Baby!

In Beguin family news of the day, the baby arrived. I don't know any details yet, except that it's a boy and the mommy and baby are both doing well. Marie goes home from the hospital tomorrow or Tuesday, so hopefully i'll get to see the baby this week.

Liza B visits Paris!!!

As a wonderful birthday gift, Liza Butler came to visit me in Paris this weekend. She arrived Friday morning, having taken a 7 a.m. flight out of Madrid. We started our tour de Paris at the Arab World Institute, a massive building/museum/institute that I walk by frequently and wanted to visit. The museum itself was OK...we had a little adventure when we made friends with a Pakistani man who asked for translations, then our phone numbers, then to spend the day with us, to have his first alcoholic drinks with us, and finally to kiss us, since we were too beautiful to be single and he "hadn't kissed a girl before". We tried to lose him by going to the bathroom, but it was a coed bathroom and he followed us in. We finally managed to lose him by walking ahead of him, making plans in rudimentary Spanish, and telling him we had to meet a friend at her house for coffee and he couldn't come.

After that adventure, we continued the Arab tour of Paris and headed to the mosque. It was really beautiful and interesting to see a place of worship where there were tons of people praying (as opposed to the churches which are mainly tourist sights). When we left the mosque I discovered that we were on the same street as my Parisian university, so I took Liza to get a glimpse and then we had tea in a nearby cafe. We then decided that we really wanted to cook an American breakfast the next morning (Liza's host family gives her coffee and a chocolate cookie for breakfast in the morning) and we headed to La Grande Epicerie, the massive ritzy grocery store that goes with Le Bon Marche, the massive ritzy department store. I figured it would be one of very few places in Paris that might sell pancake mix. After wandering the store a bit, we finally found a foreign foods section with a box of "Classic Foods of America Pancake Mix" made in France. With directions in French, Italian, Spanish and German...no English. Energized by our purchase, we decided to take a quick tour of the Louvre, as it's free for young people on Friday nights.

We did a very quick walk-through of the Louvre, basically just wandering the halls of Spanish and Italian paintings, and seeing the Mona Lisa. It was my first time seeing it, and Liza left Paris able to say she saw it.

After the Louvre, we went to my friend Templeton's dorm for a little dinner party. Templeton's next door neighbor and her brother, who only speak French, were there, in addition to 3 other Middkids. Telling stories to the whole room was a hilarious fiasco, b/c someone either had to translate the English to French for the French kids or French to English for Liza. It worked out well though, as my friends and I got a real kick out of playing translator.

Saturday morning Liza and I slept in, then made our pancakes. We put Nutella and chocolate and strawberries and whipped cream on them, and they were soooooooo good. Actually the pancakes themselves were pretty gross, but the toppings were yummy enough to compensate. When we finally made it out of the appartment, we walked from Place de la Concorde up the Champs-Elysee to the Arc de Triomphe. We then hopped on the metro to the Moulin Rouge and the sex district, and finally up to Montmartre (it was a very grey day, so the view wasn't the best). Afterwards we got Liza her first crepe, and some woman in the store saw my Middlebury sweatshirt and told me she was from VT and happy to see a fellow countrywomen.

Saturday dinner Liza and I ate French style - fondue for two. It was yummmmmmmy. Actually it was just really fun, but it tasted pretty good. We went home and collapsed after dinner (it was midnight) and watched the latest episode of Grey's. Liza then took a 2 hour nap before waking up at five to get her taxi to the bus station. And I went back to sleep.

Middkids. Paris. amazing.

