All Hallows Eve

Double Double, Toil and Trouble

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble

Double Double, Toil and Trouble

Something Wicked This Way Comes!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

A new post will be up soon covering my Toussaint break in Portugal!

BOO!

Hillary

Health & Safety, Midterms, and Macarons

Hey lovely people!

It's almost Halloween! I watched Hocus Pocus on youtube in celebration the other day. No, this post isn't about Rennes. This is a super quick post because I have a midterm tomorrow I need to prepare for and it's already 4:15!

We just had a Health and Safety Inspection of all the rooms in my dorm today. This is the second one we've had so far this year! It must be a catholic school thing, good lord. Northwestern never has Health and Safety Inspections. If you want to be a slob that's your business! The first time they did the check they came right as we were waking up, then all they did was peer behind the desk and declared us fine. Anyway I came back from my very stressful midterm (one hour to write a minimum of 5 pages on the differences between health care systems) with a small bag of sweets from Bon Marché.

I like to treat myself to something nice after stressful exams. After the GRE I bought myself a tee shirt from GAP, for example. Last week Le Bon Marché got its Halloween candy in! They have a special stand for the candy. On that stand they sell cool looking candy, but the coolest thing is what looks like a dried corn cob. What you are supposed to do is put the corn cob in the microwave in a bag they provide for you, and microwave it. The popcorn pops off the cob into the bag!! How sweet is that?! Anyway back to what I was saying. I originally wanted to buy the super cool looking specialty Halloween chocolates, but they were too pricey. Instead, I bought two small macarons (one praline, the other chocolate and coffee), and two chocolate balls that look like Ferrero Rocher chocolates. I was all ready to sit down and enjoy, until I walked up to my room to find the dorm manager guy and the RA standing outside my open door taking notes. I walked in and sat down at my desk, waiting them to either close my door, or say something.

They came in and handed me an inspection form. They wrote us up for having a dirty sink (due to dried toothpaste), having a full trash can (isn't that what the can is for? To fill it?!), and they said that we needed to sweep. Sweep! For goodness sakes. This is absurd. This place doesn't even have a broom! All they have is a small hand broom that is as old as dirt and one vacuum, both of which you can only rent out at certain times of the day, on certain days of the week. They said they'd come back Friday to check on us, and if our sink situation isn't fixed, they may fine us at the end of the year. We have a midterm tomorrow, my roommate leaves for Spain tomorrow evening, and I leave for Portugal Friday at the crack of dawn. The room isn't even as messy as my room at home used to get. They left, and I didn't even want my sweets anymore. I ate them anyway, and they were satisfying.

Who has seen the bedroom intruder remix video of Antoine Dodson? I really feel like telling them; "you are so dumb, you are really dumb, fo' real."

And you can run and tell that! Homeboy.

Hillary

If you don't understand that reference you need ask me or mom immediately so we can direct you to the appropriate links. You are missing out on some good laughs.

The Phantom of the Opéra Garnier

Hey everyone!!

I don't feel like writing about Rennes right now, I have too much work to do. However, I do have a short post on our visit to the Opéra Garnier yesterday!

Friday morning I woke up around 10:00 but I didn't feel like getting up yet, so I stayed in bed and got up at 10:47. Someone had mentioned the previous evening that they thought we had a scheduled visit and tour of the Opéra on Friday, but they weren't sure. I remembered that it was indeed supposed to be on a Friday, and I remembered it had been scheduled for noon.

I was wrong.

Sleepy-eyed, I checked my calendar to make sure. It said "Opéra- Oct. 15th- 11 am." I quickly ran next door to ask my neighbors if they were going, I found them pulling on their coats, ready to leave. I didn't want to miss the tour, and at this rate we were going to be late anyway so I hurriedly pulled on some jeans and my leather jacket, stuffed a granola bar into my purse, and left.

The metro stop for line 10 is directly across the street from our dorm. Once we descended the steps to the metro platform, the train going the opposite direction pulled up. I heard someone shouting "Hillary! Other side! Other side!" My friends and I looked over and our friend Shainee was boarding the train going the other way. I panicked for a second until Hira said we were just taking a different route than she was.

