The Rest of My Weekend and Les Restes

Well, so much for the touristy bit of my planned weekend with Lauren. Instead, we decided to just go ahead and go with the flow. We didn't actually get moving around Paris until about noon; before that, we took our time eating breakfast and getting ready for the day. Eventually, we made our way to Montmartre--reminiscent of my brief visit there freshman year of college--and somehow seemed to stumble upon the Sacred Heart of Montmartre (i.e., Sacré-Coeur). We made our way through the pilgrim's path within the basilica. About a quarter of the way in, I stopped in the bookshop area and purchased a text which included the order of the Mass, in French. Before even getting to Sacré-Coeur, I was able to purchase a new beret (I still think it was taken out of my suitcase during the baggage check, but I'm not quite sure...), and we tried vin chaud in a little courtyard outside of an adjoining parish. Following our visit to the basilica, we headed further down, just before t he tourist trap area, and after doing a bit of window shopping/shop exploration, had a mid-afternoon lunch at a pizzeria. Since it was cold and I wasn't thinking about the evening weather in terms of dress, we headed back to my room to warm up and fetch a proper jacket. I introduced Lauren to the chocolat chaud that Trevor and I usually end our day with (not the best idea when the day isn't yet over); afterwards, we didn't quite want to move. Even still, though, we found the energy to go back out and walked (and re-walked) the Champs-Elysées. At one point, we stopped in at Sephora. I had been to one in Michigan, and the one there had nothing on this one in Paris; there were so many choices of everything, and that along with the mélange of smells was quite a bit overpowering. After a quick stop at the Disney store (they played the French version of "He Lives in You"; SO great!), we decided to get some dinner which, had been decided a long time ago, ended up being sushi, to celebrate Lauren's 21st birthday. We quickly found the Japanese restaurant that's only a few blocks away from the apartment building. I had salmon sashimi with rice (I think that's what it's called), and a variety of dumplings that reminded me of Filipino cooking. I must admit I rather like Japanese food here. To wrap up the night, we stopped in at the brasserie that's right next door to the apartment building, and toasted one last time to Lauren's b-day.

Today (Sunday), Lauren and I went to Notre Dame for a Gregorian Mass service. I have a bit of trouble following Mass in French; it was quite a bit difficult to follow it in Latin, especially without the guide sheet. After Mass, we came back to the apartment building and after Lauren finished packing, we went downstairs to join Trevor, Christine and Antoine, and eventually the kids, for our weekly lunch. It was relatively shorter, in comparison to our past meals, in large part because Lauren's train would be leaving soon. Comme toujours, Christine made a wonderful lunch. We began with an apératif, this time including quite a bit of Spanish influence. Following that, for our first course, we had salad, along with a flaky crust dish with somewhat of a salmon filling. I don't quite understand what's going on with my fish consumption, but I don't seem to be complaing much about it. For our second course, we had wonderfully-cooked chicken alongside rice. Our third course consisted of some cheese, and homemade bread. We then tackled the dessert which (at first, I got extremely worried at the mere possibility that it was made of mango) Chiristine quickly checked and confirmed it was made of passion fruit.

After lunch, Lauren and I lounged a bit to gather more energy, and then headed for Gare de Lyon, where I dropped her off a few minutes before she had to leave. After our good-bye exchanges, I rushed off to the grocery store to soon find out (again) that they were closed, but not as late as other stores are on a given Sunday. Failed by my attempt to purchase the items on my grocery list, I went back to my room to clean up a bit and began to continue my studying. Thankfully, I have only one class tomorrow and was able to get through the article (i.e., my only assignment for Monday).

Now, I could get ahead in my work... at least, that was the thought that Trevor and I had. We soon realised, however, that our study habits needed to relax for the time being, and thus began eating dinner. If you look it up in the translating dictionary, les restes is the French term for "leftovers," which Trevor and I had this evening. As we went through the night, we eventually (and accidentally) formed a five-course meal, and finished quite a bit of food in the refrigerator. I definitely need more room after tomorrow's shopping extravaganza. Tonight, we had:

*Boiled potatoes with raclette (a cheese which is melted for this dish) and prosciutto
*Leftover cream of mushroom chicken (Trevor had some of the leftover rice, as well)
*Salad with tomatoes
*A hodepodge array of desserts, including a berry-mousse dessert I artistically concocted and focused my attention on for quite some time. Eventually, I'll get photos uploaded so you can see my creations.
*Chocolat chaud with pain au chocolat

Tomorrow, Trevor and I have also decided to finish the rest of our leftovers, that time around including the salmon I cooked last Friday.

