When I knew I'd made the right choice studying abroad....

I felt I had to share this gem:

I'm taking a class on the Romantic Apocalypse at the Sorbonne, which is divided into three parts, the discussion section in French, the discussion section in English, and the 100-person lecture. The lecture generally tends to be interesting, but kind of irrelevent to the books themselves; the professor herself said that the lecture is pretty much to give context for the four books we're reading and, to that end, has been lecturing on Revelations. She finally finished that today and gave us a brief list of works influenced by the notion of the apocalypse as revolution which, you guessed it, included Les Miserables, a novel of which I am inordinately fond.

After pointing out that Hugo called himself Saint John in another poem, that Hugo wrote the work not only to comment on the vast social inequalities of his society and the ideal New Jerusalem that would be a New French Republic, Madame la professeur asked the room at large if we remembered "ce magnifique personnage, Enjolras", the gorgeous, golden-haired (Hugo goes deliberately out of his way to say that the handsome Enjolras said something and cannot keep himself from mentioning Enjolras's hair whenever Enjolras appears) leader of a group of revolutionary students and Hugo's living symbol of the logic of the Revolution. The professor then proceeded to lecture at length about his similarities to the angels in Revelations.

She actually did not finish telling us the rest of the list of works featuring the apocalpyse as revolution because she spent too much time talking about Enjolras's hair.

I kid you not.

5 helpful hints for the liberal arts major studying abroad

Things I Have Learned The Hard Way At the Sorbonne:

1. The History TDs (discussion sections) start after the CM (lecture). This is the exact opposite of the French Literature courses. No one will tell you this, or pity you when you become hopelessly lost.

2. The Sorbonne works on its own lines of logic. For example, the course offerings for French Literature are not in the French Literature hallway. They are in the Philosophy Hallway, because, apparently, whenever you are looking for answers you ought to turn to philosophy.

3. The bookstores near the Sorbonne will always be sold out of the books your professor strongly urges you to read/ form the basis of your literature course. Amazon.fr is a better bet. If a book is sold out both on amazon.fr and in the six bookstores you visited on Saturday, it is better to just give up. The professor will, in the next TD, absent-mindedly remark that the book she assigned has been out of print for the past year and she will send out an e-mail with a scan of the book.

4. If there is no one on your floor in the evening, while you are laborously copying out the course offerings no one thought to post online, chances are you have been locked into the Sorbonne. Head south for what I believe is a subterranean passage that leads to various lecture halls and the only unlocked door. This is the only way out, not that any of the guards will let you or your fellow bewildered students that.

5. Not all the staircases let you get off on the next floor. A staircase can take you directly from level one to level three for no easily discernible reason aside from malice.

The Best Sandwich Ever

It was somewhere between 2 and 3 am on the nuit blanche, and a few of us were ready to call it a night since things were getting crazy in the streets. But first we needed serious sustenance. We tried to find a falafel place in the marais, but they were all closed! Failure. So we headed over near boulmiche since there are little stands all over. And then we found it. The best greek sandwich money could buy. It was perfect. Meaty, onions, cucumbers, yogurt dressing, and perfectly seasoned french fries in a pita! I highly recommend this hole in the wall. If you go to rue st. Andre de beaux arts from the St. Michel entrance, it is the second greek sandwich place on the left. Only 4 euros. Heaven.

green paris

there is literally quite a lot of green. as cities go, paris seems to be well treed (an invented but necessary word). but there's also the other kind of green, the kind that signifies an ideology, a lifestyle, a cultural movement, and a guilt complex capitalized on by corporations. paris, although it has its overlapping highway moonscapes (out somewhere i don't really have to look at them), warm car exhaust winds, and lots and lots of pee (which definitely counts as a pollutant, if only to one's nose), feels pretty clean for a major metropolis. here are some reasons why:

>two-button toilets: yes, that is the technical term (not really. i think the technical term is dual-flush). fairly simple math: small button is for small flushes, big button is for bigger ones. but, having grown up in extravagant america, it took me a while to figure this out. just think how much water they save (in case you don't want to do it in your head: about 2/3 of what is used by a regular toilet). and they're everywhere.

>carbon taxes: they're not in place yet, but sarkozy has said that over the next year taxes on the emission of co2 will be put in place. let's hope.

>timed hall/stairwell lights: because people forget to turn them off, and then polar bears die.

