"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!
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