Profit, profit, profit

I'm going to squeeze in a last October post because yesterday was just a magical day. Well, as it started off, I was in a pretty sour mood. My Friday morning class is not doing it for me--well, the class itself is fine for the most part, but it's my professor I can't stand. Leaving class--a little late, too--just didn't put me in a good mood. Normally I try to laugh it off, but it's getting really old now. But then again, I have to put everything in perspective because I'm in Paris and things can't be that bad, right? Right. Nevertheless, my mood improved immensely during the 3 hours between that class and my Sorbonne class int he afteroon.

I bouht a sandwich and hopped the subway, getting off at Concord, which is the furthest stop on the other end of the Tuilerie Gardens, right by l'Obelisque. L'Orangerie, a small museum, is housed on that end of the gardens and they have a permanent Monet exhibition. There is also the Marmottan Museum in the 16th, which is all Monet, and I think I may go there this weekend. But L'orangerie was SPECTACULAR. I got in free, too, because of my student ID from the Sorbonne. There are two huge, round rooms in which you are completely surrounded by panels of Monet's water-lilies. Completely surrounded. I gasped when I walked into the first room because it really is incredible--calm, serene, and striking, all at the same time. Really unbelievable. His panels cover almost the entire wall and you can see the texture of his brush strokes and the lush colors he painted with. It's the next best thing to being in Giverney itself. Maybe even better. I sat on a bench and wrote some poetry, and it was the first time I've been able to just sit down and do that here. It's hard to find time in the day to write, but this is the perfect place. Some places inspire me, like that cafe I mentioned in earlier blog posts, but if I visited there again, I can't guarantee I would feel the same way because of music, other people in the room, temperature outside, etc. But here, I know I would always be inspired. I'm absolutely coming back so I can sit in Monet's presence and write more poetry.

After, I explored a gigantic church next to the Louvre. I'd seen it before and wanted to go in. It's one of my favorites now, and reminds me of both Notre Dame and the other one next to the Pantheon (though smaller than Notre Dame). My favorite part is the stained glass windows, yet every aspect of the architecture and decor is awe-inspiring. I felt nervous about being a spectator in a place where people pray and have private moments, but it was touching. I was also there as the bells were ringing for 2 'o' clock. But it wasn't just a simple "ding ding," it was a beautiful song and melody that literally stopped me in my tracks as I had been walking away from the church. I could say a bunch of cheesy, cliche things about it, and they would all be completely true. It was divine.

I had time to explore another church near me too, after walking through the Tuileries. I think I found a style I prefer--grand ,vaulted ceilings and lots of light, as opposed to that one I visited which was very dark and somber. The feelings and attitudes are completely different. This church, by my class, had stained glass windows not depicting biblical scenes but splashes of bright colors. It was like a modern take on stained glass; a fun detail.

The rest of my day was great too, and included going out for tea with Michelle, Emily, and Michelle's friend Cathy. I hope we can all do it again soon:) Em and I went to our favorite soup bar for dinner and I put my e-mail address on a mailing list so I can get the weekly schedule of soups! Because I will honestly marry the cream of mushroom soup if it would have me. Friday nights are generally relaxing and laid back because we're just coming off the end of a busy week and I'm usually still very tired. Also, we went out Thursday night to a DISCOTHEQUE which was a lot of fun but I didn't get a lot of sleep before my 9 am class yesterday morning. I'm going to profit from every moment that remains here and try to do as much as possible. Time is fleeting but I know I can make the most of this incredible place.

...Also, Happy Halloween! :)

So many visitors, oh my!

It's been a whirlwind of activity here lately because I had some visitors :) Quinn was the first, followed soon by Chloe and Liz. Chlo, who is studying in Bilbau, Spain for the semester (in the Basque region) came to Paris for the weekend with some friends from her program. Luckily, we were able to spend all Saturday together! In the morning I did some thigns around the foyer and went to the open-air market that is held every Saturday and Wednesday morning right by my foyer. Em got a bunch of veggies and fruits because she wants to start cooking food more often. After we got back, we headed over to the 10th near Chloe's hotel and we had time to peek into a huge church near Gare du Nord. I don't remember the name but it was big and kind of dark and somber. I'm not an art history major, but the architecture and art inside appeared almost medievel. There were fez windows and the entire ceiling was painted--lots of dark wood and ornate gold detailing. It was really cool to be in a church that is completely different from the styles I've seen so far, though the style was not my favorite. I ,uch prefer lots of light and light colors and simple, classical architecture. My new "thing" is wanting to explore churches and cathedrals and there are so many here, there's no excuse not to. There is an incredible one near the Louvre that I think will be my next destination.

