Louvre, Lightening, and l'Islam

       I have been trying to make an effort since I've been here to not waste my time, and to spend each minute doing something purposeful.  Thus, as you can imagine, I do a lot of walking, spend a lot of time on public transportation, always go to bed exhausted, and always have a story to tell at the end of the day.  I have come to treasure the richness of my days here, and I only hope that I can keep it up when my studies come into full swing.

       In the spirit of purposefulness, I rose early on Sunday and took the metro up to the Louvre.  I am so, so lucky because the line closest to me is a direct route to the museum, and thus it is super easy and relatively quick to get there.  

       The line to get in was already long and wound around the plaza, but courtesy of my Carte Jeune pass I walked right up to the front of the line, and they let me through no problem.  I was also able to get an audio/video guide free with my pass, and soon I was winding my way through the Greek and Roman portions.  After having been to Greece and seen so much of the original in its original place, I felt shamefully superior, but I was soon humbled by the Winged Victory of Samothrace in all of her headless glory.  Wow.  I thought this was a "cool" sculpture in my textbooks, but standing below her up close and you see the wind blowing against her and the graceful tension of her struggling to stay upright.  Wow.  

       By obligation I visited the Venus de Milo, and while I recognize its art historical value and beauty, I often find myself rejecting pieces which seem to me to be over commercialized.  Take the Mona Lisa for instance.  Yes, it is a great painting, but I always feel that its value today is not so much historical value as it is commercial value.  So many people know the name and can recognize it; it is a celebrity.  But, the definition of a celebrity is something or someone that is known for being known by a lot of people.  I never quite understood how one's importance rises simply because more people know who you are, but at the same time I cannot discount the work altogether.  I am better for having seen both prior mentioned pieces, but not in some profound way that will change my course.

       It was; however, a great joy to see all of the Italian Renaissance works that I had spent so much time studying these past few semesters.  Rounding each corner I found a new Fra Lippi, Botticelli, Cimabue, Ghirlandaio, Paolo Uccello, di Vinci, Mantegna, Titian, Fra Angelico....there are just so many wonderful artists!  To see these works in person is almost like seeing a completely different painting.  The size, colors, and textures are so different than what you imagine.  It feels a bit surreal when you realize that the reproduction in your mind seems more real than the actual paint, wood, and canvas before you. 

My favorite part of the museum however, was the Richelieu wing and all of the sculpture in the quiet and spacious covered courtyards.

My favorite courtyard

       Due to their large size, the courtyards seemed like they were actually outside and the there were surprisingly few people, so it seemed even more secluded from the busy Greek/Italian areas.  It was so much easier to appreciate the works in that portion because you were not having to constantly think about pickpockets or the throngs of Japanese tourist groups pushing and shoving for a photo in front of each work.  I walked in circles on that level, and after a quick jaunt back into the busier parts, I decided that I had seen enough for one day and I would come back when it was a bit slower.
  By that time several hours had passed and it was time for lunch, so sat down in the gardens behind Notre Dame with my crepe and granny smith apple for a little down time.  I then continued on a wandering tour of that area basically going in a giant circle.

A surprisingly good trio busking on the bridge

The metro home was quiet on the weekend, and the rest of my afternoon passed without event as I did my homework for class this morning.
       After dinner, however, I was sitting in my room going over some flashcards, when a huge thunder and lightening storm came out of nowhere.  Watching it roll in over the city with the flashes of lightening and loud thunder was so surreal as for some reason it never quite occurred to me that big cities have storms just like we do in the country.  On a scale of 1 to 10, watching a thunderstorm over Paris from the 29th floor is about a 18!  It came and went in the course of about 30 minutes, but when I woke up this morning, the wind was still howling and rain was hitting against my windows.
       The wind and drizzle basically lasted all day which was fine because most of it had to be spent inside anyways.  This afternoon I had my first class, or potential class depending on which two of the six that I am signed up for I choose to take.  This one was the Fundamentals of Islam at the Catholic Institute of Paris.  It is a university that, obviously, specializes in religion, and it also has a large number of foreign and older students.  In my class there were only about 3 out of 30 students that were actually from France.  The rest were either exchange students or had lived in France for only a couple of years.  I really enjoyed this make up because I didn't feel out of place like amongst a group of Parisians.  '
       The professor was very nice and understanding of language barriers.  It was incredibly hard to follow and understand what he was saying because my French listening skills just aren't there yet, but I have hope for the semester.  There are two others that I think are about my level, so I'm not alone in my lost-ness.  I think this is going to be a really interesting class, but since I haven't been to the others, I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it or not.  Well, it is getting a bit past my bedtime here, so I must go.  Bonne nuit!

-Kate Alice

p.s. sorry for any typos, je suis fatiguee.

