Christmas in Paris... can't complain

Happy Holidays!!

It's been a bit chilly (negative degrees on the daily) here in Paris for the past couple weeks. You may have seen on the news that flights and trains were canceled left and right, and the snow just kept coming down... not to mention the wind which has since ruined my umbrella. BUT today it is a beautiful, blue sky day in Paris (30 degrees F, but we don't have to talk about that) and I have once again become inspired to write in my blog...

Winter break is in full force. My room is spotless and I have laundry in the machine as we speak. Basically I have run out of things to do and responsibility is nowhere in sight. I might be a little bored. But...I truly don't mind it and it has given me some time to explore the city more, and also to just relax and cuddle up in my bed watching the snow fall.

Break commenced with a trip to The Chamber of Secrets...

Aka - Nora's basement.... but we like to pretend that Paris is really just one big Hogwarts campus so - feel free to play along.

Both Nora and Katherine headed home to Marblehead, Massachusetts and Stockton, California (respectively) for a few weeks for the holidays. I know it will only be a few more days now until their return, but it was a semi-tearful goodbye to two of the dearest people in my life right now. Here is a picture of us lugging Katherine's two giant bags into storage. It was an epic adventure, requiring multiple flights of stairs and a near-to-the-death battle with a Basilisk.

We survived. And now they are both home to their families, while I am here anxiously waiting their return.

As I said.... It snowed in Paris! I heard that one day we got more snow than Paris has seen in 22 years!!!!! Wow. It really was a winter wonderland. And my dear friend Alison from SC was here to see it for a few days. This is the third time we have met up in Europe this semester (once in Athens, once in London) and she will be spending next semester in Edinburgh, Scotland - so I don't think it will be the last! Pretty much we're really excellent International Relations majors together :)

Panoramic view of Paris from Sacre Couer (it appears to be rather small here, but click on the picture to enlarge it)

View of the Louvre in the background, from the Tuilerie Gardens

Ferris wheel set up at Place de Concorde for the holidays... and seagulls?

As soon as Alison left, I had the fortune of showing Casey (one of my oldest friends from Anacortes) around Paris too! She was only here for two days but we managed to see presque everything!

So Clara - what did you do for Christmas? Glad you asked!

My friend Dylan's host mom was out of town for the holidays, so she said Dylan could have some friends over for a little dinner party.

Here is Dylan in the kitchen baking her delicious pumpkin pie. We spent alllll day in the kitchen (actually didn't get started cooking until 4ish... but we had dinner on the table at 8!)

I spent part of the afternoon (inbetween green beans and stuffing - my two responsibilities) skyping with my family. The 9 hour time difference was a bit difficult to figure out, but we managed to talk right during present opening. It really felt like I was right there.

Gabe with his new Knex roller coaster set. So excited!

Mom with a beautifully wrapped gift from Gabe.... what could it be?

A scarf!!

Here is our feast. Mainly traditional American dishes, but plenty of vin, pain et fromage to keep things French.

Clockwise from the bread: bread, ham (glazed and with pineapple, yummmm), green beans with garlic and lemon, Dylan's corn thing, yams, stuffing, Andrea's delicious mashed potatoes.

Two of the beautiful cooks - Andrea and Dylan!

It really turned out to be a lovely Christmas. My friend Andrew from SC is also here for the holidays so he joined us for dinner as well. It was a cozy little Christmas with some of my favorite people ever... in Paris Earlier in the day Andrew and I took a nice walk to the Eiffel Tower, and had some vin chaud at a marché de noel ... sometimes I can't even believe that I'm here!!

The evening rounded out nicely with a phone call to my mom's side of the family, who were celebrating at my aunt's apartment in downtown Seattle with a rousing game of white elephant. I believe that Gabe walked away with a beebee gun. As we say... play to win. I called the Hill family (feasting at my aunt and uncle's house on Lake Washington) right in the middle of dinner. It was so fun to be passed around the cousins' table and then the adult table and have a little chat with everyone... it really felt like I was right there.

