January 31st Thursday
We got up around 11:30am and I had some cereal for breakfast. We stayed in our pajamas for a little while since we were just around the apartment. My phone rang and I found out it was Amanda. She was in the neighborhood and wondered if she could drop in and say hi. I told her she was welcome to come.
We all said hi and Amanda joined us in looking at some funny videos on YouTube. Our favorites were the videos for Flight of the Conchords. We like the songs “Business Time” and “If that’s what you’re into.” We wasted a fair amount of time laughing like idiots at these videos. I think they’re quite funny.
Amanda also told us some interesting information. She had just been in a meeting with professor Grossman. She told him about going to the Fondation d’Innovation Politique the night before. He said, “Ah UMP huh?” I guess the Foundation is the think-tank for the Union pour Mouvement Populaire, a center-right party in France. This surprised me. We couldn’t find any mention of the UMP on any of the information from the group. (Though a few days later, Adrienne figured out that it used to be funded mostly by the UMP. Now it is funded by public money.)
Eventually Amanda had to head out. She went on her way and the rest of us made ourselves a little more presentable. I won a game of rock, paper, scissors to take the first shower. Then while Karuna was waiting for the shower, she decided to wax the floors. It was good to see how it was supposed to be done because I haven’t had to deal with nice wooden floors that much on my own. She waxed herself into the bathroom where she took her shower. The floor would be dry by the time she came out. Meanwhile, Adrienne had gone to the post office to mail a card. I messed around on my computer in the kitchen.
After the showers were all complete, Karuna mixed together some flour, eggs and butter to make what she called a German Pancake. She melted butter and put it in a baking dish before spreading the mixture along the bottom of the pan. She had to leave with her friend Stan and couldn’t stick around to see how it turned out. When Adrienne and I were able to taste it, it reminded me of the popovers that my mom makes. My mom said that when it’s spread in a pan it’s called Yorkshire pudding. Whatever you call it, it tastes amazing. I love the buttery and eggy flavor of it. It was very good.
We made a little Cantonese rice to go with it and settled down to finish the movie we’d started the night we were waiting for Karuna to fly in. We made it through the rest of the Brothers Grimm. I really like the ending to the movie. I think it’s interesting.
Adrienne and I spent some time on our computers. I showed her lots of clips from Across the Universe. I’m very excited to see the movie again. I also want to buy the soundtrack. I drew a picture of the movie poster. I finally made it to sleep around 3:00.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
January 30th Wednesday
I had my alarm set for 8:30 but I didn’t get up until 9:00am. We all got ready to go to our first class. I ate my fruit muesli cereal and yogurt again for breakfast. We walked toward class fearing we might be a little late. We actually arrived before anyone else.
Karuna joined us in class again. I really like Padis’ classes. He’s much easier to understand because he talks so slow.
We stopped by the cafeteria to grab lunch afterward. I love the cheap little menus they have. I was able to get a ham baguette sandwich, an apple, and an orange juice for €2.80. It’s definitely much cheaper than anything near our house. This was why we grabbed some lunch and then took it back to the apartment. It was raining pretty steadily outside and I’d left my umbrella at home. I snuck random bites of my sandwich as we hurried home. Once there, I hooked up my computer to charge it for the next class and ate my lunch. I also read a bit for Irondelle’s class.
We made our way back over toward school. Irondelle’s class went better comprehension-wise. I even almost spoke in class but I wasn’t quite certain of the answer so I stayed quiet and timid.
After class Amanda invited me to go to a round table with her that evening. Adrienne and Karuna ran off to try to catch Astrid and talk about the program. Leonel joined Amanda and me. First we stopped off at my apartment since it was on the way. I made myself a little peanut butter and honey sandwich for a snack to hold myself over. I grabbed an iced tea for the road.
Leonel’s friend called him and needed his help for something so Leonel had to go. It was just Amanda and me. We walked down Rue de l’Université. This was the same group that Adrienne and I had gone to for the talk about renewable energy. The talk tonight was called “D’où vient le malaise de la jeunesse française?” (Why is the French youth so upset?) It was a very interesting talk. The statistics were also very interesting. When asked the question “Do you think you will have a good job someday?” 60% of the American youth said yes when only 27% of the French youth said yes. I didn’t realize that Americans are so optimistic but with all the questions asked I found that I would answer yes as well. I have lots of magazines and books from it with the rest of the statistics. It was a very interesting discussion. I am excited to go to the next week’s presentation as well. It’s amazing that I get to go to such neat presentations for free.
Amanda and I walked back to my house from the presentation. I was going to try to pick up some food from the Chinese takeout place, but when I called Karuna to see what she might want she told me they’d made dinner. Amanda and I went up so that she could get her bags. Karuna was in the kitchen cooking away. She had made beef patties, a mixture of pasta and Mediterranean vegetables, and rice. It was all very good.
We did not do much after dinner. We pretty much messed around online and went to bed.
I had my alarm set for 8:30 but I didn’t get up until 9:00am. We all got ready to go to our first class. I ate my fruit muesli cereal and yogurt again for breakfast. We walked toward class fearing we might be a little late. We actually arrived before anyone else.
Karuna joined us in class again. I really like Padis’ classes. He’s much easier to understand because he talks so slow.
We stopped by the cafeteria to grab lunch afterward. I love the cheap little menus they have. I was able to get a ham baguette sandwich, an apple, and an orange juice for €2.80. It’s definitely much cheaper than anything near our house. This was why we grabbed some lunch and then took it back to the apartment. It was raining pretty steadily outside and I’d left my umbrella at home. I snuck random bites of my sandwich as we hurried home. Once there, I hooked up my computer to charge it for the next class and ate my lunch. I also read a bit for Irondelle’s class.
We made our way back over toward school. Irondelle’s class went better comprehension-wise. I even almost spoke in class but I wasn’t quite certain of the answer so I stayed quiet and timid.
After class Amanda invited me to go to a round table with her that evening. Adrienne and Karuna ran off to try to catch Astrid and talk about the program. Leonel joined Amanda and me. First we stopped off at my apartment since it was on the way. I made myself a little peanut butter and honey sandwich for a snack to hold myself over. I grabbed an iced tea for the road.
Leonel’s friend called him and needed his help for something so Leonel had to go. It was just Amanda and me. We walked down Rue de l’Université. This was the same group that Adrienne and I had gone to for the talk about renewable energy. The talk tonight was called “D’où vient le malaise de la jeunesse française?” (Why is the French youth so upset?) It was a very interesting talk. The statistics were also very interesting. When asked the question “Do you think you will have a good job someday?” 60% of the American youth said yes when only 27% of the French youth said yes. I didn’t realize that Americans are so optimistic but with all the questions asked I found that I would answer yes as well. I have lots of magazines and books from it with the rest of the statistics. It was a very interesting discussion. I am excited to go to the next week’s presentation as well. It’s amazing that I get to go to such neat presentations for free.
Amanda and I walked back to my house from the presentation. I was going to try to pick up some food from the Chinese takeout place, but when I called Karuna to see what she might want she told me they’d made dinner. Amanda and I went up so that she could get her bags. Karuna was in the kitchen cooking away. She had made beef patties, a mixture of pasta and Mediterranean vegetables, and rice. It was all very good.
We did not do much after dinner. We pretty much messed around online and went to bed.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
January 29th Tuesday
I got up at 9:00 and had a yummy breakfast. Adrienne and I had the last two crêpes with jam on it as well as a yogurt. Our class wasn’t until the afternoon so we had decided to go to the bank to set up accounts. Karuna had spent the night with some other friends on the other side of Paris.
We went to BNP Paribas because they have a deal for students of Sciences Po. We can have a free checking account and even get €80 for opening one. We checked in at the receptionist desk and got an appointment for noon. That wasn’t too far away so we went to the Monoprix across the street. Monoprix is a clothing store that also has a grocery store, bakery, and restaurant in the underground floor. I found some pretty cheap face soap. I was worried it was all going to be expensive. I had trouble finding just a face soap that wasn’t made to take off makeup.
Hoping that our shopping bags weren’t too noticeable, we headed back to our appointment at the bank. The lady was very nice and set us up with bank accounts. We need to get some forms signed by our landlord but otherwise the account will be verified in a week. It will be helpful to have our money in Euros here.
As we were leaving we saw Alberto. He was at the front desk explaining that he wanted to do the same thing we just did. We stuck around a bit to see if he needed any help.
We had to get back home in order to eat and grab our things for class. We ended up simply having some vegetable soup and some Asian noodles that I found in the grocery store. We got a call from Karuna. She was with a friend who has a very large box of Karuna’s old things that would be very helpful. We were going to try to go help her get it but we were going to be late to class.
Instead, Karuna came and joined us in class. She wanted to get a taste of the French classes before she’d be here next module. It’s much easier than Spanish for her at least.
We walked home from class and made dinner. We cooked up some chicken and had it with pesto and mashed potatoes.
After dinner I got to talk to my dad on Skype. Almost an hour after he’d left, my mom called me on Skype and we talked. She asked me where my dad was and I told her that he’d gone to the gym to exercise. She said “Well I’m glad I have to call Paris to find out where he is.”
When I wasn’t talking to them I was reading. It was a fairly interesting reading on the local and national levels of government in France. Adrienne and I had to run to the ATM. We’ve been trying to get enough money to be able to pay our rent and safety deposit on Friday. I can only take out €200 at one time so I have to go back a few times. While we were there I noticed there was a little store open next to the machine. I popped in and bought some taffy because I was craving some kind of chewy candy.
We went back home and then I was actually able to talk to Tyler a little bit online. He was doing some homework. I read for class and ended up getting sucked into a strange Google feature online. I didn’t get to bed until after 2:00. I felt pretty awake. I don’t want to blame the candy though. It’s so sweet.
I got up at 9:00 and had a yummy breakfast. Adrienne and I had the last two crêpes with jam on it as well as a yogurt. Our class wasn’t until the afternoon so we had decided to go to the bank to set up accounts. Karuna had spent the night with some other friends on the other side of Paris.
We went to BNP Paribas because they have a deal for students of Sciences Po. We can have a free checking account and even get €80 for opening one. We checked in at the receptionist desk and got an appointment for noon. That wasn’t too far away so we went to the Monoprix across the street. Monoprix is a clothing store that also has a grocery store, bakery, and restaurant in the underground floor. I found some pretty cheap face soap. I was worried it was all going to be expensive. I had trouble finding just a face soap that wasn’t made to take off makeup.
Hoping that our shopping bags weren’t too noticeable, we headed back to our appointment at the bank. The lady was very nice and set us up with bank accounts. We need to get some forms signed by our landlord but otherwise the account will be verified in a week. It will be helpful to have our money in Euros here.
As we were leaving we saw Alberto. He was at the front desk explaining that he wanted to do the same thing we just did. We stuck around a bit to see if he needed any help.
We had to get back home in order to eat and grab our things for class. We ended up simply having some vegetable soup and some Asian noodles that I found in the grocery store. We got a call from Karuna. She was with a friend who has a very large box of Karuna’s old things that would be very helpful. We were going to try to go help her get it but we were going to be late to class.
Instead, Karuna came and joined us in class. She wanted to get a taste of the French classes before she’d be here next module. It’s much easier than Spanish for her at least.
We walked home from class and made dinner. We cooked up some chicken and had it with pesto and mashed potatoes.
After dinner I got to talk to my dad on Skype. Almost an hour after he’d left, my mom called me on Skype and we talked. She asked me where my dad was and I told her that he’d gone to the gym to exercise. She said “Well I’m glad I have to call Paris to find out where he is.”
When I wasn’t talking to them I was reading. It was a fairly interesting reading on the local and national levels of government in France. Adrienne and I had to run to the ATM. We’ve been trying to get enough money to be able to pay our rent and safety deposit on Friday. I can only take out €200 at one time so I have to go back a few times. While we were there I noticed there was a little store open next to the machine. I popped in and bought some taffy because I was craving some kind of chewy candy.
We went back home and then I was actually able to talk to Tyler a little bit online. He was doing some homework. I read for class and ended up getting sucked into a strange Google feature online. I didn’t get to bed until after 2:00. I felt pretty awake. I don’t want to blame the candy though. It’s so sweet.
Monday, January 28, 2008
January 28th Monday
I got up around 11:30am (*gasp* a.m. you say?) I had a typical breakfast of cereal and yogurt. Then I felt ambitious and decided to break out my new crêpe pan and have some fun. I mixed up a big bowl of batter from my crêpe mix. It takes a half liter of milk. That seemed like a lot to me. After the obligatory ugly first crêpe I got into it and made around 10 nice ones. Adrienne was not feeling well and was still in bed but Karuna and I enjoyed some. We put strawberry jam and Nutella on them. They weren’t quite the same as the ones hot off the griddle at the booths but they were pretty darn good.
I read a bit for the next day’s class. I stayed online in case anyone was available to talk. Karuna and I wanted to venture out into the city so we got our coats and started walking. Our first stop was the building that houses Air France because it also houses Delta. She had a question on a ticket.
We then went toward AUP (the American University of Paris) where Karuna attended undergraduate. There is a bulletin board that I might visit again for families that want English language babysitters. I think that for some extra money I’d love to watch a few French kids. We’ll see what my schedule is like when classes pick up more. I don’t want to agree to anything just yet.
On the way back we bought a baguette and a croissant at a boulangerie that Karuna likes. I was very hungry so I ate the croissant on the bus on the way back. It was buttery and delicious. I don’t know if it was the hunger but I might claim that as the best croissant I’ve tried.
We got home and made quick sandwiches out of the baguette and our ham. Karuna had to run and meet a friend. I needed something small to keep hunger at bay until dinner.
I got to talk to my mom a bit online. After, I decided to make dinner for Adrienne and me. I ran down to the 8 à Huit to grab some last minute ingredients. I made pasta and a tomato sauce with chicken, onion, and garlic powder. It turned out pretty good. I was glad I got the seasonings for the sauce. For dessert we ate some of the crêpes with sugar on them.
I ended up talking to lots of people online. I talked to at least four friends from home. It is such a help having internet at my house. I’m bad at sending emails but it’s easy to chat.
I drank some tea while I was on my computer and reading for class. At one point I smelled very strong cigarette smoke. I opened my door to see where it was coming from. The hallway reeked of it. I think someone was on another floor having a cigarette in the hallway. I’ve been pampered by the no-smoking law here. I was horrified to smell smoke in our building. I sprayed a little perfume to cover it and continued reading.
I finally got to bed and fell asleep around 3:00 or so. The reading was going slower than I thought it would.
I got up around 11:30am (*gasp* a.m. you say?) I had a typical breakfast of cereal and yogurt. Then I felt ambitious and decided to break out my new crêpe pan and have some fun. I mixed up a big bowl of batter from my crêpe mix. It takes a half liter of milk. That seemed like a lot to me. After the obligatory ugly first crêpe I got into it and made around 10 nice ones. Adrienne was not feeling well and was still in bed but Karuna and I enjoyed some. We put strawberry jam and Nutella on them. They weren’t quite the same as the ones hot off the griddle at the booths but they were pretty darn good.
I read a bit for the next day’s class. I stayed online in case anyone was available to talk. Karuna and I wanted to venture out into the city so we got our coats and started walking. Our first stop was the building that houses Air France because it also houses Delta. She had a question on a ticket.
We then went toward AUP (the American University of Paris) where Karuna attended undergraduate. There is a bulletin board that I might visit again for families that want English language babysitters. I think that for some extra money I’d love to watch a few French kids. We’ll see what my schedule is like when classes pick up more. I don’t want to agree to anything just yet.
On the way back we bought a baguette and a croissant at a boulangerie that Karuna likes. I was very hungry so I ate the croissant on the bus on the way back. It was buttery and delicious. I don’t know if it was the hunger but I might claim that as the best croissant I’ve tried.
We got home and made quick sandwiches out of the baguette and our ham. Karuna had to run and meet a friend. I needed something small to keep hunger at bay until dinner.
I got to talk to my mom a bit online. After, I decided to make dinner for Adrienne and me. I ran down to the 8 à Huit to grab some last minute ingredients. I made pasta and a tomato sauce with chicken, onion, and garlic powder. It turned out pretty good. I was glad I got the seasonings for the sauce. For dessert we ate some of the crêpes with sugar on them.
I ended up talking to lots of people online. I talked to at least four friends from home. It is such a help having internet at my house. I’m bad at sending emails but it’s easy to chat.
I drank some tea while I was on my computer and reading for class. At one point I smelled very strong cigarette smoke. I opened my door to see where it was coming from. The hallway reeked of it. I think someone was on another floor having a cigarette in the hallway. I’ve been pampered by the no-smoking law here. I was horrified to smell smoke in our building. I sprayed a little perfume to cover it and continued reading.
I finally got to bed and fell asleep around 3:00 or so. The reading was going slower than I thought it would.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
January 27th Sunday
I heard Karuna get up and get her things together. It was only a few hours after we’d gone to bed so I was exhausted and barely registered anything. Soon it was quite and I assumed that she had made it off okay. Then I got a text message and woke up enough to read it. It was Karuna. Sadly she’d forgotten her passport at the house and had to come back. She made it to the apartment at 6:30am. This didn’t leave her enough time to get to the airport by 8:30 so she decided she would just buy another ticket later this week. We were glad to see Karuna again but sorry that she missed her flight. We all went back to bed around 7:00am.
We finally got up around 2:00pm. It definitely felt good to get some sleep after that crazy night. I got up and ate some yogurt for “breakfast.”
I played around on my computer for a bit and talked to some people online. We all took our showers. We’ve actually got amazing hot water that lasts forever and high water pressure to go with it. It is a definite plus that I sometimes take for granted here. You never know with French bathrooms.
I got to talk to my parents on Skype. It’s always great to get to talk to them, especially when we can get it to work for free. I was still in my robe from the shower when I heard the doorbell ring. Karuna answered the door. I quickly got dressed and went out to see who was here. It was Luc. He’s our landlord’s son and the reason we know that this apartment exists. Karuna has known him for a while here and that’s how she came to stay here for 5 months this last year. We talked with him for a while before he had to go.
While he was here, Karuna showed us how to make a quiche. We put in a tiny layer of mustard, grated Emmenthal, egg, tomato, milk, and raisins. I wasn’t sure about the raisins but we would see how it turned out.
Karuna’s friend Natalie from the night before came over. She brought a bottle of wine with her as well. We had quiche and wine. The quiche turned out very good and the raisins were actually pretty good in it. We made a salad to go with it.
We had had some confusion over a ham that was in our fridge. Adrienne and I thought that the landlord was going to come pick the ham up at some point. It had been sitting there for a long time waiting for him to get it. Finally, Karuna decided she should take it to the landlord because it had been there so long. He explained that it was actually for us and we could eat it! It’s a very good ham made in the south of France. It’s cured in some way so that it’s already cooked. We sliced some off and ate it with the dinner. It was very good. It has a soft but chewy texture and an almost buttery flavor. I was excited that we got to try such an amazing ham.
For dessert we had random items from the Chinese market as well as other cookies around the house. We talked for a while until Natalie had to go. She also had to catch the last metro.
After everyone kind of dispersed to either the metro or bed, I stayed up and talked a bit with Tom online. I also typed a bit and updated my Livejournal. I eventually got to bed between 2:30 and 3:00.
I heard Karuna get up and get her things together. It was only a few hours after we’d gone to bed so I was exhausted and barely registered anything. Soon it was quite and I assumed that she had made it off okay. Then I got a text message and woke up enough to read it. It was Karuna. Sadly she’d forgotten her passport at the house and had to come back. She made it to the apartment at 6:30am. This didn’t leave her enough time to get to the airport by 8:30 so she decided she would just buy another ticket later this week. We were glad to see Karuna again but sorry that she missed her flight. We all went back to bed around 7:00am.
