..all good things (come to an end)..

:: Back to school after not having a Thanksgiving break ::

Oh well, you can’t get everything here in France, can you? I did, however, enjoy quite a week with my parents and a couple of celebrations.
{Here’s a quick update since I have to go to school soon}

——{ P a r e n t s }——

I didn’t really realize how weird it was for divorced people to travel together until this trip when everyone pointed it out to me. It’s true though, and my mom said she would never do it again haha. But I think we all had a great time together, being a pseudo-family. I won’t give a blow by blow recap, since they were here for a whole week and it all kind of runs together anyways. But I took them around Sacré Coeur (when it was freezing!), Sciences Po and we ended up wandering around the First a lot. I also finally got to go to Musée D’Orsay, and my parents of course hit up the Louvre… twice. Besides all the toursity stuff, we did a bit of shopping, for my birthday bien sûr, but also to see les grands magasins (Printemps, Galeries Lafayette). It was a good thing my parents ended up picking a hotel fairly close to me, since the strike ended up going pretty much the entire week they were here, but more on that later. They stayed at a cozy little 3-star place between Opéra and Montmartre, so I got to see some of the Ninth that I previously hadn’t as well, including L’Église de la Madeleine. For Thanksgiving/my birthday, we ended up going to this really nice Italian restaurant near the Louvre. It was extremely expensive, but luckily delicious.

On their last full day here (Saturday), we took a day trip out to Chantilly. We, or moreso I, decided to forgo Versailles since we had all been there before and it is always plein de touristes. Chantilly, according to my guidebook, is a small town of about 11,000 people and it’s main attraction is the Château de Chantilly. It was actually really nice getting out of the city for a day. SNCF, which almost stopped striking by then, had an almost direct train there from Gare du Nord, so it only took us about 25 minutes. The overall impression I got of the little town was that it was a lot like Princeton, though perhaps even quieter. While Princeton’s main attraction may not be a castle, the University’s not half bad either. The cutest part was the one main road (Nassau, anyone?) that was tastefully decorated for Christmas. The castle itself was, of course, beautiful, though it’s kind of sad that now I am less impressed by these things since I’ve seen so many. But it was really great because there weren’t many visitors, so you could kind of walk around uninhibited. I imagine that the gardens are much prettier in the summer, but I enjoyed them nonetheless. In the Jardin Anglo-Chinois, there was even a small hamlet, or mock little village. After our day out, we came back to Paris, and more specifically Montmartre, for our last supper. I will definitely miss my parents at Christmas, but I’ll be home in about 2 months (something I am both excited and very sad about).

——{ C e l e b r a t e }——

I never realized what a big deal Thanksgiving was for Americans, but I guess that’s because I’ve always been in America for it. But yeah, every American I know went to at least one Thanksgiving dinner. Ashley hosted a lovely dinner at her house on the actual night of Thanksgiving. I arrived after dining with my parents and (duh) still managed to eat quite a bit, especially dessert. We even went around saying what we were thankful for, and you know, besides being in Paris and having met good friends here, I was thankful to have white people in my life again. JK, sort of. A nice dinner would not be complete without youtube videos, so we watched some of those, including my now all-time favorite video. Click here.

Then the next day was my birthday! I spent the afternoon walking around the Marais with my parents, and then came home to get ready for dinner, etc. A few of us went out to a restaurant near our house, which turned out to be quite delicious (thanks again, Lonely Planet). And I even got the lights turned out for a little singing of “Joyeux anniversaire,” how embarrassing. Then we came back to the house for our very French party — theme: Foux de fa fa, which I’m pretty sure I’ve already linked. As Facebook will attest, Devon and I did our very best to look as tackily French as possible, complete with leggings, cheap scarves and berets. And what would a birthday be without lots of champagne? (No face-cake though, sadly). And so now I’m 20. It sounds so much older, yet I feel exactly the same. And I’m pretty sure I’ll actually feel younger when I get back to the States and can no longer buy 90 cent champagne at the supermarket…

As fun as celebrating abroad was, hearing about everyone together at home made me really miss home for the first time. It’s funny how much just sitting in Small World, or around my house, with high school friends and talking about absolutely nothing is all that I need. Good thing I’ll be keeping myself occupied over Christmas break, because I am sure the feeling will kick back in then.

——{ L a g r è v e }——

C’est fini! Finally. I think in the end, it totaled something like 10 days. I almost got used to walking everywhere, and then crowding my way into the mass of bodies on the sporadic metro… except that it was terrible. I think negotiations have started, or were set to start soon, but I hope something gets worked out. I cannot stand another one of these things. The one good thing, ok fine, two good things about the strike were that I got to see parts of Paris I never would have before and also, it was the closest thing I’ve come to exercise since being here. It’s funny, last night I was looking through old high school work (to find something to help me with my presentation today) and I found this study guide I had prepared on France for AP Gov/Pol. A whopping seven pages single-spaced, I never knew I “knew” so much about the French government. Apparently, not that many people are unionized. What I didn’t know back then was how effective strikes can be regardless.

//

And now begins two weeks of lots of work again. Presentation today, a “galop d’essai” (aka midterm of sorts, though at 4 hours, longer than any test I’ve ever taken) on Saturday at 8 am (!), two more presentations next Tuesday and Thursday, and then a break of sorts before winter break. I guess I can accept it, seeing as how I’ve really done no work since my task force presentation two weeks ago.

As my “schedule for France” grows increasingly shorter (I just deleted “Parents visit” from it), I can’t help but think of going home. Like I said before, I have mixed feelings. I feel like I have now really lived in France (even if just for a short three months), so I feel comfortable leaving it because I know I still have a place here sort of. I do miss little things about Princeton, but I feel like I will enjoy being home for like a week and then miss France again. I will be very happy to see everyone, but just thinking about all the work, etc. is not fun. And then there’s the whole junior summer internship thing, which I have yet to really think about. I guess going home will be kind of like going back to reality, and I don’t think I’m ready for it yet. That being said, I’m going to get offline and go experience more of Paris, even if that Paris largely revolves around school as well.

~ by michen09 on November 26, 2007.