Well I'm going to go hang up that laundry now! Joyeux Noel à tout le monde! Vous me manquez beaucoup mais je vais revenir bientôt - seulement six mois plus!! Incroyable, ouais? Je vais passer la prochaine semaines de vacances exploration de la ville avec Andrew et avec un celebration de la nouvelle anée! Je souhaite que tout le monde ait les joyeux fêtes!

- Clara

Nous avons fini!

Yes, it's true! Finals. They are over. I have FIVE WEEKS of complete freedom. FIVE WEEKS of complete freedom.... IN PARIS! WHATTT??????

Rewind:

This is me studying for my Systemes Internationaux final, circa 1 am this morning...

Okay it's not actually me, but it's my brain deposited on the fake white board i made. Zoom in for details.... at this point I'm just trying to forget it.

These are the snacks I ate:

Sooooo finals went fairly successfully. And immediately after Nora, Katherine and I went to the Monoprix and bought: nutella, baguette, chocolate ice cream, 3 avocados, guacamole, salt and vinegar chips, corn chips, pasta salad, two bottles of wine.

And devoured it all in the span of 10 minutes. It's true this happened.

Then some West Wing was watched. Duh.

Meanwhile back at Chez-nous....... IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!!! Seriously..... my host mom went to London this past weekend - and returned in the full Christmas spirit. It's 12:30 am right now.... and she is still decorating. I don't know when it's going to stop.

Pascale decorating the tree:

Alice - she really does love me

The completed masterpiece

Happy Holidays!!!!!!!!

Love, Madame Ouchka

Pretty representative of my life

Grammar, Yelle, London, Snow, Dance Class & David Sedaris

Today has been SUCCCHHH a good day. And you know why? A really awesome grammar lesson. Feel free to skip through this if you're not a nerd like me and don't enjoy such things - but be warned, there is much more interesting reading (I would hope) down towards the bottom.

Okay so -- There is a word in French, tout, which can be used in four different forms (a noun, an adjectif, a pronoun, and an adverb). The first three are pretty simple, so I'll just go over them quickly to give you the full picture.

1. Noun

un/le tout

That is the only way to use tout as a noun. It's basically only used as a noun to say "the set, everything, the package".... like "J'ai acheté le tout" - I bought the set, like a set of pens as our fabbbulouussss teacher used as an example. Have I mentioned how much I love her? Seriously the best language teacher I have ever had, and that is saying a lot. I've never had a teacher be so understanding of our outside life, while still at the same time demanding our attention. And it's not like she needs to really demand it, I could happily sit there for hours absorbing her every word.

2. Adjectif

masculine - tout (Il a mangé tout le gâteau... He ate all of the cake)

feminine - toute (Toute la famille est là... All of the family is here/there <-- side note: the french use the same word for here and there, là. Though ici also means here. très confusing)

masculine plural - tous (J'aime tous ses poems.... I like all of his poems)

feminine plural - toutes (Je connais toutes ces chansons.... I like all of the songs)

3. Pronoun

Replacing a subject...

singular: Tout est fini (everything is finished)

There is no feminine singular form

masculine plural: Tous viennent or Ils viennent tous (Everyone comes... hahaha)

feminine plural: Toutes sont jolies or Ils sont toutes jolies (They are all pretty)

Replacing an object:

singular: Je comprends tout (I understand everything)

There is no feminine singular form

masculine plural: Je les connais tous (I know everyone).... now what is interesting is that the "s" in this form of tous is pronounced (same when it is a subject, but not as an adjectif. If it weren't pronounced this phrase would mean I know everything and not I know everyone..... so interesting right?)

feminine plural: Je les aime toutes (I like them all)

4. Adverb (THIS IS WHERE IT GETS REALLY INTERESTING!!!!!!!)

Okay so as the adverb "tout" translates to "très" or "completement" (very or completely). Adverbs don't change forms, since they are neuters... like you wouldn't say trèse/trèses if something were (subjunctive hey hey!) feminine/plural. BUT with tout it's a little different.

