Berlin: Saturday

The pics might not line up perfectly but you can figure everything out I am sure…

So easter in Europe is a big holiday. I find it very ironic the France, the country which prides itself on “laicite”- that is secularism and separation of church and state, has completely shuts down for one of the days which is traditionally one of the most religiously based holidays, well, ever. Easter, the day that celebrates one of the most debated aspects of Christianity, that the celebration of would confirm or throw out your belief of the miracle of the resurrection, is a huge holiday… but they are completely secular… don’t get me started on that.

But on the plus side, I did not have to work the Monday after Easter, so Matt and I decided to take advantage of the long weekend, and make the 13 hour trek by overnight train to Berlin for three days, to see everything we could possibly see between Saturday morning and Monday night. We then planned on getting back on the overnight train and heading back to Paris to go to work on Tuesday morning. We just wanted to make the most of the weekend, and spend as much time in Berlin as possible, and this plan allowed us to do just that.

So when work was over on Friday, we went over to the train station and had a nice dinner before we left so we wouldn’t be hungry on the way, then boarded the train at about 8:00pm for Berlin. Thirteen hours spent on any mode of transportation is a long time to spend, but if I have to pick one form, I think I would pick a train for long trips. You can move around the easiest, and you have the most room in the bathroom. The train we rode to Berlin was another Harry Potter train… we sat in a compartment that had eight seats that really should have been going to Hogwarts, but the thing was we only had seats (the cheapest way of course) and it made for a strange night of sleep, but there is nothing in the world a little Melatonin can’t help you sleep through, at least in my opinion, and we arrived in Berlin, a little sleepy eyed, but not feeling horrible at around 9am, ready for a day of adventures! We trekked over to our hostel, which was actually a huge youth hostel. I haven’t stayed at a ton of hostels in my life, but this one was pretty big, but clean and pretty quiet. So we dropped off our bags since our room wasn’t ready, picked up a couple maps and went to find some coffee (much needed) and a little breakfast and to let our adventures begin.

There were several things we knew that we wanted to do for sure, and those included the visiting the Holocaust memorial which Matt wrote a research paper about for our post World War II Honour Scholar seminar second semester freshman year, and we wanted to see the Jewish history museum which was designed by the Jewish architect Daniel Liebskind that I studied in my Modernist architecture seminar first semester freshman year. Side note: This is why being a HoScho is awesome… you study so many different things! I could go and see things I learned about in my Evolution and Human Nature seminar in Italy, and go see the memorials we learned about in my Germany seminar and the architects and buildings I learned about in another seminar. I love being a hoscho… don’t ask me next year at this time when I am finishing my thesis…

But we also had in our possession an email from the wonderful Professor Julia Bruggeman in our hands, which was really better than any guide book we could have ever even dreamed of buying! She told us about cool buildings and great restaurants and entire neighbourhoods not to miss! It was really great. We were worried a little that a lot of things would be closed for Easter, as they were in France, but because Germany does not have quite the catholic history that France has everything was open. A lot of the stores were closed on Sunday, but I think that is normal… and understandably nothing having to do with Jewish history ect. was closed on Easter either, so we did not have a problem with that!
We had a coffee and some yummy pastries and headed out to find the Museum Island which is home to five large museums which have all kinds of things from all different ages and places in them. We started with the Perggamonn museum which is home to the Pergamon alter and the Ishtar gate, and a really old wall from Babylon… lots of really cool historical things. But in my opinion, just as cool as the stuff in the museums,
are the museums themselves, who were almost all badly damaged during World War II and a lot of the artifacts that are still housed in them suffered during wars, and have had to be restored because they were damaged by rain and bombs and fires. I find all of that to be very interesting personally.

