Solidays 2014 press conference (Wednesday)

This is a bit overdue. I hadn't been in a writing mood this week, so please excuse the delay.

On Wednesday morning, instead of heading to the office as usual all of us interns headed to a press conference for Solidays. This an annual festival put on by Solidarité Sida, an organization that aims to raise funds for AIDS treatment and research, expand people's understanding about the disease, and challenge the stigma and oppression that many activists and infected people face. The festival serves all of these purposes at once by bringing in artists from all of the world to perform and attract people to the cause. It draws more than 150,000 spectators over a 3-day period every year. Solidays 2014 (June 28-30) honors the memory and example of Nelson Mandela while carrying the slogan, "The fight must go on."  This is all just basic information that I gathered from online and what was said at the press conference. For more details, check out the Solidays website.

We stood along a wall watching the press conference, which lasted about an hour and a half. Afterward everything moved outside to the garden where the organizers of the event posed for pictures with one of this year's big names, French band Shaka Ponk. Following that there were more interviews and photos in various spots in the venue, along with mingling over finger food and alcohol. Three artists from La Métisse will be performing at Solidays, so my fellow interns and I were there to get our association's name out there and hand out copies of La Métisse's 2013-14 compilation CD. But we didn't end up handing out too many and mostly just walked around checking out what was going on and tasting the finger food. I tried almost everything even though I had no idea what I was eating, and most of it didn't disappoint. All in all it was a great experience for me (first press conference ever, woo!), and a great excuse to spend the first half of the day out of the office for all of us.

 Bread and Butter [Paris] photos - JUNE

 Bread and Butter [Paris] photos - MAY

"Do you understand everything?"

My French co-workers seem to know more about American music than me, and that's totally fine. It amuses and intrigues me to see how great their interest is.

One in particular (let's call her A) is very interested in learning English. She often asks me to teach her how to say something, or she'll try out a phrase and ask me if it's correct. Today A asked me to say something and when I was done she said excitedly, "I just love to hear people peak English like that. It's like the coolest thing. You know that song 'Top on Love' [Beyonce's 'Love on Top']? When you listen to it, do you understand everything she says? Really? Like everything? Wow, I can't imagine. Do its lyrics have a lot of meaning? Often when I listen to an American song I'll find the music really moving, but I don't understand all the words so I wonder if the lyrics are meaningful or not?"

While listening to her I just wanted to laugh because that's exactly how I feel when hearing French people speak or listening to French-language music.

First Day of the Internship

Went well. Everybody there is really nice, and except for the director they're all in their twenties like me. There was a famous young actor (one of the few French actors I know) there shooting something. Pretty sure I can't say much about who he is and what he was doing there, though. I really like the neighborhood that I work in, and the walk home was pleasant. Other than reading through information that the director had me read, taking a bunch of notes, listening in on interviews and answering two phone calls, I didn't do much today. And I still feel really nervous and uncertain about the whole thing. But, today was only my first day. I worry too much about doing everything exactly right and how things make me look anyway. I'll be able to contribute more and feel more at ease in time.

M'O (Sunday)

Yesterday was kind of like my last hurrah before saying goodbye to having a lot of free time while I'm here. So even though I would've loved to sleep in, I had to hit one more big one: le Musée d’Orsay.

Le Musée d’Orsay is much smaller than le Louvre, and since it was a Sunday I figured if I got there right when it opened there wouldn't be too much of a crowd. I hopped on a bus and passed by le Louvre along the way. It was crazy; I don't think I've ever seen that many people in line for something ever in my life. The bus rolled by and I was like Welp, glad that won't be me. But the joke was on me. Lo and behold, I got off a few stops later in front of le Musée d’Orsay, right at 9:30am when it was supposed to open, and I thought I was at the wrong place. In proportion to the museum's size, the line there was nearly as bad as le Louvre's! It was a long, winding, never-ending snake of folks waiting in line. Would you like to know why it was so crowded? As strategic as I'd tried to be, I'd forgotten that this day was the first Sunday of the month, which meant that the museums were free. Cue the flocks of tourists and two-hour long waits.

For a second the thought crossed my mind, I could go back to the apartment right now and just go back to sleep. But I'd already gotten up early and I was already there, and I didn't have any other plans except for going to ACP later that day. So I got in line and waited my turn. And luckily, I was only in line for 45 minutes tops.

Now there are two basic reasons why this museum is a "big one" in terms of Paris attractions. First, it used to be a train station (Gare d'Orsay), and second, it holds the most impressionist and post-impressionist paintings of all the museums in the world. Another particularity of this museum (not a point of popularity but just something I found odd) is that taking pictures is completely prohibited. The other museums I've been to in Paris have varied between allowing pictures just as long as you don't use flash, and allowing pictures for permanent collections but not for special and temporary exhibitions. But not until M'O had I been to a museum that didn't allow any photo-taking at all.

Now of course, many people didn't abide by this rule, and I myself snuck a few pictures here and there. But for the most part I just noted in my notebook all the paintings and sculptures that I appreciated the most. That list will be up on this blog later on, but suffice it to say that the impressionist collection is not to be missed. In general walking through le Musée d'Orsay is a much more relaxing, less time-consuming experience than going to le Louvre. Also, you might find some things you hadn't expected to see, like a painting of a black boy selling turtles, or extremely old and expensive Italian furniture, or a sculpture of Nubians fighting off an alligator. Who knows. You'll have to see for yourself.

