New Word of the Week

Le Père Fouettard = Father Spanker

This guy apparently accompanies Père Noel on Christmas to give the naughty kids spankings. I thought coal was bad...

Carafe d'eau

Having worked in the food industry for most of my life, (farm market and then waitressing)it is very difficult for me NOT to critique the service when I sit down at any restaurant. I notice thing that I'm sure other people don't: the silverware has little food blotches on it still from not running it twice though the machine, the wine glass has a trace of a lipstick smudge, etc.

Here in France I find that generally the restaurants here run a tight ship. A few small differences I have noticed:
1. After you get your food, they really don't visit your table again.
2. You can stay there as long as you like. You really have to flag the server down to get the check.

The third one became obvious for me last night when we had a very friendly waiter at a quaint resto off rue de Seine. He noticed we were foreign and proceeded to ask us where we are all from (the good thing is now, the French don't automatically tag us as American. We once got that we were Swiss.) After telling him, he was very enthusiastic because he has been to New York 5 times. Other note: the French can't really grasp the concept of having both New York City and also a New York State. Anyway, he said the biggest thing that shocked him when he went to a New York (City) restaurant that there are people there who are so eager to fill your water glass. He said he counted how many times this kid refilled his friend's (who was apparently Mexican) water glass and it was over four or five times during the meal. He said it was the most ridiculous thing. I stared thinking about this and he was right. How many times a night at the restaurant was I running to get that stupid pitcher of water?? too many times. The French have this amazing thing called a carafe d'eau. It's a water pitcher...that they put...ON THE TABLE. Wowwwww! Who ever heard of such a concept!

Dear People of France,

I know you all love your strikes. I have seen more strikes here than I think my Dad has to handle at his job and he's a labor attorney. I think its a good thing that you do this. You stand up for what you think is unfair. You stand in the streets with cigarettes hanging out of your mouths, carrying homemade picket signs, shutting down streets and holding up traffic. For the most part I say "good for you".

But now, people of France, you are making me a little worried with this new strike. President Sarkozy once said ""these days when there's a strike (in France), nobody notices". Well people are taking notice of this one. The strike, started by the workers of the Centre Pompidou on November 23rd, has now sent a ripple effect on other museums and tourist attractions in Paris. Some to add to the list: Musee d'Orsay is completely shut down, Versaille could not keep up with their shortage of workers, parts of the Louvre were closed today, the Arc de Triumph was shut down. This would of course be a complete bummer for the tourist visiting right now. It is even a BIGGER bummer when you have a 7 page paper due on a painting at the d'Orsay and YOU CAN'T EVEN GO LOOK AT IT AGAIN. Also, there is a big possibility the museum libraries will close as well. Not cool French workers, not cool.

Provence

Sorry this will be a short and sweet post, and you might see that trend becoming more popular as work has started to pile up before the two-week Christmas break. So two weekends ago we went to Provence, more specifically Arles and Avignon. I will highlight some of the good, bad, and ugly.

Good:
-Got to Arles and had a wonderful dinner. Arguably the best dinner I've had so far in France. The starting dish was eggplant sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, then roasted guinea fowl in a rosemary-shallot-cream sauce with haricot verts and sun-dried tomatoes. Dessert was a chocolate fondant with raspberry sauce and mint. So delicious I can't even tell you.
-Saw the Cafe la Nuit which inspired Van Gogh to paint one of his most famous works, Terrasse du Café le Soir. I've provided pictorial evidence below...




-I went horseback riding for the first time in my life. In fact, the whole HCJYF program except for two students went horseback riding...for the first time...and here's my segway into the bad...

Well first, here's a pick of me on my horsey.


Bad: So we started out in a single file line, all 30 or so of us. I'm just kind of getting the hang of everything when suddenly the horse from behind me decides to get all alpha-male on my horse. Now, the way horses show their dominance (as I learned after this incident) is to get in front of other horses and lead them. If a horse feels like they are the dominant one they will BITE the other and move ahead. Ok, well this horse behind me, hormones raging, decides he can totally take my horse so he tries to take a bite, and succeeded, sort of. The thing bites MY LEG instead. I give out a yelp of pain, my horse gets spooked and throws me off. Fortunately I landed into some brush but my leg felt like the jaws of life clamped down on my calf. I got back on my horse though on the condition that the other mechant horse goes in front of me for the rest of the trip.

