How to become more Parisian

Mathilde and Slimen are so nice! Mathilde loves Prison Break, and she made Slimen watch the first episode of the new season, and he really liked it. He told me he used to think it was dumb because they were always in prison trying to get out and it was boring, but he likes the new season because they're doing stuff other than trying to get out of prison. So last night I went to their house and we watched the last two episodes in English. I don't think it's available in French, but either way, Mathilde and Slimen usually watch it in English because apparently it's lame to watch American television in French.

We had a bit of a scare last night because it came time for dinner and Aurélie called for Cooky because she was putting his food out, but he never showed up. So we searched the house and couldn't find him, so we all went outside to look in the garden and on the street. I felt terrible for Aurélie because she was really upset and started crying, thinking he got hit by a car or something. After a bit of looking around we went back inside and he was right there! No one had any idea where he had been hiding or why he hadn't responded when we called because he loves attention and is always underfoot. But it all turned out all right.

Today we had salmon for lunch and it was delicious. Mathilde came to eat with us, and Slimen came with but he didn't eat on account of Ramadan. I felt sort of bad for eating right in front of him; that must be really tough. After lunch Mathilde asked me if I wanted to go to "chez Ikea," and I didn't understand what she said on account of "Ikea" sounding much different in French. I think it's funny how French people say "the house of Ikea" instead of just "Ikea." They only do this for some stores, like Carrefour, which is sort of a French Meijer. But when it's used in conversation it's funny, like "Yesterday I went to the house of Carrefour to buy some vegetables." If you don't know what's going on it sounds like they went over to Carrefour's house, and it's like, Who's Carrefour?

So right now it is 63 degrees, which in French is code for, “Wear a cami, long-sleeved shirt, zip-up, jacket, and scarf; winter is here! Batten down the hatches!” My 20-year-old host sister is always calling me crazy since I don’t wear a jacket, and I always tell her that if she lived in Indiana, she wouldn’t think that it’s cold here either.

So after with that in mind, and after living here for nearly three weeks, I’d like to provide you all with a short 10-step guide I like to call, “How to become more Parisian.”

Step 1: Wear six layers of clothes because you are always cold.
Step 2: Don’t smile at anyone you don’t already know, even if you have accidental eye contact in the street or on the metro.
Step 3: Wear all black. Always. Including your socks.
Step 4: For girls only: wear tights at all times, preferably black.
Step 5: Wear heels, boots with heels, Chuck Taylors, or Puma shoes. These are the only types of footwear I have seen sported by the average Parisian. Obviously, my Rocket Dogs are totally out of style.
Step 6: Never look like your feet hurt, even while wearing stilettos and marching around Paris and climbing tons of metro steps. You are Parisian, pain is nothing compared to fashion!
Step 7: The scarf is your best friend, and as such, you must have your best friend with you at all times.
Step 8: Wake up at 8am all the time, including weekends. It doesn’t matter how late you were up the night before, that’s why French coffee is so strong.
Step 9: Learn to love cheese and tomatoes because they are literally everywhere. I told my host family I didn’t like raw tomatoes, and one might have thought I said that I like to beat kittens in my spare time. So… suck it up and eat your tomatoes or suffer many jokes at your expense. Ditto cheese, even the stinky kinds.
Step 10: Realize that no matter how good you look, there will always be a better-dressed man on the metro. I would almost venture to say the men dress better than the women, but maybe this is because the women are always wearing coats because it's "so cold."

CAUTION: Keep in mind these are tips on becoming more Parisian, not more French, so don’t try this in Canada/Francophone countries.

School begins

Happy birthday, Anna! I know this post is late, but I already wished you a happy birthday so it's okay.

The week of Monday, Sept. 22-Saturday, Sept. 27

So this week has been all about school, school, school. My classes seem like they're going to be pretty tough, especially my literature class. I'm taking 5 classes altogether: History of France, Literature of the 20th century, Advanced Grammar, Politics of France in a European Context, and Theater in Paris. I really like my politics professor so far; he seems really nice and understanding. His name is Marc Germanangue, and he told us to just call him Marc because his last name is too hard to pronounce, and in French there are two forms of "you," and one is familiar and the other is formal/plural, and usually with professors you would use the formal, but he said we can use the familiar because he wants us to be comfortable and not worry all the time about messing up and using the wrong form.

