Back in high school I had a foriegn exchange student from France stay at my house for a few months. When I came to France, I was hoping to meet up with her again but never got in contact with her. I did, however, get in contact with her old best friend who was willing to meet up for coffee on afternoon. We ended up going to a café in Montparnasse. Ahmie tagged along - we're always eager to practice our French : ) Once we had finished our drinks, we headed in to les Galeries Lafayette so my friend could pic out some sunglasses. Ahmie and I discovered some hats... We had a photo shoot:
Oh, we are CrAzY!! We weren't the only ones messing around with everything though - their were two French girls trying hats on right next to us.
Something I felt the need to note: At Montparnasse there is a HUGEEE tower, bigger than the Eiffel Tower, which is said to have the best view of Paris. I haven't been up there yet - maybe sometime soon though.
Lately, I've had a few people ask me questions about my study abroad program so I decided to use this entry to give you guys a rundown on how things work.
Since UMass doesn't have it's own study abroad program for France, they decided to buddy up with Academic Programs International (also reffered to as API). API offers study programs for many different parts of the world and any student can participate no matter what school they are from. This is why there are a few kids who came on the trip with me that are not actually from UMass. Once a student decides where they want to go, API helps them figure out which school in that area would best suite their study needs.
In my case, it didn't work exactly like that. UMass only allows you to choose from three schools in Paris: Sorbonne, University of Paris VII (Denis Diderot), and University of Paris IX (Dauphine). Sorbonne is for students who want to work solely on their French. Paris VII, the University that I am attending, is for students who have a decent French background and whose major falls into the Humanities catagory (such as Sociology, Psychology, or Political Science). There aren't exactly any classes for either of my majors (Journalism and Communication), however, I have found some Film courses that may be acceptable for credits toward Comm. The rest of my courses that I am taking here are for my International Relations Certificate.
But that's beside the point. The last school, Paris IX, is for generally for business majors who already have a good foundation in French. You might be able to take some math courses there too though... I'm not sure.
At UMass, the International Programs Office (IPO) meets with you to find out your study plans, assesses your French level and puts you into the right school accordingly. **When I say "puts you into the school," I don't mean that they literally sign you up. They merely give you all the information on how to go about applying to the school that they chose for you, BUT you are the one who actually fills out the application. Technically, if you didn't agree with where UMass put you, you could fill out the application for another school and go there. I doubt anybody ever does that though. It would probably cause a lot of trouble because IPO stays very active in the whole study abroad process and they would surely find out that you went behind their back and changed schools.
So back to the whole process... Once UMass gives you the info on how to apply, you sign up with API and the rest is history. API deals with us now - not UMass.
I honestly don't know much about API other than what I told you. I had no idea what I was in for until I got over here haha. I'm sure there was a link off of the API website that would have explained what the program entailed but I never bothered to look.
It ends up that the $12,000 that I paid to come over here for one semester not only included University costs and housing, but also a meal plan that consists of one lunch swipe 5 days a week, an unlimited metro pass, and the cost of pre-planned excursions.
On top of that, API has a center in Paris where students can go to hang out or use resources such as a computer or wireless internet.
Recently, our group had a Cultural Orientation at the API center. Here are some pictures so you can get and idea of what it looks like:
September 3, 2008: Anna drinking tea - they have drinks and snacks at the center for us to dig in to :]
Jon and Cheryl hanging out.
Marisol and Melisse in the computer room.
The classroom! Cheryl and Melisse on the left. Melissa and Anne-Marie (the directors) on the right.
September 2nd, 2008:These are pictures from my second trip to Versailles : ) This time, we had a real tour guide... much better.
Our guide explained to us what the dinosaur-esque thing was. It's not normally supposed to be there. I guess some famous, up-and-coming artist named Jeff Koons is being allowed to display his work at Versailles? When I went with my dad, this was the only one of his pieces up on display, however, this time there were a few more things up.
Here is a close up of the front of Jeff Koon's piece of artwork. According to this blog entry I was reading, it's called the "Split-Rocker." The blog goes into a lot of detail about the Jeff Koons exhibit. Definitely check it out.
One side of the Split-Rocker is a monkey...
... the other is a horse.
Both times I went to Versailles this year the weather has been less that desirable. On this day, it was incredibly windy. Ahmie's hair was all over the place.
