Birthday # 1, busyness

Pompidou Center 7 Feb 2010

Sign that you haven't lived in the US for a while:

You call your bank in the States; the teller asks for your social security number for "security reasons," just like they always do.  The question shocks you and a wave of panic ensues before you are able to reach back far enough into your brain to prove that you are you.  Whew!  Close one.
--
We celebrated my birthday (early) at the apartment on Saturday evening.  Laurence invited all the usual suspects, and in the end the attendees were myself, Laurence, Camille, Maurice, Hélène (Laurence's daughter), Jean-Phillip (her husband), Athina (their daughter), David (Laurence's son), Guillaume (Laurence's nephew), Sylvie (his wife), Adelaide (their daughter), Bertrand, and Eric (Laurence's nephews).  The lasagna dinner was relatively simple but delicious as always and of course followed by salad, then the cheeses.  Champagne, wine, and Hurricane cocktails (a gift from last year's American) flowed freely and we enjoyed not one but TWO chocolate cakes (Camille and Hélène had a bake-off) then the coffee as usual.  Once we get to the table at these dinners everything becomes Maurice's responsibility and there are times when he clearly wishes this was not the case.  At the end of the dinner he asked who wanted coffee and at least 8 hands went up.  "Alright, who wants a decaf?" 3 hands.  "I'll do the decafs."  Good thing I was one of those hands! (Maurice also *happens* to drink decaf.)

Guillaume and Sylvie brought Laurence and me beautiful rose bouquets, and I also received tulips from Eric and Bertrand.  Other gifts included a purse from Laurence (which is, as Maurice pointed out, for girly girls, a title I've never bestowed upon myself but is a concensus people come to no matter where I live), a book (in French) of Paris's covered passages which will be useful for rainy days, a body scrub (L'Occitane en Provence, duh), and FRENCH (not English) breakfast tea from Mariage Frères.

The evening was definitely a success, although I am still intimidated in those group social situations.  Being the guest of honor probably added a bit of pressure, too.  But the family is so lovely that I'm already looking forward to celebrating Camille's birthday with them in April.  In other news, he's started working towards his driving license.  Learning to drive in Paris, wow.  Just...wow.  Et bon courage!

Luxembourg Gardens - sun and snow! - 14 Feb. 2010

On Sunday Anja and I went to check out a marionettes show in the Luxembourg Gardens.    We were among very few child-less adults there, but it was my first marionette show in France, possibly my first ever, and I loved it.  The plot was less-than-enthralling, but hearing the marionettes use all those classic French expressions and hearing all the kids react was - oh no! this word is infiltrating my blog posts these days - ADORABLE!!      

Other than that, just a busybusybusy week.  I'm currently working on leasing a house in Austin with my friend Colleen next year; I also orchestrated the rental of an apartment for my parents when they come here in April, scholarship (application) season is here again, and when I'm not doing those things, there's always that thing called school to occupy my time.  BUT my friend Laura, who's currently studying in Italy, is coming in tomorrow for the weekend :)  After she leaves it's officially my birthday week (Thursday being the day), THEN on the 27th I fly to Ireland to see Shannon, Galway, and Dublin (where my friend Vicky is studying).  I get back Thursday the 4th and my friend Allison comes for a week on the 6th.  Whew!
At this time next week I'll be partying with the Italians and company, so I can't promise you a post before Ireland, or the next Thursday when I'll be on my way back to Paris, or the Thursday after when Allison is here...but at some point, I'll be in touch.  Guess I'd better get strapped in, the semester appears to be taking off.

xoxo
Alina :)

PS.  Click here for my second Promenades album, which includes Pantheon photos.  I guess you also know you've been living in Paris a while when the Pantheon takes a backseat to everything else in your blog post.

This album has more Pompidou photos and a couple more from my birthday.

Eh oui.

First week of classes down...lots to go.

It's definitely been a week of ups and downs.  Or, more accurately, it went from down to up!

I dined with a big group of Frenchies over the weekend to celebrate a friend's birthday and ended up sitting next to most likely the most closed-minded person there.  Lucky me!  He started out with the usual insult of my home state, managed to blame George W. Bush's presidency on me, asked me what I thought of Obama, couldn't believe it when I replied mostly positively (he literally thought I had misunderstood the question), then threw out any criticism I brought up of our current president (I'm not completely naive) because I'm from Texas, so clearly any criticism I have is due to the fact that I came out of the womb a die-hard Republican.  Regardless of YOUR political opinions, I'm sure you'll agree that these actions and the attitude behind them are incredibly narrow-minded and just plain rude: since when is it socially acceptable to bring up politics two seconds after meeting someone?  Sadly, it's not the first time I've found myself in that situation.  Defending your birthplace gets old after a while.  I mean, I didn't CHOOSE to be born in Texas...but just for the record, it's the best state.  EVER.  Cold-hard objectivity right there.

