Tidbits

Hey folks!

This post is made up of little tidbits from the past week of my life in Paris.

Refund:

We're off the meal plan! So many people complained about the food at St. John's that our program director had to step in. She ended the food contract with St. John's and is providing all of us with reimbursements in cash (to cover rest of our time here) to be delivered via Sciences-Po. The St. John's kids still have to eat the food. It's such a relief to be able to plan when, where, and what I'll be eating.

Fashion Week:

Paris Fashion Week began on Tuesday! Yesterday (Wednesday) I walked around trying to find the supposed TopShop pop-up store in a store called "Colette." (TopShop is a British clothing store that is affordable and very cute). The article I'd read about it online said that there was a special pop-up TopShop being hosted at Colette. I found Colette.. which appeared to be a hip hop music/ guys clothing/ guys shoe store with an Urban Outfitters book section on the first floor, with Hermès scarves and jewelry upstairs, and a restaurant downstairs. I found nothing TopShop related. There were however, a ton of American and Italian tourists with lots of fancy shopping bags. As I walked back across the Louvre Gardens back to my side of the Seine, I passed an incredibly long tent being constructed that read; "Accessory Designers Trade Show." Other than that I haven't seen much Fashion Week activity. The online show schedule has different events happening all over the place, spread throughout the entire city. It doesn't seem to be centralized. I have heard that it's nearly impossible to get in to see a show during the Paris Fashion Week because it is so popular. You have to either know someone, be famous, or be in the industry. Even just being rich isn't always enough to cut it. Seats are in high demand. All I wanted to do was to sit outside and watch all the cool people walking around, but I haven't seen much so far.

Bon Marché:

Yesterday morning before class I ran into Bon Marché (fancy department store with a large fancy grocery store on the bottom á la Harrods) to buy a couple of apples before class. As I was checking out, the cashier-lady laughed and mumbled something in French to me. Instead of saying I didn't understand her, I just smiled and nodded saying "mhmm.." She must've understood that I was foreign because when I left she said "Bonjourno!" So far in my travels I've been mistaken for being Brazilian, Dutch, and Italian. I take it all in pride.

Library Tour:

Yesterday morning we had a "mandatory" library tour from 8am to 9am. I put "mandatory" in quotes because a lot of people stayed in bed and no one took roll. The "tour" took place in a room 4 blocks from the library and was a Power Point presentation on how to check out books and reserve books online. Afterwards I was planning to go back to bed but she said we could follow her to the library and get some free croissants and coffee..so of course most of us followed her. There was a guy there with a camera filming because it turns out this was a grand opening of the new addition to the older library which is across the street. We were the first ones in there, and that place was SO COOL. I literally felt like I was in an Apple store on every floor. There were floating conference rooms and tons of brand new Mac desktops. The floors, walls, and ceilings were all white and the floating conference rooms were stone. There were futuristic looking swivel chairs with little table tops attached, and on one level these chairs were sitting on top of a see-through floor that looked down on the first level. Thank goodness for free food, or I wouldn't have seen it!

Wall Street:

I saw the "Wall Street" Paris premier Tuesday night! Instead of a midnight release (which I'm not sure they do in France) it was an 8:15pm showtime the day before the national release date. We saw it in a gigantic theater with an enormous white screen that felt like something you would see at Universal Studios. There weren't any previews, it felt like we were seeing a sneak peek showing. I loved the movie! It was fresh, by that I mean the director incorporated some new filmmaking styles that I haven't really seen before. It doesn't hurt that I have a huge crush on all of Shia LaBeouf's characters (except in Eagle Eye...ok and not in Even Stevens either).

I plan on relaxing for the rest of the day and then hopefully going to get dinner later with some friends. This Saturday is La Nuit Blanche. I don't entirely get what it's for, but it's free, is geared towards younger people, and is centered around dining, museums, and music. It lasts from 7pm to 7am Sunday morning. I guess lots of places stay open and a few of the metro lines stay open all night as well. We shall see!

Talk to you soon!

Love,

Hillary

Bed Bugs- An Update

Hello friends!

When we last left off with my bed bug problem I had just woken up from a nap with bites. It ended up amounting to 6 bites, including on one my eyelid.

I changed mattresses and changed sheets but woke up the next morning with 4 more bites. After that I bought a sleeping bag (from Au Vieux Campeur) that I've been sleeping in on top of my covers, and haven't been bit again since that second time. Yesterday morning a specialist and the dorm manager-guy (I don't know his title) were in here to check it out, but I was in a library tour and haven't yet heard the verdict. My refund request (for sheets and sleeping bag) was rejected because they said I'd been offered to sleep in an empty room and had turned it down, wanting to switch mattresses instead. It's true that the dorm manager-guy offered for me to sleep in an empty room, but that sounded A) scary, B) unnecessary, and C) like a hassle. Plus, that wouldn't have solved the problem of my bed bugs quickly, which would have left it possible for my roommate to get them as well.