Grève? What grève ?

Well, today was grève day in apparently all of France, not just Paris. However, it didn't seem to have affected Trevor and I all that much, perhaps because we happen to live about a minute or two's walk from a station along one of the lines that remained completely functional today. In any event, it seemed that life just simply went on, despite what was apparently supposed to be pretty bad. With that all said, Trevor and I were finally able to get our laundry done by the early afternoon (though I think some of his clothes are still drying...). By mid-afternoon, we decided to check out the grève situation in the Métro, which was not grave (sorry for the pun) at all. On our scavenger's hunt list were a pair of pseudo-formal European shoes, a "murse," a beret, and Euro jeans; 1 out of 4 isn't too bad. When we were in the Centre Georges Pompidou area, we happend to find an MK2 theatre and, after a light snack beforehand, watched Les Trois Singes. All I can say about that experience for the time being is that 1) the seats were extremely comfortable, 2) though amazing, the colours throughout the film weren't the best for holding onto one's attention, and 3) it took me a while to figure it out but by the time the film credits rolled, we had been listening to a movie in Turkish, with French subtitles.

Then, after a quick stop at our local Franprix stores, came back to my room for dinner. This time around, Trevor and I switched roles, as he cooked tonight. To keep things in context, we had been planning on slowly reducing the number of courses, but we dropped quickly to one. However, by the end of the meal, we felt as though we had gone through all six. Before we could even get to dinner, Christine had invited us to join her and Antoine, as well as Christine's brother and his wife, for an apératif. We accepted, and spoke to all of them about a variety of subjects, including the affect of American politics on the French, and the fifth book that Christine's brother published. After our mini-rendez-vous with them, Trevor cooked some really great French toast and I cooked a side dish of bacon. It was quite a simple, yet extremely filling meal. I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store!

Let's Play Catch-Up! (Part III)

To continue with the brief points of the day, our first weekend flew by and was definitely action-packed:

SATURDAY
Only two things were listed on our schedule: a voyage to an assigned part of Paris and a comedy show. My group was assigned Le Marais. It’s a pretty eclectic part of this wonderful city, marked in general terms as the home to gay, Chinese, and Jewish communities. We finished our self-guided tour of the area and, having finished early, we took a break from the cold and found a café in close proximity to the comedy site. En route to the meeting site, we came across two demonstrations in the streets. At the Comédie République, we saw a comédie française about the cross-cultural clash and rent between a French Catholic woman and a French Muslim man. It was completely in French and after a long time walking around Paris in the cold, it was a bit difficult to pay attention or to just even understand the play completely. Afterwards, Trevor and I had our first prepared meal that ended up only being a pseudo-dinner (which consisted of a baguette, some cheese (of which Trevor found emmental to be his new favourite), and red wine), as a result of a rendez-vous with Gerald, Jill, and Sam. With little difficulty, Trevor and I made it to our meeting place with them; Jill spoke with a woman at a jazz club (Chez Papa), who told us to come back later that evening, as they were still serving dinner. Having about 2,5 hours to get through before we could get back to Chez Papa, the five of us were basically lassoed into a restaurant. After eating another croque monsieur, alongside my carafe of water, I ended the dinner with a very rich and dark chocolate mousse. As I ate it, I had to keep pushing myself to finish it and eventually triumphed. It was that chocolate-y. Following dinner, we returned to Chez Papa, with Trevor being extremely giddy, particularly through the first part of our stay there. Gerald, Jill, and Sam got a bottle of rosé, while Trevor and I had a 2005 red of some kind, alongside a cheese plate and baguette. The music was amazing and Trevor and I especially were enthralled by "the guy with the dreads." During the break, our waiter moved us closer to the jazz trio and we ended our stay there perfectly satisfied with the evening. As I type, Trevor is still looking for his perfect jazz trio of stand-up bass, drums, and clarinet.

