I apologize for abandoning my blogging career for what feels like forever, but while I haven't been blogging, I've been making sweet vids! Here is my latest one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf5fIlOvSHc
School has been pretty darn awesome. I'm glad I made the oft-mocked choice of not taking any classes at the Sorbonne this semester, because Paris higher education IS ON GREVE. In other words, there's a whole lot of shit going down in Guadeloupe, President Sarko is trying new reforms to get (socialist) France to be more like capitalist America, and people are going CRAZY! For Smith peeps in Paris, that means that the girls at Paris 7 (Denis Diderot university) haven't had any second semester classes, and that the rest of the people at Paris 4 (the Sorbonne) are having classes on and off depending on whether the teachers and/or students happen to be striking on that day. I had some crazy videos and pictures that I took from when the protesters were going down Boulevard du Montparnasse right next to Reid Hall (where Smith classes are). I'll post them soonish. Hopefully.
I've been having trouble feeling a solidarity with my protesting peers. Although I think that Sarkozy is making a hella dick move by trying to capitalize France's system of higher education by putting all of the good teachers in certain schools and not continuing the democratic system of a similar education for all by thereby making students pay more to go to "better" schools, I really don't know how I'd feel marching with these students and teachers who are more or less directly related by the outcome of these reforms. Also, since I'm not feeling the repercussions of the striking and the protesting in any real way, I don't feel very strongly for participating. I'm going to try to educate myself on the whole situation further to see what's going on. For living in a city with so many pertinent issues that affect so many, I feel rather dumb on not knowing what's going on with the current French events.
In any case, although my classes are all within the confines of American universities' take on French education, they are all wonderful so far. I'm taking a theatre class, where I've already seen Hamlet IN GERMAN, IN FRANCE, DUBBED IN FRENCH. It was INCREDIBLE. The players were all wonderful, and the modern adaptation did not glaringly take away from the story in any way.
I have a creative writing class, which is a good outlet for working around the structure of the French language in a more playful way. Liking it a lot, although we have so many vocabulary words to learn.
The volunteer experience class is ever interesting, though it always makes me feel bad for not volunteering at the soup kitchen more often than I do.
My art and architecture class with the Middlebury consortium is GREAT. We go on tons of field trips around Paris to discuss the intricacies of the city's art and architecture. Although the teacher is sort of presumptuous about our knowledge of the French language and tends to undermine us by showing off her grasp of the English language, I love being able to discover/rediscover places in Paris in a new way.
In other news, frisbee is going great. I love the team, and although I still feel kind of uncomfortable speaking up in the group setting, I like that I'm being included as one of the gang now. It sort of happened without my realizing it, and I'm glad that it came without forcing it. I feel like some students, particularly the American ones, think that because they know how to do the double-cheek kiss, they should automatically be integrated into the circle of friends, and it just doesn't work that way. All the same, I'm glad that I have people outside of school.
Like Abby said in her last post, I really want to see the things that I've missed from Paris. I'm going to start by reading up on exactly what's been going on with Sarko's reforms and what's happening in Guadeloupe, with the continued promise that I'm going to read up on French news once a day.
Other things I need to do:
- picnic along the Seine
- go to the top of the Eiffel Tower
- see Sacré-Coeur
- memorize exactly which arrondissements are where
- take the Montmartre train
- actually stop at Bonne Nouvelle on the 8/9 and see what's there
I'll add more and cross things out as I do them. A la prochaine!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Once again...
It's been awhile again since I've posted. Sorry, faithful readers! This week has been finals week, though I really only had one final on Monday, and my last assignment is an essay that I thought was due this Friday, but it's really due next Friday! Whoo! I've already finished my art history final (a 4-hour dissertation. Eep.) and my history final (2-hour dissertation). I just have to do some interviews for my essay, since it's in my class about volunteering in France.
Aside from that, I've been slacking a lot on sending things in the mail, but it'll come! I've also been trying to benefit from the sales, since all of Paris goes on sale during the month of January. It hasn't been easy, since my tastes are sort of particular and my body is also sort of particular, as is my bank account. I haven't made any purchases yet, but I hope to go shopping tomorrow after a friend's birthday lunch.
I thought that since I didn't have much to do this week, I would be so productive. I was so wrong! I've been sleeping more and doing neat things that I wouldn't have done otherwise.
