At the beginning of last week, my Grandpa visited us in Paris for three days en route to Zurich for a convention of otorhinolaryngologists. There were to be five of them.

Now, my Grandpa is not your average Grandpa. He happens to be (though he insists otherwise) a genius. His accomplishments, for the most part, go right over my science-less head but I do know that he has, successfully, devoted much of his life to improving the lives (more specifically, the ears) of deaf children. He is multi-lingual (American sign language, German, English and an assortment of others), an avid artist book collector, a committed race-walker, a lover of the arts and of wine, as I was lucky enough to learn. I had never spent that much time with him before. He joked that I really got to know my Grandpa while he was here. I did.

He tells stories and stories and stories. Sleeping in a land mine in 1952 Germany, seeing Albert Einstein at a Princeton lecture remove his hat to let fly his famous fro, doctoring the famous and befriending the infamous. We talked about our common lack of religion ("... it happened when I realized I could turn the ever-lasting light off with an electric switch") and he was the first person to make me feel better about not having a freaking clue what I want to do in 8 months. He gave me practical ideas. He is very practical; I respect that immensely.

Needless to say, I am extraordinarily glad he came to visit. Aside from three nights of supreme dining and a ticket to the Opera, I got to meet my own Grandfather.


The rest of the week was spent going to our first set of real classes outside of the 3.5 hours, 5 days a week, 2 week long intensive French course we are all required to take. I am taking:

Intensive Elementary French
Paris Monuments and Political Power
Marseilles and the Mediterranean World (includes a four day trip to Marseilles!)
African-American History at the University of Paris

It looks like it should be a good amount of work but all completely worth it.

Today NYU took us on a group day trip to Vaux-le-Vicomte. The building, itself, was the most strangely curated thing I've ever seen. In one room (only one room) there was a wax figure that they somehow made to look like he was speaking through some sort of projection. His eyes were very shifty. It was so odd. The best parts of the day were the delicious 3 course lunch with wine and the slightly-drunken post-lunch stroll through the lavish 17th century gardens.

Here are some photos from the trip:

Vaux-le-Vicomte
The gardens.

An example of how strangely this museum was arranged.
Why are her clogs so big? Why does she resemble Paris Hilton?
Many unanswered questions.

Finally, Benj and I in the gardens.

I will leave on that sentimental note. Tomorrow night is Nuit Blanche, an event in Paris where museums and galleries stay open all night and tons of outdoor art installations go up for one night. One such installation is a giant disco ball being held up by a crane over the Luxembourg Gardens (see last post). I am pretty psyched.

It's Been Two Weeks. Let's Start A Blog!

Hello!

It's been almost two weeks here in Paris and in order to document all of the wonderful adventures we are bound to go on, I have decided to create this blog. Benj will write on it too. It'll be great. YAY! OK, so to begin I will make a list of things we have done and include photos just to be fancy.

1. Jardin du Luxem-awesome!

We are four minutes away from the unnecessarily beautiful Luxembourg Gardens. We have done the following in these gardens:
- eat baguettes
- run the baguettes off
- sit by the nice pond and eat an ice cream cone

- enter the French Senate building which is only open for one weekend a year!
To my left is a photo of the Senate chambers. Gorgeous, no?

2. French Children Are Adorable

There is this Renault car ad in practically EVERY metro station that features 7 of the most cheek-squeezable babies around. Though I still have no clue what the correlation is between babies and cars, these ads never cease to make me smile and make gibberish noises as if the babies could hear me. So basically a successful campaign.



3. SPEAKIIIINNNGGG Of Advertisement...

Mad Men! Just finished season one and I am absolutely hooked. It is visually stunning, very smartly written and uniquely well acted. Plus the white, male, capitalists often look bad so clearly, I'm pleased.

4. Techno Parade

Imagine deafeningly loud and monotonous bass beats. Also:

Men on the bus stop.

Tons of fist pumping.

A traveling smoke machine.

Our reaction.
(This is a completely candid photo. Genuine fear and amazement.)

5. Go Buckeyes!

As we all know, last weekend the Ohio State Buckeyes played the USC I-don't-know-whats. After staying up until 6AM Paris time at the classiest bar in town to watch said football game, we were saddened by the loss of the Buckeyes but took solace in cheap French wine. This weekend they won and USC lost to another team, which, according to Benj, is somehow a good and a bad thing at the same time. Why am I talking about college football?

6. My Red Bike

I got a red bike with foot brakes and a bell that doesn't really work and I rode it a couple times with my helmet from home and I keep it in my courtyard next to a plant and a table and it's lovely.

7. Timothy David "Jim Bawaga" Chawaga, Resident Playwright.

Tim came to visit this weekend! He and I went to the Louvre on Friday while Benj was in class and then accidentally fell asleep in the grass. We were not as elegant as the man in the photo on the right.


Friday night we ate bread, cheese, and pasta with eggplant in our courtyard with a bunch of fun kids from NYU in Paris and then went to a bar called "Le Pop-In."


Saturday was the Senate House and Techno Parade.


Today we went to the Musee d'Orsay.


Now the three of us are home, studying French and watching this.

So that's all. I will leave with a fun game that I just thought up. The winner is the person who comes up with the funniest caption for the picture of Tim and Benj below.

HAVE FUN!!!!!