Word of the Day: Earplugs

This picture is for my mom! Love you!! It is a Van Gogh

So, the first half of this blog was written Wednesday, after a long day, and I had a headache, so it isn't as entertaining nor very much like self, so i apologize. And of course I am way to lazy to re-write it, so sorry!

So, I last left you eagerly (ok, not really) awaiting to hear about my first dinner with my host family. Well, Armand is visiting his dad this week, so it was just Murielle and I - which was nice, and less awkward. I definitely not used to three course meals at home, so it started off with the best tomato soup I have ever had, and I thought that was the entire meal because she gave me a huge bowl. nope, definitely not, next came a delicious veal (I ate baby cow :( ) mixed with carrots, potatoes, and broccoli. Murielle then made crepes for dessert - with sugar! Just the way I like it. It was such a good dinner, however the dinner conversation was lacking a little bit, mainly because of me. We talked about or families and what not, but I still sound like I am in French 101 when I speak to her! I cannot form sentences, I don't use the correct forms. Ugh, it is a nightmare. Yet when I talk to people my age I can speak. I do not know what is wrong with me, but I am sure she thinks I am stupid, ah such is life, c'est la vie.

The next morning, I started my Romanticism class, where we have an excursion every Thursday to various museums around Paris (how cool!) However, it is going to be a ton of work because stupid University of Illinois added an extra literature component, yet we do not get credit for it being a literature class. It makes no sense! Good ol' U of I. After Romantism (that is what it is called in French) a girl in my class, Kate, and I booked it to a little sandwich shop to get lunch, and then ran to the other campus because we had another class at 2:00 (our first class finished at 1:40 so it was a mad dash) This class is Modern French Cinema, which French movies are extremely, extremely bizarre, I will admit it, so I was quite apprehensive about this course. The professor, though, is hilarious! I am super excited to take this course because he makes it interesting and points out things I never would have noticed before. I have never taken a cinema course in general, so I am excited to learn a thing or 2 (hopefully more) about the cinema and movies in general, even if it means watching weird movies.

Wednesday was the day I was most excited for, Of course not for my theatre class, but for what was happening after! My theatre class is going to be awesome I think! My professor is a French actor, and you can totally tell he is an actor and loves what he does. He was so easy to understand, and acted things out - it was great. We will be reading plays throughout the semester, and he said perhaps acting out just a little of it (cool!) since it is mainly a reading plays course, and going to see 3 French plays! How exciting! I think it will be an awesome class, despite having it on Friday - but at least it finishes at 1:30. After class we went to..................

Well, had to leave you hanging there since I built up so much anticipation, and most of you might not find it that exciting, but a bunch of us went to the Musee D'Orsay!! It houses tons of Impressionist art like Matisse, Renoir, Monet and VAN GOGH! I have been waiting forever to go to this museum because when I came in last time, we never got to go because someone hates Impressionism (how can you hate Impressonism!?!) So needless to say I was like a kid in a candy store! It was absolutely amazing. To be standing a foot away from the famous "Water Lilies" by Monet, and Vincent Van Gogh's self portrait - oh.my.goodness. I got chills. (I did at the Louvre too, don't worry!) It was just so surreal. To have this opportunity...man. "Oh hey, it is Wednesday. I have class until noon and then...I think I will go to the d'Orsay." What?! I cannot get over it. It was wonderful.

Today, Thursday, I had my first excursion with my Romanticism class - at the Louvre! Again, who can say they have class at the Louvre?? I actually really enjoyed it - I was worried that I would never be able to hear my professor, or be able to pay attention, because I tend to have a wandering eye while in museums, but he made it really interestintg! Our first stop was to visit 2 sculptures - the slaves (I don't know if that is the name) by Michelangelo. I had no idea they were by him (woah!) Then we visited 2 sculptures of Psyche and her lover by Antonio Canova. I absolutely loved them - they are the same characters, by the same sculptor, but they are depicted in 2 entirely different ways. It was so interesting. We saw a few more scupltures, and then moved on to the Hall of David (Jean Louis) I was amazed - some of the paintings he made are GIGANTIC! I seriously wonder how someone makes a painting this big...and where do they ever store it?? The one of Napoleon's coronation I couldn't even fit in a whole picture! Anywho, my Professor definitely knows his stuff, and he showed us things I never would have noticed before in these paintings, i.e. throughout Le serment des horaces there are triangles of how he painted and positioned things in his painting, and how the swords are the focal point of the painting, or in another paint, Les licteurs rapportent a brutes de ses filles - the empty chair symbolizes death. This class will teach me how to find symbolism in art, because usually I am clueless when it comes to these things (my mother's artistic capabilities totally skipped over me!) This class will be a lot of work, but I am excited for it.

