La fin est arrivée?

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!

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.

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.

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.

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...

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!