Paris - Study Abroad 2011

I apologize for not writing for a while, but as you know, I've been in finals mode! Thank G-d it's over!! The easiest ones were French, French Politics and Society, and the aforementioned International Marketing at Negocia. I studied a bit more for Business French, and I stressed a lot over Finance. The Business French final wasn't hard, and the Finance one was easier than the Midterm (I think the Prof got the point that it was too vague and difficult), so I'm hoping for at least a B+ in the class, which would be super nice (if not an A- :-) ).

Tuesday, after the Finance final, which was the last one, Daniela, Sam, and I went out with my French girlfriend (from Negocia), Laura. Monty, our other Negocia girlfriend, was supposed to come, but she had a last minute thing come up with school. Laura took us to a little cupcake place hidden in the Institute Catholique area (off of metro4 St. Placide), walking distance from Montparnasse, where we met up. Very cute place with cupcakes that were almost American, with yummy icing on top. Daniela and I got rose flavor, Laura got violet, and Sam got pistachio with rose cream. Mmm! Laura and I also tried a super mini cupcake "salee," meaning "salty" instead of "sucree" which is sweet. It was piment (chili pepper) with tree nut. Mmm encore!

Then, Daniela, Sam, and I went to the Canal St. Martin (I believe that's the name) off of Republique on Laura's recommendation. Sam wanted to see a Parisian canal, having heard that it's a nice place to sit, and that this is where REAL Parisians go, instead of the Seine in front of the Notre Dame, haha! It's true, it was pretty nice, and there definitely were real Parisians, almost all of them tipsy or drunk (it was near 5pm - Happy Hour had started!) Daniela, having been in the Marais while I was taking my final, was sweet enough to buy kosher wine and wafers. So we joined the happy Parisians in their beginning of the soiree.

After this, I went home to pack my suitcases, since I would be leaving Thursday morning, early, for the Basque Country with Daniela. I will be coming back the evening of the 17th with my US flight the 18th in the morning, so no time to pack. Thus, yesterday it was. It was SO sad! My walls are now bare, there are two suitcases smack dab in the middle of my floor, there is nothing on my nighttable, my closet is empty, and my fridge has a couple apples and a yogurt. I gave everthing extra to Danielle - food, paper towels, toilet paper, nail polish remover, aluminum foil...you name it, she got it! I'm happy at least, because she won't have to do shopping for a while :-) And all the better now, because Richard got sick, which she's supremely worried about, since he can't say what's bothering him, though the doctor is almost sure it's an infection :-(

Today was extreme tourist day for me. I had to do the few things left on my list. Raphael (who went to Giverny with me) and Daniela joined me on this, Raphael even taking a day off of work because I'm leaving! First stop: Musee d'Orsay. I got there at 8:15am, thinking it opened at 9am. Nope, 9:30am. And it was chilly outside...There was a temporary Manet exhibition that we got to see, which was very nice. We also saw some Van Gogh, Renoir, Cezanne, Degas, and many others! We saw the whole museum in 3 hours. I'm very happy I went. Au contraire, the Louvre gives me the shivers because I feel stressed out just thinking about everything that is in there and that I won't be able to see!

After the Orsay, we walked to the Champes Elysees, (past the Concorde!) shared a pizza at a restaurant, and went to Laduree, which is the most famous macaron place in France. It is truly beautiful. Macarons there cost 2.20 euro! But wow, are they amazing. No other ones compare. I got 4 flavors: muguet (lilly of the valley!), cassis-chocolat (blackcurrent-chocolate), chocolat de Madagascar, and framboise (raspberry). This last one I kept for Danielle, because the only time she ever breaks kashrut (kosher) is for a Laduree macaron, and especially a framboise :-) Daniela got a muguet and we treated Raphael to two pistachio because he got lunch. Mmm!

Daniela left to run some errands and rest up, and Raphael and I went to the Marais to the Jewish museum of art and history to see the Chagall and the Bible exposition. It was quite impressionant. He had 40 drawings of scenes from the bible and some supplementary paintings and glass oeuvres depicting the 12 tribes. We were very happy that we went, too! Raphael definitely appreciates art, which is nice to see in a guy (hint hint to all the men reading this!). He took his time looking and contemplating the paintings, sometimes making me self-conscious about my own speed haha!

