C'est beau! La belle Vie: Paris, France

          The beginning of February has started off to be a stressful preparation for the two month break ahead. The first few days began with our finals, all of which went very well and were over incredibly quickly. I will miss my classes that I took, and my professors, but I have to say that I am very excited to be signing up for classes at the actual German university next semester. So far I know that I want to take an introductory course to Spanish. I’ve contemplated whether wanting to take Spanish or French as a third language, but after having spent time around both languages, I feel like Spanish is going to be much more beneficial with living in America and wanting to pursue a profession in medicine. And I have also realized that, when it comes down to it, no language sounds as beautiful as my first.

Other classes I know I want to take are continuing my undergraduate research project at JYM along with an internship with a children’s clinic about an hour outside of Munich. I’ve also recently realized that I already have all the credits I need for my German minor, and my Biology major will be taken care of with my schedule that’s already set up for my senior year. So basically outside of the classes I’ve already written for second semester, I can take whatever I want. I’m kind of really excited about this opportunity. Hello classes that allow me to go outside and do nothing, while relaxing in the Englischer Garten...

Other news for the month of February is that one of my good friends from my program, Heather, went home with the end of the first semester. Sami and I went with her to the airport to help her with her luggage and see her off. However, it didn’t work out quite as well as we’d hoped and we ended up having lunch with her at the airport and helping her work out a flight home for the next day. At least we got to spend more time with her though. I will miss her during second semester. She was the only person in my program to leave from first semester. Her school allowed her to come for first semester, even though that’s really hard to do. Most students who study abroad for only one semester come for the second semester, which is shown to be apparent by the 30-40 new JYMers we have coming in throughout the months of February, March, and April. Our JYM group of 28-30 is going to more than double. That’s going to be a crazy difference considering the fact that we have about 25 girls and 5 guys. 

The other news I have is that I will be RAing at Clemson for my senior year! They placed me as working with international students and living in Calhoun Courts or Thornhill Village. It’s kind of hard because a lot of my friends my age have already moved off-campus and want to stay there, so I have no idea who I will be living with. However, I have a lot of confidence that it will work out for the best. Everything has fallen into place too well for me to have decided to not be an RA. I’m really excited for the opportunities it will bring and hope so much that there will be a few Germans that live near me. I have no idea how to keep my German up once I go home, and I think I will also really miss German society and culture.

From the 15^th to the 21^st Sami and I traveled to Paris to visit two of our really good friends. I stayed with my friend, Tyler, and she stayed with her French friend, Marine. The city and French culture remind me a lot of the Germans. They’re very particular and strict about certain customs and forms of order. They also have that standoffish personality until you get to know them well. However, from having met Marine and her French friends, they are really sweet and very patient with the language barrier and us growing accustomed to their culture.

Tyler lives in an apartment right near Notre Dame. The stop is actually called Saint Michel-Notre Dame.  As soon as you come up out of the Metro or walk over a couple of streets from the apartment, you can see the beautiful architecture of the church and the large amount of tourists standing around snapping pictures or waiting to go inside. He can literally walk anywhere from his apartment, including the store, Starbucks, McDonald’s (sometimes this place is essential to have nearby when you’ve been out of American culture for a while), Crêpes, international food places, and really anything else you can think of. It was extremely helpful to not have to buy so many metro passes.
 

Sami and I had a 4:30 PM flight from Munich, but we decided to get to the airport early and work for a little while. After the fiasco with Heather, we decided it was absolutely not worth the risk and took our time waiting for our flight. We got in quickly and Tyler met us at a stop in front of Notre Dame. It’s been so long since I’ve seen him, and it’s been such a long time since we’ve got to spend quality time together that part of me had no idea how to approach it. We’ve grown up together, but we haven’t had a lot of one-on-one time because we’re always in a group of people or involved with some activity. Not to mention we go to different colleges in different cities, which makes things harder to coordinate. However, it’s kind of ironic then that the quality time we finally get to have together is randomly spent in Paris, France.

That night we also met with Sami’s friend and went to eat Tappas at a cute hole-in-the-wall place by Marine’s apartment. We ordered Sangria, ham and cheese quesadillas, a baked potato with cheese thing, mushrooms, and pork, all to split. Compared to mine and Sami’s experience with Tappas in Amsterdam, this one was much better and much cheaper. It was also extremely weird to be hearing so much French and not having the slightest clue how to respond. Many times I would forget even what ‘Hello’ or ‘thank you’ was in French, and I would catch myself automatically answering in German. One time later during the week I almost ran into a biker and yelled out ‘Entschuldigung’ before I could stop myself. Tyler and his friend, Paul, just looked at me and laughed. My poor brain can’t handle so many languages. Let’s be honest, I can barely handle English.

