July 13, 2001, to July 19, 2001
Last Friday I mentioned having met the British girl Sarah and the fact that we planned to go to a rave in Paris that night. Sarah's really nice, very friendly - after all, she was new and on her own here too not so long ago (she's been here 3 years). She studied English and French at Oxford, which is neat. All of her friends were very nice and welcoming (half were British and half were French). The party was held in an art gallery (from which they removed all the art heh) in the center of Paris. I had a really great time, dancing and talking to Sarah and her friends all night. Afterward, when the party ended at 7am, there was an "afterparty" on a floating cafe on the Seine. I did not stay long because I was pooped, but it was a nice setup and good "chill out" type music. I left to take the train home at about 9am. It was Bastille Day by then, cold, wet and raining steadily.
These past 2 weeks have really been terrible weather-wise. The Parisians keep telling me this is a normal French summer, which is kind of disappointing :( It's been about 13-18 degrees Celsius (55-65 F) all week (colder at night), and raining pretty much every day all day. I learned how to turn my heater on :) I kept waking up in the night because I was too cold to sleep. Of course, I usually like it about 5 degrees F warmer than anyone else so it was probably not *that* cold... Today it's finally not raining but it probably will later :) The news says these are actually atypical temperatures - it's been more like the first 2 weeks in October than the first two weeks in July. So looks like I'm going to miss out on summer this year - when I left it had just begun to get hot, and by the time I get back Philly will be just about done with its sweltering, humid, dry summer that I love so much (not). But I suppose there is still time for it to get hotter here...
Because of the rain that day I did not get to see any Bastille Day celebrations - I don't even know if they still had them. I didn't feel like standing in a crowd of people in the rain waiting for some fireworks (my opinion on fireworks: you've seen one set, you've seen them all). So I stayed in Palaiseau and slept to recover from being out all night dancing; in the evening I went grocery shopping (mmmmm baguettes), and saw "Un Mariage Trop Parfait" which was "The Wedding Planner" in the States (movie with Jennifer Lopez, not that good, of course). I keep seeing movies I'd never see in the States just because I can see them in French. When Final Fantasy comes out here in mid-August, however, I'm going to see it in Paris in English :) Don't want to risk missing anything there :)
Oh, last week when I wrote I said movies cost 54FF($6.75) in Palaiseau but actually they are only 44FF($5.50), regular price. So I guess movies are much more reasonable here than in the US (well, Philly). I haven't been to one in Paris yet but when we went back in March I think I recall them being 50 or 51FF or something - which was about $7.25 with the exchange rate back then, and would be about $6.40 now... I was talking to someone yesterday about how expensive movies are in Philly and how pathetic the student discounts are (what good is a student discount of $1 for an $8 movie ticket!) They were appropriately horrified :)
I've been reading a lot, both in French and in English. I got a couple French magazines to read, one of which had a cover story about how the youth of America is "erupting" (pète, see below) US society with their "anarchism, sub-culture, piercings, and anti-capitalism". The French government really seems to fear "contamination" of their culture by American culture, which is ironic considering how anything French is considered ultra-cool in the US. Anyway I have read _Narcissus and Goldmund_ by Hesse (in English), a book called _Homebody_ by Orson Scott Card (wasn't very good, sad to say - he's definitely sold out from his earlier days, when he was my favorite). I'm almost done reading _Le Petit Prince_ (St. Exupery) in French. So I can look up new words and learn vocabulary from my reading, I bought a real French dictionary, with definitions in French instead of a one-word English synonym - I'm trying to get away from that method of translation. French is not, after all, code for English. Camus's _L'Etrangere_ is next on my list - a book I read in high school in English (The Stranger) and am now going to try to tackle in French. I'm also reading a book about women in engineering and the sciences, which has a lot of little profiles about women who've achieved a lot in their fields and/or balanced career with family; above all did what they wanted in spite of such-and-such a glass ceiling. I sit at a cafe in the rain and drink my hot chocolate or espresso and read or watch people pass by. Now this is the life :) Oh, I also read technical papers for my research back at Drexel once in a while ;)
