Quirks of Paris: Odds & Ends

My tendency to get bored quickly is a trait I recognize in myself, and while I used to consider it a negative, I don't see it quite the same way anymore. Not that there's anything wrong with routine or comfortable surroundings, but I prefer having my curiosity piqued and knowing there are still places unexplored, waiting for me to find them. This quality means that I sometimes find myself in situations where I feel confused, unsure, or like I plain don't belong, but I also think it's the reason I'm where I am right now, i.e. sitting at the desk in my apartment in Paris eating an omelet I just made.

For example, I felt utterly confused when I tried to purchase some bananas and apples earlier today. I know what you're thinking: this girl got into NYU, and she can't even figure out how to buy some fruit? ...that's exactly what I thought when I strode up to the cashier, clutching my bananas with confidence, only to have her stare at me blankly then point to the scale behind me.

"What??? No, I waited in line for 15 minutes for these 3 stupid bananas and 4 stinking apples, and I'm going to pay for them right here and right now," said the indignant American inside me.

But my foreign frustration was no match for the French system, so I sheepishly sidled over to the scale. We stared at each other. A woman behind me sighed and tapped her black pointed-toe pump. I stepped aside and let her show me how it was done. I watched, mesmerized, as she flipped through a book with various items and their corresponding codes. Her fingers typed in the combination for carrots with the swiftness of a professional market-shopper. And then, voila! A machine next to the scale spit out a receipt like magic, telling her exactly how much she would owe the cashier.

Five minutes later, I strutted out of the store with my apples and bananas, mentally thanking my impatient, silent teacher and feeling very pleased with myself.

It's hard to sum up how different, challenging, and rewarding it has already been living here for not even a month, but hopefully comparing my bumbling episode with your own smoothly executed grocery trips can help give an idea.

The feelings I described at the beginning of this post all seemed to have rather negative connotations, and that's not the atmosphere I want to convey at all. There are so many books and movies about being an "American in Paris" for a reason; it's difficult, yes, but it's AWESOME! There are so many things that absolutely tickle me as I walk down the street, and I can't imagine myself ever getting bored of them, despite my previously described chronic restlessness.

There are so many things here that I would just never see at home. Like a woman in a little black dress and stilettos sneaking bites of a giant baguette on the metro. Or old men playing bocce in a tiny park as I walk to school. Or a businessman father and his elementary school-aged son using scooters as a legitimate method of transportation; the former holding a briefcase, the latter a backpack (And when I say scooters, I don't mean the motorized kind or tiny mopeds. I'm talking old school Razor scooters).

It's hard to put it into words, but people here seem to live so differently. As in, they just live. They aren't worrying about what time they have to wake up tomorrow, or what they should have for dinner tonight, or how they haven't been to the gym in weeks (or more likely, ever), or how ridiculous they look riding their Razor scooter in a suit. It's very refreshing, and I think I like it :)

One of the things that has taken some getting used to is the whole coffee situation. The French don't drink coffee; they drink espresso. So even if you order "un café," you will inevitably receive an elf-sized cup of quadruple-strong coffee. Café au lait does not exist, and café créme is a false godsend. It is NOT coffee with cream. It is espresso with milk, and it still comes in the cup for people with baby hands.

The one on the left is stingy by our standards, so the one on the right (mine) is basically the restaurant saying "Here, you can try a sip of mine if you want."

I can't complain too much, though, because in our residence hall we can get "coffees" like the one on the left for 40 cents.

Speaking of the residence, living on my own has definitely been a learning curve. At home, if I turned off my alarm and fell back asleep, and it got to be around 7 am, which was when I typically emerged from my cave, my wonderful father would knock on my door and wake me up. By the way...thanks, dad! Here? When that alarm goes off I better get my sorry butt out of bed or else I'm missing class and losing two percentage points. Yikes. 

Thankfully, the responsibility aspect of living on my own hasn't been an issue as of yet, and I love the freedom to plan out my day according to my own schedule, and heck, if I want to change it at the last minute I can! Autonomy at its finest. And if I'm ever feeling lonely, my friends are only an elevator ride away, or in Jaci's case, about 1 1/2 steps across the hall. 

Our residence hall houses students from universities all over Paris, not just NYU, so the inhabitants are a pretty eclectic mix. I've already shared pictures showing the courtyard my room overlooks. I love to keep my windows open, so this gives me the blessing and the curse of hearing all the goings-on of my neighbors. Whoever lives to my left seems to have a pretty tumultuous relationship; lots of angry French being spoken/yelled over there between a male and female. Across the way, someone has phenomenal music taste, ranging from the Beatles to Mariachi bands to Dean Martin to songs off the soundtrack of a John Hughes movie. Even though the last few days have been a bit chilly, I've kept my window open in order to enjoy his DJ selections. 

