What not going to the Louvre can teach you about art.

Paris.

Where to begin?

I got up last Wednesday already preparing myself for what has become one of only three school days a week.

Last week I walked out of the metro and had to cut through the Pere-Lachaise cemetery to get to my friend’s apartment. It’s a winding labyrinth of mossy graves and cobblestoned paths, possessing an eerie calm that seems to permeate the air itself, bringing a silky serenity to the graves of Jimmy Morrison, Wild Oscar and Freddy Chopin. It was drizzling twilight by the time I got to Pete’s place, and I looked out from his balcony to see Paris half-shrouded in fog and mist, all the postcard landmarks shimmering like ghosts in the sinking sun. I’ve been surrounded by these surreal images of gorgeous urbanity for a month now, and there’s one question that keeps coming back … What are all my super sick frat dogs doing right now?

As a stand-in for Slope Day, and as a pre-celebration to the most important holiday of my year (my birthday), I’m seeing Beyoncé do her thing at Bercy Stadium on Cinco de Mayo (May 5th for all of you gringos). RING THE ALARM! It will be a veritable fiesta.

I’ve been thinking about this show for a long time — nearly my whole semester — because I’ve had the tickets since December, and five months is a lot of delayed gratification.

(By the way, if you think I was over-zealous in purchasing early, you know the tickets would have sold out if I didn’t pounce. Regardless of the French’s stereotypical snootiness, I’ll be damned if they don’t wanna get down with B, too.)

This is the first in a two part series examining how international political strife is affecting students’ study abroad plans.

Since January of this year, faculty strikes in Paris have altered 18 Cornell students’ study abroad experiences, taking place through the Emory-Duke-Cornell (EDUCO) program at the University of Paris.

EDUCO hosts a Paris Abroad program for students attending either of the three universities in its name. Cornell students studying abroad in Paris through EDUCO signed up this semester for one of its four partner universities in the French capital: University of Paris 1: Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris 4: La Sorbonne, Paris 7: Denis-Diderot and Institute d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences-Po).

Bonjour!

I have taken seven years of French. I can order a crepe and a glass of red wine. Additionally, I have ordered a Jesus steak, but we will get to that later.

At any rate, my French is super crap, seriously mediocre. Regardless, I have ventured to France with poor friend A in tow, in order to eat many crepes and drink many glasses of red wine. I was a bit afraid to enter the nation of macaroons and bald soccer (futball) players, not to mention that weird skunk guy on Les Loony Tunes, but I went ahead, bravely going where many tres stupide American etudiantes have gone before.

1. Crepes are awesome.

2. Wine is better.

3. Let me tell you our tale.

This past week, my boyfriend visited me during Cornell's spring break, and so I celebrated as if it were mine, too (SPRING BREAK 2009!).

Maybe it wasn’t as buckwild as Cancún would have been, but we did do a lot of touristy things, as one might expect. The most shocking and disappointing realization to come of these was that the Louvre kind of sucks. Like, really.

Last Tuesday in Paris, I was at last psyched and actually kind of proud to be an American. After spending nearly two weeks trying hard to cloak my accent and telling all the lecherous dudes that I was vacationing from South Africa because I wanted to experience the cold (and no, I’m really not interested in grabbing a cup of coffee with you), January 20th might have been the only day during my whole abroad experience that I am allowed — and almost encouraged — to speak in full-blown American English (i.e. pronouncing all of my R’s).