Days 9-16: First Class and Trip to Bourgogne (Burgundy)

This week was the start of some classes and for the weekend our entire program went on a trip to Bourgogne or the Burgundy region of France. Monday I didn’t have any classes, but I went to confirm the times and locations of all of my classes at the various French universities. We have been warned that they are not structured like American universities and classes can be cancelled or changed without any notification. I didn’t do too much else during the day, but dinner was exceptional. My family was going to the theatre and then having guests over so they asked the sister of my host dad (or my host aunt?) to have me for dinner. She is an older woman and she hosts two students from my program and a graduate student from NYU in her apartment. Her apartment is big and very nice. She prepared a great dinner for us starting with a tomato and basil soup, next a salad, then chicken champignon, of course some delicious cheeses, and finally a tart for dessert. Everything was delicious and the woman was very interesting because she has lived all over the world and knows a lot of important people. She was telling us that she has known the family of Nicolas Sarkozy (the presidential candidate for the UMP party) since she was young and she also got a call from the Astor family from New York during my visit. Her stories, cooking, and her welcoming personality made it a great night. Finally, she is just like her brother in the way that she makes sure that wine is flowing readily. We enjoyed a really nice white wine with dinner.

Since I didn’t have class until Thursday I spent the most of Tuesday and Wednesday finalizing my schedule and exploring my area. The part of the city I am in is so beautiful and I really enjoyed getting to know my surroundings. I also noticed this when I was walking up one of the streets.Tuesday and Wednesday night I hung out with people from Cornell and went to some bars around the city. Finally Thursday came and I had my first class. It was a little intimidating, but I approached the professor after class and explained that I was a foreign student and she seemed very receptive. The class is about the European economy which is very important for my international studies major. After the class, my weekend began. I made myself dinner and afterwards met some of my friends at a hookah bar in the Latin Quarter. We then went to another bar near there and finally after that bar closed; we decided to go to Montmartre and went to a really fun bar that had a huge dance floor. Everyone let loose, danced, and enjoyed the night. Once again I didn’t get back to my house until after 4:00, but I had nothing to do on Friday so I was able to sleep late. Friday I didn’t do too much. I went to EDUCO to get my mail and make sure I was on top of everything. I then went to a café with my friends and hung out into the evening. Finally I went home, made myself dinner, and went to sleep because we had to be up early to leave for Bourgogne.

We left at about 8:00am on Saturday morning for Bourgogne. We were greeted with fresh croissants and after enjoying one I quickly slept for most of the bus ride. I awoke about an hour before we arrived and saw the French countryside covered in snow. It was really beautiful. Our first stop in the Bourgogne region was in a city called Beaune. We arrived at L’Hotel Dieu which was a complex built in the 1400’s. Next we went to a wine cave a tried 3 different wines and learned a lot about wines of the Bourgogne region. The region is known for its Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Take note that 2000 was a bad year and 2005 was a good year. We ended the day at our hotel which was in the middle of nowhere so we drank wine and ate a lot of food to stay warm for the night. The next morning we woke up early and started again. We first visited l'Abbaye de Fontenay which was an abbey that was built in the 12^th century. It was beautiful because of the old architecture and the layer of snow on the ground. Our next stop was for lunch and a visit to Vézelay where the Basilica dedicated to Saint Madeleine is located. Finally we headed home and a group of us went out to eat fondue and finally I went home to my bed. It was nice getting out of Paris, but the parts we visited were a little dull for my taste. This week I’ll have a few more class and I’ll begin planning my trips throughout Europe. Au revoir!

L'Hotel Dieu (the roof is amazing with its colors and designs)

Basilica dedicated to Saint Madeleine

More pictures to come...

