Minuit A Paris

It's almost two in the morning and I have class tomorrow. Does this mean I'm not over my jet lag? No, I think I'm actually already pretty well-adjusted. But sometimes, one can be too excited, or maybe just too content, to waste that feeling in sleep. I feel quite energetic and happy after seeing Midnight in Paris for the second time. The movie, for me, took on a whole new meaning with another viewing: the first time I saw it, less than a week ago, it was an introduction for me, showing me the sights I would soon be experiencing firsthand. This time, however, I saw a shot of Cafe Trocadero where I grabbed coffee with my roommate the other day, overlooking the sidewalk and, in the background, the Eiffel Tower. I saw the bridge with the massive black and gold sculptures that I saw in person for the first time last night from a riverboat on the Seine but subsequently passed in a walk back to my hotel at three thirty in the morning after partying in the streets for Fete de Music with a group of friends. In fact, in the opening scene, we saw the theatre where we had originally planned to see the movie!!! Street names suddenly made a difference, parks and walks, buildings, cathedrals, and museums were either obviously or vaguely familiar. By no means am I claiming detailed knowledge of Paris after four days, but the movie had a heightened meaning to me the second time around.

The trip has been a ton of fun! The group is excited to be here and interested in exploring and becoming friends. Our hotel rooms are more like apartments as they are pretty spacious and come with a stocked kitchenette -- plates, wine glasses, silverware, dishwasher, water heater, refrigerator ... score!! My roommate and I had quite the fancy little feast in our hotel room yesterday for lunch with supplies simply from Monoprix, the supermarket next door. We had fresh baguette, olives, three or four kinds of cheese, fresh raspberries, figs, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, wine -- in our room!! It wasn't even terribly expensive either.

Our classes have been somewhat informal but extremely interesting and informative. In our two days of class, both have been in a little outdoor gazebo in a local park so we essentially explore the city on the way to class as a group and then sit and learn French history in the midst of laughing pre-teens, chatting mothers, and rampaging four-year-olds. A mother and her little baby even sat in for a while on our lecture on power structures in France in the Middle Ages on Tuesday. Teo, our professor is hilarious, knowledgeable, and cares a lot about all of the students such that he is like our teacher, mentor, buddy, and favorite uncle all at once.

I've been working to pick up little bits of French and have been sitting in cafes reading Hemingway's A Moveable Feast such that I'm learning about Paris while listening to the speech patterns and conversations of its residents. The coffee's pretty good too! And, as some friends and I learned the hard way in a crepe restaurant this evening, water costs about twice as much as wine or coffee if you are stuck with paying for a bottle of it in a restaurant. Clearly, culture takes precedence over proper hydration here.

Alright, I'm finally calling it a night. Bon soir!!