The masculine form is simple: Le petit garçon est tout timid. Simple easy, nbd.

BUT... here comes the feminine!

Cette petite fille est toutE belle.

You're sitting there thinking "But hey wait!! Adverbs are supposed to be neuters... what is that E doing????? Welll listen up. The Academy Française CHANGED IT. YEP! Pretty awesome, am I right?? They changed it because "les gens dans la rue" as my professor refers to.... commoners in the world of grammar.... were always going around turning tout feminine because saying tout belle (the t isn't pronounced when the e isn't there) just sounds wrong. Basically she said "C'est une crime, vous etes les criminelles - mais on le met pour les oreils!" (It is a crime, you are all criminals... but we do that for the ears!) So interesting right? It gets even better.

Cette petite fille est tout élégante.

Now you're like... "wait!!!!! I thought we changed it for the feminine???" NOT WHEN THE ADJECTIVE STARTS WITH A VOWEL! "On peut rester innocent!" (We can stay innocent!) Yep! Because when the adjective starts with a vowel it gives the ears the illusion of the feminine (because the T in tout is pronounced when there is a vowel following it) but we are still able to remain grammatically correct.

SO COOL RIGHT!!!!!!??????

The same goes for the plural versions. I hope you enjoy this little grammar lesson. I found it suppppperrrr interesting. Especially with the Academy Française getting involved, I love them.

Okay well if you've gotten through all of that, now on to the more interesting stuff. It's been a very eventful past few days....... filled mostly with semi-famous people.

Thursday night I went with my friend Sophie from Sweet Briar to a concert to see Yelle, one of our favorite French pop singers. I'm vachement obsessed with her, and have begun even further idolizing her since seeing her in concert and meeting her in person afterwards.

I highly suggest listening to her music... actually here - I'll post a video so it will be even easier.

And then tonight Sophie (we always tend to have a great time together) and I went to see my favorite author David Sedaris. David (let's just be on a first name basis, shall we?) writes short stories, a good portion of which are about his life here in France..... and they are wicked hilarious. He read a portion from his new book Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk at The Village Voice bookstore - an American bookstore, somewhat near my home, and then also some exerts from his diary from his recent bookstore. Then we waited in line and he signed everyone's books, and even had a short conversation with Sophie and I about our lives here in France. And he told us a few pirate jokes (Why can't pirates sing the alphabet? Because they spend years at C"). So yes, hardly got over meeting Yelle before another celebrity shows up in my life..... I guess that's kind of the life in a big city such as Paris.

I also spent this past weekend in London, as I mentioned in my last post. Due to some unfortunate circumstances (snow storms, etc) it was only Alison and I in London, out of our original Athens Extravaganza Travel Group, but we managed to have a bloody good time. I went to London once before 4 years ago with a high school group - but this time was much different. Traveling by myself, I felt way more independent.... and I guess I am these days. It was oddly, or not so oddly?, nostalgic and got me thinking about how far I've moved from wee Anacortes. I will always love my life there, but my world has gotten so much bigger - just in the past few months - it's hard to imagine myself there again. Okay well here are a few pictures:

This is actually a picture of Kevin and me in London 4 years ago..... see I'm much more refined these days? right?

Long anticipated Chipotle (doesn't exist in Paris :( :(!! )

Platform 9 3/4!!!!!! I finally got my letter!!!!!

We went to a Holiday themed pub crawl Saturday night. Nothing is better than 300 Santa Clauses marching into a club and having a giant dance party..... really, there is nothing.

One thing I haven't really talked about in my blog is the dance class I've been taking. It's frankly...... freakin' weird. I only have one more week of it, and I probably won't be going since we have a Sweet Briar end of the year party.... so I thought it might be a good time to talk about it.