>density: paris is small. as such, it has an incredibly efficient public transport system, the possibility of walking places, and less far for cars to travel as they go on their merry, planet-killing way.

>vélib: bicycles, for almost free, everywhere. i personally hate riding bikes. but as a general practice of the parisian population, i have to give it a (green) thumbs up.

everyone know those online tests you can take to calculate your ecological footprint? if not, go take one:

http://www.myfootprint.org/

the reason i mention this is that if you click on the u.s. as your residence, your footprint is automatically much larger than if you click on europe but all other entries remain the same. and now you know why!

p.s. i've left things out. if anyone wants to share more, please do.

The Frog and the Princess

I got a job! Yay! I am working at the Frog and the Princess; it's a British/American style pub near metro St. Germain de Pres on Rue Princess. I am a waitress and bartender and work about three days a week for 8 hours at a time. They brew beer on site and have five of their own types of beer, ranging from a dark beer, to a beer with a ginger twist, to my favorite which is called Maison Blanche. It's definitely a college style bar. We have student night on Tuesday where all drinks are happy hour price all night long. Friday and Saturday are so packed that you have to push your way through heaps of people in the bar to get anywhere.

I am loving it so far. I work with 5-6 Brit's, 4-5 frenchies, one kid from Morocco, and one other American. The people are really nice and a lot of fun to work with. I am seriously picking up a british accent from hanging out with all the brits though.

We close at 2am each night and then clean until 3am. After work we hang out at the bar until 5:30am when the metro starts running again. If we reach a certain amount of sales in the night we get free drinks. If we reach the bronze level = 1 free drink, silver = 2, gold = 3. Yay free drinks at the end of a crazy shift is very enjoyable. Also we get a meal every shift we work for free and the food is good and not french which is refreshing. Don't get me wrong I am loving french food, but every once in a while I just want some nachos or a burger and french fries. Also, they pay for 1/2 of my NaviGo every month.

Come visit me at work and I will pour you a beer or mix you a cocktail! I work on Saturday (10/10) at 9pm next.

French Castles and Characteristics

Hello all!

Just wanted to spice up the blog with a couple of pictures and an amusing link.

The other weekend, we took a trip (organized by the Club International des Jeunes a Paris) to the chateaux de la Loire (a river), which included Blois, Amboise, and Chenonceau, where you can (respectively) murder protestants, vacation as a child-king, and keep your Italian mistress.

If any of y'all reading out there are interested by Leonardo da Vinci, architecture, or the Renaissance, here's a picture for you:

It's the staircase Leonardo designed for Francois Ier at Blois, when he left Italy to basically bring the entire Italian Renaissance movement to France at the bidding of his good friend (or, "good friend," according to some) the king.

And, what better place to meander and gambol as the young Francois Ier than the incredibly high towers of Amboise? (Next to which you can find da Vinci's gardens).

Chenonceau, the castle given to Diane de Poitiers by her lover King Henri II, is absolutely gorgeous. Though, this image is sporting some changes made to it by Catherine de Medicis, the queen, after her philandering husband died and she kicked out his mistress.


And, just in case you were worried that we are all taking things too seriously here, thinking about art and history and architecture all the time, it should be noted that we also had a rather lovely wine-tasting that weekend, ate at a fondue restaurant, and then (those of us that were wandering the streets speaking in English, which is apparently bait to young Frenchmen) got invited to a spontaneous party under a bridge in the city of Tours, where we discussed Flight of the Conchords, French curse words, and the folie of theAmerican drinking age with young French people.

And finally, here's a link to "Stuff Parisians Like," which is hilarious and, as far as I've learned so far, pretty damn true. It's in English, don't worry! I haven't read all of them yet (I try to actually DO my homework here so I'm not wasting my time) but some of my favorites so far include: "Last Minute Flaking," "Macarons Laduree," "Winning Conversations," and "Doubts."

Because, as much as I love Paris, sometimes you have to take a step back and chip away at that pedestal. And, if you're feeling a bit homesick, it's better to laugh at all the aspects of a foreign place that are driving you batshit than to complain about it, which won't do anything but earn you annoyed glances of your peers.

So Rob doesn't unregister me from my courses (not that im registered yet)...

I've been rather skeptical of this blog but having read some of the posts I am very impressed. I found this blog and would like to share it with you! I've found some really cool spots so check it out!

http://www.spottedbylocals.com/paris/