Le Weekend
In Short:
On Friday, we had a "Very Contemporary France" seminar on the basics of French politics, culture, and sports. I don't want to get into it much but here are a few essential items to check out: Jean-Marie Le Pen (absurd extreme right wing politician against Jacques Chirac in the 2002 final presidential elections. He wanted all people infected with AIDS to be sent to a concentration camp in order to not contaminate the rest of the population; he is also racist, sexist, and a bigot), Serge Gainesbourg (famous French singer with a very unique, "sensual" style), argot (common French slang), and hand gestures. On a side note: Other than argot, the youth (mostly from the ghetto areas of Paris) also have a dialect called verlan, which has some semblance to our very own Pig Latin. They inverse words e.g. femme (woman) --> meuf, moche (ugly)--> chemo.
Lorna training us to be informed Americans
After, I headed to the grocery market to purchase some food for the weekend, bought an odd curry-tasting sandwich jambon crudité (ham with vegetables) from a small hole-in-the-wall vendor, and then met up with a few friends to go watch a movie at 8pm. We met at Métro Odéon to watch LOL with Sophie Marceau. Take a look at the trailer below. It turned out to be entertaining and had a great soundtrack, and despite being all in French, I got all of it. I think.
Odeon movie theater right outside the metro
Saw this when I came out of the theater. I thought the line of customers sitting outside was charmant, so I awkwardly took pictures of them.
"But I like to take pictures" face :(
Window peeking at a guy making a mushroom, ham, marinated tomato slices, mozzarella crepe with some type of vegetable...
On the banks of the Seine
Cool non?
Afterward, we walked the streets Saint Germaine and St. Michel. The night being young, we bought a bottle of pink wine (don't get Listel, it is gross) and sat along the Seine, goofed around, and almost got arrested. Just kidding! The flics or poulet (slang and slightly derogatory for police) were walking around and I think they even ticketed the people after us for being loud and lewd. We laughed, admired the sparkling lights of the city, waved to mouches (tour boats), and experimented with different settings on our appareils photo (cameras). Make sure to check them out; they came out pretty cool.
On Saturday, the USC ACCENT group took a day trip to Chartres, where the Chartres Notre Dame can be found. It's a Gothic cathedral that pre-dates Paris' Notre Dame. It is also rumored to hold the original nativity clothing of baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary. We got a guided tour from Malcolm Miller, a well-known British chap who knows a lot (too much) about Gothic cathedrals and stained glass. He's lectured at Chartres for 51 years, twice a day, and I quote, "Come back again with your husbands and wives, because I'll remain here until my Judgment Day!" He explained the meanings of several stained glass symbols, carved statues of the apostles and saints outside, and the history of the cathedral. After, we had an organized lunch with a zesty menu. I'll let the photos do the talking. It was snowing and one of the coldest days endured so far, so many of us were not in the best mood to explore the little historical paths of the city. Instead, we took tourist-y photos on the sprint back to the bus.
Agrandir le plan
The Chartres cathedral from afar
stain glass inside
1) Chicken pate with onion chutney, cornichon, and vinaigrette salad
2) Poisson blanc (white fish) with mushrooms, bacon, cured potatoes, zucchini and carrots
3) Some raspberry yogurt thing that I was too full to finish
Oh, while walking to Metro at 8am, I found a small neighborhood street market 3 min away from my apt.
In the night, a few of us girls went to Batofar, a popular discotheque-ing boat that is anchored on the bank of the Seine. We originally intended to go to LeMix, where "Scream" (the largest French gay party) was to take place, but that opened at midnight and would have cost us 20e. Batofar was...interesting to say the least. Or most, not sure. We were happy about getting in gratuits (free) cuz I emailed the promoter earlier that night, but the DJs spun some pretty bad music, and the atmosphere & people were a bit weird. Definitely a lot of people on something.
My Peruvian USC friend, Maria, wanted to stay til the club was over, and since the other three girls, Catherine, Adriana, and Bonnie, were suffering from fatigue, feet pangs and wanted to leave, I agreed to stay with her, enduring five hours of non-stop dancing with only a glass of champagne and a small shot of rum in the system. Bon exercice! The two of us took the metro (Métro quai de la Gare) at around 6am, and I got home around 6:30 to take a shower and promptly ptfo.
Not much today. I'll let photos do the sharing. Here is 02-07-09.