When I met with him that afternoon, I showed him the bites along my arms and his first response was to look at me skeptically and say: "Bed bug bites usually come in threes.." He then proceeded to pull up google and he googled "bed bug bites." What we found didn't say anything about them coming in threes, and the pictures looked exactly like my bites. He assured me that he would get it taken care of immediately. I asked him if that meant that night, and he said no, because everyone had gone home. This was Thursday at 4pm. It was then that I asked to be allowed to switch mattresses and he told me I could just sleep in an empty room if I wanted. I preferred to sleep in my own room. Monday evening I received an e-mail from the dorm manager-guy that told me he was sending in someone to look at the problem Wednesday morning, but that he doubted it was bed bugs. He also asked me to not say anything about the possibility of bed bugs to my other dorm-mates so that I wouldn't scare people.

Here was my response:

Jean-Christophe,

Sure, Wednesday morning is fine. I appreciate your taking this matter seriously. Although to be honest Jean-Christophe, I don't know how you have any authority to be able to say that it "does not seem likely that it's bed bugs." After two nights getting bitten (including the new mattess), I've purchased a sleeping bag to protect myself. It's working so far. Could you please put me in contact with your supervisor? I intend to request a refund for costs incurred due to the bugs.

You are absolutely right, bed bugs are a serious matter and I don't intend to keep this knowledge to myself if, perhaps, someone asks me why I have switched mattresses and am sleeping in a sleeping bag. This is something other students should be aware of.

P.S. There was a cockroach on our floor this morning- in the hallway. Just thought you may want to know.

Thank you,

Hillary

I have a meeting with him tomorrow afternoon, maybe then I'll be told the verdict. Until then, I continue to sleep in my sleeping bag.

Love,

Hillary

I Am Gordon Ramsey..In My Dreams

Last night I went to a jazz club on a street famous for it's jazz scene called Rue des Lombards. The bar was called "Le Baiser Salé." Here's a picture of the inside:

Just kidding, that's Gordon Ramsey's restaurant in Tokyo (the guy from Hell's Kitchen). I really want to go to one of his restaurants one day. Anyway, here's what it actually looked like:

I didn't take this picture I found it on google..but this is basically what it looked like outside except darker and way more crowded. Pretty cool, huh?

I tried google translating it in French and all I got was the word kiss, but translating it from Portuguese gives me "The Salty Kiss." I tried portuguese because I think the singer was Brazilian and I think he was singing partly in portuguese last night. The show was at 10 and we decided around 9 that we wanted to go there (we'd walked down the road to find the best bang for our buck). So, we sat down and ordered a drink and tried to ignore the cold. It was so crowded that we were as close to the street as possible and thus weren't under the heat lamps. Around 9:45 we waited in line to pay our 20 Euro cover and go sit upstairs where the show would be.

We got seated as close to the stage as you could get (which I don't think was a good thing). The show wasn't starting until 10:30 so the waitress said if we wanted food we could go to the corner for a crêpe and come back. A few of us left and when I got back, there was a chick in my seat. The friends of mine who'd stayed behind said they'd tried to tell her that I was sitting there but she ignored them. I stood there awkwardly in this teeny tiny super crowded room with nowhere to go because the other 2 friends who had left with me were behind me, and in front of me was the table my friends were sitting at and the bench next to it that I had been sitting on, that was now occupied. I was holding up my friends behind me, who had nowhere to go until I found somewhere to sit. I told her she was in my seat, and she argued with me, telling me that she had been there before. I know she was lying because when I sat down earlier her friend scooted over to make a spot for me, and didn't say a word about me sitting in an occupied seat. Then, when my friends sat down and I was the only person standing up with nowhere to move, literally, and the waitress was looking at this woman trying to figure out what had happened to my seat, the chick pointed to a little white bag sitting on an empty chair and said she could take that and I could sit there. So I KNOW she was lying- that was where she'd been sitting! Ugh. I took my spot, which was situated perfectly so that when I looked straight ahead all I saw was a music stand in front of me holding a big red music folder. But I told myself, all I really need is to be able to hear, not necessarily to see.

The music was good! The best way I can describe it was that it sounded similar to "The Girl From Ipanema" song.. with a little more drums. At one point this guy randomly walked onstage from the crowd (who obviously knew the band) and joined in for one song. He was singing in fast spanish and I was so relieved. Being here and not knowing french has made me realize that I am more fluent in spanish than I thought. (Not to say I'm fluent in spanish by any means, far from it). He left after his song and soon after they had an intermission. It's funny how you can understand so much faster than you can speak. For example, I speak a ridiculously small amount of french, but I understood the vocalist of the band when he said-in french- "We're going to take an intermission for 5 minutes and we'll start again in 20 minutes." (Insert crowd laughter).

Ok but back to the point of this post. So, the seat stealing liar bothered me more than I realized, because I'm pretty sure my dream last night was a manifestation of my rage towards this woman. See what you think:

In my dream I was eating dinner at a restaurant with some people. The waitress came by and someone asked her for her recommendations. At the same time I somehow had the internet open to a page of reviews about the restaurant. All of the reviews said that the restaurant was really good but to never order these two specific items mentioned, because they sucked. Literally every review said that. And lo and behold, those were the two items she recommended. I could tell (as you sometimes can in dreams) that she was doing this to be cruel. All of my friends were nodding and smiling, ignorant of the warning from the reviews. I was not going to let this happen.

"I'm not buying this bullsh*t! Who do you think you are?! Did you think we wouldn't know?! How is it that you are recommending the very two things that are supposed to be horrible at this place?"