After, I had Contemporary French Literature, and I am scared to death of this class. My professor seems very nice, but she speaks so rapidly that I lose half of what she is saying, and I tend to zone out (oops - sorry Mom and Dad!) I couldn't tell you half of what went on in this class - but I don't think I was alone... hopefully! Luckily I have Beth with me to suffer through it a.k.a I will rely on her, or we will rely on another kid from our program in the class, Brian. It is going to be a lot of reading! Hopefully I can handle it, and maybe the next class will be better! I think I was just super tired, which leads me into my

title. Word of the Day: Earplugs, or "boule Quiès" as my host mom taught me today. Why ear plugs you ask? Well, it seems I am living at Weston again, my lovely dorm from U of I. The dorm where they were building a new dorm right outside my window the entire year. Apparently, they are building an apartment building outside my window this time, at 7am. It never fails. Now, I luckily am on the 3 floor this time, but this morning was AWFUL! I personally think someone on the floor above me is having work done in their apartment because it was LOUD! I have earplugs in and it sounded like it was next to me! This loud buzzing BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ every 2 minutes. I thought it was a drill, or a saw, but maybe a jackhammer. Oh my gosh it was horrible! And of course as soon as I had to get up it stopped for the day #$RF#(@#$*#$*OU#$O*U. Yeah that is what I think. I was not a happy camper! Ah c'est MA vie. (ma = my)

Tonight is my 2nd dinner with Murielle (eek I am nervous! All my French knowledge is oozing out of my brain as I write) so that will come in the next installment. As well as my exciting weekend of visiting Sacre-Coeur, Montmartre, the Champs-Elysees, MAYBE the Eiffel Tower, and... a discotheque! I know you cannot wait ;-)

Until then, AU REVOIR!

Je ne comprends pas!

It has been a couple of days since I blogged, but have no fear I am back and full of tings to write about!

As I mentioned in the previous blog, we went to Versailles on Saturday. I woke up at the fiap to huge, and I mean gigantic snowflakes falling to the ground. When I went down to breakfast it was pouring, and I had no desire to go to Versailles if the weather was going to be so awful, but by the time we left the sun was out! We had three different types of weather in a just one hour! Oh Paris! So, with the sun out, and in much better spirits, we headed to Versailles via the RER which is like the Metra in Illinois. It only took 20 minutes, as a bus would take an hour which was awesome. Versailles is amazing. I cannot describe it any other way. It is gi-normous (gigantic and enormous put together - it's a word,) beautiful, and so, so intricate and detailed. I loved it the last time I visited it, and was just as excited to visit it again. We received the little devices to listen to to an audio-tour of Versailles, and being adventurous I got it in French. First mistake. We then started the tour but we were free to go at whatever pace we wanted since we were going to be there for hours. I start walking through the rooms, listening to the audio tour, only to find out the first 4 rooms are NOT on the audio tour. Second mistake. i then heard someone say you are supposed to goo 100, then 200, then 300 etc. Third mistake. Next thing you know I hear "The gardens of Versailles..." and I was standing in a room that didn't even face the gardens! So needless to say I gave up, and so did the other girls I was walking with, Beth, Ashley, Diane, Alla, and Colie, because we were so confused, and we just walked around and shared the history that we knew ourselves about Versailles. The last time I was here the Hall of Mirrors was closed, because of renovation so I thought, but apparently it was because of the movie Marie Antoinette, so it was so cool to see it!! I took way to many pictures, but hey! I am allowed to be a tourist! They added a really cool new section to Versailles with pictures of Versailles throughout the years, from the invention of the camera (it had the very first photo ever taken of Versailles how cool!) to the most recent (professional) photo of Versailles in January. It was very, very interesting to see how people perceive Versailles and whatnot. We entered the queen's chambers after and fun fact - 19 babies were given birth in the queen's bed! ALSO, back then they would have public births - in front of EVERYONE. What?! Could you imagine? No way Jose!

