Terrible Terrible

Ok, I am a terrible blogger, in that I never blog! But all that is about to change, because here I am on a Sunday afternoon- not hungover, well-rested, and sitting at my now clean and organized desk ready to blog away. I was planning on blogging yesterday but a)woke up at 2 pm, b)was more hung-over than in a long time, c)was exhausted and head-achey, d) desk and room were a mess and it was distracting me, and e) i really wanted to watch the most recent episode of Bones.

But now that all that other stuff is taken care of, I'm ready. It's been a long week, and it seems like each week gets longer and busier than the last! I'm still going to go through my little run-down, but now that I've been here about 3 weeks and have classes to discuss, I'm going to limit myself to 5 sentences per day until I catch up to this past week.

Alors, on y va!

January 21, 2010:
-Still at FIAP, slept in, first purchases in France were then an espresso and a petit pain a l'orange (orange flavored roll with bits of candied orange rind) at a bakery for breakfast with Taylor, Carolyn and Shelby.
-returned to FIAP for series of long meeting with Mme Suraqui and Blandine, who gave us 3 zillion things including more maps, a free admission card for the Louvre (h e a r t a t t a c k), and Blandine told us about all the aspects of French daily life- cell phones, bank accounts, metro, transportation, internet, flying, trains, etc etc.
-entire group headed out after the meetings to buy cellphones, was a touch confusing, but then we all got the same pay-as-you go french cellphone, with 10 digit numbers that all begin identically. success.
- Dinner at Apollo, a restaurant, with the APA group and the APA teachers, me Carolyn and Taylor sat at a table with Mme Suraqui herself and tried to explain what quilting was and talked about a ton of random ass shit. Mme Suraqui it turns out, has a son who lives in Israel and she knows a little Hebrew, sababa! newsflash- I ate GOAT CHEESE at this dinner, it was fresh adn creamy and didn't have that goat cheese tang like usual, and it had dried fruit in it and was delicious. main course for vegetarians was a little weird, but good, and then creme brulee for dessert, which I tried but did not eat much of because I hate custard.
-went out for the first time in Paris! We all trouped out in a group of like 15 to St. Michel and hunted around for bars, difficult since we were such a large group and bars here are so tiny, eventually we split up and half of us ended up in a winebar with a not too shabby carafe of vin blanc. Got back to FIAP a little buzzed and packed up our bags a little since the following day we would be leaving the FIAP.

January 22, 2010:
- woke up at 7 am after going out the night before = stupid, last shower in the weird FIAP showers, mediocre breakfast in the FIAP cafeteria (worst coffee of my life), put bags in the baggerie (ie luggage room), meetings with Mme Suraqui and Francis at 9 am, received another 3 billion handouts, learned about adopting to French life and living with our homestay families, then went over the cultural program for the semester.
- Blandine arrived (she rides around on a purple razor type scooter, which are still cool in France) and gave us our host family assignments, I found out I'd be living with someone called Monique Guillet in the 13th arrondissement.
-lunch provided by APA/FIAP = monster sack lunches with 2 cheese-filled sandwiches, an apple, bag of chips, granola bar, tomato salad, and a pastry. I ate about half of what was in there, saved the apple and pastry for later and gave one of the sandwiches to Liz.
-bus tour of Paris with Mme Suraqui= 3 hours, was exhausted and hard to stay awake/alert, but great because we saw so much of the city and learned a lot. Got out and took pics at the Eiffel Tower, also saw the Sorbonne, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the iles on the Seine, les Invalides, and more more more more more! Overwhelming.
- back to FIAP, went online for a while, killed time until 7:30 when we went upstairs to meet our host parents at a little reception- !!!! Nervous and excited! I met Monique and Maurice, her "compagnon" ie/ boyfriend/partner who lives with us but they're not married. They were nice and talking fast and my head was spinning, the cocktail didn't help either, but it was fine, then crammed my GIANT bags into their TINY car and drove 10-15 min to their apartment, elevator struggle with big bags, and then, I was home!
- room is nice but tiny, apartment is nice but fairly small, Monique and Maurice are nice but I was only understanding half of what they were saying. We ate dinner; soup (squash, carrot perhaps?), quiche but it was full of cheese and veggies so it wasn't that bad, but the texture was ARGH!, bread and cheese (i tried more goat cheese, was disgusting), Monique asked me lots of questions about what I do and do not eat, Maurice said I eat like a bird (recurring theme here), dessert was supposed to be a chocolate cake, but for obvious reasons I just had a yogurt. After dinner I gave Monique the book about LA (host gift) which she loved and loooked through for a long time saying "Ah, c'est tres gentille! Ah, je n'ai pas vu ca! C'est quoi? Oh, c'est genial!" They showed me their album from when they visited LA, but of course they'd only gone to touristy places (Mann Chinese Theater, Hollywood walk of the stars, Santa Monica Pier, etc).
went to sleep after longest day of LIFE!!!

