So this week I'm going to (attempt) to do daily entries, in order to save you (and me) from a gigantic post at the end of the week. And that way I can use all the fabulous post titles that have been stacking up in my head. But before I can start that, I have to pick up from last week, so let's have at it:
Wednesday:
There was school, which was the last day of normally-scheduled classes before the break. The classes themselves weren't particularly memorable, so we'll skip them. In the afternoon I went to see 'Nous Resterons Sur Terre' (We Will Remain on Earth), the French version of 'An Inconvenient Truth,' with Sophie and one of her friends, Anne. In some ways I think this was the better film; instead of a bunch of statistics, it was a series of visuals, which sometimes is much more effective. Visual creatures that we are, images will always make more immediate sense, I think, than numbers. In any case, it was certainly more striking on a visceral level, and more artistic. The point that bothered me was that it insisted that things need to change, but no suggestions were offered of how to start. In a lot of ways, I'll concede that we're still figuring that out, but there are still many, many elementary things that you can start doing that have the potential to effect enormous change, provided that enough people do them. In any case, it was worth watching, but not outstanding.
After that, through a misunderstanding I missed a panel on Jackie Kennedy through the France-Etats-Unis group, but it wasn't a grand loss since I had homework to do anyway. And that was it.
Thursday:
The morning was volleyball. I really hope we do something else after the break, because I am absolutely hopeless. English was cancelled for reasons that remain obscure, so I finished at four. I would have finished at three if the classroom for Math hadn't changed or if someone had told me that it had. In fairness, Laurene tried to tell me that it had, but when she described it I thought that it was a different room from what she was talking about. In the end, though, no harm done: on Thursdays we split into two groups for math, so I just went with the later group instead. During the afternoon time I had free, I read, pretended to do homework, actually finished some, and went to bed before midnight for the first time in a week, so all in all, a success.
Friday:
First thing in the morning we had an oral exam in Spanish, but this was actually kinder than the one in French: we had a mock trial, which is something that I've already done in my Spanish classes in the US. It went quite well; I didn't speak as much as I probably should have, but what I did say was pertinent and in mostly correct Spanish, so I count it as a victory considering how much difficulty I've been having trying to speak Spanish in France. The other classes weren't particularly remarkable; Social Studies was research for our project on how solidarity is a social duty, in French we did a group analysis of one of the poems from the Bac Blanc, and in Drama we did a short writing assignment.
The afternoon classes (which for me is just English) were cancelled for the Course contre la faim (Race Against Hunger). Unfortunately, I didn't find very many sponsors, but I did the run anyway and managed to do 10K, the maximum allowed unless you proved you were training for the Olympics, basically. I was pretty pleased with myself, especially considering I haven't really been doing any running since I left Albuquerque. To celebrate, I treated myself to a new jacket with a purple skull on the back (because life is too short to pass something like that up) and some cheap earrings. The treat was unintentional; I actually only went into town to pick up some tea for Sophie (my aunt Sophie, not my friend) as a thank you for letting me stay at her apartment in Paris, but since I spent too much time choosing and then was stopped by Armand, who happened to be passing by just as I exited, by the time I got to the stop, I'd missed my bus. The next one wasn't for another half hour, so I walked around the shops in the area for a bit, and there you have it.
And that was Friday, pretty much.
Saturday:
I took the early train to Paris. Sophie met me at the station, and then we went back to the apartment briefly in order to pack some overnight things to go out to their house in the country. Since we had some extra time before the train out left at ten-fifty, I asked if we could go to the post office on the corner to mail off a package and a couple of letters. We left at nine-thirty and didn't get out until quarter past ten. The woman at the counter had no idea how to do her job, and she was the only one with an open window. When we finally managed to leave, we booked it to the metro and from there to our train, and managed to make it with three minutes to spare (like I said, I'm getting the hang of this public transport thing...). All's well that ends well; we made it out without a problem, and we passed through fields upon beautiful fields of canola in flower in the mist and the rain.
Unfortunately, while pretty, the rain prevented us from doing much that afternoon. I read and shivered and dozed off by the fire for the most part. In the evening, I watched 'Howl's Moving Castle,' in French, which was interesting-- I didn't understand it at all since I missed the first half of the movie (I was calling my parents). After watching the first half the next day, it made much more sense and only confirmed my love for Miyazaki's work. (And Diana Wynne Jones's, I suppose it must be said, even though I actually haven't read 'Howl's Moving Castle.' I know, I know. But her Chrestomanci books were some of my favorites when I was between 10-13. And Dogsbody. I adored Dogsbody).
All in all, very quiet, very pleasant.
