devenir (v.) ~ "to become"

When asked at our orientation session our goals for our stay in Paris, the majority of the students in my program replied with some variation of "to appreciate life like the Parisians," "to eat great food," "to live in a world of art and culture," and "to become French." While I cannot attest to the reasoning behind these statements, I would imagine that this desire to transform into someone who is more cultured, has better taste, speaks perfect French, and has can appreciate a life and a pace that is plus décontractés (more relaxed) is something that all of us here dream about at night. It's one thing to be an American with pretty good French who lives in Paris, but it is another to take the risks involved, to be vulnerable enough to try to really become French.

Funnily enough, the second that you set foot on French soil, your nose does not turn up in the air to look down upon others, you do not immediately begin to think existential and philosophical thoughts, and you do not begin smoking. At least that was not my experience. It seems, though, that there are certain things that I've been able to pick up upon that have helped to blur that distinction between obvious "guidebook and camera schlepping, tennis shoe wearing, English speaking, Starbucks drinking" American and les vrais Parisiens. The following are some examples:

• I'm working on learning the abbreviations and special names for things in French. For example, when ordering water in a restaurant they might ask you whether you will accept San P (pronounced sahn-pay). If you are thinking about what that could possible mean, as I was the first five times I heard this at a restaurant, fear not! I am here to inform you that this is the cute name the French have given to San Pellegrino sparkling water! Why don't they serve the french Perrier? Good question.

• Drinking coffee at all hours of the day and night is very common and perfectly acceptable here, which is wonderful for students like myself. Unless you want to drink your coffee at the same time as your meal, which is somehow impossible. I wanted to drink some coffee whilst eating lunch one day and despite my lengthy conversation with the waiter about how I really did, in fact, want the coffee at the same time as my food, it was brought out about 20 minutes after I finished. Moral of this story: coffee and food together after breakfast? Quel horreur!

• As difficult as this may seem to my peace-loving California compadres, I have now solidified my belief that one cannot classify his/herself as Parisian without elbowing someone out of the way to get a seat on the Métro. I realized, when I felt a jabbing pain in my rib and looked to see a woman of about 75 running past me, that in this realm I must have no mercy. It's a rough world out there, folks.

Although it's difficult and I know that, if I'm lucky, it will take a lifetime to live the real vie parisienne, but I do find that each day I learn something new and it gets a little easier to understand the people, the culture and the mentality that makes up this crazy, wonderful city. I'll post soon about my weekend in the Charente region of France - three days full of beautiful countryside, a comic-book festival, Roman ruins, lots of cathedrals, and a whole lot of Cognac :)

the wonders never cease...

Sacre Coeur Basilica, Montmartre

A few weeks back when I was in San Francisco, I went to an exhibit on Harry Houdini, the tagline of which was one of his quotes reading, "Will the wonders never cease?" I recall thinking that it was a bit idyllic and perhaps naive, but I am beginning to feel more and more as though Houdini had it right. I had quite a week, filled with a lot of wonderful things and some less wonderful ones too, and my thoughts always drifted back to Mr. Houdini reminding me to look at every moment with awe and thanks.

Because it is late here, I will be brief and I hope that you'll accept my apologies and promise for a longer post later. Highlights of the past week:

~ Had my first Art History class at the Louvre. I have never taken Art History before, but I feel particularly grateful to not have a textbook because, after discussing "The Coronation of Napoleon" by Jacques-Louis David in class on Tuesday, we went and SAW it on Wednesday. Crazy?? Yes.

~ I fell in love with Monet again on Friday, and all of the impressionists we saw at our visit to the Musee d'Orsay with my "Intro to French Society" class. Also saw the Stein Family collection of Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso at the Grand Palais :)

~Explored a new neighborhood, Montmartre, with my friend from home, Nora. N and I danced together from ages 8-18 and she is now studying in Paris too! I am excited that we willbe able to have many more adventures together this quarter! We found a really cool antique store, great restaurants and shops, a Breton parade, lots of street art, and, of course, Sacre Coeur!

~Went to a cupcake and champagne fête hosted by my Stanford mentor, who is an alum living in Paris with his wife and they are awesome! And they have a house in the Marais, which is the neighborhood where I will have a pied à terre one day.

