some pictures

raspberry macaroon with rose creme fraiche at l'audrée

the chagall ceiling at l'opera

a letter written by sartre at an autograph shop on rue bonaparte

don't remember who did this but the proportions stuck out to me.

and of course, degas and his dancers. my favorite.

host cat~

KITTEH

a post from sunday night

still no internet. i will put this up when i can eventually get wifi working.
i went to the musee d'orsay with my parents yesterday, and it was fantastic. i've got a bit of a degas obsession, so it was absolutely fantastic getting to see so many of his dancers in one spot!
there was a special exhibit going on while we were there called 'art nouveau,' which centered on the sort of psychedelic surrealism of the 60s and 70s. in a side room labelled 'psychedelisme,' the walls were covered in concert posters and album covers and the like. one of the posters turned out to be from the fillmore in san francisco, advertising a yardbirds show in 1967 that my dad had gone to! to quote him, you know you're getting old when you can revisit your youth in a french museum...

we went to a cool little jazz club that night with tim ryan, who is the founder of m-audio and an old friend of my dad's. the atmosphere in this place is great! scribbles and album covers decorate the walls, and there was a piano player, bassist, and singer/trumpeter playing all night.

today, i met up with my parents again and we walked from their new hotel in the 6th (i think) down to the louvre, up to the opera house, and back around. we didn't stop in the louvre, but we went inside the opera house and did a self-guided tour. i was absolutely overwhelmed by all of the ornate, gilded, painted, carved, and molded art that covered the walls from floor to ceiling!

it was particularly special for me because ever since i can remember there has been a print of chagall's ceiling hanging above the couch in my family's living room. it was breathtaking in person; the colors were much more vibrant and vivacious than i could have ever imagined.

we had dinner with tim ryan again tonight, at his family's apartment (which happened to be down the street from my parents' hotel). his place is absolutely beautiful, but the best part was his amazing art collection. he focuses on surrealism, and tries to collect pieces from the artists that are still living on from that period. his pieces were all beautiful and the stories that went along with them were fantastic as well.

and now here i am, needing to sleep because i start my first day of classes tomorrow at 9AM.... oh dear. wish me luck!

an update from saturday morning

i moved into my host family's home last night. they live on the fifth floor of this great old building on the avenue de versailles, which is in the 16th district of paris. they're great people; the mother, sandrine, is in school for web marketing, but still finds time to prepare AMAZING meals for her three children and their friends. there are two twins, clara and valentin, who are 13, and an older sister ines, who is 16. last night sandrine's boyfriend arnold was over for dinner as well; the two of them prepared chili con carne (yum!) and an amazing apple crumble that i positively devoured. during dinner all the siblings and their friends were talking so quickly that it was really difficult for me to follow along; sandrine and arnold made an effort to speak slowly, which i appreciated. arnold even offered to give me cooking lessons! after dinner i hung out with ines and her friend whose name escapes me. they were much better about speaking slowly and repeating themselves... i feel like an infant sometimes, it's frustrating. they like all the same music and movies as i do, which is pretty cool. i conked out pretty early though; i was exhausted.

my room is actually on the seventh floor, which can only be accessed by a stairway inside their apartment. this is an old apartment building so the 6th and 7th floors are what used to be the maids' quarters. there are several rooms up here; mine is a single room with a bed, desk, armoire/etc, as well as my own sink and shower. there is a communal toilet on the floor as well. it's almost like a dorm, except i don't know any of the others that live here, and i'm much more a part of the family downstairs.

the bed isn't too comfortable but i hope to find a mattress pad today. the shower turned cold halfway through so i didn't get to condition, but i think there's a knob somewhere that will allot more hot water to my room. the walls are overwhelmingly white, but i plan on finding some posters or pictures or something.

sorry everyone!

i promise i'm not dead!!!! I've been having trouble connecting to the internet in my apartment so I haven't been able to blog to my full potential. i've been writing everything down, though, and will try to post it all up tonight because i think i've finally got it figured out.

right now i'm sitting in cafe mirabeau, which is on the corner of my block and right above the metro line I took to school this morning. we're about to head off to a chocolatier/pattiserie that Steven Rothfeld says we MUST visit for macaroons and cafe creme...yum!

arrival

tonight is my first night in paris. we arrived after a pleasantly uneventful flight, got stuck in traffic on the way into the city, and checked into our lovely little hotel (which is entirely dedicated to henri iv) in the quartier latin. walking down to a little bistrot for dinner, all i could notice was bookstore after bookstore along the street; luckily they were all closed or i would have dragged my parents into each one!

it's freezing out but i love it, because i get to bundle up in my wool coat and huge scarf. after dinner (i had lamb and pasta), we walked up and down a few streets, stumbling upon a church my dad had heard of with supposedly perfect acoustics, and picked up fliers for the bach recital tomorrow night and the chopin on monday.

we also found the 'manga cafe,' which instantly awakened the 15-year-old in me that would listen to japanese rock and cuddle up with a pile of comic books every night. their collection was insane; every manga i had ever heard of and so much more (plus a wii and guitar hero and wifi and everything you could ever need)! i ended up buying vol. 3 of a comic called 'the kurosagi corpse delivery service' that i used to read in high school.

the best part is that they were all translated into french!

anyway, now i'm back in the hotel and messing around on the free wifi, resisting sleep even though i've been awake for about 40 hours and am SO TIRED.



also: at the airport i bought 'nightlight,' which is the harvard lampoon's parody of the vampire series 'twilight,' and it was hilarious! everyone should read it. seriously.

t-minus three days.

so have i mentioned that i am moving to paris? yes. i am. on WEDNESDAY.

i am moving to paris on wednesday.



after weeks of anxiety, i finally learned where i will be living for the next five months. my french host family has a fifth floor apartment on the avenue de versailles, a bit farther from school than i expected but still in a great little area.

two doors down from my building is the 'restaurant san francisco,' which i find ironic yet strangely comforting. (oh, how i love google maps' street view function!)



so at the moment i'm procrastinating; i've done three loads of laundry and have one more + all the handwashing i need to do, and then it's PACKING TIME. i have two humongous red suitcases (the lightest in the world!) sitting on my bed, positively gaping at me.

time to get things done, i suppose!

introduction

so here is where i will chronicle my upcoming semester in paris. i'll post photos, share anecdotes and fun facts, and keep it PG-13 or something. also my grammar will be impeccable except that i will never use caps because i hate them. they will only appear IN THE EVENT THAT I FEEL THE NEED TO CONVEY THAT I AM IN FACT SHOUTING,


which hopefully will only be out of excitement. i can dream.