by I realize that my blog has become more of a hiatus than a blog, so here are my most sincere apologies. I just keep having a lot to write, and then I procrastinate, and then I end up having more to write. But it’s a Sunday morning, my window is open, and my laptop is in front of me, so I’ll begin!
By the way, I’m really upset because my browser randomly refreshed and everything I typed (which was almost to the end) erased. So I’m typing it again now.
The past week has been a whirlwind of Conversation Starters for Cultural Foundations, our first Social Foundations paper on Plato, going to cafes to get work done, writing memoirs, reading Medea and then having an in-class debate – with a jury and everything – on whether or not her actions were justified or unjustified, art history textbooks the size of the Bible, and even a Hemingway walking tour organized by our Writing professor. After getting lost once or twice, and taking the metro to the wrong station, Jaime, Emma, and I arrived at 27 Rue de Fleurus (the old apartment of Gertrude Stein) on Wednesday morning to begin our Hemingway Walking tour. While we were waiting for the rest of our Writing class to assemble, someone came home and entered in the code to the building. Professor Longworth caught the door with her foot, and then ushered us in saying, “Go ahead. I’ll watch the door, but you guys should have a look around”.
We gazed in wonder at the little courtyard lined with green pot plants and quaint studio-like apartments stacked on top of each other, thinking to ourselves, “Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein were here!”
We also visited the park in the Sorbonne where Hemingway used to go, and we saw his apartment and then, around the corner, his writing studio. We walked along his morning route, past the coffee shops in the sweet little square by his house, where there was a water fountain, and also where we stopped for some pain au raisin. We stopped briefly in front of the pantheon to wait for Frederico who had been left behind (flaneuring again, as usual), and we took a picture for Cultural Foundations to be uploaded onto Atlas: we’re learning about Greek Architecture.
Over the past two weeks, I’ve had two job interviews. The first was with a family who will just email/call me if/whenever they need help if the parents go out at night. The other one I have a weekly job for.
When I arrived, I was drenched and soaked with rain. When I’d left for school that morning, it was honestly a sunny day, so my umbrella was left at home. Bad idea. By the end of the day, my shoes were wet and squelchy, and my hair was dripping all over the carpet. I was taken aback by how nice this family was, though. I stumbled up to their apartment, came in, and the little girl’s dad looked at me and said, “Would you like something hot to drink?”
I almost hugged him.
Mathilde is three years old, and her dad chose me, of several applicants, to play with her and teach her English once a week, and I’m SO grateful. She understands English perfectly – her dad speaks it to her and her mom lives in the US and visits her every two months or so. She won’t speak it, though, because she knows everyone can understand her French. I can understand her French, too; “Papa! Je veux faire pipi!” and “Papa! J’ai fait pipi toute seule!”, but I’m supposed to pretend I have no clue what she’s saying so that she speaks English to me. I love her. She has cute little blonde curls and these big blue eyes. When I first came in, I bent down and told her how cute she was, and she just opened her arms wide and HUGGED me!
Then she wouldn’t let go of my leg.
Her dad sent me an email this week telling me that, since my visit, she’s said two sentences in English, one of them being, “It looks like a chicken”. Progress!
Last weekend, Jaime and I, along with a select few others (only 15 of us went, I think…but that included Amanda, Fatima, Estela, Eddie, etc.), went on a trip to Dordogne. We had to be at Gare d’Austerlitz by 6:30, so we all took a taxi there because the metro lines weren’t open yet. We stacked up on snacks for our 4 hour train ride plus a 2 hour bus ride. Jaime and I laughed and listened to music and slept and attempted homework. Outside the window of the train, I saw the built-up Paris become countryside as the sun rose up into the sky. Our trip was organized by two professors; one who Jaime has dubbed (due to not knowing exactly what to call her) “Lady Professor Beth Epstein” and the other who we know only as Barbara. They were a fun pair. There are some things from this trip I would most definitely love to post on my blog, but should probably stay between Jaime and me. But I’ll say that they involved baguette eating, staying up late and laughing hysterically at night, then thinking we were in trouble when Eddie knocked on our door, and above all, a certain “Unicorne?”. Don’t ask.
