Knockin' Em Down...

As promised, I've started blogging more regularly now that I a) don't have class or homework and b) have begun to cram as much sight-seeing into each day as possible, necessitating more frequent blogging to keep everything straight.

After I went to Musée Rodin on Tuesday, I went to Angelina's on Rue de Rivoli with Isabel E to try their world famous "Chocolate chaude à l'Africaine"...a delicious drink despite it's somewhat ignorant title (what do africans and chocolate have in common? oh wait...)

 Angelina's is a charming little belle epoque salon du thé  near the Jardin de Tuileries in the 1st arrondisement, known for both it's chocolate chaude and it's "Mont Blanc", a dessert made out of meringue, chantilly (whipped cream) and some type of almond filling. I plan on going back to try the Mont Blanc..i'll keep you posted. After chocolate, Isa and I took a little stroll around Place de Vendôme and checked out all of the amazing window displays. Gotta love girl talk, chocolate and window shopping tee hee (just kidding haha)

The next day (Wednesday) I went to Galeries Lafayette, a super-mall located near Palais Garnier in the 2nd. I thought I could get a proper look around in about an hour. I thought wrong.

Beautiful glass-domed ceiling

Despite the fact that it was a little crowded for my taste, I absolutely loved being surrounded by products from every major fashion house at one time. Galeries Lafayette was a-mazing not only due to the sheer size and opulence of it, but also for the booming business the high end retailers seemed to be doing in the midst of what is (or was?) a global recession. Sales clerks behind Cartier counters busily wiped ever-mounting  fingerprints off of the glass displays while a Louis Vuitton Sales Associate tried to keep the line in front of the counter quiet and orderly. Galeries Lafayette, in addition to being a designer one-stop shopping destination, also features it's own travel agency and gourmet food shop.

Today, I accomplished another item on my Paris bucket list by  pique-nique-ing with some friends at Champs de Mars, the fields surrounding the Eiffel Tower. After class I basically decided to wander around (flaneur, if you will) until I ran into something interesting. I ended up flaneur-ing my way to Jardin du Luxembourg, another stop on my list.  Though I prefer the English style (see my England post), I still found Jardin du Luxembourg to be very beautiful...though unfortunately most of the grass was not sit-able.

What Jardin du Luxembourg lacks in tush-friendly grass, however, it makes up for in an abundance of metal lawn chairs. I sat in said lawn chairs and read my LSAT prep book which had come in the mail yesterday. Studying made me feel much better and excited about the future; taking action helped to calm down a lot of my anxieties. In an attempt to find the métro, I inadvertently ran into Le Panthéon, yet another item on my list. Unfortunately it was too late to go inside, but I snapped a shot of the outside. Behind the Panthéon was l'Eglise Saint Genévieve, which had some really beautiful stained glass windows.

Le Panthéon...where all the "gods"of French culture are buried (think Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Marie Curie..)

I like STAINED GLASS and I cannot lie...

In between sight seeing I've also been working on little things here and there, submitting an application here, getting info about another one there. I'm beat, but there's nothing quite like the feeling of getting a lot done in a small amount of time to keep one motivated!

A Beautiful Day to "Think"...

The countdown has begun...

I'm closing in on the last 3 weeks of my time here in Paris and while 3 weeks is still a substantial amount of time in my book, the timing has definitely made me pause and reflect on my experiences so far here. There are still a lot of sights here in Paris that I haven't seen, so I'm going to make it my goal over these next three weeks to get as much sightseeing done as possible before I head back to the states. Stay tuned for more frequent blogging now that I'm done with my homework..

In an effort to knock an item off my Paris bucket list, today before my EU Law in Context class I headed over to Musée Rodin. The line was super long and slow moving- anyone who knows me knows how much I hate long lines, which unfortunately seem to be ubiquitous here in France-but gaining entry to the museum was DEFINITELY worth the wait.

Musée Rodin is a museum in Paris dedicated to the work of August Rodin, whose better-known pieces include "le penseur" (the thinker) and "le baiser" (the kiss). The museum was converted from a hotel in which Rodin lived in during the later part of his life. The museum also features some of the most beautiful rose gardens that I personally have ever seen.

Beautiful..note the sun glinting off the dome of the Musée de l'Armée in the background...

