Sorry this post is super long, it's a few days crammed into one post!
First of all, GO BRUINS! Yay finally a win on Saturday! I'm thinking my school here doesn't have a football team...just a wild guess. Anyway...
Today, my mom and I got up early (...10am) so we could go to La Marais, which is the Jewish Quarter. We went early because we had to be back early because the family was coming over for lunch (Guillemette and the new baby, so cute!!). We took the Métro, and there was
another guy with an accordion who got in our car on the train. Apparently it's a thing here? Polka music + public transportation. So strange. When we got there, we walked around for about an hour or so. Since Simchat Torah and Sukkot are coming up, they were selling etrogs (kind of like a lemon) and lulavs (like a palm frond or something) everywhere! There was literally a table on every corner. We went to a place called L'As du Fallafel (Thanks, Izzy!!), and it was the most amazing falafel I've ever had. Sorry Bella Pita.... We walked by it on our way out and the line was sooooo long. Glad we got there early.
There were a lot of cute shops down there, including an Adidas store advertising Star Wars figurines if you spent 100 euro...so random. They had a giant cardboard cutout of Chewbacca in the window. It started getting really crowded all of a sudden, and we had to get back to the house anyway, so we got back on the Métro (I'm becoming a pro) and headed home. Bibiane made an amazing lunch, and my mom and I made tomato mozzarella salad and mushroom risotto. We learned that the French spell "yum yum" like "miam miam" haha and since my mom is a chef they call her a "really good cooker." Also, the term MILF exists in France as well, but DILF is FILF (F for father I guess). Lunch was so good and for dessert we had a hazelnut cake with raspberries. Soo delicious. And the baby is adorable. He's one week old and he's so tiny, but he's perfect! He's really quiet, too, and just chills in his stroller/bassinet for hours. After lunch I totally passed out in my room for about half an hour (we were up too early...). We tried to get a fire going in the fireplace, but it died out really quickly. I really wish it had lit because my feet are constantly freezing. I wear my Uggs around the house and still can barely feel my feet. I hope they turn the heat on soon or I might be coming back sans my feet.
First of all, GO BRUINS! Yay finally a win on Saturday! I'm thinking my school here doesn't have a football team...just a wild guess. Anyway...
Today, my mom and I got up early (...10am) so we could go to La Marais, which is the Jewish Quarter. We went early because we had to be back early because the family was coming over for lunch (Guillemette and the new baby, so cute!!). We took the Métro, and there was
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| Welcome to the Jewish Quarter |
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| Move over Bella Pita... |
I think my French is getting a little better? Hopefully. I think the accent is going to take awhile, too, when I finally start speaking a little bit. I think the majority of the language is produced in the back of the throat, as opposed to English, which is mainly using the roof of the mouth and the teeth and lips (thanks Ling 20...). Also, a lot of the pronunciations we learned in French in high school were with a very thick American accent, so I just really need to work on that.
statues, guessing where it would line up, and then standing awkwardly in the middle of the path for 10 seconds. It worked REALLY well. You won't be surprised to hear that I only tried that the one time. Then I was sitting on a bench looking at my map trying to decide where to go, and some random guy came up to me and started asking me questions and I stumbled over the answers in French, meanwhile being somewhat on my guard. Apparently he is from Egypt but living in France and I have no idea why he started talking to me. He asked where I was going and I said "Oh just to the Metro" and he asked if he could come with me and I was like "Um, no thanks, I'm just gonna go ok bye!" And I hustled off in the other direction. Maybe he was a good guy, but I don't have to have seen Taken to know to be extra careful. Also I don't have my phone yet here so all the more reason not to go off with strangers. I had planned to go to a café over there that supposedly has the best hot chocolate ever, but I realized I only had the street name but not the number, so that was a fail. So I hopped back on the Métro and headed home. We went through the coolest stop ever. At the stop for the Louvre, it looks like you just drove into a museum. There are statues and descriptions of the art and the way it's lit it's like you walked into a tunnel full of culture and history. But it's just a stop for the subway! Way to keep it classy, France.
Last night, after watching/not understanding a French TV show and then Castle in French, I went to meet up with Agathe and her friends Tiffany and Charlotte to see "Les Runaways." It was still in English just with French subtitles. They all loved it because it was very rock 'n roll, which I guess is really in right now. They also sang along to all the songs they knew, not very quietly I might add. After, we were walking across the street and the smallest car I've ever seen was stopped at the crosswalk. Like literally this thing should not be legal on the road. It looked like one of those things you attach to the back of a bicycle that you can put your kids in except with a motor. A very small motor apparently. It was really funny and trés bizarre. Whenever Agathe sees something that is weird or makes you wonder about the motivation behind it, she just looks at it and says "why?" it's the funniest thing. Like if you saw a person in a purple jumpsuit or something, she would just look and say "why?" and keep going. I guess there are no words anyway. I've also learned that a lot of things I learned in French class are less than helpful. I think everything we learned is overly formal and has way more words in sentences than they actually use, and we learned outdated phrases. For example, if something goes wrong, we were taught by our textbook from 1985 to say "Zut, alors!" which is like "darn." No one here says that ever. Ever. They say "fuck" in a French accent, which is funny. It's not considered a swear word here, so they just say it all the time, sometimes loudly, in situations that in America would not warrant it's use.
