I've climbed a lot of stairs in the past two days...

Yesterday Megan and I decided to take a trip to the northern part of Paris...first stop, the Opéra Garnier, which is the place that Phantom of the Opera is based on. I went there the last time I was in Paris, it's absolutely gorgeous because they just finished restoring it a few years ago. There really is a gigantic chandelier, and a Box 5, for those of you who have seen Phantom. And it was pretty cool for Megan and me because the lyre, one of the symbols of Alpha Chi, is a "prominent feature of decoration". We tried to get a picture with one but they were all very high up on the walls...sad. We were unsuccessful in our search for the Phantom, but we did see some very pretty dancing costumes!
Next, we headed to Montmartre. We hiked up the high, high hill (after stopping for some souvenir shopping-I bought scarves! yay!), in the process skillfully avoiding "souvenir sellers" aka potential pickpocket (at IES they told us about a trick they will use, they'll show you a toy that traps your fingers together while they steal your wallet...someone actually approached us with it but we knew better). Eventually we made it to Sacré-Coeur, where there were street performers abounding, from living statues to a guy doing tricks with a soccer ball to a flutist. We walked around the church, then decided to climb the 300 steps to the top. I don't know why I thought doing it the second time would be better than the first time I did it, but never again, lol. 300 tiny windy spiral steps. The view is really nice though--it's much more enjoyable to see Paris from above now that I can identify stuff. So we walked around a bit more, I showed Megan some of the things I saw on my guided tour, and somehow we ended up taking a realllllly sketchy metro station to get to dinner but luckily all my stuff survived.
We went to the quartier Latin for dinner, and for 12 euros got a great 3-course meal (I was STUFFED) afterwards. I chose to try escargots for the first course (figuring I had nothing to lose since I was already saving money by choosing the prix fixe menu). They handed me six snails in the shells and two strange tools. So eventually I figured out how to eat them, and they were so good (once I got over how weird they looked). They were in a garlic and butter sauce, and they were amazing. The other two courses were equally great and we left completely stuffed to go home and watch a movie (a documentary about Marie Antoinette that did not have subtitles, but I think we understood most of it).
Today we woke up and met our friend Amy in the Bois du Vincennes (the woods on the eastern side of Paris) to have a picnic lunch of cheese, bread, and Nutella. It was pretty yummy and it's been gorgeous weather the entire weekend so it was nice. Then we got back on the metro and went to the Château de Vincennes, a castle that I think was built by Charles V and then eventually also used by Louis XIV, and was recently restored. We wandered around the donjon, or keep, and walked around a bit. It was pretty cool. More windy stairs though!!
So now we're at home relaxing before another week of class begins!
Oh, I had my first two dreams in French this weekend! Apparently that's a good sign when you're learning a language.

photo album links:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053167&l=c788e&id=15805278
(album with Musee de l'Armee, also includes some opera pics)
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053217&l=aac3c&id=15805278
(opera and Montmartre)
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053264&l=dbcd7&id=15805278
(ch. de Vincennes)

