Time for a new post...

..That I have been putting off for too long! I guess being busy is a good thing. It's been a long two weeks.

I have officially had all of my classes (except for the Art ones, so not really) at the Sorbonne! This week my two conferences started, and I had my first week of phonetics. Technically.. I'm still in the middle of it. On Monday along with grammar I had my first "conference," in a lecture hall with about 150 students (rough estimate, but there were a lot!) The class is based completely around French film, and the professor started out introducing the different generations of film (very similar to American, but it seems like they were comedically oriented before we were). The rest of the class period (it's two hours) we watched a movie called Oscar.. a 1960s comedy that made no sense plotwise but was absolutely hilarious. I reccommend it.. even if you need the subtitles!

The second class was on Tuesday- a 2 hour Histoire de l'Art Francais. The professor is great! He wrote out a huge bibliography of great books to use, as well as already typed out the information for each piece we review. In order. He also played a song for us by a famous French singer from the 1800s, who was actually for the inspiration for a number of Toulouse-Lautrec's drawings and a slew of other advertising campaigns! It was cool- cause you see her face everywhere. Her name is Yvette Gilbert. This is one of Toulouse-Lautrec's prints...

Anyway! Enough about classes. NICE! Absolutely an amazing weekend. Not what I expected at all... I was kind of thinking that the idea of Carnaval would make it a huge party all weekend, so it was a little intimidating. Nice is a pretty big club town... but it is absolutely gorgeous! And it didn't turn out to be like that at all. The parade on Saturday night was excellent- there were huge floats with different characters and themes- kind of crazy, like one was a huge woman's head and her mechanical arm was "eating" the head of Sarkozy (haha) and another was a giant dragon skeleton that was breathing smoke. It went on for a few hours, and there were silly string and confetti fights everywhere! What a fun night. 

Of course.. one of the best parts was the run. Right by the crystal clear water, along a promenade that stretches along the entire city's coast. We also stayed outside on Sunday morning, and the 60 degree sunny weather was perfect for sitting on the black pebbles that make up their beach. 

I forgot to mention the food! All Italian style- gelato, lots of pasta and pesto. Yummmmmmm :) 

Anyway, so great week! It was good to spend a weekend with everyone from Central, we really don't see each other together that often, so it was refreshing. 

And honestly- it's just so amazing that most of my daily interactions are in French. I know I keep talking about it, but it's insane! There are definitely still the slip-ups in understanding, but even watching the movie the other day with only French subtitles and sitting through 2 two hour lectures (understanding pretty much all of both) is pretty sweet.

I went on another beautiful run today, through the Tuileries and around the Louvre! I think my goal for Friday afternoon is to go and just meander, since I am sorry to say I have yet to go inside. (On this trip at least)

A bientot!

confession

I totally went to an American diner this morning. It's called- the All American Diner. But, it was AMAZING. I had a bottomless mug of coffee and a real omelet with lots of veggies and homefries. So, so, so necessary this morning. I felt bad going, but first of all, it's apparently one of the best breakfast places around anyway (I looked it up), and there was also a huge line out the door, so it's not like people look down on it. Second of all, I feel like I'm still immersing myself in this place, but everyone has to have their pieces of home, right? And my piece of home is BREAKFAST. I hate not being able to go to the diner or the little restaraunt and order something other than a croissant and jam. Granted, it's good, but you're hungry like an hour later.

So anyway. My guilty pleasure of the day. :)

A quick note...

Just to say what an amazing week I've been having!

I went for one of the best runs of my life yesterday through the Tuileries in front of the Louvre. I cannot believe how beautiful it was, even with no leaves on any of the trees and not a flower in sight! It was just a beautiful park, with kids playing everywhere and people visiting on the benches or reading on the big green lounge chairs. It was the afternoon, so the sky was beginning to turn purple behind the clouds, and the Eiffel Tower (only a few blocks away) was just kind of illuminated in the sky, even without its lights on. I know you're supposed to keep your "guard" on in Paris, and not show emotion or anything on the street, but I don't think I stopped smiling the whole run!

Of course, today I had to take Lauren on a similar run, once again through the Tuileries. We played on the French playground afterwards (SO much cooler than ours. They have these weird circle things that are tilted so you just spin around and around until you feel sick. Excellent.) We also grabbed a coffee in a cafe that Liz and I went to the morning we visited the Louvre a few years ago, and once again, the croissants there were delicious.

