Where Clovis Was King

La Manche

2009-09-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Europe, but this time on the other side of the channel ... Clovis never was king, although later French kings believed they were kings of England, so I've made a new blog: http://bedebeowulfandblastendedskrewts.wordpress.com .

One Year Later

2009-01-12T14:20:00.001-08:00

A year ago today I arrived in Paris. Meera and I found each other in the airport, and we made our first venture into the seizieme arrondissement. I remember when Meera got out of the taxi, I felt as though I might never see her again. We didn't have cell phones yet, and I had not yet found my way the three blocks from the Camurats to her host family's appartment.

I didn't know Holly yet, and I had not yet ever seen Reid Hall. I was not even excited to be in Paris yet -- I was just tired and a little disoriented.

A year later, what I wouldn't give to be back in my first day in Paris. I am so jealous of my friends who are just leaving for semester abroad now -- I didn't know then, and I don't think I knew for a lot of my time there, how much my view of the U.S. and my life here would be altered.

Being back in Berkeley this semester was ultimately wonderful -- how can Berkeley not be wonderful? But it was really difficult at first to go back after having done something so different. I felt kind of dissatisfied at first, and I really missed the group learning experience that I had with my American friends. I never quite knew what was going on while I was in France, and when Meera and I left to travel, I really didn't know what was going on. In Berkeley, I often feel as though I will never accomplish what is expected of me, but at least I usually know what I'm aiming for.

Heading into my last semester is strange. I have a thesis to write (oh goodness!) and just a lot of things to finish up, I guess. I'm scared to almost be done, but Sonia mentioned to me at the beginning of the year, and in many ways I totally agree, that it already feels like it's not quite our school anymore and we're working on moving on while watching other people come into our places.

I guess I have a lot of challenges left in the U.S., but I can't be more happy that I took the time to try something very different. Sometimes I feel as though I live the same way I did before going to Paris, but then I realize that that isn't true. I'm jealous of my friends who are just about to start that adventure. I've never enjoyed anything so much.

The Bowl

2008-10-05T23:16:00.000-07:00

Ok I lied. But I want to write about a recent trip to Berkeley Bowl and maybe it fits in with a general theme of cultural differences?

So Berkeley Bowl is an independent supermarket that recently got press in the L.A. Times for being rather unusual. I don't go that frequently -- I live in a coop afterall -- but they have fabulous produce, and it is a nice place to buy all sorts of goodies. Usually I go to the supermarket first thing on Sunday mornings -- I run down and walk back. Last week, I ran down to Berkeley Bowl thinking that I had gotten a rather late start and showed up around 9:30 only to find that the store doesn't open until 10am on Sundays. What surprised me most though was that the parking lot was already full and there was a throng or a hord or just a lot of people waiting outside on a Sunday morning to go to the supermarket. I joined them and waited for fresh produce and honey yogurt.

From Paris to Berzerkeley

2008-08-31T21:57:00.001-07:00

Orientation: I am back in Berkeley after spending five weeks at home in Newton. Class started on Wednesday, and I am procrastinating a large amount of reading and Latin and German homework by writing my promised blog post ... I don't know if I can start at the beginning of Meera's and my trip anymore because there was simply too much to say and too much time has past.

I think the pictures might be the best I can do description-wise ... Four weeks is a long time to recount, but I'll give my favorite things:

1. Naxos: Meera and I flew to Athens the day after we finished class. We stayed overnight in the most horrible hostel of the entire trip. There were cockroaches, it was unbelievably hot (Athens remains above 90 degrees at night), and the toilet was so incredibly smelly that we would wake up in the middle of the night and say "Did I really just wake up because I smell poop? I guess I did." Fortunately, we left first thing in the morning and headed to Naxos, one of the Cyclades islands. It was incredibly beautiful. We stayed in Naxos town and went to the beach every day. We also took a day trip to the interior to Apeiranthos, however, which is a tiny olive-growing village with marble sidewalks on a hillside. We took an incredibly rickety old bus that stopped randomly throughout the countryside to let people on and off seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The old man who collected tickets took a shine to me and Meera and spent the entire trip trying to explain what we were passing to us, unfortunately mostly in Greek ...

When we got to Apeiranthos, we took a walk into a little valley, and then we went looking for the archaeological museum. We went to an archaeological museum in Naxos town which was really cool because it was just sort of a jumble of really old ruins that people had dug up in their back yards. We didn't succeed in finding the archaeological museum in Apeiranthos though. Instead, we found the anthropological museum, which consisted of two tiny rooms, one of which was decorated entirely in doilies. That was very amazing.

2. Delphi: The museum has beautiful ruins, it is cool to actually be at the ancient shrine, we met a retired Scottish man who told us that he had been on a trip on the east coast of America and had gone to "Viagra falls", and Mont Parnassus looks out on the most beautiful bay. What more could you want?

3. Rome. I don't know what exactly to say, but I love this city. It is beautiful, lively and full of amazing museums. I went to the Villa Borghesie for the first time, and I saw Bernini's Appollo and Daphne. It was incredible. I also went to Ostia Antica which was amazing. It is now a few miles from the sea, but when Claudius was emperor, it was the port of Rome -- amazing! It is also very complete and huge. For those who love Pompei (as I do), Ostia Antica was amazing. A friend of mine who was doing research in Rome was also really kind to me and Meera and had us over for lunch, which was really fun.

4. Verona and Carmen: Meera's parents were in Italy at the same time as us, and they were really nice and invited me to go with them to Verona and Venice, both of which were amazing. They were incredibly kind. AND, we saw Carmen in the amphitheater in Verona. It was beautiful.

5. Avignon: Sur le pont d'Avignon ... Who knew that the pont d'Avignon was originally one of the only ways to cross the Rhone and was the bridge between the kingdom of France and Provence. And the landscape is just beautiful.

6. Bastille Day: Meera and I headed back to Paris on July 14, the French independance day. We went with Sonia, Mark, and some of their friends to the fireworks at the Eiffel tower, which were choreographed to opera. It was beautiful and such a fabulous way to end my time in France.

The day I came back to the U.S. felt strangely triumphant. I was positive it would be terrible, but from the help Sonia's dad gave me with getting my suitcases to the RER to my smooth ride through passport control and customs in both France and the U.S., everything went well. In the end, I was just incredibly happy to be back at home with my family.

I was really smelly, and I think Meera's and my trip inured me to wearing dirty clothes (so what if everything I'm wearing smells like sweat? My entire suitcase smells like sweat ...)

But, I don't think I realized really until coming back to Berkeley, not even Boston, what a large effect being in France and then Europe really has had on me. Rather than flipping out that I wasn't settled in immediatly when I got back here, I was totally fine with living out of a suitcase and being rather transient -- I guess four weeks of that had something of an impact. (And where is Meera? After eight months living down the street or in the same room, Ann Arbor seems even farther than before!) Also, things that should be familiar and easy just somehow don't seem quite right to me ... I guess this is what you call reverse culture shock ... I even find going to the supermarket stressful though -- to bag my own groceries or not to bag?

The best thing about coming back is seeing all the people that I missed. I'm content in the U.S. for a while now -- I am an American -- this year has made me really realize that. I'm excited for the election and I rooted for the U.S. in the Olympics. Still, I can already feel that I might be itching to explore again ...

Thanks for sticking with me through it all! I'll write more when next I start exploring ;)

Pictures:
1. Meera and her parents in Mantua
2. The grand canal in Venice after quite a rainstorm
3. Nice from above -- we never did find that life-sized chess board!
4. Meera with the pont d'Avignon below her
5. Sonia at the Place de la Bastille, on Bastille day of course!
6. Meera at Naxos in front of a temple to Appollo
7. A street in Apeiranthos
8. I can prove I've been the the Parthenon!
9. Me at Delphi
10. Meera at the Colloseum

After all Miss, this is France!

2008-06-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

Recently I remembered this lyric from "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast, and Holly and I have talked about how this line can explain a lot of things here. When I don't understand how something works, well, after all, this is France ...

But listening to Beauty and the Beast on my iPod today while I was studying, I realized that I am soon no longer going to be the country that is home of the "little town -- it's a quiet village," which is my favorite thing to sing as soon as I leave Paris. I guess I'll have to take advantage of that in Provence!

