You know what's great for ruining the vibe that you're having a fabulous week?





Getting molested on the metro.




to whomever that fucker was, and to any man who would ever think that it's ok. it's not. If you think it is, you are an asshole. and I hope that my slap to your face was able to convey that, even if you just laughed at my attempt to say it in french. Fuck you, you cafard.

I guess this is a bit of a plug...

so couchsurfing.

For anyone who's completely unfamiliar with Couchsurfing, let me explain it a little bit. CS is a non profit orginaztion originating from (i believe) New Zealand. The officially stated mission of CS is that:

"CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding."

The way CS goes about this is by creating a community of couchsurfers. Now, i'm sure some of you are wondering what exactly couchsurfing is. ("God Becky, that's nice and all, but WTF are you talking about") To surf a couch, or to couchsurf is the concept of staying in someone's home. So, for example. If I were to travel to...London, instead of staying in a hostel or hotel, I could find someone on the couchsurfing site, and couchsurf at their place. But, the point of CS is not offering people a free place to crash, it's giving people a chance to meet each other. So, during this hypothetical trip to London, while staying with Sally and John Deere, I might have dinner with them one night, we might go out for drinks at their favorite pub another after they show me around the city some, and maybe I could cook for them the last night I was there. During the whole visit, we would get the opportunity to hang out, to connect, and to become friends. Thus, when I leave London, I leave with new friends, and seeing the local, real London!

So, that was a hypothetical example. Now here's what i've experienced with it so far.

I joined because Kate wouldn't stop talking about it, and I hoped that if I joined, we could occasionally talk about other things too ;). Within a couple minutes of joining, I recieved a personal email welcoming me to CS, and inviting me to actively participate. I decided to join a couple groups related to Paris, and I sent out a message, saying that I was an American here in Paris, and wanting to meet Parisians. The response I got back has been incredible, within a day, I'd had about 10 emails from people, someone texted my phone, and I had several responses on the message thread. Out of all of this, I think i'm going to go see a movie with a CS friend this weekend, and I've organized a french/english exchange, which is starting tomorrow. In theory, there will be a group of us, some french native speakers, some english native speakers, all getting together for the opportunity to speak our secondary language. I'll let you know how it goes!

My other first experience with CS happened while I was in Reims this past weekend. I'd messaged a guy named Mathias who lived in Reims, asking if he'd be interesting in getting together for a drink and talking for a bit. It turned out that he could, and he invited his two friends along too, so it was Marielle, Mathias, Thomas, Remi, and I. After meeting up (While Marielle and I were waiting, I spent most of the time convincing Marielle that nothing bad would come of it) we all headed to a brasserie to get something to drink. After 2+ hours of talking (all in french) Remi invited us to his house for dinner, and continued conversation. Marielle and I made it back to our hostel at the last minute possible, and we had a great night. The conversation was varied, we talked about music, about schools, movies, art, Paris, politics (French and US), travelling, ethnicity, Mcdonalds...it was a great night.

I loved the opportunity to get to talk to some French people, to know that they would be understanding and sympathic of my mistakes with French, and to not have to worry about one of them thinking anything more than friendship was expected.

Reims? Reimz? Rheimz? what, it's said RHANCE?

While a short visit, Reims was a great city.

After a nice pre-dawn walk to my metro, I met up with Marielle at Gare de l'Est a full 40 minutes before our train was supposed to leavem because we wanted to make sure we had enough time to not be rushed. We figured out how to get our tickets, and found what we thought was the correct quai (platform). After congratulating ourselves on figuring out train transportation for about 25 minutes, we realized we were, in fact, at the wrong quai. So, with about one minute before our train was scheduled to depart, we freaked out.
Thus, we had a wonderful movie moment... chasing after the train, carrying all our things (well, I only had a backpack and a purse) as it was literally leaving the station. Mad Dash included, we made it, and enjoyed a nice hour and a half trip up to Northeastern France. For those of you who haven't seen it, the French country side is absolutely georgous, and I must say, kicks the butt of the midwestern cornfields. I tried to take a couple pics, but nothing really came out. So, the pic is thanks to google image search...

