friday night.

So. Now comes Friday night. Friday night we don’t go to the bar for the first time, I think, since we’ve been in paris! Now, that doesn’t mean we didn’t have our fair share of fun. It just means we didn’t pay 9 euros for a beer. In fact, we paid nothing. Man I love house parties. Parisians need to have more of them. If only I lived in a proper house… in any case… one of our new friends from the park (the really cute blonde guy in some of the photos – Sebastian) told us about one of his friends’ house party that happened to be a five minute walk away from our place. Needless to say, we went. This nice guy named Amory, and his girlfriend Amelie (which sound eerily similar with a French accent – for the longest time I thought they had the same name which led to a large round of confusion and me going, ‘what’s your name?’ ‘so you have the same name?’ ‘oh, it’s different?’ ‘how?’… or something along those lines) and their third roommate amory’s sister welcomed us into their homes, and fed us wine. They were super nice, and I do hope we see them again sometime soon.

But, alas, they ran out of wine, and another one of our new friends from the park, ashik, told us that he had vodka, tequila, whisky and beer at his house—to which we responded with a resounding, where’s the nearest taxi? So off to the taxi stand we went. After a trek across most of the city, and into the very lively and interesting ‘turkish’ section of paris we arrived chez ashik to a welcoming shot of vodka. Yum. Tequila shots and the like followed. Then before we knew it, it was getting to be morning so the girls (sam, jess and I) left, escorted by our new friend Sebastian (seb), back to my house to get a ‘good night’ sleep. You know, like normal people who go to bed at 7am.

my school throws 'school-sponsored' parties

Dear lord the debauchery never ceases. This weekend (meaning two weekends ago when I started writing this post for the first time) started on Thursday after Jessica and my first day of rugby and didn’t end until, well, it never really does end in fact. In any case. On Thursday was the school’s first party. (yes, our school sponsors parties. It is amazing) it was at this disco called red light, which was small, and packed to the gills – see photo.

There was dancing, and flirting, and more dancing, and laughing, and a bit of fighting. Oh, and did I mention there was an open bar? Man I love my school. The party went all night, and into the morning. Some of us lasting longer than others… (we don't know her)

I’m pretty sure that along with 20 other strong people we closed the club down at 5am or so.

(hooray for the Americans!) The party continued far into the night with a final bedtime of 830 or 9 or so in the morning. So much for being a proper person with a normal Thursday night bedtime… I went to bed after most people had already been at work for a bit. (this tid bit of info was pointed out to me by one of such workers….sucker) : )

days in the park.

So I’m pretty sure that this happened before a few of the other things that I’ve already put into the blog, but hey it never hurts to back track, right?

So… in the not so distant past, oh say a few Sundays ago or so, it was absolutely beautiful here in paris. I mean, really gorgeous. So we get the brilliant (and when I say brilliant I really mean it!) idea to go hang out in a park. Michael, victor and eddy and I go and join the crew that’s already been sitting in the park for awhile with their new friends from that morning. There’s wine, and conversation (in 4 or so different languages if I remember correctly) and a bit of leftover brunch from that morning. We meet loads of people, who are all amazing and super nice. And they go over and recruit a few random strangers to come over and join us. note: these people were invited solely on the fact that they had musical instruments and could therefore be our entertainment for a little bit. Needless to say, it was absolutely fantastic. Love the park. Can’t wait until we get one last nice day here so we can have one last hurrah….

(don't they all look so european? i love it. i love this place.)



musical entertainment



the blob on the left side is a couple going at it in the middle of the park... paris is the place for lovers right?

ahh the joys of cross-cultural team sports

So Jessica and I had a brilliant idea during orientation week. Let’s join a sport. But me being me, and her being her, we get this brilliant idea to do something that isn’t offered in the US. so what do we choose… rugby. Yes, I am officially a rugby ‘baller’. Although I’m still a bit hazy on the rules. Mostly I run around saying. ‘quoi?’ (what?), and ‘ici’ (here) although when I get the ball I’m still not really sure what to do, so I pass it real fast like it’s hot potato or something. Oh, and the best part is, on the first day of practice I went up to the coach and said something to the extent of, ‘she doesn’t speak any French (while pointing at Jessica)’, and his response was (in french no less) ‘oh well, I suppose she’ll learn real fast because I don’t speak a word of English.’ Needless to say, it’s great fun. Because he’ll try and explain something and then look at me and say, ‘translate for her will you?’ which then turns into me saying, ‘well, jess, he said something about holding the ball near your chest, and another thing about holding it out at arms’ length, and something about one of them being better.’ Then jess will say something like, ‘well which one is better’ to which my response is, ‘I have no idea.’

