Tout va bien!

I know, I know, I'm terribly overdue for a blog entry. My apologies for the silence, I'll make sure this post makes up for the lost time! But where to begin...

Two weeks ago I began teaching in the high school. So far I have 10 classes total that I teach - the students range in age from 15 to 27, and have a similarly enormous range of English skills! The past two weeks, I played introductory games to make my students feel more at ease speaking with me, and also showed them a photograph of my house back in Charlotte, which led into a discussion of the role of housing in the American dream. You know I can't keep sociology out of it! I think the students found it interesting - as did I! It was funny to hear what they found interesting about my house: the mailbox, the long driveway, the big yard, the American flag on the corner. Most of my students - and most people in France, especially Paris - live in small apartments in town. Very different from the suburban America that I grew up in, to say the least.

I've now had two different orientation sessions for my master's program at l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. At both meetings, I felt so reassured that I've made the right choice pursuing my masters at l'EHESS. The school, its history, the professors and researchers, the other students are all my kind of people - intellectually curious, eager to do research, pushing the boundaries of current knowledge, challenging everything taken for granted. I think it's going to be a great bridge between Wesleyan and my doctoral studies (wherever those will be...!). My courses (which mostly consist of small research seminars - an anomaly in France!) begin next week and I am SO excited about this. I'm really hungry for some intellectual challenges, and I can't wait to learn sociology from the French perspective.

Finally, it is with much relief that I can officially say that I have found housing! Yesterday I responded to a small announcement I found on a bulletin board at school for a room in a woman's apartment. I called and she immediately invited me over. We both clicked and so I will be moving in next week. This is an immense load off my shoulders, because I have spent a lot of time, money, energy, and stress trying to find a place. Apparently Paris is now officially the second most expensive housing market in the world, after Tokyo. The location is truly ideal, a good place in between my master's classes and the high school where I teach. It's on the tenth floor, so I have a magnificent view of Paris from my room - and from the kitchen, I can see all of Paris, including the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, and Montparnasse Tower. Not too shabby! Not to mention the price is extremely affordable, and the woman with whom I'll be living is very nice and welcoming. I can't wait to finally have a place to call home!

Welcome (back) to Paris!

I've been in Paris over ten days now, and it really feels as though I never left! As soon as I arrived, everything felt familiar and right, kind of like I was 'home' again. My flight came in very early Monday morning, and I took a long cab ride from the airport to the monastery where I am staying for the moment. With the help of two nuns, I somehow managed to carry all of my suitcases up to the third floor where my room is located. It's a pretty nice room - I have a small bedroom with a bed and desk, and a large walk-in closet plus a bathroom with a shower and toilet. There are 30 girls living at the monastery, all of them in college here in Paris. They're all French, except for one, who is Taiwanese and doesn't speak much French and who prefers to speak to me in English. It is definitely a good opportunity for me to practice my conversational French skills and to meet French people my age. We're all served breakfast and dinner together, although I am very sad to report that the food is simply awful! But since it's included in the price of the room, I have a hard time justifying buying other food when I know I can eat for free...

These past two weeks have been filled with formal and informal meetings for the other teaching assistants. Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, we've all been able to communicate with each other and there were a few outings organized amongst the assistants. The assistants are not just English-speaking Americans - they represent languages and countries from all over the world. They're really a diverse group of people in terms of age, background, origin, etc, and it's really neat that I get to hang out with such fascinating people!

Next week I begin teaching at the high school, and I also have my first class for my master's. However, much of France will be on strike beginning on Tuesday, so I'm not quite sure if the high school and/or my university will be functioning! Ah the joys of France. In the meantime, the weather here is simply beautiful and I am off to enjoy a weekend of picnicking, museuming, and general enjoyment!

Deja Vu!

