I havent written in forever!

Hey everyone,

Sorry I haven't written in a while, I've been too busy being in Paris I suppose...haha. There's so much to write about, so I suppose I will divide it into memorable events and go from there. That way, as a reader you can pick and choose which one(s) you'd like to read about. :)

1. Paris-Saint Germain football (soccer) match
2. Paris clubbing
3. Red light district

1. Ok, so Parisians are crazy. I went to this match with every expectation of French madness, and they truly exceeded my expectations. I had to write about it for a class I'm in, so I'll insert part of what I wrote here.

"There are two main fan sections at Parc des Princes, behind each of the goals on the field. We were in the section just below and to the left of one of them…and what an amazing experience. No one there sits down, there are sheet-sized banners hanging off of the balcony, lit flares, people wave flags the size of a small apartment, and every once in a while it rains phonebook confetti. But what was most incredible to me was the organized cheers/chants/songs.

It seemed as though the fans were taking part in a stadium-sized dance routine, choreographed, not by anyone specific, but by culture and history and love of the game. At one moment I looked across the field and everyone on the far side had lifted their hands above their heads with their PSG scarves stretched between. No one moved, no one made a sound, just stood with hands and scarves outstretched. A few minutes later, the same crowd was yelling and chanting and looking like ocean waves as each line of spectators linked arms and jumped sideways first one direction, then the other. After the opposing team’s keeper got penalized for side-tackling a PSG forward, whenever the keeper had the ball the entire stadium started whistling. The whistling grew higher and higher in pitch until he released the ball (either with a kick or a punt) at which point the fans shouted in unison something unintelligible but undoubtedly frenchly derisive. This happened honestly every time this player touched the ball until the game ended. There were easily at least fifteen or more different cheers, and I only managed to figure out one of them (aller Paris!). Apparently the PSG fans have gotten so out of hand in the past that it was necessary to surround the section for the opposing team’s fans with high spiked walls and a net that hung down from the very top of the stadium."

Yeah, I love Paris. Just one more reason for me to move here. Although it is worthy of note that there were very very few women at the game...my friends and I (also women) definitely stood out. But its all good, I started my soccer career just playing with boys, so I'm pretty much used to it. I can't wait to go to the next game.

2. So, first thing to note about Paris clubbing is that the majority of clubs here are big into techno. And, as most of you know, techno is not exactly my cup of tea. So for our first night out in Paris (myself and the other students) we chose a club known for playing Latin music and reggaeton stuff, called Barrio Latino. We were hoping to do some salsa, but as it turned out it was more pop latin music than anything you could salsa to. General good times were had by all, it was a 20euro cover charge, but that included one free drink...and my friend Ali and I were shocked to find that our one free drink we chose (tequila sunrise) was 14.50euros. Absolutely ridiculously expensive alcohol. Anyway, we felt like at least with the entrance ticket, we got our money's worth. Around 1:30, most of the group (everyone but Peter and myself) got tired and decided to take the metro home. Peter and I stayed until the club closed around 3am, and then went with some new Canadian friends to a different club near the Louvre that stayed open til 6am. We called it a night around 4:30am because a) it was a techno club and I'm very meh about techno. Peter wasn't overly fond of it either and b) my feet HURT. I mean really HURT. I've since gotten over the whole feet thing, since if you're gonna be truly Parisian and stay out all night, you gotta just let some things go, but yea it was definitely a new level of foot-pain.

Saturday night clubbing was far more successful. Everyone else that had come out for dinner etc got tired/too drunk around 1am, and after the last metro train pulled out, only Thierry and I were left. We walked around the red light district for a while and randomly ran into this club on the corner...I still don't remember the name. But it was sporting a poster that said "Saturday nights, hiphop/rnb/dancehall" so we went for it. Oh man, awesomeness. Awesomeness til we took the metro home at 6am. So far, #1 thing I love about Paris - people dance. No, not grind, dance. Boys and girls, everyone just moves. Ahhhhh so happy. We danced to amazing music for 4 hours and didn't have to or want to push up on anyone else. I'm pretty much going back to this club as much as possible. Anyone who comes to visit me, you're coming too.

