Paris is always a good idea

I leave Paris in less than a month! I'm trying to squeeze in as much Paris as I can before I go, especially since I leave for Italy on Thursday and I'll be there for two weeks. I didn't think I'd say this after only 5 months, but I'm ready to go home for the summer. I'm used to living here, I know my way around and how to live like a Parisian and now I'm ready to become an American Who Has Lived in Paris. My friends are starting to leave, to travel around Europe, to go home to interesting jobs/schools/vacations and I still have a little while. I knew this would happen, but it's strange to think that I'll probably never see most of them again, but if I ever find myself in one of their hometowns I know I'd be welcomed like no time has passed.

In other news, it's finally summer! My friends and I have picnics in parks all the time, and I've been doing a lot of walking around and sitting outside reading and studying for finals. I've been done with classes for about 3 weeks now, and my last final in on Wednesday!

More cooking: I made a moelleux au chocolat that was really good, gnocchi that was really easy and delicious, and attempted to make macarons that turned out to be decent. I was invited to a party that was Paris metro station-themed and I made a dress out of newspaper, but it turned out to be not as much of a costume party as originally planned and now I'm saving the dress for another metro station-themed party. I'm also in the process of planning my birthday party (June 25th) and trying to see which of my friends will still be here. I'd like to get drinks at a swanky bar, eat at a swanky vegetarian restaurant, then go to a swanky club since I can't really do those things as well at home. Paris does swanky/fancy/pretentious very well and I want to get my fill of that before I leave and go back to laid-back/friendly American establishments.



I've been to a club called Queen a few times now, and it's always an experience. The music isn't too techno-y so it's fun to dance and people-watch with friends and I always end up running into people I know (I feel so cool when that happens, but Paris is small so it's not that unusual). The rich Parisians who show up to clubs in their designer outfits and sit in their VIP section and get bottle service and seem at home there are pretty sleazy but it's fun to watch them in their little world where they want very much to seem cool and interesting to the other sleazy, superficial people there. The students who go to these places are much more laid-back and just want to have fun rather than "be seen" but it's funny that their crazy little Parisian VIP world is right next to where my friends and I hang out. That's my description of Parisian nightlife.

Sciences Po had an end of the year gala a few weeks ago, since that school is training its students to be the French elite it's only natural to have a gala and get professional photographers and free champagne. There was a cocktail hour, dinner, and some big-deal speaker for the 5th year students who are graduating, then a dance party for all the other students. Before the dance began, my orchestra played. When we finished the first song, the DJ yelled "everybody party!" then turned on some really loud music even though we weren't finished. The conductor glared at him until he turned off the music, then we played two more songs. The conductor and concertmaster were not amused but I thought it was hilarious! Then I stayed and hung out with tons of my friends until about 5, wandered all over the place to find my oboe, waited for. ev. er. to get a cab, realized the metro had probably started running again, walked toward the metro, and ended up finding a cab and went home. The sun was starting to rise, so when I got back I put on PJs and went outside to watch the sun rise over the Eiffel tower. Then I went to bed around 7:30. One of my Paris goals was to stay out until the first metro (about 5:30am) and even though I didn't take the metro that night, I decided it counts.



My friend came to visit last week, so it was a nice excuse to see a couple touristy things one last time. We went to the Eiffel tower, Musée d'Orsay, and Versailles (I've been there 5 times now, once just to have a picnic in the gardens) and I'm suure going to miss free admission to museums when I leave. Versailles is probably my favorite touristy spot since it's so fascinating and crazy to imagine living there or what it would be like to be Louis XIV, having fancy balls and ceremonies and rules to keep the nobles from rebelling. It was the epitome of France's glory days and it's amazing to be able to take a short train ride, get in for free, and be transported back there. But mostly I'm going to miss making jokes about how Louis XIV looked like a pirate.



With Blake Lively's hair.





I'm reading a book called The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy, and it's about a 21-year-old American girl in the 50s who has graduated from college and goes to live in Paris for two years and has lots of adventures. She's kind of a bohemian party girl who has affairs with Italian bankers and artists, is in a movie, has pink hair, and just wants to experience the world and meet interesting people. It's very entertaining and I relate a lot to Sally Jay, the main character, but mostly it's interesting to read about what Paris is to her and learn about what Paris was to bohemians and artists back then. In a review someone described the book as a cross between Bridget Jones's Diary and The Catcher and the Rye, which is pretty accurate. In conclusion, there are lots of books about Paris and this is a very good one, especially if you're young and live/have lived/want to live in Paris.

I went to a brunch party at my friend's apartment today where we had crêpes and French toast with lots of great French toppings...and maple syrup? It was the last time I was going to see some of my friends before they leave now that finals are coming to an end. One of my favorite things about Paris is the food. French food is so creative and unexpected compared to boring American food. Don't get me wrong, American food can be very good, but French food is much more creative and complicated, which is fascinating to someone learning how to cook. I can make pasta with a really good sauce or soup or grilled vegetable sandwiches, but even average French cooks can make all kinds of tarts and soufflés and casseroles and you can't tell what's in it. Also, French restaurants are all pretty small and it just seems like you're at someone's house for dinner instead of a huge, mass-produced chain restaurant. I went to Mon Deuxième Chez Moi (my second home) a few weeks ago, and I showed up at 7 but they looked closed so I asked if they were open. The guy who I asked yelled into the kitchen, "When are we serving dinner?" They decided on 7:30, so they let me sit outside while they cleaned and they brought me free coffee. At 7:30, my friend and I went in and the (only) waiter brought over a huge chalkboard with that night's (very limited) menu on it and helped us decide what to order. They brought out slices of bread with foie gras while we were waiting, and as more people came in, the waiters (there were two by then) talked to everyone like we were his guests. One of them had left his cleaning supplies on a table and joked that he left them there in case one of us wanted to help clean up, then chatted with us and went on and on about American basketball. The food was wonderful and it was all very fun and very French.

I think what makes the French seem so sophisticated and proper is that manners are very important and strict here. Everyone follows etiquette rules to be courteous and show respect to those around you (have good table manners, talk quietly in public places, open the door for women, say hello and goodbye when entering/exiting an elevator or a shop or something). Growing up in the US in modern times made me pretty unaware of social etiquette and now I'm so used to France that I judge people who talk loudly or slouch when they eat or something. I discovered www.socialprimer.com the other day, and it's fascinating to read about "official" rules of etiquette that very few groups of people follow in America, but if everyone followed the same etiquette rules, social interactions would seem more respectful and courteous. This is why France seems so civilized and mature to me, and it would be nice if more Americans agreed with me. Sigh.