I am pretty sure this will be the last post for a long time. This Friday I am going to take a plane to Athens. I have already given up a lot of my clothes to a friend to store while I'm gone (let the smelliness begin ...) and my last final is on Tuesday followed by my last class on Wednesday. This final is terrifying though -- I am given a question and then given 15 minutes to prepare a 10 minute oral response. I'm so scared!

This week I was able still to go to the Parc des Buttes Chaumont and to make a pilgrimage to Pere Lachaise cemetery to see Abelard and Heloise' grave. I also stopped by the park down the street where I broke my leg when I was two. The slide on which I broke it is gone now though ;)

Tomorrow night, my host family is starting up wine degustations again for the summer semester -- It's a perfect way to end my stay, but it also makes me feel as though it's time for me to move on -- new things are starting and I have to move on too. I have loved it here and I am really excited for my immediate travels, but I am ready to continue on. In the next few days though, I intend to tie up my loose ends and then visit some of my favorite places -- Musee de Cluny and Bois de Boulogne here I come!

I'm off for about a month now! I hope everyone is well! I miss you all a lot, and I'll be back in Boston on July 16!!
bisous!

Aurevoir?

2008-06-08T11:22:00.000-07:00

I think this will be one of my last posts before Meera and I head on our trip to Greece, Italy and the South of France and then we head home. (I will post again next weekend anyway if not more than that, but I have only 12 days left!) I haven't decided yet whether or not I'm going to keep writing once I get back to the U.S., although I will try to post at least once about Meera's and my trip. Trying to tie up some of what I feel about my time here, I'm going to make a list of some (only some!) of the things that I will miss about Paris (in no particular order).

1. Bread
2. Taking the metro across the Seine almost every day
3. The Bois de Boulogne
4. The Musee de Cluny
5. Proximity to chateaux and medieval monasteries
6. My host family
7. Saying hello and goodbye every time I enter and exit a store
8. Reid Hall
9. A culture where looking forward to dinner all day is ok
10. speaking French
11. Walking around at night
12. Feeling slightly out of the loop constantly and therefore like I'm constantly learning
13. Everybody at Reid Hall
14. Living a 5 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower
15. Feeling like I'm slightly confused constantly, but that I've also learned at least how to be an American who lives in Paris, if not an actual Parisian
16. The sun sets so late and rises so early!
17. Having constant access to some of the best and most interesting museums in the world
That's not it by any means, but I'll add more as I things come to me.

Things I am excited about in the U.S. :
1. Going to the supermarket on Sunday!
2. Peanut butter that doesn't cost an arm and a leg
3. Libraries that are open frequently and for long hours
4. Lending libraries
5. Not being embarrassed to speak English
6. A currency of DOLLARS!!!
7. Waiting for less than 1/2 an hour to check out in the supermarket
8. Feeling like I know culturally how most things work
9. Not always being in the hustle and bustle of the city
10. Being in the same time zone as many of my friends and only 3 hours off from most of the rest of them
11. Having a cell phone that I can actually talk on
12. Feeling only mildly overwhelmed at school
13. Buying toiletries at normal prices
14. Seeing the Citgo sign when I fly into Boston and the bay when I get back to Berkeley
15. Writing in ENGLISH!
16. Not taking class at more than one school at once
17. Knowing whether or not I am saying what I think I'm saying

Again this is by no means everything, and I didn't even mention things that are always true -- seeing my family and friends and just generally going back to studying and everything in Berkeley. I always miss Berkeley when I'm in Boston and vice versa when I'm in Berkeley, so I tried to focus on small things that contrast with Paris. I guess it seems like I am going to miss the effort to fit into a culture that isn't my own, but at the same time, I'm going to be really relieved to be back in my own culture.

Quick Expression of Disbelief

2008-06-05T03:14:00.001-07:00

Am I really flying to Greece and moving out of Paris two weeks from tomorrow?! I don't believe it!

Is this the stop for Fontainebleau?

2008-06-04T10:49:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a day trip to the chateau at Fontainebleau. I went there with my parents 7 years ago, and I enjoyed it so much that a visit afterward to Versailles was quite a let-down. This time Fontainebleau definitely lived up to my expectations -- the rooms still have a lot of their original furnishings and the grounds are beautiful. The chateau was inhabited by various French kings starting with St. Louis, who built a medieval chateau there that does not exist anymore, continuing with Francois I all the way up to Louis XVI and Napoleon I and III. There's something about Fontainebleau though, as Meera pointed out, that is homey. It's immense, and yet it doesn't feel overwhelming or too stately. The whole city is also surrounded by woods that were used by the king for hunting -- I guess that explains the garden dedicated to Diana, although it doesn't explain the fountain where the water comes out of the mouths of deer statues and it looks like the dog statues are peeing ...

The past week or so I have been trying to profite de Paris before I leave in two weeks! I have been to the Louvre a few times -- my favorite time was definitely my last visit when I was able to see Greek and Roman sculpture including busts of many of my favorite characters from the early empire -- Livia, Augustus, Germanicus, Agrippina, Messalina and Britannicus. I felt like I was reliving I, Claudius.

Last week I went to see the French painting and the Dutch painting at the Louvre and I really didn't like it too much. I'd studied some of it in Art History 11, but even though it's really great art, it just wasn't my favorite. In the afternoon, though, I went back to the Musee de Cluny and saw an exhibit of Iranian, Andalusian and Egyptian pottery from the 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries. It was really funny seeing this art work that I had no frame of reference for at all, having never studied it, but I still found the pottery much more compelling than what I saw in the Louvre that morning. The pottery was really quite beautiful!

A lot of people have already gone home which is sad! It seems like we're all getting ready to leave now, and I feel like I'm trying to make as much of the time I have left in Paris as I can. I'm really excited to travel and see Sonia when we make it back to Paris! And I'm also really excited to go home! But, some of the aspects of Paris that used to be really frustrating -- waiting for 30 minutes every time I need to check out of the grocery store or having to go all the way to the other side of the city to find a book I need -- are starting to seem endearing. I can't wait to take time to wander around Greece, Italy and the south of France (and probably to get really smelly,) and I can't wait to go back home and to Berkeley and to see everyone, but I'm going to miss Paris!

Pictures:
1. Me in the front courtyard of Fontainebleau where Napoleon said goodbye before leaving for Elba.
2. Meera on the horseshoe staircase where Napoleon said goodbye.
3. The dog statue in the garden -- kind of fantastically vulgar?
4. Paris looking toward Sacre Coeur from the top of the Pantheon.

Wandering

2008-05-25T12:24:00.001-07:00

This was my first week without Reid Hall classes, and I had a chance to wander around the city. On Monday I went to the Pompidou, and I wasn't sure what I was going to see. I ended up looking at a whole range of pieces particularly from abstract-expressionism on. I actually really enjoyed the museum -- probably very much thanks to Art History 11 -- I don't think I would have understood what was going on at all without that class! I still have to admit that I laughed a little in the room labeled "inflatable pieces" that featured that blow up furniture we all loved in middle school. The label in the museum explained the room well though -- it was the idea of turning even air into a medium for art.

Wednesday I went back to the musee d'Orsay mainly to see Manet's "Dejeuner sur l'herbe" and "Olympia" both of which I missed the first time. It was just so exciting to see both of those in the paint!

Thursday Meera and I went to the Louvre, but a large part of the museum was closed because of a strike ... We managed to see the Italian painting, and I saw the Louvre's Caravaggio, but we missed the Dutch and French painting. I guess I'll have to go back again!

It stays light really late here -- right now it is 9:30 and it is still light out and it will be for about another 1/2 hour. This makes it really nice to wander around outside at night. Last night after making sandwiches for dinner, Katlyn, Meera and I wandered around the Ile St. Louis looking for ice cream and we ended up, after closing down the English bookstore "Shakespeare and Co.," sitting on a pedestrian bridge near the Louvre for a while. For some reason I feel like it is easier to enjoy the city at night -- it's more peaceful or something.

When I was walking back to the metro last night, I walked around the Louvre and passed the comedie francaise, and I realized it feels like years ago that I saw "Le Mariage de Figaro" there after having sat in the BNF for a while. Even though I've barely spent any time here, the beginning of it and even the middle seems like so long ago.

Even though I don't have very much school, I still have a paper to write and I feel like I'm pulling teeth -- my own that is. I have less than 1 month left in Paris, and there are less than 2 months before Meera and I go back to the U.S. On the one hand that's still a lot of time, but I know it could speed by ...

