La Defense, Weekend with Kati, and La Fete des Familles

Sorry for the lack of updating; I've been having more troubles with the family computer...I will try not to make this post ridiculously long.

Last Wednesday, we visited La Defense with Dr. Patton. I learned from my French family that this visit is not usually part of the program, instead it was planned on Dr. Patton's own accord because he loves it so much. For those who don't know, La Defense is on the edge of Paris and is known as Mini-Manhatten because it's like its own little city within a city. It's a huge center of commerce as well as a display of architectural art. La Defense houses pretty much the only skyscrapers in Paris, and most of these skyscrapers have interesting and very modern architecture styles. The skyscrapers are also surrounded by different sculptures representing modern art, which is always just weird in my opinion. We spent the day first talking about the huge hollow, cubical building built by von Spreckelson (or something like that) in the 80's. He won an architectural design contest, which resulted in his design being created on the Grand Axis of Paris, meaning it was built directly on the same line as the Arc de Triomphe and other things. And sure enough when you stood on the steps in the middle in front of the cube (which was supposed to represent "the window of Paris"), you could see the Arc de Triomphe in the distance. After visiting the cube, we walked around the area looking at the different art sculptures and walking through a couple of buildings. We even saw some models of skyscraper designs that will be built sometime in the future, and a lot were really cool. All in all, it was a pretty short visit, and afterwards, we all spent the rest of the time we had before dinner shopping in the huge mall there, so that was fun.

Friday, I met Kati in Paris. It was so great to see her again, and she looked really great--the same but older. We walked to Starbucks because it was freezing and just sat down and talked. We talked for at least 2 hours, maybe more, just catching up with each other on our lives. It was so nice. Then we walked along the Champs-Elysees at night looking at all the blue lights strung through all the trees lining the street. Some stores even had their own light decorations up in honor of Christmas. There was even a little Christmas market at the end of the street towards Place de la Concorde that was selling food and other Christmas gifts. After walking down the street, we found a cafe to eat dinner at and talked more about our lives. Afterwards, I walked Kati back to her hotel because she was tired since she woke up early to catch the train, so after walking back with her to what she called her "shoebox of a room," I caught a train back to Versailles and planned to meet her the next day.

Saturday, after meeting Kati at the train station, we went to Montmartre behind the Sacre Coeur and walked through the little square where all the local artists were gathered. It was absolutely freezing that day, but we dealt with it. Montmartre is definitely one my favorite places in Paris...it's so cute and just really French. After walking through Montmartre and looking at the old windmalls, we walked through the Sacre Coeur and then went shopping in the streets around the church. Kati and I noticed walking through these streets that there were a bunch of lingerie sales--bras and panties were being sold at a price of either 1 or 2 euros and it was INSANE! So many French woman were crowded around the baskets and barrels full of this lingerie..it was funny to watch. We took pictures.
We shopped around a bit more just walking through random streets and visiting random shops, and then we headed to Notre Dame to see the inside of the church since I hadn't seen it in such a long time. It was really nice to see it again...no matter what, I think I'll always love gothic churches since we don't have any in the U.S. They're just incredible in terms of the beauty, architecture, and history, and all in all, they just amaze me. After walking through Notre Dame, we walked on the Boulevard St. Germain and stopped in a cafe to drink coffee and hot chocolate and to warm up. I had the best hot chocolate ever. The waiter brought me warm milk in a small pitcher and then melted chocolate in another smaller pitcher, and I got to make my own hot chocolate with the two. It was delicious. We hung out there enjoying the warmth and company, and sent my mom a text message wishing her a happy birthday.
After the cafe, we decided we just wanted to be inside as much as possible, so we headed to the Galeries Lafayette to do some indoor shopping. When we arrived, the streets surrounding the Galeries Lafayette were packed. Everyone had to push through each other to get where he needed to go. It was ridiculous. After getting through the crowds, we found our way inside and spent about 2 hours shopping around before meeting up with some of my friends from our group as well as another friend who I met in St. Brieuc during the IU Honors Program who also happened to be on a study abroad in Paris at the same time (her name is Theresa).  So after the Galeries Lafayette, we met Roz, Enna, Lubaina, and Theresa in front of the Opera Garnier and found an italian restaurant to eat at.  I was a bit worried about how well the group dynamic would go since the group ended up being a lot of random people and I ended up being the common denominator of the group because I was the only person everyone knew.  It ended up being a lot of fun though and we all got along really well, and thankfully, nothing was awkward.  After dinner, we went to McDonalds for a McFlurry dessert--Kati really wanted one because she heard that the French use oreos in their McFlurrys whereas in Germany, they don't.  After eating some McFlurry dessert, Theresa left to meet some of her other friends in Paris and Kati went back to her hotel, so the four of us remaining decided to just head back to Versailles since it was freezing anyway.  Ironically, on our way to Saint Lazare to take a train, we met up with Michael who had just come back from Normandy, so he joined us on the train.  And then when our train stopped at the La Defense station, Michele and Elizabeth got on, and the really crazy part is that they walked into our car completely by chance and didn't even see us until we called their names.  So our group expanded to 7, and we all headed back to Versailles together.  Once there, we ended the night early since it was just as cold in Versailles as in Paris.

