le 5 juillet: Marche aux Puces

Sunday I wanted to get up early and go to Notre Dame for mass but I was so tired from Versailles that I slept in. Mass was at 8:30 and I woke up at 8:00 and there was no way I could make it and I didn't want to go late so I went back to sleep for a while.

We planned to go to les Marches aux Puces (the flea markets) at Pt. de Clignancourt. It is the biggest flea market in Europe or something like that. We planned on meeting a bunch of our friends there. Brittany's friend who was studying at Oxford last semester came to visit her so she was going to pick her up at the metro station when she got off the eurostar and take her to her hotel. She thought she wouldn't be able to come to the markets with us but her friend's train got delayed so she was able to come for a little while.

Brittany and I went earlier than everyone else so that she could go for a while. We got out of the metro and walked towards the signs directing us to the marche. There was like one small area filled with tents and I'm like no way this is it. It is tiny lol but we looked around and Brittany bought a leather bag like a big one for her computer and school books and I bought a smaller one to use as a purse here especially because I didn't bring one - stupid forgetfulness.

The other girls met up with us then and about that time Brittany had to leave to get her friend. I didn't bring my camera to the Market because everyone was warning us about pickpockets so I only wanted to take the extreme essentials and nothing extra. It turns out it wasn't too crowded and as long as you were just aware of your belongings everything was fine so we decided to come back to take pictures on the following Monday.

I saw some tents accross this street under a bridge so I suggested we go there to see if it was part of the market and it was. It got really big once we went over there. There were a bunch of vendors selling shoes like converse, puma, etc and leather jackets and like cheap women's clothing that you'd see in like Gen X or idk some of the stuff in Forever 21 (not that I don't like Forever 21, a lot of their things I love but sometimes they have cheap like club wear that is made of plastic lol). But once we pushed back into the market, a whole new world appeared. There were wonderful antique shops everywhere filled with old prints and furniture. Some had modern looking 50s style lamps others had old key chains. There were dress shops with designer items ranging from the 1920s to present day. There was a delightful jewelery shop that I spent at least an hour in just pouring over the glittering shelves.

The vendors were as interesting as their shops. They were older purely french people; the women wonderfully reminiscent of the movie Chocolat, wearing dresses cinched with belts and short hair done in perfect waves. The men sat playing cards with their neighboring vendors or eating a sandwhich for lunch. The shops were storage sheds filled with treasures and when their doors opened they transformed into boutiques with little overhangs. Their spoils spilled into the tiny winding streets. I would have loved to have Grandma and Nancy with me. I know they'd get the best deals and find the most beautiful and timeless treasures.

We ate lunch at this little place before delving into the magical market. It was definitely the low light. I had a croq sandwhich. They are like ham sandwhiches with the cheese melted on top of the sandwhich instead of having the cheese inside. The sandwhich was ok but the fries were gross and it was overly priced.

I went home around 4:30 and then went out to meet Brittany and her friend Stephanie. We brought her back to our neighborhood and she sat in a nearby park while we had dinner with Madame. Brittany didn't feel comfortable asking Madame to make dinner for Brittany which is understandable so we told her we would go out with her when we were done eating.

For dinner we had a traditional french meal called cassoulet. It is from the South East of France. It was like a bean soup kind of with like lamb/chicken. I think it was lamb but I'm not entirely sure. In any case, it was good. It was funny, we kept forgetting what it was called but we both wanted to remember so we could write it in our journals. We asked Madame like 5 times and she finally wrote it on a sticky note for us lol while exclaiming in her wonderful excited voice what she thought we might write in our journals, "Pour le diner ce soir, nous avons mange le cassoulet, c'est formidable!" She is too cute.

After we ate, we picked up Stephanie from the park and took her to the latin quarter where everything stays open late. She decided to eat at a creperie where she ordered a barley crepe with goat cheese and tomatoes. Brittany got a dessert crepe with apples on it. (Well, it was more like apple sauce).

And I ordered this delicious number:

un chocolat viennois (hot chocolat with cream).

