Disbelief

I'm not ready for it to be my last week here in Paris. This semester has gone incredibly quickly, I can't believe that tomorrow is May.

I want tomorrow to be feburary.

Day in the Desert: Part Deux

After the first foray into the Sahara, we went to the oasis town of Ouarzazate to clean up a bit and spend a night in a hotel. the next day we headed back out to the wilderness....on CAMELS!!!!
















After the camel ride, it was another night of camping...and this time it actually was camping. Once we settled in to the tents, Allison, Jeff and I went adventuring, and did a little rock climbing to watch the sunset. absolutely georgous, breathtaking, and exhausting. That night, we had tatine for dinner (couscous, meat, and vegetables), and then there was a bonfire for us. The next morning we headed back to the city on the camels, and went back to the same hotel to swin in the pool to cool off from the desert, and then get back on the bus and head to Marrakech for a night in the city before heading to Essaouira for the rest of the trip...

oh crap....

I knew I forgot something while I was here...school.

It's the week before finals, and I suddenly actually have work to do. dang.

exposés, papers, and exams, oh my!

Un weekend dans la campagne!

I had a great, and very french, weekend. The Ruszkowski's invited me to Mamy's (Caro's Grandmother) house, which is in a tiny village close to Saumur, a smaller city in the Loire valley, complete with vinyards and chateaux.

Mamy's house is nothing but georgous, provincially french, and pretty damn close to perfect. Built right around the time of Charlemagne, it comes complete with a gravel driveway (which has a garden in the middle of it), three seperate buildings, and a large backyard, with a vue of the river, extensive gardens, a pool, a bridge, and gravel walkways. The first, and main, building houses the kitchen, dining room, two sitting rooms, and 5 bedrooms, and about 5 bathrooms. the second building, what I call the garage annex, is built behind the self standing garage. there are (at least) two more bedrooms and a bathroom in there. the third building, facing the main building, has another bedroom, and several storages rooms, and possibly other things as well.

We took off friday afternoon, getting in around 7:30pm (side note: to any parents who routinely make long trips with small children, you have my immense respect. What patience you all have. And a special note to my parents, because i'm pretty sure Ben and I were terrors. sorry in hindsight for that), at which point all the adults took off to a dinner party, and Ester and I hung out with the kids all night. Ester, Caro and Stan's nieces' and nephew's live in nanny, and I chatted for a while after putting the kids to bed, and she seems like a really cool person. She's from Germany, and has been living in France for almost three years with the Grummers; before that she was living in Rome, also as a livein nanny. (I think I could really like doing something like that; must keep it in mind)

The next day I was introducted to the le monde du chausser, or hunting. Not only hunting, but hunting while riding horses, wearing crazy old school clothes, and playing horns. This is an old tradition in France, but apparently one that is strictly in the upper class. This weekend was a celebration of all the different clubs, or teams, so there wasn't a real hunt, instead there was a presentation of all the teams, followed by a faux-chause. It was interesting to watch, and cool to see Stan, Louis (Caros brother), and Phillipe (Caros Dad) riding around in their costumes. It also felt like the kind of thing that one wears a sundress and a big hat to (a la Kentuckey Derby) After chaussing for a while (chaussing would be an excellent example of franglais for those who care), Caro, Charlotte, and I headed into Saumur to see the town, stopping on the way for a wine tasting, and getting some ice cream too.









Other than that, the weekend was full of wonderful french meals, some down time that I spent drawing, playing with the kids, and celebrating birthdays (Mary Catherine, Caros Mom, and Alice, one of the Rusz neices). It was a great, relaxing weekend, I had a ton of fun, and I loved just being around welcoming french people. I really was lucky with my housing placement here, I have nothing back to say about the Ruszkowskis, ive loved being with them, and Im sure that I would have had a different experience here had I not lived with them.

Bisous!

ps, Ill try to get some pics of the weekend from Stan who took a lot, hopefully I will be able to put them up in a day or two...

First Foray into the Desert

"Si le désert n'est d'abord que vide et silence, c'est qu'il ne s'offre point aux amants d'un jour"
If at first the desert seems vastly empty and silent, it's because it does not give itself to one day lovers"

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - Le Petit Prince




Sooo, the desert, what an experience. We actually spent a couple days out there. The first night, we took a caravan of landrovers through the desert to get to our campsite. What a great experience. It kind of felt like we were in a movie (think Constant Gardener or something similiar) racing across the Sahara. That night was great. We stayed in a very touristy campsite on the dunes of the desert, complete with an electric generator and flushing toilets. The guys who worked at the campsite also doubled as musical entertainment, so we got to enjoy tuareg/Berber music around the campfire.