She sneered and stayed silent, knowing the jig was up! Without a moment's pause, I turned to the head waitress standing nearby listening and said; "We'd like a new waitress, please." She smiled, nodded, and said; "right away."

This evening I realized that my rant at the waitress is exactly what I could have said to the lady sitting in my chair- minus the part about the menu. I never would have said that, but I think dream me was able to vent her frustrations the Gordon Ramsey way.

Until next time!

Hillary

"Europeanners"

Hey there!

Today's post will be an assortment of unrelated topics, all of which I want to tell you about but none of which are big enough to deserve their own space.

Topic one: The Metro

The metro is one of the best public transit systems I have ever experienced (second only to the Underground). It surpasses the Chicago El system in every way possible. There are stops everywhere and wait times for trains are rarely over 4 minutes- but you'll know how long you'll be waiting thanks to the digital sign that tells you how long until the next train, and then how long until the next train after that. The newer trains have a digital map inside the train cars: On this map there is a small light underneath each stop, the light blinks when you have arrived at that stop, and the light is extinguished once you have passed that stop. Oh and have I mentioned the speed? It's about one minute transit time in between each stop on the metro.

The Metro is a funny sort of place. You are allowed on the metro, but your personal space has to walk and meet you at your next destination. On the metro your entire cabin may be serenaded with a man playing a guitar and not asking for money, a couple with a stereo may try to start a rave in your cabin, or a homeless person may board and announce very politely that he is poor and isn't being helped by the State and if you would be so kind he would gratefully accept any donations you may have. People-watching on the metro is really enjoyable. Today I saw a boy about my age on his cell phone leaning against the wall of the train with a very tall open Paprika Lays Potato Chips tube in one hand, and tucked under his arm he was carrying a small laptop- with no case. The other day I saw the coolest looking family. The dad had a handsome face with a bit of stubble and was around 40, he was tall, slender and extremely french looking. He had a tattoo on his neck with someone's name on a banner wrapped around a big flower. It was cool looking. The mom was a bit younger with long blonde hair and a trench, and the daughter, who was around 5, was wearing the cutest little dress with little boots on. I have seen women and men of every ethnicity and of every level of wealth. It's really enjoyable.

Topic two: Au Vieux Campeur

Today I went on a quest to find a sleeping bag (to help with my bed bug problem). After googling "Paris camping stores" and then using google maps, I found where I wanted to go. The only problem was that the blog I found that suggested Au Vieux Campeur warned that, although this chain carries everything an outdoorsman could ever dream of, because of limited real estate in Paris, Au Vieux Campeur had about 50 different boutiques sprinkled around the 6 block radius they had directed me to. All of them carrying different things. I took the metro and walked to the address I got from the internet. At that address was a pharmacy and a few shops, but none of them were the camping store. I went inside one of the shops and asked for directions. In a mix of french and english she said I needed to walk two blocks one direction, take a right, and then walk for 5 more minutes. I walked that direction and almost immediately after turning right on the correct street, passed by an Au Vieux Campeur. Inside this one all they sold was skis, but the doorman directed me to the one with "sacs de couchage" (thanks google translator for telling me the word for sleeping bag!). He told me I need to walk 4 blocks and take a right. In between the ski shop and the corner 4 blocks away, I passed 4 more Au Vieux Campeurs. One sold only goggles and sunglasses, another sold only cold weather gear, the third sold trekking gear, and the 4th sold backpacks. Around the corner I found my sleeping bag store, and after purchasing one (I bought the cheapest one for only 15 euro!) I walked up towards the main road to catch the closest metro. The main road was one block away, but on the way I passed three more of those shops, one which sold swim gear, another which sold wetsuits, and the third which sold snowboards and snowboarding brand clothing. I turned up the main road and walked past another one which sold only hiking boots. I saw a shelf inside with some spray cans and walked in and bought some leather protectant spray for my shoes!

Topic three: Zara

I went into Zara today to try to find a light jacket (the temperature dropped yesterday to the low 50s). I found a really cute coat but they only had 3 larges. I went up to the man at the counter and asked in french "est-ce que vous avez sa plus petit?" (Do you have this more small?) I asked that in french!! I don't think it was a perfect sentence but he understood me! He told me no, and said the store by L'Opera had it. Then he asked me something I completely didn't understand, and I asked him in french if he spoke english. He did not, and neither did the woman at the register. I wanted to ask him if he could have the other store send it to this Zara, since it's only 1 block from my dorm, but I had no way of saying that. Eventually he just gave me the address to the other Zara. Oh well, I almost had it!!

Topic four: The language of a New Yorker

When I worked at Ben & Jerry's for the Tennis U.S. Open a couple summers ago, I got a lesson in how to speak a whole different language. I'm not talking about a foreign language, I mean the language of the inner city. Until a couple weeks ago, I thought that it was a language that could translate to any city, but I'm starting to realize that what I was hearing was unique to New York. Do you want to know how I know this? I know because I met a nice girl from St. John's who lives in our dorm and is a native New Yorker. The second she opens her mouth I am transported back to yesteryear, to my ice cream-scooping days. Last night around 11:30 she came into my room as Yomna and I were watching project runway on my laptop (I bought it from iTunes). She wanted us to watch a scary movie with her but we were already watching our show and didn't want to watch "Devil."

