french letters

Adieu Paris!

2008-06-27T12:01:00.003-04:00

Bonjour Mesdames and Messieurs, you've just popped into the final installment of Anshu's parisian blog. You can calm down, I plan on continuing while in Barcelona and Morocco. This is currently being written from my roomates computer because a) my computer sucks and the wireless broke and b) I am no longer in possession of it. I am pretty much all packed and set to go- I know its so wild. Let me recap the past few days for you all, or how I like to say in the dirty south: y'all.

Monday: We went to the opera y'all. It was pretty good, and there were like subtitles in French but it made it easier to understand. It was straight but McDonalds after the opera was honestly the best part.

Tuesday: We had to write a story about a movie so I did an impressive summary of the Lion King. I think Annick my grammar teacher was thoroughly impressed by the fact that Simba did not end up killing Scar. I mean I know I was. We watched this movie on gay identity in french class called Drole de Felix, it was better than listening to DC my teacher so yes. We went to mexican food and the notre dame but the mexican was not very impressive so not worthy of caps this time around and then we went out to Muefftard for a little while and we met an engineer fully dressed in this costume?

Wednesday: OH MY GOD THE SALES STARTED AND I SOLD MY SOUL TO LONGCHAMP. i couldnt help it, there was a sale. sorry. i love a good sale. Oh we went to the ballet at the famous Opera Garnier it was really good but the seats were so uncomfortable.

Thursday: We had a test in DC's class. Probably bombed it- sweet. We went on a three mile walk in the Luxemburg gardens it was nice.

I know this blog post sucks, expect a better one soon.

Good things come to those who wait- I mean weather.

2008-06-23T07:03:00.002-04:00

Alrite friends I left off by telling you we visited the Eiffel Tower, that was five days ago, much has passed since then. My loser brother is now also in Europe, so those of you abroad- watch out.
On Thursday the 19th we went to class, and had a surprise dictee. Are you kidding me? Whatever but then we came back and I needed to nap. If you know me, that would not come as a surprise to you at all. We went to the Holocaust museum which was really interesting because I had never really heard about it from the French point of view and so much history went down there. We were there for a little too long and I was still Anshu sick but wait for it, here it comes....WE FOUND MEXICAN FOOD. yes, it is worthy of the caps. If you were vegetarian in France you would caps it too. My body was literally rotting from all the bread and cheese and it was so good. It was like god was intervening and rewarding me for my good behavior. I am not overreacting.
On the 20th, we had a test in grammar. She is really piling on the work. We took a sweet pic with our phonetics teacher though. We didnt know her name, so we were like "uh madame, phonetics can we take a pic?" all in french of course, we keep it real over here. Then i took a nap, duh. We went to the Musee d'orsay where our tour was in french. It would have sucked but the guy had a spanish accent which made it surprisingly easier to understand his french. It was less like nasaly and just better. I got some sweet posters from there. And then we babysat for this Chapel Hill family that night which was soo fun. I watched Sex and the City in French. We caught the last metro home. that was wild.
Saturday- Fete de la musique! We woke up and were so hungry and we went to crepe a gogo for lunch and I got a goat cheese salad. Its good, not gross, so stop cringing. I was about to go back to the foyer but we ran into the rest of the group at the luxemburg gardens so we went shopping. We found this cool sneaker store called Sprint. I know, that could be really confusing like if you needed a phone and you walked in and saw sneakers. I know, wild. But apparently they dont really sell my size in France, I know I'm like big foot but come on, really? Lame. We kept along and we found a CHAPELIER store. I went in and I was literally hyperventilating because I had too many options. Overwhelmed, we stepped out of the store so I could get some air. Little did I know that to the left of the Chapelier store was the LONGCHAMP store. Are you kidding me? This is like a heart attack waiting to happen. I knew it was game over. I went to Longchamp and I purchased a new bag. It's beautiful. We went back to Chapelier but I couldn't decide what color to get. If you have suggestions please comment, or comment anyway so I know someone is reading this thing. But we got back and got ready for Fete de la musique which is this series of concerts all over the city. It was really awesome and we saw so many things like black gospel and this rock band. I came back pretty early because I was so tired but it was so awesome. We got a cool picture in front of pantheon but my lame friends untagged it but I'm going to post it anyway.
22- Sunday. So tired from the night before. Everything in France is closed on Sunday. We went to the grocery store- closed. We went to McDo, out of salads. We went to this good pasta place and I came back and lied down. Then we went out the champs elysees and hung out at the Virgin Megastore for a while. It was so cool, listening to records in Paris. Sidenote: The new Coldplay cd rules, and I also really enjoyed Santogold and the Madonna cd. The group went to go see Forgetting Sarah Marshall but I'd seen it. So we walked to the Louvre and went to our friends mom apartment for a great dinner. And then we went to the top of the arc de triomphe. It is undoubtedly the best view of the whole city. I highly recommend it for anyway who is not afraid of heights. Also be prepared to walk up about seven flights of stairs. After the buttholes class we are going to the opera which should be really fun! It's 3.5 hours long, but dude I grew up with Bollywood. I doubt that will be a challenge for me. I miss daal.