Today I set my alarm for 9 for some reason in order to be somewhere at 12. When it went off I was like why the heck did I set it this early it's not going to take me 2.5 hours to get ready. So I reset it and went back to sleep. In the process of doing so, however, I managed to set the time an hour later (something I can't seem to be able to figure out now that I want to change the time back, nor could I figure out how to set it when I first got it, so I just plugged it
in at midnight). I woke up at 9:45 having set the alarm for 10, but my clock read 10:45 and I had a mini panic attack which was fun. I had to meet with my resident director, Tawna, today. We met outside the Fontaine St.-Michel, which apparently is a very popular meeting place. She took me to lunch at this really cute crepe place, which was really nice. It was wonderful to speak English for a change and understand/be understood. Apparently I'm ahead of the game because I already have my bus pass and a map and everything. In my orientation bag there were a few bus tickets and a map and all that. And some food (including a bottle of milk...not refrigerated...so weird). My schedule was also in there, and I didn't get the art history class I wanted so that's a bummer. But I have no class on Fridays!! Hopefully I'll be able to travel on the weekends more :) We have a week off at the end of October/beginning of November, and I'm super bummed it's not like one week later so I can go the HP7 premiere in London without having to worry about class.... I guess I'll just have to not worry about class anyway.
After lunch, I planned on taking the Métro back to the house, but when I got to where it connects with the 6 line, I got off and took another train to the Eiffel Tower and just sat in the Champ de Mars for awhile. It's a really nice day today so I just sat in the shade and wrote some postcards (message me your address and you just might get one!) There are a ton of street vendors there and there were a bunch selling these weird little mechanical dogs that move around and make a really annoying squeaky sound. I don't know what sane parent would buy that for their child. I just looked at them and asked "why?" There was also a girl wearing a gorilla suit just sitting on the curb. I don't understand things sometimes. When I got back to Montrouge I went to the Monoprix and got air freshener and a candle for my room, and managed to ask someone for matches (except I just asked for "feu" - fire - because I couldn't remember the word for matches - "allumettes"). Now my room smells less like smoke and more like "Tropical Drink."
À bientot!
Yesterday my mom left early in the morning, so I was up to go with her to the train station. When I came back to the house, I was really tired still, but while I was laying in bed I just kept thinking of all the things I could/should be doing since I'm in Paris. So I got up and took the Métro to the Tuileries. It's a huge garden with statues and ponds and fountains between Place de la Concorde and the Louvre. 
Oh, I should mention on the subway there was not an accordion player in my car, but when we were at one of the stops I looked over and saw one in the train going the opposite direction. Anyways, I walked around for over an hour just looking at everything. From one point you can see the Eiffel Tower, the Obelisk, the Arc du Triomphe, and the Louvre. Talk about The Da Vinci Code. I was just waiting for Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou to come running around the corner (Audrey Tatou may also be found in Montmarte, home of Amèlie, planning to go there soon). I took pictures until my camera died. I also attempted a self-portrait by setting my camera on one of the
Oh, I should mention on the subway there was not an accordion player in my car, but when we were at one of the stops I looked over and saw one in the train going the opposite direction. Anyways, I walked around for over an hour just looking at everything. From one point you can see the Eiffel Tower, the Obelisk, the Arc du Triomphe, and the Louvre. Talk about The Da Vinci Code. I was just waiting for Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou to come running around the corner (Audrey Tatou may also be found in Montmarte, home of Amèlie, planning to go there soon). I took pictures until my camera died. I also attempted a self-portrait by setting my camera on one of the | ||
| Failed self-portrait |
Last night, after watching/not understanding a French TV show and then Castle in French, I went to meet up with Agathe and her friends Tiffany and Charlotte to see "Les Runaways." It was still in English just with French subtitles. They all loved it because it was very rock 'n roll, which I guess is really in right now. They also sang along to all the songs they knew, not very quietly I might add. After, we were walking across the street and the smallest car I've ever seen was stopped at the crosswalk. Like literally this thing should not be legal on the road. It looked like one of those things you attach to the back of a bicycle that you can put your kids in except with a motor. A very small motor apparently. It was really funny and trés bizarre. Whenever Agathe sees something that is weird or makes you wonder about the motivation behind it, she just looks at it and says "why?" it's the funniest thing. Like if you saw a person in a purple jumpsuit or something, she would just look and say "why?" and keep going. I guess there are no words anyway. I've also learned that a lot of things I learned in French class are less than helpful. I think everything we learned is overly formal and has way more words in sentences than they actually use, and we learned outdated phrases. For example, if something goes wrong, we were taught by our textbook from 1985 to say "Zut, alors!" which is like "darn." No one here says that ever. Ever. They say "fuck" in a French accent, which is funny. It's not considered a swear word here, so they just say it all the time, sometimes loudly, in situations that in America would not warrant it's use.
Today I set my alarm for 9 for some reason in order to be somewhere at 12. When it went off I was like why the heck did I set it this early it's not going to take me 2.5 hours to get ready. So I reset it and went back to sleep. In the process of doing so, however, I managed to set the time an hour later (something I can't seem to be able to figure out now that I want to change the time back, nor could I figure out how to set it when I first got it, so I just plugged it
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| Fontaine St.-Michel |
After lunch, I planned on taking the Métro back to the house, but when I got to where it connects with the 6 line, I got off and took another train to the Eiffel Tower and just sat in the Champ de Mars for awhile. It's a really nice day today so I just sat in the shade and wrote some postcards (message me your address and you just might get one!) There are a ton of street vendors there and there were a bunch selling these weird little mechanical dogs that move around and make a really annoying squeaky sound. I don't know what sane parent would buy that for their child. I just looked at them and asked "why?" There was also a girl wearing a gorilla suit just sitting on the curb. I don't understand things sometimes. When I got back to Montrouge I went to the Monoprix and got air freshener and a candle for my room, and managed to ask someone for matches (except I just asked for "feu" - fire - because I couldn't remember the word for matches - "allumettes"). Now my room smells less like smoke and more like "Tropical Drink."
À bientot!
Just found this via your facebook! Your posts are so interesting! I always figured we were getting jipped a little with our "Allez viens!" textbooks haha
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