Paris Highlight Reel+

So I guess I haven't written anything in a while. My bad. I've been doing a lot of stuff and writing on my blog doesn't end up high on my priority list when I can be exploring Paris and stuff. Here's what I've been up to since the last post (that I remember--not that I was blacked out the entire time, but just because a lot's happened).

I have no idea what I did on Monday. Sorry. I know I went to class, but it's not that interesting.

Tuesday, January 20, was Inauguration Day! Hooray! So it turns out that being in Paris for the Inauguration wasn't actually that bad because it was at like 5pm, which meant that it was the perfect time for a cocktail party, chez Mark Applebaum. Excellent. So a bunch of us trooped over to Mark's apartment, near the Passy Metro stop, (amazing location) and were completely awed by the quality of housing that with which Stanford supplies its visiting professors. Seriously, a massive apartment with nice fixtures, a pleasant view, fully furnished, etc. I was a little jealous, if you can't tell. Anyway, Mark and his wife (who he'd been with since freshman/sophomore year of high school) provided us with hors d'oeuvres and wine while we watched CNN on their 17" TV. Maybe not so jealous.

The inauguration was fine. I'm glad that it went smoothly. Also, I was pretty amused when Obama messed up getting sworn in, but I really don't blame him, because I would probably be pooping in my pants if I knew that I was becoming one of the most powerful people in the world. Yo-Yo Ma has a sick name, and we were all impressed that they all kept their instruments in tune even though it was well below freezing.

So when I got home that night, my host brother was throwing a birthday party for his friend chez nous, so there were a dozen or so French people of slightly-older-than-my-age hanging out and drinking and eating a dining room table-full of MacDo. Yes, that's McDonalds. In France. McDonalds. No, I'm not kidding. French people love MacDo. So I had a Filet o' Fish and some McNuggets for dinner. And a whiskey coke. And another whiskey coke. Then a cheeseburger. Then a stripper showed up and did a strip tease for the birthday dude. It was pretty awesome. Also awkward. Turns out that college kids are pretty much the same everywhere I guess.

That night, I went to a club on the Champs Elysées with Mackenzie, which was supposed to have been an Obama themed something-or-other, which was kind of fun. They were it was like close to midnight (here) so they were showing the parade on a big projector screen. So there was some dancing, a round of vodka shots for Change, more dancing, etc. It was a good time.

Wednesday night we went back to Applebaum's apartment for dinner. More good food, including several cheeses, amuse-bouches, quiches, desserts and wine. I don't really know how to sum it up in highlights. Mark told us about one of his Nordic friends who's a professional musician and he had a bunch of adventures and stuff like that. Pretty amusing. Generally a good time.

Thursday we had our second Bing outing--Le Mariage de Figaro à la Comedie Française. Didn't understand very much of it, but we were sitting in the front row, which was kind of awesome. Tried to go out afterwards, but everything was closed and there wasn't much motivation to go find somewhere where there was more stuff open. So we went home. I found out that there's a Halal sandwich place open late right next to my metro stop, and I was really hungry, so I grabbed a sandwich there. Good to know that there's somewhere I can go after a late night out.

This weekend was spent in Dublin with Jen, Midori, (two girls on the field hockey team,) and Andrew. (Andrew is Jeff Rowell's roommate from Soto last year, if that means anything to you.) Left Friday morning from Beauvais (little airport outside Paris) and got into Dublin around 3. Got an early dinner around 6:30 and hit the pubs, including The Bleeding Horse and The Stag's Head. Awesome live music at the Stag's Head. They had an Irish drummer who played the traditional Irish hand drum and stuff. Good times. Drank a pint of Guinness, but only one. Carlsberg is much more to my tastes.

Saturday, we did a walking tour of Dublin. It was pretty awesome, partly because it was free and partly because the tour guide was hilarious. Learned lots of interesting history. I could elaborate more but I don't really feel like it, cuz there's still a lot to talk about.