There are videos I put on youtube of my orchestra concert (not at the gala) where we played The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart, Te Deum by Haydn, and some string thing I didn't play in. I can't get the hyperlink to work, but if you copy and paste these URLs they should work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sflf20y-lM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMcMmyBK4so&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt1N0LU2Whw&feature=related

A very Nice vacation

I just got back from spring break on the French Riviera with a bunch of friends. I LOVE it there! I really want to go back there many times in my life and I hope I'll be able to. The weather and scenery were gorgeous, the people were so laid-back and nice, and it's very chic in the exact opposite way from Paris. Relaxed and cool without trying to be, while Paris is very uptight and tries very hard to be on the cutting edge of everything. We took a night train to Nice, so we got there on Sunday morning, but it was hard to sleep on the train. We got there and checked into our hostel, Villa Saint-Exupéry (named after the author of the Little Prince), which was rated the best hostel in France according to my guidebook, and it was easy to see why. The rooms were very nice with a view of the whole city, free shuttle to downtown, free computer usage, towels, breakfast, they organize day trips, give lots of great advice, and have a really fun bar with 1 euro beers where everyone hangs out and mingles each night. This hostel is reason enough to visit Nice, but the Riviera is absolutely amazing and the trip was more than perfect. I had wanted to go on a beach vacation with friends for so many years, and it was more than I hoped for and I fell in love with the area. The first day, we hung out on the beach and enjoyed the gorgeous view of the coast and the Mediterranean for a few hours, then walked up an old "citadel" (very Lord of the Rings) that has a panoramic view of the whole coast with all the surrounding towns. Nice felt a lot like California or Florida to me, with lots of palm trees and a very coastal vibe--very different from Paris. I couldn't believe we were still in France. Then we walked around the old part of Nice, through lots of markets and old shops.



On Monday, it was my friend's birthday so we did all the fun things she had been dying to do. We slept in, then took a beautiful bike ride all the way up the coast to Antibes, riding right next to the water the whole time. It was about 80-85 degrees out the whole time we were there, by the way. Then we sat on the beach for a while and drank cocktails, then went to an authentic Niçois restaurant for dinner, then to a fun little English pub afterwards. When it closed, we went and sat on the beach and chatted, taking in the view of the coast at night. I was surprised by how much I missed living by the beach and the water in Chicago, but lake Michigan is nothing compared to the Mediterranean, which I had never seen before.



On Tuesday, we went scuba diving! We wandered around the old part of Nice, and we headed to the port where we got on a boat for our "baptême" (baptism/first dive in this case). 8 of us went out into the water on the boat and chatted, soaked up the sun, and took turns diving. We each dove with an instructor for 20 minutes and got to see and touch lots of beautiful fish, rocks, coral, interesting plants, and just experience the sea up close. It was wonderful and rekindled my childhood love of oceans and sea life. I really am a beach girl at heart. Then on the way back, we chatted some more, and the crew brought out a bunch of rosé wine for us "to get rid of the saltwater taste". That night we hung out at the hostel and mingled with dozens of backpackers and other study abroad students from all over the world.



On Wednesday, we took a 30 minute bus ride to Monaco, which is my new favorite place in the world. It's like the best neighborhoods of Paris, plus palm trees and beaches and a monarchy. Everything is absolutely beautiful and there's tons of really nice shops, hotels and restaurants everywhere, and just walking around made me feel ridiculously cool and sophisticated. It was a great cross between the bustle of a city and the calm of a resort (since there are only 7,000 residents in the whole city/country. And another plus side is that it's really safe. So if I ever make my millions (hey, you have to plan ahead), I'll definitely get a summer home there. That's my new incentive to study hard. We hung out on a gorgeous beach there for hours, then we wandered through the streets a little, before heading to the casino in Monte Carlo (the "capital city" of the country of Monaco). This casino is in Casino Royale, and a bunch of other James Bond movies, and it's the swankiest place in the swankiest part of the swankiest country on earth. We went into the casino, and fortunately we had dressed nicely enough to get in, then I lost 30 cents playing the slot machines. Get ready for the next part of the story. Are you sitting down? We wanted to see the part of the casino with the real gambling tables, where movies have been filmed and millions have been won and lost. We chatted with the doorman/bouncer for a while, then went to get tickets to go in. To get in, you needed a driver's license (mine was at the hostel being used as a deposit) or a passport (I only had a copy). Since I couldn't get in, I left to wait outside for my friends, but the doorman asked them where I went and he said he'd let me in and just give us a tour himself so I wouldn't need a ticket. I got in for free, then the 4 of us got a private tour of all the gambling tables, the private 1,000 euro minimum tables, and even the super-private restaurant for the really high rollers, and we could go in and see everything since all those places happened to be closed to the public that day. He told us stories about Grace Kelly, the royal family of Monaco (who owns the casino), being in the James Bond movie before Casino Royale, and all the other famous people he's met in his 25 years working at the casino. He loves Monaco and the casino, and is very royalist and it was fascinating to hear him talk about what it's like to live in that weird, fascinating little country. He was extremely talkative and the casino wasn't busy, and he seemed very proud that he could show it off to us, and it was easily one of the coolest things that had ever happened to any of us.



On Thursday, we went to Cannes, which is a hipper, trendier version of Monaco where lots of young famous people and film executives hang out in the summer. We saw the building where the film festival takes place, then wandered up a hill to a church and sat outside gazing of the wonderful view of the coastline. The Riviera is right by the Alps, so all the hills and mountains make for stunning panoramic views everywhere you go. It's interesting to compare all these little coastal towns to each other. If Nice is California's laid-back beach towns, Monaco is Rodeo Drive and Cannes is Hollywood. Or rather, California tries to be like those parts of the French Riviera. Thursday evening, we went to Antibes to meet up with my friend's friend who lives there. She's Australian and lives with two other Australians who all work on yachts owned by rich businessmen (cleaning and preparing them mostly). We hung out at their apartment, then went out to dinner with more of their friends, and they were all so nice and fascinating to talk to. Most of them hadn't finished college and just decided to go work on yachts in the south of France. I'm not going to quit school and move across the world, but it's amazing to think that I could even though it's never crossed my mind to do what they did. Most of them want to go back to school in a few years, but their days consist of working in the morning, hanging out on the beach, and spending time with friends. Isn't the goal of going to school and getting a good job so that you can retire one day and live like that? It's interesting to at least step back and decide to do what makes you happy instead of what you feel you should be doing so you can be happy one day.



