Last night in Paris

So I am finally packed! Wish me luck because either I've gotten weaker in France or my suitcases are heavier than 50 lbs each. I have no clue why... oh wait, it's probably got a lot to do with the 25 lbs of paper in the form of books, homework, tests, and course packets I have to bring back in case IU decides I wasted a semester doing nothing. Then I can whip those babies out and yell, "Au contraire! I did ALL THIS!" Of course, IU will still get the last laugh if I get charged for overweight bags. I really wish I had that little hand scale thing to at least get a ballpark figure for my bags because then maybe I could throw out the souvenirs I bought for people.

So I have really bad news (other than the fact I'm leaving Paris, of course)... IES had a farewell luncheon for us today, and guess who didn't come? MARC!! Our whole poli sci class was looking for him and everyone was terribly disappointed. We asked the dean and she had no idea where he was; apparently he "always" comes to the farewell luncheon. I got a picture with our dean/my grammar professor Jeanne though.

For some reason people thought I was a yearlong student. Even Jeanne, who actually knows me, told me that. She also told me, get ready for it... that I LOOK FRENCH. This means maybe French people think I am French! I have finally achieved my goal. Hope you guys recognize my Frenchy self back home in the States.

After the luncheon some of my friends and I went to the Eiffel Tower to see it one last time... Then I went home and worked on packing again, but instead spent most of that time talking to my lovely mom on the phone!! I can't remember if I've already said so, but my host brother from the last time I was in France is here in Paris, so I met him around 6:15 to get a coffee. It was so hard to say goodbye again! The last time was worse though because I had to say goodbye to my whole host family (aka, his real family). Before we went into the metro I told him I wanted a picture of the two of us, so could he ask someone to take it? You should have seen his face! He's so French... aka, too cool for school, and definitely too cool to ask passerby to take a TOURISTY PICTURE, heaven forbid. "Can't we just take it ourselves? If it's bad THEN we'll ask someone..." So we took it ourselves and at first it was horrible because the flash was off, so you can see the Tour Montparnasse (second tallest building in Paris, I believe.. it also houses the train station Gare Montparnasse, or something like that) which is cool, but our faces were really dark. So we tried it with the flash and our faces were really bright, but no Tour Montparnasse. Fortunately, I was able to fiddle with it on my Microsoft Office Picture Manager, and here is the lovely result of my technological genius!

After coffee we split up and I went to meet my friends for dinner. It was delicious and we tried to keep the mood light by remembering all the fun/funny things we've done, but it was so sad... goodbyes always are.

Strike!

By the way, I forgot to mention that I was considering taking public transportation in the form of the RER B to the airport to save money. Unfortunately, the conductors went on strike as of today, so who knows when they will start working again. This is not the metro; rather, it is a train. Also, apparently there was a bomb threat in a department store in Paris today. Don't worry, I'm pretty sure the situation was resolved and I don't live near any large department stores/don't frequent them either. But I thought I'd let you all know all is well. I'm still packing and I can't tell if it's going well or not, mostly because it will depend on how heavy my suitcases are. Everything is fitting so far, but I don't know how much they weigh. Guess I'd better put the unimportant things on top in case something's got to go...

End of finals

I had my grammar/culture, politics, and history exams today. The first two were fine, but history was... terrible. Thank goodness that's over. Like 90% of my other finals, it was just one question that I wrote five pages on, yet don't think I really said anything of critical importance. My prof made me uncomfortable because I was sitting around trying to brainstorm a thesis while everyone else had already started writing their papers, and he walked around the classroom and was staring at my blank sheet of paper... I was like, Leave me alone! You're interrupting my creative-thinking process!

I had dinner with Mathilde and Slimen tonight and then we watched two episodes of Prison Break, then we sat around and chatted over cups of tea. Those two are so great. They're both really smart, too, and it's handy to ask them questions about French because they really understand the sense of the word I'm asking about. We had canned pineapple slices, and Mathilde was saying how she likes canned pineapples but not real pineapples, and I said, "I like grapes." Then she looked at me and laughed and Slimen said, "What's so funny?" and I was like, "Yeah, what is so funny?" and she said to Slimen, "Well, I was just saying how I like canned pineapples but not real ones and Theresa just randomly decided to say that she likes grapes." And I said, "Mathilde, I thought this was a conversation about fruit... it made sense!" Then we had a big group laugh. And then I kept telling them lame stories like, "Today I had a grammar final. I had to talk about immigration and the French media." Then I would forget that it had no real relevance to the conversation. This is probably not very interesting to you but the moral of the story is that I had a great time doing nothing with the two of them. I said my final goodbye tonight in case I don't see them tomorrow or Thursday morning, and they were both really nice.. they hugged me goodbye and said that they really enjoyed spending time with me and we should keep in touch.

I tried to start packing when I got home around 5 from my finals, and it just seemed too final... I couldn't handle it. I sat back down at my computer and bummed around. Later, when I was more emotionally prepared, I managed to open my suitcase and start putting away clothes. Like most difficult things, it's hardest to get started. I have to bring back all of my schoolwork in case IU wants to contest the validity of my credits when they transfer, and I have no clue how I'm going to manage it. Paper is heavy!

Host family so far

Mathilde and Slimen with their Christmas tree Lionel and Catherine... this is what's left of the huge dessert array that Catherine prepared for her coworkers before she left

Finals

I had two finals today in theater and literature... and they were both terrible. I had about a three hour break in between which was equally terrible because all everyone in the entire IES center did was complain about how crappy finals are and how much they hate IES for giving us finals one day before we leave. Which I agree with, but it just stressed me out even more. My theater final was two questions; we were supposed to choose one and answer it for 30% of our total grade. The one I picked was "Is theater a visual art?" I said yes, it was, and I really hope that's what my professor thinks too because even though I tried to back it up with things we read, here in France professors don't give you credit for opinion questions if you don't have the same opinion as them. There aren't really opinion questions... just real questions disguised as opinion questions, so there is indeed a right answer. It only took me about an hour though, which wasn't too bad.

Literature was more like three hours though... it was easier in the aspect that I think I was more on target, but it was a ton of writing and was really boring. I've got three more exams tomorrow before I'm done. Wednesday we have a farewell lunch. Somehow I'm supposed to find time to pack and be ready to go by Thursday morning. I really don't like how our finals run directly into our last few days here... it's a bad system. Trying to cope with the stress of so many finals in such a short time, packing, getting ready to leave, trying to see everyone before we split up, saying goodbye to my host family.. it's a lot to deal with.

Tonight Catherine and Lionel called to see how I was doing and wish me a safe return, which I thought was really nice. She said to make sure I keep their address/correspondance information and keep them updated.

After dinner Aurélie and Alex turned on some music while they were working on homework or something in the dining room, and I went downstairs to ask Aurélie how to turn on the heater in my room because I was cold. So she came upstairs and did it for me, then she walked out into the hallway and motioned for me to follow her quietly. So we snuck down the stairs and we could hear Alex singing along with the music, and sure enough, he was singing and dancing in the dining room in front of the mirror while gesturing with this white scarf he was wearing. It was... hilarious, to say the least. I was in the middle of writing this post actually and just a second ago he popped his head in to say, "You can forget about what you saw downstairs, you know." And I laughed and said, "No, I'm in the process of telling all my friends about it, actually!" Poor Alex, little does he know I was not kidding.

