Hello everyone!
On Thursday, I went to Paris with my class for a field trip. We all met at the Gare de Vernon at 8 a.m. and took the train to the Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris. The ride was only like 40 minutes long, and the train stopped two or three times.
The Gare Saint-Lazare is really, really big. It reminded me of "Ocean's Twelve" because there's a scene in that movie where they're at the Gare Saint-Lazare. Anyway, we went out of the station and had an hour to shop on the Champs-Elysee, but all the shops were closed; they didn't open until 10. So I went to... STARBUCKS!!!!!!!
There are lots of Starbucks in Paris, but none in Vernon... however, that is definitely a good thing, because Starbucks in France is ridiculously expensive. My small mocha cost 4.60€ - that's about 7 dollars. For a small drink. I ordered in French, so I said "Je voudrais un tall mocha cappucino light glacée" to the guy at Starbucks, but I guess I probably said "tall mocha cappucino light" with a total American accent because he and the other guy working there laughed after I gave them my order. So I got my Starbucks; it was worth the seven dollars. Outside of Paris, they don't have anywhere like Starbucks in France. You never see French people walking around with cups of coffee like you do all the time in America.
At 10 the class met up and went into a "Métropolitan" stop to catch the subway to the Musée d'Orsay. While we were waiting for the train, we saw a group of people on strike. They had flags and were chanting and climbing on the ticket machine things. It was the first strike I witnessed in France... I'm pretty sure they're kind of common.
Once we got to the Musée d'Orsay, we stood around for a little while to wait to go in. There was this hobo begging for money; he went up to every single person in my class and was like "s'il vous plait, j'ai faim" (please, I'm hungry).
Then we went inside the museum... it's sooooo pretty. It used to be a really big train station, but they turned it into a museum. The ceiling is glass and there's a giant old clock at one end of the main part of the museum... I took pictures, as soon as I get them uploaded you'll see what I mean.
The Musée d'Orsay is known for its collection of Impressionist art (Monet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, etc.), so it was one of the places I most wanted to visit in France. I got to see one of my favorite paintings in the whole world by Renoir; it's really really famous - I'm sure you've seen pictures of it before, it's called "Bal du Moulin de la Galette" - I think in English it's called the Ball of the Moulin, or something like that. Anyway, it was amazing in person. I also saw Monet's really famous painting of a poppy field, and his famous painting of the cathedral in Rouen, and his most famous lily pond painting. I also saw Van Gogh's "Self Portrait", which is really famous, and one of Degas's ballerina paintings that we talked about in AP Euro. I also saw Degas's sculpture "Little Dancer, age 14", which is probably the third most famous sculpture in the world after David and the Thinker. It was so small and cute. I bought a compact mirror that's gold on the inside and pink on the outside, and it says Degas and has a picture of the statue on the front. I didn't even have time to look at a lot of the paintings; I ended up rushing past some amazing Monets and Manets and a lot of others, but hopefully I'll make it back to the Musée d'Orsay. Okay, so one more famous painting story; we walked into the Manet room and my class was looking at one painting (they were on a tour with a guide but I didn't pay much attention because it was all in French and I'd rather just look at the paintings), and I turned and saw the painting "The Balcony" by Manet that Mr. Peters (my APEuro teacher, for those of you who don't know) had a poster of that was literally right in front of my desk all of sophomore year. It was so funny to see it in person; I was like "APEURO!!".
So after the Musée d'Orsay, we had about an hour and a half to eat. I ate lunch on a bridge over the Seine with some of my class. For lunch I had a sandwich, bread, chips, and an apple (they gave us a picnic lunch). There were a lot of tourist boats passing underneath the bridge, and Charlotte and Anne (from my class) poured water as they were passing underneath.
The view was really good; I could see Notre Dame and the Grand Palais from the bridge. And the weather was really good all day; it wasn't cold and it was sunny.
After lunch we walked back to the subway station and went to the National Library of France to go to an exhibit about Eugéne Ionesco. We weren't there very long.
Then we went back on the subway to the Boulevard Saint Michel, which is a famous street in Paris. We had like an hour and a half to go shopping, so I went with Camille and Charlotte to look for an H&M. We didn't find one, but we went in a couple of other stores. I bought an Eiffel Tower shirt in one. We bought cookies (I got MINI oreos... I was so happy to find mini oreos!) and ate them. Then we went back to where we had to meet the rest of the class; it was in front of this amazing fountain called the Fountain Saint Michel, which is famous and sooo pretty. At like 8 p.m. we went down this really neat street to a theater that's been showing Ionesco productions for like 60 years. It was really, really small, and I was in the second row. We saw an Ionesco play; it was really funny even though it was in French.
