Jana in Paris

Magda and Mme Boudoube

2008-08-17T16:20:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

I took these pictures and then I cried.

2008-08-14T23:18:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

Maintenant, la fin. August 13-14

2008-08-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

Last night I was allowed to bring a friend over for dinner, so I invited Annie. Aurélien was there too -- his girlfriend just broke up with him and he's been really down, so I haven't seen much of him lately. Annie just started studying French six weeks ago, Aurélien hasn't studied English for six or seven years, and Mme Boudoube barely speaks English at all, so I ended up having to translate the whole conversation. It was really confusing, and several times I addressed someone in the wrong language, but it was really fun.

Annie went on and on about how amazing my homestay is -- the food, the people, the nice apartment ... She said that if she had lived here, she would be much less willing to leave Paris. I had forgotten how lucky I was, how good I have it here. No wonder I'm sad to leave. Magda offered to let Annie stay the night, so we stayed up late into the night chatting.

Had my last language exchange, went to class (got my certificate from the Sorbonne, on which my grade was 36/40 -- apparently that's a really good grade in France), bought cards for Mme Boudoube and Magda (as well as a nice pen for Mme Boudoube ... none of the pens in the house really works).

Now I'm packing. I've procrastinated it until now, and I'm making a slow job of it, letting myself get easily distracted. I don't want my stay here to end. There are things about Florida I miss, of course -- my friends and family, my music, cheap USD -- but I found something in Paris that I've never really felt before: the feeling of being home. I don't know why, and I'd have a hard time explaining it. All I know is that I will really miss being here.

August 11 and 12

2008-08-12T16:52:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

August 12-13

2008-08-12T16:12:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a soirée chez the new Temple professor directing us. We had a wonderful time, drinking good wine, eating fabulous tart, and seeing at the top of our lungs to Beatles songs. We acted like real Americans. Her apartment is very close to the Eiffel Tower and has a balcony. It was beautiful.

This morning my language exchange partner canceled on me at the last minute, so I went to the Conciergie and the Sainte-Chapelle. I had to wait an hour to get into the Sainte-Chapelle, and I've seen so many French churches that I'd started to become disenchanted, so I wasn't expecting much. But after just 30 seconds in the Sainte-Chapelle, it was worth the wait. All of the French cathedrals I've seen are missing their former painted walls, but the Sainte-Chapelle has kept all its colors. I was absolutely floored.

I finally got up the Eiffel Tower tonight. It's hideous up close -- all brown twisted metal -- until night falls and it's lit with bright blue light. It was freezing, windy, and crowded ... but absolutely beautiful. The view at night is stunning. I fell in love with Paris all over again.

2008-08-10T12:16:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

2008-08-09T17:47:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

August 9 - Parisian Nightlife

2008-08-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

So we've been going out to clubs (discothèques as they're called here) or music venues a few times a week, but we always have to leave early to take the metro. The metro closes at 1 am on weekdays and 2 am on Friday and Saturday, so it can really cut a night short if you have to leave around 12:15 or 1:15 to make sure you can get home on time. What the Parisians do to get past this is stay out dancing until 5:30, when the metro re-opens.

On Friday, when our night was cut short, Vanessa and I decided to act like brave Parisians and promised to stay out until 5 on Saturday. We'd heard that some of the girls were going out to a techno club, but Vanessa thought she'd enjoy a club called Duplex her housemates had gone to better.

Saturday night we went on a cruise on the Seine, and afterward no one wanted to go to the club with us, so Vanessa and I headed over ourselves. Vanessa didn't know exactly where the place was, but her housemates had said that anyone on the street would know where it was. Sure enough, we asked several people for directions and they all knew where to find Duplex.

Now I usually feel very awkward at Parisian clubs because American girls tend to get dressed up for clubs while Parisians wear their normal clothes. So this time I'd decided just to wear my normal jeans-and-shirt combo to go out so I'd fit in better. Of course, we got to Duplex and everyone standing outside was wearing a dress and high heels. "Oh, I just remembered," Vanessa said, "My housemates said it was really hard to get in to."

We stood by watching people in line get in or get rejected while we were deciding what to do. We tentatively got in line, and two guys came up to us and asked if they could pretend to be with us so they could get in more easily. We got to the front of the line and claimed to be a group of four. The bouncer looked down at my shoes and said, "Sneakers ... No. Exit by here."

