oh say can you see?

lundi 31 mars 2008

First day of classes.  probably not unlike a United Nations meeting with Nicolas Sarkozy at the podium, insisting on speaking French.

About 30-40 students gathered in the morning, waiting to be split into groups according to the level of our French.  The principal instructors stood in front of the class to explain the logistics of the school.  I believe every continent had at least one representative among us, and of course the common language used when chatting among ourselves was English.  I didn't participate since I arrived late (I got lost, as usual), and also since I would rather just speak French.  Perhaps I am the Nicolas Sarkozy here.

I was placed in the group avancé, with other students from New York, California, the UK, Brazil, Germany, New Zealand, and Italy.  Our first lesson was to talk about our countries including the national anthems, symbols, and our likes and dislikes of them.  Too bad there wasn't anyone from the red states.  George Bush's name came up often, always negatively.  It would have been interesting to hear the opinion of someone who might like him or at least hate him a bit less.

Any interesting question was how we could recognize our compatriots in a foreign country.  It appears that if you're loud and wear shorts, then you're American.  If you're very loud and allow your children to run around, or if you wear certain shoes that are easily recognizable, then you are Italian.  I have no idea what these shoes might look like since I am not Italian.  The Germans have a certain way of dress, and the British like to wear sunglasses and hats.  Apparently, no one likes tourists from their own countries.  Maybe it's just tourists in general.  They/we go to a foreign land, act our usual ways, not paying respect to local customs, thus easily stand out in every way possible without the least concern.

Another issue was how we are proud or shameful of our countries.  As expected, the two Germans discussed the Holocaust, but they had slightly different points of view.  One guy felt that the actions of Hitler and his people decades ago do not reflect who he is but that one needs to remember these events so that they are not repeated.  The other guy stated very strongly that even though he wasn't alive decades ago, all Germans are still responsible for what did happen and need to live with the burden of past sins and somehow improve the world in any way possible.  Two guys in their twentis, obviously different views.

to rain or not to rain

dimanche 30 mars 2008

My first full day in Paris was greeted with a whole day of rain - cold, frigid rain.  The entire Europe also changed from the winter hour to the spring hour, but that didn't bother me a bit since I was already jet-lagged.

In the afternoon, I met my first language exchange partner.  We had café in a café right next to the Seine.  After complaining about the rain and the nearly freezing temperature (first time I ever complained about anything), I remembered that I was sitting in a café, in Paris, with a view of the Tour Eiffel, on the Right Bank of the Seine.  Suddenly I realized there was nothing to complain about.  I am the luckiest person in the world to be here, enjoying this beautiful rain in Paris.

Everything around me turned beautiful and interesting - from the smartly dressed (with the ever present scarf) chic young French woman clinging tightly to her umbrella and even more so to her cell phone, to the grumpy-looking older Frenchman dodging the bullets of the rain to cross the street.  While it rained heavily in our area, I noticed a strand of brightness in light blue peaking through the clouds behind the Tour Eiffel.  At that exact moment, it was 20:00, and the blinking lights on the tower began their hourly show.  The sunset soon transformed the blue into an intense orange, all seemingly just to remind me of where I was.  My new friend is an avid photographer and snapped this candid when I wasn't paying attention, so here is the first picture of my blog.

Et alors, j'ai vraiment de la chance d'être à Paris. Mon cours commence demain. Je sais que j'apprendrai plein de français dans mon cours et que j'apprendrai plein de vie à Paris. Pendant les premiers jours quand j'étais ici en 2006, tout ce que les gens disait a semblé mélangé. Mais cette fois, je peux entendre des mots distincts dans chaque phrase à la télé. C'est un bon début.

D'ailleurs, quand je me baladais dans la Rue de Beaubourg cet après-midi, je me suis senti comme si je ne partais jamais de Paris et si j'étais toujours ici depuis deux années.

hello again, Paris

samedi 29 mars 2008

Here I am again, in Paris.

Paris is pretty much as I remembered it.  Cool, maybe downright chilly today, but majestic, somewhat standoffish on first glance.  I arrived at chez mon ami Didier who so generously offered to host me in his apartment for my entire trip.  He must be crazy or not know me very well.  In any case, he lives in Le Marais, which is in the third district of Paris (le 3e arrondissement).

It seems like only last month that I was here.  For lunch we went across the street to a wonderful Italian restaurant called Little Italy.  And for dinner we enjoyed traditional French cuisine in Le Quartier Latin (le 6e arrondissement) called Café de la Tourelle.

Didier and I went out to dinner with his friends Alim, Lionel, and Christophe.  Did you think that a typical French dinner in Paris would consist of heavy sauces and escargot?  Well, there was escargot, but heavy sauces were nowhere to be seen on any table.  It was simple food with great flavors.  In France, the menu is called "la carte."  A pre-set menu, typically consisting of three items, is called "le menu."  The three items are l'entrée (appetizer), le plat (main course), and le dessert.  For l'entrée, I had a delicious terrine de poisson (pâté of fish).  For le plat, un confit de canard, and for le dessert, sublime chocolat.  Didier and I agreed that it wasn't quite sublime, but it was fairly good.  You might be wondering how much all this costs - 25 euros.  It's only expensive if you consider the exchange rate.

