Over the past two weeks, we have all been feverishly working on our projects and all around just having a good time. In Paris.
Carly's project is interviewing people all around the city to get to know the Parisian culture. So far she has had 20 interviews. She had two at a mosque, and two people tried to convert her. She had a good spiritual discusison nonetheless. She has been having a great time with her homestay sister; they have grown very close over the past couple of weeks.
Rachel has seen 5 plays (all in French, what an intellectual), and has fullfilled the goals for her project. The plays areGarneir et SEntou, La Oiseau Vert (the play put on by the Ecole Alsacienne), a slapstick comedy show, Li, Leon, Louis and Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew translated by Victor Hugo into French, which Tamara also saw. It was riveting.
Colin has been going to cool jazzy concerts. He has been to 5 so far, at the Bistro des Artists, Cafe Universal, Le Chat Noir, and one at a park. He thinks he is getting close to really understanding the spirit of music in Paris, which he knows sounds cheesy, but that's ok. Colin was playing marbles with his younger homestay brother, which turned into Colin getting beat up by a 12 year old. But it was his birthday so Colin totally let him do it. Colin also saw The Nanny Diaries (featuring Scarlett Johansson) which he says is "the #1 feel-good movie of the year!" Seriously.
Everyday, Joanna goes to a park, museum, and/or architectual structure and draws, writes, and/or paints with watercolors. She has been to the Jardin du Luxembourg, the Palais Royal, and the Louvre. She is a perfectionist with her art, which sometimes means sitting in the same place for three hours at a time and getting sunburned (on one side). She also now considers taking pictures "cheating". She went to her homestay family's vacation home near Fontainebleu, where she played tennis and played on a trampoline. She also visited Barbizon, a town which housed the workshops for many famous painters.
Rebecca has so far completed 7 paintings, visited the Centre Pomidou to study the work of Louise Bourgeois, visited the open air sculpture garden and Versailles. She has now fullfilled all of her dreams of the trip by visiting Versailles (and looking good). She spent 6 hours there alone, completely amused. She followed a tour given in Japanese by a French guide, took Myspace pictures in the Hall of Mirrors and bought an issue of French vogue.
Jack has been having a great time studying graffiti around the city. He visted an open house for artists in Belleville and talked to some artists. He also rented a book on graffiti from the library (all by himself), and went to a play featuring Spanish flamenco music. He also went to a jazz/hip-hop concert. He biked to our rendez-vous this morning. On a bike. It was cool.
Claire's project is going well; she has created an accordion book of poetry and sketches about Paris, but it has some design flaws. She has visited the Moliere monument, square St. Viviani, and the Jardin du Luxembourg, where she was distracted from sketching by a conversation about politics with a French man in french. She also went to London with Annie for two days, and is very excited to attend university there next year. She and Annie tried very hard to avoid offending anyone by talking in British accents, but it was hard.
Esme has been reading a lot of french philosophy. She saw Ionesco's the Bald Soprano at a tiny theater in the Latin quarter who has been putting on the same play for 50 years. She really enjoys her new homestay family- they are very intellectual and the father is a very good cook.
I have been working on my walking tour everyday, finding places to visit and bakeries to eat at. Which has been fun. I have done a lot of people-watching in the Jardin du Luxembourg and marvelling at how beautiful the people (and the gardens) are.
Sunday, as a group, we visited a street-arts festival in a park in the north of Paris. It was like walking into a dream. We saw an ecclectic brass band (which a 4 year old girl danced to for the whole spectacle), some pirates, and lots of slapstick comedy. It was a great experience, unique to Paris, and it was truly magnifique.
Emma
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Paris, je t'aime...
Hello once again from Paris, the City of Light! Certainly the infamous city lives up to its name at night, but also during the day. The sun has been shining a lot, and it's very very hot!
So what, exactly, have we been up to? Along with working on our projects, we've also been having a lot of fun with our homestay families. In the same format as the last homestay post, I'll report to all of you guys about what's been going on with our homestays, and what we've been doing.
Joanna's family was, for her first week, in Africa, so she was staying with the aunt of her homestay sister. However, they are now back. Joanna says they are very very nice and they brought her back a really beautiful necklace from Tanzania. I should know how pretty it is... I saw it yesterday! She, as well as myself and Emma, went to see the movie "What Happens in Vegas" although here it's called "Jackpot." Those of us who have seen it are giving it good reviews. She wants me to add that Napoleon's bedroom is leopard print... hmmm...