As soon as she walked in I knew that Yomna and I might not be able to finish our episode before the night was through. This girl can talk. I mean, I might say four words and she says five thousand. She can talk for 20 minutes with no interruption from me..except an occasional "mhm." Last night one of the topics she talked about was all the St. John's people who say they are from New York, but then she finds out they're from Connecticut or Massachusetts. She explained that one girl on her program is only eating bread and water because she wants to get a bigger chest and butt.

...

I don't know. I'll just say that there are definitely differences between the students from St. John's and the NU students. For one, I never see any NU kids outside the building smoking, but it seems like there are always 2 or 3 kids from St. John's smoking outside. And it's always different people so it's not like it's 3 of them that just smoke all night and day. Secondly, we were all warned to be quiet when talking with windows open, or when walking outside the front door down the passageway in between our building and the church building to the door that leads to the street because the sound gets trapped in the passageway and everyone can hear everything you say. It's the St. John's kids who lean out their windows to yell to each other, or who play "kick the water bottle" in the passageway. But I'm straying off topic, I was just so fascinated that two groups of students- and both from good schools- could be so different. Back to the St. John's girl.

At one point she started ranting about one of our RA's (a subject she hits on repeatedly). She told us that she told him earlier yesterday that "he was f*in stupid- I told him right to his face! Everyone hates his f*in a$$." Apparently one of the reasons for this is that the RA walked into a girl's room who was skyping with her parents and started asking her about being Albanian, saying he felt sorry for her country because of the religious division. Apparently he told her that her religion (she's Muslim) is a violent one. Now, I don't know if that's true, which- if it is that is unacceptable- but this is what St. John's girl had to say about it:

"I told him, 'who are you to talk, you're f*in Polish! I could say a lotta things about you. You from the most communist f*in part of town!!' Yo it's mad rude to be like sayin' 'I feel bad for your country' and sh*t. All these Europeanners don't know how to talk to people."

She's engaged to be married next year. She's the one that found the mouse in the refrigerator. "I opened the door and saw the mice ran out the refrigerator! Then later that day I was in the kitchen, and I saw another mice!" Oy ve. She's a really nice girl but I'm worried that her grammar is going to rub off on me if I listen to her talk for too long.

And that's where today's post ends! Bon week-end!

Love always,

Hillary

Goodnight, sweet dreams, and don't let the bed bugs bite!!!

Oy ve,

Not again.

A couple days ago a girl on my floor was complaining that while she's been sleeping she's been getting tons of mosquito bites. They were all over her arms and her face. I doubted they were mosquito bites, but I didn't know what else they could be...other than the mythical bed bug (which I know exists but to me it only existed in super gross conditions..or back in the days of straw mattresses). Oh..what a fool I was.

I just woke up from an hour long nap with 4 to 5 semi-itchy bites along my arms. I know they aren't mosquito bites because the only thing close to a mosquito I've seen in France was a monster mosquito/fly/dragonfly thing floating around my room, and a little green mosquito looking thing. I think it's bed bugs. The maids are supposed to wash our sheets for us every 5 weeks. My plan was to wait for the 5 week mark to get my sheets washed. The problem could be one of 2 things.

It may be due to the fact that these sheets are super hard and aren't cotton. They don't breathe at all, so even though it may be really cold in here at night, I sweat like it's 100 degrees in here without a fan. Even in Bolivia the sheets were cotton. They only gave us one set even though we were told "linens will be provided." If I'd known they meant "we will give you one scratchy old towel and one set of puke pink sheets and we won't clean them for 5 weeks," I'd have brought one or two extra sets. And my cotton twin sheets at home are pretty! The pillow case they gave us doesn't fit on the pillow we were provided, so we can't use it. Thank goodness I brought my tie-dye pillowcase from home so that I could have a little piece of home!

Moving on to the pillow- this pillow is not new. My guess is that it is 3-5 years old. The material inside has formed into clumps. If you lay your head on it, it is flat as an envelope within 30 seconds.

I think the bed bugs are either because I sweat a ton at night due to these sheets made of who knows what, OR because this pillow is ancient.

Sigh. Laundry costs 4 euro (2 to wash 2 to dry). There is no guarantee that I can even get an empty dryer tonight. I don't want to sleep in this bed with these sheets tonight.

Love a very perplexed,

Hillary

Frustrations From a Sleepyhead

Hey there!

Today was a long day.

BEWARE: This post may be stranger than normal due to lack of mental alertness.

Last night it took me forever to fall asleep because my roomie (whom I adore) was still writing her paper and had the light on until an hour and a half after I went to bed at 11:30 pm. I really need to find an eye mask. My friend told me she has a felt one that doesn't slide off her face. An eye mask was something I should've thought to pack..wait..I did think to pack it! Then I decided it wasn't important.

Anyway, my alarm went off at 6:52 am and I unconsciously turned it off and woke up to my roommate's alarm at 7:00 am. All the public health students had morning classes today (on Wednesday's we usually get to sleep in because there is no French class on Wednesdays). Our class started at 8:00 am. Our guest speaker gave us a 7 minute break at 9:40 am and then we continued on until 12:15 pm. It was straight lecture..most of our classes are. We then had class with our entire program from 1:00 pm to 4:00. All the kids from my program are mentally dead today. Dinner was pretty quiet. We're all tired.

