Le Fin

Tomorrow afternoon I'm leaving Paris. I'm really sad about it.

Au revoir, Paris!

Fitting it all in... (Part 5)

So, last day today, and it was a full one.

I got up bright and early (way too early) and Ferris and I headed over to the famous cemetary, Père Lachaise. We saw Jim Morrison's grave, which is incredibly difficult to find, and Oscar Wilde's grave, which has lipstick kisses all over it. This morning was gray and slightly gloomy, so it was the perfect day to go to a cemetary.

After that, we stopped by the Luxembourg Gardens, which I've been meaning to go to because everyone always gushes about how beautiful they are. Well, I think the beautiful really comes through in the spring and summer when things are actually blossoming. There were a bunch of old people all over the park who were doing tai-chi or something similar to that and it was incredibly entertaining to watch them.

Then, in search of gift for my homestay mom, Erin and I went to Galerie Lafayette, which was ridiculously crowded but as amazing as ever. Someone told us that they sold tights that had fleece on the inside but we couldn't find them anywhere and we realized that we don't know the french word for fleece and neither did the French peolpe. So no tights for us.

When we were done browsing the Galerie (with a gift a for Beatrice! Mission accomplished.), a group of my friends and I met at a cafe by the Opera Garnier to say our goodbyes. Once we finished coffee, Ferris, Kelsey and I went to Laduree, that amazing macaroon/tea salon that I mentioned last week, to get macaroons to bring home. Since it's Christmastime, there was a ridiculously long line, but the end result is well worth the wait. Then we went to Leon, which is a restaurant that is known for their mussels. It too was incredibly full with a giant line that we had to wait in.

I ended my night (and my time in Paris) with a quick stop at Trocadero to eat a nutella and banana crepe and see the Eiffel Tower one last time. It was even sparkling for me when I went. And then I came home to pack, which I have just (believe it or not) finished! And I'm literally falling asleep at the computer while I write this.

Things I'll Miss About Paris

So, I'm just kind of expecting this question to come up a lot once I get home. Anyways, here's my list, though I'm sure there's other things that I'm not thinking of:

• Pudding and Jedi
• Having my laundry done for me every day
• 5.50 euro lunch from the yellow boulangerie down the street from school
• fresh, hot pain au chocolat from the bakery next to the my metro stop
• everyone sitting in the salon at school and talking about that week's episode of Gossip Girl that we all watched online Tuesday afternoon.
  
• knowing everyone at school
• the ballet (especially free ballet)
• getting school credit for walking around Paris and learning really awesome things about the city
• the kids and teenagers in the 16th arrondisement who do and always will look infinitely cooler than me.
• scarfs!
• crepes, baguettes, macaroons, chocolate, hot chocolate made with real chocolate...
• the fact that literally every single building is gorgeous and old
• the signs at almost every metro stop telling you how many minutes until the next train
• awesome and free NYU events and trips
• dinner with Beatrice
• the fact that a large majority of the Parisian population is skinny and attractive and well-dressed
• seeing the Eiffel Tower (and, let's be honest, the giant billboard of Jude Law) on my walk to school
• my friends
• that guilty feeling that I get whenever I find myself sitting in my room instead of walking around Paris
• sitting on the steps at Sacre Coeur and listening to the musicians
• brown sugar bubble tea (why have I never seen this flavor in the US??)
• all of the museums
• the sound of the French language
• um, pretty much everything...
  

Reverse Culture Shock

NYU sent all of us study abroad students a really interesting email the other day:

Coming back home can be difficult -- sometimes even more difficult than going abroad. Once you return, you might notice some things that were once familiar have become foreign. Here are some signs that you may be experiencing some reverse culture shock:

· “Reverse homesickness.” This happens when students deeply miss their abroad friends, international host families, and the city where they lived during the study abroad experience.

· “Relationships have changed.” When students return home, they may experience a change in the relationships that they had with their family and/or friends. Many students expect that everything will be exactly the same when they return home, neglecting that much can change in six months.

· “You can’t explain.” Some friends and family will be extremely open to hearing stories and seeing pictures, yet students returning from abroad often find it frustratingly difficult to put their experience into words, especially if the friends and/or family members in question have not traveled much.