Carly's brother is currently playing in a professional volleyball tournament. She went bowling, and says that for once she was actually good at it. She says the bowling alley was more like a night club with a bowling alley in it. (For those of you who are dying to know, the French word for night club is "boite de nuit" or, literally translated, "night box" which I think is just great.) She says her sister really enjoys being with Carly and that she eats cake and brownies for breakfast. She also attended a party and met a bunch of French people.
Esme says she ate Chinese food for the first time in 2 months. This is exciting, but if only we could find some pho! She saw the Lion King at the theater and says it was impressive. She's been taking more nature walks with Carly, specifically one at Buttes Chaumont, a sprawling park that she says is similar to Seattle.
Jack attended a jazz concert in a bookstore, and said it was "really artsy." The band was an American band called The Cosmosamatics. He says the sax player was really funny and kept doing little jumps as he played. He also went to an antiques market with his brother.
Colin also attended a jazz concert. At a bar. He says it was unique because along with the band there was also a DJ scratching, which he says was really cool. Afterwards there was a sort of jam session that included a freestyling rapper, whom he says "looked like a Tommy Hilfiger model" and he couldn't tell if the guy was good at it or not, but he said it rhymed so he assumes the guy wasn't too awful. He then went to a party at the jazz pianist's house, where they asked him about his opinion on French girls.
Claire says she's finally got the opportunity to hang out with her otherwise busy family (we just had a long weekend and everyone had days off). She says she went grocery shopping at a local market with the family and says it was actually really fun. Her mother is a big fan of a parsley and pork pate, which is apparently a specialty of some region of France... unfortunately we don't know exactly what region. She saw a play called "Le Cul de Judas" which, translated, means, "Judas's Ass" and I don't mean "ass" as in "donkey"... It was a one-man show about a doctor who worked during the Angolan civil war. She says it was bizarre. She also went to see the school play called "L'Oiseau Vert" or "The Green Bird" which she says was very good. Her homestay brother was in it, as one half of a "shrieking arch."
Rebecca's mother joined a choir a year ago and says the mother practices all the time, which drives Rebecca's homestay siblings crazy. Rebecca won brownie points with her mother by saying the singing is not what bothers her, but rather her siblings telling her mother to be quiet. Bon travail, Rebecca!
Emma ate at a Cuban restaurant with her sister and her friends and saw the movies Jackpot and 15 Ans et Demi (15 and a Half Years) which is a French movie (I've also seen it... very cute indeed). She also went to one of the big flea markets here with her family.
As for me, well, my family took me to the beach for 5 days. It was very nice but also very difficult because they had some family friends there and I was really quite shy. I also didn't bring a bathing suit. The mother in the other family was Russian, and brought her parents, who don't speak French, which was really cool to see other people in my situation who were older. We were in the Normandie region, close to where Saving Private Ryan was shot. My family was very adamant about pointing that out. The other family with us had two young children, ages 6 and 9, and they both spoke French and Russian, which was really neat to me. I ate way too many crepes while I was there, two each day on Friday and Saturday. (Saturday night we ate dinner at a place specifically for crepes. I ordered a bacon, spinach and cream crepe.) My homestay sister really enjoys seeing movies, so I've seen at least two, one French and one American (see above) and both were enjoyable. I have gotten started on my theater project, and on Monday Annie accompanied me to a HILARIOUS sketch comedy duo called "Garnier & Sentou". It was hysterical, both of us laughed so hard we cried. Afterwards, after asking for a favor from a friend working the doors, we managed to meet up with the two comedians and went with them to chat in a bar next door. What originally would've been a half hour conversation became a 3 hour conversation, which was absolutely amazing. I wish I could describe the night but the words fail me. We conducted the conversation in English, which was interesting. I asked them how they learned English and they told me from watching movies, which I thought was amazing, especially since their English was near perfect. They were really amazingly nice guys and gave me some really good advice for succeeding in the theater world. If you'd like to check out their epic genius, their website is http://www.garnieretsentou.com/. They also have a MySpace and a Facebook, and apparently some of their stuff is on YouTube. They're hilarious. Francophones should definitely check them out. The sketches are full of movement, so what you don't understand can be made up for by the huge facial expressions. My favorite skit that I saw is not on YouTube, but I did locate another fantastic skit that had me crying with laughter. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F-IukzJd1M Again, it's in French, but the huge expressions make up for it and some of the French isn't hard to understand. Also, this is just the last three minutes of the sketch, so if you're a little lost, sorry. If you want more, check out the song they have on their YouTube page, "Siamois a toi" (or something like that) because it's also very hilarious, especially live. Enjoy!