We finally got up around 2:00pm. It definitely felt good to get some sleep after that crazy night. I got up and ate some yogurt for “breakfast.”
I played around on my computer for a bit and talked to some people online. We all took our showers. We’ve actually got amazing hot water that lasts forever and high water pressure to go with it. It is a definite plus that I sometimes take for granted here. You never know with French bathrooms.
I got to talk to my parents on Skype. It’s always great to get to talk to them, especially when we can get it to work for free. I was still in my robe from the shower when I heard the doorbell ring. Karuna answered the door. I quickly got dressed and went out to see who was here. It was Luc. He’s our landlord’s son and the reason we know that this apartment exists. Karuna has known him for a while here and that’s how she came to stay here for 5 months this last year. We talked with him for a while before he had to go.
While he was here, Karuna showed us how to make a quiche. We put in a tiny layer of mustard, grated Emmenthal, egg, tomato, milk, and raisins. I wasn’t sure about the raisins but we would see how it turned out.
Karuna’s friend Natalie from the night before came over. She brought a bottle of wine with her as well. We had quiche and wine. The quiche turned out very good and the raisins were actually pretty good in it. We made a salad to go with it.
We had had some confusion over a ham that was in our fridge. Adrienne and I thought that the landlord was going to come pick the ham up at some point. It had been sitting there for a long time waiting for him to get it. Finally, Karuna decided she should take it to the landlord because it had been there so long. He explained that it was actually for us and we could eat it! It’s a very good ham made in the south of France. It’s cured in some way so that it’s already cooked. We sliced some off and ate it with the dinner. It was very good. It has a soft but chewy texture and an almost buttery flavor. I was excited that we got to try such an amazing ham.
For dessert we had random items from the Chinese market as well as other cookies around the house. We talked for a while until Natalie had to go. She also had to catch the last metro.
After everyone kind of dispersed to either the metro or bed, I stayed up and talked a bit with Tom online. I also typed a bit and updated my Livejournal. I eventually got to bed between 2:30 and 3:00.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
January 26th Saturday
I slept in until about 12:00. My breakfast consisted of peach yogurt. I’m still chipping away at my huge amount of yogurts that I bought.
Our plan for the day is to go out to the Chinese Quarter of Paris. While I showered and got ready, Karuna called people to set up our outing.
We took the RER and the metro out to Place d’Italie. We took the 5 line which is above ground part of the way. I wish they all were. It makes for a much prettier ride. We waited for everyone at the Place d’Italie. While we were waiting we were (wow. Lots of Ws) entertained by an older man who was dancing to music in hopes of earning some change. His moves were pretty basic but it still made me smile. I debated paying him some money to have pictures taken of the two of us dancing. Ah well. Maybe next time. According to Amanda he’s there all the time. We finally had all of us gathered. We had Amanda, Heidi, Adrienne, Karuna, her friend Tao, and me. We set off down the street to end at a Vietnamese restaurant. It was called Pho Bánh Cuón 14. We had pho soup for lunch. The one I ordered had beef broth and rice noodles with rare steak. We could also add bean sprouts, lemon, some very spicy red chilies, basil, cilantro, and sauces. I added all of the ingredients at some point. It was very good and similar to the pho in the US with minor differences. I cleaned out my whole bowl. I even broke the French etiquette and picked my bowl up to drink the broth. The price of the soup was also delicious at around €6 for a small.
Then I ordered dessert. I ordered the house dessert with bananas. It was very delicious. Unlike my friends’ desserts, mine was served warm. It was an interesting combination of coconut milk, tapioca balls, and bananas. It was like a Vietnamese banana pudding.
After our bellies were full of pho some broke off to go home while the rest of us continued toward the Asian market. The entrance looked like we were turning into a parking garage until we saw the bright red and gold of the entrance. There was a tented entrance where New Year decorations and candies were being sold. I grabbed some decorations and little stuffed rats. I was born in the year of the rat so I’m excited to celebrate this year. I bought candies that look like golden boats full of coins. We also went into the main part of the market. It was very busy and crowded. I was excited about the prospect of celebrating the New Year so I had to call my parents to check if it had passed yet. After I found out that it was still to come I decided we should have a party at my apartment.
I bought random fun food in the market. I got a can of bubble tea, some wafer cookies, and other snacks. I was glad that I didn’t let myself get anything too heavy. Finally it was just Amanda and me. Everyone else had gone home. We took our big bags with us toward the metro. We had to try many different entrances because I needed to buy a ticket at the window and they only had the turnstiles. On our way from one entrance to another, we smelled this heavenly sweet aroma. We came around the corner of this tent and found two men selling different candy by weight. I couldn’t resist and got myself a small bag of some random things. The most interesting was the candy the size of my fist that looked like a giant strawberry. We collected the things and found an entrance for the metro.
While we were riding toward our different connections, Amanda was guarding her new addition to the household. She bought an orchid at the market for half the price of the others she saw in Paris. She had to keep it from getting crushed.
I finally got home and was able to deposit all my large bags. I snacked on some candy and random food while we discussed and made dinner. Karuna, Adrienne and I made a dinner out of beef patties, rice, and salad.
After dinner Karuna realized that she was supposed to meet up with a friend and had forgotten. She wanted to go visit her. Adrienne and I were interested in meeting her friend and seeing more parts of Paris so we tagged along. We took the RER and the metro out to her friend’s apartment. Her friend is an American named Natalie who’s lived in France since she was young. She is with a French boyfriend named Thibaud. I had to ask how to spell it because it’s pronounced “tee-bo.” The conversation was in French which was a good change of pace. Lots of the students here speak English so I find myself slipping into the more comfortable language. We had a nice conversation and broke into a French bottle of wine that we’d brought with us. It was really nice.
We had to make sure we left with enough time to catch the metro. We left a little after 1:00am. We caught the last train for both legs of our journey. Yay!
When we got home I had a pain au chocolat to tide me over before going to bed. Karuna had a very early flight the next day and packed a bit before going to bed.
I slept in until about 12:00. My breakfast consisted of peach yogurt. I’m still chipping away at my huge amount of yogurts that I bought.
Our plan for the day is to go out to the Chinese Quarter of Paris. While I showered and got ready, Karuna called people to set up our outing.
We took the RER and the metro out to Place d’Italie. We took the 5 line which is above ground part of the way. I wish they all were. It makes for a much prettier ride. We waited for everyone at the Place d’Italie. While we were waiting we were (wow. Lots of Ws) entertained by an older man who was dancing to music in hopes of earning some change. His moves were pretty basic but it still made me smile. I debated paying him some money to have pictures taken of the two of us dancing. Ah well. Maybe next time. According to Amanda he’s there all the time. We finally had all of us gathered. We had Amanda, Heidi, Adrienne, Karuna, her friend Tao, and me. We set off down the street to end at a Vietnamese restaurant. It was called Pho Bánh Cuón 14. We had pho soup for lunch. The one I ordered had beef broth and rice noodles with rare steak. We could also add bean sprouts, lemon, some very spicy red chilies, basil, cilantro, and sauces. I added all of the ingredients at some point. It was very good and similar to the pho in the US with minor differences. I cleaned out my whole bowl. I even broke the French etiquette and picked my bowl up to drink the broth. The price of the soup was also delicious at around €6 for a small.
Then I ordered dessert. I ordered the house dessert with bananas. It was very delicious. Unlike my friends’ desserts, mine was served warm. It was an interesting combination of coconut milk, tapioca balls, and bananas. It was like a Vietnamese banana pudding.
After our bellies were full of pho some broke off to go home while the rest of us continued toward the Asian market. The entrance looked like we were turning into a parking garage until we saw the bright red and gold of the entrance. There was a tented entrance where New Year decorations and candies were being sold. I grabbed some decorations and little stuffed rats. I was born in the year of the rat so I’m excited to celebrate this year. I bought candies that look like golden boats full of coins. We also went into the main part of the market. It was very busy and crowded. I was excited about the prospect of celebrating the New Year so I had to call my parents to check if it had passed yet. After I found out that it was still to come I decided we should have a party at my apartment.
I bought random fun food in the market. I got a can of bubble tea, some wafer cookies, and other snacks. I was glad that I didn’t let myself get anything too heavy. Finally it was just Amanda and me. Everyone else had gone home. We took our big bags with us toward the metro. We had to try many different entrances because I needed to buy a ticket at the window and they only had the turnstiles. On our way from one entrance to another, we smelled this heavenly sweet aroma. We came around the corner of this tent and found two men selling different candy by weight. I couldn’t resist and got myself a small bag of some random things. The most interesting was the candy the size of my fist that looked like a giant strawberry. We collected the things and found an entrance for the metro.
While we were riding toward our different connections, Amanda was guarding her new addition to the household. She bought an orchid at the market for half the price of the others she saw in Paris. She had to keep it from getting crushed.
I finally got home and was able to deposit all my large bags. I snacked on some candy and random food while we discussed and made dinner. Karuna, Adrienne and I made a dinner out of beef patties, rice, and salad.
After dinner Karuna realized that she was supposed to meet up with a friend and had forgotten. She wanted to go visit her. Adrienne and I were interested in meeting her friend and seeing more parts of Paris so we tagged along. We took the RER and the metro out to her friend’s apartment. Her friend is an American named Natalie who’s lived in France since she was young. She is with a French boyfriend named Thibaud. I had to ask how to spell it because it’s pronounced “tee-bo.” The conversation was in French which was a good change of pace. Lots of the students here speak English so I find myself slipping into the more comfortable language. We had a nice conversation and broke into a French bottle of wine that we’d brought with us. It was really nice.
We had to make sure we left with enough time to catch the metro. We left a little after 1:00am. We caught the last train for both legs of our journey. Yay!
When we got home I had a pain au chocolat to tide me over before going to bed. Karuna had a very early flight the next day and packed a bit before going to bed.
Friday, January 25, 2008
January 25th Friday
Adrienne and I got up between 11:30 and 12. I justified my late start by noting that I didn’t get to sleep until late. I had a pain au chocolat and a yogurt for breakfast. I kind of sat in bed reading for a bit.
Finally we were hungry enough for lunch so we made some of my favorite vegetable soup with some bread. It was quite good. I messed around on my computer for a bit.
Karuna eventually showed up. We talked for a bit. She’d related what crazy French parties can really be like. It did indeed sound kind of crazy.
We made some dinner together. It included chicken with the Mediterranean vegetables. We also made some couscous with raisins and bacon in it. It all turned out very nice. I like how raisins puff up again. We also had a little bit of our red wine that was opened.
It was time to get to Amanda and Heidi’s party out in the banlieu. We got ourselves all pretty and headed out on the metro. There were only two other guests there when we showed up but more people came later. I was very impressed by all the food that was available. There were many cheeses and crackers as well as hot mini pastry items. It was lots of fun to see people. They had many drinks to offer too including wine and champagne.
It was getting late and we knew we had to get moving to catch the last metro. We were able to catch the last 10 line into the center of Paris. We tried to catch the 12 up to our Solférino stop but had missed the last one. We had to walk for about 15 minutes home.
Finally Karuna made it back home. She had to find a taxi since she’d left later than us and missed the last train. We all got to bed around 3 or 4 in the morning.
Adrienne and I got up between 11:30 and 12. I justified my late start by noting that I didn’t get to sleep until late. I had a pain au chocolat and a yogurt for breakfast. I kind of sat in bed reading for a bit.
Finally we were hungry enough for lunch so we made some of my favorite vegetable soup with some bread. It was quite good. I messed around on my computer for a bit.
Karuna eventually showed up. We talked for a bit. She’d related what crazy French parties can really be like. It did indeed sound kind of crazy.
We made some dinner together. It included chicken with the Mediterranean vegetables. We also made some couscous with raisins and bacon in it. It all turned out very nice. I like how raisins puff up again. We also had a little bit of our red wine that was opened.
It was time to get to Amanda and Heidi’s party out in the banlieu. We got ourselves all pretty and headed out on the metro. There were only two other guests there when we showed up but more people came later. I was very impressed by all the food that was available. There were many cheeses and crackers as well as hot mini pastry items. It was lots of fun to see people. They had many drinks to offer too including wine and champagne.
It was getting late and we knew we had to get moving to catch the last metro. We were able to catch the last 10 line into the center of Paris. We tried to catch the 12 up to our Solférino stop but had missed the last one. We had to walk for about 15 minutes home.
Finally Karuna made it back home. She had to find a taxi since she’d left later than us and missed the last train. We all got to bed around 3 or 4 in the morning.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
January 24th Thursday
I had an alarm set for earlier but I ended up turning it off and getting up at 11:00am. I had been really exhausted before. We all got ourselves dressed and decided to go to the grocery store so that Karuna could get some groceries for the coming days. We walked out to the 6th arrondissement. We decided to go to lunch first and went to a restaurant that serves traditional French cuisine. I tried to order the Salade d’Hiver but the waiter told me that the chevre had run away so I had to order something else. I forget the name of the salad I ordered but it was very interesting. It had green lettuce, house smoked duck breast, gizzards, bacon, and scalloped potatoes on top. I wasn’t sure what to expect because I didn’t understand all of the words on the menu, but it was very good. It was kind of strange having hot potatoes on cold salad but it worked somehow. Our waiter was very funny and treated us well.
After lunch we went to buy groceries at a place called Shopi. It’s slightly more expensive than a Franprix but has more choices. We got a few things for Karuna’s stay. This included ingredients for a quiche as well as some bottles of wine for upcoming visits to friends’ houses.
We walked back home. It was a slightly long walk that lasts about 15 minutes. It only felt long because I had a bag of two wine bottles that felt very heavy. I did manage to stop and collect some more pictures of French door handles though (including one at the Prime Minister’s). We managed to get home and then make plans for the rest of the evening. I talked to Heidi and told her that we were hoping to go to the Indian Quarter that day.
We all met at H&M first. Karuna, Adrienne, and I walked there and it was soon pouring rain on us. We all shopped around a bit. I was excited by all the cheap prices. I bought some cheap eyeshadow there. This made me happy because I’d left all of mine in the states and all the stuff I’d seen in France was ridiculously expensive. We had fun shopping there for a while before heading to dinner.
We took the metro to the Gare du Nord. From here we were able to walk into the Indian Quarter. It was interesting to see the morph of shops. They were selling saris and Indian food. It was an interesting transition. We finally ended up at a restaurant that Karuna knows very well called simply “Ganesha Restaurant”. I ordered the chicken with curry vindalou sauce. It came with a plate full of rice and other food. It had chicken coated in red spices. There was also a yellowish paste that could have been chickpeas. Another was like coleslaw. The final food was similar to spinach casserole in color and texture but had a totally different flavor. We ordered Lassi to drink. It was a yogurt based mango drink. It was delicious. I also ordered thé masalaa which turned out to be like chai. It was all very good. I was extremely hungry so had to keep myself from eating like a fool. We tried to look for an Indian candy store that Karuna knows but everything was closed by then.
We took the metro back home. Karuna was going to meet some friends. Adrienne and I took the metro to the Sèvres Babylone stop and walked home from there. On the way we encountered a crêperie and even in my full state, I couldn’t prevent myself from ordering a crêpe with Nutella. It was absolutely delicious. I felt like my insides were melting in utter pleasure. We also passed a bookstore that was selling postcards out front. I bought some very strange postcards hoping I can keep some and send others to my parents.
When we finally got home I had the sweet tooth going and I ate some nougat that I’d bought at the store the other day. It was the softest I’d had. Quite yummy.
I read online for a bit and then tried to go to sleep. Unfortunately I couldn’t sleep until about 4:00am. I had eaten too much sugar.
I had an alarm set for earlier but I ended up turning it off and getting up at 11:00am. I had been really exhausted before. We all got ourselves dressed and decided to go to the grocery store so that Karuna could get some groceries for the coming days. We walked out to the 6th arrondissement. We decided to go to lunch first and went to a restaurant that serves traditional French cuisine. I tried to order the Salade d’Hiver but the waiter told me that the chevre had run away so I had to order something else. I forget the name of the salad I ordered but it was very interesting. It had green lettuce, house smoked duck breast, gizzards, bacon, and scalloped potatoes on top. I wasn’t sure what to expect because I didn’t understand all of the words on the menu, but it was very good. It was kind of strange having hot potatoes on cold salad but it worked somehow. Our waiter was very funny and treated us well.
After lunch we went to buy groceries at a place called Shopi. It’s slightly more expensive than a Franprix but has more choices. We got a few things for Karuna’s stay. This included ingredients for a quiche as well as some bottles of wine for upcoming visits to friends’ houses.
We walked back home. It was a slightly long walk that lasts about 15 minutes. It only felt long because I had a bag of two wine bottles that felt very heavy. I did manage to stop and collect some more pictures of French door handles though (including one at the Prime Minister’s). We managed to get home and then make plans for the rest of the evening. I talked to Heidi and told her that we were hoping to go to the Indian Quarter that day.
We all met at H&M first. Karuna, Adrienne, and I walked there and it was soon pouring rain on us. We all shopped around a bit. I was excited by all the cheap prices. I bought some cheap eyeshadow there. This made me happy because I’d left all of mine in the states and all the stuff I’d seen in France was ridiculously expensive. We had fun shopping there for a while before heading to dinner.
We took the metro to the Gare du Nord. From here we were able to walk into the Indian Quarter. It was interesting to see the morph of shops. They were selling saris and Indian food. It was an interesting transition. We finally ended up at a restaurant that Karuna knows very well called simply “Ganesha Restaurant”. I ordered the chicken with curry vindalou sauce. It came with a plate full of rice and other food. It had chicken coated in red spices. There was also a yellowish paste that could have been chickpeas. Another was like coleslaw. The final food was similar to spinach casserole in color and texture but had a totally different flavor. We ordered Lassi to drink. It was a yogurt based mango drink. It was delicious. I also ordered thé masalaa which turned out to be like chai. It was all very good. I was extremely hungry so had to keep myself from eating like a fool. We tried to look for an Indian candy store that Karuna knows but everything was closed by then.
We took the metro back home. Karuna was going to meet some friends. Adrienne and I took the metro to the Sèvres Babylone stop and walked home from there. On the way we encountered a crêperie and even in my full state, I couldn’t prevent myself from ordering a crêpe with Nutella. It was absolutely delicious. I felt like my insides were melting in utter pleasure. We also passed a bookstore that was selling postcards out front. I bought some very strange postcards hoping I can keep some and send others to my parents.
When we finally got home I had the sweet tooth going and I ate some nougat that I’d bought at the store the other day. It was the softest I’d had. Quite yummy.
I read online for a bit and then tried to go to sleep. Unfortunately I couldn’t sleep until about 4:00am. I had eaten too much sugar.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
January 23rd Wednesday
We got up at 8:30am to get ready for class. This time keeps feeling earlier and earlier. I had some Muesli cereal for breakfast. We headed off for class.
We had Padis first. I actually spoke in class. Our first reading had been about the separation between the Left and the Right in France and whether it was still pertinent. The other readings analyzed some public opinion surveys in France.
After class, Carlos went with me to the BDE (Bureau des Elèves) to see about opening a bank account. On the website it says that all Sciences Po students are eligible to open a BNP bank account and receive €80. Carlos said we needed a voucher but it turned out the BDE says we just need our student cards.