I'm doing my laundry right now. We have two washers and two dryers. The laundry room is located at the end of the second floor hallway, on the side of the boys rooms. So to get to it, you have to pass 6 boys rooms (it's the St. John's boys). I can always feel them looking at me when I walk past. It smells like deodorant, axe, and sweat over there. I had two loads. As I was putting my first load into the dryer, I heard music turn on- it was Soldier Boy blasting through some speakers- and it was really loud. I resisted the temptation to start dancing in the laundry room alone, just in case someone walked in suddenly. When I went back upstairs I walked past the speakers sitting on a chair in the doorway facing the hallway. The boys in that room toasted (don't ask me with what, we're not allowed to drink in the dorm) with the end of the song as I was walking past. When I went down a little later to switch loads, the music had switched to latin music. I smiled and resisted walking with some hip action.

This time there was another NU student in the laundry room. Now, I've had a few negative run-ins with her since being here. She isn't aware that they were negative interactions, nor do I think she knows who I am. But we have had brief conversations and she is very abrasive and rubs me the wrong way. In the laundry room she'd taken my clothes out of the washing machine and put them on top of the washer. They had to have been done for maybe 3 minutes, max. That didn't bother me too much because I've done it before to other people, but usually it's at least half an hour after their laundry has been done. I do understand however, that we have only 2 machines. What did bother me was the comment she made about the music.

In a mocking tone she said, "It's like a mexican fiesta down here." Then she added a snicker. Should this have bothered me? I don't know, from what I've heard come out of her mouth in the past, she seems to be exceedingly conceited. It seemed to me that this was a jab at the people living on that floor. It could also be that my feelings towards her cloud my judgement, and that I am simply assuming the worst. Nevertheless, it immediately reminded me of something that happened on "The Bachelorette" last season. On the episode, a guy named Roberto showed Ali how to salsa dance. One of the other men vying for Ali's attention said later to the camera (in a heavy southern accent) "I was a lil' upset dude I mean..Roberto did some.. hot-sauce dance or somethin'."

Comments like these bother me.

P.S. I just walked down there again to take out my last load from the dryer. I found my clothes on top of the dryer, and I found her just beginning to put her clothes into that dryer. Which means- they'd been done for maybe 30 seconds. When I looked at my clothes on the top of the machine she said "Are those yours? They felt a little wet.." Then I said "Yeah those are mine..hmm." Then as I seemed frustrated she said "I didn't touch them I swear." I responded "No worries, I understand."

But riddle me this: how would she know they were wet if she hadn't touched them?

I'll leave you with that as food for thought.

Love,

Hillary

Inside the Mind of Hillary Quinn Epperson

¡Buenas noches amigos y familia!

Tonight, I thought I'd give you a peek into my thoughts. I quite like being in my head, sometimes it's amusing up there.

This afternoon (after Indian food) I came back into my room and spent a short while working on my applications. Around dinner time I walked over to Bon Marché for some dinner to go, and then came back and rented Erin Brockovich on iTunes. I'd never seen it before, but in the movie (and this doesn't give anything away) Erin's youngest daughter says her first word.

I found myself wondering what my first word was. So of course, I texted my mom to ask her.

"First word: Duddin." She replies.

"No, my first real word." I said.

"I don't remember, I have to check your baby book."

"You don't remember?!"

"No."

I sighed and continued watching the movie. Half an hour later I got up to take my food out to the garbage. (To empty your trash in my dorm, you have to walk down the hall and into the main staircase where the larger garbage cans are). As I was walking down the hall, my mind returned to the 'my first word' dilemma.

"How can she not remember my first word!? I mean..who doesn't remember that? And how can I not already know it!? How can I fully know who I am without that piece of information!? It probably says 'Duddin' in the baby book too. Shoot. Well..if I grew up in an orphanage I guess I wouldn't know my first word. Yeah, like Anastatia. But wait..Anastatia was probably still living in the castle when she said her first word! And I bet her Grandmama remembers it. I bet even Demetri remembers it! He was living in the castle then! But wait..they're the same age..Demetri definitely doesn't remember it.

"Hillary...Demetri is a character in a cartoon. You should stop before this gets even more ridiculous." And then I giggled quietly to myself.

And there you have it! This is what it's like to be in my head.

Tune in next time!

Love always,

Hillary

It's A Small World After All

Hello Everybody!

Happy Saturday! I have some cool/funny pictures from yesterday's Versailles trip, but not that much to say about it. So this may be a skinnier post than usual. Oh! But I do have a little story to tell you. So here we go.

Yesterday I met several people from my program in the dorm lobby at 10:00 am and by 11:00 we were on the RER on our way to Château Versailles.

We were able to get in for free with our passport (we needed to show our visa) and our Sciences-Po student ID!

Before walking through the castle we checked out the gardens. I've been to Versailles before, but never in the gardens because last time I was here it was March and it was raining,.. and it was cold. On this day however, it was sunny and never strayed outside of 65 to 70 degrees.