Adventures in Algerian Cooking

       So, this is the type of thing that always seems to happen to me.  Well intentioned, good mannered, gentle Kate always finds herself in the oddest of situations.  An uneventful day turned into a civil dinner with my mother who had fixed a traditional Algerian dish for our evening meal.  It was quite good and consisted of a heaping bowl full of couscous with a red broth stew of green beans, potatoes, carrots, and zucchini to spoon over it with a side dish of lamb and a sausage popular in the Maghreb (Northern Africa) to also put in our bowls.

       All was going great.  We were having a lovely conversation about what we were eating, the difference between coastal and mountain food in Algeria, and religion.  All went well until I started eating the meat.  Mind you, it all tasted fantastically good with the subtle hints of spice and citrus; however, it all started with one little bone.  I was a bit surprised to find it since typically you don't find bone in encased sausage, but I was very discreet and kept eating.  

       After a few minutes I had a little pile of metacarpal looking bones next to my bowl.  I was beginning to get a little unsettled, but I figured, what the heck, this is a true worldly experience.  Next I started on the lamb.  It proved quite tricky with a knife and fork as I couldn't quite tell which was bone, meat, or fat, but she informed me that it is impossible with utensils and to just use my hands.  Being used to BBQ, I dove right in.  However, once more I became increasingly unsettled as I started finding a lot of little bones and odd shaped tissue.  I chewed a bit on this one part that looked like promising meat, but it turned out to be a thin skin-like thing covering a scary shaped thing.

       Typically I'm not scared by food and will try anything once, but this thing was just too bizarre.  I sort of recognized the shape from somewhere but was in denial, so I moved on to the other piece of meat.  It was easily recognizable as a spinal vertebrae but thankfully there wasn't much meat so I had a good excuse to put it back in my bowl rather quickly, hoping that it wasn't tradition in Algeria to eat the marrow.  In order to not look rude for not eating the food put in front of me, I moved back to the scary first piece in search of the tiniest speck of edible portions.  

      Then in a mind-numbing, stomach churning, near gag inducing moment of terror, I realized what that odd shaped thing was....I had just gnawed on the spinal chord of a baby sheep.  Mon Dieu!!!  Lamb spine stew.  Spine.  Even the written word doesn't look like something edible.  Cactus spine, porcupine spine, my spine, spine, spine, spine!  I really shouldn't be weirded out because I'm used to other types of bone and tissue in my food, but something about the actual chewy, yellowish, rubber looking spinal chord just set off all types of alarms.  

      I seriously hope she could not see the terror in my eyes, because she is such a nice lady and has been nothing but hospitable.  However, I just couldn't eat another bite of meat.  I finished my couscous in silence and tried to rearrange the animal bits to look like I had gotten all the good stuff; again, just hoping it wasn't custom to eat the unmentionable bits as well.  The only food that sounds worse than eating baby sheep spinal chord are the boiled chicken feet that I've heard are popular in some Asian countries and possibly a Nigerian cow's foot soup that I heard about once.  

       Anyways, three minutes of teeth brushing and four squirts of Listerine mouth spray later, I am doing much better and the shock is subsiding.  Hopefully some Bob Dylan and a good nights sleep can help shake off the rest of a too adventurous escapade into Algerian cooking!  I love yall much, and hope I have sufficiently described my experiences so as to make sure you always avoid lamb spine stew.  