Perhaps it was seeing "The Thinker" that put me in an especially reflective mood, but I started thinking about this semester and how it compared to my expectations and to semesters past. Of course I knew things in Paris would be different, but there was no way I could have prepared myself for just how different. Sometimes I feel like I've been falling behind the rest of my peers because I haven't been volunteering and going to interest meetings...also a lot of programs I wanted to participate in this semester at USC required me to be physically there to participate...but at the same time, I have to believe that there's no way that I've been wasting my time here in Paris. I'm hard worker and I'm used to pushing myself hard..but here its hard to push yourself in the same way. Maybe that's a good thing. If anything, I think that being here has forced me to finally confront myself about some of the choices I've been making in my education and what I want to do for a career, instead of blindly doing whatever I could to make myself  "more competitive". I'd been viewing my time here in Paris as a distraction, but if anything, I think that this experience has enriched me in more "real" ways that a traditional semester in an American university ever could have. If anything, I think that the overwhelming feeling I have-and should always keep in the forefront of my mind- is the feeling of gratitude. Sure I don't quite know what I'm going to do this summer...but I'll figure it out. In addition to many, many other things, my experience here in Paris has taught me the importance of having unwavering faith in myself.

Jolly old England= Sunny old England?

This past weekend, I celebrated my 21st birthday! Though it's not quite as relevant here in France, I'm still American and to me it's still a big deal! To celebrate, I decided to go to London, England during the Easter Break. I skipped class on Thursday the 21st and stayed until the 26th, leaving that Tuesday morning. I went with my friend Isabel E. and her b.f. Pedro G., who joined us on Saturday. I stayed at the dorm of my friend Alexa C., also a student at good ole' USC. The trip was really great and I had the opportunity to do pretty much every "London-y" thing i've ever dreamed of doing. A quick rundown:

• Ride on a double-decker bus? check.
• Go to Notting Hill/ Portobello Road? check.
• Harrod's department store? check.
• London Bridge (Which is actually called TOWER BRIDGE, much to our chagrin) check.
• Check out Big Ben/Parliament? check.
• Buckingham Palace? check.
• Hyde Park? check as well.
• CamdenTown Market/Camden Lock? check. 
• Dinner in SoHo? check.
• Check out Trafalgar Square? check.
• Check out the sights at Picadilly Circus? check.
• St. Paul's Cathedral? check.
• Tate Modern? check.
• Shopping on Oxford St.? check.
• Mummies and Rosetta Stone at the British Museum? check.

As it typically goes with life, however, many of the cooler things  that I did/experienced had nothing to do with things that I had seen on BBC/read about in Harry Potter/remembered from the movie 101 Dalmatians. My favorite park was actually James Park, a lovely little park with a big waterfowl pond, that's close to Hyde Park and Buckingham palace. Other than some freaky looking black birds with disproportionately long black and white "feet", everything there was super beautiful and calming...you could totally forget that you were standing in one of the world's largest cities.

James Park at Sunset

I also really enjoyed a trip that we took to Surrey, England to Hampton Court Palace, the Palace that housed the Tudor dynasty, including the famous king Henry the VIII. We hadn't planned on going there beforehand, but the idea of setting foot in a palace (you can't go into Buckingham palace until August and September when the Queen goes to Scotland) was very appealing. The surrounding town was charmingly "English" and the palace itself was magnificent. The gardens were lovely...I much prefer English gardens to French ones. Isa and I put on tudor-style robes while we roamed the castle.

Hampton Court Palace!

The best part about the trip had to be the amazing weather. I wore dresses and tank tops for the majority of the trip. It only rained once, and we were inside during the majority of that. Besides, it was during my birthday "High Tea"at Harrod's and the rain added to the ambiance, giving the afternoon a more London-y feel. Tea was amazing...definitely the highlight of the trip for me.

A classy 21st.

As fun as London is, it's still weird to be so far from your home and loved ones on a birthday. My mom usually sends a cake to USC, but since I was in London I wasn't expecting one. My resourceful mother, however, managed to get a friend of a friend in London to drive to Alexa's dorm at King's College and give me flowers, a card, cookies, and a stuffed teddy for my birthday. Alexa, that clever devil, managed to surprise me with a Victoria Cake, an amazing sandwich cake with fruit filling and frosting in the middle, even though she was swamped with work the entire time we were there.

