Life is forever changed

5/28/09**

12:55am**

I’ll start with the yesterday first. We got up in the morning and headed down for breakfast at 8am. What a large spread! I ate my fill (and some) and then filled up a few zip-locks with fresh fruit and croissants for later. This guy named Axel came and taught us about French culture and some of the many differences. It was very interesting to learn about the dinner etiquette. For example, there is one person at the table who plays “host”. The host is the contact person between everyone at the table and the waiter. If two people are on a date, the male would be the host, and if the woman was to address the waiter by asking for the check, she would not only offend her date but also her server because this is not her responsibility. Also, the reservation of a table is for the full evening and there is no rush for a turnover. In the States, waiters are taught to be quick and get people out the door as quickly as possible to get the next party sat; not in Paris at all! Everywhere we have eaten or even drank gives the “sit-down and stay-awhile feel”. Ah, what a nice change from the quick pace & go quickly pace of the US. One of the other important differences is the portions and doggy bags. The portions here are much person and meant for one person, which in turn obligates a person to eat everything on their plate and also completely erases the need for to-go boxes and doggy bags. Lastly, you very rarely see people walking and eating or drinking. On the metro (like the Bart in San Fran), no one walks around with Starbucks or munching on a snack, whereas in the US, I feel that at least one meal is eaten while walking/driving/going. They would much rather sit at a coffee shop and debate about politics or religion and enjoy their espresso. I feel like these are customs that I would much like to incorporate into my life more when I get home, and that my days are already much more meaningful when I live in the moment instead of being so preoccupied with the next thing I have to do.

**After classes, a few of us (Tiffany, Julie, Jen, Kathrine, Kaitlan) took the metro to a church on the hill that looks straight out of Aladdin called the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur. It was such a beautiful and moving experience. I know that Catholic churches are almost always much more materialistically styled, but the detail and work that went into this church was astounding. From there we went down to a basement-type of room that held smaller versions of what we saw in the church. Then we travelled down a few streets to a street side café and sat outside in order to people watch. The waiter was enamored by our being Americans and he doted on us and did everything he could to make us laugh. He was the ideal Frenchman with his beret and flirty smile and accent. While sitting there I was drawn by an aspiring artist on a simple canvas. I decided to purchase the memento for half of what he asked…10 euro. There was a woman modeling with all of the equipment, and she was jumping around and frolicking in her playful flowy dress. It looked like so much fun!

**We did a bit more exploring in the area before catching the metro back to the hotel to get ready for the night. There was a huge fútbol game between Barcelona and Manchester, so a few of us girls (Tiffany, Julie, Jen, Kathrine, Kaitlan) decided to go to a sports pub near our hotel. The bar was packed full of men drinking and screaming at the TV. We pushed our way to the middle of it all and soaked it all in. We all stood there watching the intense last half of the game with the majority of the bar rooting for Barcelona (who ended up winning 2-0). After it ended, the bar quickly cleared while everyone went to smoke a cigarette. This was a nice change from what I have heard so much about everyone smoking inside. I began talking to a guy who lives on the outskirts of Paris but is Portuguese and speaks Spanish. We ended talking for a few hours in broken Spanglish, and exchanged stories about traveling and school and family and friends. We exchanged email address before he left and promised to help each other practice the other language. From there, we went to La Pechanga for salsa dancing. We danced for about 2 hours. I ended up talking to a guy from Madagascar and his mom was from Belguim. He was a 28 year old mathematics teacher. We talked for about 30 minutes and then made it to the dance floor for the last few songs. I’m really hoping to learn some more types of dances during this trip. After that, it was straight to bed for us!

**Now today was a very busy day. Woke up extremely tired and quickly got ready and headed to breakfast. Another delicious spread and I took another lunch with me in my bag. Classes were basically a review and hard to stay awake through. Then Julie, Tiff, and I took short naps and headed out for the day’s adventure. We took the metro to the Sainte-Chapelle which is known as the most beautiful church in all of Paris. The three story stained glass windows told the stories throughout the Bible and there were statues of the 12 apostles along the walls. It took my breath away. Oddly enough, the church is in the center of the very large court house with huge golden gates. Tiff ended up taking a picture with the guards later as we walked by.

**The next step in our plan was going to the top of Notre Dame, but that was foiled when we walked up as they cut off the line to get in. Instead, we bought crêpes and sat in front of the towers and people watched and enjoyed the fact that we were experiencing Paris and relaxed.

