Thankful

Music: Graham Colton

Anesha came to visit for Thanksgiving!!! Despite the reality that we were both somewhat tired and sleep-deprived, it was simply wonderful to see her after almost a year!! It was also great to have her here to share my first Thanksgiving away from home! Luckily enough, we were invited to Thanksgiving dinner at the apartment of someone who works at the US Embassy. And so, my first Thanksgiving abroad [probably one of many over my life], was spent in a beautiful apartment, eating absolutely delicious traditional food [the pecan pie was heavenly], and discussing a wide range of topics with interesting expats. We finished off the night with a sip of cognac and headed off, Anesha and I carrying a bag of generous leftovers!

The next day we took the opportunity to explore Montmarte, walking around the hill, going into Sacre Coeur, visiting the Salvador Dali museum [he really is one of my favorite artists], walking around the area. The last remaining vineyard in Paris is located on the hill, and we also visited a museum about the zone. Despite enjoying the day, I was not particularly impressed, especially in comparison with some of my favorite areas in Paris. We came back into the center of the city in the afternoon, had a dinner of crepes at Place de Clichy, which is always alive with cars, lights, people, and music, and headed out to Café Universel for a night of winding down with a glass of wine and live jazz.

The next day we started off by visiting the Rodin museum, which I personally enjoyed because it showcased so many of his works, that I was able to finally give specific meaning to the ambiguous admiration I have felt for him as a sculptor. He loves horizontal lines and very curved backs, and the movement with which the bodies in his sculptures connect to each other, regardless of whether it’s two hands, two faces, two backs, is charged with the electric of real human touch. After this, we walked over to Dome Church, where the King moved Napoleon’s remains from St. Helena nineteen years after his death as a gesture of reconciliation. The church is an impressive, gilded building in the middle of Les Invalides, designed and reserved for the Sun King. It still retains much of its regal feel, especially since Napoleon’s presence adds a degree of somber formality. Napoleon’s remains were placed in a series of coffins, the outermost of which is made of a beautiful red stone. In addition, the altar is breathtaking, the marble statues are imposing, and there is a striking inscription that quotes from Napoleon’s will that he wished to be buried near the Seine, close to the Parisian people he loved so much.

Afterwards, Anesha and I walked around the arrondissement, taking a walk to the Eiffel Tower which, coincidentally, I had yet to visit. We crossed a bridge to Trocadero, where we bought not one, but two crepes each. And then, after a day of touristic exploration, we split up: Anesha to go see the Louvre, and me to trek to Bellville to buy green plantains. In a couple of hours, we met up and headed to Bourg-la-Reine where, with everyone’s help, I prepared a Cuban “feast” for the ex-roommates, complete with fried plantains, white rice, garbanzos, fried pork, mojo de ajo, and a salad. Surprisingly, they are every last piece, which I took to be a great compliment!

And then, after a couple of days of late-night catching up sessions and Paris wanderings, Anesha went back home, returning both of us to our respective realities: school and work. As for me, I began another workweek, but this time significantly more tired than the one before [read: I am too tired to make this post anything interesting and am instead, resorting to a mere retelling of the occurred].

November, short version, Part III

Announcement: I, Natalia Martinez, ate beef on Monday. Considering this is the second time I have eaten meat since I have been in France, this is quite the occurrence. Granted, it was a tiny portion at an overpriced Chinese restaurant, but it was still, essentially and purely, beef. Chris, whom I met in Geneva last summer and who came from Prague to see me for the weekend, took me to dinner after work. Then we walked around the Champs-Elysees, catching up, and enjoying the cold Parisian night.

Other highlights have included, but not necessarily been limited to:
a.) Wine and cheese party with the roommates in Bourg-la-Reine. A lot of wine, a lot of cheese, a lot of bread, very good music, and 45 people stuck overnight in the suburbs because of the transit strike.
b.) Nina, Heike, Heike’s sister, and I went to an International Photo Exhibition. It was a great gathering of hundreds of galleries from around the world, exhibiting all kinds of photography. It was actually overwhelming to have so much variety in a single location, and after a couple of hours walking around, I could barely remember which galleries I had liked. It was generally very enjoyable though and I saw some photographs, the composition of which, was truly inspiring.