Ah...I have an interesting food-related story... Previously I had told one of my French coworkers that I've liked every French dish I have tried so far... Well that was until Wednesday night. I was at a cafe to eat and I wanted to get the "menu", which is a package meal type thing where 2 or sometimes 3 courses are included for a lower price than buying them separately. Of course, you can only choose from certain items. So the "plat" (entree in French, here the "entree" is the appetizer) choices were steak and fries, spaghetti, or andouillette and fries. Now, I didn't feel like steak or spaghetti (too normal), and the English on the menu (it was in the touristy St. Michel area of Paris) just said "sausage" for andouillette so I said sure why not. When I got it, and cut into it, I regretted it. I found out later it's tripe sausage. For those who don't know what tripe is, well, it's stomach. Pig stomach in this case. Apparently andouillettes also include pieces of intestine. Hope none of you are eating lunch right now :)
So it was reallllllllly not tasty. It looked incredibly unappetizing and smelled worse (think: intestine). I could not eat it. Luckily the dessert was a (huge) piece of lemon pie (how *do* they stay so thin with the size of these portions?!) so I could get rid of the nasty taste in my mouth... My first "I hate French cooking" experience :) Just be thankful I went through it for you, and now all of you know never to order andouillette in a restaurant :) Afterwards I wandered over to Les Deux Magots, which is a famous cafe in Paris where people like Hemingway and Sartre used to hang out, and had the *best* hot chocolate I have ever tasted so I guess that made up for it :)
But seriously, folks, the French people *do* eat a lot of really great things - chocolate, fruits, tartes (which are oh-so-much-better than normal American pies), bread, cheese, chicken, croissants. But that's just the stuff we'd eat anyway over here, except they cook it better. There are tons of other things they eat that Americans wouldn't touch with ten foot poles, and so aren't counted in when people say French cuisine is the best in the world :) For example, the other day in the cafe at work they had brain sausage. When I asked the intern what it was (I wasn't having it), he said "brain" all nonchalantly. I just raised my eyebrows heh. I've also had the not-so-pleasant experience of thinking something is cream or pudding and having it turn out to be plain yogurt - which is completely not sweet and rather bitter. But then, their chocolate mousse is to die for, their Dannon is better than American Dannon, their ice cream 10x better (richer and creamier and better, more interesting flavors), their chicken tender, and their cold salads and raw veggie concoctions extremely yummy. So I guess it all depends on your perspective and what you eat :)
Work continues to go well. I think I embarrassed myself today when I asked my officemates what "pète" means - it was on the cover of that magazine I bought, in reference to the counter-culture of America's youth. The two guys looked at each other and laughed and neither answered and then one sort of explained "when something explodes or makes an explosion" and I had a feeling he was leaving something out. However I can't find it on any of my online slang dictionaries so I guess I will never really know... But that sort of thing is bound to happen when you hear new words - they're not always going to be nice ones... On the technical side, I'm working on writing a data exchange module between OpenCascade's format and a new format in the industry called SIF. I'm also spending time exploring the math behind NURBS, a type of complex geometry often used in 3D computer applications. I feel like I am learning a lot and am glad I got this opportunity both professionally and coming to France/Paris...
Last night I had another drink (and a crepe) with the Danish guy Kristian. He is leaving to go home in a week, but we had a good time talking. He has extremely good English - apparently they're all taught English from the time they're 10 or 11. He says about 90% of Denmark speaks English. He has a slight British inflection when he speaks, which is kind of common in Europeans who speak English, I've noticed (makes sense, Britain is closer). I have been ordering "cidre" most of the time - in particular one brand called "La Cidraie", because I don't like beer and don't know enough about wine. I also like "kir" which is a drink made from currant or blackberry liquer and white or red wine. It's a bit sweet but yummy.
So all in all, things are going well. In 2 weeks I leave for the artificial intelligence conference in Seattle, where I will receive my award. After that my mom and I will play tourist in Paris for a week - she's never been here before. Anyway hope everyone is doing well... Till next week!