xoxo

-Kate Alice

Days 9 and 10

       Well, two busy and exciting days have passed and I have absolutely no photos to show for it.  In my defense though I could say something sappy like "you'd just have to be there" or "I was so swept away and lost in the moment", but really I just forgot my camera.  Yesterday's fun started around 13:15 when I took the Metro up to St. Paul (near the smaller of the two islands on the Rive Droit) to meet up with some of the other students for a walking tour of Le Marais.  Le Marais is a little area that was once where all of the aristocrats lived in large rather impressive mansions built anywhere from the 13th to 18th century.  Just about every Hôtel as they are called, is built semi-surrounding an open courtyard and gardens which for the most part are open to the public.
       I absolutely adored these exquisitely pampered gardens with their climbing ivy, strategically placed bits of old gothic architecture, archways, and of course, a menagerie of flowering plants humming with the sound of bees.  Surprisingly there were very few people in them, and because they were surrounded by large architecture, everything was noticeably still and quiet.  I guess I got used to the city noise faster than I thought because it was a shock to be in a space where I couldn't hear sirens or cars or the busy life on le trottoir (sidewalk).  I marked these little sanctuaries down as a place that I will definitely have to seek out for some zen outdoor reading space.
       Le Marais is now the home to a large Jewish community, numerous art galleries, tailors, clothing stores for rich people, and my favorite, the Marche des Enfants Rouges.  Oh my goodness!  No one warned me that such wonderful places existed!  The Marche is basically a large covered market and collection of food stalls that sells everything from Fire and Ice radishes to falafel to roast lamb to fresh sushi rolled by an ancient, blind Asian man.  The smells and colors and textures of all of the fresh produce and fresh food was like nothing I had seen before.  We didn't have time to stop and pick something to eat, but when you guys come to visit we will go for lunch and fancy ourselves gourmands for a day.  Since it is so close to all of those gardens I just talked about, my plan is to wander around the Marche for a bit to pick out which 3-4 foods we want to try, and then take them to a garden for a private feast in the sun.  Well...I may not be able to wait for spring to do that, so in the name of research, I'll sacrifice myself and go try it out first.
       When the tour was over I hurried home to change and grab a bite to eat before hopping back on the Metro and going back up to the other island for the Four Seasons concert at Sainte-Chapelle.  Let's just say, the concert was pure magic.  Rapturous extacy in stone, glass, light, and music.  I walked into the church and was suddenly reminded why I am an art history major.  The intricate tracery of the rose window, the sunlight illuminating the stained glass walls, and the dizzying height of the rib vaults were just phenomenal.  I'm running out of adjectives to describe the wonder of that place, and if I keep praising all of the things that I love about Paris this blog will become more of a flowery travel brochure than an account of the city.
       The music was also very good.  There was the violin soloist, a first and a second violin, a viola, a cello, and a harpsichord.  The soloist was obviously the spice in the four seasonings!  He was so incredibly energetic and animated and used just about every fancy bow technique in the book.  At one point he literally jumped into his entrance and the sound echoed down the nave like a drum; different, but good.  At the end of the concert, we stood out in the cold for a bit shivering until we realized that we had no obligation to still be there, so I headed off to the Metro.  One of the other guys in the group takes the same line as me until just a few stops before I get off, so it was nice not to have walk to the Metro and ride alone at night.
       The next day started off early with French class at the APA office, or so I thought.  It was actually at the FIE and I had to run to the 38 line bus stop to make it there only slightly late.  The nice lady who I sat next to at the restaurant our second night here is our teacher, and she is very good at what she does.  She takes her job seriously, but isn't afraid to do whatever it takes to make you remember something even if it involves looking quite silly.  The great thing about taking French classes here is that the moment you learn something, there is an opportunity to practice it in real life.  For instance, we learned that the moment you walk into someone's personal space, it is proper etiquette to introduce your presence with a simple "bonjour".  A quick hello to the busdriver, shopkeeper, person in the elevator, or restaurant hostess will do.  Simple right?  Well, the moment I left class I started noticing a whole host of bonjour's being said around me and got approving looks from the shopkeepers and folks on the elevator the moment I started saying it as well, even thought they knew immediately that I was not French.  The things they just don't put in textbooks!
     When we broke for lunch, I went out on the balcony (nine stories up!) to eat my lunch of couscous tabbouleh, granny smith apple, carrot, and some Gouda.  The view plus the good eats made my lunch break go way too fast.  I even saw one of those old fashioned looking hot air balloons with all of the ropes and rounder balloon going over the city, and every time the wind would pick up a bit I could smell a mixture of the lavender plants on the roof and the boulangerie below us.  Yeah, it was just one of those really good moments.
       The afternoon classes finished around 16h15, but by then it was pouring down rain.  My original plan was to go to the museum at Luxembourg and wait for the rain to stop since it is basically across the street, but the cost for a non-weekend day was a bit steep for me, so for three euros less I bought an umbrella and decided to walk home.  I would highly suggest this approach to rain, because there is something very refreshing about wandering around in the rain instead of joining the masses on the buses or in the underground.  Best 4€ I've spent yet!

       B was a jaunt up to see the Pantheon, C-D was actually a walk through the Jardin du Luxembourg but Google wouldn't let me show it as such, and near E is where I might be taking a few classes.  I was planning on going straight home, but a pence to the person who can spot where I took the wrong road :)  Yeah, that bit out to point G was a bit long and led me up and down one the few hills in Paris.  It ended up taking me about 1h45 to get home, and I was literally dripping from the shins down and my shoes were squeaking with each step because of all the water in them.  Needless to say they are now drying on the windowsill.  My lesson learned is that when you are on vacation, don't be afraid to buy something quotidian like an umbrella and skip the fancy paintings in favor of a real taste of the city.

       When I returned home, I had a simple dinner with the host parents in which we discussed Woodstock and the difference between what is considered "patriotic" in the U.S. and France.  Quite interesting.  After we cleaned up, we watched an Agatha Christie movie on TV, and the great thing about French TV is that there are absolutely no commercials during a program.  I have seen maybe 10-15 commercials since I have been here and that is after watching about an hour every evening!  It is so awesome.  

       On that profound statement, I'll close out.  I love yall all much and wish I could be there.  

