Back to School!

Today I had my first day of school and it was very exciting. I didn’t think I was going to be nervous at all, but upon entering SciencesPo and seeing all of the real (French) students, I got a little intimidated. Thinking about it objectively, it seems kind of silly for me to enroll in one of the grandes écoles in France, take classes in French, and think I’ll be anything more than just a timid seat warmer, but I’m up for the challenge of getting engaged—and a challenge it is! During the lecture portion of my European Union class (which is what I had today), I could understand my professor and diligently listen, or take notes. However, doing both well simultaneously proved to be a bit of a challenge. The result was about 7 pages of notes I’m going to have to seep through and decipher. I think this will be good for establishing better study habits.

Furthermore, I’ve always had a certain degree of respect for international students at Berkeley, but now I have MAD RESPECT. Here, I’m not really on my own because there are TONS of international students and everyone speaks English. I can’t imagine how terrifying it must be for students who come to Berkeley and are confronted with a largely monolingual and incredibly assertive population of students and faculty. I will definitely appreciate these guys more when I go back to Cal.

In other news, I had a fun time this past week-end and bonded with some of the girls in my orientation classes. One of the girls hosted a wine and cheese gathering at her apartment on Saturday night, which was super cute. Friday, I saw the Wrestler which I give a BIG thumbs up. Go see it if you haven't already!!! Saturday during the day, I visited the Catacombes, the underground caves containing the bones of thousands upon thousands of Parisians. This was VERY CREEPY--like something out of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. I had to keep reminding myself that these were REAL BONES, and the experience on the whole was very cool/chilling/thought-provoking. Sunday I ate the best falafel sandwiches anyone has ever had, from a stand in the Marais (the fourth). If I weren't concerned about my waistline or my wallet, I could seriously eat these at every meal. Now, I'm looking forward to having a routine and excited to start school and continue with my classes.

Laura's Visit, Karma, And the Curious Case of the Disappearing Landlady

This past week-end, Laura, one of my sorority friends who is currently studying abroad in Sevilla came to visit with some peeps from her program. I've always known Laura is an absolute gem, and now I know she is an excellent guest/travel companion as well. Laura and I met outside of the Eiffel Tour on Friday, and walked around for a while sharing stories from our abroad experiences and then joined two other Chi Os who are in Paris, Chelsea and Elena (and Eleana’s boyfriend Matt) for dinner. That night, Laura was going to come out with Andrea, Tami, and I to a Canadian bar, but unfortunately one of her friends decided to join us and got pick-pocketed along the way so she and Laura had to go back to their hostel. As an aside to anyone coming to visit, purses slung over your shoulder which hang on your side/back and do not zip are a BIG no-no on Paris Metros, especially if you’re speaking English. It’s just too bad Laura’s friend had to learn that lesson the hard way. :( Laura was a big trooper about the whole thing, and her whole trip in general which doesn’t surprise me at all. We didn’t end up meeting again during her visit but I’m just glad we got to catch up when we did and I was particularly glad to hear that Laura is having an awesome time abroad too!

Laura didn’t end up missing out on much; I think we spent most of the hour at the bar warding off a French creepster who tried mulitiple tactics in charming Andrea, despite her assuring him multiple times that she had a boyfriend. I don’t think it helped that Tami and I were giggling the entire time, but from his rendition of Michelle, Ma Belle (Andrea gave the fake name Michelle), to the time when he screamed out “Top Gun”, busted out a motorcycle helmet, and proceded to belt out “Take My Breathe Away…”, we just couldn’t contain the laughter. It was a good opportunity to practice evading advances in multiple languages and our bartender gave us a discount on our drinks because she felt bad for us.

The rest of the weekend was fairly typical. Saturday night, a group of about 10 of us tried to go to a Senegalise restaurant, but after waiting for about an hour, Matt, Neema and I decided to find something else. Ironically enough, we got the call that the rest of our group had been seated right as we got onto the Metro. (Anyone else see that episode of Seinfeld where the same thing happens in a Chinese restaurant?) We ended up just grabbing some pizza instead, and then joined the rest our party posse (Andrea, Tami, Melissa, Rafaella, and Allie) for a night of dancing. Sunday, Matt, Neema, and I went to see Push, which everyone else had the good sense to skip. I would recommend renting this one, or better yet illegally downloading it, because although it does provide some good (unintentional) laughs and features Dakota Fanning, whom I absolutely love, it's a bit absurd...and not in the philosophically absurdist Coen brothers way, but in the "wait-is-this-actually-meant-to-be-taken-seriously?" kind of way.

