Riot gear

Yesterday afternoon there was a riot in the Gare du Nord train/metro station, apparently incited by a youth who didn't have a metro ticket to show when the police came around to check. It escalated into full riot proportions when people (mainly young people) started looting the stores located within the train station and setting the ticket booths on fire. You can see a video of some of the police/rioter interactions here: http://www.lemonde.fr/web/video/0,47-0,54-888738,0.html
That station is very sketchy anyway (I never go there) so don't worry, and it seems peace has been restored since then.

While the riot was going on, I was enjoying a beautiful afternoon on the Champ de Mars (garden/grassy knoll near the Eiffel Tower). Anna, Dane and I sat in the grass (of course I had to put a plastic bag down so my pants didn't get dirty) and listened to music (iPod attached to speaker). It was lovely and I took photos. After that, we decided to go for a run, the first real cardio I've done in about 2 months. It wasn't too bad and it felt good to get moving faster than a power walk for once. Unfortunately, it seems I forgot to pack my favorite purple running shorts.

Today I purchased a large traveling backpack (I don't know what the real term is) off of ebay.fr (French ebay). It only cost about $42 including shipping and will be much easier to use than a wheel-y suitcase for my spring break adventure.

Does not work well with others

This weekend was very rainy, therefore the only thing to do was go to a museum. On Friday, I grudgingly went to the Louvre, and walked around for about an hour or 2. It is always crowded, and too big. I went out to dinner with Anna and her brother, Andrew, who lives in Queens and is an actor. We went to the Indiana Cafe again, where I got chili con carne, it was a warm bowl of delight. I always was afraid to get things that were called "carne" because I thought it meant pork or some other strange meat, but apparently it just means meat. Good. We shared a bottle of Bordeaux and it was lovely.

Saturday morning I met up with some friends and went to the Musee d'Orsay, which I was worried about since it was a rainy Saturday and everyone and their mother would be there. Luckily, it wasn't unbearable, and I actually liked it a lot better than the Louvre, especially the impressionist paintings. The Louvre is more statues and random ancient artifacts. I saw Monet, Rodin, Picasso, Degas, Manet, Cezanne, among others. After about 2 hours I was ready to go, I always get very tired/back ache/hungry when I'm in a museum for too long. We went to St. Michel and got gyros, which were amazing as usual.

Saturday night we found a great little bar with a cave-like basement (not good for claustrophobia), that plays latin music and has reasonably-priced drinks (6 shots for 15 euro, obviously split among a group). I enjoyed dancing with friends.

Sunday I met up with friends again and had lunch on rue Mouffetard (actually the same area that the bar was), tried a crepe salee (salty as opposed to sugary) with ham and cheese, it was so big I took like 3 bites and couldn't go on. Then, we walked around past the Pantheon and through Luxembourg gardens. In the gardens, there is a big fountain where French children bring sailboats and push them around with a stick, or if they're lucky they have a remote control boat. It was nice to see and marvel about how American children are sitting at home right now playing video games and getting fat. Is that a lot to say?

Louise had Anna's brother over for dinner, and much like the time Mom came, it was a looong night. She made beef bourgengon (didn't spell that right) and it wasn't bad, there is actually a little dark chocolate in the sauce. Also, a great melange of peppers and onions, grilled and covered with balsamic vinegarette for an appetizer (called an entree here, the opposite of the US). It was funny to hear Louise speak English, she sounds so vulnerable and I loved it because she was on the other side, not "in the know." Most of the time, she would speak French to Anna and I and then we would translate to Andrew. She revealed that she is 44, interesting because she looks about 30. I tried a cheese that I didn't hate, of course I forget the name. We drank a lot of wine and by the end of the night, I was exhausted and drifted into a peaceful slumber.

Today I figured out my classes for next semester, and calmed down about my whole scheduling disaster. I am going to drop my history major definitely for a history minor, and everything should work out. I just need the final OK from my advisor and then I can stop worrying. I am going to take 6 courses in the fall (a lot, considering they're almost all upper level), so I have time to possibly write an honors thesis in the spring to graduate with Distinct Honors (ha).

