My last hours in Paris

Hi everyone,
I'm about to get on a plane back to New York. That means I will actually have some free time to wrap up the blog and post more picture. Stay tuned and see you soon!
Love,
Violet

Snowing!

It was snowy and beautiful yesterday. I would have gone and played and frolicked in it except that I had class from 9:15-11:30, a french final from 12:30 to 2, French class from 2:15 to 3:15 and then class from 3:30 to 5:45. So much for study abroad being a slacker thing. Also thanks so much Uchicago for also stealing my last few days in Paris, as well as my first several (read: all of them). Anyhow, by the time I got out of class the slush was a foot deep. I had to wade through it to get to public transport which was a mess by that time. It took me twice as long to get back as usual but I rewarded myself with a chicken sandwich, french fries with mayo and many episodes of community, so I recovered. This morning all the slush had turned to ice and the sun was shining. Even though I was walking to my final, I couldn't help be happy. Watching posturing Parisians slip and fall on ice is ridiculously therapeutic. Am I a bad person? Maybe. Was it worth it? YES.

Love,
Violet

PS: http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/7569608-paris-a-prisoner-of-snow

My First Two Stops

So, I've been correcting my midterm for French for the last hour, which was on what I did over my vacation. I thought I was finished with that in grade school, but I guess not. I'm super tempted to just copy and paste and let you all figure it out, but because I have been so lazy posting anyhow, I will write something original, sigh. So the first three photos are from Germany. I went to Dusseldorf and the area around in which is the Rhineland. My hosts kept comparing things to Pittsburg because it used to be an mining town. In fact the museum that all of the photos were taken in, used to be a coal mine. The last picture is of the escalator which is intentionally made to resemble magma. In the gift shop there was a paper doll book for an American family in the 90s. I was super amused. I guess we are foreign and exotic. My host was raving about America at some point and her justification for loving it was the introduction of the ankle sock to Germany, goodbye German tourist stereotypes. Germany was nice despite the weather, but at some point I realized that I had effectively come to the US for a weekend and only saw Pittsburg. The last two pictures are from Venice. I spent exactly one full day there, and that was perfect. Especially because it was so cold. There was this thick fog that as really low in the city which made wandering around in the narrow streets creepy and exciting. I'm very glad that I managed to make it there before it sinks. It's certainly like no where else I have ever seen. More countries later.
Love,
Violet

Fam!

So I know I've been gone for a while, but I have a perfectly good excuse. My family came to visit me. Even though it was freezing, it gave me an excuse to see things, eat good food and perhaps more importantly, make an effort to slack off this quarter. I leave in only a little over a week, so it's about time that I stop worrying about classes and start crossing things off my list. The first picture was taken in Montmartre. There is a beautiful view of the city from the top of the hill and a lot of cute little restaurants in the neighborhood. We had our typical meal (started with a sweet vermouth for me, a delicious tradition that I picked up in Barcelona, thanks Debby). Meanwhile the couple next to us was demolishing a huge block of cheese that was being slowly melted in what looked like a medieval torture device (death by cheese, mmmm). The second picture was taken at the big flea market just outside the city (literally, I was using my city by arrondisment map, and its just one street off the page). Despite the cold, it was still a sight to see. It was like a slum, housing wildly ecclectic collectors. The highlight of the trip was visiting a restaurant in the flea market that featured 24/7, very loud music. This is normally the kind of thing that neither my mother nor I can stand (she's worst than I am though, at least I don't walk around plugging my ears in noisy places). However, it was warm and there, so we went inside. My mom managed to not go crazy, but the same could not be said for the waitresses there, especially ours. She went around giving every little thing to each table before taking our order. We thought she was angry at us (we were laughing at her quite a bit), but when she came over she was like a sweet grandma who was clearly so frazzled she had tumbled off her rocker. The last picture was taken at an old traditional restaurant that our friend Yves took us to. They had Indian style toilets and excellent food. There isn't much of a story about it, I just think I look like a ninja in the picture, so I included it.
I promise I will write about my tour of Europe next time. Sorry for the long pause.
Love,
Violet

P.S. Doug is also here. It's awesome.

Happy Thanksgiving.

What does Thanksgiving entail at the U of C Paris campus? "Gallons of wine", quoted from the coordinator and sandwiches. After this? Oh, 3 hours of classes. What does my French teacher have to say about this after I present? "There should be alcohol after classes not before". Then she called me Vanta and I suggested that maybe she had too much wine as well. Her response? "Fair enough".

Pictures later unless my thanksgiving dinner with my father makes me too sleepy.

