I make love to zees nutella ccrAhpes

 

I keep being asked to write another blog, but I don’t have many pretty things to say.  As Erin said it, the honeymoon stage with Paris is over and now I’m stuck with the bastard.  Just kidding, I love it of course, but a couple annoyances have started to settle in. 

School’s officially started and we pretty much have school 9-5 everyday so that by the time we get out it’s darkish and everything seems to close around 6 so it’s really impossible to get groceries and school supplies.  I went to this art supply store at 3 pm on a Saturday and it was closed, so it’s going to be fun to try to figure out how to get some special rulers I need for pretty much all of my classes.  And thus far my classes have been me and the other spring program fashion students sitting around 80% of the time as the teachers help the regular students with their already started projects.  I hope this changes soon, or they at least let us leave if we don’t have anything.  Thursdays we don’t have class til 2, and it was beautiful and sunny and it was so hard to pry myself from the city and go back to school.  But the room we spend most of our time in is really open and bright with curved windows, so it’s not such a bad place to hang out in.

The first project we’re starting on is a jacket and I plan to make a velvet one.  I got the material from that fabric store with 6 floors, but the material I really wanted had run out, it was like a persimmon dark pomegranty orange (I thought I should have something orange since that’s my school color), but I had to settle for a dark green.  The cashier lady at the fabric store gave me back money that wasn’t even euros, and I’m starting to feel a little bit of the French snootiness from a few people.  The guy I bought a cell phone from said in perfect English that he didn’t speak English, which is good that it forces me to speak the language, but I would’ve liked to ask a lot more questions concerning the plan, and I had the sneaking suspicion he did actually speak English.  A couple of my friends who are more obviously and proudly American have had much worse happen to them.  A few guys came up to us as we were leaving a bar last night and stated that they were going to come home with us and go to bed with us.  I thought they were just being cheeky jackasses, but they weren’t kidding.  These boys make me feel not so bad about stuffing my face with nutella crepes everytime I get the chance.

But it’s really still all just very much fun.  We’ve met a couple fun locals and we have a quasi regular bar we go to.  We went dancing at a bar that was just an incredible place to hang out.  There were two floors, and the basement had this really cool compartmentalized dungeon/wine cellar feel with ribbed vaulted ceilings.  I finally saw the Eiffel tower, it was at night of course because I never see the light of day, but the light show is pretty breathtaking, so it was pretty fun to see at night.  We were standing by a carousel, so the music from the carousel was playing as we stared up at the massive lit hardware.  I half expected it to growl and start crawling around like a spider like a monster from an old b-movie.

Another unexpected thing about Paris is that I don’t want to go shopping here at all.  The style is so boring!  It’s bland and a touch tacky.  I have no idea where I’m going to find souvenirs.  The lingerie looks like ornate pastries; if strawberry shortcake were to wear underwear, she’d shop in Paris.  And part of the reason I haven’t seen many cute guys is that the style is kind of the “Bill Gates” look.  A guy took it as a major compliment that I thought he was similar to Eric Forman from That 70s Show.  And the French always tell me how the French wear their clothes or what they wear and how I should do it too so I don’t stand out as being American.  But it’s so boring!  If the sun’s not shining, I have to wear some color to cheer the gloomy days up.  It’s funny though, with all this bland clothing around, I haven’t ever been so inspired to sketch and sketch and sketch out ideas.

We get to see a couple fashion shows in fashion week!  And a few of us will be able to do a mini “stage” (internship) with a couple companies where I think we just help in the showroom after the fashion shows and help with fittings and what not.

I went to the Louvre today, museums are open on Sundays, and toured the Napoleon apartments.  Kings and Queens lived there before it was a Museum so they have these rooms like what they used to be.  It looks like a set for a Marie Antoinette movie.  I wanted so bad to be dressed up like a cupcake and playing cards over clever banter in the drawing room.  There was a chandelier as big as a house.  And this really long dining room table that would be perfect for our family thanksgiving, there were 46 seats.  I could just imagine us all in there, each of us having a servant with a powdered wig at our beck and call.