Inside the Chateaux. I love the staircases. So pretty.
Our tour guide explained to us that the wood floors that currently cover most of Versailles are not the original flooring. During the Revolution, the marble floors got destroyed. Thus, they replaced the marble with wood because it would be more practical for tourists. I found that interesting.
This is our tour guide : ) She was very good - knowledgeable and not boring at all. Also, our whole tour was in French but she spoke slow enough that I understood almost everything. Very helpful.
Ahmie in front of the Hall of Mirrors.
Jeff Koon's artwork inside Versailles. Personally, I feel like it's awful to display modern art at Versailles like this. People come from all over the world to see Versailles and admire the castle's beauty and to have a random lobster hanging (below) in a beautiful, historical room seems kind of distasteful to me.
More of Koon's artwork outside of Versailles. You see this when you exit.
Bassin de Latone - I explained it in one of my last blog entry about Versailles. (The link to it is at the bottom of this entry).
Another Fountain - I thought that this one was funny because their are birds sitting on the statues' heads.
As we decended the tower of Le Sacré-Cœur, we realized that the long walk had made us rather hungry. With growling stomachs, a few of us made our way down the streets of Montmartre in search of dinner. Ironically, we ended up at the same exact place where I had gone to eat with my two high school friends four years earlier when we were in Paris.
It's a great restaurant - we got a 3 course meal for only 10 euros. I think it's called La Pétaudière or maybe the Piano Bar; if you're ever in Montmartre ask around for it and go there!!
From front left: Pat, Marisol, Me From front right: Jon, Ahmie, Wilnerys
The waiter was very friendly.
He let me take a picture of him with everybody : )
Ahmie and I decided to go to the redlight district after dinner... I saw pretty much all the same things as last time. I did think this kid was rather funny though:
I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure his father was coaxing him to do this in French.
September 1st, 2008: After a night of staying up late for absolutely no reason, Ahmie and I dragged our butts out of bed at 10am and made our way to the Eiffel Tower to meet our group for a free tour to the top.
We huffed and puffed our way to the group's meeting place, only to find out that the tour was canceled due to computer problems with the tower's elevator. Luckily, our program director had set up a bunch of alternative dates in the event that something like this might happen. She also told us that we could go up by ourselves whenever we wanted and that she'd reimburse us. Isn't she nice? : )
Since we were there anyway, Melissa (our RD) suggested that we have a photo shoot:
From left to right: Mike, Pat, Rob, Andrew, Meee, Ahmie
We walked up the green in front of the Eiffel Tower to get a better shot. From left to right: starting in the back is Rob and Andrew... Up front we have Mike, Pat, Ahmie, Me, and Melisse.
Melissa noticed that Me, Ahmie, and Pat made the French flag... She was excited and made us take a picture. (She is in charge of making a goodbye gift for all of us at the end of the semester, so she loveees to take pictures)
By the time we were done taking pictures, it was 12:30 and being that we didn't have to be anywhere until 3 we decided to go back to our dorm. (We meaning me and Ahmie). Pat tagged along. He had decided to live with a family so he was curious as to what our rooms looked like.
Personally, I think he is verrry brave to live with a family. It's one thing to share a room with someone your own age at UMass, but to have to share a living space with someone much older and who is from a completely different culture - that's scarey. You always have to be careful - you can't stay out to late because you might disturb them if come barging in at 2am. And almost EVERYTHING that you use is theirs. I have heard horror stories.
In Pat's case, he was very lucky. His "family" consists of a nice, middle-age, single woman. She's a teacher so she seems to relate well with him and doesn't have a problem with him staying out late. She did, however, have a problem with his eating habbits. She thought he was too skinny and wasn't eating a lot so she told our director that she was worried about him. She didn't realize that we have a meal plan and he gets to eat out numerous times throughout the day haha. I thought that was cute.
At 3:00pm, we all met up in Montmartre for a tour of the more artsy part of the area (versus the redlight district).
On our tour I learned that the metro was built for the World Fair of 1900. Each stop was made with the influence of Art Nouveau (New Art?) and the orginal metro stops that were created all have this artistic "M," for Metropolitain, molded in the railing.
