Crêpe Night at Jean Paul's

After a long day of classes from 12-6 in varying locations around Paris, I was tired and grumpy come dinner time. But when I walked into the kitchen, all became right with the world. Last night was crêpe night at Jean Paul's. First we had savory crêpes. Then we had sweet crêpes. Then we had fruits. It was heavenly.

I also starting telling Jean Paul about Amsterdam, and when I told him about the Van Gogh museum he got really excited. I told him about the Gauguin exhibition, and he told me he had filmed a documentary about Gauguin (of course). He told me about Van Gogh's problems, and how his depression was worsened by the amount of absinthe he was drinking. Then he went into the other room, grabbed a bottle of absinthe, and showed me how to prepare it, with the sugar and water and everything. Then he told me to try it!! It tasted like licorice...

So anyways, a tough day at "la fac," quickly turned into crêpe and absinthe night at Jean Paul's. I <3 Paris for it.

Amsterdam!

Ok, so from Thursday to Sunday, I went to Amsterdam with three friends! It was the first European country I've been to outside of France. And it is SUCH a WEIRD city. (And I mean that in the best possible way, because I genuinely loved it.)

I actually really, really like Dutch history, mostly because I grew up in upstate New York (which used to be New Netherland). I never really thought about the strong Dutch influence in Albany until I went to Amsterdam and it felt weirdly like home. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but it really resonated with me. Also, the architecture of the city is SO different from Paris. It was so quaint and Northern European, and I constantly felt like I was living in the book, "Girl With A Pearl Earring."

The weird part is how all of the historical aspects of the city meshed with the fact that marijuana and prostitution are legal there. Not only did these aspects give the city a really funny vibe, but it also meant the entire city was flooded with tourists. All of the native Dutch people spoke fluent English, and I heard a million British and American accents filling the streets.

Apart from the city as a whole, one of my favorite things we did was the Van Gogh museum. It was definitely one of the best museum experiences I've had. Van Gogh was cool because he was never part of an artistic movement, but he toyed with all of the emerging stuff happening in the art world. He would do impressionist paintings and Japanese paintings and everything, but when it came down to it, he was an individual tortured soul, and his paintings were uniquely his.

Anyways, those are just some of my initial thoughts. To hear a more detailed account of the trip, gchat/email me. Overall, it was really fun, and it was also great that returning to Paris felt like returning home (although I do miss New York and it will always be my real home).

Procrastination Post

Alright, my real classes have started, my schedule is official, and it is as follows:

-Academic Writing in French (required)
-Arts in Paris 1900-1965
-Study of a Cinéaste: Jean Renoir
-French Cinema in the 1970s

They are all pretty awesome, even academic writing, where my teacher is the most delightfully French Frenchman ever. BUT it means my real workload has set in, which is annoying. Right now I am effectively procrastinating while I'm supposed to be writing an essay, in French, on whether anthropology can be an objective subject. Fifi is sitting on my lap and shares in my disapproval. BUT this weekend I am going to the Loire Valley to see some Chateaux, so I gotta get this done now. C'est nul.

P.S. My decidedly un-Parisian obsession while I'm here is "The Wire." It is, without exaggeration, the best TV show I have ever seen. Anyone who hasn't seen it needs to drop what they're doing NOW and watch all five seasons (which is basically what I've been doing today).

French babysitting

Ok, so I realize most of my posts end up being about Jean Paul and family, but I just can't help it! J'adore la famille Roux! Last night, I babysat J-P's grandchildren, Lili (who is 7) and Simon (who is 8 months old). I actually have very little experience with babies, let alone French babies, BUT it worked out splendidly.

Plus, Lili is now officially my favorite French person. We talked about Harry Potter (she's reading the sixth right now), and then she decided to help my French by dictating a story to me as I wrote it. Afterwards, she graded it, and I got a B+ (on a scale of "tres bien" to "terrible," I got a "bien").

She asked me if I had made lots of friends in Paris, and then she gave me her advice for making friends (this is how she met her best friend, so it's a tested tactic). First, I need to walk up to someone and ask her, "Do you want to be my friend?" then if she says yes, I go bikeriding with her, then we will be best friends. Gah, I need to try this! She also farted a lot during the evening and kept giggling and saying, "Pardon!" Ah, I love kids, and they are actually awesome for learning French, since they are not judgemental at all.

Travel Plans

Ok, so I have officially finished booking all of my travel plans for the semester. I'm so psyched. Here's the breakdown of travels and visitors:

February:
-Loire Valley
-Amsterdam

March:
-my friend Michelle visits Paris
-then my sister Hannah and my friends Emily Kaplan and Morgan (and most likely Emily Wallen) visit
-London

April:
-my parents visit
-Prague
-Budapest
-Marrakech

May:
-enjoy the rest of my time in Paris

Ahhhhh! It's gonna go by so quickly!

ALSO

Here is my rant about the Academy Awards. I always have a love/hate relationship with them. There are obviously some good movies that got nominated for best picture (Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, etc.), but any awards show that would nominate The Blind Side as the best picture of the year is totally messed up. Think about it...the Oscars are actually saying that there is a possibility that The Blind Side was the best picture made this year.

Despite the presence of a few good movies, the only truly innovative development in film this year (in my opinion) was the technology of Avatar. Not the movie itself, just the technology used to make it. The thing that makes me so sad about Avatar is that it had the opportunity to be, without exaggeration, the best movie ever made. But instead of sucking it up and hiring a decent writer, James Cameron's ego got in the way, and he decided to pull the story out of his butt. And I know Titanic and The Terminator aren't brilliant scripts, but his complete disregard for a good story in Avatar will have more lasting impact. With his new technology, he is setting a standard. And from now on, movies using his new technology need not live up to any standards of plot or character, or anything really, as long as the audience is sufficiently impressed by the cool colors and imaginary creatures.

That's why Avatar is exciting, but also scary. In my opinion, movies as they currently exist are going to start fading out, and the business will branch off into two directions. The first one will be movies like Avatar, which will become more and more interactive, and less and less actual structured movies. The plot will become insubstantial, and it will purely be about the viewing experience. The other branch (although maybe this is just wishful thinking), will be television, and other cheaper, serial productions. We are living in a golden age of TV right now. In my opinion, more creative things are being done on TV than in movies, and more and more people are staying home and watching TV on their computers than going out to see movies in theaters. The industry needs to adapt TV to the computer generation, and maybe some creativity can be salvaged.

Anyways, that's my rant at 8am in France, the day after the Oscar noms are listed.

Updates

Yesterday, I started playing Jean Paul's piano, and it seemed to make him really happy. He told me his wife used to play, and he missed hearing it in the apartment. I played Satie's Gymnopodies and he said it was one of his favorites. It made me realize how much I miss playing piano too, even at Columbia. And it wasn't so bad playing and looking out the window onto the streets of Paris.

At dinner, Jean Paul also told me stories about how when he was in high school, he would skip class and go to the movies. So French! He worked as a helper for the first guy in France to ever preserve and replay movies. Très cool, Jean Paul, très cool.

Also, my friend Joe and I hung out with French kids on Monday! We went into the banlieue (suburbs), where a lot of French college kids live and hung out at this girl's apartment.

Also, bought my tickets to London, so I'm officially going there!

Also, I'm getting lazy about blog posts. I'm finding that most blogworthy news is better told in conversation. So just...get at me, kids.