Friday, November 28, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
It's cold outside
I’m sitting, looking out my window at Mexico. It really is an unfortunate looking building. My room is situated right in front of it, and from my window I can only see one side of the building, giving me the impression that the Fondation de Mexico is nothing more than an ugly tower instead of the long apartment building that it is. For weeks I thought the poor Mexicans were limited to this mini version of a sky-scraper, until one day I happened to walk by it and look up to see a whole lot of building that I had never known existed.
Beside Mexico, the trees are yellow-brown, as most have already lost their leaves. The weather has finally turned cold for what seems like for good. Out on the streets, Paris is on strike once again. Every other week, at least one group of workers from a variety of jobs in Paris decides that it is time to demonstrate their rights to good pay and benefits, for France is always in a state of revolution. The most noticeable strikes are those of the transportation workers, who simply stop running the metro, RER, bus, or tram, making these modes of transportation extremely unreliable at times. Boulevard Montparnasse, the large street off of which Reid Hall is situated, is a popular spot for demonstration. Today was the second time I’ve seen people parading down it, chanting, singing, and setting off fireworks that make a loud Boom! I don’t know what it was all about this time, but a couple weeks ago it was the hospital workers who were on strike. They even had a bunch of speakers that played dance music out into the streets.
The last couple of weeks have been very busy. All of a sudden I find myself with homework to do, which hasn’t been the case in quite awhile. I spent all of Tuesday researching the topic for a class presentation on immigration’s influence on French cuisine. Since class was cancelled, (it was Armistice Day) I had no reason to leave my room, so I just studied all day until around 5 o-clock, when I started going crazy and left the building to get some fresh air. I took the metro to the Luxembourg gardens and then walked to Notre Dame. The 6pm mass had just started when I got there, so I went in and sat down. It was beautiful. The heavy chords of organ music blended with the angelic voice of a young boy who sang between the bits of the mass that were chanted by the priest. The church was peaceful, and the people all seemed to be in good spirits. I think I’ll go back again soon.
Speaking of churches, I finally went to see the Sacré Coeur, that pretty white church on top of a hill in Paris that is always pictured on postcards. I had visited the last time I came to Paris, back in 2006, but I hadn’t been back since. It was lovely, as always, but even more stunning was the view from the hill. I was amazed at how far Paris stretched into the distance, and was excited to be able to point out several monuments from where I was. The area around Sacré Coeur (Montmartre) is very touristy. It used to be the home of most of Paris’ artists, although now it is much too expensive for most artists to live there, let alone get a studio there. I took a few pictures.
At the big commercial shopping center, Galerie Lafayette, they’ve already put up lights and decorations for Christmas. It’s very pretty. It reminded me how close Thanksgiving is, and how I won’t be spending it with family this year. Our program was thoughtful enough to make plans for us to eat at a special restaurant the night of Thanksgiving, although it just won’t be the same… Halloween wasn't really the same either. There was a Halloween dance down in the basement of the Fondation, and some shops put up decorations, but other than that the French don't really celebrate the holliday. On November 1st, however, they all go and visit their ancestors and loved ones that lie in the graveyard, and put flowers on their graves. The graveyards suddenly become bright with color and busy with visitors.
Oh, and I almost forgot about the elections! Everyone in France is very happy with the results, as you can imagine. If France could have voted in our election, they would have, and they probably would have had a higher voter turn out than we did too. The night of the elections I went to a Jazz club and then stayed up until 3 in the morning watching the news reports on a laptop computer with my Sarah Lawrence friends. For the entire week afterwards, people in both of my art classes congratulated me on Obama’s election, and burst out with the occasional “Yes we can!”. I was very touched. I don’t want to imagine how I would have been treated as an American if McCain had won. Obama’s face covered at least 10 pages in Le Monde that Wednesday, as well as in every other newspaper that came out that day. The excitement still hasn’t really died down, either. Today I read an article about a black man running for some position in French government, and above his picture was the phrase, “yes we can!”
I miss you and love you all. Happy November from Paris!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Se sont les vacances
My, how I miss you all.
