Life and London

Ok, so first off I’m sorry I haven’t written in so long! There are many reasons I haven’t (including illness and traveling) that I won’t bother going into, so I’ll just dive in. Since I last posted I visited another castle, visited London, and gave my first presentation. From now on I may not post any photos on my blog because my internet gets worse with every passing day, so I’ll just try to post a link to my Facebook album and make it public so anyone reading who isn’t a friend on Facebook can hopefully see them too.

So first off, my trip to London! I took the train and it was marvelous and I’m so glad I didn’t have to take the plane. London wasn’t really what I expected. I suppose with all the photos of Big Ben and after having been in Paris for a while I thought it would look more old, but apparently the blitz took care of a lot of old buildings. It looks more like an American city architecturally than Paris does, except that most of the buildings aren’t very tall. It really was grey there, which was expected, but somehow it surprised me. Overall it was a lot less picturesque than I imagined. Paris has lots of dirty areas but even in those, the lighting is better and there are older buildings so I suppose it feels more European to me. We did, however, have good weather so that’s a plus. It only really rained one morning and I was sleeping in anyway!

My hostel was pretty nice. There was a low-key pub downstairs and a place to put food. The rooms had 10 people in it but most people were considerate and it was clean and comfortable. The non-considerate people (I’m looking at you, drunk Australians who were roughhousing and shaking the bunk bed at 1 AM) were only there for a short amount of time. I loved the staff; they were really friendly and funny and even knew my name. Shout out to Paul the Scottish man, you are the bomb. Thanks for talking to me about Venezuela and Ukraine and for being all-around friendly and helpful.

The days went by pretty quickly so I can’t give a blow-by-blow of everything I did every day, but basically imagine everything a tourist would do in London. I saw Big Ben, the outside of Westminster Abbey (they make you pay in London, unlike in Paris), Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Saint James Park, 221b Baker Street (aka the Sherlock Holmes Museum), the British Museum, the London Eye, the Globe Theatre, the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, the Millennium Bridge, got a great meat pie (which was AMAZING and completely worth it – if you’re ever in London, go get pie from Windmill), had tea, and saw Ian McKellen’s pub. I also met up with some friends who are studying in London and got to talk to them and visit some pubs with them.

Buckingham Palace was no Versailles, but honestly that’s a good thing. You could say it’s a sign of how the British monarchy survived and why the French monarchy was brutally murdered. Of course I couldn’t see the inside, which I’m sure is quite lavishly outfitted, but the fact that it is actually in London and not isolated from the capital, as well as it being smaller and less ostentatious on the outside with a MUCH more modest garden outside are all indicators that they are wasting less of their people’s money. Of course I don’t know what I’m talking about and I’m aware there are vehement supporters of the crown and also vehement republicans (which for all you Americans out there does not mean conservative, it means they support a republic which means no monarchy) but that was just a split second analysis from an ignorant outsider.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum wasn’t that cool honestly. It’s actually at Sherlock Holmes’ address, which is cool. They had it decked out like a Victorian era abode, which was nifty, but the upper floors were all weird mannequins posed like situations from the books. I haven’t read the books so it wasn’t that fascinating for me, and it was a bit crowded so I couldn’t geek out over the Victorian-ness of it. Plus I would have been more into it if they had described how Victorians lived and described the objects and stuff, but they didn’t. Oh, and one of the reasons it was so crowded was that schools in Asia were on break while I was there and the show Sherlock has been a huge hit there, so a majority of the tourists in the Sherlock Holmes museum were Asian school kids. 

The British Museum was fascinating of course, and I didn’t see even half of it. The signs of controversy over their having some of the things they do was evident, which was interesting. They had a plaque about how they “rescued” things from the acropolis and saved them from the elements, but the Greek government wants them back and built a room to house the objects. It’s definitely worth a visit.

