Christmas markets

Hellloooo

So I hope people are still reading this haha, even though I ve gotten a little terrible about updating. Sorry, its been insane.

Today I went to a Marche de Noel, a christmas market! Its on the Champs-Elysees (haha yea, i know) and il etait plein du monde! Absolutely hectic, and very beautiful, they ve lit up all of the trees from Concord to l'arch de Triumphe. Its not white lights either, but these rather lovely pink/purple ones. There was food (SO MUCH FOOD!) knick knacks and souvenirs. I have to say, there are three other christmas markets in Paris and I want to see those before I make any jugements, but i defin. feel that the inspiration comes from the Weihnachstmarkt in Germany. It was so funny, i kept seeing all of this food and thinking of the christmas markets i went to in Germany. Except in France, they never say its from Germany, instead its from "Alsac" which is the border between france and Germany and which was disputed between the two countries at the end of WWII. So, I still consider it a bit German :P

Which brings me to Chrismas in Paris. The Parisians I talk to have told me that Christmas in Paris is a rather sombre affair. First off, there is not the american madness of October to Jan holidays. Really, only christmas. Its also a family holiday, not a public one.

App. in Paris, the suicide rate jumps up around this time. Because its the end of the year, cold and then the only holiday is a family one and if you ahve no family....well...thats why the metro stops working. You can figure it out people.

This I then contrast to Germany. When I was there, this was my absolutely FAVORITE time there. Everyone is so kind, friendly and happy. Everyone gets together, the christmas markets are very social oriented events. This one I was just at was shopping, it was not meant for visiting with people and that is why I think I like German ones better. They are meant for getting together with friends, eating and chatting, there are entire tents set up to this end. People are not rushed, people are not looking to necessarily spend money either. Here, it was very commercialized. Thats not to say there is no christmas spirit in Paris, rather, that its different and I feel like a lot of what is readily seen is taken from other cultures that celebrate it more readily, like Germany or the States. I don't feel like I ve discovered what is "christmas in Paris" yet, only how other people wish it would be. Which for the French of course, is not appreciated.

Beyond that, this weekend has been musee weekend. Saw Musee d'orsay, Louvre and Grand Palace. All amazing. I love it when you see a piece of art you see on covers of books and in text books and then you just happen accross it just wandering around.

Tonight I m going to Jazz Club. I ve never been to one before, so i hope its fun! I ve heard good things about them though, so we ll see.

back from vaction

Its been crazy here, so I ll try to do some quick summaries.

the weekend of the 17/18 of October, I went to Bruges/Brussels

This past week, I was in Munich, Vienna and Zurich.

I think this blog I m going to focus on Zurich, as it was the most recent. I loove Zurich. It is the MOST expensive city I have EVER been in (Paris is the same, so I can't complain too much) but what makes it glaring, in your face obvious is that everything is in Francs. And the franc is only .02 less than the US dollar. THis is good, you might be thinking, but this is actually where you are tricked. The Franc just makes it even more obvious that the Euro is worth roughly a third more than the dollar is. Add that to the fact that (as I learned) that Switzerland is one of the MOST expensive cities to live in, and you see where you get stuck. You actually understand and can't even try to pretend that the euro and dollar are the same, cause you are using the franc and that is. And buying a sandwhich for 8 franc,s you know, is a rip off, when you just came from Vienna, and got a three course dinner for 5,80. Yes, Vienna is cheap, and the food is great. Go there !

Back to Zurich though. Best part of it is that it has this interesting combo of french and german cultures. The sandwich in my hands is a baguette (french) made out of Pretzel bread(german)! How neat is that!? A lot of the food would be a mix of both german and french, but the serving size I noticed was french. Also french pricing. Which I didn't like so much.

We also went hiking. And saw the Milka cows. They are so cute! And they even have the giant cow bells on them...so everytime they moved.....

I ve decided that happy cows are not from california. They are from Switzerland. AND on that corny note, I m going to bed!

I know I just left everyone hanging by the seat of their pants (haha really bad pun right there, moving on) with the skirt thing, so I ll clarify what I mean

In public schools, especially the ones in tough(er) neighborhoods, skirts are associated with being a slut. And relating this back to overall French culture, wearing a skirt while going out at night, means that there will be more catcalls and more annoying, disgusting guys bugging you. Even on the metro, I ve noticed that there aren't that many women who wear skirts or dresses and the ones that do, wear tights or leggings with it. Even shorts aren't very common here, but when worn, are always worn with leggings underneath. This has a large part to do with how the men here perceive and treat the women. When they wear clothing that is more revealing, they have to deal with more catcalls and harassment.

