La Sorbonne, Une greve, et Carrot Cake!

So I'm sort of falling asleep at the moment -- but I thought I'd report on just a few things!

The first week of classes continues and I had my first class at Paris III (also known as La Sorbonne) today. I left the house about an hour and a half early just to be on the safe side, and luckily, I have been there before, so I knew how to get there, but beyond that, it was pretty unknown. I started in the main building which happened to be the right one -- and there was a big board of papers with all of the courses for today and what room they were being held in. I found mine pretty easily and went up to the 3rd floor and had a nice 45 minute wake before my class at 12:30.

The building is a bit like a high school -- covered in kind of a mint green color and the whole place smells like a school lunch thanks to the cafeteria on the ground floor. It's not bad by any stretch, it's just kind of amusing. But I will say that the difference between Institut Catholique (a private school) and Paris III (a public school) is quite large....The professor, however, was fantastic. It's a class about the literature during the 16th century -- which was around the time period of the religious wars in France. We got a bit of a background today -- and we start analyzing text tomorrow! It's amazing the difference that one semester can make - I remember the first week of the semester in the fall, and how my head hurt each day and how it was pretty difficult to understand the professors. Today, I could understand everything perfectly (mostly) -- and it was just like any other class!

After my class got out at 2:30, I went to Gilbert Joseph (an enormous book store) to get the book by the poet Ronsard that we needed to read some of for tomorrow. On the way there, I experienced my first real Parisian "greve" (a strike) -- I have absolutely no idea what it was for, but there were tons of people with signs and balloons and noisemakers and the like -- actually it was quite intimidating.

I had a quick lunch when I got back and then headed off to swimming at La Plaine at 6. Practice was pretty uneventful -- I actually did about 6300 meters which felt good. When I got back, Marilu had made this DELICIOUS casserole of eggplant slices, tomatoes, ricotta, and pesto. It was incredible. And then after dinner, her mother wanted to learn how to make carrot cake -- so the three of us made a carrot cake! We used a recipe that my mom had sent me last week -- I think it will be pretty good based off of the anonymous batter and frosting taste tests.....

Ok! It continues to be winter here in Paris which is kind of good news bad news. It would have been nice a month ago but now that tomorrow is FEBRUARY (wait, what??!), we should be on our way to warmer weather!

Here's the picture of the strike I took today - I'm afraid a little picture doesn't do it justice!

A bientot!

Brrrr!

So it's now officially become winter in Paris -- it only took until the end of January! Imagine that. I really shouldn't be complaining -- as I'm writing this, the thermometer on my laptop says Paris is a balmy 32 degrees (Fahrenheit). But I'm afraid that the mild weather that's been here for the past few weeks has really spoiled me, and now it's a bit of a rude awakening. It's kind of funny to see everyone suddenly bundled up with layers upon layers and rushing from one place to the next to stay out of the cold.

I'll consider today as my "real" first day of school -- or class? I left a little early to step my Monoprix to pick up some more notebooks, and then I took the metro to Institut Catholique for my Geographie de l'Union Europeenne class. I stood outside the room with the other 25 or so students for the professor to finally arrive at around 11:15 (for a class that was supposed to start at 11) -- he didn't seem too concerned.

I don't know if I used this analogy before -- but the first day at Institut Catholique (or maybe at any French school?) feels exactly like the scene in Legally Blonde where Elle Woods is at her first class at Harvard Law School (if you are struggling to recall this scene -- take a minute http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZIonnMTLUA). But literally, I sat down and took out my notebook (which, don't worry -- was NOT heartshaped in any sense) and looked around at almost everyone who was taking out a little laptop. The professor frequently mentioned the work that "we" had all done last semester -- a reference to which was utterly moot to me. But it gradually got better -- the professor is really great and I think that the course will be very interesting. I got a little nervous when we were told that each one of us would be doing an expose in front of the class.....me - speaking French - alone - in front of 25 other French students. Yikes. Luckily, I have some time to prepare.

From Catho, I took the metro to Middlebury for my Union Europeenne class -- speaking of great professors -- the two and a half hour class truly goes so quickly and really just seems like story time. She knows so much about the history and the European Union and it's refreshing that she doesn't need to read it from her notes and that she is so enthusiastic about Europe.