I let Carlos use my phone to try to sort out a housing issue before we went to the student common area. We both needed to charge our computers and read for the next class. I took a break from reading to go to the cafeteria and buy lunch. I got the menu that included a simple ham and butter sandwich, a bottle of water, and an apple. I bought a Coke from the vending machine. While I was eating and reading, I saw Heidi and talked a bit.
We then had class with Irondelle. Luckily I sat right in front of him and understood more. I was so excited. I still didn’t quite get everything but it was enough. At the end of class, we were packing up to go and he was trying to let us know about changing some reading assignments around. Suddenly this very official man popped into the room and yelled “S’il vous plait, Il est l’heure!” (Please, it’s time to go!) I guess there was going to be some kind of talk there now. I had to turn around because I couldn’t keep myself from laughing at him. It was exactly 4:45pm, when our class ends. The man was just so angry. Ah well, I guess we can find jerks in any culture.
Adrienne and I walked home and made dinner. I wanted to use up some of our potatoes so I made mashed potatoes. We also cooked up some chicken and Mediterranean vegetables. It turned out pretty good. I had an ice cream bar for dessert and I almost melted. The chocolate on it was so dark and rich. It was amazing. *Insert Homer drool here*
After dinner we decided to watch a movie while we waited for Karuna to arrive. She was coming in from Madrid to visit and pick up a bag. I picked Brothers Grimm in memory of Heath Ledger. I think Adrienne found it a bit scary.
Finally Karuna arrived and we all said hello to one another. She hadn’t eaten dinner so I walked to the Chinese take-out place nearby with her. It was after 10:00pm so the place was closing. She was able to get some food and we went back to the apartment.
I talked to my mom on the phone later. I went to bed relatively early at 12:00 or so.
We got up at 8:30am to get ready for class. This time keeps feeling earlier and earlier. I had some Muesli cereal for breakfast. We headed off for class.
We had Padis first. I actually spoke in class. Our first reading had been about the separation between the Left and the Right in France and whether it was still pertinent. The other readings analyzed some public opinion surveys in France.
After class, Carlos went with me to the BDE (Bureau des Elèves) to see about opening a bank account. On the website it says that all Sciences Po students are eligible to open a BNP bank account and receive €80. Carlos said we needed a voucher but it turned out the BDE says we just need our student cards.
I let Carlos use my phone to try to sort out a housing issue before we went to the student common area. We both needed to charge our computers and read for the next class. I took a break from reading to go to the cafeteria and buy lunch. I got the menu that included a simple ham and butter sandwich, a bottle of water, and an apple. I bought a Coke from the vending machine. While I was eating and reading, I saw Heidi and talked a bit.
We then had class with Irondelle. Luckily I sat right in front of him and understood more. I was so excited. I still didn’t quite get everything but it was enough. At the end of class, we were packing up to go and he was trying to let us know about changing some reading assignments around. Suddenly this very official man popped into the room and yelled “S’il vous plait, Il est l’heure!” (Please, it’s time to go!) I guess there was going to be some kind of talk there now. I had to turn around because I couldn’t keep myself from laughing at him. It was exactly 4:45pm, when our class ends. The man was just so angry. Ah well, I guess we can find jerks in any culture.
Adrienne and I walked home and made dinner. I wanted to use up some of our potatoes so I made mashed potatoes. We also cooked up some chicken and Mediterranean vegetables. It turned out pretty good. I had an ice cream bar for dessert and I almost melted. The chocolate on it was so dark and rich. It was amazing. *Insert Homer drool here*
After dinner we decided to watch a movie while we waited for Karuna to arrive. She was coming in from Madrid to visit and pick up a bag. I picked Brothers Grimm in memory of Heath Ledger. I think Adrienne found it a bit scary.
Finally Karuna arrived and we all said hello to one another. She hadn’t eaten dinner so I walked to the Chinese take-out place nearby with her. It was after 10:00pm so the place was closing. She was able to get some food and we went back to the apartment.
I talked to my mom on the phone later. I went to bed relatively early at 12:00 or so.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
January 22nd Tuesday
Adrienne got up and went to the U.S. ambassador’s residence for a talk. I was lazy about my reservation email so I didn’t go. I woke up at around 9:00 and did some more readings for class. I had a yogurt for breakfast. I even got to talk to Tom online before I took a shower to get ready.
Adrienne arrived back from the ambassador’s residence. She told me all about what it looked like and what they talked about. The whole thing was in English. The invitation was through the transatlantic masters at Sciences Po. It’s not the same as our TAM program. It’s more just people who specialize in transatlantic relations.
My roommate not only brought back stories, but pain au chocolat as well. We ate those together.
We did some more class reading and I made a lunch for myself. I had some lettuce with cucumber and tomato. I made my own dressing out of balsamic vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, and shallot. It was very good. I knew a salad couldn’t completely hold me over so I had some bread with ham and butter on it. I’m picking up the worst habits.
We went to class which took place in a new classroom. I walked in and almost ran back out thinking I was in the wrong place. On the two side walls facing each other, there were large mirrors and fake fireplaces. It almost looked like one of those rooms in a château but with white walls and tables shoved in. It was pretty sweet. Then I found out what wasn’t so sweet about the new room. The professor started talking and I could not understand him at all. The acoustics were awful. It was sad that I couldn’t understand him because apparently he was complimenting me on my choice of research topic. I had wanted to look at how the EU affects public opinion of French presidents.
We had class and I tried desperately to understand what he was saying. He used to be one of the two that I could understand before. I was sitting in the back too. I’ll have to sit closer to the front next time. I really dislike the way sound behaves in that room.
After class we walked toward home, buying a baguette along the way. We ate a tiny snack because we planned on heading to the store next and we didn’t want to shop hungry. We went to Franprix with our suitcases in tow. I was determined to get ingredients to make crêpes and luck was in my favor. The crêpe flour was on sale as well as the pans! I got myself a cute little blue crêpe pan complete with wooden spatula. I feel that I should write a poem about my wonderful new kitchen utensil. Maybe later…
We packed up our suitcases with various food items and dragged everything home. I made some dinner for myself out of some of our purchases. I had a simple hamburger patty with melted cheese on top. I also made some fried rice for a side.
After dinner I sat in bed on my computer for a bit. I was able to talk to Maya a little. She told me the news about Heath Ledger passing away. I was very surprised. Just the previous night I was describing Brokeback Mountain to Adrienne and showing her pictures. It was quite a blow. I spent a while looking up news stories and trying to figure out what happened. I was sad for much of the evening.
I got to talk to my parents on the phone and that made me feel a little better. It always cheers me up to talk to them. After we hung up I tried to concentrate enough to finish reading for my class. I fortified myself with yogurt and cookies. I also made some hot chocolate with the cocoa powder I’d bought that day. I mixed the powder with sugar and added boiling water and some milk. It was very yummy but I felt my mistake later when I was in bed at 2:00am and felt rather awake. I didn’t stay awake for very long though.
Adrienne got up and went to the U.S. ambassador’s residence for a talk. I was lazy about my reservation email so I didn’t go. I woke up at around 9:00 and did some more readings for class. I had a yogurt for breakfast. I even got to talk to Tom online before I took a shower to get ready.
Adrienne arrived back from the ambassador’s residence. She told me all about what it looked like and what they talked about. The whole thing was in English. The invitation was through the transatlantic masters at Sciences Po. It’s not the same as our TAM program. It’s more just people who specialize in transatlantic relations.
My roommate not only brought back stories, but pain au chocolat as well. We ate those together.
We did some more class reading and I made a lunch for myself. I had some lettuce with cucumber and tomato. I made my own dressing out of balsamic vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, and shallot. It was very good. I knew a salad couldn’t completely hold me over so I had some bread with ham and butter on it. I’m picking up the worst habits.
We went to class which took place in a new classroom. I walked in and almost ran back out thinking I was in the wrong place. On the two side walls facing each other, there were large mirrors and fake fireplaces. It almost looked like one of those rooms in a château but with white walls and tables shoved in. It was pretty sweet. Then I found out what wasn’t so sweet about the new room. The professor started talking and I could not understand him at all. The acoustics were awful. It was sad that I couldn’t understand him because apparently he was complimenting me on my choice of research topic. I had wanted to look at how the EU affects public opinion of French presidents.
We had class and I tried desperately to understand what he was saying. He used to be one of the two that I could understand before. I was sitting in the back too. I’ll have to sit closer to the front next time. I really dislike the way sound behaves in that room.
After class we walked toward home, buying a baguette along the way. We ate a tiny snack because we planned on heading to the store next and we didn’t want to shop hungry. We went to Franprix with our suitcases in tow. I was determined to get ingredients to make crêpes and luck was in my favor. The crêpe flour was on sale as well as the pans! I got myself a cute little blue crêpe pan complete with wooden spatula. I feel that I should write a poem about my wonderful new kitchen utensil. Maybe later…
We packed up our suitcases with various food items and dragged everything home. I made some dinner for myself out of some of our purchases. I had a simple hamburger patty with melted cheese on top. I also made some fried rice for a side.
After dinner I sat in bed on my computer for a bit. I was able to talk to Maya a little. She told me the news about Heath Ledger passing away. I was very surprised. Just the previous night I was describing Brokeback Mountain to Adrienne and showing her pictures. It was quite a blow. I spent a while looking up news stories and trying to figure out what happened. I was sad for much of the evening.
I got to talk to my parents on the phone and that made me feel a little better. It always cheers me up to talk to them. After we hung up I tried to concentrate enough to finish reading for my class. I fortified myself with yogurt and cookies. I also made some hot chocolate with the cocoa powder I’d bought that day. I mixed the powder with sugar and added boiling water and some milk. It was very yummy but I felt my mistake later when I was in bed at 2:00am and felt rather awake. I didn’t stay awake for very long though.
Monday, January 21, 2008
January 21st Monday
I had my alarm set for 9:00am. It went off and I wrestled with it through a few snooze and time resets before finally just turning it off. I felt exhausted. We were awakened by the buzzer to our door at 12:30pm. Adrienne was the fastest getting up so she answered the little phone mechanism. There was a man on the other end that was talking very fast. She asked him to slow down and finally understood that he was trying to find keys to the “cave” which usually means wine cellar. She told him we have no such thing and hung up.
Now that we were awake we got ready for the day. I made myself a popeye with bread and an egg. It was actually very good. I also had a peach yogurt to go with it.
We threw in our towels for a load in the washer. I finished folding some socks that had finally dried. You have to really be patient without a dryer. I also sent an email to register myself for a conference that would happen that night. They said there were still some places. Adrienne registered too. It was free as long as you reserved a place.
After a while it was time for lunch. We just fixed up a little vegetable soup and had some madeleines. I didn’t want to make too much because it would be time for dinner soon. After eating I got to talk to my parents on Skype. We talked for a little before Adrienne and I had to get running.
Our conference was at 6:30pm but we needed to run by school in order to print a few things. It took us a long time to find a room to print in. We were finally able to print the emails confirming us for the conference as well as our plane information to Madrid.
We were then off at a very brisk pace toward Rue de l’Université. We needed to find the 137 address. We thought it would be near this end but discovered that it was actually on the 18 address here. We went as fast as we could through a rising cold wind down the Rue de l’Université. We had 30 minutes. We actually arrived at the conference only one or two minutes late. There were other people coming in still too. We were able to find some seats together and sat to watch the conference.
This was sponsored by the Fondation d’Innovation Politique (Foundation of Political Innovation) and titled “Europe de l’énergie à l’heure de l’hydrogène.” The main speaker was an American named Jeremy Rifkin. I looked him up once we got back and found out he was born in Denver, Colorado. The point of this talk was the importance of renewable energy and what role hydrogen played in that. His theory is that once we develop efficient ways of creating renewable energy, we can store it with hydrogen. He compared it to the internet. He said “Everyone under thirty in this room is use to producing his or her own information on the internet. Then these people are able to share it with friends through the web.” He said that energy could work that way. Each building and home could be its own power plant and if there is extra energy, send it through the grid back to a hub. It was a very interesting talk. There were two other speakers as well. They were both French and their names were Michèle Pappalardo and Edouard Laurent. There was also the theme of cooperation. It will be important for Europe and the United States to work together in leading the world toward renewable energy. The talk was very inspiring but still struck some people the wrong way. One point made in Rifkin’s talk was that France’s beloved nuclear power plants were not enough for future energy needs. One woman said that she didn’t understand how he could discount nuclear energy so fast.
Adrienne and I are hoping we can write some papers on renewable energy possibilities in Europe or perhaps something in the environment aspect. It’s a very interesting and current subject.
We made our way back home with our stomachs growling. We’d had a small lunch thinking we’d have time to eat before the talk. It was now close to 9:00pm. We stopped long enough to grab Adrienne’s ballot from the mail that her mom had forwarded to her. Then while she talked on Skype with Chris about the issues, I started making dinner. I made couscous and ratatouille again. It cooks up pretty fast. I had some lemonade to drink. I scarfed it all down like a starving wolf. I was so hungry. Adrienne ate some while she was talking on Skype. I had some fromage blanc with peach halves for dessert.
Afterward, I got to talk to my parents for longer on Skype. I worked on finishing the reading for the next day’s class. I was up until around 1:00am.
I had my alarm set for 9:00am. It went off and I wrestled with it through a few snooze and time resets before finally just turning it off. I felt exhausted. We were awakened by the buzzer to our door at 12:30pm. Adrienne was the fastest getting up so she answered the little phone mechanism. There was a man on the other end that was talking very fast. She asked him to slow down and finally understood that he was trying to find keys to the “cave” which usually means wine cellar. She told him we have no such thing and hung up.
Now that we were awake we got ready for the day. I made myself a popeye with bread and an egg. It was actually very good. I also had a peach yogurt to go with it.
We threw in our towels for a load in the washer. I finished folding some socks that had finally dried. You have to really be patient without a dryer. I also sent an email to register myself for a conference that would happen that night. They said there were still some places. Adrienne registered too. It was free as long as you reserved a place.
After a while it was time for lunch. We just fixed up a little vegetable soup and had some madeleines. I didn’t want to make too much because it would be time for dinner soon. After eating I got to talk to my parents on Skype. We talked for a little before Adrienne and I had to get running.
Our conference was at 6:30pm but we needed to run by school in order to print a few things. It took us a long time to find a room to print in. We were finally able to print the emails confirming us for the conference as well as our plane information to Madrid.
We were then off at a very brisk pace toward Rue de l’Université. We needed to find the 137 address. We thought it would be near this end but discovered that it was actually on the 18 address here. We went as fast as we could through a rising cold wind down the Rue de l’Université. We had 30 minutes. We actually arrived at the conference only one or two minutes late. There were other people coming in still too. We were able to find some seats together and sat to watch the conference.
This was sponsored by the Fondation d’Innovation Politique (Foundation of Political Innovation) and titled “Europe de l’énergie à l’heure de l’hydrogène.” The main speaker was an American named Jeremy Rifkin. I looked him up once we got back and found out he was born in Denver, Colorado. The point of this talk was the importance of renewable energy and what role hydrogen played in that. His theory is that once we develop efficient ways of creating renewable energy, we can store it with hydrogen. He compared it to the internet. He said “Everyone under thirty in this room is use to producing his or her own information on the internet. Then these people are able to share it with friends through the web.” He said that energy could work that way. Each building and home could be its own power plant and if there is extra energy, send it through the grid back to a hub. It was a very interesting talk. There were two other speakers as well. They were both French and their names were Michèle Pappalardo and Edouard Laurent. There was also the theme of cooperation. It will be important for Europe and the United States to work together in leading the world toward renewable energy. The talk was very inspiring but still struck some people the wrong way. One point made in Rifkin’s talk was that France’s beloved nuclear power plants were not enough for future energy needs. One woman said that she didn’t understand how he could discount nuclear energy so fast.
Adrienne and I are hoping we can write some papers on renewable energy possibilities in Europe or perhaps something in the environment aspect. It’s a very interesting and current subject.
We made our way back home with our stomachs growling. We’d had a small lunch thinking we’d have time to eat before the talk. It was now close to 9:00pm. We stopped long enough to grab Adrienne’s ballot from the mail that her mom had forwarded to her. Then while she talked on Skype with Chris about the issues, I started making dinner. I made couscous and ratatouille again. It cooks up pretty fast. I had some lemonade to drink. I scarfed it all down like a starving wolf. I was so hungry. Adrienne ate some while she was talking on Skype. I had some fromage blanc with peach halves for dessert.
Afterward, I got to talk to my parents for longer on Skype. I worked on finishing the reading for the next day’s class. I was up until around 1:00am.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
January 20th Sunday
We slept in until about noon. Amanda went to buy us breakfast to thank us for letting her stay the night. She found an open boulangerie and got us pain au chocolat. We woke up a bit as we ate those for breakfast. While we were sitting there, Karuna called Adrienne on Skype. We all got to talk to her a bit. Amanda headed home but Adrienne and I kept talking to Karuna. Then we created a chat with Meg too. We were joining Spain, France, and Italy.
Karuna was feeling kind of lonely in Madrid. Adrienne and I decided to get plane tickets on Ryanair and go visit her! We had been planning to do it so we set some dates up. It wasn’t until after the purchase of the tickets that I realized that I’d forgotten about our class that starts up on Mondays in February. We’d bought tickets from Feb. 8th through Feb. 12th. We would have to miss our Monday class. The professor is the same one who glared at me for closing my eyes in the workshop. I did not want to miss her second class. Still, I was so torn that I decided to talk to my parents and ask for their help in making the decision. I got to talk to them on the phone since it was Sunday. They helped me talk the dilemma through. I finally decided to change the date of my return to the Sunday night before class. It only gives us a few days in Madrid but I’m hoping we can see lots of stuff in that time still. It gives me an excuse to go back too.
I made some lunch after that. I had a sandwich with ham, lettuce, tomato, mayo, cheese, and mustard. Sometimes it feels like I’m going to burn out all my nose hairs with that mustard. It’s so spicy.
After lunch I fooled around with some pictures online. I’m enjoying editing them to put better ones online. Then I read for a bit. I got to talk to my parents on Skype a little later. It’s nice when we can get it to work. Sometimes the quality is really bad.
For dinner we made chicken in a sweet and sour sauce with white rice. We only had some already roasted chicken so we had an interesting combination of flavors. During and after dinner Adrienne and I talked to each other for a long time. Then she had to go be by the computer because she had a Skype date set with her family.
I got to shower and then chatted with Tom online. I’m waiting for him to get a microphone so that I can talk to him on Skype too. I also typed up more of my journal before going to bed around 2am.
We slept in until about noon. Amanda went to buy us breakfast to thank us for letting her stay the night. She found an open boulangerie and got us pain au chocolat. We woke up a bit as we ate those for breakfast. While we were sitting there, Karuna called Adrienne on Skype. We all got to talk to her a bit. Amanda headed home but Adrienne and I kept talking to Karuna. Then we created a chat with Meg too. We were joining Spain, France, and Italy.
Karuna was feeling kind of lonely in Madrid. Adrienne and I decided to get plane tickets on Ryanair and go visit her! We had been planning to do it so we set some dates up. It wasn’t until after the purchase of the tickets that I realized that I’d forgotten about our class that starts up on Mondays in February. We’d bought tickets from Feb. 8th through Feb. 12th. We would have to miss our Monday class. The professor is the same one who glared at me for closing my eyes in the workshop. I did not want to miss her second class. Still, I was so torn that I decided to talk to my parents and ask for their help in making the decision. I got to talk to them on the phone since it was Sunday. They helped me talk the dilemma through. I finally decided to change the date of my return to the Sunday night before class. It only gives us a few days in Madrid but I’m hoping we can see lots of stuff in that time still. It gives me an excuse to go back too.
