merde.

oh la la.

so, I discovered that i can't really take my islamic art class and the drawing class that meets on thurs because i won't have time to get to the art class on days we visit museums (about once a week)...sooo, i'm now taking a night drawing class on mondays, a still life class, which should do exactly the same thing the figure drawing class would. but I wish that the IES advisors could have mentioned this to me when i first scheduled. when I went in to talk about it with them today, it was a bunch of "oh yea, of course that wouldn't work, let's switch you to another day!"

grr.

on another note, i've gotten my first french bacteria. fun times. i guess that's what i get for living with two toddlers though, right?

ok, stuff to do for tomorrow now. love to you all!

Salut!

back to school, back to school

I'm ready to start classes. For the past week and a half, i feel like i've been vacationing here...i think that classes will help me feel like i'm actually here for a reason.

i was going to write a long entry about what i did this weekend, but i'm exhausted, so i don't think it's gonna happen.

but quickly, I went to a huge outdoor flea market (Le Marche aux puces). If anyone visits me (hint hint, i'd love it) and you're here on a weekend, i'd recommend checking it out. it was really entertaining.

also, i had dinner en famille again tonight. we (Stan, Caro, and I) went to Stan's mother's appt for dinner. there were about 12 of us in total. I think my french is improving, Caro mentioned something, and her belle-soeur (sister in law) gave me a compliment, saying that i speak french well. I still think je parle francais comme une vache espagnol ("I speak french like a spanish cow"...which is my fav expression that i've learned here so far, and i think it applies to me. a lot. Thanks Kate for telling me about it!) I have noticed that i can follow a one on one conversation decently most of the time, but when they were all talking, it became noise to me, and i couldn't understand it.

speaking of their family, i love how close they are, and it makes me miss all you guys back home, miss the family reunions, miss the christmases, miss the random sunday brunchs, miss the family dinners that we have. Love to you all, you're in my thoughts and prayers tonight.

Other than those two highlights... saw some more sites with Kate and Marielle (the eiffel tower, l'ecole militaire, another antique market, the opera (again)) and i walked in the bois de boulogne, the largest park in paris (and is located right by my house),and around my neighborhood some more.

A Bientot!

ok, not too terribly long, i promise.

Vendredi, 26 Janvier 2007

I would just like to say that while I may be in France, the land of culture, sophistication, and art, I am definitely still myself, uncoordinated klutz that I am. Missy, you would have laughed your ass off at me this morning. I was transferring metro lines this morning, and was walking up the steps to the platform, and I totally tripped and fell on my face, as you know I can do. Oh yea, and don’t think I got away with no one seeing this, it was in the middle of the morning commute, so, I would say there were maybe 40ish people around.

I ended up spending the afternoon shopping with a girl from my review class, Katerina this afternoon. It was really the first time I wish shopping since I was here. I’ve been trying to avoid it, because I’d rather save my money, but now is the time to buy things. Paris has a month long sale, where every store has their merchandise discounted (I don’t know if this is done throughout all of France, or all of Europe for that matter), which has made buying things rather tempting. I’d wandered into a couple stores that are right by my school, but I hadn’t really done much. Well, I ended up buying a pair of black ankle boots and two scarves, which I’m quite happy about.

By the way, the American stereotype of all French women wearing scarves is completely true. And it’s not just women, it’s everyone. If you come to France, bring scarves. There are people wearing think heavy scarves. There are people wearing thin silky scarves. There are men wearing pink scarves. So yea, if you want to look French, wear a scarf.

Anyway, after shopping, I met up with some friends, and we went to Montmartre for the night. We want to go back and see it again during the day, but it was great to see the city at night. For those of you who don’t know, Montmartre is the tallest hill in Paris, and it’s has some great views of the city. It’s very cutsy, touristy, artsy, and fun, and I’d recommend checking it out. You find lots of cafes where people can sit and drink a café or a glass of wine, during the summer the square is full of artists drawing tourist’s portraits and caricatures, and you can see the Sacre-Coeur Cathedral, which I think is one of the prettiest here.

Salut!

I found something that's worse here than at Purdue...scheduling.

Juedi, 25 Janvier 2007

Three things to note about today:

The first is that I went to a wine tasting today; well IES had a sommelier come and teach us some things about wine. I thought it was very interesting. She not only talked about different types of wine, but about the different regions of why in France, why they are different, and how the wines have changed over the centuries. I would love to learn more about wine here, if I get a chance, I want to go visit some vineyards and talk to people who make wine. I think it’s because I like to cook, but I find all the subtle differences fascinating, and I definitely want to take the wine class next year at Purdue.

