That's weird. I could've sworn I just got off the plane and was shoved awkwardly into a hotel of 30 college students I didn't know. I've been constantly in this place of wavering between being completely ready to go and breaking into tears because I want to stay so badly. Its definitely a whole lot of both. maybe i'll live here again one day, it's definitely my kind of lifestyle. i love that everything is within walking or metroing distance. i love never having to get in the car to go somewhere. that's gonna be a shock when i get home. I love the feeling of swiping my Navigo (see picture) to get through the turnstyle and being anywhere within minutes. I love the random combination of parks and cute streets and markets and monuments and museums and bridges over the seine and lively cafés and restaurants. even the dirty areas are worth it...and that delicious smell of piss at certain metro stops (okay, now i'm being sarcastic).
I'm gonna get sentimental in about .008 seconds. Being in Paris has...definitely changed me, how could it not. Despite the cliché-ness of that, it really has. I think (hope!) I'm much more outgoing. I'm constantly meeting new people here and throughout my travels, so its become a necessity. I think I'm much more comfortable with myself, which is a good feeling since I'm typically so self-conscious. Its funny that despite all the stupid cat calls and random french and italian men trying to tell you "vous etês si belle!" you'd think it'd be the opposite. Despite some anxiety trouble I've had this semester, I think I'm happier now, though adjusting back to the states is gonna be difficult and I don't know how me here is gonna fit with me at home. I can only imagine that it'll be all the more wonderful because of the experiences I've had.
i love all the friends that I've made from so many different places. It makes me want to road trip so bad to see everyone in their home environment. I'm going to miss my church here a lot. While it wasnt enough time to get really close to people, the energy at church was so upbeat and positive and warm. I loved singing in the choir. Our director Fred was hilarious and the music was absolutely gorgeous (think Schubert's mass, Vivaldi's Gloria, Be Thou My Vision...all some of my faves) with all sorts of guest artists...trumpet, bells, youth choir, liturgical dance, soloists, and my fave, the harp played by my good friend Gloria. We always had a tea and dessert break during practice so I got to talk to a lot of people, some in english some in french. Tuesday nights were great too, every other being pizza night where we(the young adults) made our own pizza and talked and had discussion groups, and then the other nights being bible studies usually led by Ginger, the youth pastor. She was so sweet, friendly, and encouraging. I dont think I've ever met someone as genuine or kind as she. When i was saying goodbye and thanking her for everything on the last day she replied with "thank you for being such a wonderful person" and i literally didnt know what to say. and then the services were always beautiful, despite my distaste for the pastor's frequesnt political sermons or sermons involving the military in its morals. either way, he was a character, and i never wanted to miss a sermon (and thus i would wake up quite often after two hours of sleep to get there on time).
gonna miss so many things...
i'll miss walking around paris until the sun goes down around 10:30...or walking around paris until the sun comes up around 6AM....
i'll miss the jardin de luxembourg and picnics and the fountain and the vivacity of it when its gorgeous outside. i'll miss old men playing petanque and chess (its just like in the movies, all of them sitting out under a covered area with the chess board built into the table). i'll miss the random modern art in the gardens...crazy giant golden head...giant q-tips, huge flower pot with legs sticking out, etc. i'll miss our baguettes de tradition, cheese (thank heaven they make Boursin in the states!), wine, and fruit. i'll miss fruit stands everywhere, and i plan to live at the farmers market.
i'll miss our frequent ventures with british and/or scottish guys we meet randomly, which have become a trend. i'm beginning to think maybe i really need to move to the UK.
i'll miss crêpes, but i'm determined to perfect the art of crêpe-making and build myself one of the wooden dowel-esque tools they use to spread the batter. i'll have to make due with swiss cheese since emmental doesnt exist in the U.S. and figure out how to make that insane tuna mix they use that i swear must have crack in it.
i'll miss cheap train and plane tickets. 66 euro round trip to nice in first class....50 euro will get you to any country by plane.
i'll miss euro fifty wine and peach champagne on the pont des arts(pedestrian bridge over the seine) with tons of random people our age. the other night this random french guy, maybe 19yrs old, came up and asked us for a cork screw. later he came over and asked us (in french, bien sûr) to come join them (there were like 10 people), so we did. just a fun time. there were all sorts of things going on on the bridge...fire juggling...random acrobatics...very entertaining.
i'll miss little french kids. i wish i had a Mila (the 8-year old i stayed with in Strasbourg) everywhere i went. i love how they just want to tell you everything they know.
i'll miss our friends/the bartenders at the Moose, our fave canadian bar, conveniently located within walking distance from me for when the metro closes. ironically only one of the bartender's is canadian and he's leaving. oh well :P
i'll miss the french language. i don't wanna go back to speaking english all the time...i feel too comfortable living in my own language bubble, and i've loved stepping out of that. it's such a crazy experience - to have to find ways around your limited knowledge of a language and do the best you can to express yourself, to constantly pick up new expressions and try to process the grammatical structure of it all while still keeping a conversation going. its really hard, but so rewarding. i've felt foreign but at home at the same time.
i'll miss my homestay but at the same time, i need a different kind of independence than this. i'd prefer to live with lots of other people, but i'd prefer to cook for myself and create my own rules. not that there were so many rules...not many at all..maybe wash the tub and keep the bathroom door shut, lol, but i like to feel like i'm in charge of the space i'm living in and that obviously isn't a possibility in a homestay. but my mère d'acceuil is a sweetheart and i wish i could express to her so much better how appreciative i am for her inviting me in. i know she's going through a lot...her brother passed away and her mother-in-law has been moved in here because she's extremely ill and dying. she's not mentally well so it wears on my host mom and she's tired all the time, not to mention she's been having to get up at either 6AM for work or 7AM for the doctor to come give her m-in-law her meds.
i'll miss our program staff. i'll miss my fights with valérie which included the best french i've ever spoken. i loved how she would always let me argue with her just to talk, and she would always respond the opposite but so nicely, lol. and then she would let me keep arguing/ranting. i'll miss my tutoring session with Alexandra (for archaeology) and Pauline (checked my grammar for papers) because they always kept up with me, taught me a lot about french slang and conversational speech, and were just really nice). Alexandra was a third-year french student - she would call me on the phone all the time and it took every ounce of concentration to understand her because i couldnt see her lips and i definitely do a bit of lip-reading when i listen to french. also she just talked to me like i was any other french person, crazy fast, lots of slang, very informal -- i'm thankful for that because i learned a lot from her. Pauline was just amazing. so supportive. at the end of the semester she was like "you haave to look back on what you've done this semester and see how much you've progressed" talking about the difference from my first paper to my seventh. and its true, i can now express much more complicated ideas than i ever could before this. i'll also miss Noelle, our grad student from Emory. she's so cute and funny. and her french is great for it being her 2nd language.
it's gonna be really hard to keep my french up, but i'll have to make anyone i know who knows french speak it with me (aka KTSteele...if you're reading this) and maybe find a french-english language exchange or just a french buddy. i plan to keep every electrical device i own in french, haha, computer, ipod, phone. I'm going to stay in touch with my host mom and she said she'll correct my emails and respond~
and a few things i will not miss:
i will NOT miss medieval archaeology or the history of the french revolution and religions. i will NOT miss french students giving exposés. I really will NOT miss anything about the french education system whatsoever. not one thing. i will not miss rabid french women attacking me and audrey. i will not miss the toilet being separate from the rest of the bathroom. i will not miss the window without a curtain in the bathroom. i will not miss people who dont believe in flipflops and completely clothe themselves in black year-round. i will not miss not having a functioning oven. i will not miss having to go to a laundromat and paying 3.60 euro to wash and 1 euro every 10 minutes to dry. i will not miss the exchange rate and have to multiply everything by 1.5 and still knowing that its more than that. i will not miss the lack of peanut butter, cinnamon, floss, and cheap diet coke.
Je reviendrai, ma belle Paris!!! Bientôt!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Deux à venir, un sens de réussite
Two exams down, two to go, and despite having no confidence in my exam-taking skills, I'm feeling de + en + better about my french skills! I took today's exam, three essays in three hours, without a single hesitation in my writing in french. It comes naturally now, minus a few complex sentence structures that work in english but don't at all in french. Its always a matter of finding another way to say it.
The exam today...oh so fun. Of course. I mean, who doesn't love to write about the evolution of spices from the 14th to the 18th centuries in Europe. Or about bread as a major figure in the history of france. Or about "structure" in eating in general. that's not broad at all.
wow. that exam proved that our prof is a bit of a lazy ass considering every option started with "écrire un essai sur..." aka write an essay on... couldnt have throw some IDs or short answers in there?! no?
Alright, now i really get to the fun part. the history of the french revolution and religions.....have no idea what the topic will be. praying its on dechristianisation, cuz i got that one covered. it's the whole memorization aspect of this that scares me. i don't do dates. i don't do historical facts...or people....or places....my knowledge of the french revolution can be summed up in the following paragraph:
1789-1799.
storming of the bastille july 14 1789.Louis XVI reining...then was guillotined...somehow has a religious aspect...dont remember the year. civil constitution of the clergy 1790. made clergy members employées of l'état. had to preach republican sermons. La Vendée - department in western france, different construction of nobility which made revolution ideas less relevant for them, very centered in their catholic ways, strongly opposed dechristianisation, guerre de la vendée was a contrerevolutionnaire action. split between the jurors and the nonjurors/refractaires...the second of which were contrerev. and which made of 65% of la Vendée. big violent war. non-jurors lost, of course. poor babies. dechristianisation de l'an II = taking power out of the hands of the catholic church and laicising France aka secularizing. took away church's land and goods and resold them (year?..1790?), took away the church's power to tax (year?), legalized divorce (1793? earlier?), didnt ask pope to approve reforms. pope condemned the reforms(year?). culte de la Raison moved into old catholic churches...enlightenment ideas...national holidays....mocked catholic rituals....culte de l'être suprême de Robespierre, still wanted religious-type cult with supreme being, but anti-catholic, anti-atheist. established as national religion during Robespierre's Grande Terreur. lots of people die by guillotine. after louis XVI executed...la première République....napoleon....
don't you feel so much smarter now? yeah...probably not...i should go study.
The exam today...oh so fun. Of course. I mean, who doesn't love to write about the evolution of spices from the 14th to the 18th centuries in Europe. Or about bread as a major figure in the history of france. Or about "structure" in eating in general. that's not broad at all.
wow. that exam proved that our prof is a bit of a lazy ass considering every option started with "écrire un essai sur..." aka write an essay on... couldnt have throw some IDs or short answers in there?! no?