On Friday, we had a "Very Contemporary France" seminar on the basics of French politics, culture, and sports. I don't want to get into it much but here are a few essential items to check out: Jean-Marie Le Pen (absurd extreme right wing politician against Jacques Chirac in the 2002 final presidential elections. He wanted all people infected with AIDS to be sent to a concentration camp in order to not contaminate the rest of the population; he is also racist, sexist, and a bigot), Serge Gainesbourg (famous French singer with a very unique, "sensual" style), argot (common French slang), and hand gestures. On a side note: Other than argot, the youth (mostly from the ghetto areas of Paris) also have a dialect called verlan, which has some semblance to our very own Pig Latin. They inverse words e.g. femme (woman) --> meuf, moche (ugly)--> chemo.
Lorna training us to be informed Americans
After, I headed to the grocery market to purchase some food for the weekend, bought an odd curry-tasting sandwich jambon crudité (ham with vegetables) from a small hole-in-the-wall vendor, and then met up with a few friends to go watch a movie at 8pm. We met at Métro Odéon to watch LOL with Sophie Marceau. Take a look at the trailer below. It turned out to be entertaining and had a great soundtrack, and despite being all in French, I got all of it. I think.
Odeon movie theater right outside the metro
Saw this when I came out of the theater. I thought the line of customers sitting outside was charmant, so I awkwardly took pictures of them.
"But I like to take pictures" face :(
Window peeking at a guy making a mushroom, ham, marinated tomato slices, mozzarella crepe with some type of vegetable...
On the banks of the Seine
Cool non?
Afterward, we walked the streets Saint Germaine and St. Michel. The night being young, we bought a bottle of pink wine (don't get Listel, it is gross) and sat along the Seine, goofed around, and almost got arrested. Just kidding! The flics or poulet (slang and slightly derogatory for police) were walking around and I think they even ticketed the people after us for being loud and lewd. We laughed, admired the sparkling lights of the city, waved to mouches (tour boats), and experimented with different settings on our appareils photo (cameras). Make sure to check them out; they came out pretty cool.
On Saturday, the USC ACCENT group took a day trip to Chartres, where the Chartres Notre Dame can be found. It's a Gothic cathedral that pre-dates Paris' Notre Dame. It is also rumored to hold the original nativity clothing of baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary. We got a guided tour from Malcolm Miller, a well-known British chap who knows a lot (too much) about Gothic cathedrals and stained glass. He's lectured at Chartres for 51 years, twice a day, and I quote, "Come back again with your husbands and wives, because I'll remain here until my Judgment Day!" He explained the meanings of several stained glass symbols, carved statues of the apostles and saints outside, and the history of the cathedral. After, we had an organized lunch with a zesty menu. I'll let the photos do the talking. It was snowing and one of the coldest days endured so far, so many of us were not in the best mood to explore the little historical paths of the city. Instead, we took tourist-y photos on the sprint back to the bus.
Agrandir le plan
The Chartres cathedral from afar
stain glass inside
1) Chicken pate with onion chutney, cornichon, and vinaigrette salad
2) Poisson blanc (white fish) with mushrooms, bacon, cured potatoes, zucchini and carrots
3) Some raspberry yogurt thing that I was too full to finish
Oh, while walking to Metro at 8am, I found a small neighborhood street market 3 min away from my apt.
In the night, a few of us girls went to Batofar, a popular discotheque-ing boat that is anchored on the bank of the Seine. We originally intended to go to LeMix, where "Scream" (the largest French gay party) was to take place, but that opened at midnight and would have cost us 20e. Batofar was...interesting to say the least. Or most, not sure. We were happy about getting in gratuits (free) cuz I emailed the promoter earlier that night, but the DJs spun some pretty bad music, and the atmosphere & people were a bit weird. Definitely a lot of people on something.
My Peruvian USC friend, Maria, wanted to stay til the club was over, and since the other three girls, Catherine, Adriana, and Bonnie, were suffering from fatigue, feet pangs and wanted to leave, I agreed to stay with her, enduring five hours of non-stop dancing with only a glass of champagne and a small shot of rum in the system. Bon exercice! The two of us took the metro (Métro quai de la Gare) at around 6am, and I got home around 6:30 to take a shower and promptly ptfo.
Not much today. I'll let photos do the sharing. Here is 02-07-09.
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