Much love,

Kate Alice

Week 1

       It is truly incredible that I have only been here a week.  I have learned so much and done so much already that I can't even imagine what nine months will be like.  I add at least ten words to my vocabulary each day and about fifty to my listening vocabulary, and there are a whole host of other tidbits that I learn that have nothing to do with the language.  Today I added how to ride the Tram, how to open a bank account, how to choose classes at a French university, where to locate post office boxes, which way to stand to avoid falling over on the bus/tram/metro, and that you can scan your Navigo pass through your purse so that you don't have to take it out every time.  It is crazy those little things that make life so much easier, but that you never think to learn or much less have the opportunity to.
     These last two days haven't been terribly interesting so there is little to blog about.  I've met more nice Parisians and gotten to see my friends which makes me happy.  While we were waiting for our appointments with Mme. Souraqui to make our school schedules, four of us just sat in a room and talked and laughed in stuttering French for an hour and a half.  More good times.  I so love how all of us students are actually serious about learning the language which was something that my language classes back in the U.S. always seemed to lack.  Many times in prior classes, the other people and even myself often felt silly speaking foreign languages, but now it almost feels silly to speak English and when we do it is either in a whisper or to cuss :)
      Any down time that these past two days had will be gone tomorrow as I think it will be my busiest day yet.  The morning consists of more class choosing stuff from 9-12, a quick trip to drop off paperwork at the APA office, a walking tour of Le Marais from 2-4, and an evening concert at 6:30 of Vivaldi's Four Seasons at the Sainte Chapelle.  Add in time for public transportation and a quick change, and I'm not quite sure I can make it everywhere on time!  I have written out which bus/tram/metro line I need to take, so hopefully I read my maps right.  I want to go to Le Marais, but there is absolutely no way that I am missing the best symphony of the year in one of the most beautiful places in the city!  I really can't believe my luck, and you can bet that there will be a long blog the following morning.
    I hope yall are all well at home and be sure to give Monkey C, Mao Kitty, and Tom Cat hugs for me.
Much love,
Kate Alice

Exploration

      Well, yesterday and today have been days of pure exploration of the city.  I am of course exhausted, but sitting here in the cool shade of the living room feels quite good.  Yesterday I bought a Carte Navigo (bus/metro pass) and my plan originally was to practice the routes to and from the place where I will be having French classes for the next two weeks, the Foyer International des Etudiantes [FIE].  However, it was so incredibly easy that it seemed wasteful to just go there, so I crossed the street and headed into the Jardin du Luxembourg.  It was a beautiful, sunny day and the park was filled with joggers, college students sprawled on the grass, old ladies doing yoga, and young families racing their toy boats in the large pool.

Le Palais du Luxembourg

      There were of course a wide variety of people with tiny easels set up sketching the flowers and fountains and the obligatory British tourist looking completely lost and juggling several different maps at once.  I toured the grounds a bit before heading inside the garden side of Le Orangerie (modern art museum attached to the garden) to view the current exhibit on the findings of the French explorer and botanist Louis Antoine de Bougainville.  You might recognize his last name as it the the same as the flowering vine that was named after him.  The exhibit was incredibly well done in that it was mostly plants and less long paragraphs upon paragraphs of information.
      One of the ladies that worked there was kind enough to individually show me around the exhibit and show me the highlights.  At each plant, she scooped up a small handful of the dead leaves and crushing them in her hand, held them up for me to smell the different scents of each.  The spicy cinnamon, pithy mandarin, and earthy cocoa were definitely my favorite.  She would point out the tiny flowers on each and in her most simplified French possible, described each of the trees' and shrubs' uses.  Quite interesting.  Unfortunately, it was a Sunday and thus the art museum portion was closed, but I put it down as definitely a place to return.  I have started making a list of the places that I want to go while I'm here, and slowly I have been marking down which bus/metro routes I need to take to get there so that when I have a free couple of hours I can hop over quickly for a bit of sightseeing.
    After leaving the garden and its wonderful rows of huge sycamore trees, I basically wandered around the streets with nowhere in mind except maybe to eventually end up somewhere near Pont Neuf on the Seine.  What the 5th arrondissement lacks in affordability, it makes up for in its charm.  The winding, cobblestone alleyways, the curling cast iron balconies, and ivy covered stonework quickly make one understand why it is one of the most popular.  Somewhere along the way I ended up in St. Sulpice church which is the same one that I had been wanting to visit since I saw the opera Manon this past spring.  It was that church that the main male lead character went to to become a priest and bemoan his fate after Manon, the love of his life, left him for a more opulent life.  I digress, it was very lovely inside but a bit stuffy on such a still and sunny day, so I trudged on browsing through a small flea market and peeking through the windows of the little shops.
    About an hour later after realizing that I had confused west with north, I finally came upon the Seine and Pont Neuf.