I don't think that I ever imagined that I'd write another entry on this blog... yet here I am, preparing once again to leave for Paris! Funny how similar I feel now as to when I was preparing to leave for Paris the first time - nervous, excited, anxious, and generally overwhelmed.
I am planning to fly out of Charlotte on Monday morning. I'll be flying standby on Delta, so this means an obligatory connection in Atlanta. Hopefully I will then catch an afternoon flight to Paris so that I arrive in France early Tuesday morning.
I'll have Tuesday and Wednesday to recover from jetlag, take care of some basics (cell phone, hairdryer, bank account, etc), and then Thursday I have my first meeting with the English teacher who I will be working with at the high school where I'll be a teaching assistant. Friday is the general meeting for all teaching assistants. Thankfully, the orientation for my master's program isn't until October 25, so I have a while to settle in with my teaching job before I have to worry about being a student myself.
Unlike the last time I left for Paris, all of the arrangements and logistics are left up to me. There's no group flight, no one to meet me at the airport, no one to make sure I get from the airport to where I'm staying, no one to help make sure customs goes smoothly. This both thrills and terrifies me, and I think is an accurate microcosm for the experience I'm about to embark upon. It will be truly a French experience in that I must learn to se débrouiller: a fantastic French phrase meaning 'to figure things out for oneself.' There is a lot left to do, a lot that is unknown, but that is all part of the adventure, I suppose...!
Hopefully the next entry will come to you from la belle France. A bientôt !

And now the much-anticipated travel update!

     Spring Break just ended, and needless to say I took full advantage of two weeks in Europe with no classes. I did and saw lots, and would’ve liked to have updated along the way, but unfortunately had to travel light and so did not have much access to a computer.  Thus I give you my fortnight of travels in four handy segments:

CHARTRES

     I started my vacation with a mini-trip to Chartres, which is a small town that is an hour northwest of Paris by train.  Two friends and I decided to spend half a day here on

the recommendation of several people we knew who had visited and enjoyed it.  Chartres is most famous for its enormous cathedral with beautiful stained glass, elaborate gardens, and labyrinth.  The shade of blue in the windows is very famous – no one has ever been able to precisely replicate it!

     We also took time to walk around the village, which was very cute and French.  We enjoyed the cottage-lined Eure River, an old church-turned-modern-art-exhibition, and the local specialty, Mentchikoffs (white chocolate-covered mini-meringues!).

LONDON

     After a two-hour train ride (including twenty minutes underneath the English Channel!) I arrived in London.  I spent two-and-a-half 

days there, staying with my friend Jill who is studying in London for the year.  I was thankful to have a ready-made tour guide to show me around Wesminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and the Tate Museum.  Though I did experience the traditional English rain the entire time I was there, I still really enjoyed being in London and seeing so many famous landmarks, such as the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum, the Globe Theatre which is a replica of where Shakespeare’s plays were debuted, and Princess Diana’s wedding ring at Harrod’s.

     Jill also did a good job fulfilling my American food cravings: we ate pizza, bagels, pretzels, sushi, muffins, and the requisite pub grub of course (fish and chips).  It was nice to have so much of the food  that I had been missing– though it’s probably for the best that I am back to my regime of (healthier) French food…

SWEDEN

    Jill and I then flew to Gothenburg, Sweden to spend a few days with her family friends, Curt and Marianne.  They were very kind in sharing their Swedish home, food, and culture with us.  We ate lots of traditional Swedish food (the well-known Swedish breakfast and an anchovy-potato pie), which was all particularly delicious

 because Marianne is a chef at a restaurant in Goth-enburg!  We also had many polit-ical dis-cussions and learned much about the political and social system in Sweden, as Curt is an independent journalist.

     We explored a lot of Gothenburg itself; although it’s the second-largest city in Sweden after Stockholm, it still only has 500,000 inhabitants.  Despite this relatively small size, Gothenburg has an extremely well-developed tram system that was only a few meters from Curt and Marianne’s doorstep!  Thus we were free to travel into the city center whenever we wanted.  There we found art museums, shopping, and lots of warm and colorful botanical gardens and greenhouses.  We also checked out Gothenburg’s harbor by biking along the river and through the city’s many parks.

     One of the high-lights of Sweden was the day trip we took by ferry with Curt and Mari-anne to the southern archipelago, which is a string of islands off Sweden’s coast that is very rugged and populated by small fishing towns.  These were rustic and breathtakingly beautiful – a pure nature that you don’t get to experience in London or Paris!