I loved the Globe and the Tower of London. They both appeal to my inner (or not so inner) history-nerd. The Globe is a reconstruction since the original burnt down in the 17^th century, but it was really cool to see and I caught a demonstration of costuming. The Tower of London I actually didn’t know much about. I thought it was just a prison, and I thought it was literally just a tower. It’s actually a castle/fortress built by William the Conqueror and later expanded. It was a royal residence, an armory, a prison, and it houses the crown jewels. There was way too much to see there and I wish I could have stayed longer but it closed fairly early.

Ian McKellen’s pub was interesting. My friend took me there because we share a love of Ian McKellen, and we kept looking around hoping to see him! There were dogs in the pub and we talked to the one owner for a long time while petting the dogs. She was really interesting. On the subject of pubs, I decided that I love pub culture. It’s more low-key than bar culture. I don’t like beer (I know, I am a bad American) so it’s a bit annoying because they don’t have as many drinks as bars, but luckily I like gin and tonic so it was my go-to. I joked I’d be impervious to malaria by the time I left. They usually offer food, often fish and chips or meat pies or something. I saw a sign in one pub that offered a pint and a pie for something like 7£ and I was very confused because I thought it meant an American-style fruity dessert pie. I later found out they meant meat pie and was laughed at.

It was really great to see friends from American University and to compare notes about the countries we were studying in. One thing that really was interesting to me is I was actually jarred by the accents. I thought I would have no problem because I watch so much British TV that sometimes I don’t even notice when an American character comes on the show because I’ve lost the ability to distinguish the accents. And in France whenever I hear someone speaking English, British or not, I immediately feel a connection with them. But in London I felt completely like a fish out of water. In France, it’s immediately obvious to everyone that I am foreign as soon as I open my mouth, but I’m also not taken for just another tourist because I can speak conversational French. In the UK, I was just wrong. There was no way to prove that I wasn’t just a tourist (which actually, I was just a tourist). But for my friends studying there, it’s the same thing. Everyone just assumes they’re there for the week or something instead of studying there. French people assume I am here for a longer period of time. It’s also because American accents seem stupid compared to British ones, so it’s hard to be taken seriously in class or something.

(Interesting side note: most French people can’t tell the difference between British and American accents and I’ve been asked several times if I was British)

While eating out one time, my friends and I encountered a friendly British man who chatted for a while. It was one of the best experiences I’ve had talking to someone while abroad. He concurred that the Queen is a “badass” and expressed his dislike of Justin Bieber. He considers Harry Styles better than Justin Bieber. I informed him that Bieber wasn’t our fault; he’s Canadian. He’d been to the US and to France and really liked both, which was interesting because the French and the English have a bit of a love-hate relationship.

I honestly found London to be a bit safer, especially at night. It might just be my neighborhood, but in Paris I am constantly followed by men at night and if you so much as make eye contact they take it as an invitation. It’s been really difficult for me to learn to completely ignore another human being, especially when they follow really closely and say “madame, madame” repeatedly in my ear. Sometimes they pretend to ask for directions, but unless you want to take a gamble you have to ignore them. In London they weren’t aggressive at all and no one even followed me. My friend said she’s been followed a few times but just said a jolly “fuck off” and they were on their merry way. London also seemed a bit cleaner. It’s true that in Paris there is dog poo everywhere. Street workers clean it up, but that can take a while. In London the owner cleans it up.

My friends in London don’t think the English are overly friendly but compared to the French they seem to be a bit more open. Which, by the way, is not a judgment. As I’ve stated before, I like the French reserved-ness sometimes. I hadn’t realized that I missed the friendlier American attitude until I experience the British being slightly more friendly than the French. Also, they really do say sorry all the time. Especially compared to the French, who frequently say “pardon” when they really mean, “get out of my way” on the metro. The metro in London was almost as silent as the one in Paris, unlike in Washington DC where everyone talks really loudly. Americans really are loud. It’s one of the things I still catch myself doing frequently.