The group has been meeting regularly to gallivant around Paris. Monday, we met with Pierre (our friend from La Ferriere) to take a walking tour, where we discovered the Moulin Rouge ("Diamonds are a girl's best friend!"), attempted to find a market that wasn't there, and saw stores selling stolen cellphones (quelle horreur!). Yesterday we went on one of "Annie's Tours of Death" to the Pere Lachaise cemetary, which is the resting place of such known celebrities as Oscar Wilde, Moliere, Edith Piaf and Jim Morrisson. We successfully located his grave and found much silly graffitti on the tomb next to it, including "Rock on Jim" and "Break on through to the other side" which brings us much amusement. We took pictures of the family names that were unusual as well. It should also be noted that Colin and Jack unfortunately could not accompany us... they showed up at the right time at the wrong cemetary. Such a shame!
We would like to thank Jack McHenry for sending a copy of The Rambler to Rebecca. It brought us joy.
That's all I've got for you this week. Next week is Emma's turn, and she'll keep you updated next week. Hope everyone's AMP week went swimmingly.
Salut!
Rachel
So what, exactly, have we been up to? Along with working on our projects, we've also been having a lot of fun with our homestay families. In the same format as the last homestay post, I'll report to all of you guys about what's been going on with our homestays, and what we've been doing.
Joanna's family was, for her first week, in Africa, so she was staying with the aunt of her homestay sister. However, they are now back. Joanna says they are very very nice and they brought her back a really beautiful necklace from Tanzania. I should know how pretty it is... I saw it yesterday! She, as well as myself and Emma, went to see the movie "What Happens in Vegas" although here it's called "Jackpot." Those of us who have seen it are giving it good reviews. She wants me to add that Napoleon's bedroom is leopard print... hmmm...
Carly's brother is currently playing in a professional volleyball tournament. She went bowling, and says that for once she was actually good at it. She says the bowling alley was more like a night club with a bowling alley in it. (For those of you who are dying to know, the French word for night club is "boite de nuit" or, literally translated, "night box" which I think is just great.) She says her sister really enjoys being with Carly and that she eats cake and brownies for breakfast. She also attended a party and met a bunch of French people.
Esme says she ate Chinese food for the first time in 2 months. This is exciting, but if only we could find some pho! She saw the Lion King at the theater and says it was impressive. She's been taking more nature walks with Carly, specifically one at Buttes Chaumont, a sprawling park that she says is similar to Seattle.
Jack attended a jazz concert in a bookstore, and said it was "really artsy." The band was an American band called The Cosmosamatics. He says the sax player was really funny and kept doing little jumps as he played. He also went to an antiques market with his brother.
Colin also attended a jazz concert. At a bar. He says it was unique because along with the band there was also a DJ scratching, which he says was really cool. Afterwards there was a sort of jam session that included a freestyling rapper, whom he says "looked like a Tommy Hilfiger model" and he couldn't tell if the guy was good at it or not, but he said it rhymed so he assumes the guy wasn't too awful. He then went to a party at the jazz pianist's house, where they asked him about his opinion on French girls.
Claire says she's finally got the opportunity to hang out with her otherwise busy family (we just had a long weekend and everyone had days off). She says she went grocery shopping at a local market with the family and says it was actually really fun. Her mother is a big fan of a parsley and pork pate, which is apparently a specialty of some region of France... unfortunately we don't know exactly what region. She saw a play called "Le Cul de Judas" which, translated, means, "Judas's Ass" and I don't mean "ass" as in "donkey"... It was a one-man show about a doctor who worked during the Angolan civil war. She says it was bizarre. She also went to see the school play called "L'Oiseau Vert" or "The Green Bird" which she says was very good. Her homestay brother was in it, as one half of a "shrieking arch."
Rebecca's mother joined a choir a year ago and says the mother practices all the time, which drives Rebecca's homestay siblings crazy. Rebecca won brownie points with her mother by saying the singing is not what bothers her, but rather her siblings telling her mother to be quiet. Bon travail, Rebecca!
Emma ate at a Cuban restaurant with her sister and her friends and saw the movies Jackpot and 15 Ans et Demi (15 and a Half Years) which is a French movie (I've also seen it... very cute indeed). She also went to one of the big flea markets here with her family.