Here goes with the long-awaited post about the weekend that Middkids invaded Paris. Poor Kyle got snowed into Boston, so Alex Hall arrived first. I was extremely nervous that we wouldn't find each other, as I had class all afternoon and simply gave him a train line, a metro stop name, and a time to meet me. Luckily he's a smart kid and arrival one happened perfectly. We started off our visit my going back to my house and taking naps, since he was jet-lagged and i knew I wouldn't sleep much for the rest of the weekend. I ran to the grocery store and bakery at ten of eight (all grocery stores close at eight) and grabbed a baguette and some cheese and white wine and we sat on my balcony and ate bread and cheese and pretended to be Parisian. Becca was next to arrive, and Dan picked her up at the train station while Alex and I headed to the outskirts of Paris to find Adam and Kevin at the bus station where the airport shuttle was dropping them off. They arrived in a deserted bus station at 11:45, and it took Alex and I 'til midnight to find the station (i.e. parking lot) and we wandered around it shouting their names, and by another miracle, we found Kevin sitting alone (Adam had left in search of a bathroom). Everyone reunited at a metro stop and we headed to Aloha hostel, their home for the next few days. We sat in the hostel talking until 3:30. It was a 25-30 minute walk from my house, so the boys walked Becca and I home. When they returned to Aloha it was still hopping and apparently they didn't sleep all night. Kevin, Alex, and Adam were slightly grossed out by the filthy bathroom and the dirty 3 people they shared a room with. Friday night the room was only 6 Middkids and that worked out much better.

Friday morning I awoke to my cell phone vibrating (actually Becca did) an hour before we were supposed to meet the boys. They were standing outside my appartment waiting for us. We dressed quickly and descended, then took off walking towards the Seine with no plan in mind. We wound up at the Grand Palais and started walking towards the Louvre. As we were walking, we randomly ran into Chelsea Minton and Mike Stefanik, two Middkids (also Febs). They are studying in Greece/London and decided to meet in Paris for the weekend. After running into them, we calculated that nearly 10% of their Feb class ('08.5) was in Paris that weekend. Mike and Chelsea told us the Louvre was free that afternoon b/c the workers were on strike, so we headed down to go in, but then Becky and Amanda called to tell us they had arrived and we waited for them by the Pyramids. We had another Midd reunion outside the Louvre, and headed to Aloha to drop their stuff off. On the way to the hostel, everyone realized they were hungry, and we stopped at Monoprix to get some toiletries, towels, a jar of Nutella, and 1.5 baguettes to go with it. We had the jar of Nutella open and half a baguette gone by the time we got to the end of the street, and by the time we sat down on the benches across the street, one baguette was gone. Becky and Adam went off in search of a bakery, and returned with another baguette, two croissants, and two pain au chocolats. We proceeded to devour those, and the boys decided they needed one more baguette, which they bought and gulped down. 3.5 baguettes, 2 croissants, and 2 pain au chocolats, and 2/3 of a jar of Nutella. It's an exaggeration to say we spent most of this weekend enjoying Parisian cuisine. We went to Saint Michel for dinner, and met up with Becky's friend Evan (from Russia) and two of his friends, and the pack of 11 went to a cute Thai restaurant for a picture. Right before dessert Becky and I left to pick up Dan at the train station, and by miracle #3, we found him (I hadn't realized that Gare du Nord is enormous and the odds of us "just finding him" near the tracks weren't good). Luckily it was late and deserted in the train station and we got another Middkid. We laid low the rest of the night, returning to the hostel and babbling until the wee hours of the morning again.

Saturday morning Kyle finally arrived, exhausted and sweaty and having been snowed in Boston for 2 extra nights. After retrieving the last member of the Midd pack, we hit up a sandwich shop for lunch and at on the steps of a church. We then proceeded to Montmartre and gawked at the amazing view of Paris. We got a fellow tourist to take a group shot of us at the church. After hiking up to the top, we headed back down and went to the sex district, to see the Moulin Rouge of course. We saw the landmark, decided not to pay 70 euros to see the show and wished one of us had the movie with us. There were several renditions of "Come What May" and "Elephant Love Medley". Saturday night we decided on classic French food and headed to a really cute street in the Latin quarter where everyone ordered raclettes and amused themselves by melting cheese. Jess and her friend from home met up with us for dinner, and afterwards we took the group to our favorite bar nearby. By the time we finished there everyone was exhausted and headed back to their homes/hostels to sleep. And Sunday we slept in.