View of Pont Neuf

Love-locks on the Pont des Arts

      Legend has it that if you write you and your lover's name on a padlock, attach it to the bridge and throw the key in the Seine that your love and commitment will last forever, or at least it's a romantic gesture during your honeymoon.  The glittering of all of the locks in the sun was quite a sight but without being there it's hard to picture just how many there were.  The entire bridge was absolutely covered with locks of different colors, sizes, and types.  There was one painted with the Italian flag that was the size of my hand!

      After the bridge, I was feeling quite peckish, so I wandered around until I found a boulangerie where I picked up a sesame-brie baguette sandwich for the walk back to 27 line bus stop.  More good times.  I did manage to get on the right bus, but I got on the one going the opposite direction on the loop, so I had to ride the entire circuit, but it was good to see even more of the city.

      This morning started off bright and early as I had to catch the bus to the FIE for our language test.  Did I mention that our meeting room is on the 8th floor and there are no elevators?  The test went fine except for the fill in the blank part, but I think I'll win them over with my passionate essay on why I don't think it's a good idea for adventure tourists to go to war zones just for the thrill of it (I did have a prompt, so that wasn't just something that popped up :).  After the test, most of us students met up at a little crepe and sandwich stand for lunch where I got a cheese and tomato baguette panini.  We then crossed the street to the Jardin du Luxembourg to eat our lunch on a bench under the shade.  

      When we had finished, a bus was waiting to take us on a tour of the major sights of the center of Paris with Mme Souraqui as our rather entertaining guide.  I would list all of the things that we saw, but that would be too exhausting and my blogs already contain too many long sentences made up of lists of things.  

 -no title necessary-

A not very shy and out of focus pigeon 

So, to conclude, it was very enjoyable and we were all happy to see each other again for a while and chat.  In yet another miracle I found my way back to the apartment on the right bus and am once again about to go eat a late dinner.  Much love to all of yall.

-Kate Alice

Day 4

Hello Folks,
Another day is closing with much success and relaxation, and though I am currently still out of internet, that problem should be fixed tomorrow (or whenever this gets posted!).  I will predate them for you to keep things straight so make sure to scroll down to the others before you finish this post.  I can't believe I have only been here four full days; it feels like at least a couple of weeks.  After the host parents got up, we had a short cup of coffee and then they took me down to the flea market of sorts that is behind the apartment building.  It was an odd mixture of rather nice leather jackets, rice bowls, computer parts, pottery, old shoes, fancy chopsticks, children’s books, a rather suspicious pile of wallets, rice cookers, and the like.
I should mention that I live in the Chinatown part of Paris, so basically I am the only blue-eyed person within a mile of here and every store around is Asian.  It is quite different from the parts of Paris that I spent my first few days in, and this area is much more culturally diverse which I am quickly learning to like.  Instead of having a crepe and espresso stall every couple meters, there are authentic kabob, sushi, gyro, stir-fry, falafel, tea, curry, naan, and bubble tea (!!!!!) stands everywhere, strings of cooked duck in the windows, animal feet on display, and the smell of jasmine rice coming from every restaurant.  I only have to walk about 20min. before I get to an area that looks as European as the Latin quarter which really means that I am getting the best of both worlds.  I highly doubt that I would have walked into this part of the city simply because it is more foreign and thus automatically seems more unsafe or off limits, but now that I am forced to be here I am finding more and more that I enjoy: the colorful lanterns and beads hanging in the doorways and windows, the calligraphy on the outdoor menus, the sweet yet bitter smell emanating from the tea shops, the colorful clothes and bouncy language of the African immigrants, the cabbage and lettuce peddlers on bicycles, the young boys practicing their karate in the alley below my window; there is so much.
Enough of that weepy, discover the world stuff.  While my host father continued indulging his never-ending love for flea markets, my host mother took me on a tour around our apartment building to show me the major streets and transit stops.  There are two metro stops within a few minutes of here and a bus route that goes directly up to the center of Paris by le Jardin des Tuileries, le Musée du Louvre, la Sorbonne, et le Jardin du Luxembourg.  Thus, I will be able to take my pick of easy routes to school.  Mme. Souraqui highly suggested taking the bus because that way you can get a tour of Paris everyday and better learn the streets and shops.  The metro is easy and fast, but you go underground for a few minutes in one place and pop up in another place with no since of direction or relative location.  Thus, I think I’m going to try to use the bus.
After out little walk, my host mother went back to the apartment, I continued north on the Avenue de Choisy to the Place d’Italie, the main hub/round about of the 13th, to spot out a good café and boulangerie (bakery) for my dejeuner (lunch).  Success was easy to find and soon I was settled at a little table with a perfectly plated coffee and croissant.  Ah, la joie de vie!  I ended up having a rather nice, if not a bit challenging and jumbled, conversation with an extremely pregnant woman sitting next to me, who despite speaking perfect English, was kind and patient enough to let me practice my French.  So far I have only met very kind Parisians and thus have yet to believe the hype over their standoffish and rough personalities.  Granted I have witnessed three yelling matches, a theft at the grocery, two car accidents, a host of stone faced strangers on the metro, and enough car horns to last me a lifetime, but I am still not yet willing to give in to the stereotypes about them.

