My computer really is on the verge of death. It won't stay on for more tha 45 minutes at a time. As such, you'll just have to keep watching my blog once I get home to see pictures about my last days here. I'll try to get my Rouen update done on the computers here at school before I go, and maybe write about Saturday (I don't have pictures from the day but it was great anyway) soooo yeah. Just letting everyone know.
A package of dynamite planted in a luxury Paris department store was found and removed by the police on Tuesday, rattling the nerves of Parisians at the height of the Christmas shopping season.
It ended up being a few sticks of dynamite tied together with no detonator. It was still a big deal tehre, though, and when I walked past BHV later in the day there were way more police around than usual.
I am getting behind on this thing, and I apologize, but I've been super busy winding down my days. I still have to write about Rouen, but it kind of sucked so I'll deal with that later and instead I'm working out of chronological order. Maybe I'll come back to Rouen, maybe not.
I wish I had pictures to share, but I didn't actually take any yesterday, and I haven't uploaded any since Rouen. So if that's a deal-breaker for you, sorry. My computer is on the brink of death, so I'm not even sure how many more pictures you'll be getting from me in the coming (OMG 6!!!!) days. I'm trying not to temp fate by overwhelming it with uploading pictures (though I do have a few from Rouen).
On Thursday after class I FINALLY made it over to Centre Pompidou. I walk past this building at least twice a day, at least four days a week, and I didn't actually go inside until I was 10 days away from the end of my time in Paris. The place is HUGE. I mean, it's not Louvre-scale, and the whole building isn't solely dedicated to gallery space (there is also a library, restaurants, gift shops, etc etc) but even so, the collection is huge and we bought tickets to the temporary exhibits (one on Futurism and a collection of Jacques Villeglé, who does work with ripped posters). It was exhausting and overwhelming, and by the time we'd worked our way almost through we were thrilled to find a couch in the corner of the Futurism exhibit. Melanie, Lia and I settled in for an hour just chatting and enjoying the break from the museum.
By some weird coincidence, after leaving Pompidou, Lia and I bumped into our other roommate Vicky and her boyfriend Stephane! So we all went out for dinner near the museum to get out of the cold for a bit, before heading back home.
Friday I met up with Melanie again, as well as Cassandra, who we met at Thanksgiving dinner. We were all trying to find some souvenirs and gifts before we head back to the states, so we met near Pigalle and hit up some of the tourist shops before sitting down for a cup of coffee.
After coffee we left Cassandra because Melanie and I were going ICE SKATING! CEA paid for us to go, so why not? I planned on going for like 20 minutes and then leaving to grab dinner, but I had a blast! It was mildly ridiculous in that they were playing Snoop Dogg while we were ice skating. I had forgotten that ice skating on indoor rinks is WAY EASIER than outdoors. Then at 8pm it turned into disco skating and they had the crazy lights and weird techno-y music. Hilarious.
I took pictures, but with the whole computer situation isn't going well. I actually started writing this blog like 3 days ago and yeah... it's not done.
Here is a picture someone else took, don't I just look graceful? I didn't fall though!
Last weekend my program held their Farewell Dinner. It was actually like 2 weeks before the end of the program, but in hindsight I'm glad, since it leaves my last weekend free to do what I want.
We met up at Madeleine church for a group picture beforehand Can you find me? Probably not. Hint: I am behind my friend Sam, who is one of the few males in the program.
Dinner itself was... interesting. I feel bad that I didn't enjoy it, because it was planned by one of my favorite members of the staff at CEA. But really? It was at a Tahitian themed restaurant. They gave us one drink (compared to the bottomless wine I had at my farewell dinner in Maastricht, but I guess that's just CEA policy) and then came the real issue: a performance. Maybe with more wine I could have gotten outside of my own head enough to enjoy it. It was just weird cultural exploitation and I really didn't have a good time. I think if it had been over-the-top FRENCH stereotypes it would have been funny, since we're studying in France, but as it was I didn't like it. It probably didn't help that I was sick and miserable, though.
The food was good, though
A meli-melo of shrimp, fruit and vegetables served in a coconut shell
Beef stir-fry, basically
A warm chocolate cake that we're pretty sure was bought from the grocery store and then heated at the restaurant
An interesting mis of Christmas decorations and tacky "Tahitian" decor
One of the guys in our program getting a "lap dance"
The emcee for the evening sexually harassing my friend Joanne (for those who speak French, he definitely told her to stick out her "pamplemousses")
The girls in our program wearing the "Tahitian" costumes.
