It's been a while...

Back by popular demand: Larry's blog!

So I've been a complete slacker and done what I had hope I wouldn't do: stop writing in the blog halfway through the semester. You know it's one of those things where one weeks goes by, you get slightly discouraged, another week goes by, you get even more discouraged, and then it's a month and a half later, and you're pissed you let it happen. But that said, I am going to attempt to resurrect this thing, so you can keep track of my last month here in Paris.

So, as can be expected, a lot has happened since I last wrote: Amsterdam, my mom, London, my best friend, my penpal, and everything else that goes on while I'm in Paris.

Amsterdam was quite cool to visit. It's a city where bicycles and trams rule the streets, where marijuana and prostitution are legal. I visited the Van Gogh museum, which was really interesting because it was laid out in a very intriguing manner. It documented the different stages of his life, and all his works were organized in chronological order. It was nice to see more of his work than just Starry Night and his self portrait. I also went to the Anne Frank museum and walked through the house where she and her family hid during the Holocaust. I was incredibly moved, walking through the legendary bookshelf doorway and standing in the rooms where the lived before they were taken off to concentration camps. There was a ghostly feeling to the building, but at the same time, it felt like there was some sort of peace, that the souls of the people were glad that their story was being told.

The following weekend, my mom came to visit, which was absolutely great! Being her first time in Europe, her trip opened her eyes to so many things she had never seen before. I loved watching her eyes light up as we walked past Notre Dame, the Louvre, and the Arc de Triomphe. Despite our three attempts to climb the Eiffel Tower, we were never able to due to the large crowds. I was really excited to share with her this city that has become such a huge part of my life.

Then I went to London for my birthday to spend it with my best friend Nick! It was an amazing weekend! We went to the Absolut Ice Bar, where everything from the bar to the seats to the classes were made entirely of ice! The put us in the thermal cloaks to keep us warm and we had 40 minutes to relish the occasion that was like nothing else. We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out and watching Ratatouille! What an incredible movie!! I had a wonderful time! Then two weeks later, Nick came to visit me in Paris! Like in London, we spent a lot of quality time hanging out and talking. We had an evening at the Louvre, and then some meals with my host family who absolutely adores him. :-)

Then last weekend, I went to visit the family of the penpal with whom I started to write back in 8th grade. I've been keeping in contact with her sister, and so I went to visit them outside of Lyon for the weekend. It was great to see them again after two years! We had several meals together and spent Saturday in Valence, where my penpal Mathilde lives and works now. It was a fun weekend and nice to see them again!

And finally, tomorrow I'm off on my Italian adventure with my friend Eugenia! We're taking the couchette overnight train to Venice, and from there visiting Florence and Rome. I am really excited and plan to see a ton of things! I'll fill you all in when I return!

Again, I'm sorry for anyone who has been awaiting an update (ie. Marg...), and I will try to keep up during the rest of my stay!

La campagne

Yesterday, Mimi wanted to take me out of the city and show me around the French countryside. So we got in the car (my first time in over six weeks!) and took off for the campagne.

She drove us through some old villages whose cobblestone streets were lined with picturesque, centuries old houses. Although the weather wasn't particularly beautiful, it was still stunning to see these buildings that are over a hundred years old. It all had such a particularly French feeling to it (imagine that). It was just very interesting, stunning even, to see buildings that resemble nothing back home. There was so much character to them.

Then she took me to a 19th century château where her daughter had her wedding in September 2006. Gorgeous. It was set on a property of several acres, with a pond complete with geese. It just seemed like a perfect place to have a wedding. I mean, who wouldn't want to get married at a château, right? There was a big banquet hall where they had the reception, which Mimi had beautifully decorated. There were also stables where the owners of the property keep their horses. It really was gorgeous.

Other than that, this weekend was pretty relaxing. On Saturday, I went to the library with Eugenia to get some work done, which was a nice change of pace from my inability to get work done in my house. It's like that back at home, too; I just can't concentrate when I'm not in a working environment. Oh well, I always seem manage :-)

I'm also starting to get excited for our trip to Amsterdam this weekend (besides the fact that we're taking a seven hour bus ride there and back). There are a lot of things there that I'm looking forward to seeing: the Anne Frank house, the Van Gogh museum, among other things. It should be a lot of fun, and I really enjoy the people who are going. The only problem is that it's a huge group (nine people), and huge groups are often the best. But it'll all work out and be a great weekend!