This goes on for most of the practice. On occasion I have literally no idea what the man has said, or any of what the girls are talking about so jess and I stand around really really super awkwardly and just watch them until someone does something. Then we figure out what we’re supposed to be doing through our powers of deduction. Mostly it involves a lot of running.

I’m thinking that maybe eventually I’ll learn enough French to know the rules, but that’s still up in the air… good thing we don’t have games until November…

VIVA LA MEXICO!!!!

Sam and Jessica have a roommate, Ana Paula who is from Mexico. And apparently Mexican independence is on the 16th of September. Not on cinco de mayo like many people think. (turns out that they just won a really big battle on that day, and what a better reason to party than because of a big battle win, right?) in any case, ana paula invited the girls and us to go to this really big party for Mexican independence. Naturally, we agree. Who wouldn’t want to celebrate Mexican independence by drinking copious amounts of tequila on a Monday night?

We all go to the party. Sam, jess and I are way too dressed up, but whatevs.

And it’s margarita and cerveza, tacos and tortilla for all! Super fun. Mariachi band and everything. The Mexican ambassador came out and riled up the crowd and everything. The one thing that was so so so fun about the whole thing though was that none of us could really understand what was going on because everything was in Spanish. Well, I take that back, eddy and victor could because they’re both Mexican, I could get a bit from my broken Spanish, but Michael, Sam and Jess were a bit lost. But Ana Paula had warned us a bit about what goes on. Pretty much there’s just a lot of yelling that goes on. The ambassador (or whomever) comes out and yells viva ___________ (insert appropriate important Mexican political figure here, such as Hidalgo, etc) and the crowd responds with VIVA! And that goes on for about 5 or 6 people, then the ambassador goes VIVA MEXICO! Crowd goes, VIVA! This gets repeated 3 times in a crescendo and gets really really REALLY loud on the last one.

Needless to say, it was so fun. Whether or not I understood anything that was really going on… VIVA!!!!

bateaux mouches

Team texas and us have had many grand adventures so far here in fabulous paris. One of which was our truly touristic act of going on one of those boats that goes up and down the seine called a ‘bateaux mouches’. Pretty much what it is is just a boat that goes up and down the river, pointing out all the famous landmarks, and repeating the same sentence about them in english, French, german, Spanish, Italian, Chinese (mandarin), Korean, and Japanese. Although, it actually is pretty cool because you get to see everything from the river which is not a normal perspective of such things. I’d recommend it.


Oh, and we classed it up by providing our own wine as an accompaniment to the beautiful scenery, oh, and by getting yelled at by some eastern European women because we were standing in the way of their photos, and they were too lazy to get up and move, instead they just felt like yelling at us and calling us stupid American children in polish. It was great fun!

oh, and the pope was in town giving mass at notre dame and the boat goes right past. so we were closer to the pope than most of paris. pretty much awesome.

(pope on the screen, well, kinda, in theory)

coldplay in PARIS.

so on the 10th i saw coldplay in paris. it was unbelievable. victor and i had seats waaaaaaay in the back of the stadium, but we were in the first row right over one of the entrances. so pretty much no one in front of us, good view, it was great. and the best part is, at one point, the band ran up into the stage and was running around on the aisle right below victor and i and we thought they were just going to run around the whole stadium, but then they stopped at the doorway right before ours (so close) and performed right there. needless to say i quickly hopped over seats and wound up about 15 feet away from coldplay as they performed 2 or 3 songs. it was amazing. enough said.