Love,

Violet

I'm back

So, I am going to do a post about each country that I went to but before that I wanted to give you a sneak peak of my locations (and the weather I encountered) I didn't put the pictures in chronological order so that you can guess which country/city each picture is from. It's really not too hard. Anyhow, I'm back and the work has already been piled on me. My new prof is actually French and she is all about teaching us "complex thought". She is very strange and I'm not sure I can handle how she is "learning from our ignorances". Hopefully at some point she will actually give us some answers and stop rescheduling classes in order to have dinner at castles in Geneva. You know, a castle, whatevs. She's right out of a movie. More tomorrow.
Best,
Violet

Spring Break!

I'm off to the airport for my vacation. My first stop is Dusseldorf, Germany, then Venice, Budapest and last but not least, Barcelona to visit Debby. I'm excited and I feel like I deserve it after my grueling final and submitting my CLS in one day. I'll post pictures when I'm back!
Love,
Violet

Napoleon's Crib

So, my favorite part of the Louvre was Napoleon's apartments. I don't know why this kind of architecture ever went out of style. I want no less than 5 huge chandeliers in my house. Also, if you ever get bored with the conversation at the dinner table you can just look at all the pictures on the ceiling. Perfect! Luckily I dressed up for the occasion of leaving my room. I went perfectly with the decor.

Love,

Violet

So, on Sunday my friend Alexis and I went to the Louvre. In order to properly celebrate our lack of work we showered (finally) and had a good night's sleep (finally) and were off. The weather was absolutely horrendous, but I was so happy to actually be enjoying Paris and cross something off my list, that I didn't mind. Plus, I couldn't get away with being in Paris again and not seeing the Louvre, I mean really, that's all people are going to ask me when I get back. So, I was happy, despite the weather, until I saw the line, only about a sixth of which was pictured above. I went up to the security guard and in my best french explained that we were students with student cards and asked if there was a different entrance for us. He said no, but that the line was only about an hour and a half wait (ONLY?!). We waited in line for a bit, but I was sure that there had to be another way. So after a bit of research and a bit of exploring we found the super secret no line entrance! We flashed our student cards and we were in 2 minutes later. Thank you University of Chicago. You see, we have laminated cards that say we are art history students which get us in everywhere. I'm so glad that my couple thousand dollar program fee went to a laminating machine (only semi-sarcastic). Ok, you'll have to wait for tomorrow for art. It will be worth it, I promise.

Love,

Violet

Paris, Je t'aime?

So, I went to the Louvre, finally. Before I do a whole post, or multiple on that (lots of pictures, obvs), I thought I'd do one that was more indicative of my mood. So... there are things that I like about Paris and things I don't, they are as follows:

I like 40 minute long conversations with African security guards at the Louvre in which they say you speak French very well.

I don't like that they add "for an American".

I don't like the rain and the cold.. but I love the color the sky turns afterwards.

I don't like French people on the Metro. They have no subway etiquette. It makes me furious.

I love that little kids speak French. It's an obvious thing, but it is still so adorable.

I hate middle school kids. That's pretty much universal, even when I was one of them (ok, especially when I was one of them), but for some reason here I always think they are about to attack me.

I don't like the amount of PDA here, which is tons! GET A ROOM (obtenez une chambre, maintenant!)

I love the idea that dogs here speak French. Especially because French dogs are highly mischievous.

Ok that's all.

Love,

Violet

PS I feel better.

"Primitive Art" Museum

So, for one of my class trips I went to the Quai Branly Museum which has African, Oceanic, Asian and Indigenous Australian Art. We had to read a whole book about it before we visited, so we were ready to see how racist and awful it was. Some parts were definitely not PC. The windows were printed with pictures of the jungle, which gave the whole thing a very Heart of Darkness feel, and honestly I just felt like the whole building was cramped, dark and poorly designed. Some parts were cool, but on the whole I thought it was problematic. On the plus side, it had some really nice napping areas (probably not the original function). Oh and also some really beautiful pieces.

Love,

Violet

Response to Halloween Comments

There was just a Halloween party in my dorm. It got shut down before the costume contest. For the record, I made the hood with 8 safety pins and a pillow case. I'm that good.

It's funny that my costume seemed American. Le petit chaperon rouge exists in France, also the dress is straight from Oktoberfest in Germany.

The costume definitely would have won though, for the record. French people can't think of anything more creative to be than a mime (regular french clothes with facepaint).

Halloween

Despite my paper due on Monday and the rapidly approaching for my scholarship to go to India again, I managed to dress-up for Halloween (I know no one is really shocked). I was little red riding hood using my friend's dirndl (yes, she really did just have this lying around) and a hood that I made. This just reaffirms that I can do anything with a pair of scissors, some safety pins and a pillowcase (just one, at that!).