The museum was cool, and then we headed out to find some other sights of the city… the Brandenburg gate, the Reichstag, the Holocaust Memorial and we wanted to see if there was anything left of the Berlin Wall that we could see. This was the first time I have ever been to Berlin, and all I know of it are from the pictures my grandfather took when he was there to help execute the Marshall plan in the late 1940’s. (He turned 18 in May of 1945 so he was just a little too young to have fought in the war in Europe, but he did serve two years in Germany.)
My grandpa’s pictures are absolutely amazing, and they show a Berlin that has not only been ravaged by war, and is almost completely rubble, but they also show a divided city, with signs pointing you in different directions to different sectors. I really like those pictures… but needless to say the Berlin I visited looked nothing like the pictures my Grandpa took of Germany immediately post World War II. I saw the Brandenburg Gate, and stood close to where he must have stood, and looked into a city that is now different from any other European city, more modern feeling and very open and green and clean. It is also amazing to think, that when I was born in 1989 the city was divided into to, and I could not have gone to see half the city I saw, which is very strange to imagine.

But the sun was shining and it was a gorgeous spring Saturday, and we walked over to the Reichstag and took a bit of a rest on the green grass in front of it, people watching and enjoying the sun (also trying to imagine the fact that Hitler burned the building down in the 1930’s to show who was in charge, in case anyone was un sure. We then went over to the Holocaust memorial, which is something Matt has been waiting to do since freshman year, and it really was a very interesting experience. I am not an expert on it like he is, and if you want to read more about it I would suggest looking it up on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_the_Murdered_Jews_of_Europe) but it is definitely a very interesting experience to have, and I am still not sure how I feel about it. At the time we were there it seemed a lot more like it could have been a park of some sort, rather than a memorial to one of the most tragic events in the modern world.
But at the same time, it is hard to see at first how large and deep it goes, and how quickly you could lose your way… as it seems Europe and Germany did during this time period in History… it is all very hard to say, but it was a very worthwhile visit for sure. The question of memory and how we memorialize things is a very big one, and as I mentioned before I took an entire class on how Germany today remembers and deals with the memory of World War II. There are no easy answers and everyone has a different opinion… very interesting and if you want to discuss it with me in person I would be more than happy to! Skype me or ill talk to you this summer!

But to lighten the mood a bit we walked over to Potsdammer Platz where we found the gelato that Dr. Bruggeman recommended to us… so yummy! But we were once again faced with the dilemma of being in a country where the language is so very foreign… I don’t know a word of German, just like I don’t know a word of Italian… and it always is a challenge to just speak English and hope that the person you want to communicate with will speak it back… since that is about all you can do. But at this point, our not very good night of sleep on the train was catching up with us, and we made our way back to the hostel for a bit of a nap break…

Then we headed out to find dinner near our hostel. We were in a very quiet part of the city, and we were trying to find a place that served German food and German beer for dinner, since when in Berlin… but all we could find was a random Irish pub type place that served German food and beer, so that is where we settled on eating, and we had a good dinner of Weinershintel (ok I can’t spell that) and beer and apple strudel. It was very good, but our eyes were drooping, and so we headed back to the hostel to have a good nights sleep. I will write about Sunday and Monday in the next posts so get ready for that!

Food

Soooooo I will blog about Berlin and get all those pics and stuff up tomorrow, but first I want to again show the a world a lovely meal that I got really ambitious and cooked last Thursday... we had fish and grilled peppers and batsami rice and to top it off... chocolate moose I made from SCRATCH! That is right... be impressed. Only one word of advice i have to all of the world out there... DONT EVER try to whip egg whites to a froth without an electric egg beater. That is all... and here are the pics.

Alana does Paris Part II

So Sunday morning after our adventures at the Rocky Horror Picture Show came much sooner than we would have liked… mostly because Daylight Savings time started here, two weeks later than it did in the states. Losing an hour in the Spring is kind of like losing five euro, its not the end of the world, but you would really really like to have it back… but Paris waits for no one, so we groggily got out of bed and made our plans for the day, Père Lachaise the cemetery that is the final resting place of a lot of famous people, then lunch, then the Louvre, then we were going to try to make it up to Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, before we were supposed to have dinner with the Mac MacKenzie. He was passing through the city on his way back to Josselin after two weeks spent doing research in Germany for the book that he is writing that is sure to be a best seller in the world of Otto Dix fans! That was our plan for the day.