(what's going on there? is that coldplay right next to where we're sitting? why yes, yes it is...)

team texas toast and eddy

so i figured i best introduce our new friends who i love dearly dearly dearly, and am so truly happy that i met them and get to hang out with them every day.

there's jessica, samantha, victor and eddy. jess, sam and victor all go to university of texas - austin, and eddy goes to university of illinois - champaign urbana.

(sam, jessica, and i with the really intense gendarmerie police at the techno parade)

(michael, me, sam and victor at the park on a nice sunday)

(from left to right: lovely german girl i dont know the name of, ana paula (sam and jess' roommate), another german i'm not sure the name of, sebastian (a french boy), eddy, michael, me, sam, and victor)

they are great, and paris wouldn't be the same without them.

(victor, morgan (a parisian), jess and michael)

i suppose this one should be called, school, or lack thereof...

so orientation week. technically two weeks ago, but alas, i'm a bit behind the times. michael and i show up the first day and attend the first orientation part. then comes coffee break. we meet a few people during that break. little did we know that they would turn out to be some of the coolest people we know, and the ones that we spend pretty much every day with. after coffee break we had the first of a 7 part lecture series all about france and paris and studying there, and what exactly that meant. i cannot even begin to explain to you how truly and utterly boring it was. awful.

so we went back home for lunch after the first one, decided to stick it out for one more, but this time came prepared for the boring-ness, (i was equipped with a good book, the rest (meaning texas kids) with laptop computers). at one point the teacher asked about where the americans were, naturally we raised our hands, looked around at what we were all doing and proceeded to crack up. half of us were on laptops. i was reading a book. jess was listening to music. there was a sleeper or two, and a couple of us were drawing. oh and we were in the back row. oh and, everyone else that was there (meaning non americans) was taking copious amounts of notes and paying close attention. we were a bit of an embarassment. so after class number two, we proceeded to skip the rest of the week of orientation.

note: we did make one valliant attempt to attend class on thursday afternoon of orientation week, but it did not materialize and we proceeded to drink mimosas in the school courtyard instead. oh and then we went to lunch and drank wine. and then it was happy hour. and then it was time to go out for the night. overall, a successful, school-less thursday.

also: as for the first week of class, my first two classes were cancelled. so i only had half the amount of class i was supposed to have. so far school in paris has been non-existant and i'd like to keep it that way.

orangerie

so far, after having been here for quite a long time, michael and i have truly done nothing cultural with the exception of one 1.5 hour excursion to a musuem - the orangerie.

the orangerie was a perfect choice for our first museum trip though, because i've never been, and it has absolutely fantastic monet paintings. just beautiful. those amused us for about an hour, then we quickly walked through the rest of the musuem, which was somewhat lacking in my opinion, and went for a coffee. ah the life of a parisian.

les marches

so michael and i got in on a thursday, and by sunday we've already been shopping. we went with our new friends (his roommate jason, his friend lindsay, and their friends maggie and barbera who happen to be 50 year old ladies on study abroad) we first headed off to the marche' bastille, the largest market in all of paris, which happens to be approximately a 7 minute walk from my house each tuesday and sunday. it's like the farmer's market, except totally better, and way bigger. i'm going to be forever jaded once i get back...

in any case, we went and shopped there, and loaded up on stuff. everything and anything you could possibly want. all vegetables, fruits, tons of cheese and eggs and diary. seafood and meat of every type. it's really amazing. so after that we treked back home, dropped off our goods and headed out to the end of the metro line 4 to a place called marche' aux puces, which literally means market of the fleas.

we get there, and have to walk through a bit of a seedy part of town where everyone is trying to sell you fake gucci, prada, etc. bags, watches, scarves, anything you wanted of a fake designer brand was there. oh and they were also awkwardly selling corn on the cob that had been cooked on old shopping carts transformed into little open fire pits. very odd, but i saw many self-respecting people eating it, and enjoying it, so maybe one of these days i'll have to try it.... maybe.

so the marche aux puces turned out to be this market for literally every type of old thing you could possibly want. it was a veritable outdoor antique store spread out over an immense track of land. it was huge. i got bored because antiques aren't totally my thing, but i amused myself by taking photos, until i got really yelled at by a group of shop owners. and that was the end of the market for me. so we left, went home and made a wonderful lunch with all of our new purchases.