C'etait une bonne soir.

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le 4 juillet: Versailles

Saturday was our first excursion. We went to Versailles. We met with everyone in the program at 9:30 am and were going to take a SNCF train but they were on strike (a common occurance here in France) and so we had to take a different train and ride the metro basically backtracking for Brittany and I lol but it was ok. The trains are nice but I think the frontrunner is nicer. At least with the tables and available wifi going on. The seats on the trains here were more comfortable. It was fun to be able to see parts of Paris and then going out into the suburbs. It looks pretty similar to inner Paris just less shops and things on the street level from what I could see and a little more variation in the ground levels, like little hills and such.

So we arrived at Versailles and just walked a little ways from the train station to the palace. It is GIGANTIC and overwhelming. The walls inside are covered in huge paintings, portaits of various royal family members, big vases decorated with Louis' face with sun rays going out around him.

Example:

There was gold all over the exterior and in a lot of the furnishings. It was very grand and beautiful. There was a great chapel in the middle of the palace but it was unfortunately blocked off so we couldn't go in.

There were statues everywhere, too. Like big grand ones and a lot that you see in art history books but whose names I don't remember. I recognized some paintings as well. There were a couple of David's and a really really really really big painting of the last supper (sorry, can't remember the artist) but like super super big.

C'est moi dans le courtyard lol:

All the cielings were very high, at least 20 feet probably more like 50 lol I am a bad judge of distance. And most were elaborately painted like the Cistine Chapel. There were representations of many greek and roman gods and goddesses. Mercury was painted in the cielings of the receiving rooms were the king and queen would sit to get messages and receive inquiries.

We of course saw the Hall of Mirrors, we were lucky because it had just reopened after being restored. There was another great hall where ginormous romantic paintings of all the wars of Paris' past were hung. There was an amazing painting of Joan of Arc there. For the modern wars there were displays of photographs and more modern works in front of the paintings.

After we saw the main palace, we went out to the gardens which were again overwhelming. It was funny, they played classical music out in the gardens and apparently there was a concert somwhere in the garden, but you couldn't see it really, we just heard some of the music.

I don't think we saw even a quarter of the gardins. It was very hot and we were all getting tired so we found little cafes like hidden in the garden bushes that were almost like a labyrinth. I bought a big ice cream cone and it was the most delicious ice cream of my life. Strawberry and vanilla swirled. Unbelievably good.

After lunch, we went to the pond and sat under the trees to rest for a while.I took a couple snapshots of the girls. This is Brittany sleeping lol. She falls asleep everywhere and all the time. It's like she is narcileptic (sp?) but she's not (she's been tested for it ha ha).

The ISA group went back to Paris at 4 but we decided to stay longer so we could go to the Queen's domain and her hameau/hamlet? Can't remember what it was called. It was a ways off and took a little while to walk over there. The domain was pretty. A lot less extravagant than the main palace but still glittering with high ceilings and big spaces and fancy wood carvings and painted panellings on the walls.

The hameau was SO adorable. It was like every girls dream playland I swear. It was like disneyland or something. Like there were little cottage houses and a pond and this tower like out of a Repunzel storybook. All the girls we were with were dying lol. They all liked it even better than the palace. It would be so fun to play in.

There are like five more buildings like this but each is unique and had little flower pots on the steps and everything cute.

We decided to go back after a while but by time we made it back to the main gardens, they had closed so we weren't able to walk back to the main entrance. So we had to walk out this odd way and walk FOREVER around the estate. Our feet were so tired! It was horrible but we eventually made it back to the train station and home. We had dinner via grocery store which was lame o but all that was open really. We ate at the dorms with our friends. (When I say 'we' I am referring to Brittany and me). We found out that there was a fourth of July bbq going on for the American students so we went and checked it out. The hotdogs were cold by time we got there and they had gross buns so we didn't really eat anything. We weren't there long because we were tired. The American Embassy had fireworks but we didn't want to risk missing the metro and we were pooped.

I hope everyone had a good 4th!