Last week my professor Emilie hosted our Gay Paris class in her adorable apartment in the 10th. We had brunch complete with pain au chocolat, croissants, homemade french toast and banana-chocolate-chip pancakes, and soft-boiled eggs, which I had never tried before! Emilie taught us how to eat them, AND when she ran out of egg cups she put them in shot glasses, so now I know that I don't need a fancy egg cup if I want to make soft-boiled eggs myself.
Meggie and I teamed up for beverage duty
Lee and Kiersten were in charge of french toast and pancakes, respectively
And it was (almost) Lee's birthday, so in true lazy-Americans-in-France fashion, we stuck candles into a pain au chocolat. Adorable.
So I know I write about food a lot, but whatevs, it's my blog so I can.
Yet another thing I love about the food here is the lack of weird chemicals and preservatives. I just ate what would be most closely related to a mint-chocolate flavored pudding cup. In the States I'm sure I would probably be unable to identify most of the ingredients in that, and it's my native language.
Even with the packaging being in French, I can identify all of the ingredients: Whole milk, cream, chocolate, lactose/milk proteins, gelatin and mint extract. SWEET.
Prof: "Caitlin [keep in mind the French pronoun my name 'keht-leen'], si tu etait un plat, quel plat est-ce que tu serras?" Moi: Un plat? Prof: Un plat. Moi: Eh... je serrai un hamburger. Prof: Un hamburger? Pourquoi? Moi: Oui, pourquoi pas?
I told my French teacher today that if I could be any food, I would be a hamburger. Why? Why not. I miss America a little more than I let on. Still not ready to leave, though.
Friday was the twin's last day in Paris, so we really made it count.
Too bad I was sick. I was actually supposed to go to the wine expo again on Friday, but that didn't happen. Instead I sent the twins off to check out the Rodin museum and I slept in for a few hours.
I guess it was pretty nice.
Then they called me and we met up near my apartment for lunch. We ate at a restaurant at the corner of my street that I'd heard good things about but hadn't actually been to. The guy there didn't speak any English, and we didn't really know what was good, but we went with what we knew. Hayley and I got steak and Amelia got an omelet. It was awesome to hear Amelia order the "jamon" (as in the soft, Spanish j) instead of the French jambon, she must be practicing for Cuba. It was good, no pictures though (I really slacked on the food pics while they were here!)
Then we wanted to go up to Montmartre to pick up some souvenirs for Amelia's friends, but we were feeling especially lazy so instead of the 10-minute uphill walk, we hopped the metro to Abbesses and took the funicular.
With the souvenirs obtained, we then took the funicular back DOWN (lazy? maybe.) and headed off to achieve my one and only goal for my time in Paris. The Catacombs. Long story short on the Catacombs is that there are a bunch of dead displaced bones from Parisian cemeteries that were dug up. I have wanted to go to the catacombs since my first trip to Paris five years ago, and when we came back last summer it was at the top of my must-see list, but since I was traveling with first time visitors, they were more interested in other things. So this trip, literally the ONLY goal I had on my list was the catacombs.
It was dark and wet and smelled like dirt but it was AWESOME! The pictures are super dark, but obviously flash isn't allowed for taking photos of human bones.
There was a light shining on these, obviously
I may totally go to hell for enjoying this so much, but I tried to be as respectful as possible. I enjoyed it so much that these pictures have their own slideshow.
After the catacombs we headed the the Champs Elysees AGAIN, this time it hit up Laduree one last time. The twins needed to get macarons for their friends back home. I'm sure they probably weren't as good by the time they reached the states, but there are far worse souvenirs than a Laduree macarons.
When we finished up there we hit up one of my old favorites, Palais de Tokyo. Palais de Tokyo also boasts one of the best views of the Eiffel Tower, so you know we took the time for a photo-op
Hayley
Then we went inside. I really loved Palais de Tokyo, the twins were less excited about it than I was. In Mel's defense, she hates modern and contemporary art, and knew right off the bat she wouldn't enjoy this. Hayley liked it, she just wasn't as into it as I am. I took a picture of the Burry Man this time
There was an exhibit dealing with cultural practices of rural English towns. Apparently some small town in England has a Burry Man festival. There is also a (separate, for some reason) penis of the Burry Man, but I didn't get a picture of that. I wasn't even sure if photography was allowed, so I didn't want to push my luck.