IRELAND

     After saying goodbye to Sweden and Jill, I met up with another friend, Kate, who is studying in London as well.  She and I hopped on a plane to spend a few days in Cork, Ireland.  We stayed at a

very nice youth hostel in central Cork, and were delighted to find out that planning our trip wasn’t necessary… there were plenty of outgoing, friendly, Irish people at every turn to tell us what we had to see and do in Cork!

     It turns out that we had made a very good choice in going to Cork because the seaside and the historic countryside are both easily accessible, in addition to the city itself.  Thus, on the recommendation of a few gregarious strangers, Kate and I decided to take a short trainride to Cobh (pronounced Cove).  Cobh is famous for three reasons : it was the port of exit for many of the immigrants who left Ireland in the 19th and 20th centuries.  This was particularly fascinating for me, as I have visited the Ellis Island processing center in New York, where many of the Irish immigrants entered the United States.  Cobh was also the last place of embarkment for the Titanic, as well as the Lusitania, which sunk not far off the shore there.  So we found a really informative museum in Cobh giving

 us information about all of these events.

     Back in Cork, Kate and I decided to visit the Butter Museum on a whim.  We didn’t realize that butter has been an important staple in Ireland for thousands of years – in fact, the ancient Celtic people used to bury their butter in peat bogs to refrigerate it, and so one of these  thousand-year-old barrels of butter has been fossilized and is on display in the museum!  Pretty neat.  The kind man working at the museum insisted that we go next door and visit the Bells of Shandon… so of course we did.  These turn out to be church bells housed in a tower where you can go and ring the bells yourself !  This was a pretty unforgettable experience as well.

     Finally, Cork is only a twenty-minute busride from Blarney.  I expected Blarney to be an overpriced, touristy pile of rocks, but it turned out to be beautiful!  It is a thousand-year-old castle 

surrounded by flowery gardens and rolling, emerald hills.  Once at the top of the castle, you not only get a breathtaking view, but also to kiss the Blarney Stone!  The Stone apparently gives all those who kiss it the ‘Gift of the Gab,’ or the highly sought-after power of eloquence and flattery.

    So after these wonderful travels, I am now back in Paris with only three weeks left (eek!).  I have two weeks of class and one week to pack and write and hand in final papers.  I’m trying to enjoy springtime in Paris and make the most of the time I have left here!

La Belle Belgique

    So last weekend was excursion #2 with the International Parisian Youth Club.  First we visited Bruge, a small canal town near the Atlantic coast that is known as the 'Venice of the north.'  I was surprised that hardly anyone seemed to speak French; it was either Dutch or English.  Belgium is officially a bilingual country, but in Bruge all of the signs are in Dutch and I heard a lot of people speaking this odd language.  I must admit I find French much more beautiful!

    Bruge is not only home to a bunch of canals, but also a béguinage (a community of women whose husbands went off to war and who didn't want to renounce their marriage by becoming nuns) which had a beautiful garden of daffodils in full bloom, the Church of Our Lady (home to one of the few Michelangelo sculptures that is located outside of Italy), a very beautiful Hotel de Ville (town hall) - not to mention a lot of delicious chocolate shops.

    After a few hours in Bruge, we headed over to Brussels.  For dinner, I went to a restaurant recommended by one of my French professors back at Wesleyan who is from Belgium.  I got croquettes aux crevettes (fried rolls containing shrimp in a creamy, cheesy sauce), and frites (fries), both specialties that originally come from Belgium!  I also had one of those well-known Belgian waffles, which are definitely better in Belgium than the kind they serve us at the dining hall at school.  And of course, I made sure to stop by the chocolaterie that my professor recommended.  I got a few chocolates to bring back for Thérèse-Marie (and a couple for myself too!).

    The next day, we explored the Grand Place, which is the

 beautiful square located in the middle of Brussels.  We then went to check out the Belgian Center for the Comic Strip.  Comic strips are considered a real art both in Belgium and in Europe, and so we found a lot of familiar favorites - most notably, smurfs! (which are hilariously called schtroumpfs in Dutch).  After the museum, we grabbed some sandwiches and went to picnic in the adorable, duckling-filled Leopold Park, which is located in the part of town where the European Union buildings are found.  Many of the EU's institutions meet in Brussels, and since I'm taking a class all about the EU, I had to hunt down as many of the buildings as I could.