We went back to the Champs-Élysées to try to find a new place to go, but we didn't want to get stuck at some lame venue from 2 to 5. We decided to just get something to drink and call it a night. We got seated at a restaurant not realizing that it was 8 euros for a can of Coke ... we got up and left and found another restaurant that by this time was going to close in 15 minutes ...

We ended up at Quick, a French fast food chain, eating chicken wings and vanilla ice cream with lemon candy mixed in. So much for dancing the night away our last weekend in Paris. It was absolutely hilarious.

2008-08-08T18:11:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

Catacombes

2008-08-05T15:53:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

Mont-Saint-Michel

2008-08-03T15:48:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

Musee du Moyen Age, Birthday Party, and Strasbourg

2008-08-03T15:26:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

August 1-3

2008-08-03T14:54:00.000-07:00

I got the idea from Reyes to look for a language exchange online -- find someone with whom to speak in French in exchange for helping him with his English. Since I advertised an English/French exchange, I got at least 10 responses in 24 hours. In my ad I'd said I wanted someone about my age. On Friday, I had two meetings. The first one went really well. The guy was very nice and super interesting -- he's French of Portuguese/Gypsy descent, a convert to Islam, and he lived in Malaysia for six months and now speaks English with an Asian accent. When I asked him what made him become Muslim, he said (in French) "It was destiny -- like falling sick or falling in love, I fell Muslim."

Optimistic from my first meeting, I was rather disappointed with my second. The guy showed up and he was 42 -- and not like a cool 42, and gnarly looking 42. He'd read my ad but figured he'd try showing up anyway to see if I cared about his age. It was rather awkward, but I tried to make the best of it. To make matters worse, he offered to take me around Paris on his moto (not sure what this is in English? It's like a motorcycle, but not exactly) or in his car to make our meetings "less sad for me." Needless to say, I emailed him afterward and told him it wasn't going to work out.

I went out to dinner with seven friends for my birthday, and had a wonderful salmon salad. The waiter, since he heard it was my birthday, put a candle in my ice cream and gave one of my friends free desert. After dinner, everyone left but Vanessa and Annie. We went down to the Seine, on the way stopping to watch break dancers. A guy was on the river playing covers with his guitar for no reason, so we chilled for a little. Vanessa wanted to sing, but couldn't think of any songs.

Aurélien offered to get us into a club for free. We sang in the metro waiting for him, Annie trying to be confident, me trying to sing loud and harmonize while matching Vanessa's voice. The club was really cool -- it was a boat with a dance floor inside and tables on the deck. It played a wide variety of music instead of just the normal generic techno. We danced for a long time, and then Annie and Vanessa had to leave to catch the metro. Aurélien had offered to walk me home since he was sleeping at his grandmother's that night, so I stayed.

I hung out with Aurelien and his friends for the rest of the night. They were super interesting, nice people. I was really proud of myself for being able to converse with them -- young French people are really hard to understand because they talk really fast and use a lot of slang. They kept asking me questions about being American and what I thought of the French. My favorite part was when "Summer Love" from "Grease" was playing and they asked me if I could understand the words, because they couldn't. One of them proceeded to imitate what English sounds like to the French ear ... Hilarious. I wish I had recorded it.

I told Aurélien I wanted to leave around 2:15 or so, and he said we would leave as soon as he said goodbye to his friends. "Saying goodbye" turned into chatting for about an hour and a half, followed by a 40 minute walk home, so by the time we got home it was 4:25. I had to get up at 5:30 to catch a train for Strasbourg. I was wired and between getting ready and trying to settle down I ended up sleeping for ten minutes before leaving the house.

I slept on the train, but the ride was short and I was still completely exhausted. I got to Strasbourg and my brain was not functioning -- I spent several minutes thinking I'd lost my map because I'd forgotten I'd put it in my purse pocket a few minutes earlier. I wandered around for a bit, then tried to sleep on a park bench. That didn't work, so I wandered around some more, getting lost over and over. Strasbourg is pretty, but there's not much to do, especially when you're by yourself. I spent most of my day there sleeping on the grass in front of the train station.

