Reduce, Reuse, Bicycle.

Adorable anecdotes on bike time!

Almost ran into a girl on a scooter because I thought I had the right of way! Funny story, I didn't!

Run over the same dead pigeon like 3 times in one week! Stellar!

Times I've almost been taken out by a car door: Twice!

Times I was almost accosted by drunk men: thankfully only once. that was super creepy.

And the best story of them all. How about two hours ago at 9:30pm I was biking back from class and I ran a red light since no one was around and got stopped by the police.
The interaction:
police (in french): stop. get off your bike. you just ran a red light.
me: huh?
police: you just ran a red light, right?
me: oui?
police: you just ran a red light? [repeating himself because he's super surprised that I just admitted to it, but hello - you just saw me do it]
me: attends....le bus? [as he stopped me at a bus stop and there was a large bus behind us trying to get in]
police: ok, get off your bike.

So I get off my bike and bring it up onto the sidewalk. He has to pull around the corner (because of the bus) which is like 100ft away but he can still see me. And since there are three cops in the car I figure one of them will come out and over to me since they told me to stay there. But they stupidly just starred at me for ten seconds to see if I would take off or something? And then I guess they were too lazy to get out of their car so they drove around the block and since Paris streets are all sorts of crazy it probably took them about a minute or two to get back around. So I took off. and biked for my life. so Mom, I will never ever bike through most of the red lights in Paris ever again.

My DC Family

I've been a little homesick recently. Which by all definitions blows. Especially because it was my cousin's wedding this weekend and my entire family was in DC. So literally almost everyone who I love was in DC this weekend and I wasn't too thrilled about it. Especially because I came down with a cold on Saturday as well.

But! the light at the end of the tunnel. 1. my friends in DC and I have a strange obsession with skype, so that's usually covered. and 2. HOLY CRAP. My other cousin basically photo blogged the wedding for me via facebook. So just imagine, me getting home from a bar around 12am (I left early because I was feeling like crap) and being like ho hum ho hum go on facebook and there are pictures. of the wedding. happening. right now. since it's 6pm on the east coast. and holy crap. they're opening my present on stage. in front of everyone. WHAT?

Keyboard

and I'm currently typing this from the Sciences Po library on a French keyboard.
Tues-moi.

Réveille-toi Nicolas

whenever I have free time I wander over to protests.
this was monday's.

http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/video/2009/09/21/flashmob-pour-le-climat-au-sacre-c-ur_1243210_3244.html



falafels: 9

hit on in franglais: 5

Count Check

Number of falafels eaten: 8

Number of times I've been hit on and the person has to switch to English: 4

Number of carafe d'eaux: alot, I will be posting my montage soon

Number of times I was told bon appetit tonight: 2
(I'm not crazy! I was eating a crepe while walking down the street and two guys said it to me! It's a phenomenon!)

Got Change?

So of the many interesting cultural complexities in France there is one that I have come to not really appreciate. It's the fact that whenever I pay for anything with a bill I get a look from the cashier that is like, "You don't have 50 two Euro coins in your back pocket? Were you born under a rock?"

A la yesterday when I bought 2.85 Euro worth of stuff at the grocery store and used a ten to pay for it and got a look like I was the devil. Really, is a 5 dollar bill that hard to produce out of your cash box?

Another complexity with money is that they never hand it to you. I feel that in the US it is probably considered rude if you don't hand the money to a person (and I asked my friend from Australia and she says the same). So thanks Frenchies for making me feel like you hate me. But you probably do anyway, and are just acting accordingly.

I'm on a boat?

On Monday night, courtesy of my couchsurfing.com website skills (aka reading the Paris forum), we found out about a show of a Quebequois group, Misteur Valaire, playing at Batofar, a boat that is really a show venue docked in the 13e. And funny story, it was free. J'aime Lundi.

Bitchin'.


Misteur Valaire Video

Street Art

Comes in many forms.




What I experienced today was not of the 2D kind but of the more interactive 3D variety. On this bridge it was organized quite simply. Free massages on one end, the street performer in the middle, and the bassist/piano player on the far end with the performer and the musicians switching off and on every 15 minutes or so. It was actually quite surprising as I hung around there for a half an hour with my 5th falafel of Paris that a new performer, a man who was just dancing and singing awkwardly, came up and attempting to plant some roots. The street performer promptly told the bassist, who was on his break, to go make the new guy turn off his stereo. Apparently there is street art turf. So don't go playing your banjo where you're not wanted.

This kid, who I saw before I went to get my falafel, was apparently getting the best massage of his life. Later he was breaking it down to the musicians, hardcore. I wish I had a better picture of it. Boy got moves.






Fixie fans, eat your heart out.

When they started playing A Train I wish I remembered all the words so I could have jumped up and started singing with them. Alas.

Bikes

So I got my bike yesterday back from the shop and got new brakes. So I don't die on the streets of Paris, at least, not because of faulty breaks.

And then coming home from the bike shop which is in the northiest north part of Paris going to Cite Universitaire which is in the southiest south part of Paris, I got very lost....out side of Paris in the southern suburbs. They are quite lovely. But I don't recommend doing it anytime soon.