Once there, Marielle and I found a map(ish...it was more of a bus route map than a actual map) and walked to our hostel, checked in, and then set off to explore Reims. The whole city is small, it only takes about half an hour to walk from one end to the other (once you know where you're going) but it's idyllic. The Cathedral was georgous; it also has some cool history to it, it's where all the French kings were coronated, starting with Clovis. I actually liked it more than the Notre Dame de Paris; to me, it has the grandeur of any cathedral, but it still feels like a church...it didn't feel like a museum, like NDdP does.



After the Cathedral, we got lunch at a little family run brasserie, where we had excellent croque-monseiurs (grilled ham and cheese, french style) and salads. For Dessert, we'd seen a boulangerie that we just had to try. It was called Pauls, and I would reccommend it to ANYONE in the area. They'd been in business since 1889, and they knew what they were doing. I had the best raspberry tarte i'd ever had.

After lunch we continued our self guided walking tour, stopping at the Basilica, walking into a posh hotel thinking it was a champagne house and promptly being escorted to the door (I guess we didn't look like clientele...), some little parks, and Pommery, a Maison de Champagne.




For Pommery, we got to take a guided tour of les caves, or the caverns, where all the champagne is aged.
There was a great ambience down there, but piles and piles and piles of champagne bottles are only interesting for so long. We weren't allowed into the area where they actually make the champagne, which is what i'd been interested in seeing, but it was still cool see some of the process.
There was a champagne tasting included, and if you're looking for champagne, i'd recommend Pommery! Afterwards, we returned to the centre-ville where we enjoyed some hot chocolate in the same brasserie, along with some "chocolate shots".



"Chocolate shots", as we came to call them, were some chocolates we had bought. they were labelled as "chocolate avec champagne". We had both assumed that meant they would have a champagne flavored creme inside. Much to our surprise, there was a liquid shot in the middle of the chocolate, which pretty much tasted like a combination of vodka and rubbing alcohol. The chocolate was good though...For your enjoyment, here is a series of pics of me enjoying the chocolate!



Along with Marielle's reaction:











After the hot chocolate, we met up with some couchsurfers for drinks, which also turned into dinner. If you don't know what i mean by couchsurfers, calm yourself, I'm going to write my next entry about couchsurfing, what it is, and what my experience with it has been so far. For now, Marielle and I got to hang out with some locals all night!

After an exhausting conversation (five and a half hours of straight french gets tiring!), Marielle and I made it back to the hostel, just as they were closing the front desk. Needless to say, we both crashed around midnight.

The next morning, we did some more exploring, but the rain, and the fact it was sunday, really didn't leave a lot of options open. We caught our afternoon train back to the city, and I made it back in time to take a shower before eating dinner with Stan and Caro.

Absolutely great weekend. Makes me wish i'd started little trips like this before, but i'm glad I took the time to get to know Paris like I did.

bisous!

THAT is a counter terrorist measure??

I promise I will blog about Reims, which was AMAZING, but I don't have a ton of time right now, and I want to write about it at home, when I can post pics from the weekend too. But I did want to mention a couple of things I learned about France from my host parents last night.

Apparently the national government has made some changes in efforts to counter terrorism here in France post 9/11. What I had noticed is that there's a little fence infront of all schools here. it's not a big fence, it's more like a wrought iron garden fence. I couldn't figure out why they were there, except maybe in elementary schools to keep kids from running into the street. It turns out that the gov't decreed that the fences be installed as anti terrorist measures. Believe me, I was skeptical when that was the answer they first gave. apparently, no one is allowed to park their cars in front of the fences, so as to reduce the possible threats of car bombs, hence the reason for the fences. I don't know why they couldn't just paint the curbs, but that's the reason.

