Des Photos:

In front of Henri V at Pont Neuf, freezing, before our boat ride.


My Beloved Musée D'Orsay from the boat.


Haven't seen that one in a while.

Musée du Louvre. My friend Emily and I were contemplating whether or not we liked the Pyramids (they were finished in 1993 and therefore are not very historical). I decided I like them.

Venus de Milo...bien sur.


This one's called "Le Amour" and it's cupid helping a butterfly!! One of my favorites.


Of course, we have Satan.


Doesn't it look like fabric?

This is what I mean when I say these rooms are filled with statues. It is also completely empty. I might bring my suitcase and just live here.

La Guerre, Toujours La Guerre

This Thursday was the last day of my 2 week intensive language course. The thing I will miss most about the course is the phonetiques session. My professor must have noticed my enthusiasm for french pronunciation because she seemed to take a particular interest in me. That, or I have a giant "My Sister's a Linguist" sign floating above my head. She was very meticulous to correct all of my mistakes in both articulation and tone (apparently, I don't speak gently or romantically enough and my r's have a tendency to sound German, who knew?), and when I finally pronounced "la guerre, toujours la guerre" correctly, I felt very accomplished. When learning Korean, I remember someone told me that it's a very American trait to keep our mouths very still when we speak, and this is becoming more clear to as I speak more French. Some of the vowels are almost impossible to say without dramatically repositioning my mouth, and while it felt a little awkward at first, I'm realizing that it makes the flow of my words feel much more natural (and sound much more francais!)

Yesterday I went to the Louvre from 1 pm to 6 pm. Let's talk a little about the Louvre shall we?

History Lesson: The Louvre was originally the grand palace where the King of France lived before Louis XIV decided to move to Versailles. The palace then turned into a large royal collection, mostly of sculptures, where the french royal academy for the arts remained until the revolution. Of course, the revolutionaries thought they should tear down this monarchical symbol, but because it housed the arts, they decided to turn it into a museum.

I previously had very mixed feelings about the Louvre as an Art museum. It was often described to me as a museum to visit just for the sake of visiting the most famous museum in Paris. In my view, the Louvre had gotten a bad reputation as being underwhelming and incredibly touristic. Usually people talk about how the Mona Lisa is a disappointment because it is so crowded and surrounded by a giant box of bullet proof glass. The rest is usually described as older pre-impressionist paintings and, once in a while, someone will mention its of Egyptian sculptures. My decision to go yesterday was based on the fact that I got in for free (merci NYU), and because it's very centrally located. I went with friends, but of course left about an hour earlier so I could have my Nicolle Museum time, and I must say I was quite blown away.

The collection of Egyptian and Asian artifacts is absolutely incroyable. Hammurabi's Code and the Colossal Sphinx and other carvings and hieroglyphics that were done hundreds and hundreds of years ago were absolutely mind-blowing. I ended up getting lost and running into what is now my favorite section of the museum: their collection of 18th century marble statues. These rooms are filled with dozens of statues of roman gods and biblical characters and for some reason, nobody goes to this section of the museum. I realize that there are two characters that really intrigue me: Cupid and Satan. I honestly don't know why those two, but I'm just drawn to works of art the adorable little cherub and Satan being really angry about something. I also love seeing a carving of draped fabric, or paper in a book, because it looks so thin and real that it's fascinating when you look up close and notice that it's really just finely-shaven rock. My favorite painting in the museum is the Coronation of Napoleon. It's huge, probably the length of my entire apartment in New York, and every corner is filled with detail, a member of the audience or a sculpture from inside the church, it's breath taking. I can't wait to go back during the weekday when it's even less crowded and discover something new.

