Americans in Paris

New Years went by in a sparkle of lights and perhaps a little too much champagne. I stood with some at the base of the Eiffel Tower until midnight, when the lights on the tower began to flash and fireworks went up all around.
Reading week has just ended in my program, and after turning in the big paper I’ve been working on all week I feel free as a little bird to once again go out and explore this wonderful city… For a little while; second semester starts Today. Most French universities prefer to make their students work and worry during the Christmas break and then put them through exams as soon as they get back. Then the second semester starts before the first one really seems to end.
To celebrate, Friday night I went to a jazz club with a couple of friends from Sarah Lawrence called the Caveau de la Huchette. It was great. A swing band from Milan played, and the dance flour was crowded with dancing couples. Some of them were excellent dancers and fun to watch. There weren’t many people our age, but we went out there anyway and had loads of fun. I have no idea how they all got home, since the metro stops running at 1am, and the party was still going strong when we left.
Come to think of it, almost my whole weekend was devoted to doing American things in Paris. Friday was Jazz/swing, Saturday I went out to see Rocky Horror at this tiny cinema with a French friend, and then on Sunday I went to another small movie theater with my friend Peggah, this time to see the Marx Brother’s film, “A night at the Opera.” It was great! After the film on Sunday we went to an exhibition of American photography from the 50s 60s and 70s, which was also very good.
The Rocky Horror film was probably the most interesting experience of the weekend. I had no idea the French were so into it. They went all out doing call-outs, dancing, actors on stage in front of the screen, rice-throwing during the marriages, water-tossing during the rain, etc. The group who puts it on does it every Friday and Saturday, all year round. The weirdest thing was that it was mostly all done in English. There were subtitles for the film, of course, but the actors spoke a lot of their lines in English, and the audience shouted “slut” and “asshole” whenever the main characters in the film introduced themselves. It was very funny, even though I’m not a huge fan of Rocky myself.
Right now Paris is grey and dreary. It warmed up though; last week’s snow (a rarity in Paris) finally melted and today the rain has been pouring down, cleaning the air and the sidewalks. Last weekend my program took us to the south of France, where the palm trees and sunny afternoons reminded me of Oakland. We still had to wear jackets, but compared to frigid Paris it felt like summer. In my last post I put up a few pictures.
Oh, and I almost forgot! The other night I chopped a few inches off of my hair, and now it's amazingly curly. I still might go get it trimmed by a professional later, but for now it'll do. See the photo below.
Bisous!

New Year's and a trip to the South of France

Nîce and its hilltop cemetary

This mannekin does not like her hat

I want to live here. View of one of Nîce's ports

Walking along the docks

Nîce

The Orangerie de Renoir, right outside his house in Cagnes-sur-mer, where he lived from 1907 until his death in 1919

View of a hilltop town from Renoir's house.

Sitting on the rocky beach of the Mediterranean in Nîce

Nîce's main market

Snowy Paris: view of the International House from my window.

The glowing Eiffle Tower, right before the clock struck midnight.

The Eiffle Tower, in all of its sparkling glory.

Man balancing a ball on top of his head while climbing a lamp pole at the base of the Sacre Coeur.

Merry Christmas

A puppet show for children in Liège


The Grandparents


Dinner chez Eric and Marianne, my host Aunt and Uncle


Coraline, Marianne (my host-aunt) and myself, preparing the fuit salad


Christmas Eve table, complete with Racklette



Carolin(From Panama), Nicolas, Me, and Coraline

Jean-Pierre and Corinne(my host parents), Coraline, Carolin, et Moi.