When the play was over, we went to McDonalds (which they pronounce Mac-Donahlds here, lol). The McDonald's had three stories, but the food was exactly the same as in America, except they had a few different items on the menu. When everyone was finished eating we all waited outside for our teacher. Charlotte pretended to be a beggar and sat on the sidewalk with a hat; some guy put money in it, which was really funny.
At like 11 we went back to the Gare Saint-Lazare and caught the train back to Vernon. We got back at midnight, so I didn't get home until 12:15. But it was definitely a really fun day. There's a reason why Paris is called the most beautiful city in the world: it's true! Now that I know how easy it is to catch the train to Paris, I can't wait to go back.
The next day, I had to get up at 7 to go to school; that was not fun. That morning, the whole lycée ran through the forest for like an hour, and since my feet were already aching from walking around Paris all day, that wasn't fun. But we did get hot chocolate and snacks afterwords. Friday night, I went to dance class. Then today, I had dance rehersal for a recital in December. The theme is Pirates; we are dancing to the Pirates of the Caribbean music. It's really fun.
Tomorrow I'm going to Brittany for a week; it's fall vacation and I get twelve days off school! I'll update again when I can.
Au revoir,
Halle
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Mont Saint-Michel!
Bonjour tout le monde! Sorry, it's been awhile, I've been busy. And you'll have to wait for an entry all about french food, because I don't have the time right now.
So on Saturday, I went to Mont-Saint-Michel for the first Rotary outing. We left at 8 a.m. and it took about two hours to get there. On the way there we stopped at a rest-stop that was really nice because it had like a café in it, but it was sooo expensive for a rest-stop! I got a lemonade (a real lemonade; they call lemonade citronnade and limonade is something like Sprite. So they do in fact have lemonade in France), and it cost 2 €, which is like two dollars and sixty cents. For a drink.
Anyway, we got to Mont Saint-Michel and there were already a lot of other exchange students there. We all stayed in sort of like a motel, except with cabins, but they were like motel rooms on the inside. They each had two beds, a bathroom, a TV, and heat and everything, so that was good. Because when I heard cabins I automatically pictured bunk-beds crammed into a room.
It turned out I was staying in the cabin right next to where Rebecca (from Charleston) and Jessica(from New Jersey) were staying with Pia (from Argentina - the one who loves Zac Efron). My roommates were a French girl and a Mexican girl, but I hardly saw them at all and I forget their names.
So once I put all my stuff in my room, Rebecca, Jessica, and I went to get lunch. They gave us two baguette-sandwiches, an apple, a banana, cheese, a stick of chocolate, a bottle of Evian, and an egg for lunch. We thought it was really funny that they randomly gave us an egg.
After lunch we walked to Mont Saint-Michel, which was like a mile from the hotel because it's basically an island. It's kind of hard to describe, but when I get pictures you will see what I mean if you don't know what Mont Saint-Michel is.
We got to where the exchange students were, and there were sooo many of them, from all over Northern France. Then we all had to take our shoes off and roll up our jeans so that we could all walk in the English Channel. Rebecca and Jessica said that they were told we would be walking for five hours, but none of us really thought that we would actually be walking for five hours. However, we did in fact walk in the English Channel for five hours without shoes. It was really shallow; that's why we could walk in the water. The weather was good, it was a little cold but the sun was out for awhile, so it was okay. Some of the sand was like quicksand. And some of it was like mud.
After that, everyone went to their cabins to change for dinner. Then they took some group photos, but Rebecca, Jessica, and I missed most of them because we were in the supermarket getting food for later.
For dinner we ate in a restaurant. Dinner was buffet-style, and it was all a bunch of really weird french food, like paté and cous-cous. Paté (I could be spelling it wrong) is the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted. Especially salmon paté; it's sooooo fishy and gross. But the bread was really good. There was a cheese course, of course, and I tried some of this orangish cheese that was by far the most disgusting cheese I've ever tasted. Rebecca and Jessica tried it, too, and they agreed with me. I took a picture of the gross cheese. Dessert was some really good chocolate mousse-merignue thing.
After dinner everyone had to sing their national anthems. The Australians, Mexicans, Argentinians, Finnish, Japanese... etc. all sang their national anthems in groups while everyone else watched. There were a loooot of Mexicans, and also a looooot of Americans. The Americans were the loudest, I think. The French sang "La Marseillaise", which is what they call their national anthem.