INCLUDING!!! I was interviewed for a radio show this morning!!! My friend Hannah was interviewed by a woman last night after watching Obama's inauguration on TV inside "Breakfast in America", and the interviewer invited her to the radio station this morning. I decided to accompany her there, and they wound up interviewing me, too!
http://studioecoledefrance.com/podcast.php?select=mercredi
(Click on the plus sign next to 10h00-10h30 to listen to our interview! It starts sort of in the middle, so you can drag it there to get more of a gist of our conversation)
SO EXCITING! And then, I've been seeing movies, going to outdoor frisbee practice, meeting new people, celebrating the depart of the old president and welcoming the new, going window shopping, seeing friends, volunteering for the first time at the distribution of meals with my soup kitchen, and other things that have been time well spent.
On that note, I'm going to make a list of things that I have to do soonish!
Tomorrow:
- 10:00 - Buy gift for friend with birthday
- Lunch
- Mail things!
Friday:
- Do interview at LaChorba
- Make soup
- Partytiiime
Other things:
- Buy boots and things
- Read Hamlet for theatre course
- Figure out song and dance routine options for next frisbee tournament
- See Sacré-Coeur
OKAY. I'm going to start reading Hamlet! Whoo!
Aside from that, I've been slacking a lot on sending things in the mail, but it'll come! I've also been trying to benefit from the sales, since all of Paris goes on sale during the month of January. It hasn't been easy, since my tastes are sort of particular and my body is also sort of particular, as is my bank account. I haven't made any purchases yet, but I hope to go shopping tomorrow after a friend's birthday lunch.
I thought that since I didn't have much to do this week, I would be so productive. I was so wrong! I've been sleeping more and doing neat things that I wouldn't have done otherwise.
INCLUDING!!! I was interviewed for a radio show this morning!!! My friend Hannah was interviewed by a woman last night after watching Obama's inauguration on TV inside "Breakfast in America", and the interviewer invited her to the radio station this morning. I decided to accompany her there, and they wound up interviewing me, too!
http://studioecoledefrance.com/podcast.php?select=mercredi
(Click on the plus sign next to 10h00-10h30 to listen to our interview! It starts sort of in the middle, so you can drag it there to get more of a gist of our conversation)
SO EXCITING! And then, I've been seeing movies, going to outdoor frisbee practice, meeting new people, celebrating the depart of the old president and welcoming the new, going window shopping, seeing friends, volunteering for the first time at the distribution of meals with my soup kitchen, and other things that have been time well spent.
On that note, I'm going to make a list of things that I have to do soonish!
Tomorrow:
- Lunch
- Mail things!
Friday:
- Do interview at LaChorba
- Make soup
- Partytiiime
Other things:
- Buy boots and things
- Read Hamlet for theatre course
- Figure out song and dance routine options for next frisbee tournament
- See Sacré-Coeur
OKAY. I'm going to start reading Hamlet! Whoo!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Londupdate!
Here are things that happened in London!
Friday:
- Tried to leave my house literally 2 minutes after sending in my essay that was due
- Got to the train station and realized that I left my passport at home
- Begged the train guy to let me go get it and leave on a later train, which worked
- Got to London, where Yael met me at Platform 9 3/4 (Harry Potter reference!!) in King's Cross station
- Ate dinner with Rosie and Yael in the LSE dorms
- Gave Yael a whole bag of caramel Carambars, which lasted all the way until the end of the weekend
- Made hot cocoa with LSE friends, Mike and Ruchi
- SLEPT until forever in Thanh's empty room
Saturday:
- Breakfast of a chicken burger at Borough Market, and Rosie's first time trying venison meat
- Bought a paint marker for which to give to Julia Nunes to sign my ukulele (quote from the concert - "I have a marker, and I have fists, so I'll either sign your stuff, or we can duke it out.")
I have literally walked away from this post and not updated in and 20 minutes. Bad sign. I think I might just say goodnight with the last remnants I have of the trip:
- Westminster Abbey service at 3:00 p.m., beautiful church from 1100. That's right; that's a year.
- Dinner
- JULIA NUNES CONCERT!!!