The first day of class he had us talk about ourselves, and one of the questions was "Why Paris?" and "What are your plans for the future?" and after we finished, he introduced himself and said, "Why Paris? Because I am a snob. Plans for the future? Remain a snob." It was really funny... he also wanted us to talk about our hobbies/interests because, according to him, Paris will become gray and dismal in the winter, and Parisians are uptight snobs who only wear black, so we need to remember what we like to do for fun and what makes us happy so we don't get caught up in Parisian snobbery and aloofness. Which is really funny because he actually does wear all black, presumably every day (but I can't be sure since I've only seen him twice this week for class). He has several layers of black clothes, such as black pants, black socks, black shoes, a black undershirt, a black button-down, and a black coat. My other Parisian professor (history) also wears either all black, although I did notice he was actually wearing a dark, dark green button down instead of a black shirt on Thursday. Must have been casual Thursday or something, who knows. He seems all right though; he was telling us there's a spot in Paris where you can see the ancient Roman bathhouses, and his directions included, "Across the street from McDonald's..." which I thought was amusing, having a McDonald's right across the street from Roman ruins.

I had to go buy a bunch of books for my various classes, and I was exhausted after fighting the afternoon metro crowds and then trying to ask the bookstore people where my books were. I couldn't find all of them and I'm not looking forward to going back.

Thursday night some friends and I went to a cafe, and it was very cool because we went late at night, and since it was pretty chilly the cafe had heat lamps in the outdoor seating area so you could sit outside and still be warm. Most cafes are just the restaurant with little tables outside that you can sit at; there's no real door to go through to get to the restaurant for a lot of them.

On Friday my friends Shelly and Rachel (who live together in a homestay) invited me to go to the Jardin du Luxembourg to play cards with them and their host brother, Thibaut. Shelly taught us how to play hearts, and we had a really good time just hanging out. Shelly and Rachel told me their host family is a family of geniuses; there are 5 kids, but only two still live at home, Thibaut and his sister. Thibaut is getting his master's in physics and the oldest daughter just got her doctorate or something in physics. Apparently, Thibaut knows everything about everything, according to Rachel and Shelly, which could be kind of handy for homework. Speaking of homework, I helped Aurelie with her English homework the other day. She had to read an article about banning smoking in France (in English) and then rewrite it in English with her own words. It was kind of hard to avoid reusing the words that were in the article. I read over her essay and corrected some stuff, and it was hard to explain why some things were the way they were... I eventually just told her, "I'm sorry, I don't know how to explain it but that's just not good English."

A friend of mine from IU, Mike, is studying abroad right now in Rouen, a smallish town about an hour away from Paris, and he came to the city today, so I went to the Jardin des Tuileries to meet him and his friend. We walked up the Champs-Elysees and then took the metro towards Pere Lachaise, a cemetary. We ate lunch and then walked around Pere Lachaise for a while, looking at various graves such as Jim Morrison, Proust, Oscar Wilde, and Edith Piaf. Then we went to see the Moulin Rouge, and afterwards I left to go back home. They were going to take the train back to Rouen at 10pm so they were planning on going to the Eiffel Tower to watch it light up at night. I was going to meet them, but right now I'm really tired so I'll have to catch it some other time.

Eiffel Tower

Wednesday, Sept. 17th

Today was very routine as far as school went. I'm not sure if I've already said this, but Aurelie is very jealous because she has to get up at six every day to go to class, and mine doesn't start until 11:30 all week. So it turns out Catherine and a colleague are writing a book! She told me that she'd be working from home today on the book. I asked her what it was about, but she said she couldn't talk about it. I think it was some kind of copyright issue and she didn't want to spread the word on what it was about, but it's got something to do with children's development because she's a pediatric nurse and there's all these books about babies lying around. She's been working on it for a year, and she said hopefully someday it will be in bookstores, which I thought was very cool. After she was done working, she had her ping-pong club meeting, which she was really excited for because she said she hasn't gone for about three months.

So I went downstairs to eat dinner with Mathilde and Slimen, and Slimen's friend Benjamin was there too. Benjamin is getting his doctorate in psychology, and apparently in France they will pay YOU to get a doctorate, so it's highly competitive because you don't have to pay ridiculous amounts of money in a grad school; instead, you have to win a scholarship in order to go. I think he said he's been writing his thesis (on developmental psychology, I think) for two years so far, and it will hopefully be done in another two. College in France is very different as well; universities are basically free and professors are government employees. There is no real campus, just buildings that you have class in. Professors don't have offices or office hours because they are just there to teach, not help students.

After dinner they taught me how to play a French card game called belote, which is hard. There is no "ace" in a French deck of cards, rather it's a "one" that they just call an ace, so every time I saw the one I had to think about it. I also didn't know the names for the suits, so I had to remember the name of each suit, plus the order of strongest to weakest cards, which was something like jack, ten... and then I don't know. Oh and the jack, king, and queen are all called different things in French. So it was sort of a partner game in that you combined your winning cards at the end and whichever team had the most won, and so Benjamin and I lost quite a lot because I didn't really get it. But either way I had a very good time.