January 23, 2010:
- woke up at 8 but continued sleeping off and on until like 10:15, was still so jetlagged. Got up finally, M&M weren't home, had coffee and a weird cracker thing, got dressed and unpacked/moved in.
-Carolyn and I arranged to meet at Denfert-Rochereau around 12:30, but I first had to find a money exchange place which was confusing, since the one M&M directed me towards was in Chinatown and somewhat hard to find. I got lost like 400 times attempting to find it, finally did and changed over my monnaie, which is the word in French for currency and for cash/change, which cracks me up, monnaie sounds like mo-naayyyyy. Finally I succeeded but also realized I couldn't get to Denfert without transferring like 3 times so Carolyn and I changed the meeting place to Place d'italie, which I walked to.
- Met Carolyn and Taylor at Place d'Italie (which has a GIANT mall yet to be explored) and had lunch at a little brasserie cafe; gruyere sandwich and a cafe au lait. I was starving so I was v. excited to eat.
- attempted to find the exchange place for Carolyn, got a little lost again, decided it was getting late and all went home to our host-parents, I walked again and now have that route/area committed to memory.
- M&M weren't home still so I called my mom and dad and talked to them for a while, which was nice, they were glad to hear from me and ensure I was alive.
-M&M came home eventually and we had dinner, I can't remember what but it might have been the night we had curry rice and braised endives, so good!

After this point I stopped writing in my journal (again terrible person, terrible journal-er and blogger) so i probably won't have as much to say about all the next days.

january 24, 2010:
- Went for a walk around the quartier with Monique, she showed me the metro stop, the best bakery, some groceries, the laundromat, some restaurants, etc etc, we ended up walking around for over an hour and crossed the Seine to see a little park just on the other side in the "village" of Bercy which is not really a village.
- I ate lunch later on at the little bakery right next to my apt, had a subpar sandwich and a subpar cafe au lait, but was very hungry so did not care.
- Don't remember the rest of the day, I think I just walked around and checked out the neighborhood, I might have gone some where? peut-etre?

January 25, 2010:
-Monday = first day of Orientation classes, starting off at 10 with a French language test to place us in our levels, was both hard and stupid, weirdly phrased exercises, made me feel like an idiot. Then we had an hour break for lunch, bought a sandwich at some place that made us sit outside in the FROZEN weather because we were only getting sandwiches and not real foods, then had "conseils pratiques" were we learned about the French university system from Mme Suraqui who bored us to death, she's getting more and more annoying at this point.
- went somewhere after, with Taylor and Carolyn, probably had coffee and a pastry as this was becoming a pattern.

January 26, 2010:
- class from 10-12:30, learned more about the French education system and our academic program
- lunch, found a better sandwich place, had a panini with mozarella, tomato, basil and eggplant (took out some eggplant)
- from 1:30-3:00 the two APA professors who teach APA classes presented them to us, first the theater teacher who was a young woman with blond hair and huge ears, sounded interesting but a literature class won't do shit for me credit wise and I don't like reading plays that much, and then the art history professor, who's class goes to museums once a week which is awesome, but whose curriculum was identical to French Modernist Painting which I took last year with the Tumanator!
- then me, C and T went to rue Moufftard, upon recommendation from Mme Suraqui, and it was the cutest little area, full of little shops and cafes, including one called "Charme et Fantasie" where everything was dirt cheap and C bought a very cute plaid book bag for like 6 euro.
- I was overjoyed to buy a plug adaptor, which upon use the next day would crack in half and blow out the circuit in my apt, and Taylor bought an alarm clock and a tiny pot to make tea in her room, since she lives in a little guesthouse and has a stove. (jealous)
- M&M were out for dinner, Monique had made something for me and put it in the microwave for me to reheat- turned out to be creamed spinach with hardboiled eggs. I hate eggs, and I really really hate hard-boiled eggs. I ate some of the spinach and some bread, didn't touch the eggs. Later had to explain to Monique that I don't like hardboiled eggs, which baffled her because oeufs florentine always delights the French people. gross.