Once again the sky was grey and really very threatening as Alana and I bought our delicious morning patisseries, and headed down to the Metro, just in case umbrellas in hand. We jumped on line 1 up to nation and then line 2 to the cemetery, where we met up with Matt, broke down and bought a map of the cemetery (which actually turned out to be an excellent and very worthwhile purchase.) On our list of people to see were the likes of: Chopin, Jim Morrison, Ingres, Molière, La Fountain, Edith Piaf, some mime Matt wanted to see, Gertrude Stein and her lover Alice, Oscar Wilde, and Max Ernst (for Mac.) There were a few others on our list as well, but we made a plan and tried to navigate the cemetery as best we could. We saw lots of interesting and really old graves, and some newer ones, and it seems that this old and infamous cemetery is home to several black cats, which can give one the willies, if you are not careful. We went around finding each person, and paying a little bit of homage to these people, whether they were rock stars, French authors from the 17th century, patrons of Picasso’s, or flaming homosexuals, we sort of felt like we were going to say ‘hi’ to these people, to pay some respects, and feel a little more connected to some of these famous names that we have heard our parents talk about, or our professors rave about, or have read for research papers, or just feel some sort of strange connection to (mimes?) for some inexplicable reason. It was a lot of trekking around, and by about half-way through our visit, we had to put up our umbrellas, (including the POS umbrella, which is REALLY REALLY wearing thin) so by the time we were ready to bid the cold wet, and kind of eerie cemetery good bye, no one was sad to be going.

So we bid farewell to our departed comrades, and made our way over to the Louvre, since that was the next stop on our list. However, it was a bit past lunch time, so we were all super hungry, and what better food could there be in the world than a hotdog, in a baguette with melty cheese on top and ketchup? Clearly the answer is that there is no better food in the world, and when in Paris it is completely necessary that you eat one of these random delectables, at least once during your visit. So we decided that this was as good a time as any for Alana to fulfil this Parisian duty, so we had some yummy hotdogs for lunch just outside the Louvre.

The rain had subsided, but it was still far from being a lovely clear Paris day, and we headed into the massive expanse of the Louvre to take refuge from the yucky day. Honestly, one could spend weeks, probably even months in the Louvre, and not see everything there is to see, and appreciate it for what it is, and what it is worth, and we were only going to be able to spend about three hours there… which was kind of sad, but when you are only in Paris for four days (like Alana) that is all you get! So in making decisions about what we wanted to see, we prioritized all of Alana’s interests. She is an art history major, and she is trying to decide currently if she is going to focus in Classics (she is in Rome for the semester) or Medieval art (she is a student of Anne Harris who can make a biologist fall in love with the middle ages). I guess now she is considering maybe doing something that involves studying Medieval appropriations of Classical art? But anyway, we wanted to see all of the classics and a lot of stuff from the middle ages, so we had our work cut out for us! We also wanted to see all of the ‘not to be missed stuff’ like the Mona Lisa etc, and of course we had to pay a visit to Ingres Odalisque. We really tromped all over the museum (I thought I might die at some points, but clearly I survived…) And Alana shared with us her dream of becoming a running tour guide of the Louvre, that way should could combine her two great loves in life: Running and Art. Actually, running in the Louvre is prohibited, but look for that to change in the future when Alana gets her running tour of the place installed after we graduated from DPU. Seriously, get ready. The Louvre closed at six, so we made a quick stop at the Mona Lisa (smallish, and swarmed constantly by crowds of tourists taking illegal pics with their flashes on!) And we made sure to see the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory. But at about 5:55 we left the museum by way of the inverted pyramid (where Dan Brown assures us that Mary Magdalene is buried), and headed back out into the street.

