Ice skating, wine, and turning 21!

I thought I should do a post today to mark my birthday, so here it is.

Last night me and my friends went out for crepes (of course) and then went out to a club. When my cell phone struck midnight indicating the start of my 21st birthday (Paris time) I was dancing to a strange combination of techno and American pop music in a Parisian club right next the Arc de Triomphe! What more could you ask for.

It was super fun, but getting home on the noctilien (the night bus)...not so much. My friend and I decided to go home together so neither of us would have to walk alone. The bus ride itself wasn't that bad (not nearly as scary as our study abroad program made it seem during orientation), but of course we were completely lost once we got off at what we thought was the right stop. Luckily enough for us a friendly French guy (taking a bike ride at 3am on a Thursday...um what?) noticed we were lost and was nice enough to walk us home. Yes...it was slightly sketch, but he turned out to be super nice and we got to practice our French a bit. We finally made it to her apartment and improvised a bed for me out of two towels and winter coat. After a surprisingly decent 3 hours of sleep, I got up and took the metro/bus combo home and promptly fell back asleep in my own bed.

I woke up to find a rose and a little present in my room and a fresh brioche (a special French roll sort of thing) waiting for me. It was really nice of my host mom to make my morning so nice!

This afternoon a group from my school went ice skating on the Eiffel tower. It was unbelievable! I was slightly nervous about climbing up to the rink on the first level of three (I'm terrified of heights), but I'm so glad I did it. It was a ton of fun, and I can't imagine anything more epic I could have done on my birthday...ok well I probably can, but it was still amazing! After we ice skated for about 45 minutes we climbed the stairs (you don't even want to know how many stairs there were) again up to the 2nd level. It was a great view, but absolutely freezing (it probably didn't help that we had just been ice skating). Here are some pictures:

 This is where the fear of heights kicked in a bit....

 So many stairs...

After the Eiffel tower a couple friends and I grabbed some late lunch at Subway (very French I know, but they do have slightly different things). It was actually probably the best Subway sandwich I've ever had. We then took the metro back to our school to attend a wine tasting. It was really interesting to hear everything the presenter was saying and taste all the different wines from each region of France. Of course we also had bread and cheese to accompany the wine.

To finish off the night I went out with a friend to get some sushi (yes, I have a problem).

I had an amazing birthday with some amazing people! I'm so grateful to be here having this experience! Tomorrow: Versailles!

Internships, the Opera, and sushi!

I've pretty much settled in now. Today was our second day of classes, so it's nice to get back into a routine. Since I last posted I went to the Musee d'Orsay, saw a movie (Love and Other Drugs with French subtitles...gotta start somewhere), explored the nightlife a bit, visited the Opera (just to tour, not to see anything...yet), set up two interviews for internships, and fell in love with sushi!


The Musee d'Orsay is probably one of my favorite museums I've ever been to. Last week we took a guided tour, which was good, but I didn't get to wander around on my own, so I will definitely be going back. Unfortunately you can't take pictures inside the museum, but here's the outside...

Last Wednesday I went to see Love and Other Drugs at a movie theatre called UGC. The mall type area that the movie theatre was in was underground and connected to the metro station...super weird. After asking threee people where the theatre was (including one woman standing right next to the sign for it...duh) my friend and I bought our tickets and sat down in front of blank screen in super comfy chairs. It was really strange to me that they weren't playing any advertisements when we got into the theatre. They just started the previews at the time posted. On a side note, they also don't have commercial breaks during TV shows...strange, but refreshing.


On Friday night a group of my friends and I decided to go out. We went to a bar on a street frequented by students in hopes of meeting some young French people. We had gone out before, but had encountered mostly senior citizens and families with young children in the bars we found...which was not really what we were looking for. We were just sitting at a table talking amongst ourselves when a random French girl (who had obviously had a bit too much to drink) came up and started talking to us. She then proceeded to introduce us to about six of her other friends. It was really nice to talk to some young Parisians, but of course they all wanted to practice their English so we didn't get to speak French with them. Anyway they were super nice and gave us some suggestions of places to go and things to do. It was a really fun night!


On Wednesday I group of us took a tour of the Opera. It was probably one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever been in. The pictures didn't turn out perfect because it was kind of dark, but here you go...

Sorry for posting so many pictures of the Opera...but I'm slightly obsessed. The pictures don't do it justice at all. We're planning on trying to get cheap tickets to go back and see a performance some time!


I'm doing an internship in place of one of my classes this semester. I have interviews at two possible places: a middle school as an assistant to an English teacher or a bilingual acting school. I had my interview with the acting school today (which went really well) and I have an interview with the middle school on Tuesday. I'm really looking forward to starting my internship!


I've definitely moved on from the cheese sandwiches...which are honestly starting to make me a bit sick. Now I'm in to sushi! Who would have thought that I would fall in love with sushi in Paris.... 

Yum!

