Change of Scenery

Link: NEW BLOG LOCATION

Bordizzeaux

So last Wednesday in my art class, this other girl and I got in trouble for something we didn't do on the worst-organized field trip ever. The previous week, we went to the Musée D'Orsay, and we were instructed not to go around as a huge group with our teacher because she wasn't authorized to give her own little tours. Also, we were supposed to meet up as a group at 5 so she knew we had all stayed for the full class time. Back in the classroom, everyone was taking their sweet time leaving, so Courtney and I left for the museum. We did our assignment and saw the group sporadically throughout the museum, including our teacher. We finished our work and then walked around a little bit more, and then we just sat in the middle of the museum until 5. At 5, we got up and headed towards the front of the museum to find our teacher and the rest of the class. We saw a few students and then we saw our teacher leaving, so we figured it would be OK to leave. Apparently, the rest of the class who followed the teacher around in a huge group (like she said not to do) all went to the Gerome exhibition, which we didn't know because no one ever told us. Maybe if she had told us she wanted us to see that part of the museum while we were in a big group back in the classroom, we would have known to go there. Also, we saw her a few times in the museum, and she never said anything there either. She accused us of leaving early before class was over. We explained what happened (in shocked and broken French) and she said she believed us, but who knows. It was just so ridiculous.

Friday morning, I left for Bordeaux to meet up with Amber. The train ride was uneventful besides all the screaming children. Also, the entire country was covered in snow so I was kind of freaking out. Bordeaux is in the south so I assumed it would be warmer. It wasn't. When I finally met up with Amber, we found our hotel, and she promptly took a nap. After she got up, we took a walk and then went to dinner at a pizza place and shared half a bottle of wine. Yes, I did actually drink wine in Bordeaux, who's proud of me? I had 2.5 very small glasses throughout the course of the meal, and by the end I was kind of no longer sober haha. It was pretty entertaining. After dinner, we just headed back to the hotel and I showered, read, and passed out. The next day, we got up and headed into town. There's not a ton to do there besides walk around and just see everything. The buildings are all so beautiful, especially the ones on the water. I loved all the bridges, too. We went to St. Andre's cathedral, which was beautiful. Outside they were having some type of fair or fundraiser or something and there were these HUGE black dogs that could have been bears. They were really cute. We walked around a lot, going into random stores here and there. There is a giant purple alligator sculpture in a random garden, which was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. We also went to a cemetery on one side of town. It was huge and pretty old, kind of like Père Lachaise here. After that, I was really hungry and dying of dehydration, so we went to a boulangerie for lunch and got Amorino gelato afterward. Then we found the best antique market ever. We spend at least an hour roaming all the stalls. And I learned all about Amber's obsession with old sea-foam green things, especially chairs. I searched in vain for a specific present. There was so much cool stuff, though. I wish I could have fit any of it in my suitcase. I don't know if I would decorate my house with any of the original stuff I found, but maybe if I re-purposed or altered some of the stuff it would be perfect. But again, I had to take the return journey into account. That night we had planned to go get fondue, but we didn't make a reservation and they were full. We wandered around for what seemed like forever and didn't find a single restaurant. Then, we stumbled onto the main street apparently and were too overwhelmed with all the choices. We ended up at a crepe/galette restaurant which was pretty good. Then we bought two mini bottles of wine on the way home, and they may have been the cutest things I had ever seen. It was a very calm and low-key trip, which was nice. The next morning, we got up and checked out and headed back to town with all our luggage which was fun. Again, we had very little luck finding a place for breakfast, and eventually just gave up and got food from a chain bakery. We wanted to sit somewhere, so we risked sitting at the tables at the restaurant next door, which was closed so you'd think no one would care, but of course they did. It's not like we were homeless vagrants or making a mess or anything, but whatever. We saw another church, and then headed over to the train station. The ride back was just as uneventful as the way there besides the fact that I paid for the most expensive bottle of water ever and the girl sitting next to me had a cat in a little carrying case and she kept feeding it little bits of her sandwich.... I slept a little bit and read more of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which I'm almost done with now, and if you haven't read it you definitely should.

Yesterday, in my current events class, one kid gave his presentation and it was about prostitution. He opened with "What is the world's oldest profession?" And of course, everyone answered. Except one guy. He seemed really confused and after a lengthy explanation (I think he just didn't understand the French), he exclaimed in alarm, "C'est un metier?!" (It's a profession?!) It was hilarious. After class, I went to help French girl, Anne-Sophie, with her English. We've been working on the same presentation for a few weeks now, and I think at this point I could present it. She chose Deep Purple, which I thought was an interesting choice. Really random. She was still having trouble with some of the pronunciation, but we worked on it for a while and I hope it went OK today! After that, I met up with another girl in my program and we got dinner and crepes which was delicious. It wasn't even that cold last night, it was awesome. I think it's coldest in the middle of the day for some reason. Anyway, it was fun. Today, Paris can't seem to decide if it wants to rain or snow. I'm sure if I tried to walk outside I would slip and die. The precipitation seems to have stopped for now, but it's been on and off all morning. When it first started snowing I ran out to the balcony in Uggs, my big jacket, and shorts to take some pictures. One of the neighbors saw me and probably thinks I'm crazy. I don't blame her after I saw myself in the mirror haha. It's supposed to snow more tomorrow, so we'll see what happens! I think that's all for now.

