Sorry guys, I'm not coming back

I think that if I died and went to heaven, I’d be disappointed compared to this.  I can’t believe this is my life right now, this is turning out to be better than I could ever dream.  Ok, so, where to begin?  I guess I’ll just do a chronological order sort of thing.

Travelling here was pretty flawless.  There were a couple “hiccups” (as dad calls it).  On the trip from San Francisco to London, there was this really nice British man who helped me find a place to put my carry on, and we got to talking.  I told him I was studying abroad in France, so we started talking about the language barrier, and he was talking about how some American people sometimes can’t understand what he’s saying.  And I said something along the lines that most americans even have trouble with English… meaning that we can’t speak the language ourselves, but he didn’t respond and the conversation was over.  At first I thought that maybe he didn’t want to go into the territory of bashing Americans, and I didn’t realize until 15 min later that maybe he thought that I meant that most Americans don’t like the English people or something.  By the time I realized this it was of course too late to clear it up, so I spent the rest of the plane trip obsessing over it, and I didn’t talk to him at all.  It was a shame because he was a really cute old man.  He wore those glasses with the sunglasses attached, and the sunglasses were completely flipped straight up the entire plane ride.  As the French say, “tapi” (too bad).  The other hiccup was that they lost my luggage, but I got it within a couple days, they even delivered it to the school.

So, as for what I’ve been up to:

I first arrived on Wednesday, a Sri Lankan man named Vigita picked me up from the airport and I got my first taste of crazy Paris traffic during rush hour.  But it was accompanied by nice conversation.  He helped me into my “apartment”, which is pretty much a glorified dorm room with a kitchen and bathroom.  It’s very cute, though.  It’s yellow with high ceilings.  The longest wall is curved, and it’s all just very quaint but still comfortable.  I’m on the ground floor, so my view is a cement wall.  But some girls live on the 5^th (which is actually the 6^th) floor, and they have a nice view that I steal a little bit of each time I go up there.  The Laundromat is right next to our apartment complex, the school is a block a way, and the open air market is another block away.  It’s pretty perfect. 

The first night I went out on the tab of the school to Chinese with the other girl that was already here, Kristina.  I was really hesitant when I saw the cheap prices, Erik’s made me very phobic of cheap city Chinese food, and the last thing I wanted was to get sick as soon as I got to school.  But it was fine, I had some tasty ginger chicken.

Everybody’s been incredibly nice, too.  I don’t know whether it’s just the way the French are, but they all seem enchanted with you when they talk to you.  They’re very friendly and helpful.  And they all dress so nice!  I want to raise my sons here so they’re comfortable to dress well.  The women are ridiculously gorgeous.  Everyone has flawless, olive skin, and beautiful hair.  The trends I’ve seen are very thick scarves that come all the way to your nose, nerd glasses, and lace up boots.  All the boots are to the knees.  But they wear too much black.  I guess it’s like any major city (like New York), but it’s boring.  It has been cold, though, so I’ll wait to judge come spring time when the coats come off.  It is funny, though, because the city is very cliché – so many people wear berets and smoke.   I can’t be outside people watching without having the side effect of having my clothes reek for the next couple days.  And they’re all so incredibly …French looking.

I’m sorry this is so long, I haven’t even started talking about the amazing school!  It’s the school of my dreams, I don’t want to leave it, I wish that I could finish my degree here.  We have the best faculty.  Today we learned haute couture techniques of Madame Gres from the only remaining person who worked with her and who teaches others, Mme Picot.  She worked with her for I think 27 years.  It’s this fine pleating that can only be made with this special silk jersey that they hardly make anymore, and it took me several hours to make a panel of pleats that’s like 5 in long.  She told us the whole history of Madame Gres, and how all of her stuff was sold away, and Picot brought some haute couture dresses and original sketches that the designer made herself!  And she showed us the whole inner boustiere and how the dresses were built.  But she said that in the haute couture house, you had to be doing the techniques for four years before you could start making your first dress.  These dresses would go for 45,000 euros in the 60s, and after we made just a few pleats it was easy to see why – they are soooooo much work!  And so much fabric goes into it, and each client has her own mannequin built for her so that it fits perfectly.

We also went to the Louvre and got some student cards that allow us to skip the lines and get in for free.  Our art history class will be going to a museum once every week, and then the last week of the month we have lecture theory.

I get sooooo much more out of my French class here, and I love the teacher, she’s really good.  She’s really petite and cute, too, she kinda looks like a French Penelope Cruz.

I made a sloper (the basic pattern) for a standard mannequin, and I’m working on one to fit my measurements.  We’re going to make a skirt, pants, a jacket, and an evening gown.  And then there’s all these historic costume techniques we’re going to learn.  Our patternmaking and draping teacher specializes in costume and is on some official sounding history research council.  We also have a teacher who worked for Nina Ricci for years.  Jesus Christ, I’m not worthy. 

And this Friday we’re going to Primiere Vision!  Which is a textile show that displays what’s going to be in seasons two years from now.  I just can’t believe these opportunities.  I keep looking around to the other girls in astoundment by what we’re being exposed to, but haven’t quite received the same enthusiasm.  I think most girls enjoy themselves silently.  Right now we only have 5 girls in the fashion program, but we join regular classes when the regular students get back next week.

We visited Montmartre, too, where we went to a fabric store with 6 floors!  We also went to an open air market the same day.  Yum!  Is all I can say.  I wanted to buy everything.  We made lunch as a group.  We made an endive salad with apples, walnuts, and cheese, with nut oil and a little raspberry vinegar.  And then we had a roasted chicken, a variety of cheese, and a yummy green salad with a simple dressing of oil, balsamic vinegar, and shallots.  Man, the combinations they come up with are out of this world.  Sandwiches being sold for 3 euro will have like ricotta cheese, with mozzarella, tomato, ham, mushrooms, basil, and other goodies.  Just simple things that would never occur to me to put together.  I think I might’ve been bit by the cooking bug.  I might come home making an effort to partially fill up to my mom’s shoes…like the pinky toe of the shoe.  For now, though, my main meal has been cheese with baguettes, and some fruit. 

That’ll be it for now.  Thanks if you read that whole boring thing.  I’ll make sure to write more often so it’s not so long everytime.  I miss and love everyone!  I wish you were all here with me!