February blues over, time for la vie en rose again! While Brian's adjusting to la vida espanola, I'm still enjoying the la vie de la touriste/resident: I get to do mundane things like shop for groceries, while touristy stuff like go to museums etc. 
Last Thursday my host brother (he lives in London but visited for a week) held a dinner party here with about 13 of his closest friends + me. Started cooking and drinking wine at 8, delicious dinner at 10-midnight, stayed up sipping wine and smoking cigarettes until about 3 a.m. Did I mention he's a sommelier (professional wine expert)? Six hours of French conversation with actual French kids=awesome.
Musee Rodin=awesome. Webcam + mic = awesome. Finishing up fellowship apps for summer = awesome. I enjoy sitting around the gigantic gardens here with my lunches or a book or postcards. Beautiful.
Most delicious falafel ever = L'as du Fallafel in the Marais (Jewish quarter). Imagine the best falafel you've ever had, add deliciousness * 10 and wrap it in a pita with lots of veggies, hummus, and sauce. I live near La Grande Epicerie, the biggest and best gourmet food supermarket type place in Paris, so I like to go there to get lunch sometimes. The other day Deanna and I went there and bought pastries (finally) and wow deliciousness never tasted so good.
Went and watched "Paris" the movie the other night and ran into some of my new neighbor (Billie)'s kids- Billie is the grad assistant for another study abroad program. After the first hour or so, you don't even realize it's in French anymore. Amazing!
Tonight I joined my friend Lou from translation class and a bunch of her friends at a tiny hole in the wall in the middle of nowhere (or as near as you can get in Paris) to watch one of their friends perform. It was amazing! The venue was about as big as a room in WLH or one of the new science rooms at Troy (too bad if you didn't go to a school with me). Very intimate, she sang in English, French and some African language; I took the last train home at 12.30 and ate a delicious dinner that my host mom left on the stove for me.
Basically, I'm back to my normal yenthusiasm where everything is amazing! Hey, I'm going to Madrid, then Grenada, then Barcelona in two days! Hey, I have a math test in twelve hours. Amazing!
Today in my Ethics class (btw class is getting better; the Sorbonne ones are tough because not only does everyone speak French very quickly for French speakers but there's a lot of technical terms that aren't in my dictionary) our professor was using some example of marriage and infidelity to talk about morality, and even when I'm not at Yale, I managed to find a section asshole (actual Yale phrase)! Raging feminist begins a ten minute debate in the middle of lecture with our professor on why you can treat women as possessions etc. Fantastic.
General note: my study abroad program, in contrast to Brian's where they get to take trips (jealousy) and have people, has 11 students and we have about four organized activities for the entire semester. Super laissez faire, but hey, c'est la vie!
ma vie est changée (anecdotes)
La vida granadina, and Hello Córdoba!
So, I am finally starting to adapt to the vida española. I've been volunteering at a middle school nearby, tutoring English. And on Wednesday nights, I've been playing fútbol with some other kids in my program. I also have an intercambio, which means that I meet with a Spaniard and we speak Spanish for half of the time and English the other half of the time. My intercambio's name is Paula, and she's really cool. Last weekend, she and a few friends took a couple of us to Granada 10, which is a local discoteca. It was awesome being able to spend time with locals.
Classes at the university started this past week. It was a pretty stressful week. I was really nervous going into class at a Spanish university, and trying to pick out classes that interest me. But they ended up not being that scary and I didn't have a problem understanding the professors. The EU has a program called Erasmus, which is like an exchange program for university students. Granada has the highest number of Erasmus students of any university in Europe, which is really cool, because it gives me the opportunity to meet not only Spanish students, but also students from all over Europe. I've even been able to practice my French a little. Right now, it looks like I'm going to be taking two classes at the Universidad de Granada, in addition to the courses I'm taking through my program. One is called "Sistemas Políticos de América Latina" and the other is called "Antropología de la Etnicidad." I'm pretty excited.
