No wonder coffee is starting to taste good

Good golly have I been busy.

As I mentioned before, schoolwork really started to take its toll right after spring break. I know that many students have had a much worse time of it than I have had with assignments, but I’m talking about me here, and in my opinion about how much stress I can take, I’m reaching new heights.

On the one hand, I have been very productive and have managed to tackle each new problem with patience, organization, and above all, determination. I have completed two exposés (oral presentations), one paper, and a slew of tests on top of all my other usual homework. I still have a book to finish and a midterm paper due by next week, but it’s manageable.

What stresses me are the consequences of living independently in a foreign country. I have had late immigration paperwork to deal with, obtaining documents for French social security, fixing faulty flight information (thank you for waiting, please hold… thank you for waiting, please hold…) that costs about a dollar a minute. And also that police report for my stolen skis. Then of course there’s the habitual worrying about managing my money properly – I have to save aside enough for rent, then how much do I typically spend on groceries, then how much does that leave for métro tickets, laundry, postage, textbooks, and some spare Euros for the occasional drink or two with friends? But I am always worrying about how I spend money, so it’s a moot point.

Just today I tried to add additional information to my police report; it took a while, struggling with my words, even though I had written down the information first, and even after they finally understood what I was saying, they asked me why I had bothered coming in, because the information was not useful to them. AUGH. (I guess we all have days like these)

However, this experience has taught me how to be resourceful, patient, resilient, and enduring. Not to mention to speak better French! No matter what, I am going to view my struggles as learning experiences. When I embarked on this trip, I mostly was curious whether or not I could do it. Am I smart enough to study at Sciences Po? Are my French skills good enough? Will I be able to handle living on my own thousands of miles away from friends and family? So far, I suppose I can handle it, and in my mind that means this adventure has been successful for me.

Nonetheless, I have decided that I much prefer living in the U.S. where I can speak English all the time, and where I am much closer to my friends and family. And although there are many things about living alone that appeal to my stubbornly independent nature, I very much miss the communal living environment of school back home.

Speaking of family, I was so glad to have my grandmother come and visit me last week. We had been planning this visit for months, and I couldn’t wait to see her. She stayed at a hotel near me, and we spent every day exploring a new part of the city, as well as Versailles. We found some great places to eat for dinner, as well as a few patisseries and a great gelato place. I am glad she made it home safely, and I hope she enjoyed her trip here as much as I did. =)

A couple more notes – one: as much as I have disliked it in the U.S., I have occasionally tried coffee here. Much to my astonishment, I haven’t disliked it yet. Today I even found myself seeking it out. It costs 0,50€ a cup from any one of the many vending machines in the Sciences Po buildings. I realized that after I combed two of the adjoining buildings looking for a machine that made mocha, I might actually like coffee. I settled for a café au lait.

Two: I made a tiny albeit startling discovery this week. I have been searching for years for shoes that uphold my standards of toe-covering. The reason I don’t own many pairs of shoes isn’t that I don’t like them; I’m just picky. If I am going to wear a pair of heels or flats, I want all of my toes to be covered. Sandals, whatever, they are supposed to be open-toe. Even if I can see just the cracks between my toes, I won’t buy them. It’s a small thing, but I don’t like how it looks, it distracts me for some reason. (Gosh, how neurotic is this girl, you may be wondering. C’mon, we all have our random pet peeves). Anyway, I bought a pair of flats on Monday (finally, I have been wanting a pair for over a year) really inexpensively, in order to break a 50€. They are very cute, but they still just don’t cover my toes entirely. I have always supposed that this was the fault of the shoes, and that I simply hadn’t found the right pair yet. But what if that is not the case? What if I just have abnormally long toes???

(Ding goes the light bulb)

Somehow amidst all these aforementioned graver things to be concerned with, things like this pop into my head.

On that note,

À Bientôt!

Experiment Complete!

Hullo Hullo!

Third day in a row of writing, and after I had said that I did not have much to say, but I would like to announce the results of my experiment.

I think that I only mentioned this idea to my sister once in passing while I was packing for this trip, and even then I was only slightly kidding.

I decided that I would bring nearly every necklace and nearly every pair of earrings I own (leaving behind all of my jewelery that was too fancy for everyday wear of course), and I would wear each item only once, and see how long it would take me. I never wore more than one pair of earrings a day, and wore them as many days as possible. (Some days I just forgot, or stayed indoors in pajamas, and what would have been the point then?)

Today I wore my LAST pair of earrings.