I met Chloe at her hotel after! It was so great to see her; seeing Goucher people in a place that is not only NOT Goucher but so different from Goucher is kind of funny. But it was great to be with someone you know from home, especially since she is not on a Goucher program. I took her to the Luxembourg Gardens though it was a cold and semi-rainy day so not too good to sit and really enjoy it. However, there was a significant lack of tourists! We got pasta in a box for lunch and she loved it :) Due to the weather, we naturally thought it best to go shopping. Chloe had been at Le Musée d'Orsay all morning so she didn't want to go to another museum and i didn't really blame her. Luckily, we were able to find her exactly what she needed to buy. And now she can say she went shopping in Paris. We saw the Eiffel Tower lit up at night and it was more special than usual because it was all munticolored. It's the 140th anniversary of the tower this year I think so they've been doing a lot of cool thigns for it. Seeing it glitter is also gorgeous. You can't come to Paris and not see the Eiffel Tower in some way! We finished off the night with dinner in a café and crepes from Bastille, the best in the city. It was a short but sweet visit. :)

Liz arrived Monday morning! I picked her up from the train station after my internship. It's Wednesday now and she leaves tomorrow morning, but it has been wonderful to have her here, too. I play the part of the norodic/frantic hostess that asks every 10 seconds if she is having a good time, and she says, "RELAX, SAM. STOP" haha. She is very self-sufficient and has impressed me by galavanting around the city alone (armed with my wonderful plan de paris), taking the subway by herself...I'm a proud mama. I have to go to my internship and classes every day, but she swears she does't mind and is still able to see the city. I brought her to a mandatory conference on racism and discrimination Monday night which could not have been the most riviting thing (for either of us, to be honest. The woman spoke too fast!). But last night we went to a great couscous place that I'd been to before a couple weeks ago and Liz LOVED the food! I was so happy :) I could eat there once a week, every week. We met Natalia and Emily at a poetry slam after and it was really cool, though we didn't stay too long because it started at 10:30. It didn't matter that I couldn't understand everything that was said; it's more about the performance aspect. It really makes me miss the poetry open mics and slams at Goucher, and I can't wait to get back to them.


Internship has been GREAT. New article online!: http://www.parutions.com/index.php?pid=1&rid=1&srid=121&ida=11572 (Sorry, Will Self, I did not give you a very good review)

More to come, too. I had my evaluation and it went really well, so I am proud of that :)

I officially planned my trips to London/Oxford and Greece...! Maybe one more, too...

Bisous, mes chéries!

Photos!

Quinn and me in front of the Eiffel Tower!
Another Eiffel Tower photo
Beautiful light through stained glass windows in a church
My new friend at the art installation in the Tuileries
Fall has arrived! Luxembourg Garden
Yes, the Eiffel Tower really looks like this. For the first 5 minutes of every hour from 8-midnight, it sparkles.
Proof that I go to the Sorbonne!
Pretty girls dressed up for the ballet

So much to catch up on!

AHH I have not written in so long! I’m sorry, things have been really busy here lately, in the best way, so it’s been a little hard to find the time to sit down and write a good entry. Where do I even start?

Class:

Classes are going pretty well. I don’t really like two of them, and the third one, which I love, is not so much of a real class. I’m learning things in my grammar class that I’ve already studied in middle and high school, so in that sense, I’m not learning anything new. Sure, it’s really good to review and practice because, let’s face it, French is HARD. But I find that my spoken French is improving mostly from what I hear other people say throughout the day, and from what I observe. I think I’m becoming more confident in my speaking, which is good. I think that as long as my French improves, even a little, then this trip will have been worth it. I don’t need it to be the BEST TIME OF MY WHOLE LIFE and it doesn’t need to be life-changing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m having a fantastic time here and I love it, but I’m just realizing the reasons I’m here and what I want to get out of this experience. If I can explore and see more of the world and learn more about how other cultures live and work, then that’s successful. I also do learn a lot about France in general and I think that’s more important than what I can learn from a textbook.

I’m lucky though because our program doesn’t have all that much work compared to others. It feels time-consuming at times but I remember that I have a unique experience to be able to have an internship in Paris and join the workforce in that way. It’s pretty cool.