Sunday was Mont St Michel, which was much nicer because I'd slept and I only had 6 hours there instead of 11. It was absolutely beautiful, and there's not much to say that the pictures won't say better.

Birthday Party

2008-07-31T23:10:00.000-07:00

I'm having a birthday party with friends tonight, but I had one with Mme Boudoube and Co. on Wednesday night. A student from Manchester she had hosted previously was coming through town with his friend, so they stayed here for a few days. They were both named Andrew, so Mme Boudoube took to calling the friend "Blondie." Their accents were so thick I understood them better in French than in English. "Blondie" had forgotten almost all his French, so the other Andrew, Aurélien and I had a fun time trying to translate the chaotic conversation.

Dinner was spectacular, as always. I should've taken pictures. The entrée was a tomato stuffed with couscous (couscous is my new favorite food) surrounded by grapefruit slices. The plat was pork, veggies and potatoes. And chocolate cake for dessert, of course. They had also bought me a bottle of champagne. And of course the English and the French are heavy drinkers, so they kept pouring me more wine and more champagne. I asked Andy how to say "dizzy" in French, and he didn't know. Aurélien piped up: "Oh, you mean when you've drunk a little but you're not drunk? You say, 'I am gay,' like if you were homosexual." Great.

They gave me a present -- a book called "Un peu de Paris," with cartoons/drawings about Paris and a wonderful note about the glories of being 20 from Magda (she's such a sweetheart). It's been really hot in Paris the past few days, and it's really uncomfortable because very few buildings are air-conditioned. So we'd turned on a fan by the time they brought out my cake, and the fan blew out my candles before I could.

It's hard to describe how fun it was because the pleasure in French dinners is the food and conversation. But let it suffice to say that I hope my party tonight is as fun as the one I had on Wednesday.

2008-07-27T14:24:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

2008-07-26T12:41:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

2008-07-25T13:51:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

July 25

2008-07-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

I knew that Barack Obama was going to be in Paris today less than 1.5 km from where I live, but I didn't know until around 4 pm that he was going to be there at 5. I walked down to the area and stood with a large crowd of people at an intersection waiting for him to pass by. I saw a lot of commotion and maybe his car.

In other news, my favorite of my two classes (Phonetiques) is over. Bit of a downer, though now I have time to get more done in the mornings.

Notre Dame

2008-07-22T11:33:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

July 22

2008-07-22T10:52:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention that last week I made friends with a girl from Spain named Reyes and a girl from Japan named something along the lines of Tsheena. We have a fun time trying to understand each other because French is our only common language. Reyes and Tsheena have both studied English for a number of years (much longer than they've studied French in both cases) but have forgotten everything because English is too difficult.

Every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, there are three lectures in the afternoon, and today Reyes talked me into staying for the first two. While we were waiting I tried to explain to her what a quiche was (the best way I could describe it was an "egg cake") and she told me that in Seville where she lives, they literally fry eggs on the sidewalk every summer to show how hot it is. Then we went to the lectures, which today were about Malraux (an author) and French cinema in the 1960s. Turns out that if I take notes, I stay interested and I don't fall asleep! Imagine that. I couldn't bring myself to stay for the third because it was actually very nice outside and I was light headed from not having nutella (generally my only source of protein until dinner) with my breakfast.

I decided to go back to Notre Dame and actually go inside. First I went to the Crypte Archeologique that's underneath the Notre Dame courtyard, which was pretty cool considering it cost me 1,60 to get in. Then I went inside Notre Dame -- the line wasn't too long this time. I wasn't quite as overwhelmed as I'd expected to be, since I've already been to so many cathedrals and churches in France, but it was still extraordinarily beautiful. I rushed through it, however, feeling nervous and anxious because it was so crowded. To make things worse (or better, I'm not sure), mass started 1/3 of the way into my visit, and the building was filled with singing and organ music.

I rushed home for dinner which is usually around 7:30 or so. Mme Boudoube doesn't eat more than a snack at night, so I eat by myself except for Wednesdays when Aurelien eats dinner here and Mme Boudoube sits at the table with us. Aurelien speaks super fast and uses a lot of slang and verlan (a sort of pig-latin that young people use, reversing the syllables in words to form a sort of code) so I mostly just smile and pretend I know what he's saying.

