Barcelona-

This weekend I had an awesome time basking in the sun and vivid colors of the Mediterranean :). I went to Barcelona for my 21st birthday, which was on Sunday, by myself, and stayed in a nice hostel. My favorite part about the whole city was all the architecture done by Gaudi, especially la Sagrada Familía, which is a church that still won’t be finished until 2025-2026. It was really nice to get away from Paris for a little bit, and it was so warm and sunny down in Barcelona. I shocked myself by being able to speak more Spanish than I realized I could! I also actually had no idea that they spoke another language in that area called Catalan, so I didn’t understand everything people were saying.

Last week I had another flu, which is so, so annoying. My departure is becoming more and more imminent, and I want to be able to get out and explore!! I feel like I’m stuck in a niche in Paris and not getting out enough and experiencing enough. I didn’t win a travel grant from Wellesley that I applied for, so I will have to go home at the end of December as opposed to January, and I just feel like it’s too short of a time :(.

Since I was sick, I have so much to catch up on as far as school and writing etc. etc. ahhh!!

I just moved into my new apartment, and I love, love, love it! I originally thought living with a host family would enhance my experience here in Paris, but I have a feeling that living in my own place is what I should have done all along. I’m on the very last floor, and my only window is actually in the ceiling, but I’m so excited about it that I was practically dancing in the elevator. It was such a difference from where I used to live, because I lived in such a quiet and vacant neighborhood, but my new neighborhood is always bustling, and like one of my friends said here “you really live in Paris!” My new area really enhances the culture of the city of Paris-what with all of its brasseries, small businesses, diverse population, boulangeries, supermarkets, and metro stops! Yayyyyy!

Unfortunately, I don’t have internet in my room, but it is encouraging me to get started on all of my final papers (yikes :S). I am in a library right now where I can use internet, and I am enjoying the atmosphere of this library. People are so productive! That should probably be me now…

Later, I have to go to the Louvre to shoot some black and white digital images of the sculpture Nike for my sister who wants to print it out and put it on her wall.

I’m moving soon to a different apartment, and it is small but very cute.

I’m excited.

I don’t really have one single inspiration for this blog entry, but something I’ve wanted to talk about is couchsurfing.com and how amazing this site is. I met this amazing Georgian photographer and an Israeli video art activist studying international law.  It’s nice that I live in Paris, because I get contacted a lot to hang out and go have a coffee, and it’s amazing to be able to have this opportunity to meet such fascinating people.

Another amazing thing: I can’t get over the fact that I have lectures in the Louvre museum.  Today we were in the French paintings gallery, and as we talked about each painting, I would get lost in it, analyzing it automatically.  Our teacher (who is hilarious) would continue lecturing at a different piece, and as I would walk over there, the window would catch my eye, and when I looked out, voil   was the pavilion of the Louvre.  The immense structure of the Louvre is so impressive in itself, but then add in the fountains and the glass pyramid by I M Pei, and at night, the dramatic lighting of each crevice of the Louvre.  It is a pleasant shock every time I’m at this institution.  I’ve never been to a museum in the USA that was even comparable.

Tomorrow I have more lectures at the Sorbonne, and I actually find myself looking forward to these classes because they are so interesting :).

My parents and some of my friends asked me how France views the current financial crisis in the United States which leads me to believe that a lot of the people in the U.S. have NO IDEA that the whole world is now completely destroyed economically. Everyday, in every paper in Paris, there is an article on the financial crisis now in France, not just the United States. What is France’s reaction? They are angry at themselves for being so dependent on the U.S. The G7 had to meet, this and that International organization had to meet, et cetera et cetera. A quote I got from a French newspaper said that “French banks will never be the same after this.”

What is my reaction? Well, my sadistic reaction is that, at least the Euro is going down with the dollar. I had to take out a lot of money to go to Germany last weekend, and needless to say, when I looked at my bank account, I was a little horrified. I also have to add that I’m also thrilled to look for a job in 2010.

As far as this upcoming election goes, the vast majority of French people are, of course, pro-Obama. And by vast, I mean over 80%. They ask me what I think about Sarah Palin, and tell me that they were sad to see Hillary go (this totally shocked me). All French adults I’ve talked to so far have told me they would rather Hillary had gotten the nomination than Obama, but “sadly, it’s too late.” I miss Hillary too, but I like Obama.

Continuing in the trend of political blogging, I just received my absentee ballot a week ago. A lot of people my age are refusing to vote, which annoys me a little. I don’t necessarily find the act of voting in the United States very empowering anymore, but I also feel like, if you don’t vote, you do not have the right to complain about U.S politics for the next four years, and I treasure moments where I can complain about our bureaucracy.