  Before piling back on the bus, we found a great view of Brussels at the top of a parking garage (!), and I snapped as many photos as I could from there.

     I have to say that I was really impressed with Brussels.  There is a real mix of architecture that Paris is often lacking... you find art nouveau buildings and sculptures next to ultramodern glass-and-steel skyscrapers next to classically beautiful gothic cathedrals.  The people and food of Brussels also reflect this eclecticness - I've never seen so many ethnicities and heard so many languages spoken in one place!  Belgians are also self-proportedly aisé, which means 'laid-back' in a way that hints that people of other cities are NOT laid-back (hmm Paris, maybe?).  Basically Brussels was a breath of wacky, diverse, Wesleyan-ish fresh air!

An Excursion to Mont Saint Michel and Saint Malo

     Last weekend I had my first out-of-Paris experience since my arrival in January.  I'm glad I waited a while before leaving - I was ready to leave Paris and explore a bit, but I was also glad to come 'home' to Paris at the end of the trip!

     The excursion was through the International Parisian Youth Club, which the program recommended us to.  Five people from the program (including myself) signed up for the trip and we were joined by about 30 other young people from all across the world who are also studying and living in Paris.  We left Paris at an ungodly 6 am Saturday morning in a coach bus, arriving at Mont Saint Michel late morning.

    Mont Saint Michel is a small rocky island in the Normandy region (northwest France) that becomes completely surrounded by the ocean during high tide and can be reached by car during low tide.  I actually had a poster of Mont Saint Michel in my dorm room, so seeing the real thing in person was pretty wild.  At the top of Mont Saint Michel is a centuries-old abbey that is very beautiful.  We had 

amazing weather - a rarity in Nor-mandy, evidently - so we were very lucky!

      Of course, we couldn't resist taste-tasting all the local specialties: galettes de blé noir (buckwheat crêpe-ish pancakes with fillings like cheese and tomatoes or ham and egg), cidre (alcoholic cider), moules frites (fried mussels), galettes bretonnes (extremely addictive buttery cookies), and last but of course not least, caramel salé (salted caramel).  I think one of the best things about France is that it is such a rich and diverse country agriculturally that each region has very different and delicious specialties.

     After a day at Mont Saint Michel, we headed back to the bus for a quick ride over to Saint Malo, located in Bretagne (the Brittany region).  We spent the night at a nice youth hostel there and woke up the next morning to explore.  Saint Malo is an ancient, walled city with very pretty sandy beaches and island forts.  It is also the home to corsiers, which were basically legal pirates back in the days of kings and empires.  Chateaubriand, a famous French author, was born and buried at Saint Malo, hence the multitude

 of avenues, roads, alleys, and buildings named "Chateau-briand".

    It was a very enjoyable trip - this weekend I am off on a similar excursion to Belgium with the same group, so I will write about that next!

The Halfway Point

     It's hard to believe that I'm halfway through my semester abroad.  In some ways it feels like I've been here much longer than three months.  I definitely think I've changed in many ways... but it also seems just yesterday that I was getting off the plane and moving in with my host family.

     Well the last few weeks have been very enjoyable and super busy.  I've hosted two dinners - one to celebrate a friend's birthday and one to cook a good American dinner for my host mother.  Above is a group shot of all of us in my dining room eating my garlic breaded chicken, sweet buttery carrots, and cheesy mashed potatoes.  It was very good, if I do say so myself - complete with the French version of a birthday cake (a chocolate hazelnut torte from our favorite neighborhood bakery!).  For my host mother, I made a similar meal, except I added a tomato-basil tarte and my well-known specialty, chocolate chip cookies.  I think Thérèse-Marie really enjoyed it (well, at the least, she ate everything on her plate!).