There's one other one too. All over Paris, public trashcans don't exist. instead, they have green metal poles that support green translucent trashbags. I'd decided that it was more practical... people could simply tell when the bag was full, and they'd be easier to change. Turns out no. the bags are anti terrorist precautions, so that it's harder to leave a bomb in the trashcan. and my host family misses the old, "pretty" trashcans that used to be all over Paris.


"Holy Anti Terrorist Device, Batman!"




This all led into an interesting conversation, including my attempt at explaining the wonderful rainbow system of warnings adopted by HS, and I think that both my host parents and I hold the same opinion. While the precautions taken by the gov't are sometimes rediculous, terrorism is not itself something to joke about. Since being here, I have gotten onto a crowded metro car and thought to myself "if someone were to do something to this train, I don't know if I could excape".

just some food for though.

Kate, i'd love your opinion on this miss IR and lover of all things like this.

An ode to public transportation.

Paris' transportation system is generally wonderful. The metros are clearly marked, using it is pretty much intuitive, and you can normally count on it being on time. I haven't had much experience with their bus system, but i haven't heard anything negative about it, except that it's larger and more confusing if you don't know what you're doing.

Yes, there are manifestations ('look Kate, another manifestation, want to go check it out?" "hell ya!"), and the system won't be running, but they're very kind about it, they let people know beforehand so you can make other arrangements. But today, I had my first experience with the metro not working properly. i got to my stop ahead of time, and was patiently waiting when the RATP people made this lovely announcement "Mds et Mr, please be aware that like 10 heading toward Gare Austerlitz is 'preturbed' becuase there is a passanger who is ill at stop Charles Michel. Please be patient". I heard this about 10 times in 20 minutes, until a metro finally pulled up, and I was able to start my journey to school.

As a result, I was about 15 minutes late to class.

So, my final opinion of the metro is: it's absolutely wonderful, until it stops working.

bisous!

it's already Ash Wednesday??

Sometimes I think I hate parisian people, but sometimes I love them too. While I don't think that they are unpardonably rude here, they are very reserved. People have been very welcoming to me...when i've been properly introduced by a trusted person. In other words, everyone i've been introduced to by my family has been very receptive.

People on the street not so much. I think that French people would rather save their smiles and their chatter for family and friends, and as such don't use them on the street. Yes, there are the random men from a different age who will still compliment (in what I have decided is an innocent manner, they arn't looking for anything) a woman on the street, and some of the people in my neighborhood that I pass by daily will say bonjour, but small talk amongst strangers is a rare occurance here. Not saying that it's a terrible thing, and not that I talk to strangers all the time back home, but there's times where a smile from a complete stranger can just brighten a gloomy day, or a hello can be the difference.

That being said, I chit-chatted with a complete stranger today for about 5 minutes. Marielle, Kate, and I had bought salads and were sitting in front of what we thought was an elementary school eating them. It turns out that we were next to the school, sitting on someone's porch. The guy who owned/leased the porch came to his window, and just started chatting with us for a couple minutes. About how hard it is to meet french people here no less. 5 minutes may not seem like much, but that random act of kindness compeletly brightened my day.



Another thing that has brightened my week is that Marielle and I scheduled train tickets to REIMS for this weekend! We leave early on saturday morning, and we get back to Paris sunday afternoon. We're not sure what all we'll be doing there, but we scheduled a guided tour of a champagne vinyard, and we're planning on doing some hiking in the forets/vinyards that surround the city. Here's to my first European train experience, and my first hostel visit!

bisous!