In my history class today, I had an interesting experience with a Japanese girl. From my experience, the Japanese (notably the girls) are very shy and reserved and like to pretend that they're invisible. Of course we had to "work with a partner" and write a resume (summary) of the Hundred Years' War, and she was sitting next to me so we paired up. I basically told her everything to write, and she contributed nothing but grammatical errors. She didn't have any ideas and whispered apologies when I corrected her writing (since we are both getting graded for the same summary). I wanted to strangle her, my blood pressure was elevated. I just don't understand why she feels she can't just be a person in this world. Why scurry around, doing anything possible to not be noticed (like the Japanese girls that lived in my international dorm at Towson)? It's really ridiculous, I'm sorry. That's all for now.

Russian eyes

Oh la la...les allergies have begun. Yesterday I awoke with a scratchy throat and sneezing, and during my second class of the day, I had a full-on sneeze/nose-blowing attack. Luckily, I always keep key items in my purse such as allergy medicine. Unfortunately, it makes me really tired and I basically passed out right after dinner. Mom is sending me Zyrtec-D (the D is crucial, decongestant) which I hope to receive soon (hint).

I enjoyed our visit to the Tour Eiffel the other day although it was bitingly cold and windy, especially at the very top of the tower. I felt lucky to be up there as the sun was setting, and it's much less scary to be up that high in the daylight for some reason. I will post some pics of that. Since people come from all over the world to Paris/the Eiffel Tower, there are some real characters in there, such as an Italian man who caught a pigeon (who touches pigeons?) and proceeded to shove it in his daughter's face. Then, while waiting in line I spotted an Asian woman wearing one of those masks that the dentists wear when they clean your teeth. Weird.

Classes this week weren't too bad, but I'm starting to get really antsy, like I can't sit still for the last hour of the class. My French writing professor wasn't there yesterday (she's very intense and has a sing-song-y voice and makes fun of people if they don't know the answer to her question) which was nice, we had a very interesting substitute man. I forgot about substitute teachers, and didn't realize that it was strange because we don't have them in college. During that class, I had to sit next to one of the nuns. She smelled like death, although she is probably only 30-40 years old. She has a horrible lisp and was very invasive and took it upon herself to "correct" my papers when we were told to compare answers with our "neighbors." I'll tell you what, I don't know what it is about the French and working with your "neighbor" but I hate it, I always would rather work alone and I don't think it's neccessary to work with a partner on a stupid grammar excercise. Maybe that's why my French professors at Towson always make us work in partners, because that's how the French do things. Bah.

Last night after I got home from class, since Anna's brother is in town for a few days, Louise and I ate dinner just the two of us. I thought it would be awkward but it wasn't, and she made a great meal of salad (endives and corn, usually don't like endives, but the corn really lightened the mood of the salad), baguette, pork, and greatly spiced/cooked vegetables (I think it was potatoes and some sort of squash) with a delicious sweetish sauce, all topped off with delish red wine. Yum and perfect for another freezing day. I then passed out (even though I was supposed to meet up with people to go to the bar, typical Sara).

This morning I awoke at a reasonable hour, Anna was already gone, but Louise was awake, so we ate breakfast together. I really didn't feel like speaking French this morning through my extremely congested nose, but whatever. It's just kind of a lot to have to speak in a foreign tongue first thing in the morning. I had my usual tartine (baguette, butter/jam) and a yogurt (the yogurt here is out of control amazing), and Louise, oddly enough (but I'm not surprised) put some oatmeal (at least it looked like oatmeal, dry oats) in a bowl then proceeded to drown it in milk...no heating, no congealing...just floating oats...Anyway, we had a conversation about my allergies, and then she told me that I have Russian eyes which are mysterious...

rainy day thoughts

Last night I saw an amazing film, La vie des autres, (The Lives of Others) which was in German with French subtitles. I'm proud to say that I understood almost everything even though my eyes were tired by the end. The movie is set in the 1980's in East Germany and told the story of a couple being spied on by a man who begins to sympathize with them, communism, etc. It really was great, and only 3.50 euro because of a special spring cinema thing that was going on until yesterday. The movie won the Oscar for best foreign language film this year by the way.