Anyway, back to the study grind... wish me luck!

History

Here, just as I promised... the picture of my history class.

Last day of classes

So today was my last day of actual classes until I have finals next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I'm really happy classes are over because I'm sick of them, but I'm not looking forward to taking finals. How can they expect me to study during my LAST WEEKEND IN PARIS? (Don't worry, Mom and Dad, obviously I'm going to study... I'm just going to complain about it a lot.)

Tonight we had our last ever potluck at Megan's apartment. This is probably the fourth or fifth one we've had and I absolutely love it... they get bigger and better each time. It's so nice to just bring a dish over and chow down while chatting with my friends. Tomorrow is my friend Rachel's 22nd birthday... she's actually older than me! This is probably because she's a senior in college, but regardless, I'm so used to being the oldest in a group that I am enjoying having another old person around.

I'm so excited to get home for Christmas to see everyone, especially my family, but I am not ready to leave Paris and the life I have here. I can't actually think or talk about it too much because it really makes me sad, and I don't want anything to spoil the remainder of my time here. No sense in moping when I'm still here! I'll save that for when I get home and have to go back to school...

So I'm quite determined to get pictures of my more eccentric professors, and most importantly, Marc. The plan was all set in my mind on Wednesday to ask him for a picture after class, but then he left early because we had to fill out evaluations! Zut! Foiled! Anyway, don't you worry, dear reader... I WILL make it happen. He's already said he'll be at the farewell party, so I have every intention of asking him for a picture. This might even work out better, actually, because he was NOT wearing black on Wednesday. I know, I know, it was a really big deal. There was a hilarious moment when a kid in class asked, "So, what do you think of Sarkozy? Is he doing a lot as far as international relations because I keep seeing newspapers calling him 'dynamic'?" And Marc looked thoughtful for a minute, then stood up and started bouncing on the balls of his feet (with his stylishly European semi-boots) and shadowboxing and said, "Look at me! I'm dynamic! But am I really doing anything important?" But then he stopped and said that he was probably not the best person to ask that question to seeing as how Sarkozy is quite conservative and Marc is admittedly "super leftist." He also said it's most likely too soon to tell. Either way it was a total riot to see Marc in his super chic turtleneck and designer jeans doing anything remotely athletic.

I did manage to snag a class picture of my literature class with Sophie. She was a really good sport about it and I don't care if I looked like an idiot... it's not the first time and certainly won't be the last.

I also asked my history professor for a class picture and he was all about it. He was like, "That's so nice! What a great idea! Can you email it to me? It would be such a great little memory." He looks oddly like Michael Cera (for those of you who've seen Arrested Development or Juno), but he got his hair cut this week and the resemblance is less strong, though still present. I haven't uploaded the picture yet, but as soon as I do I'll post it here.

Rome, Days 2 and 3... Yeah, I saw the Pope

Sat. Nov. 29

Wake up call: 7:20am

Colosseum tour: 9:15am

So our tour guide Mitra knew everything about anything you'd want to know about Roman history. We got lucky and were the only people in the tour, which lasted about three hours. Did you know that the Roman forum and Colosseum used to be covered in painted marble that was stolen by the popes when the Roman empire converted to Christianity during Constantine's reign and was consequently used to create the Trevi fountain, St. Peter's Basilica, tons of Vatican decorations, etc. etc, and that all the statues that line St. Peter's Square were stolen from the Colosseum and therefore have pagan roots, but were redesigned to give them a Christian flair? Crazy.

We also went to the Vatican museums and saw the Sistine Chapel, of course. You're not allowed to take pictures in there, either, and I think those guards were definitely the type to take your camera and smash it into a million pieces if they saw you breaking the rules. No joke... those men meant business. I've never seen more stone-faced police/security.

After we left the Vatican we went to St. Peter's square and basilica at night, which was gorgeous.

Bedtime: too late to think about :-(

Sun. Nov. 30th (last day in Roma)

Wake up call: 9:30am

We went back to St. Peter's square so we could actually get into the basilica. Let me tell you, if you go to Rome, you MUST go to the basilica. Even if you're not religious. First of all, the square itself blew my mind. I took a picture off of Wikipedia because it does the majesty and size of the square much more justice than any picture I took ever could. Then when you actually go inside the basilica... let's just say I am completely ruined for other churches for the rest of my life. The scope of that basilica was just out of this world, and to think that it was built so long ago is also unbelievable. GO THERE. You will not regret it, especially if you are religious.

Then didn't we get incredibly lucky because as we were exiting the basilica, there was a big crowd in the square and we could hear a voice over the loudspeaker... yeah, it was the Pope. The Pope himself. He speaks like 8 languages and was repeating himself a lot. It was amazing, absolutely amazing. A great end to a wonderful trip.

Afterwards we got lunch and then hopped our plane back to Paris.

Rome

Rome was definitely the best trip I've taken so far in Europe. It makes me want to learn Italian so I can move to Italy! What's not to love... delicious food, friendly people, beautiful scenery, history/ruins EVERYWHERE. Take my advice: GO TO ITALY. GO TO ROME. (Though I hear Florence is incredible too. Next time.)

We were off to a semi-inauspicious start, however. We (eight girls from my Paris program: me, Rachel, Shelly, Stevie, Misa, Sarah, Lexi, and Megan) got a bus from the Ciampino airport into the center of Rome itself and then were totally lost. We found a bus station (it was roughly 12:30am, by the way), but could not figure out how to catch a bus. Then, out of nowhere, who appears but a Chilean Jesuit priest named Claudio! He just approached us and asked, "Do you speak English? Are you lost? Do you need help?" He was such a nice guy! We actually were going to take the same bus as him, so he showed us how to buy tickets and pointed out several things on our Rome map. Turns out he lived in Madison, Wisconsin for the first eight years of his life, even though he was Chilean. I didn't want to ask why he left Chile... thought it might be rude. Now he lives in Rome with other Jesuit priests. He even told us we could come visit him, but we didn't end up having enough time.

We eventually found our hostel, which was actually a converted convent, so it was for women only and was quite clean and nice. Since there were so many of us, I was in a room with four other girls so we didn't have to worry about our roommates stealing our things. Our time in Rome was absolutely jam-packed with things, and at the airport waiting for our flight back to Paris, I made a list of things we did, so I'm just going to transcribe it from my journal.

Friday, Nov. 28

***Author's note: many of the facts I will relate about Rome are courtesy of our excellent Colosseum/Roman forum tour guide, who know a lot about a lot. She was amazing.

Wake up call: 8:30am

Borghese Gardens: A park-type area with a gallery of amazing art

Bernini sculptures... Apollo and Daphne, The Rape of Persephone, David

These were hands-down the most amazing sculptures I have ever seen/will probably ever see in my entire life. You weren't supposed to take pictures, but my friends Misa and Shelly are art freaks who snuck their cameras in anyway, so I have copies of their pictures. Just LOOK at Hades's hands on Persephone's thigh and waist... can you believe that's marble??