· “People misunderstand.” Accidentally using a foreign language, wearing a new hairstyle or new clothing, etc. may be seen as showing off, whereas to the returning student, these behaviors are completely normal.

· “Feelings of alienation.” When students return from abroad, many develop new dislikes for aspects of their home country. Many students become hypercritical and constantly reminisce about how things in their study abroad site were much better than they are in this country.

· “Boredom.” Students return from a semester of adventure and excitement, where each day brought a new challenge and learning opportunity. Many students return to their “old routine” with their family and friends and are disillusioned with how uninteresting life can feel in their home country.

So at first I thought that this all sounded slightly ridiculous, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how true it all is. Especially the "you can't explain" one. Anyways, I guess I'll find out pretty soon...

Fitting it all in... (Part 4).

Another action packed day!

Centre Pompidou. I visited this newer, modern art museum. As is typical it had a lot of really cool and really bizarre things inside.

This was called "Winter Garden" and it was really cool because you can walk inside of it.

See? (This picture shows the ceiling, wall, and ground. Can you distinguish them?)

Another great thing about the Centre Pompidou is the view. Here you can see the Eiffel Tower, as well as a large part of Paris.

This is the really cool, industrial, modern hallways that you have to walk through to get to every floor. The outside of the museum is kind of hard to describe, but it is kind of inside out. All of the pipes are color coded (blue for air, etc) and on the outside, as are the escalators to get you from one floor to the next.

Another view of Paris, this time looking northwest, with Sacre Coeur in the right corner.

Then I joined Sara and Kelsey in the Tuileries Gardens, which is right inbetween the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde. As you can see, it was a beautiful day.

Next, Sara and I went to the Musée de l'Organerie, a tiny little museum in the Tuileries Gardens that is famous for have some of Monet's Waterlilies.

This picture is by Renoir and hung in my room for a really long time. Recognize it, Dad?

Here is one of the two rooms that had giant Monet paintings. Not nearly as many as were at the Monet museum that I went to with Mom and Brad.

Then we walked along the Seine. It was a beautiful day!

More Seine.

Then Sara, Ferris, and I went to this mosque that is in Paris, but it was closed, so all we could do was have tea in their restaurant. It was just like being back in Morocco! After that, Ferris and I decided to brave the 284 steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Let me tell you, that is a lot of steps.

View of La Defense in the west of Paris.

View of the Eiffel Tower and surrounding area.

View of the Champs Élysées.

Ferris and I at the top, overlooking the Champs-Élysées.

Afterwards, we strolled down the Champs-Élysées and stopped into the Louis Vuitton store. It was ridiculous and I can only hope to someday be able to go into that store with the intention of actually buying something. Then we walked through the Christmas Market, but seeing as it was my third time there, it wasn't too exciting. Finally, we ended the night by going to a friend's apartment and just hanging out there all night with a bunch of people. It was a lot of fun, though we were all sort of wistful, as for most of us it's one of our last nights here.

Fitting it all in...(Part 3).

Yesterday (Wednesday), I finally made it over to the Musée d'Orsay, which is a museum inside of the old Orsay train station. For some strange reason I thought that it was a modern art museum nad I was so confused as to why there was so much impressionism and postimpressionism paintings, until I figured out that I had been gravely mistaken. It's a pretty good museum, not my favorite, but not too bad. One of the things that I found the most interesting though was the way that they turned a train station into a museum and their use of space.


Here's a picture of the main floor, with a view of the famous clock.

The had a special section on the Opera Garnier that was really cool. This is a side split view of the entire operahouse. I never realized how much space there was behind the stage.

I also just wanted to note (because I don't think that I've ever mentioned this, though maybe I did?) that NYU gave us id cards that say we're all art history students on the back, and that gets us into every public museum for free, which is awesome!


Today was an action packed day:

After my final, I visited my friend Rachel's class. She's in an advanced conversation class that meets with a group of French students who are studying English (I've mentioned them before, way back at the beginning of the semester) and their big project was to make 5 minute movies with the French speaking English and vice versus. They screened the movies today and they were all really good and funny (though of course, Rachel's was the best). Interestingly, I had a really hard time understanding the French people speak English but it was pretty easy for me to understand the NYU students speaking French.