Ugly: Here's the bruise the night of the incident, still fresh. haha


A few days after...you can actually see the outline of the freaking mouth


Really it wasn't that big of a deal. I still had fun for the rest of the ride. The lead horse man told me "Well it can be your little souvenir". Thanks horse guy, thanks. We played a game at dinner that night: Who would be the worst person to get their leg bitten by a horse? So I ask you, my blog-readers: Who is the worst person to get bit by a horse?? Love to see comments!

Mes Courses

So I know I haven't been very good with the updates recently. Pardon! Well, you wouldn't want me on my computer being a loser and typing away my thoughts while missing out on the sights and sounds of Paris, would you? I didn't think so.

Well I still am having an amazing time here and to create a post that is worth reading that includes all the things I've done the past few weeks would be quite impossible and not an excellent read. So I thought I would go into a little more detail about my classes here since all of them have finally started. Yes, I had a class that only just began the 30th of October. ha.

Monday
All around good day. I only have one class in the morning at Reid Hall. It's titled Modernisme and is an Art History class focusing on french "modern" painters (everyone from Delacroix to Monet). The professor is an American but has lived in Paris for an extended period of time. The class at Reid Hall is pretty old-school, as she uses an old slide projector which is very different from the high-tech power-point presentations I'm so accustomed to at Hamilton. It takes me back AP Art History my senior year at Nardin where my teacher's slides consisted mainly of her old photographs. I've basically got this lady's number already...the class really isn't hard at all but I can see if you have never taken an Art Hisorty class before (which is the majority of the girls in the class), it could be a little difficult to follow, especially since it's in French.

Tuesday

I am pretty much dead after this day. I start with waking up at around 8 in the morning. I then face the "morning commute" crowd on the Metro, packed tighter than freaking sardines on both line 8 and line 1 to get to the Louvre for my 9am class called L'histoire des collections. I really love this class. The course started out really general, jumping all over the place from how the Pompidou started to Alexander the Great to Francois I. But now we are settling into the topic of the history of the Louvre and how its immense collection was formed and maintained.

My next class is Grammaire at Reid Hall. Now, I know what all of you are thinking...ugh lame. Actually, not the case at all. The teacher is very engaging and knowledgeable. She begins every class with "so did you do anything interesting this weekend? any general questions?" This opens up the floor for everyone to talk about their weekend adventures as well as the grammar/vocab questions that have been on our minds...which happens a lot here. Not hard at all, barely any homework, but I still find it very helpful.

Next I am off to my only English course at Paris III, part of the Sorbonne. It is a Masters English course so these kids have graduated from university and therefore slightly older than me. It is once a week and only counts as a half credit for my English major...speaking of packed sardines, those will be my English classes that I have to take my Senior year in order to keep my major. ha. It is an American Modernism Literature course. We have been reading Dos Passos's Manhattan Transfer for the past three weeks now. I love it when the professor, who is a natvie French speaker, asks the students to read a passage from the book. All native french speakers, the kids speak beautiful English...in a flowery British accent. Note: you really can't..and shouldn't read Manhattan Transfer in this accent fit for the Queen of England. Come onnn. I understand this was the way they were taught but it sounds pretty ridiculous at times.

Wednesday
My second round of Moderisme, which also meets on Mondays. This class either meets at Reid Hall or a museum. I mean when in Paris...

Thursday
Long day. I have my second installment of Grammaire and then have this awkward two-hour break to kill at Reid Hall before my next class. After I twiddle my thumbs for the two hours, we have Paris Theatre. The jury is still out on this one. It's not my favorite, but the plays we read, and then go see are really interesting. I guess I rally don't like how the class is structured, i.e. once a week for 3 hours straight (a small break in between so our pretentious theater professor can have a smoke). We did go to La Comédie-Française which is the comedy theater in Paris. We saw a very traditional Moliere play L'Avare that had a bit of a modern twist to it. I am ambivalent...kind of like those masks where one's got a goofy smile and one looks like someone is about to murder its puppy. Guess I'm not much of a theater person...