- I got there 15 minutes early, and I met this guy Dennis, who was from Southern California originally. He moved to London after only intending on spending 6 weeks in Europe, and he met his wife there. He has 3 kids, one of which came to the concert with him. They're all musical, like he is; he used to be a music wrangler kind of guy, worked his way up to producing or something, is a badass guitar player, and now runs one of/THE biggest film studios in Europe. We bonded and made our way to the front of the stage, where we watched Liam Clayton, 6 Days, and then JULIA NUNES!
- She was adorable. As per us. Also, her older sister was her roadie and did the sound check and everything. Also also, I talked to her before the show started, since Dennis re-introduced himself, since he sent an e-mail saying that he used to be in the record bizzz and he'd love to talk. SO COOL.
- She had lots of banter, which included saying that she didn't like playing "Happy Medium" all that much since it was kind of depressing. When I said "LAME!", she said, "I know, right?!" And then added that she re-discovered a part of her that liked playing it, and it was a really good performance.
- Everyone was SO responsive, and we were all singing along to most of the songs.
After the performance, I went up to her nearly at the end of the line. I told her that she was kind of the one constant from my transition from sophomore year, to summer, to Paris, and that I was very grateful to her for that. We hugged at least twice. I gave her a glass Orangina bottle and Kinder chocolates. She signed my ukulele, but she signed it on the back because I am lame and handed it to her that way. The guy playing music put on Say Anything, and we had a mini-dance party. Then, I made way for the other peeps to go through and say hi to her.
As I figured out my route home, I got everything organized. I went to say one last goodbye to her and one last hug, and I was all happy inside the whole way back to the dorm.
- Got back to the dorm and had more hot cocoa and Carambars
Sunday:
- Walking around FOREVER
- Meeting Sid at Speaker's Corner, which should really be called Shouting Alley. Did you know that you're only allowed to be on Speaker's Corner if you're 6 inches off the ground? Literally, you HAVE to be on a soapbox.
- Saw a Free Hugs guy
- Got McFlurries with Smarties
- Went to the dorm, then Rosie and I went to get fish and chips and Dr. Pepper at FISHCOTEQUE
Monday:
- Went out to eat for lunch at EAT
- Saw the London Transport Museum by myself, which was AWESOME
- Left for Paris
OKAY I'm going to go to sleep. Soon. Also, I'm going to update my list of things to do.
Friday:
- Tried to leave my house literally 2 minutes after sending in my essay that was due
- Got to the train station and realized that I left my passport at home
- Begged the train guy to let me go get it and leave on a later train, which worked
- Got to London, where Yael met me at Platform 9 3/4 (Harry Potter reference!!) in King's Cross station
- Ate dinner with Rosie and Yael in the LSE dorms
- Gave Yael a whole bag of caramel Carambars, which lasted all the way until the end of the weekend
- Made hot cocoa with LSE friends, Mike and Ruchi
- SLEPT until forever in Thanh's empty room
Saturday:
- Breakfast of a chicken burger at Borough Market, and Rosie's first time trying venison meat
- Bought a paint marker for which to give to Julia Nunes to sign my ukulele (quote from the concert - "I have a marker, and I have fists, so I'll either sign your stuff, or we can duke it out.")
I have literally walked away from this post and not updated in and 20 minutes. Bad sign. I think I might just say goodnight with the last remnants I have of the trip:
- Westminster Abbey service at 3:00 p.m., beautiful church from 1100. That's right; that's a year.
- Dinner
- JULIA NUNES CONCERT!!!
- I got there 15 minutes early, and I met this guy Dennis, who was from Southern California originally. He moved to London after only intending on spending 6 weeks in Europe, and he met his wife there. He has 3 kids, one of which came to the concert with him. They're all musical, like he is; he used to be a music wrangler kind of guy, worked his way up to producing or something, is a badass guitar player, and now runs one of/THE biggest film studios in Europe. We bonded and made our way to the front of the stage, where we watched Liam Clayton, 6 Days, and then JULIA NUNES!
- She was adorable. As per us. Also, her older sister was her roadie and did the sound check and everything. Also also, I talked to her before the show started, since Dennis re-introduced himself, since he sent an e-mail saying that he used to be in the record bizzz and he'd love to talk. SO COOL.