SUNDAY
I joined Christine and Elisabeth in their walk over to the church for Mass. The church pamphlets list the names of two saints, but I think the chapel we had the service in was devoted to Saint Thérèse of the Infant Jesus. Christine dropped of Elisabeth with the other Sunday school children in another part of the church, and soon joined me. I couldn’t quite understand all of the scripture readings, but was able to get through most of the priest’s homily with little difficulty. I was able to pray the Notre Père with everyone, but soon realised that I haven’t committed the Creed to memory just yet. Afterwards, Trevor and I ate dinner with Antoine, Christine, Elisabeth and Stanislas. Christine told us that she was up until about 3 or 4am preparing our lunch. She made pintade, a cooked guinea fowl in an amazing sauce, as well as a galette de rois. Literally, a galette de rois would be translated as a kings’ cake. On the Epiphany (La Fête des Rois which, this year, was on the 7th of January), a little bean (la fève, usually in the shape of a shepherd) is cooked within the cake. The cooked version is then cut into slices and (usually) the youngest child goes under the table and randomly calls out people’s names to whom a slice of the cake is delivered. Whomever has the fève is crowned king or queen. As Christine made the cake, she said that she put two fèves inside. Stanislas got the first one, while I got the second. Stanislas chose Elisabeth as his queen and, as I couldn’t possibly let Trevor escape from the experience, made him court jester (though, I don’t know if I ever told him that) and said he had to wear a crown, too. At the end of the meal, Elisabeth gave me a drawing for her skiing in the mountains.

Then, I FINALLY got to see my host family from Noisy-le-Roi! Just on time, Marie-Léone and Paul drove up in front of the building; for some reason or another, I didn’t quite seem to recognise them at first, but as soon as I got in the car with them, it was as if I had never really left (one difference being that Paul’s voice has definitely gotten deeper). At the house, I gave them some gifts from the States (Marie-Léone loved the Target bags), and soon found out that Paul received a Mac and basically converted the rest of the family to it. (Errghh…) It’s quite brilliant, though, for the work he does with music. After I pretty much had enough of Paul’s showing off of what his computer can do, we went downstairs and had some wonderful hot chocolate. I took mine with some baguette, just as I had done about two and a half years ago in that very kitchen. Wow, time certainly has flown by! Following this wonderful return to memory lane, Marie-Léone brought me to a few of the host families that hosted students when my seminar class stayed in Noisy-le-Roi. To my pleasant surprise, they all remembered me, especially my faux hawk. For some reason or another, they speak much quicker French there than in Paris; yet, I understood them a bit more easily and was quite able to carry on a conversation with them. Following a couple exchanges (of which Marie-Léone pointed out that telling the same stories, particularly of my time in South Africa, was giving me good practice), we returned back to the house where I had dinner with Marie-Léone, Paul and France (who has also grown up since I last saw her). It was then time to leave and after being reminded and encouraged to come back to visit for a longer period of time, made my way back to Paris. En route to the building, I got a text from Trevor saying that he was at yet another jazz club. I soon made my way to a jazz club called Sunrise Sunside. It was a bit more cramped than Chez Papa, but it definitely felt more like a jazz club. Apparently, Trevor, Jill, and Sam had been there all day, and were back for the jam session. People from the audience joined in and people swapped places every now and again. It was rather hectic but great to see how everyone gelled together once they started playing.

Let's Play Catch-Up! (Part II)

Well, I suppose I'm far enough into the programme to realise that I don't have a lot of time to spend recounting stories that occurred a week ago, as well as keep up with what's going on now. A résultat, I'll simply list some brief snippets of the days leading up to the start of this current week. If something catches your eye, let me know, and I'll explain it in a more in-depth entry!

Supposedly well-rested after an exhaustingly long day, Wednesday rolled around, marked by the following:
1) An introduction to the BU staff: Renée, Odile, Isabelle, Dorothy and Karell
2) The realisation that our classrooms and the BU space in general is pretty much AWESOME!
3) Catered sandwiches tied up with ribbon, with ham, chicken and egg as the variants. Guess which one was barely eaten.
4) A bus ride, after a group photo on the Champ de Mars that superseded a day of orientation formalities, that lasted 2,5 hours! Sans doubte, it was at least a comfortable bus.
5) The purchase of identical cell phones… I still need to make a Facebook group for that.
6) Our first dinner by ourselves in Paris, i.e., not prepared by our host families, brought us to a Mediterranean/Middle Eastern restaurant. Perhaps there’s something wrong with this choice; not only has the choice been made, I tried schwarma for the first time. (Is that proper English?) At least I’m trying new things here, yebo?
7) Nearly a 2,5 hour conversation (en français) with our homestay dad, Antoine.
8) Stanislas joining the guys and proving that he’s one of the big kids, too.