The second is that I’m almost done with the poupédectique. We have our last class tomorrow morning, and then we take a final exam, which IES will use to place us in our French class this semester, and it will also count toward our final grade. I’m just glad that I’m going to be done with the review sessions, and can actually start classes on Monday. I haven’t found this past week that helpful. There have been random grammar points that have been helpful to review, but sitting in a classroom and being taught grammar isn’t helping my French at this point. What helps is practice. I really think it would have been more helpful to have the program bring in Francophones to speak with us, giving us a chance to actually practice our French with native speakers, and getting help when we need it. but that’s just me.

The third thing is that I (finally) registered for classes today. It didn’t go exactly the way I planned. IES’ way of registering is actually worse than Purdue’s if you can believe it. Back in December, I “pre-registered” for classes. I’d signed up for a French speaking/grammar class, an art history class (Art and Architecture of Paris), a drawing class (drawing for beginners), a sociology class (Francophone Paris, looking at the racial, social, economic, and class tensions in Paris), and a theatre class (produces a play during the semester). Now, if I’d pre-registered for the classes, you would think that means that’s what I’m taking, and I went into my academic meeting expecting it to just be a verification that I wanted to remain in those classes.

Nope. It turns out that the IES Chicago (the American office) website does not put a cap on the number of people who can pre-register for a class, so even if you pre-register for a class, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to be able to take it. I only had this problem with one of my classes thankfully. Unfortunately it was the Art and Architecture in Paris class, which I was quite excited for. The class has room for 25 students, and apparently 30 some people signed up for it. (I told you it was even worse than Purdue’s system).

So, this threw my schedule for a loop. I still wanted to take an Art History class. Unfortunately, the only Art History class that was still available, Islamic art of the Mediterranean Basin, is scheduled for the same time as my drawing class. So, after looking at a couple of options, I’ve decided to take an outside class, that is, a class taught at a French university, not on the IES campus. I will be taking a drawing class, live model drawing actually (so, all you Bezaires who laughed at the butt…I’ll be looking at naked people for 6 hours every week, feel free to start giggling now J) at Atelier de la Croix Nivert. On one hand, I’m very nervous about this; on the other hand, I’m completely jazzed to be taking a drawing class in “freakin’ Paris!”

So, as of now, it looks like my weekly schedule will be (I put the French class that I want to be placed in, I don’t know if that’s the one I will get though):

Monday:
9:00-10:30 – Theatre production
2:15-3:45 – Francophone Paris

Tuesday:
10:30-11:45 – French grammar
12:30 – 2:00 – Islamic Art

Wednesday:
9:00-10:30 – Theatre production
2:15-3:45 – Francophone Paris
7:00-10:00 – open studio session for all art classes (ADC)

Thursday:
10:30-11:45 – French grammar
12:30 – 2:00 – Islamic Art
4:30-7:30 – figure drawing studio session (ADC)

Friday:
No classes, but on three Fridays during the semester, the Islamic art class will have class visits to museums, as well as at other times during the week.


I guess we’ll see how this all goes, right?

A bientôt toute le monde !

what can i say...there's a lot to talk about over here.

For some reason, today it hit me that that this isn’t just a vacation…I am not going to be back at Purdue this spring. I can’t hang out with Missy, doing nothing and everything. The boys aren’t just a short walk down the hill. I can’t get Chinese food and have a girls night with Nicole. I won’t see anyone from the dep’t. I can’t count on seeing my family every month or so when I go home.

IES talked to us about this, they say it’s the second step of cultural readjustment, when our “cultural bubble” breaks. That definitely happened to me today, on two occasions actually. The first was that Caro asked if I wanted to babysit for them tonight. I said yes, thinking it would be a good way to get to know the kids a bit more. As it got closer to the time I was supposed to babysit though, I kept getting more and more nervous. I don’t remember the last time I was nervous to babysit. Interacting with, and taking care of children is something I’ve always been confident in. but these kids don’t know English, and I can only understand Dimitri half the time (he speaks French the same way any three year old would speak English...very difficult to understand). Any confidence I was starting to get with my French was shot by the fact that I was intimidated by a 3 year old.