Friday was a big NYU Day. We went to the church Notre Dame de Passy and they announced what cultural activities we will be able to participate in this upcoming semester. High on my list are Dom Juan by Moliere, Cinderella (a very old French Opera that's supposed to have INCREDIBLE special effects), and Romeo and Juliet the Ballet. I'm only allowed to see 2 for free, so I may just end up buying my own ticket and going to theater alone one night. I also get to select from 3 weekend trips to other parts of France: Avignon, Nice, and Marseilles. I'm leaning towards Nice, but it's a little early for me to make any final decisions. After the announcement, we had a Degustation du Pain (bread tasting) where I tried chestnut butter (Amazing. Mother, I will buy you a jar for when you visit. It tastes like teddy-graham flavored peanut butter) and all sorts of Pâté*. We then took a boat-ride on the Seine which was nice but extremely cold and we ended the night with some Thai food and a dancing. I can't wait for my real classes to start on Monday!

*Everyone please note: Pâté is not Liver. Gras, is the liver part of Pâté de Foie Gras (Pate of Goose Fat/Liver). Pate is the word for that almost deli-textured form of spread that has meat and spices and sometimes veggies and if I hear one more person protest eating it because it's liver, I will kick them very hard in the shins.

Des Photos:

"Les Chiens ne font pas les chats."

My Favorite Patch of Grass at Le Jardin du Luxembourg. Just pretend like those giant squares of dirt littered with colorful foliage!

Trés Confortable. I just can't get over that they made a railing specifically to put your feet on, I feel like they'd never do that at home. (I apologize for this ugly picture).

Degas' Grave at Montmartre. There was also Foucault the Scientist, Adolphe Sax who invented guess what instrument, and the family of executioners who beheaded Louis XVI and Mme Antoinette... one big happy family.

J'ACCUSE! Monsieur Zola.

We were just on our way home for the night and we just happened to run into Notre Dame. These beautiful places are everywhere!!

My beautiful dinner from tonight. Le Gateau, the cake, is that delicious looking thing on the left (I also just discovered that this is breakfast for tomorrow...jackpot!)

Pot au Feu... I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

J'aime faire la crepe au soleil...

"Faire la crepe au soleil" literally translates to "make a crepe in the sun" but it really means "to sun tan." This is my favorite french phrase I've learned so far. My second favorite phrase is "Les chiens ne font pas les chats" which literally translates to "Dogs don't make cats." I heard this last week when my host mom's daughter told me that my smart parents made smart daughters, and therefore dogs didn't make cats. I was indeed flattered that she said that, but seeing that my mother and I basically look like twins, I think the phrase fits a little too well...

There is something so comfortable about being in Paris. The pace feels much less contrived, where as in New York even I will admit to pretending like I'm in a rush simply because a) I'm too impatient and b) everyone around me seems to be in a rush as well. Being in a large city, Parisians move quickly like they do in New York, yet Parisians are so much less pressed for time. Whenever the Metro stops during my rush hour or there's a long line at the super market, I never see people huffing and puffing, tapping their feet, or obnoxiously glancing at their watches. They all seem to take a "c'est la vie" mentality, like waiting is a part of living. I must admit, the "c'est la vie" attitude is even rubbing off on impatient little me.

The magic of Paris' history still fascinates me, and I'm still exploring every day. I went to my favorite place Le Jardin du Luxembourg, because I can just grab a communal reclined chair and put my feet on the foot-railing and do my homework in front of a beautiful patch of grass. Right now they're patches of grass, but I expect that come spring time it's going to be full of what my dad likes to call "foliage" (also, "vegetation"). Another one of my favorite homework spots are the random cafés I find in my little suburb Neuilly. In France, once you sit down at a café, you can only order a coffee and stay as long as you'd like without getting an evil glare from the waitstaff. I'm trying to eat a little better, I've been making a lot of salads and have discovered the wonders of French Chinese food, which I think is fantastic but my host mom would probably turn her nose up at.