Unfortunately, it was still super cold out outside, so none of the fountains were working, and obviously nothing was in bloom in the gardens, so we did not venture out into the gardens too much. It was way too cold, and there was no way we were going to walk 50 minutes to Marie Antionette's home (that is how far away in the garden's her house was!) so a group decided to leave Versailles because we were starving. I plan on coming back, and definitely plan on bringing my family and Brittany here in the Summer! It is even more amazing. So, of course being in France we decide to go to the MOST French-ish restaurant we could find - McDo a.k.a McDonald's. We of course had to see what it was like! It was crazy inside, very modern, and you could order at a machine in case you are that anti-social and had no desire to order with a person! Don't worry, I ordered with a person, but I seriously must have a flashing sign over my head that says "AMERICAN!" because a girl from my program ordered before me and the person who was taking orders spoke to her in French, and the minute she got to me she switched to English! What?? And the day before at the Louvre when we had to show our tickets, the guy said merci to everyone in front of me and everyone behind me, but when he saw me he said "Thank you." Arghhh. Anywho, I know you only care about McDonald's so, it was actually quite good! It was definitely not so greasy, and not a frozen patty or whatnot. I quite enjoyed it! Besides the fact it is 6 euro a.k.a 8 dollars.

After leaving Versailles, we decided to go the the Galleries Lafayette (YAY!!!!!!!!!!!) It is a huge mall like thing, I mean like 7 stories, and then it has 3 giant stores across the way from it. It was super packed though because it was a Saturday. The first visible floor, because there are some underground) is amazing. It contains all the shoes, make-up, perfume, bags, gloves and scarves. So you walk in, and there is Dior, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, Prada, Gucci, Versace, etc. and of course NINA RICCI! What is Nina Ricci? Why my most favorite perfume EVER! I have been waiting 4 years to go back and get this perfume called Nina by Nina Ricci. I bought it last time I was here, 4 years ago, and I sprayed my last drop of it the day I left for France, last Tuesday. I instantly bought it! That is my present to myself! Well one of them :) . The woman at Nina Ricci who was helping me even said my French was quite good! Surprisingly. No really. After that, we got back to the fiap and had dinner one last time :( and later that night we had a very chill wine night with everyone who was still at the fiap (those living in foyers had already moved out unfortunately) and it was wonderful! I adore everyone in my program so much that it is sad that we are all separated now.

The next morning, Sunday, was the day we were to move into our host families. Needless to say I was sick to my stomach with nerves, and I wasn't the only one. At 10 o'clock Dr. Costello and Sean, the graduate assistant, ordered the taxi's and by 10:15 we were whisked away to our families. I was a nervous wreck. I am living in the 15th arrondissement with Madame Ronceau (Pancracio) (yeah you figure that out too she has 2 last names and I didn't know what to call her!) and her son. I now know there names are Murielle, Armand (I think that is how it is spelled? I hope!) and she has a daughter Charlotte who lives in Paris. As soon as I met Murielle, all my French went out the window. No joke. It was like French 101 when I started talking to her. I couldn't understand her - even though I should, and I forgot the easiest words like - often - HELLO SOUVANT?? We say that all the time in class and I couldn't remember it. Oy vay. So we talked for a few minutes and arranged what days we will be eating, Monday and Thursday, where I could put things in "le frigo" the refrigerator, how to use the key - it's confusing, and my room. She left my to pack, and I quickly closeted myself into room to unpack and I am lost it. :( I never thought I would miss the fiap but I did. I missed going next door to talk to someone and having everyone close by. So I unpacked (yes I unpacked everything Mom!) and went on facebook before slowly crawling out to talk to my new host family. Murielle is very nice! She quickly gave me a tour of the neighborhood. I was scared at first but it is awesome! The Franprix, which is a small supermarket is right around the corner, there is a Boulangerie (bread products and desserts!) and a Charcuterie (a deli) legit 30 steps from my apartment building, and the metro is a block and a half AND it is a direct line to the school YES! There are also many restaurants and cafes around here as well. After the tour, she had to meet with her friend, so I took a 2 hour nap (oops!) Caroline called me, and she seemed to be having the same problems I was having with missing everyone and the fiap, so she came to my neighborhood and we went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant. It was quite good! After that I came back and had a fitful night of sleep - probably because i was nervous for my first day of class Monday (today!)