PS - Kate, since you read this all the time leave some comments, why don't ya? Let me know if you're liking it!!

here's to a "local" weekend.

this past weekend was great...i did nothing spectacular, but for the first time, if felt like a weekend in a city i'm living in, not a city i'm visiting. Things like meeting a friend for dinner, spending a couple hours wandering around, agonizing over whether or not to buy something, and babysitting for a night help me to feel more natural here.

that being said, I want to go somewhere next weekend. Right now, i'm looking at Reims, Brussels, or Marseilles. I really want to go with someone, but I think i'd be up for traveling solo if no one sounds interested. I want to see more than just Paris while i'm here though, and this coming weekend seems like a good time to start.

especially now that I have a lovely new camera :) I ended up buying a camera this weekend. they had a good deal on a decent camera, so i'm satisfied with the conclusion of that. I don't know if i'm going to replace my ipod yet, I feel like it's a more superficial need than the camera. I think if i comes down to taking a zeekend vacation or having an ipod, i'll go with the vacation.



One of my favorite past times here is people watching. On the metro, in a park, walking down the street...it's just entertaining to watch. to wonder where they're going. where they're coming from. what their personality is. to make up answers to all of it. There are some people who just have a distinctive air, and they just make the imagination go. In the space of a few seconds, I could create a background for them, a complete stranger.

bisous a tous

I want clothes that attract hordes of plastic sperm.

I think that the whole appeal of the mini cooper in the US is that it's so small, cute, and miniture. And it is, when you're used to seeing surburbans, Hummers, or other buildings on wheels that soccer moms drive around in while talking on their cells phones, reapplying makeup, and yelling at the kids in the back seat.

Here, there are no landmasses mascarading as vehicles. Honestly, I don't think they'd fit down some of the streets. Most of the cars are about the same size as the "mini" cooper, or even smaller, and the more coopers i see, the more boxy and unattractive i think they are.

Then there's the smart car...

they're advertised as being able to be parked horizontally in a parking spot, so you can fit two per spot (and believe me, they do over here), and would prolly get crushed back home, but are totally practical here. I think that's a good idea of the difference here...big isn't necessarily better, and a lot of times, it's less practial, and worse.


On a completely unrelated note,
Parisian stores raise window displays to an artform.

On another completely unrelated note, check out Renaud and Daby Toure. completely different music types, but i'm loving them both. The first is french music, the second is African, from the Maghreb, the area of Northern Africa that was colonized by the french. Check them both out, you won't be disappointed. I promise. Also check out Camille if you haven't. also totally worth it.

grands bisous!

This is like the raptor?

During this experience, we've been told that we'll go through a "roller coaster of emotions", with high points and low points. This week has definitely had more lows in it.

For those who wanted to know what happened with all my stuff, i accidently knocked my purse into a fountain while posing for a picture(which i put up here, because it did turn out quite cool), completely soaking my camera, ipod, and phone (along with everything else in there). the phone started working the next day, but that's been the only thing so far. Its definitely good that the phone works, it's critical for survival anymore, but I really miss my camera and ipod. I tried my camera again yesterday, and it turned on for the first time, but none of the dials/buttons would respond. I don't know if that means its still drying out, or if all of that stuff shorted out, or whatnot. The ipod is still completely unresponsive.

I wish that the trip to London would have worked out, I think a vacation this weekend would be good for me...maybe i'll go somewhere next weekend, we'll see.

Missing you all, beaucoup.

wet 'n' wild photoshoot.

I've offically had a shitty day here.



Suffice it to say that because of my own stupidity/unattentiveness, my camera, ipod, and cellular phone are not working, and that may be a permanent situation.

Check out Camille on Itunes, you won't regret it.

I set a new goal for myself. Before I leave France I want to, at least once, complete a french crossword puzzle. Let's see if I can do it.







"Heart, don't fail me now
Courage, don't desert me
Don't turn back now that we're here
People always say
Life is full of choices
No one ever mentions fear
How the world can seem so vast"

Oooooh Anastasia, how relevant you are. Thanks to my ipod shuffle, you are now stuck in my head. Lovely as always.




Ok, i don't really have anything worthwhile to post here...i'm going to the Louvre (or D'Orsay, haven't decided yet) to sketch after class, and then meeting some friends for dinner, and then not sure what else.

Hope everyone's doin well!

A Bientot!!

"Extra, Extra, Blog Improved! Get it while it's hot!"