So at six o’clock, on the Sunday after Daylight savings started, after having trekked all around Père Lachaise and the Louvre, we were pooped. There was no way that we could have had the stamina to make it up to Montmartre at that point, and plus we were scheduled to meet up with Mac at 8pm right outside the Centre Pompidou for dinner, and we thought that to get all the way up there and back in 2 hours might have been pushing it anyway. So instead we decided to kick back, have a snack and some coffee, and people watch for a while, and eagerly await Mac to come out of Centre Pompidou and have dinner with us. We walked around then for a while, trying to find a restaurant to suggest to Mac (Although I know Anne really loves Dame Tartine where everything is served on toast) and watching the ever entertaining things that go on in front of Centre Pompidou. Finally we saw him strolling over to meet us, and we jumped up to exchange hugs, and excited smiles since it can be very funny to see a familiar face, in a place where they don’t usually belong. But we then went to have dinner at a little restaurant that served French food and Moroccan food, so there was something for everyone. We easily passed almost three hours discussing Mac’s research (and new found hobby of bird watching?) and European politics, and the politics of what is going on back home at DePauw. We talked about everything would could possibly talk about I think, even though I know that that is impossible! But by around 11 our eyes were drooping, and I had to wake up early for work the next morning, so we all walked down to the metro together and bid Mac farewell until the fall, and a safe trip back to Josselin, and hugs and kisses for all the kids! Then, dragging our absolutely exhausted feet down into the metro, and made our way back to Sainte-Mandé.

Monday morning, Alana once again climbed aboard the 86 bus with me to come have some coffee (which I really like, but she is more inclined toward her Italian cappuccino) and I went to work for the morning, and she set off to see the inside of Notre Dame, and walked down to la chapelle, but once again you will have to look at her blog to get the full story on her adventures for the day. Then she came back up to the IMA and Matt met us for lunch. Alana wanted to go to a place which is called BIA- Breakfast in America, where you can get American style pancakes and bacon and burgers and stuff for pretty cheap. We all miss home a little bit, and so we did not feel guilty about indulging ourselves in a little American culture (and some bacon!) It was very yummy, and then I went back to work and Alana went down to try to go to Musée d’Orsay which is home to all of the impressionist paintings. But sadly it was closed on Mondays so Alana just had to do some shopping instead. When she came and met me at work at the end of the day, we went up to Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur, and Alana wanted to walk down and see the infamous Moulin Rouge… which was kind of disappointing. But we stopped in Matt’s room for Alana to say good bye, and we went back to my apartment for the night. We stopped and bought Marie some good luck flowers because her big test was on Tuesday, and then we went back home. As a going away celebration, we made our very own dessert crepes and covered them in yummy things like sugar and strawberries and all kinds of lovely things! Then Alana and I snuggled up in bed for her last night in Paris… and we won’t be seeing each other again until we spend a day together at Cedar Point in July.

So as I said good bye to Alana on Tuesday morning, I was very sad to see her go, since she very much enriched my “France Life” for the weekend, and we will have to survive talking to each other on skype for a while… but I am so glad she got to come visit, and one day we will have to come back so that she can go see all the things she didn’t get a chance to see! Love love love you Alana!

Next weekend I will be in Berlin, and the next weekend I will be in Reims in the Champagne region, so look for some more posts about that in the near future!

Bisous!

Alana does Paris Part I

So the eagerly awaited day had finally arrived! Alana was going to get into Paris last Thursday at around 7pm, and I was dying to see her! Thursday dragged on rather long… Although I had lunch with Tati at a Japanese restaurant which was really nice and fun and yummy! Tati is a great person, who is just generally excited to be alive, and I really like spending time with her. She makes everyone around her feel welcome which I really like about a person, particularly her. She is also always looking to have a good time and a good laugh about anything, and so am I! She has been witness to the Moberg disease many times here in Paris, and continues to hang out with me which I think is a good sign!

