We're leaving together, but still it's farewell

Day before the flight. Whew. Still gotta finish packing, cleaning my room, etc.

Yesterday, I finally visited the Eiffel Tower. Spectacular view, even though I only went up to the second story rather than taking the lift to the very top. I also visited the Palais de Tokyo, a contemporary art museum. It was free, which I hadn't expected, but only because they were in between exhibits and the majority of the museum was closed. Sigh.

The end-of-year reception at Reid Hall was quite nice.

Not much more to say right now. I'll probably post more of a wrap-up after I get back.

Paris isn't quite burning...

but a lot of people aren't happy with Sarkozy winning. Today, the students at the Sorbonne voted to stage a strike in protest of Sarkozy's plans for educatio, shutting down classes, the school, and a large part of the Blvd St. Michel. By the time I arrived near the scene (around 9 pm), unaware of what was going on, the street was completely cut off and surrounded by more police vehicles than I've ever seen in one place (including at least one APC), and hundreds of cops (flics) in full riot gear. I'm not sure yet what provoked the massive police presence, but large numbers of the striking students were being arrested, searched, and packed into buses, and I heard what sounded like some kind of crowd-control fire; I took a few photos of the scene, which I can't post right now.

There were, of course, a number of people also observing the scene from a distance. One of them was a sixty-something Russian man who got into a heated discussion with some French students about politics; at one point he claimed that he had no problem with the Putin regime because "I can go everywhere, there is no problem!" Seriously. Russia.

back from a Lynching

I finally saw the David Lynch exhibit at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, which is only a few blocks away from Reid Hall. I have to conclude that the man is completely goddamn insane, but brilliant. For instance, I saw most of an early short film that was about an abused boy who "plants" some weird rock thing on his bed, that grows and eventually becomes a grandmother-like figure, who helps the boy in his attempts to end his parents' abuse. Or something. It's a lot weirder than it sounds; there was some Terry Gilliamesque animation, and a completely random scene of characters crawling around on all fours and barking like dogs. My favorite part of the exhibit was the incredibly disturbing Distorted Nude series. Now, I really need to see some more of his films.

Six days to go

Well, Sarkozy is the next president of France. Can't say I'm terribly surprised. I hope that this doesn't set the tone for France during his presidency:

...several thousand of his opponents gathered about a mile away in the Place de la Bastille and the Place de la Republique, where they threw stones and bottles at police who fought back with tear gas and truncheons.

Four vehicles, including a bus, were set ablaze in Argenteuil, the immigrant district where Sarkozy made his infamous scum remark. There also were reports of scattered violence in Lyon, Nantes, Toulouse and Rennes.

Anyway, I'm leaving in six days. Yup. Gotta clean my room, buy a few souvenirs, visit a few places I haven't seen before, send another package of extra stuff home, and prepare to navigate the wilds of craigslist.

I had the final of my gender course today. Harder than I expected; hopefully I didn't fare too badly.

12 days and counting

I'm finally done with my stage. It wasn't the best experience, overall; the kids were cute, but I really didn't care for my bosses. They were extremely rude, both to me and to many of the children, and they spoke no English and generally seemed to have no clue how to deal with someone like me with less than perfect French skills. Glad that's over with. My workload isn't too bad, either. Unfortunately, now I have to deal with finding housing and employment in NYC this summer, which is not going to be easy.

Saw Spider-Man 3 today. I enjoyed it, mostly. The theater was ridiculously crowded, but then again, today was a holiday. The cinema in question - the biggest megaplex in Paris, I think - had some guy running around in a Spider-Man costume before the movie. Just embarassing.

Tomorrow, I'm going to another one of the political events I've mentioned earlier; I'll be watching the Sego-Sarko debate with a bunch of other people, in an Irish pub near St. Michel. Should be interesting.

Finally, I can add something else to my list of things to do before I leave Paris: Today, I found a cinema that's showing Pink Floyd's The Wall starting tomorrow. Fantastic.

Saturday in the park

Spent most of Saturday at the Parc de la Villette having a picnic with some multinational friends. The weather was gorgeous, the food was good, and the company was quite nice. The park itself is pretty interesting - lots of examples of avant-garde architecture, including several huge museums and a striking Imax theater, the Géode, which is a huge, silver sphere.

Working on a sort of book report for my cinema class, about science fiction cinema. Hard to believe that I have only two weeks left here.

more notes

Slightly anxious about classes resuming tomorrow (I think, anyway - my Gender class has nothing listed for tomorrow in the syllabus, but I'm guessing that that's just an error). Hard to believe that there are only three weeks left until the group flight home.