Anyway, these are my classes for the semester:

Cities & the Urban Experience - lecture
Immigration & Integration - lecture
Global Public Goods - seminar
Making Sense of Contemporary Art - seminar
Bussiness & culture of the food & beverage industry - seminar
History of Childhood - seminar (meets at 8-10am on Monday, kill me)
French Language

Pictures from the Weekend

Bon Appétit

One of my favorite things thus far in Paris is the fact that whenever I am eating something in public at least one person says Bon Appétit! to me while they are passing by. Today I was sitting on Pont des Arts pretending to be French and scoffing at tourists with their cameras taking pictures of the bateaux and the seine and eating a pain au chocolat and a baguette. Some crazy man while going by started mumbling something in French along the lines of "Oh, wow, it's beautiful today. You're eating something. Eat that." Which I think was meant to be nice, but between me not understanding him properly and him just being crazy, it didn't come out quite right.

And then I was eating a falafel later in the day and a random guy walking past me said Bon Appétit! And then people are just all around nicey nice and I said bon soir to a maître d' and he all was like bon soir, ça va? It's like Mauritius all over again where you say hi to everyone on the street et la vie est bon.

Paris, vous êtes très mignon.

Number of times I've been asked for directions: about 7 or 8? I've lost count.

Number of couples I've seen going at it in public: 10

Falafel Watch: 4

Number of Obélisques seen: 1


Oh, and I saw this crazy japanese bookstore called Book Off today in the 2nd. And they sell everything. WTF?

Musique

The first band from Saturday night


The second band


The venue


-courtesy of Sydney from Philly

Accordion

So Paris has been on the up and ups, mainly because it's our first weekend here and we don't have to do silly things like to go class and what not.

Friday night, Anne and I went to the Marais, ate some falafel and then went to the Louvre as I'm pretty sure it's free most of the time now for EU students under 26, which is fab. And the Louvre is absolutely stunning at night. We then left a note at the front desk of the Hotel de Louvre for Maurice as he is supposedly in Paris as I type....but I have not heard from him. We wandered then to the Notre Dame, ran into a parade of roller bladers, mind you, at 10pm at night. Our final stop was the Shakespeare and Co. Bookstore where Dave Eggars had been at 5:30! ack! We miss out on the things we do not know.

Aujourd'hui etait bon. Dave, Miro, and I went to the Marais, ate falafel, but! at a different falafel shop. I haven't decided yet which of the three I've had are my favorite. After we walked to the fixed gear bike shop in the 11th which was in a secret back alley way, we were very proud of ourselves for finding it. I'm just trying to find a used bike for 70-80 euros and I don't think it's going to happen. Hello velib. After I was carted around by the two of them to different apartment adgencies and then was scoffed at by a waiter when I just asked for a glass of water at a cafe.

For dinner we met up with some of Dave's friends from class and ate random things we bought at the supermarche. We then went to the 11th to this crazy show venue which aparently was having it's anniversaire so the place was going bat-shit crazy. We saw two bands, the first being two guys who look like they had just taken showers since they were sweating so much and played guitar and keyboards. The second band, composed of a singer, bass player, drums, and accordion, sang, of course, French hip-hop. It was glorious.

Thank goodness I didn't get beer spilled on me like Dave did, blegz. After we went to a bar down the street and hung out for a while. Katherine and I attempted to get the last train but of course missed it literally by 20 seconds; we saw it leave the station. We took a cab back to Cite Universitaire with a crazy old man who we thought we were going to approximately the same location as he said he was going to Port d'Orleans, but he had said Port de Lyon, pas bon. So the taxi was a little more expensive than I would have liked, mais ca va.

Finalement, right as I am about to go into my building a strange French boy came up to me, asked me where I was from (this transaction takes place en Francais, bien sur) and if I wanted to go for a run with him (he was wearing running clothes). I said no, it was very late and I needed to go to bed. He asked if I was going to go on the internet, I said yes? And he asked me if after I would go on the internet if I would come back down and go running with him. I had to decline again. France is very strange.

Spammers

Number of times I've been spammed on Craigslist for apartments: too many to count.

Number of Carafes photographed: 2.

Number of falafels eaten: 2.

Number of times I've been hit on in French and then said person switched into English to continue hitting on me: 2.

Numbers of Mona Lisas seen: 1.

Carafe D'Eau

Asked for directions count: 4.

Number of carafe d'eaux photographed for carafe d'eaux photo montage: 1.
Number to be photographed: infinity.

Number of times I've spilled an entire carton of cherry tomatoes in a supermarche: 1.

Oh, Paris. You're crazy.

Ou est le metro?

The last three days in Paris have been slightly unexciting....minus the fact that I'm in Paris which is some what of a mind fuck.

We had 5 hours of orientation on Monday which proved to be useless and we had to register yesterday and most things that could have gone wrong went wrong. I am currently only signed up for 5 classes and I need 7. So I have to email the administration to make them put me into some sort of class for next next monday.

And today was my first orientation classes and oh funny story I didn't bring an alarm clock and woke up 20 minutes before my class started. Good one Amanda. And it takes 20 minutes to get to campus. The classes were good though, for the next week and a half we have methodology and French language. Both of my profs are really nice and my French teacher is a riot. She's this petit French woman with glasses and a pixie haircut who, today, wore an oversided t-shirt and like pseudo-camo pants that had zippers randomly placed on her shin area, and of course, tevas. I wish I had a picture of her. She also, instead of translating the word, would attempt to explain it in French....while acting it out. delightful.

And just so you know, I've gotten asked twice for directions already. Not that I was able to help them....but still.




The Notre Dame is kinda behind that tree. This is looking east. And I swear this is where they filmed some of the scenes from An American in Paris, minus the fact that it probably was on a sound stage.

Oh, hey Eiffel Tower from my dorm. You're kinda far away, but oh so pretty.