Anyway, today after taking two bites of my dinner, I decided to take pictures of it because it's so beautiful. Magda was the oldest girl of nine children and thus learned to cook very young. I look forward to Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays when she makes me dinner because I feel like I'm eating at a super expensive restaurant. Not only is everything delicious, but it's displayed so beautifully that I almost don't want to touch it. I always leave the table completely satisfied, but feeling like I can barely move.

Avignon Photos

2008-07-20T11:10:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

July 19-20 - Avignon

2008-07-20T10:53:00.001-07:00

Well, Avignon was a bit of an adventure.

My train was supposed to leave at 6:16 on Saturday morning. I got up at 4:15, walked to the train station in the dark, and got there in plenty of time. However, I couldn't find my train. It wasn't listed on any of the departure screens. I checked my tickets and looked again. Still nothing. There was even a different train for Avignon at 7:43. Checked the date on my tickets: the 19th and 20th, which was correct. Looked for the train number to see if the time had been changed. Still nothing. Checked the date on my tickets again, and to my dismay, they were for August 19th and 20th. Oops.

I ran to the ticket counter and bought a ticket for the 7:43 train, which was a normal rather than high-speed train and wouldn't get in town until 11:15. The cashier said there were no trains from Avignon to Paris on Sunday night, so I bought a ticket for Saturday night instead, upset that I would have to eat my hotel reservation and wouldn't get to see very much. Then I had the bright idea of checking in Avignon to see if they had trains going to Paris on Sunday, and sure enough, I found one for Sunday afternoon.

So I was in Avignon and happy. I explored a bit. Downtown Avignon is really amazing -- it still has walls around it from the Middle Ages, narrow and uneven cobblestone streets, and lots of old buildings. And because of the theater festival going on, it was chaos -- people, posters, and street performers everywhere. And unlike Paris, it was hot. Like late spring in Florida hot. Since I couldn't check into my hotel until 5:30, I was carrying my backpack with me everywhere. I walked to the far end of downtown and saw an amazing view from the park, then left to see my first play.

It was "Bilbo le Hobbit." Yes. It had been advertised like a new spin on the story in which Bilbo was evil, but it was just a retelling of the story done by two actors with a slight French twist. Still fun.

After that I saw "Lancelot et le Dragon." This was a very entertaining slapstick play. It was accompanied by this amazing troubadour who played accordion, recorder, drum, gong, bagpipes, and various horns and whistles, often playing a drum with one hand and a recorder with the other. I was proud of myself for understanding a key pun in this play: Lancelot was trying to give the damsel's mother back her frying pan (la poêle), but she thought he was asking her to go à poil (wear her body hair, i.e. be naked).

After this, I decided to walk to my hotel. I could tell where it was on the map, and it didn't look too far. But mind you, it was late afternoon and hot, and I was wearing a backpack. It ended up being much farther away than I'd expected, and involved walking along part of a highway. I had to go over an overpass, part of which had walled sidewalk and part of which had a guard rail and grass. Then when I was in the area, I couldn't find the street. I bought a drink and asked some people at a fast food restaurant where it was. Once I finally got there, I drank several glasses of water in succession and took a shower.

I took the bus back into town (swearing I would never walk there again), ate an ice cream cone for dinner and saw another play, "Pierre et Papillon," a play about a couple who are truly opposites. I was afraid I wasn't going to understand it because it wasn't half-way intended for kids like the other two, but I was pleasantly surprised. I missed a few jokes, but I always knew what they were talking about, and half the time I didn't feel like I was listening to a foreign language at all.

I took the wrong bus back to my hotel and ended up at the TGV (high-speed train) station, but the bus driver offered to drive me to my hotel for free (because apparently I looked like a poor lost American). I looked through the enormous festival program to see what I wanted to see Sunday and went to sleep.

I had paid almost 6 euros for continental breakfast knowing I wouldn't find much cheaper in town, so I ate everything I could and checked out. I went to the bus stop and waited. And waited. There was a family sitting there with me, so I figured the bus would come eventually, but it didn't. Finally I got up and looked at the bus schedule, which said the bus ran Monday-Saturday and not on Sundays. I tried to tell the family this in French, and the guy responded in Spanish, so I switched to English and that worked out better. "I guess I'm going to start walking," I said. "Can we come with you?"

