La Parisienne

Not my Friend, but still a pretty cool pic of a French girl rock bandNot my friend, but still a pretty cool pic of a French girl. My first week in Paris, I met a runner named Esther. A runner is just someone who helps you with your luggage off the bus and get acquainted with the city. Esther was very cool and very kind. Her and her friend Emilie took me and some other students for my first lunch in Paris. In fact, no I remember she was the person who turned me onto viennois au chocolat, my vice in Paris. The perfect combination of bread and chocolat, that sadly and miserably gave up for Lent. But I have only two days left, till I go and eat all that I want!!! (in case you didn’t notice there is a little maniacal laugh in there;) But yes, was very much Parisian in that she dressed completely in black. Her accent was a little stronger. She was born in Paris, but she had grown up in the South of France. She had attended Sciences Po and the Sorbonne and was currently working on her PhD. She had studied abroad at NYU for a semester and had been asked to be a runner this semester. She studies theatre. Like most Parisians, she is very politically aware. She despises Sarkozy and his conservativeness. It was from her I learned that he had tripled his salary in the past two months, just because he could. She was angry because she felt that salary had never been changed for any other French president and if they could not live on it properly why couldn’t he. As she believes and I agree, the money belongs to the people. To the teachers who are going on strike, the families living on the street because there are no jobs available to support them, etc. She is very much a traveller and never stays put. She says this is because unlike in the States, writing your thesis for your PhD does not provide one with a classroom setting and her adviser is almost always unavailable so she basically floats around Europe. She would rather study theatre in the States. I recall my first lunch with her. She ordered a Croque Monsieur, which is just basically a grilled cheese sandwich. But this supposedly had a special sauce with it and she did not find it on her sandwich. She must have sent the sandwich to the kitchen about 3 or 4 times and she still never got what she wanted. Now, in the States I would never send food back to the kitchen out of fear of possible having my food spit in or worst. But she returned hers without reservation. She was very strong-willed and outspoken, as many French people are. I admire her greatly for that. Since she is travelling a lot I do not she her much but when she is in town we try to get a coffee or go eat lunch. I enjoy learning about the French political and educational system from her as well as an insider’s look on Paris. According to Fodor’s Paris 2009, the chic Parisienne jeune femme is that young wisp woman standing on Oberkampf, chatting with her friends, cigarette in-hand, looking as if she’s had less than her eight hours of sleep and whatever she has on she wears it well. Her favorite pick me up is a croque madame and a side of frites (fries) and typically found in converse tops. Esther is like I said constantly traveling, couch hopping at friends’ apartments so she doesn’t much sleep because she is always on the move. She typically orders a sandwich when we go out to eat. When she got mad at the restaurant, she had ordered a croque madame!! She can be found wearing converse, but she hates smoking…..