guests, guests, and more guests!

This blog has been written for weeks, I swear!! I’m just having a hard time getting is posted!! So I decided to try at the Accent office. Also, I'm working on typing up a blog about Europeans, so I promise that's coming next!!! Sorry for the huge delay in this!

***

Wow, I can't believe I have about three weeks to catch up on! Sorry about being so bad about posting, but things have been incredibly busy, of course, in the month of March!

I guess I'll start with Mom's visit! I was in school all day, so she ended up coming straight to Creteil to meet me. After she finally got here (which is another story that doesn't really have a place here since in the end she got here just fine!) we walked around Creteil for a little while, but she started to get too tired so I had to send her back to Paris. Eventually I got back from school and woke her up, and we had some bread and cheese and wine (of course, the perfect welcome to Paris meal) and then just hung out for a while (which ended up kind of being the rule of the week, which was fine with us!). On Thursday we went shopping a little (there turned out to be a suitcase mishap that merited some replacement clothing...) and then got some coffee and went back to the apartment to make dinner. Eventually we got to the Musee d'Orsay, which is open until almost ten on Thursday nights, and that was really superb to do again. We saw all the impressionists, and I got to see Courbet's stuff (yaaaay!), the room was still closed and the paintings were being rennovated, but they were out this time. On Friday morning we got Mom's suitcase, yay, and then we went over to the neighborhood where I have Finnish and stuff to get crepes from the awesome crepe guy over there. I ended up going to the Nordic library for a couple hours while Mom went to the Pantheon and walked around the neighborhood more. Then we got some Greek food and went home for one of the most excellent dinners EVER! On Saturday, Anne's parents came up from Orleans and we got an awesome lunch at this restaurant in Faidherbe. Then we went to the Institut du Monde Arabe for the exhibit about the Phoenicians, which had lots and lots of artifacts but not very much explanation, so in the end it was not the best thing I ever saw. But of course it was still great to see Anne's parents! On Sunday I had to do work again, so Mom went to the Orangerie even though it was disgustingly cold and gross (what a brave Momma!) and I worked on my Saint Bridget paper. Monday I went to school and Mom tried to do all sorts of things that ended up being weirdly closed (like Pere Lachaise cemetery)...so it was good when I came back and we got to hang out. Then it was already Tuesday, I don't know how the week passed so fast, but then we had to go to the airport and put Mom on a plane! Afterward I had to go to work, but that was okay because otherwise I just would have sat around and moped the whole day... it was a great visit, of course, but way too short!!!!!

I did a bunch of work the next weekend, which was good, I guess. On Friday night (the 14th) I went to this AMAZING choir concert at this church in the 4th arrondissement, it was this mixed choir that one teacher (not an English teacher) from one of my schools sings in, they did Bach and someone else...it was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life. The church is from the 16th century or so, with a huge ceiling and everything, so the sounds of the choir just echoed perfectly, and the arrangement was wonderful, and there was even an accompanying chamber orchestra! It was really fantastic. Plus the director looked like he was about my age! It was SO impressive, I absolutely loved it! And I had a nice walk back afterward, since I wasn't really too far away. Also, on the way back in front of the Opera, I actually saw Fabrizio (from that wacky party a few months ago!) but I wasn't really sure it was him so I didn't say anything. But he called me the next day to say that he thought it was me, it was pretty hilarious.

Jeff got here on Sunday in the morning, so I went to meet him at the airport because I'm just so amazingly nice. Then I took him around the Marais for a while because that's a nice place to walk around on a Sunday, and then I came back and did some work while he went to the Centre Pompidou. Monday was school...Tuesday was work...Wednesday was school...Thursday work...phew! A normal week, I guess. On Thursday night I met up with Jeff at the Musee d'Orsay, which was amazing again. Then Friday I had Finnish, and then I went to the Nordic Library again to continue work on Saint Bridget. Friday night we went to the Louvre, which was just ridiculous and I kind of realized how...I don't even know what the right word is. It's just that everything in the Louvre is so classical and dry and so is the building itself, and it's just SO enormous that it's impossible to get that much out of one visit because everything's so overwhelming. So we did some sculptures and the ancient Levant, and then we got to the Egyptian section, but I was already way to tired to enjoy it. Luckily I can go back whenever I want...and I think I will to just do the Egyptian section one day, cause there was an awesome mummy and a whole Book of the Dead that I want to scour...

