Sur Paname

This is the blog of an anthropologist at heart who is wildly curious about the world, all peoples, and insistently passionate about languages - an NYU senior in Paris Fall 2013 semester. A native New Yorker who adopted more homelands than a diplomat's child, and who has once more left in order to live anew and afresh in a new one: France. This is the story of a girl who wants to understand and live the life of une parisienne.

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I went to Scandinavia for the first time this weekend to visit my Swedish friend in Stockholm. I had no expectations for the weekend, but I am familiar with Scandinavia's social democracy, incredible design, and great music. Luckily, this weekend included all of that. My friend picked me up from Central Station and took me to an after-work at a restaurant with all of his friends from uni, most of whom have government jobs now, and I learned a fair bit about their work. I really connected with some girls who were interested in international development and had an economics background. And then for the rest of the weekend, we went to cafes and bars and restaurants with incredible design. One bar/club was basically in the middle of a shopping mall that was closed down at night, and had the strangest, most eclectic decoration and elements. It was so bizarre that it worked. And finally, I learned that basically everything great in pop music history came from Sweden. I knew all these artists before, but I had no idea that they were Swedish. 

Probably my favorite part of the trip was when we had lunch at Cafe Panorama in the center, and the only place for three people was with an old man. We asked him if we could eat with him, and he said sure. We then had the longest, most interesting lunch ever with him - talking about all sorts of random things. He told us that he was working on a phD but also used to an architecture professor and that he lived around the corner - I don't really believe much of what he said. But he pointed to the city center and noted the last rays of sunshine against a hotel that was called Northern Lights Hotel. He counted the birds flying by. And he told us that all of his friends were dead or had moved away and that he had never made friends like us. 

It was a beautiful weekend in Stockholm, and I hope to go back one day - perhaps next Summer. 

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I fell in love with Berlin this past weekend. I was debating between NYU Paris and Berlin, because I KNEW that Berlin would be a good fit for me, but I had no idea that I was going to fall so violently in love with the city. First of all, I was already really lucky to have German friends in the city and so I stayed with and spent the whole weekend with them. My friend brought me to an abandoned factory where we had a beautiful view of the city on the rooftop and explored all the graffiti there (my favorite were the pokemon! 90s kids!) They also brought me to clubs and bars all around the city and introduced me to all their friends. I just fell in love with Berlin's laidback, unpretentious, and insanely experimental and creative vibe. It feels like New York in the 80s and 90s - anything is possible. Although I am still happy that I chose NYU Paris (to keep my French fluent and also because I can more deeply integrate myself here since I have French friends and speak fluently), I am thinking about applying for a fellowship in Berlin next summer. All of my friends there told me to come back in the summer, when the city explodes into life and there are outdoor events all the time. Ugh Berlin. You had me at hello. 

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Inside La Tour 13. 

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Marseille is the most beautiful city I've seen for a while. It is a port city and considered the entrance for North Africans into France. We had the most incredible weekend here and I'm still having trouble re-adjusting to Paris...!

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Forget La Tour Eiffel. La Tour 13 is a building that has been occupied by years now by squatter artists. It's right on the Quai de la Gare, overlooking the Seine, in the more industrial and rough-around-the-edges 13ème arrondissement. This building will be torn down to create social housing, and so the building is "on exhibit" just for the rest of this month. There are speculations that this exhibit could even save the building - it's up to the public to talk about the artists' contributions and protest against the upcoming destruction. The artists have created what they would normally create on the streets - different sorts of street art - in the interior of this building and the result is a truly fascinating building to explore from the basement to the top, 7th, floor. My best art experience in Paris so far, easily. 

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My friend invited me to a quiet, unassuming restaurant that he had worked at in the 17th. Le cafe d’Angel - a beautiful, classic, but refined restaurant with truly outstanding, seasonal dishes and attentive, lovely service. The best food that I have eaten in Paris so far and certainly my favorite Wednesday evening in a long time. 

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I've been seeing too much art and not dancing enough. Saturday night I went to a special electronic party in a place far away from all of Paris in the 19th. Paris has very strict noise laws, so the city's best and wildest parties are also its most hidden. They're either all on the periphery of the city, outside proper city limits, or hidden in the tunnels or squat buildings. 

