Examstime is over!

Can’t imagine time passing any quicker. This semester absolutely flew by. Just finished packing ma valise and cleaning my room for the first time in 4 months or so. Can’t wait to go home and explain exactly how much money I’ve spent to my loving parents. Why didn’t I ever learn the accordion? You can’t play a piano in a metro-car…I need to pick up a small instrument so I can go car to car and get money. Or I could just look for a job. Either or.

Since Morocco (going back for sure next semester, and hopefully a few other neighboring countries if I can scrounge up the time and dough), I’ve not really left Paris. Until yesterday, when I went to Barcelona for Alec’s 21^st birthday and came back to Paris all in under 24 hours. I feel like a jet-setter.

Unfortunately, I’ve had exams up the wazoo since late November, so I have no cool pictures to show or stories to tell. Good news: I didn’t fail out of SciPo. Bad news: the wrapping paper I taped on my wall just came crashing down and I don’t have anymore tape.

Discovered some cool Paris places though – the bars by Parmentier and Republique are awesome and conveniently located walking distance from me which is super-rare. So I actually got to sleep in my own bed after going out for once instead of crashing at friend’s places!

Sugarplum is a bakery near Cardinal Lemoine and it is freaking fantastic. It’s an American place and you go in and you’re surrounded by Americans and Aussies and Brits. Didn’t speak a word of French when I was in there. Ate tons of chocolate chip cookies and there is bottomless coffee if you’re into that kind of crazy stuff. Since I don’t drink coffee, I just kept getting pots of jasmine tea and brownies. Like Americanish brownies. I know its lame to go to a place that’s just like home when I’m here to be all Parisian…just not during exams sorry. Wore sweatpants to my last final. It was liberating and scary all at once. Probably not going to wear sweatpants again in public…

Bye Paris. See you in a month!

Can’t wait to be in my own warm bed and take a long shower and spend less and drive more.  

OH RIGHT I went to Versailles with my friend Kendra. It was pretty cool. 

desk where the Treaty of Versailles was signed

the whole palace was too big to get on my camera, so here's a corner

This was about as close to fall foliage as I got this year (in Versailles)

Galeries Lafayette! 

cafe sugarplum

So my friend and I planned on coming here to study a few weeks ago but it never happened. Today, when I woke up to the sounds of the season (in French) and my awesome french family setting up Christmas decorations downstairs, I realized that no way in hell was I going to be able to get anything done at home. Instead I watched Love Actually and Four Christmases while putting up XMas lights and covering my walls in wrapping paper before getting my stuff together and heading out the door for the SciPo library. However, the library smells like BO and brain sweat, so I ended up finding this phenomenal slice of American-speaking heaven in the 5e arrondissement. If I could only explain how nice it is to be in a place with Americans and a Christmas tree and American cakes and bottomless coffee...I even had a conversation with a complete stranger.

All of this only serves to remind me how excited I am to be home for the holidays. As much as I love Paris and being immersed in another culture, Christmas is supposed to be spent at home with friends and family everywhere. I can't wait to go to the Strasbourg XMas markets next weekend, I can't wait to see the Parisian XMas markets either for that matter. But more than all of this glitz and glamour, I can't wait to be back in SDub with snow, swiss-miss, my fam, and a small Christmas tree decorated with homemade ornaments. Granted, if I wasn't coming back for second semseter, it would be horribly bittersweet to be going home for the holidays. But I'll be back in the city of lights soon enough. I'm going to be a wreck and a half when I have to leave Paris for good...eek. My little host sister is already like "Divya, why is you have to leave? Just move here forever"...Celeste, be careful what you wish for...

