Sciences Po Reading Break

I have been very fortunate thus far in my university career to always enjoy not one, but two weeks for reading break, and this year was no exception. In first year, I had my reading week, and then ditched the better part of a week to tour Vancouver and Whistler with Tamara. Last year the UBC reading break coincided with the 2 week Olympic break. This year, as you have all followed, I took the week off to go to Chamonix during the UBC break. Now, only two weeks, later, it was Science Po's turn! Being that I've been lucky enough to take some longer trips this semester, my plans weren't too crazy, but it was nevertheless a solid week.

To start it off, I had proposed a day trip outside of Paris on that first Saturday to Auvers-sur-Oise, to check out a Chateau I had read about online. It claimed to be a celebration of Impressionism and had over 500 works by a number of masters. Perfect! After short train ride and connecting bus, the crew of myself, Annie, Tom and Corina arrived at the small French town around 2pm. First things first: lunch! As we searched, we discovered that this town was the resting place of Vincent Van Gogh, where he lived for 70 days in a house across the street from the Hotel de Ville. After getting all excited by our walk up to the manor house and past some cool gardens, we decided to have lunch at the chateau restaurent, and took advantage of a great menu de midi which even included steak! Yum. We were sure we were in for a great afternoon.

The manicured gardens at the front of Chateau Auvers

What awaited us inside would have made the Impressionists roll over in the graves. It was literally an abomination. Those 500 paintings? High quality digital projections. The inside of the chateau was ruined by this lavish multi-media production that described the context of Paris and the surrounding area during the late 19th century. We were herded along in a big group listening to stories in various rooms. Mostly it was incredibly painful, however there were few cool things on display, and also some funny posters. The best part was the fake train ride out to the countryside, where you sat on wodden benches in a darkened room, and watched the landscape 'fly by'. Needless to say this was not what we had been anticipating, and were sorely annoyed that we had wasted 9 euros on this. When we finally emerged however, it was quite funny to make fun of, despite our disappointments and irritation. If you ever head to the town, just enjoy walking around the gardens and skip the crap.

A great poster from prohibition: Why did you kill your wife and drown your children?
Mr. President I don't know! I was drunk!

Grumpy conversation after the castle:

Lauren to Annie: You have weird eyes
Annie to Lauren: You have dirt on your face
Tom: You guys really are brutally honest with each other.

As if from a painting.

It was such a crips spring afternoon though so we decided we should salvage the visit. We spotted a Musee Daubigny, one of the famous painters who lived in the region, and toured the small gallery full of sketches and painting of the town and region by various artists. That was more like. Afterwards we walked down the quaint French street, and were quite startled by the sounds of some strange animal, which we decide had to be a mixed race pig goose donkey. Spirits much revived, we checked out the local Church that is a prominent feature in renderings of the village. Very nice. Then, we strolled up towerds the cemetary where Van Gogh and his brother Theo are buried. That walk made the whole trip worth it. Open fields stretched out in front of us, smelling of fresh rain, dirt and spring. The air was delicious. The serious lack of such greenery in Paris made the experience even more soul cleansing. We got to the cemetary, which was quiet and solemn and after about 20 minutes of searching, found the tomb stones just before we got caught out in a late afternoon downpour.

Vincent Van Gogh's grave.

Annie, Tom and Corina caught in a downpour, but still all smiles.

So, despite the disappointing chateau, Auvers came through, reinstilling a new love for the rural French countryside. It was truly a wonderful day. And of course the best way to top off such a day was a great dinner, especially one that warms you from the damp that fell with the evening shadows. After a rather long trek home, Annie and I whipped up a hearty roast dinner with roast beerf, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, and zuchini. Tom arrived with his hard drive for a movie later and helped us make another apple plum crumble (I know - two crumbles in one week!); We nailed the roast like none other and I have to say it would have been hard to top my content-ness at that moment. We settled in to watch Don't Mess with the Zohan on the pulled out couch. I didn't even last 5min. I was out for the night. A truly great day.

The calm of the French countryside.