The father's name was Guillermo and they were from Costa Rica. Apparently he and his two kids were trying to get to Barcelona from Paris and had been stuck in Avignon overnight. So I walked with them into town, back over the overpass and all. Thankfully it was cloudy and much cooler than the previous afternoon. We talked about how French people are weird and are afraid of strangers -- he said he had only been helped by a Venezuelan, a Brazilian, and now an American. We got to the station in time for them to catch their train and I went off into town.

I figured it obligatory to visit the two major monuments of Avignon: the Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes) which was huge but not all that interesting, and the Pont d'Avignon (Avignon Bridge). I had looked at the weather online before leaving and it had predicted only sunshine. I'd decided to leave my umbrella at home, so of course it started raining, and it rained off and on until I left.

By that time I had missed all of the plays that had seemed interesting to me except one: Les Maux d'Amour (The Aches of Love). I had 25 minutes to get there, and of course there were two theaters with nearly the same name and I went to the wrong one and only had 8 minutes to get to the right one. And unfortunately, this play was written in poem form and I could only understand about half of what was being said. Just as I was starting to think I might actually like the play, the two main characters got in a car accident and died. So much for that.

So many things went wrong, but for some reason I loved every minute. Nevertheless, I was very happy to be back in Paris.

Photo Catch-up

2008-07-20T09:49:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

2008-07-14T16:12:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

14 juillet - Jour de la Bastille

2008-07-14T15:58:00.000-07:00

There were too many people too see the parade other than the air show, but here's what I did see:

1) French cavalry trying to calm their agitated horses in a back street.

2) Two teenagers get arrested for climbing to the top of a fountain to watch the parade.

3) French sailors posing for pictures with anyone who asked.

4) Louis David (a designer) sign autographs and show two little kids how to shut the door on his expensive car.

5) Possibly the French president -- it's hard to tell with tinted windows.

I didn't take my camera to the parade because I didn't want it to get lost or stolen. I took a billion pictures of the fireworks though.

2008-07-13T14:41:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

July 13 - Versailles

2008-07-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

I heard there were two Temple groups going to Versailles today, one at 11 and one at 2 or 3. I got to the Foyer at 11 and no one I recognized was in the lobby, so I wandered around for a few hours.

I saw the French Foreign Legion assembled in the Luxembourg Gardens -- I'm assuming for Bastille Day tomorrow. Then I went to the Cimetiere de Montparnasse and saw the graves of Baudelaire, Ionesco, and Sartre. I wanted to see some other famous people, but after it took me 20 minutes to find Man Ray's grave, I was tired.

After missing the bus yesterday, I showed up at the Foyer at 1:30 just to be safe ... and of course we didn't leave until 3. Oh well. Versailles was beautiful. I was full of energy and everyone else was pooping out on us. We should've stayed until the light show at 9 but I'll just have to go back another day.

2008-07-12T13:30:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

July 12 - Montmartre and Centre Pompidou

2008-07-12T12:58:00.000-07:00

I was supposed to go on an excursion with Temple today, but I overslept/left late and got there 15 minutes after our meeting time. The bus had already left. On my way back home I ran into Annie who had done the same thing and we chilled in the Jardin de Luxembourg before parting ways.

I thought I was going to go back to sleep, but I was feeling adventurous and decided to go to Montmartre instead. Montmartre is a neighborhood in northern Paris that is uphill from the rest of the city. First stop was the Basilique de Sacre-Coeur, and I must've walked up 100 steps to get there. A man from Senegal named Buba grabbed my hand and started making me a yellow, red, and green string bracelet "for Africa" without asking if I wanted it. He asked my name twice in the span of a minute and kept repeating, "America, good people." When he was finished, he said "Now give money." I gave him about sixty cents to go away.

The church was breathtaking, but photography was forbidden. I decided to go to the dome and crypt of the church, which of course cost 5 euros to get into. I walked up the stairs in the longest, most horrible winding staircase I've ever been in. It was really creepy because I didn't see any other tourists until I got to the top, and a pigeon's groaning was echoing everywhere. I kept having to stop because I was tired. It was crazy. I got to the top, took some pictures, and went back down. Turned out the crypt was closed so I paid 5 euros to walk up a thousand stairs.

