Une dimanche tres active

Right now I am in a cafe in the Place de La Sorbonne that offers free wireless internet access if you are a customer. So I'm sitting here checking my email and drinking "une verre de vin" (glass of wine)... ah Paris. The wine is a Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc. It's pretty good for being really cheap.

I also ordered a mushroom omelette again.. it's one of my new favorite foods and it's great because the French eat omelettes for lunch and dinner, not breakfast. Of course, I ordered an omelette because I didn't want to have something with more bread (since I feel like I'm eating bread ALL THE TIME) but then I dive into the free bread basket. Oh well, I guess it's the French way. Only in Paris do you see people walking around and single handedly eating an entire baguette. If someone walked on to the Metro in LA or NY biting on a loaf of bread, everyone would think they were crazy, but here it is tres normal!

Today has been full of more new experiences. While most places close on Sundays, we were still able to entertain ourselves all day. In the morning, the whole USC group went on a bus tour of the city. That was a nice way to see all of Paris without being out in the cold. Afterwards a smaller group of us had lunch in St. Germain de Pres at a kind of semi-Caribbean fusion place. It was called the Rhumerie (as in Rum) and it served mostly French-type bistro fare, but with a Caribbean spin. I had a tartine de tomates, which was kind of like toasted bruschetta with cheese. Tres bien.

After lunch we walked from St. Germain de Pres to l'Ile de la Cite, the island on the Seine which is home to Nortre Dame. It wasn't quite as cold today and the sun was out so it was nice to walk around. There's a famous "glacier" (ice cream shop) on l'Ile called Berthillon, and the other girls wanted to get ice cream and even though it was like 35 degrees out I couldn't resist since they were all getting in. It was so delicious. It was very rich like gelato but the scoops are very small so you don't feel as guilty eating it. I had pistachio and chocolate-hazelnut. We all decided that anytime we we're feeling down we would go back to the ice cream shop because it was so fabulous.

Katie, Allison, me and Rose in front of the Notre Dame.

After that we walked across the Seine to the Hotel de Ville, one of the landmark mansions in Paris, and we stumbled across the Chinese New Year Parade. That was very interesting to see. Paris has a pretty large Chinese (and Asian in general) population so there were a lot of people watching the parade. Afterwards we just continue to walk around the city and explore new areas. Even though I feel like I'm eating all the time here, I hope I'm cancelling it out with all the walking we do. Everyone says is Paris you eat better and less, and while that may be true for real parisians, us Americans seem to be eating everything and everything bad, like crepes and ice cream, because it's all new and exciting.

Well tomorrow morning I start classes. I only have my Art History course on Monday, that is until the Sorbonne class starts, so it will be a pretty easy day. I think of Wednesday for Art History we are going to go visit the Louvre, so I'm definitely looking forward to that.

It's hard to believe I've only been in Paris a week! It seems so much longer because I've already done so much. Wow, to think of how many more adventures I'll have in the months to come.

Explorations and Japanese Food

So, I've had a very active weekend exploring more areas of Paris. On Saturday I went to the north side of my "quartier" (neighborhood) to a pretty well-known area called the Passy, which has shopping and lots of cafes and such. Kelsey met me there. I bought a new coat, a long, down one and I must say it was an essential investment. While it's still freezing out, I feel that I can bear it a little more with a better coat. For lunch, we found a really cute Salon du The, which is just another term for a cafe. I had an omelette champignons (mushrooms) and it was so delicious.

After lunch, we decided to go explore Montmartre and visit the Basilique du Sacre Coeur since Kelsey had never seen that area and I hadn't been back since my last (and only previous) Paris trip. Montmartre is a very touristy area but there are still a lot of cute cafes and shops, and it's fun to see where all the artists and writers used to live. We found the building that is supposed to be where Van Gogh once lived. The view from the Butte (hill) Montmartre, where Sacre Coeur rests, is absolutely amazing. You can see all of Paris. It was pretty foggy though so we want to go back on a clearer day.

At the site of Van Gogh's former home.

La Basilique de Sacre Coeur

For dinner, we met up with two other girls from USC in Montparnasse where there is this area with a ton of Japanese restaurants. I was so surprised to see how many Japanese and sushi places there are in Paris! I thought I wouldn't be able to have Japanese food for months so I was eating it so much before I left the States, but no. So last night we went to a Yakitori restaurant and it was so yummy. I had fish yakitori, and I have to say it was kind of comforting to eat Japanese food, made me feel more at home.

After dinner we walked around Montparnasse which is a very hip neighborhood on the Left Bank, next to the Latin Quarter and St. Germain de Pres. We went into a few libraries (bookstores) where I found and bought a Madeleine book in French. It made me very nostalgic. We also went to see the corner on St. Germain with the cafes that used to be popular with Hemingway and other expatriate writers of the 1930s. The cafes are Cafe de Flore and Les Deux Magots. Today they are actually pretty pricey restaurants, probably because they've become so well known.