I also had a lovely trip to the Musée D'Orsay where I almost died of happiness. I've had a love for impressionism ever since my kindergarden art teacher introduced me to Monet's water lilies. I rarely go to museums alone, but I find that I'm much happier looking at art by myself. My Parisian therapy. I have many more museums to explore but it's been colder lately (meaning around 30 degrees... and yes I know, it's been -30 in MN and I should toughen up) so I haven't been walking around as much as I used to. I went on a walking tour through the Monmartre cemetery which was just a great reminder of how interconnected Parisian talent is. All the artists, singers, composers, writers... they were all lived together or met each other and consequently were influence by each other in so many interesting ways, I love it.

The french classes this past week have been very long, but very helpful. We have 3 hours of grammar and 1 hour of phonetics, which happens to be my favorite hour. I'm very happy that NYU has provided phonetics class because it's really improving my french accent (I hope). The mixture of those classes combined with French-Dubbed Crime Dramas has given me a newfound confidence in my french-speaking abilities. I'm able to talk a lot more with my host mom, and tonight we had a lovely meal just the two of us. She made me a typical french meal called "Pot au Feu" which means "Pot on the Fire" which, you can guess, is a type of stew. It has veggies and meat and deliciousness. Again, I ate too much of the entree and was once again obliterated by cheese course, but c'est la vie right? She then made me a cake which is a french-style tiramisu, where you soak cookies in coffee and then layer them with butter cream and top with cocoa powder so delicious!!

I'll upload more photos once I recover from les fromages... à bientot!

I've been forgetting something important...

The Food!! I'm a little surprised and/or proud that I have yet to rave about the food here. Eating in Paris is much more an experience rather than just a series of delicious morsels. Eating dinner with my host mom and getting lunch on campus has taught me quite a lot. First, let's go through some common french-food stereotypes:

- The French always eat baguettes: TRUE. Every day people buy a baguette and yes, you do see them carrying it under their arm as they walk down the street (and yes, I feel very Parisian when I do the same). They're always fresh, light, and crispy. Imagine more the bread you'd get at a nice restaurant rather than those heavy "french breads" you buy at the grocery store. And they're under 1 euro.

- The French eat very slowly: FALSE. We had a large discussion over dinner on how the french eat very fast. They take very little at a time (there's never anything left on their plate), and eat and eat. Dinners, on the other hand, take a life time. French food, I've noticed, is all about taste and preserving flavor, which means everything is served in courses. Entree, Plat, Salad, Cheese, Dessert, Wine.

- The French eat a lot of cheese: TRUE. Oh my goodness, the cheese course. My American stomach was not ready. For all of you who use Brie like a spread and place it thinly on your bread, that's wrong. If you think goat cheese is a topping or an accent, that's also wrong. You eat a ton of it with your baguette (which is to be placed on the table top on the left for the duration of the meal, not on your plate) until you're full. This would be great, if I hadn't thought to, I don't know, fill up on dinner like an American.

- French Macaroons are good: FALSE, THEY'RE BEAUTIFUL-AMAZING-LITTLE-BITES-OF-HEAVEN!!!



Anyone who knows me, or had eaten regular meals with me, knows that I am what my dad would call a "white-food queen." I love bread, rice, potatoes, basically anything with starch and carbs. In America, or at least in my immediate family, I'm often scolded for such mono-chromatic eating habits, but not here. Here, I eat croissants in the morning, ham and cheese on a baguette in the afternoon, so more of my baguette with nutella as a snack, and potatoes with some sort of meat at night. I don't think I've eaten a colored vegetable in almost a week (don't worry mom, I'm making myself a salad tonight). In other words, the food here is just my style.