Saturday night, we went to a restaurant that the guy at the counter of the hostel recommended to us, called Green Nineteen. He said it was pretty cheap and had good sized portions and good food, so we figured it couldn't be that bad. Surprisingly enough, it was one of the best meals I've had since I got to Europe, which is saying a lot. We started with a plate of "pinchos," which roughly correspond to crostinis with various cheeses and other toppings on them. Needless to say it was excellent. Entrées were followed by classic Irish dishes, including bangers and mash (for Jen), corned beef (for Midori), fish and chips (for Andrew) and a lamb "chump" for myself. I can't speak for everyone else, but my lamb was excellent. Seriously excellent. Perfectly cooked, tender, flavorful, amazing. We had dessert (apple cobbler and brownies) and coffee with Bailey's afterwards. Great meal. Also, the presentation of the dishes tended on the more modern side, with large white plates and such. Great stuff.

Dinner was followed by a pint at the Temple Bar (because it was famous), where we saw several bachelor and bachelorette parties and lots of drunk tourists and such. It was overpriced and overcrowded, so we left after a round to search out a pub more to our liking. We ended up at another pub with live music and sat in the corner for a while and had a few more drinks, listened to more Wonderwall and Under the Bridge, and stuff like that. The second pub was followed by a club where there were more drinks and dancing, and a generally good time. I must say it was quite an excellent weekend.

Sunday, we went to the Jameson factory (or at least where they give tours) for an educational experience about Irish whiskey. It turned out to be an hour-long propaganda tour about why Irish whiskey is superior to all other whiskeys, and why Jameson is the best of the Irish whiskeys. It was terribly boring, but it was followed by a whiskey tasting for a select few (including both Jen and Midori), after which they got certificates saying that they're qualified whiskey tasters. So essentially we bought 10€ shots. Great.

I flew back Sunday afternoon, arriving back in Paris at about midnight, pleased to find that the same Halal sandwich place was open, so I got another sandwich and fries there before going home. Uneventful trip, took too long. I feel like that's the problem with travelling in Europe on the weekends, because it just takes so much time to get where you want to go. I guess it's like that everywhere else too.

So yesterday was Jen's birthday, so apparently she had a pretty crazy night out on Sunday (that I missed), but a few of us also went out last night to have a drink. We lamented the fact that we can't just hang out at someone's house like we can at home, but instead you have to go out to cafés and such because there's nowhere else to go. Lame.

Earlier last night, I went to a dance performace for Applebaum's class, where I watched a mostly-naked guy prance around on stage for 45 minutes to the Gorillaz and a French rendition of Oh What A Night over backround music that could've come straight from Super Mario Bros. It was kind of weird. Modern dance is apparently not my thing. Went out to dinner with Mackenzie afterwards to an Italian place. It was pretty good, but by no means great. However, I found it incredibly amusing that the translations of the menu items were from Italian into French. Also that they were playing American music over the stereo and they were showing some kind of sitcom on the TV, because it didn't fit the atmosphere of the restaurant at all. I would compare it to La Strada in PA, if you know what I'm talking about.

Now it's Tuesday and you're updated on what I've been doing. I'll try to write more often in the following weeks.

Paris Highlight Reel, week 1

So the last few days have been pretty cool. I've had lots of class and done a bit of shopping and wandering and eating and stuff that you would ordinarily do if you were in Paris. I have a bunch of reading and a little writing/brainstorming that I'd like to get done tonite, so I'm going to keep this short. Think of it as a Paris Highlight Reel.

All the big stores are having winter sales (or soldes, as they're called here). I've gone to a few of the big stores and looked for clothes (sweaters, pants, jackets--warm weather stuff) but everything is still really expensive, even on sale, which led me to get a jacket, scarf and sweater all at H&M for like 40€, which is also having a sale. Still, I'm doing my Paris shopping at international chains. Kind of weak, but whatever. I needed the warm clothes.

Classes are going alright. It's looking like this quarter won't actually be all fun and games, (though much fun and games are still to be had,) but I'll actually have some work and time commitments and reading and academic things that are less enjoyable. I've decided to drop my Globalization class and take an African Lit class, which involves a lot of reading (in French) but should end up being easier and more enjoyable. There's also a nicer teacher, I think.