In any case, I've gotta get going. Since I'm not on my computer at home, I can't add pictures from this weekend, but I'll be sure to later. Ciao!

Longtemps...

My sincere apologies to anyone who's been frantically checking to see if I've made any updates. I know I must be so popular that I have the whole world wondering where I've gone ;-) But worry not, everything is going wonderfully.

I was thinking about why I haven't written in a while. It's mainly because, you know, at first, I had a million new things happening to me all at once. It was barely possible to keep track of all of them. And then as time went on, my activities became more regular, which I think is pretty cool. I'm adapting to this French way of life so that it's not all brand new to me anymore. Also, I've mainly been going to class and coming home and going out every once in a while.

So one thing that's really been bothering me since I've been here is the fact that we don't have a dryer, just a washer. I hate to be an energy waster, but I have some clothes that simply need to be dried or else they'll be forever stretched out. So I went on a mission to find a laundromat so I could dry the clothes that needed to be dried. And it was successful! So this morning, I put my clothes in the washer so they'd be ready when I came home for my Monday/Wednesday mid-day break, and when I got home, I carted them in Mimi's caddy a few streets down to the laundromat. I had also bought a nice Bounce substitute, and I must say I was quite pleased with the results. I'm not going to do it every time I do laundry, but maybe every other. I feel like a stupid American doing it, though... oh well.

So this past weekend I had a little bit of a disaster. We decided to go to a discothèque on Friday night, which turned out to be a lot of fun! In order to catch the metro before it closed, we left at about 1:15. However, when we got to the station, we were told that it had already closed! So we went to the bus stop to check on the night bus schedule, and that just wasn't going to work out. A few French kids waiting there also said just to take a taxi, but I didn't want to pay for that. My friend Emily also had to get home, too but she doesn't live anywhere close to me. Eventually, we decided that we were going to walk, but of course I wouldn't let her walk alone, so I went with her and decided I would just sleep there. We walked all the way from Charles de Gaulle - Etoile to her house, near Nation... which was about 7 kilometers... we didn't get to her house until after 3:00, and we just went straight to sleep! Now the following morning, she didn't want to have to explain to her host mother why she had a boy in her bed, so I played fugitive for about an hour until they left for the market. By playing fugitive, I mean hiding out in her room and on her balcony! Let's just say it was interesting.

Then on Saturday night, I went out with Chloé and her boyfriend for the evening. We get a long really wonderfully, and dinner was really nice; we had crêpes for dinner and dessert. I hadn't really liked crêpes salées (the salty, meal ones), but this time it was so good! Then after was chocolate and banana!

Speaking of crêpes, it's so hard for me to resist them when I walk past a stand. They are just so so so good with nutella and banana. Eugenia and I are addicted. I think desserts are what I am addicted to the most here: crêpes, pâtisseries, mousse au chocolat. They're just so good anywhere, everywhere, all the time! I have no come across a bad dessert since I've been here.

D'accord, il faut que je vous laisse, mais je vais essayer d'écrire plus souvent!

Petites choses

One of the things I really love about being here is discovering the differences between French and American cultures. When I first got here, it was all about the big things: the toilet separate from the rest of the bathroom, the tub with the shower head and no curtain, dinner regularly at 8:30 pm. But now that I've been here for a while, I'm starting to notice (or be informed of) things a little more subtle. For example, last night at dinner, Mimi asked why I kept my left hand at my side or on my lap while I ate. I explained to her that when I was young, my mom would constantly tell me to keep my arms off the table and that it was sort of rude to eat like that. Mimi found this odd because apparently in France, it's rude to keep your hand off the table and that you should always rest your arm/wrist on the edge of the table! So from now on, I'm going to keep my wrist on the edge of the table while I eat.

I love finding about these little nuances that make a culture what it is!

Changement!