This week is fall break for the Sarah Lawrence Program. For me, it means little more than not having to go to French class and my Multicultural France Seminar. The art studios are still open, so I still have to go put in my hours as usual. It will be nice though, to focus only on art for once.
Even though I have oogles of free time, I still find it hard to make myself get out of my room and explore the city. There's just so much to see and visit that I don't really know where to start. It's so easy to get into a pattern of just going to the same places every week: The Cité, Reid Hall, the art studios, and back to the Cité again.
This weekend, I did managed to get out and about a little though. Saturday I went to the Louvre with my SLC buddies and Katie from Mills. It was a nice, light visit of the Louvre since we were only there for a couple of hours, and it was very enjoyable because none of us had any expectations to see the whole thing. As students we all have year-long passes to the Louvre, so we can go there whenever we want, however many times we want. It's amazing how much less stressfull the Louvre becomes when it's free! This time we sort of wandered into the ancient Egyptian collection. We gawked at painted sarcophogi, ancient tools and jewelry, and took pictures of statues that reminded us of people we knew. Here's one that resembles someone in our program... but I won't say who.
On our way out we stopped at Starbucks and watched French students enjoying their large, over-expensive cups of sweetened coffee drinks. However much I detest Starbucks as a corporation, I have to admit that there's something wonderful about being able to order a huge, iced and creamy cup of caffinated sugar, or even just a large coffee for that matter. Here coffee is served strong, condensed into little mini cups that look like they're made for a child's tea set. It's generally very good and very strong, but it's a bit like taking shots. Nowhere can I find a nice big milky version that I can sip for hours on a cold morning.
Sunday I finally made a call that I've been meaning to make since I arrived. I called up my friend Zara, a woman from Niger that I met back when I was an exchange student in Belgium, visiting Paris. She was a friend of my host mother's, who lived in Africa for several years. Zara married a French man and moved to Paris, and has been living here ever since with her husband and now three beautiful children. When I called her up she proposed an outing for the afternoon, and an hour later we were on the metro, on our way to l'arc de la défense, an area of Paris that I had never seen before. Below are a few pictures...
.....or there WOULD be, if the internet would only work!!!!!
While I'm at it, here are a few more photos from Paris.
The first is of the Luxembourg gardens, in front of the palace of the Senate. The next one is of the back of the old Paris opera house, Opera Garnier.
This week is fall break for the Sarah Lawrence Program. For me, it means little more than not having to go to French class and my Multicultural France Seminar. The art studios are still open, so I still have to go put in my hours as usual. It will be nice though, to focus only on art for once.
Even though I have oogles of free time, I still find it hard to make myself get out of my room and explore the city. There's just so much to see and visit that I don't really know where to start. It's so easy to get into a pattern of just going to the same places every week: The Cité, Reid Hall, the art studios, and back to the Cité again.
This weekend, I did managed to get out and about a little though. Saturday I went to the Louvre with my SLC buddies and Katie from Mills. It was a nice, light visit of the Louvre since we were only there for a couple of hours, and it was very enjoyable because none of us had any expectations to see the whole thing. As students we all have year-long passes to the Louvre, so we can go there whenever we want, however many times we want. It's amazing how much less stressfull the Louvre becomes when it's free! This time we sort of wandered into the ancient Egyptian collection. We gawked at painted sarcophogi, ancient tools and jewelry, and took pictures of statues that reminded us of people we knew. Here's one that resembles someone in our program... but I won't say who.
On our way out we stopped at Starbucks and watched French students enjoying their large, over-expensive cups of sweetened coffee drinks. However much I detest Starbucks as a corporation, I have to admit that there's something wonderful about being able to order a huge, iced and creamy cup of caffinated sugar, or even just a large coffee for that matter. Here coffee is served strong, condensed into little mini cups that look like they're made for a child's tea set. It's generally very good and very strong, but it's a bit like taking shots. Nowhere can I find a nice big milky version that I can sip for hours on a cold morning.