3. Red light districtttttt haha. So on Saturday night the group had a reservation for dinner at this crazy little place that serves wine out of baby bottles. Kiiind of weird but cool-sounding so we all showed up at the appointed time (8pm). We were told to wait, there was no room (which was true). However, instead of clearing tables for us, the old man who ran the place kept seating more smaller groups in front of us as the tables emptied. This I could put up with. But when he began, through the window, to bow and make kung-fu moves and pull the outsides of his eyes at my friend Natalia (who is Asian) thats when my line was crossed. I said fuck this and Natalia, Scott, Kerstin and I just left and got Indian food next door. The food was delicious and we laughed so much we cried and mango lassis came in pitcher form (!!!). The french couple sitting next to us judged us a little, but they weren't talking about anything so boo on then haha. Anyway after dinner, we found that the rest of the group had gotten fed up with the old baby bottle man's antics as well and had gone just next door to us and indulged in crepes and carafes of wine. They headed to a bar, but Kerstin and I wanted to go looking for hookers so the four of us (Natalia and Scott too) headed off in a different direction. We didn't find any hookers, but we did explore all the various and sundry things to be had at a store called "Supermarche Erotique," and took pictures of Moulin Rouge. We also found a bar with a very interesting cocktail, so we decided to try it. We're led inside and upstairs and we describe, with lots of pantomiming and hand motions, the drink we want, which is more or less the size of a fishbowl with fruit (see fb pictures). When it arrives, we see on the receipt that we have commandeered 4 "cock soirs" (aka cocktail du soir) which resulted in more hilarity and more being judged by French people. At any rate, a good time was had by all, they headed home around 1:30, after which I met up with Thierry and found the club and etc etc see above entry :)

Anyway I think thats all for now, plus I have a class in 5 minutes haha.

Send me a facebook message or something if you read this so I know if I'm actually writing for anyone or just for myself :)

peace

Bonsoir à tous (11/01/09)

So her son did not arrive today to set up the internet, but he's coming on Tuesday after dinner...yay! Today was great...woke up around 10, had breakfast with Mme Biard (delicious coffee and toast with peach jam), and took a shower. Now, the showers here in the older buildings are a bit different from the showers I'm used to. Basically, there's a bathtub up against the wall that has one of those movable shower-heads attached to the faucet. I realized that (as far as I know) there is no way to take a shower standing up without soaking the entire "salle de bains," so I ended up sitting/kneeling in the bathtub with my shower-head, washing my hair, etc. It was kind of funny but it worked out...the other students that I talked to that had similar salles de bains said that they also sat down to shower to avoid soaking the room. We're very curious to see if there is an effective way to wash oneself standing up.

After bathing, I met up with Midori, another student who lives just around the corner from me. We looked into a gym near where we were staying for her (shes on the Stanford field hockey team), but gyms are SO expensive here. With a promotion that the gym was only having that week, for three months it was 361 euro. Thats over $500...quite a lot for 3 months. We don't think she'll be able to afford it, but she's gonna talk to her parents. From there we decided we were going to walk to the Eiffel Tower (not too far away) but we took a nice roundabout way of getting there and discovered this awesome little pedestrian street with local chocolatiers and boulengers. Most all of the small businesses are closed on Sundays, so we made a note to come back another day. The Eiffel Tower was of course amazing, and we took the required pictures with it in the background. From there we met up with 4 other girls in the program at a cafe near the Champs Elysses called Angelinas...oh man. They're apparently famous for their desserts and pastries and for good reason. Again, I took pictures. EVERYTHING is beautiful here, from the people to the streets to the food. At the end of the Champs Elysses there's this huge ferris wheel thats all lit up at night...its amazing.

We took the metro home to have dinner with our host families. I love the metro here, it smells good, its easy to understand, and its fast. The only thing to get used to is that you need to open the doors yourself. Other than that, its perfect. My metro station is "Jasmin."

Tomorrow we have to be at the Stanford center at 9:30am for a tour and more meetings, and classes officially start on Tuesday. Annnd I think it's time for me to get to sleep, I have to wake up pretty early tomorrow to eat and take the metro. I wish you were here!

peace

Bonsoir! (10/01/09)