The other occasion was later tonight. It ended up that Caro was able to get their “favorite babysitter” (the thought of which made me miss Colin, Karen, and Neil, and I wish them all the best and I’m thinking of them tonight), so they offered to take me with them when they went out. We went to an opening for an art exhibition of a friend of theirs. On one hand, I was completely exciting and jazzed to be there. An exhibition opening, in the middle of Paris, right next to the St. Sulptice Cathedral, in walking distance from La Louvre. Then I got there. Yea, they had an excellent spread (champagne, lots of juices and water, brie, foie gras, bread, and bon bons), but that was about all I got.

The art really wasn’t that great. It wasn’t bad, not at all, but not my taste. Very pastoral, the subjects were all geese, cows, or roosters, and they were all done in a very realistic, early impressionistic style, which is generally not that moving when you’re looking at a horse’s butt (which the artist had decided to choose as the subject for one painting). Out of about 35 paintings, there was only one that I took at second look at.

But that was nothing to realizing how stinted my French is. I met some of Stan and Caro’s family, and a couple of their friends, and there is no doubt that I am not at their conversational level. At one point, I realized I was in a room full of adults who were speaking a language I’d studied for 6 years, but could barely follow, and only if I was trying very hard. A little discouraging, and the room was very overwhelming.

I ended up leaving early, and finding a bookshop around the corner, poking my head in, and buying a couple of books. I got a little French-English dictionary that will easily fit in my purse (the one I brought, while comprehensive, is rather too large to take with me everyday) and the second Harry Potter in French. Hopefully that will be a good daily reading exercise/relaxation for me.

Reading this all again, I realized that I sound depressed…I’m not, I think I just realized that I am going to have to work a lot over here to accomplish what I want. Before getting here, I think I’d permanently been thinking “work hard, get everything done, and then I can go to Paris”…not “work hard, get everything done, so I can work hard in Paris too”. I guess I had a reality check. Handed to my by art and children, two things I wouldn’t have expected it from.

Second entry written on my laptop...

The Champs Elysees, from Beginning (L'Arc Triompe in the distance) to end (Place de la Concorde, the big obelisk)

Ok, so writing an entry a day might not pan out too well; every couple days isn’t too terrible, right? But, we’ll see how this goes once classes start, which is not until next Monday. We have a week long intensive French review, called poupédectique, which starts tomorrow, on Monday. Yesterday we took a French placement test, which they will use to place us in both the poupédectique as well as in the French class for the semester. It seemed ok to me, but I’ll see where I end up. The second half of this past week has all been orientation stuff, meetings about how to be a good hostee, how the metro and bus systems work, safety in Paris (the same as any large city), the rules of IES, stuff like that.

We’ve gotten all the afternoon/evenings off, and I’ve been using them to explore Paris some, mostly by foot, with some other people from IES. As a result, I’ve been doing a lot of walking these past couple of days. The first afternoon, we walked from Montparnasse (where the IES center is) to des Jardins de Louxembourg to the Le Panthéon to La Notre Dame de Paris. The next day we went to La Louvre for the first time, and spent about an hour and a half in there (I spent it in the Richelieu wing looking at French sculpture). IES gave all of us a pass to La Louvre, called La Carte Louvre jaunes, which lets us in for free as many times as we want while we’re there, as well as bringing one guest with us, so I’ll be taking my time exploring all of the museum. After La Louvre, we walked around the area for a while before getting dinner to go from a boulangerie (I had a ham quiche, a raspberry tart, and a diet coke) and heading home around 9pm.

Saturday we had the placement test in the morning at the FIAP (a conference center that we’ll have our poupédectique at all next week), had a meeting about academic information, then they served us lunch there (it was quite good), and then we went to the Eiffel tour in groups. We didn’t actually go up the tour, but it was the meeting place of touring buses. IES provided us with tickets to ride, because it’s a good way to get a sense of the city, at least through a tourist’s perspective. I don’t know if I’ve ever done anything that touristy in my life and my friend Marielle and I got off in about 20 minutes, we wanted to walk around instead of be driven. So then we headed to the Panthéon to meet up with Kate, Eddie, Maggie, and Polina, because it had a free admission this weekend. The whole ceremony with Jacque Chirac turned out to be the kick off of an exhibition dedicated to Les Justes, the French people who helped hide Jews during WWII, which was taking place there. The inside of Le Panthéon is really cool, and we down to the crypt, where we was the graves of Rousseau, Voltaire, and several other famous French people. After Le Panthéon we decided to walk to Montmartre…but didn’t make it, we got tired before then. Instead we saw Place de Bastille (quite anticlimactic, but an attraction to check off the list; we did check out what would be playing at the Bastille Opera House, some of which looked cool), Place de Vosges (about as european as a square could be), and then found some dinner in the Marais district (the gay district, also the very chic and expensive shopping district.)