By the way, it rained probably 60% of the time we were in Rome. Apparently we managed to get there during the rainy season, aka close to wintertime.

We ate pizza at this restaurant where no one spoke any English... now I know how tourists feel in France. It sucks. :-)

We took the Roman metro to the Spanish steps. I had heard lots of horror stories about the Roman metro, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Rome's metro is something like only two lines though, and they don't go many places. The problem is that there are so many ruins underground that the city will start digging to make a new line, then they'll run into ruins or something and have to decide if it's worth it to keep going. Often they'll just fill the ground back in because they don't have enough money to excavate, but they don't want to destroy the ruins either. Bummer.

We ate gelato and walked around the Colosseum at night and saw Constantine's arch as well. We passed a building (don't remember what it was) that has the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (with a torch) and the eternal flame of Rome. Apparently, the Roman soldiers are licensed to shoot to kill if someone attempts to smother either one of these torches. Is it the same in America? I don't actually know.

We went to the Trevi fountain at night and just relaxed. I threw in a coin for good luck. The Trevi fountain is gorgeous! Then we went to the Pantheon and ate dinner in this cute little outdoor restaurant decorated with white Christmas lights while these men played some jazzy bongo drum music. It was amazing, except for the part where it hailed!

Afterwards we got more gelato. After all, when in Rome... eat gelato!

Bedtime: 12:30pm

Summary of my life thus far

I know that there's no way I'm going to catch up on my blogging, so I thought I would hit the highlights so that everyone knows what's going on.



I saw Tony and Robin (my Halox boss and his wife) Nov. 12th and Nov. 14th and it was fantastic. It was so good to see familiar faces! I also went to see a play at the Bastille, and it was hands-down the most bizarre performance I have ever seen. I was sort of upset actually because I really enjoyed the play when we read it in class: Les Justes by Albert Camus. It was all about a group of terrorists in Russia who were rebelling against the tsar and decide to kill his uncle, the grand duke, by bombing his carriage. However, when they go to do it, the bomber changes his mind because he sees children inside. Later he manages to set off the bomb and kill the grand duke and goes to prison and is eventually hanged, but the whole story hinges on whether or not all lives associated with the "despotism" are forfeit, even those of children, and whether the terrorist had the right to use any and all means to stop the despotism. Camus wrote it as a metaphor for the French Resistance during WWII, so it carried quite a different connotation of "terrorist" than nowadays. Anyway, the play itself was terrible... for some reason there was a point when all the actors sat down in the aisles and ate oranges. I'll spare you further description because trust me, I don't feel like writing it and you don't want to waste time reading it. Even our theater professor was slightly stunned and this is a woman who's seen her fair share of plays. I recently learned, actually, that she's 35... I thought she was 26! The whole class was baffled.



On Nov. 14th I had my last IES excursion to Fontainebleu and Vaux-le-Vicomte... or we were supposed to. These are two chateaux, but for some reason that was never explained, we didn't go to Vaux-le-Vicomte and instead went to the painters' village of Barbizon. Quite boring, really. Fontainebleu was great though... a lot of history there! We saw Napoleon's throne room and bedroom with its not-so-secret-secret doors. Pretty funny.

On Nov. 20th I saw another play, Couteau de Nuit (Knife of the Night) at a theater in the Montmartre quarter. This one was all right, but the best part was that our professor arranged for us to meet the writer/director afterwards. I didn't want our class to look like idiots who didn't have anything to say, so I was happy when some people had questions, plus I asked several of my own. The actors trickled in, which made the situation a bit more embarrassing just because there were more French people listening to us try to pose intelligent, thoughtful questions. They were really, really nice though and would nod in agreement or encouragingly. I asked a question that the author/director didn't understand, and I could feel my face turning really red, but she rushed to say, "It's not because your French is not good, I'm just not sure what you're getting at." I rephrased and it worked out. I've found that in my classes and in my life here in general I'm less and less concerned about looking like a fool. It bores me to tears when no one will talk in class, so I'll do it. It livens things up. I know you're thinking to yourself, "Theresa? Talking a lot? Saying dumb and incorrect, yet humorous, things? Surely not!" Quelle surprise!

On Nov. 16th Mathilde and Slimen invited me out to dinner with them and their friends, which was really nice. Slimen and I took the metro to meet their friend Lucille and then meet Mathilde and the others at Montmartre. We went to see the basilica at Sacré-Coeur at night, which was really nice. Then we went to a restaurant and the waiter gave me a hard time about pronunciation. I took it in stride though... it was sort of my fault, I mumbled what I wanted so Mathilde told me I had to enunciate. But the waiter wouldn't give me my dessert of fresh fruit salad until I said the name for him "une salade des fruits frais" because if I were to pronounce it the American way, you'd say the "s" at the end of "fruits" and "frais" but in the French way (aka, the correct way), it would phonetically be more like, "ewn sah-lahd day frew-e fray."

Wed. Nov. 26th was my final play, thank goodness. It was really entertaining though, and in a classy part of town: the Champs-Elysées! It was a bunch of short comedy sketches with the same two men, and each time it was just a ridiculous scenario, like they'd say "One, two, three... JUMP!" And neither would jump, then they'd get into an argument and be like, "Why didn't you jump?" "I was waiting for you!" "I was waiting for YOU!" "You said, 'one, two, three, jump!'" It was highly enjoyable.

I left for Rome Thursday evening, and it was really stressful. First of all, I had to say goodbye to my host parents... for good. They left for the Alps and won't be back until May. It was really sad, actually; I thought my host mom was going to cry! They hugged me, which is pretty big for French people. Catherine said, "Don't worry, I have your email, and so does Mathilde, so we can keep in touch, and you can come back if you want!" And I told them if they ever get a hankerin to visit Indiana, they were more than welcome to come to my house (yes, my mom already gave me permission). I tried to make sure they knew I was thankful for everything they'd done for me, and Catherine said she was very happy to have met me and really enjoyed having me as a host student. I was kind of emotional on the way to the bus station, and it didn't help that we got stuck in horrendous traffic and I was getting freaked out that I was going to miss my plane. Not to worry, I made it. Next post... ROMA!

Stay tuned, updates are on their way!

Hello lovely blog subscribers! I'm very sorry that I am now roughly 3 weeks behind on my blog updates. I'm currently caught up in a phenomenon with which I'm sure you're all familiar... you know how when the end of something approaches, everything speeds up and you suddenly have 10 times as many things to do? That's sort of where I am right now. I just got back from my trip to ROME! I left Thursday the 27th (Thanksgiving!) and got back last night, Sunday, at about 10:30pm. I'm writing this blog entry between classes so it has to be short. I didn't have enough time to eat breakfast or drink my morning coffee, so I ducked back home quickly and I'm in my room on my laptop. I also didn't have time to dry my hair and it's quite cold outside, so I'm going to try and eat breakfast, drink another cup of coffee, and do my hair before I head off to politics with my favorite professor, Marc.

Just remember... good things come to those who wait. Please keep that in mind, I promise I'll be posting new things very, very soon!

Love you Mom and Dad (even though you, Dad, are implying that I do not do any work here in France... it's okay, I know you don't really do work at work, you just play pranks on people).

