CT in SA

I leave for Stellenbosch in 33 days, so the new blog is now up!

If you haven't been checking my Flickr since I last updated, there are more pictures there from the end of my trip. I really wish that I had kept up with this, but once my computer died, my dedication to the blog sort of went with it. I am sorry. But just as a fun aside, I ended up with a terrible flu the day I left Paris and was puking for like 4 hours straight before I hopped on my flight back. So I didn't even get to really enjoy my first-class ticket. Tragic.

ANYWAY, the point of this post was to direct you to the blog for my upcoming trip to South Africa,

CT in SA

RIP PowerBook

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.

Also, the big news here that no one seems to know about:
Explosives Found at Paris Department Store

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.

Coming to an end

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!

Farewell Dinner

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.

If you're interested in seeing more pictures from the night, you can check out the Facebook album

Brunch!

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.