Also almost done with the onslaught of exams and papers. All thats left after tomorrow is 2 final exams in 2 weeks. Finally.

tangier & fez

this has been one of the best trips of my life. never experienced anything like it. morocco still has state-religion (sunni muslim). women don't have equal status to men. everywhere you go (especially since we were traveling alone) you get cat-called, jeered at...if you react, it only gets worse. had to learn to keep my mouth shut and my temper down pretty quickly. ended up swearing at the first guy to annoy us in tangier (55 year old creep followed us down the street spouting out some really uncomfortable french/english come-ons)...instead of going away after i yelled at him, he proceeded to follow us and threaten us "I'll fu*%&ng kill you you f*%&ing f*%&s" (there ya go dad, i didn't actually swear in public)...but seriously dude, please don't kill us, that would suck...wish i hadn't been so taken aback so i could turn around and be like "nah dude, i'll f*%&ing kill you..." stare at him blankly and see what he did...just kidding i would probably have run away faster...

apart from that colorful incident, morocco is AMAZING. we only had 4 nights, 2 each in tangier and fez. we met some awesome people, Moroccans and foreigners staying in our hostel. we visited to tanneries, the mosques (not allowed inside most of them), the souks, the beach (snow storm back home and i was chilling on a beach wishing it was socially acceptable to wear shorts and a t-shirt)...

now in a hostel with some well-travelled dutchies and aussies. Tom (dutch dude) has been literally bumming around western europe, sleeping in garages and on the roofs of bars. He gets a hostel whenever he needs a shower, and goes where he pleases. Went 3 days without showering since our hotel's shower didn't work in Tangier and there wasn't time to shower before sightseeing in Fez...I could do it...backpacking across northern africa and europe in 2013? 

i can't really do this trip justice in words, so here look at some pictures...the ones that would load on this internet connection at least.

 back to cold and dreary paris tomorrow afternoon. gonna find a good way to spend my last 40 dirham tomorrow morning...

the tanneries in fez, they give you mint to hold over your nose

the view from our hotel, the bay of tangier

entrance to the medina, tangier

fight scene, bourne ultimatum, tangier

fez

tangier

beaches near tangier and smiley camels

bronze hand-crafted stuff, fez

entrance to the medina, fez

salon du chocolat

So, the Salon du Chocolat was in Paris this past weekend. It's basically a huge festival where different local and not local vendors come with their gorgeous and delicious chocolate creations. Some were inexplicably good. Some sucked. I had some really creative-looking Japanese dark chocolate...but I think it had seaweed in it and I had to chase down some orange liquered dark chocolate to get the gross taste out of my mouth...I went back for the orange ones about 15 times. I definitely got my 12.50 euro worth out of it...however I conveniently forgot my camera, so here are some pictures courtesy of my friend Liyan.

Also I looked at my planner and I don't think that I can quite wrap my brain around how much work I have to do before I leave for Tangier and Fez (in 3 days). Today I gave in, bought a grande chai latte and sat in Starbucks next to the most affectionate couple in the world. It was seriously too much, I was about to get all French and angry on them however I managed to keep my anger in check by listening to early 2000s crappy Top 40s at super-loud volume so everyone around me could hear.

this isn't the salon du chocolat, this is at gare du nord...it's like india-central

rainy and cold. HI DAD.

Oh and I finally got my bank card from BNP. Only took 2 months. But is it activated yet? OF COURSE NOT that would be too easy. I have to go home, find (in the 2000 letters I received from BNP) my confidential code, which I then try and doesn't work. Go figure. If this doesn't work itself out in the next week I'm cancelling my French bank account and sticking with good ol' BofA. 

papa p in paris!

Dad came to visit Paris on his way back from Bangalore. He was here for 2 nights, but since he's already seen tourist Paris, we did mostly other things - like Sciences Po and the Gare du Nord area (hello Little India). There is more india here than there is in Edison (ok, slight exaggeration, but still). There's Krishna Bhavan and Saravana Bhavan in case I ever miss my south indian home cooking. Then, theres eye-brow threading places everywhere and more brown people than I'd see on 3rd block in Bangalore...except they all speak Tamil or Hindi here, so I'm kind of at a loss...which is probably why I look very surprised right now...the idiot lady took off the better part of my eyebrows. Greeeaaat.

We did do some amusing and touristy things, Champs Elysees, Notre Dame, Saint Germain area, Marais...and I'm embarassed to say we did enter a McDonalds (to get a chocolat viennois...which is so far the cheapest/best I've had in Paris...sorry fancy cafes).

Highlights of the weekend were: the stand-up shower in the hotel, getting to witness the teenage girl gypsies trying to rob unsuspecting tourists in front of the Notre Dame, eating Nature Valley bars and Dove chocolate.