We boarded the train at 10:54. We had one train change and at least 10 stops in between our dorm and the Opera. I asked Yomna and Hira what time we were supposed to meet the group. They said we were supposed to be there at 11:15 but that the tour was for 11:30.

Phew! I relaxed a bit.

Once we reached the Opéra, all of us Northwestern kids waited on the steps for the rest of us to arrive. At 11:30 our french teachers lead us around the back of the Opéra to the back entrance. (Apparently this was entrance was built and used by Napoleon III).

On our tour we learned a lot about what going to the opera really meant back in the day. Monday night was meant for men to go to the opera with their wives. Wednesday was for business, and Friday was for men and their mistresses. In the box seats the curtains were pulled while men played cards, talked, or fooled around with their wives or mistresses. The hanging chandelier remained lit throughout the entire performance so that the wealthy, seated in the front boxes, had enough light to be seen by the rest of the attendees.

The tour guide sat us down in the Opéra orchestra seats and told us the real story of The Phantom of the Opera. The theater was completely dark except for a couple stage lights that were being adjusted. She told us that the movie that came out a few years ago got it very wrong. But as she told us the story, it seemed that the only part the movie got wrong was the appearance of The Phantom (who was named Eric), and his personal history.

In the movie he was handsome except for the patch of skin beneath his mask, but the real story says that the Phantom was horribly ugly looking, so much so that his parents never loved him and his mom never kissed him. His dad was a house-builder. The Phantom spent many years traveling around France on his own building houses and learning random trades like juggling. He had the most beautiful voice ever heard, and he auditioned for operas, but because of his face they could never cast him. He loved the opera. He knew how to move so that he wouldn't be seen. He was eventually hired by many sultans who wanted palaces with hidden passageways and he did a very good job building them. However, eventually he knew too much about the secret and hidden areas of the Sultans' castles- so the Sultans wanted him dead for his knowledge. He returned to France and got a job doing construction on the Opéra Garnier. Eric dug himself a large cavern underneath the Opéra Garnier next to an underground lake. He paid Madame Giry to keep his secret and to leave box number 5 open for him so that he could attend the Opera. Box number 5 had a spiral staircase that led to his underground cavern. For a long time he attended the ballet and opera performances, and he was never seen. He slipped out of his box at the end of each show and moved about with swift movements. Some of the dancers saw shadows and heard movements from time to time, and they began to whisper about a Phantom. One day Joseph Buquet, a light engineer, decided to try to find the Phantom, so Eric hanged him from the beams above the stage. The opera house had to hire new management and new dancers that would not be afraid of working there. The rest of the story goes exactly like the movie; Christine Daaé shows up, he falls in love with her and teaches her music lessons while she thinks he's her angel of music, she falls in love with childhood friend Raoul, Raoul doesn't believe in the angel of music and he becomes concerned, the two plan to meet in a cemetery and escape but Christine is taken off stage by the phantom during her last performance and is imprisoned in the Phantom's underground cavern. Raoul gets a worker at the opera house to show him how to get down to the Phantom's cavern and he tries to save her. The Phantom almost succeeds in drowning him until Christine gives the Phantom a kiss on the forehead. The Phantom releases Raoul after he realized she will never love him. Christine and Raoul leave France and the Phantom dies 3 weeks later.

Our tour guide said that the story was written to show that not everyone who comes to the Opéra Garnier comes only to be seen. She was a really good story teller! Almost as good as Mrs. Wagner- my 5th grade teacher. I was listening raptly, but this girl next to me kept shifting around in her seat, messing with her purse, whispering to the girl on her other side, and asking me dumb questions. I didn't let her ruin my story time, I just ignored her. We also learned about the man who painted the ceiling (and refused to be paid), and one of the famous composers (it might have been Mozart) who wasn't honored after his untimely death at 35 years old because he was a part of the Free Masons (National Treasure anybody?). The free masons used a lot of symbols, and there were apparently many of these symbols in his music. There are also rumors that this composer was poisoned, thus the reasoning for his body to be tossed into a grave in a common cemetery outside of Strasbourg.