Miss you, siblings! Anna and Dan, I hope all is well! Anna, it was great to talk to you last night!

Extended family, aunts, uncles, cousins... Happy Thanksgiving! Love you all!

All other blog readers (sorry I can't name you, as I don't know who you all are), I hope everyone had a wonderful, safe, delicious Thanksgiving!

I look forward to seeing you all in less than 3 weeks!

Fall break in Barcelona and Ireland!

Nov. 6-Nov. 11

So the night before I was supposed to leave for vacation, I had completely forgotten that I had to be at the metro stop Port Maillot by 6:00 to catch a bus to the Beauvais airport to catch my plane for Barcelona. The metro stop was probably a 30 minute metro ride and 1.5 hours by foot (aka impossible, plus I would get lost). Well, guess what time the metro opened? Either 6 or 6:30... I don't even know. Either way, I was freaking out that I wouldn't make it to the bus, then I wouldn't make it to the airport, then I would miss my plane, and everything would go wrong. Luckily, my host mom helped me reserve a taxi for the next day, which was terribly frustrating, but obviously as I am back safe and sound, everything worked out.

I didn't get much sleep the night before, but I had no real problems getting to Barcelona. Just be forewarned: if you think you're getting a good deal on a flight, I'm sure you are, but what they DON'T tell you is how much time and money the transportation to and from your flight will be. That adds a significant amount. I had to take a taxi to the bus (30 mins), then the bus to the Beauvais airport (1 hour), the the flight itself (2.5 hours), then the bus from the Girona airport in Spain to Barcelona itself (1 hour 15 mins). So yeah, it all SOUNDS easy... just hop a flight! It's not. It's not a big deal, and I'm now fully prepared to go to Rome because I know exactly what to expect, but you really need to be relaxed for this sort of thing. I brought along my literature book, and it really worked out because I was forced to read it because I had nothing else to do, so now I am actually ahead on my reading. Plus people thought I was French! It was cool.

So in Barcelona I met up with my friend from IU, Lexi, who's studying abroad there. I had a great time! We did TONS of walking, though. The Spanish metro is a lot like the French one, really... it was easy to use. I saw the touristy sights, such as Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia, which were both designed by this big deal Spanish man named Gaudi. There's a Barcelona Arc de Triomf and then this really nice park called Parc de la Ciutadella, and then this building called La Pedrera, which was designed by Gaudi. We also went to La Rambla, which is sort of like the Spanish Champs-Elysees... aka a really big-deal street.

Nov. 4-5... Election Day!

Okay, I have been slacking a lot on my blogging because first I was busy getting ready for vacation, then I was on vacation, then I was recovering from my vacation/getting back into the swing of things. So I'm going to divide up my posts so that it's not one 10 page post.

So in France, everyone loves Obama. His picture is everywhere, and he is constantly in the newspapers... They have had tons of coverage of the American elections, and because French newspapers aren't unbiased like American ones are (or should be), they're probably 99% for Obama. My politics professor Marc stayed up all night to watch the results, and he actually sent an email out at like 5am saying "OBAMA A GAGNE!" ("OBAMA WON!").

So I was sitting in the student lounge with another girl, Shaina (who actually goes to IU), and we were just chatting when Bertrand, the guy in charge of student affairs at IES (my program), walks in. He said, "Hey, so there are some people here from a French news station who want to interview American students on the election. Are you two willing to be interviewed? Everyone else is in class..." And what were we supposed to say? So of course we agreed and then were terribly nervous when this man and woman walked in carrying a video camera and microphone. Fortunately, it wasn't like CNN France or anything; it was fairly casual, and they said it would be airing online and not real TV, thank goodness. I think Shaina and I did pretty well, but who really knows? We were pretty nervous.

I had my literature midterm on Wednesday, and I honestly thought I did pretty well... it was stuff that we had covered in class that I thought I really knew. We had to answer two questions about themes in these two books we had read, then we had to pick an "explication" question where she gave us a page or two in a book and we had to explain what was going on and how it related to the overall theme/story. Well, since this post is written like two weeks later, I now know my grade... and yeah, I was sort of surprised to get a 9.5/20. Yeah, that's like less than 50%. I would have freaked out, but because this is the French grading system, they don't divide the points up like we do in the States. My lit prof told us she doesn't give higher than a 12 (again, a failing grade in the States), so my 9.5 was actually a B+. No, I don't really get it, so sorry, but I can't really explain it either. But I was happy that rather than failing, I did okay.

Les mauvaises nouvelles = bad news

Halloween continued...

I went to Mathilde and Slimen's at 7 on the dot, and naturally since I was ready no one else was. They were waiting for their friend Phillipe to finish his laundry, of all things. We waited for two hours! Finally we just left without him and went to a Japanese restaurant. It was really good, and afterwards we went to McDonald's for McFlurrys! According to Slimen, he and Mathilde "never eat" at McDonalds, except for McFlurrys, especially after Japanese food. Slimen just found a job (like Mathilde, he just finished school) in informatics, I think (also like Mathilde), so he bought our dinners. I protested, saying I could buy my own, but he said no, he invited me, but he would allow me to buy the McFlurrys.

So here's some information about France: they HATE when you try and pay for anything with something that is not within 3 euros difference, i.e. a 5 euro sandwich you must pay for with exact change or a 10... don't even THINK about using a 20 or higher at a patisserie; they will give you the evil eye and actually refuse your money, claiming they have no change. So at McDonald's, I tried to use my 50 for the express purpose of breaking it (because there is nowhere to break bills larger than 20), and the cashier gave me a look and was like, Do you have anything else? I'll have to go ask my manager if I have change for this... And I was like, This is McDonald's, lady! I KNOW you people take in enough cash to break a 50, don't even try to play it off like you can't. So I said, no, I didn't have anything else (lie, I had a 10) so she just asked the cashier next to her and it all worked out.

While we were eating our McFlurrys, I whipped out my camera and Mathilde and Slimen stared at me incredulously and were like, You couldn't take pictures at the Japanese restaurant, could you? Nooooo, the first pictures of us that you take have to be at McDonald's, of all places!... It was too funny because you could tell Slimen was actually embarrassed; he kept trying to conceal the camera behind his jacket while taking a picture of me and Mathilde. This is me pretending to hit Slimen with my spoon because he kept refusing to have his picture taken. Mathilde was much more relaxed about the whole thing.
Saturday, Nov. 1st

So in case anyone doesn't know (I didn't) there is some international chocolate fest called Salon du Chocolat (at least, in Paris it is) and it's in Paris, Peking, Tokyo, Moscow, New York, and some other really major cities in the world. My friends and I went and pretty much you pay a fee at the door and then you can walk around inside the building and see tons of chocolate stands and cool chocolate things and eat "free" samples... it was a good time. Yes, this sculpture is made out of chocolate.

Afterwards we went and got some falafel... I don't know why I haven't eaten falafel before Paris. It is amazing! You should try some! Just a thought.