Thursday started off and ended great, especially because:
1) Trevor and I began our day at the boulangerie that’s about a one-minute walk away from our homestay location.
2) The boulangerie, the food and the people are great. Trevor and I have since called it « our boulangerie » and intend on making it one of our staple spots.
3) We felt like Americans eating/drinking our breakfast en route to the classrooms. This is only a great thing because we came up with an even bigger question: How do the French eat their breakfast?
4) Mastered the Métro the night prior and were able to get to school on our own.
5) Le Week End, a bar-ish type place, was the location for my first croque monsieur in France, as well as the site of my first lunch not sponsored by BU in any way.
6) I may be able switch from niveau 1 to niveau 2 for my French courses, which means I could also possibly take the highest-listed course.
7) I got to see Lauren and Emily again (thanks for being so patient with me!).
8) The three of us were able to spend some time at the Arc de Triomphe.
9) I bought my first round of mini-macarons.
10) I completed my second round of groceries, where I saw even more Filipinos, and also had a difficult time (eventually failing) in attempting to explain bread crumbs.
11) I visited Nicolas across the street from Franprix, the supermarché. At Nicolas, I bought to my surprise, amazement and complete joy, a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc that was made in SOUTH AFRICA!!! So that I wouldn’t be a complete backstabber, I also bought a bottle of cabernet sauvignon, made in Bordeaux.
12) Trevor and I had our first meal at the Fondation with some of the other BU students.
13) We found the non-clubbing group, randomly got off at a Métro stop, and walked around Paris, taking pictures of buildings late at night. Eventually, we realised that it was nearly midnight and tried to rush back, until we further realised that, at the rate we were walking, it was still quite a ways away. Nevertheless, we made the trek back, and walked along the Champs-Elysées, one of the few streets that made me think of New York. I remember talking to Trevor after the long bus ride on Wednesday and saying that, if anything, the bus ride made me anxious to see them all in person and not just in a bus. I definitely did not plan on doing the same thing, but on foot.

Friday began to round out our week of orientation in Paris and included:
1) Meeting Julie, my internship placement coordinator who has found me an awesome potential internship.
2) Meeting past BU students and BU Paris interns.
3) Eating again at Le Week End, thinking beforehand that we were actually eating there for the first time.
4) Going to a French open air market under the bridge between Dupleix and La Motte Picquet Grenelle.
3) Watching "Paris, je t’aime" with my classmates and professors at Studio Galande.
4) Eating a wonderful galette (« chicky ») and crêpe (chocolate). At the restaurant, there was a giant American flag that was hung and, at one point, the American national anthem was played.
5) Discovering that mixing Coca-Cola with various beverages can actually make them taste better [at the crêperie].
6) A what-should-have-been-cool-disco-light-bathroom-but-is-actually-kinda-creeper-ish.
7) Finding another non-clubby group and eventually happening upon a piano bar. The music was great, and the pianist and singer (sitting atop the piano cover) had great personalities and characters.
8) Splitting off into smaller groups and finding a rather empty diner/café. We spent some time taking photos in the diner and enjoying our time together.

Let's Play Catch-Up! (Part I)

Well, I suppose the best place to backtrack to is the day of my flight to France. After much anticipation, anxiety, frustration, packing, preparing, and all of that, it was finally time for me to head to the airport, where I faced potential overweight baggage fees, close-calls and so forth. However, I ran into many good bits of luck throughout the whole process (including a direct transport of my luggage to CDG and running quick enough to arrive before boarding even began) and eventually made it on the plane to JFK. The plane was extremely cramped and even though it was fairly chilly, it was very hot on the plane. I arrived in New York about seven hours before the plane to France would depart and, as a result, I had much time to kill on my own. I was able to sift through all of my music, etc. Surprisingly, I didn't really meet any of my classmates (except for one, but even at that time I still wasn't entirely sure what was going on), nor did I meet up with any staff of the programme. Thankfully, I got onto the Air France plane and found a group of students who were indeed going to France on the same programme as me; I sat next to Misha on the plane ride. I don't know what I was really thinking, but I got a mini-bottle of red wine to go with my dinner and combined with the hectic heat inside the plane, let's just say the ride wasn't entirely comfortable. I was able, however, to get some sleep, albeit not too much of it.