So there I was, sitting with four Parisians, discussing politics (even Obama versus Hillary), movies, cultures, and sex.  Almost the entire conversation was conducted in French.  If I concentrated, I understood about 10% of everything, but when they spoke directly to me (simpler and slower), I understood about 75%.  Not too shabby for now, but must raise those numbers by the end of two months.

Interestingly, next to our table were four Taiwanese students and a Frenchman.  In contrast to us, nearly all their conversation was done in Chinese.  Every once in a while, one of the Taiwanese people would translate for the Frenchman.  I know exactly how he felt.

Watch out, fais attention

a lesson on "les faux amis" (literally translated as false friends)

une personne = a person

un personnage = a character (in a movie, book)

un caractère = a person's character

times flies, Alex flies

vendredi 28 mars 2008

The week passed by very quickly.  Before I knew it, I was waiting at SFO.

I have to admit, it was a somewhat annoying flight.  I remember that on my last flight to Paris, I was surrounded by 18 to 20-year-old college girls, most of whom visiting Europe for the first time.  One of them had a voice not unlike Kerri Strugg (the gymnast from the 1996 

Atlanta Olympics); in other words, forever young to her meant forever having the voice of a ten-year-old girl, despite her twenty-something year old body.  Since I wasn't traveling with a college group this time, I was expecting something different, less annoying.  Well, I had 12 to 15-year-old girls around me this time.  Apparently, American families like to take their young daughters to Paris, but not their sons.  There were about ten or twelve kids from different families, not one boy among them.

One of these girls was a bit feisty during the flight.  I unfortunately happened to sit in front of her and had to endure her periodic (once every minute) kicks against the back of my seat.  I tend to get motion sickness even when a car drives over a bmp or when someone coughs on a ship, so you can imagine how I was feeling during the entire flight.  After a while, I finally turned around to ask her to stop acting like she was eight months in utero.

When I looked back, in the dimly lit ambience of the lovely square airplane reading light, there appeared a vision.  I saw a sickly looking girl who resembled a young Lindsay Lohan (think back to her Parent Trap days) posing for her mug shot after a wild drunken night of alcohol and drugs that I can prescribe.  I pitied her as she looked more sick than I was feeling, so I simply told her to stop kicking.  I had thought about getting up in front of her to kick her a few times in the shin, but my sympathy prevented me from doing that, not to mention her dad sitting across the aisle from her.  I probably should have kicked, since she never stopped.

So after long flights from SFO to ORD (how does one get ORD from Chicago O'Hare?) and ORD to CDG, I dragged my nauseated body out of the plane into a beautiful airport lobby singly decorated with a huge banner featuring the the company... no, not some internationally known French company like L'Oreal, it was an internationally known American company called Oracle.

the final countdown

So, in exactly 7 days and 0 hours, my flight will be touching down in Paris, France, for the second time in two years.  Am I excited or nervous?  Likely a bit of both.

I do remember feeling the exact same way right before the first trip - my good friend (and housemate at the time), Jeni, had to convince me that everything would turn out great and that the trip would do me good.  Of course I knew that; but as usual, I let my fear of uncertainty dominate my emotions.

In 2006, my three-month trip to Paris was part of a college study abroad program (no, I wasn't in college 2 years ago), meaning that I had to hang out with a bunch of 20-year-olds who were fleeing from their parents to the embrace of unlimited drinking, clubbing, and smoking.  I'm not joking, it really was like that - one student was sent back home for "disappearing" for an entire weekend.  As expected, I fell in love with Paris and completely enjoyed my time there (maybe I've blocked out the bad memories).  In between studying French and art history, I managed to fall in love (salut, petit) and form a great friendship with a most intriguing Frenchman named Didier who speaks English with a very good British accent.  Yes, I'm jealous.  I dream of the day that I would speak French with a Parisian accent and English with a British accent.  Don't wake me up.

In the past two years, I've managed to fall out of love (that was a good thing, really - we are very good friends now), establish a new interest in filmmaking by spending two months in Manhattan while making movies.  Now I've finished the first draft of my feature screenplay, which is based on my experiences in Paris.  Kind of amazing, now I reflect on it.  Of course, I've got lots of work left to do (probably 99 drafts left to go), but it will be a fun process nevertheless.

At the same time, in the past month, I've started working on the script for a TV series.  This is a collaboration with a friend originally from Taiwan who is now in the Big Apple seeking her own adventure.  Obviously, I've got to focus on my own movie while in Paris, as that is one of the primary reasons for returning to Paris, but between these two projects and taking 24 hours of French classes a week, I guess I'll be pretty busy.

So I've got my brand new MacBook Pro ready and fired up, got my new Olympus SLR all charged (I promise to take more than "artsy" photos of Paris, niao-bah & j-bah), and will start warming up those little gray cells to start two great months of creative adventure, of which I'm sure all you folks in America and Taiwan are tremendously jealous.  Haha.

But these are merely plans.  As good as plans often can be, the best parts of my trips have been the unexpected gifts.  Like my last trip, I am hoping to meet lots of local Frenchies to improve mon français.  I don't know whom I'll meet, but I am certain I'll return in June with more ideas for a completely different movie.

Bon, j'écris un peu en français. J'éspère apprendre plein de choses durant mon séjour, mais surtout j'attends avec impatience de rencontrer de nouveaux amis. Je vais écrire de plus en plus en français, c'est promis.

Ciao, salut, à bientôt, bye,

Alex