alright I know its been 13 days

2008-06-18T16:55:00.003-04:00

Apologies on the delay my faithful blog readers, I have been a little occupied. Luckily for all of you folks, I've begun keeping a journal so I can update you on the crucial things that happened in my life in the last thirteen days. Since the computer tells me my last update was on the fifth, i think it would be the most appropriate to recommence with the sixth.
6- We went to this Sophie Calle exhibit. She's this extreme artist who got broken up with and got responses about her break up letter from a bunch of women. Just to emphasize the diversity let me tell you that Feist and a Bhartnatyam dancer both submitted responses. Then we went out and the place we went had Indian or I guess turkish toilets. Luckily I am a pro.
7- We walked in the Luxemburg gardens and had a spagetti lunch. We thought it would be nice to get all dressed up and go to the champs- elysee but we didnt realize it would be freezing and so our dresses just went to waste. we got back and went to this cool canadian place and a not so cool salsa place. It was like Dirty Dancing Havana Nights but not cool. I dont know what it was.
8- We took the metro all the way to Galeries LaFayette to only discover everthing is closed on sundays. Lame. I read Proust all day.
9- I paid a euro for one banana, that is ridiculous. Also my butthole of a teacher goes, "I'm kind of a Proust Scholar." The Galeries LaFayette was open but nothing much affordable.
10- We had class outside because it was soo nice outside. We made dinner and ate up on the terrace and watched the sun set on Paris. WE went out for a little while but came home pretty early.
11- I went running today and found out how disgustingly out of shape I was. We went to Montmartre to study for our verbs quiz and it was fun. I saw the Sacre Coeur and things. I also went on a hunt for ranch dressing
12- We FOUND TOFU. amazing. we made dinner and it was soo good. This is the day I started to get Anshu sick though.
13- Butthole teachers first test takes me 2.5 hours to complete. Too sick to go out. Full on Anshu Sick.
14- We went to Mont St. Michel. When i grow up I think I may want to live in a monastery. What an awesome view. Gosh. Seriously google Mont Saint Michel- you will not be disappointed, I promise. Then we went to St. Malo and I got this awesome mariner tee shirt, you can compare this town to like Beaufort?
15- NORMANDY. We went to Omaha beach, the site of D-Day. It was surreal. Amazing There were so many graves there. It was so weird. Plus I was snotting everywhere and I got caught in the rain. Afterwards we went to Caen, to the WWII museum and that was really cool. We got back to Paris at night.
16- I went to the supermarket to look for something that would stop making me Anshu Sick.
17- My friends mom is in town. She had the goods. Awesome dinner.
18- Eiffel Tower!

Ugg boots would be so crucial.

2008-06-05T06:00:00.003-04:00

So really, June in Paris is like December in NC. No joke. My roomie and I woke up freezing this morning(note: one of our windows doesnt close, so we get the cold air and all the street traffic from one of the busiest roads in Paris) at 7:25. We were freaking out. We did not pack our "winter" clothes but rather our best summer wear. I packed skirts and dresses, and she did the same. Tomorrow the high is supposed to be 61 degrees and rainy. Do people wear hoodies and sneakers in the city? NO. It's like social suicide here. Do we look super silly when all ten girls rock their north face rain jackets in all the colors of the rainbow? YES. We went shopping for warm clothes yesterday but they dont really like to sell them, I guess they figure everyone was smart enough to bring warm clothes. Not us. Besides the weather dilemma, oh yes we went to the catacombes yesterday! Our afternoon class was cancelled, so we went around the city. The catacombes is this underground ossuary where the bones and skulls of 6.5 million people are stored. Its actually pretty gross/cool. They are arranged in different patterns and there are like quotes from people. Apparently thats where the french government was station during WWII and Charles X used to throw mad cool parties down there. My favorite was at the entrance there was a sign that said. "STOP. YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE EMPIRE OF DEATH" i mean, baller. what if that was your screen name, freaking sweet. Afterwards we went shopping for winter clothes, but obviously, I came back with a skirt, and my friends came back with tank tops. Not very good at following rules i guess. After chill and down time my roomie decided to go the Eiffel Tower with some people in our group. Gosh, even though we can see it from all over the city there is nothing like being right in front of it when it lights up. Everyone started to cheer, it was pretty great. After avoiding what seemed like a billion street vendors who were offering to sell us bling, bling, we crossed the street to this other building and went up all these stairs to see it from afar. God, we are living the good life. Oh the image, is what we can see from our terrace. We get to watch it every night.