Also, some yet-to-be-identified delinquent seems to get a perverse joy out of setting off the fire alarm at obscene hours of the night, but I won't even get into that right now.

In addition to various humans, we also have a resident cat here at Rue Oberkampf. I'm not sure if this kitty is a boy or a girl, but if you ask me, his name is Otis.

Back to the charms of Paris in general, there are dogs everywhere. In bookstores and cafés, on the metro and in designer boutiques. They're more or less permitted anywhere humans are, and they probably eat just as well as we do and sleep in beds just as comfy as we do. These are some pampered pooches. So, without further ado, here is the latest installment of les chiens de Paris.

Photo credits to my brother Daniel

Okay, so she isn't from Paris, but her name is Brie, and I miss her a lot, so I think that's close enough.

What's in store for the future: a weekend trip to the south of France on Friday/Saturday! Stay tuned :)

So much to do, so little time!

I promise I haven't been neglecting my studies as much as I've slacked off on keeping you guys updated! In fact, that's one of the reasons WHY I haven't filled you in for awhile.

Three of my four professors have told us they're treating us no differently than the students in the graduate courses they teach. Now evidently I've never taken a graduate course, so I have nothing to compare this to, but I don't doubt them for a second. Each night involves about three hours of reading, and they pretty much tossed us right into the deep end with writing papers. They told us they knew we could handle it, and what do you know...so far they're right!

Despite the heavy workload, I'm loving it. The school week flies by, though I guess it doesn't hurt that we only have four days of classes :) When I got the required books for my classes (Virgil, Euripides, Homer, Shakespeare...) the thought of reading some of them made we think I would rather drop them over my head. How naive I was.

I won't deny that The Epic of Gilgamesh can be a bit daunting, and at first I questioned if the people in charge of translating it from the ancient Akkadian language had even spoken English, but after hearing a professor with a wealth of knowledge about the people, events, and historical background, I wanted to go back and reread it. It's amazing how the same text can go from meaningless to inspiring in a 90 minute class when you have the right person explaining its complex beauty to you.

Enough about that boring school place. Time to get to the good stuff. But first, here's the view from our 8th floor student lounge, my favorite place for quiet reading, studying, or nap time between classes!

The Sorbonne is hiding in the upper-right corner.

Bonjour, Notre Dame!

It hasn't been all work, though. In true French fashion, or really just European fashion in general, we've been setting aside plenty of time to play, as well. Thursday last week, we were all a bit burnt out, still adjusting to our class schedules, so we decided to just take a leisurely walk toward the Seine and enjoy the beautiful night. Of course, we soon decided that an ice cream pit stop was quite necessary, so it ended up being a lovely evening!

Notre Dame at night. Just as beautiful, and not nearly as crowded.

The magnificent Hotel de Ville, or City Hall.

On Friday, I added another chapter to my culinary adventures: escargot. The first part of the struggle was figuring out precisely how one eats a snail. They come on a tiny plate, still in their shells, with two apparatuses vaguely resembling a spork and an eyelash curler. Thankfully, I was not alone in this endeavor, and my friend Sanjana and I developed a pretty good divide-and-conquer system with one of us holding the shell with the faux-eyelash curler and the other digging out the snail with the spork (I'm afraid my description of the escargot cutlery would horrify any Parisian reading this). I'm a wuss, so I made Sanjana try the first one. The face she made as a reaction did not give me courage. Thankfully, our waiter had brought out a basket of bread, so I had the bread in one hand and the spork in the other, poised to take a bite of bread if damage control proved itself necessary. And it did. It wasn't the taste that got me, but the texture; they had been cooked in a buttery pesto sauce that would have been delicious had it not been accompanied by a chewy, rubbery snail. Maybe if someone had handed me the spork and said "Here, try this. It's chicken!" I could have fooled myself, but I still doubt it. 

At least they looked pretty!

The wine made up for the snails :)

Saturday, we decided to venture out again, this time to a bar/restaurant close to our residence and then to an Erasmus boat party. Erasmus is essentially an exchange program for college students in a number of European countries, so we figured it would be a fun way to meet other students who are new to Paris, and also, who wouldn't want to hang out on a boat on the Seine?! My parents submitted a request for more pictures with me actually in them, so we made an effort. Please pardon the selfies; I'm not usually one of those people.

