HAPPY NEW YEAR! Time just seems to have sped up since I’ve been here. When I look back at 2012, I think of the last 4 months — the 8 months previous just seem inconsequential. Not that they were. From January to August I learned a lot about filmmaking, worked pretty hard, and had a […]

I’ve decided to make this post to write down the little things that happen in class that make me smile. My professors are all just the slightest bit eccentric (I would know) and I love them, I really do, and I love being in class. Weird, huh. I said this before but it’s a few […]

Last weekend I went to Grenoble with the UEJF (Union des Etudiants Juifs de France), aka the French Jewish student union. Every year they have a national convention (in a different location each year) where they discuss issues relevant to the French-Jewish community. That and there’s also lots of socializing, Shabbat meals, and parties. So […]

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. I have a 20 minute presentation due tomorrow on Napoleonic propaganda in the French press. My roof is leaking. It has been for a while, but it stopped, and then it started again and it’s worse than ever. I put a pot on the floor to catch the water. It’s filling […]

Ah. My joy at being registered for courses was very quickly replaced with DREAD. Now it would really begin. I’d sit in class completely lost, struggling to understand professors who’d speak at the speed of light in complicated jargon. What if, contrary to everything I’d heard, class participation was a thing, and professors picked on […]

I GOT MY CARTE ETUDIANTE TODAY– I AM OFFICIALLY A STUDENT AT LA SORBONNE NOUVELLE! I REGISTERED FOR 5 FILM STUDIES COURSES TODAY WITHOUT A HITCH! I AM REALLY, REALLY REALLY REALLY EXCITED!!!!! Yeah. So what courses did I register for, you ask? I made my schedule such that I only have courses on Tuesday, […]

I had my first macarons in Paris! They were delicious. Chocolate, passion fruit, raspberry, salted caramel, and lavender. We finished up our intensive French class this week. As the days went on, fewer and fewer people showed up to class, until we were down to just 6 people. We took our final on Friday, which […]

One of the four walls of my studio is mostly taken up by a window that looks out onto a bunch of other apartments. The window is wonderful, and I love sitting on the windowsill with my laptop, or while eating breakfast. I can usually smell the baked goods from the bakery next door, and […]

As crazy as it’s been, I’ve been having a lot of fun, too. My second night in Paris, a group of us from the hostel bought some food from a nearby supermarket and went to the huge lawn right by the Louvre for a picnic. We watched the sunset with a view of the Eiffel […]