Sunday I finally made a call that I've been meaning to make since I arrived. I called up my friend Zara, a woman from Niger that I met back when I was an exchange student in Belgium, visiting Paris. She was a friend of my host mother's, who lived in Africa for several years. Zara married a French man and moved to Paris, and has been living here ever since with her husband and now three beautiful children. When I called her up she proposed an outing for the afternoon, and an hour later we were on the metro, on our way to l'arc de la défense, an area of Paris that I had never seen before. Below are a few pictures...
.....or there WOULD be, if the internet would only work!!!!!
While I'm at it, here are a few more photos from Paris.
The first is of the Luxembourg gardens, in front of the palace of the Senate. The next one is of the back of the old Paris opera house, Opera Garnier.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Autumn
It's fall in Paris. The leaves are changing colors in the parks and on tree-lined streets. Despite the best efforts of the street cleaners to keep the sidewalks free, the leaves keep falling. In the Garden of Luxembourg, the largest and most cared for park in Paris, the ground is littered with crumpled brown leaves and round, hard chestnuts from what seems to be Paris' favorite tree. Along big important streets they are carved into square shapes, for a tidy, formal, and very geometrical look. In the summer they are great for shade, and in the fall they provide street vendors with something roast and sell to tourists. Kids enjoy picking them up and throwing them around, and I like having something to kick absentmindedly as I walk to class.
The sky has been getting greyer, too, and there's been a lot of that light-but-constant rain that I saw so much of in Oregon.
For the past couple of weeks I've mostly been going to classes and hanging out with my Sarah Lawrence friends here at the Cité. There are 6 of us living at the Fondation Americaine, and it's starting to feel like a little family. We often get together in the evenings to cook dinner or drink tea in one of the little kitchens that are located on every floor. We've even had a couple of crêpe nights, (which in my opinion are really just a reason to eat a lot of nutella), and I'm starting to get pretty good at flipping crepes by tossing them in the air. None of them have gotten stuck to the cieling yet, but there's always a chance...
Oh, and I almost forgot about the cabbage! Thank you all for all of your wonderful suggestions. I finally finished off Mr. Cabbage in a stir-fry at the beginning of this week. He got put into soups, fry-ups, salads, and whatever else I could squeeze him into. I still can't believe how well it lasted. It's been almost a month since I bought the thing, but every time I went down to the fridge it was still firm and leafy-green. No wonder cabbage is what people eat during famines in cold, northern places. It lasts forever!
For classes, I finally ended up taking a print-making class, a painting class, a seminar at Reid Hall called "Multicultural France," and, of course, French. The painting class is in a little Atelier about 45 min. away from the Cité, with a model who comes in daily and 2 still-lifes set up for students to paint at any time. It's a crowded studio, with unfortunately many Americans as students, but the people are nice and I think I can do pretty much whatever I want there.
My print-making class is a ton of fun. The work is meticulous and takes a lot of patience but the ambiance in the studio is great. The students are mostly older, and very nice. I've made friends with a woman who is also a beginner like myself, and whose children both live in the US. The leaders of the studio are really the ones who give it it's character though. The head boss, Joelle, is an older lady who is very loud, opinionated, and has a rather dirty mouth. She doesn't think twice about swearing if she finds the coffee cups sitting dirty by the sink, or chewing out her poor assistant, Nicolas, for almost anything that isn't to her liking. She isn't really mean, though, she just doesn't worry about trying to be polite. This can sometimes put everyone a little on edge, but on the whole it's quite hilarious.
Besides classes, I have had a chance to do a few activities on my own. I've gone twice to this enormous flea market in the North of Paris, where they sell everything from antiques to the latest fashion knock-off. It's crowded, but fun. Last week I went with Katie(from Mills), who's taking a break from school to spend a year living and working in Paris! She's very courageous; I wouldn't have had the guts to go without a program.
The week before last the mother of the two boys I tutor in English invited me to dinner, which was very kind, and it ended up being a huge feast lasting until 11:30 or so at night.
Hmm... Well, I've got to go to class, but I love you all and will write again soon!
The sky has been getting greyer, too, and there's been a lot of that light-but-constant rain that I saw so much of in Oregon.