Love,
Violet

Arcades

In an effort to actually see Paris, despite the ridiculous work schedule that I have, I went exploring in the arcades. The sun was just setting while I was walking around which gave the tunnels a perfectly romantic and slightly eerie bluish glow that made the walls look golden. This was the first time that I brought out my real camera. That's right, I sucked it up and became a tourist. When I'm not in class or reading or working, I get my small doses of joy by being asked for directions (because I look like a local, obviously), actually knowing where the thing is, and responding (in french!). I was willing to give that up to take pictures and explore a tourist locale. My new goal is to figure out how to look like the camera is for art school, therefore giving me even more street cred.

Love,
Violet

P.S. Writing a paper that's due at 5pm (3hrs and 15 mins from now). Wish me luck!

Address

Also, I officially have an address. If you want it email me and I'll give it to you. Yay letters!

L'arc, viewed appropriately

So, this week marked the start of a new quarter and thus a new professor. I really like our new one (she refers to our last prof as poppa ralph), but I have been drowning in work since we started with her (hence no posts). Anyhow, the one night that I actually managed to do something other than reading (not sleeping was the tradeoff), was when Alexis and I went to dinner at a real-live French couples house! It was awesome. We were late, not because of the strikes, not because of traffic but because we got off on the wrong side of the train at the last stop and there were no exits. We had to jump (read:belly flop/shimmy) over a wall in order to get out. Then we walked 2 miles underground to find the right exit. We were angry, but when we realized that the issue was l'arc de triomphe we were a little less upset. We arrived at 9 and had a traditional, delicious multi course meal and a lot of fun. Until we realized the time: quarter to 1. On weekdays, including friday, the trains stop running at 1. Why do trains stop running! This city and London need to get their acts together. So we ran to the train, did the 2 miles underground again (I'm wearing 5 inch wedges, by the way), only to find out that the last train was at 12:41, because it's the beginning of the line. So we have to jump over the turnstyle, because we are again on the wrong side and grab a cab. The upside to all this? I got to see l'arc de triomphe, movie style, going around in a cab with my head sticking out, taking blurry pictures.

Love,
Violet

School Planned Wine Tasting

Friday afternoon, right after our final, we had a wine and cheese tasting at school. In other words, after studying for 24 hours and then having 2 hours to write 2 essays about 2 topics and 2 books each, they gave us 5 glasses of wine and told us to drink slowly. We all really needed the moment of relaxation. Our sommelier was so perfectly French, he showed us a map for reference for the regions and wrote on the board the proper tasting protocol. I took some videos that I will try to load tonight. Oh the cheese was awesome also!

Love,
Violet

By popular demand

So, in the vein of politics and because I got a facebook message from my mother, I am dedicating this post to the greve. Oh the greve, how I wish you would give me my trains back. Ok, but actually here is the issue. The government wants to change the retirement age from 60 to 62 and then the second age from 65 to 67. However you can't retire until you have worked a certain amount of years in a row, so basically if you opted to take maternity leave, you may not be able to retire until you are 72, or something ridiculous like that. So everyone is taking to the streets. The woman that was telling me about this is a university student. She got so worked up as she was explaining it to me that she started turning pink. It's just so nice to see young people getting involved in something just because they think it's wrong and not because it directly effects them (which to be honest, can even make kids in the states get off their asses, if they even know anything is going on at all). I wish that our country could be more politically active. Haha! You all thought I was going to come back from India, a hippy who has found god but actually I'm going to come back from Paris as a radical leftist. To be fair, India could very easily be credited for that as well. In closing I would like to leave you with the advice that Uchicago sent to us.
"At least temporarily avoid protests, crowded tourist areas and sights, as well as typically American locations such as McDonalds, (Parisiennes love McDonald's, who knew. It's not even cheap here) Starbucks, Hard Rock Cafe, etc. If you find yourself near an emerging protest, remember that the final stages today and recently have involved violence and a crackdown by the police. NEVER engage in action that could appear to suggest your participation in a demonstration, such as walking along with protesters (for the love of god, don't pretend to care about French politics, we know you don't. Don't even appear to suggest that you care).

There you go. I would be happy to answer any questions as usual through comments.