Now, translating this back to the states culture, what kind of clothing does 90 percent of the population wear when going out at night? Yea, I don't even have to say it, cause everyone knows. Its something that is completely taken for granted there. Here, if you wear something like that, people view it as you having ASKED to be bothered. Guys actually have told police, according to what I've heard, that it was the woman's fault, because of what she was wearing.

I never realized quite how sexist France(well, Paris) was until I heard this. And granted, I don't want to generalize a whole city, so I won't. But it def. has changed my perspective.

As I said in my last post, I have been cooking! I m making a quiche right now(completely on my own!) and I hope it turns out well, but I had lots of fun mixing spinach, bacon, squash and onions together!

The weather here has turned dreary, its cold and overcast. So, what better way to spend the day than to go shopping! I went to Layfette, which is the biggest shopping store in Paris. It makes me think of a miniature Westfield Mall in SF and only min. because it's actually several buildings and ONE store. It has this beautiful ceiling and is completely overwhelming. There is a sale going on right now(which is rare, Europe doesn't know the word sale besides 2 times out of the year, when the government actually mandates that stuff needs to go on sale) so it was crazy. And overpriced. Or at least to my naive eyes. I have several missions while I m here, the two most important ones are to buy boots(cause all i have are tennis shoes) and a heavy coat(all I have is a rain coat and my favorite coat that I got at UO that you at SF know well). So, I need to find those two things before the weather REALLY turns and I freeze my Cally ass off. Cause I m already complaining about the weather, and at this school, everyone is from the east coast except me. I am the only Californian, which means people have problems relating to my hate of all the is below freezing temperatures.

But, getting back to my mission. I looked at Chatlet, which is basically a mall, and most were rather cheap looking shoes that were going for over 80 euro. Layfette had beautiful shoes, many shoes, that completely overwhelmed me. However, everytime I looked at the price tag, I wanted to cry. To buy a good pair of boots was over 200 euros. :X :X

Granted, the sale was going on. But the idea of still dropping 140 euro made me cry inside. So, I am taking the stubborn, there has GOT to be a secret sale/really cheap shoe that I love somewhere in Paris. Right?

I stubbornly continued on to the other merchandise. I ve really have only gone to H and M since I ve been here and the other mall, where as said, not only the shoes, but just about everything that I saw wasn't that great of quality. It was cheap, but not worth buying. This store had so many cute things, but everything was soo expensive. I need to keep exploring, but I can't decide if this is just Paris or Europe, or if I m not looking in the right places. There is a new store that opened that is supposed to be the Japanese version of American Apparel(but cheaper) but the line to get in was around corner and I decided I didn't care enough and could always try next week. All in all, an exercise in frustration.

The good news--I booked my tickets to Munich, Austria and Zurich!! I m so excited, I ve never been to any of those places. Next to book are hostels and then we can plan what we are going to do. We are going by train for all of the way and planning it all out step by step. I m so excited to speak German(0r what's left of it, as I ve started to mix it in with French)

Next weekend is Belgium. We are going to Bruges and Brussels. This might be where I ll be studying abroad for second semester, and I've never been here before either. I hope I like it, if not, I might have a problem.

The last couple weeks have been so busy, its so nice just to sit. Last weekend was Nuit Blanche, which is when certain ard. are lit up the entire night. For example, Luxembourg gardens had a giant disco ball suspended above, and lights were reflected off of it, thus making the entire garden look like a night sky. Music was playing every where and people were just strolling around. My friends and I went all night, until at 4 40 we decided it was time to go home. Except the Night bus stopped running and the Metro, doesn't start running til 5 30. I didn't get home til 6 15. It was a very interesting night as well as an exhausting one. I'd say something I v decided I hate about Paris is the severe lack of public bathrooms. I don't know how many times that night one of us were running around trying to find one/begging restaurants to let us in.

ANd on that wonderful note, I am off to eat my quiche. Tootles!

As life gets crazy and why I m not wearing skirts

I haven't written here in a while. I had 3 midterms last week and a presentation, and this week I had an expose, 2 presentations and an interview. This week, I have an essay. Which I should be working on, but instead, I spent from when I got home (6 30 to now 11 23) talking with my awesome host family, made dinner and made meringue with my host father. All the while successfully avoiding doing all of the other homework waiting for me. But, I don't care (okay, I ll be honest, I care a bit) but I m choosing not to do it. It will be there tomorrow. Tonight, was totally worth it. I have started to write down all of the recipes I m learning, in the past two days, I learned how to make pudding and meringue, which are easy and absolutely amazing to eat afterwards( of course, its full of surgar and eggs. How much better can it get?). I also learned how to make pasta sauce. And, this is all from scratch.