Friday
Ah yes Friday. Friday starts off like the sad, puppy-killing mask, aka Methodologie. As it stated in the program for the year, this course is specifically for students who are in a French literature course. Have you seen any French Literature courses in my schedule? No? THAT'S BECAUSE I'M NOT IN ONE AND I STILL HAVE TO TAKE THIS DAMN CLASS. But, because I'm in an English class at Paris III, I have to learn how to write a correct french paper...used for french literature classes...you see why I am frustrated here?? Absolutely pointless. Everyone is a sad panda Friday mornings. Everyone, even the French lit. kids, hate the thing.

After my frustrating morning I head over to the Louvre for my second course there (that only started two weeks ago) of Histoire des peintures; ecole francaise. I'm going to be a pro at French painters/paintings once I'm finished with this class. The professor who teaches it is very articulate and repeats difficult phrases and spells out names and places which I am very thankful for. My two Louvre classes last for the entire year and therefore make it complex as far as credits go for Hamilton. Not really worried though. They're at the freaking Louvre, Hamilton better bend over backward to let these two courses count (three credits-worth *hoping*) toward my Art History major. Yeesh.

Also, perk for being a student at the l'Ecole du Louvre: almost any museum you enter in Paris, you wip out your Louvre card and they let you in for free. It's like "BAM V.I.P.". Anyway, I think that's cool...

So there. A scatter-brained description of all of my classes here in Paris. So don't think it is all cafes and croissants over here! That's a big part of it though...

I am putting the "study" in "study abroad". W00T!

Weekend in the Loire

So this weekend proved to be the best weekend I've experienced so far in the 5 weeks I have been here. It was a whirlwind of a trip, only staying one night at a hotel. Saturday consisted of touring two Chateaus. First was Château de Chenonceau arguably the most famous chateau in the Loire. It was a little overcast that morning for Chenonceau, but it cleared up by the mid-morning for our next castle, Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire. We had an excellent photoshoot there atop an old tree stump with Kylie saying "Guys, I want you all to give you best Tyra impression! Smile with your eyes!"






That night, the whole group went to an upscale restaurant (courtesy of HCJYF) and our choice for the night was fish or pork fillet mignon. I chose the pork which was sauteed with local mushrooms (the Loire is known for their champignons) and served with a side of pureed turnips. Dessert was some sort of creme-fraiche with a dollop of lavender ice cream on top. Our table of eight girls managed to polish off 2 bottles of red and 2 bottles of white by the end of our meal. Not too shabby and that was certainly not the end of our wine splurge for the weekend...

On Sunday, we got on the bus very early and traveled into wine country. I had no idea the Loire was known for their wines, but there we were on another beautiful winery estate. Like our last wine tasting in Bordeaux, it was about 10:30 in the morning and I'm sure many of us -including myself- had the "been there, done that" kind of attitude.


Then, out from the fog, comes a disheveled, jolly-looking man with a huge never-seen-a-dentist-just-pull-it-out-with-pliers smile. He was the proprietor of the vineyard and reminded me SO MUCH of Tom Tower: the gestures, the silliness, the ridiculous comments ("I need all the pretty girls to give me a kiss before they go, it's a rule here"). And so apparently, on this vineyard, you need to work to get a taste of the wine. And that's what we did. He put us to work, "Action!" he would say and "Pas Problème!. Well, for some, it was a problem. We all had no idea we would actually be HARVESTING the grapes before our degustation, but like any other farm girl, I just jumped right into action.

The amusing part was watching the other kids do some hard-labor for an hour. There we the slackers, who kept on the job for a while then disappeared. This group included Professor Morgan, who was MIA after about 10 minutes. Those smoker-lungs are not the best for, well, anything, especially anything physical. There were the kids who actually HATED that they had to cut some grapes off the vine, ruining their new shoes in the dirt and mud. One kid started to call them "The Grapes of Wrath". Kylie quickly changed his statement to a more reasonable one of "The Grapes of Mild Inconvenience". And there was the group of surprises. Some kids who I was sure had never done one ounce of hard labor in their lives who were actually enjoying this task and were not half bad. In between the harvest we had a little taste in the fields, the first was a sweet white (I had two glasses of that) which was delicious and also a full-body, fruity red. *(note: if you want to start counting my wine-intake here's the time to do it) I have to say on the harvesting side of things, I was not perfect. I was getting into the rhythm, getting a little cocky, and bam! Nipped my pinky finger on the scissors.



