Paris was my favorite city of the trip thus far. After a frustrating morning with Ryan Air (DO NOT fly them with significant checked baggage), Maryse and Martha greeted us in Paris. We dropped our bags off and went to a perfect French lunch at this fun place in Montmarte, where we were staying. It was a beautiful, but really hot day. Then we went to the Eiffel Tower.
The first thing I thought when it suddenly appeared was... "It's perfect." I like it more than the Arch, which is saying a lot. We met up with a couple girls from our program, which was great, and we went to the top of the tower.
The next morning Maryse and I went to the Musee d'Orsay, which is probably my favorite museum. The Van Gogh room, and pretty much then entire ground floor blew me away. I just wish I could have spent more than two hours there.
But I got to go to Maryse's English class! She TA's once a week for a class of French 10-11 year-olds. I really enjoy reading her posts, so I was excited to meet all the kids. But I didn't realize that I would be the focus of the class. The teacher thought it would be great to have me tell them about California, and to let them ask me anything about myself. We were talking as the class was coming and and she said, "I thought you could tell them about the wine in California." Remember, this class is full of 10-11 year-olds. Then she said "Maybe you could also talk about the history." I immediately tried to recall fourth grade when we learned about the missions but before I could get very far she finished her sentence: "... the history of wine in California."
It began with simple questions that I could not answer.
"How tall are you?" one asked. I had no idea what to say. I know that I'm about 5' 11", but that means nothing to them. I do not know my height in meters, so I had to respond, "I do not know how tall I am." That was a little depressing.
"What do you want to be?" another asked. "Good question!" I responded. I said that I didn't know, but that I am studying history.
"Do you have a gun?" the weaponds-obsessed kid asked me.
"Do you like the song, 'Let it Be?'" I told her I did, and that I saw Paul McCartney sing it once. So then I ended up talking about the Bridge Concert for about 5 minutes. The teacher asked me who else played, and I told her Neil Young. One girl had heard of him because her brothers listen to him, but everyone else was confused.
Finally, the teacher brought up wine. She thought that the students would be shocked to learn that wine is made in places other than France, and she was right. They started chattering in disbelief, and I was able to hear a conversation between two girls close to me about whether white or red was better. At least they were practicing English.
The rest of my time in Paris was really nice as well. Maryse and I had a picnic and wandered around a lot. We also went to the Orangerie, which is a museum that has rooms of Monet's water lillies. There was also a couple cool exhibitions downstairs, and I enjoyed the museum even more because my Czech student ID got me in for free.
Now I'm staying with Audrey at the University of Sussex. We've been exploring Brighton and London, which I'll talk about in a few days, probably when we get to Scotland.
Thanks for reading!
Belated Pictures...
I don't know what order they will show up in, but they are of Maryse and I, the Eiffel Tower sparkling, and the CET reunion.
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