Earlier in the week, I experienced a semi freak out about my life here. I was upset about coming home to my lonely, empty, single dorm room every night, only to go online for hours talking to the people who are not with me. It's not missing people that was making me sad, but rather, how alone and disconnected I felt in my room every night and how I felt that I was missing out on Paris when sitting here at my desk. Fortunately, I both dislike being sad and am a proactive person, so I made a list of things to do to combat this situation by getting myself out of my room at night and interacting with other people and the city itself.
This list includes:
1. find cute cafés near home and school with WiFi (pronounced WeeFee here! haha)
2. do art history homework at the library of the Pompidou
3. cook dinner with friends at least once a week, two or more times if possible!
4. only hibernate in my room for extended periods of time to study for exams and work on big projects
5. go on walks and runs around my neighborhood, or better yet, explore new ones!
6. get homework done before class so I can wander the city after class
My friend Morgan studied abroad in London and suggested to me that I just grab my iPod and go for walks around the city by myself. While this doesn't solve the problem of loneliness, it is a wonderful way to appreciate the city and feel a deeper connection to it. So this is a big star on my list.
{inside château de fontainebleau}
I am feeling especially fond of the city right now as I just got home from a wonderful evening with my friends. Today, we were required for French class to visit Chateau Fontainebleau so that we can write about our day. Although it took forever to actually get to this place, which is a palace that was home to some of France's most noted historical leaders including Napoleon and some of the Louis', it ended up being a nice little day excursion. We grabbed some food afterwards and had a hilarious train ride back into the city, which included a photo shoot of Olivia, Gaba and Caitlin wrapping their scarves around their heads all different ways.
{mmmm, fromage!}
{les biberons!}
We went straight to Montmartre for a fondue dinner at Refuge de Fondus, where they serve wine in baby bottles! I had heard about this place and HAD to check it out. (Fun fact I learned after researching the place: The restaurant originally served wine in the baby bottles to avoid a tax on serving wine in glasses! The bottles themselves are now glass, but the story behind this funny tradition makes the experience all the more authentic.) Here's a link to a video of the Refuge de Fondus so you can see what the whole thing is all about! Note the long communal tables (which they have you literally climb over to sit against the wall) and the graffiti and currency covered walls. The scene is pretty international, as it is prone foreigners visiting the city, so it was nice to hear English spoken in various accents.
{a very dark photo of our first encounter with the majestic beauty that is sacre coeur}
So after gorging ourselves on alcohol-infused melted cheese and bread, we figured the best way to work off our dinner would be to climb the 92843284 steps up to the Sacre Coeur. Okay, it wasn't that many, but our legs certainly felt that it was. We lost our breath really quickly from singing "Eye of the Tiger," running up the steps like Rocky, and laughing uncontrollably. When we finally got to the top, we stopped in awe to admire both the stunning white church in front of us, and the breathtaking view of the city behind us. That was the moment that I thought to myself, "Holy shit! I'm in Paris! This is AMAZING!" Needless to say that you can see why I am now feeling better about being here.
So a recap of the rest of this past week...
Our first week of school was intense and sitting through class made my brain ache quite a bit. On the bright side, despite 3-6 straight hours of communicating in French and obscene amounts of homework by abroad program standards, I really love my classes and my professors and expect to learn a ton in the month and a half left of the academic part of my semester. I don't know if I already mentioned my classes on here, but I am taking French grammar, French communication (speaking) and a class called Modern Art History in Paris. Loves it! So, I guess I'm just gunna have to suck it up and do my homework. As I've probably mentioned, the second half of my program is an internship. On Sunday, I heard back from my internship placement people and they scored me an interview with... WOMEN'S WEAR EFFING DAILY! For those of you that don't know, WWD is the daily trade publication to the fashion world and basically the fashion world's bible. So to say I'm excited is quite the understatement. Good work BU Paris!! However, as I said, it's only an interview, and I have to interview IN FRENCH, so I don't know that I'll actually get it. Keep your fingers crossed for me people!
{dinner chez gaba and danielle}
A convenient feature of this program is that our school week is only from Monday-Thursday, which means we get to start our weekends early!! As it is Gaba's birthday this Monday, we decided to begin her birthday festivities early by getting together at her apartment on Thursday night for dinner, dessert and cocktails, followed by drinks at our fave Sir Winston! The menu included delicious white wine and lemon marinated salmon, prepared by Gabba and her roommate Danielle, with sides of haricots verts (green beans) and quinoa with sauteed zucchini and onion prepared by yours truly! Dessert was a six-person apple tart from our favorite patisserie Secco with vanilla ice cream and lots of sparkling white wine. Yum yum and yummmm! (I really can't stop talking about food, can I?)
{vin et fromage at the musée du vin}
Yesterday, BU Paris organized an excursion to the Musée du Vin (Wine Museum) for a lesson in wine appreciation. We sampled five types of wine, three red and two white, and learned how to distinguish between the different kinds. After getting a little silly from our wine lesson, we explored the museum and probably made fools of ourselves singing to the wax statues that we liked their capes. For clarification about what the heck I'm talking about, ask me in person. Ha! I then wandered around by the Eiffel Tower and the Seine with my friend Laura, whom I had actually met once at Brandeis freshman year, and talked about life the whole way.
{the spice girls head out for a night on the parisian town}
After returning home for dinner, my friends and I got dressed up and decided to have a real night out bar hopping in the Bastille area, where there are tons of young people and small side streets lined with clubs, lounges and dive bars. The night proved to be successful, as we went to three different places and fiiinally went to a dance party. We first stopped at Bar des Familles on Rue de Lappe, where our bartender was an American from New York studying art in Paris, who seemed relieved to get to speak to customers in her native tongue. After filling up on 6 Euro mojitos, we headed across the street to L'infinite, a multi-color lit lounge with a dance floor in the basement. When we realized that it was too early for dancing in the place, we finished our blonde beers and met up with Cristina, Marco and their new French friends at a hip restaurant-turned-nightclub Sanz Sans for said DANCE PARTY! We were so excited to finally move our bodies to music that we didn't care what cheesy music they were blasting. And the French boys were definitely cute! I hoping to hang out more with local kids to make some friends in the city, practice my French and learn the way people my age speak French.
So that was my week. Long post I know. Hopefully I'll be able to write on this thing more frequently and write shorter entries for you all so you don't get tired of my rambling. Love you and miss you all and am wishing you could be here to experience this with me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Paix, Amour et Néon,
Marisa
love you and im getting a bit teary, miss you mucho and cant wait for spring breaky!!! lez plannnn
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