Here are some pictures from the Opéra Garnier!

After the Opera I had sushi with a few friends. I drank some green tea and miso soup because I'm in the throws of a slight cold. It definitely helped.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my trip to the opera! I am dying to see something here. Apparently Swan Lake is playing in Paris for the first time in 7 or 8 years near the end of November- but it's only playing at the Bastille opera house which is way less cool.

Love,

Hillary

Monet's Garden and the Seine at Night

Bonjour!

Do you remember in the Musée Rodin post that I told you the weather was really nice in Paris last weekend? Friday we did Museée Rodin, and Saturday we decided to venture out to Monet's Gardens. I had wanted to stay in and do some work, but I knew that this was probably going to be the last weekend of warmth before the flowers started to die. (I was right, it is now in the high 40s).

To get to Monet's Gardens from Paris requires taking a train to Vernon and then a bus to Giverny. A lot of times at home I find myself planning all the excursions that I do with friends. I usually find out how to get there and I look up ticket prices and all of that stuff. So far in France others have been planning things and I either get invited or I tag along. It's a bit of a relief because everything doesn't fall on my shoulders, and if something goes wrong it isn't my fault. However, I usually do pretty well figuring out how to get to places and looking up ticket information and everything. I like to have it all figured out before I leave so that I'm not standing around with no clue what to do next. Relying on others can be frustrating when we get to a station and the person who planned the trip has no idea what our next step is. And since I didn't plan it, I can't help and I start to doubt where my instincts are telling me to go.

This has happened a few times in France, and it sort of happened on our way to Monet's Gardens. It wasn't a big deal, but we ended up waiting in the wrong line for about 20 minutes because our trip planner didn't know where to go, only to find out when we got to the cashier that we needed to go up the staircase to the right and into the main terminal. (The staircase that I thought we should go up but didn't say anything about because I didn't want to be wrong since I didn't plan this).

We eventually got our tickets and waited for the monitor to assign a platform to our train. We had half an hour before our train was scheduled to leave, so I strode off in search of platform 9 and 3/4 (the Paris stop, of course). I found platform 11, and I found platform 9, but there was not platform 10! I'm not kidding! In this picture platform 9 is clearly labeled, but the platform to the right, which one would assume should be number 10, is not marked! Every other platform was labeled. We figured the Beauxbaton witches probably take platform 10 to get to school.

The train was pretty cool looking, the seats in second class were purple and pretty comfortable. I looked over my shoulder at first class and saw this guy through the door. He was watching something on his laptop. It was anime. There was a close-up on the cartoon girl and her transparent white top and lacy black bra! I kept looking and the screen flashed to an anime boy fighting with another boy, and then it went back to the girl. She was talking, but the screen only showed her cleavage! Why would you watch this in such a public place? Part of me was disturbed but part of me thought it was really funny.

After the hour long train ride we caught a 20 minute bus to the Giverny stop.

The stop wasn't directly at the Garden entrance, it was a few blocks away. We didn't really know where we were going but we followed all the other tourists down the highway and eventually found the gate that lead to the village that held Monet's house and gardens.

Once we reached the garden entrance we had to wait in a short line to pay our entrance fee. At the register the woman said something to me that ended in "Brasilienne." We learned this word in class, it is the feminine form of "Brazilian." I gave her a confused face and asked my friend in the intermediate french class to figure out what she wanted. Then in english the lady said;

"Are you Brazilian?"

"No," I said, "..I'm from the states.."

Then, she took my money and gave me my ticket. I thought maybe she was asking so that she would know what language to give me an information pamphlet in, but I didn't get an information pamphlet and neither did anyone else. This is like the 3rd or 4th time someone has assumed I was Brazilian. I must say, I think it's pretty cool! It's more fun than being assumed American, thats for sure.