I m going to have to keep this short, cause it is late and I have class tomorrow(but I can see the light woooo!) and just wanted to say, that I will write more about my life sometime this week. Hopefully.

Something interesting I've learned about France is their school system. They have public and private schools, but unlike the states, it seems like most students go to private schools. I thought this was really odd, because in Germany, almost EVERYONE goes to public schools. Here, they seem to have a lot of problems with the public schools, from the students, to teachers, to the goals and limits. So, parents send their kids to private. But, private isn't expensive like it is in the states, well this is all relative, but its not the same price tag. Instead, what can make it expensive is the lunch(apparently, either you go home for lunch OR you have to eat the schools) and the books. What a surprise. They have the same thing with constant new editions of books coming out, where mysteriously, the only thing that ever changes is the page numbers. Hmmm...

Anyway, it seems like a lot of students in the public schools are from the banlieues, which I want to call the slums, but its not exactly that. Its the suburbs, and some are better than others. They get divided up my race and nationalities, and like the states, these tend to be the tough neighborhoods. We watched a movie called Neuilly sa mere(Neuilly Your Mother) which plays on this. Neuilly is where the current president of France is from (Sarkozy) and its about a kid from the banlieues who goes to live there. We actually are watching a movie called La Journee de la Jupe tomorrow, which will further go into this topic and also on the fact that in France, to wear a dress or skirt means one can be considered a slut! Crazy right? But its late, I ll explain that later.

Weekend!

This has been one of the most interesting weekends in Paris. I said in my last post that I was planning on doing a lot this weekend, and I did. Not only was it completely exhausting, it was thrilling, and fairly adventurous as well.

First things first. I cut my hair. I've had long, curly/wavy hair for the last five years, partly because I love my hair and secondly, because of a very bad haircut I got the last time I cut my hair off. Those who have seen my high school ID card from sophmore year can attest to this.

Well, I'm going to be corny now and do a before/after for those of you who don't have facebook and see what it looks like. I think its quite cute :)

so, like what, seven inches? Maybe more...

Anyway, Friday was the wine museum. We got a tour of the museum, and learned about the history of wine making in France and how wine is made. It was very interesting, but even though he talked slowly, I couldn't understand that much, which made me sad. I'm in France, I feel like I should be some sort of wine connoisseur by now! I've decided that I want to go on a tour of Napa when I get back and go wine testing and actually learn more about how its made and how to go about tasting it because too many times, in the states, people just guzzle it and don't even try to enjoy its nuances, which is something I did get there. We tried five different types of wine, each from a different area of France and a completely different taste. My favorites? Saint Emilion (red wine), Visan Lucéna (white), Saint Aubin (red as well) and my all time favorite that most people thought tasted like cough syrup-- Loin de l'oeil. I LOVE this wine, its a dessert wine, which means it really sweet and has a fruity taste. Yuuummmm...I know what I'm buying :)

I really felt like the wine museum was an exercise in frustration as well though, we would told to smell it and say what it reminded us of...I could think of nothing and thus would say things like almonds...she would grimace after all of my answers haha

Next we went out to Bastille, where there's a huge night life and we walked around and explored.

Saturday was this farmers market called Les Marchs Flottants du Sud Ouest. Basically, all of these people that specialize in food from the South of France(they are all from the South) come up for a weekend in Paris to sell their produce. It was amazing, we got free apples, grapes, and garlic. I bought ice cream that had macaroons in it and wandered around.

One of the best parts of the market was the music. There was a percussion band that played on barrels (I'm not kidding) and were completely wacky and so happy when they played. One of the guys kept jumping on top of the barrels, he was so excited. They made me think a lot of the percussion at CKM, just the movements, noises and stylistic choices they made.

I wanted to start marching or something.

After the market, we wanted to go to the Techno parade. The techno parade is something that happens in the Bastille every year, where everyone comes out to dance in the streets. When I heard this, I was very excited. In San Francisco, there is something callled Love Feast where you basically do that for an entire day.