On Friday, we took a bus to Èze where we went to a Galimard perfume shop (that whole area is known for being the perfume capital of the world and even the air smells like flowers and perfume), then had a wonderful lunch in a restaurant with a great view of mountains and the sea, then to an old medieval village. It was on top of a mountain and had tons of windy streets, tiny buildings, with shops and restaurants in them today. We visited the ruins of a château with a garden of exotic plants surrounding it. The medieval architecture combined with exotic flowers, cacti, and palm trees, with the mountains all around, and the Mediterranean Sea made it all look very strange and surreal, unlike anything I've ever imagined. It felt more like the Alps than the tropical towns we had been visiting, and it definitely didn't seem like France. Then we walked down the mountain (in flip flops-bad idea) to the beach and went back to Nice in time to catch another night train back to Paris. The week was full of so many new, amazing, life-changing experiences and I hope I can go back many times and discover even more.

Outside my window

My Life in Paris

My mom came to visit last week! We had lots of fun and I loved visiting all my favorite places and having someone to show around. She corrected me, we came to Paris 4 years ago not 5, so sorry but I was wrong when I mentioned that before. We did a ton of stuff while she was here, and this was our daily itinerary (and my suggestions for things you can't miss if you ever come here):

Saturday-
-Got up bright and early, got pastries from my favorite bakery, then picked up Mom at the airport
-Got back and I showed her around my apartment
-Walked along the Seine to the Eiffel tower
-Hung out there and bought a ton of souvenirs
-Had lunch at a cute little cafe by the Ecole Militaire
-Walked back to the apartment
-Saw the movie Precious on the Champs Elysées
-Shopped on the Champs for a long time
-Took the metro back
-Made a delicious, very late dinner of lentils with sautéed vegetables and spicy carrot soup
-Bedtime because we had an early morning the next day!

Sunday (Easter!)-
-Breakfast at home
-Gregorian mass at Notre Dame
-Falafel, vintage shopping, and funky little boutiques in the Marais
-Back to Notre Dame for an organ recital and vespers service
-Off to Saint Germain to show Mom where I have class and wander a little
-Dinner at my all-time favorite restaurant, Le Faitout in the 19th
-Back home where we started watching In Bruges

Monday-
-Breakfast at home
-Shopping at Monoprix, my grocery store, for food and souvenirs
-Wonderful lunch with my host family where Mom met everyone and we gave them souvenirs from Chicago
-Walked to Rue du Commerce where there are lots of fun boutiques and H&M, Gap, Zara...
-Went to Rue Mouffetard for crepes from Au P'tit Grec (they're the best) and gelato from Amorino (also the best)
-Wandered down Rue Mouffetard, stumbled upon the Pantheon, the Sorbonne, Boulevard Saint Germain, and Notre Dame, then wandered along the Seine for a couple hours until we got to the Musée d'Orsay
-Continued watching In Bruges

Tuesday-
-Breakfast
-Saint-Germain-des-Prés
-Shopped at the Bon Marché
-Wandered/shopped along the streets
-Went inside the Eglise Saint-Germain-Des-Prés
-Lunch picnic in the Luxembourg gardens since it was gooorgeous outside
-I went to class (which was actually cancelled) while Mom wandered around and went to a cafe
-Macarons at Ladurée
-Dinner at Pizza Vesuvio
-Got groceries for Wednesday's dinner party
-Continued watching In Bruges

Wednesday-
-Breakfast
-Made French onion soup for the party
-Picnic in the Tuileries
-Went to the Louvre since you can't ever go too many times
-Wonderful dinner party with my friends and host family
-Finished watching In Bruges

Thursday-
-Breakfast
-Last-minute souvenirs
-Dropped off Mom at the airport

It was wonderful to spend time with her and show her my favorite places. We got to wander and shop a lot, which we didn't really do the last time we were here (which was 4 years ago, not 5- sorry I got that wrong before). I'm really glad she got to see what my daily life is like over here and I sent her home with lots of souvenirs. I got a new cookbook full of great French recipes that are all vegetarian, and I'm going to try to make everything in it even though some of the recipes are a little hard for me. Also, my mom brought me a little Flip videocamera and it's great! I know I'll love having videos of Paris when I go home.

Right after Mom left, I saw Scott Joplin's opera, Treemonisha with my host mom, her friend, and my host sister. The music is wonderful and an interesting mix of classical, folk, and ragtime, and the dancing and singing were great. I love my host family. Our agreement at the beginning was that I was just renting a room from them, and at first I kind of kept to my self and was out a lot. Now, my host mom invites me to things, cooks for me, introduces me to her friends, and we talk a lot and it's great! Since it wasn't really a "host family" setup officially, she doesn't have an obligation to feed me and take care of me, so I have my independence of living alone combined with the cultural experience and companionship of a host family. Perfect!

Makeup is really expensive here for some reason, even French brands are more expensive here than in the States. Yves Rocher is a little bath and beauty store I just discovered, and they have tons of really cheap but good quality makeup, soaps, lotions and lots of stuff like that. I got this gorgeous gold nail polish there for one euro, and I've had it on for 5 days and there's only one little chip. New gift idea!

This past week, about 7 Indian kids were staying with us while they were here on an exchange program visit. Their chaperone/leader knows my host mom, who heard they were coming to Paris and planning to stay in a hotel, so she insisted they stay here! They ranged from 11-16, were extremely polite, spoke perfect English, and made really good food. We all had a dinner party on Saturday when they first arrived, and 5 or 6 of my host mom's friends and their kids were there too, so about 18 people. Lots of people brought wine, and someone brought bottles of Coke instead and everyone kept joking that it was "un Coca 2004". I had a great conversation with some French teenagers about American stereotypes of French people and what it's like to learn English. They knew that a lot of Americans think French people are snobby, but they thought it was hilarious that Americans think French men are feminine.