The next several pictures are from the garden:

Monet's house peeks out behind the wall of yellow flowers:

The boat pictured in many of Monet's paintings:

After seeing the gardens and walking around the house (no photos allowed in the house), we grabbed lunch in the village before walking back to catch our bus. I had a chicken, ratatouille, and cheese crêpe. It was really good! There was a group of 3 older women sitting behind us. They were from Arizona and asked us why we were in Paris and then about our study abroad program. It was cute.

When the train pulled up to our very crowded stop in Vernon, every seat was taken. We all piled on and stood in the aisles. I had no intention of standing for an hour, so I found a way to sit on the ground. One of my friends got onto another car and said that her aisle was so packed, they had to take turns sitting down!

It felt really great getting back into Paris after being on that supremely uncomfortable train ride- I was out in the open air and I could breathe!

I was really exhausted from walking around all day. When we got back to the dorm around 7:30 I immediately got into my PJs and plopped down at my desk. I opened my e-mail and there was a group invite for that night to go on a Seine boat tour. I sighed and contemplated skipping it. I knew that this would be one of the last warm nights we had left. After a few persuasive words from Hira, my neighbor, I decided to pull on some pants and go.

This was another one of those times where I found myself tagging along in a group with someone else who had planned the trip. We had meant to get on the 10 O'clock boat tour but people were late so we had to plan on making the 10:30 train, the last of the night. We waited outside the Metro stop in the Latin Quarter for the last person meeting us. She had gotten on the wrong train and was running very late. We decided we couldn't wait anymore and at 10:10 we went off to wait for her at the boat's dock.

The girl who planned this had written down the address from the website, but she wasn't exactly sure how to get there. We walked around for awhile and went back and forth across the Seine and down to the river a couple of times. At some point the other girl met up with us and we ended up finding the right bridge, running down the steps, and boarding the boat at 10:27.

The boat tour was really beautiful! I don't plan on doing it again unless I'm here in the summer because up on top the top deck sitting in the wind it was freezing!! Eventually I had to go down with a few others and sit underneath in the enclosed section of the boat.

Wow, this post had a ton of pictures! So that was my Saturday. I'm back from Rennes and the temperature seems to have plummeted in the few days we've been gone. The dorm has turned on the heat, and I find myself with a little cold. I have a lot of work to do this weekend, so my plan is to take a nap, relax a bit tonight and try to ward off this cold, and then do work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I have midterms next week, my second and final sitting of the GRE, and then Friday I leave for Portugal!

I'll update again soon!

Love,

Hillary

Yanky DOODLE Dandy

Hi everyone!

I just got back from Rennes a few hours ago and I am thoroughly exhausted. However, I put together a quick post about my notebook doodles!

So, Morgan has borrowed books that I used in high school for her classes in the past and she likes to comment on my random and sometimes frequent doodling. Today on the train back from Rennes I photo-documented all of the doodles from my notebook for one of my classes here and I've compiled them into this post! This is the class that all of the public health students have together, and it encompasses 3 total public health classes. It's also the class that went to Rennes.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that doodling = slacking off! (This is directed to you Mom and Dad.) I, like many people, have doodled since middle school and it hasn't affected my schoolwork thus far. Here we go!

(If you need to enlarge these pictures to play my "find it" games, just click on an image and it should open up in a new window to appear larger.)

Can you find the following objects in this doodle?

-Footsteps, batman symbol, clock, maple leaf, normal leaf, acorn, birds, ocean, octopus, stingray, trees, fish

We had a lot of lectures in Rennes and they were all guest lecturers. One of our lecturers was French-Canadian.

One of our lecturers was explaining how countries use different but specific methods to tackle issues (something that has already been covered ad nauseam back in class in Paris).

Ok, I'll cover this in the Rennes post, but there was a spider in our class Tuesday afternoon, and the spider was huge enough to freak out everyone who saw it (about half the class). Everyone around me was incapable of paying full attention to our lecturer because the spider ended up under the heater directly behind my chair. We all had our feet up on our seats.

I saw this girl on the Metro with a really cute and comfy outfit on so I was taking note of it in my notebook when I remembered it in class.