So, we get to the metro stop and its jammed full of people, you can barely walk. We FINALLY get out(fresh air!!) and are out for about 2 minutes. The first picture, at the beginning of this blog, is interesting because there are a bunch of people on top of the Bastille. I don't know how they got up there though. Here is more people on top of the metro stop. Insanity. Now the next part for people who worry, DO NOT WORRY, nothing dangerous happened and it was all fine. So, don't worry.

So, we have just arrived, when suddenly we hear screaming and people running. ALL toward us. And then we when we breathe in, there is definitely something in the air. And thus we start coughing. We are completely confused and disoriented and then we see the police, chasing crowds of people. It was the police, who were throwing PEPPER BOMBS at the dancers, who thus ran towards everyone. So, we make the (wise) decision and high tail it to a restuarant, where we meet up with more people. Five minutes later, more screaming and people RUN in, bringing with them, of course, the pepper bomb stuff. The air was full of it. Then, when we left the restuarant and were standing outside of it, there was a crazy man with a kitchen knife, screaming. We decided this wasn't that safe, and continued on. It was kinda entertaining though and scary at the same time, to see the riot police chasing in lines, crowds of dancers. The police here are so different than in SF, in SF, nothing like this at all happens, I feel like the French are much more wild and extreme and so are the police. What was more entertaining is that I was describing this to my host family, using words like 'crazy' and 'dangerous' and they just laughed, said that it wasn't, it was just normal, everyone gets excited and it was an adventure. It was, but it was funny to hear it from them. Anyway, we continue on, as the concert has been cancelled and instead go with one of our friends to his friends house, who are french, where we spend a wonderful evening speaking french and eating junk food. This is a picture of that evening , after we had been wandering around, it was an beautiful, peaceful evening, hard to believe what had happened earlier in the evening.

The next day, Sunday, we went to Chartes. Now, I thought I had never been there. Ha, Keck, the teacher who was in charge of the trip I went on in high school, knew how to stuff everything in. I had been here, and reconized the church. This is the church where the veil of Mary is and where I enjoyed playing with the various orange cats hanging around and ate some amazing croissants with my mom and drank some cafecreme. This is a picture with some of my friends, next to the river. Chartes is really really pretty, kinda sad though, I went for the food and we never managed to find any of their specialities. AND they never checked our ticket and it was an expensive one. Ha. Oh well. Well that is an abridged version of a very busy weekend and now a new week has begun. Until next time!

Busy, busy, busy

I m going to have to keep this short because I have THIS MUCH HOMEWORK. No, seriously. The great thing about me being done in October is also the bad thing. I HAVE MIDTERMS COMING UP!

Along with that, a ton of homework, presentations, essays and whatever else you can think of. And in case, dear reader, you forgot, its all in French.

But, some exciting things are going on this weekend. I'm going to the Wine museum, where yes, I will be sampling wine. Now, when I go to a wine store, I ll hopefully know what I'm drinking/what's good. After that, I m going to go to a club. And hopefully, I ll be cutting my hair. heheh

On Saturday, there is a huge market called Les Marches Flottants du Sud Ouest. Basically, all of these people from the South of France are coming up to Paris to sell their produce! And, they are supposed to be really different than the Parisians, so I m looking forward to that. And there's a HUGE techno festival. I m really curious if its anything like lovefest, if it is, I think I m going to really enjoy myself.

Sunday is Chartes. So, lots going on, and in between, I'll hopefully get some homework done. Right? ha, who am I kidding. I don't know how its going to get down, just that it will.

But, to recap on this week. I went and saw the Kooks. For free. At a communist festival. How awesome is that?? It was called Fete de Humanitaire, and goes on every year in Paris. Imagine--hippies, communists, old and young, all mixed together. Very interesting mix. There were a ton of people and we literally had to run to make it on time, but it was completely worth it. Then, we wandered around my district ( at least saw where you DONT want to go at night, there is a good reason, we now know, why Pigalle is NOT GOOD TO GO TO AT NIGHT...nothing happened and we were several, but still, its like the Tenderloin at night. But, we also found about a million overpriced crepe stands, a Starbucks, two McDonalds and numerous other random restaurants. Oh yeah, and tons of Subways. What is with subways in Paris?? I ve found like 6 so for. And pizza huts?? huh? Why would you go there, when you can eat Crepes all day long?

The next day, I went to a Pucce Marche. It was by the dorms where a couple of my friends live. I was actually really disappointed. Paris flea markets are supposed to be legendary, but this one, at least in my opinion, was incredibly disappointing. A lot of the stuff was junk and overpriced. A necklace that I found in the states and own for 15 dollars was being sold(with only one strand) for 40 euro!! AND the women then tried to persuade me why it was worth it!! It was also convenient that there were no price tags on anything. HM.