I made some lunch after that. I had a sandwich with ham, lettuce, tomato, mayo, cheese, and mustard. Sometimes it feels like I’m going to burn out all my nose hairs with that mustard. It’s so spicy.
After lunch I fooled around with some pictures online. I’m enjoying editing them to put better ones online. Then I read for a bit. I got to talk to my parents on Skype a little later. It’s nice when we can get it to work. Sometimes the quality is really bad.
For dinner we made chicken in a sweet and sour sauce with white rice. We only had some already roasted chicken so we had an interesting combination of flavors. During and after dinner Adrienne and I talked to each other for a long time. Then she had to go be by the computer because she had a Skype date set with her family.
I got to shower and then chatted with Tom online. I’m waiting for him to get a microphone so that I can talk to him on Skype too. I also typed up more of my journal before going to bed around 2am.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
January 19th Saturday
I slept like a log until 2:00pm. I’m still horrified that I slept that late but I had to remind myself that it was still only almost seven hours of sleep. It felt like morning for me even though the day was half over for everyone else. I went to the boulangerie on the corner to get some food for brunch. I bought a baguette, two croissants, and a Quiche Lorraine. I decided that I had been in France too long not to have eaten a quiche or croissant. I made my way back home and started munching on the quiche. It was very good even room temp. It would have been even better heated. Adrienne enjoyed the croissant that I’d bought her.
I decided to try our little washing machine and get some laundry done. My lack of socks let me know that my laziness deadline was up. I looked at the washing machine and could only blink in confusion. Adrienne and I got out the directions and poured over them. Finally, we manipulated some of the dials and got it started. Phew. I’ll live to be clothed another day.
I read a few things while my laundry was churning. I decided to break into the croissant that had been beckoning me from the kitchen. It was sooooooo good. It was buttery and flaky. The flavor was amazing. I still couldn’t resist and put some Nutella on a little piece of it. I had to try it out. I was very pleased with it.
Eventually it was time to make dinner. We made some couscous flavored with a chicken bouillon cube. Then we had some frozen ratatouille that we’d bought in the grocery store. We put some of it in a pan and cooked that up as well. We served up the dinner and were immediately treated to the best foodgasm ever. I’d never had ratatouille before but this was amazing. I can only imagine what it must taste like homemade. I don’t know how to express how amazing it was. Here goes: it was day-lee-see-uh.
After dinner I resisted the urge to smoke a cigarette and satisfied myself with some bread and Nutella. I tried to read for a while. I read some class things and also looked at online webcomics. I even got to talk to my parents on Skype. They were wondering if I’d made it home safe after my night out.
“You’re going to stay in tonight right?”
“*cough* Oh I don’t know. We’ll see.”
I did in fact have an invitation from Amanda to go out that night. Adrienne wanted to go too so I was pretty excited. We left at midnight and went to the République station only to find out that they were, in fact, at the Bastille station. We debated walking and just took the metro instead. We found Sara and Amanda sitting at a table outside of a café. They paid their bill and we headed toward a club. The club was called Sanz Sans. It was very crowded when we walked in because the bar was in front of the door. We made our way around and eventually found a table away from the crush of people. The interior was fun. The walls were dominated by a deep red and it was a style that fell somewhere around gothic. The chairs were also red and elaborately designed. They had a video projected on the wall of the bar. I was wondering what purpose it served. I eventually found out why and this fact bumped the bar up from merely interesting to very cool. The lampshades over the bar were actually cymbals. While the DJ played the music, the bartenders would randomly grab some drumsticks and play along on the cymbals. It was pretty entertaining but quite loud when trying to order a drink. I was eventually able to order a mojito at the bar. This one was quite good as well.
We found out that another Euromaster was at a club nearby with his friend. We decided to leave and meet up with him. We wandered around a bit and eventually found John outside of a club. We then found out that it cost €20. We couldn’t afford to hang out there. We went in search of another place and found Café Iguana. We were able to get in with no cover. The interior of this place was very different from the interior of the Sanz Sans. This place was dominated by black and looked much more modern. There were interesting light fixtures on the walls and some of them looked like masks. Sara and Adrienne both ordered strawberry virgin piña coladas. I ordered a drink called B’52. It had Bailey’s, Kaluha, and Grand Marnier in it. The waiter even tried to flambé it. The flame wouldn’t hold but it did make the drink very warm. I think I found my favorite drink ever.
We finally decided we’d had enough fun and since the metro was closed we caught a taxi in front of the bar. There were four of us so I sat in the front. Sara told him where she needed to be dropped off. Amanda was going to stay at our place so I told him to go to the Musée d’Orsay. The cab ride was fairly silent because we all felt rather sleepy. The driver kind of teased us about it. He was really funny and actually kind of nice. We dropped Sara off and continued onward. The whole trip was only €10 and split between four people it was comparable to the metro.
Amanda ended up coming with us and staying over because her house is so far away. We went to bed around 5:00am.
I slept like a log until 2:00pm. I’m still horrified that I slept that late but I had to remind myself that it was still only almost seven hours of sleep. It felt like morning for me even though the day was half over for everyone else. I went to the boulangerie on the corner to get some food for brunch. I bought a baguette, two croissants, and a Quiche Lorraine. I decided that I had been in France too long not to have eaten a quiche or croissant. I made my way back home and started munching on the quiche. It was very good even room temp. It would have been even better heated. Adrienne enjoyed the croissant that I’d bought her.
I decided to try our little washing machine and get some laundry done. My lack of socks let me know that my laziness deadline was up. I looked at the washing machine and could only blink in confusion. Adrienne and I got out the directions and poured over them. Finally, we manipulated some of the dials and got it started. Phew. I’ll live to be clothed another day.
I read a few things while my laundry was churning. I decided to break into the croissant that had been beckoning me from the kitchen. It was sooooooo good. It was buttery and flaky. The flavor was amazing. I still couldn’t resist and put some Nutella on a little piece of it. I had to try it out. I was very pleased with it.
Eventually it was time to make dinner. We made some couscous flavored with a chicken bouillon cube. Then we had some frozen ratatouille that we’d bought in the grocery store. We put some of it in a pan and cooked that up as well. We served up the dinner and were immediately treated to the best foodgasm ever. I’d never had ratatouille before but this was amazing. I can only imagine what it must taste like homemade. I don’t know how to express how amazing it was. Here goes: it was day-lee-see-uh.
After dinner I resisted the urge to smoke a cigarette and satisfied myself with some bread and Nutella. I tried to read for a while. I read some class things and also looked at online webcomics. I even got to talk to my parents on Skype. They were wondering if I’d made it home safe after my night out.
“You’re going to stay in tonight right?”
“*cough* Oh I don’t know. We’ll see.”
I did in fact have an invitation from Amanda to go out that night. Adrienne wanted to go too so I was pretty excited. We left at midnight and went to the République station only to find out that they were, in fact, at the Bastille station. We debated walking and just took the metro instead. We found Sara and Amanda sitting at a table outside of a café. They paid their bill and we headed toward a club. The club was called Sanz Sans. It was very crowded when we walked in because the bar was in front of the door. We made our way around and eventually found a table away from the crush of people. The interior was fun. The walls were dominated by a deep red and it was a style that fell somewhere around gothic. The chairs were also red and elaborately designed. They had a video projected on the wall of the bar. I was wondering what purpose it served. I eventually found out why and this fact bumped the bar up from merely interesting to very cool. The lampshades over the bar were actually cymbals. While the DJ played the music, the bartenders would randomly grab some drumsticks and play along on the cymbals. It was pretty entertaining but quite loud when trying to order a drink. I was eventually able to order a mojito at the bar. This one was quite good as well.
We found out that another Euromaster was at a club nearby with his friend. We decided to leave and meet up with him. We wandered around a bit and eventually found John outside of a club. We then found out that it cost €20. We couldn’t afford to hang out there. We went in search of another place and found Café Iguana. We were able to get in with no cover. The interior of this place was very different from the interior of the Sanz Sans. This place was dominated by black and looked much more modern. There were interesting light fixtures on the walls and some of them looked like masks. Sara and Adrienne both ordered strawberry virgin piña coladas. I ordered a drink called B’52. It had Bailey’s, Kaluha, and Grand Marnier in it. The waiter even tried to flambé it. The flame wouldn’t hold but it did make the drink very warm. I think I found my favorite drink ever.
We finally decided we’d had enough fun and since the metro was closed we caught a taxi in front of the bar. There were four of us so I sat in the front. Sara told him where she needed to be dropped off. Amanda was going to stay at our place so I told him to go to the Musée d’Orsay. The cab ride was fairly silent because we all felt rather sleepy. The driver kind of teased us about it. He was really funny and actually kind of nice. We dropped Sara off and continued onward. The whole trip was only €10 and split between four people it was comparable to the metro.
Amanda ended up coming with us and staying over because her house is so far away. We went to bed around 5:00am.
Friday, January 18, 2008
January 18th Friday
Knowing that it didn’t take us long to get to the workshop and that it was later, we got up at 8:00am. We were going to try to be brave and go to the presentations on five hours of sleep. I had some of my 3 chocolate Muesli and a strawberry yogurt.
We got to the building and watched people come in for the workshop. They had another welcome coffee set out on the table. I wanted to stay awake so I went ahead and grabbed a little coffee. I poured a lot of milk and sugar in. I actually liked the drink and even though I couldn’t taste the coffee that much, I was worried. I don’t want to get hooked on coffee.
We settled in and the presentations started at 9:35am. This section was called “A New Public/Private Boundary” and addressed private actors in the EU. I was able to stay awake through the presentations. I ended up doing some class reading in the in between time.
Adrienne was feeling really tired so at the coffee break she went home to sleep. I ended up having an orange juice and staying for the next section before lunch. I didn’t always understand the entire presentation but I still enjoyed attending.
I left between 11:30 and 12 to go home. On my way home I was noticing all of the interesting door handles. I started taking pictures of them and decided to start collecting pictures of strange door handles. In certain places I’m sure they can get really weird. I tried to hurry home because it was drizzling on me.
I got home and made some lunch for myself. I went ahead and made a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Then to combat my unhealthiness I sliced some tomato and cucumber and put balsamic vinegar on the pieces. I had a few madeleines for dessert.
I played on my computer for a little while. I was really tired so I decided to take a nap. I got into bed and slept until about 5:30pm. I set an alarm so that I wouldn’t oversleep.
Adrienne and I woke up for a little bit. It was getting near dinner time so we tried to figure out what we wanted. We ended up making some curly pasta noodles with marinara sauce. We added some chicken to the sauce and it actually turned out pretty good. Adrienne got a baguette to go with it. It was very yummy.
After dinner, I was still in my pajamas from my nap. I got a text message from Carlos that was half in English and half in French. Basically Carlos, Yannick, and Katharina were going to go out to a club called Favela Chic and he wondered if I would like to go. I debated and noted the fact that I was already in my comfy pajamas but finally replied that I would come.
I got dressed up in a new gray skirt, a nice black shirt, and my high heeled boots. I was kind of worried about being bothered by guys on my way there but I shrugged it off. I met the group a little after midnight by the République metro stop. We went down the street to the club. The place was very interesting. It’s Brazilian themed and is a restaurant by day. Tonight it was quite packed with people. It made it very hot and sweaty there because they turned off the air. Now that France has a no smoking law, they don’t have to pump in fresh air. They take this law very seriously too. I saw at least five people light up and then get forcibly removed from the club by a large bouncer. They didn’t mess around. The guy would walk up, grab the people by the arm, and start pulling them out. He might stop long enough to give a quick reason as to why they were being kicked out.
I had fun with the Euromasters. When I paid to get in I received a free drink card. I got a mojito and it was very good. The drinks were expensive so I didn’t buy any more after that.
I was lucky enough to only have one stranger talk to me. I couldn’t ever understand his name. He was Italian and speaking to me in French. It was hard to understand him over the pounding music. He directed the shouted conversation toward French cuisine and asked if I liked it. When I replied in the affirmative, he offered to take me out to get some. I politely declined. When he asked why I invented some fake boyfriend back in the states. He eventually drifted away.
The only other weird part of the night was the strange text messages I received from Alberto. He kept asking me if I was awake. I told him I was but couldn’t talk on the phone. I asked if something was wrong. He said he was fine but he kept asking me if I was awake. Finally, later in the night, he told me that he’d gotten locked out of his house and his roommate was asleep “but I’m fine now.”
The club finally kicked us out at 4:00am. We went out and walked around the area debating what we could do. We had to stay out until at least 5:30 because that’s when the metro starts running again. We walked for a bit while Carlos fumed over the injustice of the club closing so early. That would never happen in Spain. There you can stay out until 7or 9 in the morning. I was glad I understand Spanish because I would have missed the amusing swearing.
We finally ended up going to a bar called Les Tonneaux (The Barrels). The crowd was much older there. I was surprised to see so many adults beyond college age there. I went ahead and ordered a Coke. It came in a neat bottle with a Coca Cola glass. I was pretty psyched. I wasn’t psyched about the large woman who approached me at the bar. “Ça va mademoiselle?” I got a big creepy vibe so I merely muttered “Oui ça va.” Before moving closer to my friends.
Finally it was late (or early) enough for the trains to start running. We dropped Yannick off at the metro and started walking toward Châtelet. Carlos walked Katharina home and I went to catch the metro. I was getting on the metro at 6:00am. I was surrounded mostly by people beginning their day, not ending it. I pulled out my iPod and listened to music for the ride home. The sun still hadn’t risen by the time I came home. My feet were killing me.
I found Adrienne still awake. She had been playing games with her sister online since I had left. We both got ready for bed and chatted a bit. I even got to talk to Tom online. I finally went to bed at 7:30am.
Knowing that it didn’t take us long to get to the workshop and that it was later, we got up at 8:00am. We were going to try to be brave and go to the presentations on five hours of sleep. I had some of my 3 chocolate Muesli and a strawberry yogurt.
We got to the building and watched people come in for the workshop. They had another welcome coffee set out on the table. I wanted to stay awake so I went ahead and grabbed a little coffee. I poured a lot of milk and sugar in. I actually liked the drink and even though I couldn’t taste the coffee that much, I was worried. I don’t want to get hooked on coffee.
We settled in and the presentations started at 9:35am. This section was called “A New Public/Private Boundary” and addressed private actors in the EU. I was able to stay awake through the presentations. I ended up doing some class reading in the in between time.
Adrienne was feeling really tired so at the coffee break she went home to sleep. I ended up having an orange juice and staying for the next section before lunch. I didn’t always understand the entire presentation but I still enjoyed attending.
I left between 11:30 and 12 to go home. On my way home I was noticing all of the interesting door handles. I started taking pictures of them and decided to start collecting pictures of strange door handles. In certain places I’m sure they can get really weird. I tried to hurry home because it was drizzling on me.
I got home and made some lunch for myself. I went ahead and made a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Then to combat my unhealthiness I sliced some tomato and cucumber and put balsamic vinegar on the pieces. I had a few madeleines for dessert.
I played on my computer for a little while. I was really tired so I decided to take a nap. I got into bed and slept until about 5:30pm. I set an alarm so that I wouldn’t oversleep.
Adrienne and I woke up for a little bit. It was getting near dinner time so we tried to figure out what we wanted. We ended up making some curly pasta noodles with marinara sauce. We added some chicken to the sauce and it actually turned out pretty good. Adrienne got a baguette to go with it. It was very yummy.
After dinner, I was still in my pajamas from my nap. I got a text message from Carlos that was half in English and half in French. Basically Carlos, Yannick, and Katharina were going to go out to a club called Favela Chic and he wondered if I would like to go. I debated and noted the fact that I was already in my comfy pajamas but finally replied that I would come.
I got dressed up in a new gray skirt, a nice black shirt, and my high heeled boots. I was kind of worried about being bothered by guys on my way there but I shrugged it off. I met the group a little after midnight by the République metro stop. We went down the street to the club. The place was very interesting. It’s Brazilian themed and is a restaurant by day. Tonight it was quite packed with people. It made it very hot and sweaty there because they turned off the air. Now that France has a no smoking law, they don’t have to pump in fresh air. They take this law very seriously too. I saw at least five people light up and then get forcibly removed from the club by a large bouncer. They didn’t mess around. The guy would walk up, grab the people by the arm, and start pulling them out. He might stop long enough to give a quick reason as to why they were being kicked out.
I had fun with the Euromasters. When I paid to get in I received a free drink card. I got a mojito and it was very good. The drinks were expensive so I didn’t buy any more after that.
I was lucky enough to only have one stranger talk to me. I couldn’t ever understand his name. He was Italian and speaking to me in French. It was hard to understand him over the pounding music. He directed the shouted conversation toward French cuisine and asked if I liked it. When I replied in the affirmative, he offered to take me out to get some. I politely declined. When he asked why I invented some fake boyfriend back in the states. He eventually drifted away.
The only other weird part of the night was the strange text messages I received from Alberto. He kept asking me if I was awake. I told him I was but couldn’t talk on the phone. I asked if something was wrong. He said he was fine but he kept asking me if I was awake. Finally, later in the night, he told me that he’d gotten locked out of his house and his roommate was asleep “but I’m fine now.”
The club finally kicked us out at 4:00am. We went out and walked around the area debating what we could do. We had to stay out until at least 5:30 because that’s when the metro starts running again. We walked for a bit while Carlos fumed over the injustice of the club closing so early. That would never happen in Spain. There you can stay out until 7or 9 in the morning. I was glad I understand Spanish because I would have missed the amusing swearing.
We finally ended up going to a bar called Les Tonneaux (The Barrels). The crowd was much older there. I was surprised to see so many adults beyond college age there. I went ahead and ordered a Coke. It came in a neat bottle with a Coca Cola glass. I was pretty psyched. I wasn’t psyched about the large woman who approached me at the bar. “Ça va mademoiselle?” I got a big creepy vibe so I merely muttered “Oui ça va.” Before moving closer to my friends.
Finally it was late (or early) enough for the trains to start running. We dropped Yannick off at the metro and started walking toward Châtelet. Carlos walked Katharina home and I went to catch the metro. I was getting on the metro at 6:00am. I was surrounded mostly by people beginning their day, not ending it. I pulled out my iPod and listened to music for the ride home. The sun still hadn’t risen by the time I came home. My feet were killing me.
I found Adrienne still awake. She had been playing games with her sister online since I had left. We both got ready for bed and chatted a bit. I even got to talk to Tom online. I finally went to bed at 7:30am.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
January 17th Thursday
Adrienne and I forced ourselves out of bed at 7:15am. We were planning on going to a workshop concerning the EU (conducted in English) that started this day and lasted until the 18th. I munched on some Muesli with fruit in it instead of chocolate.
We walked out and headed in the direction of the pink tinted horizon. We got to 56 Rue Jacob a bit early and had to wait for the building to open. We finally were able to sneak in and sit in the waiting area. We met another early bird named Egle Svilpaite. She is from Lithuania and was going to the same conference. We were wondering if we were in the right place since it was time for the welcome to begin and nobody was there. Slowly people trickled in and began collecting around the table decked with coffee, tea, orange juice, water, and a collection of pastries. I helped myself to some orange juice and a tiny pain au chocolat.
We went into the large conference room then. Tables formed a large rectangle in the middle of the room with some audience seating off to the side. We settled in and listened to the introduction given by M. Dehousse, the director of our program. I enjoyed his English accent with a slight French accent laid over the top. He ended up presenting a paper as well. They structured the program so that there would be two presentations followed by discussion and questions. Then they broke for coffee, repeated the process, and then had lunch. The title of this section was “The End of the ‘Community Model’?”
