I decided it was time to write again when I was Skyping my parents (and grandparents!!!) on Thursday, and my dad asked me if I recalled that I was “keeping” a blog. Thanks for the friendly reminder, Dad :)
Le printemps est deja arrivee a paris!
I have definitely been making the most of the sunshine-filled days we’ve been graced with here these last few weeks. From picnics in the Tuileries to eating falafel in the Place des Vosges to leisurely bike rides (as opposed to pedaling furiously while cursing my decision to forgo the metro) to meandering once more through the outdoor markets—its an understatement to say I’m quite pleased to see Paris waking back up from those sleepy gray winter months!
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| Our first Luxembourg picnic, organized by Mary, the girl on the far left. Thanks Mary!!! |
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| Hooray for bare arms! |
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| Time to bid adieu to the days when this cat was my only company at Shakespeare & Co. |
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| My front row view of my blooming courtyard |
We also took advantage of one particularly lovely weekend to take the train about 30 minutes outside of Paris to the Chateau de Fontainebleu. This castle is incredibly ornate, surrounded by beautiful grounds in a quaint little town, and is chock full of history.
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| Yes, that whole thing is the chateau |
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| Every room looked like this... |
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| The lake behind the chateau |
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| I felt like I was in a fairyland when we walked around the grounds! |
The resurgence of beautiful weather has also renewed the wave of tourists flocking to the city, and with them my own appreciation for being here. Granted, I don’t love that my quiet sanctuary of Shakespeare & Co. is no longer quite as peaceful, but it’s almost like arriving all over again now that I’m able to revisit my favorite parks and places that have been pretty much dormant since I returned after winter break. It’s pretty fun getting asked for directions and answering in French without giving away the fact that I don’t live here, and it’s also cool walking down the street and hearing six different languages in the span of a few blocks. Seeing so many people thrilled to be here just reminds me how lucky I am to have spent my first months of college in a city with so much to offer. My final assignment for my writing class is a long research paper on the broad theme of cosmopolitanism, and seeing so many wide eyed, camera-toting visitors has inspired me to write about Paris as primary destination for “wanderlust.” I’m actually excited to write it, which is going to make the whole research aspect a lot less painful. Needless to say I think I’ll be spending quite a bit of time at the American Library in Paris these next few weeks, but somehow poring over library catalogs and databases around the corner from the Eiffel Tower is a bit more enticing than my previous research paper experiences :)
While doing a load of DIY laundry (cause nothing says paris like sink full of socks am i right) it suddenly hit me—I’m really going to miss it here. Unfortunately i’ve been having a lot of these random epiphanies lately. The most mundane things that drive me crazy are at the same time some of the quirks that I’ve come to love about living in paris and navigating life (semi) on my own.
Speaking of being on my own, last month I took my first solo trip since being here. I spent the weekend in Amsterdam; I asked around for a traveling partner, but everyone had either been already, had plans to go over spring break, or was unavailable that weekend, which was incidentally one of the few weekends I was free of babysitting obligations. I decided to seize the opportunity and go anyways, and boy am I glad I did. Amsterdam itself is a wonderful city, definitely my favorite place I’ve been so far—besides Paris of course—but I think being there on my own with no other agenda to prescribe to really made it a special experience for me. I threw myself into the deep end of an 8-bed hostel room, and I met some awesome people right off the bat, so whenever I wanted that company that weekend I had it, but I also had some much-treasured alone time to just explore and enjoy a new city, one that is a bit more laid back and definitely a lot cleaner than Paris.
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| Canal tour |
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| Walking through the famous red-light district |
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| Group photo with new friends at the IAMSTERDAM sign in front of the Reijksmuseum. |
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| Another group photo from the canal tour--Mark, Andreas, and Linus were from Germany and Carol and Viktor were from Brazil! |
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| If Parisians are crazy about their bikes, then Amsterdammers are absolutely mad. |
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| Waiting in line at the Anne Frank house/mueseum |
While it was lovely having a couple weeks off of babysitting (the French school system gives a two-week break at the end of February), I kind of started to miss having three little French girls to excitedly show me their drawings and do my hair every week. When I picked them up from school the first day back from les vacances, I immediately noticed that in my absence, Alice had inevitably turned her attention to her own hair: she had bluntly chopped off half her bangs. When I asked, she rolled her eyes and said it was pas grave because her mom wasn’t even mad but as her “punishment” she wasn’t allowed to get a haircut to fix it and she had to tell people what she had done whenever she was asked. Gotta love the French parenting style. I would have taken a picture, and actually I did, but unfortunately my phone was stolen this week so I can't share it with you, but trust me, it would put a smile on your face. As for the missing phone, I'm trying to see the silver lining at look as it as a technology detox. So far, so good...it's actually quite liberating! Although I do owe Shoshana, me early-rising friend, a huge merci for filling in as my alarm clock and ringing my doorbell every day so I'm not late for class.
Day-to-day, March has been a pretty average month (in a good way). I’ve still been attending my friends’ weekly Shabbat dinners, and this week there was a recent NYU grad visiting who works for the Brofman Center in New York, which is the center for Jewish student affairs. Our after dinner talk of Paris and traveling in general shifted inexplicably to a very intriguing debate over religion and sexuality. It’s those discussions that I find so eye-opening and one of the reasons why I’ve learned so much here not just in my classes. I do have a one-night NYU trip to Alsace next weekend which I’m really looking forward to! I also received word about my next foreign adventure to come: I’ll be spending my junior year in Buenos Aires! Time to start thinking of another clever blog name.
Most colleges in the US had spring break this month, ours is yet to come at the end of the April when (fingers crossed) I'll be heading to Italy and Morocco with Shosh and Annie, but that's another post to come :) in the meantime I've been having fun meeting some friends of friends from home. One of them visiting my friend Mel even goes to Wash U! He's from Connecticut originally, but it was still fun having someone to talk STL with, and I'm happy to report he has fallen appropriately enamored of toasted ravioli.
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| Jaci, Mel, and Jaci's friend Nick from Arkansas really embracing the spirit of fashion week. |
I haven't had any visitors since Greg left, but Daniel and Emily are arriving at the end of this month and I can't wait to take part in their Parisian adventures! Sending lots of love home to everyone! Grands bisous :)
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| Ending with this to say thanks to my family for the spring/holiday care package--not only did I receive REAL Jiff peanut butter like the choosy moms choose, none of this Skippy nonsense you find in France, but she made sure I would be all decked out for Saint Patty's Day. Happy to report I was not pinched, and the easter egg napkins will be making an appearance at the next Shabbat dinner :) |