le pigeon

so i live in a gated community. more or less. we have our own courtyard, and it requires a passcode to get into at night. (two passcodes and a key scan to get into my building actually) in any case, we have our very own resident homeless man. we call him 'le pigeon' (the pigeon in english, clearly) he earned his nickname for two reasons.

one: he is a creature just trying to get by living in the city through leftovers, and other people's kindness. (this being the more philosopical, and deep reason that michael's roommate jason came up with)

two: he talks to pigeons (this being my reason)

with that being said, i really don't mind him. he never talks to me when i walk past. never is creepy. although he does pee in the staircase up to the promenade plantee next to me which is a bit annoying if i ever want to go up there for a walk it reaks of pee. but i suppose, what's he supposed to do. he is also, we decided, one of the upper echelons of homeless-ness because he not only has a mattress and blankets to sleep on, as well as a bag full of groceries. he also lives in a gated community, and under a bridge. i'd say that's living the high life if you had no proper house....

gay pairee

so at last, we get to paris. after many adventures and many new friends. and a big long debate that i had in my head about whether or not i should stay at sidsmums for a bit longer, because why really did i need to get into paris 3 days before orientation.... in the end i decided i better buck up and just go. we had a big long conversation with a nice man on the train about the politics of gabon from a nice man who had been born there. it was rather amusing, and i've never learned so much about gabon in my life.

anywho, after our eye-opening african education michael and i got off the train and proceeded to make our way to the accent center. little did we know the weather was going to be so frigid. i was dressed for the south. shorts, and a tank top. it was cold in paris. in any case, we make it to the ACCENT center (the people who run our housing) and they give us a lunch. (so nice what 7000 rent for 4 months will buy you, one whole free lunch) in any case, michael and i had been on the train all morning so it was delicious. we even got cookies. : ) after lunch they hand us our keys and say okay bye. great fun it was trying to find the place hauling our luggage all over.

we get to the residence and meet michael's roommate, jason, who is fantastic. love him to death. we also met the other guy from the states who's doing the exact same program as us (staying with ACCENT and attending school at ESCP-EAP) his name is eddy. he is also hilarious and amazing. in any case, we move in and start to get situated. they gave me a room that's meant for two people, so i've got bunk beds and a really huge bathroom, and two windows!!! and my towel heater works!!! only downside: i live right next to the RA (the person who yells at you if you do something wrong). oh well. we had ortienation the next day where they told us that we're not allowed to have alcohol in the room, and we also can't have guests after 11pm. i am proud to say that both rules were successfully broken after day 2. : ) (aren't you proud mom?)






(photos of the apartment: one side and then the other)

sidsmums

hello all,

so i'm sure at this point you all think i've fallen off the face of the earth never to return. alas, that is not true, i am just an utter failure at this 'blogging' thing. in any case, i suppose the time has finally come for me to update and regale all with tales of my adventures.

sidsmums was really amazing. one of the days we were there we decided to go to this little 'cave' which means wine cellar in french. the store was two towns over in pomas so a hike was in order. we went through our town, preixan, through the next town, ruffiac d'aude, and finally through vineyards, along the highway and across a bridge into the final destination, pomas. all told about 6 or 7km. we get to the store and the lady informs us that we are more than welcome to try any and every type of wine before we need to make a decision. needless to say, we did. made the walk back much more enjoyable in fact. so we hiked back to sidsmums, 20 or so bottles in tow. (note: there were 5 of us, it wasn't just michael and i) after we got back we all got ready to go to dinner. we dined at a wonderful place called 'chez leon' which despite it's quite fancy name, was nothing more than a truck stop along the highway. but let me just say nothing like a truck stop back home. they had a full salad bar spread, you got to pick from duck or steak for your second course, and then they had an entire dessert bar. all of this is accompanied with copious amounts of FREE wine. it was brillant. and i think the most fun part about the whole thing was that it was in the next town over so we had to walk along totally pitch black dark french streets, all the while under the brightest and most amazing stars i've ever seen. later that night we decided to try the wine that had been made so close to us. i think when we woke up in the morning there was one lone bottle left. it was a good night.