Sunday, Nov. 2nd

My former host brother (from the last time I studied abroad in France three years ago) invited me to go see the new James Bond movie, so my friend Rachel and I arranged to meet him and his friend at the movie theater at 4:30 to see the 5:30 show. So Rachel and I got there at 4:30 and I got a text from him saying he and his friend (who live together) were having problems with.... their laundry! What is it with French people and their laundry?? So he asked if Rachel and I could get tickets for them because they were going to be late. So Rachel and I waited in line only to find out that it was sold out at 5:30 and the next show wasn't until 7:55. I called my host brother to tell him, but the laundromat apparently had horrible service and I couldn't get ahold of him for the longest time, and we were worried the next show was going to sell out, too. Eventually, he called me back and we decided to get tickets for the 7:55 show. He said he and his friend would come meet me and Rachel in an hour, so Rachel and I left to walk around (we went to this great panini place where you can get a panini and a drink for only 3 euro), and an hour later we returned to the theater to wait for the guys.

So 40 minutes after they said they'd be there, they FINALLY showed up. My host brother said the laundry machines weren't working; they'd get the clothes wet, but wouldn't wash anything, and so they couldn't leave because they had tons of wet clothes and they weren't doing laundry at their apartment. Drama, drama, drama.... it didn't really matter though, as the doors didn't open until about 8 minutes until the movie started. We passed the time trying to teach the Frenchies how to properly say American actors' names, like Keanu Reeves. Fortunately, after all that hoopla, the movie was indeed excellent.

I was home alone all weekend, like I said, so I made "dinner" for myself Sunday night. Aurelie had previously made some potato puree, so I took that and for some reason mixed it with tuna and a sunnyside up egg... sounds gross, but it was actually very good. French people are really onto something with this whole sunnyside up egg thing.

Monday, Nov. 3rd

I am too ready to leave on my vacation. I didn't think I'd make it through my classes today... I'm so tired of literature. I'm not even inspired to try because everything I do is wrong. My teacher is all right, she just teaches in a way that is very, very different from every literature class I've ever taken. Marc handed back our midterms, and said that there were excellent grades, good grades, and slightly less than good grades, but not to worry, it was only a midterm. My theater professor handed back our papers, and in the typical French manner, as she gave you your paper, she made a short commentary on it... not usually of the complimentary kind. That's not how they do in France.

Catherine came back today. She must have taken an overnight train because she left me a note this morning and had set out some bread for my breakfast. At dinner it was just the two of us, and she said she had some bad news for me. Apparently, Lionel was trying to hire some extra help for his store in the Alps, but it fell through, so Catherine is going to quit her job here and move there for the entire season, beginning December 1st or 2nd. She's going to tell Rosa, the woman in charge of housing for my program, to see what she says. I was slightly surprised that Catherine said it was fine for me to live here without her or Lionel if I wanted to... that's trust! haha. Anyway, she said that she's not sure what will happen, and I should think about if I want to move to another family. I don't know what I will do, so I said she should just tell Rosa and see what Rosa says because maybe she'll say I have to move, it's not an option to stay without my host parents.

However, Aurelie will be back and Mathilde and Slimen live on the first floor, so it's not like I'd be alone. I don't really want to move for just the last two weeks of the program because I'd have to pack everything up, meet a new family, move my stuff in, and basically just get settled when I'd have to leave. The only reason I'd have for moving would be to meet more French people and hopefully interact with more people because this weekend I had very limited contact with French people because I was alone in the house. On the other hand, I did really enjoy having the house to myself. I'll just have to see what Rosa says and whether it's my choice or not. Catherine's going to talk to Rosa tomorrow, I believe, so I'm sure it will all get settled soon.

So busy!!

I see that my last post was quite awhile ago, so here goes on the recap...

Oct. 22-24

Not much to report, just school. Friday was my trip to Provins, and I'm sad to say I was slightly underwhelmed. We went inside this castle, and it just was not that exciting. In all fairness though, Provins is competing against thousands of really awesome things in France in general, so something has to be less than fantastic. Plus it was my free trip, so who really cares? The thing I DID care about was the lunch... they served us this horrendous pate-thing with yellow gelatin stuff on top. It was disgusting! The main course was duck leg and potatoes au gratin, thank goodness, so that was great. Plus the dessert was some kind of chocolate mousse cake, but it was the BEST MOUSSE EVER! I almost couldn't finish it because it was so rich, and for those of you who know me know that's a big deal.


The underground tunnels in Provins were pretty cool. It's kind of disappointing to learn how extremely banal the beginnings of many underground caverns are; for example, the ones in Provins were first created to harvest chalk for dyeing tapestries. Not very exciting, really.


So I may have already mentioned this, but I really miss potatoes, especially mashed potatoes. I was bemoaning my lack thereof to my friend Megan who lives in the apartments, and she said we should eat dinner together on Friday after the exursion and have some potatoes! So then a bunch of people ended up getting invited and we made it into a sort of potluck dinner and it was delicious. There were about 10 girls there (luckily, Megan's apt is just one large room so it was fine) and we just sat around and ate our food and talked about funny experiences in Paris. I had a great time!


Saturday, Oct. 25

My friends and I went to a club tonight to see a live performance. It was very cool because the club was located underneath the Pont Alexandre III (a bridge that crosses the Seine) and so when we were inside you could see the bridge supports and everything! It was awesome.


Catherine's sister and nephew were here today. She told me they were coming over, but I was sort of unprepared for them to be here at like 10am. I hate how the bathroom is located on the main floor because I had to dash from the bottom of the staircase to the shower and then back again to avoid running into people before I was presentable. I usually lounge in my pajamas on the weekends, and by "pajamas" I mean a t-shirt and sweat pants, and it's no big deal, but I could hear lots of voices this morning and really didn't want to look like a huge slob in front of Catherine's relatives. I made it through though and was ready for lunch when it rolled around at like 2 or so. I had a lot of trouble understanding the nephew, Pierre, and Aurelie said it was because he mumbled. Apparently, he had a lot of trouble understanding me too, but hey, I do the best I can with enunciation. I don't know how old he is, but it was pretty funny because he spent the night in our living room and his mom stayed at the grandma's house, so they were just going to take separate trains back home, so at dinner Sunday night he was like, "So who's going with me to the train station?" and everyone in my family was like, "Um, no one. It's really easy to get to. We're sure you can handle it." I thought it was pretty funny that everyone looked really surprised that he would ask to be escorted... I guess he was probably 18 or so, therefore technically capable of getting to a train station by himself. In the end though, they must have been kidding because Catherine and Lionel both left with him.


Sunday, Oct. 26th

My friend from IU, Mike, is studying abroad in Rouen (a smallish town in Normandy) and he came to Paris today. Everyone in his program gets assigned a "French buddy," so she came with him. Her name is Raphaelle and she's 20 or so, and I really liked her. We all went to lunch and talked in French and English, and she's very smart and was really helpful with any French questions I had. For example, I've had a lot of trouble with the words for "here" and "there" because I don't understand when you use "here" versus "there" because of the way I've heard my host family use them. For example, my host mom will ask me, "Will you be here for dinner tonight?" as in "here at the house" but she will actually say, "Will you be THERE for dinner tonight?" but she means "here at the house." This made no sense to me until Raphaelle explained it.