The first class I went in feeling rather confident. I have 12 years of ballet, plus a random sprinkling of classes in the last few years, under my belt and heck.... the language barrier couldn't stop me in a dance class right? Surreeeee Clara, sure. Honestly.... there is nothing in Paris that isn't waiting to kick my ass. We started out with a calm stretching on the floor, a few plies, tendus... not a big deal. I had a complete handle on it. And then the teacher said something and everyone sharply leaped up and I found myself frolicking around the room with the ten or so middle aged women that I have come to call my peers. This is sort of the tone of the class for me.... I find myself doing something that I finally understand, and then we start galloping around willy nilly with zero explanation. It's actually pretty representative of my life here..... everything seems to be going well, and then I find myself eating duck liver (okay okay foie gras is actually freaking delicious) or becoming a co-conspirator in my house keepers evasion of French immigration laws.... It gets to the point where you just have to keep rolling with the punches and continue laughing at yourself. Swallow it, feign dumb.... keep frolicking until the music stops, or someone has to do so forcefully. It's true- sometimes in that class I find myself being physically moved to the other side of the room because I can't keep up with the teacher's directions. Or there were the three or so weeks where she though I was named Sarah... and I just kind of went with it until she eventually figured it out. This is the sort of thing that happens in my life here, often. Though - there is the occasional class that ends with champagne, bonbons and potato chips - I can't complain about anything too much, but I do anyways. So French.... so franchment French.

Appeller un chat un chat,

Clara

P.S. Oh and it's snowing.

Greece

Apologies readers.... I realize that every recent post has just been me attempting to procrastinate. WELL! You are in luck.... in the past week, after much pain and suffering, I managed to write two 8 (ish) page papers IN FRENCH, do a presentation on the conflict in Yougoslavie (I'm an expert now), take a test.... oh and go to Athens, Greece and visit three of my favorite people in the world for 5 days.... No. Big. Deal.

I realize nobody cares to hear about the massive amounts of homework that consumed my life for the past while (and really there was nothing going on in Paris during that time)... so let's jump straight to Athens!

Enter the players:

Maggie (dear friend and roomie 4eva)

Cary - Grecian goddess already

Alison - fellow International Relations major and so freakin' international

Pretty much three of my favorite people in the entire world. We all lived on the same floor freshman year and have been solid friends ever since. Alison and Maggie are studying in Greece right now, and Cary is studying in London..... so we both popped down for the weekend for an epic Trojan/Sixth Floor Pardee Reunion.

Greece is BEAUTIFUL:

SO much history and culture and some really incredible museums, not to mention the food (I ate so many gyros!)..... but honestly it was just so happy to spend quality time with some people that make me feel 100% comfortable. France has a knack for... not doing that...... but Greece was all about the 24/7 laughter, cuddling, and 70+ degree weather. I definitely needed such a vacation.

We also went to see Harry Potter 7!!!!!!! LONG AWAITED AND AWESOME. Maggie dressed up like Hagrid.... I mean Magrid.

This is sadly one of the only pictures we took of all 4 of us:

BUT!!!! Take two when 6th Floor Reunion goes to.... London! Yep. Just 8 days from now we will all be meeting up north. Expect future updates of our travels together including..... a Santa Pub Crawl! Can't wait to kick off the holiday season :) However strange it is to to not be with my family tomorrow for Zee Zanksgeeeving (that's how they refer to it in France) I'm looking forward to another Parisian weekend.

Comme d'habitude,

Clara

... excerpt from the fantastic paper I am "en train de" writing....

Il y a, vraiment, un mélange de toutes les émotions de l’experience humaine dans seulement un livre.

There is, really, a blend of all the emotions of the human experience in only one book.

Somehow I can manage to bullshit, even in a foreign language. Mission accomplished?

l'espirit d'escalier - The feeling you get after leaving a conversation, when you think of all the things you should have said. Translated it means 'the spirit of the staircase'.

In further attempts of procrastination...

Well, since I have a couple paper I should be writing I thought it might be appropriate to give a shoutout to my friends Elena and Jeremy and their new band. Though they hail from Western Washington, they are called Lune de Papier, so pretty French right? Look forward to a single hitting your ears sometime in the next month!

