A couple more

Me on New Years, just walkin' around in the streets.
The tracks of my Metro Station, from above. I live by the newest line, so it's super nice and all fancy looking!
The pyramid in front of the Louvre. It's hard to get a good picture of it w/o a tripod, but here it is nonetheless!
Some lights running the lenth of rue Mouffetard, where I rang in the New Year at a bar with my host sister and some of her friends.
The cake after Christmas dinner. It was humongous, and amazing! It was a rum cake with layers of jam, covered in cream cheese icing and walnuts!
You saw the empty table earlier, so here's a picture of part of it during the actual dinner, full of people!
This is one of my "host brothers" Olivier, who I never really see. He's got two kids, and is a Chef somewhere. He's in the middle of shaving pieces of dried ham (raw, of course) from a pig leg. There's a hoof underneath the towel he's using to grip the leg!

So blogspot is being funny, and I'm not sure why it loaded this picture twice. But for some reason, I can't delete this one without deleting all the pictures. I'll just leave it here, and use this opportunity to mention that that pig hoof (from the ankle down, anyway) is to this day still sitting in our refrigerator. Who knows why...

Mostly Christmas Pictures

Christmas Eve: the table before the celebratory meal. To save you the trouble of counting, that's 27 place settings. On the menu (among other things): rivers of fine wines and champagne, dried pork (shaved from pig leg by Olivier), foie gras, turkey, raw salmon (not smoked), truffle salad, real caviar, nine types of cheese, bread, rum cake with jam layers, coffee, and fine chocolates.
Jean-Jacques telling Father Christmas that he'd been "wise enough" this year. (That's actually his brother-in-law under the suit.) Everybody (and I mean everyone) recieved a present from Santa upon sitting on his lap, declaring that they'd been wise (the equivalent of "good), and giving him a kiss. You can also see four-year-old Maxime right next to them--he's my buddy, grandson of my host parents.
Rue de Rivoli lit up before Christmas. Interesting hanging lights, I thought. They went on for quite a while. You can also see the BHV (a big department store) all decorated.
My favorite accordionist. He plays every night at this corner, at the start of a bridge just next to Notre Dame. You run into quite a few accordionists in Paris--but this one's really good.
Notre Dame with it's Christmas tree (sapin, in French).A different view.
Hotel de Ville and some lights on the Seine.
My friend Molly and I. Molly and I were in the same freshman seminar course at Berry last fall, and met up in Paris this holiday when she was on her way home from a semester in England.

A few more

The table at one of my very favorite cafés in Paris--Café Jenny. It's got a semi-American name, but don't let that fool you--it's quite French.

The host dad, Jean-Jacques. He's quite the unique *crazy* man, and I love him. Note the monocle. Yes, he wears a monocle. Chantal, the host mom. What can I say? She's very maternal, and quite nice. She cooks me yummy dinners.
A piece of the Champs Elysées lit up before Christmas. If you look carefully to the back, you can see a little bit of the Arc de Triomphe.
La Sainte Chapelle--the windows in this place are amazing.
More pretty windows.
A little canal in Chartres, in November. (Chartres is a small town in northern France, known for it's cathedral.)

Pére Noël climbing up an old building, also in Chartres. Some of the very first Christmas decorations of the year.

Some more pictures...

Omaha Beach? Or maybe Utah, I'm not exactly sure. Anyway, this is part of one of the D-Day beaches. And American soil now, technically--as this part and the American cemetery were given to the US by the French. I guess as close to home as I'll get for a while ;)
Where some German Soldiers used to hide out.

Cliffs near the Normandy Beaches. (This is actually Pont du Hoc, where there were lots of german bunkers and such.)

My good friend Amy and I. We're at a cidre tasting at a little place in the middle of this marshy field, and you can see Mont Saint Michel behind us. I love this picture!

For a change in location and theme, a few pictures of where I live. This, believe it or not is the entrance to where I live. The dark green. As you can see, it used to be a store, with an apartment behind. The family has since turned the store space into apartment-type areas for various members of the family, and then the actuall house starts pretty far back, and is three stories--with a really cool cave/basement to boot.