We walked over to one side of the gardens, went down the steps, and found a bench to eat our lunches on next to the very tall hedges. In the picture below you can see the huge squares of water in the distance. I'm not sure if I should call it a pool or a lake..because it was neither and both of those things at the same time. What you can't see is that there were tons of people sitting on the grass, and it started from where I took this picture, all the way down to the end of the water.

We fed a few garden cats as we ate.

After spending a couple of hours wandering the gardens and eating food, we needed a nap.

On the grass that bordered the "pool-lake" there were groups of students and families hanging out all over the place. It was so cute! There were people sitting on the grass all over the place. They had boat rentals (for 11 euro..) and we saw a couple taking one out and paddling near the swans.

So here is where it gets interesting- apparently Versailles (back in the day) was a place where contemporary art was valued and displayed frequently. In keeping with the tradition, from 2007-2010 Versailles has been the home of a Japanese artist's exposition. It leaves in December. The art was all over the rooms we walked through, and the biggest one was outside in the garden. It was called Buddha something. The pieces were interesting, but I'm not a big fan of modern art. They were definitely cool to look at, but the setting sort of clashed with all of these crazy pieces. Especially once inside.

Here is another piece that was inside. This one is a tame example:

This one was called "Flower Monster:"

After we'd spent almost 6 hours at Versailles, we were all exhausted and ready to catch the train home.

Today! (Saturday):

For lunch today a few friends and I visited the Indian quarter!! We found a restaurant that looked good and ate there. I got my usual: Chicken Tikka Masala. Everyone agreed that the food tasted different than usual but that it was still good. I ate way too much and decided I need to do something light for dinner tonight.

In the metro on the way back I saw something that brightened my already good day:

HARRY POTTER POSTER!!! WOOOO.

Ok so..yesterday at Versailles this American guy with a big fancy camera asked me and my friend to take a picture for him in the hall of mirrors, and then he took a picture of us. We asked where each other was from, exchanged niceties, and then parted. As he walked away, I noticed that he has the same black Air-walk flip-flops that Tom has. I know because I helped Tom pick them out last summer on the Payless website. "Hm.." I thought "...that's funny." Today after Indian food I was on the metro, and I was staring at the floor as we made our next stop. I saw all the pairs of feet walk on, and one of them was wearing the same flip flops! I looked up, and it was the SAME GUY. He had the same huge camera and was taking pictures through the metro window. No way!!! What a small world. I took 3 stalker pictures of him, including one of just his feet. I don't know if he recognized me. I was standing right next to him speaking in English to another one of my friends, and he didn't seem to notice..even though I just saw him almost exactly 24 hours earlier.

Hahaha. What a small world!! I absolutely had to get documentation. Too bad I don't have a picture of him from Versailles.

Well, I'm about to go run and grab a LIGHT dinner. :-) Catch ya later!

Love,

Hillary

Lessons in Using a Mouse

Hey guys!

I took the GRE this morning, but it almost didn't happen.

My test was scheduled for 9:30 am this morning. They ask you to arrive half an hour early so I wanted to be there a little before 9:00 am. I got up at 7:45, ate breakfast, and left around 8:25. I had looked up the location of the testing center on google maps the night before, and it looked like it was right around the corner from the Louvre. Between my dorm and the Louvre there aren't any direct metro routes and it's only a half hour walk from my dorm, so I walked. At 5 minutes to 9:00 I turned the corner and found the address I was looking for. What I found there was a door- locked with a chain around the handles- and a sign that said "149 Rue St. Honoré." Below the sign was an arrow pointing to the right. The only thing on the right was a keypad for typing in a code. The correct code definitely wouldn't have unlocked the padlocked door, and there was no doorbell. I looked to the building on the right, and it was a fitness center. Then I thought, "uhm..maybe I'm at the wrong entrance..?" So I walked a bit farther on my left. The only thing in that direction was a big old church-like building. "Wait a minute!" There was a door in between these two buildings! This door was wide open... and it was full of dumpsters. I thought.."maybe I can sneak inside through this back entrance?" I peeked my head inside the garbage room but there weren't any doors. I pulled out my notebook and confirmed that I was at the right address. In my notebook I'd also written down the number of the test center, so I tried calling. I tried with a country code, I tried without a country code, I tried it with the area code, and I tried omitting one of the numbers in case I'd transcribed the number wrong, nothing worked.

I was starting to panic. I walked into the fitness center and, after asking the man there if he spoke english, asked if he knew of a testing center nearby. "Uh...Oh yes! Around the corner!" I walked around the corner (the way I'd come) and found two very big doors that led to a very fancy foyer. I found the right floor and was lead to the testing area. There was an office with lockers for bags and a computer screen with 12 videos monitoring each person at their computer. On the other side of the wall was a room full of computers. The GRE is a computerized test. There were already people in the room who were already taking various other tests (and maybe the GRE too). I sat down in front of the computer assigned to me completely ready to take the GRE. A screen popped up explaining that the GRE was a computerized test (just in case I hadn't figured that out already). First, it said, it would take me through a tutorial on how to use a mouse.

After explaining what a mouse was and where to find it on my desk, it taught me how to click. After clicking practice, I learned how to point and move my cursor. After that, it taught me how to scroll up and down. I also learned how to cut and paste, and how to type in a box. I learned how to delete, and how to highlight a row of text.