~ Went to a cooking workshop at the Maison de la Culture Yiddish, where I learned to make Ashkenazi cheesecake and pareve sponge cake. The cakes were fine, but the most awesome thing was that I got to tour their archives - the largest in Western Europe - which are full of Yiddish periodicals, books in French, English and Yiddish, and tons of other really, really cool things for nerds like myself.

When I finally returned home Sunday night after a weekend of running around, I had one of my many "What is this life?" moments and recounted all of the exciting things that had happened in the last week. The fact that I am still stressed about my summer plans, that my college graduation is approaching and I have no clue what I might want to do after June 2013, do not seem as big a deal. For now, I am trying very hard to just be (present tense, not future). Because, in fact, I am perfectly content to sit at the Boulevard St. Germain and take comfort in the fact that there will still be wonderful things ahead.

p.s - I have determined that it would be actually possible for me to live in Paris because I could satiate my need for delicioso Mexican food. The photo above is courtesy of my evening with Nora where we each had two tacos, guacamole, an amazing black bean brownie (yes, you read that correctly - flourless, but made with black beans), and some beverages - mine happened to be made with chile-infused tequila... mmm caliente! Viva Paris :)

Things are looking familiar...

It's now been about a week and a half since the journey from San Francisco to Paris, and I am pleased to report that France has decided to help my transition by displaying a bit of California sunshine this past week. I now have a routine, which has allowed me to begin to really explore and become familiar with the city, my classes, the people, and myself.

Orientation continued throughout the past week, and we also began classes on Tuesday. As previously mentioned, all our classes are in French, which is both completely overwhelming and totally gratifying. Our professors know we're only catching between 40-85% of what they're saying (depending on the speed with which they talk, whether the material is familiar or not, etc.), but even so it's been a fascinating challenge. I decided to drop the African Francophone literature class in favor of Art History. My uncle, who is an Art History professor, has been on my case to take art history at Stanford in my "free time," and I figured that there is no better place to do so than Paris. Have I mentioned that we meet once a week in class and the other meeting is at museums (read: I have class in the Louvre)? Yeah. Best decision I have made in Paris thus far.

Other than school, this week was a full one. We had our first language partner meeting with the French engineering students, which was really interesting and fun. My partner enjoys cooking and going to the theatre (yay!) so hopefully we'll be doing some of those things together. I took my first dance class in Paris! It's located in a truly amazing complex of over 8 studios (unheard of in terms of space in this city) and the teacher was really nice. It wasn't quite my level, but we'll see how things work out. Culinary discovery of the week: tigré noir. This is some kind of almond cake thing with dark chocolate on top. YUM.

This weekend was awesome and included our Bing luncheon (fancy food paid for by Stanford); an epic music-sharing session with my host mother, who happens to love Israeli musicians; a friend's 21st bday celebration (although we're in France, so 21 ain't no big thing); a day trip with some new Stanford friends to Versailles, featuring Louis XV's private apartments and Marie-Antoinette's hamlet; my first foray into French cinemas with an amazing film Les Intouchables; and a performance called "Gala des Étoiles du 21e siècle" aka "Ballet Stars of the 21st Century", which featured two principals from 8 major European ballet companies and was incredible. Basically a perfect Parisian weekend.

The view after stepping out of the theater this evening.

Hall of Mirrors, Versailles

The following are some cultural oddities differences, observations, and questions that I've accumulated thus far...

- In a country where smoking is the national sport, it's a true miracle how Parisians are able to walk as much as they do without wheezing and keeling over.

-You do not see Parisians walking and eating at the same time. As one who is usually all about efficiency (indeed, I can eat a burrito with one hand while driving on 280 to make a class and/or meeting), it is interesting that despite the amount of foods that could be easily consumed while walking (le sandwich, le crêpe, le croissant, les macarons) it's simply not done. This is different from Berlin where it seemed like no one actually sat down to eat; rather, they'd prefer a Döner and Bier on the U-Bahn. I am going to try to be somewhere in the middle - I don't have time to have 1.5 hour lunches and dinners, but I will try to have a little more respect for the tradition of the meal, as our Center director likes to say.

-How is everyone so fucking chic?

-Smiling in public is prohibited. Ok, not really, but should you be a female and riding on the metro, you should not smile at the people near you, as one might do in the United States to signal some sense of humanity. According to our director, Estelle (who is awesome, btw), unless you are interested in sexual advances from total strangers including the question "Chez moi ou chez vous?" (my house or yours?), you should not be friendly to people you don't know. For all of you who are curious, I have not been in such a situation, but it comes from a Stanford in Paris student from last quarter. Moral of the story: keep the smiles for those whom you know and deserve such beauty.