- She had lots of banter, which included saying that she didn't like playing "Happy Medium" all that much since it was kind of depressing. When I said "LAME!", she said, "I know, right?!" And then added that she re-discovered a part of her that liked playing it, and it was a really good performance.
- Everyone was SO responsive, and we were all singing along to most of the songs.
After the performance, I went up to her nearly at the end of the line. I told her that she was kind of the one constant from my transition from sophomore year, to summer, to Paris, and that I was very grateful to her for that. We hugged at least twice. I gave her a glass Orangina bottle and Kinder chocolates. She signed my ukulele, but she signed it on the back because I am lame and handed it to her that way. The guy playing music put on Say Anything, and we had a mini-dance party. Then, I made way for the other peeps to go through and say hi to her.
As I figured out my route home, I got everything organized. I went to say one last goodbye to her and one last hug, and I was all happy inside the whole way back to the dorm.
- Got back to the dorm and had more hot cocoa and Carambars
Sunday:
- Walking around FOREVER
- Meeting Sid at Speaker's Corner, which should really be called Shouting Alley. Did you know that you're only allowed to be on Speaker's Corner if you're 6 inches off the ground? Literally, you HAVE to be on a soapbox.
- Saw a Free Hugs guy
- Got McFlurries with Smarties
- Went to the dorm, then Rosie and I went to get fish and chips and Dr. Pepper at FISHCOTEQUE
Monday:
- Went out to eat for lunch at EAT
- Saw the London Transport Museum by myself, which was AWESOME
- Left for Paris
OKAY I'm going to go to sleep. Soon. Also, I'm going to update my list of things to do.
Monday, January 12, 2009
SUCH a good weekend.
I have a lot to say about London, but as it's 2 in the morning, I should probably go to sleep.
For now, have some videos from when I saw Julia Nunes live in concert!
http://www.youtube.com/jamiegirl7188
I promise a real update this week, but for now, here's what's on my agenda for this finals/hell week:
Tuesday:
- Put money on phone
- Write interview questions for my volunteer org
- Write a song about art history and add it to youtube (for studying purposes, bien sur)
- Tune ukulele and bring it to school so I can practice
- Return bag to Amherst girl who needed a place to store it
- Write Chris a letter
- 8:00: Try to go to frisbee practice?
Wednesday:
- Go to LaChorba and ask interview questions/work
- STUDY for art history
- Write about Ary Scheffer to give to art history soutien pooplady
Thursday:
- 8:30: ART HISTORY FINAL
- Meet with MBF for special studies paper
- Return library books
CAN DO. Going to sleep! Bonne nuit!
For now, have some videos from when I saw Julia Nunes live in concert!
http://www.youtube.com/jamiegirl7188
I promise a real update this week, but for now, here's what's on my agenda for this finals/hell week:
Tuesday:
- Put money on phone
- Write a song about art history and add it to youtube (for studying purposes, bien sur)
- Return bag to Amherst girl who needed a place to store it
- Write Chris a letter
- 8:00: Try to go to frisbee practice?
Wednesday:
- Go to LaChorba and ask interview questions/work
- STUDY for art history
Thursday:
- 8:30: ART HISTORY FINAL
- Meet with MBF for special studies paper
- Return library books
CAN DO. Going to sleep! Bonne nuit!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
New video!
This is it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkPov8kobJo
It's an adventure around Paris, with some profanity. Also, I sent it to Julia Nunes, since I'm going to see her in concert in London this weekend! I'll also get to see Rosalie, Yael, and Thanh. So excited! Going to bring my uke. So many jam sessions to be had.
And with that, I'm off to class! Can't wait till this semester's overrrrr.
It's an adventure around Paris, with some profanity. Also, I sent it to Julia Nunes, since I'm going to see her in concert in London this weekend! I'll also get to see Rosalie, Yael, and Thanh. So excited! Going to bring my uke. So many jam sessions to be had.
And with that, I'm off to class! Can't wait till this semester's overrrrr.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009
BONNE ANNEE!
So it's been a crazy time. I got back from America this morning at around 8:30 a.m., Paris time (2:30 a.m. EST), and there were soucis getting from the airport to my apartment. Apparently, there was a bomb scare (I tried looking online for a news story about it, but I came up with nothing and you get this instead). Someone left his or her suitcase in a restaurant in the Charles de Gaulle airport, and they had to call in the bomb squad to take care of it. After a lot of hubbub and panicking, I finally got to a bus to take me back to Paris (luckily it was free with my Navigo pass, since they wouldn't let anyone get to the RER station to catch a metro).