I'd like to take a moment and talk about my language professor, Pierre (of course his name is Pierre). He is quite a character, he wears the same thing EVERY class: a grey worn out pullover and beige corduroy pants. He looks like a little French schoolboy and I bet when he was young (he grew up in Paris) he carried his books in one of those leather straps like Pinnocchio. He loves to engage us in discussion about anything at all a) because he probably doesn't ever have anyone else to talk to and b) it gives us practice speaking French of course. I think he knows English fairly well, as he is a fan of American movies/literature, and he'll randomly throw out an English phrase but in an intense French accent, such as my favorite, "what ze hell are yhou talkhing about?" I love it and want to record it.

I found a great new supermarket where I often buy my lunch, called Champion. It has the same prepackaged sandwiches as my other favorite, Monoprix, but it's much cheaper. For instance, today I purchased a chicken sandwich, a pack of almonds, a Coca Cola Light (with which I'm in love, it tastes much better than in the States), and a mini chocolate mousse/yogurt thing all for 5 euro. Usually at a sandwich stand/shop it's 5 euro for the sandwich alone! The other day at Champion I got a sandwich, the same chocolate mousse thing, and a bottle of water for less than 3 euro. They have some great-looking pasta salads and regular salads that I can't wait to try. The only bad thing is that the only Champion I know of is near the ISA office, which is about 20 minutes on the metro from my apartment.

Tonight we have a rendez-vous with the ISA personnel at the Tour Eiffel at 5:30 pm to go up to the top (for free, as opposed to not free like usual), although it's semi-rainy and I hope that it's not too foggy to see like the last time I was up there. Also I secretly get really scared going up since it really is very high but I must go. My current focus is getting a plane ticket for Josh to come here the last week of April. It's stressful because the prices keep changing, etc. but I have been able to find several affordable hotels in Paris which is good for my ever-high blood pressure level. I can't wait until April because once spring break comes, I don't have much more planning-type things to worry about, and then after that Mom and Sam will visit in May. I also plan to visit dear friend Beth in Vienna sometime in the month of May which I am tres excited about. Oh, and I downloaded the movie Borat today.

I'm still here

I haven't posted anything in a week, mainly because I don't have much news to report. I've gotten into a routine of classes and also planning our spring break extravaganza in Italy and Greece. We've decided to forego the south of France in order to spend more time in Italy and eliminate a plane/train ride. At the moment, the plan is to fly to Rome on April 6, take a train to Naples where we will be staying for 5 days (during which we will visit Pompeii, Sorrento, and the beaches!), then back to Rome to meet up with some more people for a few days. Then, we fly to Athens, spend a day or 2 there, then roll over to a few islands. I'm excited but also nervous (if you know me, you know being away from a "home base" for 2 weeks, staying in hostels, is quite a task). I realized that I didn't bring many spring/vacation clothing, so I'm having some sent to me from home. It's weird not being able to just run home and get stuff. Another reason I haven't posted anything is because I've been very stressed about planning my courses for the fall at Towson (I have to register in a few weeks), and of course the day that I have to register I will be away in Italy without internet access. Also, this semester is basically setting me back academically which is not good when I have to graduate next spring. I'll spare you of all the details.

I've also come to the point in my stay in Paris where the inconveniences are becoming more and more apparent (for example, not being able to find contact solution, and when I do, it costs 12 euro). In the manual that the Towson study abroad dept. hands out, it goes through the cycle of culture shock, beginning with the honeymoon period where everything is great, you have a lot of energy and love exploring, then you start to compare your native culture to your host culture and realize the inconveniences. Then, apparently you realize that you have assimilated yourself into your host culture and don't want to go back to your native culture. It seems I'm in the middle right now, although I am still enjoying my time here nonetheless. I'm excited for our 2-day excursion to the Loire Valley next weekend, and we had a nice 1-day excursion to Chartres this past Saturday. Chartres was only an hour bus ride from Paris, and it was only about 13 of us who went, as opposed to everyone from both programs. We had a great lunch with one of the directors, Annamaria, and ISA employee Sylvie. Anna and I were delighted to find the Alsacean specialty, flammekouche on the menu! It was about 10 inches in diameter and of course we each finished the whole thing. The cathedral was very pretty, but freezing, and our tour guide (who was a mix of Indian and French) was really great at explaining the meanings behind the stained glass windows and statue-type things. Also, an ancient piece of cloth that is believed to be the veil of Mary is displayed there. After the tour, we mounted the 300 stairs that led to the top of the cathedral. One of the girl in our program had a panic attack and had to go back down, but I loved it, what a great view of the town. I wasn't even tired after walking up the stairs (although after coming down my one leg muscle was spasming), thanks to the 7 flights I choose to walk up to my apartment most days instead of taking the elevator.