After that, Jessica, Rebecca, and I went to their cabin to eat cookies, chips, and salsa and to basically just hang out. At like 4 a.m. I went to sleep, and then I had to wake up at 7:30. So I didn't get a lot of sleep that weekend.
Sunday morning we had breakfast; I had bread and cereal with tea. Then Rebecca, Jessica, and I walked to Mont Saint-Michel again. This time we went in the actual town and to the top of the mountain. Mont Saint-Michel is sooooo amazingly pretty. It's one of the nicest places I've been so far, for sure. We went into the enormous church that is at the top of Mont Saint-Michel. It seemed much more like a castle than a church. We spent like an hour and a half in it and didn't even stop that much. There were like dungeons and stone spiral staircases going up towers and stuff like that. The view from the church was amazing. There was also a bell-ringer like Quasimoto (I probably spelled that wrong; you know from the Hunchback of Notre Dame).
After that, we went in some of the gift shops in Mont Saint-Michel. Then we got this really, really good ice-cream. I got cappucino-flavored, and it was like a legitimate ice-cream cone; it wasn't pathetically small like the other ice cream cones I've bought in France. It was in a waffle-cone, too, and the ice cream was really good.
After that we took the bus back to the motel and went to lunch. Lunch was potatoes and lamb; I didn't eat the lamb of course. For dessert there was this English cream dessert thing. When lunch was over, we left and drove back to Vernon. But it was a really fun weekend.
On Tuesday I had a Rotary dinner; it was like the biggest piece of chicken I've ever seen in my life with ratatouille (which, by the way, everyone in America pronounces completely wrong. I tried to tell Marie-Violaine that I ate ratatouille and she was like "What are you saying????"). There were also these Indian dumpling things that reminded me of falafel. The dessert was like the weirdest thing I've ever tasted; it was like rice-pudding cake that was rose-flavored. As is the flower, rose. It was so weird. But it was good, I guess.
Today I had two hours of school, and tomorrow I'm going to Paris with my class. So hopefully I can update about that soon.
Ciao for now,
Halle
So on Saturday, I went to Mont-Saint-Michel for the first Rotary outing. We left at 8 a.m. and it took about two hours to get there. On the way there we stopped at a rest-stop that was really nice because it had like a café in it, but it was sooo expensive for a rest-stop! I got a lemonade (a real lemonade; they call lemonade citronnade and limonade is something like Sprite. So they do in fact have lemonade in France), and it cost 2 €, which is like two dollars and sixty cents. For a drink.
Anyway, we got to Mont Saint-Michel and there were already a lot of other exchange students there. We all stayed in sort of like a motel, except with cabins, but they were like motel rooms on the inside. They each had two beds, a bathroom, a TV, and heat and everything, so that was good. Because when I heard cabins I automatically pictured bunk-beds crammed into a room.
It turned out I was staying in the cabin right next to where Rebecca (from Charleston) and Jessica(from New Jersey) were staying with Pia (from Argentina - the one who loves Zac Efron). My roommates were a French girl and a Mexican girl, but I hardly saw them at all and I forget their names.
So once I put all my stuff in my room, Rebecca, Jessica, and I went to get lunch. They gave us two baguette-sandwiches, an apple, a banana, cheese, a stick of chocolate, a bottle of Evian, and an egg for lunch. We thought it was really funny that they randomly gave us an egg.
After lunch we walked to Mont Saint-Michel, which was like a mile from the hotel because it's basically an island. It's kind of hard to describe, but when I get pictures you will see what I mean if you don't know what Mont Saint-Michel is.
We got to where the exchange students were, and there were sooo many of them, from all over Northern France. Then we all had to take our shoes off and roll up our jeans so that we could all walk in the English Channel. Rebecca and Jessica said that they were told we would be walking for five hours, but none of us really thought that we would actually be walking for five hours. However, we did in fact walk in the English Channel for five hours without shoes. It was really shallow; that's why we could walk in the water. The weather was good, it was a little cold but the sun was out for awhile, so it was okay. Some of the sand was like quicksand. And some of it was like mud.
After that, everyone went to their cabins to change for dinner. Then they took some group photos, but Rebecca, Jessica, and I missed most of them because we were in the supermarket getting food for later.
For dinner we ate in a restaurant. Dinner was buffet-style, and it was all a bunch of really weird french food, like paté and cous-cous. Paté (I could be spelling it wrong) is the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted. Especially salmon paté; it's sooooo fishy and gross. But the bread was really good. There was a cheese course, of course, and I tried some of this orangish cheese that was by far the most disgusting cheese I've ever tasted. Rebecca and Jessica tried it, too, and they agreed with me. I took a picture of the gross cheese. Dessert was some really good chocolate mousse-merignue thing.