Two students from the public health school we were staying at gave a lecture on what goes into becoming a hospital director.

One of our lecturers had a shirt that said "The Adventures of Oliver Twist" on it, and it was semi-see through which meant I could see that her bra was neon pink with green ribbon detailing. I thought this was really funny since she's French so she's supposed to be impecably dressed. I wanted to draw her so I could remember to put it in my blog later. First I drew the shirt and then I added her head, short bob, and glasses, but I made her head way too small for the shirt. I tried to fix it by making her hair bigger. I also wanted to include the shirt and bra wardrobe malfunction so I drew a bra over her shirt. Then I realized I was drawing a bra on a woman in my notebook and that anyone could peer over and decide I was really creepy. I drew horizontal stripes on her shirt to disguise it.

I don't really have an explanation for the boy looking off into the sunrise behind a mountain.. I guess I wanted to prove to myself that I could draw a person with normal proportions. (I didn't..I kept having to add hair so his head would match his body).

The doodle below was actually during our group presentations in Paris on a day when we had French from 10:15 to 12:00 and then public health from 12:30 to 7:00. I drew this during the last presentation on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation when I simply couldn't concentrate anymore.

Can you find the following objects in this doodle?

Shark, dolphin (2), sun, tortoise, lots of fish, octopus (2), seaweed, clam, eel, squid, angelfish, sunken vessel, crab

Look for a new post in the next couple of days!

Love,

Hillary

Lazy Sunday and Musée Rodin

Hey guys!

Today is Sunday and tomorrow I go to Rennes for a few days with the other public health kids. I figured I ought to catch everyone up on the past week before I'm off!

Last Sunday:

Last Sunday afternoon I went out with a few people to the Bastille Sunday market. On Sundays in Paris there are a lot of markets all over the city, but a friend had read that this one was particularly good. It took a few metro changes but we finally arrived at the Bastille. We didn't know exactly how to find the market, but decided to simply follow the crowd. It turned out that the market was directly across the plaza from the metro stop- we found it easily.

There were some musicians playing outside the market when we arrived around noon- when we left the number of people playing with them had tripled!

We bought a couple baguettes, feta cheese, hummus, eggplant spread, a pack of figs, and a pack of strawberries. This was our lunch. It was delicious! While we ate an American guy (who was with a woman) in his mid-20s asked us where we were from. During our conversation he told us he was in France on his honeymoon and he'd studied in Paris on study abroad back in 2002. He told us their next stop was Spain and he wished us a good semester. He was so adorable and chatty- they seemed really happy. While he was asking us about our semester, a homeless woman walked up and pointed to some of our food. I wasn't paying attention because I was talking to the couple, but apparently my friend tried to give her a strawberry. She shook her head no and pointed to the figs. She handed the woman a fig and the woman took it and walked away.

We saw a lot of interesting things in the market; pig feet, pig head, chicken decapitation, and eels! The fact that there were two of them reminded me of the eels from The Little Mermaid! Karma's a b*tch, you nasty eels!

After the market we walked in the direction of home. On the way we passed a fence- behind the fence were ostrich! We had found the Jardin des Plantes. Inside this garden is a Ménagerie (zoo) and the National History Museum. We didn't enter the zoo part because you have to pay and because the line was really long.

We sat on a bench for awhile and I discovered that one of the girls went to Copeland Manor elementary with me for a year! She's a year younger than me and she moved after her 1st grade year- which means when I was in 2nd grade, she was right there at Copeland in 1st grade! How crazy is that? She was naming off people I know and apparently our moms have mutual friends. She also lived one street over from me!

It was really nice in that park. It was starting to look like fall, leaves were falling and trees were half bare. There were all these groups of little school kids running around. It felt like home. Eventually we got off the bench and paid to walk into this huge greenhouse place.

Inside there were many different species of plants and a small stream.

After walking through the greenhouse we walked up a hill towards this small gazebo. You could walk the path which wound in a circle, or you could climb straight up to it through these small holes in the hedges. Guess which route I chose!

