INTERNSHIP:
I'm working at an art gallery in the 3rd district that sells contemporary abstract art - I love it!! The gallery owner is sooo nice, she's very friendly and talkative and always gives me things to do so I'm never bored. So far I've helped set up a new exposition, put together promotional materials to send out to clients, translated some of her website into English, and done an inventory on all the lithographs/prints that we have in the basement. I absolutely love it and I'm always excited to go there. =)
SCHOOL EXCURSION:
2 weekends ago, we went on a field trip with our school to Chantilly, a small town where there's a big castle / art collection, etc... It was fun, but when we got there it was incredibly foggy out and we had an hour to kill before we could go to the castle. Naturally my friends and I got off the bus and played in the fog. =) Then we went to the castle, had a guided tour that was really interesting but quite frankly TOO long, then we had lunch in the castle which was delicious, and then we went on another tour of the water pump system of the castle (*yawn*)... All in all, pretty good day, just too long! Pictures are below.
SCHOOL:
school continues to go well! Just more and more homework, midterms coming up, etc... Honestly nothing really to report, unfortunately.
BRITTANY:
ohhhh my goodness, this is where it gets interesting!! About a year ago, I did some translation for a french documentary on slam poetry. The guy that was filming/directing it, Youn, didn't really speak English that well so he needed a translator for the weekend and someone to show him around Chicago. It was so much fun, I was in a few scenes of the movie ;), and we've kept in contact since. WELL, he knew I was coming to Paris for a few months, and had said that I should trek out to Brittany for a weekend, where he lives, to spend some time! Ironically enough, last weekend was the first projection of his documentary, which I was in, so he invited me to come out to see it and spend some time with him and his friends. Naturally I went, and it was the best weekend of my entire life.
Friday I took a train from Paris to Rennes, his city, and he met me at the train station. It was really surreal/bizarre seeing him at first, because it's already been a year since we were together and although we've kept in touch, it's not like we know each other that well! But it was fine! We picked up right where we left off and were both at ease. We went to his apartment so I could drop off my stuff and then went and got a coffee and lunch with one of his friends visiting from Paris. After that, he told me we had to drive to where the movie was showing because it was two hours away - kind of suprising, but you all know me, i just go with the flow! So we drove two hours (i'm not sure what the name of the other town was) and got there a little bit early, so we went to the ocean and went exploring in the woods. It was raining so I couldn't take pictures, but it was absolutely breathtaking. After that, we went back to the car and drove to this café/bar in the middle of nowhere, called Café Théodore. The people that own it have their house connected to it, and the inside is decorated really cool, like hippie style, and the ambiance was great. The range of people in the place was the best part - kids as young as 5 years old, people as old as 80. Everyone just comes together and talks and eats and has a great time just being together; i felt like I was in a commune! Everyone was very hospitable and interested in what they had to say and helping each other out, playing with the kids, getting behind the bar and helping the owners, etc... Not only that ,but it's not like Youn was paying 100% attention to me, clearly I couldn't just follow him around like a lost puppy all night. So i was just meeting random people, talking to them about how Youn and I met, talking about the movie, my life, etc... It was just a very laidback ,fun environment! Around 9pm they showed Youn's documentary on a big projector, and it was awesome. He did such a good job, and it was cool to see the finished product since I had been there while it was still in process. I saw myself on screen several times, ;), and my name was in the credits! haha
After the movie was over we just all hungout at the café for awhile later, until everyone started clearing out around 2am. We didn't want to drive 2 hours back to Rennes, and since it's such a "hippie" environment, I guess it's pretty common for people to spend the night on the property, in one of several places: The attic of the café, the owners' house, orrr in the backyard in this thing called La Yourte. What did we pick? La Yourte! It's kind of like a big tent, but it's constructed out of wood and is circular, with fabric draped on top of it. On the inside, there's a big firepit with a chimney to heat the place up. On the floor are a ton of oriental rugs, fabric hangs from the ceiling and there are candles lit, and then there are mattresses, pillows, and blankets EVERYWHERE. We all claimed our spots to sleep, lit a fire, the owners gave us some food, and we stayed up talking and goofing around until 4am. It was me, Youn, and about 8 of his friends (with whom we spent the whole weekend) and it was the coolest thing ever! We woke up the next morning at 10am and the owners made us coffee and breakfast, and we just sat on the back terrace. The kids woke up and we went in the Yourte with them and got in a big pillow fight :), then decided to go back to the sea since it was so nice out. We brought two of the kids with us, and we just sat on the rocks for about an hour, taking advantage of the sun and whatnot. One of the guys, Swan, is a photographer, so he took a bunch of pictures of us.
After that, Youn and I had to go back to Rennes for another showing of the movie. So we booked it back and showed up at the place, watched the movie, and there was a question and answer session afterwards, which I did a bit of translation for. After that, we went and got coffee with his friends again, taking advantage of the good weather. All the girls were going to a club, but I didn't really wanna go because it's not really my "thing", so I hung out with the boys and went to a rap concert. A rap concert in French... interesting, let me tell you! When the concert was over we went to a restaurant to get dinner, met up with the girls, and then all went back to Youn's apartment to drink some tea and listen to some music and hangout. We stayed up until 6am (lol!) and then everyone left; Youn and his girlfriend slept in his room, and this guy from Paris, Thiphaine, and I slept in the living room on Youn's futons. We woke up the next morning and went and got coffee at a café around the corner and sat outside for a few hours. We met up with Mark Smith, the inventor of slam poetry, from Chicago, whom I met when I did the movie last night. It was so good to see him again! After coffee we went back to Youn's again and he showed us some of his short animation films he has done in the past. After a few hours, Swan (the photographer) invited us all to his house for dinner because he lives in the countryside and he thought it would be cool for Mark to see.
Swan's house was soooo cool - it's HUGE, with a big fireplace, all his original photography on the walls, good music was playing, we made an amazing dinner (lasagne with fish/crab/crevettes and cheese and vegetables) and drank wine, Alex was playing guitar, I was playing a bongo, we were talking about life and culture and telling stories and again, it was a very laidback atmosphere but one of the best things I've done. All the people were so nice and I had so much fun. We left Swan's at 2am and went back to Youn's, Thiphaine and I crashed in the living room again, and then got up at 10am the next morning and went to catch the train together (we were on the same train back to Paris, oddly enough!). It was sad to say good-bye to Youn, after I had such an amazing weekend and he was so nice and accommodating.. but I guess we all have to return to the real world at some point!
The main reason this weekend was so amazing was because of the environment - I was completely disconnected from the world, which i LOVED. I didn't have internet access, my phone lost its charge the first day I was there, so I had no phone the whole weekend. I was speaking French the whole weekend, I learned so many new phrases and it was a great thing for me to do. Also, normally when I go out here, I'm still with people I know or other American kids so there's a bit of familiarity. However, this weekend I went all by myself - seeing Youn, whom I didn't really know THAT well, and then being with all his friends, people I've never met before... It was such a good experience, and basically exactly the type of thing i've been wanting to do since I've been in France -- and I finally did it! The weekend was so rejuvinating, I felt "alive" (if that makes sense) and I was walking on cloud 9... Words cannot even express how thankful I am to have been given that opportunity and how lucky I feel to have passed such a great weekend. =)
I hope everyone's doing well -- I've already been here for almost 2 months, can you believe it!? Below are pictures from my field trip, and then from my trip in Brittany. enjoy! Love you all!
You write too much.
ReplyDeletebut i read it anyways cause i'm so bored at work.
good job.