After, we went to rue de Roisiers so that I could buy challah for this Shabbat and French cheese for my Dad, which I will have to stelthily import into the US (most French cheese is not allowed because it's not pasteurized). I was told that wrapping it in aluminum foil helps, so that's what I did. I'm going to arrange the cheeses in my two suitcases, so that if they find one, hopefully they won't find the other! Hahaha, beating the system!

I flew back to my apartment, said good-bye to my wonderful neighbor, Madame Marsily, who always said hello and gave me magazines to take to Danielle. I took the rest of my unneeded stuff to Danielle's, and sped off to the Eiffel Tower, where all of IES was going to have a dinner boat cruise. Yes, I said it, dinner boat cruise. La vie est belle! It was truly magnificent. All the students, staff, and most of the teachers were there, but we didn't have the boat all to ourselves - there were still some tourists and Parisians on it. Now, if someone wants to propose, instead of doing it on the Eiffel Tower, it would be super beautiful to do it on the boat deck after a delicious dinner, WHILE passing the Eiffel Tower :-) Now that's more original!

Dinner was very good, with a cocktail for an aperitif, 4 amuses-gueles (hors d'oeuvres, two of which I couldn't eat - fois gras and swordfish), fish and sweet potato entree (or veal as another option), and a chocolate brownie, vanilla cream dessert, and pear/hibiscus macaron. Now this is called a sophisticated dinner! Topped off with red wine, of course.

We all went up to the deck at some point to take beautiful photos, but some of us got pretty cold and went downstairs, only to see the Eiffel Tower sparkling some 5 minutes later. Oh well, I have plenty of those photos. We said our A bientot's (see you later) and A La Prochaines (until next time) to everyone, the teachers, and the staff. Most of the girls went to a bar and then a club, but I went home because I have to get up at 6:30am tomorrow and I can't sleep on the train. So I said my good-byes, and Genia said that she'd see me at my wedding! That's right, everyone's going to be invited to my wedding, so unless I see them beforehand, they have no choice but to see me on that special day haha! Oh, what a wonderful group of friends I made. Truly, I'm so blessed. I really do hope to see them. Audrey already told me she is going to have an internship at the Art Institute of Chicago summer of 2012 (yep, this program likes to do things in advance), so we know we're going to see each other then at least (I'll be doing my Masters, B'H). Before everyone left, the Eiffel Tower sparkled again, and we all took group photos. Paris, je t'aime. Et je pense que tu m'aimes, aussi :-)

Tomorrow, Daniela and I are heading off to the Basque Country to see my wonderful host family from four years ago, the Laborde family. I can't wait! Unfortunately, instead of spending two weeks with them like last time, it will be 4 days. But better than nothing! Imagine, after 4 years of not seeing them but exchanging emails, especially for each birthday...We are going to have a wonderful time!

So, I probably will not write about the Basque Country until I come back to the States on the 18th, so until then!! Oh, and by the way, the adventures aren't over! I will be in Israel for 2.5 months, and you bet that I'll be keeping a blog for that experience of my life as well! I will keep you posted about whether I will stay with this blogging website or find another, because I would love to have your comments, and this one is not so comment-friendly.

Elina

So, after I studied for my PolySci exam, I headed over to rue Saint-Dominique, by the Eiffel Tower, to join Daniela for an authentic Romanian dinner! She came with her Romanian friend Yordan (spelling probably incorrect). I can't remember how they met...possibly through Yonella, Daniela's other Romanian friend. Sam called and gave me the silliest excuse for not joining - she went to Happy Hour with her friends after their French exam and was too tipsy and tired. Today, I found out that she ended up going to sleep right when she got home. Ok, I suppose I'll forgive her. But that's right, it was Cinco de Mayo yesterday! It's way too easy to forget these things in Paris!

The restaurant, Doina, was the quaintest, littlest place I had ever seen! I loved it! There were black and white photos lining the walls, some Romanian flags, and a t.v. playing a Romanian folk music station. Right away, Daniela and Yordan started speaking to the manager in Romanian. At some points, he would look at me as well and say, Da? Hey! You stole that from us! Hahaha! I told him that I speak Russian, in Russian, and then he said to me, in Russian, "Very good! What is your name? Nice to meet you!" Before Daniela and Yordan's generation, Romanians had to learn Russian in school, so some of them know a little bit from back then.