As for me, well, my family took me to the beach for 5 days. It was very nice but also very difficult because they had some family friends there and I was really quite shy. I also didn't bring a bathing suit. The mother in the other family was Russian, and brought her parents, who don't speak French, which was really cool to see other people in my situation who were older. We were in the Normandie region, close to where Saving Private Ryan was shot. My family was very adamant about pointing that out. The other family with us had two young children, ages 6 and 9, and they both spoke French and Russian, which was really neat to me. I ate way too many crepes while I was there, two each day on Friday and Saturday. (Saturday night we ate dinner at a place specifically for crepes. I ordered a bacon, spinach and cream crepe.) My homestay sister really enjoys seeing movies, so I've seen at least two, one French and one American (see above) and both were enjoyable. I have gotten started on my theater project, and on Monday Annie accompanied me to a HILARIOUS sketch comedy duo called "Garnier & Sentou". It was hysterical, both of us laughed so hard we cried. Afterwards, after asking for a favor from a friend working the doors, we managed to meet up with the two comedians and went with them to chat in a bar next door. What originally would've been a half hour conversation became a 3 hour conversation, which was absolutely amazing. I wish I could describe the night but the words fail me. We conducted the conversation in English, which was interesting. I asked them how they learned English and they told me from watching movies, which I thought was amazing, especially since their English was near perfect. They were really amazingly nice guys and gave me some really good advice for succeeding in the theater world. If you'd like to check out their epic genius, their website is http://www.garnieretsentou.com/. They also have a MySpace and a Facebook, and apparently some of their stuff is on YouTube. They're hilarious. Francophones should definitely check them out. The sketches are full of movement, so what you don't understand can be made up for by the huge facial expressions. My favorite skit that I saw is not on YouTube, but I did locate another fantastic skit that had me crying with laughter. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F-IukzJd1M Again, it's in French, but the huge expressions make up for it and some of the French isn't hard to understand. Also, this is just the last three minutes of the sketch, so if you're a little lost, sorry. If you want more, check out the song they have on their YouTube page, "Siamois a toi" (or something like that) because it's also very hilarious, especially live. Enjoy!
The group has been meeting regularly to gallivant around Paris. Monday, we met with Pierre (our friend from La Ferriere) to take a walking tour, where we discovered the Moulin Rouge ("Diamonds are a girl's best friend!"), attempted to find a market that wasn't there, and saw stores selling stolen cellphones (quelle horreur!). Yesterday we went on one of "Annie's Tours of Death" to the Pere Lachaise cemetary, which is the resting place of such known celebrities as Oscar Wilde, Moliere, Edith Piaf and Jim Morrisson. We successfully located his grave and found much silly graffitti on the tomb next to it, including "Rock on Jim" and "Break on through to the other side" which brings us much amusement. We took pictures of the family names that were unusual as well. It should also be noted that Colin and Jack unfortunately could not accompany us... they showed up at the right time at the wrong cemetary. Such a shame!
We would like to thank Jack McHenry for sending a copy of The Rambler to Rebecca. It brought us joy.
That's all I've got for you this week. Next week is Emma's turn, and she'll keep you updated next week. Hope everyone's AMP week went swimmingly.
Salut!
Rachel
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Goodbye Argy, Hello PARIS
Our last week in Argy was pretty...enchanting. It feels like the seasons changed from winter to spring within a matter or two days. The sun and warmth was a welcomed change, and helped us to view the chateau in a new light. We worked hard getting the chateau ready for the medieval festival, painting, plastering ( aka throwing plaster at the wall, no kidding, it was our job), raking, cleaning and setting up tents. Some of the other activites included looking for antlers (Jack), and falling in a lake. A lake of mud (Carly). Colin fell in love.
The medieval festival was relaxing for us, the first day a good sized crowd came and the weather was interesting. We witnessed thunders, rain, hail, and sun all within about four hours. We were all given jobs as "crowd herders" for the tours of the chateau, and some of us helped set up for the medieval "ball" and dinner.
The ball was a lot of fun, especially if medieval dancing is your thing. Luckily, for the past three weeks, we have had medieval dancing lessons nearly every night. Unfortunately, all those nights of awkwardness and humiliation didn't really ammount to much next to the seasoned medieval festival goers.
The next day, our last day in Argy, we were free to roam around the festival and visit the booths. Some people also tried out the stalks. There was an armour booth, a yarn booth, a medieval medicine booth, and a medieval crepe booth. I bet you can't guess which was our favorite...
We also took advantage of the beautiful weather and took a siesta in the grass by the river in front of the chateau. Don't you wish you could type that (and have it be true!)? We said our sad goodbyes to our good friend Meryam, but we didn't get to say goodbye to Jo, who was hosting the joust at the time. We took a bus to Tours and were met with a train station flooded with people; one of the trains was being uncooperative and wouldnt move, so we had to call some taxis. The trains started working again just as the taxi company called to tell us our taxis had arrived...we said sorry.
Amboise was beautiful. Saturday we visited the chateau, which was a little different than Argy. It was fit for a king. And lots of tourists. We also visited Leonardo Da Vincis house, and ate lunch in his garden. We had a free afternoon and explored Amboise.