I finally got around to posting photos on here...so if you're interested, take a quick glance through some past entries, things might look a bit different.

Other than that, I found an art supply store today, and i'm now a happy, sketchbook and charcoal carrying woman. Getting there was a frustrating experience (I was given bad directions twice) but it was worth it.

On the metro home, there was a homeless man who got on my car when I transfered onto Line 10. Not only did he have music, he had a whole puppet show, complete with a curtain (he'd made one that he could hang between the two poles in the standing area), two puppets (it looked like he'd made them too), and music. I wish i'd had my camera with me, it was worth taking a picture of.

Here's some other pics that I didn't know where to squeeze into past entries. enjoy!

- A bientot.



l'Arc Triompe at Night, oh la la!

I like to call this shot "Phallic France"...Fitting, right?









This guy was standing in front of the Notre Dame, feeding birds so that tourists could take his picture. Kate and I decided that we liked his method of becoming immortal...he'll forever be the bird guy in thousands of people's Paris pictures.


Outside Place des Vosges. I took a whole series of these lamp posts...it just felt like quintessential Europe at dusk...like what Easton wanted to feel like.







La Seine at night, tres belle.


Cool shot of the back of the Notre Dame through the trees. At least, I like it.






La Belle Paris...

The search is over; the fallafel has been found.

What a weekend...

highlights:

On Thursday I went out with Marielle and Kate, found a little irish pub right by the Bastille, and met an awesome bartender named Rebecca (tres cool, oui?). Turns out she's scottish and here in Paris studying stained glass at Olivier de Serres, a well known art/design school. It also turns out that her school had an exhibition this weekend; they opened their doors to the public to see all the students work. we decided to check it out on friday (yea to no friday classes!!), and I was really impressed. The picture is of a stairwell covered in postit notes that had reminders, personal thoughts, or inner confessions written on them. The notes were part of a project where a student covered themselves in the notes, and then photographed themselves around Paris. There were some really cool shots, i particularly enjoyed one of the student in the Metro, with the wind from the train blowing some of the post its off of him. There was a lot of interesting things there, and when we ran into Rebecca, she seemed really glad to see us (we might have made a friend! yea!)

Other highlight from the bar--we met an American named Phil who spent the better part of an hour doing slight of hand magic tricks for us. Entertaining strangers, yea! made me think of Timmy too :)




Saturday j'ai fait une grosse matin because i still wasn't feeling well, and met up with the girls at Pere Lachaise cemetary. it was incredibly beautiful and peaceful therem with about 1,000,001 picturasque spots.











Sunday I spent about half an hour people watching at les Jardins de Tuileries then met up again to go to the Musee D'Orsay. Of course, loved the museum, and i'm uber glad that i have a pass to get in whenever I want...I plan on being a return visitor!
After the museum, we walked to the Marais district, which was teeming with people (think about the amount of people you'd find at a street fair, only nothing special was going on, it was just a sunday with nice weather), and we were finally successful at finding the best fallafel. Let me tell you. It's worth the effort of finding the place, it was incredibly delicious...and a wonderful change from the french overload of carbs (i miss vegetables and grilled chicken)






after the fallafel enlightenment, Kate and I headed to Notre Dame by way of St. Michel (don't worry, we will be able to sketch at some point, je te promis!) and people-watched for about half an hour, then headed home.

on another note, turns out that Dimitri, my host brother has the chicken pox, and Charlotte is sick (which i'm betting will turn into the chicken pox too). poor kids!

oh yea. heard there was some sort of big game last night. Heard the Colts won. congrats colts fans, sorry to bears fans.

other than that, i'm seriously considering taking a train up to London next weekend to see the new play that Daniel Radcliffe is starring in. He's playing opposite Richard Griffiths, who just won a tony for The History Boys which i really wanted to see, and it was designed by John Napier, who has a ton of credits and several tonys under his belt. We'll see whether I make it up there or not, depending on how much everything costs.

that's all for now, love to you all!!