I’ve gone to a couple flea markets.  The one I went to this past Saturday was a square mile.  But don’t get too excited because it was all either new kinda cheap stuff that was made in china or way too pricey antiques where I thought I might get bit by the vendor if I even touched anything.  But they had good boots and shoes for good deals, I even saw the boots I bought a week before for half the price.  I need to collect shoe sizes of people for souvenirs.

The other flea market was smaller and better, but I think I still prefer Seattle’s Fremont market.  I did play translator between a French vendor and an Italian bargainer, though.  I thought that that would maybe translate into a reduction of the price she originally gave me for this beautiful blue vintage dress I had shown interest in, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.  I don’t think Paris is really known for their flea markets.  I do see so many books stores and books stands everywhere though – too bad they’re all in French.  And too bad I’m not much of a reader.

Food report:

I was really craving a pork chop with some white mushroom sauce when the girls and I were looking for a place to go out and my prayers pretty much got answered, but instead of a porkchop it was a vealchop with pasta on the side.  And an endive salad.  They’re big on endives here.  It was scrumptious, and not too pricey.  There are 20,000 restaurants in Paris.    So many things are overwhelming about this city for only being here for 4 and a half months.

I’m also officially addicted to nutella crepes.  Nothing better than melted nutella on a buttery crepe on a freezing Parisian night.  My roommate Amy and I will get one as we’re walking home and completely forget how freezing we are as we’re engulfed in eating the chocolaty goodness.

I go through tubs of cheese like nobody's business.  You wouldn't believe the cheese sections they have in the regular grocery store!  It's like whole foods, except everything's under 4 euro.  It's absolutely magnificent, even though I'm kinda intolerant of cheese.  Except here, the cheese hasn't bothered me as much?  And it opens up a whole new world for what kind of combinations to put on a sandwich.  Anyway, they look like powdered little cakes, and I have loved everything I've tried.  I watch people select theirs and if someone looks like they would maybe have the same taste as me (I judge through clothing, demeanor) I'll pick the same thing they did.  I am such an observer since I can't speak much.  I was telling Amy that we'll be really good at telling people's minds by the time we get back home since we guess 75% of what people are saying to us or trying to express.

I also had a bite of my friend’s tiramisu and it was the best tasting tiramisu I’ve ever had in my life.  And the presentation of the desserts are impeccable.  We went to this café that served its cocktails with sparklers.  My cocktail was deemed “the condom” and it was served in a siringe.  All the names of the cocktails were English named and really grosse and didn’t sound like anything you wanted in or around your mouth, let alone in your bloodstream.

On my run along the Seine river today I passed the Notre Dame, an area where people parked their big beautiful boats, I went through a tunnel where a boy my age was enthusiastically playing some good harmonica, and I ran through a nice park with different sculptures and plenty of stairs to run up and down.  It was a good run.

Now that it’s warming up some (maybe like a degree, the cold weather makes me feel like a wet hen) there’s been a couple accordion players on the metros.  It lifts the spirits.  I miss my scandalli so much.  My French friends find it nerdy and corny that I play the accordion.

…So yeah, nothing exciting as of late.  Sorry to disappoint.  I wish I had an awesome story complete with a cigarette, beret, and ze pepe le pew accent but it hasn't happened yet.  The French people I'm friendly with just laugh and think that my french is cute and pathetic, pretty much, but every time I have a few I'm a little more courageous to have a go at speaking it.  It'd be so much better if I lived with a family to learn the language!  Not speaking french has really limited my interaction with people and thus my lack of stories.  School is 9-5 so it’s hard to do anything in such a short window of time.  Me and my roommate are getting really antsy to have more adventures, we’ve been looking into day trips like a wine tour in Reims in the Champagne region, and if I don’t have anything going on the weekend after fashion week we may go to Milan for the weekend.  Although I’d really like to see some European countryside after being in the city. And we missed Yves St. Laurent's public viewing of his art collection that's going on auction by one day!  Je ne sais pas quoi de faire.

So hopefully I'll have more to disclose next time, but here's a blog for those who have been asking for it.

Until next time…