Today is the first round of France's presidential election. I assume, along with most others here, that Le Pen won't make it to the second round this time. I certainly hope he doesn't.

Question after seeing a screening of The Philadelphia Story the other night at a charming little cinema that specializes in showing old films (there are a number of these in Paris, particularly in the 5e and 6e arrondissements: what's the point of watching a subtitled comedy if you don't know the original language? The subtitles can only capture a portion of the dialogue, and so many of the nuances are lost. I guess this is true for a lot of films, and not just comedies. Of course, watching English-language films with French subtitles has also made me realize how much I'm missing when I see a foreign-language film with English subtitles.

Ben & Jerry's in France - pre-election oddness

So, yesterday was Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day. To promote it here, they did an ad campaign themed around the upcoming presidential campaign here, which included staging fake marches led by someone in a cow costume for "l'autre candidate," the "spokes-cow" Woody, who campaigns "pour une France gourmande," "the struggle against violence in the stables," and "the redistribution of wealth in cream." Though if any ice cream place in Paris could further the first of those goals, I don't think it'd be Ben & Jerry's.

Attended a Dems France political discussion of globalization last night, at an Irish pub near St. Michel.

By the way: Chantal and Stephanie, nice seeing you at the Rome airport.

Various observations from my trip

• Gaudi's architecture is bizarre, but fascinating. I love Parc Guell. Spectacular hilltop view of Barcelona, in addition to the Salamander.
• If you stay in Barcelona, I highly recommend the Centric Point Hostel.
• The Sagrada Familia is a fascinating, if bizarre melange of architectural styles - the older facades depict biblical figures in a realistic, neoclassical style, whereas the newer ones use a stylized, quasi-Cubist style, and the whole thing is topped with Gaudi's organic spires.
• Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller are interesting artists.
• The Roman forum is too easy to get lost in.
• Ostia is a nice break from the mobs of tourists in Rome proper.
• If you're waiting in a long line outside the Vatican museums, do not believe the people selling overpriced guided tours when they tell you that it'll take three hours to get in. (It took Aaron and I around a third of that - fortunately, we didn't listen to them.)
• Il Gelato di San Crispino is, judging from my one trip there, a bit overrated - not good enough to justify the high prices. Instead, I recommend the Old Bridge Gelateria, near the Vatican, which serves generous portions of excellent gelato for much lower prices.
• The Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica are both spectacular, and well worth the wait in line.
  

Photos

Barcelona

Rome

Tues. in Rome

Spent the morning and afternoon at Ostia, a site near Rome with a huge ancient city in ruins. A nice break from the tourist-heavy commotion of Rome proper. We also saw and photographed the remains of the oldest preserved synagogue in the Western world. There isn't much to see there anymore, but Dad should get a kick out of it.

trip update

Short on time; will post more details later, hopefully before I get back.

Barcelona was great. The cathedrals, particularly the Sagrada Familia, are spectacular. I also loved Parc Guell.

Rome is also fantastic, particularly the gelato; gelaterias are almost as ubiquitous as boulangeries in France. Saw the Coliseum, the Trevi Fountain, Trajan's Column, and a lot of the Ancient City today. Whew.

Seders

I finally finished my paper on Monique Wittig. Thank god. She had a few interesting ideas, but it's hard for me to relate to the views of a radical feminist who concludes that "les lesbiennes ne sont pas des femmes." (Lesbians are not women.)

Passover finally arrived, though. First seder: at the home of Rabbi Stephen, who's a friend of my dad's from way back when and was kind enough to invite me. He was the only person there I knew at all (and I only met him for 90 minutes or so about a month back), but everyone was very friendly and I managed to feel at home. Not everyone was French - there was one girl from Macedonia in attendance, and others from Israel and a few other countries.

Second seder: organized by Kehilat Gesher, a Franco-Anglophone bilingual (trilingual, if you count Hebrew) synagogue. It was in a massive room, with well over a hundred people, which, with the limited number of servers, and along with the incredibly long Maggid ("Magguid" according to the somewhat odd-seeming French transliteration), this resulted in a late and slow dinner; the main course didn't even arrive until after 10! More importantly, though, I met some interesting expatriates, along with a couple families who were traveling and just wanted a Seder to go to. It would be quite an experience to live in Paris, but I don't see it happening for me; still, a decent number of Americans I've met seem to have found fairly lucrative careers here.

Photos from the Loire Valley, and Aaron's visit.



Leaving for Barcelona tomorrow, where I'll meet Aaron, and then Rome. Looking forward to it.