A few similar (but thankfully shorter - we were at dinner for 3 hours.  Did I mention he insisted on speaking really awful English to me?) occurrences came up in the next couple days and by Monday afternoon I was really wondering when I would encounter someone who knows the difference between a stereotype and a real-live individual.  Luckily the merde-storm seems to have passed - probably around 11AM Tuesday, when my new French cinema professor basically reprimanded the French students - in class - for not being more welcoming to foreigners.  HA!  I will admit that she was being a little harsh on them, but it was a pretty nice surprise to have a professor reach out to me regarding a topic which had just recently come to a boiling point in my mind.
Then, Tuesday night, I went to a mixer hosted by the Texas Exes France chapter for UT students here this semester and a few parisian students who want to study abroad there next year.  It was so refreshing - and ironic - to meet these French students who were pretty much the polar opposite of the *charming* boy who had put me in such an awful mood just a couple days before.

I'm in yoga on Wednesday mornings again this semester, which I'm really happy about.  It was good to see the teacher again and nice to know what I was doing in a class of slightly-terrified students, most of whom had never practiced before.  I also may end up making some new friends in the class :)

I mentioned that I want to be sure to take better advantage of the performing arts scene here in Paris this semester.  With that in mind, I walked over to the Opera Bastille today to inquire about getting student/youth tickets for La Sonnambula by Bellini which is currently playing.  Results: Tomorrow is sold out.  Next Monday is sold out.  Next Thursday is sold out.  It's ALL sold out!  Every time I've been in Manhattan, I've gotten same-day tickets, and yes for the Metropolitan Opera as well.  What's the deal here?  More people?  Less space?  More interest?  Regardless, I clearly need to plan a little farther ahead; I am determined not to leave without having seen something at Opera Garnier (ballet) and the Bastille (opera).

This evening I taught English to Foucauld and Félix, two brothers who live just down the street.  They're 13 and 16, but they might as well be the same age - funny how that works.  If anything, Foucauld, the 13 year old, is the responsible one - whenever I text them both to confirm our next meeting, it's always Foucauld who responds.  Once I asked Félix about it and he said he just doesn't respond to text messages.  I think that was some kind of communication break-down - his english is lower-intermediate.  Or maybe he really doesn't ever respond to text messages.  We get along pretty well, so I don't think he simply dislikes his English tutor.  The family as a whole is pretty eccentric for reasons I can't really pin down.  They have a dog named Tabasco, a cat named Mojito, and a fish named Choucroute (sauerkraut), and that's part of it.  Their furniture is really modern and today we sat at Foucauld's "desk", which requires the user to sit on the floor.  When the mom first called me (because she'd seen an ad I put up in the boulangerie downstairs), she asked if I'd ever taught English before.  I said no and this answer didn't seem to phase her in the least.  Four months later, here we are.
Tonight while seated (on the floor) in front of Foucauld's homework, we encountered a problem tracking down a certain person that he was supposed to be researching and writing a brief biography of.  Nothing was coming up in google searches, so he hopped on facebook, messaged a couple of his classmates who were also online, and within a couple minutes we realized that he had incorrectly recorded her name.  I'm no technology-challenged baby-boomer - I pretty much "grew up" with the internet too - but there's something adorable about a 13 year old french kid with a wafro (an "afro" hairstyle on a white person, I'm sorry if that's not politically correct) getting on facebook, using (French) computer slang with his school buddies.  He pointed out that we're not facebook friends, and the situation has been remedied.
More generally, I think anyone would be struck by the independence, which I often find - here's the word again - "adorable" - of parisian pre-teens (and teens).  Early one morning I scanned into the metro right next to Foucauld, who was off to school.  And it's not unusual to see children even younger than him on there.  The younger ones usually aren't alone although I'd say 12 or 13ish seems to be the age when that becomes acceptable to the parents.  Two other girls who I teach - Justine, who's 11, and Fanny, who's 8 - have cell phones and email addresses.  Ohlàlà!

Tonight Foucauld and Félix's mom said she thinks my French has gotten much better, which is always nice to hear.   It's definitely true that I'm much more comfortable in the language and even in the country itself (meaning France, not ruralness).  I still have a minor heart attack every time I go to the grocery store because I sense that the people in line behind me are ready to attack at the smallest sign of delay, which is more or less true, but I'm no longer shy about not knowing vocabulary and I no longer strive to end transactions as quickly as possible if that means that I still have questions (i.e. inquiring about tickets at the opera today).  I'm generally no longer afraid to make or receive phone calls, which I think anyone who has lived abroad can relate to.  Overall, I am looking forward to another semester of all kinds of growth (academic, lingual, intellectual, artistic...pretty much every kind except physical).  This post started out with a rant, but as you can tell from the rest of it, Paris and its inhabitants continue to charm me *almost* every time that I walk out the door.  Even better, spring is on the way...eventually.

