Un apèro chez Dr.Johnson

Today entailed four hours straight (with one twenty minute break) of class, a three hour walking tour, and a little pre-dinner party at the home of our professor. The tour was really neat, and it mainly focused on the modernization of Paris. Baron Haussmann apparently came in and tore down almost all the medieval architecture and replaced it with Paris's signature stone and plaster buildings. I personally like his work, but it was weird to see the few building left in the city. We also discovered that there are only two monuments in all f Paris dedicated to the revolution that provided inspiration for so many other uprisings. One is underground in the metro, and the other is currently used as a sort of jungle gym at a children' park. We saw soooo many neat stores and I do believe I'm going to have to find time to go shopping this weekend!

The tour ended at Dr.J's appartment, a lovely 52 square meter place on the deuxième étage (third floor) of an older building. Her building was in the Haussmann style and has the plaster of Paris moulding and marble fireplaces with mirrors above them in every room. Our menu for the apèro included nuts, dried fruit, champagne with a currant liqueur mixed in, and homemade bruschetta. Yum!

Tonight's adventures include nothing but homework and an early bedtime (hopefully). Last night a cat was yowling outside my window until about one thirty am, and a man was whistling a sort of call and response tune with the birds outside at six thirty this morning. Impressive, but really unappreciated.

Things the French do:
-cuff their pants to just above their ankle bones
-wear heels while eight months pregnant
-ride scooters everywhere. Not just motor scooters, regular razor scooters. Those of you who know me well can imagine how hard of a time I'm having coming to terms with this.

Things they don't do:
-air conditioning and water fountains
-speedy elevators, if they exist at all
-move out of your way to let you one a crowded metro unless you yell "pardon!" and throw yourself into the mosh pit that is most metro cars around 8:00 am

Sketchy things I've seen:
-a van full of prisoners being moved to a different location. On a bright note, they thought Molly, Kelley and I looked nice.
-police asking to see our navigo cards in between two metro platforms. This is apparently semi common and a form of immigration control
-random boys coming up in the middle of the street and asking for cigarettes. I'm interpreting this one as an attempt to flirt, but, seeing as I don't smoke, it fails quite badly each time.

Deuxième journée

Today's class was even better! I've been to the second lesson of B1, and there is such a huge difference. My new professor speaks so quickly and I really think I'll learn a lot more from her teaching style than from Karine's method. I am now the second youngest in my class and there is only one (cute) boy in my class. He's from Argentina, and he leaves at the end of the week. I'm curious to see how the classes will work out with people coming and going to quickly. I also made friends with a Russian woman who basically has the dream life. She speaks nearly flawless English and very good French, and she lives in Maryland for a little while. It strikes me as odd when people don't know where Virginia is.

I'm currently on the métro, which I absolutely love. You can get nearly anywhere in the city on this thing and they're all in decent shape as far as cleanliness and safety. The stops are much better-lit than the new york metro. I also had my oral proficiency exam today! My teacher thinks I'll be able to get credit for 3126 right off ye bat (woohoo!!!).

Dinner menu at a newfound café (for dad especially) salad with a neat vinaigrette sauce, French fries, and lamb with some kind of cheese sauce coupled with a 2007 merlot the wine ended up costing more than each of our meals. Ordering without a clue what the dish will be has been working out quite well for me! Now it is raining, and although it is nine o'clock, the sun has yet to set. This city seems to be even more beautiful in the rain.

Et les cours commence...

Today marks the first day of classes! Besides getting totally lost in the building (here, first floor means first floor of actual classes, so classes on the quatrième étage were actually on the sixth floor. Who knew. Also, Elsa and I got locked in an outdoor stairwell for a few minutes.) The class itself was really fun! The teacher was super nice and had really good transitions in her four hour lesson. I have students from Germany, Ireland, Japan, Taiwan,edict, Switzerland, and the US in my class. Unfortunately I'll probably be switching to a higher level tomorrow, but it was neat to have so many cultures unified by one common language.

After class, Molly, Kelley and I (they're officially my adventure companions) went back to Notre Dame and sat next to the Seine to write our journals and read. We were sitting on the stone walls that border the river but rest below street-level, so it was really peaceful. We must've been looking especially Parisian today because people kept taking pictures of us as they passed in bateaux-mouches (open top tourist boats). Horray for blending in!

