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Posts Tagged ‘apartment’

Ode to Macarons
by Me

I love your beauty,
I love your shape,
I love the way you make me feel.

I love your color,
I love your taste,
I love that the ingredients in you are real.

Macarons, macarons, sweet macarons.
Why do you taste so great?
Macarons, macarons, sweet macarons.
You’re making me put on weight.

So!  As you can tell, my addiction to French macaroons continues.  Today, Kelsey, Jill and I went to Ladurée, which is a famous pastry shop on Champs Elysées.  It’s a tremendously popular place, and there were at least 20 people standing in line when we got there.  We actually encountered another rude Parisian (one of my favorite things to blog about), who cut us in line and then pretended that she couldn’t understand our French even though we were clearly indicating that she cut us.  It’s okay though, I burned holes in the back of her head.  Anyway, we waited in line, I left a bit of drool here and there on the glass as we moved down the line toward the registers.  Everything looked incredible!  I settled upon getting 4 ‘mini-macarons,’ and I got a vanilla, dark chocolate, caramel with salt, and a green apple (which the kind lady who helped me recommended).  I also ordered a madeleine, which is basically just a cookie of sugary, buttery goodness.

Just to throw in a random historical tidbit, I remember reading an excerpt of Marcel Proust’s autobiography somewhere (maybe for the SATs or a French class or something along those lines), and it was this type of cookie that brought back vivid memories of his childhood.  It’s interesting how tastes and smells are such major memory triggers.  Even though I have a delayed sense of smell (ask anyone), scents in general are the strongest memory triggers for me.

Anyway, Fanny, the lady from the apartment rental agency, showed Jill and I another apartment today.  This one was significantly nicer than the last, with big open rooms, great lighting, a decent kitchen, and it was located just around the corner of Champs Elysées.  The only problem was that it better suited three people rather than four.  I spoke with Simone and Kelsey about the situation, and Simone suggested that she move up to the Anne Frank loft where I’m currently sleeping, which works out great for both of us; she is about four inches shorter than I am (meaning that the low ceiling and beams won’t be such a problem) and wants her own personal space, and I just want a real bed and no more bumps on my head.  Thus, I’m staying in my lovely, quaint Parisian apartment with my lovely roommates!  And it’s definitely turning out to be a good thing, as I’m starting to feel quite at home here.

My first class at Sciences Po…and I want to die.  I wrote about it a little bit in the last entry, but for those of you who aren’t avid readers of my blog (shame on you!), the class is called “Les grands enjeux scientifiques.”  This translates roughly to “The Problems of Science.”  If you’re wondering what a international studies student like me is doing in a class like this…well, so am I.  I was a bit worried about the subject matter, but figured I could at least handle the level of French required to understand basic concepts.  Boy, was I wrong.  I knew I was in trouble right off the bat when my professor asked within the first five minutes  for the “étudiantes étrangères” (foreign students) to identify themselves by raising their hands.  There were only 4 of us in a lecture hall of about 50 people, and everyone turned to look at us poor suckers.  The professor then proceeded to ask…something?…along the lines of whether or not we were familiar with science and the French vocabulary required to fully grasp lectures and readings about detailed nanotechnologies and biotechnologies.  Big oops.  I know nothing about biotechnology and nanotechnology in English, let alone in French.

Moral of the story: tomorrow I will be going to see Bruno, the director for the “premier cycle,” which is the program I am enrolled in.  I will be asking him whether or not there are ANY English lectures open, and BEG him on hands and knees to let me into one of them, even if it’s about why paint dries at the rate it does.  I feel like I’m letting myself down by dropping my French lecture, but the class gave me heart palpitations already and I don’t even have a homework assignment yet.  Oh well, maybe there are some French electives that are less frightening…I have some research to do ASAP.

Also, I received an e-mail from Myriam, our program coordinator, who informed me of upcoming apartment visits.  Tomorrow, I will be visiting what appears to be a beautiful apartment in the 4th arrondisement on rue de Rivoli, which is the fancy shmancy road that the Louvre is located on.  It’s also pretty close to Notre Dame.  So far, so good…at least it’s in a good area, and there are two bedrooms with hopefully two beds each, which means I can have my own bed!  I’ll let you know how it goes, as I have that at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning (aka 10am).

I have also officially embarked upon my journey to become a Parisian chef!  I donned my beautiful Anthropologie apron (courtesy of Nadia…thanks, darlin’!), got out my chaacken (read: chicken) and veggies, and off I went.  I made a Zucchini and Tomato sauté with Chicken, and it was delicious!  I’m going to include the recipe for all of you who’re budding chefs:

Chicken with Squash and Tomato Sauté

Ingredients:

• 2 t olive oil
• 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts, 1/2 inch cubes
• 1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced
• 1 small onion, halved and sliced
• ½ t salt
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• About 10 cherry tomatoes, halved
• ¼ t freshly ground black pepper
• 2 T grated fresh Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 C Ratatouille sauce, or some kind of tomato-based sauce

Instructions: Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add chicken, cook for 2 minutes until it starts to get white.  Add zucchini, onion, and salt; sauté 5 minutes or until crisp tender.  Add garlic, and cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly.  Add tomato, and cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated, stirring frequently.  Stir in pepper, sprinkle with cheese, and serve immediately.  Serves 2.