Days 7 and 8 - A Calm Weekend

(My House)

Saturday began by having to take a test to place out of a class that I WANT to take. In other words I had to wake up early and take a long test for no reason! It wasn’t awful and the rest of the day was fun so it was bearable. After the test they divided the students in my program into two separate groups. Then, they took each group to lunch and a museum. My group went to a restaurant called le Polidor. It served traditional French cuisine and we were given a menu for a three course meal with an appetizer, an entrée, and a dessert. I had a soup with foie gras, a plate of kidneys and rice, and finally a moist, soft purple cake topped with a shockingly tart berry sauce. The meal was good, but kidneys, I discovered, are not my favorite. The dessert and the soup were pretty good. Next we went to the museum called Museé Cluny. It is a middle ages museum and it was pretty cool. There are a lot of artifacts and on site they are in the process of a dig uncovering the former cathedral of Paris. After leaving the museum it was raining really hard but that didn’t prevent a protest by teachers and parents demanding a revival of the education system in France. We took refuge from the march and the weather in a café. Then my friends and I went to our houses and rested before going out for the night. We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Place du Marché Saint-Honoré and the meal was really good. They love Italian food here and it is interesting to see their version of it. Since it was my friend Cristina’s birthday at midnight we left the restaurant and looked for a good bar, but everything in that area was a little too ritzy. We decided to leave and go to one of the most popular areas of the city, Châtelet. We got into a bar just in time for Cristina to have a drink at midnight. We then went to another bar and sat down for a little while before going home for the night.

Sunday I woke up and had lunch with my host family. We, coincidentally, had spaghetti and marinara. Like I said, Italian food is very popular here. We had very good Bordeaux with lunch and the host dad kept feeding me more wine without me noticing so I felt nice for the afternoon. We had a cheese course after the pasta and all the cheeses were incredible. My arteries are probably completely clogged because each cheese was very rich, but it was some of the best cheese I have ever had. Then finally I was coaxed into having some ice cream after the meal and some chocolates. That was definitely the big meal of the day. We discussed French politics, American politics, and finally some current events. It was cool hearing their perspectives on the world and comparing what they think to what I do. Finally after helping clean up I decided to go outside. I decided to go walk the meal off because it was a beautiful day and we live very close to a huge park. I walked through town to get to the park and I realized that many of the huge buildings I thought were apartments were huge houses like the one I live in. The park is called Bois de Boulogne and it is a huge park on the west side of the city with lakes and paths. There is also a big stadium which I believe is for equestrian events. As I was walking around the weather began changing as it always does in Paris so I rushed home to beat the rain. The rest of the afternoon I relaxed and after I make my dinner I am going to go to an Australian bar in Châtelet where I can watch the NFL playoffs and hopefully Marques Colston and the Saints dominate the Bears. Au revoir!

Also: I forgot to mention but on Thursday of this week, the museum I visited was in the Jewish quarter of Paris. After the tour my friends and I found a great restaurant for Falafel and Shawarma. It was cool seeing the Jewish quarter after hearing about all the anti-Semitism in France. It was a beautiful section of town and it didn’t seem any different than anywhere else. It made me believe that France is just like every country on Earth. There are groups who do and don’t get along and there are terrible people who hate. However, after observing the Jewish quarter and how normal and happy everyone was, it appears that France is no worse than anywhere else.

Days 3, 4, 5, and 6

This week has been a busy one in Paris. I’ve been faced with getting myself around Paris on my own. This forced me to learn the city and the metro very well. It is time for us to pick classes and now I have to see what classes will and won’t count for my majors. I may even have to switch my French major to a minor depending on how many classes will count. Finally, I have had to adjust to the time difference and try to make my sleep schedule somewhat normal. All I can say is I am happy that the weekend will be a little bit calmer, but I still have a lot hanging over my head with classes and learning this damn language.

Right now I am slightly stressed, but overall this has been a great week and living in Paris is one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. I feel very independent living in and traveling around a big city. Since I can’t always eat dinner with my host family or go out with my friends, I’ve started cooking for myself. Tonight with my dinner I even enjoyed a glass (yes just one) of Bordeaux. I feel way too mature for a college student, but I have also been having fun and going out with my friends at night.

As I said in my first entry, I am so lucky to have the host family that I was given. The physical setup of the house and the personalities of everyone in the family have made me very lucky. I can come and go as I please and I even have my own door in and out of the house. This has made going out with my friends very easy. I don’t have to worry about waking up my family when I come in late.

