Friday, January 25, 2008

Tony Parker Sings.

So I got a bit worried about taking 2 classes in French (i.e. with actual French students) when I went to my first class, which was geography, and the prof literally came in, sat down, and droned on non-stop for 2 hours at an incredible speed of French about percentages of populations in different areas of the world and their corresponding climates. I suppose the subject itself was pretty interesting, but this lady didn't have slides or even a projector--just these sheets of paper for herself to read off. Anyways, the next day proved to be a lot better. In my French culture class I paired up with a girl from Georgetown to do a presentation on the Beaujolais wine country, which kills two birds with one stone as I'd been talking with people to do a wine-tasting there, as my Frommer's suggested. After that me and a girl from Georgia went to a cafe that I had gone to before in Bellecour where we (rather she) felt the wrath of a lady whom I believe to be the owner. I ordered the plat du jour, and Crisitina ordered a sandwich, and it was amazing to see the change in expression on the lady's face from friendly to completely baneful. We figured out later that the sandwiches were "a emporter" which means take-away...She would come and give everything I needed to me with a nice friendly smile, and then would completely avoid eye-contact with Cristina and watch her steadily from afar...it was quite scary.
After that we went to another geography class about the EU with some other American girls and because we were one of the only ones in the classroom before the class started, the professor discovered we were American and continued to ask us (in English) where we were from, our disciplines, etc. Nice guy. Then, once class started, he was so excited to have us in his class that he kept making example involving America and would look at us and say things in English and laugh. This was all very nice of him, but it immediately put us on display in front of all these French students sitting behind us (because we were on the first row...), and I felt somewhat like the time I did when my dad brought me to court when I was little, and at the end the judge announced my presence in the room to everyone and I was extremely embarassed. Anyways, I'm definitely staying in this class because although he spoke very quickly, he approached us during the break and offered a bargain to us to speak for an hour a week about the course material in English so that we could know better what going on and he could practice his English for a conference he is speaking at in Boston in the Spring. Nice guy.
Finally, we have my european avant-garde art class, which seems like it'll be interesting, but honestly i'm not so sure I like the art itself, although it is interesting to find out that the stuff Andy Warhol was doing had already been done 50 years before.
Outside of school, other interesting things that have happened is that Perrine made chesnut ice cream the other night, which was ridiculously delicious. She made it from this sugared chesnut paste, so someone please find that recipe. Also, off-topic from that, when I was on the metro the other day, a man got on with an electric guitar and a portable amp in his backpack and just started singing, what else than Juanes. Reminded me of salsa nights back in Austin. Oh! One more thing. Jacques told me last night his oldest daughter, Amelie, got invited to both of Tony Parker and Eva Longoria's weddings because she used to produce his music here in France or something (who else knew that Tony Parker recorded a French album???). And somewhat related to that, I found out that Carla Bruni, the Italian supermodel turned French folk singer is going to marry Sarkozy, the French president. Random. That is all for now! It is a beautiful day here once more (got the windows open again) so I must go take advantage of it. Ciao!

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