Fishes and Quiches and Theatrical Pieces

Okay, so I lied when I said I'd never wait that long ever again to post... I had every intent of posting earlier, but I was all busy and stuff. Oh wellll. Now I have more stories to share! But in less detail, because I'm not interested in writing a novel, and I'm sure you're not interested in reading one.

That being said, I'll share some highlights from this past week.

Tuesday evening, my host family hosted a small dinner party. I later find out the woman sitting next to me, Eva, is like a known radio columnist at France Inter, and the other guest at the table, Jean, is director of Radio France, program director of France Inter, and created an app for smartphones like okay. They were pretty rad. And fortunately, Eva spoke English. Score! Anyway, we began simply with appetizers, wine, and philosophical discussions. Then with a little wine in our system and hungry bellies, we moved to the dinner table and began to feast. Next thing I know, it's 1:00am, guests are still here, and alcohol is still being poured. It wasn't until 1:30 that people actually left....on a Tuesday night mind you. I'm telling you, my host parents know where it's at.

It was my friend, Emily's birthday on Thursday! So we pulled together a lovely group of Arcadians in Paris and celebrated with a delicious dinner out. The celebration continued Friday night, and we all went to a club. My first club experience in Paris. Not as scary as I expected! (Even if the name of the place was called Panic Room). 

Croustillant de chèvre chaud aux petits légumes

The birthday girl and myself <3

And earlier that day, a few of us from my school went to L'Aquarium de Paris! I don't remember the last time I'd been to an aquarium so it was really really fascinating!

Pretty fantastic :)

Continuing on; the school offered about 6 different shows, from which we were to sign up for 2. Jordyn and I signed up for the "Opera Comique", which took place on Sunday afternoon. The theatre was absolutely beautiful! The only problem was that we couldn't see the stage from our seats, which, as you could imagine, made it slightly more difficult to understand what on earth was going on. All we knew was that words were being sung in French and that there was a woman with exposed breasts and a tiny dog, and after there was something about vegetables, and possibly a gypsy? I'm not sure. We enjoyed what we could see, but after the first act we decided that if we stayed for the second half, we'd probably grow to resent the opera, due to the neck straining and the inability to understand what was going on. So we left, having ended on a good note. Or at least that's how we justified it. I think it makes sense. Anywayyy, we walked around le Marais in search of a cafe, and ended up at a cute place on the corner where we enjoyed some "vin chaud" and some quiches. It is our tradition that we both split our dishes in half and trade. I find this system to be rather ingenious. This way we get to try twice the amount of items on the menu, without having to worry about twice the calories. Holla!!

And then there was yesterday. Ariane had been working on directing a small play for the past week or so, and the rehearsals have been held at the house, so I had the chance to observe the behind-the-scenes of the production. Her friend, Vincent Poussou wrote the play, and this performance was essentially a "sketch", where the actors only met to rehearse 3 times, and performed with the scripts in their hands. I should mention that Vincent is the director of public affairs and digital communications (or something) for le Grand Palais and formerly for le Centre Pompidou. So that's pretty damn cool. Anyway, he wrote this very poetic and intricate play called Eva (completely unrelated to the Eva mentioned before), and I had the privilege of going to the performance. All of the actors were extremely talented and did an absolutely incredible job, especially for only having rehearsed together 3 times. I'd say a solid 78% of it went right over my head, but I was still able to appreciate it.

After the performance ended, I made my way home to do some homework. None of which I got to because 20 minutes later, there was an impromptu celebratory party at the house with Vincent, actors--Julien, Michel, and Emmanuelle--and about 9 other friends of Ariane and Yves. It was a hell of a lot of fun! Suddenly, everyone came together, some scattered to find tables and chairs and silverware, and others took on the job of cooking, and then there were those, like me, who were simply mingling and enjoying a nice glass of red wine. Everyone was really friendly and willing to talk to me even with my extremely choppy Fr-anglais. Lucky for me, the very attractive Julien spoke English :) Anyway, the night went on; food was eaten, drinks were had, pianos were played, songs were sung... more drinks were had. It was a simply fantastic evening! (Which also ended at around 1:30am, surprise surprise!)

Note to self: Always expect random parties, and thus always have your homework done yesterday.

A change of pace.