Apparently, French people only use "here" when they mean in the present. In the past and in the future, they say "there" even when they mean the actual place where they are, i.e. the house. So if I am in my kitchen and I want to say that I will indeed be in the house for dinner that night, I say, "I will be there for dinner tonight" even though I mean "here, the house." But if I'm in the kitchen and I say, "Catherine, can you come in here (here = kitchen)?" I would use the word for "here." It's really baffling!


We walked around the Jardins de Luxembourg for a while, and it was really nice. It was slightly chilly, but the leaves were changing color and falling everywhere, and there was a big man-made pond in the middle of the garden where little kids were playing with motor boats. This is a picture of me and Raphaelle, then the next one is me and Mike. He was so excited to have a scarf and look very French.

Oct. 27-30 Mon-Thurs

So this is my midterms week, but for some reason I don't have my history and literature midterms until next week. I had soooo much homework to do for this week it was unreal. Don't worry, I won't bore you with the details as I am already so bored by them myself. Good news: I think my politics midterm went very well. I felt so smart! haha Marc gave us six essay questions to choose from and we had to pick four to answer. It was very cool to brainstorm my ideas in French and then write four essays in French on the fly. Bad news: My oral exam in grammar did not go very well. I thought I was ready for it because I was prepared for the vocab part, but then she started asking me all these questions about phrases that I didn't know we had to know. Oh well, the other people in my class said theirs didn't go well either.

I had to go to a play Thursday night, and I was not a happy camper. For some reason, our tickets were in the very first row so I had to strain my neck looking up at the actors the whole time. Also, there is a seat on the end of every other row that folds up, so you can unfold it and have one extra seat. Guess who got the crappy add-on seat? If you guessed me, congratulations, you're absolutely correct. It was very uncomfortable because the chair would try to fold up if I moved around or leaned forward, plus the back was very hard. Oh, and the play was like three hours. After the first half, the girl next to me offered to switch and I declined because hey, someone had to sit there and I would have felt bad making someone take my spot, but she insisted, for which I was grateful. The second half was consequently sooo much better, but I hope she wasn't too uncomfortable. At least the second half was only about 45 minutes.

Oct. 31, Halloween!!

So this is today, actually, and I don't have much to say. I registered for classes back home and it took me all morning. Catherine and Lionel left around 1pm for the mountains and she'll be back Monday and he'll be back in two weeks or so. They said I can go talk to Mathilde and Slimen about eating dinner/if I have any problems. Right now Aurelie is on vacation from school and is heading to Tunisia on Sunday, I think. Or maybe tomorrow, I'm not really sure, but either way I'll be pretty much alone all weekend. It's no big deal, though; now I can do my laundry without worrying about being in the way.

Some days are better than others in terms of my French speaking abilities, and today has not been going so well; I don't know why. I went downstairs to talk to Slimen, and I was not making any sense nor was I understanding him. I was trying to say that I wouldn't be home for dinner because I was going out with my friends and I was just having a lot of trouble spitting it out. Then he came upstairs to see if I'd like to go out with him and Mathilde (and maybe their friends, I don't know) to a "very, very well-known Asian restaurant." So I said, sure, that would be great. Then we had a whole "here/there" confusion issue (see above about here vs. there), but we finally ironed out the details and we're meeting here, at the house, at 7pm. He also likes to throw around the whole military-time thing, which is not my strong suit, so originally he said "nineteen hours" and I had to count on my fingers. I need to clean my room before we go out, and since it's 6:20 here, I'd better go get some stuff done. Hope I haven't forgotten anything from my 10 day absence!

Giverny = incredible

Saturday was my excursion to Giverny (Monet's house) and all I can say is it was unbelievable. It was one of the most gorgeous places I've been in France as far as nature is concerned. The pictures don't really do it justice. If you visit France, I highly recommend Giverny. Also, I really lucked out... each student can only go on two excursions with the program, but there were open spots for Provins this Friday because people had to cancel (probably other travel plans or something, who knows). Either way, I get to go on a third excusion! Provins is an old city that used to be a really major fortress in France and has extensive underground caverns. It really works out because I don't have any other plans this weekend, so I might as well go on a program excursion.

I had my politics presentation on Monday, and I don't know how well it went. I found an article on the financial crisis in Hungary in a French newspaper called Le Figaro and in the New York Times. I hope I did a good job of explaining it, but it was complicated and I had to look up a lot of new vocab words. I just hope Marc is as cool with his grading as he is with his teaching! I'm mostly just glad it's over.

The big news in my host family is about Aurelie. I feel really bad for her because she's been having problems at school with the girls in her class. She has the same people in every class because it's like they are all one group that attend different classes together, and Alex is in it with her. I guess these girls in their class are really mean and make fun of her for spending so much time with Alex or something like that. It was so bad the other week that she ran out of the classroom crying! How immature of these girls... they're 20 or so, not 14. It's completely ridiculous and out of hand... Alex told me the professor saw everything and never even asked if Aurelie was okay. She didn't even go back to class because she was so upset. Catherine and Lionel are actually looking into private schools for her to go to, and I really wish there was something I could do for her. She's so nice; she really doesn't deserve this and I only wish I could go to her school and tell these girls off.

House pictures

My street, rue Alphand. See, Mr. Taxi Cab Driver, it DOES exist!


See, doesn't this staircase kind of remind you of the spiral staircases in castles? It's really small... I should have had someone stand on it to give you more perspective. The living room... located on the top floor of the house. I was slightly surprised; I originally thought that door led to a closet.
My loft. Despite having roughly 4 different beds, Cooky likes to sleep in MINE.

View from my window.

So many topics, so little time

So there are lots of things I want to briefly talk about this week, so I'll give you a quick breakdown in number form.

1. CONGRATULATIONS!!

Sara and Adam got married!!!!! For those of you who don't know, Sara and I worked together at Halox over the summer, and she and her fiance got married October 4th, I believe. Congratulations! And hey, Halox people, I KNOW you're reading this blog, so why have I not gotten a link to the wedding pictures? I guess maybe they're not up, it's only been nearly TWO WEEKS since the wedding. I expect this egregious error to be corrected ASAP. You all have my email address.

2. More Theater and Literature Observations

We had to write a 5,000 character (2.5ish pages) paper for theater due on Monday based on our observations of the performance of Dom Juan we saw last Thursday. I didn't think mine was that good because I wrote it late Sunday night and it felt sort of all over the place on account of not really knowing what Julie wanted us to write because she didn't want our opinions, just our observations. Anyway, I sort of compared the book to the play (because they were very different on account of the modernization) and used the word "anachronistic" a lot. The play was almost Tim Burton-esque/Big Fish (the movie) because they would (randomly) switch between period costumes and modern clothes, and some characters were perpetually in the past and some were almost always modern, plus one of the dons, Dom Carlos, was played by a woman who painted a fake mustache on, but Dom Juan wiped it off, implying that he knew she was a woman, but in the book, Dom Carlos is definitely a man. It made sense to reuse the actress because she had a really small part otherwise, but it made no sense to have her play a woman pretending to be a man who really was a man in the play... so I just made some stuff up about artistic license and anachronism and I don't even remember what else.