That’s mostly what I’ve been up to here…if you can’t tell, I’ve decided to see all of the touristy things before I actually settle in, and feel less like a tourist, more like someone who lives here. Alright, I’m outta here, love you all!

Salut!

Thank goodness for thumbdrives, right?

Jeudi 18 Janiver, 2007

Ok, I’m typing this in Word because the Wifi (or WeeFee, like they say here) of the Ruszkowski’s isn’t working on my computer, (I’ve had this problem before, and I honestly think that in the process of protecting my computer dad, you made it next to impossible to connect to any networks except for ones set up by this computer.) so I should be able to copy this to my jump drive and post it tomorrow at the IES center, but we’ll see.

So, I guess I’ll start with le voyage, oui? Pretty uneventful, but good. There were a couple of highlights that you guys might get a kick out of…

-when we flew into Philadelphia, we passed over a shipyard, and you guys (all you engineers in my family that is) would be proud to know that you’ve had enough of an effect on my that I got a kick out of seeing a half constructed ship in a dry dock. Thanks for the geeky influence over the years, it’s really paying off J
-I ended up having a 4.5 hour layover in Philly, so I decided to get something to eat, and decided on Americanized Chinese food (who knows when I’ll get to eat it again, right?) so, after deciding on fried rice, Chinese vegetables, and orange chicken, I picked up my tray, and promptly spilled it all over the kiosk. Yup, all over the floor, and I nearly missed a woman standing next too me. Well, I thought I missed myself, and the people working there were nice enough to just give me a new plate, so I thought I was in the clear…after I finished eating, I wandering in a newsstand and the duty free store, and ended up in the bathroom. Lo and behold, I went to hang up my coat, and discovered that I had a hood full of fried rice. I probably had left a Hansel and Gretel-esque trail all over the airport too. So, I emptied the hood into the toilet, and washed it out in the sink, complete with a 20 minute drying period with the electronic dryers. Yup, I’m that cool
-the fight from Philly to Paris was good, the plane was only half booked so I got to stretch out a bit, which was nice. I watched The Departed, which, while good, was not a favorite of mine, and I don’t even know as to if I’d say I liked it. But, the acting was excellent, and it’s worth seeing.
-PS – if you come to France (through CDG at least) customs are a joke…a woman stamped my passport, said “bonne journee!” and that was it. I didn’t have to declare anything, there were no random luggage searches or anything…it took maybe 5 minutes. (in hind sight, this might have been because I had a visa, if you’re just traveling, I don’t know if it’ll be the same for you)

Ça suffit pour le voyage, oui? Maintenant, ma famille et ma maison française, oui ?

I think that I’m going to like living here a lot, it seems like a famille that I can adjust to, and that are very willing to help my adjust. Demitri (Dim) et Charlotte (Char-Char) are cute kids, but very energetic. Char-Char is very independent, and I don’t think she has quite decided what she thinks of me…she likes to be around me, likes to interact with me, but she does not like me to touch her, hold her, or to help her if she’s doing something, but I think she’s warming up to me. Dim is very loud, and I think he thinks I’m his newest playtoy…a Mr Potato Head included (“m. Pomme de Terre”), which I’d brought as a gift for him. But they are good kids over all, I think I’ll like living with young kids for several months.

Stan et Caroline (Caro) are trés chouette, I think they will be a very good match for me. Stan works for Warner Bros, he is in charge of the business transactions for the French branch of the company (from what I understand) and Caro works for a promotions company, and right now she is working with Nestle. Both of them want to find jobs either in Canada or the US and move to North America for a couple years, which I think is really cool. They are both trés gentil, je les aime beaucoup.

Oh yea, for my first night here, Caro asked if I liked asian food, and I said yes. She ordered some online, and it turns out it was sushi. I had sushi for the fist time yesterday, and yes, I ate it. It wasn’t bad, I liked the salmon roll and the California roll, but the tuna roll was too fishy for me. I don’t think sushi will ever be a fav of mine though.