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le 3 juillet

Ok there are some big weekend posts coming up:

Friday we had classes again and after classes there was a little pot d'accuille (sp?) or cocktail party for the students and professors. They had like champagne, orange juice and something else. I went in and got an orange juice but it was super crowded. We got lunch at le petit lux a little cafe in close by that we go to for quiche, sandwhiches, pastries a emporter (to go) and ate in the gardens as we like to do.

P.S. Chelsea, I had one of those strawberry meiffell..... (however you spell it) and it was delicious! Excellent recommendation. I also talked to my French teacher about moving up a level and on the following Monday she said I could yay so now I'm in Intermediate 1. I really should be higher but my oral skills are bad so I think that will be the level for me. It probably didn't help not having a french class for a year before I came here either lol.

Anyways, for photography class, we went to a little place in the 5e arrondissement. There was a jardin des plantes and little places all over. Again, I felt weird taking them of people lol so I have mostly building stuff. We also went a little farther down the metro line and there was the coolest little honey shop. The bees are kept in back of the shop and they eat different kinds of flowers to make different flavors of honey. They had so many, there were dark and light honeys and opaque and clear honeys. They let you taste them, too. They were so good. Like that honey on a baguette would be heaven.

This picture is of jars of honey in the shop, les abeilles (the bees). And the next three are cafes in the 5e arr. from class.

So that night, I wanted to go to a french movie and we had got a big group to go with. I don't really like hanging out in huge groups. Like sometimes it is ok but I like to keep it under like 6. We had like 12 girls and half of them didn't speak french so the movie didn't work out. I will have to go another time with just a few people. We ended up going to a restaurant that I wasn't too excited about. Like I want to eat out in a cute little brasserie that has tables where you can look out on the street. This was like a stupid pub called O'Neil's. A bunch of the girls wanted hamburgers. I split a plate of vegetables with a friend because I didn't want to pay for a meal there lol I want to save my nice dinner for a cute place. The hamburger was like 15 euro, too and it didn't look very good. It was mostly a drink place too so their menu was pretty limited. But water was free which was amazing. Drinks like water, coke, juice, etc are SO expensive and small here and they are never very cold. I miss coke with ice. I swear ice doesn't exist in Paris lol. But seriously, a small 30 cl coke can be like 2.50 euro like smaller than a can you get out of vending machines in the U.S.

Ok, anyways, after O'Neil's the night got tons better. We went to the eiffel tower to just sit there and picnic. But the picnic part didn't really work. Some people brought wine and cheese and a baguette from the grocery store. All of which I didn't want. Baguettes from the grocery store are gross and the cheese wasn't that great either. But the Eiffel Tower was so beautiful. It was lovely. We just sat in the lawn in front of it and watched it sparkle (literally lol) until we needed to catch the metro home. We are going back to go to the top on Wednesday and I can't wait! I really want to live in Paris.

From left to right: Brittany (half cut out), me, Allison, Amanda, Courtney, Christy, Christina, Hillary, Allison, Katy, Cody

Me! @ the Eiffel Tower! lol. Stupid man in the blue shirt is messing up my pic. I will photoshop him out of there when I get home.

This was the view that greated us coming off the metro at the Eiffel Tower stop, simply beautiful this pic doesn't do it justice.

My favortie picture of the tower that I took that night.


Oh and this, ha ha. The french love Michael Jackson. He comes up on the news every night and is all over the news stands. This was a rather snarky front page. There is a Micheal Jackson skeleton doing a signature dance move and the caption says, "Michael Jackson enfin blanc" or "Michael Jackson is finally white."

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Pictures!

Here are some pictures up to the days that I have blogged about. I know I am so behind and the one suffering the most is me. It is hard to journal for myself and blog and email and live the life. I know you all feel for me lol. But I will be catching up hard core Tuesday. Brittany and I are going to stay in at night and I'm going to get up to date so I can just go day by day. There is so much I need to tell you but I don't want to jump ahead.