Alright, now i really get to the fun part. the history of the french revolution and religions.....have no idea what the topic will be. praying its on dechristianisation, cuz i got that one covered. it's the whole memorization aspect of this that scares me. i don't do dates. i don't do historical facts...or people....or places....my knowledge of the french revolution can be summed up in the following paragraph:
1789-1799.
storming of the bastille july 14 1789.Louis XVI reining...then was guillotined...somehow has a religious aspect...dont remember the year. civil constitution of the clergy 1790. made clergy members employées of l'état. had to preach republican sermons. La Vendée - department in western france, different construction of nobility which made revolution ideas less relevant for them, very centered in their catholic ways, strongly opposed dechristianisation, guerre de la vendée was a contrerevolutionnaire action. split between the jurors and the nonjurors/refractaires...the second of which were contrerev. and which made of 65% of la Vendée. big violent war. non-jurors lost, of course. poor babies. dechristianisation de l'an II = taking power out of the hands of the catholic church and laicising France aka secularizing. took away church's land and goods and resold them (year?..1790?), took away the church's power to tax (year?), legalized divorce (1793? earlier?), didnt ask pope to approve reforms. pope condemned the reforms(year?). culte de la Raison moved into old catholic churches...enlightenment ideas...national holidays....mocked catholic rituals....culte de l'être suprême de Robespierre, still wanted religious-type cult with supreme being, but anti-catholic, anti-atheist. established as national religion during Robespierre's Grande Terreur. lots of people die by guillotine. after louis XVI executed...la première République....napoleon....
don't you feel so much smarter now? yeah...probably not...i should go study.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Dublahn
At least, that's how the French pronounce it. Either way, we went there...after quite the long trek. After the smoothness of our last two voyages, I suppose it was time for a complete disaster. We got to the Edinburgh airport, all checked-in, only to find after two hours that there was some major damage to the main runway, and they would have to reroute us to the Glasgow airport. Fortunately we weren't flying on ryanair et who had simply cancelled all of their flights.
Aerlingus was kind enough to bus us over to Glasgow where we proceeded to wait until 10:50 to get a flight to dublin. our original flight was scheduled for 3pm. It couldve been much worse, and despite the delay, we quite enjoyed our time in the airport/on the bus -- played a little cards on the airport floor (which became a trend since from here on out, all of our flights were delayed), took a nap or too, relaxing like vacation should be. 
In dublin, we got to the Dublin City Bunkhouse...our least favorite hostel of the trip, only due to the fact that their laundry machines were pieces of poo and wouldnt work...so we had to hand wash....and then their dryers didnt work either so we had to wake up early and take everything to a laundromat to be dried....where the staff(who dried it themselves, it wasnt self-serve) lost myyyyy (quite expensive) jeanssss >< my only pair of pants on the trip. wonderful. anyways, that was the low of our trip.
Besides that (and the hostel i had to stay at the second night because i booked at a different time...oh how that hostel was sketchville), dublin was quite nice. We took a "Hop-on, Hop-off" bus tour with great irish tour guides, saw Trinity College, went to the Guinness factory and did the whole shebang,
went to the Jameson factory and watched Tori do a whisky tasting, explored the local polish grocery store, and then enjoyed a bit of Irish night life. Ah, the Irish, they are friendly. It was a good time.
Les Examens de l'enfer
My updates have been lacking due to paris auto-mode and this horrible thing called exam month. I swear, exams should never be spread out this much. My first one was the 20th, my last one in june 10th. Other people's started as early as May 5th! Its crazy. Too much time to stress out. I've realized that i prefer papers by farrr over exams, and I'm slightly freaking out over my next three exams. I know I can do well on my food history exam, it just requires a lot of reading/studying. I'm likely to have a panic attack over my history exam which has yet to be scheduled since the professor hasn't emailed me back. I emailed our program academic advisor asking what i should do (hoping that she would be like, if he doesnt respond, you dont have to take it since i'm not actually supposed to have an exam in the class, educo is making him make us one =_=) anyways, she's trying to contact him. of course my secret motives and plotting were unsuccessful, though there's still a chance, haha. and then my archaeology exam is june 10th, which I'm less worried about now since my tutor has been amazing. she even got old exams for me to practice with.
I am sad that I haven't been keeping written track of the past month, but at the same time I don't think it would've been fun for people to have to read about my constant stress :P So just a quick list-ish update of what i've been up too. After spring break, Lizzy Parker came to Paris for a week and we had a good time (and i still managed to write 2 papers, lol). We went up to the top of Notre Dame which was a gorgeous view. It was nice to see the gargoyles up close and the architecture of the top of Notre Dame. We also went up the Tour Eiffel but it was raiiiining, so that made things interesting. Lots of sitting in the gardens and relaxing because she was exhausted after exams.
Then...first french exam, in my film class. It wasn't that bad in the end. I knew I just had to pass, and I'm 99% sure I did. The questions were very fair, and she read us our rights before we took the exam, one of them being, "Foreign students have the right to a dictionary and a grammar book." I had brought my little pocket dico that came in very handy.
Audrey came this past weekend, we'd been counting down the days since I can't remember how long. We got a lot done and did a lot of walking. General recap: Hour-long airport search. Carrying the heaviest suitcases ever through the metro. Falafel amazingness. Longchamp buying. Tuileries. Orangerie (Monet museum), awkward photos. Champs Elysées. Random parade. Arc de triompe. Deux Cigales dinner with Joey and Liz. Pub Crawl. Moose. Longest church service ever. Liturgical dance. Amazing youth choir. Picnic at champs de mars. Pregnant gypsies begging for grapes. Louvre. Homeless man attacking crêpe stand. Notre Dame Mass. Baby Bottles Fondue. Sacré Coeur - more beautiful than ever. Eiffel Tower at night. Sleep. Rabid parisian woman. Pastries. Good bye :(
Alright, now I must end my procrastination and begin work on everything that involves the history and theory of french cuisine....I think I'll start with..Lunch. Good plan.
I am sad that I haven't been keeping written track of the past month, but at the same time I don't think it would've been fun for people to have to read about my constant stress :P So just a quick list-ish update of what i've been up too. After spring break, Lizzy Parker came to Paris for a week and we had a good time (and i still managed to write 2 papers, lol). We went up to the top of Notre Dame which was a gorgeous view. It was nice to see the gargoyles up close and the architecture of the top of Notre Dame. We also went up the Tour Eiffel but it was raiiiining, so that made things interesting. Lots of sitting in the gardens and relaxing because she was exhausted after exams.
Then...first french exam, in my film class. It wasn't that bad in the end. I knew I just had to pass, and I'm 99% sure I did. The questions were very fair, and she read us our rights before we took the exam, one of them being, "Foreign students have the right to a dictionary and a grammar book." I had brought my little pocket dico that came in very handy.
Audrey came this past weekend, we'd been counting down the days since I can't remember how long. We got a lot done and did a lot of walking. General recap: Hour-long airport search. Carrying the heaviest suitcases ever through the metro. Falafel amazingness. Longchamp buying. Tuileries. Orangerie (Monet museum), awkward photos. Champs Elysées. Random parade. Arc de triompe. Deux Cigales dinner with Joey and Liz. Pub Crawl. Moose. Longest church service ever. Liturgical dance. Amazing youth choir. Picnic at champs de mars. Pregnant gypsies begging for grapes. Louvre. Homeless man attacking crêpe stand. Notre Dame Mass. Baby Bottles Fondue. Sacré Coeur - more beautiful than ever. Eiffel Tower at night. Sleep. Rabid parisian woman. Pastries. Good bye :(
Alright, now I must end my procrastination and begin work on everything that involves the history and theory of french cuisine....I think I'll start with..Lunch. Good plan.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Trois Jours à Edinburgh
So May comes with absolutely no free time for updating nor for doing any other sort of activity other than a) studying b) writing c) being a tour guide and d) have anxiety attacks. oh, life is good, haha. I can't believe its already half way through may!!! I just turned in two papers. I've got two left to turn in and four exams and then I'm done! 5 months is almost up and I'm not ready to go home! I wish I could extend my plane ticket till the end of june, but alas my bank account nor my housing accomodations would never allow that.
Anyways, time to catch this up....spring break stop number 2: Edinburgh!
All my photos from spring break are now up on webshots: http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563367237sDZLHM
Started with a 9 hour bus ride from London to Edinburgh because we forgot to buy a train ticket and last minute ones were uber expensive. En fait, the 9 hour bus ride was a much needed relief. After so much walking in London, we were all tired and had hurting feet. The countryside was beautiful and we all caught up on some reading or sleeping. In edinburgh we checked into the Castlerock Hostel which was perfect as far as hostels go. RIGHT next to the Edinburgh Castle, we had a gorrrrgeous view of the castle on top of an extinct volcano..that was something I didnt know before...don't know why I didnt hear that in february.
Anywho, our hostel had a huge common area with a pool table and a bunch of other big tables (in other words there was plenty of room for beer pong and the like, which apparently some americans had taught the staff the week before, lol, i'm surprised not sooner)
anyways, our rooms were really nice and there was a huge kitchen, so we prepared a delicious meal one night and saved some money. 
We made black bean and sweet potato quesadillas, amazing. Adrienne's idea. I'm going out of order a good bit here, but I'll just say,in some order the three days went like this: lots of walking around the city, making friends at the hostel with some guys from GA and one from quebec, going to hear the GA guys' music at a bar nearby,
national museum with the first cloned sheep, elephant café where JK Rowlings wrote Harry Potter, Haggis, Tatties, and Neeps, 
competitive and realllly insane jenga game,
portuguese guy gives me napkin that says in portuguese "butterflies have wings, skies are blue" and then in english "i love you," holyrood palace, hiked arthur's seat on the most gorgeous day ever,tea at the same place that i went with mom and cathy i believe when we were in scotland before...i'm positive this is the one...unless my photographic memory is failing me, shopping at H&M which will save my butt later in this trip, bought an italian language book, and various other bits of funness in one of my favorite cities ever.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Les Vacances de Printemps
So our lovely two-week spring break ended this past weekend, and as reluctant as I was to come back to a month of solid work (oh...3 large papers and 3 exams in 4 weeks), i missed Paris and was glad to be back. Spring break also made me a bit home sick for all of you and for dancing. I'm thinking about finally trying out one of the dance classes here or at least going salsa/swing dancing with some friends. A two-week recap could take up a lot of time and I should be writing a paper now, so I'll tryto do this in mostly pictures:
Place #1: London
We did a lot of walking and site-seeing, a little tea-drinking which is my favorite part about the UK, and then crashed at Lindsay's friend Jocey's place...5 girls in one dorm room..it was impressive.