I went on a search for a new swim bag after class -- I stopped by the store Decathlon which is an enormous sport store near Madeleine that has literally anything relating to sports you could ever want. There was actually was an aisle dedicated to swimming things (which I was somewhat surprised about) -- and so I found a nice little bag that zipped closed (the main qualification) that was only about 13 euros. I was about to walk away to make my purchase when the woman standing next to me said "You need to find another color because that one's too bright". I kind of looked around a bit confused -- I mean, that was the only color of that bag....she asked me what I was using it for, and I said to hold my swimmings -- I guess she thought that a blue bag was a recipe for disaster and was going to attract every thief in Paris. After a bit of back and forth, I finally said "merci" for her input and quickly walked towards the check-out.

I was the ONLY one at swimming tonight -- which normally would have a been a refreshing change of pace, but I was more in the mood to be swimming with other people. But it was nice to not have to fight with 27392 other people who don't know how to swim in order to swim a full length.

I believe that's about it for today -- apparently, it's supposed to only get colder (yippee) which should make the coming days fun...Today's picture is one that I took last week -- I had slept in until about 11 in the morning and woke up to an interesting odor -- and found this!

With Marilu's mother here -- it's been very interesting to see what's cooking in the kitchen (literally). Like this! Certainly keeps me on my toes.

A bientot!

La compagne!

So I just got back (well, a little while ago) from a wonderful time at my host family's country house. It's an absolutely charming place -- and I can't wait to go back.

We left around 11am yesterday and drove about an hour and a half out to the middle of nowhere -- I had woken up early to swim, and so I basically slept the entire way there. It was pretty chilly and luckily, the sun was shining when we got there! We had stopped at the Carrefour (grocery store) on the way there to get some lunch supplies and such which was torture since I was already starving!

Anyways, we got there and opened up all the shutters and got the radiators going and put the frozen pizzas in the oven -- it was just nice to have a hot meal for lunch! After lunch, we got a nice fire going in the enormous brick fireplace, and I settled down and started to read the book I brought with me. It was great to just relax and have nothing to do!

After a bit of reading, we all headed outside to do some lawn work! My job was to pick up all the branches and sticks that had fallen on the driveway and in the yard and pile them next to house to help with the fire. After about an hour, it started to rain, and so we headed back inside next to the fire (which was fine by me) and I continued with my book.

For dinner, I was introduced to a specialty from Bretagne called "Raclette". There's actually this special contraption thing that is made for heating the cheese in these little pans -- and then you pour the melted cheese over basically whatever you want -- usually it's boiled potatoes and different types of ham, which is what we had. It was interestiing! Probably not my favorite, but it was definitely good to try. For dessert, Marilu made a "Crumble" in which she had cooked apples with brandy and other delicious things and covered it with a butter/sugar/flour mixture...so. good.

After dinner, we spent more time by the fire and I read and then finally turned in for the night. I slept until the glorious hour of 11:30 this morning -- it was wonderful. I made myself a bit of breakfast and then went out for a bit of a walk down the road. It was pretty foggy and so it was difficult to see very far -- but I made some new cow-friends who decided to stare at me as I walked by -- it was actually very unnerving...

Basically, the pictures show the weekend best, so I think it be best to just jump there...truly a wonderful place -- couldn't have asked for a nicer weekend away.

La maison!

FIRE:

New best friend.

Weird trees.

A bientot!

Also -- today marks 5 months since coming to France!! So crazy.

Le printemps, et une journee culturelle?

Well I've had quite the cultural day (in my opinion) -- I checked two things off of my "Paris To Do" list which was very exciting!

The past two days, I've been pretty terrible at waking up at a reasonable hour -- both days I had good intentions to get up early, and both days I turned off my alarm and went back to sleep. Anyways, I spent yesterday making some travel plans for the end of February, and then I went to swimming last night -- not too exciting of a day! But it was nice to have some time to breathe.

Today, I woke up around 10:30 (I'm continually amazed at how late I can sleep here...), and had a quick breakfast. Luckily, the weather was cooperating and there wasn't a cloud in the sky and so I made up my mind to go up the Eiffel Tower. It took all of 5 minutes to walk over, and at first it looked like the line was really long -- but that was only to take the elevator. I opted to take the stairs and so I only had about a 5 minute wait (if that). I took the stairs up to the first floor which was already pretty impressive, and then from there took the stairs up to the second floor. Unfortunately, the top top was closed today because of work they were doing up there, but it costs an extra 10 euros to go all the way up anyways, and so I just decided to go ahead and go today! I can contemplate if I want to go back or not.