This picture is of some old men playing chess in the Luxembourg gardens. I should have gotten closer but I feel like a creeper taking pictures of people. And they act weird when you ask them. But alas, there are little chess tables everywhere and all these old men play on them.

A woman sunbathing in the same park. Everyone just sits there reading, eating, talking to friends, etc. It is very quaint.

Did I tell you my white balance was off most the day? Well it was so from now on pics from my class will be tinted blue lol. This one isn't very good. It is blue and over exposed and I took it too late but the kids playing here were really cute so I thought I'd stick it in mostly for my own remembrance lol.

Examples of people sitting in the park. They have these metal chairs throughout that people can move anywhere to sit on and relax.

Two beautiful old french women who were super nice to me. We had a lovely chat when I asked to take their picture.

This is me and Brittany eating lunch at the boulangerie right by our house. It was good. We got this little flat pizza thing they have everywhere with tuna and tomatoes on it and we split a pastry. It was a pistachio tart and it was tres tres bonne.

My french sandales. No one here wears flip flops. They all wear sandales. (I can't remember how to spell it in English). We found a cheaper place beacause even with all the sales going on, shoes are like 40 - 50 euro. I got these for 21.

The soldes signs at the BHV. It is like a Nordstrom but a lot more expensive.

The first baguette we bought. Well Brittany bought it but we all ate it at our picnic in the ISA office. Allison is the girl about to take a bite ha ha.

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le 2 juillet

Thursday was our first day of French class. We had a little get to know you activity using French. It was kind of easy. I hope I can move up. I talked to my teacher about it and she said she would decide Monday. I really should have reviewed before the test... oh well, c'est la vie. My teacher and class are really good though, so I guess it wouldn't be too bad to have to stay in it. She is really beautiful, she kind of reminds me of the woman on Big Fish, you know the son's French wife.

We had lunch at a very popular little cafe type thing that has lots of food a emporter (to go - and there are accents there but I don't know how to write them on this computer). I got a sandwich with tomatoes and this really great cheese that I forgot what it was called and some type of meat. I don't know what it was lol, I think pork of some kind. We ate with our friends in the courtyard of the Catho.

Photo class was interesting. We looked at slides and learned about the beginnings of photography and a little about the science behind it. We saw some awesome slides by this one guy named Abe Morell. We looked at his slides as an example of a kind of camera obscura. And then mostly looked at historical pictures of Paris that were really great. It was so hot though. I was expecting the weather to be cooler and maybe rainy but it is in the 90s every day and like I said before there is no air conditioning and the metro is death. Like you can feel the sweat on the poles when you have to stand... so gross.

Our dinner that night was absolutely delish though! We had like wheat kernels that had been cooked somehow I think with like garlic and butter or something. O it was amazing and we had les haricots vert (green beans) and un omlette. YUMMY. It is the best dinner Madame has made us so far.

We just relaxed again and I watched TV to see if I could catch some things I know. TV and radio are hard to understand because people talk very fast. It is funny they show old American shows here all the time like Malcolm in the Middle comes on when we are eating dinner and they play other old series like Starsky and Hutch. They also have MTV but dubbed in French. It is pretty funny.

After we rested for a while, Brittany and I went out for a promenade in our neighborhood trying to take some pictures. The lighting wasn't good so we weren't able to really practice what little we have learned in photo class so far. We just are changing aperture really and keeping our ISOs at 400 and shutter speed between 125 and 250 so we ended up just using night settings but practiced finding things that looked interesting to us. It was fun. We want to go back sometime when the lighting is better. I really like our neighborhood. There is a busy street not far but as soon as you leave it there is a hominess and quiet sociableness to the area. It feels pretty safe all the time, too.

I'm still uploading pics so I'll include them in the next post :)

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le 30 juin et le 1 juillet

Ok, so I forgot to tell you why the French don't shower. Ha ha, it is my hypothosis because the showers are horrible. I feel like I've written about this before but the shower head is not mounted on the wall. It is just on the end of a cord. They call it le telephone de la douche or telephone of the shower. Whenever you want water on you, you have to hold the thing and pour it over yourself. And the water is like either scorching hot or freezing. I am getting used to the knobs so I can manipulate it better but my first shower was like uh, no wonder lol.