The twins final meal in Paris was pizza. Yep, Italian food in France. I do not regret it. There's a restaurant in the Marais that has really good pizza, and Amelia was craving pizza, so that was that. Since it was the last dinner together we even had Cokes AND dessert. Obviously I had tiramisu. We live wildly.
Forgive me for getting so behind, I'm swamped with school work AND getting sick, ugh! ANYWAY, I'll pick up back on Thursday the 27th (my aunt Meg's birthday!)
I had an excursion with my Wine class. Our professor is Irish, and as such was completely indifferent to the American holiday. I had thought that my class was meeting at 2 o'clock, then I thought I would check my syllabus really quick just to double check. My syllabus said 1 o'clock, and by the time I saw that I only had 10 minutes to get ready to leave for the day! So I rushed to get ready and made it to the wine expo right around 1pm, only to find that... no one else was there. It really was 2pm. So I waited around outside the expo until 2, when other classmates started to show up. As soon as my partner got there we went in.
It was NUTS! There were sooo many booths of independent winemakers and my partner and I were supposed to be tasting and interviewing vintners from Bordeaux. It's a rough life, I tell ya. So we tasted a bunch of wine, chatted with some Frenchies, and I bought a pate sandwich. One of the women heard that my partner, Molly, was from Georgia. Apparently her son lives in Georgia and is a real estate agent. Molly left with a business card with his picture on it. It was great. I bought a bottle of wine and the people at that booth took down my home address, "in case we get a distributor in Michigan." It was a lot of fun.
Around 4pm, Melanie and I met up at the front of the expo and we made our way over to the 7th arrondissement, where family friends had invited us to have Thanksgiving dinner!
Dave and Deb have an amaaazing apartment by the Eiffel Tower. They had another girl there, Cassandra, who is an au pair from Oklahoma. It was nice to spend the evening with Americans, even though all of my time here is spent with Americans. And they had TV, so we could put on the football game! Deb made an incredible Thanksgiving dinner and added the perfect French touch-- a cheese course. Just what American Thanksgiving had been missing! She made a really great fig-proscuitto-marscapone starter too, and a soup course that was turnip and pumpikn, mmmmm. After dinner we walked over to the Eiffel Tower to take pictures, since the twins hadn't been to see it up-close yet.
And I totally lucked out, because our hosts were leaving town the next day which meant they sent me home with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie! I had Thanksgiving for like a week! Thanks so much for having us, and happy birthday Deb!
So we filmed this on Friday, but since I'm beaing really slow about getting this updated (and I have a three papers and two presentations this week I don't know how fast it'll all be done) so I figured I might as well put this up.
Wednesday I had planned on skipping Gay Paris, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. The twins also could not bring themselves to come with me, so they went to Musee Carnevalet, and we met up at the Musee Picasso after my class. Yeah, we took myspace pictures at the Picasso museum. Honestly, I think the experience was somewhat wasted on us, as none of us are particularly big fans of Picasso. The museum is like 3 blocks from my school, though, so I'm glad I got to go.
Next I dragged the girls through the Marais. We stopped in a little accessories shop and picked up some gifts (I got new bracelets) and then walked over to rue de Rosiers for falafel.
One of my sisters happened to be wearing a scarf that resembled a keffiyah, and the guy at l'As du Falafel said she should take it off because it's "a family restaurant." Oops. Anyway, I took them to l'As du Falafel and neither of them even tried falafel, they had schwarma. When we left we ran into my friend Alison with her friends AGAIN! Which makes sense, I guess, since we're all tourists in Paris, but it was still funny. Also funny: our lit professor has trouble telling Alison and I apart. Pretty sure it's the wavy brown hair.
We had planned on going to the Centre Pompidou after that, because I still haven't been, but apparently Amelia has an exreme hatred of modern and contemporary art. So we killed that idea, and decided to go to the Jeu de Paume. Pretty sure the Jeu de Paume is my favorite museum in Paris. They had a Lee Milled exhibit. I wasn't familiar with her before, but I really enjoyed the exhibit. After the Jeu de Paume we headed up to Montmartre to meet up with my roommate Lia and her husband Yuriy, who was visiting from California. We had reservations for this fondue restaurant, but I managed to get us lost like twice in the 3 blocks between the metro and the restaurant. My impeccable sense of direction seems to fail me here.
