Olivia Overseas

Alright, so, obviously this blog has been lacking lately. I blame a) a steadily rising amount of work, and b) True Blood. But luckily I’ve finished my midterms and caught up with True Blood, so I’m going to resume blogging. Get excited.

Here’s a brief recap of my Parisian adventures from the past month…I say brief because I have to get up at 4 a.m. to catch a plane to Spain. You see, we now have a 10 day vacation from our very hard lives in Paris. And I don’t want to wait until I get back to revive this blog, because I think Spain will probably deserve a post of its own.

Anyway, here it goes:

1. I was on French TV! Our program got to go and be in the audience of this news show, called “Ce soir ou jamais!” It’s kind of like 60 minutes. I happened to be sitting right behind the anchor, so I got mad face time.

2. A few weeks ago was “La Nuit Blanche,” which is this all-night festival Paris has every year where the museums and metro stays open all night, and there are art exhibitions all over the place. So we had an amazing dinner and drank wine by the Pantheon (we played kings with a group of like 20 people, and attracted a pretty good crowd of weirded-out French people.). We also saw a crazy light installation at the Luxembourg gardens (think huge disco ball suspended in the air) and saw the Notre Dame at night.

3. Got some 10 euro seats to the France/Austria World Cup qualifier. Let me just say this: When French people start doing the wave (called “hola!”), they never stop. It keeps going and going and going around the stadium. Okay, I exaggerate. It stopped after 5 cycles. And then started again later. And then I stopped counting.

4. Went to Versailles on an unfortunately rainy/chilly day. But it was still ridiculously impressive and beautiful. Also we encountered a litter of kittens in the gardens…probably the highlight of the trip.

Okay bed time! I’ll post photos from the past month/Spain when I get back, but there are also lots of photos on Facebook if anyone’s that curious.

So we just got back from Strasbourg a few days ago. We heard the president of the EU Commission speak at the European Parliament, and then ventured over to the European Court of Human Rights. There, we took a little tour and had a crash course on the Court, but our lesson actually came to life the next day when an old Ukrainian man approached us on the street.

He heard us speaking English and wanted to know if one of us would proofread his human rights violation claim. You can submit it in Russian, but he said the whole process would be easier if he wrote it in English. We had three hours to kill until our train left, and we were intrigued. So a few of us obliged and started going through the seven-page document.

At first it was actually kind of interesting, as he explained how he was beaten up unfairly by police, but then it quickly devolved into a paranoid account of how Soviet spies are after him. Apparently they’re intimidated by his intellectual poetry, so they attacked him with “psychotropic micro-weapons.” I don’t even know. We kept going though, because a) it would have been awkward to leave in the middle of it and b) it was pretty amusing.

His laptop’s battert died by the 4th page, he gave us his business cards, and we made our way to the train station. Then I washed my hands, as I realized I really probably shouldn’t have been touching a crazy, random stranger’s keyboard.

Oh, but he’s not really a stranger. If you’re curious, his name is Leonid Tysyachnyy, and his website is http://sg.geocities.com/leonidtysyachnyy/resume.html Wish him luck with the Court!

For my first French homework assignment, I have to write a page on French and American stereotypes.

So here’s a quick rundown on the stereotypes about French people I had before coming here, and how they’ve held up:

1. I’ve counted 4 fat French people. Granted, these were just strangers on the metro and could very well have been American tourists.

2. No, French strangers don’t smile at you in the street, but my neighbors always smile and offer up a friendly “Bonjour.” Same goes for anyone you actually have contact with.

3. There’s a lot of smoking, but also a large amount of “no smoking” signs. From what I’ve been told, they’ve been springing up more and more recently. And I read an article in Le Monde yesterday about how the price of cigarettes is rising 6 percent in October.

4. Pretty sure my French host family showers every day.

5. My French family also doesn’t drink wine with dinner. But I’m sure that’s an anomaly.

6. I have yet to meet a poorly dressed French girl.

Speaking of stereotypical, one of the French kids in my program said that he could never marry a girl who was “too American.” I asked what he meant and he replied:

“I. Must have a minimum level of culture and liking in these topics: literature, music (classical), theater, opera
II. Must appreciate good cuisine. No fast-food
III. Must enjoy traveling and discovering new places
IV. Must speak another language than English”

It kind of made me realize how I have a craving for a McDonald’s cheeseburger.

That’s the name of the street I live on in Paris. Isn’t it so cute and cliché, like out of a storybook? I’ve been here 3 days so far and telling people I live on the street of castles never gets old.

Anyway, I meant to start this blog before I left, but I figure 3 days in isn’t too late, non? I’ll recap, cause I know you all care so much. (Also, I’m enjoying writing like I actually have readers, whereas right now I’m really just talking to Elaine, my sole tumblr follower!)

So I started packing the night before I left, in my standard last-minute fashion. Here’s a lovely photo of Charlie, who wanted to come with me:

After I kicked out my cat and stuffed in my clothes (two 51 pound suitcases), I drove to Dulles, flew to Heathrow, transferred to Charles de Gaulle, and arrived at la rue du Château. It was all pretty painless until I actually tried to get in the apartment building. The doors were locked, I couldn’t get the buzzer thing to work, my European cell phone didn’t have minutes on it yet, etc. Finally I stopped a random woman who was walking out of the building, explained to her my predicament in pretty shaky French, and she let me use her cell phone. So I called my host mom and her daughter came down and let me in, and voila!

I don’t know what everyone’s talking about re: rude, unhelpful French people. Everyone I’ve asked for help (no small number) has been pretty nice. I’ve probably just jinxed myself though.

My host family is also wonderful. It’s a single mom and a 10-year-old girl, whose first day of school is tomorrow. Maybe the girl is so nice to me because I brought her a Jonas Brothers CD. There are also 2 older sisters, 21 and 26, but they don’t really live here. The mom speaks a little English, but we communicate really well. She said I speak better French than the past 6 students she’s hosted, which is pretty scary.

Tomorrow we’re taking a placement test and that should properly deflate my ego.

My program is actually in English, and we had orientation today, so I spent most of the day speaking English. And when a few of us ventured into a cafe, and then a bar later, the waiters definitely made fun of our pathetic attempts at French. Mais c’est la vie.

I promise future posts will be shorter, and will show more of Paris and less of my cat. But I actually haven’t used my camera here yet, since it’s like 10 years old and about 50 pounds. I’ll deal with that tomorrow, and post some photos of my room and la rue du Château, so you can see it in all its cliché, storybook splendor. Plus, posting photos online is probably safer than skyping my family and holding the webcam precariously near the open, screenless window.

À Demain! (Maybe)