Melanie from Connecticut and Jaci from Arkansas

Annie from California and Sanjana from Thailand

Ethan from Taiwan and Jaci again 

That's just how they smile; they actually like me I swear.

Melanie again...my Starbucks partner in crime!

They decided to switch accessories and discovered an uncanny resemblance. 

Jaci, my across-the-hall neighbor AND the closest neighbor to Missouri I've found here.

You can probably expect to see more of them in pictures to come :)

Sunday was our homework day. I don't think I was the only one who holed myself up in my room for several hours until I had tackled the results of my weekend of procrastination. I also made my first attempt at cooking quinoa; I wanted to make a large batch to last me through the week. The instructions said to cover the pot and simmer. The previous resident must have been a kleptomaniac because random kitchen utensils that all my friends have are missing from my room, one of them being the lid to the pot I was using, so I improvised.

Unorthodox? Maybe...but it got the job done!

I have more to share from this week, and it's coming soon to a blog near you!

La vie quotidian

Bonjour everyone! Week two of college is officially coming to an end, and every day I continue feeling more and more settled in.

After shopping at the market in Rambouillet, I vowed that trips to the Monoprix (French equivalent of Schnuck's) would henceforth be only for necessities. Buying cheese and produce from a supermarket when there are fromageries and fruit stands on literally every block should be a sin.

On Tuesday, I experienced for the first time the unreliability of the metro. I had heard horror stories of trains that suddenly stopped running, sometimes even entire lines going out of service without warning, but enjoyed nearly two weeks of good luck. All good things must come to an end, though, and my good transportation fortune certainly did on Tuesday.

When I got to the station, people were pouring out, and one women kindly informed me there would be no trains for half an hour. Fortunately, I happened to run into a girl in my 9 am French class who told me she was walking and offered to show the way. I suppose the metro's malfunctioning ended up being a blessing in disguise, because it was a beautiful day and the 40 minute walk took us through the quaint Marais district, past the Hotel de Ville, across the Seine, and in front of Notre Dame. It's two miles from my apartment to school, but with scenery like that it felt like a breeze. What's more, I discovered that just a couple blocks down Rue Oberkampf from our residence hall there is a plethora of fruit/vegetable stands, fromageries, charcuteries, and patisseries.

Today was also gorgeous, so after class got out at 10:30, I decided to walk back home because I don't have class again until 3. I stopped at a tiny fruit/veggie shop on a corner close to home. Two friendly older women were working behind the counter, and I was thrilled when we conducted our entire conversation in French! Besides having fresher items, these smaller places have nicer people, and in many cases even better prices. I got a big bunch of spinach, a zucchini, and some garlic all for 2 euros. I can definitely handle that on my student budget.

Another part I love about walking is seeing all the Parisians with their chiens. I'm sure many of you have heard of the famous Humans of New York Blog. Well, I think Les Chiens de Paris deserve their own following, as well. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if that site already exists.

I think someone is scared of the metro

So many things to smell!

Making friends

I would just like to suggest that perhaps my willingness to walk to school here can make up for all the times I drove the 1/3 of a mile from my house to the high school....

I must confess I felt a bit homesick earlier this week. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one, so yesterday Melanie  and I decided we would allow ourselves a moment of weakness. We went to Starbucks, because nothing says America like a pumpkin spice latte :) Afterwards, we had time to kill before class, so we just walked around the Latin quarter a bit. Maybe I was just looking for signs, but I couldn't help but notice these other little reminders of home

Saint Louis School, just around the corner from mine

LouLou-- "a friendly diner" according to their awning (my family has a tendency to call me Lou so this made me smile)

Some exciting news...my good friend Paulina who lives in Finland texted me yesterday, and said she booked a flight to come visit me the weekend of October 18! She was an exchange student at Kirkwood last year, so I'm really happy I'll get to see her again.

Also, tonight I'm meeting a bilingual family with two children whom I will potentially babysit after school a few days a week. Don't worry, we got connected through NYU, so I can assure you they're a nice who will not kidnap me. Hopefully it works out because it would be a great opportunity to practice my French and make a little extra cash! Also, being responsible for two French kiddos could add a new dimension to my make-believe game of being French :) Nobody would suspect the girl picking up deux enfants de l'école to be an American. Well, as long as I keep my mouth shut...

A bit of nature in the big city

I'm definitely a city girl. I actually love having a 9 am class every day, even though my peers think I'm crazy, because the mornings are my favorite time. That's when the hustle and bustle of the day is just beginning, and the wonderful bakery smells are at their freshest and finest. I can just feel the whole city of Paris waking up as I sip my coffee on my walk to the metro. My only complaint is the shoulder-to-shoulder capacity of the jam-packed metro, but even that secretly delights me because I feel like a true Parisian on my daily commute.