After that I went to Eglise de St Pierre, Musee de Montmartre, a Dali Museum, and the Cimetiere de Montmartre. I went back home and took a nap, sleeping longer than I wanted to and waking up worrying that I couldn't get to anything else before it was closed for the evening. It was nice outside, so I decided to go to the Jardin des Plantes. The park was still open but the zoo, winter garden, and all the museums inside were closed. The only interesting thing in town still open (other than the nightlife, of course) was the Centre Pompidou, so I got on the subway and looked at modern art for two hours.

2008-07-11T13:14:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

2008-07-08T13:33:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

July 8

2008-07-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

Today I met my friend Annie after class to wander around Paris a bit. We ate crepes au Nutella (Nutella is the new staple of existence -- it's a chocolate hazelnut butter from Italy that I eat on my toast every morning for breakfast) and walked around looking for something to do. Annie is very easy-going and curious and was easily distracted by all the shops around the Quartier Latin. We went to Notre-Dame but decided not to go in because there was a long line. Then we found a cute pedestrian road full of cheap restaurants. We met a Persian shop-owner who said he didn't like how Persians were portrayed in the American movie "300" and that he'd like to come to America as soon as we change our president. He offered to give us reduced prices since we're students -- and we'll probably go back because he has some tasty gelato at his shop. After visiting L'Eglise Saint Severin, Annie and I parted ways to go to our respective homestays for dinner.

July 5 - The Louvre and Solidays

2008-07-06T12:19:00.001-07:00

No pictures today. I didn't want to bring a bag to Solidays, and I didn't want to keep my camera in my pocket and lose/break it.

The first Sunday of every month, most museums in Paris are free, so I went to the Louvre. I got there 10 minutes after it opened and there were already hundreds of people in line! It didn't take long to get in though. The Louvre is definitely the most amazing museum I've ever been to. I'm probably going back on Friday with some people from Temple (and I'll take some pictures then), but I could probably go back ten more times! I was there for three hours, and I saw maybe 40% of the museum, and that was without reading much at all.

I went directly from the Louvre to Solidays, a music festival on the outskirts of Paris (the metro is a wonderful thing). It was really awesome. I love concerts to begin with, but I heard some really good ones while I was there. It was cool to see so many French people my age at once because most of the people I see walking around Paris are working age adults.

2008-07-05T14:49:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

July 5 - Giverny and Rouen

2008-07-05T12:29:00.000-07:00

Went on a Temple excursion today. Made some new friends. For the most part, the pictures speak for themselves. Interesting moments:

1) The bus driver got lost on the way to Rouen so we got there around 2 or so. We were trying to find seats at a cafe when this man passed us. He was walking like he was drunk and was holding a cigarette which he nearly put in my face. "Vous etes vraiment charmante, mademoiselle, (You are really charming/pretty)" he said, and then he left.

2) Got complimented on my French by a shopkeeper while buying bottled water. Everyone I talk to in French thinks I'm English. I guess that's a logical assumption since England is closer to France than America, but it's weird thinking that I have such a recognizable accent.

2008-07-04T12:30:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

Update

2008-07-04T09:20:00.001-07:00

The woman on the poster with the rose was Ingrid Betancourt.

July 4

2008-07-04T07:57:00.000-07:00

I woke up at 3:30 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep until a short nap at 8:30. Probably jet lag catching up with me.

This morning I went to a French supermarket and felt kind of stupid because I didn't know what was going on. In France, they don't bag your purchases for you at the supermarket. Then there was a fruit vendor outside the store and I didn't really understand what he was saying.

Had my first phonetics class today and it seems like it will be hard. Had half an hour to run to my regular class and got lost, of course, so I was a bit late.

Afterward I bought the books I needed and went to Les Arenes de Lutece, a Roman arena. It wasn't much to look at, but there were French kids playing everywhere. On my way out, some kid kicked a soccer ball square into the side of my head. It was kind of funny.

I must have been looking French today because three people stopped me for directions on my way home.

