Markets and FOOD

Photo curtesy of Divya (from Parisian Stuff)

It is Sunday, which means it is Market day! Unfortunately I am stuck inside this sunday doing homework (or not doing, as this blog demonstrates) but I have had the fortunate experiece of wandering the markets on a previous sunday (The one near Saint Germain.) Very over priced and the veggies wont last more then a day or two, but lots of great people watching and interesting foods to try. Naturally I didn't bring my camera, but I do have an odd amount of food photos floating around on my computer.

A good list of markets can be found at http://chocolateandzucchini.com/parismarkets.php put together by a a local parisian and food lover. Also her website is called Chocolate and Zucchini, so you really can't go wrong





at BIA



Market loot, veggies!



Falling in love with the Marais

I've officially made it through my first week of school, and with it I've learnt a few things a long the way. I have many thoughts on the French education system, especially compared to the one I know so well. Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to jot them down in a smart and intelligent way yet (like I can ever do that!)

As for my classes, they are difficult but interesting. What really makes me excited is the real world application of them. Never before has someone given me such a concrete link between politics and religion, history and the future and so on. Science-Po is a political sciences school, but because of it so many new doors are being opened for me. I'm still an ethics and religious studies student, but all of a sudden my degree means something. Religion and democracy might not mix, but society does need to find a balance in order to function, and to survive.

In my off days of learning about the world, I have been exploring my neighborhood. The Marais is a wonderful and bustling part of Paris, filled with restaurants and bars and kitchy stores. It is not the wonderous gay haven that I imagined, but it does come pretty close. A friend asked me when he knew if he was in the Marias, and I replied quite truthfully that it's when you start seeing posters of half dressed men. I've been trying to remember where and what stores I've come across here, but I keep getting wonderfully lost and not being able to find my way back at all. For once in my life that is actually a good thing- oh the places I've found! I really do want to share with you, my lovely readers, all the places I've seen, but stupid me NEVER brings a camera. On top of that, the one day I did set out to take photos, I didn't come across anything exciting. Here are a few of the "regular" locations however...

This is where I live. It has a clock, and a dragon and a man fighting said dragon. Every few days a tourist asks me what it means, or what the plaque says. Perhaps one day I should actually google it?

stealth photo! This is my regular coffee shop. Ah sweet sweet caffine...

I almost tripped over a homeless man to get this photo, you're welcome.

One of my regular bakery stores, although this one is mostly just sweets and giant cookie type things

Space Hair, my favorite thing on Rue Rambuteau. It's totally purple, and sparky and very very gay. I've never been in, but I'm determined to get my hair cut there at some point.

The Ballet store! Okay so this might not be the Marais anymore, but they always have beautiful things in the window.

Chez Mar... I can't remember, Marianna maybe? Pretty building though, and very yummy mediteranian food

I origionally left my house because I was hungry for falafels (please note, I am ALWAYS hungry for falafels) but the line up was really long today.

This was the poster I was referring to

A side view of Pompidou. This is where Mario and I live...

Update for the ones I love

This is going to be a boring post for most of you I think, and a rather personal one for me. This blog really is for my own consumption, as an online journal. If you are reading this out of interest though, there will be a more exciting picture post soon :)

People keep asking me how Paris is. Just like before I left, everyone seems to assume that I'm having a blast and I'm really excited and I'm LOVING it. That is called the honeymoon phase of an exchange (see I paid attention in class!) and unfortunately it is not a phase that I am privy too. I wasn't excited when I left, and I’m certainly not all that excited at the moment. I realize that this makes me sound either very spoiled or very sad, and usually both accounts are correct, but here it isn’t the case. I’m not blasé or depressed, just a little..off.

I’m not so homesick that I can’t function, but try as I might I can’t seem to get all that excited about things either. I don’t know anyone, I don’t speak the language, the courses are scaring the shit out of me and all in all it’s been pretty boring. Don’t get me wrong, the people I have met have been very kind, but my fantasies of partying the night away at popular lesbian bars in the Marias are slowly disintegrating. I feel like if I could transplant my life in Calgary to Paris things would make so much more sense.

Part of the problem is that I am only here for 4 months, which is hardly enough time to learn the language well enough that I can make friends outside of the exchange. Again I want to emphasize that the people in the exchange have been awesome and a lot of fun, but it’s not exactly the crowd I’d take out for a wild night in my part of town. The other problem is the continuous awkwardness of having to explain myself to people who I hope to become good friends with, but who are really strangers. I’ve become much more practiced at casually slipping in the “I’m gay” part of my life, but it’s still an obvious point of anxiety for me. I’m not one to shout it from the rooftops or wear rainbows all over the place, but it’s still a vital part of who I am. This probably won’t make sense to most of you who are reading this (presumably straight) but think about the last time you talked to a friend about a movie (omg ___ is so hot in that!) or reminisced about past adventures that may have involved your significant other.