january 27, 2010:
- class from 10-12 was our first French class with the adorable, chic, amazing, lovely Pascale who I want to be when I grow up. I love this woman, she is so much and silly and told us all the best clubs and restaurants to go to in Paris. She has amazing style and truly AMAZING hair.
- lunch from 12 to 1, had a crepe au fromage at a little creperie near the foyer where we were having all our Orientation classes. Was delicious! the cheese was either gruyere or emmental, both of which I adore and can't get enough of, even though I hate swiss cheese in America, it's so good here, tastes completely different.
- from 1 to 2 we had a very boring class with a tiny little troll woman named Sophie who taught us about french politics and bored us to death. I already knew everything she was saying since I took History of Modern France last year with Todd, one of my favorite professors ever who had an end of the semester party for our class with wine, cheese, bread, and potatoes au gratin (ie potato casserole in a wash of cream and cheese and cardiac arrest. drool.)
- from 2 on some people had to go to the APA office to consult the brochures to pick out their classes, but my timeslot wasn't until the next day, so me, T and C went somewhere and did something. hmmm?
- our first spectacle! but first, I went home to change and relax for a bit, but when I plugged in the plug adaptor that I bought the day before, it didn't work, and when taking it out it broke into two pieces and I heard a loud POP CRACK and the lights went out. None of the lgihts in the entire apartment would turn on, and I was going nuts. I thought I broke M&M's apartment. I was seriously freaking out, but also running late to meet everyone for dinner before the spectacle (ie cultural outing, a concert in this case)
- wrote frantic note explaining electricity issue to M&M, dashed to metro, had to take RER to get to the meeting place, was running soooo late and very stressed out, had to take RER C which I had never taken before and is very confusing. Finally figured it out and made it to the place where we were meeting, couldn't find the restaurant forever, got lost several times attempting to, finally did and ate delicious lebanese food. and drank some wine, much wine.
- then we all walked to the concert hall which was further than we thought, we crossed through the jardin du luxembourg and it was freezing! finally made it to the place, heard lovely concert by the Ochestre de Paris, four pieces the last of which was weird and experimental and involved 2 twin sisters playing a twin double-sided grand piano. Bizarre but interesting.
-went home passed out.

january 28, 2010:
- 10-12 French class with Pascale. love. She told us weird stories about Mitterand having two families, a wife and children in the public eye, and a secret other wife with another child! This would never ever fly in America, if it came out that a president had two families. French people were like, oh ok whatevz, that's his private life. I live near a giant library named after him. Pascale also told us some Carla Bruni gossip.
- lunch was another good sandwich from the Purple Place and an orangina if I remember correctly
- second part of French Politics with Sophie tiny troll woman, bored to death again.
- went to APA office to consult the brochures for class selection, liked 400578 classes, but eliminated all that were a) at Nanterre or Saint-Denis because those universities are far away and I don't want to pay for the more expensive metro pass, and spend an hour commuting each way, and b)all that were level 2, which means second semester of first year, because I know Hopkins only accepts advanced classes. All my classes must therefore be 4 or 6, 3 and 5 being first semester choices.
- filled out the table with my class choices, later would be forced to re-do it because all the classes I chose were from Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne, which it turns out, APA doesn't have an agreement with except for like 4 classes. Why would they give us the course catalog for that school then? GREAT QUESTION.
- begin hating Mme Suraqui at this point, who is not very organized at all and just enjoys being in charge.
- was too exhausted to do anything, went home and took nap before dinner. APA office is TINY and therefore not fun to cram into with 16 others, but did get to use the internet there which was exciting because at this point we still hadn't figured out how to get M&M's french wifi onto my American computer.

january 29, 2010:
- french class with Pascale from 10-12, lovely as always. Begin noticing how Michelle, girl from China on our program, peels and eats grapefruits during class like they were oranges. She puts the entire section into her mouth at once, and then chews it like a little squirrel, she does this very stealthily and thinks no one notices. Everyone notices because she's eating grapefruits in class, and taking HUGE bites, cannot understand this girl's logic but it is very amusing to watch.
- had hour for lunch, had another cheese crepe happily, then had to go to the APA office to have my appointment with Francis to finalize my class choices/create my schedule. It was then that I was told I had to redo my schedule, along with Taylor and Carolyn since we'd all picked the same classes. Hurried to redo my schedule with Paris IV Sorbonne classes and only the Paris I classes that APA had an agreement with, still came up with more than enough classes. Traded appointments with Anabel so I could have more time to redo schedule, then had apt with Mme Suraqui and was signed up for 6 classes, which I would take the next next week and then choose 3 from them to keep.
Classes:
L'impressionnisme- Impressionism
Art du Moyen Age- Art of the Middle Ages (need this for Medieval requirement)
Arts Decoratifs Contemporains- Contemporary Decorative Arts
Techniques Artistiques- Artistic Techniques
Histoire de la Photographie Experimentale- History of Experimental Photography
XIX-XXe siecles, Mondrian et De Stijl- Contemporary art of Mondrian and De Stijl
- Friday! went out to a club at night called Le Wagg, which we got into for free with internet coupons, turned out to be weird and not very fun. Music was "carwash" ie-actual disco music, people were old, guys were gross, still, was drunk and fun. Then, because the metros stop running at 2 on weekends, and it was 3:30, we decided to stay out till 5 when the metros start rather than attempt to figure out the confusing and sketchy night bus system.
- that was a stupid stupid idea. we found a car/cafe and sat in there, ordered some frites and teas, were exhausted and frozen, starts snowing which we know we'll have to walk through soon, and we sit in this bar exhausted and french fry eating until about 5. Walk over to the metro, is not yet open. Wait and wait and wait, end up waiting till like 5:35 for it to actually start. We are completely frozen and zombied at this point, standing outside no longer drunk un the snow desperately waiting for the metro. Eventually got home and piled into bed just after 6 am. ridiculous.

ok that's enough for now. I'll blog more later tonight if I have time, but I have to get ready now because I'm having lunch with Andrea in a little while.