Chapitre 7: An American Thanksgiving in Grenoble

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Since I can't be there with all of you, I figured a blog post is the best I can do.  As it turns out, Thanksgiving is a difficult holiday to explain.  The first problem, of course, was the language.  In trying to explain the Thanksgiving story, I quickly realized that I didn't know how to say "pilgrims", "Native Americans", "pumpkins" and other relevant words in French.  But even once those details were ironed out, people don't seem to understand how this romanticized story of friendship has led to what we now celebrate as Thanksgiving.  And to be perfectly honest, I guess the reason its so hard to explain is because I don't really know how Thanksgiving evolved myself.  How do I explain to the Russian woman in my class that Americans watch football and eat turkey together to celebrate the survival of the pilgrims?  Answer:  I don't.  She told me she'd ask one of her friends who lives in the U.S. to try to explain it to her again.  

Mountains, snowy and even more beautiful now!

Now, if you'll pardon my nostalgia and sentimentality for just a moment, what I can tell you about Thanksgiving is something that I assume, or hope at the very least, we all know: that, putting aside pilgrims, turkey, football and pies, Thanksgiving is a day to be grateful for what we have.  This year, I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to study abroad and meet so many wonderful people here in France.  I'm thankful for my host family, who have been kind enough to welcome me into their home and their life.  I'm thankful that my program director organized a Thanksgiving dinner for my group last night.  And above all, I'm especially thankful for all of my family and friends.  You guys are the best, really.  I would not have been able to do something like this without knowing that I have all of you to return home to. Plus, no one would read my blog if it weren't for you.  Lastly, despite all the fun, adventures and life experiences I've been enjoying over here, I'm grateful that I'll be home in just over 3 weeks.  I hope you all have found things to be grateful for this year, and I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving.

I didn't have any pictures of turkeys, so swans will have to do.

As I mentioned, my week was not completely turkey-less.  Wednesday night my group all ate a Thanksgiving dinner prepared especially for us.  Although it wasn't quite the same (people here just don't get the idea of eating until you can't move), it was really nice to spend the evening with my fellow patriots and speak english unabashedly.  As a pleasant surprise, there was even cranberry sauce to go along with the turkey, potatoes and green beans!  For dessert we had french-style apple pie with whipped cream and sprinkles.  The sprinkles really topped things off.  All in all, it was nice to share a little bit of Thanksgiving spirit here.

One last bit of exciting news: my host family got a puppy today!  It is absolutely adorable.  I'll try to get a couple of pictures for you.  I'm looking forward to plenty of fun with it for the next few weeks, ideally something like the Snoopy and the lawn chair scene from Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving.

Chapitre 6: "And he's walking - you say he's walking to gay Par-ee?"

The title of this post comes from the book Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien, and I think of it everytime I think of Paris, although I don't think anyone in the book ever makes it to Paris.  Nevertheless, a good read and I did indeed make it all the way to gay ol' Paris, which was rainy, kind of cold, exhausting and wonderful.

  After learning about Paris, talking about Paris, acting out scenes that take place in Paris for 6 years of french classes, it was really exciting to be there finally.  We took the TGV (train de grande vitesse... this acronym always reminds me of the R.O.U.S. from the Princess Bride for some reason) from Grenoble straight to the Gare de Lyon à Paris.  As I was planning out the places I wanted to go and everything I wanted to see, I found myself mentally referring to 10th grade French class project where we had to make a map of Paris with 10 destinations and a certain number of roads and arrondisements.  I realize that, as great as I'm sure my map was, it was probably not so accurate, but it still came in handy when I was trying to visualize where the Sacre Coeur was.  So that's the mindset that I went to Paris with, a 10th grade idea of things that looked cool when I googled Paris.  Along these lines, when asked what my goals were for the weekend, I said, "To eat a crepe by the Eiffel tower.  To eat crepes all weekend."  And Paris did not disappoint.  I was overwhelmed by the very Parisianness of it all, and I must say, it was remarkably similar to my 10th grade map in the best sense possible. Oh, where to begin...

I suppose le Tour Eiffel is as good a place as any, since as my host father said today, "When you say France to an American, they think Paris, and when you say Paris, they think Eiffel Tower."  On Thursday night we arrived to a somewhat damp, cloudy Paris and I could just see the tip of the Eiffel tower in the distance.  After getting dinner in the Latin Quarter, fairly close to our hotel, at a Greek restaurant where we were literally dragged to the dancefloor and where practical jokes abounded, we decided to stroll down to the Eiffel tower.  Now, many of you are probably not familiar with the layout of Paris, but as it turns out, the Latin Quarter is VERY FAR AWAY from the Eiffel Tower, but we were lulled into following the searchlight from the top of the tower, like a moth to the flame.  So as we strolled along the Seine, saying at every new block "almost there now!", it started to rain.  And then the steady rain, which was doing a pretty good job of getting us soaked as we walked miles and miles, turned into a veritable deluge, which is to say, it POURED on us.  At this point every one of us looked like a drowned rat, completely soaked, which left us nothing to do but laugh and keep on walking.  So that's what we did, just laughed as we strolled through arrondissement après arrondissement until the rain let up just as we walked around a corner to see le tour Eiffel in all her shining glory.  I know its 'touristy' and 'uncool', but I was really impressed by the Eiffel tower.  We didn't get the chance to go up because of the weather, but I did get to eat a chocolate crepe at the foot of the Eiffel tower, so I met my goal for the weekend.  I actually met this goals twice, when we returned to the Eiffel Tower Friday night to see if it was open, alas it was not.  The crepes were delicious in any case.