This is what you see as soon as you open that big green metal door. This hallway is open to the sky, and usually has lots of laundry drying in it. The house proper begins when you go through that blue door at the end. The ladder leads up to Anne and Manu's apartment, just above where I was standing, with the grandmother's and other daughter's living spaces to the left.

Once again, blogspot is acting up and not letting me put up any more pictures. I'll try again another day!

Joyeux Noël!

Alright, everyone. I know it's been ages since I updated...in fact, it's been so long that I can only hope anyone still checks this thing... Anyway, plenty's been going on, it's just that I haven't been inspired to recount it all. Even now I'm feeling pretty lazy, so I'm going to post some pictures, and hope that that will do for now. Deal? Deal. Oh, and I have pictures from the actual Christmas Eve dinner (the big celebration here), but I can't find my camera cable at the moment. So, get ready to see everything just up to Christmas!

In November, our organization took us on a trip to Normandy, a region in France known for it's fromage (Camembert), apples and apple products, and the monastery/abbey of Mont St. Michel. This place is built on a big rock in the middle of a terribly marshy area--at low tide, it looks like this from the abbey--during high tide the water rushes in ridiculously fast and makes the place an island. It's one of the 8 wonders of the modern world, I hear.

A few of us at the foot of Mont St. Michel, in a parkinglot that will be flooded come high tide. Matt in the back, me, Yasmin, and Courtney. It was really windy, hence the clutching of scarves and blowing of hair.

And this is what we were facing when the other picture was taken. Marshy, eh? Oh, and kinda pretty, I think.

Ok, my computer is officially refusing to upload more pictures. For now, look at these, and be on the lookout for more!

It's been a while!

Now that it's officially the second half of November (How did that happen?! *dumbfounded astonishment*), I suppose it's about time for an update. I haven't written too much lateley, I suppose because I've found myself settling into the dailiness of life, not being involved in too much outside of what has become my "ordinary." I will now proceed with the generic update of Emilee's vie Parisienne:

School is...just school. I know that sounds completely anticlimactic, since I am technically here to "study." But we all know that my learning experience this year is very loosely based on my formal studies. This is probably the easiest semester, academically, that I've had in a looooong time. I'm enrolled in nine hours of French Language, three hours of Oral French, and three hours of History of French Cinema--for those of you who were interested in my coursework. Technically a full-time student, but in reality, there is much less required of me by my professors here. I have a feeling this is partly due to the fact that they know each student is foreign, and is therefore quite consumed with trying to carry on some semblance of normal life while adapting to a new environment--a large part of which is putting into practice the concepts we learn in grammar class. Of course, I'm thankful that the academics are not demanding--because the rest of my "learning" experience (ie my entire life here) requires quite a bit of energy. Speaking and hearing French constantly, slowly assimilating my little American self into Parisian culture, etc--these things can be quite draining, but are nonetheless rewarding. I think that's enough about school.

This past week has brought winter to Paris. It's been a very unusually temperate/warm autumn here, but it is finally time for scarves and gloves and sore throats and rosy cheeks--for good. The change in season brings with it all the typical sensations and memories that a change in season does, with the exception that this year, it's happening in Paris, and I'm adding new "winter signs" to my reperatoire. Now, in addition to hot chocolate and fog and soup, winter smells like roasting chestnuts at my metro stop (yes, like in the song), feels like sweat dripping down my back on line 4 (half the population of Paris in one metro car + winter layers - air conditioning = HOT), tastes like hot crepes on the street (ok, so maybe every season so far has its share of crepes ;) well...I suppose you get the idea.

To be honest, I'm just not very much in a writing mood, so ideas are neither flowing nor presenting themselves in an interesting manner. Maybe someday soon. For now, you'll all just have to content yourselves with half-done descriptions of daily life.

Thanksgiving is coming up (as I'm sure I don't need to inform you), but the French, in general, do need informing of this fact. To help our host family appreciate this great holiday, D'yon, Matt, and I are preparing to cook a special meal for them. Well, as close as we can get, anyway. I'll have to let you know how it all turns out--at the very least, there should be some pumpkin pie!