But finally it was a little after 6 when I left work, and I headed over to Chatelet to collect her from the RER which se was taking to the city from the airport. Just a point to anyone who ever is going to come to Paris… Don’t EVER choose to meet anyone at Chatelet. It is enormous, practically a city under the city, where five metro lines and four RER lines come together in the center of the city… so meeting someone there is like trying to find a needle in a haystack… but don’t worry, Matt and I split up to cover more ground and found Alana… and puppy kisses where exchanged galore! And we headed up out of the Metro so that Alana could breathe her first breath of Parisian air!

One thing that all of us miss about the US… Mexican food. When you spend nine months out of the year in Greencastle, Indiana where one of the three sit down restaurants is Casa Grande, you come to love and almost be addicted to Mexican food. And anyone who knows me knows that I have been having Chipotle withdrawal from the minute I left the states… so we headed out to find La Perla, which is a Mexican restaurant we found with relatively inexpensive food, and really expensive margaritas to make up for it.
We took a little tour on the way down to the restaurant, down Rue de Rivoli, until we came to the restaurant. Tati met us as well for dinner which was really fun… and the entire experience was rather funny because when we ordered our dinners the waiter kept asking us if we knew what the things on the menu were. “Pico de Gallo, do you know what that is?” YES we know what that is! We are Americans… we live in the states where we have plenty of real live Mexicans and plenty of Mexican food! It was very funny… considering Mexicans and Mexican culture is rather foreign to the French, but practically second nature to us. Dinner was delicious, but at that point, Alana and I headed back to my apartment, happy, tired, and ready plan out the adventures for the weekend!

So Friday morning we headed over the Institute du Monde Arabe… Where Alana joined me for my morning ritual of coffee at the café across the street and equipped with my Paris Practique map and my Navigo pass Alana set out to see the Palace of Versailles, and I set off to work for the day. You will have to read her blog to see what she saw and what she thought of her day spent tromping around the grounds of Versailles… but Friday was a good day for me since I got paid! And I got five free tickets for people who are coming to visit me to be able to go and see the exhibit here at the institute which I think is cool. Then Madame Findakly and I planned for her impending absence. She is going on vacation for two weeks, so I will be here in the office holding down the fort by myself for a while. I am a little nervous about it, but here it is Tuesday and nothing terrible has gone wrong yet… so far so good. But as 5:30 rolled around I was ready to burst out the door and go collect Alana so my weekend could begin!

We headed up the street to meet Matt for a cocktail (so grown up!) and then we headed out to buy some bread and cheese and saucisson sec for dinner. We ate our little French dinner in Matt’s room (up all six flights of stairs) and then we headed out to go and find a show that we had heard about and was recommend by a friend. It was called a cabaret, and was taking place at a place called le Lapin Agile. Courtney, another friend from IFE had her boyfriend in for the weekend, so we met up with them in Montmartre and went to see this very interesting show. What it turned out to be was a collection of random singers singing French songs, drinking and other songs as well, for 5 hours. Each singer had a different set of songs and a different personality. They also served us some wine with cherries in it which was really yummy! We stayed and sang along as best we could, until around midnight when we were all dying of sleepiness and Alana thought her legs might fall off from her long day of trekking, so we headed back to Sainte-Mandé to collapse in our bed.

Saturday morning the sky loomed heavy with clouds and it threatened to rain as we left Sainte-Mandé for our first stop of the day: Le tour Eiffel. I have been in Paris for almost three months, and while I have had many sightings and admired it from a distance, I have not yet climbed the tower during this séjour in Paris.
So Paris, which was trying so hard for Alana’s sake, let the blue sky show for just a little bit… and we took some fun and lovely pics from the bottom of the tower (as you see here) before we started our 702 stair trek up to the second level. It is way cheaper, and way faster to climb the stairs, and since we are all young and cheap, we took the stairs. It was a little bit of a trek, but the view was worth it, as well as the gift shop (even though we didn’t buy anything.)
At that point, you have to take the elevator all the way to the top… and it costs an additional 7 euro, and since I have been up there before, and Matt didn’t care and Alana has a slight fear of heights, we decided to descend and go find some lunch at a yummy yummy Breton crepe restaurant that is one of my favourite places in Paris (don’t worry mom, I will take you guys there too!)