It's ma birthdayyy

Om Nom Nom

I really enjoyed little random things about that trip as well; meeting Alexa's floormates and going to a "fancy" PizzaHut lunch buffet on the first day, going to some random club that turned out to be really nice in Picadilly Circus b/c some club promoter woman told us we could get free wine if we went. Seeing hot guys in leather aprons working at an S-and-M themed cupcake shop in SoHo, eating Venezuelan cachapas in Covent Garden, getting a pint with Nick F. in Notting Hill and avoiding crazy drunk english dudes threatening to throw rocks into pub windows....good times. All in all, definitely a memorable way to celebrate one's 21st :)

British flag cupcakes at "Cox, Cookies and Cakes"

On Millinieum Bridge

Paris in the Spring

Paris is in bloom!

Who knew that the city was so verdant, so beautiful! Not just for the buildings, but for the wonderful gardens, the willow trees gracefully dipping into the Seine, the flower pots on the windowsills of the buildings in the city.

My mom has always said that I'm a nature girl and I didn't really see myself as such because I love city life so much. But in retrospect, I think that one of the reasons I liked LA so much ( and in turn didn't like Paris very much at first) was because as dirty and smoggy as LA can be at times, you can drive for 30 minutes and be at the beach, or in the desert, or in the mountains. And after you're done with your daytime outing, you can drive back to the city and put on your heels to go out at night. Plus because it's sunny year round, there are always plants growing. USC's campus is a beautiful green oasis all the time which up until now I took completely for granted. So now that spring is here, I finally have the opportunity to have the quintessential "Paris"experience that I always wanted. This includes picnics in Invalides, sitting and people watching at cafés in the evening with handsome french boys, and having nice outdoor dinners with friends. All with a backdrop of the golden rays of the sun and the green of the trees bordering the boulevards. Here are some photos that I took of Paris in bloom...

Little garden I found in Le Marais where I like to eat my L'as du Falafel falafels

Jardin de Tuileries

Near the Champs Elysee point ou rond

These last 2 weeks or so have definitely been worth the wait. I finally can say, with all my heart, "Paris, je t'aime."

Oh You Fancy, Huh?

Hey y'all!

Sorry for being so remiss in my posting...my laptop adapter died and I didn't use it for a few days until I finally decided to cough up the 79 euro ( a lot more than 79 US dollars) to get another one. I'm paying for my stubbornness/cheapness though...it's taken me approximately 15 minutes to type 2 sentences because I've basically forgotten how to type on an American keyboard...

Anywho, spring has definitely sprung in Paris, and I for one couldn't be more pleased. I was emailing a friend of mine about Paris and mentioned how hard the winter had been for me, and he pointed out very astutely that living in South Carolina and Los Angeles for my entire life had given me little to no preparation for a "proper" winter.Spring has traditionally not really been a big deal, but here in Paris for me it really has been a rebirth. Just seeing the sun again on a regular basis means so much...
Last weekend, students from the other Sciences-Po campuses around France came to Paris to check out the school and to sight see around Paris, and I signed up to go on the outings in the hopes of meeting some friendly French students. We went to the Château Versailles on Saturday and the Eiffel Tower on Sunday. While waiting to meet the rest of the group to go to Versailles, Lindsey, Leah and I decided to indulge in a school sponsored dégustation, or wine tasting. This was my first wine tasting, and I must say, I felt très classe. We learned about what it means if the wine is "crying"after you swirl it around in the glass (high alcohol content or something to that effect) and how there are a lot more words in french to describe wine than in english. It didn't hurt that some of the guys giving the serving the wine were pretty cute. After some shenanigans involving being left by the rest of the group, Lindsey, Leah, myself, another American student and two nice Russian girls ended up making our way to Versailles. It wasn't very spring-like...pretty cold actually, but hey, it's still Versailles!