We walked through covent garden and saw a hilarious strings group that was selling cds like mad...basically forcing people to buy them, in a funny way. Went through Borough market, then through the tate museum which I loved. I'm a big fan of modern art and its ambiguity. Passed the globe theatre, wish we couldve seen something. Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminister Abbey, the whole bit. Overall, London's a nice city but I wouldnt want to live there. Plus, the tube is awwwful. Mind the Gap is not as enchanting as its made out to be.
Update later...
Place #1: London
We did a lot of walking and site-seeing, a little tea-drinking which is my favorite part about the UK, and then crashed at Lindsay's friend Jocey's place...5 girls in one dorm room..it was impressive.
We walked through covent garden and saw a hilarious strings group that was selling cds like mad...basically forcing people to buy them, in a funny way. Went through Borough market, then through the tate museum which I loved. I'm a big fan of modern art and its ambiguity. Passed the globe theatre, wish we couldve seen something. Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminister Abbey, the whole bit. Overall, London's a nice city but I wouldnt want to live there. Plus, the tube is awwwful. Mind the Gap is not as enchanting as its made out to be.
Update later...
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Anti-Mondialisation
So I knew the French had a huge sense of pride….we have the best cuisine, we have the best wine, we’re so refined, our language is amazing, etc (I generalize and exaggerate slightly, of course…though sarkozy did say the other day that the French have the best cuisine in the world…another great move on his part :P I believe my food history professor’s response to that was, he might as well have said “and my wife is the biggest piece of ass in France.” That was one of his tamer moments in class today...man swears like a sailor...), but I never realized how far the government goes to protect the French sense of pride. Did you know that French radio stations are forbidden by law to play more than 20% American/English music? At one point all advertisements with slogans in English were banned, but now the law only requires that those slogans then be translated into French on the sign…which usually results in a hugggge English slogan and a tiny translation in the bottom corner…which also seems like a very American thing to do.
Last week in my food history class we talked about the concept of “terroir,” something that we don’t talk about much at all in the U.S. because it doesn’t impact our lives neeearly as much at all. It’s the place from which I think France gets much of its culinary reputation. It’s the idea that everything comes back to place of origin in relation to food. Where was the food planted, grown, harvested…how was the climate, the soil, what sorts of mushrooms attached themselves to the grapes…etc. That’s important for obvious reasons…I.e. you plant one type of grape in two different areas, you’re going to end up with two completely different tasting/smelling/looking wines. But also for naming things. When you buy a camembert cheese in france, you can tell whether its authentic, trustworthy camembert by finding the AOC (appellation d’origine contrôlé) symbole on the container. They’re very serious about regulating the naming of products.
There’s no wonder the wines, cheese, breads, etc here are so good. They’ve got the food quality police out all the time trying to protect the French reputation (and finally the french earned back their bread-making reputation this year. theyve lost the breadmaking world cup the past couple years....U.S. winning it at least once, but they finally earned it back last week!) Too bad this food quality doesnt extend to nutritional quality...white bread and cheese fat arent exactly high(or i guess, low) on the food pyramid. tant pis.
In other news, a day hasn't passed since I last posted where there hasn't been some sort of strike or manifestation, always going past my street on the bd Montparnasse. The past couple days it was people blocking the olympic flame passing through Paris, today the students were back at it again standing on top of bus waiting-booth things (how they get up there is beyond me) and blowing their whistles. cops lined the intersections w/those plexiglass-esque shields and sent traffic in other directions. they had some intense bullet-proof-vestage going on.
Hmm and a short recount of the past week...last Friday I went on a promenade around Montmartre in the North of Paris with EDUCO people and we stopped and grabbed coffee at the café where Amélie was filmed. They had funny American music blaring (think Shaggy and random 80s). Then that night Katie and I made an insanely yummy mexican feast. Mexican food is certainly not one of the reasons to come to Paris...you'll have to scavenge to find taco seasoning anywhere. And Saturday morning we took a trip to Versailles to see the Grandes Eaux Musicales, even though it was a dreary day.
We got lost in Marie Antoinette's village, but enjoyed the rando farms animals (one pen = a peacock, ducks, roosters, a goat, and a dog...) and the fighting donkeys. After that I went to a prayer lecture at the ACP which..eh..was less than what I expected, mainly because I disagreed with a lot of the pastor's...theology, i suppose. Anyways, then we went on the pub crawl that my friend Marla is now running. Sunday and on has a been a lot of lazing in my room, writing my archaeology paper, and figuring out Emory details (honors thesis, random applications).
Bon week-end à tous et toutes!
Last week in my food history class we talked about the concept of “terroir,” something that we don’t talk about much at all in the U.S. because it doesn’t impact our lives neeearly as much at all. It’s the place from which I think France gets much of its culinary reputation. It’s the idea that everything comes back to place of origin in relation to food. Where was the food planted, grown, harvested…how was the climate, the soil, what sorts of mushrooms attached themselves to the grapes…etc. That’s important for obvious reasons…I.e. you plant one type of grape in two different areas, you’re going to end up with two completely different tasting/smelling/looking wines. But also for naming things. When you buy a camembert cheese in france, you can tell whether its authentic, trustworthy camembert by finding the AOC (appellation d’origine contrôlé) symbole on the container. They’re very serious about regulating the naming of products.
There’s no wonder the wines, cheese, breads, etc here are so good. They’ve got the food quality police out all the time trying to protect the French reputation (and finally the french earned back their bread-making reputation this year. theyve lost the breadmaking world cup the past couple years....U.S. winning it at least once, but they finally earned it back last week!) Too bad this food quality doesnt extend to nutritional quality...white bread and cheese fat arent exactly high(or i guess, low) on the food pyramid. tant pis.
In other news, a day hasn't passed since I last posted where there hasn't been some sort of strike or manifestation, always going past my street on the bd Montparnasse. The past couple days it was people blocking the olympic flame passing through Paris, today the students were back at it again standing on top of bus waiting-booth things (how they get up there is beyond me) and blowing their whistles. cops lined the intersections w/those plexiglass-esque shields and sent traffic in other directions. they had some intense bullet-proof-vestage going on.
Hmm and a short recount of the past week...last Friday I went on a promenade around Montmartre in the North of Paris with EDUCO people and we stopped and grabbed coffee at the café where Amélie was filmed. They had funny American music blaring (think Shaggy and random 80s). Then that night Katie and I made an insanely yummy mexican feast. Mexican food is certainly not one of the reasons to come to Paris...you'll have to scavenge to find taco seasoning anywhere. And Saturday morning we took a trip to Versailles to see the Grandes Eaux Musicales, even though it was a dreary day.
We got lost in Marie Antoinette's village, but enjoyed the rando farms animals (one pen = a peacock, ducks, roosters, a goat, and a dog...) and the fighting donkeys. After that I went to a prayer lecture at the ACP which..eh..was less than what I expected, mainly because I disagreed with a lot of the pastor's...theology, i suppose. Anyways, then we went on the pub crawl that my friend Marla is now running. Sunday and on has a been a lot of lazing in my room, writing my archaeology paper, and figuring out Emory details (honors thesis, random applications).Bon week-end à tous et toutes!
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Ah, Les Grèves
From "Le Robert Micro"
1) grève n. f. Cessation volontaire et collective du travail décidée par des salariés ou par des personnes ayant des intérêts communs pour des raisons économiques ou politiques. >gréviste n. Personne qui fait grève.
However I disagree with this definition of a "grève," if we're talking about une grève en France. If its une grève americaine, then yes. That would be a voluntary and collective cessation of work decided by the salaried or by people having common interests for economic or political reasons. That's one of the only times you'll really see a strike
in the states. However in Paris, I prefer the dictionary.com english version:
2)strike n. : a temporary stoppage of something.
yes, nice and vague. that's how the french like their strikes. you can strike about anything you like. Ugly uniforms, gross weather, a bad steak tartare (or if you're our program's president, a non-crispy baguette)- just grab all your closest friends and get angry. That's why I think this final definition might be even more fitting:
3) grève n.f. I'm pissed. I hate Sarkozy. Lets all skip class and march in the streets today to show how pissed we are. I'll get my reserve of whistles and noise makers and we'll all make the evening news!
So, of course there's really something behind the striking, there's just an ongoing joke (especially for international students, because when universities here strike, we end up having to change our plane tickets till later to finish our exams) about the excessiveness of parisian grèves.
Anywho, the real story. I actually saw these passing my street this afternoon on my way to class.The Lyceens (high school students) of Paris had a demonstration today on the streets of Paris to protest against higher education reform and reduction of teaching positions in high schools, new reforms instituted by Nicholas Sarkozy's administration last year. The reforms allow universities to accept donations from private companies, a movement towards privatisation of education, as the French see it. I don't really know enough about the reforms to know what I'd think about them, though I would be disgruntled at reduced numbers of professors as well. We have the same problem of bad student:teacher ratios enough in the states (though fortunately not at Emory). It is however interesting and bizarre to see students so passionate/concerned about their education. I can't imagine this occuring in the states, or not as largely as this.
For the record I've been here three months and I've seen 3 huge strikes like this.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Un beau week-end à Strasourg
I have returned from my weekend in Strasbourg and been greeted by...exactly what I expected...rain and other dreariness. Paris, you are beautiful on a sunny, windy day. But the other 83% of the time, I'd rather watch you from inside a toasty salon du thé with a book, a pastry, and a good cup o' Mariage Frères Marco Polo.
Strasbourg, on the other hand, offered the most beautiful 2 days of spring I've seen since....Florida in January. The French always perk up a bit when I say I'm from Florida. They know Miami. They see pictures in their heads of sandy beaches and sun :P oh if Tallahassee were on the beach.
Anywho, so Andrea (the other EDUCO student going) and I took the TGV from Gare de l'Est Friday afternoon, only a 2 hour ride from Paris to Strasbourg. Very comfy train, cool view on the way there...I actually go to see a bit of what we're learning(or trying to learn) in my archaeology class...saw the little towns all centered around a church (looked it up, this is called "un plan d'enveloppement" the roads kind of make circles around the center of town, and all the houses are grouped closely together centered around the church, which is the highest point architecturally). It completely bores me in class, but is interesting to see.
