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.