Internship:

Speaking of internship…things are going great! I’ve been productive lately and even though I had a minor mishap a week ago, things have worked out. I learned the importance of taking notes during an interview because there is always the chance that the voice recorder will not do its job. In fact, the recorder did not work, and in fact, I had NOT taken notes. Ah, what a mess! Crisis averted and I have learned my lesson. It all balanced out by a great success—I have two articles that I’ve written which are currently on the website www.parutions.com! I’m really proud to be able to see the results of my work in the internship; it’s very satisfying. I am officially a published literary reviewer! Haha. I’ll have more interviews coming up in the next week, which is also pretty exciting. I still love the internship and it’s still busy busy busy all the time.

In other world news:

I booked train tickets to London! I’ll be there in a few weekends to hopefully see Ben and Matt in Oxford! I didn’t think I would have a lot of time to explore and travel, which was kind of upsetting, but Mumsy just told me that I have to go to at least 2 other countries while I’m here, so I am taking her advice! I want to plan other trips too, so I welcome all suggestions! Time is going by way too fast so I need to book fast.

A couple of weeks ago Michelle, Natalia, Emily, Melanie and I attempted to go see the ballet Giselle at the Opera. We got all dresses up and it was fun to look nice and have a night out on the town! We thought that if we got there early enough, we could get last-minute tickets. Even though we were there at the time the website said, the line was already so long and we would only be guaranteed seats "sans visibilite" and we didn't want to pay 25 euros to NOT see the ballet. It was unfortunate, so we left (all dressed up and nowhere to go!) and instead went out do dinner and dessert :)

Two Sundays ago Michelle and I went for a walk in Bois de Boulogne, which is a huuuuge forest just to the West of Paris. It is gigantic, and we walked around for a long time, in fact. Though it's Fall, in some places the leaves haven't changed yet so it was a green wonderland for us. We found hidden paths and a Shakespeare Garden and just talked and it was lovely. It was chilly so we finished it off with a trip to Starbucks for a hot drink. I know, Starbucks...sometimes you just need a white mocha you know will be good. Great day!

Quinn’s visit:

Quinn spent 5 days in Paris and it was absolutely wonderful! I’m so glad we were able to see each other, and I was little miss tour-guide and took him all over the city. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower on his last day here. I’d been up it 4 eyars ago but it’s still amazing to see the entire city, and then some, from the top. It makes Paris look really small! The Arc de Triomphe looked tiny, and Montmartre, where we had been the night before, looked smaller (though when we saw the viw of Paris from Sacre Coeur, THAT looked amazing). We went out do dinner and lunch every day, which was a nice treat since I don’t get to usually eat out. I took him to Hotel de Ville and Notre Dame, where we think we saw a funeral outside. It was the first time I’d seen any religious activity outside the cathedral. We also went to the Tuilerie Gardens, where there was actually a pretty neat art installation for La Festivale d’Automne. Silver sculptures of funny/creepy faces that looked like giant eggs surrounded the main fountain, so we went around and took photos. It was cool! We also went to the Luxembourg Garden, though pasta in a box was closed! It was a Sunday, but I still expected it to be open. Oh, well…We saw a lot of sights, and even saw the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of time to see other things, so I think I will go back, maybe this weekend. You really need a solid 3 hours there to be able to walk around and appreciate all of the incredible art there, not just the most famous pieces like the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. We were pretty lucky with the weather too and though it was pretty chilly some days, it didn’t really rain. All in all, it was a wonderful trip and really great to see Quinn. :)

Now it’s back to the grind, but I have a lot of exciting things coming up, and more people to see. I can already tell the time is going to speed by. Until next time, my friends, bisous!

What I learn from famous writers

I’m really excited that I get to interview authors for my internship. I learn a lot from them and even though my personal aspiration to be a writer is, well, no longer existent, it’s so interesting to hear their points of view. I almost feel like I’m in the presence of a celebrity! Tonight I interviewed Will Self, a British author. I asked him if he concerns himelf with what the critics say about his work or what his readers expect from his writing and he just said that he writes for himself. When he sits down to write, he only worries about satisfying an audience of one—he writes the book that he wants to read. And everyone else…well, they’ll like it or they’ll love it, but Self said that if he worried about pleasing others with his writing, it would be not only a waste of time, but impossible to write. Maybe it doesn’t seem that striking, but I loved his honesty.