Random note: I'm currently writing this on a computer equiped with a French keyboard (the Q and A are switched, the M is by the L, etc.) that is set up to work like an American keyboard. So when you press the key that says Q, you actually type an A. I basically just have to ignore the keyboard and remember my typing lessons from 5th grade.

Finally...my favorite picture of the week. 

In the gift shop of the Opera! So pretty!

Propedeutique, Art, and Feminism!

Not too much to report on the past two days.

I started my propédeutique (intensive language class to get us ready for the rest of the semester) on Monday. We have class for two hours every day for the next week and a half before we start our actual classes on January 26th. We're going over semi-boring vocabulary and grammar stuff, but it's still nice to have somewhat of a routine.

On Monday I had class (which doesn't start until 11:30am, so I get to sleep in a bit!), a meeting about internships, a tour of the area around our school, and then visited the Centre Pompidou (the modern art museum). I'm hoping to do an internship in a school or one related to theatre in some way. I think it would be a great way to practice my French and would also be good in general since I haven't had an internship yet in the U.S., but it would take a lot of time...we'll see how it goes. The museum was pretty good. We went on a tour (all in French of course) of their permanent exhibits and an exhibit called Elle (she) which included only women artists. One of my favorite parts was the mural right as you enter the Elle exhibit.

The names of many famous male artists have been changed to female names (ex: Jackson Pollock- Jacqueline Pollock).

A couple of my other favorites:

 La Tour Eiffel, bien sur!

 This one changes as you walk by it, so the piece looks different from each point of view.

This is a table with all the plates, cups, napkins, etc. permanently attached to it and turned on it's side. I'm not sure of the exact statement the artist was trying to make, but it looked really cool. 

There was also a wall of Guerrilla Girl posters that was really interesting. The Guerrilla Girls are a group of feminists that wear gorilla masks at their events (they want people to focus on the issues at hand instead of them as individuals) and campaign against sexism in art and society in general. I think I've explained their campaign pretty well, but I would definitely encourage you to do more research on them. The movement is super interesting! Here is some of their exhibit at the Pompidou.

Really interesting...

Anyway, today I had more language class, got lunch with friends, and came home to take a nap. I just finished dinner with my host mom (some sort of cheese and cauliflower dish, salad, bread, cheese, wine, and fruit).

Let me know if you have any specific questions or want to hear about anything in particular!

Churches, cheese sandwiches, and free hugs

I'm finally on a normal sleeping schedule, I know how to get home without getting lost, I managed to order without embarrassing myself at several restaurants, took a lot of pictures, and finally bought shampoo. I would call this weekend a success. 

Yesterday (Saturday) I slept in until about 11:30. Forgetting that my host mom was having friends over for lunch I opened my door to go down the hall to the bathroom (still in my PJs and fuzzy pink slippers) and was promptly introduced to a women whose name I don't remember. She probably thought there was something wrong with me. I am pretty dysfunctional in English when I wake up, let alone in French. After getting ready and trying unsuccessfully to sneak out without anymore awkward encounters, I took the metro to meet some people from my group at la fontaine (fountain) St. Michel. 

We saw the outside of the Notre Dame and walked around the area a bit. We went to a famous ice cream place...of course I don't remember the name...and I got red peach ice cream. It was super good! The line for Notre Dame was too long so we decided to go to Sainte-Chapelle instead. It's a smaller chapel with amazing stained glass. 

These pictures don't do it justice. It was bright and beautiful with fleurs de lis everywhere--my favorite!

After seeing Sainte-Chapelle we thought we would try to get in Notre Dame again, but the line was still really long. We did happen to see a band playing Beatles songs on the plaza out front. There were also about 10 people with "Free Hugs" signs. I did not get a free hug, but I did take a picture. 

By this time it was 5pm and I hadn't eaten anything except for a sort of chocolate pudding yogurt thing at 11:30 (oh and the ice cream...balanced meals). A couple of us decided to find a cafe for dinner, but they wanted to find the Longchamp store first to buy purses. We had no idea where to go and ended up walking around in circles for a while. After about an hour and a half my stomach was protesting so one girl and I left to find a cafe. After passing several cafes that were too expensive, too touristy, too intimidating, too crowded etc. we finally found one that would work. I ordered a sandwich with camembert and un carafe d'eau (a little vase/pitcher of tap water). The sandwich was really good! It's actually socially acceptable to get a cheese sandwich here, which is awesome for me! No more weird looks from the people at the sandwich station in the marketplace. 

(I forgot to take a picture until I was half way done)

After dinner I went to meet up with some other friends for drinks. Today (Sunday) my host mom took me to see the local farmer's market type thing that is right by the apartment. It's open on Thursday and Sunday and sells fruit, vegetables, meat, cheese, pastries, and bread. It was really interesting but kind of a nightmare for a vegetarian...lots of dead animals (what I call meat). After looking around at the market for a while I went down the street to the grocery store to buy some toiletries that I had to take out of my suitcase at the airport to meet the 50lbs limit. Most stores and restaurants in France are closed on Sunday, so this one was very crowded. After taking forever to decide what to buy (as always) I checked out and headed home with my purchases to have lunch with my host mom and her adult son.