In case you were interested, I brought 8 necklaces, and 44 pairs of earrings. I have been here 63 days.

I have never attempted something like this before - usually I just re-wear simple studs and save the larger, more sparkly jewelery for parties and the like.

Don't know how interesting this subject is for everyone, but I've been working on this consistently, and wanted to make the results known!

Something more France-related next time,

À Bientôt!

Some things just take getting used to

When you are living in a new country, a new environment, or just having new experiences in general, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you are going to have to adjust.

I have made some adjustments to this experience that I have attributed to living in France/Europe, living in a city, and things where I think, “no, that’s just me.”

To explain, I have divided the categories as such.

Living In France

First off, the obvious: hearing and speaking French most of the time (unless you are me and are taking all of your courses in English, so maybe half the time)

Measurements – a category by itself

-       Say goodbye to thinking in pounds, ounces, inches, feet, miles, Fahrenheit, the 12-hour clock, and American Dollars for 4 and a half months.

-       Familiarize yourself with these: grams, liters, meters, Celsius, 24h, and of course, Euros.  You now weigh a certain number of kilograms, your beer is in centiliters, and the table is meters, not feet, away. I pride myself that the first three are getting easy and the 24h time and Euros are now second nature, though I still need a calculator for the Euro to Dollar conversion and vice versa. Thinking in Celsius still gives me trouble. It’s 11˚ C? Nope, still doesn’t register right away.

-       Also! Slide in the ground floor (le rez-de-chaussée) under the first floor. Floors are called des étages. For example, I live on the 6eme étage. 

Bureaucracy

Parisians do not seem to have a law about picking up after their dogs. Ahem.

You cannot walk on the grass, unless you are in a park and the area is specifically marked.

There is a distinct lack of color

Kissing cheeks when greeting and departing - left, then right.

Wearing Scarves all of the time

French police sirens

Saying “Pardon” for everything

Street signs (I believe I explained this in an earlier post)

Spacing in phone numbers – there are still ten digits, but they are spaced differently, i.e. U.S.: XXX-XXX-XXXX FR: XX XX XX XX XX

Actually, numbers in general. Decimals are now commas and commas are now decimals. Don’t confuse them. U.S.: $2,000.00 FR: 2.000,00€ (and of course, the two do not equate. $2,000 US dollars is about 1.433,58€, according to the online calculator I use. Spend money responsibly.)

Keyboards – bring your own computer, it’s hard enough to remember where the accent shortcuts are on the American keyboard when typing in French.

Paper is slightly longer. Random, but I guess it has something to do with being measured in centimeters and not inches.

Hors Service means that the device you are trying to use is Out of Order.

Libre Service at the Laundromat (la laverie) does not mean that the laundry service is free. Self Service. You are free to do it yourself.

Everyone apart from you seems to live off of bottled water, even though the tap water is perfectly potable.

The Monoprix is not open on Sunday. (why, why, why??)

Living in a City

Riding the metro and walking everywhere

Pigeons

Traffic and crosswalks – the lights are more like guidelines: If no cars are in sight, book it across the street. The little green neon walking man won’t necessarily prevent that car from slowing down in time, so take notice of your surroundings.

Cigarettes

Never seeing the stars

A tiny apartment without an elevator

Quiet hours; your neighbors can hear you.

Surrounded by people all of the time

Seeing homeless people or des S.D.F., (sans domicile fixe, meaning without a fixed residence) as they are called here.

Just Me

Being of legal drinking age – It took me a couple of weeks to be comfortable with buying alcoholic beverages, not to mention that no one has once asked to see my I.D. That will surely change when I get home.

Leather boots are now your everyday shoes – and mine won’t. stop. squeaking. I now think twice about crossing my ankles in class, but occasionally it is still wince-worthy.

Not wearing a stitch of denim for 4 and a half months. At least my wardrobe was already significantly black.

A low-standing mattress that is not much more than a futon pad, and scratchy blankets. The sheets are nice enough. I brought my own set as well and a homemade blanket too, but I can’t wait to get back to memory foam.

Limited dishes. I have what I need, but for the most part only one or two of each thing. I am washing dishes constantly. 

I don’t think I need to further discuss my hot plate issues.

My wifi is not my default connection. I need to connect to the Internet every time I turn my computer on or wake it up. I know, this is a small thing to think about, and there may be a simple way to fix this, but I am not technologically savvy.