We didn't meet until noon on Sunday, as everyone was completely exhausted by that time. We met at my appartment and headed along the Seine to the outdoor market at Place de la Bastille. We amused ourselves greatly at the market, and bought lichis, clementines, pastries, churros, crepes, strawberries, and probably other random things that look so much more appealing when they are outside and someone is begging you to buy them. We continued along the main street of Paris (Rue de Rivoli) and walked through the Marais, Place des Vosges, two pretty churches, Hotel de Ville until we finally decided to go to the Louvre. Unfortunately we didn't make it there until nearly 4:30, and it closes at 5:30. Luckily most of our friends have been there before, so it wasn't tragic that we missed that landmark. We had split into two groups at that point, and my group, since we couldn't go to the Louvre, went with our late-afternoon routine/fallback of finding a bakery and eating pastries. Which were yummy, as always in Paris. When the two groups reunited near sunset, we decided to head to the Eiffel Tower. We walked there from the Louvre, which was long but beautiful. We arrived at the tower at 6:45, just in time to watch it scintillate from the bottom at 7. Then we got in line. And watched it light up at 8. By the 9 o'clock shimmering we were halfway up the tower, waiting in line to get to the top. We finally made it, and despite the long long line and the freezing cold, it was worth it from the top. That's us at the top in the picture to the right. We made it down just before the 10 p.m. shimmering, and hopped on an RER back to Saint Michel, where we knew that even late on Sunday restaurants would be open. Everyone was starving at this point, and ready to eat anywhere (and turning to me, their fearless leader, to guide them to food). We walked down a two streets and one of the men standing outside offered us a free aperitif, which we gladly accepted and chose his Greek/French restaurant. We really wanted to get escargot, to complete the French culinary experience, but they were out. The meal was still good, though at that point we probably would have scarfed down anything. We returned to the hostel and hung out in their room for a while, until Dan and Becky fell asleep and we decided maybe we should all sleep.

Monday morning Dan left at dawn, Becky took an early train, and Kyle and Alex headed to the airport. We ate lunch together before I gave Kevin directions to the Louvre and sent Adam and Becca to amuse themselves in Paris while I went to class. during class I received several phone calls, and when I finally checked my messages, they were from Alex Hall, telling me he got bumped from his flight and would be sitting outside my appt. until waiting 'til I got home. Adam, Becca, Kevin, and I met up and returned to chez moi to find Alex awaiting us. We ate dinner together, brought Kevin and Adam back to the bus station, and Becca and Alex and I alternatively sat and wandered around randomly, comtemplating alternatively our exhaustion, how fun the weekend was, and what we would eat next.

Tuesday morning we met for breakfast, ate our last pain au chocolats together, and I put them on the RER as I headed to Paris III for my translation midterm. This post does no justice to the amazingness and the hilarity of this weekend, but I tried. Imagine me walking through Paris with 8-12 Middkids trailing behind me. Amazing.

Wow sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted. Last weekend was amazing. Ten Middkids taking on Paris. I’ll tell that story in the next post. But tonight I wanted to jot down a note about today. It started off with a translation midterm, which went quite well, as it was from French to English and not that difficult of a passage anyways. After class Templeton and I were discussing the exam together and we ran into the two girls we had chatted with after class last week. They asked if we wanted to grab a coffee at the cafeteria, and we happily agreed. We had coffee with a group of 8 French girls and chatted in French and English. They all spoke English very well and spoke to us primarily in English. However, we made an effort to reply in French as much as possible. And they spoke to each other in French, so we had the opportunity to listen often. I have one girl’s email address and cell number, so hopefully we’ll be able to meet again. They get coffee every week after class, so we’ll also have next week to look forward to.

I have my French language class midterm tomorrow so I’ve got to study tonight, but I’ll post more tomorrow.