I have had an exciting nightlife this week. Tuesday I went to an Irish bar called “O’Sullivans” on Grand Boulevard. Not only was the bar a lot of fun because a lot of my friends from EDUCO were there, but also I saw how diverse this city is. People were speaking many different languages with different accents. It was really cool and the best part is they don’t have any bad beer in this city (at least not where I have been). All the beer is about the same level of quality (the only drawback is you get what you pay for). On Wednesday night I went to two restaurants with some other students from EDUCO and some kids from Boston College here with another program. We had wine and cheese at the first restaurant and then we had a nice meal with a lot more wine at the next restaurant. I had escargot and it was delicious. Thursday night I caught up on sleep because of the two exciting nights before.

Tonight I will rest again because tomorrow we have a placement test and then we have lunch and a tour at a museum. I went to two other museums this week. The first was le Musée Carnavalet which focused on the history and development of Paris and the other was at the “Cinémathèque” which is a center devoted to film and the movie industry. It was very interesting and it showed a lot of collaboration between Americans and the French in movies. I also had the “pleasure” of visiting the French universities that I may be attending this semester. They do not fit in with the rest of the city because they are hideous and dreary. It doesn’t make sense to me why the rest of the city is so beautiful but the universities are so ugly, but I don’t have to live there so it’s not a big deal.

That’s all from me. Hopefully when I post my next entry I will have my class situation figured out. Maybe I will have another glass of wine to calm my nerves. Au revoir!

Day 1 and 2 – The Voyage to Paris

Day 1 - My journey began when I left my parents at the airport. My flight was delayed but they never announced it and I only realized it when we boarded after we were supposed to take off. Then the flight took 7 hours and 40 minutes when it was supposed to be 6 hours and 40 minutes. Other than the time issues it was a smooth flight. To my surprise when I got to baggage claim, I heard someone call my name and it was Geneva from my program. She was meeting Katerina and we shared a cab from De Gaulle to our hotel (Hotel Campanile Bastille). When we arrived we were given a packet of information including the details about our host family. I knew that my family lived in the 16^th arrondissement and had two teenage kids. Now that I knew a little about my family and had read that their area was really nice, I was relieved. Since we had just arrived, we wandered around and sat down at a café to enjoy some cheese and wine. We then went to the reception with our program EDUCO (Emory Duke Cornell) where we were served more wine (sparkling apple juice style). After calling our host families we decided to go out to Geneva’s friend Aleta’s apartment. We had some beers and then went out with a Parisian and a guy from Emory who has been here for about six months. The night was a blast. We saw the Eiffel Tower fully lit and a beautiful view of the Seine. If all the nights are as fun as the first, this semester will be incredible.

Day 2 – I woke up in the morning realizing that I had called my family and they had not yet called me back. I left them a voicemail and since my French is a little shaky right now I thought maybe they didn’t understand the phone number I left them. I decided to get breakfast and wait until I arrived at orientation to find out about my family. The breakfast was nice and we got our group together to go to school. On the way to school we saw many of the beautiful sights of Paris and while walking in the Latin Quarter, my phone rang. My host family called and we decided a time for me to move in. Then we had a full day of class and orientation interrupted only by a quick lunch where I had a French version of a bagel and lox. It was smoked salmon and a rich cheese served open face on toast. Finally after a long day of busy work, I returned to the hotel with two girls from my orientation group. On our way back we saw all sorts of landmarks. At the hotel I immediately turned around and took a cab across Paris to my family’s house. They have a 3 story house (4 if you count the basement) and I have a room in the basement with my own bathroom. It is amazing here. They have a gated property in the middle of the city with a beautiful backyard. I’ve added some pictures of my room, but I will take some pictures of the rest of the house soon. The family is really nice and they have repeatedly complemented me on my French. They cooked me a delicious French dinner tonight. It was duck cooked rare with a poivre sauce and scalloped potatoes. Everything was delicious! I am really happy with the way things have worked out. Now I am sure that this is going to be an amazing semester. Au revoir!