Cool fountain that caused us to try to speak parsletongue to open the secret door:

Friday:

This weekend the weather has been really nice! We took advantage of that fact and have spent a lot of time outside during the last few days. Friday we walked over to Musée Rodin. I had no idea how close we were- we are only a 15 minute walk over! On the walk over we passed a Lycée (high school) and all the teenagers outside were still dressed better than me! I'm talking wedge heeled-boots, black skinnies, and boyfriend blazers! It is truly work to keep up with these people.

I've been to this museum before, but last time it was cloudy and kind of cold. This time it was sunny and nice and warm. Here are some cool pictures from Musée Rodin:

The Thinker:

This old couple looked so cute I had to take a stalker picture:

Beauty and the Beast flower!
I really like this painting:
This is a famous sculpture called The Kiss:

That's all for now! Look for a post about Saturday at Monet's Garden and my nighttime Seine river boat ride. I'll try to post again tonight but I have to pack for Rennes, eat dinner, and I have a Skype date- so it might have to wait until I return.

Until then!

Hillary

Tourism Terror Threats

Hi everyone,

As most of you already know, the U.S. has heightened the threat level for tourists traveling to Europe; specifically to the U.K., France, and Germany. I wanted to make sure I let you all in on some of the facts.

Photo Courtesy of The New York Times

First, I should say, "don't freak out." The travel advisory isn't a formal travel warning. This means the State Department isn't telling Americans NOT to travel, but that they should be aware of recent threats to security.

"The precise details of the alleged plan remain unclear, and the information that is available in the public domain cannot be verified, rendering an assessment of its credibility difficult."

The attacks are supposed to resemble Mumbai attacks, which targeted high-profile tourism areas.

"Media reports quoting unnamed intelligence sources on 29 September referred to an alleged Islamist extremist plan to launch coordinated attacks in the UK, France and Germany. The purported plot, which has been linked to al-Qaida leaders based in tribal areas of Pakistan, reportedly calls for teams of gunmen to simultaneously strike targets in major cities and take hostages, in the manner of the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai (India). A German counterterrorism official indicated that much of the information was derived from the interrogation of Ahmed Sidiqi, a member of the militant Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) who was detained in Kabul (Afghanistan) in July."

We've been warned by Northwestern Study Abroad to avoid crowded tourist infrastructure, American 'icons' (like Hard Rock Café and Starbucks), and to be alert when using public transportation. An article from the Associated Press Sunday stated:

"The alert wasn't intended to urge travelers to stay away from public places. It fell short of a formal travel warning, which could have had broader implications including a stronger likelihood of canceled airline and hotel bookings and the suspension of many U.S. college and university study-abroad programs."

Apparently, the top concern is what implications this may have for Americans considering travel to Europe. Travel experts say that those who already have plans in place are not likely to change their plans, but more realistically it will be those who are still in the planning phases who may hold off on finalizing anything until the situation is made more clear.

Germany, France, and the U.K. have not changed their internal threat levels. According to an article in today's New York Times (online) France is taking intelligence information from the U.S. seriously- French officials arrested 12 people in the south of France today. The government may be taking the threats seriously, but the Associated Press article seemed to imply- from their interviews with Americans currently in Europe- that Americans aren't going to let themselves be scared into hiding.

"At Paris' spring-summer 2011 ready-to-wear fashion shows, W magazine fashion market director Karla Martinez said she gets 'worried for five minutes, but then I forget about it and get back to the job that I'm here to do.' [..] 'It's a little scary when you're staying in a big hotel with lots of tourists, because we hear that could be a target, but I try not to get too worked up about it,' she said. 'At the end of the day all you can do is keep your eyes and ears open and try not to be naive.'"

Three NBA teams are still going ahead with travels to the U.K. and Spain.

"Lakers center Pau Gasol said he had no intention of spending his time in London sitting in a hotel room. 'It's a great city to be out and walk around in, and experience things. It would be a crime to stay at the hotel,' Gasol said."

