The postcard man

So, I’m learning more and more about this nifty blog of mine… I found out that I can view my “blog stats” – and my blog has been viewed (more hopefully, read) 888 times! That’s crazy! I was just thinking… my mom and dad, my family every now and then, and maybe some friends would look at my blog… but wow, it’s cool to know that I am not spending time writing these entries for no reason.

Surrounding the cathedral in the center of Strasbourg are some typical tourist shops which sell typical tourist things… postcards, little stuffed storks (well, in Alsace), Le Petit Prince notebooks and calendars, umbrellas with the European Union’s flag printed on them, etc. And it just so happens that the first shop I ever went into on my first day in Strasbourg is run by the most flattering little old Catholic French man you’ll ever meet. On my first day in Strasbourg, he told me that my French is so good already, etc, etc. It made my day. When I returned to buy some more postcards and stamps, he told me the exact same thing. And then when I returned today, he finally remembered me “oh, I remember you – from Indianapolis” (I just nod and smile because this is the only city in Indiana that French people know) because I buy lots of U.S. stamps every time I’m in his store. But it was funny today, two Russian girls in front of me were paying, and he chatted with them… “oh, but your French is so good already… by the way, will you need some of these special Strasbourg envelopes which have pictures of the cathedral??” Even though I know he compliments every foreigner who comes in his store, I’m sure that I will continue to buy my postcards and stamps from this monsieur – and I’m sure that I will never be able to say no when he asks if I need Strasbourg envelopes. haha

How is it already November?

Paris

Well, I went to Paris this week and stayed with Marianne. There is quite a lot to write about, so I’ll start from the beginning.

Monday afternoon Hollie and I arrived at the Strasbourg train station quite early so we decided to get some maltesers and go outside the train station to wait for our train. I opened the bag of maltesers and they went flying – everywhere! So, I’m sitting there laughing so hard that there are tears in my eyes and Hollie is laughing at me… and I start to wonder what to do with all this candy that is spread all over the sidewalk. “Should I try to pick them all up?” Hollie’s response… “ummm, I really don’t know, this has never really happened to me before…” A few seconds pass, and a couple of dogs come over and start eating the maltesers… and then a homeless man came and started picking them up as well…. and all of a sudden, the sidewalk was completely cleared of maltesers. This all happened so quickly that Hollie and I had no time to really understand what was going on and/or stop laughing from just having burst open a bag of maltesers in public. So afterward we just sat there wondering what the heck had just happened and whether this was a sign of what was to come during our trip to Paris. It was truly one of the strangest experiences of my life.

After wearing our Halloween witches’ hats on the TGV to Paris (and getting very little reaction from other passengers, actually), we arrived in Paris and found our way to Marianne’s apartment. A friend of hers was leaving for Quebec the next day, so we all went out to go to a bar and see this Canadian. Strangely enough, we never got to a bar but instead walked around Paris with this Canadian and several Parisians who he seemed to sort of know. There was some skipping and laughter involved and then all of a sudden, they went on their jolly way and we decided to go back to Marianne’s apartment. It was a really strange night, especially considering how exhausted Hollie and I were already.

So the next day we went to the market with Marianne, and we got to see a very public and very French dispute over something that probably didn’t matter at all. Marianne took us to see the Place de la Bastille and the Place des Vosges.  Hollie and I then decided to go our separate way to see some touristy things. We first went to the Pere laChaise cemetary and there we saw the graves of Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, Chopin, Moliere, La Fontaine, and Jim Morrison. Then we walked around the Hotel de Ville / Notre Dame area and looked through some tourist shops there. We went back to Marianne’s apartment and had dinner and played a funny guessing game with her and her roommate… it was sort of like taboo which turns into charades. 

On Halloween we woke up early and made our way to the Eiffel Tower to stand in line for about an hour in order to get into an elevator. After we made it to the second level, we waited about half an hour to get the next elevator up to the top. the view was absolutely amazing – it’s hard to bear all the crowds and waiting, etc. but I think it was worth it once we finally made it to the top. Actually, we wore our witches’ hats while waiting in line for an hour on the ground and we amused many, many small children. So at least we were able to provide a sort of service to impatient children, haha. After the Eiffel Tower, we went to the Centre Pompidou and did some more touristy shopping around there. I then tried to convince Hollie that it would be a good idea to walk from there to Sacre Coeur - and somehow I managed to succeed. So we walked all the way to Sacre Coeur (passing through a rather interesting area on our way), and then got caught by Africans who tied bracelets to our wrists and then asked for money. We gave them some on went on our merry way. (haha) And as it was starting to get dark on Halloween night, we put on our witches’ hats and once again provided entertainment for small children. After we finished taking photos and touring the Sacre Coeur, we found a metro station to return to Marianne’s place. However, there had been an accident and that line was completely shut down… so we had to walk to another station (which seemed like a big deal at the time, but we found our way and everything was fine).

The next day we visited the Pantheon, les Arenes de Lutece, Ile Saint-Louis (which has the best ice cream in the world, Berthillon’s), and the Canal Saint-Martin. After this, we ate with Marianne… and it was time for us to head back to the train station to catch the TGV back to Strasbourg. 

I’m sure I’ve probably left out a lot, but that is my Paris adventure in a nutshell.       