Yesterday, I awoke at 10:48am. I didn't know what I was going to do for the day. I considered rolling over and going back to bed. Most places are closed on Sundays, and I'd been meaning to blog for a while, so I thought about staying in bed and blogging all day. Yves had mentioned something to me the other day about my being welcome to join him and Ariane in visiting his father who lived 35 km outside of Paris, but I hadn't yet made up my mind if I was going or not. After I finally rolled out of bed, I walked into to the living room to find Yves fixing up his bike and Ariane slicing a baguette she'd just bought. I figured I'd join them for breakfast, and after that, I'd play it by ear. Yves asked me if I was joining them to visit his dad, but before I could answer, the phone rang. It turns out it was his father, Jacques, calling to ask what time he was expecting them and if I would be coming with. I don't know what prompted me to nod my head so quickly, but I did. Maybe it was the excitement in Jacques' voice or the sincerity of Yves' smile... whatever it was, it was convincing.

Yves left on his bicycle and told us he'd see us there, and Ariane and I left an hour later to catch the RER. We almost missed our stop to get off because I was focused on sketching my neighbor's shoelaces, and Ariane was listening intently to the philosophical teachings of Epicure on her iPhone. But just in the nick of time, we simultaneously noticed the sign outside labeled Courcelle-sur-Yvette and quickly rushed to make it off the train before the doors closed. We then spent almost the entire walk to Jacques' house laughing at what could have been a really stupid disaster.

When we entered the house, we were greeted by a little old man with open arms and the biggest smile I'd ever seen. It was contagious, too. Yves arrived shortly after we did, and for the next few hours, we sat around the brass-top coffee table drinking Champagne and exchanging stories.

The constant flow of enthusiasm continued over lunch, and I was slowly beginning to piece together this Jacques Prince character. At first, I thought I was mishearing their stories, because 1. they were told in French, and 2. I couldn't bring myself to believe what they were telling me. Here's an icebreaker for you (you'll get the pun in a second): his godmother was on the Titanic (bam), and happened to be Ninette Aubart, the mistress of Benjamin Guggenheim. I was told the story of their tragic parting as she watched from her lifeboat, the sinking of the ship and of her lover. I then found out that he used to work in the film business alongside director Roberto Rossellini, and was also best friends with producer Adolphe Osso who asked Jacques to work with him, but Jacques missed the appointment due to heavy traffic. He just laughs about it and says it wasn't meant to be.

Then Ariane began telling me about a play that Jacques was in, in which he played a very active and sporty 75 year old. Out of curiosity, I asked what year this was, to which she responded, "2010". She then laughed and said, "The funny part is, nobody knew he was 95 at the time!"

...

I remember Yves had once mentioned something about his father's age in passing, but if you know anything about counting in French, you'll know that the closer the number is to 100, the more complex and mathematical it gets. I guess when he'd said "quatre-vingt-dix-huit", the number 98 didn't entirely compute. Low and behold, Jacques Prince is 98. He is healthy as can be, drives his own car, makes his own food, goes out with friends, and enjoys whisky and the occasional cigarette. Last year, he underwent (and obviously survived) a dangerous heart surgery, which makes him the oldest patient in the world to whom this operation has been done.

I asked him how he does it, and he chuckled and told me that he did everything in his youth a person shouldn't do. Everything, in moderation, that is. One of the most memorable things he said yesterday was this:

"People used to tell me not to smoke, because smoking makes you die young. But now that I have no chance of dying young, I don't have to worry about that!" 

Right then and there is when I really began to understand who Jacques Prince was.

He continued on by saying that life is here for us to enjoy, and that it's important we don't take away from that by stressing over things. His example being that if he is working on a project and suddenly loses all of his work...oh well. It's a learning process, a new beginning--it's an adventure!

I can honestly say that my encounter with Jacques has changed my life. His words were so powerful and so genuine. He's opened my eyes to an entirely new way of seeing things... Living a long and happy life is not about playing it safe. It's not about making things perfect. It's about doing what you love and not worrying about the little things-or the big things for that matter. It's about taking life one step at a time and when something doesn't happen the way you wanted it to, it's because it simply wasn't meant to be. Every time I'd heard this said before, it went in one ear and out the other. But never before had I been faced with living proof. Jacques Prince is living proof. He is 98 years old and he is the happiest person I've ever met.

And so I'm turning my life around. I'm opening my mind up to new opportunities, letting go of grudges,  accepting change... Because only then will I be able to say I lived life for me.

I'm never waiting this long to blog again.

Okay so a hell of a lot happened this week... And in order for me to cover it all thoroughly, I have to break it down into two posts. This first one covering this past Monday through Saturday. ANDGO.