So, we found out yesterday that there are entirely too many people registered for the translation course, something like 22. So the academic adviser came in to our class to tell us that they're going to form a second section, and that it would be in the afternoon and not in the morning.

This got me excited because there's a course at the Institut Catholique de Paris that I wanted to take. We have the option to take classes at several outside universities, including the ICP and the Sorbonne. The class that interested me was French Grammar... I know it sounds dorky, but everyone knows about my fascination with language, and this is a grammar and linguistics course, so pretty much right up my alley. My adviser also suggested for me not to take it in fear that it might be too difficult. Besides, it conflicted with Translation. But when I heard that I might actually be able to take it, I decided to give it another shot asking her! She agreed after my request to let me take it. I figured, if it's too hard, I can just drop it, and if it's just challenging enough, I can get a tutor at IES to help me if I need it.

The only problem with it is that it's at 8:00 am.

...

Luckily it's only one day a week, but of course it had to be Tuesday! In addition to the two hour lecture class in the morning, in the afternoon I have the TD (which stands for travaux dirigés), which is sort of like a TA session but more intense. After the TD, I have to truck it to the Cité Universitaire for the chorale rehearsal! Tuesdays are going to be quite long, I imagine...

I also had to drop the Paris Museums class to make room for Translation, which is fine because I'd rather be doing this new class anyway.

Right now, I'm home on my nice three and a half hour break between classes. It's definitely a good thing to be able to come home and eat rather than go out to eat or grab a baguette sandwich on the go. That stuff definitely starts to add up!

Family dinner tonight! Haven't had one in quite a while.

Hope all is well with everyone!

Beaucoup d'activité!

Wow, looking back, it's been quite a while since I last wrote, and a lot has happened since then!

I ended up going to the Musée d'Orsay on Thursday with the group from IES. It was really great because we went on a guided tour, and I have to say, our tour guide knew a lot! The entire museum is filled with the art of people who went against the grain in the 19th century, creating works that were beyond the realm of comprehension for the people of their time. It's a weird feeling after seeing all these famous pieces of art in pictures and in replicas and then finally seeing them in real life. Like the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, it's kind of surreal that I had Monet's water lilies and Degas' ballerinas in front of me.

Then on Friday, we went to the Père Lachaise cemetery, where famous people like Edith Piaf, Molière, Chopin, Oscar Wilde, and Jim Morrison all rest. I find cemeteries relaxing. I guess it's kind of like knowing that all the people there are resting peacefully. I don't know, maybe that's kind of weird. We also had our own personal tour there, too. Our friend Celeste had gone the previous weekend, and one of the guards showed her around, so when we came, he took us around, too. So that was nice not having to navigate on our own and being taken exactly where we wanted to go. In the corner, there were memorials for the people who died in the concentration camps during WWII, which all really moved me a lot.

Over the weekend, we did more walking and the like and went out on the town, but nothing else too exciting.

Mimi had been gone for about five days, and I got really excited when she came back. She's so nice and we get along really, really well. I also spent some time with Chloé while Mimi was gone. My family is really great.

But I do miss my family at home. I try to talk to them every once in a while, but it's just not the same as seeing them. Yesterday there was a suicide bombing in Israel, the first in over a year, and although I know Michelle isn't there and wasn't harmed, it still made me worried. I hope she's having fun with those cows on the kibbutz!

Tonight I've got my chorale rehearsal. The conductor is really funny and reminds me a lot of Mr. Brown. It's nice to be back in a chorus; I've really missed it. I've missed singing in general, actually. Aurélie's husband is a singer/actor, so I should talk to him and see if there's anything I can get involved with on his end.

I've got class soon, so I've gotta run.

Ciao!

So tired

I'm finding that I'm always tired. I wake up in the morning, and I'm tired. I go through the day, and I'm tired. I get home at night, and I'm tired. It can't be that I'm still jet-lagged... I've been in Europe for almost two weeks now. I think all the walking we've been doing is what's getting to me. Seriously, we walk so much everyday, just exploring different parts of the city. Also, spending the day speaking and listening to French is tiring. It takes a lot more concentration that I had thought... I realized it the most last week when I was pretty much falling asleep standing up, and I pretty much had no idea what was going on. I just have to remember that I do actually have class at 9:00, so I need to get my sleep.

