The Beginnings of Winter Break

So, the beginnings of my winter vacation. I have had a nice few days, including the movies, bowling, and a trip to Paris. And then Saturday, we head off for ski and I just can’t wait.  So, here’s some stories from the week.

One morning I built a tower out of Kapla, which are wooden sticks that are used for building, a bit like Lincoln logs.  I pulled out some of the pictures and built the tower of London, which was especially fun because I had walked across the very same bridge when I was in London with Nicole and her host family.

Me and my Tower of London, oh, and my new turquoise fuzzy sweater

You can see the resemblance between the two, right?

The tower of london

I went to see Star Wars in 3D.  Here, you own your own 3D glasses and bring them with you to the theater, rather than in the USA where we have the big bins of yellow glasses which we grab as we walk in and leave when we walk out. The movie was good, but it was very weird for me to hear Jar Jar Binks talking in his funny accent and to hear Yoda using inverse speech in French. I’m so used to “Judge me by my size, do you?” and “Me-sa thinks that you-sa...” so hearing the funny way of talking in French was just so weird. It was sort of like the time when I watched Parent Trap in french, and the parts that are in French in the American version were in Italian. Anyway, back to Star Wars, I wasn’t thrilled by the 3D effects, and it was very clear that the movie wasn’t filmed to be in 3D, but it was still a fun outing. We also saw a preview for the restored, 3D version of Titanic, and since I have never seen it, they have promised to take me.

I went bowling one day, which was great. The bowling alley was “American themed” so the restaurant was a diner that looked a bit like a Mel’s drive-in, all of the cocktails were named after states(for example “The California” was strawberries and pineapple juice and some other random things) and the music was lots of 50’s american music. I came in second. The second game, I got 3 strikes and still didn’t manage to break 100, which is pretty sad. But, we do have to consider that it has been over a year since I last played bowling on something other than the wii. Even though we all had a fair number of gutter-balls, it was really fun.

Playing bowling with my host siblings(and not on the Wii) at the American themed bowling alley.

So, on to the trip to Paris. It was lots of fun to actually get to walk around Paris a bit instead of just seeing everything in a bus like when i first arrived with AFS. We went to the Saint-Chapel which, according to legend, used the hold the crown of thorns that jesus wore when crucified. The chapel was incredible, with all of the walls covered with Stained glass windows that tell the story of the whole bible, from Adam and Eve all the way to the Apocalypse. At first, my host siblings didn’t want to take the guided tour, but since it started right as we got there, we kind of started listening to it. Pretty soon, we were all totally hooked and hanging onto the guide’s every word. It was really interesting and I learned a lot. And I was so happy that even though I’m American, i wasn’t stuck with just reading the few signs that had been translated into English. i understood almost every word that the guide said, so I really got to experience the tour. So, here’s what I learned. 1. During the two world wars, the french knew that Paris was going to be bombed, so they took down all of the stained glass windows of the chapel and put them in the shelters under the bridges to protect them. 2. In almost all chapels in france with stained glass windows that tell the story of the bible, the Apocalypse is presented on the western wall. Why? Well, doesn’t it make sense that since the sun sets in the west, the lays rays of light would illuminate the last days of the world? and 3. I learned how to read stained glass windows. They tell a story, but you have to read it properly or you won’t understand. You start in the first window and read from left to right, then you jump up a line and read from left to right again. Why read from top to bottom? Reading stained glass windows is supposed to help you turn your soul toward heaven, so you read up toward heaven.  Before this method was adopted, the story used to zig zag up the windows, so you would read one line right to left, and then left to right and then right to left. But, later, they decided to make it a bit more logical and like a book, so left to right all of the way up. The guide showed us the story of Moses parting the Red Sea and of David and Goliath, so it was fun to practice.

Me inside the Saint-Chapel

Right in the middle, where you see the box, is where there used to be a chest covered with precious jewels and gold, which used to hold the crown of thorns, as well as some other relics. During the revolution, the box was melted for the money, and all but 3 of the relics were lost. the crown is now held at Notre Dame and can only be seen in public on the first friday of every month.

The apocalypse is presented inside the rose, on the Western wall of the chapel.

This is the one of the 3 roses in Notre Dame. As you can see, the style is very different. This is in the ray style, while the rose at the Saint-Chapel was in the leaf style. 

We also went to Notre Dame and walked around the inside, which was incredible. The line was to long to go up into the tower and pretend to be the hunchback, but we did walk all the way around the outside which was super cool, since you usually only see the front with the towers.

The back view of Notre Dame

We ate lunch at a little restaurant called Le Paradis du Fruit(fruit paradise.) 

After lunch, it was off to the Champs Elysées. The first stop was Abercrombie and Fitch, but since Abercrombie on the Champs is the only Abercrombie in France, the line is incredible, just to go inside. 

The super long line for Abercrombie and Fitch.

The Champs élysées, which go from La place de la Concorde to L'arc de Triomph. We didn't have time to see all of it, and someday I hope to come back and walk from one end to the other.

The ridiculously thick and delicious hot chocolate.

So thick it left tracks in the cup.

And then it was time to head home to watch France beat Germany 2-1 in soccer. 

And finally, I need to groan a bit about America. So, I did the shopping for my mac n cheese today, and the more time I spend here, the more I realize how dumb the American system is. I mean, who in their right mind would say “Use 2 cups of pasta.” First of all, would that be cooked or dry? Secondly, What size of noodles, because you can imagine that you can fit a lot more mini-macaronis in a cup than you can fit penne tubes. So consequently, the amount of pasta is different. And how am I supposed to know how much pasta to weigh out when the amount is given in cups? There is no real way to transfer from volume to weight. It is really stupid, and really annoying.