the kicker was though, that michael and i had decided to go into carcassonne that day, and in order to do so we needed to catch a very early ride into town. it was an experience i'd rather not be repeating any time real soon. a big white van hurtling over the french countryside and around round-abouts. whew, i was quite glad when we got there.

michael and i got out and began our trek up to the walled inner city. we made it most of the way there and then saw a side path that looked like it might lead to a good photo. it did. but rather than climb all the way back down and go around the castle we just decided to keep walking up this hill (clearly not an entrance) and try to find somewhere to get in at the top. it wound up being just fine, and actually more fun than a conventional entrance into the city.

in any case, the city was gorgeous. just how you would picture an old medeival city to look. winding streets. small shops. everything done in stone. totally cool. a bit touristy, but what can you expect. michael and i just walked around most of the day, enjoying the sights. we stopped for a traditional languedoc (the region of france) lunch. we got this thing called cassoulet. which pretty much means a leg of duck in a pot of beans with a really delicious sauce. needless to say, delicious. got back on the bus to go back to sidsmums and spent a very nice night out in the country under the stars with new friends... and more wine.

the next day was our last day there. we went for a bike ride. sat around in the warm sun. read our books, and painted. jan (the woman who owns sidsmums) thinks that each of the people who go through it need to leave their own mark. so some people have painted things on the outside of the building. others have painted the keychains. others have gardened, made signs, painted random things that are now in the yard, etc. while we were there it was cigarette pots. which was pretty much a terra cotta pot turned upside down with the bottom below it so that people could put their cigarettes in that and cover it with a rock so that it didn't smell and no butts wound up on the ground. i was lucky enough to be able to paint a pot.

it's the night sky with a bunch of consellations hidden on it. all the constellations are written on the inside of the pot so people can know what to look for while they're searching. so fun. i dont think i've painted in years. later that night jan got a group of italian boys who were staying the night. they were beautiful. and at one point i came down to the lower bunk to find the whole lot of them outside on the street in their 'pijamas' smoking. and when i say pijamas i mean just their boxers. totally histerical. i come around the corner and go, 'oh hi!' super nice though, talked to them until early in the morning in broken italian french and english. oh, and the night was celebrated with a mini bottle of absenthe because michael and i were leaving. (the absenthe tasted eerily similar to the pastis we had drank in montpellier a few days earlier...) any who, the whole day really was the perfect end to the stay at carcassonne.

the next morning we were off bright and early at 7am to paris to begin the real adventure.

'oh little town of carcassonne' - (preixan)

so the train ride from montpellier to carcassonne was hell. two hours of sleep really didn't cut it. so i fell asleep on the train there, easy peasy. BUT, during the ride, somewhere between narbonne and carcassonne a train had electrical issues up ahead of us, so needless to stay we had to stop. which was fine and dandy because i was asleep. and then they decided to turn off the air conditioning to save energy. still could've been fine... thing is, there are no openable windows on fast trains any more, so no air conditioning = hot box. and we were stuck for an hour. alas, we survived, slightly more smelly than we originally started out.

so we make it to carcassonne, and we had already talked to the woman in charge of our hostel (jan) and she said she could give us a ride out to the hostel (Sidsmums) since it was about 10km (6 or so miles) outside the city-proper. we killed some time looking like quintessential 'backpackers' sitting outside the train station surrounded by our loads of luggage. brillant photo i tell you if any one had taken one. two kids, 8 bags. real classy. in any case, we get picked up by jan who is this super cute british lady. started the hostel with her son (sid... hence sid's mum's aka sid's mom's) anywho, she picks us up, and we head out of town to the hostel which is nestled in this really small town of about 200 people or so named preixan.

the hostel turns out to be this little haven of english speakers in small town france where it feels like a second home. jan is the mom away from mom, and there's even a pet dog (georges - pronounced with a french accent) and a pet cat (jim, jimbob, jimbo, or anything in the near vicinity). so pretty much it turned out to be this perfect little place that michael and i never left. we planned on spending a bunch of time in carcassonne and wound up only spending maybe half a day there, the rest of the time we spent either at sidsmums or in the near vicinity. it was absolutely a vacation and such a great place that i cannot wait to go back. (more to come in detail, but the computer is dying... as always)

oh the general debauchery.

so i'm not quite sure where to start with this one...