So Saturday I went to the airport again because Jeff left, and then I came back and worked. Then Sunday was great because I went to this photo exhibit with Mme Bluteau from one of my schools, it was this French guy named Edouard Boubat, and his photos were just extraordinary. He went all over the world and just took amazing shots. Then we saw a couple other photographers' exhibits, and they were also great. I didn't even know this museum existed! It's the European House of Photography, and it's in the Marais, so not too far from where I live.

After the museum, we went to meet Amanda at the Gare d'Austerlitz. Then we sat and had a coffee and some lunch, and then we went back to drop off Amanda's stuff and read over my St Bridget essay, which is now close to being completed (yay!). Then we went and walked around for a while longer, around by the Seine and into the 4th arrondissement. Afterward, Amanda and I came back and made dinner. Then today we went on this excellent walking tour of Paris, it was about 4 hours long and the guide was great. It's this group that does free tours, and the guides work off of tips, so they have to be pretty good and entertaining, and this guy was super. He told all these wacky stories and knew a lot of the great history things that I already knew about, but I learned a whole lot and saw a lot of places I hadn't really been to before. So it was really worth it. We met this nice British guy named Mickey and this Canadian girl named Amber, so we went out with them afterward for a little while. Then we came back to work and have dinner and plan out Amanda's day tomorrow. Now I'm working on Saint Bridget, I'm getting so close to having it all done, and then I'll either start on Versailles or on geography! Woo hoo!!

Check out Snapfish for more pictures, and let me know if you need the link! Sorry again for the delay in the post, and I promise things will get better soon!

un automatisme psychique

It's been an incredibly busy past few weeks, with lots and lots of classes and then lots of fun on the weekends. I'm currently on winter break from work, so that has been superb, except for the fact that I ended up with a winter bug that prevented me from being any kind of productive on the days I was off. But I'm getting to work now, I have 4 papers due over the course of March, so I've got my work cut out for me...

I guess I will start with last Saturday, when I went to Versailles with Margaux. She's in my Vikings class and she's actually American, but French American (her Mom's French and her Dad's American) and she grew up in France, so she's much more French than American. Anyway she's doing a double major in history and literature (double majors are really uncommon here) and she really likes 17th century French history, so she was a great person to go to Versailles with! She knows a lot about it and its history, so it was really an interesting and I think useful visit (one of the papers I'm turning in is about Versailles, which was why I wanted to go see it in the first place). We walked around the gardens first for a long time, then went up to the Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon (where Marie Antoinette spent a lot of her time), and then we did the castle, which to be honest isn't that huge but there's so much stuff everywhere that it's overwhelming anyway. There was actually an exhibit going on about when the castle was furnished in silver, and they had all this wild silver furniture everywhere...but because of that the rooms were all dark and it was kind of hard to see some of the other art that was there. Plus there were a million people, mostly large groups of tourists. But it was cool to see how intensely ornate the place is...it's incredible. Though to be honest the Grand Trianon was my favorite part because the rooms there are in so many excellent colors and the furniture is really just awesome. It was a little less staged than the rest of the castle, I guess. Plus there were fewer people...always a plus! Anyway, after that, we went to walk around the town for a while and to get some cakes, which were delicious, but it took us forever to find a place to sit so we really saw the entire town. There's not actually much exciting there outside of the small downtown section near the castle, which is quite nice. Otherwise, there are lots and lots of houses....! Overall it was lots of fun as well as being educational (thank you Margaux!) and I think it'll give me a better jumping off point for the paper I have to write. I hope, anyway...

