le Week-end

February 11, 2008
This weekend flew by as usual. Thursday night, a guy who works at the center (Alex) and his friend met three of us girls from my conversation class at a restaurant to practice French conversation and just to hang out. The restaurant, Chez Gladine, was wonderful! So typically French! Small and crowded—with only a couple of servers for the whole place. We ordered a charcuterie plate, a tray with about five different types of ham and a few pickles. It had chorizo, smoked ham, little sausages, big sausages, and I tried paté for the first time! It was ok, but I prefer other things. i was struggling at one point to pick up a slice of sausage with my fork and Alex told me to just grab with my hand. I said, “C’est impoli, non?” and he said that it is totally normal to grab things off a plate like that, even in a restaurant…Perhaps not a fancy restaurant, but this was ok. I ordered a salad that came in this huge silver mixing bowl (like the one we have at home, mom) and it came with diced cheese, round slices of fried potatoes, a large slice of ham and the best part an egg…over EASY (!) on top. It was sooo good and I was surprised I liked the egg. The conversation went well. We talked about the recent (January) ban of smoking indoors and Alex got into it. He thought it was crazy for the government to be able to prohibit something like that. I said it was bad for one’s health. He shot back (wine glass in hand, and motioning towards mine) so is drinking...and driving a car. He said it is part of the atmosphere and that people shouldn’t be criminalized and sent outside during a meal if they like to smoke. I strongly disagree with him on that, and tried to argue for as long and well as I could…but my vocabulary ran out. ;-)
On the walk home, I suddenly realized we were standing outside of the hotel that I stayed in my first time in Paris (Di and Mom!) I got all nostalgic and happy remembering our fun times there back in 2005—at the marché dans la rue and the Tabac ordering petits café au laits. I can’t believe how close it is to where I live now!
After a day of class on Friday, I met my French friend, Emmanuelle at a little café. We shared a crepe with nutella and bananas (staple food here) and each had a hot drink. We ended up talking for about 3 hours. She studied in London during her college years so her English is really good and she puts up with my French. She asked me about the presidential primaries and who I though would win, etc. I explained that although in France it is portrayed as a competition mainly between Hilary and Obama, that the real competition comes later between the Democrats and Republicans. I even talked to her about the Electoral College which, surprise?, she thinks is pointless.
Saturday I checked out Musée de l’Orangerie right by the Tuleries Garden with Hayley and Amy. It has Monet’s big water lily paintings. We also saw pieces by Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne and Guillarmi. It was a beautiful day so we sat outside for awhile and enjoyed the view of the garden on one side and the Tour Eiffel on the other.
That evening, the whole program went to a play, “On ne badine pas avec l’amour,” by Alfred de Musset. It was really well done—the actors were great and the set was just a large, slanted slab of grass. Unfortunately it was in Classical French so we didn’t understand a whole lot. We got the basic love triangle, but were a little confused about the deaths. One of my friends was upset because the only word he understood was “cousine” and that was what the two lovers called each other.
The theater, Théâtre de la Tempête, was really interesting and nice. It is located on the outskirts of Paris in Cartouchie. We had dinner, quiche, salad and a brownie and a glass of red wine.
I live in the 13th arrondissement and it is known for its Chinese population. On Sunday we went to the Chinese New Year parade just down the street from my apartment building. It was packed! The streets were sooo crowded. We watched the parade on Avenue de Choisy—floats carrying Chinese women in traditional costumes dancing with fans, men with drums, masks, painted faces, flags, confetti, balloons and big dragons. It was my first time going to something like that—how funny that happened in Paris. Every other storefront is a Chinese restaurant and a few girls stopped to get fried rice. When I went to bed that night I could hear the fireworks going off.
We have been discussing President Sarkozy a lot in both my Modern France and Muslim Presence in Europe classes. I even tend to bring him up in conversations with French peple I meet or my host mom, Madame Lafont. Lately we have discussed his nomination for the mayor of Neuilly, suburb of Paris. A man who has no political experience and seems like an absurd choice for the well-to-do area…Also, his personal life is very interesting to me. The fact that it is being made so public in the first place is extremely unusual for France’s president. Also, that he has been divorced twice and is now married again would never fly in the U.S. Plus, the way he is going about reforms now that he is in office is driving the French people, especially Madame who thinks he is “un dictateur,” crazy. My friend Mary’s host mom thinks he can’t do his job as president because he is in love with Carla Bruni. How is anyone supposed to run a country when they’re in love? … Wait, what?
Madame and I had dinner together last night. She made rice, Ratatouille and little tofu patties. She said she had to buy the tofu at a natural food store, but she told me where one is so I can go there. We talked for a long time and I learned that when she was 21 and left home for the first time, she went to Morocco to teach French to little kids! I thought that was really interesting. She said my French was really improving and commented on how well I can construct my sentences (lol). She’s sweet.