Loire and Aaron's visit

Saturday morning, I woke up ridiculously early to get on a train with most of the other VWPP students to the Loire Valley. Our first stop was the Chateau de Blois and the surrounding village. Pictures speak louder than words, as they say... Actually, I'll hold off on the descriptions and just post the pictures of the places we visited. Soon.

Besides the spectacular architecture, the highlight of the trip was a stay in a ridiculously luxurious hotel, the Domaine de la Tortiniere, where we had an elaborate and delicious dinner together. Breakfast wasn't bad, either. Mmm.

The next day, we visited a champignonnerie - a huge underground complex of caves where mushrooms are grown, mostly in bales or bedframes full of dirt. After that, it was the Chateau de Chenonceau. Pictures coming. It would have been more impressive in better weather, though.

Sunday night, Aaron and I met briefly. Nice seeing him again. We didn't do much of anything together until Monday, though. I showed him around Reid Hall, and later, we went for dinner to Le Refuge Des Fondus, which is one of the most memorably bizarre dinner experiences I've ever had; for 16 euros per person, you sit in a small room at one of two communal tables, eat lots of either cheese or beef fondue, and drink wine from a baby bottle. Yes, a baby bottle. Not for all tastes, but quite fun.

Tuesday, we met for gelato at the Pozzetto place I mentioned earlier. Still delicious. There were some people I wanted to introduce Aaron to at Reid Hall, but he didn't feel like taking the time to come back. (Note: the movie shown for my cinema class was Singin' in the Rain, rather than some arty French film. A pleasant surprise.) We met at St. Michel for dinner, where there are dozens of street food vendors. After we browsed some at Shakespeare & Co., I said my goodbyes at Gare du Nord. Apparently, there was a major riot there last night, but somehow I completely missed it. I have a major paper to do this weekend, but after that I have the seders and, of course, vacation to look forward to. Light at the end of the tunnel.

Also, I should mention that I somehow managed to get A-'s on both of the papers I got back recently.

tidbits

This week, I've been to another conversation group. Wednesday night, I attended a meetup of expatriate Obama supporters, which ended in a fascinating discussion of politics with a few other American students and some visiting French twentysomethings. This Sat. and Sun, I'll be spending what sounds like a fun weekend around les Chateaux de la Loire, including a very upper-crusty dinner Saturday night. Sunday night, hopefully I'll meet up with Aaron after getting back.

Various things

In the last week or so, I have:

• finalized my plans for the seders and part of April break. For break, Aaron and I are going to Barcelona, then Rome.
• joined an English-French bilingual conversation group, which is primarily for students. Extremely fun.
• attended cocktails and a screening of An Inconvenient Truth at an expatriate Democrats group. Enjoyable enough, though many of the people there were, well, really, really rich. I kind of expected that, though, considering that the apartment where it was held is right off the Champs-Elysées.

Photos from London

http://flickr.com/photos/30922951@N00/sets/72157594582426477/

le semaine dernier

Monday, I met my parents at Reid Hall. We went out to a famous cafe, La Coupole, with a friend of my dad's (who has, very kindly, invited me to the first night's seder in April), and ordered the profiteroles, which were tasty, if very expensive. After my stage, we were supposed to go out to dinner together at a kosher North African restaurant, but it was apparently out of business - quite odd, since I had called there just a few weeks before. Ended up going to a tasty Indian place instead.

Unfortunately, I didn't have much time on Tuesday to meet with parents, because of my classes. We found a good Middle Eastern place for felafel/shwarma for lunch, and a pasta place for dinner. Apparently, I have some kind of amazing power to cause restaurants to close, since the place I had made reservations at was closed that night.

The rest of the week (Mom and Dad left Wed. morning) was fairly uneventful. The poetry slam last night was indeed as I predicted. Finally, I checked out another gelato place today: Pozzetto. Much closer in quality to the American places I mentioned earlier; maybe I'll go there with Aaron.

Photos tomorrow, I hope.

Wherein I recount...

the rest of my vacation, and a few other things.

Thursday the 1st, I spent a lot of the day at the science museum. Lots of interesting exhibits and scientific historical artifacts, though a few of the newer exhibits tried too hard to be "fun" at the expense of being informative; are kids really likely to learn anything about renewable energy from a bad Dance Dance Revolution clone? I also spent some time wandering around Picadilly Circus. Tacky, but amusing, much like Times Square.

Friday, I woke up early and took a train to Nottingham. After arriving, we had lunch at a vegetarian cafe and went for cocoa at a great place called Chocolate Utopia; after that, we went to the City of Caves, which was interesting, if somewhat tourist-trap-ish; Nottingham has a huge number of caves, and the tour there covered their use as tanneries and WWII bomb shelters. Afterwards, we vistited the Castle (no, it's not medieval) and a museum there. We avoided the Tales of Robin Hood, which apparently is an overpriced, Disneyesque indoor ride.