Hanging out with Napoleon

So today Megan and I slept late, which is always really nice. I don't know if it's spending so much time on the metro or always doing stuff or being in a city or what, but I am always so tired here. Maybe it's my really comfy bed. But yeah, we got up late, and I found a Thai restaurant in my guidebook that was near the Place de Châtelet. It was cheap and really yummy! We have decided that going out to lunch is a better idea than going out to dinner, it's cheaper. It made me miss Thai Diner in Richmond a little. But yeah, it was awesome. Really good spring rolls.
After that we took the metro to Les Invalides, where Napoleon is buried, and spent the afternoon there. It was actually built because Louis XIV wanted a hospital for wounded soldiers. The first stop was the Eglise St-Louis, because the veterans needed a chapel to go to with their king, but they needed separate entrances, of course. The church was really pretty. Then there is the Eglise du Dôme, where Napoleon's tomb is. His coffin is pretty huge, it's actually a series of 6 coffins, one inside the other. His son and some other family members are also buried there. Lots of statues and prettiness. It was pretty cool. I always kind of thought of Napoleon as a bad historical figure, but the French love him, I think? I'm still not really sure about that. But there's a quote of his plastered everywhere, the English translation is "I want my ashes to rest on the banks of the Seine where I can be near the people of Paris that I have loved so much" or something similar.
So our entrance ticket also bought us admission to the Musée de l'Armée. It was a museum of war and army stuff (obvi) that started from the Napoleonic Wars but focused mostly on World Wars I and II. You would really like it, Dad, you guys should go when you come visit. It was sort of interesting but I have a feeling Robi or Dad would have appreciated it more, haha. I was more amused by all the different colored uniforms and the mannequins than anything else. It was informative, though.
Then Megan and I walked around the Seine near le Musée d'Orsay for awhile, before coming home and cooking for the first time! Well, cooking that didn't consist of microwaving a frozen meal from Picard, which is quickly becoming my favorite store, I wish they had them at home. We made pasta and sauce, and the jarred sauce I picked out was yummy so yay for that! That plus fresh French bread and a chocolate caramelly dessert we bought at Picard=yummmmm. We then proceeded to be total Americans and watch the season premieres of Grey's and The Office.
Last night was one of our dinners with our host family, which was pretty awesome. Megan and I really look forward to dinners with them even though they last forever, since they are just so enjoyable. They just found out they are going to be grandparents for the first time and they are so excited! It's so cute. They've been married over 30 years and they are very silly and fun and we have really great conversations with them. Florence is so cute and Paul-Henri is just so informative and always so interested in what we've done for the day. They encourage us to explore so much and are always telling us about museums we should go to or places we should see. Florence actually told us last night that two of her good friends are Becky and Maria's host moms, which is pretty funny! They keep telling us that we are very well-brought up, and very good girls, and that we speak French very well considering the short time we've been here. Our host dad asked us about how we feel we're improving and I said that my comprehension has gotten a lot better (I can understand them when they talk to each other, not just to us, and salespeople have stopped looking at me like I'm an idiot) but there still seems to be a delay with the speaking part. He said that will come in time. I still feel like I learn five new words every day but immediately forget them....marrant means funny, orloge means clock, attaque cerveau is a stroke. And I'm constantly messing up genders of nouns and prepositions, and my accent sucks. Florence tells me when I complain about how hard the accent is that the accent is just for aesthetics, really. She says knowing the vocabulary and the grammar is much more important.

OK, I think I've written enough for now. Here are my Facebook album links from today (which feature not only Napoleon and the museum but Amanda and Megan's Cooking Adventures)
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053166&l=18b1a&id=15805278
and
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053167&l=c788e&id=15805278

More class, Louvre, and solitary exploration

So my first week of class ended 3 1/2 hours ago! Yay! And I came out of it with very little homework. The best part was yesterday...my poli sci professor told me and the other 2 kids who are taking both classes with them that we didn't have to stay for the second class, since we were just discussing the same thing in both classes (a basic intro to French political parties). So we got to leave 1 1/2 hours early, which was sweeeet. Megan and I used the time to go book shopping and relax, because later that night I had to go to the Louvre for my art history class. We walked around and talked about Nicolas Poussin and Charles LeBrun, two French painters, and guilds and academies and lots of stuff. It was cool.
Just a side note about buying books for classes in Paris (and prob all of Europe): A HUGE PAIN. There's no such thing as a university bookstore. You're given the info about your book and then you can go find it on your own...and bookstores don't stock more than a couple copies of each book. There are big chains like FNAC (a combo of Best Buy and Barnes and Noble) and Gibert Jeune, but the book for my history class isn't at either...this is going to be fun. And books in both stores are organized really oddly and it's just very annoying. End culture shock rant here.
Today I had class til 2 again. Art History is interesting, but it's kind of hard to keep up with since I've never taken a class in art history before and I don't really know anything about it. Since all of my friends still had class after I was done, I decided to do what I did on Tues. and pick something to do by myself. This time it was Ste-Chapelle and the Conciergerie, so I hopped on the metro.
Ste-Chapelle is a church built in the mid-1200s to house holy relics. It's actually now contained inside the walls of the Palais de la Justice. I waited on line for 40 minutes to get inside because of the security checkpoint. Once I got inside, it was absolutely gorgeous. The bottom level is all beautifully painted scenes and statues, and the top is breathtaking because it's ALL stained glass. It wasn't very big, so it didn't take very long to explore, but it was beautiful.
Next was the Conciergerie, which is a building along the Seine that looks like a castle, and was used as a jail. It's where Marie Antoinette and Robespierre spent their respective last days. I explored that for awhile, saw Marie Antoinette's chapel and the recreation of her cell, saw reproductions of what other cells were like, etc. Once I got out, I walked around the Seine for awhile, bought some raspberry sorbet, and walked around the Place Châtelet and the Pont Neuf (oldest bridge in Paris) for awhile, and sat in the park where the Tour St-Jacques is.
I think Thursday afternoons are going to be a lot of fun with just me, myself, and I exploring the city :-)

Here's the links to my Facebook albums:
#1: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053144&l=81ba1&id=15805278
#2: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053145&l=73239&id=15805278