Applebaum is still ridiculous, awesome, confusing, ridiculous, artistic, etc. as always. He took us to this place called MecaMusique on Thursday to see a sound sculptor named Jacques Rémus. He makes sculptures that play music. In my personal opinion, the sound produced is not exactly what I'd call music, but it's still pretty cool. There was this one thing called a Thermaphone that was essentially a big metal pipe that mysteriously produced a really full, deep bass sound when he heated up one end of it with a blow torch. Crazy.

Our first Bing-sponsored event was Thursday night, when we went to dinner at Le Grand Colbert. Pretty good food, fun time. Nothing too juicy to speak of, or anything highlight reel worthy. It just happened, if you're interested.

Friday, my dad was here, so he took me and a few other people out to lunch at Au Pied de Cochon. Excellent food, which included pigs feet (pied de cochon), steak tartare, tripe sausage, foie gras, escargot, oysters and other things that one doesn't eat on a regular basis.

For a few of us, lunch was followed by a tour of the bistrots and restaurants of Les Halles, which was really difficult to understand, but fun anyway, because the tour guide was very amusing and the rest of the tour group, (which was on average 40 years older than us,) was very excited that we were there. We ended up bailing partway through, but it was fun all the same.

Friday night was dinner with my dad, then wanderings through the streets of Paris, periodically stopping at cafés to have a drink or five. Lots of fun, lots of wine. Probably walked five miles, but it certainly didn't feel like it. Also, used the Noctilien (night bus for getting around after the Metro closes) for the first time, to great success. Nice to have a 4am fall-back.

Wandered more on Saturday, around Les Invalides and the 16è. Lots of window shopping, sightseeing and such. Bought soap at the Monoprix because I'm out of what I brought with me. Still showering on a daily basis. France hasn't gotten to me yet.

Saturday dinner was supposed to be at a fondue place in Montmartre where they serve wine in baby bottles. Failed miserably. We tried to get a group of like 14 people into the restaurant, which seated approximately 50 people at a time. No go. Our reservation (not my idea) was totally discounted and we waited around for an hour or so before they even made an attempt to seat us, at which point we decided to leave because they were so inconsiderate and such. I say, "we," in this context to mean the group as a whole, and not me personally, because I was not of the same opinion for much of the time. Somehow people fail to realize that we're not in America, yet they try to go about their lives in much the same manner. It's kind of strange. Anyway we ended up at a crèperie down the street which was totally unsatisfactory (at least on my part) and the night ended with me ditching a group of several very loud (and mildly irritating) drunk people to get a good night's sleep.

Woke this afternoon and got lunch with some people and hung out at a café before they went to a soccer match (Paris St. Germain). Came back here and tried to do some reading, but reading in French goes pretty slow when you only understand about 70% of the words. Also need to do laundry tonite.

Anyway, that's my week, I guess. In other news, I'd really like to have my ukulele or trombone here. Maybe I'll try to join a band of a sort or something.

Also, going to Dublin next weekend. I'll tell you about it when it happens.

Quelle Bonne Suprise!

So today was the first day of class, which was for the most part fine. In very brief summary, Mark Applebaum's classes are going to be awesome, my French class is going to be pretty lame and I'm probably going to take an African Literature class instead of the Globalization class because the prof who came today was a prick with an enormous ego. Maybe there's something behind these stereotypes...

In other news, we met our language partners today, and I'm pleased to announce that he's pretty cool. He's a Syrian CS student who seems pretty normal as far as I could tell from our conversation. He, much like myself, enjoys a good time, so we're going to go to jazz clubs and listen to a little music and drink a little wine and smoke a little hash. Just kidding. Seriously. But only kind of. Really. Wait, what? No, you didn't just read that. Or maybe you did. Never mind, just drop it.

Anyway, I'm probably going out tonight because I don't have class tomorrow. Looks like it's going to be a good quarter.