     I also had another visitor - my friend Ben from Wesleyan came to do a tour of all of

his friends studying abroad in Europe.  He stayed in Paris for three days, so I took him around to all the sites and we both had a really great time!  It was St. Patrick's Day while he was here, and as we are both Irish, we had to celebrate the only way we knew how... with Guinness!

     And I finally had a chance to play football (what we Americans call 'soccer') with some French students!  It was a very intense match, and I must admit that the French players were much better than us Americans.  My official excuse is that I haven't played soccer since I was a little kid...  Still it was an awesome - and very French - experience.

    I should also mention that I just got back from a weekend excursion to Mont Saint Michel and Saint Malo, but I will describe that in a separate post later this week!

Art, Food, Good Company, and a Cold

     Bonjour tout le monde! I'm sorry it's been a while since I last updated... somehow life in Paris has gotten very busy!

     Well the week before last I was on break, so I took the time off from classes to profiter de Paris (enjoy Paris).  I saw my first play and my first opera - the play was a short piece called "Paix du Ménage" by Guy de Maupassant at a quaint little theater in a part of Paris that I had yet to visit. It was very well-done; there were only 3 actors, and though it was written in 1893, the actors were very young and spirited and brought a humorous, modern element to the play. Afterwards was the best part: we had apéritifs and dinner with the actors and directors at the delicious couscous restaurant across the street! It was very interesting to talk to the actors about French theater and about Paris in general.

     I recently went to the opera at the Champs-Elysées to see "Les Noces de Figaro," and it was magnifique. The orchestra, the singing, and the operahouse were all amazing! Thankfully the opera was subtitled (in French), since it is performed in the original Italian. I also had the foresight to do some research beforehand to learn the story, since the plotline is somewhat confusing!

 

    I also hosted my first guest during the break - my friend Jill is studying abroad in London 

for the year, and so she came to stay at the apartment for the weekend. It was very fun being the tour guide and showing her all of my favorite spots in Paris! On the left, you can see us being dwarfed by the Eiffel tower.

     Another interesting experience I had was finally learning how to make a French meal - three friends and I decided to do a one-time cooking class. First we all went to the market together to select the ingredients for the meal, and then we went back to the kitchen to cook everything. It was delicious! The exact menu was mushroom soup, salmon with curry sauce

 and leeks, celery root, and carrots on the side, and chocolate mousse for dessert. Here we are at the table, about to devour our incredible mousse with our prof de cuisine, Thierry.

     Finally, I've been looking for a way to earn money while I'm here. Strictly speaking, we are not allowed to have jobs because we have student visas and not work visas. However, the English professor who teaches the course that I am an assistant for has asked me to correct English papers for a few hours a week. I also just began tutoring a thirteen-year old girl in English.... so though I'm not legally employed, I'm now bringing in a few euros per week!

     And I can't forget to mention that I have been sick with a cold for the past few weeks. I normally get a cold or two during the winter months, so I assumed it would just go away... but this one hung on for two weeks, so I finally decided to take my sad, sick self to the French doctor. I was very apprehensive about explaining my symptoms in French, as well as the French healthcare system in general, but I was quite impressed! Without an appointment I only had to wait about 40 minutes to see a doctor. The consultation only cost 22 euros, and my 3 prescriptions were 15 euros total! It was the most painless doctor's visit I've ever had - even in the US! So now my sinusitis has subsided and I am back to enjoying la vie parisienne.

     More to come soon, I hope...!