For the past couple of weeks I've mostly been going to classes and hanging out with my Sarah Lawrence friends here at the Cité. There are 6 of us living at the Fondation Americaine, and it's starting to feel like a little family. We often get together in the evenings to cook dinner or drink tea in one of the little kitchens that are located on every floor. We've even had a couple of crêpe nights, (which in my opinion are really just a reason to eat a lot of nutella), and I'm starting to get pretty good at flipping crepes by tossing them in the air. None of them have gotten stuck to the cieling yet, but there's always a chance...
Oh, and I almost forgot about the cabbage! Thank you all for all of your wonderful suggestions. I finally finished off Mr. Cabbage in a stir-fry at the beginning of this week. He got put into soups, fry-ups, salads, and whatever else I could squeeze him into. I still can't believe how well it lasted. It's been almost a month since I bought the thing, but every time I went down to the fridge it was still firm and leafy-green. No wonder cabbage is what people eat during famines in cold, northern places. It lasts forever!
For classes, I finally ended up taking a print-making class, a painting class, a seminar at Reid Hall called "Multicultural France," and, of course, French. The painting class is in a little Atelier about 45 min. away from the Cité, with a model who comes in daily and 2 still-lifes set up for students to paint at any time. It's a crowded studio, with unfortunately many Americans as students, but the people are nice and I think I can do pretty much whatever I want there.
My print-making class is a ton of fun. The work is meticulous and takes a lot of patience but the ambiance in the studio is great. The students are mostly older, and very nice. I've made friends with a woman who is also a beginner like myself, and whose children both live in the US. The leaders of the studio are really the ones who give it it's character though. The head boss, Joelle, is an older lady who is very loud, opinionated, and has a rather dirty mouth. She doesn't think twice about swearing if she finds the coffee cups sitting dirty by the sink, or chewing out her poor assistant, Nicolas, for almost anything that isn't to her liking. She isn't really mean, though, she just doesn't worry about trying to be polite. This can sometimes put everyone a little on edge, but on the whole it's quite hilarious.
Besides classes, I have had a chance to do a few activities on my own. I've gone twice to this enormous flea market in the North of Paris, where they sell everything from antiques to the latest fashion knock-off. It's crowded, but fun. Last week I went with Katie(from Mills), who's taking a break from school to spend a year living and working in Paris! She's very courageous; I wouldn't have had the guts to go without a program.
The week before last the mother of the two boys I tutor in English invited me to dinner, which was very kind, and it ended up being a huge feast lasting until 11:30 or so at night.
Hmm... Well, I've got to go to class, but I love you all and will write again soon!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Cabbage soup
Hello, mes chèrs amis!
Things have been going peachily. Today was an extra good day. This morning I went out to the bakery, bought myself a baguette, made myself a super-duper sandwich, and then left for Reid Hall where Sarah Lawrence classes are.
Today we had a class on art and architecture in Paris, which was really interesting, and then we had lunch, French class, and finally a visit to the Atelier de Gravure, in other words a print-making studio!!!
This studio, unlike most, is located pretty close to the Cité Universitaire, on a cute little street full of busy boulangeries, boucheries, fruit stands, and other shops. The studio itself is small, but packed with print-making machines and materials. The two leaders of the studio were really kind and unpretentious, and spent most of the time joking with the head of my Program, Monique. It seemed like a really fun environment. The artwork they showed us was amazing. I felt like signing up right then and there! I still have to work it out with my other classes, though. I'll sign up next week.
Classes start on Monday. Yay! I'm excited to have a more normal life; orientation has been a little exhausting.
I want to take Print-making, painting, French, and a seminar called "Multicultural France." It doesn't sound like much, but I think I'll basically be living in the art studios. I have to be there 8 hours a week for printmaking, and 6 hours for painting. It should be fun though.