I have to say that I prefer the Paris Métro to the London Underground. The Underground is much cleaner but the Métro goes more places and crosses lines more frequently. Pretty much anywhere in Paris is within a 10-20 minute walk of a Métro stop, and from there you can transfer pretty easily to pretty much anywhere. This is not the case in London. Plus their system is a bit more confusing. For my purposes it worked wonderfully and didn’t confuse me, but for someone living in London there are vast areas where you cannot get to easily, and if you aren’t used to using some sort of metro it could be very confusing.

Now that I’ve written a novel about London, I’ll talk briefly about Paris again. Not much has really gone on here except that I’ve further settled in. I adore my host family, I’m more used to my neighborhood and am getting more familiar with the city, where I can now say where major landmarks are in relation to metro stops. I’m not being recognized as foreign until I speak now, instead of as soon as someone sees me. I’ve identified some French brands of toiletries that I like, and the pros and cons of different food stores. I’ve made more friends and seen more things, like the Château de Vincennes at the end of metro line 1, which was an old royal residence built in the 14^th century. I also feel more comfortable in my French. I definitely am not completely fluent and I don’t think that is a realistic goal for a semester, but I’m less worried. Honestly part of it isn’t even that my French has improved but my anxiety has lessened. I may still say incomprehensible things with the wrong verb tenses and mixed-up nouns, but I’m not stuttering when I say it and I just try to say it another way when I fail.

My major accomplishment has been giving my first presentation! I was up there for about 45 minutes but only talked for 25. My professor was really nice and the class was small and also nice, so I wasn’t too scared. It was for my geography class, which is interesting for me because my school back home doesn’t even HAVE geography. It was on Greece and Ireland, and I had to talk about the geography, the people/culture, and the economy. The two were made into one presentation because of the bad economic state of both countries. I had already made a handout with all the information and I basically just read it off. The professor even helped me when I stumbled over how to say all the big numbers (which is my downfall). I realized after I gave the presentation that I used American-style numbers instead of French ones, but oh well! The French use commas where we use decimal points, and vice versa. All-in-all the professor definitely helped me out by filling in information I didn’t have and fielding questions for me, but I still felt accomplished when I sat down. And definitely relieved!

So anyway sorry I haven’t posted in so long, sorry there are no pictures, and sorry this is so long.

Bisous,

La vache espagnole

For pictures of France, try clicking here.

For pictures of London, click here.

Classes finalized, Chartres, and Chinese New Year

Ok I'm going to be honest. The main reason I haven't posted in forever is because it's too difficult to upload pictures because the internet is slow. So I've decided I'm going to write this post with fewer pictures even though I have more (because otherwise I'll never post this).

So first of all, MY SCHEDULE IS FINALLY FINALIZED which is a huge deal. Hopefully I'll be getting my student card soon so I can use it to get discounts, but I am officially registered and my schedule is finalized and it's great. I've got a class in English as a break that's really interesting about the (modern) history of Ireland. I'm a bit disappointed the history doesn't go further back but there's a ton of modern Irish history to study so I'm not too disappointed! The rest of my classes are in French. The next day I've got a class about the political crises of 19th century France. Then I've got European geography, which is interesting because I've never taken geography before. American schools don't really teach it. We don't even have it at my university. Then I've also got a FLE (Français pour les étrangers, or French for foreigners) class which is helpful. So yay! I'm now understanding somewhere between 40-70% of what's being said in class as opposed to 20% on the first week haha. It's still not enough to actually know what's happening or pass a test but it's tons less stressful.

I've met so many really helpful and friendly French students, and my professors have been helpful and nice. They're less outwardly warm than American professors but I am already used to the French reservedness and am can feel the genuine good-naturedness underneath. I'm actually not sure how I'm going to be able to handle Americans again after this. One of my professors is really smiley and happy and I find myself slightly off-put by it. It seems unnatural to me now! I am really enjoying being more reserved because it feels less fake and put-on. You can still be friendly without smiling at every person you pass on the street. If someone stops and asks for directions (which happens to me constantly for some reason) you can smile and use flowery effusive language and be helpful and friendly. It just seems more genuine and less effort!