Hello my dear friends and family, Monday, December 29, 2008

Merry Christmas! I’m back in Liège, Belgium with my host family for the holidays. Since September 6th I’ve been studying in Paris, which makes almost 4 months since I left home. I can’t believe the first semester here has almost come to an end. We have one more week of school after Christmas break, and then it’s the beginning of a new semester. New students will arrive to take part in the program, a second orientation for them will take place, and we’ll all choose our new classes for the spring.
Christmas here went by calmly. Christmas Eve we had Racklette, a feast of cheese and meat that you cook yourself on a little machine in the middle of the table. I've come to love the dish, ever since my stay in Belgium in 2005/6. The cheese is placed on little individual metal spatula-like things, which are then inserted into the machine and heated until the cheese is melted and bubbly. The meat is usually cooked on the grill on top of the machine. Once cooked, the meat and cheese are eaten on top of potatoes or bread, with other things like pickles and salad on the side. The dish is usually associated with ski, since it's fun to do but takes a long time to eat. Dinner was followed by a bûche de Noel, an icecream cake in the shape of a log.
My host brother, Nicolas, and his Panamanian wife came over for the evening, and after dinner we all opened presents until late at night. In Belgium, (and possibly in other parts of Europe as well) the presents are opened at night because the early morning stockings are replaced by a holiday that happens earlier in the year, called Saint Nicolas Day (December 6th). Christmas Eve we were 6 all together: my host parents, my host sister Coraline who is one year older than me and on her 3rd year of University, Nicolas (a year younger than me and in his first year of University), and his wife, Carolin. I've attached a couple photos from that night
Christmas day we all went over to my host uncle's house for a big lunch/dinner with the whole family. We ate deer and chestnuts, among other things, and then after dinner my host family and I went to go visit the great grandmother, who lives in an assisted living center. I hadn't, of course, seen her since I was last in Belgium, and she had no idea I was coming to visit. She recognized me right away however, and wanted to know all about what I was up to. She's 96 years old and has the most incredible memory. If her body weren't weak and bent over, I would never have thought she was older than 70!
Now that Christmas is over I'm finally starting to concentrate more on my homework. I really have not gotten very far. I've been spending most of my time reading comic books, walking around town, eating, and doing activities with Carolin, Nicolas' wife (who doesn't have any exams to do in January). I told myself I would finish this giant book on food and globalization while I was here, but so far I'm not even a third of the way through. I'm really going to have to bust my butt when I get back to Paris. My train leaves Tuesday at 7:49 in the morning, and it's not at all too soon, with all the work I have to do. It'll be sad to have to say goodbye to sleeping in, getting cooked for, watching movies, and having a constant supply of chocolate on hand though. That's one amazing thing about Belgium: it's the only country I've visited where the people are as crazy about chocolate as I am or more so. I'll have to bring some back to keep me going while I'm studying back in Paris.
Well, I should get back to work. Today I spent my morning downtown at la Batte, the big Sunday market in Liège. It was a beautiful morning. Since yesterday the clouds have left and the sun has come out, although with it came the cold. There's ice on the streets even at midday, with the sun shining like nothing else. I was pretty chilled by the time I got back to the house, but I think I can say I got my dose of vitamin D today.
Happy New Year and happy holidays to you all!
Love,

Rebecca

A few more pics

classes and other things

So another month has gone by. It's been getting very cold lately, and finally feels like winter. It snowed for the second time today. Thick, wet snowflakes that melt as soon as they touch the ground. It didn't snow for very long, but it was pretty while it lasted.
I should really write more often; it would make my blog posts a lot shorter and a lot easier to write. A lot has happened this month, but where do I start? I'll start with Thanksgiving, since that was the last big event.
Turkey day took place at an American restaurant in Paris, chosen by our program. Instead of starting the feast around 4pm, which would be traditional in the US, the program Europeanized the sacred meal and made the reservations for 7:30. The food, however, was very traditional: salad with corn, unripened tomatoes and a sweet vinaigrette, soggy green beans, dry turkey breast, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and pumpkin pie for dessert. It wasn't the meal I had hoped for, but the the party was fun anyway. There was live, cheesy American music performed by a French couple, and lots of wine to go around. Because it was an American holiday, the leaders of our program decided we should speak English instead of French, and so for the first time I got to hear the chief of the program, Monique Middleton, speak English in her thick French accent. There was an after party held by some of the students later, but I didn't think I could take any more wine...
Speaking of wine, mid-november was the festival of the Beaujolais Nouveau, the very first tasting of this year's wine. Light and fruity, this wine was the occaision for many a restaurant to put on large tastings. Our program took us to a tiny restaurant called the "Verre Volé" in the 10th district, that had been temporarily turned into a wine bar. It was jam-packed with people, but was well worth the trip because the wine and the hors-d'oeuvres served with it were amazing!
School's been going well. I really spend most of my time in art studios, and spend very little time doing homework for my academic classes. All academic classes in the Sarah Lawrence program have student-teacher conferences every other week where one can ask questions about the class and do an extra project on the side. In French class, my project has been to read Tintin books, and then write a two-page analysis on each. It's really just an excuse to reread Tintin's adventures and get credit for it, but the professor doesn't seem to care so long as I'm practicing my French.
Multicultural France class has been loads of fun lately. As part of the class each student has been giving a 20 oral presentation on the subject they are studying alongside the class's theme of immigration. My subject was food and globalization, and since I couldn't stand the idea of just standing and talking at the class in my bad French for 20 min., I went out and bought exotic salad ingredients and put together the salad during my presentation. The professor, a fantastic Congolese man and a well-known figure in France, listened patiently as I talked, and then excitedly tossed the salad for me as soon as it was ready. He wasn't shocked, as most Fench teachers would be that I brought food into the classroom, but on the contrary dug-into the salad as soon as he could and proceded to serve the rest of the class. I think he was glad to have something to keep him awake while we talked. At the end of class he suggested we bring wine to the next presentation! And we did...but that's another story.
Christmas break starts on December 20th an goes until January 4th. I can't wait. I'll be spending x-mas with my host family in Liege, Belgium, from when I spent my senior year there in high school. I am very excited to see them and the city after 2 1/2 years. Then, on December 30th I'm heading back to Paris to see the new-year's celebrations and finish my end-of-semester homework.
Sending warm wishes from Paris!
Love,

Rebecca

pics

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!