My bit of Paris at sunset 

Yours truly :)

The view down from my window

Anyways, I returned to the apartment at about 14:30 and am now about to go see if I can help with dinner.  I love yall much as always.
Bises,
Kate Alice

This is a long post.

       Well, I’m at my new home now, and I feel confident that it is going to be a good match for me.  However, so much happened before I got here that I must back track just a little.  Yesterday morning was filled with more (dis)orientation meetings, but the highlight was that we were given the names and addresses of our host families and a little about them.  Everyone in our group is pretty much spread across the city with one other girl in the northern part of my arrondissement and little clusters of 3-4 in the 17th and 19th.  Needless to say we were all anxious to meet our families and see where we were going to be living.
       After a light lunch and more (dis)orientation we met up with the host brother of one of the girls and he led us on a rather long walk around the city.  We left at 3pm and didn’t return until 6:30pm which basically means that we walked nonstop for three and a half hours!  We walked up the 14th, through the bottom part of the 5th, down the 13th, back up to the 5th, back down and across the 5th, back through the north 13th, and finally ended up back in the south 14th at FIAP….we all had blisters and were absolutely dead!  We had not been warned that it was going to be all on foot or that it was going to be so long!  However, we saw so many wonderful things that I am near convinced that no matter where you go in Paris, there is something wonderful to see and smell and experience.  We got to walk up the famous Mouffetard with all of its little shops and vendors, spot the rather terrific graffiti and street art everywhere, and see all of the wonderful architecture with its decorative iron work and little nooks and crannies so old that moss had completely taken them over.
       Unfortunately, I took only a few pictures because it is quite difficult to get the most out of your walk when you constantly have your nose in a camera.  Thus, better photos will come later.  It was nice though, because we were able to have great conversations, in French of course, the whole time.  We would walk a ways talking with one person, get jumbled at a stop or street crossing, and then be paired with someone else for a while.  I think I talked to everyone and by the end of the walk, our conversation skills had once again spiked to new highs.

 Some of the students in the group looking rather thoughtful and lost

 More members of our group reacting to seeing the Eiffel Tower

While the walk was a great surprise, we had a different kind of surprise waiting for us when we returned to the FIAP.  Since we had to check out of our rooms this morning, we had to place our bags in the luggage room near the reception desk with all of the other visitors’ stuff.  Unfortunately, over the course of the day, someone had gone into the room and basically searched through almost everyone’s things and taken what they wanted.  Obviously not good.  I got lucky as I saw no signs of my bags having been gone through, but two girls in our group had their laptops, iPods, phones, and cash taken.  They took one of their bags completely, and the other girl’s suitcases where completely trashed.  She even had travel locks on them, but they didn’t do much good.  I was so thankful that the only valuable thing I had in that room was my computer, but even that is quite old and not really a desirable brand like their Macs.  They were lucky in that even though their Passports were in their luggage, they were not taken.  Needless to say we were all a bit shaken and feeling a bit defiled.
However, the show had to go on, so all infused with a bit of adrenalin and caffeine, we went upstairs and met our host families.  The moment I came up the stairs, this nice older couple walked up to me and asked “You are Kate?”  That was when I met my kind host family.  They are of French but of Algerian descent and simply nice people.  We talked for a bit over more wine and black currant cocktails, and then hopped in their car for the short drive to their apartment.  I’m in the 13th arrondissement (see map) and live on the 28th floor of a rather average apartment building.  However, I once again have a huge window in my room and from it I can see perfectly the Eiffel Tower to the northwest and a panoramic view of the city.  It is absolutely stunning, especially at night when everything is lit up.

The view from my window

I got all settled while my host mother made dinner and he watched his soccer match.  Their daughter is quite nice as well but a bit shy so we haven’t talked much yet.  We then had dinner (cycle of tomato, bread, wine, meat, and cheese) and they are very good at making sure to include me in their conversations.  Thankfully he speaks rather good English, but he is very careful to only use it when I am at my wits end at how to say something.  We watched the end of a movie on TV and a rather interesting news piece on the negative effects of the negative and stereotypical depictions of Muslims and Middle Eastern peoples in American television and cinema.  The guest on the show made several good points, and it is interesting to note that even here they feel the effects of American popular thought.
      Anyways, now it is morning and I am writing in my room while the parents are sleeping in a bit.  Their typical schedule involves staying up later and sleeping late which is totally fine by me.  My host sister, in preparation for taking the Bac (like a really hard SAT/ACT that determines if you can go to college) goes to school six days a week, so she is already gone.  I’m not sure what today holds, but there is a sort of holiday this weekend in which the majority of the state/government/official buildings are open to the public for free when most of the time they would be closed off or require a charge.  I think they said that we might go visit a few places like that, but I’m not sure I heard them right.  Alas, that happens quite frequently!  Well, I think I hear them moving around, so I will close this out.  I love and miss yall, but know that I am very happy here and have some great folks for a host family.
Xoxo
-Kate Alice

Vendredi

Teenage version:

We had a few meetings this evening.  We all went out to eat at a restaurant with our teachers.  The food was good.  My French is getting better, and I am making friends.
Bye.