Filing a police report for my stolen skis (Yeahhh didn’t mention that in the skiing post. It was awful, I had just left them on the ground for a few minutes while we were preparing to leave, turned around and they were gone. The police station wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined at least. The officer even said my French was far better than his English.)

On that note, having a ski goggle tan hasn’t been a piece of cake either – having a cherry red nose and a tan face below the line under my cheekbones for a few weeks hasn’t amused me much. It is fading though.

Now, you must not think that I am complaining. Goodness no. It has just been a lot to take on. Although there are things that have been difficult to adjust to, there are many more things about France that I will miss.

Food. Great goodness the food. Crêpes and pita grec of course, French mayonnaise, the hot chocolate I buy, authentic baguettes, chèvre, and wine, and the chocolate is much tastier here.

Going to the market every Sunday morning

Being surrounded by architecture and historical landmarks

There is a “spirit” to this city that is nearly tangible, and on my best days, I feel it resonating in me. I will miss that.

Of course, I will have a better idea what I will miss once I have actually left, I am much too close to all of this now; I suppose I take it for granted sometimes.

Hope this makes up for not writing for a while. I am going to start making dinner soon, a bit early for France, but oh well. I have plans to mix a Swiss dish with an Irish accompaniment: a Raclette dinner with potatoes, sausage, and bread (Raclette is a type of cheese you melt and pour over your meal, usually the sort of food I described), and a Guinness. To my friends and family back home in the U.S., Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

À Bientôt!

A Pause

Hey everybody,
Sorry I haven't updated in a while - honestly there isn't much to report. I got back from break with a cold, still getting over it, and March is going to be a slow month for updates, what with all the work I need to do for classes. Somehow all the oral presentations, papers, and a few exams ended up nestling together in the span of the next couple of weeks. I'm digging my heels in now, trying to take it all on, but don't worry, I'm not abandoning the blog. I just haven't come across much to write about...
Humm... the weather got nicer. (Not really helpful in my drive to work, but it's good to see the sun again)
Hopefully when the worst of my work is over, I will have more interesting adventures in the city to regale you with, till then,
À Bientôt!

Vacationing with the Yeti

I am finally back in Paris after my spring break in the French Alps!

The trip was organized by the Association Sportive at Sciences Po, and accommodated well over 100 students (I do not actually know how many students were there, but considering that it took three coach buses…). We set out on Friday, February 25th, and the return bus came in early this morning.

I was lucky enough to be housed with three other English-speaking students, though I also had the opportunity to meet several of the other French students on the trip as well. We stayed at the Risoul station, and skied at both Risoul and Vars. The terrain was massive and beautifully maintained; have never had a more fulfilling ski experience. Not to mention I have never before skied for 7 full days in a row, and somehow I am not sore at all (I have developed a rather bad cold within the last two days, but no matter). 

The fee for the trip included travel, lodging, 7 days of lift tickets, 6 days of food, and a 15€ credit towards the bar on the ground floor of the lodging, called La Grotte du Yeti. Not bad at all for 450€.

The weather was overall very good throughout the week, mostly sunny and not too cold. We could have used some snowfall during the week, as the trails were getting progressively icier, but all in all, the conditions were better than any I have experienced in New England.

The skiing never had the boring side effect of running out of places to go; I skied for 7 full days straight and only did a handful of trails twice, so that should give you a good idea about how huge this place was. The system for levels of the trails was a bit different as well, eliminating the double-black diamond category and placing a red one between blue and black. I skied the blue ones mostly during the week, and progressed to reds by Friday, something I had sworn not to do at the beginning of the week. Considering my ordinarily mellow status as a skier in Vermont, this was a huge advancement. I can tell my skills have improved greatly.

Some random highlights:

Discovering that pâté is delicious, and other general food munching with my roommates, displaying our cooking talents.

La piste (French for slope or trail) called Les Heureux.

Going to the sauna and pool for an evening with some of the other students.

Mastering most of the Téléski lifts without falling off (though there were a few spectacular falls while getting on them).

While riding a chairlift, listening to a baritone French man singing “LA LA LA LA” as he skied down a trail (crack me up).

French children being adorable (then again, it was a bummer that they mostly owned me at skiing on the harder trails, and came out of nowhere, so you constantly had to watch on all sides in so as not to run them over).

Learning some new slang:

Term: McDonald’s

America: Mickey D’s

Australia: Macker’s

France: MacDo

Term: Drunk

America: Wasted

New Zealand: Munted

France: Déchiré (Torn)

Overall, an enjoyable week. Some pics below, enjoy!

À Bientôt!