Dani On the Road

I’ve spent one week in Paris and I will now try to summarize/make sense of my week here. The immediate thing that captured my admiration for this city is that it truly is a romantic place. It has been raining a bit which would normally annoy me, but the old architecture and buildings seem to take kindly to the weather. And there have been some gorgeous days here too. But let’s go back to the beginning.

Hours before my flight to Dulles at JFK airport, I basically watched CNN all day, and boy what a coincidence between what was being covered and what I was about to see this year. I watched all the analysis over Obama’s speech in Cairo and his visit in France. I was almost in tears by the end of it. I am so glad that this man was elected President. I arrived on Sunday into Charles De Gualle Airport after being accompanied on the plane by a strange singing/dancing man with many Toys R Us purchases and a lovely Parisian French teacher who I befriended on the way to Paris. I had a pretty easy time navigating the airport after having taken so many trips this year. I slept reasonably well on the plane and was glad to have an aisle seat instead of one of the five squished middle seats. I got pretty lucky!

All the students in my program are staying at a quant Parisian boarding house called a “pension”, where we eat breakfast (if we can wake up for it) and dinner together. Basically is a way classier “Hey Arnold” type place with these wonderful French balconies (which are all over Paris). Some people live in the building permanently, some families, some elderly, and then many students passing through Paris. Besides our group there are students from Switzerland, Japan, and Mexico studying French on their break year before going to university. It was really interesting talking to them, because they are my age or older even, and haven’t even started university yet, but are so so worldly.

The Pension is right by the Luxembourg Gardens, which are absolutely stunning, and we spend a lot of time grabbing a light sandwich from the Boulangerie and then sitting in the gardens and enjoying the weather (if it’s nice out - it has been a bit rainy, including today). Yesterday I spent a few hours in the morning reading a book there and it was lovely being out with all the Parisians. Many American girls get approached by young Parisian studs in the gardens (and I’ve had my fair share of that in only five days) but yesterday the most that happened was I got hit by a ball and asked for a cigarrette. C’est la vie.

As part of my Modernism and the Arts class here, I’ve been able to see most of the museums with a great appreciation for their intricacies, something that would have otherwise missed. So far we have visited La Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Theatre de la Ville for a modern (strange) dance performance, Musee d’Orsay, Pompidou Center, Institut du Monde Arabe for a music concert (which I loved and am headed back today for the museum, really wonderful architecture), and the Picasso Museum. At the Picasso Museum I learned that Picasso portrayed his most beloved lovers with a humongous shnozz (nose). I now have an upper for every “Jews have a big noses” conversation for the rest of my life.

On my own, I have of course visited the Eiffel Tower (which for some reason I kept calling the Eiffel Towel, I’m such a sophisticated American) and Notre Dame. At the Eiffel I was chased down by a young, gorgeous Parisian named Guillame among a group of young Parisians drinking wine and beer under the tower just in front. In front of Notre Dame, a few girls wanted to stop at a table of souvineers, and I noticed the guy working the stand looked Arab, and chatted him up. He was Algerian, Abdulmajid, so pleased with me that he gave all of us free keychains (if I keep this up, I may not have to buy one souvenir) and helped my friend to find the “high quality” souvenirs of his collection and gave her a great deal (the best I’d seen out of the overpriced knicknacks near popular touristy sights). Yesterday, a friend and I visited the Mosque (pronounced with a long eeeee at the end here) which was beautiful and clearly inspired by the religious sights of North Africa. My Arabic did us almost no good there and probably made more confusion, but luckily my friend spoke French and as we went in to pray (“pray”) we didn’t have to pay any entrance fee. It was kind of a ridiculous sight, once again me dressed up in a tie on skirt they provide and a scarfed head (which fell off in the Mosque - woops!) and all the women checking us out. They handed us bottles of water to bring into the women who had been inside for hours and they were so very greatful. I really enjoyed the visit.

I’ve found that knowing Arabic in France has opened many doors for me. In a place where Parisians are a bit harder to open up, when I can spot somebody of North African descent and chat them up in Arabic as a white American female, it’s easy to impress. It’s given me a great feeling of joy on days where I may be an otherwise frustrated traveller. I’ve been invited many times by interested Parisian guys (which I have not taken up), but yesterday we befriended a Tunisian family who was so pleased with me and invited us for tea. It is so difficult to be invited to a Parisian’s home, a huge honor, but mixed with Arab hospitality is should make for an interesting evening. But seriously, Arab culture is EVERYWHERE in Paris. In the past five days I have talked to Algerians, Tunisians, Lebanese and noticed tons of the community here with stores and restaurants.

Future plans inclue meeting up (hopefully) with Rebecca’s friend who has just returned from Egypt, so I hope the call her and meet up with her before I leave. Today I am headed back to the Arab Institute’s museum - should it still be open by the time I’m done uploading pictures.

As far as this blog goes, I’d love your feedback. I think it’s going to take me a bit to get the hang of keeping something interesting that you guys will enjoy reading. This week I am exhausted mentally so I’m just doing a bit of summarizing, so if you all could comment with suggestions, that would be really lovely. I’m definitely going to be posting videos and you can click on the right to my flickr for my most recent pictures (which are taking an annoyingly long time to upload at this internet cafe that is eating up my euros). I’ve been pretty good with emails and facebook too. Please keep in touch!