On a nicer note: I joined a chorus! I saw a poster up at the IES center advertising for the chorale at the Cité Universitaire, so I went and asked about it. I had an audition that night (Tuesday), and by audition, I mean I sang some scales. Then I stayed for their rehearsal. We have practice every Tuesday night from 8:00 to 10:30, and the first concert is on March 14. The concert has a waltz theme, and we're singing some pretty well-known tunes from things like La Traviata and The Merry Widow. It's pretty cool because the Cité Universitaire is where all the international students studying in Paris live and hang out and stuff, so the chorale is full of people from all over the world. The girl who brought us four IES students actually is an American girl who works at IES. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought she was French. She speaks impeccably and is so comfortable and familiar with the culture. I hope one day I'll be like that.

I wish that I spoke in French more often with my friends when it's just us. We tend to resort to English, and it has now become the default for us when we're off on our own. I think originally we would do it just because it was easier, but now I think we kind of consider it our only option, even though that's clearly not the case. I think I might suggest that we speak in French more often.

Oh! I also have my class schedule:

Translation
French Cinema and Society
Introduction to French Literature
Paris Museums
Theatre and Representation

I'm really excited about all of them!

Yesterday, a couple of us went to the Louvre for just a little bit. I was saying that I wish I had more of an appreciation for art. Sure, things can be pretty and well depicted and things like that, but I don't really know what else to think about them or how they can be interpreted. That's one reason I'm looking forward to the museum class; I have a feeling it's going to give me a little bit more insight on art appreciation.

I'm going to try to go to the Musée D'Orsay tonight because it's free for anyone under the age of 25! I've wanted to go all the other times I was here but never had the chance.

So, I'm going to Amsterdam on March 6 for the weekend! We're taking a bus (...because it's cheap) overnight and just going to explore. All the people I've talked to who have been there before say it's a really fun city, so I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Mimi is in the mountains until Tuesday... I wish I could have gone with her!

Oh, and I'm still not over the fact that the Euro is worth about $1.50. Really annoying...

I have to head out to a meeting with someone at the IES center. Hope whoever is reading this is enjoying it. :-)

A bientôt!

Il fait froid!

The weather was nice here for the first few days, but since the weekend, it has been pretty darn cold! Just like in Ithaca, it's all about the layers, so I've been wearing shirts and sweaters and jackets and the like to keep myself warm.

As usual, we've been doing a lot of walking. Yesterday, I went with some people to see a few sites that we hadn't gotten to yet. The Madeleine was interesting; from the outside it looks like an ancient Greek temple, but on the inside, it's a church. Definitely a contrast there. It was pretty inside, but I've seen a lot of churches, and I hate to say it, but after a while they all kind of start to look the same. After that, we went over to the Opéra Garnier, the home of the Phantom of the Opera. Now that is a beautiful building. Unfortunately we arrived too late to go on a tour (I'm definitely going to go back!) so we could only explore the lobby and the gift shop, but that's enough to get at least the gist of how gorgeous the whole thing is. I picked up a schedule of the ballets, operas, and concerts that they have both there and at the Opéra Bastille, and I think some of us might try to go and catch something. Quite exciting!

The other day, I went with Chloé to her dance practice up at La Défense in the northwest. She's in a hip-hop group with five or six of her friends, and every Sunday they go to a mall to practice in the hallways, using the shop windows as mirrors. I was amazed when we got there and there were people all over the place just practicing their moves and learning choreography. I felt like it was in a movie: some abandoned space that young people use as a refuge to practice their art. That's really what it was. All the people in Chloé's group were really amazing dancers, too. They also talked really, really fast, and a lot of the time I just had to smile and nod and pretend that I knew what they were saying, even if I had no idea. But it was really cool to go and see what some French youth do in their spare time and also discover more about how they act with each other.