A True Napoleon Complex

2008-05-18T13:49:00.001-07:00

Last night was free museum night, and I went with Katlyn to Les Invalides. Before I start, I want to acknowledge that I already read what she wrote about it, so I might be rather influenced ... We started with the musee de l'armee and looked at old armor and swords. We saw armor that belonged to Henry IV, Louis XIII, and Francois I. We also saw beautifully decorated swords, and we even saw one Viking sword! It was kind of an out of body experience walking through all of this medieval and early modern war apparel at 11pm, but it was a lovely night and nice to be out. Afterward, we moved on to the museum of the two world wars. I, unfortunately, got really tired and I don't think I appreciated the museum enough. Katlyn mentioned though, and I totally agree, that it really becomes clear that the American involvement in the liberation of France in the second world war is not forgotten. I by no means come into contact with tons of anti-American sentiment, but I do feel a general undercurrent of disdain for everything American (especially catsup ...) and it was kind of nice to feel like I could be proud to be American.

We ended the evening with Napoleon's tomb. Being quite a short person, I have always felt vaguely akin to Napoleon but also vaguely uncomfortable at the prospect of being accused of having a Napoleon complex. I've seen his two story tomb before, and I've always found it quite impressive. But last night was amazing! There was some sort of light show going on, and there was a loudspeaker that presented the history of Les Invalides with light effects to go with it. At times the angels on the sides of the dome had stars coming out of them, at times the lights flashed around the dome, at times they back-lit the crucifix, and everything was centered around Napoleon's tomb. I honestly felt like I was in some sort of weird movie. Katlyn pointed out that after going through the world wars museum which was kind of sad, the tomb seemed to really be an epitome of French pride. I had also forgotten that Vauban (the man responsible for the fortifications of Besancon and St. Malo) is also buried in Les Invalides.

This weekend Kelsey also went home to CA. After a year in Spain and France, she's back. We went to Montmartre and looked out over Paris on Friday, and Kelsey was talking about how strange it is to have this year come to an end. I guess that will be me in just about two months! I'm going to miss Kelsey though!

My friend Rebbecca (Sarah's friend from Oberlin) also had a dance recital on Friday. Everyone performed beautifully and it was really interesting to see what her class had been working on because they had a focus on bridging the gap between movement and description.

This morning I took a break from running in the bois de Boulogne and went to run in the bois de Vincennes instead ... It was so much fun to start and finish at the chateau built by St. Louis! There's also something so lazy and peaceful about Vincennes on Sunday mornings.

Boba, la tour eiffel, et procrastination

2008-05-14T08:06:00.000-07:00

This is the last week of class at Reid Hall. Tomorrow I will have my last stylistique class and my medieval art and architecture final. Of course I should be studying or working on my final paper for that class, but I'm taking a short procrastination break. It is funny these classes are wrapping up -- I've really enjoyed my medieval art and architecture class -- I got to visit a lot of beautiful churches and understand them much more than I would have on my own. I'm also just glad to have learned a little about the development of medieval artistic styles -- ever since taking Art History 11 I have realized that the more I know about the historical and stylistic context of a piece of art, the less of a philistine I can be about it.

It has also gotten really warm in Paris all of a sudden. I have had to make sure to go running in the morning or evening because it is too hot in the middle of the day. I love it!

This weekend Katlyn and I had a picnic by the eiffel tower, which was really fun. We saw a couple get engaged and everyone clapped -- it was kind of goofy but also kind of lovely. Then we met up with some of her friends from the International Herald Tribune and got Boba at what seems to be the only place in Paris where one can find Boba. The tea was wonderful and I would love to go back!

Life has sort of been proceeding as normal here, and it's nice. The city has all of a sudden filled up with tourists, and I have had to help some very confused tourists on the metro a few times ... I also tried velibing for the first time on Monday (bicycles that you can rent in one place and return at another stand where you are going) to get from Reid Hall back to the 16th. It was a lot of fun but a little scary because the streets are pretty busy.

I'm going to get back to studying now!

Spain!!!!!

2008-05-06T13:22:00.000-07:00

I came back on a plane from Spain early Sunday morning after a lovely vacation in Madrid and Barcelona. Meera, Tina and I flew out of Paris the Friday before and met up with Shira in Madrid. We stayed in a small hostel right on the main bar street of Madrid (i.e. I told Julia that our hostel said it was central and what street it was on and she said 'yeah, it doesn't really get more central than that ...') I loved Madrid, and at the risk of being tedious, I'll try to tell all about it.

The first Friday there, Meera, Tina and I walked around aimlessly for a couple of hours searching for food and exploring. We ended up in the plaza mayeur (sorry if I misspelled) by accident and had some paella (my first of MANY paella experiences this trip) in one of the restaurants around the edge. We topped off our meal with some gelato -- something we did almost everyday in Spain -- and then wandered some more before meeting up with Julia (my lovely Berkeley friend studying in Madrid.) She told us we could go see a special exhibit of Goya during the war that night for free since we were students. It was so much fun and a really lovely exhibit. And then we went out to dinner with Julia and her friend Kim. What a lovely first day in Madrid.

The museums in Madrid were lovely! I was afraid of being rather overwhelmed when I ventured to the Prado again after that first night, but it was really nice. After getting past the crowds around Los Meninos and the rest of the Velazquez, there were still LOTS of people, but it calmed down a little bit. I can't read Spanish very well, so I'm not totally sure, but I found one room of medieval art that seemed to be (from what I could make out) wall paintings from a Mozarabe church that are from the same church as the camel wall painting at the cloisters. They were really beautiful. It was also really cool to see the Van der Weyden painting of taking Christ off of the cross where his form is mirrored by Mary's form. I was actually upstairs at the Prado and saw a painting that reminded me of that one, and though "hmm, I would love to see that painting -- I wonder where it is ..." And then I walked downstairs, and there it was!!

The other two museums I saw in Madrid were the Thyssen and the Regnia Sofia (ok, I have no idea how to spell that!), the first of which is a private collection and the other is the modern art museum. (Sorry I am no longer going chronologically -- it was going to be too much!) The Regnia Sofia is taken up by a huge exhibition of the Paris Picasso Museum, and I was pretty Picasso-ed out by the end, but we also saw Guernica, which is always in Madrid. The Thyssen had some beautiful Hoppers, a Caravaggio (Yesss!!), a really beautiful Morisot, and generally just visually appealing art. (Tina pointed out that it is a private collection, so it is particularly beautiful ...)

Madrid also has two beautiful parks. We were really near one of them -- Retiro -- and I went running there twice. The other one was on the other side of the city and has an Egyptian temple in it that was given to Spain because of its help in saving some ancient Nubian temples that were going to be flooded (sorry -- I'm not totally clear on the story). The temple was acquired the same way the temple of Dendur was acquired by the met. It was pretty cool.

Madrid is also a true city that doesn't sleep. Julia took us to a dance club last Saturday night, and we stayed out until after 3am. It was really fun to dance all night, but I was so tired I didn't really go out the whole rest of the trip ;)

Our hostel was really funny -- especially after we had spent multiple hours in a smoky club and gone running, our room smelled terrible. We were sharing it with two middle aged Lyonnaise women, one of whom snored so loudly that she made her whole bed shake. Meera was on the top bunk, and she didn't think it was as funny as I did ;) I regressed into fifth grade humor and couldn't stop laughing anytime anyone said the word "snore."

We also took a day trip to Toledo while in Madrid. It is a beautiful little medieval town on a hill. We went into the Cathedral, which was pretty cool but also pretty bizarre. It is apparently the only church where the Mozarabe mass is still given though. Tina, Meera and I managed to miss our bus back to Madrid though, so we had to beg to get onto the next bus ...

Our next stop was Barcelona. There, it was really nice to see my friend from high school, Robin, who has moved to Barcelona for a while to work in a gallery. We went over her house for dinner one night and just hung out with her a lot.

Barcelona is a city shaped by Gaudi -- he even designed the sidewalk tiles in some places. I only went to the Sagrada Familia (his famous unfinished church) and Park Guel (the urban park he designed with the famous bench featured in L'Auberge Espagnole among other things.) But just walking around it was hard to miss other Gaudi experiences.

We also spent time at the beach in Barcelona and I swam in the Mediterranean for the first time. We went on a hike up one of the hills behind the city to a temple called Tibidabo which is surrounded by something resembling the fire trail (I spent a large part of our time in Barcelona annoying everyone by saying "This looks just like Berkeley!" -- but it totally does!) and a theme park. Another friend from Berkeley, Jason, who studied this semester in Barcelona and is still there, brought us to a market where there was the most amazing fruit! (And the most amazing fruit-flavored ice cream!)