Tyler lives in the city center and has a roommate, named Jesse, who was really nice to meet and be around. The inside of their apartment was absolutely gorgeous, complete with a loft for their beds, spacious living room space and kitchen, with an oven, microwave, and washer-dryer. It’s so much nicer than my place at StuSta! Not that I need all the fancy extras, but wow wouldn’t it be nice sometimes. They even had adorable murals painted on the wall, giving the place a much homier, French, sophisticated feel. The couch turned into a pull-out bed and that’s where I slept for the five nights I was there.

Thursday morning Tyler and I decided to go grocery shopping so that I could have some food at his apartment and not have to eat out everywhere. On the way we ran into Danielle, the other girl we went to high school with, that was coming to visit Tyler for the weekend. We got ingredients to make soup, bread, goat cheese, jam, and wine, along with the food for Danielle and I for the week. Tyler and I also bought my first Crêpe on the way—sugar and cinnamon, so good!

After eating lunch we met with Tyler’s friend, Paul, and walked to an American bakery called ‘Sugarplum’ that Tyler will be interning with for the rest of this semester. It was so nice to be able to go into a place that spoke English without it feeling awkward. The place was adorable, and we ordered a variety of teas and coffee with carrot cakes, apple-ginger cakes, and a blonde brownie. We stayed in there for the afternoon talking (not to mentioned, I’d ordered unlimited coffee for only 4 Euro!), and Tyler explained the role of his internship a little more. He will have to do the intern stuff as far as washing dishes and cleaning up, but he’ll get to learn a lot from the design making and baking in general, which I’m really excited for him to experience. He gets to work in an American bakery in Paris, France…how perfect is that?!

That night we went to an American restaurant called ‘Breakfast in America’ (are you seeing a trend here with American food?). Sami invited Marine and Danielle invited her French friend that stayed with her as an exchange student for a few weeks during our junior year of high school. I ordered the first real cheeseburger for the first time since I left America—AND IT WAS SO GOOD. Oh! And they had Heinz ketchup, which is very hard to come by these days which sounds German, so why is it lacking here?? Sami ordered blueberry pancakes, which came with powdered sugar and syrup, which also is extremely hard to come by. I secretly wanted to eat her food as well.

Friday was tourist day for Danielle and I since Tyler had class all afternoon. The three of us started the morning by going to a pleasant bakery near Tyler’s school where we ordered croissants, coffees, and baguettes of bread with raisons. I thought French croissants would have some different taste, better somehow, in comparison with Germany’s…but they kind of taste the same to me…beautiful, but still the same. However, their chocolate croissants are different because Munich uses Nutella in theirs, and Paris used actual pieces of chocolate, which I found to be extremely more enjoyable than Nutella. Nutella’s texture is a little too grainy for my taste. OH however I did try to order in French and I totally pulled it off! It’s only because I said “Croissant please” and “thank you” and they didn’t ask me any complicated questions after. I was super excited.

Danielle and I walked around a lot, and took as many pictures as possible. I think I ended up with 365 pictures from my entire stay at Paris, many of which came from Musee du Louvre, which is a huge museum of Paris that I would compare to the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. We spent over three hours walking in and out of each area, seeing the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci (which I still don’t understand the importance of) and the famous Greek statue that I currently can’t remember the name of. I was a little disappointed because everything was written in French with no English translation, so I didn’t know what a lot of the explanations were. But I still really enjoyed looking through each section and seeing what Paris considers worthy as portraying in their famous Louvre.

                After the Louvre (where I also got to try French hot chocolate—very similar to German hot chocolate and super delicious), we went to Notre Dame to look inside. Notre Dame may have been my most favorite place that I visited in Paris as far as the ‘famous’ tourist attractions. There’s something extremely unique about cathedral that really sets it apart. It was also kind of hard to not compare everything I was seeing inside to the Disney movie “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, because I’m not sure I would even be aware of the church’s existence without the movie. Here is some information on Notre Dame:

              Located at the center of Paris and that of France (distances from Paris to all parts of France are calculated from the center of the plaza), Notre Dame had witnessed some of the greatest moments in the city's history. Its setting on the banks of the Seine is beautiful and inspiring. This spot had seen people praying for over 2000 years; a Roman temple, a Christian basilica and Romanesque church preceded the Gothic masterpiece that is the cathedral. Construction on Notre Dame was started in 1163 under the auspices of Bishop de Sully and completed around 1345, roughly 180 years later.   Despite various changes during the following centuries, the cathedral remained largely unaltered until the French Revolution when it was damaged by the revolutionaries. Napoleon restored some of the cathedral's prestige by crowning himself emperor here in 1804, but even after this event the building was left in decline until 1840's when much needed restoration started (largely due to a petition written by Victor Hugo, who brought the public's attention to the poor state of the cathedral). The task of restoration was entrusted to Viollet-le-Duc, who carried out extensive works remaking much of the statuary on the facade and adding the gargoyles, which you can see up close if you brave the ascent of the towers.

