Language acquisition is one of the main reasons why I’m studying in France and not some other European country. Granted, it seems that many Parisians speak some level of English, even if it’s just a little. Though when I ask “Parlez-vous anglais?” and they respond “Yes, but very little,” I really do only expect them to speak very little English, just like how when people ask me if I speak French, I say yes, but only a bit. Well, once our conversation unfolds, it turns out that their “very little” English trumps my bit of French.

I can’t say that is the case for everyone I’ve met, but it seems to happen a lot. It might just be because I’m in central Paris, though. I wonder how many people who live in the suburbs know English.

All that aside, I am pleased with how my language skills are progressing. Of course, I still struggle to form coherent thoughts and phrases, but it’s a lot better than how it was 4 weeks ago when I arrived. In fact, yesterday, I was waiting at a bus stop with a friend to go to a fondue dinner. An elderly woman was sitting down, and she asked me for the time, and I politely responded. Minutes later, someone else asked me if the bus went to the Bastille. I looked at the map of the bus route and told her I think so, but I also said that the Bastille was not very far from where we were; less than 10 minutes by foot.

Usually, it’s difficult for me to understand what people are saying when I don’t have any context. So I’m usually a little confused at the beginning of a conversation, but once I pick up the context, I can follow a little more easily. That’s why I was happy about understanding the 2 women right off the bat (granted, one just asked the time and another was asking about the bus stop that we were at). I’m making improvements, little by little!

I told this to my madame earlier this evening at dinner and she seemed quite happy for me. Then she warned me about giving the time to strangers. She made a motion toward her pocket, and told me to be careful about pickpockets and iPhones. At the time (because it was an elderly woman with a cane who had asked me) I didn’t think anything of it, but she definitely has a point. I’ve been meaning to invest in a wristwatch for quite a while now. Maybe I’ll pick one up here. I’ll probably get one when I decide to get that pair of comfortable walking shoes that I’ve been meaning to get since my first day in Paris. 🙂

Pictures will never do this place justice. Ever. But I’ll post some anyway.

The gardens were absolutely amazing. I’m glad I came when I did, because I think the flowers are going to start dying soon. I think the best time to come would’ve been at the very beginning of my trip, but I didn’t think much about travelling outside of Paris during those days. C’est la vie.
 
   

Nature eeeeverywhere. I spent the majority of my time in the gardens, and if I wasn’t there, I was milling around the Queen’s Hamlet and the Petit Trianon + Grand Trianon, with a brief stint in the chateau. Admittedly, I found myself taking photos of the garden while inside the chateau XD This picture is taken from the steps of the Grand Trianon.

Walking around the gardens, I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to be seeing all of this. I was in awe of all the fountains, the flowers, the trees, and how amazingly blue the sky was. It had rained the day before, so the skies were cleared of any lingering smog, and it was absolutely gorgeous. I’ll definitely be coming back here – it’s a little less than an hour away from where I live 🙂

I really enjoy fountains 🙂 And elephantsl ❤

I wish I stayed for the night time fountain show and fireworks, but I wasn’t feeling great by the evening, so I went home early. However, I did find the Bassin du Miroir that had a mini water show every 10 minutes or so, in sync with some classical music that was playing. WordPress is demanding that I upgrade (read: pay) in order to embed a video, so I’ll just upload that video when I get around to posting pictures on Facebook 🙂

Until next time!

Fong

…how come the door isn’t closing all the way?

I woke up early this morning to Skype with my college roommates back home, and I was going to follow up our Skype/G+ hangout session with a nice long nap. Except I wasn’t tired at that point, so I ended up staying up to do some reading. I regretted this halfway through my first class (I have class 3-6pm on Tuesdays). I’m definitely going to nap after I get home, right before dinner, I thought to myself. 

Well, I arrived home around 6:30, and my host mom was busy making a tart for dinner (which, by the way, was delicious). Upon walking into the apartment, she told me that she bought two new screws to re-affix one of the bathroom cabinet doors back onto its hinges. The night before, I had told her “J’aime faire du bricolage!” I forgot how we got onto the topic, but I essentially told her that I like to do uh… like, DIY/home improvement-type things. I thought it’d be fun to fix the cabinet door.

So, instead of napping, I ended up wrestling with the cabinet door and trying to juggle 2 screw drivers, my iPhone (for the flashlight) and various other items. It was fun, but in the end, I was doing something terribly wrong, because while the door is reattached, it doesn’t close all the way. I don’t think I reattached it correctly… What a blow to my pride.