This evening I made myself soup for the first time here. It was very satisfying, since lately I've just been too tired in the evening to do anything more than make tea. The tale of this soup started a few days ago, however:
Last Saturday, on my way back from tutoring I found a huge and very cheap supermarket, so I went inside. I've been trying to buy healthy foods, to combat my diet of white bread (baguettes) and chocolate croissants, and so I went straight to the veggie area. The amount of money I've been spending recently is scary, so I was looking for CHEAP veggies. I finally came upon these extra green, enourmous cabbages, and something in my head said "Why not? THIS looks healthy!"
So anyway, this giant green vegetable has been sitting all week, taking up the entire bottom shelf of the communal fridge in the basement, waiting for me to be inspired by its healthy leafy-ness. Tonight I finally had the courage to take it out, take off a few of the outer leaves, and turn them into a stew, along with a few other more tastey items. It was good, and there was enough left over to save for tomorrow night. The rest of the uncooked cabbage, however, is still lurking in the depths of the downstairs fridge...
If anyone has good cabbage recipes, please let me know!
Sending love from France!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Travels around Paris
1. cruise on a tourist boat
2. Eiffel Tower and Sarah Lawrence students
3. Eiffel Tower wearing sunglasses
4. Center Les Halles, from a walk around Paris
5. Lauren and I, looking shady
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Les jours du Patrimoine
It's with great relief that I greet this weekend. The Sarah Lawrence Program is great, but I need a few days of me time to do my grocery shopping, some touristy traveling around Paris, read/reply to emails, send postcards, and write in this blog! Thank you for all the lovely comments by the way; I miss you all.
Well, this week seemed to go by pretty fast. We've started our French classes, which are pretty fun. My class has a very good professor, who has us do silly things like try to read out loud in French with a pencil in our mouths, in order to work the mouth muscles that us English-speakers don't usually use. It sounds ridiculous, but actually works!
On Tuesday I went with our group to sign up for a French bank account. It cost 1 euro for a student account. We barely fit into their little office, but after we each signed and dated about 15 papers that all looked the same, they smiled and told us that we'd receive our debit cards in a week.
On Thursday afternoon I got to visit my first atelier de peinture (painting studio). It was a long and complicated metro ride, and when we got there it sadly wasnt' what I had hoped. It was a smallish room opening onto a courtyard, with what looked like children's paintings covering the walls. We later learned that the Atelier had recently put on a show, displaying everyone's latest work. The two leaders of the Atelier, an artistic couple, talked to us about their theory of discovering the creative spirit in people, and finding different ways of letting the imagination go and just having fun. This was all fine and dandy, but as a technical artistic education it won't do. This wasn't the strict, serious studio art training that I had expected to find in France. Here, their classes are not set up the same way as in US colleges. There is no "class" that you go to twice a week where a professor walks around telling you what to do. Instead, Sarah Lawrence art students are required to spend a total of 6 hours at a studio a week in order to make it the equivilant of one US art class. Somehow, I can't see myself taking a 45 minute metro ride several times a week just to do art in an Atelier. Not unless it's something that requires special equipment, like a printmaking or sculpture class. Oh well, we'll be visiting more Ateliers this coming week, so maybe I'll find one that suits me.
Also on Thursday, I did my first tutoring job! Remember that woman who I asked for directions, and who came back a couple minutes later to ask if I would tutor her kids in English? Well, I finally did. On Thursday I tutored her eldest son who is in his first year of University, and yesterday (Sat.) I got to tutor them both. It was fun. The older kid is hard to tutor because he is so advanced, but he is very nice. The younger kid, who is 14, was kind of awkward but easier to tutor.
This weekend is what Parisians call "Les jours du Patrimoine," an annual event where buildings that are normally closed off to the public are opened, and free for people to visit. Even the Palais de l'Elysée, the French equivilant to the White House, was open. The only catch is that everyone and their uncle comes out for this event. The Parisians are very proud of their town, and very appreciative of nice architecture and a chance to visit it. The lines for more important buildings could be several kilometers long, and even after a five hour wait there was a chance that you would never make it inside before it closed. I went Saturday morning with another student from the Cité Universitaire, Cyril, to try our chances at visiting one of these buildings. After seeing the line at the Elysée, we walked around and found one that was much shorter outside of a building called the Hôtel de Beauvau. We had no idea what was inside, but after about an hour and a half wait we entered, to find that it was the seat of the Ministère de l'Intérieur. It turned out to be great. The building, which is used daily for business matters, was absolutely beautiful and richly decorated. A little further into our visit we were taken to a room up on the 3rd or 4th story, which happened to be the place where French resistants of the German occupation during the 2nd World War were held captive and questioned by the Gestapo! It was a tiny room, covered with writings and drawings carved into the walls by the prisoners. One of the quotes said, "It's between these grimy walls that fought the real heart of France." I felt very lucky to have been able to visit such an important place.