Most of us have been following the news and we are being careful not to put ourselves at extra risk. I've tried to design this post to accurately reflect the mood in Paris. I hope I helped to ease your mind or at least give you a few helpful hard facts.

Expect a post from me soon about my Lazy Sunday spent at the Bastille market and a new Parisian discovery!

P.S. I saw a picture online today of Keira Knightley at Paris Fashion Week- how can I be in the same city as all of these celebrities and not have seen any of them!? Sigh.

Love,

Hillary

Information in this post was gathered from the following sources:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5isVrwHYielnHBYr4EvvWIzuJ8I0gD9IKEKAG0?docId=D9IKEKAG0

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/world/europe/06france.html?ref=global-home

http://www.internationalsos.com/en/

La Nuit Blanche

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all beginning to embrace fall! Some of us are already missing carmel apples, apple cider, pumpkins, and storefront autumn and halloween decorations. It just occurred to us that we wouldn't be having any of that, so now I think we miss it even more. I'm having apple cider withdrawal. Even if I had the powdered packets of apple cider it wouldn't do any good because I'd have to descend 3 flights of stairs, walk to the microwave, microwave water, then walk back up 3 flights of stairs to get to my room. I would also have to invest in a mug. Oh, and buy dish soap so that I could wash the cup and reuse it. Anyway, the trees are starting to turn in Paris- autumn has arrived!

Saturday night was "La Nuit Blanche." Literally translated it means the white night, but it actually refers to a sleepless night. La Nuit Blanche is a free arts appreciation night that starts at 7pm and doesn't end until 7am Sunday morning. For those who stay up all night, city hall (Hôtel de Ville) serves breakfast at dawn. The Minister of Culture created the event in 2002. There are art events scattered around 3 areas of the city. Around 8:30pm we left and headed for Le Marais (informally the Jewish Quarter). We weren't exactly sure what we'd be seeing, but we consulted a temporary La Nuit Blanche map by the St. Paul metro stop and then just followed the crowds. After 10 minutes of walking we came to a large line of people. So naturally, we joined. This was our first stop of the night:

From the looks of it, I think it was a dinosaur graveyard. In the second picture I'm pretty sure you're looking at the missing legs, vertebrae, and ear of the dinosaur bodies captured in the first picture. You were allowed to touch the "art" so there were a few little kids (one in a superman cape) running around playing and walking over the tail of one of the dinosaurs.

After leaving this exhibit, we walked around the block and found another line. This one was much more a "social commentary" than the first one. (Unless the dead dinosaurs represent something I'm unaware of).

There were about 40 bowls on the long table and each of them had a different label. I remember seeing "It-girl," "Socialist," "Geek," "President," "Employée," "Communist," and "Tourist." There was a loud voice-track of a man reciting the french alphabet being played over the speakers. Images of people were being displayed on the white thing in the middle of the table via a projector, but the images only appeared for a split second and only every minute or two.

The next line we joined brought us to what I'm calling the Time Room:

This room was pitch black and displayed rows and rows of digital clocks. All of them were programmed to the exact same time. Most were in military time but some were not. It was a really cool effect, but after your eyes adjusted to the dark and you could make out the racks holding all the clocks, I have to admit it was a tad less cool.

At the Time exhibit we found a table with event info and maps for where to find each exhibit in your respective areas. Using this map we walked to the next exhibit:

In this exhibit there was a grid of people projected on a screen above everyone's heads in the courtyard of an old looking building. Each person's individual video was frozen and they played one video at a time. Each person was from a different culture, and although I couldn't understand what they were saying, it seemed like they were all teaching the crowd one thing about where they were from. We watched a woman cook something, a man cook some kind of sauce, one woman showed us how brooms are used, and another guy showed us how to do a floral arrangement with flowers, an orange, and cigar smoke (I may have missed something with that last one..). The videos were light-hearted, each person was cracking jokes and the crowd was laughing. I have no idea what the jokes were.