The next fun thing that happened was on Thursday (well, I saw Anne and Greg on Wednesday and we went out, that was fun, but not as exciting as the next bit...) when I went to the Caves for the Medieval party. It's this bar that's really like caves (ok, it was a little claustrophobic...) with wooden tables and lit with candles and everything. You had to wear a costume, so I got to dress up and stuff, though most people had real Medieval style costumes, which is really cool. They have dancing, but I couldn't really follow it because they do a class before the party and I couldn't go because I had regular class, so I didn't get to dance. But it was still really fun to watch and the music was really cool. I also drank some wine with blueberry and this weird rhubarb juice that was actually delicious! It was fun because there were a bunch of people that I knew from class there as well as some other people from school so it was a good time. Plus I got a ride home at the end, though it's honestly about a 20 minute walk from me (except that I got lost on the way there...how embarassing!). Hopefully next time they go I will be able to go again!

On Friday I had Finnish, which was great, of course, and then I saw Anne and we went to this great little cafe next to where I have Finnish. They have all kinds of teas and coffees and it's really cheap! Then afterward I saw Alex Stegmaier, who I went to Finland with almost 5 years ago (!) and who I saw like twice in DC last year (he's at GW) and who was in Paris this weekend (he's studying abroad in Germany)!!!! We met up at the Eiffel Tower and he and his friends took pictures there for a really long time, and then we got some food at this good panini stand I knew (it's in Cecile's old neighborhood!) and then we all split off for a while. I met back up with them in the evening, we were going to go out around Bastille but it was too expensive for them, so we ended up just buying a bunch of wine and drinking it in my room...there were 12 people in my room or so, so it was pretty ridiculous. Alex's friends are really nice, though, and Alex is still totally crazy, so it was great. Some of the kids decided to go to the salsa party next door later, but some of the other ones didn't want to, so we went back out to Bastille, but the bars were all closing, so they just ended up going back to their hotel. Needless to say I went straight to bed after that...it was a bit later than I was planning but it was a really enjoyable night!

Saturday was another busy day, I did a bunch of work in the morning and then went to the Louvre with some people from school. There's this special exhibition of statues you can touch, it's a special thing for blind people or for people who don't see well, so they were taking their friend who's 'malvoyant' to see that. Unfortunately it was not really that exciting, it was really small and there was not that much to touch. So we ended up just walking around and trying to see other stuff, but we didn't actually find much of what we were looking for. But it was still fun, the people were all really nice (I only actually knew one girl) and I got my 'art history student' permanent card so I can always get in for free at the Louvre!

Saturday night, Margaux had a party at her place, which is out near Creteil...it was fun for a while, the people were really nice and everything, but I didn't know anyone so of course it was hard to just start talking with people. There were a bunch of Erasmus students there for a while but after they left I felt so awkward and I was really tired, so I ended up going to bed pretty early (luckily some other people went to bed before me, so I didn't look like a jerk!) and leaving early this morning so I could get back and get to work. Not necessarily the best start to the week but I'm sure I'll be fine by Wednesday!!!!!

Only three more days till Mom gets here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, I added some new pictures to the Bonne Annee album on Facebook!

Hyvää Ystävänpäivää!!!

OK, so I guess it's a little late for that, but still....

Things have been incredibly busy here , and I don't think they will lighten up at all in the coming weeks! It's pretty packed going to and from Creteil every day...I don't really mind it, but man, I have NO desire to work when I get back in the evenings...so needless to say I've had a lot of catch-up work these past weekends. But I've still been doing some fun things in between, because it's not good either just to work all the time! Work and classes are both going well, and Mom will be here in like 2 weeks, so YAAAAAY!!!! Also, starting the 23rd are my 'winter holidays' from work for 2 weeks. I'll have the first week of March off from Censier and nothing off from Creteil. So weird the way these things work here...

