Experiencing Paris

Throughout our time in Europe this fall we visited Paris three times. It wasn't until our last visit that we really experienced the city. We visited the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and Montmartre with the Sacre Coeur within two days. Maybe it's because we've been living in France, but I wasn't especially enchanted by the city. It was chilly and gray outside, and even in the off season, the attractions seemed crowded.

The Mona Lisa is probably the most famous painting in the Louvre, and the room of people pressing towards it seemed to prove it's popularity. She has her own guard, a railing, and a few layers of glass for protection. With so much traffic and cameras flashing, it's easy to forget how neat it is to see the original painting.

I was even more impressed with a few larger paintings by the French artists Ingres and Delacroix. These two artists created works that I studied last year. It was incredible to see the larger-than-life originals of images I'd only seen on a computer screen. It has been amazing to experience French/ Francophone art, literature, and history in their true context. The Eiffel Tour is really big and interesting, but I am most excited by the art I've studied.

A Mild Christmas

The temperature this week has been hovering above freezing, and that is the coldest weather I've felt since we were in Germany. Before I moved here I was really excited to learn that the temperature in this region doesn't wander much below 32°F or above 75°F. Now, however, it's hard to get into the Christmas spirit without even a chance of snow.

To celebrate the season every city in France adorns the streets with lights. There are Chirstmas markets everywhere and the malls have wierd displays with arctic animals (i.e. walrus and penguins). Speaking of animals, the city has built stables along the walls of a Notre Dame church by my house. Starting last week, we have a regular petting zoo on the square, complete with donkeys, sheep, goats, OXEN, roosters, a PIG, etc, znd all in one pen! There is also a separate enclosure with stout little ponies.

Last Christmas when I came home I happened across a camel and a donkey outside a big church. I guess it's more ridiculous to see those animals in suburban middle America than to see farm animals in rural-ish France. I still think it's strange. It appears that people like live nativity scenes all over the world.

That said, the animals don't really do it for me. And while the Christmas music piped through the streets and the lights ornamenting inside and out are charming and festive, I am looking forward to some chilly weather. My parents fire place and heat that I don't pay for will make the cold bearable and the house cozy like I like it.

The Way to Their Hearts

I think I've found the way to my students' hearts, or at least their attention spans. Last time I tried to play music for class, my choices were too wrapped up in American hippy history and politics, and the tunes weren't catchy enough. Lately I've been playing and discussing two Beatles songs and two Green Day songs with much success.

Playing Green Day has allowed me to avoid giving in to requests for Fall Out Boy. That's a "pop-punk" group who's not-so-great music is reaching out to teenagers everywhere. There is a feature story on NPR about the group head man and his daring "guyliner." The article has some winning quotes, though I don't think I can make fun of them in class.

I'll just stick with "Yellow Submarine," because it's cute when they sing along (which many of them do).

Miracle of Miracles

We have the internet in the apartment. After signing my contract in October for our internet service, paying for a phone line installation, waiting, waiting, and calling technical assistance, we still had no internet, no dial tone, nothing. Last week I sent a letter of resignation to the company asking to cancel my contract, because I was dissatisfied with their technical and customer service. A week later, they sent a technician to the apartment, unannounced, who fiddled with the wires and established our connection.

Now we have the internet, unlimited calls in France and to the States, and cable TV (though no television set). I suppose it could cut off at any minute, so we've been downloading and emailing and calling furiously to get the most out of our precious time on the internet. I've paid for months of the service and we can only use it for two weeks. Figures.

Thanksgiving Dinner and Beer Pong

We postponed our Thanksgiving feast a few days so we could celebrate the holiday with friends from Lawrence. We hung out most of the day last Saturday and started cooking late afternoon. We ended up making homemade mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade cornbread, yams, lots of fresh veggies, and then we bought a roasted chicken to substitute for the turkey. The meal was really tasty and pretty picturesque (minus the fact that we used a coffee table and folding chairs). It was a pretty traditional meal, but our post-dinner festivities were unusual for Thanksgiving.

We made plans a few weeks prior to Thanksgiving with Meghan and Charles to play beer pong when they visited. This is a drinking game involving plastic cups full of beer arranged in a triangle like a rack of billard balls. Each team shoots ping pong balls across the table and when they score, their opponent drinks and discards the cup. The first team to hit all their opponents cups wins.

Since we didn't have suitable plastic cups, we used ceramic mugs and glass tumblers. We also don't have a long table; so we layed a door from our bureau on the desk and set up from there. We didn't have a lot of beer and our cups made really difficult targets, so it became a long drawn out battle of the sexes. Meghan and I won two games whether from luck or skill (probably the former), and the round went down as two of the tamest/soberest drinking games ever.

Deciphering the French Language

For Thanksgiving, Ben and I bought a cake mix to bake in our mini toaster-oven. We had all the basisc ingredients, butter, eggs, but the recipe called for something I'd never heard of. My French is pretty solid, but I still struggle with connecting words, because they never translate exactly. The cake required "4 cuilléres de soupe à lait." I happen to get "de" and "à" mixed up, because they both can mean "of," "at," and "with," among other things.

So, I was bewildered looking at the cake box, wondering what "4 spoons of soup milk" (or "milk soup") was. I decided that I should just put in regular milk and deal with the consequences. We only have tiny spoons, so I started to put in 3 for each required spoonful; assuming they meant something like tablespoons... then it hit me. The recipe called for 4 soup spoons of milk. Opps, maybe that should have been obvious?

The Right to Strike

I woke up (reluctantly) at 6:00 this morning and drove the hour to get to my 8:00 class, only to find all of the entrances to the school locked or blocked by students. Turns out the proposed cut to university education is making highschoolers as angry as it is making university students. I guess we offer a higher/career oriented degree at my school (Emile Roux), and if Sarkozy and the government succeed with their plans, schools may cut such programs. If those programs are cut, students may have to travel further and pay more for their degree.

I've been told that the French hold public services (like education) absolutely sacred, so the privitisation, or semi-privitisation, of the school/university system is an outrage. I mentioned to a teacher that a walk-out planned my senior year of highschool was squashed before it took place. We had to find another way to protest the invasion of Iraq -- or else be suspended. To that, the teacher told me that the French insist on the right to strike. She said it was as important to them as the right to bear arms was to Americans.

I don't know how much I personally value, nor do I take advantage of my right to own a gun, but there is no denying that the French often use strikes to demontrate their disagreement. I have seen one television show since I've been here. It was a cartoon I watched while babysitting about a child witch who organized a strike at her elementary school to get better facilities. I guess that shows how important strikes are and how ingrained that is in the French mentality. Right now, students and transportation workers all over the country are making their statement against privitisation, and that means I have a long weekend.