Monday I went to class at La Sorbonne. After that, I came home and sent my resumes to 2 French wineries. I should hear from them soon and then I'll be able to figure out if I'm staying the summer or not. I really want to though. I think the 'provincial' French experience would be an amazing complement to living in busy Paris.
I met Dana Bernstein Monday afternoon. Her friends went to Barcelona and she was leaving the next day for Vienna so she stayed at my apartment. We went to the Pompidou, the Museum of Modern Art. It was unbelievable! 8 euro to get in, which isn't cheap for the student price, but well worth it. We first visited a temporary exhibit of Ron Arad, an Israeli artist/architect/furniture designer. His stuff was really cool! My grandma (Nonni) would love it...very modern and bold. He had models of all his designs, a bunch in Israel and all over the world. He designed a really cool bridge for the 2012 Olympics in London. Then we went to the permenant exhibit upstairs. 1905 - now. It took us a long time to walk through everything...there is A LOT to see. But everything was very cool: Photography, painting, sculpture, movies, sounds, random white canvases that were 'art'. One of my favorites was a room designed by Dubuffet, called "Jardin d'Hiver" or "Winter Garden". it was this really disorienting igloo type thing that you would walk around in. The elevation was all jumbled and it was really cool. There was also a really cool room made by another Israeli artist that was all different colors. I had a great time at the Pompidou and definitely recommend it to anyone who comes to Paris.
Dana and I went home and bought some wine, cheese and bread on the way. 3 other girls came over, along with my roommate, and we cooked dinner. Salad, sautéed vegetables, and chicken alfredo on pasta. Very good. We had a long, French dinner and by the time we finished, it was 11:30. We were going to go out but it we were all so tired by then so we went to bed. Dana left really early the next morning and I had class.
After class on Tuesday, I finally did LAUNDRY! It was not cheap, about 20 euro when it was all said and done. There is a laverie (laundromat) a 2 minute walk from my apartment so that was great. I had to run to an ATM though because they wouldn't take certain types of money...very random. I did laundry, skyped with a bunch of people, then Justin and I went to a bar in the Bastille to meet some people from our program for the Barcelona-Lyon soccer game. We wanted to watch Arsenal but it wasn't on TV anywhere so we stayed for the Barcelona-Lyon game. It was great! Thierry Henry plays for Barcelona and he's a French legend...the game was a 1-1 tie, an upset because Barcelona is really good. I got to speak French with a bunch of people...I spoke with this one guy about how the French are pretty much cold to anyone who isn't 'pure' French. He was born in France but he's Moroccan and he said he's never felt accepted by French general society. It was pretty interesting. The French aren't necessarily racist but they don't really open up easily to anyone outside of their own racial/religious background.
Today, Wednesday, was legit spring. It was 50 degrees outside, not a cloud in the sky, and just gorgeous. I had my art history class today which is going to be very interesting. We learned about neo-classicalism today and the French painter David. After class, I went for a run in Parc Montsouris. It was full of people, very fun.
I'm going to Amsterdam this weekend, my first real trip in Europe. I am going with a whole bunch of people on my program..it should be very fun. France is great, miss you guys, take care. Aaron
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