Last weekend I went out on Saturday with my friend Adam, he's from near Krakow and I met him in European studies. I can't remember if I mentioned him before...either way he's going to go to the US next year to study in California or in NY, so he makes me speak English so he can practice. It was SUCH a nice day, so we went over to this park in the 19th, le parc de Buttes Chaumont, which is totally awesome. It's huge, I'm not entirely sure how it's set up but there are a bunch of hills and a lake and rock structures and stuff. It was really great. Then we walked around that neighborhood a little bit, had a drink in a bar next to the Canal St Martin, which I hadn't seen before, and then I went back. It was really nice to get out with someone who I don't usually hang out with, and also to see a part of town that I don't know at all! On Sunday I went to see Anne's competition, where she did a duo, not a team, with a girl named Emilie that I met at the tournament at the end of last year. I thought their routine was so cool, but the other two duos were cleaner, so they were third. It was really neat to watch, though, there are so many neat things they do as a pair!

The week was good, normal...lots of school, lots of work...at Victor Hugo on Tuesday, they had crepes for lunch because the 4e E, apparently a terrible class, wasn't there...it seemed kind of strange but the crepes were good so it was nice! On Thursday I went to lunch with Amel, we wanted to get veggie couscous but they put meat in with the vegetables so we got salads instead, which was a little bit boring but okay anyway (better than meat...). Friday I saw Anne in the morning, when she told me to not waste my time even going to London, that I should really just spend all the money and time in Ireland....which is kind of where I'm leaning anyway. I guess we'll see, that trip's to be planned next!

On Saturday Guillaume from Victor Hugo (he teaches physical sciences) invited me out with his friend Audrey, we walked around Paris for a really long time, right next to the Seine, it was so nice. Then we went and had coffee, which was also lovely. They are both really nice and not creepy, I promise. :-) Today I went to the market and got lovely things to make tofu scramble only to come back to find that the tofu was totally gross, so I just ate the vegetables instead. Otherwise I have just been working all day! Being veeerrry productive, it's lovely.

I guess it's not the most interesting post in the world, but it has been a good few weeks since I've been back!

She wasn't serious, she was just Canadian!

Apologies for not having posted anything in so long. I guess I didn't really think anyone would want to read a play-by-play of what I've been studying. Basically since I got back, I've just been working on preparing for exams, going to my last classes, and registering in Creteil.

Well, I have been to each class twice so far in Creteil, and I like them all. I'm taking Geography of France, which has a lecture class and a smaller class where we do more student work, State and Society in France in the 17th century, Scandinavian society at the end of the Middle Ages (also known as the Vikings class), and Europe in the 1920s. I'm also continuing with the second half of History of Rock (I had that exam last week, I did well!) and Finnish, which started today - they changed the hour without telling me! So it's a pretty full schedule and the workload will be significantly larger than last semester, but hopefully it'll go well! I'm hoping that will work to my advantage.

Work is about the same, I'm working with a lot of 3e groups preparing for their final exam at the end of the year. I think they will do well, they already seemed pretty well prepared. They have plenty of time, but I guess it's a pretty big deal, so the professors are already putting pressure on them (and me, I get to work an extra hour each day with a group I otherwise wouldn't see!) but I think they'll do okay.

Last weekend was wonderful, I took a huge break, it was amazing! well, Friday was still pretty busy, I went to see Anne (who made the subject line comment talking about how impossible it is for French people to take anything Canadian seriously...they are worse than Americans toward Canada, I swear!) and then got my first exam back and then saw Anne again for dinner at night. She made me quenelles, which are a specialty from Lyon, they were weird but yummy! We also watched some videos from her rhythmic competition that was the weekend I got back - it was the French championship and she got third! She really did well. It was cool to see the videos again.

On Saturday I hung out in the morning and then took a bike ride to the Musee d'Orsay, which was just phenomenal. I didn't see the whole thing because it's way too huge, but it was just awesome. Of course I saw the impressionists, it was so, so amazing to see their stuff in real life. It's so much more beautiful than in any picture. And there weren't too many people there, which was nice. I also saw an exhibit about Art Nouveau which was just phenomenal, it was full rooms made of wood with the most incredible furniture and glasswork in a really neat style. I also went to the temporary exhibit of Hodler, which was interesting but not entirely amazing. Some of the stuff was great, others I wasn't really interested in. I saw all the Rodin and Claudel sculptures, and then I saw a few other paintings. The Courbet room is closed until like 2016, or something terribly far away like that, which I am incredibly bummed out about. At least I saw everything else!