Beyond all this jibber-jab, I got to see Jenny Lewis perform two nights ago at La Maroquinerie in Paris. I saw her with Rilo Kiley last year in Boston and with the Watson Twins my first year at college in Boston. FYI, she puts on an amazing show! I met two other American girls at the concert, who were so much fun, and we went upstairs together and ended up running into Johnathan Rice as well as musicians from the band Benji Hughes. They were all so approachable and friendly, it made me nostalgic for the laid-back culture of the United States, especially the culture of indie artists. It’s become a cliche to like indie artists nowadays, but I find it’s just a more intimate crowd of interesting people. I was so curious about what it was like to travel and tour, so I asked Johnathan (and Blake Mills from Band of Horses and another Jonathan from the band) if they were exhausted. They said they were a little jet-lagged, they looked like they hadn’t showered in a few days, and they told me they had to leave that night to go to Amsterdam. Yikes. One made a “joke” about how there were enough drugs to keep him energetic. Haha-double yikes.

Jenny Lewis, Johnathan Rice

Blake Mills, Barbara Gruska, Jonathan Wilson, Jenny Lewis, half of Johnathan Rice, Dave Scher

They were so much fun–I was happy to talk to them and hug them all goodbye, and I hope to run into them someday in the future as well. I also hope Jenny Lewis isn’t too exhausted to come out and greet fans next time!!

So actually, that was supposed to be “Auf Wiedersehen” even though it sounds like the W is a V. (Typo!) 

Oktoberfest was great.  We woke up at 7 am so we could get to the beer garden-tent-things and grab a seat.  I went with my friend Lena, her boyfriend, and her two friends, and I wore one of her friend’s traditional Bavarian dresses.  They serve one-liter beers at Oktoberfest, and I took two hours to finish mine.  By the end of our stay in the tent, we were all dancing on the table with everyone in the room to traditional German Oktoberfest songs played by a live band, and at that point, I convinced myself I could speak German too, because I was singing along with them.

Every so often we would do cheers with everyone at the table.  It was a cold and rainy day, but inside the beer garden, the atmosphere was so lively and positive! 

Today I started my classes at the Sorbonne, and I felt extremely nervous in my first class, because the teacher talked so fast, and I had no idea how to spell this technical architectural jargon she was throwing at us.

Occasionally she would spell things in rapid-French, but I’m not used to the French alphabet.  It is great to finally be integrated into the French university system, though,  She said that our only homework as Americans was a thirty-page essay at the end of the semester.  You have to be kidding me.  The most I’ve ever written in French in one semester was a seven page-long paper.  AH! 

It’s 8:30 a.m. and I originally planned on stalking out Stella McCartney’s fashion show at 10 a..m. in the 3rd arrondissement, but I just feel too lame.  One part of me is really curious as far as people-watching would go, and the other part of me thinks going alone to people-watch is stupid and unnecessary.  Plus, it’s 8:30 a.m. and I want to go back to sleep.

Tonight, there is still time to go check out the Yves Saint Laurent show, or tomorrow morning, I could potentially scope out the Chanel show.

However, I AM GOING TO MUNICH!  For Oktoberfest!  I was thinking of taking one of those sleeper-trains tonight and arriving in Munich tomorrow, but the thought intimidates me a little bit.  If it is too expensive and too frightening, I will opt to leave tomorrow morning instead and just live through the 6-7 hours on a reclining seat.  Yikes.  I wanted to go to the Dachau NAZI concentration camp tomorrow while my good friend works, just because I think it is historically and emotionally important.  Terrible events like the Holocaust in history deserve as much recognition as possible in my opinion.  That being said, I think it is important to go, but depending on when I leave, I don’t know if I’ll be able to go or not :(.

 On the lighter side, Saturday, my friend Lena and I from high school are going to Oktoberfest-it-up all day, and she even plans on sticking me in one of those traditional, checkered dresses.  Yikes…we’ll see how that works out.  I have to admit that I am excited to see my best friend from senior year, taste really good German beer, and eat pretzels.  Go calories!!!  Sunday, I have no idea what I’m doing, but normally, I should return some time on Monday as I want to start tango classes here in Paris on Monday nights.  I did start a tango class last semester at M.I.T., but I never finished it because a regular commute from Wellesley into Boston can get to be a hassle sometimes. 

Auf Viedersehen!

I still haven’t started classes yet, but I’m seriously looking forward to it.  Classes in Art History at the Sorbonne-Paris IV start on October 6th, and since I was sick last week, my classes at Sweet Briar start this Wednesday!  I’m not sure what to expect as far as coursework and as far as the workload, but it will be amazing to finally get to go to school.  I hope my French improves exponentially.