Grownup version:

       So much has happened since I last blogged that it is incredible to think that it has only been a day and a half.  I am starting to forget English words for things, but I think that’s a good sign.  After I blogged last we had an orientation meeting at FIAP which, like most orientation meetings, only left me less oriented.  However, afterwards we met up with Blandine, the APA assistant, and she led us to Le Hydrophobe for dinner.  It was not a far walk, and the restaurant itself was very small but quite nice.
To greet us were all of our teachers for these next two weeks, savory pastry things that looked like cream puffs but tasted like they had some sort of cheese worked into the dough, and a glass of white wine flavored with a black current juice.  These last two things are apparently very French and so much so that I have had the wine cocktail three separate times since I got here.  I sat at a table with Mme. Souraqui, our French teacher Melanie, and three other students Michael, Louvisa, and Mungyun.  As I have observed so far, the meals here are served in four courses: 1) bread and wine  2) tomatoes, cheese, bread, and wine  3) meat, vegetables, bread, and wine, and finally 4) dessert/cheese and bread plate with wine and coffee.  Please take note of the pattern here.  I ended up with a plate consisting of tomato, basil, and feta cheese stacked in a small tower, beef kabob marinated in lemon and spices, and a chocolate mousse with mango sorbet.  It was all very delicious, and several run-ins with raw tomatoes here have convinced me that they are somehow exponentially better that the ones I am used to at home.  These do not taste old/mushy/grainy/overpowering like the ones at H-E-B, but instead are quite mild and…I actually really like them!  Tomatoes aside, the real joy of the meal was talking with the people at my table and learning more useful French.
I learn so many new words every hour that it is hard to keep track of what I already knew and what I learned here.  All I know is that my French conversation skills have almost doubled since I arrived.  The grammar and spelling…not so much, but that is less important right now.  My new favorite words that I learned last night from Melanie are rez-de-chaussée/ground floor and sécheresse/drought.  I have used those two a surprising number of times since then.  She is a wonderful teacher because she takes time to explain the new word and its origin so that even if you forgot it, all you would have to do is think of her explanation and the word pops back up again.  For instance rez was originally the word for the very short haircuts of the soldiers and thus indicating something very low/close to the surface/not high.  Chaussée is similar to a whole host of words relating to socks, shoes, the foot’s contact with the ground.  So, rez-de-chaussée is the thing your foot touches when it is close to the surface of the earth = ground floor.  Absolutely fascinating and extremely helpful.  C’est chouette!
It was also good to get to know the other students at our table better, and our table was the very last to finish and the very last to leave the restaurant because we just hit it off so well.  I feel so lucky that all of us in the program get along, and I feel completely comfortable and enjoy having conversations with each of the other students which is rare for a group of 16 college students.  I think being in a foreign place and in the same boat goes a long way towards forming instant friendships.
When we got back to FIAP, we were all completely exhausted and I headed to bed almost immediately.  Of course, it was 12:30am by then!  Needless to say we all slept quite soundly last night.  Well, I must go to another meeting.
Au revoir,
Kate Alice

Day 2

Ahhh, sweet sleep!  We went to bed last night around 9:30 and I didn’t wake up until eight this morning.  I had a light breakfast here at the FIAP and then at 9:30 Mungyun (or something like that) and I, the only two who wanted to stay in this area and were awake, set out to find the Monoprix again and a place to exchange some of our dollars for euros.  We got to use our French many times along our way at two banks and a post office to find out where we could do the exchange.  It turns out there are only a few places that can exchange with the closest being in Montparnasse a bit north of here.  The two of us then wandered around looking for a Metro entrance that actually sold tickets as the majority of them don’t.  Along our way I was able to successfully ask a man at a bus stop where we could buy tickets and he was nice enough to give us two that he had in his wallet.  I do love helpful generous people!  The Metro was surprisingly easy to use and in no time we were walking up the stairs and onto the main square in Montparnasse.  After asking yet another nice person where the exchange was, we followed his directions and were successful.