My host mom thinks American women are like the women you see in American movies: glamorous, independent and always done up, and she loves watching movies with characters like that. Learning about how French people view America is not only teaching me about French people, but what French people think is different about Americans is teaching me what's unique about us. Like, that the "American dream" of being poor and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is a uniquely American ideal and other people are more satisfied by their lot in life and don't feel as much of a need to get rich, in my opinion. French people may seem snobby to us, but to me they seem very proud of their country's cultural heritage, and we don't really have a cultural history like theirs to be snobby about. Another thing I've noticed: French girls size you up when they meet you and don't give compliments, but they're nicer to you if you speak French and dress nicely but if you don't, they can seem really snobby and mean.

I HATE giving myself away as an American in the street, on the metro, shopping, etc. so here is my guide I've figured out for myself on how to blend in:
-Scowl and look pissed off
-Don't be loud
-Don't tip in restaurants
-Complain a lot (my host sister explained that this is so you don't seem like you're bragging)
-Don't talk to strangers
-Always say bonjour or bonsoir when you go into a store/elevator/restaurant and bonne journée/bonne soirée or au revoir when you leave
-Eat pizza with a knife and fork
-Wear lots of black, even in spring
-Wear a winter coat when it's too warm out, then on April 1st, you're allowed to switch to a trench coat, which you will wear all summer
-Don't smile at or make eye contact with strangers
-Don't eat a lot at each meal
-Have long brown hair (oops) and don't brush it
-Pay attention to your table manners
-Never dress down
-Act like you're better than everyone

I like these pictures of Paris

Chez pas

First of all, I'd like to apologize to all my fans out there for getting kind of lax about blogging.

In other news, spring in Paris is heaven! I'm glad I'm here for winter then spring rather than fall then winter so the city will just get better and better. I just love picnics, walking everywhere, not wearing a coat, seeing flowers for once, leaves on trees (not quite yet)... Unlike Chicago, Paris switched over to 55-65 degree weather a couple weeks ago and it hasn't really varied much day to day.

In class the other day, 4 non-native French speakers had a presentation/debate and at one point a girl was having trouble explaining something, so the professor asked her to say it in English. The whole debate switched to English for a while, then switched back to French later which was really funny. I had my last presentation for a while a couple weeks ago, then a really long break from homework and now I only have a couple more assignments before the semester is over. In case you haven't gathered this, my biggest goal while I'm here is to reward myself for working so hard my whole life by relaxing and basking in not having any responsibilities, then I'll be able to go home and start my grown-up life.

There was an article in Women's Wear Daily about a huge new Ralph Lauren store in Saint Germain that's opening soon--and I walk past it every day to and from school! The Marais has just replaced Saint-Germain-des-Prés as my favorite neighborhood in Paris. It's known for being really trendy/funky/hipstery and it has all the charm and character of some of my other favorite neighborhoods, like Montmartre (where Sacré Coeur is), but in the Marais it's even more exaggerated, and it's cleaner and more upscale (read: safer). It's full of fun restaurants, interesting architecture, great little shops, and really trendy/funky people. And when you're in the Marais, you have to go vintage shopping. Vintage clothing stores are almost museums of trends come and gone, and searching for funky clothes with mystery past lives is so much more fun (and challenging) than just getting the latest thing at H&M. One day while hanging out in the Marais, I ran into 3 groups of people I knew, and it felt really cool to just see people I know around Paris.

A couple weeks ago, I got falafel from "L'As du Falafel" in the Jewish neighborhood of the Marais, which is supposed to have the best falafel in Paris...and it was. I could eat there every day. You pay 5 euros, then wait in a long line where everyone gets the same thing (they just ask if you want hot sauce) which is lots of falafel in a pita with grilled eggplant, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, and yogurt sauce. Mmm. Any kind of Mediterranean food is my favorite kind of food. Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern, it's all so good. There's another Middle Easter restaurant in the Marais called "Chez Marianne" that sells things like tabbouli, stuffed grape leaves, marinated mushrooms, fried eggplant, hummus, and feta cheese by the kilo, or you can get sampler platter things to eat there. It's like a really good Middle Eastern Boston Market.

I'm going to Nice over spring break in a few weeks, because the French Riviera > Cancun any day. We're staying in a hostel that was voted best hostel in France for the last 5 years, and it's gorgeous and cheap and THE FRENCH RIVIERA! I'm excited.

A week or so ago there was an Erasmus party on a boat for Paris exchange students at lots of different schools. It was pouring when I was walking there with my friends and we all showed up absolutely soaked, but it was fun anyway. There was a buffet dinner, then a cruise down the Seine, then a dance party with a crazy light show where they played mostly American music. I hadn't realized how much I missed American dance music and it was a nice break from techno and songs I don't know.

Another day recently, I went to a pizza place with some friends, and I have to mention that pizza in Paris is served on plates that are smaller than the pizza, and you eat it with a knife and fork and dip it in spicy olive oil. After dinner, I went to a showing of Grey Gardens at the Centre Pompidou. That movie is fascinating if you haven't seen it and the director was there and talked and answered questions afterwards, which made me appreciate the movie a lot more.

I decided that I'm turning into a grownup. I know this because I like apples, onions, and reading the Wall Street Journal now.

Last week I went to the catacombs, which is a whole bunch of tunnels where the bones of 6,000,000 people were put when Paris's cemeteries got too crowded in the 1700s. The tunnels run underneath the whole city but the touristy part created in 1810 is lit (poorly), has skulls arranged in artistic designs, and plaques with old French poems about death (but don't worry, if you don't speak French they're in Latin too!)

This weekend, I went to Le Relais de l'Entrecôte, a really fancy, famous steak frites place (I got a cheese plate) where it seems like the rich and beautiful go to hang out. Afterwards, we went to N'importe quoi, a really fun and trendy club kind of place that plays great music (Blue, Tainted Love...), and I've been there a couple times now. This time, I got a free t-shirt!