The other major attractions I saw were the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, and the Pompidou Center.  From this list, my two favorites were the Sacre Coeur and the Pompidou Center.  Sacre Coeur was simply beautiful.  While I found Notre Dame very impressive, Sacre Coeur was more pure and, simply put, more beautiful to me.  The Pompidou Centre was fantastic.  It is the national musuem of Modern art (from the beginning of the 20th century til now) so it housed some really impressive pieces by Picasso, Miro, Pollack and others.  There was also a really interesting exhibit by female artists that was great.  I guess  I prefer more modern art... as cool as it was to see the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and other great works in the Louvre, I'm not at all interested by them.  I'd much rather look at some crazy optical illusion paintings in a building that looks like a hamster cage.  And although the Pompidou Center is huge, the Louvre is just too big.  I was drained after our 2.5 hours there, and we didn't make it to the 2nd floor at all nor to all of the wings.

I also ate lunch at the oldest cafe in France, home to the desk of Voltaire himself and the room where Marat wrote L'Ami du Peuple.  Sure, it was overpriced, but it was a lot of fun.  We read the quotes from all the famous french philosophers and writers on the wall and even pulled out our dictionaries to better understand them, we asked the waitstaff to take our pictures with the desk, we got the crumbs brushed off our table in between the main meal and dessert.  It was AWESOME!  Plus, our waiter was the epitome of a Parisian stereotype.  His voice sounded just like Michel from Gilmore Girls and he had the perfect air of snootiness, although he was actually very nice and obliging.  After he checked to make sure we spoke french, he asked us if we were Parisian, even though every person in the restuarant knew the answer to that question.  It was a nice bit of fake flattery though and I appreciated his efforts nonetheless.

A summary of Paris:

• I loved it, and, at the same time, I can't tell you how glad I am to not live there
• It is impossible to do everything there.
• Paris was cold and gray, but that seems to be the general theme of France in November
• Notre Dame = big and dark; Sacre Coeur = big, light and beautiful
• Louvre = too big, too tiring, too old; Centre Pompidou = just right.
• Eiffel Tower > Arc de Triomphe
• Crepes in Paris = delicious; crepes in general = also delicious
• I'm glad to be safe back in my little mountain city for my last month in France.

One last note on Paris: there were Starbucks, McDonald's and other American things all over the place, which made me a little sad in thinking about global commercialization, but was kind of nice to see as well, a little taste of home.  It was this latter mindset that prompted me to get a McFlurry at McDonald's on the Champs-Elysees.  The McDo's was massive and absolutely packed; there were at least 8 registers open with lines at every one of them.  If it makes anyone feel better about me going to McDonalds in Paris, let me just say that I found my McFlurry disappointing.  I think what I was really hoping for was more along the lines of a Dairy Joy M&M mix in, but that will have to wait for spring time at home I suppose. 

Pictures! 

1. The Eiffel tower at night

2. Sacre Coeur 

3. Me in front of the Pompidou Center

4. The Arc de Triomphe 

5. Inside Notre Dame

6. Winged Victory in the Louvre

7. My friends and I at the Eiffel tower!
8. Your truly with Voltaire's desk at the oldest cafe in France
9. The streets of Paris

Chapitre cinqo: Barcelona!

Hello family and friends!  I'm sorry for the blogging delay, things have been busy around here!  This entry will consider the following 3 topics: 1. commentary on french life, 2. I WENT TO BARCELONA and 3. I'm about to go to Paris.

Section 1.  General life update

I've been watching France a un incroyable talent, the French version of America's Got Talent with my host family for the last few weeks.  I'm pleased to announce that, in my humble opinion, France has no more talent than America.  There are at least as many people dancing with cats and making bad jokes on the French version as in America, if not more.  There are definitely more mimes in the French version.  Instead of the token, mean British judge, Incroyable Talent has a quick-to-the-buzzer Québécois at the reins.  The other aspect of daily life I have to share with you is that last night my host family decided to have "English Dinner".  No, not bangers and mash, we ate our regular french meal, but we spoke "only" in english!  It was a lot of fun and somewhat hilarious as well, since most of the family doesn't speak english very well.  I tried not to laugh too much, since, mercifully, french people don't often laugh at me when I mispronounce things, but there were a times when I just couldn't hold back a laugh.  For example, "sore throat"is apparently a difficult phrase for french speakers.  A few times they asked me to repeat a word in english, but with a french accent so they could understand better.  Eventually the conversation disintergrated into my host siblings looking up the english words for different animals and designating everyone their own species.  All in all, a hilarious evening that I think everyone enjoyed and benefited from.