This week I’ve found myself un peu malade with a cold, which was bound to happen—especially after gloating Saturday night that I’m the only one of our group who had yet to be sick. (Karma...?) I’ve just been focusing on getting well, and (of course) my orientation program. Orientation has been going super well so far and I feel like my French has improved more in this past week and a half than it did in the entirety of 2008. It’s also really wonderful to learn about French culture and politics in France in French.

In other news, Madame Labat—the owner of my apartment—has disappeared since Saturday. The only trace of her has been a wrapped pastry that I found on the countertop when I left for a brief spell this afternoon. Her bed is still made though from when our cleaning lady came on Monday and she hasn’t used any dishes since this week-end. Maybe I am actually living in a studio and just don’t know it?

All in all, this experience has been a very exciting time in my life so far and I’ve had a lot of realizations about my life. I want to be truly a “global citizen” and I’ve decided that I’d really like to work as a diplomat or in something like a multi-national NGO.

More adventures

Wednesday night was quite eventful! The UC Center had extended an invitation to a UC Alumni get together at a British pub in the 12^th to all of us students, and after internally debating whether or not to go, I decided it might be fun to talk to some ex-pats and find out their take on living in Paris. There was also the promise of free beer which sealed the deal. There, I met an array of really interesting people, including a recent Cal grad who recognized me from going to parties at his fraternity, a UCLA grad who came over to do his masters and has stayed ever since, a guy who recently got his master’s at Cal’s architecture school and works for a nonprofit that consults mayors on how to reduce poverty in their cities (so cool!!!), and a whole host of other people who were more of interesting characters than resources. I also got a few free pints of beer, so all in all I would say that it was well worth it.

After the UC alumni event, a group of us girls (and one brave boy who was right with us until the 20 euro entrance fee he was confronted with) headed over to my territory, the Champs-Elysées, to ladies night at a gay club. It was really fun to dance in a big group of girls and I was there for a very fun two hours. I left (relatively) early at 1:30 thanks to the exposée I was to give the next day, and apparently missed a couple of male strippers. Needless to say, this was quite an interesting experience. I think we’ll definitely be going back.

Yesterday in Methodology I gave said practice exposée, on whether or not there is a French model of integration. I sort of cheated in picking this topic, as I took an entire class about French immigration last semester, but it was still intimidating to speak in front of my class for ten minutes in French, and until class yesterday, I wasn’t sure how my professor—the son of Algerian immigrants himself—would react. I think it went over pretty well though and I’m just really glad to not have to worry about it anymore.

Last night, our UC party posse joined up with our Welcome Program for a bar hop in the Bastille. It was really fun to run around with my UC friends (as always) but it was also really nice to get to talk to some of the girls in my orientation group outside of the context of our classes. I also met some boys from Basque (which I correctly knew to be in the South of France, earning me brownie points…), Australians, more Australians, and a Canadian. I really enjoy meeting people and hearing different perspectives on a whole host of topics. I think I could dig living in a cosmopolitan city like Paris for a few years to graduate. I’m really getting into the adventurous and exciting atmosphere here.

Now, I’m off to methodology, and quite excited for the week-end ahead. A friend from my sorority is visiting so it will be so fun to show her around!

More pictures to come soon...

French People’s Favorite Expression Said by Americans

Je suis très désolée pour mon français. J’essaie.

(I’m so sorry for my French ; I’m trying. )

It works quite well if you’re ever in France. The French find this very charming.

In Brief...

Thanks to finally beginning orientation (yes, I am actually here for school), I’m going to have to be a lot more brief with these and maybe just point out some highlights of the past few days. So…here it goes:

• Saturday, February 7^th, I had some delicious crêpes followed by an evening of wine and cheese with a handful of people on my program at Andrea and Tami’s apartment. It was super fun getting to know each other better, and we bought a wheel of brie for only 3 euros. It was AMAZING! I’m definitely going to have to stock up when I come back to the States. (Pictured above are Andrea and I rocking ear muffs and matching bags and our initial wine and cheese spread).
• Sunday during the day, a small group of us visited les Invalides, a cathedral which contains the army museum and Napoleon’s tomb. Even in death, Napoleon was evidently compensating for his small stature by surrounding himself with extremely huge exteriors. His tomb is quite grand (see photo) and I found it (morbidly) hilarious to think about such a small man in such a large coffin. Rafaella and I decided he would have definitely had a Hummer.
• Sunday night, despite being pretty exhausted from the rest of the week’s activities, I mustered up some energy to join some of our group at a jazz club in the fifth and I was majorly glad that I did. Song-My, Ara, Matt, Neema, and some new French and Australian comrades had parked out in seats right in front of the band, and the very sassy Irish lead singer took the liberty of personally serenading each the girls in our posse. During one particular song, he even spent some quality time on Song-My’s lap—very embarrassing for her, but quite funny for the rest of us.
  