I said that was my only complaint, and it really is with regards to my early-rising habits (early rising for college at least), but the thing that has stood out to me living truly IN a city for the first time is the lack of nature. I love to run, and dodging pedestrians and mopeds on the streets and sidewalks really hasn't been the same as a peaceful run through Queeney Park or Forest Park back home, two of my favorite places. Enter the Promenade Plantée and Jardin du Luxembourg.

Yesterday one of our ra's brought us to the Promenade Plantée, which I briefly described in my last post, but just to reiterate is a former elevated metro line that has been converted into a path with gorgeous flowers, greenery, and several small parks branching off of it. I'm so glad she introduced us to this beautiful place. I felt like I was in a treehouse in the middle of Paris! There were people running, picnicking, reading, and just generally enjoying the beautiful weather we're having...it's supposed to be in the 80's here all week!

Chess game in the corner :)

So many people sunbathing, reading, and having picnics on a Sunday afternoon

Funky little shack (name that song!) 

For my flower-loving mama 

We definitely found the weekend hangout for all the hip Parisians...it's hard to tell from the picture but there were musicians, ping-pong tables, a stand selling crepes, paninis, and drinks, and my favorite part...random sets of living room furniture. There were groups of friends just hanging out on couches and resting their feet on ottomans in the middle of this park. Love it! Definitely heading back with my own group to claim a spot.

Today, I was thrilled once again when I stumbled upon the Jardin du Luxumbourg. As I said before, I have a 9 am class, and after that ends at 10:30, I'm free as a bird until 4 pm. That gives me lots of time, so first I decided to find a place to get a snack. My priorities are definitely in the right place. I decided to try this place called The Tea Caddy. I've had my eye on it for awhile, because it's right across from one of my favorite little parks I've posted pictures of before, and just around the corner from Shakespeare & Co.

 

Iced coffee, a book to read, and a view of Notre Dame. Life is so good.

Refreshed and reenergized, I decided to explore, so with no set destination, I headed in the general direction of the Sorbonne, which it turns out is only a block away from NYU!

Bonjour, neighbor!

I turned onto a side street, and whaddya know! A couple blocks down I see a fancy gate with a sign designating the Jardin du Luxembourg. At this point it's still only 12:30, so I decide to take a detour, and I couldn't be happier I did! The park is HUGE. There are paths for running, chairs for sunbathing/reading/napping, tennis courts, ice cream and crepe stands...basically heaven on earth. This has definitely been added to my fast-growing list of places I will be frequenting.

I spy with my little eye la Tour Eiffel 

The sunbather sort of ended up stealing the spotlight....

I ended up spending the rest of my afternoon at the gardens, just walking around then eventually picking a spot to post up and read! Another young man tried to make my acquaintance. Mel and Annie suggested I start a separate blog to log my encounters with the French of the opposite gender. I think that sounds like too much work.

First Louvre visit and Rambouillet

On Thursday, after I gave my very first presentation in French (or rather attempt at a presentation), my second class of the day met at the Louvre. It was sorta like those field trips we all took to the art museum in fifth grade....times a million. We heard a little random fact that I doubted but my professor insisted is true: there are so many works in the Louvre that if you spent only three seconds looking at each one it would still take you three weeks or something crazy like that to see them all. If that's only one museum in a city of many, not to mention all the other places I want to see and explore while I'm here, I don't know if just one year is going to cut it :)

Our 90 minute class only allowed us to focus on the Mesopotamian section that relates to the Epic of Gilgamesh, which we are currently reading, but Professor Osteshoevsky reassured us we will be back several times as we move through cultural development in Europe. If it were up to me I would just fast-forward to the Renaissance right now, but this period is actually quite interesting as well.

Unfortunately, our tight schedule also meant I didn't have a chance to take a lot of pictures...I barely even made it to my next class. I felt very dramatic running down the Boulevard Saint Germain, dodging pedestrians and their tiny dogs. Have you ever seen the movie Taken? That was my motivation to run faster. Anyways, here are a few of the pictures I did manage to take!

Apparently Gilgamesh was one scary looking guy with a vicious pet kitty

This one is for my brothers....I think I found manbearpig.

Dating back to the Persian Empire

This was not a column. This was merely the decorative topper of a column, and the Persians managed to construct things like this with none of our modern technology.

The oldest object in the Louvre, about 9,000 years old. I'd say he (or she) has aged pretty well.