Until next time,
Alina :)




PS.  For my Intercultural Analysis class, I was asked to submit some images representing some general terms:

Francité (Frenchness):

It seems like a lot of people associate France with elegance and beauty.  The photo has sort of a double-meaning because I took it in the Salle des Séances at the National Assembly.

Paris:

Crowded, busy, a mix of foreigners, tourists, and locals, a mix of old and new (the buildings, the shops)...and lots of black.  hah, I hadn't thought about that before just now.

Parisiens:

It's easy to feel humbled (and just plain small) by this city.

Américanité (Americanness):

This is my Italian friend Antonio pretending to play guitar in the Halstead kitchen last year. So many people, perhaps especially the French (?), associate the US with "Rock and Roll!"  I think the fact that he's Italian and wearing a burnt-orange UT shirt (hook 'em!) adds something to it.

Berlin and Prague between semesters.

Salut !

Sorry that last week's post fell by the wayside.  "Posting day" has gradually slipped from Sunday to Wednesday (and now Thursday, apparently), and last Wednesday I was too busy looking at 4AM bus routes to the airport to write a post about the incredibly [boring/awful/tedious/almost any negative adjective works here] week before, when I pretty much studied for a week straight, mainly for ONE final in Italian Literature.  Mon dieu !  I was anticipating being the happiest girl on the planet at noon on Wednesday, but I walked out the exam with my head spinning and completely unsure about my grade.  Still unsure.  At least it's OVER!

And then it was off to Berlin and Prague :)

I went with my friend Andy, who is also a UT student doing the MICEFA exchange this year.  We caught a bus to Orly airport around 4AM (!),  I spent the 1h30 plane ride scouring the guide book I checked out at the library, and we were at the hostel by 9:00ish.
Well, Berlin.  Am I allowed to simply state that I loved it?  Suffice to say that I'll definitely be back, and it might even be cool to try to work in a hostel there one summer.  I guess I would have to learn some German first though...it sounds so cool but there are so many letters!  Anyway:

Best Way to Start the Day: Breakfast at Memory Cafe, just down the street from our hostel.  We ate there all three mornings.  Usually when people tell me they went to the same eatery three times while visiting a city I wonder why they didn't try to go anywhere else.  Then I tasted the Yogurt/Muesli/Fresh Fruit at Memory, and I understood.
Most Beautiful Site: The Charlottenburg Castle grounds.  A frozen, powdery-snow-covered winter wonderland.  A couple people attempted to cross-country ski while children screamed with delight as their parents set them off sledding down the hills.  The sun started to set just as we got to one side of the park and I snapped some pretty shots of that and the full moon that succeeded it.

Best Neighborhoods:            Prenzlauer Berg (hip, and not hipster): 

Scheunenviertel (shopping/galleries/cuteness!):

Biggest Annoyance - Inaccurate 3-year-old guide book.  Berlin changes fast, and apparently that includes the names of metro stops.
Best surprise: The Reichstag at night.  It's an old government building (finished in 1894) but they've recently added this super awesome spiral dome at the top.  It's FREE and open 'til midnight every night (which, let me tell you, is pretty unheard of for a site like this.  It could also explain why the staff were some of the grumpiest people I've ever encountered).  You get a free audio guide (available in several languages) which guides you up the walkway; a new description starts every time you pass a little grey panel on the floor.  So the guide doesn't get ahead of you or hold you back.  And some of the German congress were having a meeting in the big hall just below the dome!

Thing That Made Me Think of Austin/America: all the coffee shops!  Everywhere!  And coffee to go!  And "real" coffee instead of teeny tiny cups of espresso!  Andy and I, both former Starbucks employees, were ecstatic :)
Biggest Disappointment:  The fact that is was much too cold for "Biergarten"s.  Next time!
Best Place to Pose for Photos: The East Side Gallery, the biggest surviving piece of the wall which has now been turned in to one long documentation of life after November 1989.

Thing That Kept Surprising Me: The scale of everything.  The size of the buildings AND the vast spaces in between all of them.

Best Thing To Do When Your Boots are Soaked from Walking in Snow and You Haven't Felt Your Toes for Hours: Catch a movie ("New York, I Love You") at the Sony Center. There were absolutely no sub-titles, even though the film is in English and there was a scene in French and a few lines of Korean.  We understood everything except the Korean.
Best Meal to Grab While Waiting for Said Film to Start: A "Texas BBQ Burger" with a Berliner Pilsener.  Drink.  Devour.  Wish there were more jalepeños. (Don't worry, we ate plenty of German cuisine, as well.  Curryworst remains a favorite.)