Also-- a cousin of Benny Marzano's is coming to Paris! I don't know how they'll handle the Virginia Slice :)

Aaand then later on in the day we had dinner at the Fiap with all the other American students staying here! It was so much fun. Our menu included melon and ham as an appetizer, duck and a summer vegetable mix as the main course, mango mousse for dessert, and plenty of red wine on the side. It was refreshing to be able to speak English without people frowning at us for a change.

Giverny

Today we visited Monet's home at Giverny which was absolutely beautiful. The famous water lily gardens were lovely, but the garden full of nothing but irises and the occasional trellis of clematis were breathtaking. Don't worry, I took about a million pictures of everything that came across my camera lens. His home was beautiful too, and the rooms were surprisingly large for the time in which they were built. Even the bus ride out into the countryside was beautiful. There are picture-perfect sights everywhere you turn in this country.

After returning to the Fiap, we loaded our metro passes, so now we'll look like real Parisians on our way about the city. Molly, Kelley and I then went to the Palais Royale where we sat in a park under an avenue of trees and wrote our journal entries for the day while watching a group of guys play pétanque (the French version of bocce). It was just as idyllic as I'm making it sound, and we only left because of some threatening storm clouds. We stopped at a café near the louvre on our way back home and I had a crêpe filled with nutella and bananas with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream on top. That was also as delicious as it sounds.

I think our accents are improving. Ye French have a way of adding extra sounds to the ends of their sentences that I've yet to master, but hopefully I'll sound convincingly French by the end of the week.

More things the French do/don't do:
Do:
- take their dogs everywhere
- men do the bisoux too
- smoke all the time

Don't:
- smile at strangers
- wait for lights to change at crosswalks
- provide speedy service in restaurants. You're expected to linger for at least two hours at every meal. Last night's one course dinner at a cheap sidewalk café (also delicious) lasted three hours.

Day One

This city is so beautiful! The architecture on almost every building seems like it's meant for postcards. Today we went to the eiffel tower, Notre dame, and explored the city as a group. We didn't climb the Eiffel tower because the lines were insanely long, but it was still neat to see! Later three of us went back to Notre Dame for mass, which was absolutely magical. They lost me for a bit when the priests switched over to Latin, but the gist of everything was clear. It's incredible to think how many people have sat in those very same pews before me.

This is the start of what will probably be an ongoing list do's and don'ts:
Things the French do:
- wear man capris
- eat meals very slowly
- wear heels all the time

Things the French don't do:
- respect personal space on the metro
- leave tips
- this ones really not about the French, but the sun doesn't go down until nearly 10:00 here

We made it!

Finally here!!!! Now waiting on luggage to arrive.

Celà, c'est une adventure

I'm finally in the air!!! After two days of delay, a cancelled flight, and two airport changes, we are on our way to France. Well, technically I'm on the way to Frankfurt, but at least I'm headed to the right continent! After arriving in Frankfurt, i have thirty minutes to make my next flight. This will be interesting to say the least. I am writing this about twenty minutes into my eight hour flight. So far so good: I'm seated next to a couple from a Baltic country based on the reading material they have with them. I suppose that isn't the best way to judge seeing as I am reading Harry potter in French, but it's the best guess I've got. I'm not sure they speak English, but we've managed to communicate about the lights and the meal without any problem and woth a lot of hand gestures There is a German family in front of me with two small children who are well behaved for the moment, but we shall see if their behavior holds. I've learned today that a backpack is the best way to go for a carry on, group travel is a huge pain, and never to fly with united airlines if I can help it.

Bisoux,
Sarah

Well, free wi-fi is harder to find than I thought so I'm lumping a couple posts together. The children in front of me were very well behaved, but one of my lovely travel mates talked to his poor seat mate until 5:00 am. Needless to say, I hardly slept at all. The questionable-English couple were very nice! They did understand English quite well, so I got the man to change seats with me so I could get to my carry on. I didn't make the flight to Charles de gaulle, but we got moved to the later one with the rest of the group so it worked out!

well, we're still in the states

So far this trip has been a traveler's nightmare. The flight was delayed, canceled, rescheduled through a different airport, we were only given meal and room vouchers for half of the group, one girl temporarily lost her luggage because the flight officials took it even though she hadn't checked in, and now we have to stop in Newark. ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: the delay has provided some lovely bonding time for the group, one of the girls was kind enough to let me stay in her home last night, everyone is now safely settled in and accounted for for the night, and dinner was great! If everything goes according to plan tomorrow, we should be in France by sometime Saturday morning. Fingers crossed!

à plus tard états-unis!

In approximately 15 minutes, I'll be heading to Dulles!  This is really happening!

les cartes

It worries me that this is supposed to make sense...

three days out