Pain au Chocolat

She is pretty indescribable; she lives with the 95 year old owner of the store, George, and she has been hosting these parties every Sunday at 4 for decades. She is a writer with an alter ego named Pam Ellis (sp?), a constant interrupter, 1/2 Welsh 1/2 Irish, and a generally exhausting woman. She was also a perfect character of the woman who lives above Shakespeare & Co. and hosts tea parties. She was joined by her dog, her kitten, and George for a moment. It felt kind of like being Alice in Wonderland at the Mad Hatter's, stunned into silence over the goings on and the poem reading and the stories about life in Manhattan and the constant pushing for her guests to tell their stories moments before she would interrupt with her own tangent.

It was glorious. I drank earl grey tea (my favorite), ate madeleines, and met some truly fantastic people. It was a good mix of French and English, and I met a Moroccan college student and a French actor who I liked very much. Hopefully, we will see each other this week, but if not we promised to meet again next Sunday afternoon. I also made friends with Teddy, an employee, who told me I am welcome to come anytime and help out around the shop. I think I'll go early this week and see if I can't make myself useful. I also found out it is possible to stay the night there, which I absolutely want to do. The view of Notre Dame, the feeling of being a part of a magical store, the BOOKS are all too hard to resist.

At chez Barjhoux now, about to sit down for dinner. I am lucky to have an incredibly welcoming and funny host family, and I love our 3 hour dinners and my mangled attempts at French (oftentimes, they ask the other student living here, Sarah, to translate what I am attempting to say).

That was the holdover from when my internet/word crashed on Sunday night.

Classes have commenced! And so far, everything is great. I particularly love my history of modern art class. The professor is so very French- crazy white hair and huge spectacles sweaters with lots of multicolored buttons, and a hatred for drinking and eating in her classroom. We are going on a lot of museum visits and escapades, and I’m very interested in the topic. I don’t know if she is really trying to make sure idiots like me understand or if I have greatly improved (probably the former), but I don’t have much trouble understanding her class.

I have Cinema and Society on Mondays and Wednesdays as well. The professor looks like the nicest little grandpa ever, but today we talked about voyeurism and pornography (I have absolutely no idea what was going on). I like him a lot though, and i could use to learn a thing or two about these things. The class is form 4-5:30 though, and many times the lights are off and movies are being watched= voila! I fall asleep.

My French language and culture class is definitely my most challenging. The teacher is the academic dean of the program (just my luck), and I someone placed into the 5th level class instead of the 1st, which is probably where I belong. The teacher and students are all nice though, and it is forcing me to learn quickly, so all is well. Today I read the uber-left paper, Libération, for a presentation tomorrow; I learned all about how awful Sarkozy is and how great socialism would be for Paris.

I’m also taking a drawing class- the teacher saw my attempt at atill-life yesterday and said “I guess you are new yes?” Apparently, I have no concept of perception. Pshaa. I have my first class at Institut Catholic tomorrow—the Sorbonne is on strike so I am taking classes at the ICP because it is closer and has smaller classes and isn’t on strike (I know dad- never cross a picket line). I am taking the “origin of political identity in Paris,” which sounds scary in English let alone French. I am sure it will be fun though, and if not, I found an excellent crepe place around the corner to sneak off to.

I went with my home stay parents to the movies last night. We saw CHE- in Spanish, with French subtitles. I understood about 95% of it, and thought it was very well done. Part 2 next week!

Tonight, my host mom Sabrina invited over some family friends and their daughters for dinner. I guess they are bilingual and my age, so new French friends (always a good thing)! I am also going to my first Parisian rave tomorrow...Hopefully I learn how to tecktonic dance and look like this by Saturday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bytf3gZMFkY&ei=rCKTSf27ApWksAO1qLSsCw&sa=X&oi=spellmeleon_result&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=1&usg=AFQjCNH4rS4saNCLbBiND3CQh7YT5EuVAA
….maybe not
XOXOXO