Also really missing autumn in New England. I attempted my normal autumn pumpkin bread with chocolate chips, but it failed miserably and tastes like grits. However, the apple cider is really hard to mess up. Apple cider and cinnamon. Ugh...just got really excited to go home so I can drink some more...

my backyard this time last year...i'd rather see this than the eiffel tower any day (lie...but at present, true)

well...i'm not adjusting anymore

Since the last time I wrote on this blog I've discovered that (1) I actually have a lot of homework and studying to do here (2) I need to find less expensive pass-times than drinking chocolat viennoise's at cafes in Saint Germain (3) I really miss my friends (4) I don't HATE all cats (5) time needs to slow down. 


Since last month, I’ve been to Munich for Oktoberfest (you all know what that it) and Barcelona for Sensation White (trance/house/techno rave fiesta). Last time I posted, I was still getting adjusted to my home-stay, life in Paris, and academics at ScPo. I’m well beyond that now…I'm basically Parisian...jk. But good news is I didn't fail my first round of exposes and dissertations, and now I have more time for a social life (but no money). Literally came here with a set in stone budget of 400 € per month. I think I've missed that by about 300 € in the upwardly direction. As this seems to be a trend with all the exchange students, I'm not particularly worried. Worst comes to worst, I just eat 7 breakfasts and 4 meals with my (awesome) host family and become emaciated and look even more Parisian than when I'm wearing all black and looking pissed off. Literally, the percentage of size 0's here is really disturbing.


Munich: I had strep throat, got it the morning I was leaving for Munich…went to the doctor and got antibiotics (the appointment was only 40 euro and medicine was 17! That’s just incredible). I ended up taking a nighttrain, “slept” sitting upright for 9 hours, went straight to the tents (HB). I bought a stein of beer (how could I not at Oktoberfest) but couldn’t really do much damage (antibiotics. WOOHOO). So I ended up drinking about a ½ L of coke while everyone got drunker and drunker and I got more and more hyper. Stayed in a super nice hotel, which the group of 9 of us returned to after drinking from 9 am to 3 pm. While everyone napped on the king size bed, I took the longest shower ever in the fancy rain-shower which was freaking awesome considering I have a victorian-style bath and a hand-held shower-head and I end up getting more water on the bathroom floor than on myself. 


Barcelona: Best weekend ever. Sensation is not particularly included in that designation considering it was an absolute mess. But I couldn't be happier that I stayed in Barca for an extra 2 nights and got to see the BC group being academic. The beach was exactly what I needed after coming from rainy and cold Paris (except now it's 65 and sunny, seriously weather make up your mind so my immune system can be semi-effective). Sad bit, realized just how much I miss my friends and just how awesome they are. Enough sentimentality. No but really...also I wish people here would get in the Christmas spirit sooner. It's already mid-October. Mariah Carey is being played more and more every day. By mid-November I'll be able to hit the high note...except I don't have a real shower to sing in so maybe not.


Friends, miss you. Family, miss you too sometimes :D

Munich

Hofbräuhaus - Oktoberfest

les escargots. yum.

Sagrada Familia - Barcelona

Sagrada Familia again - Gaudi, the lighting/stained glass was incredible.

Not so sure about this...

l'avant veille

Saint Sulpice church - 2 minute walk from school. Delacroix.

Chapel of the Angels, where 3 Delacroix paintings are displayed.

the fountain outside the church

just my luck

dimanche

I don't think I ever simply pass an hour by in the States. I always have to feel productive. People don't make excuses for taking leisure time here. I absolutely love it. The phrase lazy Sunday must have originated in Europe. I thought that once I was here I'd be doing a lot less busywork/homework and a lot more chilling at cafes and drinking cappucinos (ie hot chocolates)...I was right. Not once have I been pressed for a deadline, but instead I have to keep up with readings for each class as and when I want.