PS--> a couple people asked me to change my settings, and you can now comment on here without signing in. so comment away, pleeeeeeeaase!!!

In search of the best fallafel in the world.

There is a lot of waste in the world. At the same time, there are a lot of people who do not even have enough to have a sustainable life. Why is it that everything is so uneven like that? I know that we can look at politics, at economics, and at other political science type things to help us understand how it came to be that way, but i don't know if that explains why these discrepancies exist.

there are a lot of homeless people here on the streets of Paris; and they're impossible to look over. Yet, somehow, when sitting on the metro and a man steps on the train, playing his accordian, almost everyone on the train manages to not notice when he passes a cup afterwards, as if he doesn't even exist, as if what he does for work, the only thing he is capable of doing, does not warrent the respect of others. I know that i've pulled the same thing sometimes, where its easier ot just pretend it doesn't exist, but that doesn't solve it. yet, does giving him a 50 centieme piece solve anything either?


I went to Pere Lachaise cemetary. it's one of the largest cemetaries in Paris, and there's several famous people buried there (Jim Morrison of the Doors fame, Balzac, Moliere, La Fountaine, Chopin, Chaplin, Wilde just to name a few)as well as uncountable others. There's something peaceful, as well as humbling, about walking about generations of people, of seeing family crypts that go back to the 17th century. It also brought to mind all the people who i've lost in my life: Grandpa, Great-grandma, Aunt Ester, Aunt Beverly, and Joe especially.

I know those two thoughts may seem completely unreleated, but seeing as one happened right after the other, i think they will always be linked in my mind.

And then I talked about breasts

I forgot how much I like figure drawing. I went to the open studio on wends not knowing what to expect, whether it would be still life or figure drawing or what. Turns out it was figure drawing, and I’m really glad it was. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t know if I could ever get bored doing figure drawing. There is just something perfect about the human body, drawing it over and over would not bore me. I don’t know if you’ll get this if you’re not an artist or not, but there’s a change that happens when you’re in a figure drawing/painting studio session. The first time the model strips there’s a moment of “oops, naked body in the room, don’t know how to react”, but you mind changes it…and instead of noticing the breast, you notice how the light from the podium reflects up next to the shadow that the breast creates, and you get obsessed with depicting the gradation between the two, and showing how the different lights play on the skin. (Mom, I bet you know what I’m talking about)

I love the fact I have given myself time for that this semester. I don’t normally get to draw for drawing’s sake. It’s for a rendering project, or it’s a sketch that’s going to be turned into something else for the paint shop. I feel like this class is going to be a great excuse to just work on my basic skills, which could never be good enough, and are a long way from being adequate on a professional level (in my opinion at least)

In short, I’m really glad that I decided to take the outside studio drawing class. I poked my head into the IES drawing class, and they were drawing a three-dimensional cone. I feel like I made a good choice.

Other than that…

I (finally) got to skype with Anna today, and it looks like my going to visit her in Florence is going to work out, and hopefully will her coming to visit me (keep your fingers crossed!). Other (possible) trips will be to Germany to see Ben, and London to see my friend Megan who’s studying there this semester. That’s all I have as far as “excuses” to go places…but I’d love to go on a French vineyard tour (in Alsace maybe?), see Belgium, and go to Normandy. Ok, in truth, there’s a ton of other places I’d love to get to, but I’m trying to be somewhat realistic. I think I’m going to get to go to Giverny and the Chateau of the Loire Valley with IES, so those are a couple of spots to check off. Oh yea, I also am going to Morocco over spring break…Ahh!!

Besides possible travel ideas, I’m still exploring Paris. Who knows if I’ll really get to know the city in these months, but its starting to feel more familiar. This past week has helped a lot. Not feeling like I’m just here on vacation has been wonderful. I still need to figure out what my routine will be, but knowing that I will be able to figure it out helps make this place feel like home. Just a bit.

Love to you all!


The Marais district: The Gay and Jewish neighborhood; tres chic and tres cher