In Which Sarah Goes to Paris

brunette

2006-05-15T15:58:00.000+02:00

rated PG13... I was in Amsterdam

2006-05-05T01:21:00.000+02:00

Queens Day was a riot. Seriously. Ridiculous.
First of all I have never seen so many people in bright orange since I last flew EasyJet .

Second of all, I have never heard so many different house beat going on in such a small space, all competing with each other, all equally as predictable and cheesy. Mind you, most of these "beats" and people in orange were riding on "Party Boats" that float down Amsterdam's canal in ultimate Lazy River fashion. Most of the boats are themed. Some are pirate themed. Some rugby themed. Some Playboy themed.

Besides the main canal, the streets had their own canals: beer and urine. Basically, chaos everywhere.
We tried to walk around like civilized folk and see the sights. People were selling junk on the streets but it turned out that most of it was really just JUNK plain and simple. Trash.
Luckily some people were also selling food on the streets. That is when I ate my first rollmop. Pickled herring wrapped around pickled onions and pickles on a bun. Basically heaven.

Oh wait, this was heaven, sorry. I mistyped...

The most cheese I have ever seen in one place in my entire life!

Luckily, in all of the hubbub, we made it to the Red Light District. Which was, disconcerting, awkward, uncomfortable... to say the least.

But don't worry. My time in Amsterdam was not just playing spectator to too much debauchery. I also got some culture, went to the museum, and learned that the dutch love boats.

and who can blame them.

I will leave you with these last couple of photos and let you come to your own conclusions about my trip, Queen's Day, and the Dutch people in general...

Spring Break!

2006-04-27T19:55:00.000+02:00

I feel like so much has happened but there is so little to report. I went to EuroDisney. And then I went to Croatia with Chris. And we were there for 9 days but still did not see enough. And then I went to Greece, where I lazed around on the island of Mykonos and went to the Acropolis in Athens. And now I am finally back in Paris. And I have photos here that date all the way back to Kait and Julia's visit. So I am going to make this entry a photoblog. I hope you will enjoy.

Oh and tomorrow I leave for Amsterdam (also known as Hamster Jam) to see the Queen's Day Festival. Oh boy!

This is Zagreb.
I chased pidgeons.
There were many statues of old, important, grumpy, Croatian men.

We met a very large man who owned a collector's shop. He insisted that this photograph be taken. I think he had self-painted miniature figurines of every single character from Lord of the Rings in his shop. He was very friendly.

Next we went to Korcula, a little island off the coast of Croatia. A 12 hours bus ride away from Zagreb
Chris tried to teach my to skip stones

a few times.

Here is the entrance to the town.

And here is the view from the hotel!

And then we went to Split on an overnight ferry boat. Split is the most beautiful city we went to. It is right on the water. There I went to a seder that merely covered the bare minimum in order to call itself a seder. But it was held within the walls of the Diocletian Palace.

And this pizza strayed me from maintaining my passover diet.

From Split I continued on to Greece via Italy.

First we spent one day in Athens and visited the Acropolis:

...But it was under construction...

Finally we got to Mykonos

Where we went to the beach

and relaxed a little.

And then we went home. Back to Paris...

where they have places like these.

And now it is spring and it's good to be back.

craving fulfillment

2006-04-06T15:47:00.000+02:00

(see tory's latest posts for a eurodisney update and PICS, mine will not be right now)

I just ate what the French call a "new York bagel": pastrami, mayo, israeli pickles, more mayo, and a tomato on a poppy seed bagel. I mean, it's no Bagel Bob's but it definitely did the trick. And though I spent a little more at Hollywood Bagels, Paris than I wanted to, it fulfilled a craving that was, until now, unceasing.

I leave for Croatia in twenty-four hours and I am so excited. I have a new guide book and I have learned of all the wonders of Croatia. Its many steaks stuffed-with-pork-and-oil specialties and its many clothing-optional beaches.
I haven't even had a chance to get excited for Greece, which is only ten days away!

Today, to prepare for my trip I bought a box of egg matzos and a box of chocolate covered matzos. The former is for my enjoyment. The latter is a thank you gift for the Croatian rabbi who will be welcoming my goy boyfriend and I into his home for his Passover Seder.