After dinner everyone had to sing their national anthems. The Australians, Mexicans, Argentinians, Finnish, Japanese... etc. all sang their national anthems in groups while everyone else watched. There were a loooot of Mexicans, and also a looooot of Americans. The Americans were the loudest, I think. The French sang "La Marseillaise", which is what they call their national anthem.
After that, Jessica, Rebecca, and I went to their cabin to eat cookies, chips, and salsa and to basically just hang out. At like 4 a.m. I went to sleep, and then I had to wake up at 7:30. So I didn't get a lot of sleep that weekend.
Sunday morning we had breakfast; I had bread and cereal with tea. Then Rebecca, Jessica, and I walked to Mont Saint-Michel again. This time we went in the actual town and to the top of the mountain. Mont Saint-Michel is sooooo amazingly pretty. It's one of the nicest places I've been so far, for sure. We went into the enormous church that is at the top of Mont Saint-Michel. It seemed much more like a castle than a church. We spent like an hour and a half in it and didn't even stop that much. There were like dungeons and stone spiral staircases going up towers and stuff like that. The view from the church was amazing. There was also a bell-ringer like Quasimoto (I probably spelled that wrong; you know from the Hunchback of Notre Dame).
After that, we went in some of the gift shops in Mont Saint-Michel. Then we got this really, really good ice-cream. I got cappucino-flavored, and it was like a legitimate ice-cream cone; it wasn't pathetically small like the other ice cream cones I've bought in France. It was in a waffle-cone, too, and the ice cream was really good.
After that we took the bus back to the motel and went to lunch. Lunch was potatoes and lamb; I didn't eat the lamb of course. For dessert there was this English cream dessert thing. When lunch was over, we left and drove back to Vernon. But it was a really fun weekend.
On Tuesday I had a Rotary dinner; it was like the biggest piece of chicken I've ever seen in my life with ratatouille (which, by the way, everyone in America pronounces completely wrong. I tried to tell Marie-Violaine that I ate ratatouille and she was like "What are you saying????"). There were also these Indian dumpling things that reminded me of falafel. The dessert was like the weirdest thing I've ever tasted; it was like rice-pudding cake that was rose-flavored. As is the flower, rose. It was so weird. But it was good, I guess.
Today I had two hours of school, and tomorrow I'm going to Paris with my class. So hopefully I can update about that soon.
Ciao for now,
Halle
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Guess Who Made Page Six?
Yes, that would be me. And okay, it's only page six of the 'Paris-Normandie' newspaper, not the page six of the New York Post. But I was in the newspaper! There's a picture and everything. But more about that later.
Friday I went to dance after school. Once again, it was kind of hard, but that's okay. Amelia wasn't there because she was sick, but I talked to another girl in my class, Zoë (I think that is how to spell her name). After dance class I went home and ate dinner, not too exciting.
On Saturday I went to the Guérins' house to help sort through a bunch of rubbish that people brought for the flea market that was on Sunday. In Vernon on Sunday there was a huge flea market in the streets just like the one in Giverny last week except bigger. All the streets were shut down and it was like two miles long. Anyway, Rotary Youth Exchange had a table, with all profits going to our spending money that we get each month from Rotary. So on Saturday I helped Cathérine, Violaine, and Marcus sort through all the stuff and put price tags on everything. After that, I went with Marcus and three of his friends from school to get dinner. Their names were Marnie, Eline, and JB (I think, maybe those are their names, but I'm really bad at catching french names). We went to this kabob-restaurant that was really good. I talked to JB in English a bit and he asked me if I cried when Michael Jackson died. Also, Marnie and Eline asked me if I eat McDonald's all the time in the United States. That is the most common question I get from people here, besides "How do you pronounce your name???" and "Where are you from?". I said no because it's fattening, and they were like, "so? It's good!". French teenagers all love McDonalds a lot.
The giant flea market was on Sunday. I had to get up at 8, which was annoying. It was kind of cold in the morning, but then later it was really nice out. We sold a ton of rubbish, and really that's the right word for the stuff we were selling. At our table we had mostly old dishes, as well as three cases of California wine and three old bicycles. There were some old clothes and toys also. Joël and Cathérine told everyone that I brought the wine with me from California, so they sold like 30 bottles at 4€ each. It was probably not very good wine, but whatever. Marcus and Ophélie were wearing their Rotary blazers, which were all decorated of course with a bunch of pins from a bunch of different countries. I was wearing my Rotary blazer as well because they made me. This photographer from the journal Paris-Normandie came up to us and took a picture of us wearing our blazers, so that was how I got in the newspaper. So exciting, I know! (sarcasm) Cathérine made copies of the page (which really was page six), so I got one of those.