Monday was the start of my first week of classes. They're pretty good so far! I'm taking French writing, French oral, an independent study with an interior designer, and one of the following: History of Architecture in Paris, or Art in the 20th Century (depending on which one Arcadia will let me use as a 300 level Art History course. Still waiting on that confirmation...) It's definitely a challenge, having my classes be taught in French, but a learning process nonetheless.

Tuesday evening, the school hosted a small mixer. Title: Music Pop Quiz. More fun than it sounded. I got to meet some new people, including these two Austrian girls who you'll hear more about under The Friday Paragraph :)

Wednesday mornings are "en ville" days for the Architecture class. So my classmates and I spent some quality time getting frostbite while my teacher talked about the Musee de Cluny, which probably would have been interesting to listen to if I was able to concentrate on anything other than the fact that I was pretty sure my toes had fallen off. Note to self: Three pairs of socks still results in frostbite, so don't bother next time. After I regained feeling in my toes, off I went to my second class of the day, and then onto my third, being the independent study (I.S.) with Thierry, the interior designer. We met with his fellow architect friend to discuss the logistics of my first project, and we may or may not have all grabbed drinks after? But like apparently that's like not weird here. So I just went with it.

Aaaand onto Thursday. For 20th Century Art, we met at The Louvre which was pretty kewl. It really is amazing there. The class was only from 11:00-12:30, but I stayed for another 2 hours after so I could explore. I ended up finding a quiet room with a beautiful statue and a nearby bench, where I proceeded to sit, observe, and sketch. It was so peaceful, and very much needed.

After my second class of the day was over, my weekend had begun because I don't have classes on Fridays because I'm awesome. I spent the evening out with some friends from Arcadia who are studying in Paris for the semester. And of course when I returned home, my host parents were wide awake and wanting to talk and I was all what are you doing it's two in the morning how do you have this much energy I hope I'm not slurring my words.

Friday afternoon, as part of my homework assignment, I went to the art center called Palais de Tokyo. I spent some quality time there with fellow classmates, Catherine and Melissa, and after we walked around le Marais, enjoyed the plethora of sunlight, grabbed something to eat, and afterwards, Melissa introduced me to Kilo-Shop, a 2 story thrift shop where you pay by the kilo. I'm not even kidding when I say I'm planning on spending an entire day there. It's like thrift shop heaven. Prepare for updates on this one, y'all.
Later that night, Melissa and I met up with the Austrian girls, who introduced us to their friend, (who's German), and her friend, (who goes to college in PA, 30 minutes from my house). It's a really small world. I've been meeting lots of people from all around the world, which is really neat :) Oh, and you should know that once again, I had a lovely 2:00am conversation with my host parents. I'm convinced they're vampires.

And lastly, there was Saturday. I spent the afternoon gallery hopping around le Marais as instructed by Thierry. I felt super artsy, like these people:

And before going out with friends, I had dinner with my host fam. Austin was out, but it was Yves, Ariane, her friend, Fatma, and myself. We joked around, listened to music, drank some wine, sang, danced... (not kidding, Yves was teaching me how to swing dance). They're just a bunch of teenagers at heart, I swear. It's amazing. They're so much fun and I cannot wait to spend more time getting to know them :)


Well folks, that's all for this post. But tomorrow I will post about Sunday, a day I'll never forget.

Paris: I'm doing it wrong.

Well I never ended up going clubbing last night. Although I did come back from a bar at around 12:30am to a quiet house thinking that my host family was asleep. Turns out my 16 year old host brother didn't get in until 2:00am and my host parents didn't get home from their party until 3:00am. Clearly I'm partying with the wrong people...

This post is being written in a cafe. How Parisian of me.

I learned something really important about myself this week. That being, if you put a basket full of fresh bread in front of me, I will absolutely eat the whole thing.

Now that I've confessed that, I will tell you about the last few days of my orientation.

Wednesday, February 6th:

My group met at the Louvre Wednesday morning. I could spend forever in there, I kid you not. Actually, our tour guide told us that if you were to spend a minute in front of every piece of art, for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, it would take over 10 years to see everything in the Louvre. How ridiculous is that?! If I suddenly go missing for 10 years, you'll know where to find me.

