Week 2 of Paris, week 0 of class...

Still waiting for classes to start. Because of the strike, every class but one that I've gone to has had a professor who comes in and announces that there will be no class this week, maybe not next week... maybe we'll have class after February vacation. Just what I need, more unstructured down-time. At this point, I hope I can scrounge up enough classes to meet the 12 credit, full-time student requirement for my college and my loans... A bunch of people from my group and I went to the student march the other day -- 5,000 ppl, it seemed like, professors and students from public universities all over France on Boulevard St. Michel and Boulevard Montparnasse. The turnout was really incredible, but unfortunately for us study abroad kids it means that classes won't be starting any time soon.

Luckily, I like my host family and don't mind spending the extra time here with them. They're a family of 4 with a daughter a few years older than me and a son my brother's age (who mysteriously appears and disappears for days at a time...?) and they're super nice and laid back. The daughter is working toward her doctorate in film/theater and the family loves to watch old movies, so it's become a sort of tradition (or it was and has been continuing since my arrival) to have dinner and then watch an old movie before going to bed. So far we've seen A bout de Souffle, La beaute du diable, Safety Last, Psycho, Psycho the remake, Deathrace (lolled and threw up in my mouth a little), In the Dead of Night... and there'll be more to come. I also played Monopoly France with her once and she totally kicked my ass because I bought up half the board and she waited and pub hotels on the "Boardwalk." I lost as soon as I landed on it 'cuz I didn't have the 15 million euro to pay the rent. I finally got to use my phrase from French In Action, "15M euro? Qu'est-ce-que c'est que cette histoire?!" She laughed, apparently nobody really says that.

The mother is really friendly and softspoken, the father is friendly, but much more aggressive in conversation. My first dinner with the family, I sat across from him and I don't know how he had time to eat, he was so eager to tell me all about the history of France which led to the history of his wife's family, the history of his wife's education (mind you, she's sitting right there...) the French educational system... I made the mistake of saying I was going to take a history course (because it's required by my major) and he went into the attic/library to find me a number of textbooks that had been his daughter's... Later I got to hear about his experiences as a gynecologist (hello!), etc... He seems really smart and eager to share his knowledge, but I wish it came a little slower, a little softer, and a little less often.

I have been trying to get out of the house and see the city, too. Today we went to the Museum of Modern Art and walked under the Eiffel Tower, the other day I had a reconnaissance mission around the Paris Opera house, I'm hoping to go to the Museum of Fashion and Costumes sometime this week, and the week after that, and maybe the week after that...

Speaking of fashion, I found out recently that my host mother used to be a fashion photographer. She had some German friends over for dinner and they asked to see her photographs so we all went upstairs and she started pulling out frame after frame, saying, "Ah yes, this was Dior, this was Chanel..." I almost peed myself. She stopped working at the beginning of the 90s because the designers thought her work was too personal and drew too much attention away from the clothes, apparently. But they were gorgeous, and had to be a hundred of them, one beautiful image after another, it was amazing...