Monday, September 21, 2009

Ay! Ay, Shakira!

I have been called Shakira twice so far during my stay in Paris.  Once on the Champs Elysées a guy came up to me and called me Shakira as he touched my hair (gross), another time on the metro to get my attention a guy said "hey hey hey Shakira" a bunch of times, which resulted in me giving the deadliest look I've ever given before.  I mean, not to deny that being called Shakira isn't a huge compliment, but honestly I don't look like her save for very large curly hair, and these guys weren't exactly who I want attention from here.

This weekend we took a class trip to Normandy, where we visited lots of museums and memorials and cathedrals.  Our first day we spent in Caen, where I ate this pasta:
That's right.  It definitely says "SALMON" on the side of the plate, in some delicious sauce or another.  I eat so much salmon in this country it's ridiculous.  I can't get enough of the stuff.  Wanna bet me?  Here's a picture of a pizza I ate the next day:
Double right.  That's salmon pizza, with crème fraiche and mushroom and OH MY GOD DELICIOUS all over it.  We stayed in a Best Western Hotel that had rooms painted in different pastel colors.  Chelsea and I decided the proper reaction for entering our hotel room was screaming and running around:

We visited the Memorial to Peace, which is a museum/memorial of World War II.  The saying on the front of the building reads, "La douleur m'a brisée, la fraternité m'a relevée...De ma blessure a jailli une fleuve de liberté"...which means, "The pain broke me, brotherhood relieved me...From my wound sprang forth a river of freedom."  And outside are various stone blocks engraved with quotes about the struggle for freedom.
"I was born to know thee, to name thee, Liberty."  The museum is amazing, one of the best I've been to.  We watched a video documenting the D-Day landing of American troops at Normandy, which only underscored the emotional weight of visiting the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial and Omaha Beach the next day.
The memorial contains over 9,000 graves of fallen American soldiers, most of whom lost their lives on D-Day.  It was an emotional experience for me, basically because everything of this kind is an emotional experience for me.  Walking along Omaha Beach was crazy, trying to envision how intense the landing was.  Here is a picture of our whole group on the beach:
And a video of us (by us I mean me) running around telling everyone to say hello in the
camera: 
We tried to take cool pictures of us jumping in the sand, but most attempts were epic failures, as most attempts at jumping are for me:
The last day of the trip was spent in Le Havre, a city in northern France that is gray, boring, smelly, and ugly.  It was Sunday so nothing was open.  We walked around in smelly rain and talked about the architecture of the reconstruction of the city after World War II BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH over it.  The best part was that I ate a gallette (crispy crepe thing) with salmon and spinach and it was DELICIOUS.  I am the most predictable person ever.

Classes are going really well, if a tad on the EXTREMELY DEMANDING side.  Luckily I'm only taking twelve hours.  My poli sci class has a ridiculous work load, but the teacher is great and the material interesting so...it could be worse.  My French class that I was so intimidated to go to is actually shaping up to be my favorite class.  We went to a play last week on Tuesday and had our first class session Wednesday night.  I was even more afraid about going to class after seeing the play because it was a contemporary surrealist opera...in German...subtitled in French.  My head literally hurt afterwards.  So I was terrified that everyone was totally on the ball and ready to discuss this most confusing thing I've ever watched ever, but it turns out our professor is basically the coolest man on earth.  His name is Bruno, he's super funny and passionate.  We spent that class introducing ourselves, talking about our previous experience with theatre and French literature, and all is well.  I'm excited for this week's class session, in which we will actually be getting into some material.  My drawing class is going well, though it's getting more frustrating.  I feel pretty inadequate as an artist and have less than zero experience drawing, whereas I feel like most of the people in the class have had art lessons before, though it's an introductory course.  Anyways, so I had a mini-breakdown the other day involving a leaf and shading, but I think the trauma is past.  Come spring, I'm gonna be a regular DaVinci.  Don't even worry about it.

So there is video on someone's camera of me and Chelsea rapping on the train back to Paris, but I'm going to have to hunt that down for you people.  Extremely valuable footage.  I'll leave you instead with a couple of songs in my regular iPod rotation this week.  First up is "Let It Be Me" by Ray LaMontagne (again), and I dare you to listen to this and not cry.  Or maybe I don't, because if you listen to it and don't cry it's just going to be revealed what a sensitive emotional idiot I am and how I cry at every other instance of artistic ability and profound human expression.  

Did you cry?  Don't lie.  Ok so then there's Shakira, my idol slash hair twin, and her new song "She Wolf".  I couldn't find a good version of the video to embed, which is a shame because homegirl basically goes psycho and does the weirdest dance moves ever.  It's okay though, because it's Shakira, and she has license to do whatever the hell she wants 24/7.  I sometimes (all the time) listen to this song on repeat and have to stop myself from dancing on the metro.

It is now naptime in Paris.  I hope everyone is doing well.  If you're reading, I would love comments to know who all is keeping up with my lame adventures!  You can comment by scrolling down to "Anonymous" and then just sign it with your name once you comment (like my mom does every time.) 

Peace, love, and Paris,
Rhiannon

9 comments:

  1. Hey rhi rhi! loved the post! sounds like youre having a blast as usual. miss ya!

    -Amanda

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  2. not gonna lie, i read your blog all the time. yikes. i miss paris like crazy and it's so nice to live vicariously through you. i know you're having a blast!
    btw - you should go to montmartre at around dusk, watch the sunset, and see all the lights turn on in paris! it's fabulous!
    -jupin

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  3. girl, what kind of crazy food are you eating? This stuff looks amazing and delish. I am jealous of that one part the most. I had wondered what happened to your posting because it's been, what, 10 days or so. Girl, you gotta keep me posted more!

    Love you, Auntie M

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  4. Oh, girl, the one thing on this planet that I absolutely CANNOT eat is salmon! But you enjoy. More for you, right? : P

    Normandy is incredible--I love WWII history, so seeing the D-Day beaches and the American Cemetary was an incredible experience. I'm glad you got to see them, too.

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  5. i'm so glad you posted. i feel you in the room with me making me smile. miss you more though. you're stupid;not going to read anymore. maybe it was the song. i listened to it twice. i would have listened more, but it was making my heart sad, or lonely, or something. where is my yanny to fill my music jones and burn cd's for me?
    you have to post more video of you and chelsea. are you guys spirit twins? can't you ask random people to video you while you are experiencing paris? i want to see you more.
    the normandy stuff is amazing. wow. what an experience. great jumping pics.
    bobba liked the song too.

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  6. Still loving your blog. It makes me want to get on a plane and just fly anywhere at this point. Live it up my friend!!

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  7. Shane Riley here commenting live from Corpus Christi, Texas, home of many mexicans and a few rich people and the crappiest excuse for a mall on record (yes i still work there). that hotel room is off the hook yo!! haha. i dont know how i feel about all of the salmon dishes... and you know im not a picky eater. got my laptop now! yaaaaay! keep in touch on facebook, i still dont know what the deal is on those international text messages. when you speak to your mom, tell her i miss her and i want to come live in your room at her house! haha. i laugh because i know she will probably read this too, HI MRS. HAMAM!!!! i laugh again because i called her mrs. hamam, like we've never met, meh meh meh. anyway, i'll talk to you soon. oh for real though, say hello to the pantless guy at the vending machines at the "metro" station, or however you say it. adios rhiannon!

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  8. i am obsessed with this blog in EVERY way possible. kthx

    p.s. miss you and love you way too much

    <3, Hannah

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  9. i love that you're running around omaho beach with your camera on video saying "herro!" you are amazing in every sense of the word.

    <3 amy

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