So when we arrived, the husband from the family she stayed with picked us him (his name was...Jean-something...its always Jean-Luc or Jean-Louis or Jean-Jacques or Jean-anything-you-feel-like-adding). We drove to the house I was staying at and all had dinner together. Jean-whats-his-name told us repeatedly how Alsacian everything we were seeing and tasting was. The wine, which is made unlike other wines in France, but more like wines in the US, is only made from one type of grape. We had a couple very fruity white wines, tasted like apples. He insisted on a different wine with each type of "tarte flambée" that came out of the oven. This also is tradition Alsacian cuisine...a cross between a flour tortilla and a thing pizza crust for the bottom, some type of thick cream sauce, with onions, mushrooms, (ham, bacon), and sometimes cheese, all baked. Very yummy. I was pleased to find that, unlike parisians, these families eat very messily, more than we would in the states. Everything was hands-on, crumbs all over the table, and then we left everything on the table for hours after the meal. We also had a delicious onion/egg tart, salad, and fruit salad. Dinner went till like 10:30, no surprise, and then we went to bed.
The family I stayed with consisted of Brigitte Blum, the mom, Laurent Blum, the dad, and their four children, two of whom are off in Africa (cairo and burkina faso), and the other two, Alphonse, 18, who is about to take his BACs to go to commerce school and apparently is a trouble-maker, and Mila, 8, who makes me want to be that young again so badly! She has all sorts of dreams and interests - she loves learning about other religions, she acts and does a bit of flamenco, she "meditates," she asks all sorts of questions and wants to learn about history and every other subject...and then she watches the simpsons before going to bed, haha. Needless to say, she taught me a good bit of French (and made it clear to me how much I still have to learn) and in exchange I taught her a tiny bit of english (how to say "8 years old," etc.). Oh, and how can I forget, their cute slobbery bulldog Calame.
Saturday: Woke up bright and early, the former being good, the latter not so much. Mila was sure to come knock on my door towake me up. We ate a little petit dej of chinois(think cinn bun and a coffee cake mushed together) and pain au chocolat, tea and bananas. Tea was really the theme of the weekend. Then Brigitte, Mila and I went and took a tour of the island. The centre of Strasbourg is encircled by a river all the way around, and then they have three trams that cross all through the center. We walked all through La Petite France(which apparently used to be a mental hospital for women), and into town. At one point we stopped at a tea shop where Brigitte knows the owner. We sat and had a cup of tea (or more like multiple tiny dishes of tea, she did the whole tea ritual (i dont know if you'd call it a ritual, and I dont know if its chinese or what the origin is, but first she rinsed the leaves, then rinsed our dishes, pouring the water over the head of the frog sitting on the drain-like part of the table. then she poured tea into little flute-like cups, put a small dish on each, then flipped them.). Brigitte was telling me that there are only three places in France that sell fresh tea, rather than the dry stuff we're used to. I wish I could remember the name of the tea we had, but she let us smell three of the different fresh teas, and they smelled amazing and all very different.
So after hearing about the owner's love life problems (she has many guys who work nearby chasing after her, but doesnt seem interested in any of them, lol Brigitte was very insistant when one of them walked in and talked forever, that she had gotten a very bad vibe from him, haha.) we left and kept walking. Eventually the two of them stopped at a library to rest (which apparently was on strike, surprise surprise, so they could only read magazines) and I walked around for another hour, and paying homage to dear Strasbourg, I had a mini-kougelhopf. Not anything spectacular, but a necessary experience I suppose. Pretty though~
After that we met up with Laurent who had been out of town with his sick sister :( We were going to have Fish and Chips (they were insistant upon this) but the place had closed, so they had Donër and I had a vegetarian plate with couscous and eggplant and such. yum. EDUCO had told them I was a vegetarian, so they were always very cautious (it was cute) to find meat-free options. 
After lunch we rested at home, had tea(yep, thats three times today) and chocolate, then Brigitte took me over to the border where we crossed the big boat-like bridge into Germany.I can't even begin to say how beautiful of a day it was. Sunny, breezy, warm and cool, everything was green, trees everywhere, and in Germany there were a bunch of little residential neighborhoods we walked through, so cute. Brigitte kept saying that she and Mila always pick which houses they want to live in so they can move and she can put Mila in a german school. I would do the same if I were her. I dont remember the name of the town we were in, but she insisted we stop and get ice cream, which was delish. I had karamel and vanille. Havent had ice cream in a cone in forever. What with that and Mila and riding the carousel and all the kids running around, I felt like I was young again...not that I'm about to pull out my walking cane or anything. But, oh yes, forgot about that, Mila had us ride the carousel or "chevaux en bois" (wooden horses) twice~
Sooo after Germany(i feel like i earned some cool points, being able to say i've been there and all, haha), we rested and had dinner. Dinner was the only time I ever saw Alphonse, but his parents werent happy since apparently he was out till around 5AM the night before :-\ He seems like a nice enough kid though. Anyways, they made pasta for dinner with eggplant and tomato sauce, mmm, and grated beets w/balsamic and apples, yum, and they put out a plate of sardines, lol, which I tried for the first time since Dad and I used to eat them when I was little. I always looked forward to that, weirdly enough. I dont have much of a taste for them anymore :P too salty. And then salad, and cheese, and bread, and wine, the works.
After dinner Mila and I watched the Simpsons in French~
Sunday: They are in the "Communauté du Chemin Neuf," the "New Way" community, an ecumenical group (Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, etc) that meets once a month. We met for this month's service at a lutheran church in one of the cités (an area with a lot of housing constructed for the poorer communities). The pastor preached a sermon that infuriated Brigitte. She immediately got up and went outside afterwards to vent...it was interesting to hear how strongly she felt. The sermon was on a parable of these chickens and an eagle that is raised with the chickens and a voyager who comes and tells the eagle that it needs to fly free. And the moral is supposed to be that we need to look up to the sky, up to God and fly freely. But the way the pastor preached it was very much in a victorious, above everyone else sort of flight. Everything about the service actually used a vocabulary full of power-obsessed, almost warlike words - victory, power, destroying, etc, all which have their place in relation to Christ and in the service, but it was all nuanced in a more degrating, hierarchical sort of way. And then Brigitte kept bringing up the relation of the eagle with the Third Reich. And I did agree with her, it was not the type of sermon I want to hear every Sunday morning nor one with which I agreed. But I was just happy to have understood it of course, being that it was my first French church service :-)
Anywho, so we sang a lot (literally before and after anything we did) and had a potluck lunch, and watched a movie about witnessing in the cité, and then we talked for like 20 minutes with someone we didnt know - easy for me :P - and fortunately the person i found was from england, so we had a nice convo. Then we had tea at home on the patio, and then it was train time. All in all a nice weekend, numerous long silences due to the slight(more than slight) language barrier. My french gets worse when I'm around real french people, lol, and my accent becomes atrocious, but it just shows me that I need to work on my vocabulary a LOT. I want to like tape words all over my wall like in preschool with the matching pictures.
I think this post might be long enough now. maybe. Still room for one last picture, this one's a test to see if anyone made it to the bottom, haha, actually, its for katie if she still reads this, an awesome sign I saw:
woot. Three Chevaliers! One for you, one for me, maybe we can auction off the third one and make enough $ to pay for two lovely southern homes and some pretty Scarlett-style dresses~
Saturday, March 22, 2008
La Vache Kyri(e)
Haha. That'd be a french/greek/choir joke. I quite enjoyed it. (La Vache Qui Rit [a type of cheese] + Kyrie Eleison... get it? qui rit and kyri...same sound...haha...ok, probably not that funny).
Anyways, that brings me to my happy (procrastinating) subject of the day, le jour de Pâques!! Happy Easter, a day early :D I know I wont have time to post tomorrow, so I thought I'd take a break from my writings on 16th-18th century french cuisine(seriously, ask me anything about french cuisine...i am the master now) and do a little cultural analysis. Or more likely, just talk about what Easter is like here.
Difference #1: Pas de lapin de Pâques. No Easter Bunny. sad story. But fortunately "les cloches," bells ring on easter(after three days of silence in mourning) and drop easter eggs/baskets for all the kiddies. So all over the grocery stores here one can find gold-wrapped chocolate bells, and what more, CHOCOLATE CHICKENS! XD Like said poule ici:
I don't have the heart to break into her. However, being the ovo-vegetarian that I am, her eggs were not off-limits. Unfortunately they don't compare whatsoever to Cadbury eggs. But I would have to cross the English Channel to find those right about now. So I hope you all are eating my share! Apparently I have the Germans to thank for this chocolate chicken...i believe they do have an easter bunny...anywho what sense does an easter bunny make anyways. its all about the chicken that can actually lay the eggs. :P
Difference #2: Un Jour Ferié! So, France may not like to be showy with religion, but it does like to take a break whenever possible. And so, everything in cancelled for Easter monday. No class, everything's closed. Well, I have a meeting w/a professor, but true french people are sitting at home eating large numbers of chocolate chickens.
Difference #3: Okay that'd be it. Really, its very much the same. The services we're having at the American Church in Paris are going to be absolutely gorgeous. I'm beyond excited, except for the getting up at 6:45AM part to be at rehearsal at 8. I'm singing with the choir, and there are trumpet players and handbells in addition to us. We're singing Schubert's Gloria and Kyrie. and the Hallelujah chorus which we sang once today...and its much more difficult than i thought so I hope we'll rehearse it more ><
Happy Easter to everyone!
On one more note, some exciting news, my name was pulled out of a hat by our program to take a weekend trip to Strasbourg, France and spend three days with a family there! I'm so excited! I leave this friday and take a train there.
Anyways, that brings me to my happy (procrastinating) subject of the day, le jour de Pâques!! Happy Easter, a day early :D I know I wont have time to post tomorrow, so I thought I'd take a break from my writings on 16th-18th century french cuisine(seriously, ask me anything about french cuisine...i am the master now) and do a little cultural analysis. Or more likely, just talk about what Easter is like here.
Difference #1: Pas de lapin de Pâques. No Easter Bunny. sad story. But fortunately "les cloches," bells ring on easter(after three days of silence in mourning) and drop easter eggs/baskets for all the kiddies. So all over the grocery stores here one can find gold-wrapped chocolate bells, and what more, CHOCOLATE CHICKENS! XD Like said poule ici:
I don't have the heart to break into her. However, being the ovo-vegetarian that I am, her eggs were not off-limits. Unfortunately they don't compare whatsoever to Cadbury eggs. But I would have to cross the English Channel to find those right about now. So I hope you all are eating my share! Apparently I have the Germans to thank for this chocolate chicken...i believe they do have an easter bunny...anywho what sense does an easter bunny make anyways. its all about the chicken that can actually lay the eggs. :P
Difference #2: Un Jour Ferié! So, France may not like to be showy with religion, but it does like to take a break whenever possible. And so, everything in cancelled for Easter monday. No class, everything's closed. Well, I have a meeting w/a professor, but true french people are sitting at home eating large numbers of chocolate chickens.