Just a thought

So I was in the library this week just looking through the English-language books (American literature more specifically) and a Carson McCullers book sort of appealed to me so much that I sat down to read and quickly had gotten through the first quarter of the book. It is called “Reflections in a Golden Eye,” and this version has an introduction written by Tennessee Williams. The book is quite interesting as most things that Carson McCullers wrote are, but the thing that I have been thinking about most in the past few days is something that Tennessee Williams wrote in his introduction. “If artists are snobs, it is much in the same humble way that lunatics are: not because they wish to be different, and hope and believe that they are, but because they are forever painfully struck in the face with the inescapable fact of their difference which makes them hurt and lonely enough to want to undertake the vocation of artists.” I find this statement  to be very telling of a certain strange rift that we have in our society… those who feel the need to appear “normal” and those who do not. I think that it is not really a question of normalcy but rather the repression of certain aspects of our own nature in order to fit what society makes us believe is right, “normal.” I suppose that we all do this to a certain extent, but I think that what Tennesse Williams was getting at is that some people are pressured to repress all that makes them who they are… these people are who he calles “artists.” I don’t know… I’m going to continue thinking this over, and I will let you know if I have any revelations. At any rate, it’s fascinating to think about and I’d love to hear your thoughts.

In more concrete news, I am on vacation this week. I am going to Paris with Hollie tomorrow to visit Marianne / the city. I’m sure I’ll have some stories and photos this weekend or next week.

Colmar pictures

Here we are taking a boat ride through “petite venise” in Colmar. Fatme and Romy (who are German) in the front and then Marieke (Belgian) and I are in the back. Funny story – so we’re sitting down after walking through Colmar and this little boat comes up and Fatme starts talking talking in German with Romy. And I obviously have no idea what they are talking about, but apparently she was saying that the boat driver was cute, seemed nice, we should take a ride, etc. So a few minutes later I went over and asked how much it cost and we decided to take a ride, and then when we were all seated and ready he asked, “would you like this to be in French or German?” hahahaha.

The Bartholdi Museum in Colmar.

The Cathedral in Colmar – very beautiful.

Colmar

So yesterday I went to Colmar with Romy, Fatme, and a Belgian girl named Marieke. It only took about half an hour to get there on the train – after we waited in line forever to actually buy our tickets. We found a nice little restaurant where we all had tartes flambees – which is sort of like a thin crust pizza, except it has a creamy white sauce… and it’s just a lot better. I don’t think I will ever get tired of them. Then we walked all around the city, seeing all the touristy things. There is a section of Colmar called “petite Venise” which is sort of like “petite France” in Strasbourg. There is a little river which they used to use to transport  fruits and vegetables etc. So we took a boat ride in petite Venise and lots of tourists took pictures of us. It was pretty fun. We also visited the Bartholdi museum, which was really interesting. (Hopefully you know that Bartholdi was the scupltor who made the Statue of Liberty.) Apparently there is a miniature tatue of Liberty in Colmar, but unfortunately we didn’t get to see it, because it was out a ways from the center of town.

It’s rather cold here today – I actually wore my winter coat for the first time this morning. On Tuesday the city of Strasbourg is having a reception to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the erasmus program, and they invited all foreign students. The mayor of Strasbourg is supposed to be there, so I am going. And if I get to meet the mayor of Strasbourg, that will just be fantastic.   

Pictures

This is the Parliament of the European Union. I live just down the street from it.

These are a couple of my German friends, Fatme on the left and Romy in the center. We are at the tram stop called “homme de fer” in the center of Strasbourg.

This is a rather famous landmark in Strasbourg – the “Ponts Couverts.” It’s right next to La Petite France, which is one of the prettiest and most touristy areas of the city.

This is my room at the cite universitaire. It’s not bad, add a few things from IKEA and it becomes quite cozy.

my crazy week

Hello everyone. I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written – this past week was quite busy for me, and on top of that I got sick. So, I had a fairly large presentation to give this morning in my francophone litterature class on a book called Nedjma. It is sort of in the writing style of William Faulkner / James Joyce – except in French, and therefore I really struggled with simply reading the book. But I worked really hard with Fatme to prepare our presentation, and I think it went fairly well considering our situation. I honestly worked on that and almost nothing else last week and this weekend. So, I suppose that’s why I’ve been so lousy at keeping up this blog lately.

The weather is still really nice here – cool Fall weather, so I think I might try to go to Colmar this weekend. Up to this point, I’ve really stayed in Strasbourg, so I’d like to go see some things now that I’m getting finished with all my administrative stuff. I’ve been hanging around with an English girl named Hollie who lives in Robertsau also, and we have been discovering how vastly different British English and American English are. I think I said ”trash can” one night and she and another English girl just cracked up. And she says things like “bloody blokes” – it’s absolutely wonderful. I never realized that British English is quite so different from American English. Oh, and some fun news – there is a shop here in Strasbourg that sells costumes and party favors and stuff for Halloween, so I’m thinking that we will have to have an Erasmus Halloween party.

My mom and dad bought their plane tickets for April - yay! I think we’ll spend a few days here in Strasbourg and then travel around France a bit – Normandy, Paris, and maybe the Loire valley. It seems like such a long time from now, but I’m sure it will be here before I know it. The last week of October is a break for the students at Marc Bloch, so I’m planning to go to Paris and visit Marianne for a few days. For Christmas I’m still not exactly sure what I’ll be doing – I might go to Lille to spend the holiday with Nicolas and Katrina and their family. It would be really nice to spend Christmas with a French family and see the traditional French Christmas, so I hope that works out.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a lot that I wanted to write, but I should be updating this blog a bit more regularly now.

p.s. thanks to all who have sent me mail, it’s really lovely