In other news – I gave directions to an elderly lady today! On my way back from the metro, this lady asked me where Rue de Rennes (Rue = street in French) was. I was ecstatic when she thanked me after I told her. Here’s the thing: She is French. I am American. She asked in French. I responded in French. I also pointed to the street (it was only a block and a half away from us), but that’s besides the point. I guess this helps balance out the not-so-great repair job I did on the door. Personally, I think that door is beyond saving, but one of her sons is going to visit on the weekend, and apparently, he is pretty good with these kinds of things. 

All in all, I really only wanted to post this because I liked the alliteration of “Fong the Fixer.” That is all. Good night 🙂

The first step is speaking the language, I guess?

Enter: French Practicum – the intensive language practicum that somehow managed to cram a quarter’s worth of material into 11 days. While it was intensive (each day covered about a week’s worth of material that would normally be covered in a regular quarter/semester), it was in large part review of what I learned last Fall semester.

There’s not much to say about this; we had 6 mandatory excursions, and I thoroughly enjoyed going to the open air market. My professor encouraged us to speak to the vendors and ask them questions about what they were selling and such. Overall, it was a pleasant experience, particularly when the cheese vendor let me and my classmates try several different types of cheeses! The fruit vendors were also kind enough to field my questions, and let me try some of their produce!

Aside from that, the practicum was uneventful. After a week of the practicum, I moved into my home stay! I really like it here – particularly because it gives me the opportunity to live and speak with Parisians who were born here and can give me an insider’s scoop on things to do/see here. There’s wood flooring here, which means lots of creaking when I walk from my room to the kitchen. I don’t think anyone else creaks as much as I do 😦 I spent 5 minutes yesterday figuring out how to walk around the apartment without making a ruckus, and I think I’ve got it!

Also – one of my host mom’s sons dines with us once a week, and he doesn’t speak English, so I string together all the French that I know to hold (a semblance of) a conversation with him. There’s also another student staying here, hailing from Colombia (not sure which University) so in addition to being able to practice French, I can also brush up on Spanish!

I’d say one of my favorite things about the home stay is its proximity to the Luxembourg Gardens – only a 10 minute walk from here! There are currently a lot of tourists there (my host mom says there will be tons of tourists all year) so I’ll just have to hunt for a quiet place to do my reading/writing. I’ll take my camera with me the next time I go to the gardens; it’s quite remarkable, and I think I’ll start jogging there soon.

Speaking of gardens, I’ll have a post about the Gardens of Versailles coming soon. My favorite garden in Paris so far, bar none. Until then, it’s time to do some reading for my classes.

Au revoir!

I love Mondays. I have class 9-10:30am and then I’m done for the day 🙂 Last night, I decided that I really wanted to go to this restaurant called Breakfast in America, because I was craving… well, American breakfast foods. The typical Parisian breakfast (at least, what I’ve been having for breakfast for the last month) consists of a cup of coffee and some bread and jam, or some other pastry. At my home stay, I’m also eating cereal 🙂

I’ve grown accustomed to eating a smaller, sweet breakfast, but today I really wanted eggs and home fries – something unmistakably savory. So after class, I took a quick trip to my study center to print stuff before heading off to BIA. One of my favorite things about this place is the free refills on their black coffee. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve enjoyed the café crème/au lait/noisette that I’ve had, but when it ranges from 3.5-5 euros a cup, I’ll gladly accept bottomless refills on American coffee for 2.50 =]

I took a nibble before remembering to take a picture 😛

Perusing over the menu, I decided that I wanted everything. Everything you could possibly put into a scramble. This one has diced ham, bacon, sausage, onions, mushrooms, and bell peppers with eggs, all laid neatly over a bed of home fries. And of course, salsa on the side. Verdict? While it was delicious, I admit that my eyes were bigger than my stomach. It took me a while to finish it, so I’ll probably be sticking to eggs, toast and home fries next time. Overall, I’d say it was a good decision to get this, because I know better for next time.

Moments after stepping into the cafe, it started to rain cats and dogs, which means it was a terribly bad decision to leave my umbrella at home. This also means it was a bad decision to decide to wear a white shirt (but good decision to wear a darker under shirt). Bad day for flats, though. They’re sopping wet and currently drying (I hope) in my room. But this was a great learning experience for me: I won’t ever leave my umbrella at home if there’s even a slight chance of rain.

Until next time!

Fong

So… It’s been a while since my last update… Guess I wasn’t out for this blogging business? 

Paris has been quite kind to me, and I’ve yet to run into any rude Parisians (contrary to what  I’d been warned about prior to departing the States). Everyone’s been exceptionally kind to me, particularly when I’m lost and in dire need of directions, when I need help un-trapping myself from a dubious metro turnstile, or if I need drink/food/pastry suggestions (and no, they didn’t just recommend the most expensive items haha).

