Victime(s) de la Mode tel est son nom de code?

So it has been an uneventful week here in the land of wine and cheese. But instead of dwelling on the negative I choose to show you some strange aspects of french fashion.

1.) High fashion is not limited only to adults there are MANY fashion stores dedicated to le BÉBÉ.

This particular one sells both. But along Boulevard St. Germain there are at least 4 kid clothing boutiques. I'll try to get a picture some day...

oh and the prices for these outfits? Each one is over 300 euros if you get the whole outfit.

<-- That's Anne-Laure my french "buddy" or mentor who is supposed to help me figure out Sciences-Po. However, I've decided to figure out Sciences-Po you must first remove your brain and put it into a jar labelled abby something...but she tries.

2.) This lovely mannequin decided the perfect accent to her outfit today would be a lovely rug. Unfortunately that outfit is somewhere in the 400s. 

another unfortunate thing is this is supposedly in style and variations on this look are found in windows across the city... and on a very unfortunate old lady who ended up looking like an oversized chia pet. 

Keyboard fun

Here's a photo of a french keyboard! I found 27 differences- can you find them all? 

Partying Portuguese style-Mariana's Birthday

It was my friend Mariana's birthday and being portuguese she invited us out to a Portuguese restaurant for her birthday dinner. Typical dishes include a lot of Cod and a lot of Pork. (And also other seafood seeing as it is a coastal country). 

Despite the fact that portuguese people can understand spanish almost perfectly I can not understand a single thing that is said in portuguese. It is much more closely related (at least in sound) to Romanian! The first picture is everyone at the restaurant. Including 6 Portuguese, 2 Greeks, 2 Americans,  1 Taiwanese, and 1 japanese! Fairly Diverse crowd. Unfortunately I was sitting on the portuguese side of the table so they were constantly having to translate what they were saying for me! 

2.)This is mariana and Mika and YiChun. (They were in my welcome program group)  

3.)Mika is sad in the picture because she is always the last person to get her meal!

4.) Why not get a picture with the Arc and the birthday girl! She is very pro-european union and she was happy to see that the french had not only an enormous french flag but also an enormous EU flag hung under the arc. But unfortunately my camera wasn't behaving so you can't really tell and it gave everyone red eye!

5.) horay for the two americans!

6.)Mariana and for lack of greek spelling Jennifer.

7.) 2 portuguese and 2 greeks Joel, Joanna, Mariana, and Jennifer

8.) Mariana, Me, Diogo, and Joel (#2) 

sorry the pictures got all mixed up and the captions don't exactly line up... but I'm sure you can figure it out!

Exams

Today I was e-mailed my schedule of exams. I have two 2 hour exams one at 8 am and the other at 2pm, and then I have a 4 hour exam from 8:30 until 12:30 (I think-the title of the class was the closest to mine so perhaps I don't have an exam in that class.)
But I was completely shocked to see that people had 7 hour exams. In these exams you are expected to write a dissertation from you head that is more than likely supposed to be longer than 10 pages-I zould like to stress the lack of additional materials for research. I think that some teachers do allow for books but not all of them! thank goodness I'm not in any of their classes!

Whitwhicky's Back!

 Where Did we go today?

Chartres!

of course we have to pull out the good ole Rick Steve's book to see where to go!

 While on the train from Paris to Chartres we did our homework...

The train station! Mom had fall break and so she and dad (although the pictures with him were on their camera-but I promise he's there)

came to visit and see what it is to be parisian. 

This is the giant cathedral that pretty much dominates all the surrounding countryside.

Rue Sainte Meme. * So the french pronunciation might be a little different but it is SAINTE with an e making it feminine MEME! So Meme this picture is for you. However your street is very short... sorry! And I didn't get the chance to take the picture of the Sainte Meme mannequin.

The lovely front of the cathedral... and it's scaffolding. Yay!

Pretty candles.

The cathedral is famous for it's stained glass windows. They were pretty impressive.

We climbed the 300 Stairs to see the view up top. 

It unfortunately didn't include quasimodo 

Funky looking building, I think it might be an art museum

Kids playing duck duck goose.

View of the countryside.

Gargoyle

Gargoyle- little kids ran away.

Going down the 300 stairs makes one dizzy.

Goodbye Chartes, it was a lovely day.

The guardian angel looking over the city.

Friday Night-not at the Louvre

Tonight we went to go see a movie and we also got some sushi! Very exciting night. The movies here cost about the sameish as not paying the student price at the Very expensive movie theaters back in the States- 7 euro and with the current exchange rate (horay for it dropping) it cost me about $9.45.  French theaters play a lot of movies in V.O. or version orginale meaning it will be in a foreign language with french subtitles and that works out well for me because the movie we saw was in english! (Vicky and Christina in Barcelona-very different movie but funny)

Then we went on a little walk around paris and just seeing what was going on around town. 

Photos: 1.) Samantha, Ashley and a little bit of Emily as we stand on the bridge discussing where to go. It's a little shaky because I wanted to capture the building in the background more and it was lost when I used the flash. 

2.) Left bank of Paris along the Seine all illuminated.

3.) A Bateau Mouche glides down the Seine.

Apparently yesterday someone caught a 2 1/2 foot salmon in the Seine. 

It was a pretty night and it was fairly warm outside. I'm excited because it is supposed to be in the 70's all this week and sunny after being pretty cold.

Jealous?

Just because we are college students poor and living in Paris doesn't mean that we have to starve! Hitting up the markets for fresh food can save a lot of money and in the end is a lot better food than in some of the super markets!

I made the Tech girls in Paris a delicious salmon in beurre rouge and with mashed potatoes and haricots verts (green beans). 

So again I have to remind everyone to learn how to make at least one meal brilliantly and then when you have the chance to make it you can really impress some people!

There are plenty of websites out there with recipes so just google your favorite dish and perhaps add simple on the end or quick and easy and you will find a recipe that will be amazing!

Friday Night Lights

I went to the louvre on friday night because it is free for students-but for some reason I'm not able to load pictures from that so... I'm lacking stuff to write about.

Sorry.

 batdog

So my first week of classes went well. I don't think they are going to be as difficult as I had been warned but I imagine that if I had taken the recommended load of 8 classes then my head would be exploding right now from information overload. 

I got my french class changed but unfortunately I now have class on friday- the good side is that it is in the morning  10-12 so I still have the afternoon  and what not. 

I moved into my apartment on tuesday and I promise I'll post more pictures but I'll start off with these three. 1.) Picture out of my window- hopefully I'll be able to catch mary poppins and her band of merry chimney sweeps dancing one night!

2.) Samantha's moment of exhaustion after lugging her Enormous suitcase up 2 flights of stairs and around town.

3.) My window again... haha yay window.

Mission Accomplished

Horay! the day has finally come where I can say that I have officially moved in! Not only that but also I also started classes today! Wohoo! Only 9 more months of class left. (Yes I am always this pessimistic about classes)

French courses are 2 hours long- big difference than my beloved 50 min. classes. Plus one of my classes is in an amphitheater with THE most uncomfortable seating EVER. 

One of my classes was a lecture course in english and the professor wants to create the anglo-saxon atmosphere were students are free to interrupt and ask questions and participation is encouraged. My other class is a french lecture class and basically the guy just sits in a chair with a microphone and lectures for 2 hours- this is also the class with uncomfortable seats. Yay france.