Paris Projects

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