I was not able to keep my eyes open during the first two presentations. I wasn’t bored, just very tired. I was extremely embarrassed since one of our future teachers was there and I would sometimes open my eyes to see her looking disapprovingly at me. I decided we should go home at the first coffee break to take a nap and then come back for the afternoon session.
We walked home and bought some sandwiches for lunch in a café next to our apartment building. I had the ham with cheese, tomato, and lettuce. We munched for a bit and then settled down for a quick nap.
We were able to get up and return to the conference at 2:30pm where people were returning from lunch. We had only missed two papers. We got to see the next four presentations before they finished for the day at 6:30pm. This section was titled “Integration as Depoliticization.”
Adrienne and I both had a desire to go to a restaurant to eat dinner. I wanted to call Alberto thinking we could meet him up in Montmartre where he lives. It turned out that he was at Sciences Po near us. We met up at the metro and decided to go to St. Michel to find a restaurant.
We got off the metro in St. Michel at Rue de la Huchette and looked around. The area was full of Greek and Couscous restaurants. As we walked down the street, two drunk guys standing in front of a restaurant started singing at us. An older man across the street yelled at them “Laisse passer!” (Basically telling them not to bother us.) There were people outside of places trying to call customers in. We ended up talking to a guy about a place with Couscous and French cuisine. We decided to go in because they had a menu of three courses for €9. The menu was only for French food so Adrienne and Alberto got that while I ended up ordering a tajine. Mine was baked in a tented clay pot. It had chicken with citrus, potatoes, peas, tomato, and onion. It has a plate of couscous that comes with it. It was so delicious. The couscous was very fine and light. The flavor of the chicken and vegetables was so rich. We each got a free glass of red wine before the dinner. It was pretty good. Alberto and Adrienne don’t drink so I was able to steal theirs. Alberto also let me steal is ice cream after dinner. There was strawberry and mocha. After dinner we had a complimentary glass of hot mint tea as well. Overall, the food was delicious, the atmosphere and the waiter were charming. I had a very fun time. Alberto even bought us each a white rose for friendship.
We left dinner and walked to Notre Dame. We took some pictures of it with the Christmas tree in front. While we were taking pictures, a French guy was walking by with a friend and said “Ah touriste!” I gave him a look that basically said, “WTF. Take that back before I hurt you.” He actually looked really embarrassed and said “Oh, c’est pas vous!” and pointed to his friend that he was teasing. I got a kick out of it because the guy actually looked kind of scared of me for a moment. We got to take some really fun pictures there. I saw some couples sitting on benches and made a comment about how lucky Parisian couples were. They can go to really nice looking places for a date without too much trouble.
I got a text message saying that the Euromasters group was meeting up at a bar. Alberto decided to go home but Adrienne and I walked up past the Hôtel de Ville and ended up on Rue Vieille du Temple. The bar was called La Perle. We were able to meet up with Katharina, Sara, John, David, and Amanda. It was an interesting place. It had loud music but no real place to dance. I was able to get a glass of cheap sauvignon wine. It was very yummy.
Adrienne and I hung out with people there until 1:30. We ended up walking home along the Seine for a bit. It always seems like a long walk when I’m walking it, but it only ends up taking 15 minutes or so. We made it home and I talked to my parents on Skype for a bit. I finally got to bed at 3:30am
Adrienne and I forced ourselves out of bed at 7:15am. We were planning on going to a workshop concerning the EU (conducted in English) that started this day and lasted until the 18th. I munched on some Muesli with fruit in it instead of chocolate.
We walked out and headed in the direction of the pink tinted horizon. We got to 56 Rue Jacob a bit early and had to wait for the building to open. We finally were able to sneak in and sit in the waiting area. We met another early bird named Egle Svilpaite. She is from Lithuania and was going to the same conference. We were wondering if we were in the right place since it was time for the welcome to begin and nobody was there. Slowly people trickled in and began collecting around the table decked with coffee, tea, orange juice, water, and a collection of pastries. I helped myself to some orange juice and a tiny pain au chocolat.
We went into the large conference room then. Tables formed a large rectangle in the middle of the room with some audience seating off to the side. We settled in and listened to the introduction given by M. Dehousse, the director of our program. I enjoyed his English accent with a slight French accent laid over the top. He ended up presenting a paper as well. They structured the program so that there would be two presentations followed by discussion and questions. Then they broke for coffee, repeated the process, and then had lunch. The title of this section was “The End of the ‘Community Model’?”
I was not able to keep my eyes open during the first two presentations. I wasn’t bored, just very tired. I was extremely embarrassed since one of our future teachers was there and I would sometimes open my eyes to see her looking disapprovingly at me. I decided we should go home at the first coffee break to take a nap and then come back for the afternoon session.
We walked home and bought some sandwiches for lunch in a café next to our apartment building. I had the ham with cheese, tomato, and lettuce. We munched for a bit and then settled down for a quick nap.
We were able to get up and return to the conference at 2:30pm where people were returning from lunch. We had only missed two papers. We got to see the next four presentations before they finished for the day at 6:30pm. This section was titled “Integration as Depoliticization.”
Adrienne and I both had a desire to go to a restaurant to eat dinner. I wanted to call Alberto thinking we could meet him up in Montmartre where he lives. It turned out that he was at Sciences Po near us. We met up at the metro and decided to go to St. Michel to find a restaurant.
We got off the metro in St. Michel at Rue de la Huchette and looked around. The area was full of Greek and Couscous restaurants. As we walked down the street, two drunk guys standing in front of a restaurant started singing at us. An older man across the street yelled at them “Laisse passer!” (Basically telling them not to bother us.) There were people outside of places trying to call customers in. We ended up talking to a guy about a place with Couscous and French cuisine. We decided to go in because they had a menu of three courses for €9. The menu was only for French food so Adrienne and Alberto got that while I ended up ordering a tajine. Mine was baked in a tented clay pot. It had chicken with citrus, potatoes, peas, tomato, and onion. It has a plate of couscous that comes with it. It was so delicious. The couscous was very fine and light. The flavor of the chicken and vegetables was so rich. We each got a free glass of red wine before the dinner. It was pretty good. Alberto and Adrienne don’t drink so I was able to steal theirs. Alberto also let me steal is ice cream after dinner. There was strawberry and mocha. After dinner we had a complimentary glass of hot mint tea as well. Overall, the food was delicious, the atmosphere and the waiter were charming. I had a very fun time. Alberto even bought us each a white rose for friendship.
We left dinner and walked to Notre Dame. We took some pictures of it with the Christmas tree in front. While we were taking pictures, a French guy was walking by with a friend and said “Ah touriste!” I gave him a look that basically said, “WTF. Take that back before I hurt you.” He actually looked really embarrassed and said “Oh, c’est pas vous!” and pointed to his friend that he was teasing. I got a kick out of it because the guy actually looked kind of scared of me for a moment. We got to take some really fun pictures there. I saw some couples sitting on benches and made a comment about how lucky Parisian couples were. They can go to really nice looking places for a date without too much trouble.
I got a text message saying that the Euromasters group was meeting up at a bar. Alberto decided to go home but Adrienne and I walked up past the Hôtel de Ville and ended up on Rue Vieille du Temple. The bar was called La Perle. We were able to meet up with Katharina, Sara, John, David, and Amanda. It was an interesting place. It had loud music but no real place to dance. I was able to get a glass of cheap sauvignon wine. It was very yummy.
Adrienne and I hung out with people there until 1:30. We ended up walking home along the Seine for a bit. It always seems like a long walk when I’m walking it, but it only ends up taking 15 minutes or so. We made it home and I talked to my parents on Skype for a bit. I finally got to bed at 3:30am
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
January 16th Wednesday
I was not very happy to hear my alarm go off. I pulled myself out of bed at around 9:00am. It felt much earlier. I stumbled through getting myself ready. I had a simple raspberry yogurt for breakfast.
We went to our class with Padis. It went fairly well. The only issue I had was that I was distracted by my increasingly upset stomach. I thought the yogurt would be fine but I needed to eat more than that. I fought the urge to go to the bathroom for most of the second half of class. I was excited to go eat at the end.
Adrienne and I opted out of eating on campus and decided to head straight home for cheap food and quiet reading space. For lunch I made myself a ham sandwich (on American style sandwich bread) with ham, mayo, lettuce, and a very spicy mustard. For dessert I had some madeleines. I have a soft spot for those goodies.
We tried to read and skim for the next class. We had a large amount of reading and I was finding it difficult to finish it before class. We got a basic knowledge though and headed off to learn. I was beginning to learn that in France, to on time is to be early and to be early is to be ridiculous. We would show up thinking class was going to be getting underway but would walk into a room of one or two people. Every time I chuckle and go “Oh right. I keep forgetting I’m in France.” Our professor was still very difficult to understand. I found my mind wandering occasionally when it was tired of concentrating so hard. It did help a little to sit in the center of the room instead of on the side. If I can understand Irondelle by the end of the module I’m going to throw myself a party.
Adrienne and I headed home to make dinner. We stopped at Gosselin and bought a baguette along the way. I was tired and felt lazy so I didn’t cook anything for dinner. I had some bread with pâté, camembert, and butter. Adrienne ended up heating up some vegetable soup so I had some. I also indulged in a little fromage blanc with honey on it.
I got to talk to my mom on the phone. My bank card had come and I needed some stateside help in activating it. It went fine. It was nice talking to my mom.
I read some things online in bed until I felt unbearably tired. My eyelids kept drooping. I managed to put my computer off to the side before falling asleep around 9:30pm. I woke up at 11:00 and realized I still needed to get ready for bed. I got dressed and turned my computer off properly before going back to bed. Before I turned my computer off though, I got to talk to Tom and Maya. I had to see how Tom’s birthday was going.
I was not very happy to hear my alarm go off. I pulled myself out of bed at around 9:00am. It felt much earlier. I stumbled through getting myself ready. I had a simple raspberry yogurt for breakfast.
We went to our class with Padis. It went fairly well. The only issue I had was that I was distracted by my increasingly upset stomach. I thought the yogurt would be fine but I needed to eat more than that. I fought the urge to go to the bathroom for most of the second half of class. I was excited to go eat at the end.
Adrienne and I opted out of eating on campus and decided to head straight home for cheap food and quiet reading space. For lunch I made myself a ham sandwich (on American style sandwich bread) with ham, mayo, lettuce, and a very spicy mustard. For dessert I had some madeleines. I have a soft spot for those goodies.
We tried to read and skim for the next class. We had a large amount of reading and I was finding it difficult to finish it before class. We got a basic knowledge though and headed off to learn. I was beginning to learn that in France, to on time is to be early and to be early is to be ridiculous. We would show up thinking class was going to be getting underway but would walk into a room of one or two people. Every time I chuckle and go “Oh right. I keep forgetting I’m in France.” Our professor was still very difficult to understand. I found my mind wandering occasionally when it was tired of concentrating so hard. It did help a little to sit in the center of the room instead of on the side. If I can understand Irondelle by the end of the module I’m going to throw myself a party.
Adrienne and I headed home to make dinner. We stopped at Gosselin and bought a baguette along the way. I was tired and felt lazy so I didn’t cook anything for dinner. I had some bread with pâté, camembert, and butter. Adrienne ended up heating up some vegetable soup so I had some. I also indulged in a little fromage blanc with honey on it.
I got to talk to my mom on the phone. My bank card had come and I needed some stateside help in activating it. It went fine. It was nice talking to my mom.
I read some things online in bed until I felt unbearably tired. My eyelids kept drooping. I managed to put my computer off to the side before falling asleep around 9:30pm. I woke up at 11:00 and realized I still needed to get ready for bed. I got dressed and turned my computer off properly before going back to bed. Before I turned my computer off though, I got to talk to Tom and Maya. I had to see how Tom’s birthday was going.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
January 15th Tuesday
Our class wasn’t until 2:45pm but we got up in the morning to read and get ready. I had some of my new fruit Muesli for breakfast. This cereal has dried bananas, raisins, and other fruits. I enjoy it.
I did some reading for a bit until I got a text from Amanda. She was at Sciences Po and wondered if we wanted to join her for lunch. We made our way there. My computer had said that it would be warmer so I just wore my long black sweater. It turned out to be raining and very, very windy. I wanted to give up on the umbrella and just get wet. The problem with that was that I had my laptop in my backpack with me. I put up with the wind and kept the umbrella. I was very glad if not a bit windblown when we got to the building.
I had a sandwich at the cafeteria. It had ham, lettuce, tomato, hardboiled egg, and mayo in it. The sandwiches are okay flavor-wise, but price-wise they’re amazing. It’s just over 2 Euros to get a long baguette sandwich. After eating we tried to quickly finish our reading for class. It was hard to read in the cafeteria and I did not help the situation by accidentally getting coffee out of the machine instead of hot chocolate.
We were finally able to just go to class. I tried out my computer and the internet even worked on it. Adrienne and I tried following the instructions to connect the night before and I was pleased that it worked (especially since Leo had told us that we had to go get it done for us on Mondays). Class went well and was much easier with a computer. I thought I’d grown beyond the blushing like an idiot phase of my life until the professor randomly interrupted my frantic note-taking to ask me which year the first European Parliament elections were. All I could do was stare in horror and feel my face go red. He just said, “Allez-y, c’est pas un examen.” (come on, it’s not a test.) I begged to differ. Luckily someone else piped up with ’79 and I was saved. Phew. I made it through the rest of the class just fine.
We made our way home. It wasn’t as windy and I was thankful for that. I didn’t freeze quite so bad. We bought a half baguette to go with dinner and then went to make dinner.
I made what I’d like to call pommes de terre à la Maya. Whenever I make these potatoes I think of the first time I saw Maya making them in her apartment in Tours. First you peel the potatoes and slice them. Then you rub the slices in salt and cook then in a pan with oil. The outsides are brown and crispy while the insides are soft. Yum. I wasn’t sure what to have with potatoes so we just made salads. We had tomato and cucumber on it with some oil and balsamic vinegar. Then I topped mine with slices of ham. To satisfy my sweet tooth, I had a piece of chocolate and some bread with Nutella on it.
I tried to read for a little bit. I got to talk to my dad and to Devon online. Then, as it was after midnight, I drew a picture of a birthday cake and sent it to Tom for his birthday. I finally got to bed around 12:45am but read for a little after that.
Our class wasn’t until 2:45pm but we got up in the morning to read and get ready. I had some of my new fruit Muesli for breakfast. This cereal has dried bananas, raisins, and other fruits. I enjoy it.
I did some reading for a bit until I got a text from Amanda. She was at Sciences Po and wondered if we wanted to join her for lunch. We made our way there. My computer had said that it would be warmer so I just wore my long black sweater. It turned out to be raining and very, very windy. I wanted to give up on the umbrella and just get wet. The problem with that was that I had my laptop in my backpack with me. I put up with the wind and kept the umbrella. I was very glad if not a bit windblown when we got to the building.
I had a sandwich at the cafeteria. It had ham, lettuce, tomato, hardboiled egg, and mayo in it. The sandwiches are okay flavor-wise, but price-wise they’re amazing. It’s just over 2 Euros to get a long baguette sandwich. After eating we tried to quickly finish our reading for class. It was hard to read in the cafeteria and I did not help the situation by accidentally getting coffee out of the machine instead of hot chocolate.
We were finally able to just go to class. I tried out my computer and the internet even worked on it. Adrienne and I tried following the instructions to connect the night before and I was pleased that it worked (especially since Leo had told us that we had to go get it done for us on Mondays). Class went well and was much easier with a computer. I thought I’d grown beyond the blushing like an idiot phase of my life until the professor randomly interrupted my frantic note-taking to ask me which year the first European Parliament elections were. All I could do was stare in horror and feel my face go red. He just said, “Allez-y, c’est pas un examen.” (come on, it’s not a test.) I begged to differ. Luckily someone else piped up with ’79 and I was saved. Phew. I made it through the rest of the class just fine.
We made our way home. It wasn’t as windy and I was thankful for that. I didn’t freeze quite so bad. We bought a half baguette to go with dinner and then went to make dinner.
I made what I’d like to call pommes de terre à la Maya. Whenever I make these potatoes I think of the first time I saw Maya making them in her apartment in Tours. First you peel the potatoes and slice them. Then you rub the slices in salt and cook then in a pan with oil. The outsides are brown and crispy while the insides are soft. Yum. I wasn’t sure what to have with potatoes so we just made salads. We had tomato and cucumber on it with some oil and balsamic vinegar. Then I topped mine with slices of ham. To satisfy my sweet tooth, I had a piece of chocolate and some bread with Nutella on it.
I tried to read for a little bit. I got to talk to my dad and to Devon online. Then, as it was after midnight, I drew a picture of a birthday cake and sent it to Tom for his birthday. I finally got to bed around 12:45am but read for a little after that.
Monday, January 14, 2008
January 14th Monday
This was the first day that I didn’t set an alarm or have something to wake up for. I slept in until 1:00pm. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the clock. I guess I had lots of sleep to catch up on. The main advantage was that my stuffiness of the cold had disappeared. I felt healed. Hallelujah!
I had a bit of the chocolate Muesli cereal for breakfast. I tried to do a bit of reading and then looked around online. Adrienne and I wanted to get some more groceries to bulk up on so we made our way to Franprix. We bought some salad stuff like cucumbers and tomatoes and lettuce, some chicken, a giant pack of yogurt, and some milk. We got some other things as well and crammed it all in my medium suitcase. I was glad we didn’t pay a lot for everything.
For dinner, I cut and cooked up the chicken. Then I cooked some rice noodles. We ate everything together with some sweet and sour sauce. It was quite good. We even had a baguette that Adrienne bought just in case we were still hungry. After dinner I indulged in some chocolate and fromage blanc with honey.
I read my assignment for the next class. We also had to come up with the subject we want to study. I had trouble with mine. I finally picked one about French public opinion of French presidents and how it’s affected by the EU. It’s a strange idea and I’m sure prof. Grossman will help me think of something better.
I got to talk to my parents on Skype. I always enjoy getting to talk to them. I was rather distracted though because I had my first random person trying to chat with me on Skype. What is it about me that attracts Algerians through the internet like that? Hmmm…
I got to talk to some other people online too. It was fun talking to Tom, Maya, and Kyle. I’m so glad I’ve got internet at my house.
I was very hungry then so I made myself a grilled half of a sandwich. It had ham and cheese in the middle. I washed it down with some milk.
I did some more reading and didn’t get to bed until 3:30am.
This was the first day that I didn’t set an alarm or have something to wake up for. I slept in until 1:00pm. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the clock. I guess I had lots of sleep to catch up on. The main advantage was that my stuffiness of the cold had disappeared. I felt healed. Hallelujah!
I had a bit of the chocolate Muesli cereal for breakfast. I tried to do a bit of reading and then looked around online. Adrienne and I wanted to get some more groceries to bulk up on so we made our way to Franprix. We bought some salad stuff like cucumbers and tomatoes and lettuce, some chicken, a giant pack of yogurt, and some milk. We got some other things as well and crammed it all in my medium suitcase. I was glad we didn’t pay a lot for everything.
For dinner, I cut and cooked up the chicken. Then I cooked some rice noodles. We ate everything together with some sweet and sour sauce. It was quite good. We even had a baguette that Adrienne bought just in case we were still hungry. After dinner I indulged in some chocolate and fromage blanc with honey.