Now, for what I've done. I've actually been pretty busy. Of course I've had my classes but I also visited Chartres cathedral last weekend with ACCENT. It was beautiful. It's one of the oldest churches in Europe and has a huge number of original medieval stained glass windows. It was fascinating because the cathedral was being cleaned for the first time in about 300 years, and you could see what had been cleaned and what hadn't. My pictures didn't turn out great because the windows were so high up and lots of things weren't cleaned yet; it was also a dark-ish day so the lighting wasn't great. But it was beautiful in person! My friends and I also stumbled upon another church in the town that was a Renaissance church called Église St-Aignan. It was really cool because it was more intimate and less crowded. The walls were painted all sorts of colors but was chipped from years of use. It was beautiful in that antique way, certainly in need of some upkeep but fascinating and genuine because of it. We wandered around the town as well and saw a quaint part-medieval town. Many of the buildings were very old.

The picture didn't turn out great but each little square in the long windows is 4 foot by 4 foot and original medieval stained-glass.

It was dark and this part hadn't been cleaned yet, but these statues were beautiful and stretched many many feet down showing the history of Christ.

The outside of Chartres cathedral

More beautiful stained glass in the Chartres cathedral. I repeat: each square is 4 foot by 4 foot!

The view from behind Chartres cathedral.

Stained glass window in Église St-Aignan. Notice the Renaissance style (and the fact it was closer to the ground and I could actually take a picture of it)

Église St-Aignan

The beautiful ceiling of Église St-Aignan. It looks like the inside of a Viking ship if it were intricately decorated.

Église St-Aignan

Chartres cathedral from the outside

On Sunday there was a Chinese New Year parade (yes I know the actual new year was the weekend before). I went but was too short to really see anything and in true French fashion the parade participants took lots of breaks and were not too high-energy haha. Eventually we got some food and another friend and I went to sit by the Seine and went back to Shakespeare and Company to read in their library upstairs. It's quickly becoming one of my favorite places. There are comfy chairs and books in English and there's always something interesting going on. Plus it's really close to the Seine and Notre Dame where there are tons of cheap restaurants and crêpe stands and interesting nightlife. So far it's on my list of top 5 favorite areas in Paris.

I forget at what point this happened, but I also witnessed an impromptu métro concert. If I haven't mentioned it, musicians from all over the world compete to get a license to play in the Paris métro (these are different from the people who actually perform on the cars who are performing illegally for cash). I've seen orchestras and African drummers and all sorts of groups. There was even a marionnette of Édith Piaf while someone sang La vie en rose. Anyway, this one was just a talented group of young men playing current pop hits, but tons of people had stopped and were dancing in the middle of the métro station. Everyone was laughing and clapping and dancing with strangers. It was really beautiful and a reminder that even though French people may smile less, they are actually warm, friendly, and happy people.

So that's all for now. I will really try to post more often if people can accept that I can't be posting so many pictures. Deal?

Bisous,
La vache espagnole

Classes, Notre Dame, Versailles, etc.

I know it's been a while and my last post was pretty whiny but it's hard to upload pictures here! My internet is constantly going out and it takes about a million years to upload photos.

Last I posted was my first day of classes. The fact of the matter is that I still can't understand 50% (or more) of what's being said, but I'm less nervous. I keep reminding myself that many people have done this before, including people who speak less French than I do. So somehow it has to work out! I think what must happen is the professors cut foreign kids a lot of slack. Apparently we write Erasmus on the top of our exams at the end of the semester to indicate we're foreign because the professors grade the tests without looking at the names. For those of you who don't know, Erasmus is the name of the study abroad program in Europe. It's a bit confusing, because all abroad kids are often lumped in with Erasmus and it isn't clear when we are actually included and when we are not.