i hate you weather.com

2008-06-04T06:27:00.002-04:00

Today was my third day of class in Paris. Let's recap. Day 1, I found out I was in intermediate french. Quelle horreur! I also found out what a lame-o our history teacher is. It turns out that it's not even history, it's like philosophy of memory. Not even cool memory like hey write about your memories but like the theory of memory and how memory and history are not even close to the same thing. We have a pretty cool french class though. Not gonna lie, I pretty much cant focus after an hour and fifteen minutes, I think thats my cap. We have a Japanese Air Hostess in our class, she's in it becuase she wants to do the Tokyo Paris flight which is mad cool. We have a Japanese Perfume Maker, a german political scientist who is researching french politics in africa, an Australian mother, oh and my favorite a Polynesian- Mexican girl from Florida. Its pretty diverse. Yesterday it was barso re-ing everywhere which is weird because I didn't even do my dance. Despite the harsh weather, we hung out on the terrace and went out for a little bit. Not too late though because our hostel closes at 1! If we arent back by one am we are locked out for the whole night. I know! Lame. Since I look like a terrorist in my passport pictures and thats the picture that I have used for everything (my student id and my metro card) we decide that its really fun to dress up as terrorist. My friend emily and I bought some pretty cool headgear and tied them like shemaroos or kevyas. Im not really sure about the spelling. Oh yeah some creeper in the dining hall tried to mack on my friends and proceeded to ask me if I was american or actually from new delhi. Oh yeah our dining hall! Its pretty good and I finally feel somewhat nutritious there. The best part is that its only three euro! Love it. Oh but it also took me quite a while to wash my terrorist make up off. We are going to the catacombes today!

French Intermediate?!

2008-06-03T02:28:00.001-04:00

Okay I got placed into a level of french that I think is too high for me. Bummer. I dont think they will let me drop a level so I guess I have to suck it up and our teacher for our english class is a tool. Okay late for class, more to follow.

pictures for my parents.

2008-06-01T16:13:00.002-04:00

This first one is of me at Vaux. Vaux is where Eva Longoria and Tony Parker got married. I know that makes it way more exciting.

Hmm what else, Oh I wanted to ride them but I didnt want to take the risk of breaking them. So I just chilled instead.

The second is me in the Louvre gift shop. Man those things were cool. The next one you may recognize, it is my facebook pic. That was day one, hanging out in the Luxemburg gardens.
Okay more pictures to follow. School starts tomorrow. This blows.

mexican food.

2008-05-31T11:56:00.002-04:00

Americans, if you are out there, don't ever forget how lucky you are for mexican food. Mexican food is not available in Paris, but for a low fee of 16 euros, you can purchase a sort of burrito. whack yo. Last night, after our orienation we went to Luxemburg gardens and did some reading/ people watching and then my roomate and I faced the Metro! We took it and changed stops and got to the louvre all by ourselves. Impressive, i know. The louvre was cool, we saw la Jaconde, (Mona Lisa) it wa smy third time but it still doesn't get old. We walked about 4 miles back to our hostel to find a reasonably price restaurant. Alas, we deemed it an impossible task. We finally found a tiny pasta shop that had dishes for about 10 euros. I know its expensive but it was an amazing find.
Today we went to Fontainebleu which was rpretty cool because Napoleon was there and things and then this other castle called Vaux. Tony Parker and Eva Longoria got married at Vaux. I know. baller status. We took some good prom pictures which I will eventually post.
My roomate thought it was going to be 73 degrees. It was about 55. We froze. Oh but what I would do for some cosmic cantina.

la deuxieme.