After the test I walked back to my dorm and stopped at Gap to buy a t-shirt. I also tried really hard to find a cute, loose, short dress to wear over tights. I stopped in 4 or 5 stores, but the only thing under 100 Euro was from Guess and A) I feel weird buying clothes over here from American companies (unless its a tee from Gap), and B) it didn't fit right. On my walk back I eyed an older couple who I pinned right away as being British. And by golly, they were! It was the blue blazer with the gold buttons on this older gentlemen that gave it away. If one is bored on the streets of a foreign country, I find it amusing to try to spot the Americans (or the Brits) and then walk near them to see if they're speaking english. The tricky part is spotting them from afar, because once you are anywhere close to them the combination of english being your first language, and the fact that Brits and especially Americans tend to be louder, means your ear will hear english from a mile away. Later I was wrong about an American girl who I thought was French, so I guess my score for today is back to zero.

Anyway that's been my day so far!

Catcha on the flip side! Love,

Hillary

"Please sir, may I have some more?"

Hello and good day boys and girls, the topic of today's post is the dining hall- sponsored by Oliver; the play that keeps on giving.

Let's start off by providing a little background. We pay 11 Euro (around $13.5) for each dinner here, and a few more for breakfast. Our meal plans, which are compulsory, are for breakfast and dinner Monday through Friday. Lunch we do on our own because we're usually at school then. Since we arrived here two weeks ago, the food quality has been poor at best. It has made the Northwestern dining halls look like paradise. There are rules here.

We choose two items from the following: a bowl of applesauce, a bowl of fruit cocktail from a can, an apple, an orange, a banana, and a square of cheese the size of a credit card. Then we get a main dish and we can opt for the vegetarian option, which last night was fried cheese. Sometimes there is a dessert to pick from as well. At the end of the line, if you already picked two things from the beginning, you can only pick one more thing, which is either a bowl of lettuce, a bowl of shredded cabbage, a bowl of diced tomatoes, a bowl of sliced cucumber, or a bowl of what looks like cous cous and chopped sausage. Or, if you only picked one item from the beginning of the line, you may pick two from the end.

Except that, for the past two weeks the rule was that you can have two from the start of the line, and two from the end, plus a dessert. Dinner is between 7:00 and 7:30 pm, and at 7:30 you must turn in your tray or the dining hall workers get angry. This is what happened yesterday:

I arrived downstairs in the dining hall at 6:50, and there were already 23 people in front of me, per usual. People wait downstairs way before 7:00 because they usually run out of food. (Tuesday night they served chicken and the vegetarian option was fish- a whole fish with the head and tail still on- so lots of people chose chicken instead. They ran out of chicken pretty quickly, so they served french fries, of course. Clearly, potatoes are the perfect alternative to chicken.) They opened the doors early- at 6:54- which is very, very unusual. I was excited! Maybe the phone calls from all the angry mothers really were paying off!

As I waited for my turn to get food, I looked at the night's meal. It looked alright. The desserts looked delicious, the salad/diced food at the end looked alright. I devised my plan, I would get one dessert, two fruits, the vegetarian main dish of rice, sauce, and fried cheese (the alternative was rice with chili con carne), then get the bowl of lettuce and the bowl of chopped tomatoes and make a legit salad.

First, I grabbed the desert option that looked the best; an apple tart thing the size of two credit cards. Then, I grabbed an orange and an apple. The North African woman behind the counter said something angrily in French and then said "DEUX!!" But, I had picked two! I wasn't understanding the problem, and before I knew it she had snatched the orange off of my tray and put it back in the fruit basket.

Alarmed, I continued on down the line. Another angry North African woman went to serve me the beef without even asking which one I preferred, so I quickly pointed to the beef and said "no!" She put the vegetarian option on my plate and handed it to me while arguing with the grad student who works here. Next, I picked up the bowl of lettuce and the bowl of chopped tomatoes. This time it was the North African man who was yelling at me..in french.

Again, I had picked too many things. The grad student, Luc, was standing right there. I asked him what the deal was, and he said he didn't know but it was best not to argue because they get really angry. "I know.." I replied. I sadly put the tomatoes back and unhappily took my seat (and I don't even like tomatoes, I just wanted to salvage this bowl of lettuce!).

Please sir, may I have some more?

Normandy- Day 2

Hello!

Thanks for tuning in folks, let's start the show!

2nd day in Normandy (last Saturday):

We had breakfast at the hotel in two shifts, half the group ate at 8:00 am and my group ate at 8:30. At breakfast I had a 25 minute argument with myself over whether or not I could wear my comfy white shirt with the french writing on it and not look like an idiot. I decided to wear it and hope the French people in the two towns we were visiting that day wouldn't judge me. I spent most of the day with my sweatshirt zipped up over my shirt out of fear. But I was comfy!

On the agenda for Saturday was to visit two towns, the first was Honfleur and the second Deauville. After visiting these two towns we'd hop on the bus and head back to Paris.

Honfleur:

This was the cutest seafaring town I've ever seen. Monaco's harbor is magnificent but this was a tiny town built forever ago and it was very quaint. We had 4 whole hours to spend here. I started the day walking around the outdoor market with a few friends. The market sold everything from cheese, striped clothing, cool looking liquids of some kind of all colors in cool looking bottles (they were different kind of exotic juices), to CDs from a decade ago.