I like French food. That's really all that needs to be said about that.

Quoi d'autre...? Speaking French is still hard, and quite the frustrating process. I feel like (as I've been told is completely normal) that I've hit a plateau in learning and improving my communication skills--but fortunately, there are people around me who attest to my progress, even though it's very hard for me to see at this point. And I suppose they're right. It's the same with anything one learns--when you start, things seem to be going along just smashingly, everything attainable, but there comes a point where the true education begins--when you start to realize just how much you don't know, after all. The more you learn, the more painfully aware you are of the mistakes you've been making all along, and it's easy not to see the improvement that comes along with recognizing those errors. The same thing happened when I played flute. To everyone else, you sound like you're improving, though somehow, to yourself, you sound worse than ever. So, all that to say I think it's a good thing that I'm constantly being confronted by my incompetence in this language. I think it's safe to bet that that means I'm learning.

Oh, I almost forgot! Last weekend we (meaning the ISA crew) went to Normandy. Did the Normandy stuff--Mont-St-Michel (one of the seven wonders of the modern world, I believe), D-Day beaches and American cemetery, cidre et fromage, saw lots and lots of cows, realized that the countryside of Normandy resembles very much the hills in Tennessee, etc. It was a good weekend, overall. I hope I'm not sounding blasée about all that, because that's certainly not the case. It's just that I'm tiring of writing, and hope to expand a little more on what we saw when I get some pictures up.

Alright, after quite a few lines of mundane updateness, I'm going to go to sleep. It has been long enough since the last update, that's for sure. So...

Bonne Nuit, tout le monde!

Bonnes Fêtes de Toussaints!

To celebrate All Saints' Day (a national holiday in France, which means, once again, NO SCHOOL), I have decided to grace you all with some more random pictures. Sorry, don't have any from Barcelona, yet--but I do have quite a few sitting in little files from weeks gone by that need posting! So (in no particular order)...

A view of Paris from the Seine. What more do I need to say here? I could mention that if you look carefully to the left, you'll see a spire and a tower--that's Notre Dame, on the other end of the Ile de France.

On the side of the pathway leading to Chenonceau, one of the Chateaux we visited earlier this month on the trip to the Loire Valley. Nothing too special, just sweet and idyllic-looking. The biggest deal for me that day was that it wasn't asphalt or concrete! (I'm finding that I enjoy life in the city much more than I ever expected, but I still do miss the open outdoors from time to time.)

Notre Dame on Nuit Blanche (The night in October that I wrote about earlier--where everything stays open). The blue you see is a projection of Jesus, with outstretched arms, if you can't quite tell. This was just for Nuit Blanche...and I must admit we found it a bit bizarre.

I really enjoyed taking pictures of the flamethrowers who had situated themselves just in front of Notre Dame on Nuit Blanche. Nothing could have thrilled this little pyromaniac's heart more! If I let myself go crazy, you'd probably have quite a few pictures of the flamethrowers to look at, but I'm going to exert a little self control, and move onto something else! Oh, also--if you see the little blue blobs in the background, they're streetlamps whose bulbs had been replaced with blue ones for the festivities.

Ok, my computer has officially refused to upload any more pictures. I don't know why. I think I'll publish these, and see if it will cooperate if I start a new entry...

Let's try this one more time...

Hopefully I'll be able to finish uploading pictured. *crosses fingers*

Yessssssssss...I'll pick back up with the Loire, I think.

Chateau Chambord. This place is massive--it even has a moat! Mostly constructed during the 16th century, I think, and built on a really marshy area, where the hunting was good for good ol' Roi Francois 1er.

This is a small chapel at another chateau, Amboise. This building is where Leonardo da Vinci lives. Or rather, where his bones live. just to the left of the picture, and in the floor, is the artist/inventor's grave.

Cathedral of St. Martin, in Tours. It's really a beautiful building, and was made that much more amazing by the fact that clear morning light was streaming in through all of the stained-glass and regular glass windows. And the choir was having practice while we were there, which was beautiful. Have I ever mentioned that I'm becoming somewhat of a cathedral junkie? I love being in them, especially when there is music echoing back and forth through the vaults and columns and domed ceilings...