My favorite museum experience in Barcelona was definitely the history of the city museum. Barcelona was originally founded by the emperor Augustus in the 1st c AD (I think) as the city of Barcina for former Roman legionaries. Underneath one of the placas in the medieval city, a part of the Roman city has been excavated, and you can walk around on it using these elevated walkways. I walked through a building where fish used to be cleaned, a laundry facility -- I didn't know, although I should have, that urine was used in Roman times as bleach for laundry, and a wine cellar, among other things.

I also walked through a ruin of a Visigothic church that was built on a Roman temple that was built on an Iberian temple. The museum audioguide remarked on the fact that sacred spaces often stay sacred, and it reminded me of Chartres, which is built over a spring that was worshiped in Celtic mythology, and was built on the spot of a pagan temple, and has taken many many forms through many different eras as a Catholic sacred space. If you walk through the crypt at Chartres, you can see a lot of the excavations that show the different levels of building.

The last night in Barcelona, we went out to dinner with Robin and then drank an entire bottle of chocolate milk sitting on the beach. Chocolate milk is amazing in Spain! We then caught a 6am flight back to Paris, so there wasn't much sleeping that night ;)

It was funny how relieved I was to be back in a country where I can theoretically speak the language. I cheerfully asked the RER agent for a ticket to Paris at the airport and wished him a "bonne journee" even though he was kind of grumpy.

Yesterday was a nice way to ease back into daily life. Julia was in France (we switched!) and I met up with her and Katlyn and Katlyn's friend Donna for a little while in the marais. We ate lunch in the place de Voges. Then Katlyn and Julia treked back to the 16th with me, and Katlyn had to go to work, but Julia and I ate lovely pastries at my favorite patisserie by la muette. Finally, we went to Montmartre to where Julia's family lives, but not without climbing up to Sacre Coeur and looking out at all of Paris. Going up there reminds me of why I really wanted to study in this city. There's nothing like it.

Traveling and seeing so many friends has made me really miss home and Berkeley, but it has also made me really appreciate my time here. I am so lucky to have gotten to spend a semester in such a beautiful place and even though everyday can be difficult in a language that isn't my own and a culture that is still slightly foreign, that's why I came, and I'm having lots of fun.

Pictures:
1. Tina and Meera at Mt. Tibidabo (apparently there is a Friends reference, but I don't watch the show ...)
2. Tina and Meera at the beach in Barcelona
3. Me, Robin and Tina after our last Barcelona dinner ...
4. Tina and Meera with our chocolate milk on the beach
5. Donna, Katlyn and Julia on Place des Voges
6. Meera, Tina and Shira by the Prado our first night before the Goya exhibit
7. Tina, Shira and Meera in Retiro
8. Toledo
9. Egyptian temple
10. Sagrada Familia

Un Mis a Jour!!!

2008-04-22T12:58:00.000-07:00

I will finally catch up (as much as I can) on the past month or so!! I have finished my expose, made dinner, eaten dinner, washed the dishes, and made a nutella sandwich. Compared to my eating habits last semester, I have actually been going rather easy on the nutella, so this is quite a treat!

Almost a month ago now, I went to Chartres for the day with my medieval art and architecture class. That cathedral has some of the most amazing stained glass windows ever (ok, that's not the most original comment ever ...) My favorite thing though (and this is also not original) is the asymmetry of the cathedral -- there aren't the same number of towers on either side of the cathedral, and they are different shapes. The windows are also all at different heights and are different shapes. It is so cold in that cathedral though!

A few weekends ago, I also went to Mt. St. Michel and St. Malo. Mt. St. Michel is a Clunisian cathedral built on an outcropping in Normandie/Bretagne (apparently it's a disputed area ...). I feel a little silly explaining what it is, but Mt. St. Michel is built on top of a huge rock that is inaccessible when the tide comes in. The monastery itself is very beautiful -- there is a very peaceful cloister that I want to add a picture of, but I can't load any right now ... But, the most beautiful thing about the monastery is definitely driving up to it and seeing it from afar surrounded both by the ocean and marsh. Meera and I both had the kind of funny reaction to the coast that it's very beautiful and it looks just like New England! When people ask me how Mt. St. Michel was, I kind of want to say "Oh, just like Crane's Beach!"

St. Malo is a resort town (this time thoroughly in Bretagne.) We were there a little before season so it was still rather cold, but the ocean was beautiful! Like Besancon, St. Malo was fortified by Vauban, and the ramparts still exist. It is also a cute little medieval walled town, although large parts of it were destroyed during the second world war and then rebuilt. We had two really yummy meals that were seafood-filled and crepe-filled -- Bretagne is the home of the crepe. We also walked around on the beach and I took my shoes off even though it was freezing!

Two weekends ago, my mom came to Paris. It was so lovely to see her! We went to eat at our favorite restaurant from when my whole family came seven years ago, and we talked to the same waiter from seven years ago! I think he's actually the owner, but it was pretty cool! We also went back to Chantilly (well, I went back, my mom had never been because when we tried to go seven years ago we ended up in a random suburb -- Creil -- I almost made us go back by accident when we were trying to get on a train to Paris ...) and we went to the Chateau de Vincennes and the Bois de Vincennes, among other Parisian attractions. The Chateau de Vincennes is a true medieval fortress that was built for St. Louis (I believe) in order to go hunting in the bois de Vincennes. It was also lovely to see the other Parisian bois -- I frequent the Bois de Boulogne, since I live down the street, but I think it would be lovely to take the metro to Vincennes sometimes -- it is really nice there too!

This past weekend, aside from working on my expose (really -- I didn't speak to another human being except for on the phone on Sunday!), I had my first experience going to a dance club. I went with Katlyn and her friends Donna and Reed, both of whom are really nice. We went to a club in the Bastille that played pretty fabulous American music ... I had to leave early so I could catch the metro home, but it was really fun!

But, the past few weeks haven't been all fun and games ;) I took my first exam in the French university system in my Carolingian Renaissance class and I've done a lot more other work than I've done the rest of the semester. It's a little overwhelming to do assignments not only in another language but also in forms that aren't necessarily natural to me ...

Side note also: After an article in the NYTimes about the possibility that Canada will deem Bisphenol-A, a chemical found in Nalgene bottles, toxic, I think I have to give up my Nalgene bottles! Nalgene is apparently going to come out with a new bottle sans Bisphenol-A, but until then, I am Nalgene-less. I don't know what I'm going to do!!

I called Dana today, and even though we're on the same time zone she was going to bed. She told me that perhaps Parisian nights last a little longer than nights in Moamba ... she may be right but I'm pretty tired myself! I think things are going to be a little later next week even than this week though ... I can't wait to go to Spain in T-2 days!!! I'm sorry I haven't added more photos -- I keep getting some sort of error message, so I'll try again later. If worse comes to worse, I will find a way to add pictures from Spain when I get back!

"I bought a ticket back on a plane to Spain, went to a party down a red dirt road, there were lots of pretty people there reading 'Rolling Stone,' reading 'Vogue' ..."

A slight diversion

2008-04-20T08:44:00.001-07:00

I'm in the middle of working on an expose for my class on the international press at Sciences Po' due Tuesday (hence my lack of posts about France, Paris, Mt. St. Michel, my mom's visit etc. -- did you know I'm going to Madrid on Friday? I'm hella excited!) and I've had the excuse to spend more time looking at newspapers and news blogs online than I usually do. I am embarrassed to say that I usually read the NYTimes online (except not now unless I bring my computer to Reid Hall -- my internet is too slow at home ) but I usually draw the line at blogs, thinking that I am moving out of the realm of becoming a well informed citizen and into the realm of diversion and procrastination. The past few weeks have caused me to have to dive into the world of news blogs, and I'm really glad. I will never give up my affinity for the front page of any print newspaper and good old fashioned news articles, but the easier style and insertion of the personality of the reporter are really interesting. I often read articles by Baghdad or Kabul correspondents and wonder not only how the person managed to collect all that information but also what it would be like to live that person's life.

I added a photo of Mt. St. Michel, a photo of St. Malo, and a photo of my mom and Chantilly so that I can write about everything after Tuesday night!