Saturday: went to synagogue with my parents, which was interesting largely because of the differences from the American services I'm familiar with - for instance, a prayer for the health of the Queen was given. After touring U. of Nottingham's campus (which is really quite nice) with Mom, Dad, and Aaron, and dinner at a Thai/Indonesian place, I went to a Purim party with Aaron. By the time it was over, I could still tell the difference between Mordecai and Haman, however.

Sunday, I had phô with Aaron at a Vietnamese place, and then took my flight back to Paris. It was great seeing him again - hopefully, his visit to Paris in a few weeks works out.

Sadly, I have to leave soon, for a French poetry slam on the outskirts of Paris; it should be fun, though probably mostly incomprehensible. I'll post more soon, probably including photos.

London

After finishing a difficult paper for my Gender in France class (on Madeleine Pelletier), I'm off on break now in London, until Friday, when I'll meet up with Aaron in Nottingham; I'm returning to Paris Sunday evening. I'm really happy to have a chance to relax. The hotel I'm staying at (Ridgemount) is quite nice with excellent service. Today I've visited the Churchill Museum & Cabinet War Rooms (where I met Mom and Dad briefly) and the Tate Modern; I must admit that I found the latter considerably more interesting. Beside the art exhibits, I enjoyed the five-story indoor slide (check out the webcam). Tomorrow: more museuming, probably.

Better late than never

Rouen photos

Misc. happenings

I haven't updated much lately, mainly because not much has happened. I'm still doing my stage at the French school; the language barrier is a problem, and a few of the adolescent girls there are particularly obnoxious (odieuses), but it's rewarding. I also have a lot of work to do - both classwork and the summer job search. I'm really looking forward to my vacation. Currently, I need to work on a short paper about a movie I saw recently, as well as a longer paper, which is an analysis of a reading on feminism.

News, and a few complaints

Rouen is a fascinating city, and the Notre Dame cathedral is spectacular. Things are cheaper there than in Paris - surprise, surprise. The only real problem with the city is that there's too much tacky Joan of Arc tourist-trap stuff, especially around the site where she was burned. I'll post photos... eventually.

I've started some volunteer work; basically, I go to a school for a few hours on Monday and Thursday evenings and help the kids with English homework. It's difficult for me to communicate with them, but when I can help them, it's really gratifying.

Finally, a few complaints about Paris in general. Well, really, they're just minor frustrations, but anyway:

1. Everything that isn't a bar or restaurant is closed on Sunday. There are exceptions, of course, but don't count on getting much in the way of shopping or necessary errands done then.

2. Even during the week, everything except for bars and restaurants closes too early. By the time I get home from classes on Tuesday (which end at 7:30), all the supermarkets and most of the boulangeries are closed. There are exceptions (more than for rule no. 1), but in general, it's like Sunday by 8 PM or so.

3. For a city Paris's size, the Metro shuts down far too early (around 12:30-1 most nights).

4. Why do so few of the ticket machines in Metro stations accept bills? It's particularly annoying, since whether or not the machine accepts my credit card seems to be decided entirely by random chance.

Misc updates

1. Going on a trip to Rouen with other students tomorrow. Should be interesting, though I'll have to get up earlier than I would like.

2. I'm finally moving into my permanent apartment tonight. Hope it works out.

3. I have a tentative schedule for volunteer work, found through Espace Benevolat: Monday and Thursday evenings, I'll be working at the Atelier Educatif, Culturel et Sportif, helping 6-13 year-old kids learn English.

Latest adventures

Classes are going reasonably well - I can understand most of the lectures, though I have some difficulty when I'm asked questions. Also, one of them has a 15-page final paper, which sounds extremely intimidating.

The 10th arrondissement is a nice area - my apartment is between the Opéra and the Canal St-Martin, which have a lot of shops and bars, and within walking distance of two Metro stations (Poissonière and Gare du Nord). I have a decent room, but it's difficult sharing space in the bathroom and kitchen with the couple hosting me; when I move into my permanent housing on Thursday, I'll have more space of my own, and there'll be a couple other American students living in the same apartment (though not from my program).

Places I've visited recently include:

Le Musee de l'Erotisme (link not safe for work) Kind of repetitive; some of the ancient art was interesting, as was an exhibit on the history of Paris brothels, but there are only so many dildos and vaginas one can look at without yawning.