Thursday, Sept. 18th

Today was the last day of my intensive grammar review class, so we had a test. I don't know how well it went, but I was as prepared as I'd ever be. Jeanne (my prof; she's actually the academic dean too, and is nice and a good teacher) handed back a journal entry she had corrected. The French grading system is based on numbers, not letters, so 15-20 is an A, 11.5-14 is a B, and so on. Jeanne told us that a 15 was a very good grade and that the 20 does not actually exist. She's got children in the French school system and she said they've never gotten a 20; no one ever does, so we shouldn't think that less than a 20 is bad.

Friday, Sept. 19th

We had lunch at the Eiffel Tower today! The restuarant was on the first floor, and it was called Altitude 95. We were supposed to meet at 11 but we didn't get up to the restaurant until 12:30, so I was starving. The food was good, but I was very disappointed because when I just looked at it, I thought it was chicken with cheesy mashed potatoes, but the potatoes turned out to be some kind of pureed carrot thing with fresh cream. It was fine, but not what I had thought. The chicken is on the left and the orangey stuff is the carrots, then there was some kind of gravy.

One of the program staff, Delphine, the administrative and housing assistant, sat at my table for lunch. At first I was not too excited, but she was actually very nice and talkative and we had some very good conversations about various things. Turns out she was born in England and moved to Los Angeles, then Paris with her family. They were following her dad's job, and when they got to LA her mom hated it, so they moved to Paris instead. I don't know if her husband is French, but I would assume so if they still live here with their kids.

I finally made it to the top floor of the Eiffel Tower! I walked up from the first to the second floor, but you have to take an elevator to the very top. My friend Shelly loves babies, and she kept pointing out all the cute babies while we were in line, and she actually asked a man if she could take a picture of his daughter, who was very cute. It really cracked me up. We spent a lot of time at the Eiffel Tower taking tons of pictures, but it got really cold at the top so eventually we left.

The program staff had gotten us cards for "les cars rouges" which were just those open-top tour buses, so I went on the tour with Shelly and another girl named Rachel. It was really nice, but again, it got really cold so we went down to the first level of the bus.

We spent a lot of time sitting around because Parisian traffic is awful! Some poor guy got knocked off of his motorcycle and the ambulance was partially blocking traffic, and our bus had to edge around the guy and the paramedics. It looked like he had really hurt his leg because the EMTs or whoever had a compress on his right thigh, but I didn't see any blood. People on their motorcycles are crazy, though... they're always dodging around cars. Here's a picture of Parisian traffic at the Place de la Concorde, which is a big square in the 8th arrondissement. The French nobility used to watch convicted criminals be put to death there, so during the French revolution they took over the Place and renamed it the Place de la Révolution and put the guillotine there. Marie Antoinette, Robespierre, and Louis XVI were all executed there. After the Reign of Terror (when the executions peaked), they removed the guillotine and renamed it the Place de la Concorde. Now there's a 3,000 year old Egyptian obelisk in the center of the Place. And no, these cars are not parked, they are moving.

Sunday-Tuesday 14-16

I've been so busy lately I haven't had time to post anything, sorry! First of all, I'd like to say...

HAPPY 30TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD! CONGRATULATIONS! I LOVE YOU! It's today, by the way, Sept. 16th, so please feel free to congratulate my parents.

But back to me. I talked to my dad yesterday, and he told me you, Aunt Nellie, tried to post a comment and it didn't work, but thanks for trying to communicate with me. Thanks for the hello, Mr. and Mrs. Yerga! I'm glad you're enjoying the blog. Also, one more thing about communication... if anyone wants to write to me, I know that Mom might have given you my home address, but the program people said not to send mail to our houses, so here's my school address that you can use instead.

Theresa Kretz, c/o IES Abroad

77 rue Daguerre

75014 Paris, France

So on Sunday I finally made it to the catacombs, and they were awesome. There must have been at least a mile of bones that we walked past, and there was only one way through the catacombs so there must be even more bones. Apparently Parisians began moving the bones from diseased cemetaries underground because people kept getting sick from all the corpses that had died of disease back in the 1800s. You have to go down 83 steps to get to the catacombs, which is pretty far underground, and the ceiling is very low, so it's pretty spooky. You have to walk down a lot of very loooong hallways before you even get to the bones. Here's a picture of me in the walkway entrance to the bones, which says, "Stop! Here is the empire of the dead."

You weren't allowed to use flash inside the bones area, so this is the best I could do. The bones were stacked taller than me, which basically meant I was in a hallway of bone walls. There were actually guards in the catacombs to make sure you didn't use flash. What a creepy job!

It was very Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

So after that my two friends and I went back to Callie's house to pick up Sarah's sweater, then Sarah and I were about to take the metro and go our separate ways, but the metro nearest Callie's house just so happens to be right next to the l'Arc de Triomphe (the Arch of Triumph, built to commemorate war victories, maybe Napoleon's but I'm not sure; it overlooks the Champs-Elysees and is the finish line for the Tour de France), so we decided to visit it.