So, today was my first day of class! Art and Architecture from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance in France. But before I had class, I met up with Caroline at the metro to get our Passe Navigo - which is a metro pass. That was interesting, because we were told we could pay with a credit card, but apparently we weren't at one of the "special" stations where you can pay with cred/debit, so we had to run to the atm to pay for the week pass (we didn't attempt the month pass today oy) I still have to go get my picture taken to glue it on my pass. We then met up with Beth and we ran around between our 2 campuses, looking for a stupid school supply store because guess who didn't bring any?? Yeah, that's right, me. So it is 45 minutes until class, after going into the first 2 portions of this store, we finally locate the 3rd entrance where the sell school supplies. Let me tell you, it is expensive!! 5 euro for a thin notebook?? Geesh! So i bought a big journal for 13euro (eek!) and I think it was meant to be like a diary, but it has several ribbon in it to divide it, and I can divide it into 5 sections - so voila I have 5 classes, and now 5 mini notebooks. I win. So with 30 minutes left, and still no lunch, we stop at a sandwich shop to get a student lunch - but Caroline and i did it wrong, so we ended up paying more than Beth - C'est la vie, and we walked the 15 minutes to Campus while eating. It was quite an adventure! Beth and I got to class on time though, so all was good. It seems like it could be an interesting, but it is all in French, as all my classes, and is 3 hours long. Yikes I do not have an attention span to sit through 3 hours of that (yet I have enough to write this ridiculously long blog post -sorry!) so it shall be interesting!

Ok, I will describe my first meal with my host family in my next post because this is getting soooo unbearably long, so until then AU REVOIR!

I am soooooo confused!

So I officially landed in Paris three days ago, and it has been a whirlwind! This is going to be long, so please bear with me!

My flight left at 5:35 from O'Hare and I took the group flight, meaning a group of us from the Illinois Program in Paris all rode together to France. You would think "group flight" means everyone sits together, right? Yeah, me too. However I was the only one who did NOT get to sit with the group. I was in a whole other cabin than the group! What the?? I was not too happy, until I found out there was no one in the 2 seats next to me (woo!) So then dinner comes around and I had a choice between this really funky looking beef dish our cheese ravioli, so of course I chose ravioli, only to find out there was shrimp in the meal. My uncle's words right before I left were "Never choose the fish." Well now I know why. Getting sick on a plane is not fun. Not. At. All. So I got MAYBE 2 hours of sleep. Oh, and I broke my passport/money holder while on the plane too, so needless to say my plane ride was not so fun!

So we arrived in Paris at 8:30a.m. and we were ushered to a bus that carried us to the FIAP - a place that houses foreigners and French travelers. It is very much like a dorm but people of all ages can stay here. We are staying here for orientation until we are transferred to our host families or foyers. We had the afternoon free basically, until a meeting at 6, so we tried traveling around the 14th Arrondissement, but unfortunately there is not much to do in this neighborhood, and we were all verrrrrry tired so we just milled around the fiap. I was out by 9pm because I was so jetlagged and tired - which meant I was wide awake at 4am until 5:30am so that was fun.