School Daze

Monday morning I had my first experience in the French elementary school where I'm volunteering for the semester. It started off shakily, as I got lost and was nearly 40 minutes late to the meeting. The Midd coordinator gave me awful directions, and forgot to put the school's name or address on the paper, so I had to call her and she kept telling me to ask someone where to find the street, but I couldn't understand the name of the street (which was Rue Las Casas...apparently the French have trouble pronouncing Spanish words). Finally I found the street, then had to stand for five minutes and wonder how to get into this monstrous building with about 4 doors and eight doorbells. I pressed about 5 before I succeeded and found my way into the school and the director's office. She was super nice and she brought me straight to my classroom. When the teacher opened the door and the students saw me, they immediately stood up and at the teacher's prompting, said "Bonjour" and then "Allo." It was quite adorable and very different from an American class. I'm guessing the students are about 10-11, but I'm not sure and no one has told me yet. I'm there to assist with English lessons, so we started off my alleviating the student's curiousity about me and allowing them to ask me questions in English. They asked things like how old I was, where I was from, why I was in Paris, etc. The teacher insisted they ask in English and I reply in English (I hope they understood...). When they were having difficulty coming up with the sentence in English, the teacher asked one of the two bilingual students to translate the question into English. There are two bilingual students and they're really cute...they must be so bored sitting practicing say "I like apples. I don't like milk" but they get to look really smart when the teacher asks them questions, since they speak better than she does. It was interesting to hear her pronounce the English words, and to correct the students' prononciation, since hers wasn't that great. It was English with a very thick French accent. It was similar to having an American teacher try to pronounce Spanish words for their students...their accent is better than the students' accent, but often still far from the "correct" prononciation. The school is on vacation for the next two weeks, but the teacher asked me to prepare a short presentation on a typical American breakfast for the next time. Should be amusing.

Biking plus Parisian drivers plus ham

This morning my host father asked if I wanted to join him for a "petit tour" de Paris on bicycle to get something for lunch. I very happily said yes and we took off on bicycles down the Parisian streets. Bicycles are very popular in Paris, and sometimes there are bicycle lanes in the streets and sometimes bikes ride along with the traffic and sometimes they just ride through it. We did all of the above. He rides at a quick pace, and a few times I lost him when a pedestrian, or a car, would try to cross in between us. He kept talking to me along the way, especially when we were stopped at traffic lights, and explaining where we were and what happened/happens there. Our destination was a butcher/wine shop in the 1st, where he bought a massive ham for today's lunch. We had to wait a while to be served, and while we were waiting he handed me 5 euros and asked me to go buy eggs from the market down the street. It took him three tries to explain this to me, and he asked if I wanted him to go with me, but I finally understood and bought the eggs all by myself, plus discovered a new market in the process. My bike had the basket and the pack on it, so I got to ride home with half a dozen eggs and a ham behind me. I was a bit worried as we were riding across cobblestones and up and down curbs frequently, but the eggs made it home safely. I know my host dad enjoys bike riding and does it often, so hopefully I'll be able to join him again.

When we returned my host mom had the t.v. on, tuned into Nicolas Sarkozy giving a speech, followed by Segolene Royal annoucing her plan for her presidency. My host mom really doesn't like her, so she was making negative comments about her throughout lunch. My host mom said she hadn't prepared anything big for lunch, and we started with ham slices and bread. Then she pulled potatoes out of the microwave with olive oil and spices. Then she pulled egg rolls out of the oven. Then finally she had leftover dessert from a dinner last night and she prepared it for me. She made flan using coconut milk instead of regular and topped it with fresh fruit. So delicious.

I have my first big test tomorrow, on the European Union, so I spent the rest of the afternoon studying, and I even went to the cafe on the corner, had a hot chocolate and studied there for an hour. I felt very French.

When I got home, 4 Midd girls were there taking a cooking class, and I went in to say hi as they were finishing up there meal. My host mom asked if I had eaten dinner yet, and when I said no, she insisted on making me some sort of poached eggs with tomatoes that the girls had made earlier. She also put everything left from their meal on my plate. Then I got to share the dessert they made, which was meringue in a vanilla creme. Lots of yummy desserts for me today. and bonding time with the host fam, which was great since I haven't seen them in a while.