The only vaguely stressful things on the horizon are the oral exams and the dissertations that are scattered throughout the semester. Each person in a class is assigned a class day to present their expose (oral). My first once is a little over a week away and the topic is UNFICYP (UN peacekeeping operation in Cyprus). That shouldn't be too hard...except UNFICYP is the operation that my professor was involved in so my research has got to be airtight. Wahoo. I'm great at making life-decisions. Why couldn't I just choose something really obscure and make some vague but intelligent theoretical analyses and get a 20/20? Whatever.

However, today I woke up at 12. I contemplated cleaning my room. I ate mango ice cream. I went to a diner (yes, the American diner - it's called Breakfast In America) and got pancakes. I figure since I'm here for the year I shouldn't feel guilty about indulging in a few diner trips here and there. Reminded me of Johnny's back in Boston.

Probably going to go eat some bread and Camembert, contemplate possibly doing some reading, fold my clothes, and take a pre-bedtime nap. My life is so stressful. 

busy busy busy

Well it's been awhile. I finally got my routine down and I don't feel entirely out of place navigating the metro. And I have homework. However I'm going to meet some friends for le diner ensemble and I've only got time to share some photo gems with you. Ok they're not gems at all, but I was at a cafe yesterday and I kept seeing ladies on bikes with heels so now every time I see that I'm taking a picture and posting it on here.

Saint Germain church down the street from my school.

10 years ago

At about this time I was on a school bus heading home from a ropes course field trip with my 5th grade class. Spent the rest of the day watching the news with my mom. Now I'm a decade older, sitting in a room overlooking a quiet Parisian street watching youtube news. Overheard a couple talking about "le onze septembre" on the metro yesterday. 

chocolate gorilla

Went shopping today. Held out long enough. On rue de Rivoli there are a bunch of normal people shops - Zara, H&M blah blah. The patisseries and chocolateries here literally have the most creative and delicious looking store windows you could imagine and I went into about 5 and got just one thing at each place. I'm pretty sure I could have done without the lemongrass and peppermint chocolate but the store window had a life-size gorilla...made out of chocolate...so I was morally obligated to go in.

My host fam is incredible - the kids are brilliant and I get to talk to them in French all day long. It gets progressively easier. I also don't absolutely hate the guinea pig now. It's just a mild dislike. Everything is different here. On the surface it just seems like another big Western city but when you have to live here you realize the little things that are bizarre (for me). To buy a fruit or veggies in the Monoprix you have to have someone weigh it and put a little sticker on it. The post office (La Poste) is also a bank and also sells phones. To mail things, you weigh them yourself by a little kisok and print out a stamp (I think you can mail stuff domestically with normal stamps though...). So many little things to get used to - the Velib, riding in traffic...people who say Boston is the most bike unfriendly city in the world don't realize how good they have it. Paris is friendly towards bikers...but only those with guts of steel. Today I was riding in a little bubble between two busses,  dump-truck, and 3 cars...pretty sure there weren't any lanes...and I was trying to read my map (really need to get GPS) and balance while not dying. I'm alive.

Yeah so I've got a truckload of pictures to share. Feast your eyes. I've got to read about the institutions of the EU...probably going to end up drinking a hot chocolate at a cafe and finishing Harry Potter #3 though. Really really need to deposit money in my new french bank account. And then use that money to buy a new french smartphone so I can text my new international friends and look at the french metro app instead of a big touristy map.

aforementioned giant mojito

street art

sorbet/gelato/ice cream

if you ask for a cone, it comes out looking like this...

macarons that i can afford to photograph...not buy

Russian dolls - of France

Russian dolls - US presidents

macarons

chocolate gorilla

The staplers are cooler looking here. Haven't yet figured out the hole-puncher. Don't hold your breath.

giant mojito

Yesterday was the Sciences Po day of integration and then pub-crawl around/through Bastille. I didn't meet my buddy (french student assigned to be my friend...poor kid) since the thing was so disorganized. However I did manage to skip out early and go eat a crepe...


Then I got to Bastille and found a gelato/coffee place to chill while waiting for everybody else. There was a Floridian who was so "American tourister" I really couldn't handle it. No effort to speak French whatsoever. He just spoke English with the barista and expected things to work like back home and got frustrated when the barista had a hard time understanding him. I had a hard time understanding him too since he wanted to know exactly which of the 30 or so flavors were yogurt, which were gelato, which were sorbet, etc. There's a sign, genius. He sat next to me and I asked him if he'd ever thought about getting a phrase-book. 