So on Tuesday we had academic meetings. It was basically like the first day of class for photography. We got like the schedule and talked about how the class would work. We went to a nearby grocery store for lunch. With Christy, Amanda, Allison, and Brittany, we got some cheese and a baguette and I bought a pear to go with which was so juicy and delicious. It was great. We picnic'ed in the ISA office which is not allowed lol but we didn't know so it was our first and last time.


Then we had a little meeting about French class and how to behave in homestays.
After the meetings, me and Brittany went home to a yummy dinner of salmon and lentils and the standard salad, bread and cheese. Madame likes to talk to us at dinner time which is good to practice our french. Lol my mom would gag at this though, her two cats like to get up on the table. It is kind of gross but she makes them get off pretty quick although she doesn't really care if they sit by the bread... I had a cat hair on my slice on time. Her cat Moustique is named for mosquitos, that is the french word for it (I don't know if I spelled it right). When Moustique was little, she didn't retract her claws so she was always poking people with them like a mosquito bite lol.


Tuesday night we didn't go out or anything. Brittany and I reviewed some french for the exam the next morning and decided to go to bed early so we could get up early and go to a creperie in the morning for breakfast. Unfortunately, the creperie was closed in the morning so we couldn't have breakfast there :( but we went to a boulangerie and had pain au chocolat instead yum!


The placement exam was very hard. Everyone thought so. The orale part was the worst. We had to talk to a professeur for a few minutes but it was like all in this crowded room so it was loud and the french talk softly so I couldn't hear my professeur very well lol and so I didn't do as well as I could have. I got into Elementaire 3 and I was hoping to be in Intermediate 1 which is the next level. They are nice about switching us though, so I think if I do the homework we got today and it is really easy I will ask to be switched.


After the exam, we had a break for lunch. The country is big about lunch. The break is like from 12 - 2 and some shops close down for that time. We went to the same place where I got the quiche but this time I ordered a sandwich and it was very good. All of their sandwhiches are on artisan breads with hard crusts and they have funny ways of cutting vegetables and there are big thick slices of cheese. They are good though. I liked the sandwhich a lot better than the quiche.


For our first Photo class, we took pictures at the Luxembourg gardens. I didn't take very many and the ones I did take came out all blue becasue I accidentally had the white balance weird. I just felt like a creeper taking pictures of people w/o asking but when you ask they act different. I just need to get over it lol but I have some pictures I like. There were two old women sitting in the park that were really cute and I asked to take their picture and we had a small conversation. They were very sweet. Most of the French are sweet and helpful if you try to speak french. They just don't smile much when they walk around the city which is why I think people must think they are rude.


After class we had another meeting at the office where we learned a few things about what to do in Paris and how to travel to other countries. I had my first crepe on the way home. They have this nifty tool that gets the batter all spread out perfectly and I totally want one. It was yummy but I didn't have my camera to document it :(

For dinner we had fish sticks which were actually pretty good with some yummy potatoes (and like always, assume we had bread, salade, cheese, and a slice of sausage). We decided we wanted to walk around the Champs Elysees but my friends are kind of directionally challenged. I do well if I have north, south, east, west but Paris is like in a circle so that didn't do me any good. We ended up not being able to find it which is funny cause it's huge lol. So we just walked around and then went home after a while. But we did see the Paris Opera House which is kind of cool. It is a roman like building and has a sculpture of like Mary Magdelene and the 12 apostles on the top triangle thing. It is really beautiful but dirty. There are dirty parts that are like all black. It is going under restoration now though, so it is starting to get cleaned.

I am transfering pictures from my cards right now so as soon as those get loaded I'll put some up.

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Bonjour! le 28 et le 29 juin

Ok, so I typed up this big long post in Word but I can't copy and paste into this window which sucks so I'll just let y'all know about the first two days in one post.

