Ok, this is gonna be a lonngggg entry, just to warn you. let me backtrack once again:
Tuesday we had a meeting on "How to meet French people" which was actually pretty uninformative -- all they did was have a guy come and talk to us who represents an international student organization, he talked about events they do but you have to pay to be a member. So that rules that out! I went shopping afterwards with my friends Katy, Jocelyn, Katie, and two other girls from my school Nikki, and Cathy. We went to this area right by the opera house Opéra Garnier and went in this store called Zara. Apparently it's Lucie and my hostmom's favorite store, so we figured we should check it out. I got my first clothes from Paris! Two button-up shirts (that are long enough to be dresses), stretchpants (those are in here?), and sunglasses. In France, every January and July there are Soldes (sales) regulated by the government, where everything, literally everything, is marked down super low. Makes shopping a bit easier on the wallet! ;) After we all got things at Zara, we decided to call it a day and headed back to our houses. I had dinner with Lucie and Laurène (mom), my hostdad had a doctor's dinner he had to go to so it was just us three. Afterwards, I watched this tvshow with Lucie called Koh-Lanta -- it's basically Survivor, remember that show?? But in French, with French people. So corny, but so hilarious. Lucie and I were cracking up. When that was over she had to go to bed because she had school, so I went in my room and watched some more of this tv series Lucie got me into called Skins. Then I went to bed!
Wednesday I had to be at school at 11:30, our French classes have officially started. For two weeks before real classes start, we have what's called Propédeutique. Based on our scores on the placement test, we were all split into groups and have 2 weeks of French revision before jumping into school. I'm in the most advanced level, called Alsace, with Jocelyn and Madeline. We had class for 2 hours reviewing some basic points of grammar, and when real school starts the class will be Translation, since at our level we don't need that much intense grammar work. After class we had about an hour to kill, so we went to get some lunch and then came back for a meeting on internships. I'm not gonna lie, I got really intimidated. They were explaining to us how much time an internship takes, and how there is a class we have to take too as a seminar, and write reports on our experiences, and we have to have a real desire to do it. At first I was kind of freaking out, but after thinking about it some more, I realized that it's more smart to think like a "grown-up" and give up my time to have this amazing experience, as opposed to throwing it away just for some extra free-time. I mean, how many times in my life am I gonna have an opportunity to work in France? So i'm definitely gonna go for it. The only question now is a) what will my internship be; I have an interview with the woman in charge next week so we can plan it all out, and b) if it's gonna be too much on my plate to do this internship in addition to an outside class at the Sorbonne. They said it's not impossible, but it is quite a lot to handle. So when I meet with my advisor next week, I'm going to ask her for her opinion. I don't want to wear myself out too much, and when it comes down to it, I'd much rather do an internship than an outside class. It's way better for my career and probably more worth it in the long run. We'll see how that all plans out...
After that, we split up again with our French classes for what's called SOAR. I forget what the acronym stands for, but it's basically little orientation groups; we have one faculty leader and we meet a few times throughout the semester. Our leader is Marianne Devaux, the director of the IES Program. When I walked in, she was in the middle of trying to figure out everyone's names on her own. She pointed at me and said "ahhh, i know you, you're Brittany. Because of your enormously good reputation at DePaul, courtesy of professors Andrew Suozzo and Pascale-Anne Brault. Yes, I've heard a lot about you." I was like "oh, really? Well, that's intimidating!" and she said "why, yes, but in a good way!" and winked. It was kind of embarrassing that she said that in front of everyone, because I didn't want to be like put up on a pedestal or anything, but I was glowing, haha. =) We just talked about different things to do in Paris for fun, she asked us for any questions we might have, and then she took us around the neighborhood where our school is to show us some things. She's extremely nice, and she's also my academic advisor it turns out, so I'm really looking forward to getting to know her.
