Visitors recap

So it has been almost a week since my visitors left, but I had a GREAT time hosting my sister and seeing Emily and Morgan and their friends. Having everyone here made it feel like a vacation for me too, even though I technically still had classes. Here is a recap of some of the festive things we did:

-Went to the Paris Mosque and had very sugary, delicious tea there. Then went to the Institut du Monde Arabe, where you can look over the whole city.
-Went to a musical training session of my sister's colleague, Louis, who is living in Paris for the year and studying musicology. During the lesson, I looked out the window and saw a man climbing into a second-story apartment window. I found out later from Louis that he saw it too, and it turns out it was a burglar!!! Does this make me immoral that I didn't take action?!
-Went to a photography exhibit at the Musée Jeu de Paume
-Went to a classy dinner and questionable contemporary art exhibit at the Palais de Tokyo
-Had Felafel and Jewish pastries in the Marais (twice!)
-Went shopping at Rue de Rivoli
-went to Sacré Coeur and wandered around Montmartre
-went to a dinner made for us by Louis and his girlfriend Maggie, in their apartment in Belleville
-went to the Musée D'Orsay with Morgan and Emily
-went to many classy restaurants and a few less classy bars

Overall, so much fun, and I was sad to see everyone leave!! This week, it has been SO warm and beautiful, I have been doing all my work in outdoor cafés and spending lots of free time wandering around aimlessly. My last midterm is next Monday, so I am watching lots and lots of obscure French films from the 1970s. Like, extremely obscure. Like, shame on anyone who name-drops Godard and thinks they know shit. This is taking pretentious foreign films to a whole new level. They're all pretty good, though.

The last piece of news is that I am dog-sitting this weekend for Louis and Maggie! This means I will be living in Belleville for the weekend and hanging out with their adorable dog Panda! Belleville is a really cool part of the city--it's a little run-down, but filled with so many different kinds of people and so lively all the time. It reminds me a little bit of parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

Seriously, not looking forward to the day when real life is gonna kick in again.

YESSS

Finished my first French-university-midterm!

And Hannah's coming tomorrow!

And Paris is seeming a little like spring!

Seriously digging everything right now.

Oscar opinions

Even though I will have to wait and watch re-caps of the Oscars (not airing here till 1am), here are my opinions on all of the nominees, listed from most deserving to least deserving. I will spare you all my opinions on the more specific categories.

BEST PICTURE:
1) Avatar
2) Inglourious Basterds
3) A Serious Man
4) Precious
5) The Hurt Locker
6) Up in the Air
7) Up
8) An Education
9) Disctrict 9
(didn't see The Blind Side)

BEST ACTOR:
1) Colin Firth, A Single Man
2) Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
3) Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
4) George Clooney, Up in the Air
(didn't see Invictus)

BEST ACTRESS:
1) Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
2) Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
3) Carey Mulligan, An Education
(didn't see The Last Station or The Blind Side)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
1) Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
(sadly didn't see any of the others)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
1) Mo'Nique, Precious
2) Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
3) Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
4) Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart
(didn't see Nine)

ANIMATED:
1) Fantastic Mr. Fox
2) Coraline
3) Up
4) The Princess and the Frog

Directing:
1) James Cameron, Avatar
2) Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds
3) Lee Daniels, Precious
4) Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
5) Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

Writing (Adapted):
1) Up in the Air
2) Precious
3) An Education
4) District 9
(didn't see In the Loop)

Writing (Original):
1) Inglorious Basterds
2) A Serious Man
3) The Hurt Locker
4) Up
(Didn't see the Messenger)

Should have been nominated:
1) Liev Schrieber, Taking Woodstock (Best Supporting Actor)
2) Peter Sarsgaard, An Education (Best Supporting Actor)
3) Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker (Best Supporting Actor)
4) Julianne Moore, A Single Man (Best Supporting Actress)
5) Diane Kruger, Inglorious Basterds (Best Supporting Actress)
6) Joel and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man (Best Director)
7) Wes Anderson, Fantastic Mr. Fox (Best Director)
8) Fantastic Mr. Fox (Best Adapted Screenplay)

La Cinémathèque Française!!

So today I went to the cinémathèque française for the first time, and now I'm freaking out about how awesome it is!! I can't believe it took me this long! Basically, it's:

1) A movie theater
2) A film museum
3) A store with DVDs, etc.
4) A film library, where you can watch movies for free on TVs inside it
5) A restaurant

ALL IN ONE! It was a film nerd's dream. I couldn't handle it. I went there for the library, in order to watch a movie for my Jean Renoir class. I'm supposed to watch all 38 of Jean Renoir's films by the end of the semester. But now I'm just going to go back there...all the time.

Also, it is conveniently located right next to a street named, "Rue Jean Renoir." And across the street, there's a café called "Café Mastroianni." Sigh.

SPRING?!?!

Suddenly the sun feels warm and the outdoors are pleasant and my plaid jacket is enough to be comfortable and AHHHH IT FEELS LIKE SPRING!!!

Not writing any more because I'm about to go outside and wander in the wonderfulness.

Oscar time!!!

So, the theme of this week in Paris is catching up on all the Oscar-nominated movies I haven't seen yet. Luckily, there's a lag time between American movies coming out in America and American movies coming out in France. So this week, I'm gonna spend beaucoup de nuits au cinema, en regardant, "Precious," "A Single Man," "Crazy Heart," and, "The Princess and the Frog." Also, if anyone knows of a way to watch "The Blind Side," let me know. I have a policy about not judging movies before I have seen them, but I really, really want to judge "The Blind Side."

In light of this theme, this weekend I saw, "A Serious Man," and "District 9." The first was amazing. The Coen brothers can do no wrong in my opinion. "District 9" was a bit disappointing, but I think it was overhyped before I saw it.

Anyways, this is all part of my annual love/hate relationship with the Oscars. I obsessively watch all the nominated movies, then obsessively watch the Oscars, then discredit the academy as an institution when I (inevitably) don't like the results.

None of this is very Paris-related, but whatever!