Pictures

Hello everyone! So another week has flown by (most likely because I've been dreading this weekend, a paper and a memorized 10 minute presentation due Monday, thank you BC) This week was relatively uneventful. I had my first sociology class (since I missed the first one and the professor didn't show up last week.) It is the history of sociology for 3.5 hours... YIKES! Not too much happened in classes this week, I'm understanding a little more, but sitting in one place for so long is killing me! On Wednesday night, we decided that since this weekend was going to be full of work, we would go out since none of us have class on Thursday. We went out the bluc that rejected us the week before and we gone in since it was "Ladies Night" aka no charge! It was fun to dance with all my friends, so happy to find people who enjoy dancing! I also enjoyed the music so perhaps this could be a fun place to take friends when they come to visit!
Aside from that, I had my Hollywood cinema class on Friday and he made us watch the EXORCIST. Clearly he doesn't know about the fact that I scream in my sleep... But anyways, here are some pictures from the past few weeks of some of the places I've visited (for Mom and Nana) and the people I've met (see I DO have friends!) Hope everyone is enjoying their Valentine's Day, I'll be spending mine researching French politics....


My roommate Amy and I last weekend when our friends came to visit!



The girls before we went out: {left to right} Erika (my friend who visited from Ireland) Moi, Amy, Marina, and Caitlin

Amy and I in the middle with our two friends who came to visit from Dublin!

At the dance club once we finally got in... Maggie, Me, Caitlin, Amy
View from the top of the Centre Pompidou, the modern art museum that I went to with Courtney... you can see Sacre Coeur at the top!
This would be some of the modern art... I took this photo because it reminded me of the look my BC French professor gives me when I don't know the correct word in French!
More "modern art" a little over my head... I'm not really sure what this is.
This is the museum itself-- built inside out with all the piping exposed!
Yesterday, we went to the Musee de l'Orangerie, located in the Tuilerie Gardens. It' s an impressionist museum, similar to the work in the Musee D'Orsay but with entire rooms of Monet's work. It was so beautiful, that now I'm thinking of taking a day trip in the spring to Giverny, where Monet painted all of his landscape photos like Les Nympheas! This particular photo above is not Monet, however, I really liked the detail and something about the photo just amde me want to take a picture!
Awkward solo shot for the mother... Mom you can even click the picture to make it bigger :-O
This is another one of Monet's paintings (they are HUGE) from his Nympheas collection!
And another, it looks so beautiful especially how the entire wall curves with the paintings.
And this is a picture with my friend Erika who came to visit from Dublin! It was so nice to see her :-)

Le soleil?

Last week we had our first SUNNY day in Paris! It was wonderful even though a little cold, I enjoyed the vitamin D I've been missing out on here!

So last week was not too eventful... The good news is that I'm starting to understand more and more of my classes (though also daydreaming more and more!) I have one teacher who teaches History of Cinema, who should truly be a Yoga instructor. She has one of those calm voices that makes you just want to go to sleep and be calm. I'm glad the other BC-ers and I in that class decided to take it pass/fail because we were all a little disconcerted after half and hour passed and none of us had written anything down! But every professor has taken pity on us this week. For every class, I walked up and explained that I am American and still working on my french skills and inquired if there was a possiblity that instead of taking an exam, if I could write a paper instead. They each said yes so that is WONDERFUL!

Wednesday was one of those days you realize the little differences in French culture. My two roommates Amy, Steph and I woke up bright an early, made the 45 minutes trek to Diderot and sat down in class. Fifteen minutes pass and all hte students are sitting in the class, sans professor. After 30 minutes some French students begin to get up and leave and after 40 minutes, we did the same. Apparently here, teachers don't need to email you and inform anyone if they won't be coming on-- they simply don't show up! So we took a walk around the school, grabbed a long leisurly lunch, and waiting for our class that began at 3.

Over the weekend, my friends Erika, Caitlin, and Mike came over from Dublin. Caitlin stayed at our apartment and Erika and Mike stayed at my friend Maggie's. This was probably the best weekend here so far! On Friday, we took them to a popular restaurant/cafe/bar place called the Frog and the Princess and they got to meet some real French students... despite not speaking a word of French! Saturday was a different story but fun nonetheless. We met at Maggie's apartment and decided to go to a nicer dance club since our friends were here. We took the Metro to a popular club walked up, and they opened the exit rope and shuffled us right back out! Apparntly, we didn't fit their "look" for the night and he snottily pointed and Mike's jacket scoffing at his style. Needless to say, we were blantantly rejected and found another club. This time, we pretended like we belonged, walking past the hour plus wait and the bouncer look us up and down and let us in! So I guess that's the trick... anyways, it was a blast and we danced all night, leaving around 5 and took the morning metro home!