I must mention that on Friday afternoon, we finally found a Mexican-ish restaurant and I had amazing enchiladas. They were vegetarian but they didn't really have many beans inside, it was more of a melange of vegetables such as carrots and zucchini. Quite good. For the next couple days in Paris, movie tickets only cost 3.50 euro so I will probably partake tomorrow afternoon after class. I'd love to see a great French film, although I'm not sure if I'll understand it all. Apparently there is a good one out about Edith Piaf that my professor recommends. I have a history exam this afternoon on the Middle Age in France, but I have no idea what's going to be on it. There is no review, list of terms to know, or anything like that like in the US, just anything that is on any handouts or that's been written on the board is fair game. It should be interesting....

New pictures: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/558245811qPGbpy

In case you can't find them...

here's the link to my pics yo http://community.webshots.com/user/sussular_device

Dimanche a Paris

Yesterday was another beautiful day in Paris. I met up with some friends and, because one had to do a project on American culture in Paris, we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. I'm not proud about it, but it was interesting because it was like zooming back to America for an hour and then walking back out into Paris. The food was outrageously overpriced of course, but I enjoyed a veggie burger (with strips of zucchini draped over the patty, quite good) anyway. I've become accustomed to the food/portion sizes in French cafes and was amazed when I couldn't finish everything on my plate like I always do back home. That's probably a good thing. Also, I was able to have as many napkins as I liked, a problem I've run into in France because I tend to use a lot of napkins and they usually only give you one. After lunch, Anna, Dane, Mikhail and I went over to Pere Lachaise, the famous cemetary where many French writers, artists, etc. are buried, and of course the only American (I think), Jim Morrison. Obviously I was stoked to pay my respects to Jim, and was prepared to not have my hopes up for a great monument. The graveyard was very hard to maneuver, it is divided into boulevards, and it neccessitates a map. The boulevards are made of extremely uneven cobblestones, which did not lend themselves well for walking in high heeled boots (slash I'm an idiot for always having shoe drama). I saw Edith Piaf's grave and there were some others that I didn't make it to such as Moliere and Oscar Wilde. We made it to Jim's grave (over the years people have etched into other people's graves arrows leading to Jim like this "Jim ----->" which is kind of rude I guess) and found that it has a fence around it and a security guard because of stupid Americans who have vandalized the grave over the years. It's nothing special, and quite frankly it looks like it's been there for 100 years. It just says his name and then something in Greek underneath (strange). Anna and I had to throw the 2 flowers we bought over the fence so they landed near the grave. It was really weird. Still cool to see though. At dinner last night, Louise made fish with their heads still on (trout) and it wasn't too bad, although I hated having to pick all the bones out, I'm pretty sure I swallowed a few (is that bad?). Also a great salad that consisted of tomatoes, corn, and basil, a really odd mixture that ended up to be pretty good. Anna and I grudgingly went out to a bar for our friend's birthday, planning to stay only an hour or so to make the metro but ended up staying for hours and coming home way too late.