The party I went to was a special edition from a group called Noctua, and the theme was Girls. Sounds like a cliche theme right? Well, actually, they wanted to highlight female DJs. The lineup was entirely female DJs, and not just the pretty model or celebrity female DJs - women who take electronic music seriously. Two of them are with labels in Berlin - the altar to electronic music. Also, girls entered free before 1 am. That's always nice. 

I actually went to the party by myself because none of my friends could be bothered to go so far out. I just wanted to dance my troubles and worries away. It had been a really long week, and a very intense weekend the weekend before (nuit blanche turned into such a hassle), and I just wanted to forget everything. Luckily, everyone else who went there also went simply to dance. Everybody was dancing their hearts out, eyes closed, and just grooving with the music. In a typical club, there will be creepy guys roaming around for girls, and girls just standing around looking pretty, but everyone here was here for the music. I ended up making friends with the people dancing next to me, who all turned out to be DJs. They were friends with the headlining DJ, Baby G, who is from Barcelona but lives and spins in Berlin, and we all went out afterwards. I went home as the sun rose, with pictures of the glorious night and of my new friends, and thought to myself: a challenge is always worth it. It's not easy to find the crazy parties in Paris with serious electronic music, but oh is it worth it. 

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The Chinese National Ballet hosted a Mao-themed after-ballet dinner and party at the Theatre du Châtelet. There were fake Communist guards around the theater. It was rather bizarre, but it wasn't because the Communist Party was spreading to try its political ideology in France (I think) - the ballet was about the Great Leap Forward, a rather sad time in China. 

Attending the ballet made me think about China and the place of Chinese in Paris. I lived in Paris about three years ago, and I used to be the only Chinese person at bars, in the metro, walking on the streets, etc. I used to pass by Chinese restaurants and supermarkets only in the immigrant neighborhoods of the city, such as Belleville and Place d'Italie. Today, though, there are Asian immigrants and first generation French-Asian people everywhere. I can't believe that things changed that quickly in 3 years, but the evidence is all around me: in the subway, on the buses, in the supermarkets, on the streets. In all the neighborhoods of Paris: the 16th, 11th, 17th, 3rd, you name it. Asian immigrants have opened up a million clothing stores and restaurants in Paris. In La Chapelle, the entire neighborhood is owned by Chinese clothing wholesalers. Also, French people in general are doing more business with China and other countries in Asia. The party at the ballet was very black tie and swarmed with businessmen-looking types. 

What does this mean for me? Well, it firstly guarantees Chinese restaurants and traiteurs in practically every arrondissement in Paris. However, I don't even like Chinese food in NYC in general, so I will unlikely be frequenting this places. I think it just means that integration is a bit easier these days. I felt pretty exoticized three years ago - but today, many more French people see Asian-looking people and understand that they may be immigrants or may be French. Asian immigrants havent had the same problems Magrehb immigrants or African immigrants have. 

For one of my classes at Paris 7, I'll be doing an ethnography of young people from the banlieues, or suburbs, and I hope to learn more about diversity and contemporary society in Paris. The city has such a different face today, and by and large, that is a good thing. 

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Ron Mueck exhibit at Fondation Cartier. His sculptures are amazing and are like scenes from human lives. I am so grateful for my contemporary art class to push me to go to galleries and foundations all over the city. 

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There are three major parties a year that engulfs all of Paris. Fête de la musique, 14 juillet, and Nuit Blanche. These nights, the young and the wild take over the city, while the rest hold house parties, BBQs, dinners, or stay at quiet bars. Nuit Blanche is a night where galleries stay open til 7 am and there are special expositions and performances all over Paris. Here is a performance in Canal Saint Martin and a "fog" exhibit at République. It was a crazy night, filled with crazy people, and I didn't get to see all the art that I wanted to see - but I did experience "nuit blanche" and all of its completely random, hilarious, unexpected adventures. 

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I’m staying with a friend’s family while I wait to move into my studio next week. There are some benefits to having lived in Paris before and being fluent in French: I have friends and families around here who are generous and kind enough to let me stay with them while I was apartment hunting and now while I’m waiting for the current resident of my studio to move out. 

I didn’t do NYU Housing because I wanted to be immersed in French. Even though I found a studio, I’ll be dealing with the landlady and neighbors all in French, and I’ll be able to invite friends over, etc. 