Then on Sunday I went to a wine show for independent vineyards, which has to be one of my favorite things I've done here. For 3 euros, you go in and they give you your glass. Then there were hundreds of tables set up where the people who owned the vineyards (there's a word for that in French but I can't think of one in English) were displaying their wares, and you just go ask them about their wines and taste whatever you want. They're all really passionate and knowledgeable so I learned a lot of different kinds of grapes, wine regions, years, how they get wines to taste a certain way, etc. French wine is amazing and The idea is that it's exposure for them and that you're supposed to buy some, but you get to taste, learn about, and buy great wines that you can't get anywhere else, so it's a huge win-win.

Some friends and I had a 5 hour long picnic at the Eiffel tower last week which included a guitar and improvised singing, meeting some American tourists, different friends coming and going, a sunset, and lots and lots of food.

Orchestra is fun. I love always having a little music in my life, and I'm meeting more French people through it. For one of our songs, the Sciences Po choir is singing with us and it sounds really nice. We have a concert in April and I think we have another concert at a prison?

My mom is coming in four days! We traveled to Paris 5 years ago, and I'm excited to give her an insider's view of the city now that the Paris I know seems so different from the one we visited then. It'll be great to see her and show her what my daily life is like, and my amazingly accommodating host mom is staying with her boyfriend while my mom's here so we'll have the run of the place!

La fashion week a du chien!

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated my blog! I actually have homework occasionally now, thus slightly less free time to do things like this. My mom suggested making a photo album/memory book through iPhoto with lots of pictures of Paris, the places I went every day, my blog posts, etc., which seems like a great way to remember my time here. Normally I'm a loyal member of the why-make-photo-albums-when-all-my-pictures-are-on-facebook camp, but if I'm ever going to make a photo album, it would be filled with pictures of Paris.

I've done a lot in the last few weeks! The area where the Opéra Comique is is probably the prettiest, most Parisian-looking area in the city, and I've wandered back there a few times since then. Our winter break was a couple weeks ago, since four weeks of classes in a row is just too much for Parisians, so they have a winter break where everyone goes skiing in the Alps. As for me, I got a break from...my really low key classes and tiny amount of homework. One day over break, a bunch of friends and I went to a little sports bar called Antidote because they were showing the Canada/US gold medal hockey game, where everyone was cheering for Canada. It was fun anyway. I had to visit the Palais de Justice for class and watch part of a trial or whatever was going on in one of the courtrooms, because "in France, you have a right to", so I dragged my friend Nick along one day during break. It's fascinating to learn about the differences in the French legal system, and then see it in action/on TV/in movies. That night, Nick had a dinner party so I went with to get groceries and helped him cook a little before everyone came over. At the last few dinner parties my friends have had, we've made butterscotch and dipped madeleines in it, so we made tons of butterscotch again with our own "family recipe" we've all been using.



During the second half of our break, I went to Brussels with 6 of my friends from here. Brussels is not very touristy, but it's very fun, the people are so nice, and there is great architecture and interesting things to see. The buildings are almost German-looking to me and very medieval (compared to Paris, at least). We went to a great musical instrument museum, a René Magritte museum, lots of fun restaurants, some great bars, laughed at funny Dutch signs, and ate way too much chocolate and waffles. The first day we got there, all the Belgian people were so friendly, and every chocolate shop had free samples--one even had samples of the best hot chocolate I've ever tasted--so we knew we weren't in Paris anymore. Our second day there we went to Bruges for the day, which is a gorgeous little medieval town right outside Brussels, where we saw this strange light installation/art exhibit, places from the movie "In Bruges", and great little shops, but the best part was just wandering around and looking at all the old buildings. Our hostel in Brussels was fairly nice, but some crazy people were there and they kicked everyone out from 10-2 every day. After spending 3 1/2 days in Brussels, I really missed Paris and being away made me really appreciate it here, and I got a tiny glimpse of what it's going to feel like when I leave Paris for good but I'm not going to think about that!



When we got back, Paris fashion week was half over so some friends and I crashed some of the shows last week and (well, we couldn't actually get into any shows, but) it was so much fun! Lots of paparazzi/bloggers/random photographers took our pictures and three of my friends got on British Vogue's website! Afterwards, we met some photographers from the Paul and Joe show at a restaurant nearby, and they gave us their press passes. We couldn't use them anymore, but they're really cool and official-looking :)



It's actually getting warmer now and there are more and more tourists every day. I walked home from school yesterday (it takes exactly an hour) since it was so nice out. On my way, a middle-aged woman asked me in terrible French to take her picture in front of the Eiffel tower, then I responded in English and we chatted for a little while.

Let's see, I had two more presentations last week for my European political history class and I have another one today, then nothing for three weeks! My host mom is so nice. She was in India for a few weeks and she just got back, and she brought me back a necklace and earrings from India! My friends had a brunch party one day last week, then we wandered around and went thrift shopping. Another friend had a dinner party last weekend, and a bunch of French people were there so I got to speak French outside of class for a change. Another night last weekend I took the night bus home since the metro had stopped running, and the bus was so crowded that it actually feels safer than the metro late at night, so no more wasted money on cabs!

In the French regional elections on Sunday, the Socialist Party gained a bunch of seats, and we kind of discussed the elections in my French class but I still don't really understand the French political system. Instead, we had a really long discussion in that class about women's rights in France, which was fascinating and made me like my professor a lot more.

That's all for now!

College night at the Louvre!

Last Friday was college night at the Louvre. They stay open late on Wednesdays and Fridays, and Sciences Po organized an outing of international students there. It was fun but I'll need to go back at least 5 more times to see everything worth seeing there before I leave. It's a little strange that I went to all these touristy places about 5 years ago and now I'm visiting them all over again, but it feels completely different to go to touristy places in a city you live in instead of a city you're just visiting. After the Louvre, everyone went to an interesting bar where I saw a lot of international students I hadn't seen in a while. We had brought a bottle of wine but no corkscrew, so we sat outside by the river for a while trying to figure out how to open it, then we eventually had success with my keys and a pen.

I went to a movie theater on the Champs Elysées last Saturday to see Valentine's Day, and the movie wasn't great but the theater was gorgeous! Only 8 euros to get in, and it was really fancy. It looked like a real theater with dark purple carpet and artistic black-and-white pictures of famous actors and actresses on the walls, then the inside of the theater was really ornately decorated and the seats were ridiculously comfortable. The previews were probably for half French, half American movies and the movie we saw had French subtitles. If you've ever seen a movie in a language you understand with subtitles in a language you understand, then you know it's really interesting to see how they translate weird expressions or jokes. It was a fun way to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon. That evening, I went to a dinner party at my friend's apartment and met/caught up with a bunch of people while eating lots and lots of food. My friends and I are discovering that dinner parties are much, much more economical (and usually more fun) than going to restaurants and bars, so we've all been alternating hosting get-togethers every few days lately.

