One of the things I like best about my neighborhood is its proximity to this little elementary school. If I time it right, I walk by as school is getting out. Suddenly, the sidewalk is swarming with little people: clutching their parents hands, babbling about their day, running after other kids... I love it. Today I was walking behind this mom and her son. She kept trying to get him to talk about a test he had that day, but he wanted to talk about the airplane he made in class. "That's nice, but did you get your grade?" Instead of [View Full Entry]

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This weekend has been a little bit of everything. Thursday after class, Devon and Brad and I went to the Marais to find a little American grocery store called Thanksgiving. Devon is making Thanksgiving dinner and wanted to find cranberries. It was so bizarre to see Karo corn syrup and Fluff after months surrounded by european products. We stopped by our favorite bakery in that neighborhood as well, where I tasted the best beignet ever. SO much more than a doughnut. It was delicious. On Friday, I had to go to a movie at school for my film class about a [View Full Entry]

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I haven't put anything up in a while for two reasons: One, my parents were here and there were much better things to do than blog! and two, they didn't have internet at their place and reception is spotty in public places. SO, I have many things to write about. After class on Wednesday, of which I remember nothing, I ran across town to see my parents. It was so great to see them actually here! We wandered around their neighborhood to try to find somewhere to eat. As we were walking, we found ourselves in the midst of a huge [View Full Entry]

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This morning at about 5 a.m., my friend Allison called me from D.C. to let me know that they had officially called Obama as the winner. I could hear cheering in the background! I was half asleep so I think she told me that all the representatives from the Northeast were now Democrats. I said goodbye and called Devon to tell her the news. I have no idea if she'll remember that conversation today. I then crawled out of bed to tell my roommate Meredith. She definitely won't remember because our conversations after she has first woken up are always lost [View Full Entry]

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This weekend must be my time for figuring out my neighborhood. Meredith decided that she wanted to get falafel yesterday, so we headed out mid-afternoon for the Jewish Quarter. Surprisingly, this is an easy walk from my apartment. Who knew? This is what I need the roomie for. She has walked all over. I don’t think I would have known how easy it is to get there without her. We walked down to the Bastille and then wandered around, through Place des Vosges and then to the funky area full of shops and restos on where you can find four stores [View Full Entry]

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This morning, I went on a visit with my architecture class to the Marais area of Paris. This is the part of the city that used to be marshes forever ago, but was in the height of fashion at the time of Louis XIV. We saw several buildings that are called hôtels particuliers, or basically private residences that are now owned by several people and/or businesses that were amazing. These places are works of art. It is hard to believe that people even work in them. We saw two churches, Saint Louis/ Saint Paul and the Madeleine. Both are incredible. [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday was my second and last school trip. We went to Normandy again, but this time it was only about 80 km (50 miles) from Paris. We went to Giverny, the home and gardens of the painter Claude Monet. ummm, I have to interrupt myself and say that a horse just walked by. Sorry but at the moment, I am in Parc de Monceau, in the eighth arrondissement. It is really pretty and full of people, but apparently they also have horses. I felt like this was a legitimate tangent. Anyway, after a brief interruption where the bus had to be [View Full Entry]

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Parisians are funny people. One the one hand, they are extremely pushy, i.e. see my entry on the metro rush hour craziness. On the other, they are extremely considerate. For example, whenever a woman is pushing her child in a stroller in the metro, a man always stops to help her carry it up or down the stairs. Always. If no one notices, she can easily flag someone down who graciously grabs the bottom and exchanges a pleasant word with her as they climb the steps. It is a surprising moment of kindness in the sea of black clothed, somber faced [View Full Entry]

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I am sorry to announce that from now until the foreseeable future, my blog updates will likely be sporadic and somewhat clumpy, if that makes any sense. The problem is that the internet that we have been stealing from the neighbors for over a month now suddenly stopped working last weekend. This is quite unfortunate and it severely limits our means of communication with the outside world while we are at home. So, I will have to find parks with free wifi or wait until I am at school to post updates. Cross your fingers that the internet starts magically working [View Full Entry]

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I just got back from London! It was really fun. We took the Eurostar (like the TGV) from Gare du Nord through the chunnel to St. Pancras/King's Cross. Our original train was canceled but they put us on the next one. I loved it! The train was great: not much leg room, but watching out the window was awesome. Only in Europe do you look out into a cow pasture and see ol' Bessie munching on some grass next to a ruin of a 15th century castle. Crazy stuff. Greta (a UPS mate) met us at the station and we booked [View Full Entry]

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