• Monday I had an information session at SciencesPo (in the 7^th), which again, was chuck-full of tons of data that I either had already read or could have easily looked up myself. I spent the entire 3 hours doodling, and I think I quite improved upon my sketch of a human eye.
• Today, I had my first real set of orientation activities at Sciences Po and began my two-week long Methodology and French courses. Both of my instructors are SciencesPo professors and they are GREAT. In my Methodology class, I learned that exposés, the oral presentations that constitute much of my final grade in many of my classes, are very similarly formatted to the extemporaneous speeches that I did in Speech and Debate in high school (well, except of course that they will be en français). Next, I headed over to my French class, which I have been petrified for ever since I found out that I was put in the level immediately before Fluent/Native Speaker. To my relief, many of the other students in my class were at a similar level to me and our professor seems extremely patient and helpful. I also have all of my orientation classes with Rafaella and Melissa which is wonderful, as they are both exceptional French speakers.

In general, I’ve had some really great conversations with my girls here over the past few days. I’m kind of getting the whole cliché about how an abroad experience is so “life-changing”, and I think it’s about more than just learning about another culture, studying in a different place, meeting new people, etc. etc. etc. It’s about taking a step outside of yourself and your life and it opens up a lot of time and capacity for reflection….and I’m digging it!

Yesterday I met up with Melissa and Rafaella by their place in the fifth and we decided the beautiful day merited a nice promenade through the city. We strolled through the fifth, seventh, and a bit of the fifteenth and passed by the garden of the Musée Rodin, where we saw The Thinker and nearly escaped The Gates of Hell, Les Invalides, which we had a hard time navigating our way out of thanks to a large, empty moat, and La Tour Eiffel, where we spent a good 15 minutes taking some obligatory photos of ourselves jumping. (See pics above for evidence.) When I returned home for dinner and to get ready for the evening, the owner of my apartment, Madame Labat, was initially disappointed to hear that I had spent the day with American friends, but changed her tune after I (truthfully) assured her that we had actually spent the majority of our day speaking en français.

On a side note, it’s great to have companions who are just as giddy about living here as I am because I don’t think my random outbursts of delight and squeals would go over quite as well with more nonchalant types…. Because, seriously, I still can’t believe I ACTUALLY live here!

Last night, the group of us UC students who had had dinner together, plus a few more (Ara, Matthew, and Song-My), got together at The Long Hop, a Brittish pub in the fifth. Thanks to the pub’s “student night” we enjoyed cheap drinks and a good DJ who played some familiar American pop, rap, and oldies. We all concurred that this will be a great getaway in about three months when we tire of European House music and just want a little Beyoncé in our lives. We left that bar at closing time and the more adventuresome of us (or perhaps the less prudent, depending on one’s perspective) made our way to a pirate-themed pub, Mad Maker, where we ended up joining a small group of locals and the club’s bartenders for a serious dance party—complete with blasting techno and some dancing atop the bar.

I got a late start today thanks to our late night last night and did a bit of shopping (word to the wise: if you’re ever going to Paris in the winter, sweaters are a good idea!) before meeting Rafaella and Melissa at the Louvre to take advantage of Friday night’s free admission. The three of us were a little overwhelmed by the extensive collections there; from Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s Seasons to Michael Angelo’s L'esclave mourant, everywhere we looked there were paintings and sculptures we’d read about in our art and history books. I’m quite glad that we’re here for 5 moths because I’m going to have to take this museum little by little to fully absorb and enjoy all that it has to offer.

After our growling stomachs defeated our hunger for culture, we returned to Rafaella and Melissa’s apartment, ate, and eventually met up with the rest of our group for a more subdued evening of conversation over cocktails at a chic, albeit overpriced and pompous café. I did enjoy my Syrah though, and I’m really starting to get used to the liberty of ordering un peu du vin anywhere I please.

For now, we’re all just taking advantage of the time we have to ourselves and doing as much exploring as we can before we start International Student Orientation on Monday. Frankly, though, I’m quite looking forward to orientation, and to my courses for that matter because: (1) I’m a huge nerd and not-so-secretly LOVE school and school-related activities, (2) I’m hoping that the Intensive Language Program during orientation will do my French a world of good, and (3) I’m really looking forward to expanding our group to include other international students and some true Français(es) alike.

I would like to begin with a formal apology to both my travel companions and the readers of my blog. I’m sorry if my entire trip/blog turns into an enormous exaltation of this city, but it’s day three and I’m pretty sure that my amazement isn’t going to die down any time soon.

