Second week in Paris

Rosemary lamb

Monday - 9/16

Monday was fairly uneventful. I was still tired from the weekend so I decided not to visit Paris IV - La Sorbonne this morning at 9h30. Dinner was oven roasted lamb ribs with carrots and peas. While some people are not so fond of the gamey flavour and aroma of lamb, I absolutely adore it. There were also large cloves of roasted garlic all around the lamb as well with were delicious smoothed on a toasted piece of bread. As a little after dinner goûter, we sampled some of the different kinds of chocolates that my host parents had lying around in the cupboard with only one or two pieces left. My favorite was a dark chocolate with pistachios covered in caramel. 

Tuesday - 9/17

Moving walkway in the metro

Tuesday morning was the university visit to Paris VIII - St. Denis. I am planning on taking most of my classes here, including a literature, cinema, and maybe an art class so this visit was fairly obligatory for me. The school is actually located outside of Paris in the city St.Denis just to the north. It is all the way at the end of line 13, which is a 35 minute ride from the Vavin station near CUPA. There was a group of about 20 of us who all went together and it was quite a feat to fit us all onto the very crowded train at métro Montparnasse-Bienvenue where 4 lines come together. In the end, we didn't succeed and a good portion of us who weren't able to squeeze onto the first train, me included, ended up having to take a second train 6 minutes behind. However, we were all going to the same place and there were no line changes, so it was just a matter of waiting for everyone to arrive at the destination. Thankfully there was a nice violinist in the subway keeping us company.

When we arrived at St. Denis, I immediately liked the ambiance of the university. Paris VIII St. Denis does not have the traditional gothic architecture shared by the older Paris universities. Instead, it is made out of modern materials with lots of floor to ceiling windows and buildings erected in odd shapes and colors with exterior stairwells and lots of hustling and bustling. In many ways, St. Denis is much closer to the idea of an American campus/university.  

A little glimpse into the library

View from a sky bride in building B

The buildings are lettered A-E, which makes navigating them very easy. The art and cinema departments are located in building A and the literature classes I'm interested in are in building B. While it is annoying to have to find all of the bureaus and bulletin boards for the departments just to look up the class locations (and because classes start the following week, most of them are not yet posted...), it is also a good opportunity to familiarize myself with the school. Not to mention I won't have to look like a fool tourist lost international student the next time I actually come for class.

Wednesday - 9/18

This morning, I had my first thermodynamics lecture. All I can say is that is was a lot harder than my TD section. By no fault of the professor, I had a very difficult time following the lecture and taking notes from the board. She often spoke very quickly and wrote with a scripted handwriting and in french abbreviations on the board. I often had to reflect on the sentence I just heard several times before I could fully comprehend what was said, and by this time, she had already finished writing an entire board of notes, which I then had to double check with my incomplete list of abbreviations used by French professors to decode what it was that I was copying down. Overall, it was an overwhelming and unhappy experience. 


Speaking with the professor after the end of classes posed to be a huge difficulty as well. I tried to explain to her how I was a student in the CUPA program, I missed the first lecture class, and I wanted a copy of the programme. However, all she did was point me towards the board where she had written down her email and told me to send her an email. To make a bad situation worse, because I had to wait for other students to ask their questions first, by the time I was done talking to the professor, all of the other students had already left and there was no one for me to ask to photocopy first day notes from. That night, I sent her an email about my situation and to ask about an American version of the book I could follow (she mentioned during our brief conversation that one of her colleagues , but she never responded. (UPDATE: She emailed me back 5 days later...)

After CUPA classes in the afternoon, a few of us went to Julien's boulangerie for some rustic baguette and pain au chocolat. The amazing aromas of baked bread gives you a special kind of hunger that only a flakey, warm pastry can satiate. 

Dinner was also something quite special. There was a fancy looking carrot salad, roasted fish with tomatoes and thyme, as well as another tart. This time, a juicy mix of pears and apricots, which more than made up for my lousy morning at thermodynamics! 

Carrot salad with mustard dressing

Apricot and pear tart

Roasted whole fish

Thursday - 9/19

Today after classes, I went to an orchestra concert at the Marie du 13ème, the the official building of the 13ème arrondissement in Paris. This concert was performed by Shaan Xi orchestra of China with lots of traditional music for the Fête de la Lune (harvest moon festival) marking 8/15, the first day of autumn  The ancient Chinese did not use the solar (Roman) calendar, but instead the lunar calendar, which marked months according to each cycle of the moon. It is also a tradition to eat moon cake with is a Chinese confection made with a pasty crust enclosing different fillings ranging from the traditional red bean paste to other nuts and fruits. There are also slightly more savory varieties that have an egg yolk in the middle to represent the full, glowing harvest moon.

Line behind me

Line in front of me

 Since I was in France and these things were hard to come by, I decided to go celebrate by listening to some chinese music instead. The Clair de la Lune concert was not supposed to start until 19h but I got to the Marie de 13ème an hour early to look at some of the art exhibits. Little did I know that there was already a huge line waiting to get into the concert. 

Unhappy me in the cold

Happy me in my seat

It was super cold outside, especially with the wind, and the lady behind me was right on my heels always trying to sneak in front of me as the line shifted forward. I was not a happy camper. Around 20 minutes before the concert was due to start at 19h, the front of the line began to move, and we slowly filed our way into the concert hall. The concert ended up starting a little late, but it was well worth the wait. There were even speeches by the Chinese Ambassador and the Mayor of the 13ème arrondissement. I've included videos I recorded of 茉莉花 and 在那遥远的地方 for your listening pleasure. 

Friday 9/20

Outfit of the day :)

Today was the day I had to hand in my final selections for courses. I spent quite some time making myself a mini weekly calendar with all my course information on it for shopping week. It was the last day of CUPA orientation as well. Next week it's finally time to dive into French universities! (Apart form UPMC)

Dinner was steak with spinach and sautéed zucchini. Frédéric asked me how I wanted it and I said medium well. He laughed at both Missaratou and I for wanting to eat shoe leather. The end result was a bit more rare than I would like (because he didn't want to ruin the meat and refused to cook it any more than that). However, it was still delicious, especially with the accompaniments.