I read my assignment for the next class. We also had to come up with the subject we want to study. I had trouble with mine. I finally picked one about French public opinion of French presidents and how it’s affected by the EU. It’s a strange idea and I’m sure prof. Grossman will help me think of something better.
I got to talk to my parents on Skype. I always enjoy getting to talk to them. I was rather distracted though because I had my first random person trying to chat with me on Skype. What is it about me that attracts Algerians through the internet like that? Hmmm…
I got to talk to some other people online too. It was fun talking to Tom, Maya, and Kyle. I’m so glad I’ve got internet at my house.
I was very hungry then so I made myself a grilled half of a sandwich. It had ham and cheese in the middle. I washed it down with some milk.
I did some more reading and didn’t get to bed until 3:30am.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
January 13th Sunday
I heard Karuna leave quite early but could not get up the energy to wake up and say goodbye. I had my alarm set for 10:00am. We were supposed to meet Heidi to go see the Musée d’Orsay at 11:00am. We were still getting ready at 11:06am. I called Heidi to see if she was waiting. She said that actually she wasn’t sure she’d be able to make it today. I was sad to not see the museum but also very happy to have more time to relax. I had not gotten many hours of sleep between the past two nights and I was tired.
I had a bit of baguette with strawberry jam for breakfast. Baguettes never keep me full for long but they can usually hold me over until lunch.
After breakfast I read for a while and tried to get some homework done. Finally I was too tired and I succumbed to a nap. I slept for a few hours and finally got up at 4:30pm. We had a very late lunch of vegetable soup.
Then Adrienne and I decided to go grocery shopping. I wanted some honey for my tea and my fromage blanc. It was late on Sunday so we had to go to the 24 hour store. I was able to find my honey there. We also got some bagged lettuce, tomato, red wine vinegar and cookies.
We made our way home to make dinner. We ended up making salads. We put together some lettuce, tomato, and chopped up cooked chicken. We topped it with oil and red wine vinegar. It tasted pretty good. I always put too much vinegar on my salads, though. After dinner I had some cookies and some fromage blanc with honey. It was sublime.
I decided to do something productive and cleaned the room a bit. I had lots of things kind of spread about. I was able to find a place for most things. I took a break and talked to my parents on Skype. The quality of the calls seems to be going down. It’s hard to tell.
Adrienne and I watched Amélie on my computer. I love that movie so much. Afterward I’m usually left with a warm fuzzy feeling. Of course this time was the first that I noticed that Amélie and Nino don’t have a real conversation before having sex. I guess it’s just true love at first sight.
I indulged in some picture editing after the movie. My parents needed some pictures of my brother and me for the newsletter. I tried making them brighter and eliminating red eye. Then I messed with some other pictures that we took here in Paris. I figured it was time for a new cute profile picture.
I read a little bit for fun and then went to bed at 2:15 am.
I heard Karuna leave quite early but could not get up the energy to wake up and say goodbye. I had my alarm set for 10:00am. We were supposed to meet Heidi to go see the Musée d’Orsay at 11:00am. We were still getting ready at 11:06am. I called Heidi to see if she was waiting. She said that actually she wasn’t sure she’d be able to make it today. I was sad to not see the museum but also very happy to have more time to relax. I had not gotten many hours of sleep between the past two nights and I was tired.
I had a bit of baguette with strawberry jam for breakfast. Baguettes never keep me full for long but they can usually hold me over until lunch.
After breakfast I read for a while and tried to get some homework done. Finally I was too tired and I succumbed to a nap. I slept for a few hours and finally got up at 4:30pm. We had a very late lunch of vegetable soup.
Then Adrienne and I decided to go grocery shopping. I wanted some honey for my tea and my fromage blanc. It was late on Sunday so we had to go to the 24 hour store. I was able to find my honey there. We also got some bagged lettuce, tomato, red wine vinegar and cookies.
We made our way home to make dinner. We ended up making salads. We put together some lettuce, tomato, and chopped up cooked chicken. We topped it with oil and red wine vinegar. It tasted pretty good. I always put too much vinegar on my salads, though. After dinner I had some cookies and some fromage blanc with honey. It was sublime.
I decided to do something productive and cleaned the room a bit. I had lots of things kind of spread about. I was able to find a place for most things. I took a break and talked to my parents on Skype. The quality of the calls seems to be going down. It’s hard to tell.
Adrienne and I watched Amélie on my computer. I love that movie so much. Afterward I’m usually left with a warm fuzzy feeling. Of course this time was the first that I noticed that Amélie and Nino don’t have a real conversation before having sex. I guess it’s just true love at first sight.
I indulged in some picture editing after the movie. My parents needed some pictures of my brother and me for the newsletter. I tried making them brighter and eliminating red eye. Then I messed with some other pictures that we took here in Paris. I figured it was time for a new cute profile picture.
I read a little bit for fun and then went to bed at 2:15 am.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
January 12th Saturday
I awoke to our door buzzer. Karuna was due to arrive that morning. I went to open the door not realizing that it was many hours after her scheduled arrival. She was supposed to be in at 8:30am and ended up arriving at 11:30am. I was sympathetic to her flight delay but glad that I’d gotten more than a few hours sleep before she arrived.
Karuna looked around at the apartment that used to be hers. She lived here for five months last year. She pointed out all the dishes she’d bought and all the other items she left behind. I didn’t realize so much of the stuff had been hers.
We talked for a while before Karuna collapsed in bed. I finished my J.D. Robb book while she slept and Adrienne took a shower. Once I finished my book I crept into the kitchen to hang out with Adrienne. I munched on some of my Muesli cereal for breakfast.
I decided it would be good to have some bread for later. I managed to wade through the suitcases and drying rack to get my clothes and get dressed. I then made my way to the Gosselin bakery on the corner. I got one and a half baguettes for later. Once I had returned, I couldn’t resist breaking into the baguette for a snack. I ate it with some camembert, pâté, and butter.
After the snack, Adrienne tried reading some of our homework while I typed up a bit of my journal. It’s at least a productive way to procrastinate homework. Karuna snorted when I told her that. Eventually she woke up and took a shower. Then there was a ring on our doorbell. I hadn’t even heard it before. I opened the door and it was M. Choupin (our landlord). He was there to say hi to Karuna and see if we needed anything. Then he revealed his main reason for dropping by. He told us that his daughter would not be coming to Paris so the apartment would be open for us to stay in. I was so stunned at the news that I think I failed to show my excitement at the idea. The space seemed a bit small for two people at first but I can’t deny that the price and location are mouthwatering ideas. We told M. Choupin that we would talk amongst ourselves and come up with a solution. I was very torn and excited about the new development. We loved the apartment in Sevres but I couldn’t ignore a previous statement I’d made, “It’s too bad we can’t just stay here the whole time.”
Karuna had a good friend that she wanted to see. She got ready and went down to meet up with him. Adrienne and I got ready and went down to meet them. His name was Virgile. He was very cute and had a large mass of hair perched on his head that made me miss Tom a bit. He was very nice and spoke amazing English. For some reason, the conversation had started in English and it was hard to randomly switch.
We talked for a bit before he went to meet another friend. We gained another fourth as we saw Heidi at the café. We were all hungry so we decided to go get some dinner. We left the place up to Karuna since she’s the expert on Paris.
We took the bus and walked toward Rue Cler. We stopped at a restaurant called Café du Bon Marché. I think it’s supposed to be related to the large mall. While waiting to be seated we saw a group of guys at the bar. One older man was drunk and was playing with the fire extinguisher as if he was going to use it. The other guys were like “Hey, not on my jacket.” One of the guys looked at Heidi and said, “Aide-moi!” in mock desperation. Finally we were being led to our table. I gave a little smirk and a wave as we walked off. The guy said, “Non! Non.” He grabbed my arm and I pulled it out of his grasp. Luckily they were just kidding around and didn’t follow us to the table. I had an amazing salad for dinner. It was called Salade du Marché. Its lower layer consisted of carrot slices, lettuce, cabbage, peas, and couscous. Then on top of that there were thin slices of ham and a chunk of pâté. The veggies had a light vinaigrette on them. It was an amazing salad.
The four of us had an awesome dinner and fun conversation. Then Heidi split off to go home and the rest of us started heading home ourselves. Karuna tried calling Virgile because they had planned to meet up again after dinner. It turned out we were walking along the street right past the door where Virgile’s friend lives. We went up the stairs and into the friend’s apartment to chat for a little. The friend had the same crazy hairstyle as Virgile and was just as adorable. I’ll have to admit my heart was going a little faster while exchanging the welcome bisous. I think the friend’s name was Pierre. We went and sat down while they discussed random things. For some reason the conversation continued in English. Both of them spoke such amazing English. I hope that my French sounds that amazing some day.
It was then time to go. Pierre, Virgile, and Karuna were going to a party. Adrienne and I decided to walk home. We weren’t that far away. It was a pretty quick walk.
Once home, Adrienne and I talked for a little bit. I got online and talked to some people. It was finally 1:00am and I tried to text Karuna about her load of laundry in the washer. Then she walked in the door. We all chatted for a bit and then Adrienne and I got ready for bed and tried to sleep. Actually, it was more like I was trying to stay awake for a while. Adrienne was talking to me and I had to keep myself from falling asleep while she was talking. Karuna had to switch some things between bags so she was up rather late before trying to sleep a bit.
I awoke to our door buzzer. Karuna was due to arrive that morning. I went to open the door not realizing that it was many hours after her scheduled arrival. She was supposed to be in at 8:30am and ended up arriving at 11:30am. I was sympathetic to her flight delay but glad that I’d gotten more than a few hours sleep before she arrived.
Karuna looked around at the apartment that used to be hers. She lived here for five months last year. She pointed out all the dishes she’d bought and all the other items she left behind. I didn’t realize so much of the stuff had been hers.
We talked for a while before Karuna collapsed in bed. I finished my J.D. Robb book while she slept and Adrienne took a shower. Once I finished my book I crept into the kitchen to hang out with Adrienne. I munched on some of my Muesli cereal for breakfast.
I decided it would be good to have some bread for later. I managed to wade through the suitcases and drying rack to get my clothes and get dressed. I then made my way to the Gosselin bakery on the corner. I got one and a half baguettes for later. Once I had returned, I couldn’t resist breaking into the baguette for a snack. I ate it with some camembert, pâté, and butter.
After the snack, Adrienne tried reading some of our homework while I typed up a bit of my journal. It’s at least a productive way to procrastinate homework. Karuna snorted when I told her that. Eventually she woke up and took a shower. Then there was a ring on our doorbell. I hadn’t even heard it before. I opened the door and it was M. Choupin (our landlord). He was there to say hi to Karuna and see if we needed anything. Then he revealed his main reason for dropping by. He told us that his daughter would not be coming to Paris so the apartment would be open for us to stay in. I was so stunned at the news that I think I failed to show my excitement at the idea. The space seemed a bit small for two people at first but I can’t deny that the price and location are mouthwatering ideas. We told M. Choupin that we would talk amongst ourselves and come up with a solution. I was very torn and excited about the new development. We loved the apartment in Sevres but I couldn’t ignore a previous statement I’d made, “It’s too bad we can’t just stay here the whole time.”
Karuna had a good friend that she wanted to see. She got ready and went down to meet up with him. Adrienne and I got ready and went down to meet them. His name was Virgile. He was very cute and had a large mass of hair perched on his head that made me miss Tom a bit. He was very nice and spoke amazing English. For some reason, the conversation had started in English and it was hard to randomly switch.
We talked for a bit before he went to meet another friend. We gained another fourth as we saw Heidi at the café. We were all hungry so we decided to go get some dinner. We left the place up to Karuna since she’s the expert on Paris.
We took the bus and walked toward Rue Cler. We stopped at a restaurant called Café du Bon Marché. I think it’s supposed to be related to the large mall. While waiting to be seated we saw a group of guys at the bar. One older man was drunk and was playing with the fire extinguisher as if he was going to use it. The other guys were like “Hey, not on my jacket.” One of the guys looked at Heidi and said, “Aide-moi!” in mock desperation. Finally we were being led to our table. I gave a little smirk and a wave as we walked off. The guy said, “Non! Non.” He grabbed my arm and I pulled it out of his grasp. Luckily they were just kidding around and didn’t follow us to the table. I had an amazing salad for dinner. It was called Salade du Marché. Its lower layer consisted of carrot slices, lettuce, cabbage, peas, and couscous. Then on top of that there were thin slices of ham and a chunk of pâté. The veggies had a light vinaigrette on them. It was an amazing salad.
The four of us had an awesome dinner and fun conversation. Then Heidi split off to go home and the rest of us started heading home ourselves. Karuna tried calling Virgile because they had planned to meet up again after dinner. It turned out we were walking along the street right past the door where Virgile’s friend lives. We went up the stairs and into the friend’s apartment to chat for a little. The friend had the same crazy hairstyle as Virgile and was just as adorable. I’ll have to admit my heart was going a little faster while exchanging the welcome bisous. I think the friend’s name was Pierre. We went and sat down while they discussed random things. For some reason the conversation continued in English. Both of them spoke such amazing English. I hope that my French sounds that amazing some day.
It was then time to go. Pierre, Virgile, and Karuna were going to a party. Adrienne and I decided to walk home. We weren’t that far away. It was a pretty quick walk.
Once home, Adrienne and I talked for a little bit. I got online and talked to some people. It was finally 1:00am and I tried to text Karuna about her load of laundry in the washer. Then she walked in the door. We all chatted for a bit and then Adrienne and I got ready for bed and tried to sleep. Actually, it was more like I was trying to stay awake for a while. Adrienne was talking to me and I had to keep myself from falling asleep while she was talking. Karuna had to switch some things between bags so she was up rather late before trying to sleep a bit.
Friday, January 11, 2008
January 11th Friday
We woke up at around 10:00am and called Mme Wessel to confirm our meeting with her later. We were going to go see an apartment that sounded very interesting to us. I fortified myself on Muesli chocolate cereal. We got ready and left on the metro. We took the 12 line to the 10 and took that to the west of Paris. Then we got on the 9 line and took that to its terminus at the southwest corner. We then took a bus across the bridge into Sevres. It was drizzling slightly but Adrienne and I were immediately taken with the town. It was very charming and seemed so peaceful after being in Paris for a week. We continued up some stairs to the Brancas street. The apartment was located in what looked like a small peach colored house. We met Mme Wessel and she showed us around.
The apartment is 50m² and has separate bedrooms. The windows look out over the garden and toward the opposite hill. It’s a good price and is very nice. Mme Wessel was very nice and answered all of our questions. After hearing stories from some friends we made sure to ask that we could get receipts for payments as well as papers for the Carte de Séjour. She was very accommodating. I would enjoy being her tenant. The house is amazing. It was built in 1850 and Mme Wessel’s living space has the original furniture. It’s set in a very calm location.
After going over all of our questions with Mme Wessel, we headed out and decided to look at the town of Sevres. We were able to find many cheap Chinese restaurants. We also checked out which banks were there and where the grocery stores were. Everything seemed very convenient. We made our way through the rain and finally started heading back toward the metro stop. We stopped in at a boulangerie and picked up some sandwiches for lunch. I was starving. I ended up taking a curry chicken ciabatta sandwich. The lady there pressed it and heated it up for me. She was very friendly. Something about being a baker must make people happy because I haven’t met a cranky one yet. Perhaps they get to work out their frustrations on the dough.
I hungrily devoured my sandwich and protected it from the rain under my umbrella. I finished it before we made it to the metro station. When we were crossing the bridge to get to the metro, we stopped and looked back at Sevres. I was trying to picture living there. It looked amazing and we were trying very hard not to decide too quickly. Everything seemed like it was perfect. But I just didn’t feel like I could see us living there. Something didn’t feel very final about it. I had a feeling we were going to find another offer.
We continued on our way and traced our way back on the metro. It took us about 50 minutes to get to our house. It would definitely be a commute. We got home and looked online to see if there were other offers. Mme Wessel wanted an answer soon and we wanted to at least see other apartments. We found some other things that we might go for.
It turned out my mom was home so I got to call her and talk to her. I told her about the apartment we had just visited. I was quite excited. She seemed excited with me. It was good to discuss the apartment as well as others we were looking at.
I played on my computer a bit before realizing that I needed to leave soon to meet up with people for the party. I got ready and called Amanda to see if she was still going. I wanted to make sure that if something happened, I wouldn’t be the only person standing by the metro station. She told me she was coming.
I took the metro up to the Abbesses stop. There, I got off and saw that they had an elevator to the top. There was a line and it seemed like it was taking a while. I decided to continue onward and just take the stairs. How bad could they really be? Sissies.
I found myself several spiral flights later, puffing and gasping my way up the never-ending stairs. A man was climbing in front of me and looked back to make a face. He wasn’t enjoying the climb either. I gasped a breath and nodded. I finally emerged from the metro and decided I found out why French people are so skinny. I found Alberto and Matt waiting for me. I was running late and felt bad for making them wait. Then I found out that everyone else was late too. It was a half hour before we had everyone with us. The group included Alberto, Matteo, Katharina, Sara, Leo, Amanda, and myself. We decided to look around and found an interesting restaurant. I can’t remember the exact name but I know it had Soleil in it. We settled down in a very comfortable and homey setting. Something about it felt slightly new age too.
We ordered a bottle of wine for the table. It was the red wine of the month. I didn’t catch the name but I knew that it was made in the southwest of France. Then I had the Assiette du Fromager which was a cheese plate with 4 kinds of cheese. There was goat cheese, one like camembert, one that was a more crumbly mild cheese with herbs in it, and another creamy cheese that might have been brie. It also came with a salad dressed in a light vinaigrette. For some reason I also had a glob of butter in the middle of my plate. The whole plate was delicious. I even got the big plate so that I could share. Then for dessert, Matteo and I shared a tarte aux fruits. It had an interesting combination of something chocolate, creamy, and cinnamon, with apples on top. It was a good and interesting flavor but kind of unexpected.
The waitress we had was very fun and kidded around with us a lot. I really enjoyed the dinner. I got to go out and have a great dinner with six other people, only two of whom I knew before. I’m pretty excited about getting to know people better.
We made our way by metro to the party that the universities put together. We entered and found that the age group was much younger than us. There was a bar and seating area in the front. Then behind a door there was a room that looked like a disco studio and high school prom had a baby. There were colored lights and silver streamers everywhere.
We ended up staying for a little and then deciding to go somewhere else. We got on the metro and asked around. We ended up at a place called Café Oz (short for Australian). This place was packed. There were just people jammed wall to wall. It was impossible to push through everybody. We finally found a corner that was slightly less populated and hung out there for the rest of the night. Another crazy feature was that the bar had tables of various heights for people to dance on. Some people were definitely dancing. I will not tell you who though. There is no photo evidence at least.
Eventually it was time to go home. The metros were no longer running as it was 4:30am. Sara, Katharina, and I ended up walking a bit together. Then Sara walked most of the way home with me. I got home a little after 4:45am and ended up waking up Adrienne accidentally. She had to get up for something anyway so we ended up talking for a bit. I didn’t get to bed until almost 6am. It was a pretty fun night and I’m looking forward to more.
We woke up at around 10:00am and called Mme Wessel to confirm our meeting with her later. We were going to go see an apartment that sounded very interesting to us. I fortified myself on Muesli chocolate cereal. We got ready and left on the metro. We took the 12 line to the 10 and took that to the west of Paris. Then we got on the 9 line and took that to its terminus at the southwest corner. We then took a bus across the bridge into Sevres. It was drizzling slightly but Adrienne and I were immediately taken with the town. It was very charming and seemed so peaceful after being in Paris for a week. We continued up some stairs to the Brancas street. The apartment was located in what looked like a small peach colored house. We met Mme Wessel and she showed us around.