It might look kind of small in this picture, but trust me, it's huge. There's 284 steps to the top, I believe, and Sarah and I climbed every one. The view was definitely worth it, though. Here's the Champs-Elysees.

So that evening, Aurelie and Alex told me that there's a special going on at the movies, so we all went, including Catherine. We saw a movie called "Comme les autres," which means, "Like the others," and it was about a gay man who wanted to have a baby. I was really happy that I could understand the movie because usually the dialogue is too fast for me.

Yesterday I went on a guided visit of the Louvre, which was very cool. I've already been there, but it was nice to have someone actually explain the importance of the artwork there, plus the building itself is just awesome.

Last night the movie special was still going on (3 euro!) so Aurelie and Alex and I went to see "Le chevalier noir," or "The Dark Knight," the second Batman movie. Afterwards we went to a Greek restaurant because Catherine had given Aurelie some coupons and I don't know if we had gyros or not. It was pita bread with meat, and I'm pretty sure Aurelie said it was lamb. We had to hang around for a while after we were done eating because some soccer game was playing that Alex wanted to watch.

Today I had my academic advising meeting. I'm taking History of France and Civilization, Literature of the 20th century, Theater in Paris, French Politics in a European Context, and Advanced French Grammar. All of these classes are within the program, which means I'm in class with the other Americans; we just have French professors. The advisor strongly urged me to look at taking an outside course, like at the Sorbonne, but I have to check and see if it will work for my credits back home or not. If it will, I'll really have to think about it because it would be very cool to take real French classes, and she seemed to think it would be hugely beneficial. In fact, she told me "it's necessary!"

So for dinner tonight I actually did have crepes! It was just me, Aurelie, and Catherine so we ate in the kitchen so Catherine could make the crepes as we ate. Aurelie's crepe turned out really hard, but Catherine ate it anyway. Here's a picture of Catherine and Cooky, the cat, sharing the Frisbee crepe.

Cooky is the nicest cat ever. He really likes attention, so often he'll come into my room while I'm on the computer and he'll just jump on my lap and start purring. Aurelie showed me a picture of Alex's cat today. His name is Simba, and he looks exactly like a miniature lion. It's pretty funny. Slimen, Mathilde's boyfriend, was over working on Aurelie's computer when I got home from school and he told me that Aurelie used to hate cats but after she met his cat, all of a sudden the whole Douville family was all about them! I think Slimen speaks a lot of English because he always knows the English word for French words I don't know, like "dwarf." We were talking about dwarf cats, which apparently exist. Who knew?

Chartres and the Cimetiere de Montparnasse

Yesterday I went to Chartres with three other girls: Callie, Sarah, Amy, and Julia. I got up early to take the metro to the Gare Montparnasse, which is the train station that has the SNCF, the train that would take me to Chartres. Lionel is quite the jokester, and when I told him where I was going, he said it was very complicated, but he could give me directions. So he says in all seriousness, I should get on the metro, go four stops, then get off and I would be right there. The only danger was if I were to accidentally fall asleep on the metro, then maybe I would have a problem.

However, I must have gone through the wrong tunnel when I got off the metro because I ended up in some square and I had no idea which building was the actual Gare Montparnasse. Eventually I found it, and later when we took the metro back home, it turns out the metro is located directly below the Gare, so I must have walked through the wrong tunnel or something. The myriad metro signs and tunnels go everywhere, so I'm not surprised.

Anyway, we made it to the train and no one ever checked our tickets, either on the way there or the way back, so we technically could have ridden for free, so I have no idea how they check to make sure people have paid, especially since the man who gave us the tickets said we could get on any time train we wanted. Callie figured there would be a huge penalty if someone was riding the train for free and somebody found out, which made sense to me.

The cathedral in Chartres is beautiful! However, it must be perpetually under reconstruction because when I was here three years ago it was, and it still is. Since we spoke English on the hour and a half train ride, we decided to speak only French until lunch. We took a tour of the crypt and of the cathedral itself, which were both in French. We wanted to climb the tower, but our cathedral tour guide kept us too long and the tower closed. But it was okay, it was the end of about six hours of sightseeing and climbing 300 steps might have been a bit much. The tour was good, but sometimes I stopped paying attention because it was a lot to take in. I'm not sure, but I think the guide said Chartres has the most stained glass in a cathedral. Either way, it has a lot. She talked a lot about the different styles and colors, and she said this window was the "Mona Lisa of stained glass featuring Mary." In French they call the Mona Lisa "la Jaconde."

Chartres also has a reliquary that has a veil worn by Mary and is the centerpiece of the cathedral. It was the imperial treasure of Constantinople and was given to Charlemagne by the empress Irene and has been in Chartres since 876. At least, that's what the sign next to it said.

There was also a sculpture of Abraham and Isaac outside one of the cathedral's entrances. You can see the goat underneath their feet and the bonds around Isaac's hands and ankles.