The first day, le 28 juin, which was a Sunday I got to the airport in the morning and met with some other people from ISA. We were all pretty tired from our flights. My flight was pretty good. I got some sleep and they fed us dinner and breakfast so that was nice.

A shuttle dropped us off at our homestays. My roommate accidentally came a day early so she was already here when I arrived. My host mother is very cute. She is small, like everything else in Paris. She is so sweet. She has a two bedroom apartment and so Brittany (my roommate) and I thought that we would be sharing a room but she sleeps on a cot in the living room and we each have our own room. My roommate is so sweet! I like her a lot and we are similar so we are getting along great.

Madame's house is a little old, also like many things in Paris but my room is so cute. The window is so French lol. I will have to take pictures of the whole apartment.

For the first night we had like rice and salmon sauce stuff. It was a little weird but ok. Breakfast on Monday was an experience, too. Lol we take our breakfast to our rooms so that we don't like wake up Madame. We have toast with jam and if we want we can have yogurt. She also has tea or coffee or juice. I tried the apple juice and it tasted a little funny and the yogurt also tasted weird. It was like eating sour cream, it was like runny and sour lol. I will try the yaourt avec le fruit next time. I took a picture of my first breakfast. Oh, and here is Brittany eating a pastry on our first day (well, her second and my first - we went out and walked around the neighborhood)









On Monday we had orientation at the Catholic Institut de Paris (le Catho). We met the other students in the program and learned some basic safety information and stuff about Paris. For lunch, we just went out walking and found a deli/pastry place and decided to picnic in the Luxembourg gardens. I got the quiche. It was a little runny I have to say I was dissapointed but the gardens are beautiful. There was a little gallery with this amazing sculpture exhibition from a modern sculptor. There is so much art appreciation here it is wonderful. We went back to le Catho for a city tour via bus. We drove around Paris and this funny English guy told us stories about what we were seeing. We got out at the Museum of Rodin (which I can't wait to go back to. We are going to visit the museums on Sunday when they are all free) and the Eiffel Tower but only for a few minutes. Here are some highlights (kind of in a weird order lol):

My runny quiche


Me @ the Eiffel Tower!!!!!! EEEE We are going for a tour next week!


This is me with some of me and Brittany's better friends in the program. From left to right: Amanda (TX), moi, Brittany (LA), Courntey (IL), Christy (IDK lol man, now I feel bad).

And me and Brittany. This one and the one before are @ the Rodin museum.

This is the cool sculpture exhibit @ the Luxembourg gardens. I wanted to take more but didn't know if photos were allowed so this was the one sneaky one I got.

A view from our tour bus. Brittany is in the act of taking a photo as well. This is at one end of the Luxembourg gardens at the end of the pathway is the palace where the senate meets.

Here is Christy and Courtney @ our picnic in the gardens.

After the bus tour, we were really tired. Madame made us Lasagna with Sardines (which still had scales and bones! yikes! They were yummy but it was weird and awkward eating around them. Madame like ate it all lol) with lemon and like zuchinni (couchron en francais I think) puree stuff which was pretty good. Lol Brittany and I saw it before and were like um, what is that green stuff? I hope it's not for dinner lol and it was but it was better than it looked. We had salade and bread and cheese of course.

After a little rest, we went out to the Latin quarter with some friends. It was me, Brittany, Allison (NC), Daisy (IDK), and Christy. We got some glace (ice cream/gelato) and walked around. The latin quarter is very fun and young. There was a really cute postcard store that I want to go back to. It has some really weird postcards lol that I didn't get at all, like a weird comic of a pig or something but the other ones were cute.

O and we saw the Notre Dame all lit up. It is so beautiful. I want to go to a mass there and see the inside. People were picnicing along the Seine as well and there were street artists everywhere. In front of the Notre Dame there were these dancers who danced with fireworks. It looked really cool but when we finally got up close enough to see it well their show was over. I need to find some pictures from facebook and download them so that I can post them here.

I'll tell you about my next few days when I get a chance! I need to catch up or I'll start forgetting what happened when. Au revoir! J'aime Paris!!

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