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