Grammar classes are going well... the review is definitely helpful. We're going over things that are quite advanced, so that's good, and it's also really great to get French grammar lessons from une vraie Française! She's really sweet and wants all of us to learn to our greatest potential; I can tell only from just the first couple of classes. I'm looking for the translation part of it because translation can go in so many directions depending on the interpretation, and it'll be cool to see where different people take things.

My class is at 9:00 though, and the majority of my friends have their grammar class at 11:30, so I find myself waiting around the IES center or exploring the neighborhood until they're out. Yesterday, I actually took the métro to the Saint-Paul stop and took a walk through the Marais. I saw one of the small Jewish parts of Paris, and I thought it was cool to see Hebrew and Yiddish next to the French. It's comforting to me to know that there are at least some Jewish people in this city. I walked past several kosher butchers and bakeries with challah in the window. Pretty cool, I have to admit. Next time I go through there, I'll have to get one.

Well I'm off. I think we're going to head to a museum, though I'm not sure which one. I've been here this long and haven't gone to see one yet, so I think it's about time!

A toute à l'heure!

Commencement des cours

So the last few days have been a lot of orientation stuff. You know, the this-is-how-you-get-around-in-Paris and "be careful" speeches. They've given us a lot of information about our academic options, as well as extracurricular activites and IES sponsored field trips. I think I want to the the trip to Normandy to see the D-Day memorials and museums and the one to two châteaux, Fontainebleau and Vaux-le-Vicomte.

I've also spent a lot of time just roaming around the city, exploring the cobblestone streets and beautiful architecture. I'm still in the "euphoria stage" of the study abroad experience, so I'm constantly in awe of everything I see. Apparently, it should last for a couple weeks when there will be a drop in my feelings, but I have an inkling that that's not really going to happen... I've been meeting a bunch of really interesting and fun people, and it's been great being able to explore with them.

We took a placement test yesterday, and this morning we began our language classes in order to prepare ourselves for a full course load of classes taught all in French. I placed into the highest level, so I'm taking a translation and style course, which I'm really excited about. Our professor is very nice and energetic and has a lot of enthusiasm for what she's teaching us. The class only has six students in it, so it's a really awesome student-faculty ratio.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the rest of the day. Most of my new friends have their language class in the second section from 11:30-1:00, so I think I'm going to hang around here at the IES center until they're out. Then there's an optional tour at 2:00 of the neighborhood surrounding the center, so I might go on that if I feel like it.

A bientôt!

Welcome to France

Boy, have I had a lot going on the last couple of days! I haven't gotten a chance to write yet, so I'll now attempt to recount the events of my first three days in Paris, the city of lights.

After a wonderful weekend in London, I went to the St. Pancras International train station to catch the Eurostar. I never realized that it would be like an airport, with metal detectors and customs where they stamp your passport and everything. The terminal was absolutely huge, too! Cavernous! It was quite a sight. I made it to my train just in the nick of time ( :-) ), and took my seat for the two and a half hour journey to Paris. I got a jolt of excitement when the conductor got on the intercom and spoke first in French then in heavily accented English. It took me a while to fall asleep, but eventually I did, and after waking up, I looked out at the countryside zooming past me and saw cars on the right-hand side of the road! I had slept the entire way under the Channel and had made it to France.

A little while later, we made it to the Gare du Nord train station in northern Paris. Everything in French! How exciting!!! I then made the utterly stupid decision to get to my host family's house by métro. Imagine two 50+ pound suitcases and a backpack and having to lug them up and down probably around 200 steps in three different stops. It was so incredibly difficult. I took ligne 6 to Montparnasse/Bienvenüe and then ligne 13 to Malakoff - Etienne Dolet. After about an hour, I made it and began walking to the house.

Now, my family doesn't live in Paris proper. They live right outside the 14th arrondissement (in the south) in a little town called Malakoff. Walking down the street, I noticed so many things typically French: le tabac, le boulangerie, and of course my favorite, le pâtisserie. It all looked so new, yet un peu familiar at the same time. I made it almost all the way down the street and stopped where I had been told in an email exchange with my host mother, at the green doorway on an old house. Looked interesting enough. Little did I know what I was really getting myself into.