After that was finished, I went to Belleville with Sara and Kelsey. It's a neighborhood that's in the northern part of Paris and according to Sara and her guide book, there's lots of cute little shopping. Au contraire though. Pretty much all I saw was a thriving Chinese neighborhood, dirty streets, and a couple of parks. Oh, and there was a canal too, which you can see in the movie Amelie. It was nice to say that I've been there though. One more part of Paris discovered (if only a little bit).

I left Sara and Kelsey shopping in Belleville to go to the Latin Quarter and go to Shakespeare and Co. for the first time (I know, how have I been in Paris for 4 months and not gone yet?? I don't know either...) Shakespeare and Co. was pretty much what I expected, a tiny cramped little bookstore, reminiscent to the Strand back in New York. And they all spoke English! I found a copy of Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo (the book that saved and made famous the decrepite church) for only 2 euros and the cool thing about that is that Shakespeare and Co. is literally right across the Seine from Notre Dame. When I was standing at the outside books on sale cart, looking at Notre Dame de Paris, I could see the real Notre Dame out of the corner of my eye, which I'm pretty sure makes the book extra special. Then, when I was paying for my purchase, I struck up a conversation about the ballet Raymonda which I went to see with NYU last week and despite the fact that I was sitting directly underneath the lights (so hot) and couldn't see the right part of the stage. The cashier guy was playing music from the ballet and had the Wikipedia page up for it, because, as I found out, he was going to see it for the second time tonight. Then he suggested that I check out this other ballet at the Opera Garnier on Saturday night before I leave. Thanks NYU in Paris for making me cultured!

Then, I got a phone call from a friend of Aleja (my past and now future roommate), who is living in Paris. I met up with him to have coffee and it was really nice to meet someone new. Now I have a second invitation to visit Colombia (where both Aleja and her friend are from), which I think pretty much means that I'm obligated to go...

After that it was dinner time. I went to the same steak-frites place that Mom, Brad, and I went to on their last night, but unfortunately (or maybe, fortunately?) there was no tooth incident. It was one last nice dinner with all of my friends in Paris before we all leave.

I hung out with some more friends after that, but soon we (Kelsey, Sara, Ferris, and I) found ourselves on a late night walking tour of Paris, which was really awesome, especially since it suddenly today got really warm here, like close to 50 degrees. Here's some pictures from our adventure:

Notre Dame with a Christmas tree! Right in front of the Christmas tree is a sign on the ground that marks that spot as the center of the world, because it was the point where everything in France used to be measured from. I stood in the center of the world and it was awesome.

This is something really cool. Haussmann, the man under Napeleon III who completely changed Paris and made what it is today (wide sprawling avenues, beautiful buildings, sanitary, etc), attacked the Ile de la Cite (the island that Notre Dame is on and which was once where all of Paris was) drastically reducing the amount of people who resided on the island and building government buildings in their place. In destroying all of these houses, he widen streets and stopped them from being dark, crowded, and small. How small? you ask. Well, lucky for us, they left a little marker showing exactly where a street used to stand in front of Notre Dame and here is a picture of Kelsey standing on the "street" so you can get an idea of how ridiculously little the streets were. The two strips of white stones mark where buildings would start. Imagine walking down those roads, with people throwing waste out their windows on you. Not to mention that the houses were tiny and tall, making them incredibly susceptible to collapsing. On top of you. Not fun. Can you see how small that is?? You could fit maybe 3 Kelseys and she's really small.

View of the Seine.

Another view of Notre Dame, but farther away.

After this we proceeded to try and find a cab, which was close to impossible. After going to 2 ridiculously long cab lines, we finally ended up at a moderately long one and then waited in line for about an hour to get a cab. I have no idea why so many people were taking taxis tonight, but it was frustrating. NYC subway, I miss you...

I'm Done!!!!!!!

I finished my last final this afternoon at 1:45. That means that I only have 3 semesters left, 1.5 school years, 12 classes, etc. It is too late to do any harder math than 4x3=12.

In other news, I'm also officially living at Water Street next semester with my friend Aleja. Yay!