It is nice to live with a French family, though. The family is pretty big and they have a beautiful house in Boulogne. Saturday the mom and I went to the local market, which was enormous and sold much more than produce - it also had clothes, electronics, flowers, you name it. The market was a theatre of sorts- the vendors yelling out their prices and the shoppers trying to get attended to and snap up the best produce. We bought so many things that we could hardly carry them all between us - figs, tomatoes, kiwis, melons, mushrooms, spinach, grapes, prunes, salmon, shrimp, mangoes, endives, and so on. We all put away the groceries as a family and sat around the table as the mom made a salmon ceviche. We had a beautiful lunch that afternoon from the bounty of the market, and then took the youngest son and his friend to a carnival in le bois de boulogne. I’m an only child and I find that I need my privacy, but I absolutely love staying with big families and participating in everything. They are so wonderfully sweet to receive me and I look forward to spending the rest of the week with them, doing the little things that make up being part of a family. 

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A certain number of us from NYU went to see Le lac des cygnes (Swan Lake) last night at Châtelet. We had orchestra seats and were in the first few rows in the theater. Although I know the story of Swan Lake well, and am familiar with its importance in the history of classical ballet, I probably wouldn't have chosen to see Swan Lake if NYU had not offered us the opportunity to go. I typically see contemporary dance performances, or more modern theatre pieces. The National Ballet of China performed the piece, and the precision, talent, and emotions in the ballet were enormously touching. It is a classic story of love, betrayal, and loss. The ending changes in different versions performed throughout the years... I can't tell you which ending the Chinese Ballet decided to perform in Paris - you will have to see the ballet for yourselves!

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Wednesday evening, after our mandatory two-hour long Global Orientations class, I went to a friend’s friend’s brother’s house for - I didn’t know what. Often, my connections are like this - very loose. When I travel, people introduce me to their friends through email or Facebook, so that when I change cities, I can meet them. Except in this case, one French man that I met in Cambodia introduced me to another French man who went to live in New York City, who I ultimately didn’t meet because I was in New York City for two weeks this year. But that French guy introduced me to his brother in Paris, who then introduced me to most of his family when I opened the door to his apartment in the 18th arrondissement late Wednesday night. I very shyly did the bise (the obligatory double cheek kiss in Paris) with all present, and took my seat because there was a champagne tasting going on! A certain monsieur was in the middle of explaining different types of champagne, and what to pair them with. The best part of that night was joking around and getting to know all of the cousins, girlfriends, and even the parents in the family. I’m going to stay with them in Boulogne while I wait to move into my new apartment in the 17th, and so it was heartening to learn that they are such good-spirited, open, and cheerful folk. We had a lot of fun talking about my very far flung connection with the guy who connected me to his family, and took lots of silly pictures. It was a perfect Wednesday evening in Paris, and the champagne didn’t hurt, either. 

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The Contemporary Art World in France. This course was one of the best decisions that I made since coming in Paris. I actually love all my classes this semester and I’m even going out on a limb and petitioning Gallatin to give me credit for France: Algeria (there were no gallatin courses in French). I’m also in love with Sciences Po (I will post about it later) and my Advanced Composition class.

But this class is different. How can I explain it? Art is not part of my concentration, so far as I know right now. It is not something I study. I have taken one art history class, which I loved, but I unfortunately took it after I decided to become an anthropology major at USC, and anthropology completely changed my life - I couldn’t go back. No, art is more personal for me. It’s a form of therapy, a kind of spiritual meditation on life. It renews me and gives me perspective. It forces me to question and contemplate everything. I just love art, and I gravitate towards it. I’ve worked for two galleries at two major art fairs (Hong Kong and Buenos Aires) and I have a standing offer from a gallery in Barcelona that I very much admire. Life works in mysterious ways.

I’ve always wanted to study contemporary art in depth, however, since that’s what I’ve worked in and what I am most interested in. That’s why I chose to take this class. I could not have imagined that the professor would be so involved and so well connected in the contemporary art world in Paris. She knows everyone there is to know, gives lectures about curating and collecting, and has written books about contemporary art for the general public. She has made every second class a visit to a gallery where she has arranged for the gallerist or the curator or the artist to introduce us to the exhibition. Every. Second. Class. Half of the semester will be spent at galleries, museums, art fairs, and parties. I’m definitely okay with that.