And then TONIGHT! The group went to see Madame Butterfly at the Opera Bastille. Man, Puccini knew what he was doing. The orchestra was magnificent- I'm pretty sure I counted about 9 cellos, 6 stand-up bases, 5 French horns, and a trillion and one violins/violas. There weren't too many flutes/clarinets, and (of course) the percussion only had 3 members (but talented ones at that).
My point is, it was beautiful. The opera itself was simplified, with basic black/tan/beige costuming and little movement across the stage, with almost no set. Even said, a glamorous stage wasn't necessary- the music definitely did the talking. There was about a thirty minute instrumental section with just a little boy moving around on stage, and it was beautiful.

There are so many more things to write about..... I went to a Raclette party last night! Raclette is an amazing cheese that you cook in little pizza slice shaped pans on a special heater, and eat it with potatoes or meat. It was at my friend Danielle's boyfriend's house, so naturally there were 10 or 12 French people there. CRAZY! I can't believe I'm actually interacting with people in a different language. I didn't think it would ever be this possible, but I guess when food is in the mixture, anything can happen. Especially when it's raclette.

Oh right, and I started school this week! I actually tested into a class way below my level, so it kind of felt like starting over a beginning French class. I talked to the professor and got to move up a few levels, so in my new class tomorrow hopefully it will be better. They're decent sizes though- I'm pretty sure no one has a class with more than 12-15 people. The other classes I signed up for don't start for a few weeks, so right now it's just Grammar from 8-10 every day. It's great, because then I have the rest of the day to do other things! (Like sit in cafes and eat bread... very important on my to-do list.) Being up that early is also really cool- you get to see all of the students going to class/people going to work without all the tourists around. It's kind of like a secret window into the "real" Parisian world....

Bonne nuit!

Art school!

This is the link to the Art School I'm attending.... so exciting!

http://www.academie-charpentier.fr/spip.php?page=sommaire&lang=en

I had to go talk to the director of the school yesterday.. it was scary but awesome to actually have a meeting in French. Ahh!

Mm... I'm living in Paris.

I cannot believe that it has been a week. I know I keep saying that, but seriously. This was the fastest week ever. It was also incredibly awesome!

The students at the Institut Catholique de Paris started their two week "boot camp" this week- another intensive language thing where they go to class all day and work hard.
I, on the other hand, was in the small group of students who chose to take classes at La Sorbonne this semester, so other than a short but rather difficult placement test we took on Wednesday, we have had the entire week off! It was excellent. I spent a day exploring cafes with my friend Danielle (who is from Drew, and has been here the whole year), and of course had to go to Les Deux Moulins.. the cafe where Amelie worked. :)

Other than that, the week was just exploring the city. We bought metro cards for the month, and they're a huge help- it really does make it easy when you don't have to pay to get anywhere!
Right over the bridge from Notre Dame is la Rue Saint-Michel, which is just a loooong row of bookstores and little shops. It's definitely a really crowded area, but it's so cool because everyone is just kind of in their own world. There are so many people in this city, and with every one comes a different story. Walking down the street, you probably hear 4 different languages within a block.
Of course, we had to try some of the famous Berthillon's ice cream, which is honestly the best ice cream in the world. It's a perfect combination of gelato and ice cream... I don't know how else to describe it.
Wednesday night the group took the Bateaux Mouches- a boat tour around the Seine of the city. It was cold on the deck, but so pretty and quiet. It's nice to get to see everything without the huge crowd sometimes.

Thursday night was excellent. We went to a concert in the 20th arrondissement at a cafe called La Bellevilloise- and it was so unlike any of the cafes we had been in yet! It was definitely a younger crowd, since we were on the outskirts of the city. (The best part were the Olive trees growing up through the center of some of the tables.. you kind of felt like you were outside, except much warmer.) The band was from Algeria, and consisted of a violin (who played with it on his knee!), bass, mandolin, electric/acoustic guitar thing and rhythm. It was so much fun- everyone was up dancing by the end of the night! I can't wait to go back.
I'm sure I missed something I wanted to write about, but it's all happening so fast and there's so much to say, it's too hard to fit it all in! I want to go check out some museums this afternoon- I can't decide on the Louvre first, or the Musee D'Orsay. Tough decisions....

Oh YES! I went for a run the other day, and turned around at the Louvre. No big deal, just fifteen minutes or so from my front door. Incredible!