La Basilique du Sacré-Coeur Beautiful building, at the top of a hill featuring possibly the most stunning vista in Paris; I actually saw a man propose to his girlfriend there, and I could hardly imagine a more appropriate place for it. I think she said yes, by the way.

Tea & Tattered Pages - excellent Anglophone used-book store. Bought a few books there, and met some more American students - it seems to have acquired a good reputation.

Photos here.

Addendum to the last post

1. I have no classes before 11h, which means I won't need to get up too early on the day I have that class (Monday/Lundi), even to compensate for the longish train ride from Poissoniere to Vavin.
2. It truly is amazing living in the heart of one of the greatest cities on earth, as opposed to having a more... erm... traditional college experience with more pubs and a silly accent.

My first week in Paris

This past Sunday, we arrived in Paris. We've been staying at the FIAP Jean Monnet, which is adequate, I suppose, though they charge ridiculous fees for things like Internet access and laundry. Tomorrow, I move into my appartment. More on that in a bit. My sort-of diary of what I've done this week, not covering the boring stuff:

Monday the 14th: We took a short cruise down the Seine, during most of which I was barely conscious. Got an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower, but stupidly, I forgot to bring my camera. Well, I'm here for close to four more months...
That night, I and some friends went out to a bar - a little hole-in-the-wall place called Le Crocodile, which serves an amazing variety of cocktails. My mango-flavored drink was a tad expensive, but delicious.
Tuesday the 15th: visited the Université Paris VII campus, where we have the option of taking classes. Quite frankly, it's a Goddamned architectural nightmare. Ugly ugly ugly.
Wednesday the 16th: the Centre Georges Pompidou, an absolutely fantastic modern art museum; they had a brilliant exhibit of art installations inspired by cinema. I need to go back there sometime. I also stopped with some friends at what's reputed to be one of the two best gelato chains in Paris (the other being Berthillon). It was still quite good, but I'm disappointed to report that I can name two gelato places in les Etats-Unis that I found better. Paris, you can do better.
Thursday the 17th: Guided tour of Chinatown; mostly pretty dull, until we visited a gorgeous little salon de thé, L'Empire des Thes, which had delicious tea and macarons - cream-filled sandwich cookies which vaguely resemble American maccaroons but which are far superior. We also briefly stopped at the Bibliotheque nationale (where are the goddamn accents on this thing?) which is almost unimaginably huge; besides four gigantic towers filled with books, it has a large courtyard/garden, a large museum, multiple bookstores, a cinema, and a number of cafes. Another place I need to visit again.

I had a bit of interesting drama regarding my apartment, but it's very attractive and I'm looking forward to living there. There's also a Middlebury student living with Mme Baumann, Dan, who seems pretty nice, though I only saw him briefly. Preparing most of my own dinners will also be an exciting adventure. Finally, last night, I discovered the pleasures of chocolate-flavored vodka, though sadly, the price - 4 euros for a shot - is far less pleasurable.

Because certain parties have demanded it, a few of my photos from Bordeaux:

View from my room


The vineyardCeiling of la Grand Theatre:

Bordeaux: the river at night

Last night in Bordeaux

On our final day in Bordeaux, the group toured the Musee d'Aquitaine. Lots of artifacts from throughout the history of the region, but I can't say I was really in the mood for it; I felt strangely fatigued, despite getting a lot of sleep last night. Classes went reasonably well, for the most part - my presentation on homelessness in France was a bitch. Other activities for this week included a performance of a Mahler symphony and attending a French-language production of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians. I'm still concerned that my French isn't quite up to par with my classmates', but I suppose I'll manage. Hopefully the FIAP stay won't be bad.

By the way, French pastries are delicious.

Well, the European keyboards are less awkward, since I figured out how to switch them to QWERTY mode. Anyway, my classes are going reasonably well, and I'm getting better at conversing in French... I think. I love the ambience in Bordeaux - lots of photo opportunities, and great scenery, though some of the buildings are a bit run-down. I have an oral presentation to give on the subject of a universal right to housing in France (a recent proposal - there was a massive protest in favor of it the other day; hundreds of people are living in shacks at the center of town in order to express solidarity with the homeless.) That'll be fun.

Bordeaux

I got to my host family in Bourdeaux a few hours ago. Right now, I'm struggling zith qn qzkzqrd European keyboard. They're really nice, though I feel like an idiot when I'm trying to converse with them.

well

Testing. Right now, I'm sitting here in the basement, wondering what the fuck I've gotten myself into. Hopefully, this will turn out to be amazing, and I can get over the language barrier. And that I don't panic when I get into Bordeaux after realizing that I've forgotten a dozen things I needed to pack.