Montparnasse

It is such a nice area around there, as is everywhere I’ve been so far, so we did some exploring around the shops and that is where we found this street accessible rooftop complete with small gardens on the side, an apiary, and a small café.
The view was quite nice as you can see and so typical of this area.  The trip back was uneventful, and we were then able to catch the Metro back down, stop by the Monoprix for an adapter and shampoo, buy a truffle for Kimia whose birthday is today, and walk back to FIAP.  It was a full but rewarding morning of exploring and confidence building in our Paris navigation skills.  Even the homeless people here are classy.  One man had a rather large tent set up on the sidewalk complete with a rotating fan and house plant.  Not too shabby!  I am now waiting for our afternoon meeting and dîner typiquement français at L’Hydrophobe a few minutes walk from here.  Well, once again my internet time is almost up.

Much love to all of you.

-Kate Alice

Le Premier Jour

Hey Folks,
I haven’t been here long, but the City of Lights is definitely going to be one of my new favorite places!  I can’t believe this whole long process of paperwork and more paperwork and meetings and preparations have finally cumulated in my sitting here in my little room at the FIAP youth hostel on rue Cabanis in Paris.  My flight to Dallas was uneventful, and even though my flight to Charles de Gaulle was delayed about 30 minutes, it gave me time to have a lovely conversation with an absolutely ancient couple retracing the steps of their 25 wedding anniversary trip and an older, French ex-pat, painter, art teacher on her way to visit her sister.  They were so kind and encouraging and were glad to dish out as much advise as, and maybe more than, was deemed sufficient.  Despite not being able to sleep a wink on the plane due to the persistent problem of my head falling over in a rather painfully awkward position anytime sleep came near, I did catch a few lucky breaks with a surprisingly good dinner, getting an aisle seat with an empty one next to me, and a warm croissant with strawberry jam and orange juice to greet me when the sun came up.
Rather exhausted, but excited from catching my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, I sped through customs as fast as he could stamp my passport and headed for the gate where Mme. Suraqui picked us up.  That is where I was able to email yall, and we hopped onto our bus to come here.  There are about twenty of us total in the program this semester, but currently only eleven of us are here at FIAP.

FIAP courtyard view from my room

My room

As soon as we dropped off our bags in our rooms, we all grouped up (minus one) and headed out for Le Monoprix to get our I.D. photos and pick up a few last minute things such as the toothpaste I forgot.  The streets around here are absolutely picturesque.   I forgot my camera, but the narrow, rather angular streets are lined with tall stone and plaster buildings covered in decorative cast iron railings and staircases.  Little nooks and crannies lead to leafy courtyards and cobblestone alleyways, and little shops selling a variety of bonbons, newspapers, baguettes, powdered paints, raincoats, and scarves.  The streets are so walking friendly that you almost forget that there are cars around.  We eventually made our way back to FIAP (about 15min. walk) and picked up the guy that stayed behind before heading out again to find a park that we had seen on a map.  This walk took us more northeast along a gorgeous boulevard.  The median was about a twenty-five foot wide sidewalk lined on both sides with huge sycamore trees and smaller shrubbery.  It was so picturesque.  I will have to find it again and take pictures for yall.  The park itself was also something out of a movie.  The big sloping green lawns and ancient trees all surrounded by tons of young children playing soccer and tag while their parents sat in little groups chatting without seeming to fear too much for their children’s safety.  It was just lovely and a literal and figurative breath of fresh air.  On the walk back we were all exhausted and quite hungry, but managed to stay awake long enough for our supper.  Dinner was a simple but complex looking buffet of unnervingly raw roast beef, a slaw of sorts that I had one bite of, baked lentils, a delicious hard crust roll, and a parsnip (?) salad/slaw.  It was interesting because we could either go by looks or the French description, and both proved to be unreliable methods of determining what we were eating.  Thankfully all of us get along quite well and have formed a rather cooperative and energetic group eager to see the city and experience it to the fullest.  My roommate for these next two nights, Victoria, is very pleasant to be around and smart to boot.  She too is an Art History major, and so we probably will be taking a lot of our classes together.  Tomorrow we have plans for half of us to take the metro up to the Louvre area for a few hours before afternoon meetings and the other half of us (myself included) is going to stay around this area to explore further and hopefully take some pictures of this amazing place.  Well, it’s about time for a long needed shower and sleep!  I am so sleep deprived!  I have basically been up since 6am on the 11th and it is currently 9pm on the 12th, and have missed three meals in the process.  Not to worry though, things should get a bit more steady from here on out.  Our schedule seems pretty relaxed after the 14th, so I should be able to get in a lot of exploring.  Hopefully one of the other students in the program will live near me so that I will have someone to do things with; however, it is also a crutch because it is just too easy to speak English with each other and our French gets forgotten when we want to have an actual conversation.  Light remarks are said in French, but it is hard to have a group conversation when everyone is still a bit shaky in their conversation skills.  Well, my thirty free minutes on the internet is almost up, so I must go.  I miss yall much, but am positive that a good life is waiting here for me as well.

-Kate Alice