Yesterday I went to Córdoba with my program. We got to go inside La Mezquita, which was a mosque but was converted into a cathedral when the Spaniards kicked the Moors out of the city in the 13th century. The coolest thing about the building is that there is a gothic cathedral built inside the mosque. It's a really interesting mix of Moorish and Gothic architecture, of Islamic and Catholic elements. Check out some of the photos I've posted. You might recognize la Mezquita from your high school history books.Just thought I would update everyone on the past week. Tonight, I have a soccer game against a team from a program in Madrid. The trophy is a plastic leg of jamón serrano. Then I'm going to see a play for my literature class. Then, I believe, the plan is to meet up with Craig Minoff, who is in the city with his program, around 12:30. So my night is starting around 12:30. Bienvenidos a España.
ca va? non.
Hey all, I was sick for a while. Started on Valentine's Day and I'm still a little whoooo in the head. My one exciting thing (I've mostly been asleep for the past week) is that I got to go to a french doctor! there's a doctor's office hidden literally across the street (i'm at 3 rue de Luynes, dr at 4 rue de Luynes). It's funny too, a lot of these offices are inside apartment buildings; i.e. there's a cabinet d'avocats (lawyers' offices) on our first floor, and the cabinet de medecins was on the second floor of another apartment. i got some antibiotics and aspirin and told to rest, which is what i've been doing with a vengeance. Almost all better now though! =)
Tu t'es l'instant, moi le bonheur
Blasphemy! I went back to where the Michelin store should be, and the concierge told me "Ca n'existe plus." Quelle horreur!
So more about my day to day life here. As I've said, I live on the 6th floor of an apartment in a swank neighborhood, and my fantastic family lives on the 5th as does Alex, the other study abroad student. About my family: both Sophie and Jean-Marie are travel journalists; they've been everywhere in the world and we didn't meet Jean-Marie until a week after we arrived because he was in Senegal. Adele is 20 and is studying law at the Sorbonne. We all have dinner together at 8 about 6 nights a week; sometimes Adele or Alex go out with friends/family.
I wake up early-ish, put on a huge pot of coffee (we all guzzle the stuff before noon), and take a 10 min-half hour train to class: north for my two translation courses, south for writing, southeast for ethics, and west for math. I'm trying to make friends and am semi succeeding, I promise! Lunch is a panini and a drink or a sandwich from home. After afternoon class or whatnot I like going to museums, or sitting around the Tuilleries, or shopping around the Marais, or walking around the Seine, or hanging o
ut with a friend. There are lectures and other interesting things going on too, and something always comes up. For instance, today I bought a book for class, then realized that Notre Dame was across the river. After dinner it's homework, or reading, or rarely going out. I'm contemplating getting a job.
Gratuitous sunset shots for the win! I've walked around a lot and still am amazed at everything I find. Went to the Musee Eugene Delacroix, which is in his old apartment in my neighborhood, and then the Musee L'Orangerie, which has Monet's 8 gigantic water lilies paintings up in two special rooms. Photos could never do it justice, to be immersed in light and air and art like those rooms. It was amazing,
just to see emotion and beauty captured on those canvases. My favorite sky color, that moving hue of indigo at sunset, was all over the 'green reflection' one. I didn't take photos of it because that seemed sacreligious. Also, went to the Paris flea market with Deana; got to paw our ways through piles of clothes for 2 euros, and it never ended.
Eres para mí, Granada
¿Qué tal chicos?
I've been meaning to post for a while, but I haven't had the chance. Hope you are doing well wherever you are. So what's new, you ask? Well, thanks for asking...
Last weekend, I went to Sevilla with my program (see picture at left). It's a really cool city. Very pretty and clean. We saw the the Reales Alcazares, the Sevilla Cathedral (the oldest Gothic cathedral in the world), and the Plaza de España. The tower in the picture is called La Giralda, and used to be a minaret, but now serves as the bell tower for the cathedral. Southern Spain was all about converting Moorish mosques into Catholic churches.