I interviewed Jay McInerney a couple weeks ago and he also said something interesting. When I mentioned that his writing was often uncomfortable for the reader, he said that writing’s goal, more than anything else, is to make the reader uncomfortable. If it doesn’t, then it isn’t doing its job. Wow! I don’t know, it just sounded so profound and honest to me. It really makes you think—both of the writers’ advice. And on both accounts, I've been able to ask interesting questions that have made Self and McInerney pause and think. I told McInerney his narration had the feeling that his characters were in a confessional. It's very intimate, which McInerney hadn't considered. And I asked Self if the recurrence of Prentice's psoriasis was an intentional physical reminder of the stains of imperialism (want to know more? Read "The Butt"). He had also never thought about it...! I know these guys must have a lot of interviews all the time and the questions often overlap, and I'm sure a lot of mine did, but it was kind of cool to catch them with a different, interesting question. I think each time I do an interview I'll get more and more relaxed and at-ease with it. I really like it!

Sunday, LOVELY Sunday

Lucky you: two posts in one day! :) I couldn't resist.

I just got back from spending a wonderful 3 hours sitting in a cafe. I've wanted, for a long time, to be able to just walk into a cafe with a book, order a drink (hot chocolate, don't get any ideas!) and stay for 2, maybe 3 hours. Dream: fulfilled.

Em and I had a lot of work to do today and we were feeling a little stir-crazy from being in the foyer all day yesterday, so we wanted to get out. It's also really hard to focus on work when everyone is hanging out in the common room. Libraries have free wifi but are all closed on Sundays (like everything else in this city). There is only ONE library in the whole city--La Bibliotheque Nationale--that is open on Sundays, and most are also closed on Mondays. But still not desiring a REAL work space, we opted for a cafe instead. This required a little research to see which cafes in Paris offer the best free wifi. There were several contenders, but we had to eliminate those that were too expensive and those that were too close to our foyer. We need a change of scenery, you know? We found one in the 14th that looked promising so we packed up our bags and took a mostly-familiar metro route there. It's located in the south of Paris, almost at the periphery. I have to say, I quite enjoy the southern periphery of Paris, because of today and because of an event I attended Thursday night at Cité Univérsitaire. I can't really describe it, but it just feels...different. A little more spread out, if that makes sense.

The cafe was DIVINE. We weren't planning on getting food but we were really hungry so we each had salads. Again, salads are not part of my normal diet because they're too expensive and I can't get a good one unless I go to a cafe. GASP it was one of the best salads of my life! I do not exaggerate. The French really know how to put a salad together (hot dogs, not so much). We had dessert after too, also not part of the plan but so worth it. :) It was pretty empty, just a few other people there, also working in computers or writing in notebooks. It was cozy and well-lit but not too bright, and it just had an overall feeling of warmth. If I didn't have so much work to do, I definitely would have loved to write some poetry. The free wifi was also a plus! It got a little more crowded as the hours went on, but we were still the only ones who had eaten a meal--everyone else just drank. Zi-Peng stopped by to work with us too, which was nice!

It was a cloudy, not-too-cold-but-still-Fall-afternoon outside and it was so nice to watch life go by outside from inside the cozy cafe. The music was at times classical and relaxing, and at other times, downright funny-- Joan Osbourne's "What if God was one of us?" Taylor Swift's "Teardrops on my Guitar," and MIKA's "Happy Ending": YES, KATIEBIRD, this is for you; they played it!

We stayed for 3 hours and I got some work done that I needed, which was nice. But really more than that, I just loved being in the cafe for a long time. Next time I will just get a hot chocolate and sit for hours, maybe reading. I will definitely go back to this cafe, even though it's a leeeeettle out of the way from where I live. I just got such a good feeling from it and Emily and I want to be regulars there, maybe every Sunday.! Ah, so wonderful. I wish I could have frozen those 3 hours to make them last a little longer.

I'm really happy to know I found such a place. I'll also make another trip to Cité Univérsitaire, because I really liked that area. It was the closest thing to a college campus I've found, and it was so nice to almost feel like I was at goucher. There were lots of people running and walking around with backpacks and for some reason, that just made me really happy.

Why was I there, you may ask? Well, for my internship, I get invited to press events for recently published books/films. The first part of the evening was a showing of a documentary on the Berlin Wall, especially its fall. It was incredibly moving and striking. I've never seen images of it before, and it really transforms what I've learned in a textbook into a reality. The second part was an art exposition for a photography book on the actual art and graffiti on the wall. I have to write an article for the book, which is why I went. Each building at CitéUnivérsitare is "dedicated" to a different country, like Argentina, for example, and I was in that of Germany. It was just such a great night, last Thursday, and I wanted to share a little with you. :)

Ok, I'm off to get some more things done. Ciao!