Adventures in and out of Paris

Friday night Jess and I went to the Greek area in St. Michel for dinner. We found a cute Greek restaurant with a formule (appetizer, entree, and dessert) for only 9 euros. When we first entered and were seated, the waiter had to plead with the family cat to get off my chair so I could sit down - it was very cute. We started with greek salads, then I ate a gyro and fries (probably straight off the slab of meat I could see roasting on a stake in the back) and ice cream to finish. Our waiter was adorable - 5 years out of Greece...he asked for our numbers and told us to come back to the restaurant at midnight if we wanted to go out with him for the evening.

Saturday morning we decided we wanted to have a little adventure and get out of Paris, so we hopped on the RER to Poissy, a Parisian suburb. We spent most of the day there, wandering the cute little streets, enjoying the tranquil pace of a Saturday afternoon there (compared to the craziness of Paris on a sunny Saturday). We found a gorgeous park and walked through there, as well as a museum of toys from the 1800 and 1900s...very pleasant.

Saturday night I crashed a dinner with Jess and Dan's orientation group - it turned out just to be them and their leader and her boyfriend, so it worked out great. Their leader is a former Middlebury student and super-sweet. We ate at a very French restaurant and I had my first raclette. Raclette is a French dish where they give you a plate of cheese slices (with some ham and potatoes) and they light a little grille built into the table, and you melt the cheese on the grille, then put it on the potato. It was delicious and so much fun. Definitely something I'll be eating again in France.

Fajitas

Tonight, for the first time, I cooked an actual dinner for myself. With the help of a friend, of course. I met Templeton at Monoprix to grocery-shop and we headed back to my appartment to make fajitas. Everything started off smoothly, and then my host mom came in to say hello, and noticed our red beans on the stove looked dried out (from 5 minutes "cooking" unsuccessfully in the microwave) and now floating helplessly in almost-boiling water. She came over and laughed, and told us that beans need at least two hours to cook. Ooops. Luckily she had a can of pre-cooked beans which she insisted on giving us. We would have gotten 80% of the meal right on our own... We made delicious fajitas with peppers, lettuce, cheddar cheese (the only block we could find in the entire store), and beans. The peppers were delicious, although they were extremely expensive (2.50 euros each for a large pepper). Overall, the meal was a great success, and Templeton & I plan on cooking together again soon.

Gym Buddy?

I may have found a Parisian gym buddy ... Laure! She's been super nice to me all day b/c when she got home I was spending time with her cousin Jeanne speaking English/French. When we switched to French Laure joined in the conversation a bit and has generally been in a good mood all afternoon. Later this evening, she asked me where my gym was and how much it costs and what kinds of machines they have (fyi - names like elliptical don't translate and my acting out the motion did not help the situation). She told me she really wants to start exercising (I think she really wants to lose weight...as a bottle of appetite suppresants appeared on her desk this morning). Anyways she said she's scared (i think i heard correctly) to go to the gym alone as she's never been and she doesn't like the idea of men looking at her. I think that means we would go together... hilarious idea. I hope she joins...we could definitely bond.

Wonderful Weekend

This weekend was absolutely wonderful. The sun was shining all weekend (such a treat in February) and the weather was perfect. Saturday morning I woke up early to take jog around Luxembourg Gardens before meeting Mom and the aunts at the hotel. We headed out immediately to start our day of shopping. We went to Galeries Lafayette, the largest department/everything store in Paris (France's version of Harrod's). It's enormous and beautiful and very high-end. We started off in the food store, and ate delicious macaroons (in France they are round with frosting in the middle). Next we headed to the women's store, where we spent most of our time on the first floor looking at bags and watches and perfumes. As a birthday gift, Mom bought me my first perfume (Coco Mademoiselle, by Chanel), so for as long as I remember to keep putting it on, I will smell nice. We ate a late lunch on a streetcorner cafe then returned home to rest a bit before our big dinner.