And then, something very European happened. Since the place was so small, we got seated at a 6-person table with 3 Brazilians! Right next to them! They were super nice. Two were visiting from Maryland, where they live, and the other is their friend who lives in France. I found out that it's much better in Maryland than in Rio. I wonder if Maryland is a preferential place for Brazilians; on my trip to France 4 years ago, there was a Brazilian girl, Sofia, in our group, also from Maryland. I found out that Brazilians are now getting married much, much later, and especially the women, who want to feel equal to the men in career, first. One of the ladies had a single 35-year-old son. She was pleasantly astonished when I told her that I'd like to get married before 25.

Romanian food is quite close to Russian, and this means one thing: very few vegetarian options. I was recommended the salata de vinete, which is their traditional eggplant salad. And it turned out to be delicious and filling, since I had it with baguette :-) Daniela got something that looked like golubtsi (meat and rice ball wrapped in cabbage leaves) as well as polenta, which is a corn kasha of sorts, which she gave to me. But before all this, I was told that I simply had to try the traditional plum liquor, which is supposedly stronger than vodka (eek!) Thank goodness that it wasn't, but I didn't like it at all. Daniela was quite disappointed with it haha!

Genia joined us for dessert, for which we all shared a fried donut with sour cream and sour cherries (vishine, in Romanian! which is close to vishnya, in Russian). I didn't enjoy it very much, but at least I got a traditional taste. We left the restaurant at 11:30, and it was still full! We took a beautiful walk to the Champs de Mars (right in front of the Eiffel Tower), went under the Eiffel Tower, and walked up to Trocadero, all the while taking photos. I named this Facebook album "It Never Gets Old!" :-) I'm going to miss this SO much!!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1966271113887.2113107.1156170130&l=c90f40f994

Took the PolySci final today; wasn't very hard. Now studying for Business French. This is going to be my last Shabbat in Paris :-(
And something super random happened...I was frying zucchini when I noticed a message on one of them!

Apparently, this means "How was it?" So random. Well, at any rate, I'm glad to know that I bought zucchini from Israel...

Shabbat Shalom! Omer count: Day 17 (I needt to remember to count!!)

This morning, Daniela and I were finally able to see the Paris Catacombes. I got there at 9:15am, so we were the first ones to go (after two groups) at 10am when it opened. Basically, the Catacombes is an underground system of tunnels where people were buried when cemeteries started overcrowding in the 18th century. They were very systematically buried, too, as you'll see in my photos. There is not a single little space in between the skulls and bones! Sorry, this is kind of morbid...I don't get grossed out by this stuff, but there sure are people who do!
So, before you click on my facebook photo album, take a moment to decide whether you can handle the death photos (cough, Mom)

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1964444148214.2112991.1156170130&l=0773e07572

Not so sure who thought of opening this place up to the public and charging the money to see dead people, but it turned out to be quite a good idea, for the place is highly frequented, with long waiting lines every day (except Monday, when the Catacombes are closed to give the dead a bit of peace). I'd say it was worth my while for 4 euro.
The public tunnels are 2km, but there are a lot more that are closed off.

I studied a bit for my political science exam today as well as read a French article for my French exam, which I ended up finishing in under an hour today. It was not hard at all. The essay part was fun; we were supposed to write a letter to a friend, pretending that he/she were coming to study abroad in Paris next semester and offer advice and funny experiences to learn from. Of course, I pretended Diana was coming to Paris, with her zero knowledge of French (she took Spanish in school). I told her that it's ok to make friends with the old ladies who have little dogs, that they're not all mean, and that my neighbor happens to be very sweet and I like her a lot. I also told her to make sure to weigh her produce before going to pay, or else the ladies will tell you to go back! And, not to be surprised if at 3pm there are men drinking beer in the laundry room to pass the time while their clothes wash and dry. Just tell them to turn around so that they don't see your undergarments coming out of the laundry bag and into the machine. On a more serious note, I suggested to make a list of things to do as soon as you get to Paris (as much as you know of Paris, at that point!) and NOT procrastinate on it. I've done a lot, but I haven't finished my list!