French Guy Leading the Group- "How did you like Versailles?
American Student- "Oh it was really grand and fancy..."
French Guy- "It's French"

Givin' Versailles the ole thumbs up

 

ooooh. fancy.

sweet gilded doors

Marie Antoinette's gorgeous bed! (they know how to do beds here, my madame has an awesome one as well)

A ceiling painting being restored, hence the bits of paper

Me in the Hall of Mirrors

Ze gardens

Me (or should I say, Zee) in front of Ze gardens

Sunday was the Eiffel Tower...

readying for the ascent!

haha a little dark, but you get the idea

haussmanism in action

shiny seine

Two main touristy things gotten out of the way in one weekend. And on the Sunday that I went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, it was magnificently sunny. It made the Seine glitter like a platinum ribbon running through the city. Through the exchange I met a French girl who totally defied the typical stoic cool-girl stereotype that I had in my mind up until then. She regaled me with tales of going to Drake concerts and dancing in hip hop clubs near her university. All in all, a pretty cool weekend, full of surprises and new experiences

Azeezah Isabelle Barcelona

Yo quieroooo,  Barcelonaaaaa

I finally have the strength to chronicle my impressions of that most wonderful city, Barcelona, after arriving back in Paris on Wednesday with what morphed into an epically wicked cold. Isabelle F. (Not to be confused with Isabel E.) and I flew from Paris on Friday to celebrate our spring break in Barcelona. I still remember sitting in front of my laptop on a gloomy Paris winter's evening and checking my phone to see a text from Isabelle: "wanna go to Spain for spring break?"  I had thought about going to cities in Spain, London, Berlin, Vienna..even cities in France. The ideas never stuck though, in large part due to the precariousness of my living situation in Paris... never knowing when the housing agency was going to tell me that they had found me a new homestay and that I would be expected to, once again, pack up all my belongings and go to some random apartment in Paris.

In a typical Zee-impulsive fashion, I said, "sure, let's do it". I just knew that I desperately needed to get out of Paris. The weather was awful and some of the attitudes I was getting from Parisians were even more awful.I desperately tried to cling to pleasant things and to enjoy the experience...but it was getting more and more difficult as pleasant things about Paris were starting to get fewer and farther between. In particularly low moments while I was waiting for the metro after being unceremoniously jostled by Parisian worker drones in fashionable black wool coats, I fanticized about stepping off the platform in front of the oncoming train (just kiddingggg)

Did I know Spanish? No. Did I know Catalan? Heck no. Could I even find Barcelona on a map? No. I had, however, seen the Woody Allen movie Vicki Cristina Barcelona, which had ever since left me with a burning desire to visit the city. Research could be done after I booked the flight, I figured. From the moment that we landed I knew that it was going to be a great spring break, simply because I saw something beautiful that I hadn't seen in a very long time: the sun. Oh beautiful ball of burning gasses, how I had missed you! The landscape, the plants, the weather, all reminded me of my beloved Los Angeles. Both have a mediterranean climate, both are surrounded by both mountains and beach. Both are urban but still chill and laid back. The hostel we stayed in was small and clean and in a cute residential area near a church, whose bell you could hear through the windows in the morning.

Isabelle and I packed in all the major attractions Barcelona had to offer in about 6 days: The beach, Las Ramblas, Sagrada Familia, Parc Güell, Pueblo Espanya, The "Magic Fountain", The Picasso Museum,The Gaudí houses of Casa Vicens, La Pedrera and Casa Botillo, and the awesome nightlife scene. As we moved about the city, I realized that I actually knew a lot more Spanish than I thought I did, and a lot of what I had been teaching myself over the summer a year ago came back. I found that I actually wanted to learn Spanish because the people were much more pleasant to talk to, and I wanted to talk to them, rather than avoid them (cough*Parisians*cough). Isabelle graciously translated on my behalf as well. It was a great learning experience as well, I got to try a lot of cool spanish foods like patatas bravas, bocadillos and paella verduras (paella for vegetarians!). Spain is now my new favorite place on earth, and it's more of a matter of when rather than if I plan on returning.

It was the perfect trip at the perfect time...my only impression of Europe had been of Paris, and I was beginning to think that perhaps Europe was no place for someone like me. It really helped me put things in perspective, and to try to come back to Paris with a fresh approach. When I returned to Paris-surprise, surprise- it was sunny! Almost as if the city was coming to me like an ex-boyfriend: I'm sorry, I know things didn't work out earlier, can we try again? See, i'm not so bad...i can change.  As I sit next to my window in the student dorms, I look out onto the park on top of the viaduct and see-can it be?- yellow and pink buds on the bushes lining the walkway. Yes, Paris, I think I am ready to give "us" another try...