The view, even from the 2nd floor, was pretty spectacular. It was fun to be able to walk all the way around and see Paris from all directions. It was also pretty cool to do it after I already have a good sense of the city and so I know what I'm looking at. But now I can check that off my list! I probably won't go back up to the very top -- I'm sure it would be cool, but I think I could a pretty good view from where I was.

I came back home for lunch with Marilu and her mother -- I had a piece of leftover tomato, pesto, and ricotta quiche that we had had for dinner the other night -- it was absolutely delicious. And for dessert I had one of the chocolate chip madeleines that I made yesterday -- also not too bad if I may say so!

I took the metro to Trocadero to meet my friends Harry and Luke who I persuaded to take part in my day of cultural activities. We decided on the Cite de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine -- which for students under 26 is free! (Well, for the permanent collections). I had been once before to see the Hotel Particulier exhibit for my architecture class last semester -- but hadn't been to the other part. It was really interesting -- basically it's just filled with all of these molds/replicas of incredible structures from all over France. It's so cool. Then, there's more modern architecture upstairs -- but it's a really interesting museum. Not to mention there's a fantastic view out of the windows on the Eiffel Tower...

The rest of my afternoon was relatively uneventful -- relaxed a bit, swam but was feeling particularly unmotivated, etc.

Hard to choose pictures from today -- I got so many great ones from my climb up the Eiffel Tower! Here are a few -- they don't quite do it justice though....

Bon weekend a tout le monde et a bientot!

Attendez -- IT'S THE END OF JANUARY?!

So seeing on the calendar that today is the 25th of January kind of made me freak out a bit -- HOW HAS IT ALREADY BEEN A MONTH SINCE CHRISTMAS?! This is crazy.

I FINALLY finished all of my work for the first semester. I had this one last paper to get out of the way, and I dropped it off today at the secretary's office at Institut Catholique -- and ta daa! Finally on to the second semester.

I had my first class of the second semester on Monday -- the History of the European Union -- which is at the Middlebury center near Madeleine. This sounds a bit silly -- but it was odd to have a woman as a professor after last semester when all of my professors were men (well, except for the Mexican one...but that doesn't really count). But she's really wonderful, and clearly she knows a lot about the history of the EU which is what counts! I found out that the other class I was supposed to have tomorrow was cancelled, and so I'll start that one next week along with all the rest.

This morning, I went to the Louvre with a bunch of people from my program. Mme Palmer (the art history professor for the Hamilton program) was nice enough to spend some time with us there, and she gave us quite a bit of background! Unfortunately, we had some issues with the tickets, so we only had about an hour instead of a full hour and a half. Martine stayed after with me and the other Emily, and we went to go take a look at all of the Egyptian antiquities -- of which there are TONS. Definitely requires a trip back to see them all.

After that, I went to Reid Hall to print the paper and took it to Catho. From there, I took the metro up to the library near Porte de Clignancourt which was where I had gotten the book I used for my paper -- not the most convenient location, but the book has been returned! I was on a hunt for some stationery after that -- and Martine suggested that I check out Le Bon Marche near the metro Sevres Babylone. It's this enormous high-end department store -- which will again, requre a trip back -- but everything was beautiful. I made my way to the second floor "paperterie" section which made me feel like I was in HEAVEN. Goodness. Everything was incredible -- and also incredibly expensive. I found some nice embossed note cards with an E on them which were perfect -- and somewhat reasonably priced!

Other than that, things have been relatively quiet -- I've been swimming at La Plaine which is a pool over by Porte de Versailles. It's actually a pretty good facility. It's 25 meters and surrounded by palm trees which is a bit odd. It feels like I'm swimming in the jungle -- but next to the highway? It's an interesting setup.

Alrighty -- it's bedtime for me! Here's a picture of Pastel the other day when we actually got himself underneath a stack of blankets, and then one of the Louvre this morning. Who knew that the Louvre pyramids had their own cleaning thingies.....

A bientot!

Amsterdam!

Sorry for the delay -- but I didn't feel like it was appropriate to write while I was actually in Amsterdam -- especially since I didn't have a way to upload my photos!

I got back yesterday after a wonderful 3 nights in Amsterdam with my friend, Louisa. We had a great time -- filled with TONS of walking, lots of amazing food, and some interesting museums!

We left on Wednesday afternoon and took the train to Amsterdam (via Bruxelles, Antwerp, and Rotterdam). We arrived to some pretty icky weather -- it was raining and windy and chilly, but we made the trek out to find our hostel -- which wasn't just any old building in the city, but it was a houseboat! So we had about a 15 minute walk until we found the dock where the boat was and were greeted by a long-haired hippy-ish guy who, luckily for us, spoke pretty good English.