Difference #3: Okay that'd be it. Really, its very much the same. The services we're having at the American Church in Paris are going to be absolutely gorgeous. I'm beyond excited, except for the getting up at 6:45AM part to be at rehearsal at 8. I'm singing with the choir, and there are trumpet players and handbells in addition to us. We're singing Schubert's Gloria and Kyrie. and the Hallelujah chorus which we sang once today...and its much more difficult than i thought so I hope we'll rehearse it more ><
Happy Easter to everyone!
On one more note, some exciting news, my name was pulled out of a hat by our program to take a weekend trip to Strasbourg, France and spend three days with a family there! I'm so excited! I leave this friday and take a train there.
Gloria in excelsis deo. Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. Laudamus te, benedicimus te, glorificamus te, adoramus te.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Mange, Prie, Aime
I googled english bookstores in Paris the other day in a desparate sudden urge to read "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert
I don't know if it was because I needed an escape from all the french reading or whether I just really wanted to read this book, but the second I stepped into the "Village Voice" bookstore in the quaint little St. Germain des Pres quartier my day was immediately brighter. Seriously, kid in a candy shop effect. walls and tables and more walls of books -- all in english! and my book was just sitting there in the middle of one of the tables, calling me :-). Needless to say, 2 days later I'm already 1/3 through it and trying to read it as slowly as possible a) because its like the perfect book for my life right now...I identify almost too much with this woman...and b) because if I finish it now, I'm going to be compelled to buy another book and the bank account is not gonna be happy about that....I mean, 13 euro for a paperback book is pushing it, its only 8 pounds in the UK....I'm sure its like $13 in the U.S. So not fair :P
Anyways, so my plan for today was to go check out the Club Quartier Latin, a gym nearby that has all sorts of fitness classes, machines, a pool, etc. and a "formule fitness" (a pass to access all that) for 15 euro/day. Probably the cheapest in paris, and I'm dying for a gym. So I force myself up at 8:30...ok...9 on a Saturday morning, take the metro like 6 stops up, and get off at Maubert Mutualité. Immediately I run into the most amazing weekend morning fruit/veggie/meat/cheese/homemade goods market ever. >< maybe not ever, but since I havent really visited one, and I realize this right this moment, since I got to Paris, I feel a sudden urge to browse. I force myself past it though and come upon the gym...pause....think about not walking in and just taking off on a random walk (i wonder if the french word "randonnée which means a hike/ride/trek has anything to do with the english word random...doubtful, but close~) around paris....pause again and force self to enter. It looks a little bit like a school gym and is humid/sweaty inside. Seems reasonable enough, but I miss my american air-conditioned, carpeted, sleek-looking gym that makes you want to get fit....a peach-tiled old high school gym does not motivate me whatsoever. Anywho, so I walk in, get in line, make a sudden to decision to flee, pretend I just came in to grab a copy of "Fusac" which has all the classifieds in it....and I peace. The weather outside is SO perfect today: breezy, sunny and 60's. The perfect day for a promenade in Paris. And for the first time since I've been here, I really felt like I loved this city. Not to say that I haven't enjoyed Paris and all its culture, but Saturday Morning Paris is what I've been missing. I will sleep till noon no longer.
So I walked a little past, then back-tracked to the open-air market. Here's the evidence:
Grapefruits [pomelos roses] - sorry Florida, I've betrayed you, these are Moroccan grapefruits, 3 for 2 euro. Can't beat that here.
Ground Nutmeg [muscade moulue] - so expensive here, usually 5 euro at least, but 2 euro at the marché!
a Jazz Apple [pomme jazz] - one of my faves, up there with Pink Ladys, which are popular here, but expensive
Cashews [noix Cajou] - just recently discovered I like these...the guy who sold them kept making fun of me because i kept asking for less than he was giving me :P
a Red Pepper [poivron rouge] - a great deal here, cheaper than in the states.
So after that stop I wandered. and wandered. and wandered. I had a general idea of where I was - walked past notre dame, saint-chapelle, crossed the seine, saw loads of tourists (i guess tourist season has begun), and made a big circle all the way around to Hôtel de Ville and to the Bastille. Once I found Hôtel de Ville I began purposefully heading into le Marais where I found another open-air market to wander through (and a humorous boucher (butcher) singing about "pommes de terre" or potatoes to the tune of Old MacDonald, haha, and then headed towards the amazing patisseries in the St. Paul area.
I suppose all of this wandering was inspired partially by Elizabeth Gilbert's talk of indulging in all of italy, foodwise, and partially by my recent frequenting of this blog: The Girl Who Ate Everything which has lovely photos of Miss Manon and Aux Désirs de Manon and the Atelier du Chocolat, all located in le Marais right near Charles V where I have one of my classes. I decided to follow in her footsteps and indulge in the wonderful delights that I've been avoiding for about a month now.
Step 1: Rid my skepticism of everything pistachio flavored. I love pistachios, but doubted forever that pistachio ice cream, pistachio macarons, and pistachio pastries could taste at all good. Wrongo. This lovely roulé chocolat pistache was amazing and amazingly rich, like eating solid pistachio chocolate sugar butter in airy flaky form:
Step 2: Follow EDUCO staff member Valérie's instructions and go get real chocolate from a chocolaterie. Good choice #2. I didnt even look at anything else and went right for the feuilleté blanc - white chocolate covered milk chocolate praline. Like a creamy hazelnut crunch bar on the inside. If I might borrow from rachael ray, yummo.
Step 3: Recharge phone minutes, yeah, not too exciting, but it had to be done.
Step 4: Wander around for another hour, make my way home having only been unable to resist the pistachio thingy, take pictures of all food, then devour said pistachio thingy and the chocolate. Wait an hour. Get request from Sophie to go get falafel....think a second about the morning's gluttony. Go for the falafel anyways. Here's to being in Paris!
Needless to say I haven't quite passed the "Eat" section of the book. But I'm praying that I haven't gained 5 pounds by tomorrow, and I loved every second of today. (and I did walk for three hours...maybe the french women don't get fat theory comes into play here? maybe?)
I-should-be-doing-work-related vocab of the day: s'ensevelir = to bury oneself (dans un travail/in one's work)
I don't know if it was because I needed an escape from all the french reading or whether I just really wanted to read this book, but the second I stepped into the "Village Voice" bookstore in the quaint little St. Germain des Pres quartier my day was immediately brighter. Seriously, kid in a candy shop effect. walls and tables and more walls of books -- all in english! and my book was just sitting there in the middle of one of the tables, calling me :-). Needless to say, 2 days later I'm already 1/3 through it and trying to read it as slowly as possible a) because its like the perfect book for my life right now...I identify almost too much with this woman...and b) because if I finish it now, I'm going to be compelled to buy another book and the bank account is not gonna be happy about that....I mean, 13 euro for a paperback book is pushing it, its only 8 pounds in the UK....I'm sure its like $13 in the U.S. So not fair :P
Anyways, so my plan for today was to go check out the Club Quartier Latin, a gym nearby that has all sorts of fitness classes, machines, a pool, etc. and a "formule fitness" (a pass to access all that) for 15 euro/day. Probably the cheapest in paris, and I'm dying for a gym. So I force myself up at 8:30...ok...9 on a Saturday morning, take the metro like 6 stops up, and get off at Maubert Mutualité. Immediately I run into the most amazing weekend morning fruit/veggie/meat/cheese/homemade goods market ever. >< maybe not ever, but since I havent really visited one, and I realize this right this moment, since I got to Paris, I feel a sudden urge to browse. I force myself past it though and come upon the gym...pause....think about not walking in and just taking off on a random walk (i wonder if the french word "randonnée which means a hike/ride/trek has anything to do with the english word random...doubtful, but close~) around paris....pause again and force self to enter. It looks a little bit like a school gym and is humid/sweaty inside. Seems reasonable enough, but I miss my american air-conditioned, carpeted, sleek-looking gym that makes you want to get fit....a peach-tiled old high school gym does not motivate me whatsoever. Anywho, so I walk in, get in line, make a sudden to decision to flee, pretend I just came in to grab a copy of "Fusac" which has all the classifieds in it....and I peace. The weather outside is SO perfect today: breezy, sunny and 60's. The perfect day for a promenade in Paris. And for the first time since I've been here, I really felt like I loved this city. Not to say that I haven't enjoyed Paris and all its culture, but Saturday Morning Paris is what I've been missing. I will sleep till noon no longer.
So I walked a little past, then back-tracked to the open-air market. Here's the evidence:
Grapefruits [pomelos roses] - sorry Florida, I've betrayed you, these are Moroccan grapefruits, 3 for 2 euro. Can't beat that here.
Ground Nutmeg [muscade moulue] - so expensive here, usually 5 euro at least, but 2 euro at the marché!
a Jazz Apple [pomme jazz] - one of my faves, up there with Pink Ladys, which are popular here, but expensive
Cashews [noix Cajou] - just recently discovered I like these...the guy who sold them kept making fun of me because i kept asking for less than he was giving me :P
a Red Pepper [poivron rouge] - a great deal here, cheaper than in the states.
So after that stop I wandered. and wandered. and wandered. I had a general idea of where I was - walked past notre dame, saint-chapelle, crossed the seine, saw loads of tourists (i guess tourist season has begun), and made a big circle all the way around to Hôtel de Ville and to the Bastille. Once I found Hôtel de Ville I began purposefully heading into le Marais where I found another open-air market to wander through (and a humorous boucher (butcher) singing about "pommes de terre" or potatoes to the tune of Old MacDonald, haha, and then headed towards the amazing patisseries in the St. Paul area.
I suppose all of this wandering was inspired partially by Elizabeth Gilbert's talk of indulging in all of italy, foodwise, and partially by my recent frequenting of this blog: The Girl Who Ate Everything which has lovely photos of Miss Manon and Aux Désirs de Manon and the Atelier du Chocolat, all located in le Marais right near Charles V where I have one of my classes. I decided to follow in her footsteps and indulge in the wonderful delights that I've been avoiding for about a month now.