And I watched my first flamenco show. As difficult as it was to get excited about watching a dance show, it was actually really cool.
Before we left, we rented pedal boats on the Guadalquivir River. It was a really interesting way to see the city. We left from the Torre de Oro, where Spain stored much of its treasure from the New World, in the center of the city and headed outwards until we hit the more modern outskirts of the city. We passed under two really interesting modern bridges.
On Sunday, we came back home to Granada. Around midnight, we headed over to a local movie theater that was showing the Super Bowl live on a big screen. How was it? Well, let's not spend much time on this painful subject, but suffice to say, the Super Bowl with Spanish commentary and without any chips or wings in sight is rather lackluster.
Classes just started last Monday. It's really weird for me to know that some of you are already hitting midterms when I've just started class. So far, I've really enjoyed the classes. My favorites are Islamic Civilization in Spain and North Africa until 1492 and Federico García Lorca and the Andalusian Literary Tradition.
Visiting Sevilla made for a really cool weekend. It's an amazing city. But coming back to Granada made me realize how much I like it here. It might not be quite as clean or as fairy-tale-perfect as Sevilla, but it has a lot more character. It feels more real. In Sevilla, you can't walk 100 feet without hearing Americans or spotting a tourist shop. In Granada, you can't walk 100 feet without seeing graffiti or almost getting hit by a moto. It's amazing.
Serait-ce possible alors?
I've been listening to Sarkozy's new wife a lot lately; I love her French stuff. Quelqu'un M'a Dit and Le Toi du Moi are super super cute:
On me dit que nos vies ne valent pas grand chose
Elles passent en un instant comme fanent les roses.
(My translation: Someone told me that our lives aren't worth very much; they pass in an instant like the wilting of roses)
I've been doing a lot of shopping, went to an antiquey vintage store in the Marais and got falafel, bought some flats and wedges for 25 euros (not too bad!), got tights and scarves and look a lot frencher now. Stopped by some known monuments and such: the Centre Georges Pompidou (I haven't gone in yet), the Colonne Vendome, the Bibliotheque Nationale (uy, here are pics of those). Also did some social
stuff: Yale's Feb Club in Paris where I met some alumni and didn't take pictures but got an email address of a great math professor at Paris I, had coffee with an 18 year old student who wanted to meet Americans and contacted our directrice, a bar with those 30 year old women I met on Friday night and they're all fantastic and taught me how to swear in french only I don't remember it at all now, became a regular at one panini stand where i get lunch for 3.50 everyday, a panini and an Orangina and the men who work there know my classes and such.
What can I say, I've adapted I think and I'm so surprised by how easy it was to do so. I had my first probability and statistics class
on Tuesday, took me many embarassing asking for directions to get to the classroom, where the professor was late and the students horrendously disrespectful, coming crazy late and talking throughout the entire class. it was like an entire class of me-students. From here on out I'll be a lot better in class; I felt so bad for the professor. Also I didn't really understand a lot because it was in French and because I joined the class two weeks late, but one kid let me copy his notes and was really nice to me after I said I was American. It's amazing generally how universal math is though, I could follow a surprising amount considering the previously listed two factors. Also translations are fun: iff is ssi (if and only if, si et seulement si), s.t. is t.q. (such that, tel que), r.r.v. are v.a.r. (random real variables, variables aleatoires reel), etc. E(X) is still E(X), and variance is variance, and gauss is gauss.
Mostly I'm just living life like anyone else, I love Paris the way I love L.A., N.Y., O.C., New Haven, Eden Prairie, or anywhere I live. I love it because it allows me to live, which is such a marvelous gift, isn't it?! Granted, the language barrier sucks, a lot, and jet lag did while it lasted, but jet lag is over and the language barrier isn't so bad. It took me about ten minutes to get the courage to say "excusez moi, avez-vous des notes pour les deux premiers classes?" (excuse me, do you have some notes for the two first classes?) to the kid next to me, but after that we started chatting and it worked out all for the best.