All in all I have a feeling the next few weeks will be pretty exciting.

"I thought you were supposed to be in Paris" "I am in Paris" -Blowup

2006-03-29T23:38:00.000+02:00

So I finally saw the movie. The poster hung on my wall for months. And now I have given that some validity. It was good. I sat down in the packed movie theater (first showing of the new print) and a couple of American girls sat down a few seats away from me. Then a nice old man with a bow tie scooted past the girls and sat next to me. The girls were chatting in English, and the old man rolled his eyes at me. I kind of laughed and he said in French:

Pour quoi tous les etrangers parlent tres fort?
Why do foreigners always talk so loud?

My feelings at this comment were mixed: I was flattered, he really thought I was french. But also slightly offended. Mostly I did not know how to respond. So i replied in my best french that I didn't know why. I think he figured me out.
I suppose there is some truth in what he said. But I would probably phrase it differently:

Why is it that French people talk so quietly?

I really don't know. He chalked it up to the fact that the Upper Class French have better manners than everyone else.
If you were wondering, he liked the movie, though he thought the end was too abrupt.

Daylight Savings Temps Temps

2006-03-27T22:58:00.000+02:00

Suddenly time seems to be speeding by. Kait and Julia were here and we were in Berlin and then they were gone. And then, suddenly Dad was here. And we went to lots of museums and ate too much and then he was gone. And then, to add to it, we turned the clocks forward. And in six days (according to my Disneyland Visit Countdown clock Widget) I will be at EuroDisney with Dave, Hanly, Kyle, Leila, Tory, Elika, and the millions of other people who will go to EuroDisney on a Sunday in the spring. And then, 5 days later I will find myself in Croatia. Really. Fast.

So let me take a hint from Kait's earlier comment, and slow things down a little...

Kait and Julia were here and it was wonderful. Kait new exactly what I was missing, and she brought me Kraft Mac n' Cheese (which I am eating RIGHT NOW. It's great- nothing like it. Really.) and bagels. Bagels! We went to the first museum I have visited since my arrival in Paris: the Palais de Tokyo. There, we saw a lot of contemporary art which was... uhm, contemporary.
it looked like this:

We took some pictures and made some miSteaks...

Dad was just here. And we continued the tradition of going to museums. But this time we stayed away from contemporary art. Instead we stayed closer to my neighborhood. We went to the Jewish Museum, the Picasso Museum, and the Louvre. The winner for me was the Picasso. Lovely, really lovely.
At the Louvre I finally saw this:

It was underwhelming. But don't tell Leonardo or Dan Brown....

It is really lovely to see Paris with visitors. It is a very nice city in which to be a tourist. There are suddenly a million things to do, a million places to eat, and maybe four hundred museums to visit.

Ever since the clocks have moved forward, though, it has been a whole new Paris. It was 8:30 pm and the sun was still shining. I have ceremoniously removed the lining from my winter coat, and I had to wear sunglasses all day today. There are many a picnic in my future.

Soon there will be Croatia. In Croatia there will be a Croatian Passover, some exploring, and some beautiful beaches. But more on that later. I still have more time...

I hope this update was thorough. The sun is shining and there is a million things to do.

V

2006-03-19T23:55:00.000+01:00

i went to berlin. the most important thing i learned was THIS .
my visitors leave soon and i am pretty sad about it.

what I have learned this week:

2006-03-08T16:28:00.000+01:00

Prague, though mostly a silly fantasy land, is also wonderful and magical. And obscenely inexpensive. And carnivorous - on that note. I can now prepare a mighty fine beef bourginon at the drop of a hat. Thanks to the charming Ms. Bark and her extremely informative french cuisine course.
The murderer in "Perry Mason Solves the Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece" is not who you would expect. (next on the queue: Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer". When in Paris...)
Kait will arrive three hours before Julia on Friday morning (!).
It is only a two hour flight from Paris to Berlin.
Happy hour is from 5-8 at Indiana, the Tex Mex chain of Paris. And in mere hours I will know just how Tex Mex Indiana actually is.
Pizza arrived in the United States for the first time in the 1950s.