Later that night, Danielle went to meet some of her friends while Tyler, Sami, and I went with Marine to her friend’s apartment, ate appetizers, drank wine, and talked for a while. Marine and her friends spoke in French the whole time so Tyler, Sami, and I had our own English conversation because we had absolutely no idea what they were saying haha. Tyler did a little because he’s learning French, but he finds spoken, conversational French to be very different from what’s taught at school.

I was really glad he had the opportunity to listen and speak some with them though. It really is one of the most encouraging things when a native speaker has the patience to (slowly and sometimes painfully) teach you their language, especially when they already know you’re embarrassed, timid, and unsure of yourself or what you’re saying. Speaking a foreign language is just extremely scary. It can be exhilarating and hilarious at times, but also (from my experience) make you want to go find a corner and hide (which I've done--don't tell). I think the scariest thing about endeavoring toward such a feat is the fact that you lose all sense of expressing yourself. You don’t know if what you’re saying is coming across correctly, and you have no gauge or barriers for what you’re saying because everything is brand new, shaky, or you’re not sure which phrase, verb, or even which word fits more appropriately in what situation.

Anyway, Saturday was spent with Tyler and Danielle again, grabbing breakfast, thrift shopping, filafals, and the Eiffel Tower. Tyler and Danielle had plans to go to a concert that night, so I met up with Sami at Notre Dame and we took the Metro to Champs-Elysees…or the really famous shopping street with the Arc de Triomphe at the end. The Arc de Triomphe is biggest triumphal arch in the world, about 164 meters high. It was commisioned by Napoleon in 1806 to commemorate his victory but wasn't ready for his bride entrance into Paris, 4 years later. It wasn't actually completed until 1836, under the reign of Louis-Philippe. In 1944, it was used for the liberation of Paris parade, and, since then, it has been used for state funerals and other various parades.

Sami and I went in and out of the shops until her friend Marine called us to meet her and her boyfriend for a French dinner. We ordered champagne, and I ordered duck and potatoes. For dessert I ordered the chocolate mousse. It was extremely good!

Sunday Danielle left and Tyler and I were supposed to meet Sami and Marine for the Paris Carnival. However, Sami got really sick and Marine had to take her to the hospital. The later found out she has a kidney stone, which she’s still trying to work through. I felt so bad for her because she would have the most random spouts of pain, and there was just nothing I could do to help her other than wait for it to pass with her.

While Sami and Marine were at the hospital, Tyler and I met his friend Paul and we went to the Luxembourg  Gardens, bought beautifully colored macaroons, and then went to the Jewish part of town (because it was Sunday and they were the only stores open) to buy ingredients for dinner. Paul and I were very quick to point out that we have no cooking knowledge, and Tyler smiled, and said he had it under control. By the way, Tyler is a fantastic cook. Before he went to Paris, he was a Pescatarian for a couple of years (no meat except fish), which forced him to get a little creative with what he cooked and ate. So I picked out the beer (the one skill Munich gave me), Paul got the vegetables and baguette, and Tyler took care of everything else. He made us a vegetable soup with lintel und es hat sehr, sehr gut geschmeckt.

Monday was mine and Sami’s last day. Marine had to work during the day so Sami met Tyler and I and we walked around a lot because it was an absolutely gorgeous day outside. We also went to Galaria Lafeyette, which is a gigantic shopping center with very fancy brand names like Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Chanel, etc. At the top of the shopping center they had a gelato place, and I ordered some. They even shaped the gelato into a flower. On the roof of Lafeyette there’s a look out for people to see the city. We went to the roof just as the sun was setting, which made some of the most beautiful pictures of the city that we took throughout the entire trip. I was really glad to be able to see Paris in such a beautiful way on our last day. The pictures we got were incredible, and captured the city well.

That night Sami stayed with Tyler, Jesse, and I because we had an extremely early flight and Tyler lives the closest to the airport. I thoroughly enjoyed the time that I got to spend there, especially with Tyler and Sami, and I really do hope to go back one day.

While finishing this blog of Paris, I am currently sitting at my desk in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa, where I will be volunteering for the next five weeks. I plan to do a blog per week while I'm here because there's just SO MUCH to tell. I can't wait to start writing about everything! I'll update soon!

Also because the internet connection here is very frustrating, here's a link to my Paris pictures on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151347490135235.824525.654390234&type=3&l=775d6813d9