I also took more courses last week than I will be this week because I need to narrow them down now. Without getting into too much convoluted detail, I am having issues with my home university. No one can really answer my questions so I am blindly making choices myself. Essentially the short version is that I am attempting to get credit for International Studies (which just have to be about Europe) and also for French from my classes. This SHOULD be easy because I am taking European history classes in French. But of course, American University manages to make it difficult! There is a list of classes that have already been assigned equivalences for my program (MICEFA) in a database, but I am not taking any of those. This is because in MICEFA you can take any class you want at pretty much any university in Paris. So it would be impossible for an AU student to have taken every single class before. Furthermore, from what I gather the system is that you submit a request asking for the class you took abroad to be counted as the most similar AU class. So take, for instance, the medieval history class I wanted to take. I want to get French and International Studies credit for it. But AU only has one class about medieval Europe and I already took it at AU, plus it isn't in French. So I can't take the class because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get any credit for it. But who knows, because no one can answer this simple question! So I'm still working on figuring all of that out.

Interesting note about French university that I forgot to mention in my last post. They have classes that are TD (travaux dirigés) and CM (cours magistral). The CM is a lecture class and the TD is the actual work for the class, like presentations and essays. For French students, you have to take both. But for foreign students, you don't (at least at Catho). I don't know which I find harder, because in one I sit through a lecture I don't understand and have to take a huge written test at the end, and in the other there is a lot of work and 30 minute long presentations in a foreign language.

The upside is that in every class the professor gave advice and acknowledged we were foreign, and the students were very helpful and offered to send us their notes. So I'm hoping it won't be too terrible!

Anyway, after the nightmare that was classes, during the week there were some after-class events for international students. One was at a bar. It was relaxing and nice to hang out with other students who were in the same boat!

On Friday I didn't have any classes at all! I went with my friend who also didn't have any classes to a famous English-language bookstore near Notre Dame called Shakespeare & Co. It was founded by an American expat who didn't want to go home after WWII. It was overpriced but very cool, and staffed by (mostly British) expats, with one French employee. I got a book of Yeats poetry because it was beautiful and because I think I should read more poetry.

After that we wanted to pop over into Notre Dame (how cool is that??) so we took the famous bridge just down the street that is covered in locks. Then we went into Notre Dame while what appeared to be a mass was occurring. This was fine, visitors just stayed out of the pews (they had a system for this). We were not expecting a mass because it was Friday night but this is probably a normal thing that Catholics do that I just didn't know about. It was beautiful, of course, and I took some pictures.

The next day we FINALLY WENT TO VERSAILLES. Be proud. It was an ordeal. The short version is that the RER C which we were going to take to Versailles was not working so we had to take a different train. It was a very large group. It was like herding cats. We ended up finally getting on the train about an hour and a half after we meant to. But when we got there it was beautiful, of course. Versailles is a long day so we decided to come back in the spring to see the gardens and just focus on the building itself. Oh, did I mention it was totally free? Yeah, because I have a monthly Navigo pass (the metro, RER, and bus pass) it is dezoned on the weekends, which meant I took the train for free. Well, not free, but included in the price I already paid for the Navigo. And then because I have a visa that states I am living in Paris, I am considered a resident of the European Union. Residents between 18 and 26 get into most museums for free or reduced rates. In this case, it was free. So it's easy to go back again, as long as it's a weekend! So, anyway, the group was too large and so, inevitable, the center could not hold (did you like my Yeats allusion?) and we all ended up wandering somewhat on our own through the palace. I took lots of pictures so I'll post a few and let those do the talking.

The front gate was gold. Of course.

Look at that ceiling!

Hall of Mirrors

Me in the Hall of Mirrors

One of the Mesdames' apartments (sisters of the king)

This was kind of cool. They were restoring the painting!

After the palace most of us went home but my friend and I strolled through a tiny part of the garden briefly. It was still pretty despite the winter.

Famous Fountain of Apollo

After that we met up with other friends and got cheap, but very good, Indian food. So that's essentially what I've been up to! I'll be taking more classes this week, figuring things out, etc. So I'll update when I can!

Last fun fact: another food that French people seem to love that I keep forgetting to talk about? Almonds. I don't know why, but they love them and put them in tons of stuff. I'm not complaining!

Bisous,
La vache espagnole

Franglish and first day of classes

First the fun, then the frustrating.