The apartment is 50m² and has separate bedrooms. The windows look out over the garden and toward the opposite hill. It’s a good price and is very nice. Mme Wessel was very nice and answered all of our questions. After hearing stories from some friends we made sure to ask that we could get receipts for payments as well as papers for the Carte de Séjour. She was very accommodating. I would enjoy being her tenant. The house is amazing. It was built in 1850 and Mme Wessel’s living space has the original furniture. It’s set in a very calm location.
After going over all of our questions with Mme Wessel, we headed out and decided to look at the town of Sevres. We were able to find many cheap Chinese restaurants. We also checked out which banks were there and where the grocery stores were. Everything seemed very convenient. We made our way through the rain and finally started heading back toward the metro stop. We stopped in at a boulangerie and picked up some sandwiches for lunch. I was starving. I ended up taking a curry chicken ciabatta sandwich. The lady there pressed it and heated it up for me. She was very friendly. Something about being a baker must make people happy because I haven’t met a cranky one yet. Perhaps they get to work out their frustrations on the dough.
I hungrily devoured my sandwich and protected it from the rain under my umbrella. I finished it before we made it to the metro station. When we were crossing the bridge to get to the metro, we stopped and looked back at Sevres. I was trying to picture living there. It looked amazing and we were trying very hard not to decide too quickly. Everything seemed like it was perfect. But I just didn’t feel like I could see us living there. Something didn’t feel very final about it. I had a feeling we were going to find another offer.
We continued on our way and traced our way back on the metro. It took us about 50 minutes to get to our house. It would definitely be a commute. We got home and looked online to see if there were other offers. Mme Wessel wanted an answer soon and we wanted to at least see other apartments. We found some other things that we might go for.
It turned out my mom was home so I got to call her and talk to her. I told her about the apartment we had just visited. I was quite excited. She seemed excited with me. It was good to discuss the apartment as well as others we were looking at.
I played on my computer a bit before realizing that I needed to leave soon to meet up with people for the party. I got ready and called Amanda to see if she was still going. I wanted to make sure that if something happened, I wouldn’t be the only person standing by the metro station. She told me she was coming.
I took the metro up to the Abbesses stop. There, I got off and saw that they had an elevator to the top. There was a line and it seemed like it was taking a while. I decided to continue onward and just take the stairs. How bad could they really be? Sissies.
I found myself several spiral flights later, puffing and gasping my way up the never-ending stairs. A man was climbing in front of me and looked back to make a face. He wasn’t enjoying the climb either. I gasped a breath and nodded. I finally emerged from the metro and decided I found out why French people are so skinny. I found Alberto and Matt waiting for me. I was running late and felt bad for making them wait. Then I found out that everyone else was late too. It was a half hour before we had everyone with us. The group included Alberto, Matteo, Katharina, Sara, Leo, Amanda, and myself. We decided to look around and found an interesting restaurant. I can’t remember the exact name but I know it had Soleil in it. We settled down in a very comfortable and homey setting. Something about it felt slightly new age too.
We ordered a bottle of wine for the table. It was the red wine of the month. I didn’t catch the name but I knew that it was made in the southwest of France. Then I had the Assiette du Fromager which was a cheese plate with 4 kinds of cheese. There was goat cheese, one like camembert, one that was a more crumbly mild cheese with herbs in it, and another creamy cheese that might have been brie. It also came with a salad dressed in a light vinaigrette. For some reason I also had a glob of butter in the middle of my plate. The whole plate was delicious. I even got the big plate so that I could share. Then for dessert, Matteo and I shared a tarte aux fruits. It had an interesting combination of something chocolate, creamy, and cinnamon, with apples on top. It was a good and interesting flavor but kind of unexpected.
The waitress we had was very fun and kidded around with us a lot. I really enjoyed the dinner. I got to go out and have a great dinner with six other people, only two of whom I knew before. I’m pretty excited about getting to know people better.
We made our way by metro to the party that the universities put together. We entered and found that the age group was much younger than us. There was a bar and seating area in the front. Then behind a door there was a room that looked like a disco studio and high school prom had a baby. There were colored lights and silver streamers everywhere.
We ended up staying for a little and then deciding to go somewhere else. We got on the metro and asked around. We ended up at a place called Café Oz (short for Australian). This place was packed. There were just people jammed wall to wall. It was impossible to push through everybody. We finally found a corner that was slightly less populated and hung out there for the rest of the night. Another crazy feature was that the bar had tables of various heights for people to dance on. Some people were definitely dancing. I will not tell you who though. There is no photo evidence at least.
Eventually it was time to go home. The metros were no longer running as it was 4:30am. Sara, Katharina, and I ended up walking a bit together. Then Sara walked most of the way home with me. I got home a little after 4:45am and ended up waking up Adrienne accidentally. She had to get up for something anyway so we ended up talking for a bit. I didn’t get to bed until almost 6am. It was a pretty fun night and I’m looking forward to more.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
January 10th Thursday
For breakfast I decided to be ambitious and make scrambled eggs. But once I had made them I found that I didn’t really have the stomach for them anymore. I still felt very sick. I focused on my yogurt and milk instead.
Adrienne and I got ready and made our way to the office of Mme Million. She was one of our sources to try to find housing information. She had a sign on her door saying that she was out and would return soon. We waited for a while before she came rushing up. We all sat down and Adrienne and I explained who we were and what we were looking for. Mme Million thought she had something for us and told us about an apartment. The only problem was that it was €200 beyond our hopeful price range. She was able to help us with information on the BDE (Bureau des Elèves) though. That turned out to be a more fruitful endeavor. We thanked her for her time and left to her saying “Bon courage!”
While we had been waiting for her, Adrienne and I had discovered that our class was not at 10:15am as originally thought, but at 2:45pm. We decided to go back to the apartment for a while before class. We tried to stop at the BDE on the way, but it wasn’t open. We continued home where Adrienne was able to register online. I tried but could not figure out how it worked. I didn’t want to be charged twice. I read for a while and rested. Then I got an SMS from Amanda. She was at Sciences Po and wondered if we wanted to have lunch with her.
We packed up our stuff and went to meet her. We went to a nearby store called Monoprix. There was a floor with clothes above a large supermarket. We went to the sandwich area and ordered some lunch. I had a Panini with ham, mozzarella, tomatoes, and marinara sauce. We couldn’t find seats so we went up to the drink area and asked if we could sit at the bar. The lady there told us we had to order drinks. I ordered a hot chocolate. It was pretty expensive and I was picturing it coming in a cup the size of an espresso cup. Actually, it came in a mug the size of a soup bowl. There was sugar and a little square of chocolate to go with it. I found it to be much closer to the price in value than I was expecting.
After lunch we still had quite a bit of time so we went shopping. I bought some shampoo, conditioner, orchid bath gel and new pens. I was excited about the shampoo because I hadn’t seen much for colored hair in the stores we’d popped into. I ended up standing in the slowest line in all of creation. I swear it felt like I was in line for thirty minutes. I found the one cashier in all of France who wasn’t in a rush to get me out of there.
We made our way back to Sciences Po where I bought a pain au chocolat from the cafeteria. It definitely wasn’t as good as the bakeries in the area can make. We stopped by BDE again and Amanda tried to register with them. Then we tried to go on our way. There were some guys with a video game system set up and cords stretched in our paths.
We went to our final class. It was La France et La Construction Européenne. Our professor arrived a bit late. M. Grossman cocked his head at the strange buzzing noise I heard the first two days. Then he said “Oh yes. I think it’s the hand dryers in the ground floor toilets.” Even though the noises continued, I found them less annoying now that I finally knew what was making them. Our first class was mostly spent on discussing how to decide on good paper topics. It went pretty well. I enjoyed the class as well as our professor.
After class there was talk about a party on the next night. We went and got some information on it. It was being put together by some of the different universities in the area. After deciding that we’d meet each other for dinner and then go out the next day, we went our separate ways home.
Adrienne stopped in at a sandwich place next to our building. I ended up getting a sandwich with smoked salmon, tomato, and lettuce. The sandwich wasn’t that great but it was okay. I ate as much as I could before giving up.
After dinner we went on the internet and looked at housing offers on the BDE website. Adrienne set up a meeting to see an apartment in Sevres the next day. I was able to talk to my dad for a little while on the phone. I also talked to Maya and Tom online. I’m so glad that I can keep in touch with people from so far away. It makes moving this far easier. Finally my headache was too much for me and I went to sleep.
For breakfast I decided to be ambitious and make scrambled eggs. But once I had made them I found that I didn’t really have the stomach for them anymore. I still felt very sick. I focused on my yogurt and milk instead.
Adrienne and I got ready and made our way to the office of Mme Million. She was one of our sources to try to find housing information. She had a sign on her door saying that she was out and would return soon. We waited for a while before she came rushing up. We all sat down and Adrienne and I explained who we were and what we were looking for. Mme Million thought she had something for us and told us about an apartment. The only problem was that it was €200 beyond our hopeful price range. She was able to help us with information on the BDE (Bureau des Elèves) though. That turned out to be a more fruitful endeavor. We thanked her for her time and left to her saying “Bon courage!”
While we had been waiting for her, Adrienne and I had discovered that our class was not at 10:15am as originally thought, but at 2:45pm. We decided to go back to the apartment for a while before class. We tried to stop at the BDE on the way, but it wasn’t open. We continued home where Adrienne was able to register online. I tried but could not figure out how it worked. I didn’t want to be charged twice. I read for a while and rested. Then I got an SMS from Amanda. She was at Sciences Po and wondered if we wanted to have lunch with her.
We packed up our stuff and went to meet her. We went to a nearby store called Monoprix. There was a floor with clothes above a large supermarket. We went to the sandwich area and ordered some lunch. I had a Panini with ham, mozzarella, tomatoes, and marinara sauce. We couldn’t find seats so we went up to the drink area and asked if we could sit at the bar. The lady there told us we had to order drinks. I ordered a hot chocolate. It was pretty expensive and I was picturing it coming in a cup the size of an espresso cup. Actually, it came in a mug the size of a soup bowl. There was sugar and a little square of chocolate to go with it. I found it to be much closer to the price in value than I was expecting.
After lunch we still had quite a bit of time so we went shopping. I bought some shampoo, conditioner, orchid bath gel and new pens. I was excited about the shampoo because I hadn’t seen much for colored hair in the stores we’d popped into. I ended up standing in the slowest line in all of creation. I swear it felt like I was in line for thirty minutes. I found the one cashier in all of France who wasn’t in a rush to get me out of there.
We made our way back to Sciences Po where I bought a pain au chocolat from the cafeteria. It definitely wasn’t as good as the bakeries in the area can make. We stopped by BDE again and Amanda tried to register with them. Then we tried to go on our way. There were some guys with a video game system set up and cords stretched in our paths.
We went to our final class. It was La France et La Construction Européenne. Our professor arrived a bit late. M. Grossman cocked his head at the strange buzzing noise I heard the first two days. Then he said “Oh yes. I think it’s the hand dryers in the ground floor toilets.” Even though the noises continued, I found them less annoying now that I finally knew what was making them. Our first class was mostly spent on discussing how to decide on good paper topics. It went pretty well. I enjoyed the class as well as our professor.
After class there was talk about a party on the next night. We went and got some information on it. It was being put together by some of the different universities in the area. After deciding that we’d meet each other for dinner and then go out the next day, we went our separate ways home.
Adrienne stopped in at a sandwich place next to our building. I ended up getting a sandwich with smoked salmon, tomato, and lettuce. The sandwich wasn’t that great but it was okay. I ate as much as I could before giving up.
After dinner we went on the internet and looked at housing offers on the BDE website. Adrienne set up a meeting to see an apartment in Sevres the next day. I was able to talk to my dad for a little while on the phone. I also talked to Maya and Tom online. I’m so glad that I can keep in touch with people from so far away. It makes moving this far easier. Finally my headache was too much for me and I went to sleep.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
January 9th Wednesday
In the morning I knew that I was sick. I had very strange dreams the night before. One involved me trying to help a man save his five children from a sudden tidal wave at the beach. The next one was somewhat in opposition when I dreamt that I had lots of children staying at my house doing bratty things. I kept taking things away from them and wishing they were gone.
When my alarm went off I tried to raise myself out of bed. I felt like I was dead. I was clogged up and achy all over. I even had a headache. I tried to get some energy for the day through breakfast. I had some fromage blanc and bread with Nutella on it. I had orange juice to drink. It may not have been the healthiest breakfast ever, but when you’re sick you just want food that sounds good.
We walked to our first class. This class is called Le Système Politique Français (The French Political System). Our teacher’s name is Padis. He has curly hair that has receded quite a bit. He looks at us through glasses perched on his sharp nose. He’s fairly friendly. The reading for his class was fairly simple. It was basically a recap of our Welfare Capitalism course in French. We started talking about that and then spun off into other topics from there. The class went very well. I gained his permission to use my computer in class to take notes. This will definitely facilitate the process.
We had a two and a half hour break until our next class. That’s just barely enough time for lunch (haha). A group of us went to the cafeteria and got sandwiches. I had a ham and cheese sandwich on very nice bread. It wasn’t the normal baguette. It had a more interesting texture and shiny appearance. My first two bites left me wanting some kind of mayonnaise or mustard. I went in search of some and was unable to find any. I settled back down and on my next bite found the “sauce.” There was a thick layer of butter that I had not bitten into at first. Part of me cringes when I eat such things, but the other part sits back and enjoys this wonderful taste. Life is too short to worry about everything.
After our little lunch, Adrienne, Heidi and I went back to our apartment. We checked some emails, drank some tea, and tried to read more for our next class. Heidi ended up taking a quick nap too.
We finally realized we had better make our way back to school. We were going to be late. We hurried along the street and made it into the classroom. This class would be La France, L’Europe Politique, et les Relations Internationals (France, European politics, and international relations). Thankfully the professor was late too. His name is Irondelle and this was our first time meeting him. He wasn’t able to make it to orientation the previous day. When guessing with Heidi what he would be like, I thought that he would be an older man. He turned out to be younger. In the beginning he introduced himself very slowly and told us to tell him if he talked to fast. Then he took off like a bullet into his lecture. I was sitting on the side of the room and I think this made it difficult to hear him. There have also been construction noises outside the windows on the streets. Another annoying buzzing that sounded like somebody’s cell phone on vibrate had persisted throughout the entire last class and this one. I went crazy trying to figure out what it was. This was all added on top of the fact that he talked a lot about the pile of reading we were supposed to do for that day. I ended up quite lost by the end of the day and wondering if I should write a will before the program killed me. The professor wanted us to introduce ourselves. He listed of a few things he wanted us to say and then started with me. I had to ask him to repeat because I just couldn’t understand him. I could feel my face blushing as I listened closely and tried to understand him.
I also became nervous about the work that we would have to do for this module (3 months). The papers wouldn’t be so scary if they were in English. We have to write a 3,000 word essay for each class. Then we have to pick one of them to do an additional 6,000 word essay in. We can combine the essays in one class to be one 9,000 word essay if we want. Of course, all these papers have the same due date so I’m not sure what kind of work schedule I’ll have.
We made it out of this class alive to do more reading for the next. Adrienne and I headed home and stopped by the Gosselin bakery to grab a baguette. I couldn’t resist and also got a chocolate éclair. It looked very nice.
At home we prepared dinner. I cooked up some chicken and we mixed it with some pesto and spaghetti noodles. It was pretty good. The noodles were a bit funny though because I had some left over from last dinner and had tried to heat them up again. Keep in mind that I do not have a microwave.
I was able to read my homework for the next day’s class. It was about conducting interviews with elites. I found it rather strange. Our syllabus also says something about required interviews. I am officially afraid.
To try to combat my sickness and relax for bed, I took a bath complete with Japanese cherry blossom bubble bath. My friend Maya had given it to me and I really enjoyed it. It was quite fun.
I had a glass of wine after the bath. It was from the bottle that we’d opened when Heidi came over for dinner. It wasn’t very good by itself. It was best with the bread and cheeses. I got to talk to my mom briefly on the phone. She was home sick. She gave me some tips for my sore throat. I ended up getting myself into bed by 10:40pm even though I stayed up reading later.
In the morning I knew that I was sick. I had very strange dreams the night before. One involved me trying to help a man save his five children from a sudden tidal wave at the beach. The next one was somewhat in opposition when I dreamt that I had lots of children staying at my house doing bratty things. I kept taking things away from them and wishing they were gone.
When my alarm went off I tried to raise myself out of bed. I felt like I was dead. I was clogged up and achy all over. I even had a headache. I tried to get some energy for the day through breakfast. I had some fromage blanc and bread with Nutella on it. I had orange juice to drink. It may not have been the healthiest breakfast ever, but when you’re sick you just want food that sounds good.
We walked to our first class. This class is called Le Système Politique Français (The French Political System). Our teacher’s name is Padis. He has curly hair that has receded quite a bit. He looks at us through glasses perched on his sharp nose. He’s fairly friendly. The reading for his class was fairly simple. It was basically a recap of our Welfare Capitalism course in French. We started talking about that and then spun off into other topics from there. The class went very well. I gained his permission to use my computer in class to take notes. This will definitely facilitate the process.
We had a two and a half hour break until our next class. That’s just barely enough time for lunch (haha). A group of us went to the cafeteria and got sandwiches. I had a ham and cheese sandwich on very nice bread. It wasn’t the normal baguette. It had a more interesting texture and shiny appearance. My first two bites left me wanting some kind of mayonnaise or mustard. I went in search of some and was unable to find any. I settled back down and on my next bite found the “sauce.” There was a thick layer of butter that I had not bitten into at first. Part of me cringes when I eat such things, but the other part sits back and enjoys this wonderful taste. Life is too short to worry about everything.
After our little lunch, Adrienne, Heidi and I went back to our apartment. We checked some emails, drank some tea, and tried to read more for our next class. Heidi ended up taking a quick nap too.
We finally realized we had better make our way back to school. We were going to be late. We hurried along the street and made it into the classroom. This class would be La France, L’Europe Politique, et les Relations Internationals (France, European politics, and international relations). Thankfully the professor was late too. His name is Irondelle and this was our first time meeting him. He wasn’t able to make it to orientation the previous day. When guessing with Heidi what he would be like, I thought that he would be an older man. He turned out to be younger. In the beginning he introduced himself very slowly and told us to tell him if he talked to fast. Then he took off like a bullet into his lecture. I was sitting on the side of the room and I think this made it difficult to hear him. There have also been construction noises outside the windows on the streets. Another annoying buzzing that sounded like somebody’s cell phone on vibrate had persisted throughout the entire last class and this one. I went crazy trying to figure out what it was. This was all added on top of the fact that he talked a lot about the pile of reading we were supposed to do for that day. I ended up quite lost by the end of the day and wondering if I should write a will before the program killed me. The professor wanted us to introduce ourselves. He listed of a few things he wanted us to say and then started with me. I had to ask him to repeat because I just couldn’t understand him. I could feel my face blushing as I listened closely and tried to understand him.
I also became nervous about the work that we would have to do for this module (3 months). The papers wouldn’t be so scary if they were in English. We have to write a 3,000 word essay for each class. Then we have to pick one of them to do an additional 6,000 word essay in. We can combine the essays in one class to be one 9,000 word essay if we want. Of course, all these papers have the same due date so I’m not sure what kind of work schedule I’ll have.
