Friday, September 4, 2009

A $6 dollar Cafe au lait?!

Today we had a tour of the library at Sciences Po. What do you know, librarians in France are just like American librarians! Very sweet, wear cardigans and glasses on those silly strings. For some books you can take them right off the shelf and check them out, but for the majority you have write down the book and all it's information and then give it to someone at the front desk who goes to the "cave" and finds it...this takes 45 minutes, of course. Ah, it will be frustrating.

The girl who gave us our tour was so pretty! She was wearing a cute little black dress and these awesome leather boots with strings coming out of the back zipper. Anyway, she told us that 40% of the books are in French, 40% in English, and 20% in other languages which was pretty cool. I'm not that surprised because everyone who goes to Sciences Po speaks at least three languages.

The Sciences Po campus reminds me of NYU. There are buildings all around the St. Germain des Pres that belong to them, but it's not actually a campus. When you get off the metro you walk down the posh rue St. Germain des pres past designer stores like Etro, Armani, and Sonya Rykiel, as well as super pricey cafes like les deux magots. It's fun to window shop, but it also reminds you that you're a poor college student and can't buy those 250 euro boots...damn the exchange rate.

When I got off at my metro stop for the cite (at the southern most point of Paris) I decided to sit down in a cafe and have a cafe au lait. Keep in mind this is not a touristy area at all. So I order it, drink it, read Paris Match, etc. I get the check and it was 4.30 euros! JESUS. I'm going to start drinking espresso because that's like 2 euros. I didn't feel too bad about the price though because my lunch at the Cite cafeteria was only 2 euros!!! The prices are super cheap because it feeds mostly students. Two Frenchmen sat at the table next to me and they actually asked me if it was okay if they smoked! I was so taken aback because yesterday this annoying woman blew her marbolo smoke in my face all through dinner.

I read Paris Match today (yesterday I just looked at the pictures) and this is what it said about Joan Kennedy, Ted's first wife: "She is beautiful like a Hitchcock heroine, Catholic, and rich. The ideal candidate to marry a Kennedy man." Ha ha, I died of laughter. I mean, it's true, but I can't see that being written about her in an American magazine.

3 comments:

  1. Katherine I am loving your blog! Je suis tres jaloux that you are in Paris right now! (and yes, i had to break out the french translator to look up jealous... hahaha) I love the outfit descriptions- the teacher with the leather jacket! Everyone sounds so cute!

    Why do you not have an apartment yet?

    I remember the ridiculously priced coffees from my Paris vacation, so I only ordered espresso as well.

    Yikes to the 57 euro metro card, that is insane! But I suppose worth it.. Explore the hell out of Paris so you can take me places when I come!

    Keep writing!
    x Ariana

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  2. p.s. Don't be afraid to take pictures!! Think of all the bored Americans over here who want to drool over your delicious meals : )

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