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.
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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