More Coming

2008-04-19T08:36:00.001-07:00

Hello after a long time! I'm sorry (especially to Stephanie and Amanda!) for not writing more recently ...
More is coming!!!
Paris is beautiful!

It tastes better with a fork

2008-03-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

I have photos of Chartres to upload and lots to tell, but it is also late and I have to do work before I brave the French University system tomorrow morning, so this must be a shortish post.

Katlyn arrived yesterday, and although she has had rotten luck getting into the city, it was lovely to see her today! Besides it being lovely to see Katlyn under any circumstances, wandering around Paris with her also reminded me of how beautiful this city really is. After being here for almost three months, it is really easy to get caught up in how frustrating it is that libraries aren't open on weekends and school assignments are really different from anything I've ever known, but it is beautiful here and living in a foreign culture and language has sharpened my perceptions of both my own life and what is going on around me here. Ever since coming back from Besancon, I feel as though my French has been much more natural, and while I am still woefully American (my nalgene and EMS backpack broadcast it every time I leave the apartment), I feel much more as though I am an American who lives in Paris.

This post is getting long, and I haven't even mentioned Chartres (let me be brief -- the most incredible stained glass windows I have ever seen -- photos coming) or the amazing food I've had in the past few days (HOT CHOCOLATE and ICE CREAM) or the cooking class I went to on Thursday night (even fromage blanc and creme chantilly should be eaten with a fork not a spoon -- it tastes better) or my first assignment in the French University system. But those things will have to wait -- I have photos of Chartres and more to say soon! And this weekend I am off to Mont St. Michel!

Tonight I miss Berkeley, Newton and Boston, but I am happy to be in Paris!

Stinky Cheese and Sausage

2008-03-21T11:10:00.001-07:00

I just came back two days ago from spending a week living with a family in a village of 90 people in Franche Comte outside of Besancon. My family had five people: Jean-Marc and Nathalie -- the dad and the mom -- and three boys -- Benjamin (15), Florient (14), and Antoine (5). I have never lived in a family with so many people ;) It was really amazing how kind and welcoming they were to me. I never felt like I was intruding and they were really interested both in trying to make me love the Franche Comte and specifically their little village as much as they do and in learning about my life in the U.S. I spent the four week days I was there touring around with the other Americans in and around Besancon -- we saw parts of Besancon and we went to Switzerland for a day. Besancon is cool because it was conquered by Louis XIV and before his conquest it was not a part of France. One of his defense ministers, Vauban, built an extensive defense fortress and walls around it. They're all still intact. The area that is Besancon has also been inhabited since something like the fourth century B.C. (I might be making that up, but it was one of the first cities Caesar took in Gaul and it had been inhabited for a while before that ...) My family's backyard actually had an old Roman fortified look out in it -- it was pretty cool.

During the weekend, I was with my family the whole time. I ran errands with Nathalie and Antoine, and we stopped along the way to look at medieval strong houses and mini-chateaux. It was hella tight. I also got to go for a run both mornings through the woods and then through some fields. I only met one person once, and she was on a horse.

On Sunday, we had a lunch party which lasted almost all day. One of the families had an eight year old daughter, Juliette, and a four year old son, Emilion. The other family had a five year old daughter, Marie, and a young baby. They were all really cute, and everyone was really nice. I actually stayed overnight at Juliette and Emilion's family (Pascal and Celine) on Monday night since my family was going to a concert. They were also incredibly kind.

It was really fun to be in these little villages where everyone was so nice. I definitely miss my families, which is funny because I only met them for a week. But, they said I could go back and visit them, so I might have to do that later in the semester ...

Being back in Paris has been nice too -- I'm excited to relax this weekend and just do some work. Yesterday something funny happened though -- I ran into my friend Valentina on the street near St. Germain. It was funny because it wasn't near Reid Hall, and while it was near Sciences Po' (where she was coming from and I was going) we were far enough away that it felt like we had just randomly run into each other. It made me feel just a little bit more like I could fit in here ...

I'm also so excited for Katlyn to come next weekend and for my mom to come visit in a few weeks!!

Pictures:
1. Nathalie and Antoine
2. Chateau in a nearby village
3. Cristelle, Nathalie, Juliette, and Celine in Fondremont (a medieval town near the village)
4. The lake at Neuchatel (in Switzerland!!)

Dessert has two "s"s because you want two helpings

2008-03-11T14:36:00.000-07:00

Dinner tonight:
1. a hard boiled egg
2. chips and guacamole
3. little sandwiches with butter and smoked salmon or cheese
4. green beans
5. cheese
6. plum tart
7. vanilla rum cake
8. tiramisu

I am going to Besancon for a week sans computer ... I will bring back pictures!

Little Town, It's a Quiet Village

2008-03-09T01:24:00.000-08:00

I spent the past two days in Burgundy with my Medieval Art and Architecture class. We started with a trip to Fontenay, which is a Cistercian monastery designed by Bernard of Clairvaux. It was incredible to actually see Fontenay after reading so much about Bernard, and it was really stunning to experience how isolated the monastery actually is. It is really far off the road and surrounding by both forest and marsh. The architecture itself is very stark, as the monks are not supposed to be distracted from their texts by images. But, Bernard also really wanted the architecture to be beautiful because of its function, and there is something elegantly beautiful. Fontenay was so peaceful, it was my favorite place we went on the whole trip.

We next went to Flavigny, which is a tiny medieval town on top of a hill. We ate in a restaurant that is owned by some of the local women, and they make the food at home and bring it to the restaurant. We had a quiche with leeks and apples, potato gratin, cheese, and three different kinds of tarts -- rhubarb, cherry, and apple. They were all amazing! I was very full, but we still had both more medieval art and more food to eat that day!

Our next stop was Vezelay, which is where we stayed the night. It is also a medieval city on top of a hill. The Cathedral, which was held by the Cluny Monastery, is right in the middle of the city rather than totally separate like the Cistercian Monastery. Also, it was very ornate, with beautiful sculptures both on the front of the Cathedral and on the tops of all the pillars. The church was also thought to hold relics from Mary Magdalene, so there is a crypt. We went down, and the floor of the crypt is really the rock the church was built on -- it is really uneven. Vezelay was a serious center of pilgrimages.

That night we ate dinner at a wonderful restaurant in the town. I ate two dishes that were basically just cooked seasonal vegetables in various sauces, but the sauces were amazing! And then I had cheese and chocoalte cake with pistachio ice cream. We also had a 1992 wine from Borgogne, which is one of the main wine producing regions in France!

The next morning we got up and ate breakfast in our lovely hotel that had windows overlooking the Burgundy countryside. Then we headed for Autun, where we looked at a church that was thought to hold the relics from Lazarus. This was also a major pilgrimage destination, and the church originally had almost a mini church in it that the pilgrims walked into and down to look at Lazarus' relics and then out the other side -- they went into the tomb and then out again just like Lazarus.

There, we also ate a big lunch. I had a salad with warm chevre and then chocolate cake again. It was lovely. A lot of people had melted cheese dishes though, which is the specialty of the region. Most of them had meat in them though, so I couldn't.

Finally, our last stop was the Roman amphitheater at Autun. Autun was a Roman city, and the name has something to do with Augustus, so it was a city made for Augustus in some way. My camera died, so I have no pictures, but it was really amazing. And it was pretty fabulous that there is now a soccer field where the plays used to be performed. What a transition!

Photos:
1. Deniz at our hotel -- note the lovely view from the Breakfast room!
2. The Cathedral at Autun
3. Mme. Bratu and Charles at Vezelay
4. Vezelay at dusk
5. Carolyn, Deniz, Valentina, Amari and Holly in Flavigny
6. La Grange -- the wonderful restaurant at Flavigny
7. The Cloister at Fontenay

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Amphitheatre so We'll Have Comedie Tonight

2008-03-05T14:32:00.000-08:00

.
I went to Lyon this weekend to visit Lauren and to see what was the capitol of ancient Gaul. The city is lovely -- two rivers, a medieval city, Roman ruins, markets -- what more could one ask for? The ruins are on the hills around the rivers (the most impressive ruins are the amphitheaters), but the medieval city is in the valley because I guess the aqueducts began to break down and people needed to move out of the hills in the early middle ages. Now the city sprawls around everywhere, but it is a very manageable. The biggest urban park in France is also in Lyon -- le parc de la tete d'or -- which was absolutely lovely. It even rivaled the bois, which has definitely become my favorite place in Paris. Lyon was really what the gastronomical capitol and Roman capitol of France should be! (The food I ate there was AMAZING!)