Catching Up

     Well I haven't written in a while because my computer crashed about a week ago! It turns out that my hard drive was completely dead, and I had to get it replaced (a costly and timely affair, apparently!). I am glad to have it back, but I used my time without a computer to immerse myself more fully into Paris and French life. One of the main reasons I use my computer everyday is to check the headlines back home in the US as well as the headlines here in France. Fortunately, I discovered that my French cellphone is also a radio, so I've been listening to French radio stations a lot. It's a good way to work on my listening skills and also to know what's going on in the world.
     I'm now beginning my fourth week of courses at Reid Hall. I'm particularly enjoying my Paris 1789 to 1939 class because every other class, we meet on location in Paris. The professor is very knowledgeable, and is basically a fascinating tour guide. So far we've visited the Pantheon, Eglise St. Sulpice, and the Jardin and Palais du Luxembourg. This week we'll be visiting La Place de la Concorde and some points of interest around there. It's pretty amazing having the city of Paris at your disposal to study and visit and experience!
     I also began my 'tutorat' the week before last, which is a one-on-one thirty-minute conversation session that I have with a French student. I'm lucky to have a very nice and helpful student named Cécile, who was an exchange student at Wesleyan. This week I meet with my other 'tutor,' Véronique, who will assign me reading and papers based on the seminars I attend at the Collège Internationale de Philosophie, which will be my fourth course that I am taking this semester.
     I've also started my 'stage,' which roughly translates to an internship. I attend a course at a Parisian university that is taught in English and is about American business and ethics. The professor asks me to contribute my opinion or critique the other students' presentations. It's very interesting to be have this insight into the French university system - it's really different than what I know back at Wesleyan! I'm also surprised at how well the French students speak English. I'm hoping to get to know some of them better in the future so that they can give me some good tips on where to go for fun in Paris!
     I feel like I'm feeling getting to feel knowledgeable and comfortable here in Paris. The last week in February we have a break, so there will be no classes. I'm looking forward to spending this time getting to know Paris even more thoroughly. I've made a list of the places that I haven't visited yet... although many of them I'll save for nicer weather! It is still very cold here, with occasional snow that turns into rain. Everyone says this is abnormal for Paris, so I can't wait for it to get warmer and more temperate!
     I've also just posted a few pictures of the streets around where I live, as well as Notre Dame (which is only a few blocks away). You can find them on my Flickr page. I hope you enjoy them!

Settling In

     These last two weeks have been such a whirlwind of art museums, cafés, language classes, and lots of walking! Last week was our 'orientation' session: we had conversational workshops in the mornings and then a few activities in the afternoon or evening. There was lots of time to explore Paris on our own. Here is my attempt at listing everywhere I visited: the Salvador Dali museum, the wax museum of Paris, Montparnasse tower, the Catacombs, the Paris museum of photography, Tokyo Palace (a modern art museum), and Musée de l'Orangerie (a museum of impressionist art) - not to mention countless cafés and brasseries. I always try to take my camera with me when I go somewhere particularly exciting, so I'm really starting to have a lot of photos. With Flickr, I can organize the pictures on a map showing exactly where they were taken: you can view that map by clicking here.

     Last weekend, the group took a mini-trip out to the country outside of Paris to see Royaumont Abbey and Chantilly Chateau. Both were very pretty - it was nice to get out of the city for a few hours. Also, the program set up three special tours - one of a boulangerie (bakery), one at a chocolaterie, and a wine-and-cheese tasting.  All of them were interesting, not to mention delicious. I'm really enjoying the fact that food plays such a central role in French culture - I've never eaten so well in my life!

     'Real' classes began this week, both at Reid Hall (where courses are taught by French professors but are only open to the people on our program) and at the Parisian universities. At Reid Hall, I am taking Réagir sur la France d'aujourd'hui (Responding to Today's France), Paris 1789 à 1939: Histoire, Littérature, et Beaux Arts (Paris 1789-1939: History, Literature and Fine Arts), and L'histoire non-officielle de la construction européenne (The Unofficial History of European Construction).  I've attended two classes at Paris 7 (one of the public Parisian universities): sociology of the family and sociology of inequalities.  Both were large classes, and in both I felt like the professor was a little questionable. I guess Wesleyan has just spoiled me. I'm hoping instead to attend a few lecture series at the International School of Philosophy, and work with a private tutor to individually discuss what I learn there.

     To complicate matters, all of the Parisian university professors are probably going on strike next week... and tomorrow all of the public transportation workers are going on strike. I always knew that the strike is an integral part of French life, but you never really understand it until you have to experience one yourself! Since the Métro and the buses probably won't be running tomorrow, it looks like I'll have to walk the 45 minutes to Reid Hall. I'm just grateful that I don't live too far away (like some of my friends).

     Well it's almost 8:30 - dinnertime in France. A bientôt!