After taking a blow to my farm-girl pride, we sat down for lunch outside on two long tables. One was for us and the other were for some other locals who were working in the fields with us as well. The meal started out like any other, with wine and bread. 1 glass of red down, then our guide for the weekend snatched a bottle of sparkling white which, he said, is cheaper than champagne but just as good. 2 glasses of that down before our main meal of Boeuf Bourguignon. All of a sudden, our our crazy proprietor disappears for a few minutes and returns with the biggest bottle of wine I have ever seen. Of course, the French have a name for this monstrosity. It is called a Balthazar. It is 12 LITERS OF WINE IN ONE BOTTLE. That's the equivalent of 16 standard wine bottles!! Are you kidding me? And, oh, did we make a dent in that bottle. After I thought there couldn't possibly be more, he brings out ANOTHER Balthazar behemoth, this one from a different year so, of course you had to have a glass or two...or three...



Alright, if you have been counting, I am in a goooood place right about now. And so what do the people of the Loire Valley do when there's good food and lots of wine?? Well, sing and dance of course! Our farmer brings out and ancient cassette player and this song starts to play. About 10 garden hoes were handed out to the girls and we proceeded to attempt to sing this song and make fools out of ourselves all for the sake of shits and giggles. I think a round of "This Land is Your Land" was sung as well...Go USA!...?



As our 3-hour long lunch came to an end, we peeled ourselves off the benches while simultaneously trying to recover from our wine comas and took a tour of the cave. This was an incredible underground wine cellar which was part natural and partially dug-out by hand. The cave was at least an acre, filled with hundreds of barrels and literally THOUSANDS of bottles. I left the vineyard feeling extremely content. I bought a nice bottle of a Mediun-body red Cabernet Franc called Les Galichets, which I was told we tried along the way...somewhere along the way...

Versailles

Kylie and I in the Gallerie des Glaces

Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche was a few weeks ago but certainly worthy of a post. This picture was at the Luxembourg gardens where they installed a GIANT DISCO BALL above the fountain. Translated literally, Nuit Blanche is "white night" but has another connotation meaning "sleepless night". Well, the six of us certainly lived up to the name. After the Luxembourg Gardens we went to go see other installations spread out all over Paris. One of my favorites was an old catholic church with 40 individual 5-foot speakers arranged in an oval around the transept. You then stood in the middle of the oval and each individual speaker had a recording of one person's voice. When the 40 speakers went simultaneously, the sound was absolutely incredible. By now, it was about 2 in the morning. We walked around a little bit more and even stumbled across a homeless guy fight. We stayed at a small Creperie until the metro stared up again, which was about 6 IN THE MORNING. haha.

At night

I had a little fun with my reflection.

At dusk

My awesome Paris guidebook in the foreground.

Oh, whats that you see?

That's right.

In the study...

I'm reading every single one of these.

My bedroom

Yes Mom, I'm keeping it clean...

My Apartment!!

Isn't it beautiful???

PARIS!!!

Yes, finalement I'm here! The city I will be living in for the next 9 months. Yesterday we said au revior to our Biarritz host-families and took a short plan ride into Orly airport. We were then split up into groups according to where our host families live. After much confusion with the not-so-organized cab drivers, I arrived at my apartment in the 15th Arrondisement.

I am living with the MOST ADORABLE woman ever in the most beautiful apartment ever!! Just to give you a little taste of what it's like here, I'm writing this at 11 o'clock at night in my room while watching the Eiffel Tower light show. Yeah, yeah, no big deal or anything... There will be pictures very soon I promise!! Ok, the adorable woman, Francoise, is a widow who lost her husband a few years ago. She has had many many students from the HCJYF program but I am the first Hamilton student she's housed. She has one son who is grown and had 3 younger children of his own. She is very easy to talk to and corrects me in a very nice manner when I make a mistake speaking. Her sister lives just 3 floors above us with her husband. She visits often and helps with dinner, etc. She also has some connection with the l'Ecole du Louvre but...not quite sure what that is...better get on that...