We made it out of this class alive to do more reading for the next. Adrienne and I headed home and stopped by the Gosselin bakery to grab a baguette. I couldn’t resist and also got a chocolate éclair. It looked very nice.
At home we prepared dinner. I cooked up some chicken and we mixed it with some pesto and spaghetti noodles. It was pretty good. The noodles were a bit funny though because I had some left over from last dinner and had tried to heat them up again. Keep in mind that I do not have a microwave.
I was able to read my homework for the next day’s class. It was about conducting interviews with elites. I found it rather strange. Our syllabus also says something about required interviews. I am officially afraid.
To try to combat my sickness and relax for bed, I took a bath complete with Japanese cherry blossom bubble bath. My friend Maya had given it to me and I really enjoyed it. It was quite fun.
I had a glass of wine after the bath. It was from the bottle that we’d opened when Heidi came over for dinner. It wasn’t very good by itself. It was best with the bread and cheeses. I got to talk to my mom briefly on the phone. She was home sick. She gave me some tips for my sore throat. I ended up getting myself into bed by 10:40pm even though I stayed up reading later.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
January 8th Tuesday
I was very excited about my breakfast. I poured my 3 chocolate Meusli cereal from Franprix with great relish. I had reasoned that the fiber and other good things of the cereal counteracted the fact that it had little bits of chocolate in it. Of course I was also pouring in half-creamed milk.
Today was our first day at Sciences Po. We had an orientation that I hoped would give us more information. We miscalculated how far we live from the school building and had to rush to make it on time. We arrived only a few minutes late but the orientation had not begun.
The program director and the professors introduced themselves and the program. The most striking person among them was Astride. She is our person to go for help with anything in the program. She reminded me of an ancient member of the French royal court. Her face was very pale. Her hair was almost the same color and was pulled back in a way that made me think of powdered wigs. Her eyebrows were high and arched. This appearance was offset by her very pleasant and friendly personality as well as the red Chinese-style top that she was wearing.
After the description of our modules, we went around and introduced ourselves. There are students from England, Spain, Germany, and Italy. I’m excited to get to know everyone. There are about a dozen of us in the program. There won’t be any other students in our classes.
After our meeting, we were led around to see the different buildings of Sciences Po. Heidi said that it was exactly as she imagined it, “beautiful but in a state of disrepair.” The buildings are large and impressively formed on the outside. The inside’s impression is what I can best describe as 1970s linoleum. We were able to see the library and other places of importance. Then after this we all went to see Astride at her office. She was rather surprised to see all of us waiting there. She made some copies of a piece of information, gave us our readings, and shooed most of us out the door with it. She was flustered having a group sitting in the tiny lobby in front of her office door. I was able to stay because I needed her to print out a new copy of my acceptance letter. I had forgotten the original at home somehow and that was why the man at the carte de séjour office didn’t recognize the copy of it.
Adrienne and Alberto had waited for me outside. We ran around a little to try to find the rest of the group. Everyone wanted to eat lunch together. We eventually found them in the cafeteria at Sciences Po. I was able to buy a baguette sandwich with ham, lettuce, tomato, hard-boiled egg, and mayonnaise.
We finished lunch and then ventured off toward the student card office. I had to buy the Sciences Po health insurance but I knew about that before. The only thing that was troublesome was that the credit card machine wouldn’t print a receipt. They had made the transaction for €192 and I was afraid they’d send me away with no proof that I’d paid for it. At least five different people came over and tried to fix it. Finally the machine happily chugged out a receipt. They were able to make my student card. I felt like it was a small trophy in my battle against the Homme. I got one of the pieces to the elaborate puzzle.
I started to feel the exhaustion of my sudden cold. After obtaining the card, Adrienne and I walked home. We had to bundle up because the weather was back to being cold and gray.
At home we hastened to create our email accounts at Sciences Po. Now I can be a real nerd and list Sciences Po as my primary network on Facebook. Of course, I should probably delete the part in my profile that states “I love everything French (except the guys).” I also wrote emails to my family and some friends.
For dinner I wanted something brothy to help soothe my throat. I went down to the 8 à Huit and bought some vegetable broth, couscous, and chicken bouillon cubes. I went ahead and heated up some soup to drink while the couscous fluffed up.
During and after dinner, Adrienne and I took a look at the giant book like objects we had gotten at Astride’s office. We had one for each course. They contained photocopies of different texts and compiled our entire reading for the course. We have to read two introductions before class tomorrow. Normally this amount of reading isn’t anything I’d complain about, but I feel sick and would much rather curl up and sleep. I will probably have to stay up late just to finish these introductions.
Overall, I’m quite excited to start my classes here. I enjoyed the presentation of the program. I’m not afraid of writing in French like I was before. The director of the program stressed how important it was to write in French and not take the easy road of English. It validates our language skills to be able to show someone our works written in another language. I also feel that they will understand because many of these professors have had to write in English. The director acknowledged how frustrating it is.
I am looking forward to tomorrow. We’ll have actual classes. I just hope I can get enough of the readings done.
I was very excited about my breakfast. I poured my 3 chocolate Meusli cereal from Franprix with great relish. I had reasoned that the fiber and other good things of the cereal counteracted the fact that it had little bits of chocolate in it. Of course I was also pouring in half-creamed milk.
Today was our first day at Sciences Po. We had an orientation that I hoped would give us more information. We miscalculated how far we live from the school building and had to rush to make it on time. We arrived only a few minutes late but the orientation had not begun.
The program director and the professors introduced themselves and the program. The most striking person among them was Astride. She is our person to go for help with anything in the program. She reminded me of an ancient member of the French royal court. Her face was very pale. Her hair was almost the same color and was pulled back in a way that made me think of powdered wigs. Her eyebrows were high and arched. This appearance was offset by her very pleasant and friendly personality as well as the red Chinese-style top that she was wearing.
After the description of our modules, we went around and introduced ourselves. There are students from England, Spain, Germany, and Italy. I’m excited to get to know everyone. There are about a dozen of us in the program. There won’t be any other students in our classes.
After our meeting, we were led around to see the different buildings of Sciences Po. Heidi said that it was exactly as she imagined it, “beautiful but in a state of disrepair.” The buildings are large and impressively formed on the outside. The inside’s impression is what I can best describe as 1970s linoleum. We were able to see the library and other places of importance. Then after this we all went to see Astride at her office. She was rather surprised to see all of us waiting there. She made some copies of a piece of information, gave us our readings, and shooed most of us out the door with it. She was flustered having a group sitting in the tiny lobby in front of her office door. I was able to stay because I needed her to print out a new copy of my acceptance letter. I had forgotten the original at home somehow and that was why the man at the carte de séjour office didn’t recognize the copy of it.
Adrienne and Alberto had waited for me outside. We ran around a little to try to find the rest of the group. Everyone wanted to eat lunch together. We eventually found them in the cafeteria at Sciences Po. I was able to buy a baguette sandwich with ham, lettuce, tomato, hard-boiled egg, and mayonnaise.
We finished lunch and then ventured off toward the student card office. I had to buy the Sciences Po health insurance but I knew about that before. The only thing that was troublesome was that the credit card machine wouldn’t print a receipt. They had made the transaction for €192 and I was afraid they’d send me away with no proof that I’d paid for it. At least five different people came over and tried to fix it. Finally the machine happily chugged out a receipt. They were able to make my student card. I felt like it was a small trophy in my battle against the Homme. I got one of the pieces to the elaborate puzzle.
I started to feel the exhaustion of my sudden cold. After obtaining the card, Adrienne and I walked home. We had to bundle up because the weather was back to being cold and gray.
At home we hastened to create our email accounts at Sciences Po. Now I can be a real nerd and list Sciences Po as my primary network on Facebook. Of course, I should probably delete the part in my profile that states “I love everything French (except the guys).” I also wrote emails to my family and some friends.
For dinner I wanted something brothy to help soothe my throat. I went down to the 8 à Huit and bought some vegetable broth, couscous, and chicken bouillon cubes. I went ahead and heated up some soup to drink while the couscous fluffed up.
During and after dinner, Adrienne and I took a look at the giant book like objects we had gotten at Astride’s office. We had one for each course. They contained photocopies of different texts and compiled our entire reading for the course. We have to read two introductions before class tomorrow. Normally this amount of reading isn’t anything I’d complain about, but I feel sick and would much rather curl up and sleep. I will probably have to stay up late just to finish these introductions.
Overall, I’m quite excited to start my classes here. I enjoyed the presentation of the program. I’m not afraid of writing in French like I was before. The director of the program stressed how important it was to write in French and not take the easy road of English. It validates our language skills to be able to show someone our works written in another language. I also feel that they will understand because many of these professors have had to write in English. The director acknowledged how frustrating it is.
I am looking forward to tomorrow. We’ll have actual classes. I just hope I can get enough of the readings done.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Hello to Heidi
January 7th Monday
Today we had decided to go to BHV and Sciences Po. I took my shower and got ready. While Adrienne was in the shower I ran and got us two pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants).
We made our way by metro up to BHV. The purpose of this visit was to get a new converter. We had struggled with Adrienne’s converter that she bought at BHV on Wednesday the 2nd. The instructions were not very clear. Even without the language barrier, it was impossible to decipher which setting the switch needed to be on in order to use it for a 110v machine in a 220v plug. Through some experimenting and a few burnt fuses, I determined that while we thought the switch had to be on 110v, it had to be on 220v. I bought a new converter (the same type as Adrienne’s now that we knew how to work it) and noticed something interesting. There was a neon sticker on the box that said “Attention. Erreur.” Apparently, they had mixed up the instructions and had told you the wrong position of the switch. I felt very happy to see this because it meant that I understood the directions perfectly. They were the ones who had screwed up. Some of my other purchases were a headset for Skype, a black scarf, and a drying rack for laundry. The store was huge and we went on 5 different floors to look at everything we needed.
While leaving the store, I decided to try to call Amanda (TAM student) and see if she wanted to meet up today. She said that she was not going to be around but she would have Heidi (another TAM) call us.
We made our way home to drop off our purchases. We had a large drying rack that I had to maneuver through the metro. It was mildly ridiculous. Eventually we were able to just dump it all in the apartment and get some lunch.
We went to the little store around the corner called the 8 à Huit because it is open from 8am to 8pm. We bought some little prepared sandwiches there. I loved the fact that they were cheaper than the sandwiches in the surrounding cafés. My sandwich had roasted chicken, tomato, bacon and lettuce on it. It was okay. I liked the price more than I enjoyed its taste. It was a very fast solution for hunger. I also bought a little peach tea to drink.
We decided to try Sciences Po and see if anything was open in the afternoon. Alberto had given me some information for a woman named Danielle who could help us with our housing search. We went to see if she was there and found out that she only works from 9:00am until noon. I decided we could either see her the next morning or email her.
Our next stop was Bon Marché to look for some school supplies. This is a large department store. Upon entry it appears very expensive. There are even guards at the door that slink toward you if you pause too long while looking at the list where the shops are. When you make past the guards you can get to the center area that is a sea of white. Each floor has white curtains hanging on it. Then you see the escalator. It has a bright transparent purple on the side studded with large fake jewels. I got such a big kick out of the escalators.
We looked at some of the pretty clothes and Adrienne even found a black beret that she likes. We went to the sous-sol (below the ground floor) to look for notebooks. We eventually found the school supplies stashed in the corner. I bought a plastic folder to hold all of my information as well as a spiral notebook in order to take notes. I need to ask the professors if I can use my computer instead. My handwriting has become very slow.
We received a call from Heidi and decided that we should get together. We would meet near our apartment at the Solférino metro stop. In the meantime, Adrienne and I ran to the Grande Epicerie de Paris. We bought a few different things there. I found some rice noodles that looked very good. We got a sweet and sour sauce to go with it. I’m looking forward to cooking an array of dishes in our little apartment. I get so much more pleasure out of cooking for two than just cooking for one.
We made our way home and bravely walked to save money on metro tickets. Adrienne took our things up to the apartment and I waited for Heidi. While I was waiting, I saw a bookstore across the street with a table of books out front. It had a sign saying €5. I went over to investigate and found some great books. I found one for the Orsay museum as well as the Louvre. They talk a little about the history of each place as well as what kinds of pieces are housed there. There are many colored pictures in it too. I’m pretty excited to read them and know more about some of the paintings and sculptures before I see them again.
As I was paying, my pocket started sending out a pleasant jingle. Heidi was calling me from the metro stop. I went to join her and we made our way up to the apartment. It was so nice to see her again in Paris! We went up and joined Adrienne where we ended up catching up and talking about some random things. Finally we decided we could go to the store and get a few groceries to make dinner. We decided to go to the Franprix that was a few blocks away but would have the cheapest products. Now if you’ve been paying attention, this was my third grocery store today.
On the way there, we past the Basilique St. Clotilde. The statues on the face of this church were amazing. Just as we passed it, the bell tower started letting out a loud bong, bong, bong. It was amazing. I haven’t heard a real bell like that in a really long time. The building was breathtaking the way it was lit up at night. We waited for the ringing to end before continuing on to the Franprix that shared the same street as this great edifice. We ended up getting an amazing array of foods. I was very excited to see how cheap everything is. I’m hoping we can get it together enough to go shopping during the week in order to go there. I even got a bottle of wine for just over one Euro. Watch me wiggle my eyebrows at that.
We carried our bags to the boulangerie on the corner to get two baguettes for dinner. Then the feast began. We had baguettes with pâté, dried sausage, camembert (cheese), chèvre (goat cheese), and boursin (garlic cheese spread). We opened the red wine and tasted it while I was cutting the bread. It was like a punch in the face. It was very strong. Once we started eating the food, the wine tasted much better. It went very well with the meal.
We half a bottle of wine and one and a half baguettes later, we declared ourselves full and started wrapping everything up. I’m excited about the food in our fridge. I was sad to see some of the cheeses that Heidi bought go home with her. We’ll have to have another dinner at her house soon.
We walked up to the river to look around and steal a glance at the Eiffel Tower. Then I walked Heidi to the metro to see her off. Adrienne and I chatted for a while until I forced us to turn out the light. I felt my throat beginning to get sore. I had a feeling that if I didn’t sleep enough I would look like the undead for our orientation.
Today we had decided to go to BHV and Sciences Po. I took my shower and got ready. While Adrienne was in the shower I ran and got us two pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants).
We made our way by metro up to BHV. The purpose of this visit was to get a new converter. We had struggled with Adrienne’s converter that she bought at BHV on Wednesday the 2nd. The instructions were not very clear. Even without the language barrier, it was impossible to decipher which setting the switch needed to be on in order to use it for a 110v machine in a 220v plug. Through some experimenting and a few burnt fuses, I determined that while we thought the switch had to be on 110v, it had to be on 220v. I bought a new converter (the same type as Adrienne’s now that we knew how to work it) and noticed something interesting. There was a neon sticker on the box that said “Attention. Erreur.” Apparently, they had mixed up the instructions and had told you the wrong position of the switch. I felt very happy to see this because it meant that I understood the directions perfectly. They were the ones who had screwed up. Some of my other purchases were a headset for Skype, a black scarf, and a drying rack for laundry. The store was huge and we went on 5 different floors to look at everything we needed.
While leaving the store, I decided to try to call Amanda (TAM student) and see if she wanted to meet up today. She said that she was not going to be around but she would have Heidi (another TAM) call us.
We made our way home to drop off our purchases. We had a large drying rack that I had to maneuver through the metro. It was mildly ridiculous. Eventually we were able to just dump it all in the apartment and get some lunch.
We went to the little store around the corner called the 8 à Huit because it is open from 8am to 8pm. We bought some little prepared sandwiches there. I loved the fact that they were cheaper than the sandwiches in the surrounding cafés. My sandwich had roasted chicken, tomato, bacon and lettuce on it. It was okay. I liked the price more than I enjoyed its taste. It was a very fast solution for hunger. I also bought a little peach tea to drink.
We decided to try Sciences Po and see if anything was open in the afternoon. Alberto had given me some information for a woman named Danielle who could help us with our housing search. We went to see if she was there and found out that she only works from 9:00am until noon. I decided we could either see her the next morning or email her.
Our next stop was Bon Marché to look for some school supplies. This is a large department store. Upon entry it appears very expensive. There are even guards at the door that slink toward you if you pause too long while looking at the list where the shops are. When you make past the guards you can get to the center area that is a sea of white. Each floor has white curtains hanging on it. Then you see the escalator. It has a bright transparent purple on the side studded with large fake jewels. I got such a big kick out of the escalators.
We looked at some of the pretty clothes and Adrienne even found a black beret that she likes. We went to the sous-sol (below the ground floor) to look for notebooks. We eventually found the school supplies stashed in the corner. I bought a plastic folder to hold all of my information as well as a spiral notebook in order to take notes. I need to ask the professors if I can use my computer instead. My handwriting has become very slow.
We received a call from Heidi and decided that we should get together. We would meet near our apartment at the Solférino metro stop. In the meantime, Adrienne and I ran to the Grande Epicerie de Paris. We bought a few different things there. I found some rice noodles that looked very good. We got a sweet and sour sauce to go with it. I’m looking forward to cooking an array of dishes in our little apartment. I get so much more pleasure out of cooking for two than just cooking for one.
We made our way home and bravely walked to save money on metro tickets. Adrienne took our things up to the apartment and I waited for Heidi. While I was waiting, I saw a bookstore across the street with a table of books out front. It had a sign saying €5. I went over to investigate and found some great books. I found one for the Orsay museum as well as the Louvre. They talk a little about the history of each place as well as what kinds of pieces are housed there. There are many colored pictures in it too. I’m pretty excited to read them and know more about some of the paintings and sculptures before I see them again.
As I was paying, my pocket started sending out a pleasant jingle. Heidi was calling me from the metro stop. I went to join her and we made our way up to the apartment. It was so nice to see her again in Paris! We went up and joined Adrienne where we ended up catching up and talking about some random things. Finally we decided we could go to the store and get a few groceries to make dinner. We decided to go to the Franprix that was a few blocks away but would have the cheapest products. Now if you’ve been paying attention, this was my third grocery store today.
On the way there, we past the Basilique St. Clotilde. The statues on the face of this church were amazing. Just as we passed it, the bell tower started letting out a loud bong, bong, bong. It was amazing. I haven’t heard a real bell like that in a really long time. The building was breathtaking the way it was lit up at night. We waited for the ringing to end before continuing on to the Franprix that shared the same street as this great edifice. We ended up getting an amazing array of foods. I was very excited to see how cheap everything is. I’m hoping we can get it together enough to go shopping during the week in order to go there. I even got a bottle of wine for just over one Euro. Watch me wiggle my eyebrows at that.
We carried our bags to the boulangerie on the corner to get two baguettes for dinner. Then the feast began. We had baguettes with pâté, dried sausage, camembert (cheese), chèvre (goat cheese), and boursin (garlic cheese spread). We opened the red wine and tasted it while I was cutting the bread. It was like a punch in the face. It was very strong. Once we started eating the food, the wine tasted much better. It went very well with the meal.
We half a bottle of wine and one and a half baguettes later, we declared ourselves full and started wrapping everything up. I’m excited about the food in our fridge. I was sad to see some of the cheeses that Heidi bought go home with her. We’ll have to have another dinner at her house soon.
We walked up to the river to look around and steal a glance at the Eiffel Tower. Then I walked Heidi to the metro to see her off. Adrienne and I chatted for a while until I forced us to turn out the light. I felt my throat beginning to get sore. I had a feeling that if I didn’t sleep enough I would look like the undead for our orientation.
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