Back to paper writing (8 pages of analyzing French literature form the 1500's. sounds like a great time right?)

- Clara

I bought a lint roller today because all I ever do is wear black....

... and you'd be surprised how much Madame Ouchka sheds.

In other news my dear friend and most recent roommate the fabulous Maggie Carroll came to visit me here in Paris last week! It was my first visitor from "the outside world" and it was so exciting to be able to show her my life here and have her meet all of my friends (now everyone is friends with everyone and the world is beginning to feel a whole lot smaller). She is currently studying in Athens, Greece for the semester and I can't wait to go visit her there in two weeks (AH!) and have her do the same.

I had another bout with the menacing French Bureaucracy today. In order to finally complete my visa I had to pass a medical exam at the OFII office (OFII stands for something concerning immigration, but I honestly don't have the energy to look it up). It was actually kind of fun, however inefficient and tedious, because all of Sweet Briar (my 69 closest friends) was there in the same waiting room. We were of course shooshed a few times for being loud Americans, but what could they expect? It really did seem ridiculous to tell a bunch of college students to all show up at at the same time and then go through three different stations (a chest xray, an eye exam, and a personal visit/questionnaire thing).... but I think we all felt rather accomplished, however fatigued, at the end of it because... the entire thing was conducted in French! Yes ladies and gentlemen, I am so well-versed that I can understand and answer questions about my own physical well being.

AND.... I got this to take home as the hands-down best souvenir ever....

It's very much my most prized possession at the moment....

~ Clara

"Le soit ou ne le soit, mon coeur est immuable"

- Bradamante, Robert Garnier

Le Week-end

The weekend commenced with me heading over to the Monoprix across the street and purchasing a baguette, brie, nutella, salt and vinegar chips, and pickles. Now most people might think this is rather French of me.... it's not. Yes - these 5 basic food groups are rather Clara of me, actually; though I am quite pleased to habitate a country where my bird-like, salt/carb heavy diet is more culturally accepted. They have, bien sur, since been entirely consumed (sans nutella) ... though my homework has not. Yes it's that time of the year, folks, homework lockdown. Besides Katherine's 21st (which shall be celebrated all out next weekend, tiara included) the next few weeks are going to involve me pouring over French literature from the 1500's, wikipediaing conflict in Yugoslavia of the last century, and avoiding said mountain of devoirs by watching The West Wing (comme d'habitude) and trying not to freak out too much.

And I did take a slight break yesterday to go to a satelite Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, hosted by a Scottish Pub filled to the brim by middle-aged, liberal expats.... some to the point of tears with excitement.

Nora and I were indeed the youngest attendees, but were quite happy to get our America-fix accompanied by her lovely New-England-version-of-my-parents parents who are here in Paris for the next two weeks. We were a tad disturbed when one lady informed us that she came to Paris 30 years ago as a junior in college.... and never left.

Maybe it's the mile high pile of homework, or the fact that it's Halloweekend at USC, or that Katherine is in Ecuador until Tuesday..... but I'm starting to realize how much I miss home (wherever that home may be? Washington? California? the jury is out on that one) and how terrifying the idea of staying here 30 years is. These next 7 months will be handled, and enjoyed, but I really am looking forward to getting back to something familiar. Sunshine, English, football games, frat parties, eating straight up lemons with Jordan, Friday morning recaps of Thursday evenings, understanding what exactly is expected of me and what exactly it is I'm supposed to be learning about, clothes fresh from the dryer (instead of this air dried, crunchy business), ice, the ability to wear something colorful and not feel like a clown, instant netflix.... this is only the beginning of the list of things I miss.

And I know that 7 months from now I'll be missing all of the things I have begun to take for granted here (cheese, bread, mes chats, etc) but at this point I'm very much in France and very much removed from what 7 months from now is going to feel like.

Just some thoughts. Happy Halloween!

Clara