We decided to make our way down to Rue de Rivoli and head over to the exhibit at Hôtel de Ville. On the way we passed this cool spice store that was hosting a music performance:

See that guy? He's playing flute! Last night I had a dream that I was in band and hadn't played flute for way too long and I felt out of place. Thanks a lot for that flute-dude! Geez.

We had been used to following the crowd and magically finding an art exhibit, so we followed a bunch of people down this random alley. Everyone just kept following everyone else into the alley but there wasn't anything to see except some graffiti:

We quickly left the alley trying not to feel foolish. Out on the street we passed a moving image projected on a wall. This was a video of a running man, and after a minute of watching it, the man turned into a candle. We left before I could see if the candle was going to turn into something else:

In a small plaza we spotted a broken-down looking car painted purple. On the hood of that car sat a very old speaker playing a casette tape of The Beatles and The Eagles. A few women sang along to "All We Need Is Love," and a meat shop was giving out free samples of cubed mystery meat and cubed mystery mini-sandwiches on toothpicks.

Eventually we made it to Hôtel de Ville. The city hall was decorated with tons of neon signs, each in a different language, each saying "Love the Differences."

A message like this from a municipal building directly contrasts what we're learning in class about French identity. After World War II Charles de Gaulle wanted to unify the citizens of France and create a stronger national identity, so he made it illegal to classify any French citizen using ethnic or national background, or religious affiliation. This meant that questions on any one of these topics would never be used in a national census or any other governmental document. The purpose was well intentioned and meant to show that a French citizen is French no matter his or her background. Its effect was to homogenize the population. Seeing a celebration of diversity, albeit at an art show, was a sign that France may be changing.

Uh..I don't know...(yay diversity!!)

After standing around at city hall we walked up towards the Pompidou. On our way we ran into about 10 other people from our program who had just come from the Pompidou. A few of them joined us and we all set off towards the Louvre.

It was a long-ish walk but it was beautiful walking along the Seine at night. We passed Île de la Cité (the island Notre Dame is on) and several bridges. There were tons of people out for the special night. Cars sitting in traffic were blasting music and people of all ages were walking in hoards in every direction. We reached the Louvre and walked through the Arc de Carrousel towards Jardin des Tuileries to sit down. In the gardens there were groups of young people and couples seated all over the place. We sat down and after 10 minutes we were joined by about 7 other people from our program. Because there are so few boys on our program, this group of about 15 of us seated on the grass happened to be all girls. We quickly started talking about boys, couples, and french PDA. One of the French students was with us and she said it's worse in the summer because there are couples all over the place holding hands or kissing and it stinks if you're single and you don't want to be. At one point a guy about our age came up and asked in French if anyone had a lighter. No one in our entire large group had a lighter, because none of us smoke. I bet in a group of 15 french people there would be several people with lighters able to help this guy out.

While we were sitting down I realized I'd lost my bracelet at some point during the evening. It was big on my wrist and had fallen off in class once before, but I thought that was because I hadn't clasped it well enough. I tried not to feel too upset about it; if it was too big for me already then it was going to fall off of my wrist at some point. I looked at the time on my phone and it was already 1am. Time flew by! I was starting to get cold..and I hadn't gone to the bathroom since before we left the dorm. We all got up and headed back to our dorm/home-stays. On the way I saw this poster:

It's funny because in french class on Thursday (after our test) our teacher Anita showed us a few youtube videos to help us practice our french. One of them was an ad for "Nespresso," some coffee brand. George Clooney was in the commercial and the entire thing was in english with french subtitles. I raised my hand.

"Anita? Was this a French ad, aired only in France?"

"Yes!"

"So..but it was in english? And it was meant to have subtitles?"

"Yep!"

"Oh..right..mk.."

Can you imagine if it was normal to have commercials in the U.S. in french with english subtitles? I mean, I'm down..but..I feel like a lot of people would be all, "wtf!?"

Thus ends my Saturday evening. It was a ton of fun, the city was vibrant and pulsing. We were amazed at how many people came out for the art festival. I think Paris is at its most beautiful at night. A few of us are planning to take a nighttime boat ride before it gets too cold.

Peace out! Love,

Hillary