Yesterday, I attended my first of many orientation activities at UC Paris. I think the only information I got from 3 ½ hour meeting that I couldn’t have figured out myself was that Parisian men often take eye contact and smiles the wrong way—an observation which now has my struggling against my nature and attempting to appear disinterested and unhappy on the metro. However, it was great to meet the other UC students who will be studying with me at Sciences Po.

After the meeting, a group of us--Rafaella, Melissa, Tami, Andrea, Neema, and myself—decided to meet up for dinner and ended up at a small Italian place looking out on the Seine with Rafaella and Melissa’s friend Allie, who has been at Sciences Po for a semester already. We were all incredibly charmed by our waiter, a quintessential “little old man” who spoke in an extremely heavy Italian accent. Next, the seven of us headed off to an Irish pub and chatted over Kilkenny. We had a lot of fun and I can already tell that this is a really solid group!

Coincidentally, the UC center had given another girl (Alisa) and me Allie’s e-mail address prior to my arrival in Paris and we had arranged to meet for coffee today. So, Allie, Alisa, and I met up this afternoon in the 5^th arrondissement for some cafés, and Melissa and Rafaella joined us. It’s particularly fun hanging out with a group of semi-bilingual students because throughout the day we occasionally switched to speaking in French. The highlights of this rendez-vous were discovering the world’s most delicious banana and Nutella crêpes (I think it was the thinness of the bananas that made these truly special), all of the charming architecture, parks, buildings, etc. that we constantly came across (see wall art above), and just enough falling snow to totally excite me.

After parting with the group, I decided to get (quite literally) lost in Paris, with Metro card in hand. I found my way through the first, fourth, eighth, and seventeenth arrondissements, with a few metro rides in between. Some highlights of my journey were passing by Saint-Eustache cathedral in the first, the store and gallery windows in the 8^th (Christian Louboutin’s Marie Antoinette emerging from an Easter egg was a particularly theatrical display), and the Parc Monceau, also in the eighth.

As I concluded the evening sipping some wine at a café near my house, I reflected on my day and came to the realization that Paris is truly a magical city—each time I began to lose my way over the course of my four-hour long exploration, I would come across a Metro station, landmark, or, as in one case, even a randomly placed map. I can see why existentialism has many of its roots here! Assuredly, this trip will be full of magic and wonder, and I’m so excited for it all.

Bonjour et Bienvenue… Je suis arrivée!

Bonjour everyone and welcome to my blog! I have finally arrived in Paris, and it is a WONDERLAND. Yesterday, I took a taxi from Charles de Gaulle and ended up at a beautiful building in a lively and chic neighborhood. My room is ridiculously large (quite possibly larger than my room at home in Claremont) and there is even a marble fireplace in it (see photos). I am renting the room from an older lady who showed me around the neighborhood and fed me yesterday. She is GREAT—very nice and accommodating but she also allows me enough independence. The neighborhood, as I mentioned, is absolutely fantastic. I am 2 short blocks away from the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysées. There are tons of clothing stores, markets, restaurants, bars, etc. close to me and next door is even a wonderful boulangerie and pâtissière where I got a chocolate croissant this morning.

Today, I explored this neighborhood and got lost, which turned into a fun adventure through the 16^th and 17^th arrondissements. When I was just about to get nervous and ask for directions, I found L’arc de Triomphe, my landmark and was able to get on my way. Later, I explored the Champs Elysées and happened to turn down a random street, Avenue Montaigne, which ended up being the street where all of the high fashion (Chanel, Dior, Chloé, etc.) houses are. I then made my way to a very cool restaurant (La Flamme – I think?) on a street nearby my apartment and had a goat cheese and gizzard salad per Baggy’s suggestion, and an Irish coffee just because—both of which were great. I can see why the French are known for their lean physique; with such delicious and rich foods, there’s no way they can ever finish their plates!

I can already tell that my French is going to come along quite nicely. In the cab from the airport, I had a nice little chat with my driver, who told me that frankly, he thought my French was quite good. He even chuckled when I used the (perhaps sophisticated) expression “J’imagine…” (“I imagine so…”), and told me he thought I would be “très bien intégrée”. The woman who I’m staying with also complimented me on my French and we have had some nice conversations. Surprisingly, I’m doing a lot better with long conversations than I am with brief interactions, but I guess that makes sense as I’ve primarily learned the language in academic settings. I did order my meal and drink without difficulty or without the waiter just speaking to me in English (which has also been happening).

Tomorrow I have my first orientation activity and I’m excited to meet some of the students with whom I will be studying.

Paris is a wonderful city—everything I love about New York, but older, more charming, and much cleaner. All in all, I can tell that I’m going to learn a lot here and I’ve already fallen in love with this place.