So today the Pope held mass at Les Invalides, which is where Napoleon's tomb is located. It was originally built as a hospital for the war wounded, but now is a memorial. I wanted to go to try and see the Pope, but I was really tired from going to Chartres yesterday and decided to take everyone's advice and rest, so I slept in late. I told my host parents last night at dinner that I was going to see the Pope and the catacombs today, and so when I went downstairs this morning Lionel said, "I heard a phone call for you this morning." I was confused and said "What, for me?" and he said, "Yeah, it was the Pope! He wanted to know where you were, he was holding up mass!" Funny guy, Lionel.

French people eat weird things. I usually wait for everyone else to start eating so I can figure out how I'm supposed to eat stuff, and they're always all, "Theresa, you can start eating, you don't need to wait for us." But I kind of need to. For example, for lunch we had a bowl of cucumbers that were sliced up into little pieces, and Aurelie just took a scoop and put some ranch on it and ate it with bread. Plain cucumbers that were like a little salad unto themselves. Then we had some kind of spinach puree that you were supposed to eat with sunnyside up eggs or hardboiled eggs. Lionel and I both had the hardboiled eggs, and so I saw that he just sliced his up and would spear a piece of egg and then scoop up some spinach and eat it like that. It was good, but weird. Lionel sang the little Popeye song too! He's like, "Do you know who that is?" and I said I did.

Catherine and I had a nice talk this morning over coffee. It's much easier for me to communicate with just one person, and she's very easy to talk to. She was telling me that if I was missing anything or wanted to eat something that they didn't have or whatever, just to tell her. She said that their family is very tolerant and not much will bother them, but I told her if I do anything that bothers her that she should just say so, and she said she will. But I think basically we both are easy to get along with so hopefully there won't be any problems.

Lionel and Catherine are going to the US in the beginning of October for vacation. They'll be going to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Fransisco, I think, and Catherine wanted to make sure I knew. I doubt it will be a problem though; if I need anything, there's always Aurelie and Mathilde. Plus I'll be in school so I'll be busy. I asked Lionel and Catherine if they were ready, English-wise, for the States, and Lionel said he was. He said he can't conjugate verbs, so he'll just have to use indicators. For example, he says, "Today I want a coffee. Yesterday I want a coffee. Tomorrow I want a coffee." I told him this should work, but they should be prepared because there are significantly fewer Americans who speak French than French who speak English. Lionel also asked me if Americans say we speak American or English, and I told him we speak English and that "American" isn't a language, but American-English and British-English are very different.

Today Callie, Sarah, Amy and I tried to go to the catacombs but the line was too long and it closed at four, and a guy who worked there told us we probably wouldn't get in, so we decided to go to the Montparnasse cemetary instead. It was very close, and there's famous people buried there like Sartre and Baudelaire and Simone de Beauvoir. For those of you who know he's buried somewhere in France, Jim Morrison's grave is in the Pere Lachaise, which is a different cemetary.

The day before my first weekend in Paris

I'd like to start by saying thanks for the nice comments, Aunty Ann! It's really good to hear from you. And Dad, don't worry, I took a nap today. I also showed Lionel and Catherine the pictures of my family and house, and Lionel said, "That's your dad? He's very young, isn't he?" No, I did not make that up. I told him your age and Lionel said, "Yes, like I thought, very young!" (I think Lionel is one year younger than you, Dad). I told him how I always call you old and that you'd be very happy to hear that.

I went out to lunch today with some of the other students. Here's a tip: if you're in France and are eating at a restaurant, DO NOT ask for a "bouteille de l'eau," which is a bottle of water. They will give you mineral water and it's really expensive. I almost made that mistake, but then I remember you're supposed to ask for a "carafe de l'eau," which is just a pitcher of tap water, which is free. I had a ham, egg, and cheese crepe and it was very good. Afterwards, a girl named Lauren and I took the metro to this area that she wanted to visit because there were a lot of stores. I finally bought my "carte de Navigo" which is a metro pass. I got the monthly one, and for 55 euro I can ride the metro as many times as I want until the end of September. When traveling in France, it's really expensive to buy individual metro tickets (roughly 1.60 euro per ride), especially since it's possible to use the metro 20 times in one day. I bought a watch, which I forgot to bring. Lauren and I found some junk stores, sort of like dollar stores, so it was a cheap watch, but I like it and am really happy to have one because they don't have many clocks here. Lauren bought these cute little coffee cups that had "bistro" written on them for her mom.

Let me just reiterate: the metro is probably the best mode of transportation ever. It goes everywhere you could possibly want to go in Paris, and there are tons of places to get on it. There's a digital sign that lets you know how long until the first metro train arrives and then how long until the next one comes. The longest wait I've ever seen is six minutes, and I've only had to wait about 30 seconds each time I took it today. It's always on time (according to everyone that's ever taken it) and even though there are a ton of stops (handy because then you get dropped off very close to where you want to go), you only stop at each stop for like 20 seconds, which is enough time to get on and off but not enough to waste your time traveling. If you're ever using the metro, here are some key French words to know:

Interdit = forbidden. There are lots of signs that say "passage interdit," so you don't want to be the idiot tourist walking the wrong way through the metro tunnels.