Sunday:
Rain again in the morning, so after breakfast I spent most of my time stealing CD's to upload into my Itunes library from my uncle's gigantic collection. I fleshed out my Santana collection, added the Doors (why they weren't there already, I'm not sure), as well as Eric Clapton (ditto), Damien Rice, Alela Diane, and Leonard Cohen. By the time I finished with that, the rain had stopped, so I took a long walk by a canal that made me think of the ditch where I walk my dog back home (only much greener). When I got home, I was enlisted to make salsa for burritos. When I protested that I'd never made salsa before, my relatives protested back that I'm from New Mexico, and I had to concede that they had a point. Evidently, even though I'm not a native New Mexican, I still managed to make something that resembled salsa quite well, given the lack of certain key ingredients (jalepenos, for example). It was good enough to dip chips in, anyway, and now I can be among the proud and the few who can say they made salsa for the first time in France. For dessert, to round out the strange internationality, we had tiramisu (which I aided in the creation of), which was delicious. I kept the recipe, in case it comes in handy later.
We packed up the show after that and headed back to Paris. We visited Sophie's parents briefly and gave them flowers from the garden. By the time we got home, it was around eleven, so we went more or less directly to bed.
Monday:
Alright, catching up!
I woke up at eight and prepared myself as quietly as I could so that I wouldn't wake up Elisabeth (my cousin). I took the bus out to the Champs-Elysees and went to the Starbucks there, partly to waste time and partly because I really do miss Starbucks. In the US, I wouldn't be caught dead there, but somehow in France it's comforting.
After that, I took the metro out to the Hotel de Ville and walked from there to the Georges Pompidou Centre, where I proceeded to waste another forty-five minutes waiting for it to open. Mostly I was looking for a place to have lunch, but there were some shops close by that I went through as well. I found an absolutely fabulous rainbow tank top that I bought with the original intention of saving for Paris Pride, but ended up wearing that day; I put on long sleeves in the morning since the last several days were so cold, but the afternoon turned out to be sweltering, so it saved me from a good amount of discomfort considering I spent most of the time outside. Among other adventures, communists tried to recruit me (they were just standing outside of the museum and handing out flyers, so I guess I'm exaggerating a bit), and I took a lot of pictures of amusing graffiti. I even got other people to take pictures after me; I happened to stop and photograph a wall that reminded me of something Banksy might have painted (yes, I know he's British, but you never know), and a group of Spanish tourists behind me noticed and stopped to photograph it as well. The reason I know I was the reason they stopped? I overheard the following exchange (in Spanish), "Why are we stopping? What the hell is that?" "I don't really know, but that girl's taking a picture of it, so I guess it's important." I bit my tongue and skipped off.
Anyway, after all that fun, the museum finally opened. There was a minor moment of frustration when I was stopped at the gate and told to go to the ticket counter; evidently, even though it's free if you're under eighteen, you still have to stand in line to get an exemption ticket. I feel like that defeats the purpose a bit, but whatever. The line moved pretty fast; I was through in less than ten minutes.
There are two exhibitions going on at the moment; one for Alexander Calder and the other one for Kadinsky. They were both striking in different ways. If you're not familiar with either of them, search their works. They're worth a look. I took a few pictures in the Calder exhibition until a guard politely stopped me and told me that photographs weren't allowed in the exhibition hall. I was embarrassed, but in any case I got pictures of all but one of my favorite pieces, and a couple with my little crane. I'll put them in the gallery later this evening or tomorrow, depending on when I have the time. I didn't take any pictures in the Kadinsky exhibition (for obvious reasons), but (I believe) photographs were allowed in the rest of the museum, so I have some of a few other pieces, a couple more with the crane, and a few of the view of Paris from the terrace.
At around one thirty I left to go eat lunch. I went to a little Indian restaurant that I'd picked out that morning, since I've been longing for Indian food for a while (yep, my cravings: Satellite (using Starbucks as a substitute), Indian food, and green chile. Still waiting on the last one). It was pretty good: not Annapurna, but not bad either. Wonderful vegetable curry, cauliflower fritters, cheese nan-- the stuff of dreams, basically. The waiter was quite nice and was surprised when I tried to pay with my American credit card that I wasn't French. He shook my hand when I left. I was basically the only one in the restaurant; I think that's why.
After that, I walked from there to the Louvre. The Louvre, unfortunately, was absolutely packed, so I only stayed for about an hour before I headed out. This time I saw the Mona Lisa, as well as the Venus De Milo, among various other paintings and sculptures from various cultures and eras. There was also a striking series of paintings called 'Les Funerailles de Mona Lisa' that particularly caught my attention. The room they were in was nearly empty, and they were gigantic canvases, so it was an impressive effect. Black-and-white, eerie realistic sketches...I'm not sure how to describe them. I don't yet have the vocabulary to be an art critic or a sommelier. Powerful. That's good enough.
Once I could take no more of the crowds I went out to the gardens of Tuileries and sat by a fountain for a while to rest and enjoy the sunshine. I walked the rest of the way to the Champs-Elysees, stopped and vaguely looked at a few of the stores but didn't buy anything, and then took the bus home. And that was pretty much it; now I'm just waiting on dinner. Homemade chevre tortellini. Mmmm.
I haven't quite made my plans for tomorrow yet, so it'll be as much of a surprise for me as for you. But I definitely will try the daily update plan; at the worst I think I can make it every two days. The evenings seem fairly free, though, so it should work out. Keep checking!
Ciao for now!
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