A little part of the same cathedral. Just some columns and some morning!

Another "cathedral" of sorts--where faithful worshipers gather regularly...Stade de France. Suffice it to say--soccer is BIG here. Maybe even bigger than American football is in the States. Fun, fun night, though.

This is the courtyard at "La Catho"--ie, school. Somewhere that I haven't spent very much time, comparatively ;) This is where we usually meet up for lunch before heading around back for classes. Nothing really spectacular, but there it is.

And finally, just some fun pictures of friends!

Maureen in the wine cave in the Loire.

Emilee and Amy, also in the cave!

David and Joanna facing Notre Dame on Nuit Blanche. I really like this picture :)

Let's see...I know this will mean nothing to you, but...for my own satisfaction and entertainment, I'm going to name everybody in the picture who's standing on the Eiffel tower! Left to right: Joanna, Courtney, Amy, Matt, Emilee, D'yon, and Alexis.

A Sort of Homecoming...

It occurred to me yesterday on the plane, how odd it seemed that I was experiencing the familiar feelings of peaceful anticipation that accompany a return "home" from vacation. The oddness didn't come from the feelings themselves, though-- it came instead from the realization that I was experiencing them on my way to Paris, France. I had spent a wonderful week in Barcelona, but was by no means upset at the idea of settling back in to the familiar--my own bed, streets and a metro system I know, a language that I'm at least basically functional in (I thought my Spanish was bad--Català was an entirely different issue)--you get the idea. Here's the point: somehow I'm making Paris my home. Leaving it was one of the first real indications of that, and I find this both wonderful and...bizarre. Since when does Emilee Head call some town in Europe home?

That said, I think it's time to backtrack and discuss the trip itself. This is where I start wishing I had some pictures to post--I think having them would aid me in the recap/explanation. But alas, I wasn't able to recharge my camera batteries, and have to wait until a couple of kind friends share theirs with me. Or perhaps I will find some pictures online, just to make do.

I left home for the aeroport fairly early on Sunday morning, thankful for the clear, relatively warm weather that made getting places nearly hassle-less. Loaded myself and my backpack (light packer!) onto a garish orange plane (cheap tickets!), and arrived in the outskirts of Barcelona a little after lunchtime. I had flown in on my own, so read and listened to my ipod in baggage claim until my friends' plane arrived. (I spent the trip with three friends who are here with the same organization--David, Courtney, and Joanna.) By the time we found our hostel a few hours later, we were excited to throw down our bags and stretch out for a late-afternoon nap.

Around eight, we ventured out to see what kind of food we could scrounge up at such an early hour (most places in Barcelona don't serve dinner until at least nine in the evening). We walked a couple of blocks onto La Rambla (a wide avenue running north to south towards the sea, full of outdoor dining at night and street perfomers, flower and bird markets, and tourists during the day). For dinner: TAPAS. I had never had tapas before, so it was quite fun (and yummy) to do it with my friends. In case you don't know what tapas is, it's basically ordering lots and lots of appetizers to share around the table as the main meal. In Barcelona, this means patatas bravas, calamari, olives, cheese, prawns, etc. And yes, I ate seafood and liked it. Who'dve ever thunk it? After our late dinner, we met up with a friend of Joanna's from the States, who took us to a very cool jazz club, where we spent our time listening, screaming at each other over the music, and dancing until around 3h30.

Ok, I'm starting to realize a couple of things about this play-by-play I'm providing for you. Number one, it's probably not a very fun way to read about my trip. Number two, I'm not in the mood to post a six-thousand word entry. So. I'm going to start consolidating!

In addition to Barcelona's inherent coolness (and probably due, in part, to) is its location. In case you didn't know, that location is in the south east of Spain, on the Mediterranean Sea. Barcelona has a very carefree, casual air about it. It seems to be more about fun than sophistication, and I attribute this, in part, to the fact that it's located at the Sea, and enjoys temperate weather all year. Yes, more than once, we went down to the beach (at the end of October!) and just enjoyed the sand (we also "enjoyed" the sand long after leaving the beach ;), breezes, and...what am I doing? You all know how cool the beach is. The water of the Mediterranean was a deep blue--not the opaque gray of the Atlantic. Beautiful. Did I mention all of this was within walking distance from our hostel?