Loire Valley photos!

Le Clos Luce, where Leonardo de Vinci lived the last three years of his life ^
Chenenceau, my favorite chateau! ^
A view of a nearby church from Blois ^



Cheverny ^

Here are some photos from last weekend in the Loire River Valley!

Nuit Blanche

Hey everyone! Here’s a weekend-check in about Nuit Blanche.

Yesterday during the day I was pretty lazy and not too exciting, so I just stayed in he foyer all day and did some work. Of course, not nearly as much work as I should’ve, but it’s kind if hard to concentrate in the common room because it’s such a social center and it’s really loud. But since the internet isn’t working in my room, it’s the only place I can go to get wifi. Emily and I went out in the afternoon to do some shopping, which turned out to be a failure (or maybe a success, as I saved some money). No need to bore you with my shopping escapades, though!
For dinner, a group of us went out to Thai food. It was really delicious! And not too far from the foyer, so we just walked. It was really nice to go out with friends and have a nice, long dinner. Emphasis on the long; we left around 7:45 and didn’t get back until 10:30! But eating is really important in France, especially in Paris, and the average meal will take at least 2 hours. Someone told me that an article published 6 months ago said that France was the only country that literally spent more time eating than sleeping. I believe it! It’s something I’ll have to get used to, but I really like that they value the time to sit down, have a long conversation, and eat slowly to really enjoy the food. Everyone in the U.S. is just GO GO GO all the time, we never stop and enjoy each other’s company or a good meal—not even at the same time.

Nuit Blanche: A night, once a year, of art/film/media installations all over the Paris, in 3 main areas: Chatelet/Le Marais, Buttes Chaumont, and Quartier Latin. It’s from 7 pm Saturday night to 7 am Sunday morning! I really wanted to see some of the art that was around Paris. A lot of my friends wanted to go to a nightclub but 1) it’s not really my scene, and 2) why go to a nightclub when you can go any night, and Nuit Blanch is only once a year? After dinner we hung out in one guy’s room for a little and there was some music and dancing, and it was fun to talk with some friends and just hang out. But Emily and I really wanted to see some Nuit Blanch festivities and still cach the last metro home, around 1:30/2. Only two metro lines were running all night, but neither had stops very close to our foyer. We left around 11:30 and went to the Luxembourg Garden first (can’t stay away!). Em, John, and Michelle get to walk through the Garden every day between classes and they saw a curious silver disco ball on Friday afternoon, so we decided to go check it out.

Installation: SO AWESOME. Sure enough, there was a giant glittering, silver disco ball, hanging right in the middle of the Garden from a huge crane. It looked like there was an hour-long wait to get inside, but it also looked like there was no one in the garden, so I’m not sure what that was about. But the line snaked around the outside of the garden and we didn’t want to wait. So we just walked around the outside the garden. The disco ball projected lights onto the clouds that looked like stars, and as it spun, the “stars” danced across the clouds, buildings, and tress. It was absolutely beautiful, how it was all illuminated! I have no idea how the lights could reach the clouds, but it was an incredible feat. I guess you have to really hope for a cloudy ngiht for this to work. We walked around the whole garden and just stared up at the sky. There was also a beautiful photography exhibition along the iron fence around the garden, so we took our time and looked at those, too. It was hard to move around with so many people, but I think it was awesome. We found one really great spot to see the disco ball and it was breathtaking. I don’t really know why people would want to wait on such a long line to get into the garden when the best view is actually a it further away from the installation. I’m really glad we saw it :)

We wanted to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night but the RER stopped running by 1 and we couldn’t find a close bus station where the bus was going where we wanted to go. SO we had to walk kind of far to find another close metro station and just hope it wasn’t closed yet. The place was PACKED. The nice thing about Nuit Blanche is that almost everyone in Paris is out in the streets, having a good time and happy to enjoy the art. But the bad thing is, at least for me, that the streets and sidewalks were crowded and it was hard to move. Emily and I had to hold on to each other so we wouldn’t get separated. I just really don’t like being in big crowds to that extent, and everyone was drunk and loud and it always makes me nervous. We took the first metro line we could find, not knowing where it took us, but we eventually changed lines and luckily caught the last line 6 metro of the night! It was the line we needed and we both slept the whole way home.

I was so exhausted that I just crashed as soon as we got home, around 2:30. I really wanted to see Michelle, Kat, and Natalia tonight, too, but it was really hard to figure out how to meet up since we were all in different parts of Paris and then my phone ran out of minutes. Still, it was a really great night!