Last night (Sunday night) I went to a Franglish "speed-dating" event with two of my AU friends. It isn't actually speed dating, but you spend 14 minutes each with a bunch of people, 7 minutes in English and 7 in French.  On one side of the table is a native French speaker and on the other is a native English speaker. It was actually quite interesting even though it was nerve-wracking. I'm glad I went and will probably go to another. Then I went to bed because the next day was the day I'd been dreading: the first day of classes.

The day of reckoning had arrived. First day of classes. To explain in the most brief way possible, there are three years in French undergrad, and I can take any of them (L1, L2, or L3). Obviously the L3 is going to be difficult despite the fact that at home I'm in my third year of college because the classes are not in my native language. So I decided to try out L1s and L2s. This week we foreign students are essentially showing up to any classes we might want to take to see if we're comfortable with the language level, material level, etc. By February 10th we have to decide on a final schedule.

So today I had planned to go to an L1 class (2 hours long) with a 2 hour break and then an L2 class (3 hours long). Let me tell you, I did not attend the latter. I realized after understanding almost none of the L1 class that I was most likely not cut out for L2, especially for the difficult one that afternoon. It was very disheartening.

Luckily there was another foreign exchange student from Germany in that class and thanks to orientation I already knew her! We talked to some very very nice French students who are going to send us the notes and we talked to the professor who recommended a book, which he explained the class follows very closely. Later the other foreign student and I went to a book store to try to find the book and realized we hadn't been given an author. After a while of searching and trying to find something similar, we came up with 3 maybes and I'm going to email the professor if I can find his email address to see if it's one of those. Everything today was frustrating and exhausting.

Please tell me "Histoire des institutions jusqu'à 1099" is one of these three options

So tonight I have to try to figure out how many credits I can get for each class and I have an email in to my advisor at American University to make sure it's okay that I'm possibly taking two medieval history classes, because if AU gives me credit by assigning it to the most similar AU class, it will assign both as the ONE medieval history class AU offers, which I have already taken. So there's that! Honestly I'm just tired and need to go to bed early and try not to worry so much. Tomorrow the foreign exchange students taking history are meeting with that department head, there's a luncheon for us foreigners, and a bunch of classes I want to sit in on. But if they're anything like today I'll probably fall asleep out of frustration and ask for the notes from another student. Ughhhh.

Bisous,
La vache espagnole

Catho and going out

Quick summary of my last few days because I'm feeling guilty for not writing. On Wednesday I went to Musée D'Orsay again with a friend from MICEFA and what's cool about that museum is that despite having spent a while there the other day with another group of people, I saw completely different things the next time I was there. And the museum is smaller and more manageable than the Louvre. Then we crossed the Seine and popped into the Jardin des Tuileries to try to find Rodin's The Thinker but couldn't find it. This post doesn't really do it justice but it was a really fun afternoon!

On Thursday was my first day of orientation at Institut Catholique de Paris, which from here on in will be referred to as "Catho" (pronounced Cat-o) like the French do. I met a lot of international students from all over the world. The second day of orientation on Friday we toured the neighborhood around Catho. We saw two very old churches (Saint-Sulpice and Saint-Germain-des-Prés which was originally built in the 6th century) and the Luxembourg Gardens, which are beautiful.

Luxembourg Gardens

Luxembourg Gardens

That night a bunch of us Catho kids went out. It was the most successful barhopping night yet! It was also fascinating to be out with people of so many different nationalities. There was me: the American, and my other American friend who brought along her German friend and a British friend. Then there was another German girl, a Korean girl, two Brazilian girls, and a Quebecois Canadian girl. French people in bars were pretty hilarious and can't seem to handle alcohol very well. But everyone was very nice and willing to talk to the foreigners! The downside was that everything was insanely expensive, so I decided not to go out tonight which might have been a good thing because there's a storm.