First Day of Class

2008-07-03T09:42:00.001-07:00

Today I had a meeting at the Sorbonne to tell me what level I tested into. It was at 8:30 so I had to leave the house by 7:40 to get there on time. I understand the metro pretty well now but the streets still confuse me so I have to have extra time to account for getting lost at least once. My name ("Feesheur, Zhonna") was called during the announcement for the advanced level, but my class didn't start until 12:30. I wandered around a bit, but most places didn't open until 10 and so of course I got lost and ended up in the Luxembourg Gardens. Paris has been like boot camp for my feet and legs so I was happy for the chance to sit down. I'm glad I have so much time here -- I don't have to cram in all the sights at once so I don't feel like I'm wasting time if I get lost or rest a bit.

On my way out I got mistaken for une Francaise -- There was this poster on the garden fence of a woman I didn't recognize. I was staring at it because someone had taped a rose to it when this French guy about my age started talking to me. I didn't understand him at first, but he repeated himself. "She was freed today." "Ah, oui?" (This is a basic staple of my vocabulary and pretty much all I say.) "Yeah, after six years." "That's great." (Another basic staple of my vocabulary.)
I should've asked who she was but I'm still pretty shy about speaking.

At 10 I went to L'Eglise de Saint Etienne du Mont, which was really beautiful. I wanted to take lots of pictures but it was so quiet in there that I felt rude letting my camera beep. Even the flats I was wearing seemed obnoxious. Next I went to the Pantheon, which used to be a church for Sainte Genevieve but was secularized and converted into a tomb for France's national heros during the revolution. It's a bit like a museum, but I wasn't in much of a reading mood because I wasn't feeling well and my feet were about to fall off. I was about to leave when I found out you could climb the stairs up to the top of the building. Even though I felt pretty dizzy (the stairs were long, steep, and narrow) it was completely worth it. I could see all of Paris from up there -- the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Montmartre. It's weird -- Paris is for the most part very short, so the few clusters of skyscrapers stick out. Unfortunately the memory card on my camera was full, or I would've taken pictures.

I ordered a tasty quiche at a bakery nearby and ate it by a fountain where I saw a one-legged pigeon. Next I went to class, which was very interesting because it was full of students from around the world and French was probably our only common language. I could understand the teacher very well but it was hard to understand some of the students because of their foreign accents. I think the class will be challenging in a good way. We're studying literature and grammar.

I had planned on attending two free lectures in the afternoon, but I slept through most of the first and decided to call it a day. I was very happy to take my shoes off when I got home.

Here's how France is different: everything is very narrow. Streets, stairs, chairs, hallways, doorways, people. And people don't need as much personal space as they do in America. They have no problem crowding into packed metro cars and sitting next to strangers. But otherwise, the French haven't been rude to me at all. They smile much more than I expected and so far have seemed super nice and helpful. It probably helps that I speak French and I don't stand out like an obnoxious tourist. I can always spot the American tourists -- flip-flops, shorts, baseball caps (no one in France wears any of these), backpacks, and super loud. I've seen many Italians, and they aren't nearly as bad.

July 3 - Quartier Latin

2008-07-03T09:40:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

2008-07-02T10:09:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

July 2 afternoon

2008-07-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

Went to Le Petit Palais (a museum) and then did some window-shopping on the Champs-Elysees. Most of the stores were expensive designers so I didn't dare to go in most of them. I wasn't paying attention to where I was and accidentally walked to L'Arc de Triomphe. Photos in next post.

July 1 / July 2

2008-07-02T04:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday made me super happy I didn't follow FSU guy into the metro. Magda accompanied me to my orientation meeting at 7 pm, and if not for her, I would've been completely lost. The first station was completely packed with people and the ticket counter was closed because the workers were on strike (there are always strikes in France for one reason or another). "C'est la folie a Paris," as Magda says. The cashiers came back eventually and we got to the orientation on time. It was funny to hear the other students speaking English all the time when I'd been speaking French all day. Magda doesn't speak any English but she had fun trying to understand what was going on. I got back and ate cherries and orange juice for dinner (I wasn't hungry -- probably the jet leg) and went to sleep at 9 pm.

This morning was my placement test, so Magda took me there again. The test wasn't too hard, but there were questions I didn't know how to answer (and trust me, that's a good sign). I took the metro home on my own and stopped at a mall on the way back. French stores are only allowed to have sales two months a year, and one of those months happens to be July, so the place was pretty full for a Wednesday around lunch time. I needed a bag bigger than my purse but not quite as huge as my backpack to carry my guidebook and stuff and found one marked down from 24 euros to 7 euros.