 Bread and Butter [Paris] photos - JUNE
 Bread and Butter [Paris] photos - MAY

No Right to Feel Stupid

Below is Ma's encouragement for the down-trodden French-learner (a.k.a. me).

"So what if you make mistakes? That's how you learn. Nobody's going to put your feet to the fire just because you made a mistake."

"Now I understand, I don't speak French so if I went over there, I would have the right to feel lost and stupid because I don't know the language. But you don't have that right because you've been getting the education for many years. So it's no need for you to feel completely out of the water, because you're not."

Keeping it Simple (Saturday)

You could say that I was still recovering from Thursday on Saturday. I didn't want to be out all day again, and I certainly didn't feel like going to another museum. So I figured, let's just go see a movie today. I'd enjoyed my experience at the cinema so much on Thursday that I wanted to go again. And I already had a film in mind, since it had came up while I was looking up information on  L'Île de Giovanni. I'll explain more about it in a sec.

As an excuse to visit a new part of the city, I went to UGC Ciné Cité Bercy instead of the theater in Forum des Halles. Bercy is an area in southeast Paris that used to be its own village or commune. It's right across la Seine from the National Library (you know, that place I came upon when I got lost looking for Chinatown).  Anywhoo, when I was looking up more info about Bercy I saw that it has a pretty large and important park, so I headed over a couple hours early to give myself time to explore it.


I was so surprised by what I found! Parc de Bercy is absolutely the most beautiful park of all the ones  I've been to in Paris so far. There's a lot more nature and wildlife in this park, and yet it's also impeccably groomed and organized with gardens, statues, bridges, and other structures. I don't know how they manage to have all that at the same time, but it works. My favorite part was la passerelle Simone-de-Beauvoir, which is a huge, curvy, two-level bridge across la Seine that connects Parc de Bercy to the National Library's campus. The view of the river and all the hustle and bustle on the other side is phenomenal. I would've walked across and back, but I had to return in time for the movie to start. I also really enjoyed looking at all the statues that are situated on the Parc de Bercy side of the bridge. They were a little hard to make out, but basically each one is supposed to represent a different country or culture in the world.

After taking in la passerrelle I walked back through the park to meet my friend S at the cinema. S is an Australian young woman who I met in my afternoon classes. I hadn't given her much notice beforehand on Saturday, but when I invited her to join me she kindly accepted without question. The movie we went to see was a Chinese film with French subtitles, called Le Promeneur d'Oiseau (or, The Nightingale). It's about an old man who takes his granddaughter on a trip from Beijing to the little country village in which he and his deceased wife were born and raised. His personal mission is to return a bird that his wife had given him to said village, as he'd promised years ago. Along the way, he and his granddaughter bond, and the audience gets an insight into the Chinese countryside, tradition, and family values. It's a very simple film, and the images that it juxtaposes between tranquil country living and modern Beijing are stunning.

After the movie Sarah and I sat for a gallette complète each at a restaurant called La Compagnie des Crêpes . It wasn't terrible but... I wouldn't recommend this place. The food was overpriced and kinda dry. Plus our server had an odd sense of humor and was a little too friendly. This was one time where the bad online reviews were right. La Compagnie des Crêpes is one of many restaurants and shops that make up Bercy Village, which is an outdoor mall made out of what used to be warehouses and wine storehouses. The weather was beautiful and there were so many different people passing by, so what our restaurant lacked in food quality it kinda (only slightly) made up for in ambiance.

Disappointing dining experience aside, my Saturday was a simple yet calming day spent hanging out with a new friend.

 Bread and Butter [Paris] photos - JUNE
 Bread and Butter [Paris] photos - MAY

Talking to a Stranger

Last day of class. Today was another 6-hour stretch, so I didn't have time to do much today. Not that I really wanted to, since I was out all day yesterday. But I couldn't just go straight "home" after class, so I headed to the Eiffel Tower and sat on a bench along an edge of the park that it towers over (Parc du Champ de Mars). Just like I did Tuesday at Parc Monceau, I was going to stay there for at least two hours reading and people-watching. But then out of nowhere came a Senegalese gentleman who took it upon himself to join me on the bench, even though he saw that I was preoccupied, and start up a conversation. And it was like he had nothing better to do; he just sat there and kept talking and trying to get me to talk back. He was friendly and all and we had a pleasant conversation about various topics. But then he invited me for coffee, offered to show me around the city this weekend, and wanted to exchange contact info, and it's like Dude, I don't know you. I don't mind talking to a stranger if the conversation is interesting and I don't get any bad vibes or sense any alarms going off. But I also have no problem giving people phony aliases and fake numbers. I don't know you, man. So on the one hand I got two hours of unexpected French conversation practice, but on the other hand I didn't get to spend my time the way I'd wanted to. I was really counting on some alone time! The scene was perfect and Mr. Senegalese man kinda ruined it, nice as he was. Eh well. It's the Eiffel Tower. I can always go back.

 Bread and Butter [Paris] photos