Today we are going to go on a touristy boat ride on the Seine. I'm very excited.
A plus tard!
Bisous!
Well, this week seemed to go by pretty fast. We've started our French classes, which are pretty fun. My class has a very good professor, who has us do silly things like try to read out loud in French with a pencil in our mouths, in order to work the mouth muscles that us English-speakers don't usually use. It sounds ridiculous, but actually works!
On Tuesday I went with our group to sign up for a French bank account. It cost 1 euro for a student account. We barely fit into their little office, but after we each signed and dated about 15 papers that all looked the same, they smiled and told us that we'd receive our debit cards in a week.
On Thursday afternoon I got to visit my first atelier de peinture (painting studio). It was a long and complicated metro ride, and when we got there it sadly wasnt' what I had hoped. It was a smallish room opening onto a courtyard, with what looked like children's paintings covering the walls. We later learned that the Atelier had recently put on a show, displaying everyone's latest work. The two leaders of the Atelier, an artistic couple, talked to us about their theory of discovering the creative spirit in people, and finding different ways of letting the imagination go and just having fun. This was all fine and dandy, but as a technical artistic education it won't do. This wasn't the strict, serious studio art training that I had expected to find in France. Here, their classes are not set up the same way as in US colleges. There is no "class" that you go to twice a week where a professor walks around telling you what to do. Instead, Sarah Lawrence art students are required to spend a total of 6 hours at a studio a week in order to make it the equivilant of one US art class. Somehow, I can't see myself taking a 45 minute metro ride several times a week just to do art in an Atelier. Not unless it's something that requires special equipment, like a printmaking or sculpture class. Oh well, we'll be visiting more Ateliers this coming week, so maybe I'll find one that suits me.
Also on Thursday, I did my first tutoring job! Remember that woman who I asked for directions, and who came back a couple minutes later to ask if I would tutor her kids in English? Well, I finally did. On Thursday I tutored her eldest son who is in his first year of University, and yesterday (Sat.) I got to tutor them both. It was fun. The older kid is hard to tutor because he is so advanced, but he is very nice. The younger kid, who is 14, was kind of awkward but easier to tutor.
This weekend is what Parisians call "Les jours du Patrimoine," an annual event where buildings that are normally closed off to the public are opened, and free for people to visit. Even the Palais de l'Elysée, the French equivilant to the White House, was open. The only catch is that everyone and their uncle comes out for this event. The Parisians are very proud of their town, and very appreciative of nice architecture and a chance to visit it. The lines for more important buildings could be several kilometers long, and even after a five hour wait there was a chance that you would never make it inside before it closed. I went Saturday morning with another student from the Cité Universitaire, Cyril, to try our chances at visiting one of these buildings. After seeing the line at the Elysée, we walked around and found one that was much shorter outside of a building called the Hôtel de Beauvau. We had no idea what was inside, but after about an hour and a half wait we entered, to find that it was the seat of the Ministère de l'Intérieur. It turned out to be great. The building, which is used daily for business matters, was absolutely beautiful and richly decorated. A little further into our visit we were taken to a room up on the 3rd or 4th story, which happened to be the place where French resistants of the German occupation during the 2nd World War were held captive and questioned by the Gestapo! It was a tiny room, covered with writings and drawings carved into the walls by the prisoners. One of the quotes said, "It's between these grimy walls that fought the real heart of France." I felt very lucky to have been able to visit such an important place.
Today we are going to go on a touristy boat ride on the Seine. I'm very excited.
A plus tard!
Bisous!
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