On Sunday, I went ice skating! It was well above freezing, so the ice was a little melty but it was fun anyway, especially since a couple of our friends from Egypt had never ice skated before and we got to teach them. Afterwards, we went to a cafe (of course) and on the way we saw a secondhand store that looked interesting. A friend and I went back the next day when it was open and had a lot of fun there. Huge piles of scarves for 1 euro, lots of dresses for 5-10 euros, and racks and racks of fur coats for 30 euros, but only one tiny dressing room so we just went to a deserted corner and tried everything on over our clothes and ended up finding some buried treasures.

I had a debate in my comparative legal systems class on Monday, and it went really well! I got to know the girl I was partnered with while working on it, and she was great to talk to and fun to work with--not at all impatient that my French wasn't perfect. It's always fun to make more French friends, and I'm starting to pick up things that French young people say, slang, abbreviations, pronouncing things certain ways, etc. and I feel a lot more comfortable now making French friends than I did when I first got here.

Sciences Po has an international student buddy system and a French-American student buddy program, and my buddies have been so great to get to know and to get advice from. My French is getting much better already and it's nice to have lots of people to practice with. Sciences Po has so many great resources for international students that I'm starting to think Northwestern could learn a thing or two from them about welcoming and integrating exchange students.

My class and orchestra rehearsal were cancelled on Tuesday, so my friend and I decided to wander over to the Musée d'Orsay. We didn't spend much time there, but who cares? It's free! It's a small museum, but I could easily spend all day there. I'll probably start hanging out there in between classes soon because I'm running out of neighborhoods to explore. After the museum, I had a bunch of friends over and we cooked a delicious dinner of braised leeks, mashed potatoes, and rice and beans. And of course lots of wine and cheese and baguettes. My "host sister" is living here for the moment, and she hung out with us and shared her Paris knowledge and advice, which was really entertaining. She's wonderful and we have a ton of common interests (like fashion law!?) and we already started planning her trip to Chicago to visit me.

We've had four weeks of classes, so next week is winter break for Sciences Po, and I'm going to Brussels! I'll be there for 3 1/2 days, and we'll probably go to Bruges too. Five of my friends and I got really cheap bus tickets and we're leaving next Wednesday for a little vacation. I'm really excited to do some traveling, and especially to get a little break from classes.

Tonight, I went to the Opéra Comique to see Béatrice et Bénédict (based on Much Ado About Nothing) with a bunch of my friends. We had a yummy dinner at my apartment beforehand, then we all headed over and watched the opera from our 6 euro, obscured-view seats. I could only see about half the stage, but at least the music was nice! The opera was very cute and funny but it's hard for me to understand operatic singing in French. Afterwards, the obligatory pit stop at a cafe, then home to update my blog.

It's a lot warmer here now (mid 50s most days) and I can't wait for spring! Everything will be so beautiful and green, and wandering around outside will be much more pleasant, so I'll finally be able to appreciate the beauty of this city. When I get home, i think I'll blow up a picture of the view out my window at night and frame it. I think that will be a much more subtle and personal souvenir than a ton of obnoxious Eiffel tower postcards all over my walls. When I look out my window at night, the lights that are the farthest away look like they're wiggling or twinkling. It's kind of bizarre and probably the effects of pollution or something, but it's really beautiful. The lights here and the way they reflect off the limestone really does look different from anywhere else. If you've ever been here you know what I mean.

La France est terrible!

("Terrible" in French can mean either terrible or it can be slang for awesome.)

I went to a restaurant the other day called Le Faitout with the two other Northwestern girls studying at Sciences Po, and it was there that we met the best waiter in France. He was very nice, and refilled our water and bread baskets before we were even done during our entire meal, which is unheard of. I felt like I was at TGI Friday's! The food was reasonably priced and fantastic. I had lasagna with squash, goat cheese, and zucchini and kir for dessert (white wine with flavored liqueur/syrup) and everything was amazing. If you ever come to Paris, go there. It's in the 19th. Do it! Paris has so many cute, trendy little bars and cafes where students hang out, and they're great for making friends with fascinating people with really exciting lives.

The metro feels very safe, even fairly late at night since everyone in Paris stays out so late every night. It's safe, but there are a lot of characters who like to ride the metro around (accordion players even though it's illegal for them to ask for money on the metro, drunk teenage boys doing flips between the rows of seats...)

I'm calling it right now. These are the French fashion trends that will be American trends next season or next year: fur/faux fur, big bulky coats, Longchamp bags, sequins on tote bags, stacked wooden heel knee-high boots, short skirts and dresses with tights, messy hair, neutral toned clothes, ugly masculine boots, shoes that look like men's shoes, really high heels, ankle boots, and pointy shoes for men.

Of course, the fashion/luxury industry is a huge part of the French economy, and Sciences Po had a "luxury forum" last week where the HR directors from Louis Vuitton, Prada, Chanel, L'Oréal, and Jean Paul Gaultier spoke about what it's like to work in fashion and what it takes to get a job in the industry. It's a fascinating, innovative, fast-paced industry that shapes our daily lives and our entire culture and I know even more than I did before that I'd love to work in luxury/fashion someday. My dream job is to be an intellectual property lawyer for one of those companies. Their marketing strategies are really different and their brand images are so strong that it would be fascinating to work to protect that. But we'll see...

I miss my friends and family, but I really don't miss home other than that. It's different and unfamiliar, but (sorry Chicago) Paris is the best city in the world. They made a movie about this whole study abroad thing! It's called L'auberge espagnol and it's about a French college student who studies in Barcelona for a year. At the beginning, he has to go to meetings and fill out lots of paperwork, then he says goodbye to his family, has trouble carrying all his luggage around and finding his temporary apartment, doesn't know anyone and tries to convince himself he's having a good time, goes to classes, finds another apartment, and finally makes friends and has an amazing time. When he goes home, he can't really explain what Barcelona meant to him and his life is totally different. The movie does a really good job of capturing the weird emotions you feel when you leave home and start to get comfortable in a completely new place.