Overall, my time here has been great, and I can’t complain. Here’s an at-a-glance list of things that have been occupying my time lately:

• French language practicum
• Moving into my home stay (!)
• Expanding my palate with tarts, beef tartare, cheeses and the like
• Exploring the Luxembourg Gardens
• A day trip to Versailles
• Excursions around Paris with my classmates

While I should probably write about each item to commemorate my time here, I don’t think I have the time nor patience to do so at this moment. I’ll make it a point to write about one each day during this upcoming week. 

In addition to that writing project for this week, I also have a fondue dinner with other people in my program and a comedy show with a friend. I’ll probably throw in some more sight-seeing, seeing as how I still haven’t been inside the Louvre or the catacombs yet.

A more in-depth update to come soon!

Fong

There was more bread than that; I just ate most of it by the time I thought to take a picture XD

Bread, cheese, and wine. Simple, yet delicious. I’m not usually particularly fond of wine unless it’s dessert wine, but it has really started to grow on me. And spreading two things on bread – who’d have thought it could be so good? I guess peanut butter and jelly should’ve clued me in. If it’s not butter and jam, then it’s butter and cheese, both of which quickly became breakfast staples for me.

Now, this bread/wine/cheese trinity came after lunch, which was some Chinese vegetables with my leftover dinner from last night. In addition to this, we had tea and bread with Nutella afterwards. It’s so refreshing to see how differently French meals are structured from what I’m used to.

And after dinner tonight, I had a bit of coffee. Emphasis on bit. This is quite possibly the smallest and cutest little cup of coffee I’ve ever had the pleasure of enjoying. The black thing on the left of the cup is my camera’s lens cap, for comparison (about 2 inches in diameter, or the width of an iPhone 4S).
I don’t usually have my camera on me / remember to take pictures when having meals, but I’ll try to remember to take more in the near future!

A few weeks ago, I went to a place in Berkeley called Karma Kitchen with a couple of friends. There, I got this deck of cards that has acts of kindness written on them. One friend correctly pointed out that these cards are sort of like truth or dare, with 2 exceptions: they’re only dares, and each one is nice.

These 4 cards, for example, are cards that some friends and I chose from the deck, and we have until I come back from Europe to complete them. It should be easy enough, I think. 🙂 Each suit has a category: yellow (hearts) are things you do for people you don’t know; red (clubs) are for people you do know; blue (diamonds) are things for yourself, and green (spades) are things that benefit the world/environment. I believe I chose the Queen of Hearts and my 3 friends chose the various clubs pictured to the left. I haven’t given much thought to how/when I’ll do these, but I’m sure I’ll post here when I do them.

And these 4 are ones that I’ve already done. The saying hello one is quite easy when you’re in a foreign place and need directions XD And of course, learning the statement of gratitude is follow-up for when those strangers do help you hehe. Striking up a conversation is second nature in a hostel, especially since I’m sure most of the people there only know one or two other people, if anyone. And connecting 2 friends: I just recently met someone who attended the University of Washington, and I’ve another friend who will be moving to Seattle soon. The light bulb above my head went off and I made the super official Facebook introduction for them 😛

I went through the deck today and picked out some cards that I’d like to complete. I’m thinking I’ll shuffle them up and draw one every couple of days or so and give myself a day or two to complete that task. Suggest a suit and number if you’d like me to try a task, as well! It’ll be random for you, because I’m not going to take a picture of each card for you to choose from XD And if you’d like, I’ll challenge you to do an act of kindness as well. You know, to keep that positive energy going 🙂 Let me know!

Easily, the most surprising thing I experienced happened the same night as when my new friends and I went to the Eiffel Tower. We had just gotten off the metro, and one of the girls pointed out that there was a sex shop across the street from us. We all had a good laugh and started our search for an ATM (not for the sex shop, mind you. One of the girls needed cash). As we’re walking, I pointed out a different sex shop. What were the odds, I thought, that there would be 2 sex shops in such close proximity to each other? 

Well, the odds were quite high, as it turns out. We found the ATM, walked a bit, stopped somewhere for a drink, and kept walking. Then, someone exclaims, “Is that the Moulin Rouge?!” It was, and we headed over to snap some pictures. And I must say. I have never seen so many sex shops in my entire life. Ever. The street that we were on was literally LINED with them. 

There is one in particular that really stands out. As we were walking by, I happened to look at the sign for this shop; it said something like “Table Dancing” and I thought Table dancing? Wonder if that’s like pole dancing. Then I saw this television screen with women dancing on tables. Completely naked. Needless to say, we kept walking.

It was quite the experience, but I guess that is characteristic of that area in the 18th district (arrondissement) of Paris.