La Défénse, Père Lachaise, and the first days of class

So the last two days have been the first days of all my classes except the one at L'institut Catholique (which my host parents informed me last night is just called "Cato", pronounced Cat-OH.). I have the same professor for both my political science classes (which are consecutive on M/W), and he is really cool. He told us we can be informal with him, use his first name and the "tu" form when speaking to him. The only catch is that he told me and the 2 other students who are taking both of his classes that the first few days of both classes are going to be the same thing. Ah well. At least he's cool. The first class I have with him is a comparison of French and American governments, and the second is about France's role in the EU. Both are really relevant in current affairs because of the American election and because France is president of the EU until December.
Today I had my French language class and my art history class. In French, we had the test we were supposed to have the last day of language review, it wasn't that bad. Art history looks like it's going to be really interesting! We have several museum visits on weeknights throughout the semester, which is going to make those nights a bit hectic because of my class at Cato, but I should be able to make it to all of them. And I get to do an oral presentation with Becky so that should be fun!
So I finished class at 2 both days, and Megan finished early on Monday, so afterwards we went home and went for a walk in a neighborhood that's practically in our backyard--La Défénse, the only place in Paris where there are skyscrapers. We took the metro two stops to get there, and exited into a huge station that looked a lot like Port Authority...except for the fact that there is a GIANT mall/cinema called Les Quatres Temps (the 4 seasons) attached to it. But the atmosphere in general was much more "NewYorkais," as the French call it. Then we went out and saw all the insanely tall skyscrapers, La Grande Arche, and a really modern church called Notre Dame de la Pentecôte. It was weird. There was a statue of the Virgin Mary that looked more like Buddha and all the lecterns were shaped like fire. It was kinda creepy actually. We walked around the quartier a little, then went to the mall, of course. But it was cool how much that part of Paris looked like New York--except there are no cars driving through. It's all by foot. It's also still very quiet. There's a garden with trees and sculptures in it in the middle, and it might be nice to study in if it doesn't get too cold. And just in case you forgot you were in Paris, you can look up and see L'Arc de Triomphe.
Today after class I went for a walk in what my guidebook says is the world's most-visited cemetery, Père Lachaise. At first I spent my time wincing because cobblestones and heeled boots are not the best mix (no matter how comfortable the boots feel at first), as well as gaping at how big the cemetery was. Then I realized it wasn't as big as I thought and successfully located the graves of Impressionist artist Camille Pissarro, Oscar Wilde, and Edith Piaf. I was too tired to try to find any others, so maybe next time...Moliere is there too, as well as a ton of other famous French people. I almost missed Oscar Wilde's grave except that I turned around to see why there were all these lipstick marks on somebody's headstone. Apparently at some point it became traditional to kiss Oscar Wilde's grave, as well as write messages on it, and now there are all these signs up about not defacing his grave. You can barely read the letters that say Oscar Wilde. But it was still pretty cool. I saw Edith Piaf last, and I had been listening to a CD of hers the entire time I was in the cemetery so that was pretty sweet. After that I listened to my aching feet and went home, where I am now trying to get organized. Luckily I have no homework so far!
Here's an article I thought was interesting: how the US is becoming the US of France
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1843168,00.html?cnn=yes
the latest Facebook album with the results of those explorations:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052984&l=ee7c5&id=15805278

Shopping and the Louvre

So this weekend was a little bit more relaxing, which was good because we start class tomorrow!
Yesterday Megan and I slept in, then went down to the Montparnasse area and went shopping in a lot of French chain stores-Zara (actually Spanish), Kookai, Promid, Pimkie...they actually had an H&M there that we ended up going to! I ended up getting a pair of black boots (very chic in Paris, as well as useful for when it rains). Then we met up with Amy, Hayley, and Becky near the Opera and wandered around there for awhile, checked out the old stock exchange and a flea market nearby, and had dinner in the Latin Quarter.
This morning was another late morning, and then we decided to go have lunch. However, all stores and a lot of restaurants in Paris are closed on Sunday. After wandering around our neighborhood for an hour with no luck, we decided to go to Le Marais--it's the gay and Jewish neighborhood in the center of Paris (the 4eme), and everything there is open on Sundays. So we went there, had Chinese food and a crepe each, and walked around a little. It's pretty lively on Sundays, which is unusual for France. Then we met up with Becky at the Louvre! IES gave us free passes to the Louvre for the entire semester, so we just went in for a few hours to see some of the major sights--the Mona Lisa (La Joconde in French), Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory--along with some French paintings. Last time I was in Paris you weren't allowed to take pictures of the Mona Lisa, but they've increased the glass protection and widened the area around it and now apparently you can.
After a few hours there we headed home and Megan and I watched a French film our host mom loaned us called Les Choristes...kind of like a combination between a French version of The Sound of Music and Dead Poet's Society. It was pretty cute, and watching things in French with French subtitles is always educational.
Tomorrow we start class! I have two political science classes tomorrow, from 10:45-2. Yay for class? It'll be nice to be on a schedule, though.
Here's the link to my Louvre pictures:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052861&l=37018&id=15805278