Wednesday we had 4 hours (ugh) of orientation, with a 2 hour lunch break in between. I went with my roomie at the FIAP, Beth, and several other girls from my program to this adorable little cafe and had a true, French meal. I had a croque-monsieur - basically a grilled cheese sandwich with ham, and cheese melted on top of the bread, a salade verte, a limonade (not lemonade) AND I tried escargot for the first time. Me. Yes me. I am a terribly picky eater and I tried it. It was actually not that bad! I loved the garlic/pesto sauce with it. I would eat it again if offered totally. It was a wonderful time, and our sever was the nicest man ever, helping us with our French if we forgot a word, and would not give us our "cuillère à cafe" our coffee spoon until we said it correctly. It was wonderful! After, we had the 2nd portion of orientation - about host family housing, and then I took a nap because I was still jetlagged. That night was so much fun though. It started off in 4 of the girl's FIAP room with a little "cercle de mort" and ended hiking to my first Parisian and French bar with a big group of us. The French know you are tourists if you travel in a big group, and there was like 11 of us going into this bar, we had a hard time fitting but we did! In this arrondissement the bars are more like pubs and are very small, but the people are so nice! I had my first Belgian beer, but I totally would not call it a beer. It was called "Framboise" and it tasted like raspberry juice. It was delicious! But don't worry I only had one. We all had our French oral exam the next morning, so we didn't want too get too wild! However, the best part of the night for sure was when I was suddenly woken up in the middle of the night to see my roomie Beth rummaging through her suitcase, throwing things out. I asked her if she was ok, and what was going on, because I was out of it myself, and she just exclaims "I am soooooooooooooo confused!" Well, so was I, so I just rolled over. it wasn't until a minute later, after she had gotten back into her bed, that I realized she was sleep walking/rummaging! We had just discussed before bed how we both had sleep walking issues when we were younger, but they had stopped, so it was super funny to see her doing this so soon after. It was fun telling everyone in the program the next morning!

Thursday, today, was the best day in Paris so far! (I have only been here for 3 days so obviously I have had so much experience.) We went to take our oral exam,s - and it was a NIGHTMARE! First, on their lists they messed up and forgot to mark-off that we took the written exam so they were sending students to take that. Then they recalled those students whom they sent off. Then they told us to get our schedules out - we were never told to bring our schedules so 90% of us did not have them. So after 15 minutes of confusion they decided they could print out the schedules for us before our exam. 10 minutes later they come back and tell us we do not need our schedules and to just go ahead and take our exam. 15 minutes later, several arguments later, and 4 oral exams later for 4 students, we find out we do not have to take the exam (WOO!) My guess is they were sick of us and all of the confusion they just excused everyone from taking it. Fine by me! So then we had quite a few hours before we had to be at the Louvre, so we got to explore Paris - and I mean the real Paris, the heart of Paris. So we walked from the first campus through the Jardin du Luxumbourg, (A-MAZING) to the other campus we will be taking course at (15 minute way maybe so i have to book it when I have 30minutes in-between classes.) After receiving a tour of where our classes were going to be held, we split up into a groups to get get lunch. My roomie Beth, and 3 others, Ashley, Caroline, and Diane, first went to a tiny bookstore - and I mean it was a hole in the wall, barely fit the 5 of us, and bought this amazing book with maps of Paris, including the metro, RER, and bus lines, and a close ups of all the arrondissements. The owner of the shop was such a nice guy, commenting on how great our French was (which made us feel good) and asking us questions. He even gave us free magnets as we were leaving because he liked us so much! And they are cool magnets, thanks. It was great! We then went to lunch after finding a GREAT deal, and after decided to walk around for a bit. We ended up walking to Notre Dame, visiting there for awhile, and then walked to the Louvre. Let me tell you, that is A LOT of walking - like a ton! Paris is HUGE. My feet are killing me, but it was totally worth it. The director of my study abroad program gave us a free tour of the Louvre today, unfortunately I was so tired of walking, and just mentally exhausted, I could not concentrate as well as I could of because the tour is in French. I have many more times to go to the Louvre though, and will definitely take more pictures next time.

Tomorrow we are off to Versailles, and Sunday to our host families GAHH! Should be interesting and I will keep you posted. Until then AU REVOIR!

Almost there!

To those very few of you who are reading this, fear not I have not fell off the face of the planet. I am alive, and in SIX days will be going to Paris AHHH! And of course I have YET to start packing a thing. Always a procrastinator I am. Oops! But at least everything is in order. Except for the fact that Air France decided to change their policy and only allow 1 bag per person and the next bag is 50 dollars to and 50 Euros coming back. I am NOT happy. I cannot survive 4-5 months on 1 suitcase. Maybe I will throw a fit and get it for free, or maybe get moved up to first class!! Ha, I have been listening to my bank friends for too long, that will never happen. I don't have the nerve to complain. However, I am a very good crier so maybe I can use that to my advantage? We shall see!

I have so much to do these next 6 days, and I am still working at the bank! EEK no time! Meaning I probably won't have time to write until I am in "Gay Paris" (pronounced Pair-Eeee) unless I write a blog at 1am the night before I leave, because goodness knows I will still be packing. So until, then AU REVOIR!!!!!!!