So today I moved into my homestay, or "famille d'accuiel." The woman I'm living with is so cool. Her name is Madame Biard, and I have no idea what her first name is. She's 75 years old, she's got 3 kids and 6 grandkids that live all over the world (Geneva, New York, Barcelona, etc) and she is truly an amazing cook. She made a ham quiche for dinner today and it was the best quiche I've ever had. Not that there's that much quiche to be had in Virginia, or California for that matter. But it was delicious. Her apartment is beautiful, I took lots of pictures and will be posting them as soon as I get a reliable internet connection. The information they gave me says that she has internet...but I soon found out that she had only recently bought a router, and had no idea how to set it up. Even if I was technically savvy and knew about these sorts of things, the instructions in French were a little more advanced than I could handle. Anyway, I took myself to the most reliable place to find free wifi in Paris- "un mcdo" (pronounced "mack-doh" = McDonalds). It was quite an experience, I was sitting next to a woman that, over the course of the 15 or 20 minutes I was sitting there, tore her french fry container and napkin into little square pieces, while occasionally talking into the air. I would have uploaded pictures there, but the connection was too painfully slow. I hope that my host mother's son comes to set up the internet tomorrow, she called him today and left a message. Luckily, he lives here in Paris.

Last night, 21 out of the 24 students who came to Paris this quarter went out to dinner together (unfortunately, Heimunn, Mackenzie and Farah made plans to go out to dinner with Farah's Dad earlier). We found this great restaurant close to the hostel where we were all staying, right next to the Hotel de Ville. It was expensive enough to feel like we were splurging but not pricey enough to really hurt when the check arrived. Ahhh...French food. Mes amis, expect the "French fifteen" when I return.

I didn't realize until today just how frustrating the language barrier can be. When I was with all the other kids the past few days, we would be speaking in French but if you didn't know the right word for something, you could just say it in English and more often than not, someone else would be able to supply the correct French word and then the conversation would continue in French. I got very used to asking "comment dit-on...en français?" (how do you say...). Not so with Madame Biard, because she doesn't speak a word of English. I've been doing some pantomiming, its like charades its great. If only she understood the charades signals...2 syllables, sounds like...

OH speaking of the French fifteen, there's a boulengerie/patisserie/chocolaterie verrry near my apartment, and this is verrry dangerous. For those of you that don't speak French, that's essentially a bread store, a pastry/dessert store (think the best of both worlds) and a chocolate store all rolled into one. And if that weren't enough, there's a store just across the street from that that essentially takes chocolate and makes flower bouquets out of it. You have to see it to believe it. I'll take pictures, don't worry.

Je pense que ça c'est tout...if I think of anything else, I'll hopefully be able to put it up there right away since hopefully tomorrow I'll have internet yayyyy :)

peace

Bonjour à tous!

Hey! The first couple days in Paris have been AMAZING, as one might imagine. I got in at 6:35am yesterday along with about 5 other kids in the program, so we were at the hostel where we're staying by 9am and on the streets of Paris by 11 (we had to meet with the organizers, etc). We walked to the Notre Dame cathedral on the Seine river...and it was amazing. I can't believe it's been around for as long as it has. My friend Heimunn and I got approached by a gypsy, who pulled the stereotypic "I am lost, you speak English?" trick with a kid with sticky fingers waiting in the wings, but luckily we got away. It's hard to believe that sort of thing still works, but apparently it does. Stupid tourists, lol. Anyway we discovered "vin chaud" or hot wine, which is delicious and warms the cockles of your heart (haha). Being warm is of the essence here since it hangs out around freezing every day, although its been really sunny so far. So its cold, but cheerful. Today we had lots of meetings and got our bank accounts organized and talked about security in the city and "le jeux des hommes et des femmes" aka how to avoid that sketchy guy trying to take you out for coffee.

Things are really different here...predictably enough. Everyone is always very put together, and everyone dresses well. People also are generally more attractive, or at least thats the group consensus for now. There are lots of rules that people follow that are unwritten (as everywhere), but some that require some attention til they become natural. For example, people don't eat in public. Also, to make eye contact with a member of the opposite sex and smile, even a little, is considered an invitation. People do not ever eat on the metro, or talk to those they don't know. Not a huge deal, but still things to keep in mind. Right now I'm waiting in the lobby of our hostel for people to grab their stuff upstairs and we're going to go charge our Navigo passes, which work like metro cards that you just reload with money each month. Navigo cards are also good for buses and renting bikes as well, so its a good investment.

Alright, time to go. Hope to talk to all of you soon! :)

peace

Last night in the US

Hey everyone, thanks for checking out my blog...so this is the first time I've...blogged...(silly word...) so we'll see how it goes. My moms making hot dogs for dinner...a nice all-American last dinner at home. I still can't believe that I'm getting on a plane tomorrow, I don't think it'll really hit me until I land.

Anyway, this was just a first entry to get it running, I'll try to keep you posted on all the various and sundry things I get up to in France, and I'd love to get your feedback :)

peace