We deposited our luggage in our "cabin" - which was fairly cozy, but had bunk beds, a sink, a little cabinet, its own porthole, and a lock! There were probably about 15 cabins on the boat and we shared the bathrooms at the end of the hall -- which were actually pretty clean. But it was a heck of a deal at 20 euros per person per night which included quite the breakfast buffet each morning.

From there, at the recommendation of Louisa's parents, we headed off in search of a restaurant called Le Zinc...et Les Autres (http://www.lezinc.nl/) , which was a charming little place right on one of the canals. We sat upstairs and were soon greeted with a small amuse buche of a shrimp mixture in a little breaded patty. Bad description, but it was delicious. We also got a small bowl of warmed mixed nuts and marinated olives for the table which were equally as delicious. Louisa ordered the pumpkin vegetarian entree and I ordered the "Young Beef" which was a tender piece of meat on top of some leafy vegetables and had a little potato cake on the side. Very yummy! For dessert, we split what they called the "Chocolate Caviar" which was this little tin (which the waiter actually opened in front of us...it only took him about 5 minutes) with a layer of chocolate mousse topped with little chocolate crunchy things -- think Dip 'n Dots. On the side was a small scoop of milky ice cream which was a nice balance to the chocolate! We left extremely satisfied -- the food, atmosphere, service, and presentation were all wonderful.

Thursday, we woke up around 8:30 and had breakfast in the main cabin upstairs. We decided to go to the Anne Frank House to meet our cultural activity quota for the day, and so we set off to find it! The weather still wasn't cooperating (and continued to be unpleasant through most of our visit), but we finally found it and paid the whole 9 euros to go in. It was an incredibly interesting and moving museum -- and it was laid out very well. It was amazing to see the house where the Frank family actually hid for 2 years, and to learn all the history around it as well. It's hard to even imagine being that type of situation, though. Very difficult indeed.

From there, we headed off in search of a cafe called Winkel (again, courtesy of Louisa's parents) -- http://www.winkel43.nl/ -- which we were told had the best apple pie in Amsterdam -- so of course, we had to check it out. We each ordered a piece of the apple pie and some hot chocolate (which was actually just warmed chocolate milk, but oh well). The pie was soooo good. It was a bit different than the "traditional" apple pie in that it had a full layer of crust on the top, and overall, it was much more cake-like than what we would think of a pie being. But nevertheless, it was delicious.

After Winkel, we wandered around for a bit and then we split up for a bit and I got in a quick swim while Louisa headed back to the boat. It was interesting to see the Dutch and how they interact with pools -- it only reaffirmed that the French are ridiculous when it comes to all of the rules they impose at les piscines.

For dinner, we chose a vegetarian restaurant called De Bolhoed (again, thanks Mr. & Mrs. Savage!) -- http://www.vegguide.org/entry/1036. Although, I'm not a vegetarian, I was interested to see what a Dutch vegetarian meal would entail. It didn't disappoint. Louisa ordered the vegan platter which came with about 7 different things on it. I had the casserole which was a dish filled with tons of vegetables mixed in a tomato-like sauce and then baked with cheese on top and came topped with a mound of basil. There was also a nice side salad and the grain of the day which was  couscous of some kind. All of it was absolutely incredible. So so good.

Let's see -- Friday we headed down south to the Van Gogh museum which, in my opinion, lived up to expectations. Despite it costing a whopping 14 euros per person (with no student discount), the museum was very cool and the lay out was really interesting. It really gives you the opportunity to follow Van Gogh's career as a painter and watch how his style evolves through the decade (or not even) that he was an artist.

With the yucky weather, we weren't inclined to keep wandering around outside, but we had heard about fresh made stroopwafel at the Albert Cuyp Market which wasn't too far, so we went! It was quite the market with everything from candy to dish soap to clothing. It definitely gives the one that's close to chez moi a run for its money! But we did find the lone fresh stroopwafel maker and each ordered one. Stroopwafel is two very thin pieces of waffle that have melted caramel in the middle. And I got mine with chocolate on it. Yum. Yum. Yum.

We then went off in search of real food (what a novel idea) and found a wonderful little place called Letting Cafe (http://www.letting.nl/) which had great soups and homemade bread which was exactly what we had been looking for. I had the potato and leek soup while Louisa had the sweet potato (I think -- or was it pumpkin? I can only remember it being very orange and having cilantro!). And for dessert, we each got a cookie that was called a "Lady Kiss" which was these two thick almond cookies with a chocolate filling. Again -- yum on all accounts.