This is a "Wallace Fountain" (Fontaine Wallace in French). They are all over Paris and they provide free, clean drinking water. They were proposed, designed and put in by some British guy named Richard Wallace who wanted to help the poor people of Paris to have access to good water. At one point in time, the Parisians were being forced to pay a lot for water and many poorer families who couldn't afford it were starting to drink wine and other alcoholic beverages - Wallace was worried that alcoholism would become a huge problem in France.
Anyway, all the Wallace Fountains look exactly like this one so if you're ever in Paris and want a drink, this is safe - drink up!
To all you Amélie fans, this is Monsieur Collignon's grocery store that she frequents. It can be found in Montmartre on Rue des Trois Frères.
French Graffiti!! I'm not exactly an expert at sign language or anything but I think those hands spell out "FREE." The "f" looks a little bit weird so I'm not 100% sure. I think it's cool though.
This is the house that belonged to the famous Egyptian born, Italian singer, Dalida. She committed suicide here at age 54 in 1987.
I had never heard of her until this tour but I looked her up and she is beautiful. Her songs are pretty good too. To me, her voice seems similar to that of Christine McVie from Fleetwood Mac. Rather deep.
Here's a video of her:
Some kids playing a game of boules. I have no clue what it is but they mentioned it in my "Travel Book - France" (from AAA) so I got excited. All that the book says is "Pétanque, the great game of boules from the south, is played in public squares all over France." So maybe the game is called Pétanque not boules... I'll look it up later and get back to you.
Saint Denis - the patron saint of Paris. He pissed of the pagan priests by converting so many people to Chrisianity so they beheaded him with a sord. Now he's shown all over Paris holding his head in his hands. This statue is in a parck in Montmartre.
Before Montmartre was settled it was a farming district known for it's wine. This small, government-owned vinyard is the only winery still in business in Montmartre. They only produce a thousand or so bottles of wine each year (don't quote me on that number - I just wanted to press the point that there are very few bottles made haha).
This is oldest Bistro in Paris. Bistros are said to have started in Paris because Russians would go to Cafés and want something "fast" which i guess in Russian sounds something like bistro. That's what my guide told us - once again, don't quote me... Sometimes I am hearing impaired haha.
We ended our tour of Montmartre at Le Sacré-Cœur.
A few of us decided to go to the top of the church. This whole ordeal consisted of us climbing up a windy, steep, air-deprived stairwell, walking in the gutters along the roof (rather scarey), up another stairwell and FINALLY to the top.
The walk was worth it though. The view of Paris is unbeatable. (In my opinion, it has a better view than the Eiffel Tower).
Speaking of which, you can see the Eiffel Tower from the Sacré-Cœur - see it on the left?? : ]
I have sooo many pictures from up there but it's impossible to grasp the beauty. Paris, je t'aime <3
August 30th, 2008: I have no idea why we went to a farm. But we did. I felt like a first grader running around chasing all the animals and trying to pet them. This post is just going to be for fun. It's just pictures of me and the people in my program playing with the animals. This is the farm.
Wilnerys, Melissa (Residence Director), and Ahmie petting the donkey.
Melissa and Ahmie showing the donkey some love.
Mr. Piggy. (My sister loves pigs - I thought that she'd find this funny)
My two besties in France :] The whole group ate lunch at the farm. The food was amazing!!
Half of the group (we were too big to fit at one table). From front left: Melissa, Andrew, Melisse From front right: Pat, Mike, Rob
The other half. From front left: Ahmie, Jon, Wilnerys From front right: Me, Anna, Marisol
French coke bottles are so much cooler.
Melissa with the baby goat.
Again. (you can see the goat better in this one)
Ahmie feeding the pig.
Again.
Melissa and Ahmie with the baby ducks. (In case you couldn't tell by now, these two were the biggest animal fanatics on the trip)
Ahmie caught a duckling... he wasn't happy about it.
Me and the donkey :]
A goat. They were causing a lot of trouble... I went to go wash my hands after holding one of the ducklings and two goats decided to follow me up the stairs. When I came back out, I heard some woman yelling and swearing in French. The goats had jumped over the gate and in to the kitchen. I ended up having to go into the kitchen to help the women get them out.
A few minutes later the pig went up the stairs and decided to give it a try. Too bad piggies can't jump.