I can't believe how ugly the national library looked in the dark cloudy sky on the day I went. Francois Mitterand, you are a vain, vain man. I feel like I should go look at La Defense too now.
Here's a model of the library, within the library itself, sort of how my brother keeps a model of his white Scion XB in his Scion so you can remember how ugly the car is while you're in it. Speaking of my brother, I'm trying to track down the Michelin store because he loves the Michelin man and 
I want to get him random crap from there. We're very alike and love random crap.
Also, here's a gratuitous shot of a gorgeous sky as I was walking down some street. I was considering putting up a gratuitous shot of the Eiffel Tower at sunset, but that was too much even for me. I was actually completely lost when taking this picture. In other news, Brian finally put up his slideshow.
Update: I just bought a one way plane ticket to Madrid. I should figure that out sometime, like where I'll stay and for how long and how to get to Grenada to visit Brian.
it's a rich man's world
Thursday's tour of the Seine was wonderfully touristy; thankfully the sun came out but it was sooo cold and windy. I took a few fun pictures; this is my friend Tim from Bard who is making weekly video blogs or something like that for his scholarship. Also, for our dear blog readers logistically, you can see bigger photos of those in the slideshow on the right if you click on it. Also, I absolutely love the comments and I think Brian does too =).
Afterwards I FINALLY got creme brulee here (for my last two weeks at home I was craving it something awful and I did get some homemade which was very rich but still yummy =D) and it was a delicious unhealthy lunch with a cafe au lait (also my first here). We've been drilling grammar like no other and I still don't know anything. I've been reading "Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong" written by two Canadians who lived in France for two years, and listening to Sarkozy's fiancee (I really like Carla Bruni's music she's like a chill French Regina Spektor).
So about the title of this post. I live in one of the swankest neighborhoods in Paris. Sofia Coppola lives downstairs, the director of the Asterix films lives across the courtyard, etc. etc. I'm surrounded by Lacoste, Dior, the new Sonia Rykiel store, La Grande Epicerie (the biggest and one of the most expensive gourmet groceries in Paris), Au Bon Marche (huge and expensive department store), more designers and art galleries and furniture stores, etc. etc. And, being students, we're all pretty paranoid of running out of money while we're here and spending so much. Luckily I get to go to all the museums for free because my student ID says I'm studying history of art (though the other day I just snuck into the Musee D'Orsay via the coat check). I'm interested in getting a tutoring English job just for the income that I know I don't need if I budget, but I also want to do a student activity, maybe salsa dancing. And I want to shop and go to museums etc. All my classes are so damn far away from each other that this becomes very difficult, just having time generally.
[Philo-y thoughts]: But it isn't really a rich man's world. It's everyone's world, and no one's, because it's my world (me being whoever is reading this, right now it's me because I'm writing but it's actually you right now because you're in the future reading what I wrote at 3:30 A.M. in Paris on my 9th day here). And I have nothing else to compare to, because I live only my one life. So I didn't go to the swank soul club tonight that cost 20 euros. Instead, I had a blast at the free live music club and made a few French friends out on the smoking patio, who hate Sarkozy and think by Americanizing France, he's making the country regress and undoing all the progress since de Gaulle. I don't smoke by the way, but many of my friends do, and so does my French mom and sister, but not dad. Point being, soul club vs. free club, no difference because I'll never know what my life would be like if I had gone to the soul club. Just expand this to everything, and we see that all those potential lives and universes, they don't matter so much because what matters is that girl who hates de Gaulle or the woman on the subway with pink hair or the guy eating oreo
s outside of the church or especially the conversation over a cup of coffee with a good friend, maybe even preferably at the kitchen table rather than in that swank cafe where Hemingway and co. hung out. And that all is free.
Finally, I'm obsessed with this painting at the Yale art gallery: http://tinyurl.com/yorwh6 and paintings like it, of strong hurt looking women looking directly at the viewer, like the artist is speaking to you through this central, often vulnerable, female figure. So here are some of those that I saw at Musee d'Orsay.