A man, probably around 28, opened the door and introduced himself. He is David, my host mother's son-in-law. While helping me bring my ridiculous, Americanly heavy luggage up the stairs, he explained that he and my host mother's daughter live in an apartment downstairs. Mimi, my host mother, hadn't made it home from work yet but was going to arrive soon. This is when I saw the house.

I wish I had pictures yet to show you (unfortunately, since then I haven't been in the house to take pictures during the day with proper light). It was originally built as a granary in 1850 (an antique by European standards). There is a courtyard-type area when you first walk in, with one apartment on each side; the daughter and son-in-law live in one and the other is rented out to another woman. Walking up the stairs, I entered the salon, or living room. Through the salon is the cuisine (kitchen), and across the way is the rest of the house, where there are the toilette, the salle de bain (bathroom), the bureau (office), and two chambres (bedrooms). My room is up another flight of stairs, in the attic. Now don't be alarmed, I'm not sleeping in some dusty, tight space with mice and cobwebs. It's a cute little bedroom with wood floors and a pointed, wood-paneled ceiling. The entire house is decorated in what I would consider Bohemian-meets-French country, and it's completely full of charm. It's just wonderful.

Then, about fifteen minutes later, I had the pleasure of meeting Mimi. She greeted me with the traditional French bises (kisses on the cheeks), and it immediately became quite clear that this is a great match. She is absolutely energetic and full of life. Her friendly smile and warm voice made me so comfortable, and my French just came out. It felt liberating; she was the first person I really had a conversation with. She mentioned to me that she needed to do some grocery shopping, and I said that I'd love to come along. With grocery cart in hand, we headed off to the store.

We walked there, something I explained I would have never done in the United States. It was about a ten minute walk, but it didn't feel like it at all as I surveyed my surroundings and continued the conversation. During our walk, we discovered that her family and I have a lot in common. Music is a very important aspect of their lives. David and her daughter Aurélie are aspiring actors who love to dance and sing, and Mimi herself sings as well and is learning to play the accordion! It really could not have been a more perfect match! She has two other children as well. Her son Jérémie is 24 and lives in Barcelona, and her other daughter Chloé is 20 and is a work-study student in the tourism business.

On the way back, we stopped chez Bruno and Sabrina, Mimi's friends, who are hosting Zack, a student from Minnesota. After making it back to her house with our new groceries, I helped unpack, and then she told me that her other friend Kaki is also hosting an American student, so we went over there to meet her. We even rode on bikes! I couldn't believe it! How French is that? I couldn't even remember the last time I had ridden a bike...

We got to Kaki's and met her student Lauren. She's a really nice girl from Texas and we talked a little bit about school and our interests and the like. Then we had a glass of wine with Mimi and Kaki, and we just talked about France and things like that :-) The women have been friends for over 25 years, and they often host students together. It's such a great thing to know that I'm not alone in Malakoff, with Lauren and Zack only a few minutes away.

After about 45 minutes or so, Mimi and I brought Lauren back to our house (Kaki had some conference to go to), and we had dinner with Aurélie, Chloé, Chloé's boyfriend Grégorie, and André, another family friend. We had a really simple, yet delicious meal called raclettes. All it was was potatoes, and then we melted our own personal portions of cheese on these little platters, poured the cheese on to the potatoes, and voilà! It's apparently a dish popular in the mountains, and I totally understand why! I had forgotten that dinner is a several hour event in France. We all sat around the table for about two and a half hours, just introducing ourselves and discussing different things. I'm loving learning to express myself in a different language. It's really quite exhilarating.

We finished dinner, and after helping clean up, everyone sort of went their separate ways. André took Lauren home on his scooter, and I went up to my room. It wasn't long before I headed to bed; I had had quite a long day and had another one ahead of me: the first day of orientation at IES.

I was so happy to be here, and like I said, I don't think it could be any more perfect as far as host families go. I have a great feeling that this semester is going to be spectacular.

Well... it looks like it took me quite a while just to sum up my first day... I still have two more to go to catch up. But I'm tired and have to be at a language placement exam at 9:30 am tomorrow, so I think I'm going head to bed now and finish tomorrow hopefully.

Bonne nuit!