Step 1: Rid my skepticism of everything pistachio flavored. I love pistachios, but doubted forever that pistachio ice cream, pistachio macarons, and pistachio pastries could taste at all good. Wrongo. This lovely roulé chocolat pistache was amazing and amazingly rich, like eating solid pistachio chocolate sugar butter in airy flaky form:
Step 2: Follow EDUCO staff member Valérie's instructions and go get real chocolate from a chocolaterie. Good choice #2. I didnt even look at anything else and went right for the feuilleté blanc - white chocolate covered milk chocolate praline. Like a creamy hazelnut crunch bar on the inside. If I might borrow from rachael ray, yummo.
Step 3: Recharge phone minutes, yeah, not too exciting, but it had to be done.
Step 4: Wander around for another hour, make my way home having only been unable to resist the pistachio thingy, take pictures of all food, then devour said pistachio thingy and the chocolate. Wait an hour. Get request from Sophie to go get falafel....think a second about the morning's gluttony. Go for the falafel anyways. Here's to being in Paris!
Needless to say I haven't quite passed the "Eat" section of the book. But I'm praying that I haven't gained 5 pounds by tomorrow, and I loved every second of today. (and I did walk for three hours...maybe the french women don't get fat theory comes into play here? maybe?)
I-should-be-doing-work-related vocab of the day: s'ensevelir = to bury oneself (dans un travail/in one's work)
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Tutorat
Not even 24 hours after my last entry, but I was pleasantly surprised with my day today and wanted to note it. I had signed up for my first "tutorat de français" at our EDUCO center. They have French tutoring session almost every day of the week, usually for people to get help with grammar for papers. I didn't really have much of any paper written, but I had forced myself to sign up for one in hopes of motivating myself to get on these papers. That didn't happen all too much, but I ended up writing down a bunch of little conversation question, mainly things like slang (how to say "i know what you mean" or "really?" or "that makes sense" properly) and differences between 2 french words that have one english equivalent (noir and foncé both mean "dark," etc.). We had some funny/interesting conversations about figuring out the french equivalents of all those little expressions and all the 'meaningless,' casual, and oh-so-necessary words in daily conversation. i.e. "like" "ya know?" "whatev" etc.
In french they say "bon alors" (literally "good then"), "eh bien" or "eh ben" and little things like that over and over...as well as saying"donc" (therefore), "alors," and lots of other little connector words like that a lot.
Anyways, enough with the mini-french lesson. I was taking notes of every little thing she said :-P I've noticed these are the things that are gonna help me transition from stuttering not-at-all fluent french student to somewhat natural. And then the even more helpful part of the session was me asking her on a whim about the structure of the introduction of a french paper. The french system is sooo concerned with this exact structure, whereas I feel like my papers are normally much more relaxed, as long as there's a solid thesis statement and some paragraph organization :P Here they want, as she tells me, a soft "call-in sentence" which doesn't really talk about your specific subject, then you begin to approach it, then you have a "problematique" which is 99% of the time a question, then you specifically and clearly outline your plan by saying what you're going to discuss first, second and third. And you usually say "first...., then......., lastly....." and then you can start writing your paper :P Then the conclusion almost always has to end with some sort of suggestion that this is only one way to think about the subject, at which point you suggest another way to leave the reader intrigued and thinking, haha.
On another note, what is it about Cheerios that is supposed to help kids grow so much?! My box of Cheerios "3 Céréales et Miel" has pictures of little children all over it and repeats like 5 times "Ce produit convient particulièrement aux enfants et adolescents en période de croissance." (This product is particularly fitting for children and growing teens.) Must be all that good "sirop de glucose" -- so the kid has energy at school and then crashes when they get home. Good plan.
I've become completely under the impression that the French have no clue whatsoever when it comes to health. Not that America is oh-so-great, but I think we're becoming more and more health conscious and knowledgeable about it while the french try to trick themselves into believing that chocolatey breakfast cereals(which is all they sell here) and white processed baguettes are health staples. Seriously, one of their chocked with chocolate cereals is called "Fitness."
On the other hand, I had a teary-eyed moment today when I realized how much I'm gonna miss all my food being in french in a couple months. All of the descriptions are just funnier in french!
In french they say "bon alors" (literally "good then"), "eh bien" or "eh ben" and little things like that over and over...as well as saying"donc" (therefore), "alors," and lots of other little connector words like that a lot.
Anyways, enough with the mini-french lesson. I was taking notes of every little thing she said :-P I've noticed these are the things that are gonna help me transition from stuttering not-at-all fluent french student to somewhat natural. And then the even more helpful part of the session was me asking her on a whim about the structure of the introduction of a french paper. The french system is sooo concerned with this exact structure, whereas I feel like my papers are normally much more relaxed, as long as there's a solid thesis statement and some paragraph organization :P Here they want, as she tells me, a soft "call-in sentence" which doesn't really talk about your specific subject, then you begin to approach it, then you have a "problematique" which is 99% of the time a question, then you specifically and clearly outline your plan by saying what you're going to discuss first, second and third. And you usually say "first...., then......., lastly....." and then you can start writing your paper :P Then the conclusion almost always has to end with some sort of suggestion that this is only one way to think about the subject, at which point you suggest another way to leave the reader intrigued and thinking, haha.
On another note, what is it about Cheerios that is supposed to help kids grow so much?! My box of Cheerios "3 Céréales et Miel" has pictures of little children all over it and repeats like 5 times "Ce produit convient particulièrement aux enfants et adolescents en période de croissance." (This product is particularly fitting for children and growing teens.) Must be all that good "sirop de glucose" -- so the kid has energy at school and then crashes when they get home. Good plan.
I've become completely under the impression that the French have no clue whatsoever when it comes to health. Not that America is oh-so-great, but I think we're becoming more and more health conscious and knowledgeable about it while the french try to trick themselves into believing that chocolatey breakfast cereals(which is all they sell here) and white processed baguettes are health staples. Seriously, one of their chocked with chocolate cereals is called "Fitness."
On the other hand, I had a teary-eyed moment today when I realized how much I'm gonna miss all my food being in french in a couple months. All of the descriptions are just funnier in french!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Élevée
I had a partially tough weekend -- a situation that I wasn't happy with, something I havent dealt with before, but can't really explain. It's taken me a few days to get over it and its something I've prayed about a lot. It's funny the things you learn about yourself when you least expect it, and the changes that happen when you least expect them. I didn't realize how close and how far from God I could feel within such a short period of time, but through my screw-ups and my realisations I'm finding I have a whole new relationship with Him. Thank you Paris. This isn't what I expected at all coming here, but certain moments make me realize what a blessing this developping change in my life is.
My young adult group here is a huge blessing. We had a pizza and discussion night tonight. Another thing I've been praying about is my desire to speak up/participate in the conversations we have. I rarely feel very comfortable talking about my beliefs/thoughts/etc on the Bible, Christ, God, etc. I think I'm often afraid of what people will think/being 'wrong'/etc which when I say that aloud it makes me realize how silly that is. Anyways, today I felt a new confidence in speaking my thoughts and it was very relieving and cool for me to hear people respond and affirm them and to really be a part of the discussion. I guess I just need that reassurance to know that they're valid. Now that I have that, hopefully I'll be more talkative in future discussions.
Our discussion tonight was on truth and what we consider "lies." It stemmed from the passage from John where Jesus says "I am the..truth" and the passage a couple chapters later where Pontius Pilate asks "What is truth?" and Jesus doesn't respond.
Our pizza nights (every other tuesday is pizza, every other is bible study) always consist of a few questions regarding contemporary Christian life, and what it means to be and live as a Christian now. So we split into smaller groups and discuss the questions, of which tonights were something like:
-Do you ever lie? Are these small or big lies or both?
-Is it wrong to tell lies, even when it's to protect someone, save a life, etc?
-Can you lie with your actions?
-(there was another really good question here, can't remember it) What did Jesus mean when he said "I am the Truth"?
It was interesting because I thought we kept getting so caught up in this idea of telling lies whereas I felt there is so much more in lying as an action. Do I ever lie? Of course. Everyone lies. Despite the commandment not to lie (or bear false witness), we all lie. But what is the real importance of this kind of lying? Is it really those little "oh that dress looks great on you" when you think it should be ripped to shreds or the "yeah! i'd love to meet up sometime" when you'd rather just not see the person again? I feel like it has to be something more than these little lies, rather lying with the knowledge or intent of hurting, doing wrong, etc. When I think about it, it all seems like a little connect-the-dots logic puzzle in my head. Lying is the opposite of truth. Since Jesus is the Truth, anything that goes against Him is a lie. Jesus embodied the truth, it was through his actions and his words and his life that he was and is the truth. And so we must strive to live truly, as we strive to live like Jesus. But of course, we fall short of the truth, and thus through our actions we lie. I think these lies are more relevant to the changes I want to make in learning to live like Jesus, rather than worrying about the "little white lies" as we call them.
I'm curious to know what the actual connotation of the commandment "Thou shalt not bear false witness" is...pre-translation (or if there is one). It seems to be ambiguous as to whether it refers to words or actions.
And it also seems to me that we can lie with our words but be truthful with our actions or our intentions. This seems like the difference between Rahab who lies about keeping the spies in her house to spare their lives and thus is spared in return, and Ananias and Sapphira who lie and are killed because of it.
Anyways, just a stream of consciousness of my thoughts which I thought was more relevant to my life now in Paris than any recount of the classwork that I'm avoiding or the dinners out with friends, though those are fun too. Especially with Holy Week and Easter approaching, these are more the thoughts on my mind than those of exploring the city. Though I will say, for my Dad's reassurance (and he does ask me bi-weekly) that I noticed today a marked improvement in my comprehension of the language since when I first arrived here. And I do get asked at least once a day for directions and can usually help about half the time :-P
A couple pictures to balance all of the words:
Paris and its macaron-wonderness
Out for falafel:
My young adult group here is a huge blessing. We had a pizza and discussion night tonight. Another thing I've been praying about is my desire to speak up/participate in the conversations we have. I rarely feel very comfortable talking about my beliefs/thoughts/etc on the Bible, Christ, God, etc. I think I'm often afraid of what people will think/being 'wrong'/etc which when I say that aloud it makes me realize how silly that is. Anyways, today I felt a new confidence in speaking my thoughts and it was very relieving and cool for me to hear people respond and affirm them and to really be a part of the discussion. I guess I just need that reassurance to know that they're valid. Now that I have that, hopefully I'll be more talkative in future discussions.
Our discussion tonight was on truth and what we consider "lies." It stemmed from the passage from John where Jesus says "I am the..truth" and the passage a couple chapters later where Pontius Pilate asks "What is truth?" and Jesus doesn't respond.