Smart Smart Smart.

what the French do best

2006-02-28T16:42:00.000+01:00

So after a long, but not that involved search, I stumbled upon a video rental place. Finally! And though this should not be very hard, being in a metropolitain center of the western world... it is harder than I imagined. There are only two ways to rent videos in Paris. One is through a vending machine, but I could not figure out how that works at all. And the other is this . Also known as Heaven. seriously. This place is amazing.

Tonight I have my first French Cuisine class. Apparently it is held at an old lady chef's house, and eight-or-so of us meet at her house. We all cook a meal together and then eat it. Hopefully this class will help me accomplish two things: one, learn how to cook an edible meal, two, practice my French. I am sure I will write more on that later.

I will posting more pictures and things as soon as I fix my camera. It is broken. Again. But I am working on it.

l'ennui français.

2006-02-22T00:12:00.000+01:00

I am lying around as I have been doing all evening. I was hoping to catch some figure skating on one of the four channels we can pick up on our french television, but they seem to think that unbelievably poorly made sitcoms are more important. Instead, I sat around and missed New York a little bit.
My classes leave a lot to be desired. I will leave it at that for fear of turning this entry into a grumble grumble...
Tonight was lovely. I was cold outside and I drank a bloody mary and ate some tuna and avocado.

I don't have very much to say that should be published in a travel blog. Write me letters. I will write back. I just go to a little cafe and order a tiny cup of coffee, and write you back. That simple. Really.

Tory is still serving the French their measly half-pints of beer. And the club downstairs is playing music with an exceptionally powerful baseline.

I think I will find myself at my second pop-punk concert in Paris. Yellowcard is playing, and Tory somehow ended up with three free tickets. I will let her go into that...
I mean, how can I pass up a free ticket to Yellowcard. After the success of the MXPX show... And what a success it was. The French would not be moshing if it weren't for me.

I better get my rest so that I will have enough energy to yell "PUNK ROCK SHOW" at the top of lungs. Because one can be sure the alterna-parisians will be doing it and everyone knows I was always an alterna at heart.

rodents mostly....

2006-02-15T17:42:00.000+01:00

Among other things, I finally acquired a gerbil. (Or as it turns out, dwarf hamster). His Official name is M. Patate Chouette. This of course, means Mr. Cooked-Potato Cool. And he is indeed all of these things.

He enjoys a great many things. Including pockets,

Baskets,

and Ladles.

We are not sure how long gerbil/hamsters live. We are also not sure how old Patate is. So, Anna and Casey, I hope you like rodents. Well, I know Anna does...

Not much has happened lately. I began classes this week, and overall, they should be quite interesting. Tomorrow, in film class we will be watching "A Bout de Souffle", one of my favorite movies. And on Friday, my architecture class will be visiting St. Severin Church.

the past few days...

2006-02-10T17:00:00.000+01:00

the other night tory and i had a small house warming soirée. she made the food, i provided the... um... moral support.

we had some friends over, both new and old.

but somehow, the next night tory was not tired of slaving away in the kitchen. so she cooked "the family" a hearty chicken dinner. and while they played scrabble, i took pictures of everybody. i even made some uncautious declerations about charlie...

later that night tory discovered that she may have what the parisians call "le grippe" and was oddly delighted about the whole thing...

Our Greatest Party Trick Yet

2006-02-05T23:33:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow, we will get a gerbil at the outdoor rodent market, and it will be named Mr. Chouette (translation: Mr. Cool).

Kidnapping and Movies

2006-02-02T15:43:00.000+01:00

ahhhhhh. so we finally hove found some internet that will not cost us 6 euros an hour. and my computer is fixed so time for pictures!!!!
i know in the last post i promised some stories of cannes, but unfortunately (fortunately?) cannes is too far away for me to go into that. for now i am in PARIS. and i am in love. with so many things: rue quincampoix. where i reside.

with my new friends maggie and charlie.

