Snatched!

Snatched is a slang adjective used to describe people, usually female, who are working an outfit that is totally trendy and super attractive.  Paris is chock FULL of people who are freaking SNATCHED, head to toe.  It's so great to walk down the street and see so many styles, so many different ways of making a statement with clothes, and SO many ways of being beautiful.

My new friend Chelsea and I were discussing all of the snatched Parisian women today.  Chelsea is a fellow student, a sophomore, and she just got done studying in the South of France this summer like I did last summer.  Her father is a popular professor at our university.  We've grown close really quickly, and it's pretty obvious she and I will be really great friends by the end of this semester.  We have similar styles of speech and common political and social views.  It's been great hanging out with her everyday.

In other news, here is the view I woke up to this morning.

The sun comes in really beautifully through the window, and the air is so crisp and fresh that I slept with the window open all night.  Notice the map of Europe that is hanging on the wall.  I'm not sure if this was done by a previous inhabitant of the room or if my host family posted it as a decoration/reference.  At any rate I think it's hilariously random and it will be staying there for the duration of my stay.  The view from the window is a typical French view I guess - it looks down on a small courtyard in between apartment buildings, and lots of satellites and clotheslines are visible on and around the neighboring windows.

For breakfast this morning, Jean-Charles had bread, butter, and jam set out for me as well as cereal and tea.  He asked me if I wanted coffee, tea, juice or something else, and I told him I'd take tea.  Here's what my breakfast set-up looked like:

If you'll notice, the tea was served not in a teacup or even a large mug, but in a legitimate BOWL.  The bowl right there in front, that is a BOWL OF EARL GREY.  A few of the other students in the program had mentioned that they had been served a bowl of coffee or tea in cafés or in French homes, but I had yet to experience it.  This photo was taken after I'd drank more than a quarter of the tea.  I was unsure how to drink it, but Jean-Charles didn't look at me strange when I straight up gulped it from the bowl holding it with both hands, so I guess I was doing it right.

My first metro ride to school went great.  I'll be an obvious American and take pictures on the metro station tomorrow hopefully.  My morning commute via metro is about 30 minutes, with one stop to change lines.  I felt like I blended in very well this morning, since I made sure to take my iPod and listen to it the whole way and not look anyone in the eye and generally give off the air that I was in a crabby mood.  This is what the French seem to do on the metro in the morning.  I figure I did pretty good.  Except sweat was pouring off my face.  Sweating is SO American.

We had a final orientation meeting where we discussed practical matters of where to buy school supplies, how to purchase our textbooks, and public transportation.  We also had a quick overview of current events and politics today in France, so that we would generally be up to date on issues in order to participate in discussions with our host families if they ever came up - which they inevitably will.  The French love talking about politics.

After our meeting, we jumped on the metro again and headed to the Louvre.  The Louvre is the famous French museum that is located in an old palace.  It houses over 50,000 square meters of exhibition space, and contains enough art to keep you there for months if you wanted to see it all.  The Louvre is the site of the large glass pyramid that may come to mind when some of you think of Paris; the pyramid was designed and installed at the museum during the administration of President Mitterand in the 1980's, and serves as a contemporary contrast to the historic location and symbolism.  The Louvre's most famous piece of art is the Mona Lisa (la Jaconde in French):

Isabelle, the director of our study abroad program, told us the story of the Mona Lisa and gave her interpretation as to why she is so famous.  Isabelle's take is that the colors and background of the Mona Lisa provide a certain haze between the end of nature and the beginning of man.  A sort of equilibrium is created between nature and man with DaVinci's painting, and Isabelle believes that satisfaction with this balance is what the artist was trying to express.  In French, the painting is called "La Jaconde" after the Italian merchant Jacondo, who was Mona Lisa's husband.  The word means happiness and satisfaction.

After le Louvre I headed to Monoprix, the French version of Super Target (groceries and pharmaceuticals and clothes in one store), with Alexia and Chelsea.  We went to the Monoprix on the Champs-Élysées, the famous avenue of elite French shopping and tourism that ends at the Arc de Triomphe.

We got our shopping done and headed to a bakery on the Champs that Alexia was familiar with.  We had  yet to indulge in any of the parisian delicacies, so we each bought a small pain-au-chocolat (croissant with dark chocolate in it - beyond delicious) and enjoyed our treats as we watched tourists bustle by.  The three of us had a hilarious conversation, though I don't even remember what we talked about now.  I recall that the pigeons went crazy at one point and were seemingly bombarding us to demand more crumbs off our croissants...this was super scary and Alexia basically had a heart attack while Chelsea poked her fork at the birds trying to scare them off.  It didn't work.  

We were all beat by the end of all this Parisian nonsense, and headed toward the metro station to go home.  Alexia and I helped Chelsea navigate the stations to her place and then settled in for our long ride home.  We live only one stop away from each other, a five minute walk.  It's nice to have someone so close.  

I got home sweaty (as per usual) and panting after climbing five flights of stairs with shopping bags.  My hair had suffered wind and rain that day, and resembled a dead animal on the side of my head as I walked in the door to my apartment.  To my surprise, my host family's son was sitting at the kitchen table.  He got up to greet me, and I tried to pull myself together as I reached out my hand to shake.  But in the general trend of everything in my life turning out super awkward, he went in for the traditional French greeting, a kiss on each cheek.  Again, I was panting and sweating, and my hair was half-plastered to my forehead half-leaning out eight inches from the side of my head.  Not ideal for a first impression.

At any rate, we enjoyed a great dinner of roasted chicken and salad, and discussed politics, movies, and music.  For dessert Anne had made this amazing cake that was made out of ZUCCHINI FROM HER GARDEN.  What the heck?  Like, it was sweet and cakey and delicious.  I have no clue how she made it.  I'm pretty sure she straight up lied to my face when I asked her what it was.  Probs.

Def time for bed now.  It's been a long day and tomorrow is sure to be another one.  I am having such an amazing time in Paris and am so excited for the long semester ahead of me!  Classes start Monday and I couldn't be more content.  Tomorrow night everyone suggested that we go out to celebrate my birthday which was on Monday and got passed up in the hubbub of traveling.  I'm really excited and flattered that my classmates would insist that my birthday didn't go forgotten.

I will post again as soon as I can! À bientôt!

Peace, love, and Paris,

Rhiannon