Pics from caravan-ing out there








Desert adventures!!





The next morning, Easter, we get up around 4:30 to watch the sunrise over the dunes. The one thing Gilles forgot to tell us is that the dune he had in mind was a ways away. Soo, after about an hour's boot camp-esque hike, we collapsed and got to watch the tail end of the sunrise, albeit from an incredible view. Unfortunately, it was so windy up there sand was blowing everywhere, and some got into my camera, and destroyed it. again. sooo, from here on out (minus the pics of the sunrise), pictures are ones that i'm borrowing from other people.

"You like politics? But you're American!"

I actually heard that a couple times last night. Looooove our reputation abroad; unfortunately, i can understand why we have earned it.

I went to a Nicolas Sarkozy political rally last night with Kate, at the invitation of Caro and Stan. It was interesting to see, he is running a campaign that's very similiar to the campaign strategies of the republicans, especially of the bush set. I'm not saying that his ideas, his platforms, or claims are the same, but he has a very similar style to Bush and other Old school American Politicans. The crowd there was definitely members of the business class, or as Kate and I said "attractive french men in well cut suits". There is a youth movement in support of Sarkozy, but they were definitely the minority last night, in fact, they were repeatly yelled at to be quiet and sit down by some of the older people. (gotta admit, that cracked me up...i've never been to a rally/support meeting where people have been yelled at for being too supportive) I also saw several people wearing "jeunes pour Sarkozy" tshirts who had grey hair...a jeune is someone 12-25 years old. Either there's an epidemic of premature greying hair in Paris, or i'm thinking Sarko's youth following might not be as strong as he'd like to appear.



Kate and I waiting to get in...notice the suits behind; French wanna-bes; Louis (Caro's brother), Alexis (Stan's good friend), Stan, Caro, and me after the rally; and Kate and I with some jeunes avec Sarko (fun story, I literally walked up to them and said "Hi, sorry to distrub you, but we're american, can we take a pic with you?". We got a wierd look and an ok)



It was a fascinating position to be in, to be in a politically charged environment as a basically objective observer. (Yes, the outcome of the French election will affect international relations, and as a result affect the US, and as a result affect me, but I can't do anything to affect the election, and whatnot) I read about the election almost every morning in the metro paper, and i've discussed it with my host family repeatedly, in classes, and with friends. I've really curious to find out the outcome, and to see how much it changes France's future.

I don't know how much the US media's been covering the election, but if not at all (or if you just haven't been paying attention) the main forrunners are Nicolas Sarkozy for the UMP party (the conservatives) and Sègolene Royal for the PS (the socialist Party). There are a total of twelve candidates, but there's only two more who are talked about with any real thoughts that they could affect the first tour. They're François Bayrou, with the UDF party (a moderate party) and Jean Marie le Pen with the FN (ultra conservative party). On sunday, the day of the first tour, or round of elections, the french people will pick their top two candidates. those two will have two more weeks of campaigning, and then will face each other again on may 6th for the second tour, which will decide the presidency.

That being said, I don't think I could bring myself to vote for either Sègolene or Sarkozy, were I given the opportunity. Sègolene comes off as someone who is inexperienced, creates a lot of faux pas, and has lots of ideas, but no idea how to actually carry them out. I also just don't agree with some of Sarkozy's ideas, especially in relation to immigration. He has some interesting economic platforms, and if he's elected i'll be very interested in what happens.

Meeting some locals

What has to be one of my best memories from Morocco was actually serendipituous. We were on the bus driving from Fes to Midelt where we were staying that night, and we stopped at a Berbère village, for what I thought was just going to be a quick picture break. Well, it turns out that Gilles started talking to some people who lived there, and knew some of the people from the village. As a result, we got a tour of their village, and we ended up drinking tea with Gilles' friend. The Berbère people are some of the nicest, warmest, most welcoming people i've ever met, and that's not an experience I will be forgetting anytime soon.








Some pics of some of the people of the village, as well as the beautiful scenery





more to come later, but i'm tired, so that's it for tonight...