That afternoon we walked around some more -- Louisa wanted to stop back by this particular shop, I wanted to go to the Starbucks to get my souvenir mugs, and then we went by this incredible fine food grocery store (think Whole Foods but BETTER) and got some fixings for a picnic dinner back at the boat. We got some fresh bread, cheese, pears, cherry tomatoes, etc. I'm not able to remember the name of this grocery store at this moment, but I'm hoping it will come back to me! It was right by Rembrandt Square.

We made our way back to the boat (we had had quite the tour in trying to find this grocery store which we had found the day earlier) and decided to watch the movie Crazy, Stupid Love (which is one of my new favorites -- I highly recommend it), and had our picnic dinner which was delightful after a day of chilly and rainy weather!

Yesterday morning, before we left, we met up with one of Louisa's friends, Gloria, at a cafe called Screaming Beans (http://www.screamingbeans.nl/) which is where Gloria works a few days a week. It was a great little place -- great mocha, and we also got sandwiches to go -- a wonderful goat cheese, walnut and honey on this crunchy multigrain roll. Absolutely delicious!

The train ride back was mostly uneventful minus the fact that there was a 1 hour delay due to an accident somewhere on the tracks! So it ended up being almost 4.5 hours instead of just under 3.5. Oh well!

Alrighty - bedtime for me! We had a really great trip though -- we both loved the architecture and the style of houses in the city -- and yes, we did take a stroll through the Red Light District and saw stores like the "Condomerie"...but that's an entirely other story...

Hard to pick pictures for this -- but here are a few!

Apple Pie at Winkel:

The Amicitia -- our hostel houseboat (or houseboat hostel?):

A deee-lish veggie dinner:

I definitely recommend Amsterdam as a place to visit -- just a very cool vibe and feel to the whole place. Much smaller than Paris which was also a nice change of pace. Just make sure that if you go into a "Coffee Shop" -- that it actually sells coffee! Because lots of them don't....

A bientot!

Quelques nouveaux etudiants, la natation disorganisee, et je ne sais pas?

I feel like I always need three things to put in the title -- but I couldn't think of another one, hence the "Je ne sais pas."

I started my day off with a trip to the airport! Because who doesn't love that, right? I actually did have a reason -- I was one of two students meeting the new second semester students when they arrived at CDG at 10:30 this morning. I took the RER B which was packed when I got on, but essentially cleared out once we got passed the Paris border. I made my way to the 2A terminal which was where their flight was due to arrive and waited for a while for Noah (the other student) and Madame Stevens to arrive. Finally, at about 10:50, the new students came out of the arrivals' door with all of the their luggage, and we trekked outside to the vans that were waiting to take them to their Parisian homes.

I rode with two girls from Hamilton and a guy from Amherst -- all were great! It was a weird feeling though to be the "experienced" one of the bunch, and explaining different things to them. In comparison, of course it seems like I've been here a long time, but in reality -- it still feels like I got here last month. I can't believe that it's past the middle of January! Slow down, time!! Stop going to quickly! But I really enjoyed accompanying them as they got dropped off -- and it definitely made me relive, somewhat, the day that I was dropped off at where I now call home. Very odd feeling indeed.

I spent the rest of the day trying to continue my work on this paper that I have very little motivatioin to do. But the sooner I get it done, the sooner it will be over, right? Easier said than done. Much easier said than done.

The swimming schedule has been totally thrown off for the next two weeks while they get rid of the bacteria they found in the showers. Tonight, I swam in the 33m pool at Montparnasse with the masters' team. It was nice to not have to fight my way through the general public, but I always get thrown off with the bizarre length. Instead of 12x50, we do 12x66....it's very weird.

I'm trying to get this paper out of the way so that I can get back to taking advantage of things in this wonderful city. I still have my list but I think I need to post it on my wall so that I look at it everyday and remind myself to get my rear in gear and get out and do things!

Today's photo goes back to one of my repeted subjects: the beloved Pastel. I apologize for those who find him a very boring photo subject, but I do think he's adorable -- as bizarre as he is...he's still frequently on the couch in my room when I get home (especially when there are strange people around the house) -- and whenever I leave an article of clothing on the couch, he makes sure to warm it up and leave me a little fur....he's ever so thoughtful.

So today, he found my jeans rather comfortable:

It's kind of hard to NOT love that face....

A bientot!