Sortie = exit. It's kind of important to know where the exits are.

Also, for France in general, the phrase "Defense de ...." means "Don't do ...." such as "Defense de fumer" which means "No smoking."

And remember... don't smile at anyone! They will think you're strange!

I gave Catherine and Lionel the Fannie Mae chocolates and a book about the South Shore line today. They thought the chocolate was good and the book was cool, I think. Lionel also told me I should tell my parents that I was raised well, or had good manners... it was some kind of compliment. I think it was that I was polite and respectful. Either way, I think they like me. I know they think I do weird things, though, like not wearing slippers. French people are obsessed with their slippers and wear them all the time. I'm getting used to them correcting me though. Now it doesn't bother me as much because I know them better, and we had a very nice dinner because it was just me, Catherine, and Lionel so it was much easier to understand their conversation.

Tomorrow I'm going to Chartres! It's about an hour away from Paris, and me and some other students are going to take the SNCF (a train) to get there. Chartres is home to the tallest cathedral in France, I think. The last time I was in France I went there, but it was under construction, so I'm eager to go back. Plus I don't have class on Friday (there aren't any, I believe), and anyway class hasn't started. I have a three day weekend, so I thought I'd go somewhere. The tickets for the SNCF were only 23 euro, which I thought wasn't too bad for a two hour round trip. Looking ahead in my calendar, I have a five day stretch for fall break, so I'll have to plan a long-distance trip, I think.

At the IES center we're supposed to only speak French, but I've found that the other Americans/other students don't. They're always talking in English, which I don't really like because it's sort of a waste. At lunch today two of the girls were speaking in French and two in English, and eventually the conversation just switched to English. It doesn't bother me to speak English outside of the IES center, but I know we're not supposed to inside the center and I don't know why everyone is ignoring that rule. I wish they'd enforce it more strictly, and maybe they will, but until then I doubt people will speak French unless they're forced to do so.

I asked Lionel and Catherine if it was okay that I went to Chartres, and after they said sure, it was fine, Lionel asked how I was going to get there and I said I had bought tickets for the SNCF, and then I felt kind of awkward because obviously, I planned on going and only asked them out of courtesy. But I doubt they cared. We were discussing it, and I mentioned how I didn't have anything to do tomorrow, and Lionel said, "Oh! You should have said something... there's always the laundry and fixing the refrigerator and so on and so forth." And I said, "I'm sorry, I don't know what those words mean, it's impossible for me to do that." Catherine thought that was hilarious! It was my first French joke!

Joyeux anniversaire

Yesterday was my first day at the IES center. I decided to walk there since it's not too far, but it was much warmer than I thought so I worked up quite a sweat getting there. I had my first "groupe de propedeutique" meeting, which is my language intensive group. I don't think I'm in the hardest one; rather, I think it's a good fit for my skills. We have to keep a daily journal for the next week and a half, and it's going to be a part of our grade. After the class was over, I went on a tour of the neighborhood with a group led by some of the French assistants we have at the center. I met another IES student named Mariko, who is Japanese and not American, so it was kind of cool to talk to her.

It was Catherine's birthday yesterday so we had a big dinner for her. I helped Mathilde prepare some aperitifs (snacks) and Lionel made dinner. It was a very nice sort-of party with Lionel, Catherine, Mathilde, her boyfriend Slimen, Aurelie, Alex, and myself. We eat very late here in France and I was starving by the time dinner came, which was 9:30. We sat at the table for a really long time and it was kind of boring because they were having a discussion which I had to really focus on in order to follow. Every so often they'd stop and ask if I understood, and if I said yes, Lionel would ask me what they had been talking about. I knew what the conversation of 10 minutes ago was, but I would stop paying attention sometimes because I was tired. I think Lionel and Catherine are going on a trip to the US in October or something because Lionel keeps practicing how to say "Los Angeles" and "Las Vegas" and "San Francisco." He also tries to say my name the American way, which he finds to be pretty funny. Mathilde told me he can't speak English at all so it's a novelty for him. Mathilde and Slimen speak English, but I'm not sure how well. Aurelie never does, but last night when Catherine was eating her cake she spat something out and said what it was, and Slimen told me it was "wax." When I was helping Mathilde with the aperitifs, she asked me if I liked "coco" as she sprinkled some white shredded stuff on the top of the chocolate cake. For no good reason (since I know very well that the French word for "chocolate" is "chocolat" or "coco") I thought she meant "coconut" so I said no. Can you believe they actually thought I didn't like chocolate? Don't worry, I cleared it up quickly.