I have yet to go to the Musee d'Orsay and the Louvre, eat a Laduree macaron (the most famous in Paris), take the last metro line (3bis), walk around the beautiful park Buttes Chaumont, walk on the Champs Elysees, go to Pere Lachaise cemetery and find Oscar Wilde, and go to the Musee de l'histoire et de l'art de judaisme (Museum of Jewish Art and History). I'm not sure I'll be able to manage all of this before next Thursday (when I'm off to the Basque Country), because I still have exams Monday and Tuesday. But, I for sure will go to Buttes Chaumont, to Pere Lachaise, and ride the nearby metro 3bis on Tuesday. I already made plans with Monty and Laura, my French girlfriends from Negocia, for after my last final. Wednesday morning, Daniela and I are going to the Musee d'Orsay, so that'll be good. Maybe I'll go to the Jewish museum afterward. And then the Louvre, Champs Elysees, and Laduree will have to fit themselves in somewhere...

My last suggestion is not to be afraid to speak French, even if you hear your own mistakes. It's the only way to really improve. Ask lots of questions! Hear a weird word? It might be slang or just vocabulary you don't know. Find out what it is and try to use it! Eh ben dis donc!

I'm already getting sad about leaving Paris. I wish I had an extra semester. And I'm going to miss my new friends terribly. At least I have a chance of seeing some in the States, at some point, and my Israeli friends in Israel (or the States...Ran wants to come to Chicago and Miami). Speaking of Miami, I HAVE to make it over there at some point. Everyone's been telling me how amazing it is, and there's loads of Israelis. Hmm...road trip? Now that I'm experienced from Ireland :-) I also want to go on a road trip to Canada...wow, how amazing life truly is. I am very blessed.

Tonight, Daniela, Genia, Sam, and a Romanian friend of Daniela's are all going to a Romanian restaurant near the Eiffel Tower! I'm excited! Daniela will help us pick the most authentic dishes :-)

So as some of you might know, Sunday night through Monday night (Jewish time is always sundown to sundown) was Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Rememberance Day. Danielle told me that Sunday night there was a ceremony in the Jewish quarter of the Marais with the lighting of 6 candles (each symbolizing a million people, maybe?) and prayers. I unfortunately didn't go to that because I was working on my Musee du Quai Branly/French Presidents and their Monuments presentation for French Politics and Society. But, Monday after lunch, I went, for there was also something else quite special that was being done...since Sunday night and going all the day through Monday night, volunteers were reciting the names of all the French Jews that perished in the Holocaust, and I believe each volunteer actually had a family member that had died.

When I went, I found out that this was actually taking place in front of the Yom HaShoah Memorial building in Paris. There was a little stage where the volunteers were reciting. There was also a volunteer following along on a sheet to make sure none of the names were missed. There were quite a few people going in and out, listening. I sat down and just listened for about 15 minutes. It was very moving. Then, I went into the Memorial to see what there was inside. On the ground floor, there was a huge Star of David with an "eternal flame," in an otherwise empty room. Very powerful. There was also a little archive room of the French Jews identity cards. And, there was a cinema room with Holocaust movie posters from the U.S. and Europe. I recognized Au Revoir les Enfants (Good-bye, children) from the book we read in French class in high school. There was move to the museum, but I had to go study for my exam that was today. I gave 10 euro tzedakah (charity) to the Memorial foundation, lit a candle, and placed it on the ground by a wall of all the names of the French Jews, which was just outside, near the stage. I'm very glad I went.

I went over all my notes for my International Marketing final that was today from 10am-12pm. The exam is just for us American students, since we're leaving a few weeks before the actual course is over. When I arrived, Brad (another IES peer) told me that the exam would just be an article with 4 questions. He knew this because Prof Takhar had given a practice article in class last week, when I was absent for Pesach. Great. I had revised for nothing. The article was pretty interesting, about the marketing strategies of wine (of course...), but the answers to the 4 questions didn't require any knowledge from class!! I wonder if the Prof just didn't care about us American students because the class was easy for all of us, as opposed to the French students who are having a hard time. But I thought that was all the more reason to single us out and give us a separate exam! Whatever...

