Recent Action

The last week or so has been fairly eventful, thanks to the delightful presence of two visitors: Jared (blah) and my friend, Lauren, from Dartmouth, as well as a very enjoyable dinner and ballet with a Harvard friend. Obviously the ballet could not really compare to Swan Lake on a lake, but it was performed by the Cuban National Ballet in the spectacular setting of the Grand Palais, so it was still a good show. Anyway, Lauren arrived last Wednesday evening and stayed through Monday afternoon after having travelled through Egypt with a tour group (see her blog at lost-sidewalk.blogspot.com). Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any time off from working last week, due to the fact that I'll be taking this coming Friday and Monday off to travel a bit with Jared, so Lauren was on her own during the day. As you may be aware, there is plenty to do in Paris and she managed to see all of the major museums while I was at work, as well as enjoying the plentiful potable water and fresh vegetables. Thursday evening, I invited some people over for dinner to meet Lauren and of course, to once again demonstrate the superiority of Dartmouth students, both socially and intellectually. We then went to one of the many outdoor movies shown in Paris during the summer, but given that it was only about 60 degrees and the film was bilingually foreign (Spanish with French subtitles), we only stayed for about an hour. It was a lovely venue though and with a more engaging film and better weather, it would be wonderful.

Jared arrived Friday morning and we had all had a nice dinner for my roommate Courtney's birthday in the evening (Lauren and I made lasagna). Jared also insisted that we go out afterwards, but unfortunately the center of the city was disconcertingly and surprisingly deserted - apparently more people than I realized have left for vacation! Saturday, after a day of buying train tickets, enjoying the wonderful municipal extravagance of Paris Plage, and the new bike systems, (Jared's American Express card worked in the machines thanks to its micro chip) we had a pleasant dinner near the Centre Pompidou and managed to find a bit more night life in the Latin Quarter. However, Jared was rather shocked by the French cafe culture's inherently inhibitory circumstances for meeting people, as the French generally go out in small groups and sit at tables - far more difficult to approach than the standing room only bar setting of the States. I don't know what he was exactly hoping to accomplish, but I guess a charm has its limits.

Jared left Sunday morning after I packed him a delicious lunch filled with products from the farmer's market and Lauren and I decided to head to the Musee des Art Decoratifs in the afternoon, thinking they would adhere to the free first Sunday of the month policy. Unfortunately, that was not the case, but the museum turned out to be more than worth the 6.50 euros. It was filled with furniture, pottery, glassware, entire rooms from various chateaus and mansions, jewelry, and more from the middle ages to the present. Thinking that it was a smallish museum, I had only alotted about 2.5 hours - a terrible oversight. I only managed to see through the art deco period and will have to go back for the modern era as well as the jewelry floor and current Jean Paul Gautier exhibition. Thankfully it's about 3 minutes from chez moi!

After the museum, we returned to the apartment to pack a picnic, and along with two of my roommates, headed out to the Tuileries, the large park in front of the Louvre about 5 minutes from our apartment. The weather was goregeous (for once!) and unlike the majority of French parks where the grass is reserved strictly for looking, there are small patches in the Tuileries where one can actually sit down! (Amazingly, our small picnic didn't seem to have cause any permanent harm to the grass when we got up.) We capped the evening off by making lemon bars - an example of my expanding palette! For some reason, my tastes seem to have changed in subtle ways during the last couple months, as I regularly eat things here which I would rarely have sought out previously. These include - surprising perhaps only to those that regularly witness my cooking/eating habits - raw tomatoes, plain green beans, lemon pastries, and small pickles (cornichons). I literally ate a 300g jar of cornichons in under a week. They are amazing with any form of terrine or pate - especially duck! I still despise hazelnuts and melons though, both of which are frequently forced upon me in teh form of Nutella and pushy farmer's market vendors.

Yesterday was the last day of the other intern from the States, so J took all of us out to dinner, which was quite nice. As I may have mentioned, we moved into a spectacular HOUSE in the 20th arrondissement last week and are really enjoying the new space. The garden is very nice for lunch (when it's not pouring buckets like today) and generally it's just a beautiful house. The atelier portion is a bit rough at the moment, but has good potential and it's been nice to have a more distinct space apart from their living area which comprises the top three floors!

Today I bought dinner with a friend from Harvard whom I met through the roommates and ate our haul of various dim sum and potstickers in a lovely park overlooking the city. He lives about 2 stops from my work in a very international area, so the food was actually very good and I plan to go back to try one of the various Peking Duck establishments. It's amazing how delicious a dead duck hanging in the window can look - the crisp skin dripping with fat - yum!

After dinner, I met up with a new language exchange partner - a 24 year old French man named Niko. We met at a cafe near my apartment and had a lovely hour and half conversation ranging from literature to politics to the differences between French and American modes of friendship (as in platonic male/female friendships seem far more rare here). We were at similar levels with our respective language abilities, so it was quite useful. He was also very impressed with my vocabulary as I've mastered the ability to guess when English words are also French words, and thus if pronounced with a French accent, they work! I may still get confused with such pelbian concerns like numbers and days of the week, but my combined English and Latin vocabulary occasionally makes up for it :)

Tomorrow I'm meeting another language exchange partner before Jared returns from his four day whirlwind tour of Germany. We are planning on going to Saint Tropez, but given that we only started looking for accomodations (guess who's fault that was?) yesterday, we may be sleeping on the streets. I'll be happy so long as I don't have to wear a wool sweater though! It doesn't seem like we've had more than three days of sun in a row the entire time I've been here!