I also had my first absinthe, which was delicious. As I explained to several people, absinthe is not at all dangerous and does not make you hallucinate. There was a smear campaign around the turn of the century designed by beer and wine producers. They took wormwood, which was in old absinthe formulas, and concentrated it. They gave the concentrated wormwood to rats, who died. But of course they died at the crazy high concentrations they were given! In addition, lots of cheap "absinthe" was on sale for poor alcoholics that was not absinthe and was poisonous. Often it was dyed green with poison. Real absinthe is just a liqueur that tastes like anise. You are supposed to slowly pour water onto a sugar cube on a slotted spoon perched over the drink until the sugar is dissolved and enough water is added. It should be a light, cloudy green, almost a mint shade. Then you sip it. There is an Eastern European version of absinthe that is dyed green and is taken as a shot, often flaming. This is not absinthe, according to purists.

I saw some plaques that I'd like to share as well:

Wall of plaques

"From 1914 to 1919 in the old buildings of the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, the war relief housed thousands of refugees and French and Belgian soldiers on leave"

"For those that died in the military service of France in Indochina [Vietnam] and in North Africa between 1945 and 1962 at for the civil victims of all the conflicts"

"Homage to the inhabitants of the 6th arrondissement who died for France in North Africa between 1952 and 1962"

"To the citizens of the 21st arrondissement who fell before the execution squads on the barricades and on the field of battle during the fight against Nazi Germany during the years 1939-40-41-42-43-44-45

That the memory of their sacrifice is close in our memories similar to the Glorious Elders of the War 1914-1918"

Some of these plaques seemed harmless, like the World War plaques. But it seems to me the ones about North Africa and Indochina/Vietnam would be controversial. France's role in all of that is a bit of a dark spot in their history.

To end this on a lighter note, look how ridiculously expensive bagels are here!

NEARLY 10€ PER BAGEL?

Bisous,

La vache espagnole

Bad French, La Comédie Française, etc.

This is gonna be another ramble-y post, guys, so I apologize in advance. First off, I was told I should share something I put on my Facebook but didn't make it onto this blog. The other day I made an egregious grammar error in my intensive French course and my professor laughingly told me that French people might vomit (hurler) if they heard me say that, while miming vomiting. Guess that means I'm improving! I imagine it must have been like hearing someone say "I now will go have to store" in English. Whenever I speak bad French, which is 99% of the time, I hear the mistake about a minute or so after I make it and think about how much of a travesty it would have sounded like in English. The other day I was trying to ask if I should turn off the light but I couldn't remember how to use the conditional ("should I") and I didn't know how to say turn off, so I ended up saying something like "I do this? Close the light?" in French and poking the light switch. The person I was talking to kindly laughed at me and told me I could turn it off. I'm constantly getting the gender of words wrong, I have lost the ability to do the French "r" correctly, and I think my verb tenses are actually getting worse! I'm hoping it's a dip before improvement and I have a theory about why it's happening. In school I got to sit and think before I spoke and now I have to get it out there as fast as I can so as not to annoy native speakers. So whatever comes out, comes out! And they aren't correcting me as often as a professor might so I get in the habit of saying the most incorrect things so long as I can be understood. Here's to hoping that one gets better!

Ok, next topic is food again. I had a weird sandwich today that I feel the need to share. I can't tell what they are in the school cafeteria when I order and they aren't labeled so I always just hope for the best. Today's was a salami sandwich with pickles and BUTTER. I swear to goodness I thought it was cheese because it was so thickly spread but it was butter! It was weird but actually really good. I realized I never confirmed everyone's burning question: do French people really wander the streets of Paris holding baguettes. And the answer is yes they actually do! Because a single Frenchman (or woman) could probably eat an entire baguette his- or herself but restrain themselves to one per reasonable sized family per day, they buy their baguette fresh daily and it is consumed at dinner and the rest for breakfast or something. So on the way home from work or something they'll just grab a baguette and carry it in its little paper sleeve home!