Strasbourg and other stories.

Last Thursday I went to the Musée Marmottan and l'Orangerie with my friend Roanne. The Marmottan has a huge Monet exhibit, and it was wonderful. They had so many of his paintings of the water lilies and his gardens. It was so amazing to see them in person because I totally recognized where in the garden some of the paintings were painted! They also had Impression: Sunrise, which was amazing to see. Monet also used to do caricatures apparently, and they had a bunch of those on display which was pretty funny. After that, we went to l'Orangerie, which has Monet's HUGE water lilies. Like they take up entire walls. I can't imagine painting something that big. I would fill maybe one square foot and then be like, ok what am I supposed to put in the rest of the space? Even though they're all of the same subject, they're all so amazingly unique. It was a Monet-filled day. After the museums, we went to this movie theater to watch HP7, but we had the time wrong so we didn't end up seeing it. However, the theater was in a cute little outdoor shopping area that was all decorated for Christmas, and I don't know what it was, but it smelled great, too haha. After that, we went back to Roanne's foyer to hang out until Thanksgiving dinner. I definitely tripped going up the Metro stairs, too. It didn't hurt, but I fell on my hands, and I was kind of freaking out about germs the rest of the way back to the foyer. A foyer is like a dorm, but anyone between 18-25 can live there for two years before they have to find other housing. It was a very interesting mix of people. Dinner was pretty good, but it was chicken instead of turkey and there was no mushroom stuffing made by my mom, which I had been thinking about all day. It was pretty fun still, though. During dinner, the beginner students had to put on a skit about the pilgrims and indians. It was really short, and definitely was nowhere near topping THIS. Love Spring Sing. After dinner, they had an "American Night" party. They had a huge cardboard cutout of Obama, signs shaped like arrows with cities and miles on them (pointing towards cities in the US obv), and a poster with the Pledge written on it. A lot of the French kids were like, "You had to stand and say this every day? What about the 'under God' part?! That caused controversy, right?" It was a decent party, but I wasn't drinking because we were leaving early the next morning for Strasbourg. I ended up talking to this French guy for awhile so I could practice conversation haha. Turns out, he's coming to Irvine next August for school. I had to leave at 11 according to foyer rules, so I headed home around then to pack for Strasbourg!

Everyone made it to the train barely on time once again. About half of our group had a little mini-compartment which was cool. Definitely like the Hogwarts Express. Which was funny because we pretty much went to Hogsmeade. But before I get to that, on the way there, it started snowing!! We saw so much snow out the window of the train it was crazy. And a few people in the program have never seen snow before, so they didn't even know how to react. It was quite entertaining. And then, one kid in our group was like, "Oh, that's definitely frost." And the rest of us just looked at him because it was definitely snow. A lot of snow. We teased him the rest of the trip. When it was snowing in Strasbourg someone would say, "Man, the air is just so frosty right now!" Didn't get old. When we got off the train, it was lightly snowing :) We walked to our hostel to drop off our bags, and after we did that, it started snowing harder. By the time we had walked back into town it was definitely a steady snow. I always forget that snow is just as wet as rain so it would have been wise to use an umbrella because my clothes and hair got kind of wet. Good thing I bought waterproof stuff for my Uggs. Saved my life. And my toes. We had a tour of the city by this French lady who gives tours in English, French, German, and Italian. Amazing. She said that in school there, you learn a new language every two years. I wish the system was like that in the States. So useful! The tour was interesting, and the city is beautiful. I'm convinced that any city with a canal or river running through it is awesome. We then went inside the huge cathedral (not warmer inside), and learned about its history. There is a huge clock in the back corner that is super complex. It tells you the day, where the planets are in their rotation around the sun, what sign of the zodiac it is, and, of course, the time. It also rings every 15 minutes. It was quite the clock. After that tour, we had a bateau mouche tour (boat tour). It was pretty dark at this point, and over half the group fell asleep I think. I listened in French and I understood most of it, but definitely not all of it. Also, it was exhausting and I totally dozed off a few times. Especially when we were in the lock, which took about 8 minutes to fill. It was kind of cool, though, because they have locks like that in the Panama Canal I think. After the canal tour, it was pretty freezing outside, and I've never seen our group move so fast. We basically sprinted back to the hostel. Dinner was ok, but I think everyone thought it was delicious because we were all so hungry. After dinner we went down to the basement game area and played this game where someone named a movie and the next person had to name a movie that had any of the actors of the previous movie in it. That lasted us a solid hour. I think a few people went out, but I went back up to my room to go to sleep because we had to be up around 7 the next morning for breakfast. Breakfast was horrible. They had croissants, which were delicious but definitely not what I want to be eating for breakfast. Also, the fruit they put out wasn't really ripe. Oh well, I guess you get what you pay for. And breakfast was free. We had a tour of the Kronenbourg brewery, which was all in French and the girl did not seem very into it, so it was kind of boring. We got free beer and cookies after, though. The cookies made it all worth it. I tried the Christmas beer, which actually wasn't bad. From there, we headed back into town on the (very late) tram and got lunch at this place called Le Petit Ours. It was super expensive, but that's where our reservation was. We were only getting reimbursed 15 euro, so I chose one of the cheapest things. It ended up being delicious, though. It was some kind of fish underneath puréed sweet potatoes. I basically licked the plate. After lunch, we had free time to explore the Christmas markets. Aka drink vin chaud and eat a TON of delicious and very bad for you food. Including waffles on a stick. I bought a few Christmas gifts for people and something for myself (which I promptly dropped and kind of broke when I got off the train in Paris...at least it was the one for me, though). We had these chocolate covered marshmallow things which were called Boules de Neige (snowballs), cider, a soft pretzel of course (Strasbourg is very heavily influenced by Germany), and a pizza baguette (aka a piece of bread covered in cheese). Even though it was freezing, it was so much fun. And all the Christmas lights were so beautiful! There was a light snow after the sun set. If the snow had stuck, you would have had a hard time convincing me I wasn't in Hogsmeade. We eventually made our way to the train station to head back to Paris, and I read the entire way back on the train. When I got home I took a super hot shower and passed out. Amazing but exhausting weekend.