2008-05-30T07:53:00.002-04:00

So this morning we awoke to the not very pleasant sounds of french traffic. after showering and getting ready for the day, we ate some mango activia (its not just for old people.) and went to our orientation which was probably the rudest awakening. we have class from essentially 9-5 everyday with an hour long break. ridiculous? i think so. after panicking i went and did some ulti and felt better and then we went across town to take our french placement exams. i hope i did poorly so i can be placed in a lower level french which would be boss. we have another orientation today and then i think we are going to go to the louvre because it is free tonight.

the luxemburg gardens are literally across the street. nice nice. i have been taking some very good advice and now we just go there to chill and eat our meals. bread is getting kind of old though, i need to find some more vegetarian variety. we had this buckwheat potato crepe which tasted exactly like Janmashtmi food so that was super exciting. I am sort of bummed about all the work we have to do so its going to be a lot of hard work for amonth but at least its summer school in paris. i probably wont end up doing the french minor though, i really do hate grammar. another thing is that they dont really wear colors in the city. my purple leggings were probably not really a good choice but i dont think they were ill- recieved. i felt really homesick this morning though and i dont know why, i mean its only been a day. i think it will get better one i get into a routine but this is really the longest i'll ever be away from home. its just weird not to have the option to go home whenever you want. i guess this is what college is like for some people. The people in my group are really cool and there are only 14 of us so i think we'll get pretty close. The view from our roof is amazing. You can obviously see the eiffel tower but also the whole city. C'est magnifique!

arrival.

2008-05-29T05:39:00.002-04:00

Hello friends. I have arrived in Paris, it was not an easy journey but we are finally here. Upon my entrance into Charles De Gaulle Airport, I was glad to be greeted by a friendly face, Patrick Dempsey. I was like "whatup dr. shephard." but all jokes aside he was in the versace ad. I was meeting some friends at the airport but changing terminals with two India sized bags is not an easy task. Their flight was late and so was our shuttle man. All in all, it took about 4 hours from the time I arrived to get to our dorm. At the dorm, my new roomate and I have realized that we have recieved the smallest dorm in the whole building. Its okay though, everything happens for a reason, I'm sure there is a reason for this too. The teacher lady told us not to go to sleep in the afternoon but for those of you who know me, know my proclivity for naps and my reaction to caffeine. This should be an interesting day. We have a walking tour of our "arrondisement" at 4 and my new friends and I are going to try and see Sex and the City the movie because somethings are just that important. So my friends, I bid you adieu. Lets hope that we can figure out how to work the showers, an update to follow.

Tall Tee

2008-05-22T14:28:00.003-04:00

While at the mall with my friends last week, I told them that I had recently purchased a “tall-tee.” Much to my dismay, they did not know exactly what a tall- tee was. I explained, it’s just a tee-shirt that is long. Confused by my acquirement, they told me that they didn’t think I should wear one because they weren’t made for me. What requirements are there to rock a tall tee? The definition was unavailable from the Webster’s New World College Dictionary, the go to guide for all J- Schoolers in Chapel Hill. So I went to a less obvious source: the Urban dictionary. Urban dictionary had several definitions to offer but the one with the most thumbs-up (a rating on urbandictionary.com) stated: “A long T-Shirt that runs down to your knees, and people usually into Hip-Hop wear it.” Why couldn’t I wear a long tee-shirt that ran down to my knees? I am into hip-hop. Having fit both stipulations as designed in urban dictionary, I think I am allowed to wear a tall tee if I so choose to do so. As I kept reading, I saw another definition that stated “shirt with added length designed for tall people.” Measuring up to 5’9”, I am well above the average height for women, I am a tall person. It’s not my fault that tall-tee’s just look good on me. Next time someone tells me I don’t have the right to wear a tall-tee, whatever. I can wear what I want. If I want to rock a tall- tee, leggings, and plant my feet in my air- force ones than so be it. It’s college, I’m going to wear what I want. If someone tells me that I’m a faker for rocking a “hip-hop” inspired hood outfit one day and then reverting back to my J. Crew filled closet, I just won’t care. I don’t plan to “slang in my white tee” any time soon but I don’t think it’s an inherent requirement of the garment.

A week until departure

2008-05-20T23:50:00.003-04:00

I need to get my mp3 player readied for the trip. I need to pack my clothes and figure out a lot of things but at the moment, perfecting my iTunes seems like the only thing that matters. This is not good logic. I know I will be in Europe, so don't worry Final Countdown will make the cut. [Insert Magic Trick here]. Don't worry though, the regular crew (M.I.A. and JT) will be number one on the list.

Toodles.

Commencement.

2008-05-04T09:23:00.001-04:00

Hello internet world.
I am here to tell you about things I like.