Last week, I also went to the Comedie Francaise's performance of Le Mariage de Figaro, which I was expecting to be very conservative with period costumes and everything. It was incredibly well performed, but not at all what I expected. Period costumes were nowhere in sight -- one characters performed the whole second half in one of those black suits that has a glow in the dark skeleton on it -- and people were entering from the audience and even talking to the audience left and right. It was quite an astonishing performance, however. I thought so even though I waited in line for 1.5 hours to get a rush ticket and then had such a bad seat I could barely see 2/3 of the stage and had to stand most of the show to see that much ... I was exhausted but happy by the end.

I also started class at Sciences Po' this week. I had one class on the world press on Tuesday, and I have one on the place of philosophers in society tomorrow. I really liked my professor on Tuesday and it was really cool that my class was really international ... I'm excited to take more class there, although I'm a little scared for the work ...

This week has gone by in a whirlwind ... on Friday I'm going to Borgogne with my medieval art and architecture class in order to see the abbey of Fontenay (founded by Bernard of Clairvaux, my personal favorite Cistercian monk with irritable bowel syndrom ...) and to eat and drink (and I hope be merry ...) This whole month seems that it will go by in a whirlwind -- I'm starting to feel like my stay in Paris really isn't that long ...

Pictures from Lyon:
1. Lauren on top of Croix Rousse with Lyon in the background ...
2. The Front of St. Jean, a church in Medieval Lyon ...
3. Amphitheater
4. Me on a ruin ... perhaps once somebody's house
5. Lauren in the parc de la tete d'or

When in Rome? And September in San Francisco ...

2008-02-22T12:42:00.000-08:00

I think I have stumbled upon the problem so eloquently or not so eloquently presented by Polonius' speech to Laertes in Hamlet. I have always taken it as the bumbling of an old, possibly well-meaning, but rather pretentious fool. But, he may have been on to something. His long list of advice to his son, including the advice to try to fit in with the Parisian culture Laertes was about to join, followed by the advice "to thine own self be true" has always seemed rather ridiculous. Still, I definitely understand the tension of wanting to try to be Parisian and fit in in a culture that is not my own, while still feeling very very American. And I'm not sure that's always a bad thing. After all, I am here to learn about France and to learn to live in another culture, but I am not here to become French or to somehow erase the fact that I am American.

Dinner can be a funny experience. On Friday night, Holly and I made tuna burgers, which we ate with catsup (I don't even eat catsup on tuna burgers at home), but we followed it with a cheese plate. And we had two different kinds of wine -- one for each course. And last night I made Ratatouille out of a recipe from The Joy of Cooking -- the most American of American cook books giving instructions on how to make a rural French vegetable stew ... I guess it's nice though that where Julia Child's recipe warns at the beginning that this vegetable stew is no come home from work and whip it up in 10 minutes deal, The Joy of Cooking has got us covered.

Today was an absolutely beautiful day, however. Kelsey and I went walk/running in the Bois, and we went farther than I have ventured before. Holly, Kelsey and I all think the Bois often really reminds us of Golden Gate Park. It was nice though to walk beyond the lake because the bois gets even less like an urban park and more just like a park with pseudo-trails.

I also discovered on Friday that the Saturday version of Le Monde comes out with a selection from that week's New York Times. It was kind of funny because all of the articles were either features or news analysis and a lot of them were about food. And two were about vegetarians/vegans ... The articles also come with a set of translations of idiomatic French expressions and descriptions of references that might be apparent to an American. It explained "Julia Child" this week ;)

On Saturday I spent most of the day in the Bibliotheque Nationale Francaise because some of the books I need to read for my Carolingian Renaissance class aren't in the public library. You have to pay to use the bnf, and I only bought three visits, so I had to make the most of Saturday. For some reason these two books that I wanted to look at are kept in the same room as all the western manuscripts. You have to go in and surrender the photo ID that was made for you when you registered to be able to read in the bnf and you get a temporary pass that allows you to go to the bathroom as well as a key that goes with a locker that you have to lock all of your stuff in. You also get a green plastic card that says the number of your assigned study space. When you want a book, you trade this green card for an orange one and you fill out a little form requesting the book, and someone brings it to you within the next half hour. When you have finished reading, you return the orange card with the books and get your green card back. Then you go to a different desk and get a little form that says the time you are leaving. You bring that back to the front with your green card and your temporary pass. Then you are allowed to leave the room to get your stuff out of the locker. Then you can return the key and get your ID back. It is really quite a production!

There is Ice on the Lake in the Bois de Boulogne

2008-02-17T09:26:00.000-08:00

Even though the past few days have been beautiful, it has been so cold at night that there was actually a layer of ice on the lake this morning. I think I beat the rush to the bois this morning though -- I ran about 8:30 and the crowd was rolling in as I left around 9:30. It really is very lovely to be able to escape into the bois easily every day to take a jog -- I feel as though my suburban tendencies show through in my propensity to gravitate toward city parks.

This week was the first week of real classes at Reid Hall and at the Sorbonne. Sciences Po' still doesn't start for another two weeks. Right now I am taking a French writing class at Reid Hall, and I may also take a medieval art and architecture class with the professor who ran my orientation program. She is really nice, and her class seems really fun because we get to visit museums and monuments throughout Paris and outside in order to really see the works we're talking about.

The Sorbonne is such a maze! But I am taking a class on the Carolingian Renaissance there which seems really fun, but rather hard. I understood the two classes I've been to, which is more than I can say for some of the other ones I visited, but I REALLY have to pay attention. Also, French university classes don't usually give you a syllabus the way I'm used to with reading for each week, but rather I just have topics and a bibliography and I'm supposed to sort of figure out what to read ... I am kind of lost! I'm also planning on auditing a lecture on the politics of the high middle ages.

Food was the word of this weekend. Friday night saw a mix of lots of "American" food -- Dominoes pizza, brownies, and pancakes in the morning. Then Saturday was Vietnamese pho -- I had to have chicken soup without the chicken -- and I had this really bizarre but ultimately delicious dessert that was iced coconut milk and corn and little jellies. After my first bite I was really surprised, but I ate the whole thing! Then today, I had couscous at a Moroccan restaurant, which was also excellent.

Holly taught me how to make a stir fry today that includes a sauce of orange juice and soy sauce -- I was skeptical at first, although this is probably how everyone else has always been making stir fry -- but it was delicious. Next weekend we want to try to go local though and make food with strictly local ingredients a` la our friend Laura and Alice Waters!

Holly, Meera and I also went to a church service this morning. I have mostly only been to church on Christmas before, so the service was much less elaborate and in French, but it was interesting to see the church, which is a little church around the corner, was packed. I had trouble because I wasn't sure what the French translation of "Peace be with you" is, so I had to smile a lot.

This slacker needs to go do some devoirs now!

"Do you know the woods at Amboise?"

2008-02-11T10:30:00.000-08:00

The Loire valley was really wonderful. A bunch of us from Reid Hall went on a trip this weekend, and we left Paris at 6:30 on Saturday morning in order to visit Cheverney and Blois on Saturday and then Chenonceau and Amboise on Sunday. The Loire is a river that sort of cuts France in half, and as my host father tells us at wine tastings, it has a temperate climate. This makes it a good area for white wine and for the kings of France to build their chateaux.

Cheverney is sort of a perfect little Chateaux. It reminded me of how I imagine an English great house. The cool thing is that the family still lives in a section of the Chateaux that isn't open to the public, and there are family pictures all around.

Blois was absolutely stunning. Unlike many Chateaux, both Blois and Amboise are built above cities -- they are sort of fortresses. Blois has a medieval room that was used for living and judgments on one corner, then a "flamboyant Gothic" portion built while Charles IX was married to Anne of Bretagne (I might have just gotten that part wrong), a Renaissance part built by Francois the first (Meera pointed out this part has real gargoyles while the flamboyant part has angels ...) and a faux classical part. It is just so cool, and it has been transmogrified so much throughout time. I also love that the chateaux were often seats of the king when he traveled around, but the royal palaces often grew out of fortresses of local rulers etc. ... I might be extrapolating too much. I guess kings always had to travel around in order to show off their power, but there is a sense of the king playing the part of local ruler in lots of different locales ...