So anyway, Julie handed our papers back, but before she did, she threw in this backhanded compliment, "Well, I've found that you all write much better than you talk..." Um, thanks?

She was waaay more generous with the grades than I would have thought, so it's either got to be that she thought we were so dumb that she was highly impressed that we had complete sentences and consequently gave good grades, or she's just one of those professors who is tough in class but realizes that we're trying on homework.

I think it's mostly that Julie (and Sophie) are just very French in the way they teach. French professors/teachers never tell you you're doing a good job, they only tell you when you're doing things wrong. There aren't any compliments, only criticisms, so that's why I don't take their harshness personally. Sometimes I feel like Sophie WANTS to like us, but then she remembers how very French she is and will stop smiling. It's actually kind of funny.

3. More Reasons Why Marc Is The Coolest Professor Ever

Marc, on the other hand, is not French at all when he teaches. I still have yet to see him wear anything but black (and that gray suit that one time) and the other day I saw him in the garden area of the school chomping on a baguette. I don't think he could look any more French if he tried. He rides a moped, for goodness sakes! So in class the other day we were talking about the end of World War II and the Korean War and how Western Europe and the US were trying to figure out to how stop the spread of communism, and so he brought up this French politican named Jean Monnet. Marc wrote Jean Monnet's name on the board and told us that it was Monnet with two "n's" and not Monet like the painter. Then he launched into this really funny story about how when he was "young" (this guy's only 41) he worked as a tour guide at a museum dedicated to Monnet here in Paris, and he would always get American tourists who thought they were going to see Monet's paintings at the museum. The real kicker was that Monnet's wife thought she was an excellent painter and painted lots of still lifes that are hanging all over Monnet's house/museum.

Marc also commented on the translation of "still life" which is "la nature morte" literally "dead nature." ("Americans are so optimistic, while French people are so pessismistic, young people!")

Anyway, so he told us to picture a young Marc Germanague, tour guide, trying to explain to the American tourists that no, they were not at Giverny, this was not Claude Monet, this was the famous French politican Jean Monnet, but hey as long as you're here, want to go look around? Said tourists would then see Madame Monnet's"truly hideous" (according to Marc) paintings hanging on the walls and whisper to themselves, "This tour guide doesn't know what he's talking about, look at all the paintings, it MUST be the Monet museum!"

4. So Theresa, What IS Giverny?

For those of you who don't know, Giverny was where Monet lived and did most of his paintings. It's really beautiful (think: water lilies) and I'm actually going there tomorrow on a program field trip.

5. Tonight: Operation: Find Thibaut's Concert (take two).

Remember how I said my friend Rachel and I looked for an hour trying to find her host brother's choir concert recital? Well, he's got another one tonight, and this time we'll be ready with GOOD directions, though "good directions" in Paris is almost an oxymoron.

6. Dinner @ an Italian Restaurant in Paris

Rachel and I went to dinner Wednesday night at this little pizza place near her house. It was delicious! The waiter/cook/probably-owner was a really nice guy, too. He asked us if we spoke English, and I said we did, and we spoke French too, and he said, "Oh well that's great! Me, I speak Italian too." And he complimented our French when we ordered, which is always flattering. It was a smallish restaurant, and there was this awkward point when he was standing by the kitchen and was pretty much calling across the restaurant, "Is everyone okay? You over there, you're good? And the Americans! Are you doing okay? You know you have to eat everything or I'm going to make you do the dishes!"

Thanks, pizza place owner, for announcing to an ENTIRE restaurant (albeit a small one) that HEY! THERE'S TWO AMERICANS OVER THERE, IN CASE YOU DIDN'T NOTICE! LET'S ALL STARE AWKWARDLY AT THEM! No, I'm kidding, it wasn't that bad. When he came to give us the check, he's like, "No coffee? No dessert?" and we said, "No thanks," and he's like, "You don't need a handsome young man to dance with, perhaps?" We politely declined and he was like, "You're sure? I know several young men around here..." No thanks, sir.

7. The Weirdos Are Everywhere

My friend Stevie is always having the most bizarre encounters with strange men in Paris.

Bizarre Encounter #1:
She was sitting in a park, not talking, not reading an English book, basically not doing anything that would identify her as an American. Some guy walked up to her and said, "Oh, you speak English? I would really like to practice my English!"
Stevie: Sure, that's fine.
Weirdo: Well, I'm actually a foot masseuse, and I would really like to rub your feet.
Stevie: Um, no, sorry.
Weirdo: No, really, that's actually why I came over here in the first place. Please, let me rub your feet! They are so beautiful!
Stevie: No, I have to get going.
Weirdo: (attempts to grab Stevie's foot, gets ahold of a toe)
Stevie: Aaah! What are you doing?! (yanks foot from his grasp, flees the scene)

Bizarre Encounter #2:
I can't remember the back story, all I remember is that it had to do with some guy approaching Stevie like on the metro or something.

Creep: Are you American? I am Moroccan! I love America!
Stevie: That's nice. (She is trapped on the metro car, can't leave.)
Creep: What is your name? I'm ******* (I can't remember his name.)
Stevie: Uh, Stevie.
Creep: Stevie! So how long are you here for?
Stevie: I'm studying here, actually (immediately realizes this was the wrong answer).
Creep: Me too! When do you leave for the United States of America?
Stevie: December.
Creep: Me too! Can I have your phone number so I can call you?
Stevie: No, sorry, I don't have a phone (this is a lie).
Creep: But how will I contact you?
Stevie: (Metro stops, she gets off and tries to leave.)
Creep: (In pursuit) But Stevie! When we get back to the United States, we must get married! Where are you going? Stevie! Come back!
Stevie: (Beating a hasty retreat, does not reply.)

8. Catherine and Lionel return to France.

They got back Tuesday at like 6:00 at night or so, and they said they had a really good time. Catherine loved the Grand Canyon especially. Only problem? Well, they had a TON of stuff to sort through (gifts and souvenirs and whatever) and so I was in my room FOREVER doing homework and such and waiting for someone to tell me when we were going to eat dinner. 8:00 rolls around... no dinner. 9:00... nothing. 9:30... I subtly go downstairs to use the bathroom (hint hint: dinner time?). No. Nothing.

9:45....
10:00....
10:15...
10:30... DINNER! I was absolutely starving by that point, so I was thrilled to finally be eating. However... we had soup for dinner. Just plain soup, not even stew or something. I was less than excited, but I didn't want to be rude considering that Catherine had just gotten home from vacation the same day. The thing was, I would have been happy to make my own dinner/every else's, but it's just not done like that here. You all eat together, and one person makes the meal. If you miss dinner, you don't just roll in and heat up some leftovers and eat them. It's kind of unfortunate.

9. The Americans Are Coming!

I got an email from my Halox boss, Tony, about him and his wife Robin coming to Paris in November! He'll be here for work stuff, but he'll have evenings off, so I think he and Robin and I are going to get together during the evening. I'm so excited to see familiar faces!

So in closing, I have a TON of homework due next week :-( that I don't want to do. I have a presentation in Marc's class, so I have to go out and find some newspaper articles to work with.