Sunday was sunny and bright, and since I couldn't stay awake long enough the previously night for dessert, I did something (with Annie) that I have never done before: I had pie and ice cream for breakfast. Delicious. I felt like a bit of a bad kid, and Etienne stumbled out his room to find the two of us grinning mischeviously over our plates. Annie went home and I spent the morning doing domestic things like laundry, cleaning and went for a nice run around Avenue de Breteuil and Invalides. Then, I headed down to Gare Aushwitz to check out the Vogeuo! which is the water metro boat. Ilona, from ballroom was there along with David, Tom and Annie. We enjoyed putting down the Seine past some less scenic portions of the river. At the end of the line we hopped off and did a little walking. I apparently had my head and ears in clouds and was completely unaware of the mugging going down on a side street which was apparently the topic of conversation for a good 10minutes. We walked over a bridge, watched a kid doing some sick moves on his scooter and then headed back. Scooters are all the rage for the youngins of Paris. Too bad Emily and I didn't know that back in the day when we had our scooter club. Despite the fact it was pretty uneventful, it was still a nice little outing.

Tom, Ilona and Annie on the fun bridge. Awesome clouds.

The previous day's damp and Sundays surprisingly chilly winds got to me though and I came home with that sickly dry feeling in the back of my throat that precedes a cold. NOOO! Not just as reading break is about to start! I spent most of the night huddled on the couch. Etienne fully claimed possesion of the Best Roommate Ever title for the night by cooking an amazing dinner of paupillettes. They are these small little balls of lamb wrapped around with se-pecial seasonings and olives on the inside. Sinful I tell you. My only regret is that I couldn't properly appreciate how well it went with the St Emilion wine we had.

I'll pretty much skip over Monday since I was in the fetal on the couch or sleeping in my bed with a misearble head cold. I was so tired, walking was exhausting. This was particularly troubling since I was supposed to leave for Grenoble on Tuesday night until Friday with Annie to visit some friends of hers I'd met, tour the town, and catch one more day of boarding. I decided to evaluate my ability to go etc the following day and just hope for the best. This was also the day I found out about Tamara's accident. When things happen to the family and I'm far away, I feel so isolated and useless. It really sucked, but I knew there was nothing I could do. I'm just glad Tamara was ok. I actually revived a bit in the evening after a long afternoon nap, and Etienne came home and made dinner, bless him. I also became addicted to That 70s show, got annoyed with emails back and forth about my Vichy group paper and then just went to bed.

What a difference a night's sleep makes. It was night and day difference, and I sure needed it. My biggest priority was getting my application for Arts Career Expo sent in, due the next day when I would be away. ACE is an annual event in the faculty of Arts at UBC that connect arts Alumni with current students in an evening of panels and interviews to help future graduates deal with the all so scary 'what's next' question. This year has made me completely rethink numerous times my plans for after graduation. I've switched ideas about careers, life goals and time lines. I attended ACE in 1st year and thought it was really good and an important event. I decided that I might as well apply for the committee, which could be fun and add some good volunteer work to my resume. Thankfully I felt up to writing up a good cover letter and submitted it along with my resume. I got to school to print out some readings, had a &(min chat with Corina and raced home to pack in 30min. A busy day indeed!

I hauled by board bag and gear to Gare de Lyon and Annie and I made the train comfortably at 7, and we enjoyed a nice train ride down. I got a change to pen some blog notes to help trigger my memory for later (good thing - this all happened almost a month ago!). We arrived in Grenoble around 10, and were met at the train by Christian. Somehow, I had a surprising amount of energy and after we dropped our gear at Christian's we went out to an irish pub for a bit and realized just how lame Paris can be in regards to the average price of a pint. It makes travelling all the more appealing. At around midnight we decided to head to this terrible club. It was way too packed, music was overly loud and yet no one was dancing. We ended up huddled in a corner, Annie and I yelling over the music. A random guy came over and stood awkwardly close behind Annie, peering at us. Needless to say we tried to ignore him. I then tried talking to us, and when we did acknowledge him, he informed us that "vous etes moches". Translation: you are both ugly. WHAT?! Who comes up to someone and says that? We were so flabbergasted and understandably pretty peeved. Obviously we instantly left for another bar to have a drink to soothe the anger. At this bar, a lively black man who sat at our table with his friend couldn't stop complimenting us and gushing over how beautiful we were. There is apparently no sense in the world. I have never been more happy to see a bed when we did get home around 2, and crashed instantly.

After a solid night's snoozing we got up at 10 and headed out to check out Grenoble's main art museum - as Annie reminded us at least 4 times "the largest collection of modern art outside Paris". I am not a huge fan of modern art, since I find it sometimes weird, unsure of what it is or ugly, or occasionally pretty cool. My heart lies with the impressionists. This museum was actually enjoyable though, with huge windows, lots of lights and a great variety - something for everybody. We spent the perfect amount of time - about 90min, after that I tend to get bored. Its a good thing I have a whole year in Paris to visit museums at a leisurely pace. We then headed to this totally awesome cafe for lunch called Pain et Cie, which totally reminded me of Calhoun's in Vancouver. I guess its a regular nook for the student crowd, since it just has such a great vibe. We had these super gourmet croque-monsieurs, which are open faced sanwiches with melted cheese. Christian's roommate Utla from Iceland joined us. Iceland is so small, it kindof ming boggling - population only 300 000!