They also mostly shop in a very small radius around their house. I live within a 5 minute walking distance of: a pharmacy, an ATM, wedding shops, a baker, several cafés (one with to-go crêpe stand attached), a butcher, a grocery store, a photography store, some general stores, a professional hairdresser store, bars, and a tabac which is often a café-tabacco shop-phone store-everything-you-could-ever-need store. Pharmacies here are literally just pharmacies with medicine and the like, although they are great because pharmacists here are basically doctors. But they aren't like CVS or something, a tabac is more like CVS.

Side note: I want to add that I initially spelled pharmacy as pharmacie (which is how you spell it in French) and had to correct myself. I only noticed because my browser kindly underlines everything I spell incorrectly.

On to what I've done! Last night my program had an outing to see Dom Juan by Molière at La Comédie Française theater and it was lovely. For those of you that don't know who Molière is, the most simple comparison I can make is that he's the French Shakespeare. But Molière mainly did comedies and Shakespeare did a lot of tragedies. They're from a similar time period and are very famous and excellent playwrights, okay? So anyway, we had read some excerpts in class (and I read an English translation to prepare myself) and it was funny and interesting and lovely. Of course, I sat in a weird spot, but I was 100% okay with that.

La Comédie Française

The view from my seat. Front row in the corner! My eyes barely could see over the stage because I am a tiny person.

On the way home I saw some graffiti I'd like to share with the world.

"Dad would like me to be a lawyer. Me, [I want to be] a painter."

So anyway that's all for now. Tomorrow is my last day of the intensive French course, and then I have 2 days of orientation at Institut Catholique de Paris and after that I start classes on Monday!

Bisous,
La vache espagnole

Musée D'Orsay, Oberkampf, the Seine, and random stream-of-consciousness observations

Hello again. I keep forgetting what I wanted to talk about so let's see what comes out in stream of consciousness. I went to Musée D'Orsay with my friends today. It is a really cool museum mostly of impressionists and post-impressionists. It's in an old (retired) train station and it is beautiful! We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but I took this of the outside.

Token "outside of the museum" photo

When we got out of the museum there was a cute little crêpe stand that I HAD to take a picture of, and of course I took some of the Seine because it was lovely.

Crêpe stand. Too cute.

The Seine with that Ferris Wheel near the Jardin des Tuileries in the background.

The Seine. Bye boat!

Candid.

Not candid, minus Allie who didn't get the memo.

We walked around for a bit and found a nice area to grab crêpes and then all went home. We're going out in a bit but I dunno where.

Area where we got crêpes. How very French.

Side note: French people apparently love Earth, Wind, and Fire because I heard September two separate times today played by two different people. And my home stay family is now playing Nina Simone because they have seriously amazing taste. The other day they were playing Cat Stevens and the son played Formidable by my favorite person ever, Stromae! So suffice to say I dig French taste in music.

Yesterday we checked out rue Oberkampf in the 11th arrondissement, which is known as a hip place (as in hipsters). It was cool but we were too tired to go out to a bar after the café because it was pretty late and I am an old person. I can barely deal with Anglophone hipsters when I'm tired, much less Francophone ones. But we're going out tonight! So we're not lame! Right? Right.

So on my way home last night on the métro a REALLY drunk dude stumbled in and nearly fell on the girl sitting near the door. He then proceeded to sit down in an empty seat and, while taking swigs from a bottle, yelled about "le marriage pour tous" (marriage equality). He kept saying things like "women and women and men with men: this is France today!" It was very strange.

Another random observation (stream of consciousness, remember?): all the stores up one street near me are wedding shops. They aren't big or fancy or anything and I have no idea why they are all in one spot but they all sell wedding dresses or dresses for women who aren't the bride to wear to a wedding. It's really weird. And a lot of them are muslim-themed. There's one called "Beirut Mode" (Beirut fashion). Strange.

Another thing: I keep seeing these spigot things in the métro and have no idea what it's for. Is it for washing your feet? Free water for the homeless/travellers? I have no idea. This guy and his friends don't seem to know either.

Someone explaaaaaain!

Anyway that's all for now because I have to feed myself. Tchao!

Bisous,

La vache espagnole