I finally got home, took a MUCHNEEDED shower, and slept for awhile, since I couldn't sleep on the exciting plane night plane ride back to Paris.
It doesn't need to be said that I had an excellent time in America. Highlights:
- Gifts: UKULELE/Guitar Hero/Wall-E/everything about DeniseBee
- Maggie
- Christmas with the crazies, I mean, my family
- Mom and Chuchie's rapport and ability to make each other laugh very hard (but don't ask me how hard)
- My dad fixing everything that I've ever broken
- Seeing my brother turn into a complex, interesting, caring person
- Bolt in 3D (I don't care how shitty a movie is; I will love it in 3D, AND we're hilarious and I love you guys)
- Benjamin Button with Gia
- medium iced caramel lattes from Dunkin Donuts
- strawberry surf rider from Jamba Juice
- a less-stressful Christmas period than previous years, thanks to minimal minimalizing of the outrageous work my family puts into the holiday season
- Christmas cookies
- Going to Cubby's for half of a pulled pork sandwich and birch beer on Christmas Eve
- Ben and Jerry's Fossil Fuel pint
- New Year's with Denise
New Year's Resolution: Stop being a whore.
I tried to find definitions that would be appropriate to my idea of what this means to me, but I can't find them. So just know that I'm going to hunker down, get my shit done, and do the right thing.
And, with that, a to-do list!
This week:
- Finish study sheet for France + Europe test on Monday
- Study
- ACE TEST!!!! DONE.
- Talk to Maddie about benevolat project
- Do research for project
- Read Sylvia Beach's book for methodology essay
- Write methodology essay
- Write conclusion for dossier
- Fill out frisbee polls they don't exist anymore, but that's okay because I couldn't go to any of those tournaments, anyway!
- Go to LaChorba to volunteer making soup Literally cannot, so I'm not going to try. Will do work instead! Yayyyy
- Talk to Rosalie about coming to London this Friday afternoon!
Next week:
- Study like CRAZY for Art History
- Figure out what I'm going to do about missing history class on Monday since I'll still be in London X_X
- Write/e-mail all the people I've been meaning to update
And with that, going off to pretend to work! But more likely to SLEEP.
I finally got home, took a MUCHNEEDED shower, and slept for awhile, since I couldn't sleep on the exciting plane night plane ride back to Paris.
It doesn't need to be said that I had an excellent time in America. Highlights:
- Gifts: UKULELE/Guitar Hero/Wall-E/everything about DeniseBee
- Maggie
- Christmas with the crazies, I mean, my family
- Mom and Chuchie's rapport and ability to make each other laugh very hard (but don't ask me how hard)
- My dad fixing everything that I've ever broken
- Seeing my brother turn into a complex, interesting, caring person
- Bolt in 3D (I don't care how shitty a movie is; I will love it in 3D, AND we're hilarious and I love you guys)
- Benjamin Button with Gia
- medium iced caramel lattes from Dunkin Donuts
- strawberry surf rider from Jamba Juice
- a less-stressful Christmas period than previous years, thanks to minimal minimalizing of the outrageous work my family puts into the holiday season
- Christmas cookies
- Going to Cubby's for half of a pulled pork sandwich and birch beer on Christmas Eve
- Ben and Jerry's Fossil Fuel pint
- New Year's with Denise
New Year's Resolution: Stop being a whore.
I tried to find definitions that would be appropriate to my idea of what this means to me, but I can't find them. So just know that I'm going to hunker down, get my shit done, and do the right thing.
And, with that, a to-do list!
This week:
- Study
- ACE TEST!!!!
- Do research for project
- Read Sylvia Beach's book for methodology essay
- Write methodology essay
- Write conclusion for dossier
- Talk to Rosalie about coming to London this Friday afternoon!
Next week:
- Study like CRAZY for Art History
- Figure out what I'm going to do about missing history class on Monday since I'll still be in London X_X
- Write/e-mail all the people I've been meaning to update
And with that, going off to pretend to work! But more likely to SLEEP.
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