Re-energized by lunch, we decided to climb the mountain of Bastille to the fortifications that protected the region. It was a good 30minute walk to the top along a gravel path that winds endlessback and forth up to the top. As with all great hikes though, there is the reward of the lookout. Sadly, it was overcast so i guess we didn't have a great view of the valley, but it was still sweet and I can't imagine how great it would have been on a clear day. Apparently you can see even see Mont Blanc over by Chamonix, the tallest peak in the range. I was there only 2 weeks ago! There were some cool board with information about Grenoble and the Bastille and its part in the French Resistance and the 1968 Olympics.

Christian, myself and Utla trekking up to Bastille.

We walked back down and then went hunting for a magnet. The city, the largest in a cluster of ski towns, has a massive student population, and has a real homey feel. Its weird to think this was my second choice after Paris for exchange. Apparently, Grenoble is not huge on tourist shops. After about 45 min of concerted wandering, I went home empty handed, my track record on magnets broken. Darn. Dinner that night was awesome. I finally got to try raclette, a typical French meal. Raclette is specific type of cheese that smells like old feet, but tastes delicious when melted. you place these square of cheese on mini frying pans to melt in a sort of raclette over. Once its all gooey, you slide it over baked potatoes and garnish with onions; mushroom and sliced meats. Simply delicious, a real homey meal. That was Grenoble for me: homey yet charming. We went out to a bar for a brief spell at night, but no rager since it was up and early the next morning for skiing!

Grenoble: Homey student town.

Delicious raclette dinner.

The early morning ski wake-up is a definite love-hate. Its so painful (6am) but you know it will be worth it for the day ahead. Somehow we made it to the bus at 6:45, and after a brief panic that all the seats were already sold out, got on with no further problems. There a number of ski hills in the area, but we were going to the biggest, 2 Alpes. Its about an hour and a half by bus, which is a perfect chance to catch a short nap. Upon arrival we grabbed a quick snack, and got Annie a pair of rentals. It was going to be her first time skiing ever! Ha. Pretty quickly Utla and i ditched the teacher student duo of Annie and Christian and did a bit of skiing on our own. We met up with Pat, a friend I'd met at new years, and his French crew of boarders. It was perfect ski weather, though like in Chamonix, minimal snowcover. It was still a great day, and we enjoyed and awesome lunch on sun chairs out on the snow, savouring another ski sandwich masterpiece. Two types of meat, cheese, lettuce and greenpepper with butter and mustard mayo. Oooo Baby! Afternoon as per usual blew by and visibility detriorated so we headed in around 3:15 to take advantage of some much reputed apres ski. It certainly lived up to expectations, and then some! Between 3 and 4, happy hour 5 euro pints or 2,50 glasses of vin chaud got things rolling while chilling on the midstation patio. Then, one of the best dj's I've heard in europe threw done some AMAZING tracks qnd remixes that had everybody stoked. One of my faves being Lion King remix. Once happy hour was over, a solid dance floor got started, which was hilarious since everyone is still decked out in ski gear and boots, so just jamming around. It was too much fun, Whistler really needs to implement something like this. We headed down the hill just in time to catch our 5pm bus back to Grenoble.

First time on skis! The teacher watches over.

Alps.

Catchin' some lunch time rays. Coat courtesy of Christian.

Now THIS is apres-ski.

A brief nap on the couch, a hot very much needed shower and then a huge group dinner with a bunch of Christian's friends. A lot of them have extended their exchanges, but they were also pining over the loss of friends after term one. It really does suck. I guess Christian is one of the only guys left in a whole possy of girls. Their group also has tons of drama all the time which was fun to listen in on. We had another great raclette dinner. I have discovered we have one at my apartment, so I'm definitely going to need to host a raclette party sometime soon. I passed on wine for once, but was very glad since the general consensus on the one bottle in particular was "you can taste the hangover". Brilliant. The go-go-go nature of the trip finally caught up with me and I stayed in the night and went to bed early while the rest of the group went out to a Rhum Bar.

Best decision ever, since Annie and mine's train left at 7:15 the next morning. So a brief but highly enjoyable trip. Now back to Paris to get down to business on the dreadful amounts of March homework...