We ate at a super-nice, super-fancy French bistro called Benoit. The food was amazing, starting with the light cheese puffs that arrived immediately. As an appetizer I had smoked salmon (not something I usually eat, but it was the house specialty), and for my main course I had sole in a delicious cream sauce with shellfish on top (big night for my taste buds trying things). The dinner was excellent but the dessert was amazing. I had millefeuille, a cake like a delicate pastry filled with cream. After dessert little chocolates arrived. and as the finale, the waiter brought out a tray of madeleine's fresh from the oven. soooooooooooooooooo yummy.

After dinner I went out to Dan's appartment where a bunch of Middkids had gathered and hung around drinking wine and eating cheese and thinking we were so French.

Sunday morning, beautiful again, we walked along the Seine in search of the bird and flower market. We didn't find it, but we made it to the Bastille market where we bought clementines and flowers for my host mom. We then met Fred (Catherine's old au pair) and her baby (2 yr. old) Keyvan - so so so cute and well-mannered...a little gentleman, and Jasmine (stayed in Simsbury 4 summers ago) and Fred and Jaz's mother. We had a lovely lunch in a cafe overlooking the Centre Pompidou. Jasmine and Sahar (the girls who stayed with us in the summer) are both living in Paris, and I got both of their cell numbers, so hopefully I'll see them both soon.

After lunch we walked back to the hotel in the sun, then continued on to the Musee d'Orsay. It was free to get in b/c it was the first Sunday of the month. We explored an entire floor (the impressionists) and I got my first taste of the museum. We wandered home the long way, across the river and through the Jardin des Tuileries and the Louvre. The roads along the Seine are closed to cars on Sunday afternoons, so there were tons of people out.

Sunday night we ate dinner with my host family. My host mom was very excited to cook for them and refused at help or to let them bring anything associated with the meal. We arrived at the appartment shortly after 8:30. I said our meals usually last 1-1.5 hours, probably a little longer with guests. We left the appartment at 12:15. We didn't make it to the table until almost ten, having sat in the salon with champagne chatting and looking at Mme. Beguin's knitting (clothes for the grandson). Dinner started with a salad topped with scallops. Mme. Beguin had forgotten that my mom was allergic and she felt awful, but luckily she forgot quickly. The main course was chicken in a yummy yummy sauce (all the chefs wanted the recipe) with rice. Mme. Beguin brought out five cheeses, all very tasty, and then for dessert, profiteroles (pastry puffs filled with ice cream and drenched in hot fudge). Very very delicious.

The meal went absolutely wonderfully. The Beguins spoke English most of the time, but more often than i would have imagined, they slipped back into French, and I'm pretty sure everyone understood perfectly (Mme. Beguin speaks very slowly and articulately). I got a kick out of having to translate occassionally (although I couldn't always do it). Everyone seemed very content at the end of the night. Mme. Beguin sent Pat home with a bottle of wine and some herbs she had been looking for and a list of wines and addresses for Catherine. She's such good hostess and it's so natural for her.

This morning we slept in a bit, ate lunch together near the Centre Madeleine, et puis, they left and I headed to class. In a two seconds I switched from my surreal family in Paris life back into my Parisian student life.

Family in Paris

Mom and my two aunts, Catherine and Pat, arrived this morning. We ate lunch in a sidewalk cafe and wandered around St. Germain for a while. I took Mom up to see my appartment and walk around my neighborhood for a while, while Catherine and Pat rested. Afterwards we all returned to my appartment to check out the awesome view from the terrace. We then walked down Boulevard St. Michel, intending to hit up the Greek area for dinner. Instead we chose a restaurant on a quai right across from the Seine called "Le Petit Pont" (the little bridge). We ate outside and had a perfect view of Notre-Dame the entire time. Being the American tourists that we are, we ordered cheese before the meal as an appetizer, then proceeded to the main course. It was tasty and the atmosphere was amazing. Afterward we walked back to the hotel along the Seine and stopped at the gelato shop on the way. Good start to our time in Paris.