Some Parisian Wanderings

So since I last updated, we've been wandering around quite a bit. Wednesday after class Megan, Becky, Maria and I went to the Jardins des Tuileries. It was really gorgeous there, surprising since it's been quite autumnal here since we got here...it gets pretty chilly at night. But we walked around the gardens and then up to the Place de la Concorde and a little bit of the Champs-Elysees. It was pretty fun! We then went in search of this place called Angelina's on the Rue Rivoli, which supposedly has the best hot chocolate in Paris. When we got there we discovered that it was 6,80 euros for hot chocolate, so we decided to save that for another day! Then Megan and I went to Picard, a store that specializes in frozen food (only the French would have a specialty store for frozen food) and got frozen meals to make our first meal by ourselves! Frozen dinners, Camembert, bread, and chocolate ice cream. Perfect. We also watched Amelie with French subtitles this time :-)
Thursday was the last day of stupid language review, thank goodness. We all met up after class in the Bois du Boulogne (but completely on the other side from where I live) to go to the Marmottan-Monet museum, a museum of entirely Monet paintings. Sadly there were no pictures allowed but it was a gorgeous museum. And our host parents went to Giverny the same day and brought us back posters! lol. Then that night our host parents had a former student and her boyfriend come visit because they were in town, and it was one of our dinner nights with them so we went out for Japanese food on the rue Mouffetard. Yum! We didn't get back til late though.
Today we had a "welcome lunch" aka "orientation is finished and now you have to start normal life" at the Eiffel Tower restaurant, Altitude 95, with IES. It was delicious, and took awhile, of course. Then we wandered around the Eiffel Tower, took silly pictures, went all the way to the top, then came back down and went to Les Cars Rouges, a bus tour of Paris that the school gave us free tickets for. It was cool but COLD. It was chilly and windy today. After it was over we had dinner at an Italian restaurant and came home.
This weekend should be nice and relaxing and then class starts on Monday!

New album links:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052682&l=e9d13&id=15805278 (Tuileries/Eiffel Tower)
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052774&l=5bacd&id=15805278 (Eiffel Tower/Bus Tour)
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052777&l=8b3ed&id=15805278 (end of bus tour)

Class Registration and Montmartre

So it's nice to be back in Paris...it feels a lot homier here after a weekend away. Propédeutique is back in session. Yesterday it was kind of annoying because everyone was obviously in the grip of Monday blues and kind of just stared at my professor when she asked questions, so I ended up talking a lot. We talked about immigrants to France after World War II and learned a lot of slang words. "Rital" is a perjorative term for Italians.
I also registered for classes yesterday. It looks like I'll be taking an art history class (which talks more about the social context in which the art was created), two political science classes (one comparing French and US governments and one talking about France's role in the EU), and my French class with IES. At L'Institut Catholique, I will be taking a history class about the Second Empire in France (1850-1870) and the politics in Europe at that time. I have class from 10:45-2:00 Mon-Thurs, and on Tuesday the discussion part of the history course from 4-5 and Wednesday the lecture part from 3-5. Pretty good schedule.
Today we had class, did a lot with the different types of past tenses, and then I went on a guided tour of Montmartre. It was long but really cool--we got to see Sacré-Coeur, the places where a lot of artists lived (Renoir, Piccaso, etc), and a lot of nice views of Paris. Our guide (a little old lady with electric blue mascara on) told us a lot about the history of Paris, particularly St. Denis (now I really want to go visit the Basilique St. Denis, where all the French royalty is buried), and the times of the world wars and in between.
Something that really makes me angry about Sacré-Coeur (and the Catholic church in general): you are not allowed to take pictures or speak inside the basilica, because prayer is going on all the time, but you are cordially invited to visit the gift shop (which is INSIDE the church) or to make souvenir euro coins at the no less than seven machines inside the church. So basically you can only disturb the holiness if it makes the church money...
Something funny I've noticed on the metro: the advertisements for KFC say at the bottom (translated) "for your health, make sure to eat at least 5 fruits and vegetables a day". I find this really amusing for some reason.
Here's the link to my Montmartre album:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052621&l=faf89&id=15805278