Our pizza nights (every other tuesday is pizza, every other is bible study) always consist of a few questions regarding contemporary Christian life, and what it means to be and live as a Christian now. So we split into smaller groups and discuss the questions, of which tonights were something like:
-Do you ever lie? Are these small or big lies or both?
-Is it wrong to tell lies, even when it's to protect someone, save a life, etc?
-Can you lie with your actions?
-(there was another really good question here, can't remember it) What did Jesus mean when he said "I am the Truth"?
It was interesting because I thought we kept getting so caught up in this idea of telling lies whereas I felt there is so much more in lying as an action. Do I ever lie? Of course. Everyone lies. Despite the commandment not to lie (or bear false witness), we all lie. But what is the real importance of this kind of lying? Is it really those little "oh that dress looks great on you" when you think it should be ripped to shreds or the "yeah! i'd love to meet up sometime" when you'd rather just not see the person again? I feel like it has to be something more than these little lies, rather lying with the knowledge or intent of hurting, doing wrong, etc. When I think about it, it all seems like a little connect-the-dots logic puzzle in my head. Lying is the opposite of truth. Since Jesus is the Truth, anything that goes against Him is a lie. Jesus embodied the truth, it was through his actions and his words and his life that he was and is the truth. And so we must strive to live truly, as we strive to live like Jesus. But of course, we fall short of the truth, and thus through our actions we lie. I think these lies are more relevant to the changes I want to make in learning to live like Jesus, rather than worrying about the "little white lies" as we call them.
I'm curious to know what the actual connotation of the commandment "Thou shalt not bear false witness" is...pre-translation (or if there is one). It seems to be ambiguous as to whether it refers to words or actions.
And it also seems to me that we can lie with our words but be truthful with our actions or our intentions. This seems like the difference between Rahab who lies about keeping the spies in her house to spare their lives and thus is spared in return, and Ananias and Sapphira who lie and are killed because of it.
Anyways, just a stream of consciousness of my thoughts which I thought was more relevant to my life now in Paris than any recount of the classwork that I'm avoiding or the dinners out with friends, though those are fun too. Especially with Holy Week and Easter approaching, these are more the thoughts on my mind than those of exploring the city. Though I will say, for my Dad's reassurance (and he does ask me bi-weekly) that I noticed today a marked improvement in my comprehension of the language since when I first arrived here. And I do get asked at least once a day for directions and can usually help about half the time :-P
A couple pictures to balance all of the words:
Paris and its macaron-wonderness
Out for falafel:
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Des Trucs Que Les Blancs Aiment.
A bit of study abroad blog humor
So ironic yet so true 80% of the time. Fortunately, I'm hoping for a little more than that out of this. Maybe I'm setting my expectations too high, haha.
Most of that blog is quite humorous and poignant at times...then some of it is pushing it a little, but I'll forgive them~
I also quite enjoy #75: Threatening to move to Canada and of course, #45 Kitchen gadgets, because yes, that fully describes me in 10 years, minus the part about not using the kitchenaid, because i will use it daily.
Once again one load of laundry cost me $8 today. That's my load for the month. =_=
So ironic yet so true 80% of the time. Fortunately, I'm hoping for a little more than that out of this. Maybe I'm setting my expectations too high, haha.
Most of that blog is quite humorous and poignant at times...then some of it is pushing it a little, but I'll forgive them~
I also quite enjoy #75: Threatening to move to Canada and of course, #45 Kitchen gadgets, because yes, that fully describes me in 10 years, minus the part about not using the kitchenaid, because i will use it daily.
Once again one load of laundry cost me $8 today. That's my load for the month. =_=
Monday, March 3, 2008
Rugby et Gastronomie
I've been avoiding posting on here for fear that it would become a gripe fest. Or more likely, a "grippe" fest. Grippe = the flu in french. Though, I'm not even sure if that's either. Either way, I'm sick somehow and it ain't fun. Headaches, backaches and whatnot. But I'll spare you all that. Needless to say I've been fairly lazy this weekend. But I will share a couple highlights:
Le Salon de l'agriculture
Some of our program signed up and went to the "Salon de l'agriculture" in Paris on Friday. It's basically a huge state fair with tons of farm animals and people trying to sell their food products(wine, cheese, produce, etc) while giving free samples :D Yes, that was the best part, free samples. By the time we left, we were incredibly stuffed from all the cheese, apples, chocolate truffles, and ice cream. Oh, and free beer.
But the best part, as you can see in the above pictures(rotate head to see, i was too lazy to fix it), was the book I won! :D Okay, its mostly thanks to that man sitting next to me in the picture. Kate and I were tasting some wine nearby this area at the Salon andwe started talking to that guy, he told us all about bordeaux wines. Then those two women on the stage with us in the pic started asking for volunteers for a "game show." He volunteered himself, but they told him he needed a partner. And as you can see, that turned out to be me, despite my hesitations. He told them I was American, and everyone got all excited that an american was playing the french agriculture quiz game, haha. So, they asked us 9 questions total, in sections of 3, and after each 3 you got right, you won a prize. We made it through the first 3, I only knew the one about 'how many departments are there in france?' But he knew everything(he's a fisherman), and he would tell me and then let me answer, lol. So then we won little cans of gourmet duck...something....dunno. Then we got the next three right...and the next three, yay! we won! I only knew one question that he didn't which was the year in which the Salon de l'agriculture had started (1962), and I only knew it because I had asked Valérie, one of our program's staff, earlier. :-P But yay! So we each won of these huge books, 44 euro a piece (66 dollars!) on rugby and gastronomy, heh. It's an interesting collection of pictures, facts, and recipes~
And the other little tidbit is that, despite my knowledge prior to yesterday, this week was Paris Fashion Week. Snazziness. So my friend and I went down to the Tour Eiffel where one of the runway was set-up closeby. We stood outside the Lanvin fashion show for like 45 minutes before it started...oh yeah, and we saw Kanye West. haha. Good times.
Le Salon de l'agriculture
Some of our program signed up and went to the "Salon de l'agriculture" in Paris on Friday. It's basically a huge state fair with tons of farm animals and people trying to sell their food products(wine, cheese, produce, etc) while giving free samples :D Yes, that was the best part, free samples. By the time we left, we were incredibly stuffed from all the cheese, apples, chocolate truffles, and ice cream. Oh, and free beer.
But the best part, as you can see in the above pictures(rotate head to see, i was too lazy to fix it), was the book I won! :D Okay, its mostly thanks to that man sitting next to me in the picture. Kate and I were tasting some wine nearby this area at the Salon andwe started talking to that guy, he told us all about bordeaux wines. Then those two women on the stage with us in the pic started asking for volunteers for a "game show." He volunteered himself, but they told him he needed a partner. And as you can see, that turned out to be me, despite my hesitations. He told them I was American, and everyone got all excited that an american was playing the french agriculture quiz game, haha. So, they asked us 9 questions total, in sections of 3, and after each 3 you got right, you won a prize. We made it through the first 3, I only knew the one about 'how many departments are there in france?' But he knew everything(he's a fisherman), and he would tell me and then let me answer, lol. So then we won little cans of gourmet duck...something....dunno. Then we got the next three right...and the next three, yay! we won! I only knew one question that he didn't which was the year in which the Salon de l'agriculture had started (1962), and I only knew it because I had asked Valérie, one of our program's staff, earlier. :-P But yay! So we each won of these huge books, 44 euro a piece (66 dollars!) on rugby and gastronomy, heh. It's an interesting collection of pictures, facts, and recipes~
And the other little tidbit is that, despite my knowledge prior to yesterday, this week was Paris Fashion Week. Snazziness. So my friend and I went down to the Tour Eiffel where one of the runway was set-up closeby. We stood outside the Lanvin fashion show for like 45 minutes before it started...oh yeah, and we saw Kanye West. haha. Good times.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Le Bon Pain
Please, please enrich your life by watching this video of my professor on Conan:
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v4910267GrHTppnY
This is my food culture professor, and the president of EDUCO, our study abroad program. He's a professor from Cornell...and basically makes my life worth living every Thursday from 4:30-7:30pm.
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v4910267GrHTppnY
This is my food culture professor, and the president of EDUCO, our study abroad program. He's a professor from Cornell...and basically makes my life worth living every Thursday from 4:30-7:30pm.
Monday, February 25, 2008
L'Ecosse, C'est Moi
So, the truth is, I should be studying abroad in Scotland. Okay, maybe not since my French would improve very little there, but I need to at least be there for more than 3 days sometime in the (preferably near) future! Needless to say our trip was wonderful, with some interesting experiences (exhibit A: slightly sketchy hostel run by a bunch of aussies).
Thursday night we flew to Glasgow/Prestwick and spent the night in the quaintest Bed and Breakfast. The owner's name was Marion, and she was at the door as we were getting out of our taxi. We stayed in one of her two rooms with a huge xl king sized bed and a futon. She had an assortment of tea and hot chocolate and cookies for us. The next morning she made us a full scottish breakfast - toast, cold cereals, fruit, and yoghurt, juice and tea, eggs, tomato, mushrooms, potato scones, and meat for marla and katie. delish.
We then took the train to Glasgow and then to Edinburgh. The ride was gorgggggeous, and I can't express how much of a relief it was to see NATURE, to see GREEN! The ocean and all the grass and hills. Sheep and cows. Just what I needed. Plus, I adore train rides, so soothing, relaxing.
In Edinburgh we took a snazzy black UK cab to our next B&B, "Menzies Guesthouse" and put our stuff away. Then we walked to the royal mile and found our way to the Edinburgh Castle. My mission, of course, was to find "Mons Meg" the cannon that King James IV drug across Scotland to subdue the Lyles at Duchal Castle because they had backed an insurrection against him.
Found it!
At the castle, we also succeeded in finding men in kilts~ excellent. And of course, a few bits of history about the royal stewarts!
One of the things I'm looking forward to this summer about staying home is...(i'm afraid Dad will have a heart attack when he reads this)...learning about family history. Yes, I said it. But being in Scotland does make me very curious, to see where our family lived and how and such. And I have quite the high level of Scottish pride already, despite not knowing my whole background, so I must bring that side up to par :-P So I can transfer that pride to my chilluns~
Next visit after that was to the Tartan Mill! My photographic memory did me well, because I remember exactly how this looked when I was there with Mum, Dad, and Cathy 10 or so years ago! And its exactly how I remembered it :) at the top of the royal mile, right before the castle~ The weaving contraption wasn't set up though like last time, when we got to try weaving a bit. But I think it's just since it's not their busy season~ I did however fall in love with one of their uber long wool scarfs, Clan MacKenzie since they didnt have Stewart, plus I really like the Mackenzie tartan and we do have ancestors in the clan.