After that I went to the Musee Maillol (he was a sculptor, he sculpted the same naked women with different fruit or crowns or flowers...not the most amazing art I've ever seen in the sense of variety...oh well) for an exhibition about Germany in World War I. It was the last weekend, so there were about a thousand people, but it was really a fantastic exhibit. Not any fun, just depressing, but really neat art and incredible perspective.

Then I went back on my bike for dinner and then I (gasp) went to a party! Before I left, I met this really nice German guy named Christoph, who is a friend of Tytti's, who invited me over for this party. There were all German and Italian kids there, they were SO nice and really interesting - some of them had been there for a while and some had just arrived, so there was a cool mix. I had so much fun that I stayed until 5:30 in the morning and got the first metro back with Francesco and Fabrizio, two of the Italian guys. And then there was an accident on the line we were on so we had to take another one! It was weird...and I was really tired! But I saw Anne at noon anyway for a falafel, she thought it was hilarious that I had been out all night. We went in the Marais for falafel, there are a million places but the one we went to was definitely excellent.

This week was great, I started talking to some of the kids in my classes and they are really nice. In one part of my Vikings class there is a really nice girl who's American, or at least her father is, and we have a ton in common, she's great ! It's cool to actually talk to the kids in my class! On Thursday I had History of Rock, I started talking to one of the girls there too! Also, the professor pointed me out in the middle of class when a kid asked about what the songs meant and said that I was 'anglophone' ... then I turned totally red. At least I kicked that exam's butt. :-)

I've discovered how amazing Paris is by bike. It's been so much fun riding all over the place (though I did get completely turned around on my way to Finnish, I missed the bridge I was supposed to cross somehow!) and seeing Paris from a different perspective. The traffic is amazing, the number of almost accidents I have seen (not with me!) is unreal, today I almost saw a bus plow over a car but the driver stopped with centimeters to spare. Moving at the speed of a bike and paying attention to a totally different set of surroundings has been a really fun experience. The Velib system is great, I only had a crappy bike one time, but otherwise they are not bad! Though when I get home my bike is going to feel as light as a feather...

This weekend will be a little less exciting, I'm going to one of Anne's competitions on Sunday - she's doing a team ! and then I am seeing some other people at some point. I promise I'll post more often from now on!

Mais c'est un sac, quand meme, c'est gratuit!

Oh yeah, and Bonne Annee!

I've been back in France for a week now, and it sort of feels like I haven't been gone at all (maybe partially because Christmas break seemed like it was about 2 days long...). The day after I got back, I started working again, and the day after I started class again. I've got three classes to finish out, two of which will be having exams and then one with a presentation and final paper. I went over to Creteil university last Thursday, and the woman who works with exchanges there is really nice and HELPFUL (something the people at Censier really weren't, ever), so hopefully this week I'll get to start registering and everything for that.

On Friday I saw Sasha in the morning, which was nice, and then I went to the library for like 4 hours to do research for my paper. Afterward I went to see Anne and Greg, and then we went to see some of their friends. It kind of sucked, because it was 3 couples and me, and I guess Greg knew the guys from growing up, but I kind of missed out on the 'how everyone knows everyone' thing and 'what are you doing with your life thing,' so it was not really possible to get involved in their conversations at all...plus they use all kinds of youth slangy words that eventually I just can't follow. So I kind of gave up trying to participate in their conversations...then we almost missed the last metro back, and they lived across town. Anyway I was pretty happy to get back, though then it was 3 a.m. and I couldn't sleep, I'm not really sure why. Either way, Saturday was nice and fairly productive, Cory came over to watch Once and I got out of going to the Sales at la Defense with Faima (who was insisting on having lunch at McDonalds at 11 a.m., so I just said that I had too much work. Lame excuse, but honestly I don't need anything, and I don't really want to go shopping with the entire population of Paris and its suburbs on a Saturday morning...

