Monday, February 21, 2011
Barca!
Just got back from the weekend trip to Barcelona. Will write more on it later, but it was incredible. Now need to work on a 5 page paper for tomorrow...
Thursday, February 17, 2011
My host family has the best taste in music
They play Simon and Garfunkel all the time. Also, lots of 60s music. It's awesome, hilarious, and all in english. The best is when they sing along.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Best Dinner Yet
So tonight there was a random dinner party here. I think it was because Myriam, the 24 year old daughter who lives in Jerusalem, is back for a couple weeks. She only just got in last night, so lots of people were over. Marie-Aimee, the 27 year old daughter was over, as was her husband Jerome, and 2 older women (not sure the relationship to the family but very nice). While big dinners usually mean they talk and I listen the whole time, that didn't happen this time! Because there were lots of new people around, I got asked lots of questions, but I also had some great conversations with Maximillien and Florence. We talked about Franco-American relations, Europe, and about family origins (Their family came from Corsica in the late 1800s! They were privateers!) The dinner party lasted about 3 hours, but it was a lot of fun and a great opportunity to get to know the family a little better.
One moment that struck me was when I first met Marie Aimee and told her I'm from New York, her immediate reaction was "Oh, there's a store there when you can get any color M&M!" Powerful statement of how American culture is viewed overseas....
One moment that struck me was when I first met Marie Aimee and told her I'm from New York, her immediate reaction was "Oh, there's a store there when you can get any color M&M!" Powerful statement of how American culture is viewed overseas....
Strange Happenings
So I think I've met 6 of the 9 children (three of them live here, two of them come by fairly frequently and one arrived in Paris last night after taking a plane-maybe the one that lives in Israel? Not sure, and didn't want to interrupt family time last night by asking stupid questions in my poor french at 11PM). They all seem really nice, and the family in general has been super welcoming and very friendly, but after being here for almost a month, there is always something odd and amusing going on! Yesterday, someone (not sure if it was above my room or next to my room) played R.E.M.'s "Losing my Religion" eight times in a row! A bit odd. Then shortly after, they played "Awesome God", the song that's always featured on the inspirational music infomercials.
Also, my host family likes asking me about politics all the time! They always ask "So...what do you think of..." The people they have asked about so far are Obama, Bush, McCain, Donald Rumsfeld, Sarah Palin, Bill Clinton, and JFK/the Kennedys (apparently Gabriel, my host father, really liked Bobby). Elliot Spitzer even came up in conversation once. Very odd!
I want to ask them questions about French politics, but I don't want to rub them the wrong way or come off rude. The only thing I've found out about their political leanings is that they are droite, meaning on the right/conservative, but I'm not sure if they support Sarkozy or not. They are super Catholic, so they are very against abortion (avortement en français. It took me a couple minutes to figure out what they were talking about at first), and that they don't like Le Monde- essentially the French New York Times. They have issues with La Croix, a French Catholic paper, because they think it is a bit Marxist sometimes, and they think Le Figaro, essentially the Wall Street Journal, can be weak on moral issues. (On a side note, you can figure out French newspapers' political leanings by the color on the front page- blue means conservative and red means leftist). Still need to observe more/ maybe start asking bolder questions.
Other strange occurrences include the fact that my google chrome or Mac spell check has automatically switched to French, so please excuse my spelling mistakes. I haven't taken the time to fix it, but it's pretty weird.
In other news, the Paris weather took a turn for the better the past couple days. There was actually sun! And no clouds on Monday! It was incredible. Here's a picture I took on Monday afternoon on my phone (Monday was one of the few days when I forgot my camera) at Place Trocadero, right across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower.
Hopefully spring comes a bit earlier here than in New York. Right now, the forecast shows the high staying above 45 degrees up until next Friday, when I leave for Barcelona. Perfect timing!
Need to do the very minimal amount of work I have for class today. A bientôt!
Also, my host family likes asking me about politics all the time! They always ask "So...what do you think of..." The people they have asked about so far are Obama, Bush, McCain, Donald Rumsfeld, Sarah Palin, Bill Clinton, and JFK/the Kennedys (apparently Gabriel, my host father, really liked Bobby). Elliot Spitzer even came up in conversation once. Very odd!