After that, we grabbed some lunch, mine being a 3 cheese tart with potato and caramelized onions (as shown to the right) and then headed off to look at some amazing and historically significant churches. My favorite was the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont (the link is in French, sorry) dedicated to Sainte-Genevieve. Unlike any of the other churches I'd seen, this one had no artificial lights on, and the only light entering the building was the sunlight shining through the stained glass. Absolutely magnificent.

We then paid a visit to the Grande Mosquee de Paris and had some delicious Moroccan mint tea! Aaaaaand that night I had dinner at 10:30pm.

Thursday, February 7th:

I cannot even...

Thursday was perhaps the most satisfying day for my tummy so far. To start, we went to the Quartier du Marais in which the Jewish neighborhood of Paris resides! We ate at L'as du Falafel which is a well known falafel place there (and for good reason), which as stated on the sign, is recommended by Lenny Kravitz. Just saying. Needless to say, their falafel was AMAZING, and I was extremely sad after I'd devoured it all. But I told my tummy not to worry because I'd be back very soon.

We continued walking around le Marais, and ended up looking at numerous private mansions in the area. Then it got really cold and we called it a day. But my new friend, Jordyn and I had been discussing our shared love for French food when she told me she'd never had a macaroon. We had no choice but to find some and eat them. Thus, we went macaroon hunting and found ourselves at a cute place with a very large selection of macaroons. Jordyn and I plan on becoming regulars here due to obvious reasons. (The same reasons which are slowly beginning to make me fat...)

Pistachio, Apricot/Ginger, and Caramel macaroons.

Jordyn :)

The crazy part about all of this is that Jordyn and I are both juniors at Arcadia, have taken multiple French classes, have many mutual friends, and yet have never seen each other. It's bizarre. So we spent about 2 hours at this cafe gossiping about people we knew and how ridiculously small this world is. All the while nomming on macaroons, naturally.

Oh, and guess what time I had dinner that night? Yep, 10:50pm. I do not understand. But okay. It was yummy nonetheless.

Friday, February 8th: 

Yesterday was our last day of orientation, sadly, but we went out with a bang. We went to the beautiful Palace of Versailles! 2 years ago, when we went, we stupidly went on a Monday when the palace is closed to the public...We ended up spending the day in the gardens which was fantastic, but it was a shame. Yesterday, however, we got a guided tour of the inside of the palace :) I have been learning so much about the history of France, and all of its hidden treasures. It has been such a privilege having such a wonderful tour guide this whole week as well, who has been able to share with us all of those details you didn't think you needed to know, but like you actually do. Like who cheated on who, and who was secretly gay, and who got to watch the king go to the bathroom in the morning, and why it was a privilege to keep the king's shaven foot skin. No lie. This woman is full of not-so-useless knowledge like that. And she's super legit. She's given tours to Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley (who is apparently world's biggest asshole), the Lakers, Henry Kissinger, Bill Gates..... Bill Gates. Like, okay. Anyway here are some pictures of Versailles for ya:

I then spent the evening out with some friends, Sebastian and Melissa. We went to Le Tavern de Cluny for dinner and some drinks and it was tres amusant! :D Oh, and if y'all haven't tried Stella with grenadine then you haven't lived. Just gonna throw that one out there.

Then there's today. This morning I joined Ariane, Yves, and their friend Fatima for breakfast. They showed me two things: 1. How to make a candle out of an orange, which is BRILLIANT. And 2. The right way to eat your baguette in the morning; which is to put butter and jam on it, and then dip it into your cafe au lait. I'm never not eating this for breakfast. (Once again, this is why I will be coming back to the states twice the size I am now).

And here I sit in the cafe around the corner from my apartment, drinking espresso (because I accidentally ordered un cafe which is not actually coffee, it's espresso.....) and of course blogging. This was my very beautiful and tasty as well as tiny and very expensive lunch I just finished:

I think I'm going clubbing tonight? I'm not sure. We'll see. That should be interesting. But for now, I must close my computer and go exploring. Au revoir for now!

Xoxo

A second blog post, what do ya know!

Here are some things that happened today:

First and foremost, I mastered the art of the "oeuf a la coque". Then I managed to drop my iPhone all of 2 feet and suddenly it decided to not turn on. So that was cool... After I recovered, I took the Metro all by myself like a big girl to meet up with my group. We visited the beautiful Gothic chapel, Sainte-Chapelle, commissioned by Louis IX, as well as former prison, La Conciergerie, where some 2,700 prisoners took their turn waiting for their heads to be brutally chopped off. (Including Marie Antoinette, poor thing.) We also got to see Notre Dame! I had seen it before when I spent the weekend in Paris 2 years ago during my semester in London, so I was like whatevs but then I was like just kidding can I live here please.