At this point we also met up with my friend Kira from high school who is studying in Madrid for the semester and was in Paris for the weekend. She joined us for our yummy yummy lunch and then the four of us all headed out to find the Musée de Moyen Age (medieval museum) for Alana to see the tapestry of the woman and the unicorn. This was a very interesting museum for all of us, since we are all sort of art history nerds, and any one who has ever even met Anne Harris falls in love with the Middle Ages. And look, I even found an Ethiopian! So after the museum, we bid Kira farewell, and Matt and Alana and I set out on a bit of a walk to head up to place de la concorde and then up the Champs Elysees to see the Arc de Triomphe. No visit would be complete without a stop for some ice cream along the way… and it was really a wonderful way to spend the afternoon, with two of my favourite people in the world, eating yummy things and exploring and enjoying the amazing city that I have come to call my home in the past few weeks.
We have dreamed of when we would be together, both in Rome and in Paris, and Alana and I loved every minute of her visit.

We then set out to find out cheap dinner at our favourite kebab place, where I have befriended the guys who work there, and Alana got to experience the glory of the pita grec which I have come to love, and eat every Tuesday after class. So after a delicious dinner, we set out once again to complete our plans for the evening: We went to go see the French rendition of a showing of the infamous Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was… interesting to say the least. Anyone who has gone and seen one in the US knows how overtly sexual and kind of crazy it is… but then add in a strange mix between French and English with jokes and innuendo flying in both directions at all times, plus just some random stuff too… then getting soaked in water (expect nothing less! And I am still picking rice out of my shoes and off my scarf) and you might be able to begin to be able to think about what it was like… It really can’t be contained in this little blog post, but trust me… it was weird and wonderful. Then when it was over, Alana and I got trapped in the group who were the last ones out and they tried to tell us that we had to clean up all the rice… a job I would not wish on anyone! But they asked us if we were all French and I shouted non! But then they shouted back at me (in French) that I must be lying just trying to get out of cleaning up… and I had a moment where all that was running through my head was “how do I prove to them I am not French?” and the worlds most obvious answer finally came to me… Speak in English. So I started speaking in English, and then they believed me… but gave me the ultimate compliment and told me I spoke French very well! I was so excited! But they were kidding the whole time about having to clean up the rice, so after a simple tax of two kisses to each of the actors (transvestites?) We left happy, and only a little weirded out. So that was the end of our Saturday. Alana and I made the trek back to Sainte-Mandé then, and literally fell into bed after out really long, fun, and eventful day.

Now you will have to read about Sunday and Monday in the next post…

Thought of the day

So I have the blog posts (Alana does Paris part I and Alana does Paris part II) written, but I won't post them till later because my computer is the one with the pics on it, not the computer here at work, and I don't want to post one without the other! But in the mean time...

So this morning I had a long conversation with Audrey (one of the other interns here at the IMA who went to college in the states) about... post graduation stuff. What am I going to do, where am I going to go etc... and our conversation slipped into the topic of the GRE, how to study for it and the best strategies etc. And then a strange feeling came over me, one I haven't felt in a long time... It is a strange mix of anxiety, pressure and motivation, and the last time I felt it was in high school, when I was worrying about getting into the right school, and doing what I was SUPPOSED to do (whatever the hell that might mean!) Thoughts started running through my head, I need to study I need to do this I need to do that... then fear took a hold, and my fight or flight insticts kicked in. And since I am a pacifist it was flight and my thoughts were only to become a hippie and live in the woods for the rest of my life... and then I took a step back, and realized that I have made a lot of effort in the past three years not be "a person like that" anymore. Not to be freaking out about doing the right thing and going the right place and being who the world or whatever says I need to be. It took a lot to try to get over that mindset (and I still struggle with it sometimes, and I still stress out way to much I know) and I don't want to slip back into it. Whatever I do, wherever I go, it will be where I want to go because I want to go there, not because it is what I am SUPPOSED to do. I get to pick, not everyone else, and that is a liberating thought.