French Friends!

This has been quite the week for finally meeting some Frenchies, and possibly making some French friends. Tuesday in my translation class I finally got up the courage to ask the girl sitting next to me if we could work together on our homework. She told me she already did the next assignment, but maybe we could work together on the third one. Or something like that. I got lost halfway through (another situation of understanding the big picture, but not the details of whether she wanted to work together or not or when or what). The point is, she was super nice (super-sympa as the French young peeps say) and we exchanged e-mail addresses. She said that she'd be willing to correct my translation if I wanted to email if to her. I feel kind of bad doing that, since I want to help her in return. But I also realize that it's not that difficult for her to read through 2-3 paragraphs of French and correct little errors like incorrect prepositions or all the silly things I do in French. Maybe I'll do that the next time if she doesn't want to meet.

This evening Middlebury organized a get-together for the Middkids with a group of French students who have graduated high school and are taking a prep course to prepare for the entrance exam to get into a Grand Ecole (French ivy league equivalent, but actually more prestigious and graduates are basically guaranteed lifelong employment). The exam, called a concours, is super-intense and a month long. The French kids spend two years preparing for it. Anyways these kids are studying for that at the moment and their teacher worked something out with Mme. Lacarriere so that we could get together tonight. I was nervous beforehand and thought it might be really awkward, with Middkids clustered together and the Frenchies on the other side of the room, but when I arrived everyone was intermingled and chatting away. When i got there basically everyone was speaking French, as the Middkids are normally forbidden to speak English in the Center, but after a little while Mme. Lacarriere reminded us all that this was a linguistic exchange and we should practice both languages. So all the Americans went to English. But we did a decent job of switching back and forth. There was a fair amount of speaking in one language and getting a response in the other. The levels of English varied enormously between the students, and many commented that we spoke French well. French students, actually lots of French people, thus far have seemed to be impressed with our language skills. Maybe Midd has good reasons other than snobbiness to require such a high level of language before sending us abroad. I think the french also have really low expectations of Americans. Tonight Mme. Beguin had four girls over for a cooking class, and the girls are doing a program with a study abroad company like SIT, and they could barely speak French. One girl had barely a year of language. They spoke to me in some French, but mostly English. I spoke to them in English before I left for the get-together, but when I got home I was all excited and Frenchy and I babbled in French and I hope they understood but I'm not sure. Anyways, they were sweet and nice to meet.

Back to linguistic exchange. There were two random girls there who go to Paris III also, and it turns out they are in my translation class! Hopefully i can do some work with them as well...that could do really good things for my grades in that class. I also met a bunch of other people, including a boy who shared my birthday. His friend suggested we throw a joint-party, and I was kind of excited about this idea, but he wasn't. I liked his friend a lot though, and we rode the metro home and exchanged numbers. It was great to interact with French students who actually are really interested in befriending Americans. Overall awesome night.

When I got home I talked to the cooking girls a bit, and Mme. Beguin (it was really cute she whispered to me about the class while they were in the kitchen...it was a great moment cuz I actually felt like I was family/close to her at that point). I then ran into Jeanne, my cousin, and we chatted for a few minutes and made a plan to meet next week for a linguistic exchange (1/2 hour English, 1/2 hour French). We went to school together again this morning and we get along pretty well. She's basically exactly what i'm looking for in a host sister- friendly, talkative, interested in me/helping me. We chatted again later. We made fun of Laure's music for a few minutes, which was very amusing. Laure gets obsessed with a song and plays it constantly. At least 1-2 times per day I heard "Down on My Knees", this awful American song. she listens to lots of American music. i find it amusing. Jeanne also said she'd give me the names of some clubs and concert venues and whatnot that I would enjoy. And one night I should go out with her and her friends. I'm excited about that prospect. And to have french friends...