Sunday, I met Kati again to drink coffee and hang out some more before her train left.  We spent about an hour at the Starbucks just chatting and drinking our coffee/hot chocolate.  Then I had to get back because I had some things I needed to do, so Kati walked with me to Saint Lazare and saw me off.  I was glad I made the trip to see her one last time, and we had such a great weekend together.  We promised that we would see each other again if either one of us managed to be on the same side of the Atlantic.  After getting back to Versailles, I made some cookies for my French family as well as for the Fete des Familles that would be held on Monday night in honor of all our French families, thanking them for hosting us.  It was our job to make an American dessert for the occasion.  My cookies didn't turn out the best because I used a different kind of brown sugar and didn't have chocolate chips and I had to estimate the oven temperature and cooking time.  I didn't burn them, but they were kind of hard after they had cooled.  Oh well, I tried.  Afterwards, I ate dinner with my family and did the homework due for the next day.

As I said earlier, Monday was the day of the Fete de Familles and not only did we have to make dessert, we also had to entertain our families by putting on some sort of show for them.  Over the weekend, people had been working on things to do and we came up with 4 things to do overall: first, we rewrote lyrics in French to the song American Boy that we sang in Michael's honor since he was the only boy in our group.  Then we danced the Cupid Shuffle for them and then tried to get our families to join us in learning how to do it, but failed miserably.  Then we performed an Indian dance that Lubaina (being the sole person from India in our group) had taught us, and that was a lot of fun.  We all had fun learning the steps and dancing to an Indian pop song, and I think our families enjoyed watching us too.  We then closed the show with another song that Lubaina had written which essentially thanked our families for all they did for us.  Then after the show everyone got to eat.  My mom and my sister Clemence were the only people from my family who could make it to the Fete, but I had a great time with the others and I think Clemence and my mom had a lot of fun watching us--seriously, it was the first time I'd seen her have so much fun because she was so happy.  I was glad to see that she was enjoying being there so much.  The whole evening overall was just so much fun--it literally was a party.  I hung out with Clemence a lot and got to meet other people's French family members and my friends got to meet my French mom and sister.  It was just so fun conversing with everyone and seeing the French families trying our desserts.  Michele made brownies that were a hit, Michael made caramel popcorn, Elizabeth made puppy chow, Monika made banana pudding, Roz made pineapple cake, Enna made a raspberry tort, Lubaina made an Indian dessert of some kind, and Katie made strawberry Jello.  I think the French enjoyed Elizabeth's puppy chow (despite it containing peanut butter, which the French are generally not too fond of), Michael's popcorn, and Enna and Roz's desserts.  Most of my cookies were eaten too.  The French had a tough time appreciating the Jello.  I think they were really suspicious of its tendency to jiggle.  I did notice that Enna's mom liked it--she was probably the only one.  After eating and socializing, we played more American music from our computers and did more dances like the Macarena, the Cha Cha Slide, and Soulja Boy.  Some of the French girls from different families danced a "Versailles dance" according to Madame Chauchat.  The whole evening was a lot of fun and a great success, much to our relief, since we kind of pulled all of our dances and songs together in such a short period of time.  

Now everyone is preparing for the end of our classes in the program and our independent travels.  I probably will not update my blog after leaving for Barcelona (which will be the night of November 29) because I probably will have very limited internet access, so I will update in person of all my travels after Versailles.  Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I will try to update once more before leaving.