I mentioned walking distance--and we did a lot of that. It was quite nice, though, to be able to get most places on foot, enjoying the beautiful weather, and having the opportunity to see the city from above ground. The buildings in Barcelona are nice, in general--many of them are quite ornate, with intricate cast-iron balconies, large shutters, and the like. Every once in a while on the Passeig de Gràcia, however, you stumble upon one of Gaudí's masterpieces--sinuous, organic façades both fantastic and strange. It's been said that he created architecture's version of Art Nouveau. His façades make up only a small part of Gaudí's extensive presence in the city, though. We also trekked up to the park he designed in the hills, Parc Guëll, and walked around the Sagrada Familia church, which he designed and began--but is still under construction. Maybe I'll get some pictures up eventually, but just in case I don't, and in case you don't know what all of this looks like--you should look up some pictures. I'm not even pretending to do a good job of describing this stuff to you, and even if I was--you'd need to see it, anyway.

I'm getting quite tired of typing this entry, to be honest. I hope I've managed to give some slight idea of my trip to Barcelona, even though I've done a bit of a shoddy job with my writing. Forgive me? I'm just finding it very frustrating to put my experience of this trip into writing at the moment. So. Bona Noche! (That's Catalàn.)

Just in from Barcelona

Just arrived back home from Barcelona this morning! Due to crazy plane schedules and such, I haven't really slept in a while, and am getting ready to go to bed. But I did want to leave a quick "anouncement" of my whereabouts earlier this week. Until I have more energy/time, suffice it to say that Barcelona was an amazing place, full of incredible experiences enjoyed with friends! Five days of lazing, eating, sight-seeing, walking, beach-bumming (on the MEDITERRANEAN), and other choice activities. This vacation from school (which stretches until this coming Wednesday) was probably the least-deserved break I've ever had, and I've been relishing every moment of it! So... à très bientôt...

Bonne nuit!

Les titres m'embête...

I've had some trouble lately, trying to edit the old entries by adding pictures. So. I've given up on my prefered system of organizing photos on this site, and have decided simply to make a new entry, with lots of pictures from all over. So...Enjoy!

Musée d'Orsay: This clock is a working clock on the top floor of this old train station-turned-art museum. From the street, you can't really tell that it also functions as a fancy "window." It looked very cool from the dim indoors, especially since it was so bright outside--lots of light and contrast. Oh, and those are my friends in front of it!

A view of the Musée d'Orsay from a top floor. You can see very well in this picture that this building was originally purposed as a train station--like a much cleaner, less confusing Milano Centrale, without the trains.

Le Grand Palais. This is its roof, as seen from the Seine (we went on one of those touristy Bateaux Mouches). Le Grand Palais is an exhibition building (steel and glass structure) built, I think, around the beginning of the 20th century. It's been closed for restoration since 1993, and won't be finished until 2007. They did, however, open it up for a week or so in September, the first time people could go in since I was 7. We thought it quite nice that things were timed that way, since the next time it's open to the public will be in a couple of years!

Inside the Grand Palais at night. this is the ceiling, and amazing and graceful structure. Entering this place was worth the long line--a very surreal atmosphere. The lights changing every so often, mirrors, and eerie arrangements of classical music echoing around us...Very cool.

Looking out over the gardens at Versailles. Probably the most manicured, cultivated area not inside a building that I've ever seen. Ridiculously expansive, too. Actually, all of Versailles seems that way. It's the gaudiest, most extravagant place I've ever been. The castle goes on forever, every doorway and every inch of wall covering, each painting and bedspread the result of gross amounts of money, and intricate artwork/craftsmanship. You wonder about the man who had it all commissioned...

All right, I've got to go to class, believe it or not. So I'll stop posting pictures here, and hopefully pick it back up soon!