Grand Magasins and French films

On Friday we had our placement exam for the grammar course at the Sorbonne. The test wasn't too hard. We don't find out which level we were placed in until Feb. 10 and then we don't start the Sorbonne course until Feb. 13, but I do start my three USC courses next week. I'm looking forward to finally beginning school and establishing a daily routine.

It's been unbelievably cold these past few days. On Friday after the test, we couldn't even bear to be outdoors any longer so another girl, Allison, and I went to the Galleries Lafayette, a HUGE "grand magasin" (department store) with everything you could ever imagine. They have over 5 cafes in the store so you could truly never leave... eat and shop, what more can you ask for? Well, I guess there's a lot of better things to do than that in Paris but it's quite appealing on a day when the temperature is below freezing.

After shopping, we met two other USC students at a cinema to see a French film called Les Poupees Russes. It's the sequel to the film L'Auberge Espanol with Audrey Tatou. It was really entertaining. It's a French film without subtitles, so it was a little difficult to understand, but some of the movie was also in English with French subtitles because the main character goes to London, so I could better follow that part! After the movie we just went to a cafe to get a late dinner, and then since we we're all cold and tired we just called it a night.

Galleries Lafayette... le plus grand magasin.

Kelsey and I walking along the Champs-Elysees towards the Arc de Triumph.

Meeting the family

I've survived three days in Paris and while everything here is still a little overwhelming, I think I'm beginning to adjust.

I moved in with my host family last night. I was extremely nervous about meeting them, but it was OK. I live with a Madame and her "fille" (daughter), who is 16 years old. She is very outgoing and talkative, and she knows a little English so she is eager to help me with French words I don't know. The Madame is very hospitable. I have a nice room; it isn't too "petite." They put a television in my room, which I thought was very nice even though it only has 4 channels but watching French programs will help improve my language skills.

I still haven't quite become used to the eating habits here. It is true that meals take longer in France because they have multiple courses and they talk a lot. But the actual consumption of food is very fast. I always feel like I'm eating way too slow, and when everyone else is done I still have food on my plate. And then I feel rude to keep eating when the others are done, but I also feel rude leaving food on my plate. It's a lose-lose situation. I guess I could try eating faster but then I can't enjoy my food. For dinner last night we had a really good white fish, some cooked vegetables and toast with goat cheese. It was very good. And the Madame said she was going to get fish again tonight. I want to tell her she doesn't have to get fish for me every night, but then someone said fish is really cheap here so I don't feel as bad.

It's definitely hard to understand everything they say because they speak so fast. I feel like I'm smiling and saying "oui" a lot, and hoping I'm understand the gist. At dinner I think they got into some big discussion about politics in Turkey and I could not follow at all. I just tried to look interested. It's no lie that they have no problem about talking about politics. This morning over breakfast the Madame was telling me about socialized medicine in France, not sure exactly what about it, but I got that much!

For breakfast I had some toast with apricot-almond jam and some cereal. Apparently the French are starting to eat more and more cereal. It wasn't bad, very much like Special K with berries. Their milk is so much richer (probably I higher fat content) so I could only eat a little. We had instant coffee and it was surprisingly good. Nothing like instant coffee in the States. I was worried about getting my coffee fix here because instead everyone one drinks little espressos and that is too much caffeine in too small a beverage for me. I like more coffee with less punch. We actually saw a Starbucks yesterday by our school and I was thinking I might have to give in if I couldn't find anywhere else that didn't only serve espresso. So I was very happy to have normal coffee at my home.

I have a feeling this blog is going to be highly focused on food, since it seems to be what I keep writing about. So, to continue, for lunch today a bunch of us students went to a cafe near our school. Most people were ordering Croque Monsieurs and I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to find something without ham. They had a Croque Provencal, and I thought maybe that would be vegetarian, so I asked (in French of course) and it was actually just a Croque Monsieur with tomatoes and herbs, but the waiter said I could get in without ham. It was delicious. I was worried about going places and asking for things like a ham and cheese sandwich without the ham, but since he offered I guess it's not too weird.

Je suis arrivee.

Well, I have finally arrived. I honestly can't believe I'm in France. It's so surreal that I haven't really taken it all in. Of course I've only been here less than a day, so I haven't really seen or done much except get acquainted with the area (near la Bastille) where we will be taking most of our classes and where we are staying this weekend before moving in with our families on Sunday. I'm very nervous about meeting my family and just keeping my figures crossed that we'll get along.

We saw the center where we will be taking classes today. That made things feel a bit more real, since it was a reminder that oh yes we are actually here for school. Our actually classes don't start for another week, but we have orientations and intensive language preparation next week. Hopefully that will be useful, since I'm already realizing I need to start practicing my French a lot more. It's hard though when you're with a group of American students, because everyone just seems to fall back on speaking English with each other.

I don't really know anyone in the program too well, just a few people casually from classes. But everyone seems pretty nice and hopefully I'll make some good friends.

Well, that's about it. I'm just trying to absorb the fact that I'm in France and it is going to be my new home for the next four months. Wow.

Paris, je viens!

Dans trois jours, je serai une américaine à Paris comme Carrie Bradshaw...c'est incroyable!