Today, we visited Galerie 22,48m2 in the 18eme. It is called as such because it is literally 22,48m2. There are 6 people in the class, and along with the professor and curator and assistant, we were a tight fit. The owner/curator is Italian and opened up the space with almost nothing. He explained how it is to be a small, critically acclaimed, growing gallery in Paris, the fairs that he goes to, and how he collaborates with other galleries in the neighborhood to do shows, events, and ateliers (workshops).

Then he explained the current exhibition. PLAY/DISPLAY has the thematic of the jeu, or game. The exhibit features different artists who have all created pieces that were meant to be touched and played with. They are organized in the tiny space in the format of the board game le jeu du l'oie (the game of the goose), a very ancient French game. It was an amazing exhibit and I liked many of the pieces. One artist made a small wooden ball that when tossed, would always roll in a spherical orbit. Another made a giant rusty metal kind of rubix cube. Another made a plastic chair that seemed destroyed, but actually had bolts and nuts that you had to match up to fix it (photo above). Yet another made a video game where you could control the actions and decisions of main characters in famous movies, such as Saturday night live and The shining. You could make them turn left or right, dance close to the floor or get up high, and different things would happen.

To be able to get to know the contemporary art scene in Paris this intimately and broadly is a real privilege. I don’t believe in destiny, but as I work in art more and more, I think this couldn’t have been a better time to take such a course.

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I must admit that every time I travel, I think of Latin America and am a little bit homesick. I lived in Ecuador with a host family in high school, and have since come back to live in South America three more times. So, coming to Paris, I think and do and eat a little bit like a latina. The first time I came here, I danced salsa all summer long. Now, summer is officially over, and I haven’t made it to a salsa party yet, but I did grab some Mexican food at a great place that opened up about a year ago. 

A friend from class led us to a hole in the wall taqueria in Le Marais, called La Candelaria. The name probably doesn’t refer to the artsy, bohemian neighborhood of Bogota, Colombia, but I was immediately transported back to my days in Colombia’s cloudy, eclectic capital. But the food brought me back to earth. La Candelaria has a simple menu of tacos with authentic ingredients and a variety of spicy to spicier hot sauces. Their drinks are strong and inventive - and they have a hidden bar in the back. The whole place has a homegrown, laid-back, unpretentious vibe. While we were eating, a production crew from a magazine or blog came in to shoot the place. Other Frenchies trickled in to grab lunch by the bar.

So much of Paris hasn’t changed, but I can already tell that creative, casual eateries such as La Candelaria have sprung up around the city, particularly in Le Marais and in the 10th, 11th, 20th etc. That’s a relief for a foodie on a budget who only occasionally abides stuffiness. And for someone who is occasionally homesick for queso fresco, things made out of corn, and hot sauce in general. I’m looking forward to discovering these new places in Paris - it has been two years, after all. And if I happen to find some Venezuelan arepas or Brazilian açai on the way, I won’t complain.

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For the last month, I have been thinking about how much I don't want to leave Buenos Aires. I've made such amazing friends here and it would hurt me to leave them so suddenly after I finished my exams. June 5th is also my birthday. But I had mistakenly thought that I would immediately want to go to Brazil and celebrate my birthday there. Thursday night, a very good friend invited me to go to his friends family home in Tandil. I thought, this is my opportunity. If I go with him, I won't be able to make my flight to Brazil. I'll have to stay in Buenos Aires a little longer and I can always go to Brazil in bus (the flight was non refundable and non changeable but was also only $80usd). I said yes. And now I'm in one of the oldest argentine family's homes in all of the country. The castle has its own church, lecheria, lake, horses, cows, you name it. It's amazing to see the history in the architecture and objects of the house and to meet new people who are all interesting and so warm to me. I'm staying here for just a little bit more and I couldn't be happier about it.

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Interning for an art gallery and an art technology company at arteBA has been so much fun. I've made lots of contacts, and the fair itself impressed me with the quality of the art. The art scene in Buenos Aires really has a lot of potential, and its slowly getting bigger. What I noticed most was that arteBA offers great value for collectors- prices are already for the most part affordable because there aren't as many hot shot international names, and then the fact that galleries are selling in both pesos and dollars means that buying using the blue market dollar rate saves you about 30-40% of the price of the artwork. I'm really excited and grateful to be behind the scenes and learning from this great fair!