Rockin' it in Morocco: Fès style

So Fès...great city, and we went to a wonderful little village up the hill for our first souk experience...here's some photos!






The Moroccan countryside; Mimosa flowers; Moulay Yacoub, the village we went to, and the sunset the first night there; and a man with his donkey






Various shots from the Fes souk inside the Casbah...It was a laybrinth in there, I'm pretty sure i'd still be wandering in there if I hadn't been with Gilles, our tour guide (hearing lots of gazelle comments i'm sure. For anyone who might not know, they call women who are obviously not locals gazelles...normally along the lines of "ooh, la la, gazelles!! come into my shop, i'll give you a good price" or "ooh la la, gazelle *kiss noise* how pretty, come talk to me blah blah blah")












more of Fes, including the tannerie - Fès is actually famous for it's leather, and the picture of what looks somewhat like a honeycomb is actually vats of dye that they use to color the leather. On of the more interesting, as well as rank (they use natural dyes made out of pigeon shit) things i've seen.

Al salaam a'alaykum!

So, the long and short of it is that i've fallen in love with Morocco. The Moroccan people are some of the friendliest, most welcoming people i've ever met, and it's a place that I know I will be returning to again in my life.

The physical geography of the country is breathtaking - they have some of everything, the atlantic sea coast, the two Atlas mountain ranges (one of which, the high atlas range, houses the second tallest peak in Africa), plains lands, and the Sahara desert. The Imperial cities are amazingly alive with their massive historical souks, and are also a glimpse of the royal past with the vast palaces of yesterday.

I don't know if I can say how wonderful an impression Morocco made on me, but if you ever have a chance, go.



I will write more, but i'm headed to Fnac right now to see if I can get the sand cleaned out of my camera so it works again. I swear, I never had problems with breaking cameras before I studyed abroad...

two quick things:

1- I leave for MOROCCO TOMORROW!

2- Kate, I think I developped your mystery pain, only, you know how your's was in one of your tendons of your knee? Mine's definitely in one of my glut muscles. I guess my harassing of you about it came back to bite my in the ass.


apparently literally.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...That's A-Florence!

Oh Florence, the land of amazing food, amazing art, amazing views, and the amazing Anna :)

(how american do I sound with all of those 'amazings'?)

After landing and walking straight into the terminal (apparently Europe doesn't believe in customs. I walked toward the 'sortie', saw the terminal, turned around, and asked a guard where customs where. He just laughed, and said that I could show him my passport if I felt a need to, otherwise just go enjoy myself...) and catching a bus into the centre ville, I got to see my first glimpse of Florence. It was a little dark and rainy, i'm not going to lie. But I met up with Anna, and we got dinner and GELATO (stop one of GC 2k7), wandered around for a while, then headed up to the northern part of the city toward Silvia's house, where I stayed for the weekend.

While the first night was rather awkward, mostly due to another girl surfing with Silvia who thought she was God's gift to Italy, I had a really good experience with couchsurfing. The other nights I had a good chance to chat with Silvia, and she seemed like a really nice woman. I wish we could have gotten to hang out a little more, but her work schedule got in the way of that. I will say that if you are going to couchsurf, there are a few things that can make the whole experience a lot better. for example - don't spend the entire time complaining about the house, the bed, how cold it is..., don't be disrespectful of your host's wishes, be accommodating when they ask you to be back by a certain time, and try not to completely exclude people from a conversation because of language barriers.

As for the rest of Florence...What a great city. It was nice to be in a different city from Paris, but it reinforced the fact that I feel like I made the right choice to be here. Florence, while adorable and picturesque, is quite small, and it was already overwhelmed by tourists. I love the feeling of the masses of people here in Paris, and the available anonymity that comes with it. But back to Florence, everything is so old!! Like, crazy old. It was fascinating to just wander the streets for hours, to people watch, and to listen to the italian.

I don't know what else to say about Florence, the food was of course amazing, as were the views, so i'm just going to post some pics...










Anna, with her new scarf, in the Bobili gardens; us in the gardens; overlooking Florence and Tuscany from the gardens; me warming up in a tea bar after walking around in the gardens in the rain for a couple hours




Copy of David (the real on is in a museum); Copy of Ghilbertti's doors (ditto about the museum); The Plaza where the David used to be, plus some random European high schooler