Most of the differences between France and the United States stem from the fact that France is so much more homogenous, in my opinion. The French like to blend in, and Americans love their individuality and uniqueness. A lot of the French people I've met think French people are too snobby and superficial, and that Americans are more accepting of differences, but sometimes French people seem more mature and sophisticated to me than Americans. I was talking to a French person who was complaining that there's a lot of pressure to be well dressed and good looking, but along with that comes an appreciation of beautiful things that Americans just don't have. So here's what I'm taking away from this: cultural peculiarities have good and bad aspects depending on your perspective.

In one of my classes, we had to read some English texts, and the professor told everyone that it might be difficult to read in English, but read through them a few times, don't look up every word in the dictionary, and just try to get the general idea of the text. HA! All the classrooms are beautiful, like they used to be gorgeous, ornate buildings but now no one's using them so they decided to turn them into classrooms.

I had a presentation today (my first one here!) and I had to analyze three pictures of World War I memorials and I explained that they show how France wanted to remember the war, in contrast with how they chose to remember other wars. It was pretty good, but it's hard to get stressed out in Paris. Less pressure, less competitive, less homework I heard about a study that decided that people in France are the happiest in the world, and it's easy to see why. French people keep their work and stress in perspective and don't let themselves get overwhelmed by it, and I think Americans could learn a lot from that. When I go back home, I'll have a lot more perspective on stress which will help me a lot. Another one of my observations: it seems like there are a lot more girls than boys at Sciences Po. Woohoo!

It's snowing today!

My dinner party was last Friday and it was really fun! 13 or 14 people came so I finally got to introduce all my friends to each other, and we ate baguettes and cheese and drank wine, then had eggplant/roasted pepper/goat cheese salad, delicious French onion soup and madeleines with strawberries and whipped cream. Almost everyone brought a baguette or two, and at one point we had eaten a ton already and we still had 8 left! Cooking is so much fun here and I made a TON of food but we still almost ran out. Everyone had a good time, and one of my "host sisters" came home and joined us after a while. Once it was over, we wandered along the Seine and sat under the Eiffel tower for a while, then went home. The family I live with is fantastic. They're so friendly and accommodating and they always take the time to make sure I can understand what they're saying, teach me slang words, etc. After the dinner party, I was washing dishes and I broke 2 wine glasses. I felt terrible that she let me have one party and her things got broken, and I wrote a note apologizing profusely and saying I'd of course buy replacement glasses, but the woman I'm living with just kept saying "wine glasses break themselves" and wouldn't let me pay to replace them. She's so fantastic!

It's a really beautiful walk from the metro station to class since Sciences Po is in a really nice neighborhood. I love walking past really fancy boutiques and art galleries on the way to class and seeing them change their window displays every few days. Fun fact: Christian Dior went to Sciences Po! (So did Nicolas Sarkozy, Jacques Chirac, François Mitterand...) I'm really lucky I got the chance to come here. My classes are fascinating (all in French: 2 law, 2 history, 1 French language class) and they're mostly about things I've studied a little bit before, but French law and the French perspective on history are really different from what I've studied. I expect I'll learn more about French culture by seeing how these subjects are taught than about the subjects themselves, which is fine with me. French people have trouble with Hs and "ei"s, so on the first day of each class, I was the weird foreign girl with the funny name. French people usually say "eye-dee" if we're lucky or "ee-dee" or even "eddie". One professor asked me my name, looked on the attendance sheet for a while, then said she was having trouble finding it "because of my accent".

The headquarters of Radio France is right outside my window, and I finally started listening to their stations. They have a pop music station, a classical music station, a news station, a "culture" station that's kind of like NPR, and a couple more but I'm not sure what they are. You can listen to all of them online, probably anywhere in the world. Here's a picture of the view out of my window:



Young people like to hang out and drink wine under bridges along the Seine. It's really beautiful and when tour boats go by, you get to wave and pretend you're French. Host mom and host sister #2 taught me the word "potes" the other day, which is a French slang word that means your group of friends, and I've been using it a lot since then. On Sunday, I went to my friend's apartment to eat pancakes with some of my potes, and I have to mention that her apartment building has a really funny elevator. Most elevators here are tiny. Like really tiny. At her apartment, there's a 3 person limit and in order to fit 3 people you would need to be squished together and standing a certain way, touching all the sides of the elevator. After we had pancakes, we headed to the Centre Pompidou (the modern art museum) but we kind of got lost so naturally, we took a break and stopped in a cafe. French coffee is what Americans call espresso, which I love! If you order coffee from a cafe, they'll bring you a tiny cup with a shot of espresso and a cute little sugar packet or sugar cubes. Most of the Americans miss drinking huge cups of weak coffee, but I love espresso so it's fine with me! I'm definitely buying an espresso machine when I get home. Then we finally got to the museum. I'd been there before, but it was fun and they had an interesting exhibition on women artists and feminist art. Later, some of my potes went to a Canadian sportsbar to watch the super bowl, and I wanted to go but it started at midnight and I had class early yesterday morning.

A bientôt!

Discover Everything

I went to Versailles on Sunday! After taking the wrong train to Pontoise (an hour and a half in the wrong direction), we had to take the train back to Paris and take the right train to Versailles. I know from experience that there aren't any buses or taxis in Pontoise on Sundays, since I had to walk/hitchhike from the Pontoise train station to get to Van Gogh's grave with my brother and my dad once. On the almost empty train, we met this awesome old French woman who didn't want to sit by herself and came and told us she wasn't going to bother us but just wanted to sit near people. We ended up chatting with her a ton and she helped us figure out where we had to go. Versailles is absolutely amazing and if you ever go to Paris you absolutely must go there. AND it's free instead of $18 for French students (that includes me) so I'm planning on going there a lot on weekends when the weather gets warmer. It's crazy to think about everything that's happened there, from the crazy French court days to the treaty of Versailles and the millions and millions of visitors over the years. When my friends and I got back from Versailles, we watched Marie Antoinette while eating macarons and drinking wine, which is probably the most frenchtastic thing ever and made me so happy to be here. If you've never had French macarons, you're not really alive yet. They're a totally different thing from American macaroons, and the French ones are like two buttery, crispy cookie/pastry things with creme in the middle, with a mix of like 5 different textures somehow. So basically the best thing ever. Fun fact: macaron displays at the French cafe Ladurée were Sofia Coppola's inspiration for the color palette of the movie Marie Antoinette! By the Versailles train station was a McCafé restaurant, McDonald's' latest attempt at competing with Starbucks, and they sold pastries and macarons there! At McDonald's! They weren't very good.