And so I’m left feeling a little… dissatisfied with this whole adventure. Mainly because I haven’t been doing much in the way of adventuring yet. And I know that all good things come to those who wait, and it will get better soon and yadayada… but I don’t want to sit in classes all day listening to mean French Profs. I want to be seeing the sights and going to clubs and picnicking on the banks of the Seine. So please my amazing family, who I really do love so much, please don’t ask me if I’m having fun. The answer is yes, I am having fun- I LOVE all the different cultures and languages surrounding me. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ve embraced Parisian culture and am particularly content with my current situation.

And that my loving friends and family, is your sadface blogpost post for this trip. Hopefully there will be no more to come J

Lynn Lake and beyond

Before I tell you about the lovely place called Lynn Lake, just a little update. I’m trying to put together some of the neat places I’ve been around town for you wonderful people, but it's slow going and probably won’t happen till I have found a place to live (sigh.. STILL homeless.)

Now on to the good stuff.

The first leg of my journey took me to Lynn Lake Manitoba, which was my first (and hopefully last) time there. The airport was filled with black bear hunting brochures and sport fishing magazines. There isn’t much to say about Lynn Lake because frankly there isn’t anything there. In less you like killing animals for fun of course (see my judging look? Yeah that’s for you Mister I hunt-animals-just-for-fun.)

Now if at some point down the road someone from Lynn Lake discovers this blog and is terribly upset by what I’ve said, then please feel free to email me and I will happily do a post highlighting the town’s good features. Actually they did have great sandwiches! In all seriousness though, I did not see the actual town myself and so I have no right to judge. Perhaps it really is a wonderful place….. Moving on…

The next stop took me to Iqaluit (I·qa·lu·it /ɪˈkɑ-lu-ɪt, iˈkɑ-luˌit/)

 


which for you non-Canadians is the capital of Nunavut and rests on Baffin Island above Quebec. As someone who was raised more or less in the city, it wasn’t at all what I expected. In my head I had an admittedly racist idea of a bunch of Inuits in a fairly run down city. Well what I found was a town of 8,000 with full hotels and a ton of newly built government buildings. Sure there were the obvious riff-raff as well, but for the most part it was very clean and nice. Just don’t go there expecting to pay regular prices. Main courses were about $50 dollars each, and the starters about $20-30. People get paid a lot more, and since it costs so much to ship everything in (which it all is) the prices are outrageous.

All in all a neat experience though. Because of the time of year it was almost completely dark at night, which helped with the jetlag a bit. The sunset was beautiful and the food, despite being overpriced, was delicious. We slept there for the night and then headed on to Iceland.

I won’t say much about Iceland just because A) I’ve been there previously and loved it, if you can, GO and B) This time I didn’t leave the airport. I watched British commercials and ate free cookies while waiting for everything to get sorted.

At last we arrived in Paris late at night. We had horrible service, which is to be expected in most Parisian restaurants late at night, and then stayed up all night jetlagged. Thankfully my trip is starting to look up, but it’s taken about a week for me to feel that way. More about that later though, for now I’m off to a Mozart concert at the Notre Dame.

p.s. This post took AGES to format, and it still looks retarded. Apologies from the Chef Blogger

Why is my blogspot in FRENCH!?

Oy, okay folks I'm sorry. I've had very little internet and I'm battling jetlag and I'm still hunting for a place to live and how many excuses can I fit neatly in to one little run on sentence?

I want to post full blogs with pictures of my journey over here, and all the fun things I've done so far, but for now here are just a few things to say on a lazy Sunday.

Firstly, my internet has switched itself to French. This is great, because it really solidifies the reality of the situation. This is also terrible because it really solidifies the reality of the situation. Also, my understanding of French is unfortunately poor, and so posting this message might get a little messy.

Secondly, despite being cranky and upset because I’ve been transplanted to a foreign country and I don't know what the hell is going on, I can't stop revelling at the beauty of Paris. We don't have this kind of beauty in North America (because we have the middle class instead- a post for another time) and walking through the streets of Paris is like walking through a museum.