I can’t deny that it has been nice to have such a long vacation, especially in Paris!  In my free time, I’ve been wandering the metro stops of Paris, and one of my favorite events was going with the head of the “Paris Photography” group on couchsurfing.com to the Père Lachaise cemetary where I saw Jim Morrison’s grave.  There is a garde that stands in front of his grave now, because some crazy fans have done things like try to light fire on his tomb… I really want to go back to that cemetary though, because I think I can take some interesting pictures there.

Speaking of pictures, I haven’t taken very many because of my illness (which I’m now over, YAY), but I will get back out there ASAP.

Yesterday, I went with my friend, Yukti, from Wellesley to a United States Collegiate recruiting event at the Marriott Rive Gauche.  We met up with two beautiful and intelligent alumnae of Wellesley College to (wo)man the Wellesley College booth.  Both Yukti and I were perfect candidates for selling Wellesley College to Parisian/American high school students, because right now we are both missing Wellesley so much.  It was really wonderful to be able to talk about how much I loved my college, and to be a little homesick, not to mention meet all of these motivated young women at our booth.  Afterward, there was a heck of a reception with some beautiful and tasty pastries, and really rich red wine.  Mmmmm….

It is nearing the end of September, and today was the first day of classes for me, but guess what, I have the freaking flu.  My temperature is an average 100 degrees Farenheit, and I have not left my house for two days.

Oh me, oh my.  BUT, because my last entry was already a rant, I will spare you this one and instead talk about Paris at night.  Tuesday night, three friends from the Sweet Briar Junior Year in France program and I left our houses to go watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle at 11 p.m.  I always enjoyed watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle from the Butte de Montmartre, even though you have to search for a prime viewing location, but I took for granted the spectacle of watching la Tour sparkle only meters away from my eyes.  It was really beautiful to watch this large industrial sculpture suddenly light up into thousands of darting sparkles from such a close-up perspective.

A week ago, I also had the pleasure of walking with a good friend from the Latin Quartier to the Arc de Triomphe in the middle of the night, and my favorite little up Paris building by far was the Louvre.  It was absolutely magical to see the gradiose architecture of this prestigious museum and monument bathed in light and contrasting shadows.  We took a moment to bask in the glory of the Louvre, but I was momentarily distracted by a large Louvre rat that I chased for a little bit to amuse myself.  One thing to know about Paris by night is that every magistical building has its fair share of rats.  On the way to the Louvre, we walked along the Seine river and had the pleasure of catching two small Tango milangas where couples of all ages came to dance.

Ooh la la.  Once I am free from this illness, I will once again join Parisian nightlife.

Actually Paris is not burning, that was a title stolen from an awesome St.

Vincent song.  What actually burned was the battery charger to my Macbook, which explains my absense.  Allow me to rant now.  I finally moved to Paris last Thursday to a new host family in Neuilly-sur-Seine, where I will be living until the end of December.  My battery charger actually began to melt last week but then finished itself off by the weekend, so I checked out what looked like the equivalent of the Apple Genius Bars, right across the street from the Centre Pompidou.  First, I went in and the guy tells me I need to bring my laptop along with the charger to verify that my warranty actually covers that specific appliance.  A few days later, I go back with a very heavy bagload, and I’m told (all in French of course) that I actually have to call some French AppleCare number and get a “numero de dossier.”  I had my serial number and my warranty number, so I was confused at that point as to why I would need another number.  I called the French line and it was busy, so I called the American help line via international phonecard, and it appears that Apple doesn’t do 24-hour care.  SO, finally I end up calling the American help line yesterday at a convenient time for them, and some really nice woman explains to me that these kind of accidents need to be doccumented, so I get the document number, I go back to the Centre Pompidou, and God bless, the guy working there finally tells me that it’s all good, he’s shipping my fried battery off, and I’ll have my new battery charger by the end of the week.

Hallelujah.

I arrived in France almost two weeks ago, but instead of going directly to Paris, everyone in the Sweet Briar Junior Year in France program is stuck(?) in Tours, France. We’ve been going through a sort of pre-orientation, and it has actually been quite lovely, but I’m getting anxious for Paris.

Every weekday we have courses in the morning, and every afternoon is like a challenge to see how we can amuse ourselves for eight hours until dinner time. I live with an older French couple who are strict catholics (Mary, Jesus, and an olive branch are hanging above my bed as I speak), but who are easy-going and funny. My host mom is such an amazing cook–so far she has made french fries for us four times.

I title this post “The Valley of the Kings” (think Egypt), because La Vallée de la Loire is known for its numerous castles. I visited three châteaux while here: Chenonceau, Villandry, and Amboise.

Voilà, les photos:

Chenonceau

Villandry (I’m thinkin’ Tim Burton should film “Alice and Wonderland” here…)

Amboise (where Leonardo da Vinci died)

ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT ©2008 SARAH