This was a great week and it was so fun to be able to show people around! I also had some actual steak when we had dinner Sunday night at a cafe (my cooking skills are subpar so this was a treat!) Overall, I realized how fast my time is going by here and that soon, I won't be able to spend a lazy Saturday perusing the most famous paintings in the world. I know it was a rocky start, but I learned that my coordinator is not exactly helpful and we need to rely on friends when things are different or difficult! It was a fun week and great weekend for bonding with my roommates.

A bientot!
Kerry

First Week of School

Week 3 (I'm a week behind on my posts due to my lack of internet until now!)

Hello everyone! So I had my first week at the actual French University! On Monday, I had my final for my Boston College Intensive Language Course. I am so glad that is finally over! Here is what the week looked like :-)

Tuesday: First Day of University! In Paris, all students must know by the time they graduate from high school what they would like to major in because the universities here are divided by specializations. For example, I go to the University of Paris VII- Diderot, which specializes in languages, literature, and cinema. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent of communications in France so this is the closest that I can get. On Tuesday, I had my first class- The History of Cinema. When I arrived at the school, I was a little surprised. We had seen the grandeur of the Sorbonne in passing but each university is different. Diderot is pretty small since schools here are solely for classroom use (no dining halls, dorms, school activities, libraries etc.) much different from BC! It was very difficult to understand the professor- I catch about 20% of what is going on and this is the class that I am choosing to take Pass/Fail which is good!

Wednesday: I had my second class Wednesday which was Images of Modern Art (basically art history). This professor was a little scarier than the first one- she does not like whispering in class! Another difference is that each class is three straight hours of lecture! I try not to daydream but sometimes I find my mind slipping...! This class may be a little easier for me to understand however, because we look at pictures of art pieces and I write down the artist and name of the painting to look up later!

Thursday: This was not one of our better days here... we began the day in search for the office to get our "permit to stay." My coordinator told us the wrong metro stop and we walked about 4 miles around the wrong part of the city! Finally, we found it and I headed off to class. I figured this one would be easiest- Introduction to Sociology but boy was I wrong! We sat down in class and she called two students up to give a 30 minute debate with each other on the sociology of whether or not suicide was egotistical or not (I think!!) I realized that this class was far beyond my comprehension and left after an hour and half explaining that I needed to find a new class. Luckily, my coordinator said that's normal and I can switch into a sociology class that is 3 hours of lecture instead of divided into lecture and discussion.

Friday: Today I only had one class, Hollywood Cinema! I actually enjoyed this class- the professor seemed nice. I found another girl from America in the class and the professor told us that he would give us an alternate assignment instead of making us take a midterm which would be extremely difficult! Again, understanding 1/5 of what is going on is disconcerting but at least the film clips that we watch for about 20 minutes of each class are in English-- thus the Hollywood Cinema choice on my part!

As for some fun stuff, on Wednesday night, I got dinner with my friends Courtney and Renee from high school and it wa a blast! It's so nice to have them here and laugh with them! We grabbed some sandwiches and just talked for a good while. On Friday night, I had my friend Annie over for dinner and we hung out that night, watched Grey's Anatomy. Saturday, I got up and met up with Courtney at the Centres Pompidou, which is a building that was build inside out (with all the piping exposed) that is a) A modern art museum and B) Has this tube that you can walk through for excellent views of the city. The best part is that all the museums in France are free to European students so it was GRATUIT :-) The museum was very...modern and to tell you the truth, I don't really understand modern art but it was fun to just walk around with Court. After the museum, we took some pictures from the top and went shopping! I got a new purse and Courtney got some shoes! Overall, it was a great day then I went back and hung out at her apartment because her host family was gone for the weekend.

Sunday: Sundays are always really calm here since everything is closed. The highlight of the day was that I found a tiny store open and got a baguette haha. Overall, I slept in, organized my room, and did some catching up on emails and skype with the family :-)

Pictures are refusing to load so I will post them later!