The next day (Sunday), I slept in until 11 it was wonderful. I didn't do much that day, but at 4 I had my little session thing with the French girl. This week, we practiced her pronunciation. It was really entertaining. There is no "th" sound in French; they pronounce it as a "z." So, every time she said "the" it came out "ze" and "father" is "fazzer" and on and on. I had to stop her every single time and make her say it right, which she really struggled with. Also, if there was a "th" sound right before an "s" sound, it was like her tongue would get stuck and she would lisp the "s." Must be what I sound like to her when I try and speak French. After that, I went and walked around the Champs Elysées, which is all decorated for Christmas. They have a Christmas market like the one in Strasbourg, but it just wasn't the same. The Champs Elysées was beautiful, but once again it was freezing and my hand got too cold to take pictures. I headed towards where I was meeting people for dinner: a Canadian bar called the Hoser Hut. Just kidding. It's called The Moose. But I wish it was called the former haha. I had a hamburger which was soooo delicious. Haven't had one since I've been here. Figured I should top of the weekend with a final unhealthy meal. I've had salad for many meals this week. The bar was really fun. It was mostly Americans I think, and there was football on TV. They also were playing cricket and the score was 307-1 or something like that. Not really sure how that game works. It was really fun, though, and we were there for awhile. And then, it was snowing when we left! I got home around midnight and still had a little bit of homework to do.

School the next day was uneventful, and Tuesday it was freezing so I stayed inside and finished The Lost Symbol. It was ok. Not my favorite, but the climax was super intense. Other than that, though, it was just decent. Today, in my dumb art class that I really don't like, I got in trouble. Last week, we went to the Musée D'Orsay as a class. But our teacher said we couldn't walk around as a huge group and she'd have to take us around in small groups because she didn't have a little badge authorizing her to give tours. So, I walked around and did my assignment, catching up with the group every now and then. We had to meet up at 5 with everyone so she knew we didn't just peace out early. After I finished, I walked around a little bit with another girl in my class, and then we sat for a little bit waiting for it to be 5. At 5, we went towards the front of the museum, but we didn't see anyone. Then we saw our teacher and she was headed for the door, and I'm pretty sure she left. We saw a few other students leaving, so we left, too. Then, this week, she was like, "And where were you two last week? You weren't with the group and we went and saw the Gerome exposition and you weren't there." I tried to explain that she had said not to go as a big group and that she should have said to meet at the Gerome exposition at a certain time or something if she wanted us to see it. She was pretty mad, but that class is so poorly structured I don't even care. We watched a video today, and when we watch videos she stops them every 30 seconds to explain what they're explaining. It's SO annoying and completely pointless. Either teach or let the video do it for you, don't try and do both. Then we were in little groups and one was speaking English and she had a fit. She yelled at them a bunch of times and then started yelling to the whole class how this one girl especially out of everyone should be practicing because she's the worst in the whole class on her writing assignments. Not something you should be shouting to the whole class, I think. Anyway, that was the extent of the excitement for this week. Not sure what I'm doing tomorrow, but Bordeaux is Friday!!