Sunday was great, I went to the market in the morning with the intention of getting some cheese, some bread, some pita and some grapefruit...I came back with a half kilo of cherries, a kilo of apples, three grapefruits, two kinds of cheese, hummos and pita, mint leaves, and a half a baguette. Oh, and a huge cloth bag with the name of the market on the side, I thought I had to buy it but the guy just gave it to me...hence the title of the blog. I always go there to get one or two things and come back with so much more, but it's so cheap and so delicious that it's always worth it.

Then I went over to Mme Philippeau's (one of the English teachers at Louis Issaurat) to celebrate la galette des rois (where they eat king cake, which is a pastry filled with marzipan, and there's a bean hidden inside and whoever gets the bean is the king or queen and has to choose their queen or king. We actually did it at Louis Issaurat on Thursday and I got a bean and a lovely Star Wars crown, but luckily I didn't have to choose a king!!!). Anyway her father was there, he's 83 and totally French, I had lots of fun talking with him. Aude from Louis Issaurat and her boyfriend Jean-Christophe came, too. Aude and Mme Philippeau got the beans, (there were two cakes mixed together so two beans) and we drank really good cider from Bretagne. It was really a nice time, it was so nice of her to invite me there. Her house is awesome, too, it's got a great garden and awesome art and books everywhere.

Afterward, I went to the movies with Adam, a guy from my European studies classes (he's Polish, studying in France for a while, going to the US next year for a study abroad) and we were going to see Into the Wild but it had already started when we got there, so we went to see Atonement instead, which I really liked, though it really wasn't what I expected. I guess I didn't actually know what the story was about, but anyway it was really well done and the acting was fantastic.

Today is just working, seeing Anne and Jean-Francois and Verena later and going to the avant premiere of Juno at Censier! Yay!

BONNE NOUVELLE!!!

Censier is OPEN! This means that we have class this week, and they're going to push our exams back a week or two so we have extra time to study. Woo (I guess)! Though my one European studies class seems to have gone kaput, the professor didn't even show up today and she already gave us some other work to do for the grade instead. At least I've got my other two classes!

I'm still planning on switching schools next semester, I might go to see Paris 12 (in Creteil) tomorrow if I have time. But at least I'll get grades for this semester, yay!

one more week!

Since I've only got one more week till I get to go home (YAY!) I figured I should probably give one more quick update about what's been going on here. Well, my school is closed now, not just blocked, and I'm not sure what that means, but I'm pretty sure there are no exams this year...or something. Tomorrow my independent study is due, so I'm going in to talk to MICEFA about everything. I'm looking at going to the university in Creteil next semester and taking history classes. They have some pretty interesting ones, so as long as I can get that to work out with my work schedule, I'll be good to go.

Germany was amazing, it would take forever to list all the details here, but I really had a wonderful time. Aachen is a really fun city, and Monschau was really easy to get to. The Christmas markets are really just sort of big parties with lots of food and lots of warm wine. Unfortunately it rained all weekend long, which was sort of a disappointment because being outside and wet for many hours isn't great fun. Luckily there were no other major mishaps, and it was definitely a relaxing weekend, though I was pretty tired when I got back to Paris at 10 at night on Monday...

The week went normally, I got to see Faima on Saturday, which was nice but we went shopping at La Defense and it was just insane...there were so many people, and her friend was there with her baby, so it was really slow going and I was exhausted by the end of the day. Luckily I got some cool presents...then Cory came over last night a little bit. On Thursday we hung out, and we thought there was a concert at Notre Dame, but it was really just the telling of the Christmas story...some other MICEFA kids were there but they were all drunk (surprise surprise) so we left to get hot chocolate. We went to this place right next to the Finnish institute and I saw my Finnish professor through the window! So weird. On Friday we took Cecile to lunch as a little going away party, and we went to this excellent cous cous place that had the best mint tea EVER.

Today I was supposed to go to have dinner at one of my teacher's houses (one of the English teachers from Creteil) but her dad is there and apparently he's quite old and tired today, so she cancelled...so I'm probably going to go ice skating with Cory instead! Yay! Otherwise nothing too exciting has happened, I'm ready to get this school stuff worked out and to go home!!!!