Afterwards, I went to Gilbert Jeune (famous French bookstore) and bought two novels to take home with me: Stendhal's Le Rouge et Le Noir (the Red and the Black, which I read in English a long time ago but which I want to read in French) and Albert Camus's L'Etranger (the Stranger), which was recommended to me by Daniela, who chose it as her French class book.

The highlight of today was my French class's excursion to our professor's home in the suburb of Meudon! Yep, she actually invited us to her house for dinner. It was so nice! Meudon is some 10 minutes south of Paris. It used to be the place where rich French people of the early 1900s would take their vacation. The houses are quite beautiful (as much as we can see over the French walls...). We walked through a park where Mme Benoit showed us an observatory (open two days out of the year, apparently) and the Meudon forest in the distance (ok, not SO distant). And, on one side of the park promenade, we could see ALL of Paris from the southern view! We could see the Eiffel Tower, the Tour Montparnasse, La Defense (biz district), and even the tiny Sacre Coeur in the distance. So picturesque! I would build a house right there!

Mme Benoit's house was very beautiful, complete with 3 floors and a little garden full of flowers! We sat outside and enjoyed a wonderful aperitif: kir (white wine mixed with syrup, of which we had 3 choices - peach, blackberry, and raspberry), nuts, amazingly delicious grape tomatos from the market, italian breadsticks, and little crunchy biscuits. No wonder the French have aperitifs before dinner! It really gets you in a good mood :-) This was my first time doing this tradition!

We got to meet her youngest child - Angelique, 18 years old - and her husband, Olivier, a lawyer specializing in "concurrence" (competition - meaning anti-trust law, when I asked him to clarify). No wonder they have a nice house :-) When it got a little chillier, we went inside, where they graciously prepared dinner! It is SO nice of them to do this for our whole class of 13 people! Dinner was ratatouille a la recipe of Mme Benoit's grandmother, baguette and a variety of cheeses, and charcuterie, of which I did not partake. Mmm was the ratatouille good! Mme Benoit said it's usually made with bacon, but she didn't add it for the "vegetarians" in the class (me - pseudo vegetarian, and Caroline, actual vegetarian). Thank goodness! And mmm were the cheeses good! There were some stinky ones, and I was able to digest a good size piece of Roquefort! And for dessert, we had vanilla ice cream with real strawberries and goffres, which are little flaky biscuits to put into the ice cream bowl. My, what a delicious treat!

We all went around and talked about the books that we read for class and about our CORE article topics. Meline, whose CORE was about a singing/acting audition that she did in Paris, gave us a little taste by singing a Whitney Houston's song . Meline has a very powerful voice! She tried auditioning for American Idol when she was 16 but didn't get to callbacks. I do wish her luck!

Let me tell you, it was SO nice to eat Danielle's challah again! I like it's unique taste and am going to ask for the recipe! And the little Sephardi petites salades! Mmm! And we finished off the Pesach chocolates I got her. Shabbat morning, Genia met me at Alesia and came to the synagogue with me! It was really nice to have someone come with me! I only had one Ashkenazi siddur - mine - so I shared with her as best as I could. Of course, she was super confused, because she's used to reform synagogues, and most definitely not Sephardi ones. But she was happy she came. She couldn't stay for lunch, so I had to let her go. After lunch, Danielle and I took a nap. Then, we were woken up by a funny rap at the door, which Danielle recognized as Dede's. It was nice of him to come visit, as always. After, we all took a walk to Denfert together and sat in the little garden there. I took along an Amos Oz book Danielle gave me; she told me to read the second story in the book, which had to do with Communist Russia and Jews. I think it was a bit hard to follow, though I should've tried harder. Instead, I borrowed La Curee by Zola, because I've been wanting to read one of his books. There are so many classic French books to choose from! I had to pick Zola over Camus and Flaubert and others.

Danielle and Dede left, and I gathered up the courage to walk east, which I haven't done before. Before I knew it, I had made it to Place d'Italie (where the Chinese New Year parade had been in February). Then, I decided to make it to Bercy, as I had never seen that area before. It is across the Seine! Well, I made it. I went to the Bercy park (where there is a garden named after Yitzak Rabin, apparently!) and sat on a bench. Then, I realized that I was going to have to walk all the way back. Darn! That's the bad part about Shabbat walks. You can't get lazy when you get to your destination, because you can't take the metro or the bus back! I sat in the park a while, musing about this, until I decided it was time to go back. A bit more than an hour later, I was KO (knocked out - the French use this!) on Danielle's couch.