Love,
Violet

Immigration and Immigrants

So, my program is brand new. That means that we take really ill-thought out field trips to random places while the people studying Europe see castles and churches and get fed. Last Friday we went to the immigration museum. It was a little sad. First of all, it's in the middle of nowhere. The building was built for the colonial fair in 1931, which was meant to spark French interest in the colonies and remind them why they were useful. The result is that the facade of the building depicts highly racist pictures of naked people from different continents farming, catching fish etc. The picture shown is one of the depictions of Africa. Our tour didn't even include the meager exhibits, it was just the architecture. Meanwhile a huge demonstration was going on inside. 200 or more illegal African immigrants have been camping out in the museum (shown in the first picture) to try to get their company to give them papers. The main room was so loud we could barely hear. Irregardless, our tour guide refused to acknowledge the event and continued telling us about the depictions of justice and truth. The whole museum is meant to show that a lot of important people are immigrants and that in fact France is a melting pot much like the US. However the museum is largely ignored by the government, especially when it comes to funding, which is unfortunately made evident by the state that the building is in. All in all I liked the message of the museum and supported their efforts until we specifically asked the tour guide what was going on with all the people. She said that the museum didn't really want them there but that it would look bad to throw them out. This made me sad. I mean, if the immigration museum has no interest in helping all these men, who work all the time to send money home, can't visit their families and can't go back to visit, who will? Upon further research of the issue, the whole situation seems even more sad. http://www.african-arts.info/immigration_museum.htm

Love,
Violet

Post Paper Euphoria

I took a little break from posting because I had a paper due yesterday. I say paper, but we were encouraged not to have a thesis and our responses could be "ambiguous as long as they are well-informed" (thanks professor ralph). Needless to say, it was sort of a cluster-frack (thanks, big bang for putting this back into my vocabulary). Anyhow, I am happily on the other side, with the exception of our final on Friday. Yay three week semesters!

love,
Violet

Burlesque! En Francais!

So the other weekend, my friends and I went to a Burlesque Bazaar in the outer rings of Paris. The crowd was amusingly bizarre, and we were having a lot of fun people watching and shopping around. Then the show started. The opening act was a woman with a giant stuffed tiger as a prop, who stripped down to a leopard print bra and underwear, while alternating between tarzan and cat moves. The show continued with women with performances themed by location. The one from Germany was my favorite. She was dressed up as a bar wench holding two big beer glasses (the jug puns were not lost on me). All in all it was really more bizarre than anything else. I think the biggest problem was that French people are sexy without trying, that's the point of them, so if you add the burlesque (in other words, trying really really hard) the appeal sort of falls apart. I guess most people aren't so critical. I mean if you can see penguin pasties on a Sunday afternoon, what more do you want?

Love,
Violet

Meeting French People

Yesterday, our school held a mixer for French students learning English at 2 or 3 Universities and us at the U of C compound. As anyone who has been a college student can imagine, there were a lot of people there for the free food and wine (honestly, that's why I went). At first I was mortified to talk to people, but finally I joined a conversation with one of my friends. We would speak in French and they would speak in English unless one of us couldn't remember how to say something or were incomprehensible, then we would switch. It was sort of sadistically adorable to watch the students who know as much English as I know French turn pink and sweat and shake as they were trying to make sentences. Oh French people... there just like us!

Love,
Violet

The Height of Sophistication

Sometimes I do exciting things in Paris, and sometimes I just eat cereal out of wine glasses in striped shirts. I think it's basically the same thing.

Love,
Violet

Molten Chocolate

The other day, my friend Alexis and I went to a place called Angelina's for pastries and famous hot chocolate. The restaurant was beautiful. It had a very luxurious feel, all in white with a perfectly adorable pastry shop in the front. We each got their specialty and shared a macaron. The hot chocolate was european style, with water instead of milk, so it was basically exactly how you would imagine Willy Wonka's waterfall to taste like. They gave us a pitcher which had no less than 6 cups and a cup of whipped cream that was 5 inches high and 2 inches in diameter, which needless to say I immediately started eating with a spoon. It was so incredibly good that we couldn't finish it because we didn't want to ruin the experience by throwing up. Even though the whole thing cost us 20 euro, I'm pretty sure I'll be back before I leave.

Love,
Violet

Best. Field trip. Ever.

So yesterday, the normal kids (the people taking European civ) got up at 7am to meet at a museum at 9, after having spent the night before at bars with their french conversation people. They had to spend 5 hours looking at tapestries and trying not to fall asleep. What was I doing at this time? Sleeping, suckahs! For the African civ field trip, we met up at 6:30pm. We were fed a sort of strange (but free) African dinner complete with beer or wine, and then we went dancing at an African Music venue. It was awesome. Even though we didn't finish until midnight, it was by far the best field trip I had ever had.

Love,
Violet

The girl in the yellow

Here is the best picture from the ones that the german lady took of me. Apparently it isn't for a blog. It might be in Glamour, Life & Style or Jolie for Germany. I'm not in love with the photo, but that's pretty cool!

Are you proud?

love,
Violet