We also got Galletes, which is a type of crepe. YUm.

AND we found the most amazing ice cream place. EVER. Imagine italian ice cream, the flavors of cherries (fresh) mixing with jam, and dark chocolate. Then, imagine this creamy mix being put into a warm croissant. Yes, that is what I ate. My friend ate ice cream in a wafer, but what made it amazing was the the ice cream was shaped into a flower. I think everyone knows this is the place to go on a Sunday, cause the line was out the door. The name of the place?

Amorino. And personally, I don't think its really an Italian brand, cause most of the shops are in Paris, but there are some in Province, Barcelona and Shanghai.

GO there! eat, and be happy.

And now I must sign out and do all the homework that is so sweetly calling my name.

I made a delicious quiche tonight. It only delicious because I had my kind host brother helping me make it tonight. Otherwise, it would have been very watery, as I wouldn't have realized that cL does not mean L. Whoops.

It was a little salty, but considering my results lately, its amazing. I can't wait to to force, oops I mean ask my host brother help me make something else. There is some left over, lunch tomorrow!!

The next pictures are from a friend's birthday dinner (her name is Sarah too, I finally met some Sarah's in college. In the program, there are three Sarah's, including me, which means its a little confusing lol) We had a lot of fun, the restaurant gave her a brownie with something like a sparkler,(?) I don't know exactly what it was, but it was so cute! And really good, made me think of that dessert place in SF. And I got salmon with pesto sauce and so much butter it melted in my mouth. I've made the decision that the more butter, the better is something. I'm going to be 10 pounds heavier at the end of this. Which is a problem, because all of my work clothes are a perfect fit. Eeee, I ll deal with it when they don't fit.

So, the dessert that is in front of me is a fruit soup. Only a couple people are going to get this reference, but years ago, when I was in the east coast with my family, I got this dessert that was soup made out of fruit. I LOVED it and was never able to find it again. But they had it HEEREE!!! Its called Gazpacho and its Spanish. It actually normally a cold, Mediterranen soup made from fresh veggies, but the French ( and Virginians?) converted it into a cold fruit soup! That's vanilla ice cream inside it. It was really light, the consistancy was between a mousse and a smoothie.

As soon as I got home, I explained this to my host family and they told me that I could buy the veggie version at Monoprix. So today, I went and got some. I'm going to eat it tomorrow. They said its amazing, so we'll see!! As I loved the fruit version, I think I'll like the veggie as well. And continuing on the subject of food, my host brother told me that you can buy Doner in Paris!!! OMG. I'm going Doner searching this week. He said its not as good in Paris as in Germany, but whatever, I haven't had a substitute for a long time, so I'm fine with that. But back to the subject of the restaurant. This is the mural and sculpture work in it. All the pillars had pictures painted on them. Restaurants themselves are pieces of work here.

While dinning out in Paris is normally really expensive, (wahh), the best part about it is(if there is a good part) is that the tax for having a large group doesn't exist. You also don't have to tip, its included in the bill. Every time I've eaten out, we've always been over. I'm so used to SF, and wrangling with people to try try get the extra ten dollars (at least) to cover a bill. At this restaurant, even though the bill was huge, we were more than ten euros over!! We wrote "thank you" in every language we knew and I m sure the waiter looooved us for getting such a huge tip. They were very nice, and kept talking to use, I think we actually "made friends" with a french waiter. Who'd have known it??

And now, by popular demand, pictures of the apartment!! To start with, MY AMAZING VIEW! (from the living room, but heck, I can see it right now, so whatever, its great; the tower is lighting up and all glittery, I can't believe I can watch it right now)

The very cute, very parisian living room.

Yes, the washer is right next

to the fridge. And the bathtub and sink are in separate rooms. The bathroom is very small, but its pretty normal. Next, the fear inspiring, yes, it is that vertically challenging, staircase. oi. I m afraid one of these days I m going to fall and die as a result of not watching my footing.

My bed and--wait-- what's that on the wall? Yes, its camel boxes. Apparently their son did that haha

My scarves, the sink, and my desk!!

The other view is from my room, I can see Montmarte and the people walking around :)

And yes, its a friday night. But, as I'm still not completely better and don't want to do my homework, I m doing this :) Arrgg homework.

Oh, and if you want my address, ask!

Until next time!