 euros for a pitcher that has about two cups in it).

Sunday was the first day of the month, which means free admission to Paris Museums. I went with Nikki, Chris, my friend Sarah and her twin sister, Dana (who is studying in London), to the Orangerie. There, we saw some incredible Monets, Renoirs, Matisses, Cezannes, Derains, Picassos and more. Then Nikki, Chris, and I walked over to the other side of the Tuileries to the Louvre. Finally! I can't believe I've been here over the month and I hadn't been there yet. We saw the Mona Lisa (of course) and the Winged Victory, as well as lots of the Renaissance paintings near the Mona Lisa, and lots of Egyptian and Greek art. We did a lot of wandering. Good day in total.

Nikki's friend, Chris, is still here, so Nicté and I met him at Angelina today and tried the hot chocolate, which was pretty good. I don't want to hype it up too much, because I have a tendancy to set high expectations that are subsequently not met. You will have to come to Paris and try the hot chocolate at Angelina yourself. After that, Nikki, Chris, Sarah and I went to see Milk, which came out in France today. Sean Penn deserves every accolade he has received for that movie. I didn't blubber like I did when I saw Benjamin Button, but I was equally, if not more, impressed with this movie. I did a report on Harvey Milk, the Twinkie Defense, the White Night Riots, and gay rights in the tenth grade, so I was happy to see a story that I know a lot about brought to life.

Monday night for dinner we had l'escalope de veau (breaded veal) as our main dish, with all the usual sides. Pretty good! Tonight for dinner we had saumon (salmon) wrapped in cooking paper with mustard and some spices on top. Fanou made it in the microwave. As a college student, I am definitely going to have to get that recipe!

My parents, Becky, and her boyfriend, Jake, are arriving in Paris at 9:40am on Friday. I am so excited! I can't wait to show them the touristy things we didn't get to see last time, like Sacre-Coeur, the Orangerie, the Marais, the Marchés aux Puces, etc, as well as the non-touristy side of Paris that I have been getting to know. My boyfriend, Taylor, arrives next Friday, and Annie arrives the day after that. What an exciting few weeks I have ahead of me!

C'est tout pour l'instant (that's all for now),
Ellie