<< My awesome salad with hot goat cheese.














And finally, we trekked up to the Sacre-Coeur Bascilica, which sits at the highest part of Paris from which you can see the entire city. The view is absolutely stunning.



























We then took a tour of the surrounding neighborhood, Montmartre. The whole town is freaking adorable. And for those of you who have seen the movie, Amelie, a lot of it was shot in this area, and I got to see the cafe where she she would go, which was pretty cool.

This is Montmartre:

Anyway, it was like...entirely too cold out today which made the experience slightly uncomfortable when my toes decided to stop working, but I still got some pretty pictures out of it.

Then I starved to death in my room until my host brother announced at 9:45pm that dinner was ready, at which point I resurrected myself and ate some pasta and carrot soup.

C'est tout!

Euh, how you say "baguette?"

Hello self slash all who are reading! It's me, Dana. Hey. I'm spending the semester in Paris and it is my intention to keep a blog throughout the entire experience. Let's see how long this lasts. Last time I did this I ended up stopping the blog after a month because it stressed me out. Maybe this time I won't write a novel a day. Or maybe someone needs to bribe me with cookies or something. Just kidding there are entirely too many cookies--excuse me--biscuits, here, and I already know that I shall be gaining 10 to 15 pounds these next four months based on the amount of bread I've been consuming...so, nevermind the cookies. Whatever, here we go.

So let's talk about the airport. My parents dropped me off at JFK airport Saturday with just enough time for me to catch my 5:05pm plane to Paris. There I was being all sad and lonely, when someone announced that the plane wasn't working or something so we had to get a new one. A NEW ONE. Which apparently would take 6 freaking hours. Perhaps the only good that came of this is that American Airlines ever so kindly gave us all $12 food vouchers as compensation because $12 is apparently what my well being is worth according to AA. #dramatic. Alas, I spent some quality me time in a restaurant with a portobello sandwich and a corona which only ended up costing me $9. Not complaining there. Anyway, we ended up departing at about 11:15pm. Normal stuff. There was a crying baby. I had earphones. I slept. Next thing I knew, I was in Paris.

I was greeted at the Charles de Gaulle airport by the program director who took me and another girl to meet our host families. My host mom, Ariane, came to meet me and she was wearing really cool boots and a really cool scarf with pockets for all her stuff and her hat was fluffy. When I arrived at the apartment, I was pleasantly surprised at the decor! The entire ceiling of the main area is glass so the whole place is super light and open. There's art everywhere, and it's just super cozy :)

CHECK THAT SHIT OUT!

My host dad, Yves, is very engaging and likes to joke around. He makes me feel right at home. And my host brother is 16 and his name is Austin. He's also been very helpful and they've all been very nice and very patient with me as I stumble pathetically over my words. Ah, yes, I should state that in this program, I am only allowed to speak French. French at home, French at school. ALL THE TIME FRENCH. My brain...is mush. So on top of being jet lagged, my brain is attempting to listen and understand and translate and process and formulate and conjugate....all that good stuff. So basically, I'm exhausted.

Anyway, today was my first full day in Paris. For breakfast, Ariane handed me something that looks like this:

(not my photo)

So I just kind of stared at it because I had no idea what to do with an egg in a little bowl next to a small spoon. After like a minute of me stalling by slowly buttering my piece of baguette, she finally explained that it's an "oeuf à la coque", which is a soft boiled egg. You're supposed to crack the top open and eat the insides with a spoon. Simple enough. Did it. Also, delish.

I had to be at the school at 10:00am so Austin showed me the ways of the Metro this morning and I found my way to the school perfectly fine. (I may or may not have gotten lost on the way back, but if you know me at all, you know that's expected.) So me and the other 5 students in the program talked with the director about expectations and such. Then we walked around, grabbed some lunch, (I had a tomato and zucchini feuillette or something, mmm) and then went to la Musee de Cluny and looked at some old Roman shit or something. I'm kidding, I enjoyed myself, I was just falling asleep due to the jet lag. Sorry.

And to conclude, I made it home safe and sound, ate some dinner with the family, and Yves proceeded to show me paintings, movie posters, photos, and short films that he and his wife made. This family is so artsy, I love it.

Et voila!
Let's hope this is not my last blog post...

Yours truly,
Dana