And then, it happened... Tuesday morning, at about 08h00, we landed on French territory. We were then picked up by Dorothy, an alumna from BU who completed the Paris Internship Programme (PIP) a few semesters beforehand. The 25 of us who were apparently on the plane at the same time met each other for the first time. Perhaps as a result of the fatigue and shyness, no one barely spoke a word. Instead, we got onto a group bus and were sent to the headquarters of our programme in Paris, i.e., the BU building in Paris. En route to the classroom, I'm fairly certain that many of us fell asleep, as the bus made its way through quite a bit of traffic. Finally, we arrived to the classroom, where we were greeted by Renée (the programme director) and Odile (the academic director). After filling in our initial round of paperwork, we were sent off directly to our homestays.

I soon found out that I would be having what I thought was a roommate, Trevor. We got into a taxi cab and, while talking to the driver about various subjects, including the French take on American politics, I noticed three things. First, Paris has barely changed since I last remembered it; second, my French has not completely disappeared as I had thought; third, as I passed familiarity, I felt Paris beginning to steal a bit of my heart.

We arrived at our house on l'avenue de la Grande Armée and realised that we're in a rather rich area. From the door, one can see the Arc de Triomphe, and a short walk away is the Champs-Elysées. We were greeted by the mother of our host mom and I felt totally at ease in Paris. She reached out to shake my hand and for a moment became completely American and motioned that I only give hugs. As my 'roommate' once described, she's like a grandmother, only 'Frenchified.' I say 'roommate' in loose quotes, as we soon found out that we would be living in not only separate rooms, but also in separate parts of the building. Before we get to that point, however, I must mention that our pseudo-hostgrandmother (as she doesn't live in the apartment), spent a great a deal of time talking to us in French about the Paris map, the métro, our interests, etc., and prepared a wonderful first French meal for lunch. She then took us downstairs and showed us around the immediate area, before finally showing us to our rooms. Trevor's room is across from the kids' room, while my room (known as a 'chambre de bonne') is two floors up (i.e., on the top floor). It's a completely independent room, with its own kitchen and bath. In actuality, if I didn't want to see my host family at all, I would be able to do so (outside of our weekly meal together). However, that certainly won't be the case, as they are a great family to be around.

After a bit of unpacking, Trevor and I, after a bit of trouble in the beggining, met up with girlfriend, Lauren, and Emily (both also from Albion), at La Défense. They were in Noisy-le-Roi/Bailly for the week, until Saturday, before moving to Grenoble for the semester, and were able to come that day to Paris. We walked around for a bit and eventually made our way to a restaurant where we ate and chatted, catching up and beginning to talk about our upcoming semesters. After departing, Trevor and I made our way back to the apartment where we met Christine, our host mom, and the two kids, Elisabeth (6) and Stanislas (3). Antoine, our host dad, was still at work at the time. If you read my previous blog, I believe I mentioned André (2,5), who spoke toddler Afrikaans; Stanislas speaks toddler French. I am such a fan of younger kids who speak languages outside of English. While Christine was preparing dinner, Trevor and I went to our respective rooms to continue the unpacking process and rest for a bit.

Eventually, dinner time rolled around and I went downstairs to meet up with Trevor and Christine. For an apératif, Trevor and I tried pastis for the first time; it smelled heavily like licorice and had a not-so-bad after taste. Soon joined by Antoine, we each had an avocado half that was filled with pasta where the seed would normally be, salad, chicken curry with wild grain rice, a round of cheese, and a homemade tarte aux pommes (apple pie). All of our conversations were and have been in French since the moment we got here, and soon dinner time became bed time. Before going to bed, we presented our homestay gifts (Christine loved the Target bags, just as my host moms in South Africa did). I made the short trek (did you know that's an Afrikaans word?) back to my room and settled in for the night. I was extremely happy with the current situation, and as I shall soon write (after getting a bit of sleep just now), Trevor and I continue to realise how much we each love it here.

I was settled in a bed, as I shall do so now... in Paris.