So I decided that I will try to think about that kind of stuff this summer, and not worry about it now, and I have to keep the future and what it may or may not hold in perspective, relative to the here and now. Then at lunch I was reading some Donald Miller, and this little excerpt made me feel better about everything, and I hope not to have any "high school me" relapses again.

"And maybe when a person doesn’t buy the lies anymore, when a human stops long enough to realize the stuff people say to get us to part with our money often isn’t true, we can finally see the sunrise, smell the wetness in a Gulf breeze, stand in awe at a downpour no less magnificent than a twenty-thousand foot waterfall, ten square miles wide, wonder at the physics of a duck paddling itself across the surface of a pond, enjoy the reflection of the sun on the face of the moon; and know; This is what I was made to do. This is who I was made to be, that life is being given to me as a gift, that light is a metaphor, and God is doing these things to dazzle us."

Donald Miller, in Through Painted Deserts

La vie

So, it does seem to keep reoccurring that Thursday afternoons at the IMA are a little bit slow… but I guess that means I should update my blog since I haven’t done it since Sunday and I could write about the past couple days and what I am so looking forward to in the next few days and in the next few weeks!

So last weekend I came home from Bayeux… and I did not make it to the Salon du Tourisme as I was hoping to, mostly because I ended up sleeping in since all of the excitement from the day before had been very tiring. But between March 21-23 Paris was having what they call le printemps du cinema… which means that all movies at all theatres at all time are showing for only 3.50 euro, and since I was not about to miss out on an opportunity to go and see a cheap movie! So on Sunday afternoon I went over to les halles where there is a rather large theatre with lots of choices. It turns into a drug dealer haven at night, but during the day it is fine, so I went and picked a movie called Le reve Italien (the Italian dream) which was an Italian film with French subtitles. It was the story of what was going on in Italy int the late 1960’s, whith many socialist and communist movements that were led by students. The same kinds of things were happening France at the time (have you heard of Mai ’68?) and in the United States too, on a different scale, but anti-war protests and all of that were in full swing. It was a good movie, based on a true narrative… but what I was really thrilled about was the fact that I could watch a movie in Italian with French subtitles (not English subtitles!) and I understood the entire thing! There was only one scene in the movie that was sort of a nuanced interaction between some of the characters, and I didn’t quite understand what was going on. I knew what they were saying, but I didn’t really understand the meaning… but other than that I got the whole movie! I was thrilled. Then on Sunday night I caught up with a lot of people from home… which is always really nice, and Sundays seem to be good for that kind of thing.

Monday started the fourth week of my internship at the IMA… the time is going so quickly! I can’t believe it! But Monday night after I left work I trekked down to Bastille, and walked around for a while. Then Matt and I went to see another movie since they are so cheap! But this time it was an American movie, that you might have heard of or not… Crazy Heart. Jeff Bridges plays a 57 year old country music star whose life is falling apart because of his alcoholism etc. It is based off of the personal lives of many of the classic country music stars of the 1970’s, a mix of Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jr. It was also good, and the female lead was Maggie Gyllenhaal, who I like and Collin Farrell. It was a good story, although it made me realize a big difference between French and English. Now if there is a bilingual person out there reading this who can prove me wrong (anne) please do. But it appears to me that in French they just don’t have as many varied, colourful and multi-use swear words as we do in English. During a lot of the movie I listened in English, but watched the French subtitles to see how things were being translated… and so many times when Jeff Bridges was swearing up a storm, I thought… merde just doesn’t capture the meaning of that statement. I will spare the colourful details of some of the language used… this blog is supposed to be rated PG, but if you see the movie, you will know what I mean! I would recommend it… but don’t pay 10 dollars to see it… rent it on netflix or something.