We weren't done with dinner until 11:30! I was completely exhausted and went straight to bed. Now I'm at the IES center waiting for my class to begin. I got here early to print my journal assignment, which I wish I could have handwritten, but my professor said it had to be typed. I also turned in my field trip preference sheet. We have five different options and can choose two, so I picked Fontainebleu and Vaux-le-Vicomte, which is a one day trip to see two chateaux. Mathilde and Catherine recommended that one. I also chose Giverny, which is where Monet did a lot of his paintings. The other options were Versailles, Normandy, and Provins. I've already been to Versailles and Normandy, and I think Provins is an old city that used to be some kind of French fortress. You can go into the catacombs beneath the city, but Bertrand, our student affairs coordinator and the guy in charge of our "excursions," said if you're claustrophic, maybe you shouldn't go.

Day 2

It's Tuesday, September 9, and this is my second day in Paris. Yesterday I arrived chez Douville around noon, after taking a taxi from the airport. The cabbie insisted that there was no street by the name of Alphand, but I was certain there was. It didn't help that my ears wouldn't pop so it felt like I had cotton stuffed in them, which made it even harder to talk to people. I gave him the Douvilles' number and he called Catherine, the mom, who explained where to go.

Once I got there, Lionel (the father) was waiting for me. The house is a tall, skinny building inside a small courtyard with a gate. If you've ever been inside a medieval castle, that's a lot what the stairs resemble. They're wood, but nearly spiral and small enough to make me worry that my suitcase wasn't going to fit. Mathilde and her boyfriend live on the first floor of the building (in a separate apartment, I think) but I think there's another flight of stairs that leads to a basement or something because that's where Lionel spends most of his time. Once you walk up the first flight of stairs at the entrance is where the Douville house itself begins. The first floor of the house has the bathroom, kitchen, dining room, and master bedroom. The stairs continue up to the second floor where my bedroom, Aurelie's bedroom, and the living room are. The ceiling is sloped so it's a lot like being in an attic. My bed is lofted like a dorm room and there are two small couches and an desk under the loft. It may sound big, but there are no built-in closets, just an armoire and a dresser, but I've heard other people describe their rooms and mine sounds pretty nice, and it is. The desk especially. It also has a rolling chair, which is where I'm sitting as I type this. Bathrooms in France are divided up; the toilet is usually in its own room while the sink and shower are in another. My house is no exception, but in this case the toilet, sink, and washing machine are all in one room. Parisians (indeed, many French people) don't really have dryers (I haven't met anyone who does) but I think we might; either that or we have two washing machines, but it's impossible to tell.

Lionel immediately walked me over to one of the school buildings, which, as it turns out, is barely an eight minute walk from my house. I think the main building is a different story, though. I'll find out tomorrow because that's the first day I have to go there. Orientation has been fairly boring and I'm confident I didn't miss anything too important on Friday or Monday morning. We had crab profiteroles (which look exactly like cream puffs, but with crab), duck leg with glazed turnips, and chocolate mousse for lunch at the center, which was delicious. After everything was over, I had to find my way back home, but after that happened last time I was in France, I was prepared. I walked back instead of taking the metro like Lionel suggested simply because I didn't feel like getting a metro card, although he seemed impressed that I found my way back on foot.

I meet Aurelie and her boyfriend Alex yesterday. They're both really nice, although the "r" in Aurelie is diffficult for me to pronounce, and Alex introduced himself as "Alexander" with emphasis on the "r," but Catherine referred to him as Alex, so I think I'll do the same. Aurelie says I can call her Aurel if that's easier. We went to some market to get bread and juice for breakfast, and Aurelie had me lead part of the way home so I can learn my way around. Her favorite TV show is "Les Freres Scott," (the Scott brothers), also known as One Tree Hill in the States. She also wanted to know if I watched 7th Heaven, and I said when I was little I used to. I didn't feel bad though; today when I told her I was going to take a nap she said only old people like her grandparents did that. She also has a cat named Cooky whom she's obsessed with. She and Alex go to the same school for accounting and last night was their one year anniversary, so they went out for dinner.

We had our language placement test today and got put into groups according to proficiency. I don't know what level group I'm in because they're not going to say, "dummy group" or "smart group," but the director of the program is my leader, so I'm nervous that it might be a difficult one. It's impossible to say because I think the test went well, but I certainly didn't ace it, and I hope I don't get put into a hard group because of some good guesses! The directions baffled me because one part would say "encerclez" (circle) your answers, then the next section would say "cochez (faites une croix sur la feuille)", which means "make a cross on the paper." So... I was supposed to make a cross on the multiple choice letter that I thought was correct? I was like, is this one of those genius tests to see if you're reading the directions, or is this some crazy French thing? And the sections kept switching it up, so I was really confused.