Stuff Like That

So it's Monday night and I'm going to start classes tomorrow. It's kind of one of those "Finally..." kind of things but it's also one of those "Well, f*** me..." kind of things too. I haven't had proper school for over a month, and I don't really want to go back to the daily grind of class and such, but I also would like to have something to do, instead of wanting to explore Paris but trying to figure out how to explore without going outside because it's really cold. Anyway, this is going to be some kind of summary of what's happened since my last post.

Saturday afternoon and night was spent for the most part at my house. I settled in, watched some more Weeds, and briefly went exploring the neighborhood and around the closest Metro stop. My neighborhood is pretty nice, but definitely not what I was expecting when I came. The area around my house that I've seen thus far is a mix of apartment buildings, office buildings and Japanese restaurants. I don't get it. There're a couple café-type places, but I would classify them more as bars than your typical Parisian café, and there're also a few pizza places thrown in as well. I've yet to find a boulangerie. Quel dommage.

The area around the Metro stop is a little more interesting. There're more restaurants, stores, etc. to explore and such, and many of them are having sales. I'm probably going to do some shopping on Wednesday morning, get a jacket (because it turns out that everybody always seems to be wearing black, and I don't have a black jacket), and maybe a messenger/book bag as well. Included amongst the establishments around la Place Marcel Sembat (where the Metro stop is) are a Monoprix, which is kind of like Target, only with lower ceilings, several brasseries, un tabac (where you can buy cigarettes, phone cards, and stand at the bar for un espresso), a couple boulangeries, a McDonald's and a KFC. C'est amusant, mais un peu triste aussi.

Sunday, I met up with some people in Montmartre to do some wandering. We walked by the Moulin Rouge and tons of sex shops in the area, then went off a couple blocks to a boulangerie that's reputed to have the best bread in Paris (by one of Ali's books, which I don't entirely trust, because there is way too much good bread in Paris for that one to be the absolute best). Then we walked more and decided it was too cold to keep walking, so we sat in a café for an hour and change to warm our extremities and make preliminary plans for some weekend excursions.

Later, after a couple of the girls went home to have dinner with their host family, Heimunn, Mackenzie and I went to over to La Bastille to find somewhere to eat. (Side note: all three of us are Chinese, and I felt really weird going around Paris as a group of Chinese people, even though we all were speaking English, because you don't see very many people of Asian heritage in Paris. A guy at a crêpe stand in Montmartre said, "Ni hao" to us because he thought we were Chinese tourists.) Anyway, we ended up at a brasserie near the Voltaire Metro station, which turned out to be excellent. I had a cut of beef that I don't remember the name of with some sort of cheesy potato thing, and it was all excellent. It turns out that I'm a big fan of French food. Quel supris.

Anyway, the Metro ride back took forever. It was kind of terrible, because I was fairly tipsy after we had a bottle of Bordeaux with dinner, and a bottle of Côte du Rhône at a tabac after we left the café until an appropriate hour for dinner. So I got home and fell promptly fell asleep, and had the best night's sleep thus far. Hooray wine!

Today was more orientation. We met at l'ISEP to discuss classes and get a tour and such, and it was all rather boring and tiresome. Anyway,Mark Applebaum (who's the visiting professor this quarter, if you didn't know) invited us to go to lunch, which was pretty cool, so a handful of us went to a crêperie near the school with him and ate and talked and such. Pretty awesome. Then I went back to the center to send some emails and read some syllabi and all that kind of stuff, then I looked into some cultural stuff I could do for credit here (because the Paris program is cool like that) and I found out that Itzhak Perlman was going to be conducting (and playing with) l'Orchestre de Paris next Wednesday and Thursday, and there were tickets for only 10€, and I was really excited and got a couple other people really excited, then I found out that there aren't any tickets available and I was sad. Quel dommage, mais c'est la vie.

Then I came back here and now I'm writing this. Also, I've been using a few French phrases here and there, and they make me feel like my writing is becoming kind of cliché, but it's Paris, so it's somewhat justified.