I also recently discovered the joys of madeleines. They're little cake things that are way too buttery and delicious to be real. I bought a big value pack, store-brand bag full of them from the grocery store and even those are fantastic. The first time I came back from grocery shopping, the woman I'm living with told me to never buy baguettes from the supermarket since they're so much better from a bakery. I still thought they were fantastic compared to American bread, but now that I've eaten so many fantastic bakery baguettes, I'm becoming a bread snob and I can definitely tell the difference. Tonight I had dinner with my "host family" which consists of her, her boyfriend who's here a lot, and her 19-year-old daughter. Now that all of my friends are settled in their apartments, we've all been taking turns hosting dinner parties every few days, which is really fun and way cheaper than meeting at restaurants. Lots of people come and we usually have wine and cheese for a while, then we all help cook, eat, then sit around for several hours talking. I'm hosting a dinner party on Friday and I think I'll be a nerd and serve French onion soup. And some madeleines.



I never thought I'd say this, but it's nice to finally have class. I'm mostly taking law classes, and they're fascinating and really going to improve my French since I decided not to take any in English. For such a famous school, the classes are surprisingly laid-back and the professors and other students aren't intimidating at all. I'm playing in the Sciences Po orchestra this semester too! It's really small and the rehearsals are very chill but I'm so happy I get to play in an orchestra again. We're playing the Marriage of Figaro overture right now and it's fun and easy, so we should sound good by the time we have our concert in May. Apparently 3 weeks straight of classes is too much for the French, so we have a winter break in 3 weeks and then a spring break in April. My friends and I are trying to decide where to go and what to do during our breaks, so does anyone have suggestions for places in Europe I have to see? We're thinking probably Barcelona or Milan.

The other day, we went to an all-you-can-eat pizza place with the international student club where they brought out pizzas with all kinds of flavors and toppings to your table. At one point, a German girl asked to trade pizzas with our end of the table so they could "discover everything", and that quickly became the catchphrase of our stay in Paris :)

Paris

It sounds cliche but I've been here for a week and a half and Paris already feels like home. I heard some quote once about how Paris belongs to no one and it belongs to everyone, and it's true. It's hard to explain but when you're here, you feel like a stranger and at home at the same time. I'm so amazed and lucky that I'm actually here, and it kind of feels like a dream.

I'm renting a room from a woman who lives with her daughter in the 15th arrondissement, kind of by the Eiffel tower and right on the Seine. I have a gorgeous view out of my window of the river and since there aren't many skyscrapers in Paris, you can see miles and miles of beautiful buildings on a clear day. And the Statue of Liberty is right outside my window! (Remember? It was kind of like a friendship necklace, they gave one to the United States and kept one here). The woman and her daughter who live here are very nice and friendly, and when I talk to them I get to practice my French! My French is getting much better already, which is good since I start classes (all in French) next week :/

Sciences Po, the school I'm attending organized a Welcome Program for the international students that took place last week, full of tours, museum visits, dinners, parties, and a class about classes at Sciences Po (?). We toured Île de la Cité where Notre Dame, the Conciergerie (the prison used during the Reign of Terror) and the gorgeous Sainte-Chappelle church are all located, took a boat cruise down the Seine, attended a lecture on the history of Paris, did a scavenger hunt around Paris, and went to lots of restaurants, cafes, bars and clubs. We also took a tour of the gorgeous Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood where Sciences Po's campus is. At one point during the tour, our guide showed us an international grocery store and said in a very thick French accent, "You can go here for American food items like penis butter"...

All the students in the Welcome Program made lots of friends very quickly, and even though none of them are French, I've been having a great time getting to know people from all over the world. Now that the Welcome Program is over, we're arranging similar tours, museum visits, dinners and parties on our own. Going to dinner or coffee always takes at least 3 hours here, which is great when you have nothing planned, nowhere to go, and no responsibilities but will be harder once classes start! Paris restaurants are fantastic, but they aren't very vegetarian-friendly. French bread, cheese, and produce are to die for so I don't mind too much. I am falling in love with France's amazing wine, especially since you can get a really great bottle of wine for 4-5 euros. At night, bars are fun for hanging out with friends after all the restaurants close and then the nightclubs stay open after all the bars close. The clubbing scene is pretty crazy. The laid-back ones are fun if you want to dance and listen to loud music, and the really swanky ones are in gorgeous old buildings and they play better music, but everyone who goes there is really pretentious and unfriendly.

The fashion shows for Haute Couture week end today and Paris has been full of excitement all week. Yesterday, I hung out outside the Jean Paul Gaultier and Valentino shows with some friends and we saw tons of celebrities and important fashion people, and we got to see the models as they left the shows in full hair and makeup paired with their street clothes. The shows are by invitation, but we were right there and got to experience the atmosphere while watching everyone come and go. And Anna Wintour (the editor of American Vogue, who the Devil Wears Prada is about) walked past me three times during the course of the day! My heart stopped a little when I saw Garance Doré, the writer/photographer for www.garancedore.fr, my all-time favorite style blog. Everyone going to the shows was wearing such beautiful clothes, and we had a good time laughing at everyone hobbling along the cobblestone streets in 7-inch platform heels.

Everyone dresses very nicely in Paris, but looks like they just threw on whatever they're wearing without thinking about it. The winter uniform for the Parisienne is a wool peacoat, miniskirt/shorts, tights, and boots. Really? Shorts? Yes. It's usually about 40-45 degrees though, which sounds like summer to any native Chicagoan. Another weird thing about Paris is that the sun doesn't rise until 8:30 this time of year, which is hard to get used to. Everyone says this, but French people really are quite polite and friendly if you speak French and they can come across as unfriendly, but I think they're just more serious than Americans are used to. A French person told me the other day that he likes America because we're so much funnier than the French, which I'd never thought about before.

That's all for now!

Love,
Heidi