And now an update:
Classes have started and I couldn't be happier. It's 4 hours a day (9-1) and we have La Grammaire and and Les Phontiques. I've been spending a lot of time with my host-mom talking and getting to know her and we get along fabulously. We watch the news and whatever crime-scene soap opera she tapes that night (last night was Les Experts, the night before was Cold Case). I found out that she likes to paint and has a great collection of DVDs including The Marx Brothers Collection, Sabrina, Airplane!, and The Holiday. I think I may actually be HER daughter, and my parents adopted me and never told me. She made me a cake this morning and helps me with my homework when I need learn how to pronounce something. During the day I like to always walk around and go to museums or parks. NYU has proclaimed me an "Art History" student so I can get into all the art museums for free, which is manifique! I'm still in disbelief that I'm actually living and not just vacationing here. I'll upload some more pictures soon!

Des Photos:

At each end of Le Jardin des Tuileries, the French wanted to place something spectaculaire. Also note L'Obelisque lurking in the right.

Paris always looks like it just rained, but I don't care. This is the open space in Le Jardin des Tuileries I mentioned. It's nice to be in a city where you can go somewhere to just breath and relax.

La Fontaine Saint-Michel. The statue on the top is Satan as he's being thrown from Heaven and I just imagine the sculptor imagined him falling into the fountain. I think Paris makes me think with la romanticisme.

Le Louvre from Le Jardin des Tuileries. This is what I'm talking about when I say the sun makes the grass look incredible.

Just in case you thought I became a brooding poet... this is one of my best friend's from high school and therefore yet another reason that I love Paris right now.

Paris, Je t'aime

I am absolutely in love with this city. I find myself leaving hours earlier than planned so that I can have some alone time to just walk around and absorb all the fascinating things about Paris.

My absolute favorite thing about Paris is their preservation of Open Space. In New York, everything is crowded together, and even in central park there are always boulders or playgrounds or giant signs scattered throughout the park. However, Le Jardin des Tuileries has a series of massive gravel walk-ways. The fountains are not structures, but rather clear circular ponds that can sprout water on a warm day. Today I walked from one end to the other and, because it was actually sunny outside, the green of the trees and grass looked absolutely spectacular. I know, I'm gushing, but really, I'm in love.

I've moved in with my host mom and she is as sweet as sucre. Every morning thus far she has set our breakfast for me (un croissant, du Café with cream because I'm American, la nutella, and jus d'orange) and tonight I am meeting her daughter and we are going to eat dinner together. It smells absolutely delicious and I cannot wait. I will admit, the language barrier is beginning to frustrate me, particularly because I feel like so much of my personality is missing from my short, present tense, subject-verb sentences. We communicate well, but for now it's mostly her talking and telling me stories while I giggle and make responsive facial expressions (luckily I feel my being Italian has gifted me with very expressive body language). I think she understands that I'm good for more than a smile and nod, but I'm still eager to allow her to get to know me better. I can't wait for French classes to start on Tuesday.

On Friday, we went on a long long walking tour around the city. Yes, we were gathered in giant groups, yes the tour was in english, but if there were to be a time where I'd like to scream "I'm a Tourist!" I'd prefer it to be now. This tour was the Paris that I remembered, old buildings, monuments and museums. History is absolutely everywhere, every bridge and building seems to have a story. At night, a bunch of us gathered up and stormed the Bastille. (Ok, that wasn't funny, but the Bastille area is actually very lively.) I kept thinking "This is insane that the French Revolution stared right next to whichever cheap bar we decide to settle at." This is what else I love about France, the seamless mix between the old and the new.

I must admit, there are a few adjustments. For one, the metro completely shuts down exactly at 2am rather than running 24/7 in NYC, meaning that in order to take the metro home and not a very expensive cab, I need to get on the train by 1:30 to make sure you get home. Not bad, but when our train decided to evacuate for no reason at 1:45...let's just say it took me the entire metro ride home for my pulse to settle down. Not to mention, the trains start running every 10 min rather than ever 2 min at night. All was well for me, however, until I come to my next challenge, the doors. I got inside the building no problem, but I could not understand that key. It looks more like a wrench than a key, and apparently there's quite a bit of jiggling and pushing involved in opening one of these beautiful old heavy doors. After a half-hour struggle and several failed attempts to gain the courage to ring the doorbell, I finally mastered the french jiggle-turn method and unlocked that blasted door.