Paris is amazing. We have all settled in with out families, and are enjoying exploring the city and working on our projects. The weather has been perfect spring weather.
Claire's family has another American student staying with them, who comes from LA and goes to Middlebury. They also have a cat named LouLou who hunts flies.
Carly saw a newborn baby for the first time; it belonged to the aunt of her homestay sister. Her family speaks perfect english because they lived in the US for 6 or 7 years, and they are part Croatian and eat a lot of chocolate, which suits Carly just fine.
Joanna is being passed off from one family member to another, seeing as her real homestay family is in Africa right now, but they return on Sunday. Joanna says everyone who has been staying with here is very nice and she is being taken to Versailles soon.
Esme sleeps in a bunkbed. Also, her homestay sister has a rabbit who acts like a dog.
Rebecca's family speaks in English, Russian, Japanese and French. There is going to be a party of freshman from the most prestigious highschool in Paris at her house tonight.
Colin has two sisters, one who is his age and one who is younger. He also has a younger brother who likes to wrestle. He also plays a lot of board games, and always feels dirty in the house just because it is so nice.
Jack lives at Mount Parnasse (the big train/metro station). His homestay father is a very French architect, and his homestay sister reminds him a lot of his real sister. His homestay brother is cool, and he has already met a lot of his "brother's" friends. His Paris project is going well.
I have three homestay sisters; two of which have done exchanges in Canada. My house is like a modern art museum, but comfortable. My project is going well; there is nothing I would rather be doing than walking around Paris exploring. The weather is perfect, and I am making good use of all the beautiful parks in Paris.
Emma
The medieval festival was relaxing for us, the first day a good sized crowd came and the weather was interesting. We witnessed thunders, rain, hail, and sun all within about four hours. We were all given jobs as "crowd herders" for the tours of the chateau, and some of us helped set up for the medieval "ball" and dinner.
The ball was a lot of fun, especially if medieval dancing is your thing. Luckily, for the past three weeks, we have had medieval dancing lessons nearly every night. Unfortunately, all those nights of awkwardness and humiliation didn't really ammount to much next to the seasoned medieval festival goers.
The next day, our last day in Argy, we were free to roam around the festival and visit the booths. Some people also tried out the stalks. There was an armour booth, a yarn booth, a medieval medicine booth, and a medieval crepe booth. I bet you can't guess which was our favorite...
We also took advantage of the beautiful weather and took a siesta in the grass by the river in front of the chateau. Don't you wish you could type that (and have it be true!)? We said our sad goodbyes to our good friend Meryam, but we didn't get to say goodbye to Jo, who was hosting the joust at the time. We took a bus to Tours and were met with a train station flooded with people; one of the trains was being uncooperative and wouldnt move, so we had to call some taxis. The trains started working again just as the taxi company called to tell us our taxis had arrived...we said sorry.
Amboise was beautiful. Saturday we visited the chateau, which was a little different than Argy. It was fit for a king. And lots of tourists. We also visited Leonardo Da Vincis house, and ate lunch in his garden. We had a free afternoon and explored Amboise.
Paris is amazing. We have all settled in with out families, and are enjoying exploring the city and working on our projects. The weather has been perfect spring weather.
Claire's family has another American student staying with them, who comes from LA and goes to Middlebury. They also have a cat named LouLou who hunts flies.
Carly saw a newborn baby for the first time; it belonged to the aunt of her homestay sister. Her family speaks perfect english because they lived in the US for 6 or 7 years, and they are part Croatian and eat a lot of chocolate, which suits Carly just fine.
Joanna is being passed off from one family member to another, seeing as her real homestay family is in Africa right now, but they return on Sunday. Joanna says everyone who has been staying with here is very nice and she is being taken to Versailles soon.
Esme sleeps in a bunkbed. Also, her homestay sister has a rabbit who acts like a dog.
Rebecca's family speaks in English, Russian, Japanese and French. There is going to be a party of freshman from the most prestigious highschool in Paris at her house tonight.
Colin has two sisters, one who is his age and one who is younger. He also has a younger brother who likes to wrestle. He also plays a lot of board games, and always feels dirty in the house just because it is so nice.
Jack lives at Mount Parnasse (the big train/metro station). His homestay father is a very French architect, and his homestay sister reminds him a lot of his real sister. His homestay brother is cool, and he has already met a lot of his "brother's" friends. His Paris project is going well.
I have three homestay sisters; two of which have done exchanges in Canada. My house is like a modern art museum, but comfortable. My project is going well; there is nothing I would rather be doing than walking around Paris exploring. The weather is perfect, and I am making good use of all the beautiful parks in Paris.
Emma
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)