Reims

On Friday, 8 of us traveled about an hour outside of Paris to Reims, the home of many champagne makers. It may have been my first real train ride (as opposed to NJ-NY), and I was impressed with the comfort of the seats. Being the obnoxious Americans as we are, we rolled onto the train with bags of food from the Monoprix (amazing supermarket I've mentioned before). The ride there went pretty quickly, and we arrived in the pouring rain in Reims. It must be noted that the trip wasn't very well planned, and we had no idea how to get to the hotel. We finally got in taxis and made it to our hotel of choice, Mister Bed. It was basically a truck stop, we had 2 rooms that included a bathroom much like those in the airplane. The hotel wouldn't have been bad if it hadn't been in the middle of nowhere, in the next town over (I don't even remember the name of it). We found a restaurant in a brochure in the lobby and decided it would be a good idea to walk into "town" which took about 30 mins. The first restaurant we saw was called "Buffalo Grill," it had a cowboys-and-indians theme and we had a good laugh about it. We decided not to be THAT American and chose a very nice Italian/French place where we had a corner to ourselves (probably so we didn't annoy the other customers) I really wanted pasta, so I ordered the penne with 3 cheeses, not remembering that I don't like French cheese (remember, tastes like feet?) nor alfredo-esque sauce. It had a bit of a feet-y twinge but it was pretty good nonetheless, the pasta was fresh. After dinner, we realized that "town" did not exist, so we walked back to the hotel in the cold night (note: it was much like the suburban/slightly rural south in America). We wanted to go to a bar, but there were only hotels. After getting kicked out of one restuarant because we just wanted dessert and drinks (which wouldn't be a problem in the US), we finally found a hotel with a great bartender who gave us the private champagne room with couches. Needless to say, it was amazing although the drinks were very expensive. I finally had a rum and diet coke (my favorite drink, lame, although not 3 in a row, it has happened), a refreshing change of pace from beer (ew).

The next morning, we took taxis into Reims for our reservation at the champagnery. We had a guided tour in English (although the woman spoke very quickly and with a very thick accent). We went into the "caves" where they keep all the bottles and it was really interesting and kind of scary. Look out for pictures. Unfortunately my camera battery completely died once we got into the caves so I only have a few pictures from that. At the end of the tour we each received a glass of champagne which was delightful. From there, we walked into the center of the city/town and had lunch, where I was lucky to find an outlet to plug my battery charger into (luckily we had to carry our travel bags with us so I had my adapter). We visited the Notre Dame of Reims which was very pretty, great stained glass, then walked further and got pastries at a famous bakery called Paul. The employees where very nice and the pastries amazing. That's basically all we did in Reims, it wasn't too exciting but we made it fun. I can see why Louise said it wasn't a good choice, but that's because she needs exotic safari adventures all of the time.

The metro has been very sketchy lately, for example they randomly shut down stations and the night we got back from Reims we had to get off because a few stops up a passenger was "gravely injured." When we walked past the station above ground there were police cars and ambulances. I imagine maybe someone jumped/fell infront of the train. I was very weirded out by that. I think because of the upcoming presidential election there has been some shady business. In Jaques Chirac's address last night he urged people not to be extremists. Hopefully that doesn't make the extremists want to be more extreme. Anyway, I have to go to class, I will post the pictures from this weekend later today.

t.g.i.j.

Jeudi (Thursday) has come and gone, and I’m glad that this week of classes is over. It seems that even if I go to bed at 11 pm I am still deathly tired when my alarm rings in the morning. I am excited to sleep in semi-late tomorrow since I don’t have class, but I must meet some friends at the train station at 1:30 pm for our voyage to Reims. It should be quite an experience, as Louise was very disapproving of our going there, she claims there is nothing to see, but then again this is coming from someone who uses scratchy Mexican blankets as acceptable means of warmth in the bed. Anna and I are now determined to find something really grand to tell her about upon our return to prove that we are interested in pretty much any part of France, or Europe for that matter. We hope to visit a champagne factory (I don’t know what the word for the place where champagne is made), although most places insist that you schedule your visit ahead of time.