This morning (Sunday) at 8am, I met up with Caroline and Raphael (a Tunisian Jew I met through Amir) at the Gare St. Lazare, a big train station. We were headed to Vernon, the little town that houses Giverny - Monet's home and gardens. The very ones that he painted so beautifully!! It was definitely breathtaking there. Thank G-d the sun was shining and the air was warm! The gardens are lovely, with a huge variety of flowers, which we incessently photographed. The famous lilly pond didn't yet have lilly flowers, but the pads were floating about. The Japanese bridge had deliciously smelling purple flowers hanging off of an overhang above the bridge. We also got to go into his house, where I discovered for the first time that he was quite the afficionado of Japanese art and sketches. They were ALL over his walls, in every single room! In his big living room, some of his paintings were on display. A haystack, two Nymphaes (lilly ponds), one London fog, and some others. Every room was painted a beautiful, bright color! Most were blue. But his kichen was...yellow! And it was gorgeous! I think I'd like a yellow kitchen...it makes you happy! We weren't supposed to take photos inside the house, but I just HAD to sneak one of the kitchen!

Facebook photo album:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.1956433067942.2112571.1156170130&l=2c0970346b

I also finally posted some photos from Margarita and my excursion to the Eiffel Tower and boat ride (very few from boat ride - we drank the beauty in with our eyes). Warning: Eiffel Tower overdose

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.1956729275347.2112589.1156170130&l=2d7ef5ce9b

It was so wonderful to have Margarita with me for a couple days! And it seems that I may see her again in Israel! We went up the Eiffel tower at night and took beautiful photos. We had a banana-nutella-whipped cream crepe at the bottom of the Eiffel tower. We looked at the Eiffel tower sparkling from Trocadero, the raised plaza in front of it, all the while taking photos. Eiffel Tower Eiffel Tower, can't get enough of you! Especially when you sparkle the way you do!

Then, at night, Margarita and I went to a Parisian club for the first time (for both of us) called Dupleix with Daniela, Alex, Ran, and two other girls. She and Daniela slept over at my place; I had to get up at 8am for class the next day! 4 hours of sleep. Not fun.
Later, while I went to an art exhibition for class, Margarita took one of the tour buses around. It's the kind that lets you off at the major stops and then back on later, when you're done exploring. She saw the Notre Dame, Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Opera, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, and some other monuments! When she was done, we met up at the Notre Dame and went to dinner. She had escargot (snails) for the first time, and we both had salmon salad with baguette and glasses of kir (I think? white wine with blackberry (cassis), my favorite). So Parisian! I helped her buy cheese and gifts for her friends and colleagues back home.

At night, we took a boat ride (famous Bateaux Mouches) down the Seine (though it was quite cold!) and saw all the Parisians waving at us from the banks while they were relaxing no doubt with wine and cheese...(maybe not the cheese). It was funny to feel like a tourist again! I don't much like that feeling, but it didn't matter what with all the beauty around me. Margarita was completely dazed and in another world. Can you imagine, Paris in 2 days?? I would feel the same way. And then she was gone at 4am the next morning, gently waking me up as I asked her to so that I could say good-bye. She is really quite a special person, and I'm so glad to be her friend!

By the way, today is Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Rememberance Day). Let us remember all who perished or who suffered during the Holocaust, and may such a tragedy never happen again. And may the world soon know peace, speedily in our days.

In Paris, in the Jewish quarter of the Marais, there was an official ceremony this evening at 7:30pm with the lighting of candles and recitation of prayer. I wanted to be there, but I only just finished working on a presentation that I'm giving tomorrow. But the remembrance continues until tomorrow night, so I will go tomorrow and hopefully be able to light a candle, if they still have that. If not, at least I can listen to them recite some names of those who perished. Believe it or not, there are volunteers who are reciting all the names of those who perished, from tonight until tomorrow night! It is quite amazing!

Elina