The purpose of our trip was to see cave paintings, and it was the most spectacular thing I 
have ever witnessed. We went to three caves – one of them was on the property of a farmer, and he personally took us inside the cave and showed us what was painted and engraved inside. In another cave, we all got onto an electric train and moved through slowly, freezing cold, but in absolute awe of everything that was around us.
One of the tour guides told us that people have the misconception that cave art is juvenile – the work of uncivilized people. But it’s art.
He pointed out to us, in one painting of horse, that the front leg and back leg showed three-point perspective. He said, “We agree that this was discovered during the Italian Renaissance. But then we see THIS.
Human knowledge isn’t linear. It was discovered by the cavemen, and then REdiscovered during the Renaissance. We knew, we forgot, and then we learned again”.
All this was said in French, of course.
We also learned how the cavemen used the natural shape of caves to show the form of the animals – a bump located in the same place a hip was, or the horse of tail a part of the wall. They used little torches to light their way, so some of the engravings, with a torch light shining head on, are absolutely invisible, but when shone from the side, an image appears. They are complex, and sometimes they take a long time for your brain to recognize, but when you do, you automatically let out a little “Aah!” sound. They’re that amazing.
There was one drawing of a horse, but it didn’t have a solid line for its stomach. The guide explained to us that, when there is a fire lit below the horse, a dip in the cave wall casts a shadow which causes the horse to have a stomach, and as the flame flickers, the horse appears to breathe.
They used to walk through the caves, holding their torches, watching the animals move around them – kind of like a 3D movie.
Common belief is that people lived in the cave, but there is no evidence of this. They were more likely sacred places. On the wall of one cave, we saw a drawing of a house, chimney and smoke included.
I’ll also mention that the house was depicted as a DUPLEX. So much for a barbaric and unsophisticated race.
Other than our cave expeditions, we also explored a little town, had a degustation (where I tasted the most DELICIOUS truffle kir!), ate 3-course breakfasts and dinners, and stole everything at the breakfast buffet (jam jars, apples, baguettes) so that we didn’t have to pay for food at home. 😉
Our cave trip was really magical, and I’m so glad we went.
On Wednesday, it was too cold for me to sit in the courtyard and I’d just bought myself lunch so I couldn’t go and eat it in the library.
So, I decided to plonk myself at a table next to Breezy and Florie in the common room – which, incidentally, we’ve discovered has a fireplace and we’re hoping they’ll start lighting it now that the cold is setting in. Anyway, here’s the conversation –
Florie: Hey, Alice! Are you coming to Faust tonight?
Me: No..I used my sign up for the ballet.
Florie: They have extra tickets! Go to the student life office!
My heart leaped five feet in the air, and I hurtled up the stairs and into the SL office. I found Laura on the phone, so I went up to Ivy and before I could even say anything she replied, “Tickets? Don’t worry, we have loads. Just wait for Laura to get off the phone”. A minute later, I walked out with a big, thick piece of paper explaining the opera and its acts, and a shining 75 euro ticket.
It was evident that word had got around when, as soon as Jaime and Costanza came out of class, and Sofia arrived at school, they came running through the halls like an African stampede.
So that night, we found ourselves watching Faust. I haven’t seen many operas, but this is undoubtedly the best one I’ve seen. Catchy songs (which it has been criticized for, but personally, I think it’s a goodquality) and the most intricate set and costumes. The set was basically all in gold and white, with glass that got smashed and books and balconies. There was a dome in the bottom right hand corner that had little trees growing it in. At the beginning, upon the famous line, “Rien!”, Faust wrote a big “Rien!” on a glass board, and it came out in pink luminescent ink, remaining there for the rest of the show.
