We were divided into French classes based on our scores from the placement exam. The schedule we were given at the beginning of orientation said my group was supposed to meet at 1:30pm on Thursday but the paper we were shown Wednesday afternoon and all the teachers said 9am. So Abbey, Shaina, and I all showed up for class yesterday at 9am… guess what, class didn’t start until 1:30pm! We were then left with lots of time to kill since none of us felt like trekking back to our home stays just to return in a couple of hours. Since Abbey is still on crutches it wasn’t practical for her to try to go meandering around, so she installed herself at a table with one of the school’s laptops (with a French keyboard – it took over 5 minutes to figure out how to type her email password correctly!). Shaina and I decided to venture over to the catacombs, which aren’t far from our school and then come back and get Abbey for lunch. Shaina and I walked the 10 minutes or so from our school to the catacombs, peering into all the cafés and boutiques on the rue Daguerre along the way. We took the 90 steps down and meandered along the pathway for a while wondering what we were supposed to be looking at. It probably would have helped if I had read the guidebook a little more thoroughly before going down, but I hadn’t been planning on doing this an hour before. We finally got to the catacomb part and it was pretty interesting. It was very weird to think about and see the bones of 6 million people being piled up in designs and special arrangements. We continued on, avoiding – for the most part – the dripping water of “dubious origin” as Shaina’s guidebook had put it. As we were walking and discussing, a guide/ curator dude stopped us and asked us if we knew the history, we said a little and he offered to explain it to us. Shaina asked him to tell us in French so he did, somewhat reluctantly and spoke much to quickly for me to understand more than half of what he said. Afterwards he told us we could take a picture with the flash even though we had been told not to, so I took one of the bones that were 50 m deep. He then took one of the two of us and then offered to go drinking with us sometime. Great!! We told him we’d come back to visit and continued on as quickly as possible. Ascending the 90 stairs was much more of a challenge than I had anticipated but we succeeded and headed back to IES to get Abbey.
The three of us decided to do lunch at the café that is next door to the school. Our waiter was very genial and I ordered ravioli while Shaina and Abbey decided to split an item called tartare cru, which Shaina believed to be an open faced sandwich with French fries and salad. When it arrived Shaina and Abbey were surprised (to say the least) that their plate contained a pile of raw chopped meat artfully mixed with onions and herbs along with fries and a salad. It turned out Shaina had the words tartare and tartine confused! Luckily the waiter was very nice and understanding and took the plate back and brought them a large salad with toast instead. He did however make Shaina go back and explain to the chef that it was her fault and not the waiter’s so that the waiter wouldn’t have to pay for the dish out of his wages. At the end of the meal he gave Shaina his email address so we could keep in touch and perhaps have a drink and try tartare… oh these French men!
We finally went to French class and then I had to wait around for another hour after class for my academic meeting, so I didn’t get to head back home until close to 5pm. We had a homework assignment to do for class and I was so tired that it was the only thing I did last night.
Today we did actually have French class at 9am and then I had to wait around again because I was going on a tour of the Pavillion d’Arsenal at 2:30. Abbey and I went to get pain au chocolat for a mid morning treat and then we sat with Shaina and read and chatted until lunchtime. I found a gelato store on the rue Daguerre today that I somehow missed yesterday, so there will definitely be future posts revolving mostly around my ice cream consumption! For lunch we decided to go to the boulangerie (bakery) that is just across the street from our school since they have sandwiches and salads for a very reasonable price. We enjoyed our meal and Abbey tried Orangina for the first time!!
A group of about 20 of us took a tour of the Pavillion d’Arsenal. It’s a museum that basically talks about the construction of Paris since the 1100’s , the city’s design and layout over the years and some of the changes in architecture. The building is in an older part of Paris, really close to the Seine and all the architecture around it is really pretty and older. It was such a contrast to then walk into the museum and see the stark modern appearance with metal floors and unadorned wood accenting. I'm sure there was a point to all this modernity in an antique area... All I could think of was Sarah the entire time and how she should be there because she would really appreciate it and be able to explain it to me. But alas, the tour guide was pretty good (the tour was all in French), and afterwards Brad and I ventured to the second floor to look at the temporary exhibit. It was all models of buildings (once again I thought of Sarah and her hours of studio last year) that are being built or are planning on being built in Paris and the surrounding areas. They are all sustainable architecture and some of the designs and ideas were really cool. By this time my feet were killing me, so I decided to head back to the ‘burbs for the evening. I made myself risotto for dinner (I was pretty impressed with how it came out for the limited number of ingredients I had available) and now I’m just taking it easy. I think I’ll put on my PJs and read some more Harry Potter (en Français) for the rest of the night. Tomorrow I need to run some errands, and who knows what else…
2 comments:
Your writing has improved a lot since high school. My compliments to UPS!
Two men want to have drinks with you guys and all your dad can say is your writing has improved ???!!
I think he missed a lot of info.
It sounds so delightful there and such fun. Jeff asked if you were missing Savory Fare today and I said no she doesn't even miss me in Paris. He was very jealous you were there eating croissants and not his bread.
Then Anne saw me and asked about you, she also did not know you were in France. She would like to trade places.
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