Apparently today is an international day of celebrating women. No one from the U.S. with whom I’ve spoken has heard of such a thing, but everyone in my classes from different countries know about it and share their country’s celebrations with the group. Louise even attended a conference this evening, where I believe there were speakers and discussion panels and the like. I think, in France, it’s called “le jour des femmes.” I’m not positive, we were discussing it in my français écrit class, during which I was once again distracted by the nuns. I guess because I’ve never been to Catholic school, or any type of private school, it’s remarkable to me that they take classes with common folk and act like it’s normal. I think there is some sort of rank though because the professor addresses one as “ma sœur” (“my sister”) and the other as her regular name that sounds Portuguese. Also in that class is a very Japanese man who insists on going by the name Pierre. Just thought you might like to know that. In my langue française class I was feeling particularly sassy and brought up UFOs (we are encouraged to ask questions about anything, as long as we’re speaking French) and asked if there have been any sightings in France throughout the years…evidently there has not, or at least none that my slightly strange but super nice knows of. There have, however, been rumors of ogres who eat children. I’m not sure which is more ridiculous. On another note, I find it interesting the way that the professors have certain expectations about American students, and enjoy making fun of our accents while speaking French, and treat us with a bit more cynicism than the other students. I don’t think that there are more Americans than Japanese at the school, but they don’t really say much to the Japanese, maybe because they know we can take it and laugh about our ignorance as a whole but the Japanese would get embarrassed? I don’t know if that makes any sense.

Since Louise wasn’t around for dinner, Anna and I got to do our favorite thing- prepare dinner for ourselves which usually entails heating up a flammekouche (thin cheesy pizza-esque specialty from Alscace which I think I’ve metioned before), sharing a fresh baguette, drinking some wine, and relaxing. It’s way less tense since we can say what we want to say in English rather than having to think about it first slash sitting in silence until Louise asks a question/starts a conversation. That’s not to say that it’s always silent when L is there, often once we get a convo going, it’s not bad, but at the end of a long day it can be a bit taxing. I made my first visit to the boulangerie that is directly across the street from our apartment and purchased a fresh, soft yet crusty baguette. It was amazing and I don’t think I’ll be able to go back to American bread ever again. In other food news, I had an éclair today that had coffee-flavored filling and icing, obviously delicious. Off to Reims until Saturday evening.

P.S. It is now 11:41 am on Friday and Louise is downstairs making very strange noises in the kitchen...

the sun shines on paris

It was a lovely day in Paris today. I awoke and went to my 9 am communication professionnel class, which turned out to be better than I thought. I thought the professor was kind of obnoxious but really he’s quite funny and today’s class was actually semi-fun. I met a very nice Scottish woman who is an elementary school teacher on sabbatical. She is probably 30-40 years old, but not the type of adult student who asks millions of questions (like a woman who is in my French language class, she should be shot). Today we learned (basically) how to be a proper French receptionist, which is useful for me because I am not the greatest at receptioning (receiving?). But then again, I don't forsee a time where I will be a receptionist in France. Anyway, after class was over at noon I had nothing that I had to do so I took the metro back to my arrondissement (neighborhood, for those out of the loop) and decided to explore since I've never seen my area during the day. I was pleased to find many great shops and cafes, and I took my first dejeuner (lunch) alone in a cafe. I chose a ham omelette and a large bottle of water. The omelette was huge and obviously there are no "egg whites only" here, but it was good. The cigarette smoke was a little much (I don't understand the smoking in confined spaces 24/7) but other than that it was quite pleasant and I was able to communicate with the waitress. After lunch, I walked around for a little bit then headed to the Monoprix, which is a nice grocery store that, if I had to buy my own groceries (and I kind of wish I did), I would buy everything. I needed some toiletries and some Earl Grey tea (Louise only has strange Asian ones). There is a little patisserie within the store, and I couldn't resist so I bought a mini pastry, the perfect size since I was still full from mega-omelette. I walked further and found a store where I was able to ask the man behind the counter if he had any US-France adaptors, which they did, for my external hard drive. I feel great about my successes, and to top that, I am on my laptop in my apartment because I was finally able to catch the "Paris Ozone" wifi signal that is very weak in my arrondissement. I'm doing the one hour for 1.50 euro trial, and it works but it's a little slow. I think it's worth it though and am considering purchasing the 18 euro/month package. Oh, and yesterday I bought a ticket from Rome to Athens for only $133 including tax, an exciting leg of our spring break plans. Hurray.

travel plans

We (about 7 of us) are currently planning our weekend in Reims (Champagne). The transportation/lodging is very inexpensive and it's also not too far from Paris. We are also planning our spring break. Our final itinerary (or so we think) is as follows: Paris to the south of France (Nice, Monaco, Cannes) then to Italy (Florence, Rome, Naples?), then to Greece for a week (Athens, ISLANDS). At first, we considered purchasing the Eurail pass but it ended up being cheaper to book individual flights and then lodging. We've found some very affordable flights which is exciting. I really hope it works out because....well because.

