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