sans titre

Yesterday my little brother graduated from high school and I missed it. Add that to the “cons” list of studying abroad: missing special events. I’m at the McDonald’s trying to use the internet and it’s not working. There’s another. It says that it’s connected full speed but when I try to use Internet Explorer it says page not found blah blah. On a better note, I got back my language exam today and I got a 16/20 which is très bien. The French grading system is 0-20, and rarely does anyone recieve a 20. It’s kind of like getting a 1600 on the SAT. That kind of works out in our favor because for our program, anything above a 14/20 is an A. I will be severely disappointed if any of these 4 classes I’m taking here brings down my GPA, especially since they’re setting me back credit-wise. I gave a short exposée today on Charles Aznavour, a favorite French singer of mine and Mom’s, it went well. I have to give an even shorter (3 min) exposée tomorrow on global warming. This one will be a bit more difficult, though, since the vocabulary is very particular and my professor is really intense. This is for my business French class. Dad’s coming tomorrow morning and we plan to have lunch after class.

For the record, I just “hoofed it” across the quartier to another McDonalds, sweating under the weight of my laptop on my back. I will not be defeated.

last week in paris

This past week has been very busy with exams and fitting in last-minute sight-seeing in Paris. I had 3 exams this week and one on Monday, then I have to do 2 short presentations. It should be interesting to see how I did on the exams as they were all based on grammar which, to me, either you know or you don’t, so it was difficult to “study.” I am, however, preparing for my history exam on Monday which shouldn’t be too bad.

As for activities in Paris, I went to the Centre George Pompidou, the modern art museum, on Friday. It was really interesting especially since I don’t know if I’ve ever been to a museum fully devoted to modern art. It was refreshing to see work that aren’t just paintings, but art made out of objects and unique materials. I did see a pretty ironic piece that was appropriately named, “Dark Blue Panel,” as it was a canvas completely painted in one color blue. The special expositions were really cool, and there was one that was actually kind of scary on the works of Samuel Beckett and art by those inspired by him.

Thursday night, Louise took Anna and I out to dinner, which was great. She took us to a restaurant in our neighborhood that serves specialities from the region of Lyon. I had onion soup, jambonneau, which is basically a ball of ham with lentils, and we split a very rich chocolate cake and tarte tatin (upside-down apple pie) for dessert. We had great wine as well, I believe it was Côte du Rhône, it was red but I don’t remember what type. Louise was flirting with the 30-something waiter and it was pretty hilarious. He gave us free digestives (after-dinner drinks) which was nice. The meal must have cost a fortune as it was a nice place, so it was extremely generous of her to take us out. We’re thinking of getting her a little something to thank her for her hospitality (despite her craziness).

Saturday, Anna and I decided to check out the Chateau de Vincennes, a medieval fortress (with a dried-up moat and everything), since there was a jazz festival in the adjoining park. It ended up being a great day, the day’s theme was Big Band so we heard a lot of great music, all in French of course. We were able to bring a blanket and sit on the grass, although we should have brought a picnic because that’s what everyone else did. Luckily there was a nice café in the park.

Sunday, I went to the Place des Voges (great grassy square in the Marais, right next to Victor Hugo's house) to study for my history test and get some sun. I could only take it for about an hour and a half though, as bugs kept crawling onto my papers/me which I hate. It's crazy that I will be home so soon! However, I am definitely not looking forward to the plane ride...

bonjour tout le monde

I have finally posted more pics on webshots so enjoy.

http://community.webshots.com/user/sussular_device?vhost=community

I come home in a week and a half!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alsacez-vous!

Our trip to Strasbourg ended up being a great weekend full of great sights, food, and relaxation. We caught an early train Friday morning and arrived in Strasbourg about 4 hours later. It was the TGV train, which means that it is faster than the regular train. I wish there were more trains in the U.S., as it just seems so much easier to me than taking a plane (although obviously takes much more time). We checked into our hotel, which was modest but clean, and had our first real flammekeuche for lunch. It was delicious, and we also tried a variation on an Alsacian (Alsace is the region in which Strasbourg is situated) classic dessert, kugelhopf (basically a bundt cake shape but ours was made out of ice cream). We walked around the city (it’s more of a really big town) although the weather was rainy and cold. After walking around for a few hours, we went back to the hotel and took a long nap and then headed out for dinner. I had coq au vin, a delicious red wine stew with what I thought was chicken and later ended up to be rooster, I don’t want to talk about that. Anna tried the traditional sauerkraut which came with various meats. The next day, we got up, had breakfast at a salon de the (tearoom) and embarked on a journey to find the museum of chocolate, for which we had a brochure. It turned out it was in the suburbs, and we had to take a tram and a bus, and then did the rest on foot. The museum was ok, it had some interesting info about the history of chocolate and had some mechanical dolls acting out scenes in “chocolate history.” At the end of the tour, we were given 100g of dark chocolate which was pretty nice. They had some crazy things in the gift shop, such as chocolate shampoo, pasta, etc. We then made our way back to the city, and spent the rest of the day sitting in the sun, looking through gift shops, and watching a Charlie Chaplin impersonater/mime. For dinner, we tried 2 other Alsacean specialties, tarte a l’oignon (onion pie?) and quiche lorraine (quiche with ham and cheese). They were delicious as expected. We had some Alsacean wine, Riesling, and that was great as well. Sunday morning, we took a boat tour of the city, as there are canals running through it, kind of like Amsterdam. It was interesting and I learned that Strasbourg is the unofficial capital of Europe, as the European Parliament has its offices there. Maybe it’s partly because Strasbourg has, thoroughout history, belonged to so many different European nations, namely France and Germany back and forth. After lunch (more tarte a l’oignon and flammekeuche), we walked around some more and then caught the train back to Paris.

While on the train, I finished a book that I had bought while in Vienna, called What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt. I had purchased the book at an English books store and the only reason I bought it is because it was 3.50 euro (very very cheap for a foreign book) and the back cover looked slightly interesting. I really lucked out though because it ended up being a fantastic book that I recommend to all.

I can’t believe that at this time in 2 weeks I will be back home! This week I have 3 exams and a presentation, so it should fly by pretty quickly, and then next week Dad comes for his meetings and we get to hang out for a little while before I go home.