We had pizza for lunch and little cakes that some Rotarian gave us. Mine was like a strawberry shortcake... so good! In the afternoon I walked around for awhile to look at all the tables of rubbish, and I ran into Amelia, and later I talked to Ludivine for a couple of minutes.
The only things I bought at the market were pins for my blazer; Marcus found a guy selling these really good pins. So I bought 34 different pins... I got two Yves Saint Laurent pins, a Balenciaga Paris pin, a 100-year-anniversary of the Eiffel Tower pin, a bunch of different Coca-Cola and McDonald's pins, and a bunch more besides those.
We ended up making 475 €, which is very good considering we were selling junk that people gave us because they didn't want it.
On Monday I ate lunch at school with Julie, and I talked to her for like 45 minutes or longer in French, so that was good.
Tuesday after school I had a Rotary meeting, and I took some more packages of Nutella from the Hotel where the Rotary meetings are held. It's okay though, they don't really care.
Today (Wednesday) I only had two hours of school, which is always nice. I got the second and third Twilight books in English, so now I have something to read again during étude.
Okay, I have to go, but I am going to post again soon, maybe about la cuisine français (french food).
au revoir for now!
Halle
Friday I went to dance after school. Once again, it was kind of hard, but that's okay. Amelia wasn't there because she was sick, but I talked to another girl in my class, Zoë (I think that is how to spell her name). After dance class I went home and ate dinner, not too exciting.
On Saturday I went to the Guérins' house to help sort through a bunch of rubbish that people brought for the flea market that was on Sunday. In Vernon on Sunday there was a huge flea market in the streets just like the one in Giverny last week except bigger. All the streets were shut down and it was like two miles long. Anyway, Rotary Youth Exchange had a table, with all profits going to our spending money that we get each month from Rotary. So on Saturday I helped Cathérine, Violaine, and Marcus sort through all the stuff and put price tags on everything. After that, I went with Marcus and three of his friends from school to get dinner. Their names were Marnie, Eline, and JB (I think, maybe those are their names, but I'm really bad at catching french names). We went to this kabob-restaurant that was really good. I talked to JB in English a bit and he asked me if I cried when Michael Jackson died. Also, Marnie and Eline asked me if I eat McDonald's all the time in the United States. That is the most common question I get from people here, besides "How do you pronounce your name???" and "Where are you from?". I said no because it's fattening, and they were like, "so? It's good!". French teenagers all love McDonalds a lot.
The giant flea market was on Sunday. I had to get up at 8, which was annoying. It was kind of cold in the morning, but then later it was really nice out. We sold a ton of rubbish, and really that's the right word for the stuff we were selling. At our table we had mostly old dishes, as well as three cases of California wine and three old bicycles. There were some old clothes and toys also. Joël and Cathérine told everyone that I brought the wine with me from California, so they sold like 30 bottles at 4€ each. It was probably not very good wine, but whatever. Marcus and Ophélie were wearing their Rotary blazers, which were all decorated of course with a bunch of pins from a bunch of different countries. I was wearing my Rotary blazer as well because they made me. This photographer from the journal Paris-Normandie came up to us and took a picture of us wearing our blazers, so that was how I got in the newspaper. So exciting, I know! (sarcasm) Cathérine made copies of the page (which really was page six), so I got one of those.
We had pizza for lunch and little cakes that some Rotarian gave us. Mine was like a strawberry shortcake... so good! In the afternoon I walked around for awhile to look at all the tables of rubbish, and I ran into Amelia, and later I talked to Ludivine for a couple of minutes.
The only things I bought at the market were pins for my blazer; Marcus found a guy selling these really good pins. So I bought 34 different pins... I got two Yves Saint Laurent pins, a Balenciaga Paris pin, a 100-year-anniversary of the Eiffel Tower pin, a bunch of different Coca-Cola and McDonald's pins, and a bunch more besides those.
We ended up making 475 €, which is very good considering we were selling junk that people gave us because they didn't want it.
On Monday I ate lunch at school with Julie, and I talked to her for like 45 minutes or longer in French, so that was good.
Tuesday after school I had a Rotary meeting, and I took some more packages of Nutella from the Hotel where the Rotary meetings are held. It's okay though, they don't really care.
Today (Wednesday) I only had two hours of school, which is always nice. I got the second and third Twilight books in English, so now I have something to read again during étude.
Okay, I have to go, but I am going to post again soon, maybe about la cuisine français (french food).
au revoir for now!
Halle
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