Tuesday is always a good but extremely exhausting day. I go to work for almost 7 hours, then I have my class on the European Union, which I love, but everything is still harder in French, and by the time that Tati and Laura and Jack and I and usually some others head out to get a drink and dinner afterwards, my mind is reeling! This week was extra intense because I had a Revue de Presse to give, which is a ten minute presentation summarizing the news from the past week in Europe as it relates to the Union. The past few weeks all the talk has been about the financial crisis in Greece, and whether or not Germany will get its way and have Greece kicked out of the Euro zone, and thus out of the Union. It doesn’t look like that is going to happen, but the IMF might get involved, which will make Europe look really bad in my opinion… which will be great for the strength of the dollar… we shall see. Tuesday was also “Anit-Sarcozy Day” and the left front was marching through the streets all day to celebrate their sweeping victory in the regional elections this past weekend, and to remind Sarcozy (the president of France) that his approval rating currently stands at around 36 percent… not good.

The French are also watching closely how the Americans are dealing with the passing of the healthcare bill… since medicine in France has been socialized since the end of World War II. I think they watch with an approving eye, but they are also bemused at all the controversy it has stirred up, and how people are claiming it is the “death of liberty” since there is plenty of liberty in France, but I don’t want to get too political here… and I don’t want to get in a political argument with my mom… since she and my grandma will be here in 26 days! I can’t wait!

This morning I had my meeting with Tim (from IFE) and Mme Findakly, my directrice du stage. They come and meet with you near the fourth or fifth week, just to make sure that all is going well, and you are started on your memoire and everything… and I felt really good, because Mme Findakly had nothing but nice things to say about me, and my work which I really appreciated. She also said that she is looking for a program like IFE that is based in the US to send her daughter to (she has a 21 year old daughter; my age) because she wants her daughter to have the same sort of experience! I am looking into things for her, and if anyone has any suggestions let me know!

Now on to what I am so very looking forward to… Alana will be here so soon! In like three hours! I am going to meet her at Chatelet at 7pm tonight and we are going to go exploring and have dinner, and make plans for her visit this weekend, which already include crepes, the Eiffel Tower, the Musee d’orsay, the Louvre, the French version of Rocky Horror Picture show on Saturday (!!!!!!!) and lots more! Then the next weekend I am on an overnight train to Berlin for my three day weekend! The Monday after Easter in France is a National Holiday, meaning a perfect three day weekend in Berlin… and an overnight train back on Monday, and arriving at work on Tuesday morning… that will be interesting! So like I said before, look for fun posts with pics from our adventures this weekend… and I hope all is well for people out there!

Bisous!

Out and about: IMA

So I don't have a lot to say here, but I wanted to put up some pictures of the sites of Paris that I see everyday now that I am working at the Institute du monde arabe. It is in the 5th arondissment which is one of the oldest parts of Paris. This past week there was the opening of the newest exhibit which is on display until the end of June, and I got a VIP invitation to the private opening on Thursday, which I thought was very cool. I got to see if for free, and enjoy some refreshments and even see the artist who designed the sets on display. There are also several tradesmen from North Africa who are displaying their trade and their wears (a silversmith, a glass blower, a basket weaver, a man who makes mosaics, a man who does stone carvings and a man who makes saddles. It was all very cool, and I felt very official and part of the exciting day! So here are some pics of the institute in the sun, which is really nice, and some pics of what I see when I cross the bridge and when I come to Bastille which is near IFE and things... I just like to take pics sometimes and I want to share them with you! I can't believe that I am a fourth of the way through my internship... so many things still to do and see! Just keep checking up here to see pics and things... and Alana is coming to Paris this weekend from Thursday to Tuesday, so that will be so fun too... and look forward to some great pics because we will probably do some good touristy things, and really just have some fun together! So enjoy my city everyday pics, and there are more dramatic ones to come... oh yeah and two more Rome posts... so that too in the next week or so!












Bisous!