I didn't really know where I was going after I got out of the second metro station. I looked at a map in the station and tried to follow it but ended up somehow on a different route than I had planned. I decided I needed to find my way without asking for help, so I went by visual memory and just kept walking until I found it.

It's raining a bit today, but I still want to visit Paris a bit. Since I don't know where to start, Mme Boudoube suggested I try the Champs-Elysees. But I need a nap first.

2008-07-01T14:07:00.001-07:00

Photobucket Album

June 30 / July 1 -- My arrival in Paris.

2008-07-01T07:27:00.000-07:00

I was a wreck all day on June 30. On my first flight, I was sitting in a row with two teenage boys, about 14 and 16, and I was constantly having to turn my head so that they didn’t see me cry. I was just so scared. And angry at myself for being scared. What happened to the little girl who just wanted to “have her own adventure?” Of course, that adventure involved no people, only trees.

I tamed my heartsickness with Ben & Jerry’s in Newark, then watched a movie on my iPod. By then I was completely numb, and the terminal was packed. I made a game out of trying to guess who was French and who was American. I wasn’t very good at it.

On the second flight, I was again sitting next to two young people. The girl had taken my window seat, but I didn’t care too much. The guy seemed like an intellectual elitist – he talked on his cell phone about his lucky friend at Harvard Med, read the Wall Street Journal, and ordered tomato juice (!!) as his beverage. I didn’t like him. But later I saw he was watching X-Men 2 as his movie on demand. I disliked him a little less.

Across the aisle sat FSU guy, who I would meet later. He was trying to discuss Napoleon and French culture with a French woman two seats down. I tried to pretend I was French by not saying much.

I fell asleep while we were taxi-ing, so of course I had a hard time sleeping later. And I was still heartsick and scared. Everything seemed so unreal.

I watched “Definitely, Maybe,” and I probably would have cried if I had not done so much of that in the past two days. All I wanted was to sleep, but I couldn’t. I started listening to Coldplay and watched other people’s movies. The music made everything seem so epic, and suddenly I understood that this trip is part of the puzzle, an integral piece on my journey toward who I’m made to be. And I felt a little more at peace.

I couldn’t have slept much more than an hour and a half. When we were getting off the plane, I discovered the girl in front of me was with Temple too. We were friends for a few minutes, but I realized she was a typical college drunk and she joined her other friend and we parted ways. After calling Mme Boudoube and getting my luggage, I stood in line for the bathroom FOREVER – this huge airport had a bathroom with only two stalls.

I somehow bypassed customs (accidentally and probably illegally) and tried to find my bus, but for the life of me I could not find where it picked up passengers – I would just see it passing on its way out of the airport. I ran into FSU guy, and he told me the easiest and cheapest plan of action would be to take the metro. He seemed nice enough, and claimed he had backpacked in Paris the previous summer, so I followed him. I started feeling like I was in trouble when he put on his cowboy hat and said, “If these people didn’t know I was American before, they do now.” Turns out he barely spoke two words of French and only pretended to know where he was going. I told him I was really tired and took a taxi instead. It was expensive, but worth the price of not getting lost. The taxi driver said I spoke French well, especially for not having studied in France.

Finally, I was at Mme Boudoube’s apartment in a beautiful, charming area. The first thing I did after meeting her was nearly fall down the stairs with my suitcase. Then I had difficulties getting my bag around because all the passageways are so narrow. I felt like an idiot for packing so much. Mme Boudoube says she has traveled all over the world (most of Asia and North and South America) and learned not to pack so much after a while. She’s a widow in her 70’s, I guess, and she and her housekeeper Magda are wonderful. They fed me breakfast (toast and coffee) at 11 and lunch (steak, veggies, bread, cheese, cherries, and chocolate mousse) at 12:30. After spending half an hour trying to figure out the complicated Paris metro system and eating that wonderful lunch, Mme Boudoube and I decided to take naps. I woke up groggy, but I’m feeling better now.

It seems like thinking about doing all these things was much worse than actually doing them. I was so nervous in the days and hours leading up to my arrival in Paris, but once I got here everything felt much more natural than I’d expected. I’m sure my French is awkward and ungrammatical, but for the most part, I understand the French and they understand me.