On a different note, I finally moved out of Bourg-la-Reine! I will really miss living there, dinners together around the table, entire days spent listing to David’s music blasting throughout the house. I feel incredibly blessed to have met these people, to have had the opportunity to live with them, and be welcomed into Paris through the doorway of their home. However, now I am living about 15 minutes walking distance from work, which is a blessing in a city like this! It’s a small studio on a 6th floor [with no elevator]…I’m sharing it with Goga, a hyperactively lovable Polish 30 year old. My bed, much to my father’s chagrin, is quite literally a mattress on the floor under a window the looks out onto, again quite literally, an ugly rooftop! We have two beds, a table, a bathroom, a small pantry, and a miniature cooking area, but it’s clean and organized [no surprise there, coming from me]. It’s also about a two minute walk from a Russian Orthodox Cathedral and less than a minute from a beautiful park where I run in the mornings. The walk to work is itself quite pleasant, as I get to see the city beginning to stir, and occasionally stop into a boulangerie and buy a croissant. For lack of a better description, it’s my favorite way to start a morning.

Coincidentally, the move has also allowed me to start running again. Park Monceau is a very famous and beautiful park in Paris, and surrounded by very exclusive apartments, it is an oasis of green in the middle of the 8th Arrondissement. I run in shorts and a sweatshirt, no matter the cold or the rain. I need it, partly because it’s a complete reversal of my usual mode of functioning: it keeps my body in motion, but my mind at peace [whereas my body is usually stationary while my mind is wondering in 17 different directions]. Running provides a release in the middle of my day, my body pushing against the cold, against any possible pain [it is difficult for me to run outside because of a calf injury]. It does not matter if all I have eaten that day is oatmeal because I have no money, or that I’m far away from home, or that I just worked 11 hours; all that matters is that I have things to be thankful for, a cold chill creeping up my body, and music blasting from my headset.

Strikes: We had transportation strikes for nine days. In other words, 1 in 4 metro trains was running, if that. The trains that were running, were packed full of people, and the streets, filled with drivers who usually take public transportation, were alarmingly hectic. The general mood was crazed, since it took people hours to get to work. Unlike the strike that happened more than 10 years ago, this one was doomed from the relative beginning because 80% of the population is in favor of Sarkozy’s reforms, whereas before they were in favor of the unions.

Work is still going well. I have been getting more responsibility in certain aspects of the new campaign launch, so I am trying to use the opportunities to learn as much as possible. I have met some of the other interns, which comprise a fun and relaxed group of twenty-somethings. We meet for drinks about once a week, usually for a Guinness at a nearby Irish pub. Sinead, who studies at Oxford, is a breath of fresh air in the office, and Philippe, with who I quite literally exchange “The Life Aquatic” quotes by the water cooler [cliché and all], is a blessing = he lent me the second season of “Arrested Development,” which I have been watching whenever I get a chance. Amazingly, I still laugh for minutes on end at some of the jokes.

Tres French experience: I had dinner with Chine and Asia [friends from Harvard] in Chine’s apartment. It consisted of multiple kinds of cheese, a loaf of bread, little sausages, oranges, and two bottles of white wine. We sat on the floor, ate, talked, and laughed; after a long work day, it was incredibly refreshing.

November, short version, Part II

Music: The Album Leaf

I am writing in a rush and do not have time for long explanations or descriptive ramblings, so here goes a very, very short update.

Elana and I attended a concert at the Englise de la Madeleine. This massive building was first designed to glorify Napoleon’s army and with its Neo-Classical style, is one of the most beautiful churches I have yet to see in Paris. The concert included an inspiring sung rendition of “Ave Maria,” and a great performance of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” among other things. Most striking was the contrast of the musicians, gently swaying with their violins, and the large statue of Mary Magdalene being carried up to heaven by two angels that stood directly behind them. Earth and sky, human and stone, music and faith became inseparable.

The next day, Elana and I met up to continue my exploration of St. Germain des Pres. Mostly, we visited de Musee D’Orsay, which I thoroughly enjoyed. In particular, I got to see one of my favorite Millet painting, several of my beloved Degas pieces [though not all because I did not get to the bathers section], and some of Van Gogh. I also had the opportunity of learning more about artists I was not too familiar with. Sidenote: I love audio guides! One of my favorite things about this museum is that, especially in its size and distribution, it is not overwhelming; in addition, the architectural contrasts that its old “train station” interior allows for are very aesthetically pleasing.