For lunch we had cold pureed mushroom soup with a piece of bacon, a fish puree with "bacon chips" which exactly resembled thick potato chips, and some disgusting berry souffle. I don't know what we ate for dinner, it was rice with meatballs and some kind of cooked pepper mixture. In France you eat your food in this order: melon (or some kind of fruit), then the main dish, then cheese, then salad (or maybe salad then cheese, I'm not sure), then dessert, which can be fruit, crepes, mousse, yogurt, or something of the like. I cut off a tiny slice of cheese because I wasn't very hungry, and they teased me about it. I'm not good at telling when French people are kidding, so they usually have to explain themselves.

Aurelie and I watched "Les Freres Scott" after she got home from school, and I met Mathilde for the first time. She seems very nice and invited me to play badminton with her on Mondays with her club. I was briefly introduced to her boyfriend the first day I was here but I didn't catch his name.

Lionel has told everyone in his family how he told me about (what I think is an upcoming) trip to Los Angeles, and I didn't understand where he was going because he couldn't pronounce "Los Angeles" or "San Francisco." He's asked me about ten times to repeat it so he can say it properly. They also insist that I pronounce my name the French way when I introduce myself, which I actually am not a fan of. They can say it however they would like, but I would prefer to refer to myself how I choose to. My family is really nice, but they correct me all the time. This is probably grammatical karma for me constantly correcting others in English, but it will probably get old if it happens all the time. It's good to know the proper way to say things, but sometimes I know I know and they know what I'm saying, but I can't pronounce it correctly and they'll try to help, but it's hard. I suffer from very poor pronounciation and I have a bad accent.

I knew that Europeans aren't big smilers, but I need to work on my straight face. No one smiles at each other in the street, and the program staff were adamant that we Americans learn to stop smiling at strangers. I did it this morning when I opened my front gate and make eye contact with some woman. French people aren't unfriendly, but they won't go up to you and make small talk. A man almost bumped into me while turning a corner and said "Pardon" and I wasn't sure how to react. Should I ignore it? Make eye contact and smile to say, "No problem?" Or say the French "no problem," which would be something like "Pas de probleme" or "C'est pas grave." I'm always hesitant to draw attention to my Americanness and saying anything is a dead giveaway. So I kind of ignored him and hoped I hadn't been overly rude. Next time I'll say the French "no problem." The urge to smile politely at everyone is still really strong.

All of the Americans I've met so far are really nice. My classes don't start until Sept. 22nd, so I have a while before I actually start school. Right now I've got orientation and language group classes (which I think are just to get us in the French groove). The staff is busy trying to arrange academic meetings to schedule classes, which is probably why we don't start school for so long.

The hour is near (finally)...

First blog entry! My mom (hi, Mom! hi Dad!) suggested that I post something before I leave to make sure it's all working correctly, and then once I get to France I can post something to let everyone know I've arrived. Well, here goes...

In case you don't already know, my trip was postponed when I got really sick with mono and a sinus infection last Monday or so. I was feeling even worse on Wednesday (the day I was supposed to leave), so my mom and I went to the Hammond Clinic, where they told me that I had mono. My mom rescheduled my flight and we contacted all the program people and my French family, so they're expecting me on Monday, which means I leave tomorrow night at 6pm. I emailed my coworkers to tell them what had happened, and my boss emailed me back saying that he and another guy I work with are flying to India Sunday at 6 as well, so maybe I'll run into them at the airport. Once I get there, I'm planning on taking a taxi for the convenience and speed since I'm going straight to orientation once I get to my French house.

I got my family information about a week and a half ago, and they seem really nice. My French mom, Catherine, is a pediatric nurse in Paris and my French dad, Lionel, runs some kind of all-purpose sports shop. I had to look up a lot of the words, but it looks like he replaces keys, does laundry, and just fixes broken sports equipment in some place called Savoie (Savoy), which is in the French Alps. Catherine says he works there all winter and two months in the summer, but he's also the person who is supposed to be home to let me in, so I don't know if he's simply planning on leaving when it gets colder or what. I'll have to figure this out when I get there.

The family also has a 20 year old daughter named Aurelie and a 24 year old daughter named Mathilde. Mathilde lives nearby with a friend, and Catherine says I have the choice of eating at either house if I'd like to. The girls both have cats and the family dog recently died in August at age 9. Aurelie goes to school for accounting and Mathilde works in publishing of some kind.

I looked up my French house, and it seems to be pretty close to the IES Center, which is where I'll have my classes. It's about two metro stops or a 30 minute walk away, which is comparable to walking to class at IU. Luckily, my classes don't start until September 22nd, but until then I have orientation on Monday and Tuesday, then a language seminar the rest of the week, I believe. I've already missed day one of orientation because of being sick, but at least it wasn't any class.

I miss you all already, and I want to say a big thank you to everyone who wished me well or sent me a card or anything; that was very thoughtful of you!