and especially with the seine. though i have not yet had the pleasure of photographing such a river as of yet.
so far in paris, some of the highlight have been baguettes, much MUCH MUCH FROMAGE, the cafés where not only is it ok, but they want you to stay for hours, the Shakespeare & Co bookshop, THE OPERA covered in gold, a french discotec where the french have not yet learned the meaning of the word "dancing", and the Periscop.
AH the Periscop. THis is maybe the most genius idea ever. A book with all of the music, dance, theater and film in paris. Yes, I know, this is nothing special.... BUT the sheer number of films playing in one given day almost gave me a heart attack.
For example, here is an overview of JUST the film festivals happening THIS WEEK: Fellini festival, Passollini festival, Orson Welles festival, Film Noir festival, Ang Lee festival, David Lynch festival, Jim Jarmusch festival, Fassbinder festival, Martin Scorcese festival.... i could go on....
Tory and I found a little cat and we named it Mouchy. We almost convinced it to live with us but then it had an owner next door. Thus begins the attempt to catnap Mouchy from the mean french lady next door. By the end of this trip, that cat will be ours!

Send me letters:
Sarah Winshall
Pierre Renucci
62, rue Quincampoix
75004 Paris FRANCE

au revoir french riviera, HELLO PARIS

2006-01-27T17:06:00.000+01:00

we leave cannes tomorrow morning at ten in the morning. we will be taking to high speed train, more commonly known as the TGV, to Paris. This train goes 250 mph and will only be stopped in Cannes for exactly 3 minutes. five hours, three juice boxes of wine, three games of scabble, and one viewing session of Trapped in the Closet later, we will arrive in Paris. Tory and I, oh, and Charlie (our temporary house guest) will get on the Parisian subway and head to our new home. Finally.

In the past couple of days not much has happened, and I regret being unable to show you a picture of Charlie as of yet. Once I get to Paris, I will be making a much needed visit to the Apple Store (Store de Pomme) and then there will be a plethora of pictures, look out.

Tonight, in honor of our long awaited last night in Cannes, some of us will be going out to eat moules (mussles) and huitres (oysters), the local specialties. Delicious.

Just like Grace Kelly

2006-01-22T17:33:00.000+01:00

we went to monaco yesterday. it was great. grace kelly married the prince there, and this couple followed suit:

in monaco is the incredible musee du la oceanographie. it is devoted to fish, jacques cousteau, and prince albert the explorer. they only gave us two hours there, but we could have spent eight.

tory stole an orange off the tree and ate it. she said it was the best orange she had ever eaten.

i have made a friend named maggie and we went to the beach and did hand stands:

i have a million more things to write, but my computer is broken, and tory's is almost out of juice. but in the next edition: shabbat in cannes, the story of three skeezballs, beni hannah, french stlye, and eurokaraoke!!!

in one week tory and i will arrive in paris. if you would like to write us letters please send them to 62, rue Quincampoix 75004 Parsi France. I do not yet know the appartment number, but I will soon, so don't fret!

quick update

2006-01-17T16:25:00.000+01:00

we just had our big program orientation today. and the excitement for paris is building up. today it is raining, so the plan to walk along the beach has been thwarted.

the classes offered to us through the program are looking a lot more interesting than i originally thought. so i will hopefully be taking french film, studio art, parisian history and architecture, and french literature in translation. sweet!

tonight Tory and i are hoping to visit the Downtown Cannes to get a flavor of the nightlife...
ok well, off to socialize with french journalism students.

Cannes Cannes...

2006-01-16T12:48:00.000+01:00

Soooooo. AH. I have ten minutes in this beachside internet café. WE are in Cannes. WE are the University of Cannes. Which seems more like Camp Yavneh than anything else. It is freezing and there are stragne customs: everyone must be at dinner on time or... no food for you, etc...

They lost and then found my suitcase in an empty room. Very mysterious.

Here are some pictures from Tory and my adventure in London:

JET LAGGED!

Notice how the streetlamps are Chanel and the rotating doors are doors to Heaven...

Tory held a golden stick while I held up the entire Cathedral. The Brits smoke pipes and usually have bad hair.

Until I get to Paris I do not think I can receive any letters. But think of me and maybe I will feel it.
Soon I will take pictures of Cannes. It is breathtaking. But sometimes we eat mashed fish for dinner.

Anyway. Time's up.

an explanation

2006-01-11T04:23:00.000+01:00

I just made a blog. Because I don't like packing and because I leave for Paris in two days.