Reservations at le Refuge des Fondues are recommended, but not really worth anything. We stood outside for about 10 minutes until they let people in. This place serves fondue, obviously, but you choose either cheese or meat. No menus. So the waiter came and pointed at each of us asking what we wanted. Hayley said cheese, Amelia said cheese, Lia said cheese, I said cheese, and Yuriy said cheese. Then, after the waiter left, Yuriy asked what we were doing. We explained we asked for cheese fondue rather than meat. Yuriy didn't understand, so he had to flag down the waiter and ask for meat.
Amelia and her kir
Then he brought out the little plate of food to eat with our kirs.
They also serve wine in baby bottles here, with such a wide variety of options as "white" or "red." When the waiter came to take our wine orders, Hayley said white, Amelia said white, Lia said white, I said red, and Yuriy said white. Again, after the waiter left, Yuriy asked what we were doing. Again, explained to him that we were ordering wine. AGAIN, Yuriy said the wrong thing! And so he had to flag down the waiter to ask for red.
After we finished our kirs, they brought our fondue and wine Yuriy's meat Cheeeeeese fondue Wine! In my defense, this picture was taken at the end of the meal Hayley and Amelia with their bottles
By the time we finished eating we had to scrap our original plan of getting profiteroles, because it was getting late and we needed to catch the metro. Very sad.
Amelia put up her pictures, so here are a few from Sunday Amelia was cold. She insists that after spending the last winter in the South she has lost any immunity to the cold that she may have acquired from 18 years of living in Michigan. I was really excited for the ferris wheel.
Monday morning I had to go to my Gay Paris class. I probably could have skipped, but I really didn't want to. Besides, the twins were still jetlagged so it gave them a chance to sleep in. I tried to force them to come with me and be educated, but sleep was more appealing, go figure.
After class I went back to the hotel and met up with the girls and we walked over by Centre Pompidou, a few blocks from our hotel. We grabbed some lunch at a random cafe and then I had to go to my French class. We had a field trip to a little boulangerie in the 19th that makes organic breads an pastries. Their oven is 100 years old! And they don't use yeast, they use fermented grapes and a leavening agent. I do not know how that works, and she explained it in French, so... but then we got free food! We had a pistachio grapefruit tart and a bunch of bread and jam and butter and tea. It was great. Plus I got back my French test and I got an A!
By the time I got back to the hotel it was dark, so we hopped the metro back over to Place de la Concorde, to walk the Champs Elysees. Ferris wheel AT NIGHT! Champs Elysees, looking toward the Arc de Triomphe I tried to take a picture of the twins with the Eiffel Tower. It didn't work.
We walked down past the little white huts that sell stuff, looking for gifts for the twins to take back to their friends, and a ring for Hayley to replace her lost ring from Rome. We didn't find a ring, so we kept on toward the arch. Took a pic looking back toward place de la Concorde On the way back down the Champs Elysees, I told Hayley we had to go to Laduree for macarons. She told me she didn't like coconut, so I explained to her that French macarons aren't like American macaroons. We stopped in and left with a chocolate for Hayley, chocolat amer for me, and vanilla for Amelia. Everyone was pleased, and so we decided that we would have to come back on Friday so the twins could try to take some back to the States for their friends.
Then we went back near our hotel for dinner at Hippopotamus, a French chain. More chains? Yes. But at least this one was French!
Tuesday I had an excursion for my literature class. We went to Jim Haynes' studio. He was reeeeally interesting. He hosts open dinners every Sunday, and all you have to do is call to tell him you're coming and pay like 15-20euro and you get to meet people. It's a very cool concept, and he talked to us about Henry Miller.
While I was off doing that, the twins went to Versailles.
That night the housing director for my program, Ida, had a concert. Her band is called House Special, and they're a cover band. They hand out a "menu" with songs they sing renamed like foods, and people yelled out what they wanted to hear. It was a lot of fun, and she sounded great. We got to meet my friend Alison's friends, who apparently were also at Versailles when the twins were! I guess they were right next to eachother in line, too. Small world.