After this, we visited St. Germain des Pres, which is the oldest church in Paris, bought yet another crepe from a street stand, and embarked on an exploration of the local contemporary art galleries. The area is known for having plenty of these, but my favorite by far, was the Galerie Breheret, where I uncovered an artist whose use of color and shape was, for the first time in a long time, refreshing. His name is Guy Charon and apparently he was recently [several years ago] added to the list of French Masters [this is a book which documents painters and artists of French origin who have earned the categorization of “master”]. His canvases seem almost like a caricature of real life – with thick outlines, bright colors, and blue shadows – but I like them precisely because they do not seem like simplifications to me at all. They have deliberate warmth in their point of view and posses an obstinate desire to show the smallest details as beautiful, alive, full of color. Examples of his work, for the curious, can be found here: http://www.galerie-breheret.com/CHARON07.htm

We finished the day by having a tasty but much too expensive dinner at Café de Flore, a renowned little spot that JP Sartre used to frequent. Located on the Blvd. St Germain, it is in the very center of this lively and beautiful area of Paris, and worth the money if one does not go there too often. This area also has incredible street performers on weekends, which creates an atmosphere that, like I mentioned in one of my October post titled “I need more hard rain and good music,” reminds me that Nietzsche was very much correct in stating that life without music would be an error.

November, short version, Part I

Lyrics: " I find it magical, I feel like I'm loving you in 1963" - Rachael Yamagata


The first weekend in November was a four-day holiday in France, in honor of the religious “All-Saints,” which is a much nicer thing to celebrate than Halloween. My body was still adjusting to the new time zone, but I put forth my best tourist effort. The highlights of the weekend were, in no particular order:

1. Seeing the Gustave Courbet exhibition at the Grand Palais with Elana [friend from high school]. I knew very little about Courbet before, but seeing the range of his works, and especially glimpsing several of his renowned canvases first-hand, solidified my respect for him. Courbet was quite the bad boy of the times, it seems. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

2. Ladurée: prior to seeing the Courbet exhibition, Elana and I had a three-hour lunch at Ladurée on the Champs-Elysees. Ladurée is a “luxury” bakery, pastry shop, tearoom. Call it what you like, I was there to try the double-decker macarons which are now a staple of Paris, but which were originally invented by Ladurée chefs. Lunch was not too expensive, but it was absolutely worth every penny. The macarons, in particular the ones with pistachio or black currant, were mouth-watering, melt-in-your-mouth sugary pieces of heaven on earth.

3. I saw everything there is to see on Ile de la Cite, the island on the Seine where Paris began as a small village before Caesar conquered it. I was lucky enough to sit in on mass in Notre Dame! After, I enjoyed a nutella crepe at the beautiful Jean XXIII square behind the cathedral, surrounded by rows of yellow-leafed trees around an elaborate fountain. Following this, I went to the Memorial des Martyrs, a minimalist memorial commissioned by Charles de Gaulle to commemorate the deaths of the French men and women who were deported to Nazi concentration camps during WWII. I then walked to the year-round flower market in the area, briefly checked out the Palais the Justice, and spent a long time inside Saint-Chapelle, mesmerized by its thin columns and magnificent stained glass windows. It’s been hailed as one of the great architectural masterpieces of the Western world and I could see why: you literally felt lifted towards the sky. I also visited the Conciergerie, which housed over 4,000 prisoners during the Revolution. Both Marie-Antoinette and, ironically, Robespierre, saw their last days here. I ended the day by crossing Pont Neuf to St. Germain des Pres, a different area of Paris and, after walking around for a short bit, setting up at Les Deux Magots, a famous café that Simone de Beavoir and Hemingway used to frequent. I sat outside, as dinner alfresco is one of my favorite things [there were also outdoor heaters], enjoyed a small meal and a fabulous dessert, sipped two glasses of white wine, and read Dostoevksy. I was alone, surrounded by the clinking of utensils, the laughter of those crowded around small tables around me, the fast walking of people by the restaurant – sometimes, it’s one of the best feelings to see yourself alone in the masses, to be caught somewhere both far away and a touch away from life. In short, it was a splendid couple of hours.

4. Elana, Farryl, and I attended the BNP Tennis Masters finals! I arrived early to (masterfully) scalp cheap tickets, and enjoyed the game, despite its early end. Rafael Nadal lost in two sets, which, for someone who has seen him play on televised matches on multiple occasions, was highly disappointing from me. Disappointing is probably a euphemism. And he wasn’t even injured this time, like when he lost at the US Open to Ferrer. In any case, he came in 2nd, so I resigned myself and enjoyed the experience.

5. I had a dinner with a friend from Geneva that turned into sexual harassment. No need to delve into this highly unpleasant and angering experience, but allow me to point out that the food was incredible, and one of the only times that I would have beef in all of November.

6. I visited the Pompidou with Nina, one of my roommates. I walked through only one floor and rather leisurely, because I do not want to rush myself when it comes to museum exploration in Paris. I want to catch the smaller things, to be able to remember them. Modern art is not exactly my favorite area of artistic exploration, but there were certain pieces I really loved. One of them: http://picasaweb.google.com/nmartinez17/LeapOfFaithNovember/photo#5129866370530737010