We passed by the Marine Museum and I stopped in to see how much a ticket would be. For 3.5 euro we could get a double ticket that would allow us inside the Marine Museum and also inside the Anthropological Museum. I was so excited! I ran out to tell my friends and two of them decided it was too much money (...?) and they left to go walk around more. One of them stayed behind with me and as another group of people walked past I was able to convince two of them to buy a ticket as well. The Marine Museum was cute, it was really tiny but they had some cool models of ships and some old clothing. We were told the Anthropological Museum was around the corner so we started walking that direction.

We got distracted by this sweet alleyway that reminded us all of Harry Potter. It was in this alley that I remembered it was my birthday! I checked my phone and I had a text from my mom wishing me a happy birthday. I felt so happy to be in Diagon Alley (or so I imagined) that I decided that it must be my gift. I had mentioned the previous night at dinner to two people that Saturday was my birthday, but I told them I didn't want it to be a big deal and that I wasn't going to tell anyone. I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything because I'd already celebrated with friends and family back home. I'd already had cake from Portillos and that meant I'd already had my birthday.

It turned out that at the end of that alleyway was the Anthropological Museum! We went inside, grabbed our pamphlet in english that described everything for us, and started exploring. Outside there was some cool old stuff and lots of birds. I looked up and saw this bird in the rafters that looked like an owl. I was so excited!! Hedwig! I showed everyone I was with, then the owl moved and it was a bird, like a big bird, but not an owl. Oh well..being in the French Diagon Alley AND seeing an owl would've been unlikely. The museum was really big inside, it was a narrow old house with 4 floors. Everything was set up inside like it would have been 300 years ago. 3.50 euros well spent!

Remember how I mentioned the striped clothing for sale in the market? They were ALL OVER the place. This was like the town of stripes. I know stripes are french, and they're also nautical, so the combination of this french town with boats must've made all the tourists (and French people!) decide what they needed to do was to wear stripes to the town, and also buy some more stripes at the market.
We ate lunch there (mine was a 4 cheese penne which I didn't think you could mess up but alas, it was not good) and I also got a scoop of Ben & Jerry's. I've been craving Ben & Jerry's since Bolivia but I couldn't get any at home because A) the Vernon Hills one is closed, and B) I tried to buy a little container of it from Jewel but the label was misleading and I chose a gross flavor and couldn't enjoy it.

Our next stop was Deauville.

There was an American film festival and I think we were there for opening night. As a result, the town was very crowded. There were a lot of really well dressed people and very fancy cars, but I think that might be normal for this town because it is very posh and expensive..kind of like a Monaco of the north without the castle.
We snuck onto the red carpet and spent a few minutes waiting for something, but nothing happened so we assumed the official kick off wasn't starting until the evening. Coco Chanel opened her first shop in this town, so we went off looking for it.

We didn't find her shop because apparently it isn't there anymore, but we did find Hérmes, Ralph Lauren, Longchamp, and a great number of other designer stores. This hotel below was gigantic, and buzzing with people. I think it might be where the guests of the film festival were staying. Someone said that last year on this trip, people saw someone like Julia Roberts or Meryl Streep, so we had our eyes peeled and our cameras ready.
As we walked past the side of the huge hotel, we saw french people up against the gate periodically shouting a name like "John!" at this guy in the suit below. We assume he's famous because he waved once. That red flag is a picture of John Wayne on a confederate flag.

After walking around the town, we headed to the beach by the harbor and relaxed before getting back on the bus.

We were told we'd have a rest stop halfway to Paris, as we'd had one on the way up there Friday morning. After over 2 hours (it's about a 3 hour trip total) someone asked the leaders of the trip whether or not we were going to stop, as most of us were starving and had to use the bathroom badly (there weren't any accessible public bathrooms in Deauville). The driver pulled into the next rest stop and we all ran to the bathroom. After I'd used the bathroom I was waiting outside for my friends to be finished. I was standing amongst everyone else who was waiting for the bathroom (of which there was but one). Out of nowhere this girl I'd known before France comes up and says "HILLARY IS IT YOUR BIRTHDAY TODAY?? I JUST SAW IT ON FACEBOOK!" I was standing next to everyone on my program, and I was forced to admit it. So I said "haha..uh..yeah." They all took my not telling them as modesty, but really I just didn't want all the attention. It was cute though, everyone sang me happy birthday, then the French kids sang to me in French, and then the Polish French guy in our program gave me 2 kisses on the cheek. Then everyone kept saying "21? You gonna go out? We've got to stay out until the morning!" That was the last thing I felt like doing so I just smiled and laughed.

Anne-Cécil, the French teacher who was in charge of us for the weekend had told us we weren't allowed to eat on the bus, and we only had 15 min to stretch our legs and go to the bathroom but not to buy food. So what did we do? We all congregated in the mini-market and bought cookies and sandwiches while the male leader of our trip stood and watched. Once on the bus you could smell the overwhelming scent of tuna and potato chips, so Anne-Cécil said we could eat if we were very careful not to be messy.

That was my trip to Normandy! I hope everyone is having a wonderful September!

Love,

Hill