I want to ask them questions about French politics, but I don't want to rub them the wrong way or come off rude. The only thing I've found out about their political leanings is that they are droite, meaning on the right/conservative, but I'm not sure if they support Sarkozy or not. They are super Catholic, so they are very against abortion (avortement en français. It took me a couple minutes to figure out what they were talking about at first), and that they don't like Le Monde- essentially the French New York Times. They have issues with La Croix, a French Catholic paper, because they think it is a bit Marxist sometimes, and they think Le Figaro, essentially the Wall Street Journal, can be weak on moral issues. (On a side note, you can figure out French newspapers' political leanings by the color on the front page- blue means conservative and red means leftist). Still need to observe more/ maybe start asking bolder questions.
Other strange occurrences include the fact that my google chrome or Mac spell check has automatically switched to French, so please excuse my spelling mistakes. I haven't taken the time to fix it, but it's pretty weird.
In other news, the Paris weather took a turn for the better the past couple days. There was actually sun! And no clouds on Monday! It was incredible. Here's a picture I took on Monday afternoon on my phone (Monday was one of the few days when I forgot my camera) at Place Trocadero, right across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower.
Hopefully spring comes a bit earlier here than in New York. Right now, the forecast shows the high staying above 45 degrees up until next Friday, when I leave for Barcelona. Perfect timing!
Need to do the very minimal amount of work I have for class today. A bientôt!
Monday, February 7, 2011
So it's been a week...
since I last posted, and I've now spent 3 full weeks in Paris. Time has really flown since the first week. Once the first week passed and I felt like I got into more of a routine, every day seems to go by so quickly.
This weekend was touristy, but also fun. Went to see Versailles and the Pantheon, two of my favorite sites I've seen in Paris thus far. Also getting to spend more time with people in the group (and different people every day) has been a blast.
On a different note - I SORT OF MADE A FRENCH FRIEND! Well kind of, I mean I chatted with her in class. The goal of the cultural director of the program is for us all to make French friends, so it was good news to report back to AnnSo (Her response was, "Un ami ou une amie? Une petite amie potentielle?" - translation- a guy or a girl friend? A potential girlfriend?? Very amusing.)
Classes went well last week. I'm officially taking the Tufts-in-Paris Political Science course on France and the EU, and the required language course. The EU one has been awesome, while the Language one is language, not very exciting, but interesting sometimes. Outside of T.I.P. courses, I'm taking an art history class on contemporary art focusing on Paul Gauguin, and a history course on political ideologies of the 20th century. So far, the TDs (similar to discussion groups or recitations back home) are much better then the CMs (giant lecture courses with no discussion and for my two classes, pretty boring professors).
Today I have to go to a formality for my visa, that basically will make official my long-stay status here in France. It's a formality, and a pain, but at least it's at 2pm and not 9am. Also, the way it's getting done is kind of odd (a story not for the blog), but regardless, it will be done this afternoon, and I will be able to travel!
On the horizon- Mom and John come next weekend! And the week after that a weekend in Barcelona!
This weekend was touristy, but also fun. Went to see Versailles and the Pantheon, two of my favorite sites I've seen in Paris thus far. Also getting to spend more time with people in the group (and different people every day) has been a blast.
On a different note - I SORT OF MADE A FRENCH FRIEND! Well kind of, I mean I chatted with her in class. The goal of the cultural director of the program is for us all to make French friends, so it was good news to report back to AnnSo (Her response was, "Un ami ou une amie? Une petite amie potentielle?" - translation- a guy or a girl friend? A potential girlfriend?? Very amusing.)
Classes went well last week. I'm officially taking the Tufts-in-Paris Political Science course on France and the EU, and the required language course. The EU one has been awesome, while the Language one is language, not very exciting, but interesting sometimes. Outside of T.I.P. courses, I'm taking an art history class on contemporary art focusing on Paul Gauguin, and a history course on political ideologies of the 20th century. So far, the TDs (similar to discussion groups or recitations back home) are much better then the CMs (giant lecture courses with no discussion and for my two classes, pretty boring professors).
Today I have to go to a formality for my visa, that basically will make official my long-stay status here in France. It's a formality, and a pain, but at least it's at 2pm and not 9am. Also, the way it's getting done is kind of odd (a story not for the blog), but regardless, it will be done this afternoon, and I will be able to travel!
On the horizon- Mom and John come next weekend! And the week after that a weekend in Barcelona!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)