-Paris should be learned by walking. Unlike Berlin, which is so vast that walking anywhere but to your U-Bahn stop makes no sense, Paris was made for pedestrians. Every arrondissement is so full of unique and interesting shops, people, parks, and stories, that it would be a total shame to only take the Metro. So I've learned, walk whenever possible and you'll always find something new and exciting.

On the agenda for this week: beginning my English workshop at the local elementary school, a soirée with Stanford alumni living in Paris, writing my first report in French for anything other than a language class, trying out a new dance class, working in a new cafe :)

À Bientôt!

Bienvenue à Paris

Bonjour mes amis,

Upon my arrival at our orientation session last Friday, I was not really feeling this whole Paris thing. It was really difficult for me to leave San Francisco on Thursday - I was just getting back into the swing of California life, I was feeling productive and I still hadn't seen all the people who I meant to visit over break. Add these emotions to the desire to head back to campus in Palo Alto and to have another week of winter break, in addition to my lack of sleep and desparate need of a shower/change of clothes after being on the plane, we can all agree that I was not in the best of moods when I landed at Charles de Gaulle.

I arrived at the hostel where we all were staying for our first night in France and took a walk to try and stay awake as long as possible. Then I saw this:

It's fair to say that I snapped out of my bad mood quickly and have been loving getting reacquainted with Paris. I can't wait to revisit my favorite places and discover new treasures that are around every corner. Here's the low-down on my life here so far...

Ma famille d'accueil (lit. welcoming families, colloq. host families)

As in Berlin, here I am staying with a host family. I live dans la petite ceinture (the little belt), meaning the area just outside of Paris proper, but within a 15 minute ride on the Paris Metro to the Champs Elysees. One advantage of being in the 'burbs is that I live in an actual house, with an actual garden and real space, which is very rare in the City. Unlike in Berlin, though, here we eat all of our breakfasts and 5 dinners a week with our families. My host mother is fantastic and I'm already very much enjoying our mealtime conversations, despite the fact that we speak solely in French. Usually, we communicate very well, but when the discussions turn to subjects like Obamacare (my thoughts on which I can barely express in English), it's difficult to fight the urge to bring a dictionary to the table. My family consists of my host mother, her partner, David, and David's daughter (age 11). Did I mention that David was a professional chef in a restaurant très chic in Paris? Awww yeah.

Mes cours et mes études (classes and studies)

Stanford in Paris is located in the building of the Institut Superieur d'Electronique de Paris (ISEP) in the 6th arrondissement (district). We have a relationship with ISEP both in terms of classes and relating to "cultural affairs," meaning that we can register for certain seminars at ISEP and that we have French students who are our language partners! This also means that I am actually a French student (with a French student idenitification card), which apparently is extremely helpful when trying to get into the Louvre for free :) Classes begin tomorrow and I am trying not to freak out because, also unlike Berlin, all my classes will be taught in French. The following classes are on the agenda for this quarter:

-French Language (duh)

-France in World War II (you'd think I'd know enough about WWII by now, but you'd be wrong)

-Contemporary African Literature in French or Human Rights in the Comparative Perspective

-Introduction de la Société Francaise: basically a field trip class on Fridays when we tour museums, participate in Chocolate and Boulangerie tastings, have on-site lectures by professors at historical buildings, etc. Awesome (x 50).

-Le stage en milieu scolaire - an internship at French elementary school. I will be leading an atelier en Anglais (English language workshop) at a public elementary school in the 16th arrondissement :)

It seems like a lot, and there is definitely the possibility of dropping a class, but for now I'll give it a go!

La Vie Parisienne

It's so surreal to be here in Paris that I think it will take another week or so to sink in - after all, I was in Berlin and California in the past month and the brain and the emotions are a bit strained. We'll see how I feel in nine weeks, but for now I love the smells of the boulangeries, the fact that I can't help but smile every time I see the Eiffel tower, the ability to just walk and wander and still find amazingly beautiful things everywhere, the three-course (hour-long) dinners with my host family, and the slower pace of life here in general. The language is difficult, absolutely, but I hope that it will all be worth it when I am able to speak confidently with my new French friends. For now, I will just say that I am beyond excited to be here and I can't wait to experience all that the city and this quarter has to offer.

À bientôt,

Doria