You will be very proud to know I successfully navigated the three Metro stops it takes to get to Reid Hall (I know its not a lot, but hey, give me some credit here). I was so early I decided to stop at a little café on the rue Montparnasse and get one of those shot-sized, caffeinated-so-much-it-made-my-hands-shake-for-an-hour cups of what the french call "coffee". IT WAS AWESOME. That little detour was also my first real "café in Paris". After countless hours of serving burgers and wings and scrubbing bathroom floors at the restaurant this summer, the only thing keeping me from strangling those 40-something, washed-out, drunk, biker chicks/dudes was the image of myself at a Paris café. This morning, I was finally at my café!!

Pictures to come!! Bises!

"Chateau Champion"

A trip to Bordeaux would not be complete without a little wine tasting! Even though it was about 10:30 in the morning, we were all excited to tour the facility and have a dégustation. The family that runs Chateau Champion have been in the business for 8 generations. Crazyyy. I bought the 2007 Merlot we had at the tasting. The question is: will I have room in my suitcase for it when I depart for Paris??

Le château de la Brède

On our way to Bordeaux we stopped to take a tour of Montesquieu's Château. Very very cool on the outside, but even more breath-taking on the inside. Unfortunately, photo's of the inside were "interdit"(forbidden). We had a very nice woman tour guide who spoke very well and was easy to understand. I am starting to judge the french people who mumble and the ones who actually formulate comprehensible sentences...

The Past Few Days

Bonjour à Tous!

I have been in Biarritz for just over a week now, finally over the jet-lag and nervous jitters. There were a lot of "firsts" that happened the past few days. I ordered my first glass of French wine at a restaurant the other night. Very tasty. It was rosé if you were curious...

I saw my first not-on-the-tourist-map French cathedral (one of many I hope) during our day-trip to Bayonne, another city about 30 minutes away from Biarritz. The Cathédrale Sainte-Marie de Bayonne is rich in history as well as the city it occupies. You know the bayonet? Yup, first made in Bayonne.

Our HCJYF group went to the cinéma and I got my first real taste of a French film. It was, hands down, the most bizarre thing I have ever seen in my life. No point really, no explanation of why things are the way they are, lots of nudie-shots, and lots of drinking. Pretty French if you ask me...

Probably the best first was the first compliment on how well I spoke French! Kylie, Alden and I were in an artisan chocolate shop in Bayonne. The woman was very pleasant and we all exchanged niceties. She asked us where we were from and we told her Les États-Unis and she said we spoke french très bien. After buying our chocolate and leaving the store, we did a group high-five to celebrate our little victory.

Tomorrow, HCJYF is going on a weekend trip to Bordeaux, the wine-capital of the world. Plenty of more stories to come I'm sure!

Bises!

First Day of Classes

So its been two days since I've updated and a bunch of stuff happened since then. Yesterday, Lisa (roommate) and I went to the beach by ourselves. It was very relaxing and I actually got a little tan going on. Ouaiiii! After baking in the sun for approximately two hours or so we decided to try out the ocean. I have never been in waves quite as large as these so it made a simple dip a little more exciting. The weather is beautiful all the time here. I haven't seen a rain cloud or any weather resembling Buffalo or Clinton in September.

Today was my first day of classes and I don't think I have ever been more mentally exhausted. Writing on this blog is pretty much the first time I could think/speak in English today. My group (consisting of Kylie, Alden, and 5 or 6 others) had "la classe de francais" for 2 hours, then "coversation" for another hour. After lunch, we had another hour of this "assistant" talking about cultural celebrations of the area. Interesting, but, after everything else, in a warm dark room, I felt myself starting to drift off. I looked over at Alden at one point and she had her sunglasses down and was taking a little nappy. Caught ya Alden!

