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!