Thursday night we went out to a bar/café close to our apartment. It turns out that our ill-fated attempts to speak French in public are nothing to be ashamed of. Parisians generally appreciate any effort foreigners put into learning their language, and American accents are "adorable." Plus, most of them are trying to learn English so they're eager to practice using it. A side note about accents: this is the first place I've been where I'm asked about mine. Evidently we mid-Westerners don't have such neutral speech after all. I gave it away when I called that round, red fruit you put in pies an "aaaapple" instead of an "ahhpple." Rookie mistake.

We didn't stay out too late, ending the night with crepes around 12 because we had to be downstairs with our bags packed at 7 am to leave for our retreat. The mystery destination was finally revealed to be Rambouillet, a town of 35,000 located about 30-40 minutes north of Paris. I don't think I was alone in falling asleep on the bus ride there.

The day went by quickly with various meetings/small group sessions to check in on how we were adjusting, help us get to know each other better, relate our summer reading to what we'll be studying etc. Pretty standard retreat fare. I think our numerous coffee/snack breaks helped the meetings fly by...it's much easier to discuss the medieval literature of François Rabelet when you know there's a warm espresso and mini pain au chocolat waiting to reward you at the end. We were served two traditional French meals. Salmon with a bulgar and vegetable salad and fruit tart for lunch, and chicken in a creamy mushroom sauce with vegetable gratin and butter herb noodles for dinner. The highlight was definitely dessert, though, a warm, molten chocolate raspberry cake. I'm not much of a food photographer, but it occurred to me too late to capture the beauty on the plate in front of me. And honestly posting a picture might just be cruel. 

After dinner, we wandered around the town of Rambouillet a bit. It's much quieter than Paris, but still lovely in its own way. With regards to nightlife, there were two bars, both on the main street, that closed at 11:30 pm on a Friday night. Nonetheless, it's a very sought-after place to live because of its proximity to Paris, great school system, and crown jewel of the chateau and the immense park surrounding it.

Sleepy streets of Rambouillet and a beautiful old church

We woke up Saturday morning to a traditional French breakfast, then headed across the street to the town square to explore the market that gets set up there every Saturday. We must have stood out pretty quickly as Americans, probably due to our less-than-perfect French and also the fact that most of the other shoppers seemed to be regulars, recognized by the vendors. However, they were thrilled to have newcomers, and we were offered various samples of cheeses, breads, tapenades, and even couscous, tagines, and mint tea from a Moroccan couple selling traditional dishes from their country.

Our hotel in Rambouillet. We ate all of our meals outside on this lovely patio.

I purchased a pretty hefty chunk of my favorite cheese, Brie du Saveur, a whole-grain baguette with ginger in it (sounds weird but it's actually fantastic), and some Pink Lady apples all for less than 10 euro. Incredible. While I waited for Annie to buy some fresh basil, a woman standing next to me struck up a conversation, asking us where we were from. She was delighted when Annie, Melanie and I named our respective cities, because we were "like stepping stones" from one end of the country to the other. She then called over her 10-year-old daughter who is learning English in school so we could talk to her and help her practice. I feel as if every person we meet continues to prove the rude French stereotype to be completely false. 

We then went for a tour of the chateau, which was absolutely breathtaking. The entire park takes up nearly 20,000 acres with various lakes, gardens and paths. The chateau itself dates all the way back to the mid 1300's when it was built as a manor house. Since then, it has been added onto, partly destroyed, abandoned, and re-inhabited by numerous French historical figures, notable Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette who used it as a hunting lodge. Well, Louis did. Marie preferred to play pauper in her "laiterie"...literally a fancy building for her to sit in her peasant couture clothing and drink milk fresh from the cow. Napoleon also graced the chateau with his residence for a period, and he made sure to leave his mark in la salle de bain. A tiny bathtub for a tiny man, and perhaps the world's first monogram.

 

 Beautiful woodwork. I always wonder how long it must have taken them to do all of that by hand.

Not a bad view at all. And gorgeous petunias!

Napoleon's study.

View of the grounds from the game room.

This is the game room. Not a place for playing pool or throwing darts, but rather for storing whatever game you had killed when you returned from hunting.

Famous tile from Delft in the Netherlands

I wonder if it's for sale. I think I'd like to put in an offer.

We are now back in Paris, and on Sunday a few of us plan to go to the Promenade Plantée, which is basically the equivalent of the High Line in New York. It's a former elevated metro line that has been converted into a walking path lined with flowers and other plants. It's supposed to be another gorgeous day, so I'm looking forward to getting out and enjoying it!