Chenenceau is built over the Cher river. It was definitely the most beautiful chateaux. I really liked a painting in the chateaux though that showed it sitting on the Cher and fishermen going in boats underneath ... it was as though the castle was just built into the natural landscape even though it's incredibly artificial.

And I didn't go into the final chateaux at Amboise ... we went to see Da Vinci's house instead, which was very large. The room where he is thought to have finished John the Baptist is all yellow and has beautiful light as well as a view onto the lawn. I really could imagine wanting to add all the gold to that painting while sitting in that room.

It was really a lovely weekend. The Loire valley is beautiful, and it was nice to spend time in a different part of France. One of the most lovely parts though was that Meera and I just sat by the Loire for almost an hour on Saturday, and we could take our coats off and everything because it was so warm. And, it was all very Ever After ...

When we came back, today was the first day of class at the Sorbonne. I went to a lecture on France in the time of the wars of religion, which was really hard to understand, but ok. I think I'm going to take a class on the Carolingian Renaissance instead though ... I'm nervous but also excited. Finding classes in the Sorbonne is really hard though ... Dwinelle has never seen a maze like this ...

I'm adding pictures of the Loire etc. ...
1. Deniz, Meera and Valentina in front of the castle at Blois
2. me at Chenenceau (courtesy Meera)
3. The medieval room of the castle at Blois
4. The Loire at Blois
5. Meera in the grounds of Cheverney

elections!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-02-04T08:58:00.001-08:00

Tsunami Tuesday Tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paris New and Old, Inside and Out

2008-02-03T13:59:00.000-08:00

The Musee de Cluny is a medieval monastery (15thc) along with Gallo-Roman baths (1-3rdc) right in the center of Paris. Although there were a lot of people there on Saturday, I thought a lot of the artwork was truly stunning. The famous tapestries of the lady and the unicorn are very strange but also beautiful. They are a set of six tapestries, five of which depict the five senses and one which shows the lady placing all of her good in a box. This tapestry has the title "A mon seul desire" (To my one desire.) I can't imagine weaving a tapestry, not that I can imagine painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling, but a tapestry just seems incredible.

The Musee de Cluny also houses some stained glass from St. Chappell and from other cathedrals around France. It is the stained glass that seemed truly captivating to me -- the glass is not even as modern glass would be, and the panes have an incredible level of detail. The colors are very bright and clear, and some of the panes have painted detail as well.

The Musee is also built on Gallo-Roman baths, so it is possible to walk around the frigidarium (the cold bath -- there would also have been a hot and a warm bath.) It was rather damp and cool down there, but it was amazing to walk around down there also. Again, the layers of significance on top of each other are stunning.

Today was free Paris day, so many people were out, and Notre Dame was a little too intimidating, however we did make it to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, and we were there to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle.

And Friday night, Holly and I went to a Turkish restaurant with our friend Deniz, who speaks Turkish! I've never had Turkish food before and it was lovely!

Side note as well, I went to the Louvre on Friday and looked at some of the antiquities, including earrings from ancient Greece (c. 500 BC), and then there were earrings at the musee de Cluny ... it just seems funny that people have been putting holes in their ears for so long. Meera was also saying that different types of earrings have had different significations throughout time.

It is so lovely to be in this city with so much to see and think about, but I must say it was lovely to see people from Berkeley yesterday and today and I enjoyed listening to all a cappella over the web this evening ;)

franglais and latineese

2008-02-01T08:08:00.000-08:00

Right now, I am sitting in an apartment in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. I have visited the Louvre today, I have gone running in the Bois de Boulogne, I have finished my French exam, which I may not have done well on, but at least is done. But, I am particularly happy right now because I am writing in English.

I had an English teacher tell me once that writing is not natural, and that's why it's so hard. While that may be kind of a goofy way to think about it, I've definitely been reassured because writing, be it a blog post, an entry in my journal, a research paper, a reading response or a newspaper article, has never been easy. And yet, I love to write.

This week, I feel as though I have really been struggling with writing in a language that is not my own. I've written papers before in French classes, and the ones I wrote for my French class last semester were hard. But this week I wrote a paper on a subject I took a class in last semester, so I felt like I was writing the final paper over again, this time in French.

And I'm scared too that taking half a year away from writing in English will make me lose whatever hard-earned ability I have in that language. Goodness knows each new paper and article is always a struggle, but even throughout a semester, the writing process gets easier. What will writing be like when I come back to Berkeley?

Feeling the frustration that often comes with not being able to express myself in exactly the way I mean to, I'm starting to feel scared about the months and papers to come. There will be sentences I will read and only partially understand and sentences I will write and hope that they do in fact express what I want them to express.

And although I don't think I will gain as much facility with this foreign form of expression in six months as I have with the language that I've spoken since birth, maybe the frustration I experience will lessen. Maybe I will begin to enjoy writing in French the same way I enjoy struggling to express myself in English. Because, really, I will never overcome the struggle, but I might learn to enjoy it.

De the Metro and Wine

2008-01-29T06:35:00.000-08:00

Whenever I go to a Metro station that has a loop for trains to turn around, and I'm standing on the platform and see a train go by but not come to the platform, I always have the impression that the trains are kind of like large snakes (basilisks perhaps a la Harry Potter) that live in the bowels of the city and slide around in these secret passageways that I can't understand. Today, I took the metro from Etoile to Trocadero (Etoile is the end of the 6, so it turns around there) and we passed an abandoned train on the side of the tunnel, and it felt like an abandoned dead animal.

Last night, we had a wine tasting. We had five different kinds of wine -- a white wine from the Loire, a rose from Bordeaux, a red wine from the Cote de Rhone, an older red wine from Bordeaux, and a dessert wine called Monbazillac. I think I liked the rose the best, although I'm bad at telling these things apart. But, since I live with the family that does the wine tastings, maybe I'll be good at this by the end of the four tastings ;) We also learned that you should buy wine from Bordeaux because you are most likely to get wine of good quality.

p.s. One week until Tsunami Tuesday!!!!!

Reims p.s.

2008-01-27T03:39:00.000-08:00

Just a quick p.s. ... my old GSI Mark just reminded me that Reims was hit really hard in WWI and became something of a national symbol ... there would be posters and everything showing the Cathedral ... It's so cool how one place can have many layers of meaning and historical importance.

Reims

2008-01-27T02:55:00.000-08:00

Blehh ... I'm sick ... not terribly, but a little. Just by way of explanation, I had to change the heading of the blog (although not the website) because a baguette with nutella on it was the last thing I ate before feeling really rotten, and now just the thought is more than I can take ...

Clovis, however, is on my mind because I went to Reims yesterday and saw the spot where he was baptized and possibly even the actual stone tub-ish structure he stood in while being baptized. The Cathedral is Reims is quite stunning. It's facade is covered in statues spanning the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. The highest set of statues on the facade shows Clovis with his shoulder length hair (the symbol of Merovingian power was their long hair) in the process of being baptized with his wife Chlothild on one side and the bishop of Reims on the other. These figures escaped being decapitated in the French Revolution (unlike the Old Testament kings on Notre Dame de Paris) because they were so high up. This was also the Cathedral where many French kings were crowned. The sacred choir of the church is extra large in this Cathedral in order to accommodate the ceremony.

The Cathedral sort of grows strangely out of this boring little street. It reminded me of something my old GSI said about some of the older buildings in Paris that are oddly shaped and incongruous with the surrounding buildings that they must be asking "where are my friends?" Notre Dame de Reims and the random Roman arches preserved basically in the middle of a traffic circle (hey, kind of like Concord Green!) definitely seem abandoned by all the buildings that made sense around them.

The next stop on the trip yesterday was at the Champagne Pommery caves. I'm still slightly unclear, but it seems that this huge set of underground rooms are Gallo-Roman (Reims was originally a Roman city) and were bought much MUCH later to be turned into Champagne caves. We sort of wandered through this series of tunnels and caverns and there would just be bottles and bottles of Champagne bottles everywhere. Then we would walk into a cavern and there would be a little bit of Champagne in the corner and a huge mural of Bacchus with a light shining on it or some sort of weird piece of modern art hanging from the ceiling. One of the long tunnels even had multi-colored strode lights ... We then had two different types of champagne to taste -- one was made from three different years mixed together and was much stronger than the fruitier type that was all from one year (I forget exactly which year ...)

It was also very strange driving through Champagne -- there were flat fields and really thick fog. It was thick the way it only sometimes is in Berkeley when you stand at the base of the campinile and can't see more than 20 feet up or so.