**We went from there to the Musée d’Orsay, but unfortunately, finding the museum wasn’t an easy feat. The search was well worth it though! The opportunity to enjoy art from some of the most well known artists the world has yet to see was an unforgettable and priceless experience. We saw the works of Monet, Redon, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Homer, Rodin, and so many others. It really hit me that this was the experience of a life time as I stood in front of Monet’s art, an experience that I would have never even dreamed before today. The sculptures dating back through the 1700’s were larger than life, yet so life like. I still can’t believe that I have been blessed with such an experience.

**After soaking up the art, we were very exhausted and looked for a metro to head home, but this again was not an easy task. After asking a few people on bridges and roads, we eventually found a metro station and made our way back home. I loved watching the people everywhere we went and just allowing myself to be quiet and learn. The best end to the day was taking a long bath in my room with the lights dim and no one else home. Ah, the time to recuperate from the week was much needed. I’m not complaining at all, but my feet were not well prepared for the walking. I expect that I will have very shapely legs by the time I make it home. =D

**Now don’t think that I am disregarding all school work…Tiff and I spent some time reading over our Oganizational and Nonverbal Communication books to prepare for class tomorrow. We’ve also been keeping good notes about what we observe in each culture for our reports and papers. But now it is 3am and we have to be up in 4 hours, so I’m going to sleep. Tomorrow, the plan is to go to the Louve, the top of the Notre Dame towers, Le Arch de Triumph, and hopefully go out to a nice dinner and go out for our last night in Paris (well not mine since I’m coming back =D)

Au revoir!

**5/29/09**

7pm

**What a day! I had the amazing pleasure of spending the majority of my day exploring the Louve with Dr. Andersen as well as sharing dinner and a glass of wine and some French pastries. Let me begin with another delicious full-spread breakfast and classes in which I love to participate and learn as much as possible. And between the two, I was able to hope on the internet and found out that I earned a well deserved 4.0 this semester! Classes ended a little early, and I quickly got ready to go and headed to the metro to explore the Louve. The plan was to spend about an hour there with Dr. Andersen, and then meet with Julie for another hour before doing several other things the rest of the day. When we went to meet her, however, she was nowhere to be found. Hence, I ended up spending over 4 hours discussing much of the works within the Louve. I have never thought of myself as being very equipped to appreciate art, but I found the truth to be quite to the contrary. I learned so many wonderful things about culture and history and my own heritage by spending that time with him and also by really spending quality time with the art and everything else in the Louve. Many times, I was almost brought to tears by the sheer acknowledgement of the importance of the things I was looking at. We talked about the difference in gender portrayal in the sculptures, and also the effect of these in modern day culture. I felt so lucky to attain such an experience as this with the one-on-one time with such an intelligent and well known person of my field.

**We began to feel the time on our feet and also our stomachs and headed out around 5:30 to find a place to eat. Dr. Andersen had experienced pretty bad French food, so he was happy with anything other than that, but I was sure that this experience could be attributed to the quality of the restaurants he was going to. We both agreed that it was time to spend a little more time and money and go to a much nicer authentic French restaurant called Café du Flore. We began with a glass of wine each, and mine was a white wine called Blanc de blanc Cŏte de Provence Clos Mireille. He told me that it was a very complex wine that I would be able to enjoy even due to my lack of acquiring the taste for alcohol. He was right; it was deliciously sweet. We then decided to split an appetizer that was nothing like anything I have ever eaten before called Feaugreaux (pronounced Fo-Gra, not sure of how to spell lol), a spread consisting of duck gizzards that deliciously melted in my mouth, as well as split a club sandwich. It was such a classy meal with amazing conversations about people watching as well as politics and such with an older Latin man sitting next to us. I was so surprised when Andersen said that the meal was his treat! I agreed that I would return the favor when we arrived in Munich and that I would share some big pancakes with him =D. We decided to walk a little while before finding a place to get desert. Quickly though, we came across Paul, a little French bakery where we shared 2 French pastries. The first was called Le Moelleux; it was a chocolat noir, beurrere, sucre, farine, oeufs, and cacao en poudre. The taste and consistency was that of the best brownies you could never get. Also, we split a pastry by which I can only explain as gram crackers with crème filling, but that description does not do the taste justice. A few grad students happened to walk by, so we all enjoyed a leisurely stroll back to the hotel from there. Tonight, a few of us are going dancing to enjoy the last night in Paris before we leave tomorrow on a night train for Barcelona…soon, I will be fluent in Spanish! Ha ha, I wish!

Big kiss!!