It was absolutely delicious, super healthy, and really easy to make!  If you’re cooking for many people, you can thicken this up by cooking up some whole wheat pasta and serving the chicken and veggies on top.  I served it with a white wine; I’m no sommelier, but I think you could go either way…it’s a chicken vs. red sauce battle, I suppose.  Feel free to correct me/give me suggestions if I’m wrong, as I’m ready and willing to learn more about wine!  In fact, one of my goals while I’m over here is to become a wine connoisseur…

After being in Paris for almost six full days without having seen more than one third of the Eiffel Tower, I decided to make the trek over after I took my daily nap (a result of the persistent little bugger known as jet lag, which is still messing around with my sleeping schedule).  It was dusk, and the tower’s lights were shining brightly when I emerged from the RER station.  It was an absolutely breathtaking sight; even though I have seen it before, there is still something so striking about this modern architectural marvel.  It was just beautiful, basking in its majestic, golden grandeur, tourists swarming around and capturing photographs of loved ones.  I walked around it and took some pictures myself (check them out on  Facebook!), trying to capture it at all angles.  It was also a pleasant surprise to see the tower sparkling around 5 o’clock, and I loved hearing everyone ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ at it in their own languages.

I walked through the Champs de Mars towards another Metro station and checked out a Carrefour, which is one of the nicer grocery stores in Paris.  I love walking up and down the aisles and discovering the differences between American and French food products.  There is much less processed food here, which is nice, although the shelves of these marchés are still littered with American products here and there (Special K, M&Ms, Pepperidge Farms Chocolate Chunk Cookies, etc.).  After thinking about all the incredible meals I should (and will eventually) be cooking, I hopped on the subway and got off at Notre Dame, which happens to be a couple minutes from my apartment.  I took a few pictures of the cathedral as well, which still has a beautiful Christmas tree up in front of it.  I can’t wait to go inside and check it out; I remember it being very beautiful when I went in high school.  I also want to go up top and take some cool photos of the gargoyles and of the city; it should be great since it’s centrally located.

I got some news about the apartment situation last night, too.  Rita called me and informed that I would be switching apartments in order to have more suitable living conditions (read: real bed, higher ceiling, more storage!).  Although I’m pretty bummed that I won’t be living with Kelsey and Simone anymore, at least I won’t be sustaining injuries when trying to get in and out of bed, nor will I have to live out of my suitcase any longer.  Myriam is going to be working on finding a new apartment this week, and I’m most likely going to be living with my friend Jill and her two current roommates, as they are being moved as well.  I hope we have a good location and a beautiful kitchen, not to mention real beds and WiFi, which apparently not everyone has.

Anyways, I’m going to a bar called The Princess and the Frog tonight, which should be hoppin’ and (perhaps unfortunately…?) full of American students.  I had better get ready and pop open another bottle of wine…

Rue Monsieur le Prince, in the heart of the Latin Quarter: my new home-away-from-home.  Kelsey, Simone and I have quite the aesthetically-pleasing apartment on the 4th and 5th floors of our building.  Our first floor consists of a living room, dining area and kitchen, which are all beautiful and well-equipped (new appliances, big screen TV, comfy couches), and we were one of the lucky apartments that had WiFi up and running upon our arrival.  We have one and a half bathrooms, and our downstairs bathroom is beautiful.  It has a gorgeous shower and the shower head is one of those rain ones, so it’s really relaxing.  We also have a heated towel rack, which is pretty nice when it’s cold out and you can’t seem to warm up.  To get to our second floor, you have to take an absurdly dangerous spiral staircase up, which is difficult enough when sober…

Our bedroom situation is less than ideal.  There is one master bedroom that has the largest bed I have ever seen in my entire life.  I was informed that it’s called a ‘California king?’  I hear a man is coming at some point to remove this mattress and take the frame apart, and two beds will be put in there instead, which I guess will be nice.  And then there’s this sort of attic/loft/Anne Frank hideout thing up a ladder that has a ceiling so low that I can’t stand up…which ended up being my ‘bedroom,’ if you can call it that.  I have one outlet far away from my mattress (because it’s only a mattress, resting royally on the floor), no heater, and big wooden beams running across the middle of the room so that I have to crouch to get from one part to the other.  Oh and I also have no storage space, and may or may not have to live out of my suitcase for five and a half months…

But hey, who am I to complain?!  I’m living in THE happening district of one of the greatest cities in the world for half of a year!  I’ve wanted to do this all my life, and I’m so glad it’s finally happening.  It’s surreal…and I don’t think it has really hit me yet.  I’m going to go explore the neighborhood and see what fabulous things I’m living near and decide which places I will be frequenting.

Also, note that I have begun a “statistique” section in the sidebar; I will be keeping track of how many crepes and baguettes I consume, how many bottles of wine I purchase, and how many cafés and countries I visit.  It should be interesting…anyone willing to wager a bet on some numbers?