Then I went home and relaxed for a little bit and had dinner with my family, always a good time. HERE is when the crazy night starts... Katy's hostbrother Laurent, who's 23(?), invited us to a party being hosted by his school. He told Katy to come, so she could go out "for real" in Paris, and to invite her friends. He gave us the address, and told us to meet him outside between 11 and 11:30. So around 9:30 I left and went to Katy's house, her hostfamily said she could have us over beforehand, which was so nice of her. So I showed up around 10, and then Laura and Madeline came over, too. They brought a bottle of wine to drink beforehand, so we had to go in the kitchen to ask the parents for glasses and a bottle-opener. The gave us both, and then said "ohhh it would be better if you ate something, too, right? A little snack?" So we said ok and she gave us a bowl. We went back to Katy's room (it's really big, with a desk, several chairs, her bed, etc...) so that we could drink it there and hangout before going. Katy looks down at the bowl and says "guys... I think my mom gave us Pringles." and sure enough, in the bowl, were Pringles and a few crackers. We just found it so bizarre -- Pringles aren't exactly a French snack, so it was pretty funny. We drank our wine and listened to some music and talked, and around 10:45 decided to leave. We took the métro and when we got off at the right stop, Katy's brother was right there with his friends! Perfect timing. So we met all of them, they were incredibly nice and gave us 2 kisses and everything. There were 2 girls and 3 guys, and the girls both spoke English so they were so excited to practice with us, haha. We walked out of the metro to meet some more of their friends in the square across from the club called Place de Palais Royal. We get out -- and we are RIGHT in the middle of the Louvre, the State building, the Hotel de Louvre, in the middle of this big beautiful square. The party we were going to was actually in a highscale club called Cabaret -- right next to the Louvre itself. Like seriously, a Wednesday night, in Paris, next to the Louvre, about to go to a club? We couldn't believe it. We stood in the square for awhile and then finally went inside. It was free entry and girls also got a card when they walked in good for one free glass of champagne. How awesome is that? We walk in and there is pounding music and lights flashing and fancy tables with candles and we just couldn't believe our eyes. We checked our coats and got our champagne, toasted, and the 4 of us just started dancing! The played all American music, like rap/pop but there was a DJ mixing it all together so it was actually pretty cool. We met and talked with a lot of different French guys the whole night, danced with Katy's hostbrother's friends, and we just didn't stop. Finally it was 3:00 am (not kidding) so we decided we should probably leave. We got our coats, said goodbye to people, and Katy's hostbrother called us all cabs. In Paris there's a shortage of cabs, so it's normally pretty hard to get. Some people have a special number you can call and type in a code to get a cab to come, so luckily that's what he did for us. Laura and Madeline took a cab together because they live together, and Katy and I took one together because we're not far. He dropped her off first and then me. I got home at 4am (ahh!) and went to bed right away. It was seriously such an amazing night -- clearly we can't have energy (nor money) to do something like that every night, but it was a good closing to our first official week in Paris. We all still feel like it was kind of a dream of sorts. SO FUN.
Today, my classes were cancelled! The French strike a lot, so today was a huge Métro strike (which happens more often than the others). That means some trains don't run at all, and others have less trains that come less often, so it's very difficult to get where you need to go because of time and the amount of people trying to get on less trains. So I got to sleep in, thankfully, and couldn't really go anywhere all day because of the strike. So around 2pm I decided to take a walk and I went to this small museum my hostmom had told me about, not far from our house. The current exhibit is all these remastered photograph prints and film reels from the early 20th century, like 1916-1920 that this French explorer/historian/etc... took in India and other Eastern countries like that. The prints were one of the first attempts at colored photographs, so although the quality is not that good, the color has been remastered and they were absolutely beautiful. Also, at that time, India wasn't as modern as it is today so some of the pictures were very interesting and it was cool to see that way of life. There were also several black and white film reels being played on screens and some antiquities collected during his trip. In addition, the whole exhibit was decorated in Indian fashion, with curtains, floor pillows, engraved walls, etc... It was one of the coolest things i've seen. The museum also has gardens that are open year round, so when I was done looking at the exhibit I went outside to those -- absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately my camera died after I only took 4 pictures, but I feel I got a majority of the good stuff. The section I was in was Japanese style -- I thought of my mom's friend Jon, who designs gardens, and how much he would've loved it. There were bridges and stones and trees and Japanese tea houses and it was seriously breathtaking. I had my iPod on and just walked around in circles for about a halfhour looking at things, and i sat down next to a pond at one point and just sat and took it all in. After that, I came back to the house. The dad was home, which isn't normal, so i said "what are you doing home?" and he's like "I'M STRIKING!" hahaha. Not really, just a lot his patients couldn't come because of the trains, but it was still funny. Tonight I'm gonna eat dinner with the family again and just relax -- after last night, I need it! Plus, my class got rescheduled to tomorrow since it was cancelled today, so I'm gonna have to get up for that. Not sure what this weekend will include, but we'll see! Although I don't think anything can top last night. I love you all so much, I'm so glad I get to share this experience with you on this blog and I send my love and blessings!
if you wanna see what the club was like that I went to, go to this website, click "Club", and then at the bottom it says "photos" and shows what the interior looks like.
www.cabaret.fr
