Week 3/4

Time is flying by in Paris. I cannot believe I am about to start my 5th week. These past two weeks were a bit hectic. I am taking a large course load, so work is piling up. I was also doing a crazy search trying to find somewhere to train. It was not looking good for a while but luckily a family friend helped me get connected with some people to train with. I train from 6:30pm-8:00pm every day except Wednesday. I am usually dirt tired after practice but sometimes I have to force myself to go out and be social despite my fatigue. I practice with this young guy name Styves who likes to speak to me in English even though he knows I am trying to learn French. It is really funny to hear his views about Americans. Once he told me the best way for black people to make money in America was to play sports and rap and that is the reason why he wants to live in America……

I went bread tasting last week with my program in this little neighborhood called La Crimée. We went to a bakery that uses special ingredients to make the bread healthier. This bakery was also special because it was run by a woman. She explained that it is very rare to have women in this profession. This is ironic to me because in the US, I associate baking with females. The Bing Family who donates a lot of money to Stanford Overseas programs also funded a visit to La Comédie Française, the oldest theatre in the world. It was founded by Louis the XIV and is mostly associated with the works of Moliere, the father comédie.

Last weekend I also had a friend come and visit from Ireland. I had not seen him in six years. We went to middle school and high school together in Alaska. I remember playing the alto saxophone with him when we were younger. I took them around town for the weekend. We went to a Club called Erasmus, hung out in front of the Eiffel tower, and went to dinner one night. We also stumbled upon a small wine fest at Sacré-Coeur, a famous church near my apartment.

My family and I also had the biggest fight since I have been here. There was screaming and crying. Basically, the volcano erupted after my host mom, Nadine, came home and saw that I had made myself some spaghetti. She said it is not convenient to have me cooking in her kitchen and that she basically did not like sharing her kitchen. Then my host dad got involved, as usual, interrupting and yelling about how I didn’t recycle properly in the middle of my conversation with Nadine. Then he started saying I do not talk at all and maybe I should live in the campus dorms because I prefer to be alone. Then Nadine agreed with his suggestion because she said I do not transition well into the order of their household. She said she can never do her regular housework because I am in the house during the day instead of in class or out exploring. However, all my classes are in the evening so I sleep later and start my day later. Then are starting defending myself and my host dad though it would be okay to “sh” me while I was talking, and then I started getting loud and all hell broke loose. I told him that I thought he was anti-American because he is always criticizing how fat people are and I told him I did not like the tone he spoke to me in because it was condescending. Basically I told him I felt like he attacked me on a daily basis and that it was not very welcoming. This entire conversation was in broken French but I got it all out and he understood. After I told him how I felt he told me I was like a cat, always on the defense. After the arguing was over I went to my room, after which Nadine followed and she started questioning me again and that’s when I started crying.....Then she started hugging me like she was nice and then I went to the movies alone and ate two bars of chocolate. Before I did this I called Estelle, the director of the program and was crying to her and then I called my mom to complain.