Section 2. Barcelona!

Last weekend I decided to voyage outside the country, courtesy of easyjet.com and their relatively cheap airfare.  Along with 2 friends, I jetted off to Barcelona, Spain for a few days.  On the flight there, I had one of those moments where all the funny thoughts in your head become unbearably funny and you start laughing out loud, apparently for no reason.  In this case, I was thinking about how I've taken to referring to Grenoble as G.Nobes in my mind and occasionally out loud (since abbreviations are popular with the younger crowd these days).  It then crossed my mind that Barcelona could be easily shortened to B.Lones, and G.Nobes and B.Lones was just too much for me to contain.  Sorry, Easyjet, for interupting an otherwise quiet and tranquil flight.  Back to the real story: Barcelona was beautiful!  

We found our way to the city center, to our hostel, and then to the beach!  The beautiful Mediterranean beach that was warmer than Maine beaches, despite it being November!  I won't spend too much time describing everything we saw, suffice it to say that everything was interesting.  I particularly enjoyed the Gaudi architecture that we were able to see.  Antoni Gaudi was a famous architect from Barcelona known for his whimisical takes on traditional structures.  We spent Friday morning exploring a park he designed and it was quite a whimisical experience between the architecture and the numerous street performers gathered there, bombarding us with songs, crafts, and other 'talents'.  One entrance to the park is on the top of a steep hill, but conveniently, the city of Barcelona has installed escalators on this hill to ease your journey up!  No excuses not to visit!  Another highlight of the weekend for me was the Chocolate Museum!  The entrance fee was about 3 euros, which was completely worth it, if for nothing else, because the ticket was a chocolate bar.  And not any old cheap milk chocolate bar, this was a delicious 70% cacoa chocolat noir.  Confession: I bought a bit of chocolate in the shop at the end of our visit that I thought I might bring home to give to a lucky winner.  Unfortunately for you all, I ate it on Sunday while I was doing my homework, so don't get your hopes up about getting delicious French chocolate for Christmas, odds are it won't make it back to the States.  

Another interesting aspect of the weekend was the language, and by that I mean, no hablo español!  I guess I didn't realize how accustomed to French I've become until I was confronted by a language that was not French!  Not to mention that many people in Barcelona speak Catalan, which is not french, spanish or english!  Suffice it to say that as we were eating lunch in a restaurant just after our arrival, I was so overwhelmed by the language issue that my conversation with the waitress went soemthing like this:

"Waitress: (something spanish... or catalan... clearly implying that she could take the menus)

KK: merci! uh wait.. thanks.. no.. aah.. non, oui.. gracias!"

By the end of the weekend I got used to "si" and "gracias" but it was a struggle.  I almost said gracias to the ticket lady in France when I was buying my bus ticket back to Grenoble.  Too many languages!

One last commentary on Spain before I return to France.  Although I have been thoroughly enjoying all the baked treats at my disposal, the Spanish have something that will never exist in France: the churro.  And not only do they have these wonderful fried dough sticks available throughout the fine city of Barcelona... they have churros con chocolata, which is to say churros with hot chocolate!  A delectable culinary experience which I highly recommend if you have the chance. 

Section 3:

This weekend, I'm heading to Paris with my program.  In fact, by the time this is posted (due to some uploading issues, etc), I may actually be in "Gay Par-ee".  Some thoughts before I head out:

1. Paris is a notoriously touristy city (one of the reasons I didn't want to study there for a semester).  However, since I've never been to Paris, I'm ready to embrace my inner tourist and braves the crowds to see the Eiffel Tower lighting up the city, the Arc de Triomphe being triumphant, to walk along the Champs-Elysees à midi ou à minuit.  Hopefully the Parisians will forgive my tourist tendancies.
2. The ultimate question of the semester: how many of my stereotypes of France can be fulfilled in one semester?  The bread and wine questions were decided within the first hours of being here, the striped shirt craze shortly thereafter, but the jury is still out on berets, accordians and snobbynish.  I'll leave it to Paris to seal the deal on these remaining issues.  I hope to be pleasantly surprised by the charm of Paris.  
3. Earlier this week one of my professors told us that there was a grève des poubelles (literally, a strike of trashcans; in effect, garbage collectors were on strike) rendering Paris a smelly and unpleasent place to be.  Luckily, I have since been informed that the poubelle issue has been resolved, so at the very least, I expect Paris not to stink.  

photo guide:

1. Beach in Barcelona!

2. One of many intricate details of the Sagreda Familia, famous cathedral designed by Gaudi

3. Casa Batllo, a house designed by Gaudi... talk about keeping up with the Jones'

4. My friend and I with a lizard man outside Parc Guell, Gaudi's park.

5. A headless man showing off in Parc Guell

6. Famous lizard statue in Parc Guell