Almost a month already, what??!!!

Bonjour, Bonjour encore tout le monde!

Its been a week or so since I updated you but things are going well. Time flies and I can't believe this weekend will mark my first Month here! I have even had my first visitor from the US! This weekend I spent some time catching up with Dr. Hilaire who was a professor I had while I was interning in DC and taking a class. He also came to Elon to do some lectures for the International Studies Society and the campus in general in regards to US foreign policy.We checked out the Palace of Versailles and met up with another of his former students living now in Paris. She is very nice and another aspiring attorney from the Czech Republic named Helena. After meeting Dr. Hilaire and Helena, some friends and I went to China town for dinner Sunday and celebrated the Chinese New Year Parisian style. I had no idea there were so many Asians in Paris but there is a growing population here in France in general. Its neat to see how they integrate into French culture also. They have an easier time I think than Americans or North Africans. China town is huge too and nicer definitely than San Fransisco or New York.

Today I went to Ash Wednesday Mass at Notre Dame which was beautiful and got a belated Valentines day package from home so it was a good day... aside from the fact my host brother accidentally set the alarm this morning while I was still at home and...you guessed it, yep, I set it off. He felt bad though when he realized what happened and that I had to deal with the Police by myself in my PJs when they came to the house. Ohlala, C'est la vie right?

Classes are becoming definitely more intense, but are going well and my professors are nice. One of my professors today complimented my accident, which was nice. Its always the little things that make or break you I think when you first begin living abroad. I also feel myself maturing already a great deal since I've been here which is gratifying in a way and makes the experience much more multi-dementional if that make any sense.

Alright..this is a blog not a novel so I am going to end here. Hopefully my last blog about pictures wasn't too confusing, but if you have any troubles, ask me, and I'll make sure you can view them. Some of you have really been enjoying them, especially the picture of the Crepe guy (hahaha you know who you are :) so I will try to get some fresh ones up by the weekend.

Take care, I'll talk to you soon! Jess

Pictures...

Pictures are posted if you go to yahoo pictures and put parispix07 as the user name and europix07 as the password then you will be able to see them. There are still more I need to load off of my camera so I'll do that soon. Hope you enjoy!

Superbowl comes to France!

I was very exited when I found out that I could watch the Superbowl on a local channel here. So on my first night with my new French family my sister, Josephine (17 y/o) ,and I watched the Colts successfully become Superbowl champs (finally!). It was an amazing game and I am glad I got to watch, despite the fact all the turn overs almost gave me an early heart attack. It did make me a little homesick though to hear how excited everyone was back home when they won and also to hear on the French news how crazy Indianapolis went when they won, but at least I got to see the game period. Josephine got to learn a little about American culture too so that was good.

Tonight I had dinner with all 7 kids for the first time and Marie (my French mom). It was so fun, even a circus at times, but I felt they made me feel very welcome and were open armed which was nice. They laughed at me because I said I'm full, but nobody says this in France since it means I'm pregnant too I guess...hahahah aren't moments of linguistic understanding like this wonderful?? Marie baked a very good and very typical French spinich and feta tart and an apple suffle from scrtach for all 8 of after she came home from work. I don't know how the woman does it!!

Alright classes have started this week so I need to keep this short and get some rest. My classes are going well and are intersting. My contemporary French politics class is really interesting especially since big elections are coming up for the country in May. Hope all is well back home in the States and you are enjoying my blog so far :) I will keep recording my daily activities to a minimum from now on and focus more about aspects of France. D'accord, au revoir pour maintenant!

Ma nouvelle famille...

Yesterday I moved in with my host family. I will catch you up on my first week of orientation in Paris and then I will tell you about my host family. I left off with a visit to the Louvre. After the Louvre visit the next day there was a big language placement exam at the Sorbonne to double check that I am qualified to be taking courses here etc. Thursday there was a lecture in the morning and I went to the George Pompidou Center. It is a really funky modern art museum built by George Pompidou who was the last President before Jacques Chirac. I went through the new permanent exhibit on classic modern art and also the Yves Klein exhibit. He was a big modern painter in the 60s who was known for monochromes and inventing colors like “International Klein Blue”. He was an interesting guy who lived a short and intense life producing some great work. Yesterday there was another lecture and then a visit to the La Musée d’Orsay. It holds many of the classic French and other European impressionist pieces. There are a lot of famous pieces by Monet, Van Gough, and others. It was a beautiful museum, but my favorite so far has been the Pompidou center. Today I went to Reimes which is in the Champagne region. There is a really beautiful Cathedral were all the French Kings were corinated. After looking around the Cathedral I went to a Champagne vineyard. I had no idea Champagne is so involved to make! It takes almost four years and two fermentation process to make..no wonder its so expensive!
Ok, enough about the French and their alcohol. Now that I have caught you up on the cultural activities over the past few days it is time to fill you in on my host family. They live right outside the city and get this…they have seven kids! Yes, SEVEN. Since I come from a smaller immediate family this will definitely be an adjustment. The youngest is around four and the kids are very active in fencing and piano (typical French right?!). The family has been hosting students for almost five years now I think and they are very nice. When I first got to the house the four year old "helped" me bring my luggage in and we had lunch after I unpacked. OK, I need to go into the city so I need to end here, but I will post again soon!

Ohhh, also thanks for those of you who have written me. Your e-mails have helped curve some of my homesickness so thank you for the kind words and I will be replying soon since time to reply has been very limited lately. One other thing for those of you who asked me, if you want to post a comment on the blog, click commentaire and then you should be able to just post from there comments.

Jess