... it all begins in an irish pub at around 4pm. we walk in because a guinness sounded absolutely brilliant, and we'd been walking around montpellier all day. also, i havent' really said much about montpellier yet. its' filled with students. absolutely packed. and it's super gorgeous. and just an amazing city. pictures are on facebook for anyone who wants them. in any case, back to beer. we walk in and order two itty bitty beers on accident. don't fret, we managed to make up for it later in the night. anywho, we start talking to this nice guy next to us who literally looked like something out of an indiana jones movie. literally. (see below)



alright, so talking to him we learn loads. he's an antiques dealer. he has four sons. his wife died recently. one of his sons is named 'naughty nick' so naturally i'm interested. in any case, we wind up talking to him for the next oh i dont know, long time. eventually some of his friends come.


the drinking continues. we move from guinness to this thing called pastis, which as it turns out, is mildly on the same field as absinthe. tastes like licorice. i have two. finally 9 or so rolls around and all of us have yet to eat so the decision is made to head off to a japanese restaurant. and since we've been drinking with andrew and the rest of the crew (dom and mark and janine and rob) for the past few hours we're apparently invited to join in.

after a rather confusing walk through the back streets of montpellier we wind up at this little japanese restaurant that is packed with people. after rounds of sashimi, and other things that i dont know the name of (as well as a few bottles of saki) dinner is over and the tab is being picked up by andrew. (don't worry mama, i thanked him profusely, he wouldn't let us pay either, we tried hard)

after dinner it's time for a change of pace, namely more drinks at a place called the cubanito bar. naturally mojitos. so after a few of those and some dirty girl scout shots (bailey's and creme de menthe) poor little ol' michael couldn't handle it and he wound up throwing up in the bar. so i got to walk him all the way back to the hotel and we got to the hotel and i was like, 'okay, do you think you can make it from here?' (note: all he had to do was walk to the top of the 4 story building and we were the only room on the top floor) and he goes, 'no, can you take me?' so up we went. i tucked him into bed, and then did what any self-respecting good wisconsin girl would do. i headed back to the bar to hang out with the new friends. under strict orders of drunk michael to, 'take lots of pictures' because he wasn't sure if he'd be able to remember them in the morning. : )

off to the bar i went, only to return home in the wee hours of the morning to get about 2 hours of sleep before we had to be up and on the train to carcassonne. and that's another story...

where's montpellier...?

so. it's been awhile. lots of goings on here across the pond. to say the least.

alright, so in any case, on our last day in valencia (meaning the morning that we woke up and had to be out of our hotel at noon) and we still didn't have a place to go. we foray to the train station at the pleasant hour of 8am with the idea that we'd go to carcassonne. the guy behind the window selling tickets pretty much just laughed at me. so no go. and so my response was, well, can i go anywhere in france then? and he went yeah, montpellier. next thought: where the hell is montpellier? turns out it's in the south of france. near the coast.

alright, so we get on the train and get to barcelona to change trains. all the time still trying to figure out where we'll be sleeping that night seeing as we hadn't planned to be in montpellier (or anywhere near it for that matter). we wind up talking to this really nice old man named Roger who told us that when he'd booked his hotel that morning there'd been one other open room. so in any case, we get off the train with him and walk to his hotel right up the road. no vacancies. but instead of him just going, oh to hell with it. good luck children, he instead talked the consierge into calling a hotel around the corner, and having them send over a helper to help us get there, and to help us with our bags because they had vacancies. it couldn't have been any better. so we get to our hotel. 5 flights of stairs later, we have a room! just michael and i in our own room again. top floor. totally perfect. we went out for a drink. had a blowout fight. and went to bed. next mornign everything worked out though. in fact i think it sort of helped in a sense. we've been getting along fairly well now....