As a religious studies student I feel a little overwhelmed with the historical richness. I could have spent all day in the pews at the Sacre-Coeur just marvelling at what faith in Jesus has created. A tourist attraction, a work of art, a mecca, a money maker and so on. Again I’ll do more on specific locations as I get around to it (and as I update my photos) but for now my only advice to travellers is:

Don't come to France is august, in less you want your hair to explode from humidity and sweat to run in places you really don't want it to run. IT IS HOT! Half the stores are closed because it is august, and instead of getting French culture you get tourists from very interesting cultures coming together as one sweaty incoherent mess. No one can politely converse with another because all the tourists speak different languages, and instead it leaves you frustrated and feeling a little put-out. I just wanted you to move over, no need to stare me down! Thankfully everyone hauls ass during the rainy season, so French should be one of the only languages I have to try to navigate.

They are all red but they give me the blues..

I bought new shoes to walk around Europe today.

no birkenstocks yet ladies, sorry.

They squeak (anyone want to guess on how long it took me to figure out how to spell the word squeak?). I HATE shoes that squeak, and they sure as hell didn’t do that in the store. I would go return them, but now I’ve spent so much time trying to spell the word squeak that I feel like I’m going crazy indoors and I want to go for a walk with my new shoes. Also they are red. I feel like fucking Ronald McDonald, because I’m sure his shoes make noises too.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll take my McDonalds shoes to the beach in hopes of making them sandy enough that they look more like runners and less like clown shoes. Tata!

Picture Post 1

So guess what? The weather was AMAZING and we caught a TON of fish.

haha, yeah right.

It rained and we caught nothing. But without further ado, my weekend in photos (first picture post!)

Our pilot's advice in the event of a crash- get naked. It'll freak out the police that investigate the crash

Beautiful BC with the float place below us

The one sunny day!

Foggy morning with no fish

Check out the 4th name from the bottom!

I'm on a BOAT

I’m pretty sure my boat is actually a helicopter, but it’s fine because it is in fact taking me towards a boat. Soon I’ll be drinking spiked coffee and listening to the lull of the waves while I freeze my ass off trying to catch fish in the wee hours of the morning.

This is my pre-Europe excursion for some R&R. Prepare for some beautiful photos of BC in the coming days. Also be prepared for a lot of heated scrabble games and Ceasers (the drink). That’s just the way we Smo kids roll.

On a side note, while trying to write this post I started thinking about how epic it would be if this was actually a transformer and it was a boat AND a helicopter. What would you call that? A boaticopter? I also started thinking about statistically, how many times the song lyrics “I’m on a Boat” have been used as a Fb post or photo album title.  When I googled it I ended up with a bunch of addiction and abuse websites. It took me a while to figure out the connection, till I realized how much beer one ends up drinking on a boat...

Thankfully we aren't a family of alcoholics, so cheers to a fun (but sober) weekend!

Happy day indeed

Dear nice lady at the apple store,

I know I hate on apple products all the time, but today you totally rocked my world. Thank you nice lady, for replacing my Ipod for free after I smashed it on the ground a day before leaving town.

Sincerely,
Satisfied Customer

Packing Woes

Less than a week till I leave for Paris and despite my greatest attempts at procrastination I know it’s time to pack. Here is what is in my suitcase so far:

·         Billy Jr. (a stuffed squirrel)

·         My favourite pair of Fluvog stilettos

·         An Ipad that I only use for Angry birds

·         A few leftover Euros from last time

·         Pyjamas

·         Two toothbrushes (you never know!)

·         A rain jacket

·         My cellphone charger

·         An adapter for said cellphone charger

·         Toiletries (read: tampons)

·         Three complete seasons of Buffy

·         My Michelin guide to Paris

I’m not really sure what else I’ll need in life. I’m not the kind of girl who travels with a hair dryer, and no matter what I’ll end up forgetting something anyways. Speaking of, where is my passport? Hmm... I need to go track down that little blue book that has my mug shot in it.

The squirrel in question.

And so it Begins

Maybe it's not too late?

Today I spent  3 whole hours trying to find the right name for my blog that documents my European adventures, because obviously after many months of sporadic updates it will become and overnight sensation and then it has to have a name that sounds good on a Tshirt. Unfortunately the only names I could come up with were sad pop references and not-so-funny puns. My list of potential names also included “The Jet-Setting Jew” and “Vagina on the Move.”  Neither of these seemed particularly appropriate for a blog created to keep my non-facebook relatives in the loop. Sticky Notes from Paris isn’t much better, but Post-It notes when written without the hyphen didn’t seem all that much more appropriate. Postits From Paris anyone?

I think the Tshirts will have to wait.