After that we grabbed a quick lunch (tuna and sweet corn sandwich, mmm) and hit up the "Scotch Whisky Experience." Oh yes, this isn't just a tour! It's an experience!! So we got our drams of whisky in souvenir whisky tasting glasses, then learned how malt and grain whiskies are made and blended. All sorts of modern gadgetry was used- A barrel ride, a ghost whisky noser projected in fluorescent green, spooky sound effects, and the like. All quite entertaining, and educational! haha. Though I must say, whisky is absolutely disgusting. The after-feeling is lovely, but the taste leaves much to be desired.
Après ca..we rummaged through the scottish grocery store and found some long-desired items -- cadbury eggs, cheerios, etc. Then dinner at a nearby Tavern. Fish and chips and a good belgian beer, of course! (Scottish Ale is a lil too hardcore for me). Though I'm disappointed they didnt ask me if I wanted peas or mushy peas!! :(
We rested that night at the B&B over "american" chocolate chip cookies and tea. Then the next morning we set off to hike Arthur's Seat! The most gorgeous hike~ We could see all of edinburgh -- the water, the mountains, everything.
A little video to prove how INSANE the wind was. Was so afraid of being blown off the edge! Though, fortunately the wind was blowing us up the mountain, so that may have made the hike a bit easier.
Almost to Arthur's Seat!- Video Here
I miss nature.
So then we walked the rest of the royal mile, made a few last-minute edinburgh purchases (namely amazing fudge (marzipan amaretto, mmm) and a pretty silver celtic ring), and had lunch at an awesome little soup/salad place. I had cream of veggie soup with a spinach and sweet potato salad and a ginormous piece of soft, fluffy wheat bread :) oh, and a spice cupcake with heavenly chocolate frosting. Very comfort-food esque. Then we visited the national gallery and took the train to Glasgow.
Trying to wrap this up...getting quite long...in glasgow we moved our stuff into the crazy hostel...Slightly sketchy yet humorous aussie guys abounding. Met and talked to some random people in the hostel. It would be interesting to spend a long time in a hostel...see what kinds of people come in and out. Anywho, had dinner at an awesome italian restaurant, amazing pasta -- tagliatelle with spinach, pine nuts, parmesan, and cream. Then went searching for night life, which resulted in "club campus." The place looked exactly like a U.S. frat party, complete with girls in way-too-short dresses and random fake street signs all over the walls. Twas a good time. We danced and had a few drinks, a fun night. Then we crashed in the hostel, only to be awakenedin 2 hrs by huge pounding at the door, which one of the guys in our 8-bed room had locked from the inside. I, being on the bottom bunk, was forced to go open the door, at which point 4 (assumingly drunken) aussie boys came stumbling loudly into the room, accompanied by loud music playing outside the window, and eventually made their way to their beds. All added to the humorous experience. We talked to one of them the next morning for a good bit, very cool guy (not to mention good-looking :P).
That morning Marla's long-lost-relatives had invited us for breakfast, so the nephew of the woman who invited us came to pick us up. The uncle had said he would be "wearing a kilt and driving a white mercedes convertible" haha, sad thing was we almost believed him. Must be that scottish jewish humor for ya. But they had a wonderful spread layed out for us -- big fluffy onion bagels, cream cheese, lox, egg salad, finger veggies, all sorts of yumminess. The conversation was fun and they seemed like a really cool family! Can I go live with them and stay in Scotland for the rest of the semester please? haha, just kidding.
Anyways, they drove us to the airport, and we spent our last pounds and took off.
Lovely trip, and whats even better....
Ironically enough, about 6 hours after I started typing this blog entry, I ended up planning my next trip to Scotland! haha. Didnt expect it to happen that soon, but spring break plans were made by my friends this weekend while I was gone, so they gave me all the info. We're going to London, then Edinburgh, then Dublin, and then flying to Italy for a week!! So excited!!! And the tickets were all pretty reasonable, Dublin to Italy being the most expensive.
Alright, wrapping up this insanely long and rambling post with some scot-specific vocab and a few necessary Scotland photos:
Scotland - L'Ecosse
Celtic - celte
Tartan - le tartan (that one's a bit tricky :P)
woolen mill - le filature de laine
ancestors - ancêtres
fish and chips -poisson frit et frites
Thursday night we flew to Glasgow/Prestwick and spent the night in the quaintest Bed and Breakfast. The owner's name was Marion, and she was at the door as we were getting out of our taxi. We stayed in one of her two rooms with a huge xl king sized bed and a futon. She had an assortment of tea and hot chocolate and cookies for us. The next morning she made us a full scottish breakfast - toast, cold cereals, fruit, and yoghurt, juice and tea, eggs, tomato, mushrooms, potato scones, and meat for marla and katie. delish.
We then took the train to Glasgow and then to Edinburgh. The ride was gorgggggeous, and I can't express how much of a relief it was to see NATURE, to see GREEN! The ocean and all the grass and hills. Sheep and cows. Just what I needed. Plus, I adore train rides, so soothing, relaxing.
In Edinburgh we took a snazzy black UK cab to our next B&B, "Menzies Guesthouse" and put our stuff away. Then we walked to the royal mile and found our way to the Edinburgh Castle. My mission, of course, was to find "Mons Meg" the cannon that King James IV drug across Scotland to subdue the Lyles at Duchal Castle because they had backed an insurrection against him.
Found it!
At the castle, we also succeeded in finding men in kilts~ excellent. And of course, a few bits of history about the royal stewarts!
One of the things I'm looking forward to this summer about staying home is...(i'm afraid Dad will have a heart attack when he reads this)...learning about family history. Yes, I said it. But being in Scotland does make me very curious, to see where our family lived and how and such. And I have quite the high level of Scottish pride already, despite not knowing my whole background, so I must bring that side up to par :-P So I can transfer that pride to my chilluns~
Next visit after that was to the Tartan Mill! My photographic memory did me well, because I remember exactly how this looked when I was there with Mum, Dad, and Cathy 10 or so years ago! And its exactly how I remembered it :) at the top of the royal mile, right before the castle~ The weaving contraption wasn't set up though like last time, when we got to try weaving a bit. But I think it's just since it's not their busy season~ I did however fall in love with one of their uber long wool scarfs, Clan MacKenzie since they didnt have Stewart, plus I really like the Mackenzie tartan and we do have ancestors in the clan.
After that we grabbed a quick lunch (tuna and sweet corn sandwich, mmm) and hit up the "Scotch Whisky Experience." Oh yes, this isn't just a tour! It's an experience!! So we got our drams of whisky in souvenir whisky tasting glasses, then learned how malt and grain whiskies are made and blended. All sorts of modern gadgetry was used- A barrel ride, a ghost whisky noser projected in fluorescent green, spooky sound effects, and the like. All quite entertaining, and educational! haha. Though I must say, whisky is absolutely disgusting. The after-feeling is lovely, but the taste leaves much to be desired.
Après ca..we rummaged through the scottish grocery store and found some long-desired items -- cadbury eggs, cheerios, etc. Then dinner at a nearby Tavern. Fish and chips and a good belgian beer, of course! (Scottish Ale is a lil too hardcore for me). Though I'm disappointed they didnt ask me if I wanted peas or mushy peas!! :(
We rested that night at the B&B over "american" chocolate chip cookies and tea. Then the next morning we set off to hike Arthur's Seat! The most gorgeous hike~ We could see all of edinburgh -- the water, the mountains, everything.
A little video to prove how INSANE the wind was. Was so afraid of being blown off the edge! Though, fortunately the wind was blowing us up the mountain, so that may have made the hike a bit easier.
Almost to Arthur's Seat!- Video Here
I miss nature.
So then we walked the rest of the royal mile, made a few last-minute edinburgh purchases (namely amazing fudge (marzipan amaretto, mmm) and a pretty silver celtic ring), and had lunch at an awesome little soup/salad place. I had cream of veggie soup with a spinach and sweet potato salad and a ginormous piece of soft, fluffy wheat bread :) oh, and a spice cupcake with heavenly chocolate frosting. Very comfort-food esque. Then we visited the national gallery and took the train to Glasgow.
Trying to wrap this up...getting quite long...in glasgow we moved our stuff into the crazy hostel...Slightly sketchy yet humorous aussie guys abounding. Met and talked to some random people in the hostel. It would be interesting to spend a long time in a hostel...see what kinds of people come in and out. Anywho, had dinner at an awesome italian restaurant, amazing pasta -- tagliatelle with spinach, pine nuts, parmesan, and cream. Then went searching for night life, which resulted in "club campus." The place looked exactly like a U.S. frat party, complete with girls in way-too-short dresses and random fake street signs all over the walls. Twas a good time. We danced and had a few drinks, a fun night. Then we crashed in the hostel, only to be awakenedin 2 hrs by huge pounding at the door, which one of the guys in our 8-bed room had locked from the inside. I, being on the bottom bunk, was forced to go open the door, at which point 4 (assumingly drunken) aussie boys came stumbling loudly into the room, accompanied by loud music playing outside the window, and eventually made their way to their beds. All added to the humorous experience. We talked to one of them the next morning for a good bit, very cool guy (not to mention good-looking :P).
That morning Marla's long-lost-relatives had invited us for breakfast, so the nephew of the woman who invited us came to pick us up. The uncle had said he would be "wearing a kilt and driving a white mercedes convertible" haha, sad thing was we almost believed him. Must be that scottish jewish humor for ya. But they had a wonderful spread layed out for us -- big fluffy onion bagels, cream cheese, lox, egg salad, finger veggies, all sorts of yumminess. The conversation was fun and they seemed like a really cool family! Can I go live with them and stay in Scotland for the rest of the semester please? haha, just kidding.
Anyways, they drove us to the airport, and we spent our last pounds and took off.
Lovely trip, and whats even better....
Ironically enough, about 6 hours after I started typing this blog entry, I ended up planning my next trip to Scotland! haha. Didnt expect it to happen that soon, but spring break plans were made by my friends this weekend while I was gone, so they gave me all the info. We're going to London, then Edinburgh, then Dublin, and then flying to Italy for a week!! So excited!!! And the tickets were all pretty reasonable, Dublin to Italy being the most expensive.
Alright, wrapping up this insanely long and rambling post with some scot-specific vocab and a few necessary Scotland photos:
Scotland - L'Ecosse
Celtic - celte
Tartan - le tartan (that one's a bit tricky :P)
woolen mill - le filature de laine
ancestors - ancêtres
fish and chips -poisson frit et frites
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