I'm going to go eat now, I'll upload some pictures of my beloved Paris (ALWAYS pronounced Par-EE way now... Pear-iSS just makes it sound gross) soon!

Some Photos:

The Garden/Courtyard on Campus. I told these girls to make their best nonchalant Parisian poses.

La Grande Maison. This is our main NYU building where most of my classes will take place. We also have our Petite Maison behind this building, and our Bibliotheque.

Yeah... I'm in Paris.

I love these little traffic circles that are all over Paris. My friend Richard and I demonstrate their romantic potential.

First FULL Day in Paris

Today was filled with a lot of excitement. I've made a lot of friends exploring the area around our hostel last night, and we keep talking about our poor parents who haven’t heard anything beyond a “I’m here safe.” The internet in the hostel leaves much to be desired, and while it's only our first full day in Paris, we've actually done quite a bit. Most importantly I figured out exactly where and who I'm living with.

I'm living in a big suburb immediately outside of the 16th arrondisement (meaning, immediately outside of Paris). If I had to compare it to New York, I'd say I live in Park Slope in Brooklyn. My school is in the 16th, which is equivalent to the Upper Eastside in Manhattan. My "host mom" is an elderly woman who lives by herself in an adorable, and surprisingly spacious, apartment. She does not speak any English at all, or at least did not speak any English upon our first meeting, but is very nice and I think we're going to get along quite nicely. She's already showed me her collection of champagne tops, offered to bake me cakes for breakfast, and invited me to watch the news and un petit film with her each night (when explaining to me that she loves watching TV she exclaimed "See! I am American!"). The language barrier is a little difficult, my french is very out of practice, but this is only motivating me to learn as much French as possible during my stay here! I plan to move in tomorrow and can't wait to begin this little adventure.

*A little about the layout of Paris*
Paris is sectioned off by a series of neighborhoods, or arrondisments. The 1st begins in the center of the city, and the neighborhoods spiral outwards, and the Seine runs right through it. My hostel is in the 14th, and NYU is in the 16th. My home-stay will be on the north-east corner directly outside of the 16th. L’Arc de Triomphe is in the 8th and La Tour Eiffel is in the 7th.


Another introduction made today was exploring the area where my school is. NYU in Paris is in a closed-off Secret Garden-esque campus on the "Rue du Passy." I didn't realize how excited I am to finally experience a college campus. We have 2 major buildings, a library, and a courtyard. I love the enclosed, home-y feel and the buildings are beautiful. Outside of Campus, there is shop after shop: The Gap, H&M, Zara...it's surprising how much it feels like New York City. The food is rather expensive, but I'm sure once I get more acquainted with my area, I'll learn where the cheaper cafés are.

After a series of informational meetings and preparing to meet our host families, I went on a walk with a few friends along the Seine. I may be biased from having just come from Minnesota, but the weather is pleasantly warm despite the consistent overcast. We walked to La Tour Eiffel and then crossed the Seine to L’Arc de Triomphe, which happens to be my connection between metro stations to get between my home-stay and school.

I'll upload some photos when I have a more reliable internet connection, but for now au revoir!

First Day in Paris

After a very busy fall semester and a relaxing winter break, I've finally arrived in Paris. I must admit, getting here was a little anti-climactic. My flight had no complications, and I slept the entire time. We arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport this afternoon, grabbed our luggage, and took a bus to my first stop on my getting-settled-in-France agenda.

We are in a hostel in Paris, I wish I knew more about my whereabouts, but I'm sure once I start venturing on the Metro to get to-and-from campus, I'll be able to better explain my location around the city. I find out in the next few days where and with whom I'm living, but for right now it's just myself and 3 other girls in a room here.

I'm going to go get some food at the hostel cafeteria and try to get some sleep and avoid a bout of jet-lag. I'll update soon!