Dom Juan, Musée Rodin, Montmartre, Sacré-Coeur

Thursday, October 9

My theater class went to see Don Juan tonight (Dom Juan in French). The theater was in St. Denis, which is the absolute northernmost point in Paris, which meant it was nearly an hour away by metro from my house. Apparently, it is also a very run-down part of Paris. So we met up at the metro stop, and some girls had been on a history visit the same day, so they were running late. My professor asked if anyone had their numbers, and I did, so I called my friend Callie and she said they were four stops away. Ten minutes later, my professor was like, "Where are they? You said they were four stops away. We're going to be late. Can you call them again?" She was annoying me because obviously, calling them repeatedly would not make the metro move any faster and would only waste my minutes. Then we had to basically run to the theater only to wait around for about 15 minutes before it actually started. The play was a lot like the Shakespeare Theater in Chicago in that it was modern and the actors didn't wear period costumes, and they used the whole theater, not just the stage. They pulled two people out of the audience and at first I really thought these people were just random, but then you could tell they were actors too. This was clearly a low-budget production because there were very few props and scenery and only about 10 actors. There was one part where they ran offstage and "outside" and brought a camera with them like they were filming a documentary and we were watching it on a screen onstage. It was a cool idea and a good way to film the chase/fight scene, but it got really old after about 40 minutes of watching a "movie" when I came to see a play. In addition, I understood what was going on because I had read the play, but if I stopped to listen to the actual words, I wouldn't have been able to tell you what they were saying, I just knew what was happening.

Then during intermission, our professor left. She just walked away and no one knew where she was going, and we all got slightly paranoid because we were in a bad part of town and it was already 10:15 and the metro closed at midnight or so, and most of us lived on the Left Bank (we were on the top of the Right Bank) so like me, a lot of people had maybe 45 minutes to an hour travel time. Fortunately, she came back after intermission. The play was very funny for the first half, but the second was really boring me... it was just really long. And because of its low-budgeted-ness, the final act where Dom Juan descends into hell to pay for his hypocrisy and womanizing was kind of anti-climatic. A little boy (who was supposed to represent the angel of death or such) came onstage and took Dom Juan by the hand and just lead him behind the curtains, and it ended.

Friday, October 10

I went to the Musée Rodin today with my friends Stevie, Misa, and Sarah. It was really cool because it was actually a really beautiful park with Rodin's sculptures placed randomly in it. There was also an actual indoor museum too, but the outdoor part was very cool. Plus I have a "student of art history" card because of my History of France class, so I got in for free. Misa is actually an art history major back at her home college, and so she filled me in on some important art information about Rodin. For example, he was actually a huge womanizer who had affairs with lots of his students, like Camille Claudel (who had a ton of sculptures in the Musée Rodin). She was highly talented (according to Misa, more so than Rodin himself), and they worked together on lots of pieces, but he left her for another woman and she eventually went insane and died. I don't remember if Misa said she killed herself or not, but either way it was very sad. Her stuff was fantastic too, and there was lot of it.

Les trois ombres: The three shadows.... A sculpture by Rodin; it's the same guy in three different poses, I think

Clotho, one of the three sisters of Fate in Greek mythology. A sculpture by Camille Claudel.

Sarah, Stevie, and Misa at the café at the Musée Rodin

Le penseur: The thinker... Probably the most famous Rodin sculpture

After the museum we went shopping near the Champs-Elyseés, which is where Callie and Amy live, and Callie had told me there were all these 50% off sales. I didn't get anything but we had a good time just looking around at things we could actually afford as opposed to nearly everything else in Paris.

Saturday, October 11

Sarah and I had plans to go to Versailles today, but when we showed up at the RER (train station) to get tickets, the cashier informed me there were no trains to Versailles because of road work or something. Major letdown!

So instead we decided to go to Montmartre and the basilica at Sacré-Coeur (Sacred Heart). I'm pretty sure it's the highest point in Paris (excluding, obviously, like the Eiffel Tower and other monuments; I think it's highest in terms of sea level). Those steps are no joke! Plus, if you ever go there, watch out for the hustlers because there are SO many and they're really persistant. Just keep shoving your way through and don't make eye contact and you'll be fine. Sarah and I climbed to the top and went inside the basilica. You're not allowed to take pictures inside, but it is unbelievably gorgeous and I highly recommend it to everyone. The basilica and the view are totally worth the climb. And if you walk behind the basilica, you'll enter the artist quarter where there are tons of people just holding sketchpads or sitting by easels and you can get a picture of yourself (or whatever you want) drawn right there. That's also a prime spot to get cheap tourist stuff. Montmartre in general seemed very cheap, as Sarah and I did a fair bit of walking around browsing.

So that night I went over to Misa's house, and let me tell you... she's got it rough. First of all, it took me probably 35 minutes by metro to get to her metro stop, then I had to cross the Seine (pretty cool, actually) and walk through an expressway-type area for about 5 minutes. Then you climb a hill. Then you make a right and climb another hill. These hills are so steep that they actually have barriers to block cyclists or people on their razor-scooters (there are a LOT of them here) because you would probably die if you tried going downhill on a bike or anything. And when I say "probably" I mean, "definitely." Now, where was I? Right, the turn and the second hill. So after you raise your heart rate by probably 20 beats per minute, then you get to climb three flights of very steep stairs. You're still not there, by the way. You have to walk up a slight incline to her gated community and punch in the code (they have a little pedestrian gate in addition to the car-sized gate). Then you walk up another smallish hill and veer left, then you unlock her front gate and hooray you've made it! It's only taken you two metro changes and 35 minutes and then another 20 minutes of steep uphill walking! And don't forget... if you're a real Parisian woman in the workforce, you've doubtlessly worn heels for this entire trip after a day of work. Pictures of the Quest to Find Misa's House are forthcoming; it was dark when I was there so I didn't take any.

Oh, and on the metro ride home, it was pretty empty (it was late at night), and so when I was waiting for it to go (we were sitting there for like 10 minutes because it was the end of the line), some shady-looking guy with a knit cap and a guitar case and a hobo-ish coat got on my car. I thought he looked like he was going to sit by me (even though there were like 20 open seats), so I just scowled very fiercely, like "Don't even think about sitting by me unless you want to lose a limb! I'm unstable! I come from a country where citizens can own guns! (even though there was no way he could know that)" And I think it worked! Either way, he didn't sit by me, and I just looked REALLY angry the whole time, even more so than usual (even though I am not usually angry; I just do this to discourage weirdos from approaching me). Plus, I've found it's even easier to look aloof, unapproachable, and pissed-off when listening to your iPod. I couldn't decide if listening to my iPod would make me look like a target, but then I decided it was like, "Don't even TRY to talk to me because then I will get even ANGRIER if you make me turn my iPod off to hear you." I actually did have a lot of angst built up from Montmartre because the crowds of slow-moving tourists were unreal... I was like, MOVE! Why are you standing around for no apparent reason? It was frustrating.

I have to go buy two new books for my classes, which I hate doing. My theater professor wants us to read the first act of a new play, which I have heard through gossip from fellow students that it's like 90 pages, plus we have to write a paper about the play. Don't these professors realize that classes are getting in the way of studying abroad?