Dinner last night was a task as usual. I tried duck and it was quite good (sorry Christ). I'm not sure that I'd choose it on a menu, but it doesn't make me want to die. I found a great gyro shop within walking distance to my school which was excellent. Tonight Gilles is coming for dinner and to finish fixing Louise's window, it should be interesting. School is whatever, the 3 hour classes are very long but usually I only have 1 per day. Have I mentioned that each building has a coffee machine that makes you a dixie-cup full of great coffee/hot chocolate/hot milk if you're so inclined. I'm excited for this weekend, I think I'm going to become crazy about travelling which is good because I am the opposite of spontaneous and need to be able to do things on a whim. 2 weeks away from my "home base" will be quite an experience.

Mont St. Michel et Normandie

Saturday, at the extremely early hour of 7 am, we departed on a "pimpin'" charter bus to Mont St. Michel. I was very tired and wanted to sleep but even though we each got a "row" of 2 seats to ourselves, I was uncomfortable and slept for maybe 30 or 45 mins out of the 4 hour ride. The French countryside looks not too much different than rural America, although the houses/farms are way older. It was amazing to see Mont St. Michel in the distance, it looked surreal (you will see in the photos). For those who don't know, Mont St. Michel is a "town" that is basically an island containing the abbey (church?) that was built to worship the archangel Michel. Monks have lived there for hundreds of years and I think it was built in the middle ages. Not only is there the church area but there's also a "street" that winds up to the top of the mount that has restaurants/stores with cheap crap. The mount is surrounded by the English channel (I think) but the tide is very low during the day. After a certain hour, the parking lot gets washed away as the tide comes in. It's very strange. There's a lot of quicksand that we were warned not to step in (who tries that?). We embarked on this voyage with the other ISA group that studies at the Sorbonne, and we learned that they are the most obnoxious group of people ever. There are maybe 2 of the whole group that are worth talking to, they are all very high school and immature. I really lucked out that my group is very cool and normal. Anyway, we went on a guided tour of the abbey, there were a lot of stairs involved, and many different rooms that all had stories. Apparently there are still about 7 or so monks living in the abbey but they are tucked away somewhere where the tourists can't see them.

After we left the Mont, Gabriel (program director) said he had a surprise for us as we rolled up to a COOKIE FACTORY. At this factory, there is no factory tour, but right when you walk in, you are encouraged to take as many cookies as you can for free. They are mostly in a tart style, I chose strawberry and chocolate, they were delicious. Gabriel comes out of the store with a cart full of boxes. We thought maybe he just really liked the cookies and wanted to bring some back, but it turns out he bought us each a cute cow tin full of cookies. That was amazing. From there, we drove about 1-2 hours to Caen (pronounced "cah" not "caaah" like Cannes where the film festival is), where we stayed overnight. About 16 of us went to a restaurant across the street from the hotel where we had a great meal, lots of wine, and the waiter poured shots in everyone's mouths towards the end. I had lost my voice at this point due to the cough, but it was still fun even though I had to shout over the music to talk to people. I chose the pot au feu which is an individual pot of stew with huge vegetables and tender steak. For dessert I had a crepe with chocolate, whipped cream, and a mystery nut. After that, we went to an Irish pub a few doors down and had some beer. It's annoying to me that since everything is so expensive here, it's the most reasonable for me to drink beer when we're at the bar (we usually split pitchers), but I don't really like it.

The next morning, I woke up extra early to hit the continental breakfast buffet (because I love free breakfast). I was pleased to find croissants and bread/butter/jam, and tea. Since we were going to a museum where lunch would be expensive, I made a sandwich out of bread and some ham that was in the buffet (strange) to take with me. It worked out perfectly, I was very proud. The drive to Normandy wasn't very far, we arrived at the museum pretty quickly. The museum was very well put together, but also very sad. They had letters written from both French and American soldiers to their families, along with various other items from WWII. Being the history nut I am, I was ecstatic to be AT the actual PLACE where the battles happened. Most of the exhibits explained things in French, English, and German. We then viewed a film that had no words, but used actual footage from D-Day to explain what happened. I don't think I'll ever forget how intense it was to see all of the ships, planes, and parachuters storm the beach. It was extremely interesting and moving and made one feel a bit patriotic. From the museum, we ventured on to the American Cemetery and Omaha beach. The memorial was very nice and it was cool to be there since I've seen so many pictures of it. We walked down to the beach and imagined how crazy it is that such a normal looking beach has so much history behind it. I took millions of pictures as you can see in my album. All in all, my weekend was fabulous, but it's good to be back "home" in Paris. The link for the pictures is in one of the posts below.