Holly is practicing piano and sounds lovely. It is so nice to sit in my room and hear her play ;)

On school and Euros

2008-01-25T10:31:00.000-08:00

Sooooo, this week was the start of the language practicum ... useful since I'm terrible at French, but I can't help but wonder if this last ditch effort to get me up to par will really have any results ... I am such a bumbler in French that even though I theoretically know how to do most basic interactions -- supermarket, Monoprix, etc., -- people often revert into English at me even though I've been speaking French. My favorite is when I've done a whole interaction in French, and the person tells me the price, and I start rifling through my huge change purse (since you can actually have rather a lot of money in change because of one and two Euro coins) and the person tells me the price again in English, as though having it in my native tongue will make me go faster! But , I know, I'm incompetent ...

I found out yesterday that doctors in France still make house calls. My roommate was sick and the family we're living with called a doctor who came to their apartment and took care of her. It's pretty fabulous, although I wish Holly felt better!

I also had two of my first French protest/strike experiences this week ... On Sunday, another of my old GSIs showed me around parts of the Left bank, and we came upon an abortion protest. I also was unable to take a tour of the library at Pompidou Center since it was closed because of greves ... it felt very French to be denied something because of a strike though ;) And I had the most amazing gelatto while waiting!

Tomorrow Reims, and I will take pictures ;)

Chantilly etc.

2008-01-20T01:41:00.000-08:00

In the past few days, I've been to Chantilly (a Chateau just outside of Paris) and the Monet museum. The Monet museum also has a fabulous collection of medieval miniatures that I never know anything about but are really beautiful. It was really cool too to see Monet's painting of the Japanese Bridge that he did when he was in the beginning of his career mostly in green, and a painting I had never seen before from the very end of his life that was the same bridge but done with a lot of red and orange. Up close, it was really hard to see the bridge, but from across the room the bridge was really clear. Our professor said this difference occurred a lot because of influences from cubism and other later movements on Monet's work. I thought that was pretty tight.

Chantilly is a palace made up of many different sections from different eras. There is a collection of beautiful old books in the library, and the most famous thing I think is an illluminated manuscript called "Les Tres Riches Heures du duc de Berry." We could only see a facsimile because it can't be exposed to light. We also ate in a restaurant that was in the rooms where people would have eaten in the Renaissance palace ... it was really chouette! And the grounds were beatiful!

Musee Rodin photo

2008-01-16T10:41:00.001-08:00

Musee Rodin

2008-01-16T10:35:00.001-08:00

Bonjour! Le musee Rodin was lots of fun, despite the fact that Rodin is not my favorite. It's a beautiful 18th c building, and Rodin really wanted all of his masterpieces as well as his personal collection of other art to be displayed together ... C'est chouette. It's funny too because the house passed through many hands, and at one point it was owned by a rather austere religious order. Because of that a lot of the decorations have been stripped from the walls ... it's not as rococo as it used to be. But there were a lot of beautiful statues and many famous statues as well ;) We ate a huge lunch in the cafeteria at the museum that was also tres bonne.

Musee Jacquemart Andre

2008-01-15T12:08:00.000-08:00

The language exam today was not fun ... but I guess exams rarely are ;) I now have a French bank account! After lunch, my group went to the Musee Jacquemart Andre. It was the house of a 19th c wealthy banker who married an artist and the two of them turned their house into a museum of 18th c art and furniture styles. The painter I recognized from AH 11 was Boucher, but there were also other beautiful paintings. And there was an Italian section of rooms that had a lot of beautiful and different paintings of the Virgin and Christ. Afterward, we had tea in the salon de the that was actually the dinning room for the house. It was beautiful, and I had Ceylon tea with opera cake ... delicious!!! And when we got home, our host mother's grandson who is 2 years old was here, so we played with him while watching a strange television show called "Buzz -- jeu de la musique" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" dubbed into French. It was pretty fabulous ;) I'm adding a picture of Holly at the musee and some pictures of Reid Hall ...

Reid Hall

2008-01-14T09:10:00.001-08:00

Aujourd'hui c'etait le premier jour de Reid Hall. We had orientation and lots of information, which was both reassuring and overwhelming ... Reid Hall is a really large old house with an interior court yard. It's very pretty, and you have to walk outside in order to get into some of the classrooms on the ground floor. It took Holly, Meera and I about 30 minutes to get to Reid Hall on the Metro -- not too bad. I found out that I will be spending my week's sejour in March in Besancon, which is a little town in the east of France near Switzerland. Also, Holly and I are both in a group that will be visiting museums throughout the week -- we start tomorrow with le musee Jacquemart Andre, puis Wednesday we have le musee Rodin and Thursday le musee Monet Marmottan. On Friday, we are taking a day trip to Chantilly -- a chateau close to Paris -- and we're seeing le musee Conde that is there. I'm excited -- my family never got to Chantilly because we were on a train that got diverted and we didn't understand the announcement;) Holly, Meera and I also went to a patisserie on the way home, and I had a Madeleine -- it was really yummy, and softer than the ones in the U.S. that I've had...
I'm putting up a picture of the front of the building I live in ...

Moulin Rouge

2008-01-13T11:48:00.000-08:00

I can only put one picture in each post, so here's another photo from Montmartre ;)

Sacre Coeur

2008-01-13T11:40:00.001-08:00

I absolutely love running in the bois de boulogne! Meera and I went to Montmartre et Sacre Coeur today. It was beautiful, and it was so much fun to walk around in the little streets behind. So many stairs though -- quite a workout ;) We also ate pain au chocolate which was amazing even for someone who doesn't like croissants! Holly, who is the other student living in the this apartment came this afternoon, which is really exciting! We ate dinner with our host family who are incredibly nice. We ate a soup made of tomatos, peas, carrots and beans. We then had fried eggs on a bunch of cooked tomatoes with a lot of spices I couldn't recreate, and rice. It was quite lovely. We have orientation tomorrow, which is exciting, although I have enjoyed being something of a tourist :)

Sights and Crepes etc.

2008-01-12T14:16:00.000-08:00

Meera and I bought cell phones aujourd'hui -- what a relief to no longer be incommunicado! We walked to the Eiffel Tower, along the Seine and up the Champs Elysees. I had no idea where we were most of the time, but luckily Meera did ;) Afterward, we went to a cafe in the 16th with my old GSI, Mark, who is here doing research for his dissertation. He was really nice and gave us lots of advice. We all went later to a creperie in the quartier latin where we had savory crepes made from buckwheat, which Mark said is the way they are actually made in Bretagne. I had a crepe with swiss cheese and mushrooms -- it was excellent! He's right that it does feel more hearty to have buckwheat flour rather than wheat flour. I also had a nutella sweet crepe afterward ... Both were amazing. And we had fermented cider, which is supposed to be the traditional drink from Brittany. I love food! (I guess it's good that I'm in France then ...)

Details and Running

2008-01-12T02:22:00.001-08:00

So when we got here yesterday, Meera and I spent a long time trying to catch a shuttle into Paris and finally got here. I have a lovely room in a nice couple's apartment in the 16th arrondissement. Yesterday I went to the supermarket (supermarche) and the boulangerie where I bought, among other things, a baguette and some nutella ;) This morning, I was surprised that the sun doesn't come up before 8:30 in the morning. But, once it came up, I went for a run. I've heard that people don't run in Paris (I guess people don't usually run down the street in New York either ...), but I live near the Bois de Boulogne. As I was running toward the bois, I was really the only one who was jogging along, but as soon as I got into the bois, I felt like I had stumbled into a jogging race or something -- there were so many other people running along. I managed to get lost a few times, but thanks to a little pond (reminiscent of the Public Gardens because of it's size and some boats that float around in it, although they aren't swan boats ;) ) I eventually found my way back ...

L'arrivee January 11, 2008

2008-01-11T12:34:00.000-08:00

Bonjour!
I got to Paris this morning. Somehow it didn't occur to me until I got here that the bus I took to Etoile was the etoile under and around l'Arc de Triomph -- tres chouette! As always when I travel, I think I noticed lots of things that are really different from the U.S., but I should think more about them before I comment, I think. One thing though: in the Frankfurt airport this morning, I was amazed how many international newspapers -- some in English, but some in other languages -- had pictures of Barack Obama and/or Hillary Clinton front and center. The Democratic primary is really making a splash!