La maison is really nice, it’s a townhouse with three apartments in it. Caro and Stan live in one, and Caro’s parents live in the otherm and i have not had a chance to meet the other neighbors yet. Stan and Caro’s apartment is quite large, including the basement (which I basically have to myself) there are 4 floors. I’ll put pics up eventually, je vous promis. I really like Phillipe et Marie Catherine, Caro’s parents. They are very nice, and very French. They are also hosting a student, Nathan, who is studying at a different program here in Paris, and so, Marie Cqthrine invited Stan, Caro and I over for un diner française tonight. It was delicious. We had grapefruit for l’entréem, coq au vin, des roasted potatoes, and poulards (cooked greens) for the main course, a course of fromage et pain (delicieux…the cheese here is much stronger, they don’t believe in pasteurization, they say it ruins the taste…it was a surprise the first time, but I’m already liking it), and yogurt et crème fraise for dessert. All with red wine. The meal was amazing, and I really liked the conversation. It was difficult at times, but everyone was patient with Nathan and I as we floundered several times.

Ok, I think that’s it for tonight. It’s midnight, and I need to get some sleep. I walked from Montparnasse to the Notre Dame de Paris (with stops at the jardin de louxembourg and the Pantheon along the way (btw, apparently Jacques Chirac was going to make an appearance there later today, and the other girls I was with wanted to stay for it, but I had no desire for it…no need to stand waiting for a couple hours to get a glimpse of a man from a distance in my mind. I’d like to credit Mom and Dad for my complete lack of a celebrity hunter/voyeur instinct…whatever I had, I think you guys have killed, and thank you for it!) and I’m tired and ready for bed.

A Bientot!

je suis ici!!

Salut!

I have actually written a couple of entries for this, but the internet at my apartment is not working for my computer, so I haven't had a chance to post them yet, but they are coming. So quickly (because i'm at the IES center and people are waiting for computers, as well as people are waiting for me so we can go to La Louvre ce soir) things are good so far, the family and house is good, more about that later. I haven't started classes yet, but orientation is good so far. We have language placement tests tomorrow, and then we get to go on a tour of the city, which should be touristy and fun.

but more later, love to you all!

Salut!

deux jours? DEUX JOURS??

I can't believe that I leave in less than two days...surreal.

I finally got in touch with my host family, turns out that IES sent me an incorrect email. But a phone call to the Ruszkowski's and things straightened out. I'll be living with Stan and Caroline Ruszkowski, and their two children, Dimitri and Charlotte.

I've talked to Stan on the phone for a couple mintes, he seems like a good host. It was quite a surprise for him to switch into english immediately, and it turns out that he's half Canadian, and half French. In the email he sent me today, he mentioned that this was probably going to be the last time we spoke in english, so i'm sure they will challange me, and hopefully my french won't fail me. (it's nice to know that i can ask "qu'est-ce que c'est_____?" and get an answer though, but i know i need to avoid it!) Dimitri and Charlotte are both young kids, they look adorable!!! It's great to be able to see who i'm going to be living with, finally!



Ok, LOTS of stuff to do...

Salut!

hmmm...

I hope this isn't a foreshadowing of what my semester at IES is going to be like, but I haven't been able to contact my host family. Not because they don't answer, but because the emails keep bouncing back, saying the address isn't deliverable. IES hasn't responded to my emails about it yet, hopefully i'll hear about it soon.

starting to get nervous, but incredibly excited too.

Going to visit Purdue this week was great, i loved seeing people again, even if it was short, but it reminded me of what all i'll be missing this semester. I hope you all have a FABULOUS semester, and I want to hear all about it. In other Purdue news, I was nominated to be an undergraduate theatre representative next year, which should be cool. I would love to be one, I don't know what all I'll have to do for running, and if i'm in Paris, how feasible it would be, but it was good to know I was nominated :) If any theatre people read this, thanks for the honor!

Salut!

it's getting close :)

I just got my host family information!!

I'll be living with the RUSZKOWSKI family in Boulogne, a southwestern suburb of Paris. If I have myself situated correctly, I think I will be about 30 -40 minute walk (or about 15 metro stops) from Montparnasse where my classes will be. I don't know anything about the actual family yet, but I did send them an email introducing myself to see if I could learn more about them before I leave.

I can't believe i'm leaving in less than two weeks...

salut!