"j'ai un bebe!"

Last night we went on the boat ride on the Seine. It was interesting to see the city from that perspective but it would have been better if it was warm and we could be outside on the deck instead of inside the glass covering. I was surprised that there were several houseboats along with restaurants on boats. I took some more pictures of the Eiffel Tower from a great angle.

After that, Anna and I went back to the apartment for dinner. I will preface this with saying that the other night when my mom was here, Louise told us that she loves to eat horse meat and that she was going to have us try it and just tell us it is beef because she did that with the girls that stayed with her last time and they liked it (or something). So last night we roll in and there she is about to sautee some chopped up meat that looks rather magenta and un-beef-like. I look at Anna and mouth “cheval?” (horse) and she nods warily. After a few minutes of silence as we watched her cook, Louise says “I’m making this beef” or something like that and I go “It’s not….cheval?” and she says “Oh no, I didn’t have time to go to blah blah store today so next week” blah blah but I wasn’t convinced. I felt that the meat had a bit of a different look to it when it was cooked but I ate some of it anyway, reassuring myself that she wouldn’t actually lie to my face like that. So, in conclusion, I may or may not have eaten horse meat last night. Gross.

I enjoyed having several friends in my classes yesterday. I really enjoy my French language class (the only one that meets twice a week), the professor is great and 4 other girls from my program are in there. The other class I had yesterday, written French, was ok, a little difficult because we had to do a “dictee” which means the professor reads a few paragraphs and we have to write down what she says and then answer questions about it. It’s hard to answer the questions about the dictee when you’re not sure if you got the words right, but it wasn’t too bad. There are 2 nuns in my class. It is very distracting, which is ironic because they wear those big gray shapeless dresses to blend in? There are 2 priests in my language class, they are both very nice, they come from India (surprising because Catholics make up only 2% of Indian religions) and Vietnam. And I find it secretly hilarious to listen to this guy speak French with an Indian accent.

I woke up this morning feeling not great, my throat is very sore due to my coughing. I might go to the doctor today (there is one we can go to right near campus). I probably shouldn’t have gone out last night, especially since we didn’t end up doing much. We were trying to go to this club off the Champs Elysee but we couldn’t get in because some people in our group were wearing jeans. It was very frustrating because we do that a lot (walk around forever trying to find a place and don’t end up liking it/going in). Some of the others tried to get into a different club which was surrounded with people trying to get in but I said hell no and left with Mikhail and Dane (they live right near me). We stopped in the McDonald’s (even though I swore I wouldn’t go there) and got a snack and witnessed the woman behind the counter screaming racial slurs at 2 customers (something about Arabs). She was taken to the back by her manager, returned a few minutes later, and much to my surprise acted very pleasant and like nothing had happened when it came time to take our order. The fries taste the same, although they do also feature great potato wedges on the menu, and the Big Mac is indeed called Royal Cheese (not Royale with Cheese). We sat down at a table and witnessed another scene in which the friends of the 2 girls who got yelled at by the woman behind the counter came in to fight. They were escorted out and the restaurant was closed early. And, to put a dramatic end to our night, our cab driver was out of his mind and went nuts when I started coughing and made us get out of the cab not quite at our destination, screaming out the window that I was going to kill his baby or something to that extent. He was very offended by my discreet coughing and that was strange and shocking. We stood on the corner dumbfounded for a moment, then headed home.

We have to be at the ISA office at 7:45 AM tomorrow morning to leave for Normandy/Mont St. Michel. I won’t have internet while I’m there, but I’m sure I’ll have stories to tell upon my return.