The pub-crawl was quite entertaining and there was an 89€ giant mojito involved. I paid 5€ for a coke. It was great. Best coke I've ever drunk in my life. Really.


A few days ago we toured around the Marais - we walked over a bridge near the Notre Dame and there were a bunch of keys locked onto it. If you write the name of you and your lovah then you'll stay together forever, I think is the general idea. But then I saw this...

China & Germany.

Let's see. We went on a boat cruise of the Seine, got rained on but still saw some awesome monuments. Had a family-style dinner with lots of cheese, bread, wine, and the best hummus I've ever eaten. OH YEAH also went to supposedly the best falafel place in the world. It was quite spectacular. Now I'm hungry again writing about it. So many other awesome things happened but I'm in the mood for a run so I'll update later maybe. Ran past a prison yesterday. It was pretty creepy. I ran fast. Probs gonna go the other direction today.

Stalls along the Seine - books, postcards from 1930s Paris, paintings.

picture of the day

biked down a random street and saw this

Took velib (bike-share thing) for the first time so I basically just rode around Paris trying to get a feel for it. The bike is so really heavy, but it's so convenient. Probs gonna take that to school tomorrow. I love seeing all these fashionable women riding bikes in heels. I was reading a blog a few weeks ago that had a picture of a woman with cycling shoes, clips and everything, but they were heels. That's just insane.

french coke

French coke is more sugary than American coke. Not quite sure if I'm making that up or not...also I've never eaten so many croissants or baguettes with cheese in my life and I couldn't be happier. Today we lounged around the luxembourg gardens for lunch and watched three idiots drinking 2 6-packs of Desperados (beer flavored with tequila). Also met some kid who proceeded to inform me that the American portion size is 2 or 3 10" pizzas and the european portion size is 1/4 of a 10" pizza (plus cigarette)...I was like...um, no. When I mentioned studying economics, he proceeded to ask me who my favorite economist was and was I a Greenspan or a Bernanke. I kindly informed him I wasn't about to waste my breath on a meaningless economic/political debate with someone who doesn't actually listen but just spews whatever random facts he knows and expects to be considered knowledgeable. Then I read some Hemingway and pretended he wasn't there.

Also the dude who handed us the 4 mini-pizza boxes said to me that he wouldn't give me the boxes. "Here in France the women are not trusted with things, it is always the men. You will learn this in a few months". Instead of punching the idiot and being deported or whatever, I contented myself with a withering stare.

Also, my host dad is an incredible baker...and he's a jazz guitarist. One of the 7 best in the world. He was invited to the white house to play for the Clintons, but it was in 1995 and he said that Bill wasn't there because he was probably with Monica Lewinsky somewhere.

The guinea pig is squeaking. I didn't realize guinea pigs could squeak until I got here. How do you say ear-plugs in French? It's also really cold here. Probably should have left some of the summer dresses and brought a jacket instead...nbd

picture of the day

Moulin Rouge

orientations

Orientations have begun. I honestly didn't realize this school was such a huge deal until I got here. My host parents asked me where I'd be studying and I told them and their eyes got all huge and awed...which makes me exceedingly nervous considering I didn't actually have to be accepted here, I just had to fill out the BC form saying where I wanted to go. Considering I was more or less like "yeah whatever I'll go to Paris for the year..." I didn't realize I'd be at a political-genius minting factory. Goodbye decent GPA. 


There is an entire weeks worth of courses on the methodology alone and I've been having nightmares about the exposé (oral presentation) since I despise public speaking more than anything in the world except house-pets and wearing heels on cobblestones. 


The topics of essays can be "1956" or "Louis-Phillipe, king of Frenchmen" or "Napolean, follower or grave-digger of the Revolution" then I have to come to the problematique (the paradox/question that will be answered in the dissertation). Things to think about: the use of "Frenchmen" instead of "France", 1956 as the turning point in international politics in the context of the Cold War. blah blah blah. I'm going to fail. Sorry mom and dad. 