It was all in French, and this is the first opera I’ve seen that doesn’t have the English translation written above the stage. This made me happy, because you can hear and understand at the same time, and that makes the world of difference.
It was long, though, as operas are. At one of the intervals, Jaime and Costanza were so hungry, they literally waited for some people to stop eating, LEAVE THERE FOOD ON THE TABLE, and from behind me I just heard Jaime shouting, “Go, go, go!”
They stole someone else’s food.
Yup, that’s what happens when you can’t afford high-priced opera house food.
This weekend has, so far, been really enjoyable. Thursday night, we all went to Sofia’s room to make French onion soup, and it was DELICIOUS! We smothered it with cheese and bread and watched Eurotrip all snuggled up under a blanket with our steaming bowls of soup and white wine.
Brittany and Sofia went to Dijon to ride bikes and go truffle hunting (not jealous..) on 
Friday, so, Costanza, Jaime, and I went to a cafe at Montparnasse for some hot chocolate. We ended up there because Jaime and I really, really needed our Imagine-R cards (that were supposed to be mailed to school, but we hadn’t received them). So, we found the office, and the guy at the counter was really, really helpful. He printed our Imagine-Rs right there for us, so now we no longer have to worry about buying anymore Navigo reloads for the metro! Then, we went to the cafe. When the waiter brought out our drinks, he brought out a plate of cake for us, too, saying, “C’est un petit cadeau pour vous” – “A little gift for you”. SO NICE! I love that cafe now. I’m going back. He was the nicest old man in the world.
We didn’t get much homework done, but we did enjoy sitting in the window, our chairs facing the Parisian streets, and watching the sun move across the buildings as we sat in the warm coffee shop the entire day. We talked about our Halloween plans and what we’ll dress up as, all of which I will reveal in due time.
That evening, Costanza had her babysitting job, so Jaime and I went to the gym, and then she and Elodie came to my room so we could get ready to go to a party with Raymond and his French friends. We thought this would be a good way to make some French friends and get some French conversation going. When we got up to the 5th floor, we almost chickened out, and we were practically back in the elevator when Ryan, Matthew, Steph, and Komal came up the stairs. Now that we had more of a posse, we had the courage to go inside. It was really a lot of fun!
We did have a bit of French conversation, and learned their party ways. They have all these songs that they sing, but we didn’t know the words so we just sort of smiled and waved. We ate pizza and I ate cheese cubes, and overall it was a good night. Elodie (due to her nearly constant state of “narcolepsy”) and I got tired, so we headed back to our rooms.
Yesterday, we all slept late, and then we all did homework. I cleaned my room, and now everything is in an orderly state (thank goodness).
In the evening, Elodie, Breezy, Eddie, Ray and I decided to go out for samsa, but the Uzbek restaurant was closed, so instead we got Indian food – naan, vindaloo, samoosas! Yuhhhhm.
Then, I met up with Costanza, Jaime, Elodie and Sofia (who was home!), and our plan was to be all high-class and sophisticated and go to a French bar for a drink. Halfway down the road, though, we decided to go to an Epicerie, buy three boxes of cookies and a bottle of rose wine, and head back home to snuggle in bed. We all realized that we’d rather be all cuddled up together eating cookies than at a stuffy French bar. Sorry if I’ve crushed anyone’s dreams!
In other news, I’m really excited because I’ve been elected onto the NYU Paris student council, along with Steph, Fatima, Sofia, and Costanza. I’m in charge of publications and those kinds of things.
Everyone is really suited to their job, and our first proper meeting is next week.
To end off, here is a quote from Professor Hogan (the Hogmeister) during last week’s Social class:
‘I’ve only ever heard one song by Miley Cyrus. It IS the climb. I saw it on a plane. There was this hot guy in a cowboy hat going, “Yes, Miley! It IS the climb!” I dunno if they get together…I felt sick. I had to turn it off.’
i love your blog.really great post.its awesome.
Thanks.