And finally (I know you're getting sick of this game)...

Best Place to See a Kick-ass (Orchestra) Concert: The amazing Philharmonie, where we saw the Berlin Philharmonic play on Friday night.  8 euros per ticket; we sat on benches literally right behind the orchestra.  Although the acoustics weren't so perfect when the soloists played/sang towards the "front" of the audience, I LOVED being on the same side of the conductor as the musicians.  You should copy and paste this link into a new browser window to hear my favorite movement of the night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHJRaqaHiEc&feature=related
You can take a virtual tour of the crazy concert hall by clicking here.
You can click here for all my Berlin photos.  Enjoy!


And then there was Prague.

Another amazing city which I am determined to go back to someday when it's not covered in snow.  We lucked out with sun on two of our three days there, but I can only imagine how beautiful the city is when it's in bloom.  The downside was that even though it was waaayyy below freezing, the tourists were just as plentiful as the snowflakes.  I know, I know, I'm a tourist too, but I didn't really feel that way in Berlin.  It seemed much easier to tap into a bit of local culture in that vast metropolis, where as pint-sized Prague, particularly the "must-see" sites such as Old Town Square, continually wanted to offer you a guided tour that meets in front of a Starbucks right next to a restaurant which serves "Authentic Czech cuisine".  Our guidebook did help us find a nice restaurant for Sunday night, but even there, I heard nothing but English in the room.  I suppose it doesn't help that if I thought German looked crazy, CZECH looked nothing short of ridiculous.  I mean, you try ordering off a menu that looks like this:
http://www.bar-bar.cz/cz/maincz.htm
And I guess that's it.  In Prague there seems to be a pretty definite line between the tourist-serving joints that offer menus in English (and also usually French, Spanish, Russian, Italian, German...) and the places that don't, which consequently are frequented by locals.  There actually were a few Czechs in the place at the link above, Bar Bar, which we found thanks to the guide book, but I heard English, too.  Andy ordered jalepeño poppers.

Anyway, there seems to be a similar division within the city itself.  It sort of reminded me of Venice and Florence in that respect.  I guess the rule of thumb is that "tourist hunters" (who want to bombard you with flyers for free drinks (from 9-10 PM) in a "great club") know where to find us in those smaller villes.

Anyway, seeing as how looks-wise I fit in quite decently with the locals (being Czech myself), I would really love to learn a bit of the language before going back.  My grandfather spoke it but he sadly did not pass it on to my dad!

I guess the things to do in Prague are pretty obvious: go to the castle (the biggest castle complex in the world), watch the Astronomical Clock chime in Old Town Square, drink beer.  We did it all, one thing in particular more than a couple times!  ;)

The Best "Thing Gone Wrong":  The "walk" from Petrin Hill to the Strahov Monastery.  It's a downhill hike with plenty of stairs...all of which were completely snowed/iced over.  We literally had no choice but to ski/slide/fall down the hill - that or descend via the furnicular, which would mean going right back to where we started and having to traverse the city to get to the monastery.  It started out as a "surely I can do this by holding onto the hand-rail" kind of thing, but quickly turned into a free f(or)all.  Andy, the boy who tempts fate every time he goes down to the Seine by standing on the very edge of the walkway (very nearly falling in at least once), the boy who recently returned from a skiing trip, jumped (or slid) right in.  Sensible and gravity/bone fracture-fearing person that I am, I was pretty wary at first, but once I got started, it wasn't so bad.  There is a video.  I do not want you to see it.

Biggest Local Bad-Boy-Artist: David Černý.  We saw several examples of his irreverent work throughout the city:

Museum Moment: Kampa Museum.  I didn't see any other museums in Prague, but I'll go out on a limb here and say that this would have been my favorite.  The setting, in a converted flour mill, was unique and I found the art (contemporary Czech/Central European) very interesting.  The museum is located on Kampa Island, Prague's beautiful little Venice, complete with canal tours, and the view from the top of the mill was pretty sweet:

We got back late Tuesday and today (Thursday), the second semester started.  What?!  Yes.  The exam period technically ended yesterday (Wednesday), so there could theoretically be students at Paris III who had literally just a few hours of break between semesters.  Lame!  Oh well, I met a Romanian girl - named Alina - in Italian class today, and it was kind of nice to walk into class and recognize some faces among the Frenchies.  I'm sooo not in the mood to deal with another semester's paperwork (UT, I love you, but if you don't give me credit for these courses, I will not love you so much), and, not having the background in European history/lit that the French students have, I'm once again forced to overcome that disadvantage.  But I'll stop whining; today's professor seemed very nice :)

Have a good weekend, everyone!  Keep in touch.

Love love love,

Alina :)