After THAT we all had a meeting with Cheryl Morgan about some random things like if we all wanted to go to a certain movie, and what we need for that stupid Carte de Sejour. From what I gathered, we are also putting on a little sketch for our host families in the near future so I of course volunteered my juggling services amongst the singers and dancers. Greeaaaatttt. hahaha

I also got a phone and some sort of pay-as-you-go plan for 50 euros. I am just waiving my money goodbye already.

I said in my last post that my host family supposedly had two small children and that they were staying somewhere else while we stayed in their room. Yeah, that wasn't right at all. Yesterday for "la dejuner" (lunch) here strolls in a 30-something woman and a little girl about 3. We both looked at each other like...whaaaat? Our host mother and father are actually grandparents and have 1 or 2 children that are "plus age" (older) and THEY have children as well. So both of us pretty much failed on that family detail. I am going to say though, this little girl, and the vast majority of little French children are the cutest things in the world. Literally, their little voices when they speak french is "trop mignone!" Too cute!

Now, I'm planning on taking a little nap and eating a nice french dinner. I haven't even commented on the food/drink yet, but that should be a post in and of itself.

A bientot!

Le Premier Jour

Ahh yes. The first full day of Biarritz. It was absolutely fantastic. Everyone is super-serious about only speaking French. My roommate, who goes to Williams College, and I, even in our room, only speak French to one another. Its certainly exhausting but I think I learned more French today than I would have in a week of college classes.

Biarritz reminds me of the Aix-en-Provence region where I spent a lot of time as an Au Pair. My host family is very nice. It's a husband and wife and they have two little daughters, but we haven't seen the daughters and I think we're sleeping in their room so we think they are at the grandparent's house or something like that. Not sure about that detail. haha

The real kicker today was the whole getting lost in a foreign country thing. Yeah. My roomate and I were trying to get back to our house and we thought that it was going to be super easy because we had these huge maps of Biarritz, but alas, our road was not on the map. AWESOME. So after asking every french person on the street as well as these sketch guys at a local pizza place, we finally found it. 2 hours of being lost. Good times.

Tomorrow is just for relaxation so we plan of logging a bunch of time at the beach.

A la prochaine!

Summer's Ending Soon

As I see my younger brother leaving for college this year, with his neatly organized boxes, freshly pressed pants already on hangers, and his brand-new Dirt Devil vacuum fully charged (why he is charging a vacuum I don't know), it brings me back to the summer before my freshman year. I seem to remember my room full of college necessities slightly less organized and slightly more pink. I also seem to remember that slightly nervous yet overwhelmingly excited feeling of an long-awaited change. That same feeling has struck me again this year as I will not be returning to The Hill, where everything was so comfortable and lovely: the dunham quad, commons dining hall, opus, the occasional streaker...

This year, after weighing the pros and cons meticulously for weeks, I have decided to venture out past the oh-so-cliche "comfort zone" and spend my junior year in Paris, France. Yes, I have been there before and actually stayed with a French family as an Au Pair so, I mean, I kind of know what I'm getting into. At the same time, I never had to take any classes in French or pledge that I would not speak English while I am over there. Yeah, so some of this is kind of making me bug-out just a tad, but hey, it's Paris, the City of Lights, I can deal.

I know the end of the summer is certainly winding down since I now have time to actually get 7-8 hours of sleep at night. Between two unpaid internships, a waitressing job, as well as an on-call babysitting service, there was absolutely zero time to do anything else. The little amount of sun Buffalo did get this summer, I was always under a roof, so Casper the friendly ghost has got nothing on my skin tone right now. I did love my internships though (hated the restaurant) which I think opened a lot of doors for me and gave me insight into future careers. I do know for certain that career will never include going into the restaurant business.

So I thought this blog would be good for a few things:
#1 I can still write a bit in English and it wouldn't hurt keeping up with it since...you know...I'm an English/Art History double major.
#2 My peeps can catch up on whats happening even when I'm not on Skype (mental note: get on that whole Skype thing...)
#3 I guess catalog my thoughts into one place, mostly for myself

So all that is left of summer will be planning for my year abroad and possibly trying to get some much-needed vitamin D.