After lunch I set out to find the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Paris (part of the Unitarian Universal Church, which is less a church and more a spiritual group, that I go to in Phoenix and Pasadena). I knew exactly how to get to the metro stop, but once I exited the metro I couldn't find the street it was on anywhere. I asked some people on the street for directions. They were super nice and practically walked me there. The service the same and different from what I'm used to. It's a fellowship, so they don't have a "minister." Everyone kind of takes turns playing different roles and speaking in front of the group. It was pretty much all Americans so it was nice to be able to speak English and not worry about blending in for the afternoon. I took the bus for the first time on the way home and that was an experience... It was so incredibly crowded that when I first got on I was just inside the doors when we took off. At each stop everyone moves a bit toward the back of the bus, but you always have to make sure that you have something to hold on to because with the starts and stops you can easily fall over if you aren't hanging on (unfortunately I learned this the hard way by almost falling on an older woman who consequently glared at me). I'm supposed to take the bus to class every day but at this point I prefer the metro...we'll see. 

Tomorrow we're starting our week of intensive language classes and continuing with orientation. I'll leave you with one more picture. This was actually from Friday night on the coaster at the restaurant we were at. It's my first French pun! 

(the direct translation is "the divine little glass",

 but un verre du vin is a glass of wine so it's a little play on words)

FYI I'm going to be putting all my pictures up on Flickr because I have way to many to put them all here. I'll post the website in the comments when I finish setting it up. 

Thanks for continuing to read! I love feedback of any kind!

First days

Hey everyone,

First of all...just a disclaimer...I've never written a blog before, so I have no idea if this will be interesting or not or even if I'll continue doing it all semester. I'm just going to give it a try and see how it goes. I apologize in advance. =)

Today was my third day here, and I love everything so far! I arrived Wednesday morning at 8am Paris time (midnight Phoenix time). Somehow I managed to meet two other people from my program at the airport and ended up splitting a cab with one of them. I'm living in a homestay just outside of Paris in a suburb called Montrouge, which is just south of the 14th arrondissement (neighborhood/quarter/area). After getting dropped off in front of three or four identical apartment buildings and wandering around for a couple minutes I heard a high-pitched voice yelling "Yoo-hoo! Mallory!" with a beautiful French accent. My host mother was waving at me from her balcony in her second story apartment. She came down to get me and help me with my luggage, of course after exchanging les bisous (kisses on both cheeks common among friends/family in France). Her apartment is very cute and fairly large considering that just the two of us will be living here. I plan to take pictures of my room when I've had a chance to finish unpacking. I was so jet-lagged the first day that I slept almost all day, but woke up in time for a dinner of vegetable soup, salad, cheese, bread, apple compote, and wine.

The next morning (Thursday) was the first day of orientation at IES (my study abroad program). We met everyone and got tons of information about housing, transportation, classes, etc. It was really overwhelming. After they finished talking at us we went to buy a French cell phone. It was somewhat challenging to understand the recording in French telling me how to record my outgoing voicemail message and get everything set up, but after a while I figured it out. I still don't know my phone number, but I'll memorize it soon enough. On my way home from the cell phone store I got extremely lost (something I expected considering that I have absolutely no sense of direction), but after walking about 30 minutes out of my way I found the  building and completed the routine of keys, codes, buttons, and doors to get to our apartment. When I got home it was 8pm and my host mother had already eaten, so I ate my dinner while we watched the news and a soap opera called Plus Belle la Vie that she watches every night. I had risotto, salad, cheese, bread, a clementine, and some dates. I'm loving the way the French eat--small portions of different courses. And, of course, the food is great!

This morning my alarm clock (my new French phone) didn't go off because the phone still said it was 10pm. I just happened to wake up about 10 minutes before I had to leave, so I got ready really quickly, inhaled a cup of tea and some toast, and ran out the door. To get to the orientation yesterday and today I had to walk about 10 minutes to the metro stop, take the metro for about 10 minutes, and then walk another 5 to the building (not too bad at all considering some others have to travel 40 minutes or more). I think I will be taking the bus to classes, but the metro will take me everywhere else. Today we talked about cultural adaptation, how to meet French people, and diversity in France. It gave me a good perspective on what to expect for the rest of the semester. Tonight the whole program (about 90 students) had dinner together on a boat on the Seine (the river that runs through Paris). It was really nice even though I had a interesting vegetarian meal (a plate full of white rice with a sauce that tasted like tomato soup). After the boat docked I went out with a couple of friends and had a really good time. Now that I know that I can find my way home at midnight after a glass of wine, I should be able to do every time without a problem!

Sorry that this post is so long. They will definitely not all be like this. I just wanted to cover everything up to now. Tomorrow I plan to upload some pictures! I hope this was somewhat interesting. If you have any specific questions or comments please let me know! Thanks so much for reading!