If anyone would care to enlighten me as to how I can write a dissertation on how "being bourgeois" and "living bourgeois" are radically different, I'd be much obliged. Why can't we just call it an essay? That's so much less intimidating. 


Each night has been a different bar for Sciences Po international students. Drinks here are just astronomically priced. Paid £4 for a glass of Coke a few nights ago. I need to stop translating everything into dollars. It's depressing.


Things I miss: my (mom's) car, american Coke, pennies, quiet, smiling, my friends.
Things I don't miss: Starbucks, sweatpants, pennies, the Mods on weekend-nights, the T.


The metro here is ridiculously efficient (except when the workers are on strike, which will happen at some point while I'm here, I'm told).

our lady

Notre Dame

isn't it absolutely beautiful at night? bunch of dudes down the steps to the Seine singing Beatles songs. so many honeymooners, you can see them along the river. so much PDA. americans should be more affectionate. oh wait. no this guinea pig should shut up. what happens if you give rodents a teaspoonful of alcohol? i'm pretty sure they just fall asleep...but they might also become deceased rodents...i'd really rather not have rodent ghosts in my room just yet. night all.

je suis là !

I've been here since Sunday morning and I'm somehow still not over jet-lag. Our bus tour of the tourist hot-spots of Paris was...informative...for the parts I was awake for. Here are the requisite touristy photos. I live about 25 minutes away from all of the tourist jazz of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe.

the Louvre

Arc de Triomphe 

Le Tour Eiffel 

Arc de Triomphe - Champs Elysées

Spent the last two hours walking around my neighborhood, which is host to one of the most famous cemeteries in France...so I strolled around and looked at the family tombs of famous dead diplomats. Was a pretty pleasant afternoon. Now I'm back at rue Paul Strauss ready for my afternoon nap before I do some much needed grocery. Apparently it's a French thing to only buy what you're going to use in the next day or two. The fridge is dead empty. So is my stomach. So that leaves me doing grocery 2x a week so that I don't end up having more stuff in the fridge for myself than a family of 5 has for itself.

Isabelle (my host mom) is an actress. She hasn't been around much so I haven't gotten to chat with her too much. But, she does leave me some french food on the stove before she leaves, which as long as the cats don't get to it first, is usually delicious. Her fiancée, Giles, is supposedly a genius in the baking department, which I'm really excited to experience. Isabelle is literally exactly what I was expecting when I was told I'd be living in a house in the 20e (used to be a working class neighborhood, kind of still is) with a single actress mom (sort of), her 3 kids, 4 cats (there are at least 6), dog, (and add in guinea pigs, mice, and fish). The kids are still on vacation chez grand-mère, so I haven't met them or the dog. Hopefully I like them more than I like the cats. Then again I normally hate cats and I can tolerate these. Good sign.

Living room at rue Paul Strauss at night

Last night, went to Salsero in le Quartier Latin, right around the corner from the Notre Dame and basically on the Seine. Got entirely lost for about 30 minutes, then found the bar (which sucked). Whoever chose that place to meet up with Sciences Po kids for the first time is not my favorite person. Instead I went to Le Petit Pont (a cafe/bar two doors down), where they served us drinks on fire. Needless to say, I was highly satisfied with the change of location. Unfortunately, the metro stops running at 1:30 while Parisians dine until all odd hours of the night. As I was leaving the bar around 12:30, there were still many people casually strolling in to sit down.

Took the metro back. I was worried since it was so late and my neighborhood is pretty isolated at nighttime. Rule #1: No eye contact with ANYONE. Oops. Made eye contact with a middle-aged man. Apparently that means one of two things, yes, I would like to enter into conversation with you or yes, I would love it if you would blatantly stare at me for minutes at a time. After a certain point I really couldn't help myself so I shot him a death glare and he continued staring. Now worried I'm going to be the first American student in Paris to get kidnapped I got out at the next stop and got back on a few cars back. Other than that, nothing super sketchy. If you even make eye contact with guys here they start cat-calling, which is really disconcerting especially after being able to smile at everyone and chat with strangers back in the American burbs. So now I'm making a conscious effort to look angry and stare at my feet, which is making it really easy to get lost.

Other than the creepy men, this city is incredible. Can't believe I'm actually here.